Amlogic S905 vs Rockchip RK3368 Benchmarks Comparison

The first Amlogic S905 TV boxes have started to ship, and I received Videostrong K1 Plus a few days ago, but due to some issues with Google Play Store, I’ve decided to postpone the review. In the meantime, I’ve side-loaded popular benchmark apps including Antutu, Vellamo, and 3Dmarks to the device to compare it to its main 64-bit ARM competitor: Rockchip RK3368.

I used benchmark results from Beelink i68 review and compared them to K1 Plus, both devices running Android 5.1. A ratio greater than 1 (green) mean S905 is better, while a ratio lower than 1 (red) means RK3368 fares better.

	Amlogic S905	Rockchip RK3368	Ratio
CPU	Quad core Cortex A53 @ 2.02 GHz*	Octa core Cortex A53 @ 1.2GHz
GPU	ARM Mali-450MP	PowerVR G6110
Antutu 5.x
Overall	28,027	34,171	0.82
Multitask	4,260	4,041	1.05
Runtime	2,721	2,949	0.92
RAM Ops	1,960	2,346	0.84
RAM Speed	2,420	2,601	0.93
CPU Integer (multi-thread)	2,310	2,973	0.78
CPU float-point (multi-thread)	2,483	2,930	0.85
CPU Integer (single thread)	1,587	1,536	1.03
CPU float-point (single thread)	1,510	1,492	1.01
2D Graphics(1920×1080)	1,374	1,617	0.85
3D Graphics (1920×1080)	6,126	10,115	0.61
Vellamo 3.x
Metal	763	773	0.99
Multicore	1,572	1,288	1.22
Browser	2,002	1,796	1.11
3DMark – Ice Storm Extreme
Total Score	4,304	4,248	1.01
Graphics score	3,684	4,361	0.84
Physics score	10,468	3,893	2.64

Overall both platforms are pretty close for most tests, and results will vary a little between devices due to firmware optimizations and different memory and storage chips… Nevertheless, it’s no surprise that an octa core Cortex A53 processor beats an quad core Cortex A53 processor in Antutu multi-threaded tests, but somehow K1 Plus was better than Beelink i68 at multi-tasking, and had an higher score in Vellamo’s multicore benchmark… Considering S905 is clocked at 2.02 GHz (CPU-Z data) against 1.2Ghz for RK3368 I was expecting a much faster single thread performance, but in Antutu single thread performance S905 was barely faster.

[*Update: Amlogic S905 is likely limited to 1.5 to 1.7 GHz as a recent (August 2016) investigation shows. and explained the lack of extra single thread performance]

3D graphics benchmarks are also at adds with Antutu showing much better 3D performance for PoverVR G6110 GPU found in RK3368 against the penta-core Mali-450MP GPU in S905, while 3Dmark Ice Storm Extreme total score was basically a draw, but looking into the details of graphics and physics scores show disparities with the GPUs having their own strength and weaknesses.

The takeaway from this comparison is that the user experience on Amlogic S905 and Rockchip RK3368 based devices should feel pretty similar, with possibly a slightly edge for RK3368 when it comes to 3D games. Considering both processors are mostly found in TV boxes the most important will be video playback support, including 4K H.265, as well as price, and Amlogic S905 devices are currently significantly cheaper than equivalent Rockchip RK3368 devices. I have not tested video playback yet, but for what it’s worth Antutu Video Tester scores 899 points on Ugoos AM1 Amlogic S905 TV box, while I got respectively 532, 328, and 516 points on respectively Beelink i68, Zidoo X6 Pro, and Kingnovel R8 all based on Rockchip RK3368 processor.

I’ve added the K1 Plus benchmark screenshots for reference below.

Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)

Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.