Samsung returning to PowerVR GPU for Samsung Galaxy S IV?

If everything goes as planned, for the first time since the Samsung Galaxy S shipped with a single-core 1GHz Hummingbird CPU and a PowerVR SGX 540 GPU, the Samsung Galaxy S flagship will have a PowerVR GPU crunching the graphics when the Samsung Galaxy S IV launches later this year. While the Samsung Galaxy S II and Samsung Galaxy S III used ARM produced Mali GPU for graphics, the Samsung Exynos 5 Octa just announced at CES will use the PowerVR SGX 544MP3 GPU running at up to 533MHz, according to sources for AnandTech. This is significant for a few reasons, least of all the fact that the Samsung Exynos 5 dual continued the use of the ARM Mali GPU (ARM Mali T-604 to be exact).

The PowerVR GPU is what has run on every iOS device since day one and the 544 on the Exynos 5 Octa is similar to the 543 used on the A5 and A5X with some changes. Currently, Apple uses the PowerVR SGX 543 MP3 with its A6 used on the Apple iPhone 5. And as if Samsung and Apple needed to continue to butter each others' bread, Apple owns 10% of Imagination Technologies, the company behind PowerVR. Which means that Samsung had to believe that the difference in performance was worth doing business with a company used and partially owned by (even if it just 10%) its number one rival.

While the Samsung Galaxy S IV is still a few months away with May now the frontrunner to be the month of launch, it could very well include the Samsung Exynos Octa under the hood. If so, that would mean it would be the first Samsung flagship Android model since the OG Samsung Galaxy S to use PowerVR to handle the heavy graphics lifting.

source: AnandTech viaAndroidAuthority