The Google Pixel 5 chipset is even slower than originally thought

Google’s flagships typically performed slightly less than their direct competitors. The first generation used a downclocked Snapdragon 821, while the Pixel 4 generation missed the Plus version of the Snapdragon 855 and used the original version. This year, the Pixel 5 has moved on with the mid-range Snapdragon 765G, and it turns out that’s not even the whole story. It turns out that the chipset actually doesn’t provide nearly as much processing power as its 765 peers.

During our review, we actually requested another Google Pixel 5 phone, suspecting the first device was faulty. However, the second unit only confirmed our results. Here is the righteous.

In single-core CPU tests, the Snapdragon 765G in Google Pixel 5 appears to be working fine and delivering the expected performance. But when the multi-core scores and the GPU test are far behind. In fact, it’s much closer to the Snapdragon 710 in terms of raw performance.

We also decided to rule out thermal throttling as an issue as we were trying to cool the device down while we were running benchmarks, but it made no difference at all.

GeekBench 5 (Multi-Core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus North
  1953
• vivo X50
  1827
• Realme 7 Pro
  1811
• Small X3 NFC
  1777
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  1694
• Google Pixel 5 (Unit 1)
  1647
• Google Pixel 5 (Unit 2)
  1647
• Google Pixel 4a
  1626

GeekBench 5 (Single-Core)

Higher is better

• OnePlus North
  610
• Google Pixel 5 (Unit 2)
  594
• Google Pixel 5 (Unit 1)
  592
• Realme 7 Pro
  576
• Small X3 NFC
  568
• Google Pixel 4a
  553
• vivo X50
  552
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  521

GFX Manhattan ES 3.1 (Offscreen 1080p)

Higher is better

• OnePlus North
  38
• Small X3 NFC
  33
• Realme 7 Pro
  30
• Google Pixel 4a
  30
• Xiaomi Mi Note 10 Lite
  30
• vivo X50
  27
• Xiaomi Mi 9 SE
  26
• Realme XT
  26
• Xiaomi Mi 8 SE
  23
• Google Pixel 5 (Unit 1)
  22
• Google Pixel 5 (Unit 2)
  20

Our working theory right now is that Google just wanted the 5G modem out of the SoC and that this was the least power hungry chipset available at the time. The 765G also has a built-in modem instead of the external one in the 865, resulting in even better energy efficiency.

But then Google decided to either downclock the small cores and GPU or use a very aggressive regulator that operates in a more conservative performance range and further prioritizes battery life at the expense of performance.

For what it’s worth, the Pixel 5 actually has great battery life and we suspect Google agrees with our own Prasad that flagship chipsets just don’t make sense to most people these days.