We’ve already compared the main features between Amlogic S905, Amlogic S905X and Amlogic S912, with Amlogic S905X being an upgrade of Amlogic S905 with the same quad core Cortex A53 cores and Mali-450MP GPU but adding VP9 hard ware decoding, HDR support, and integrating 10/100 Ethernet PHY and audio codec to lower the cost. The CPU frequency was also said to be lowered to 1.5 GHz in early document, but TV manufacturers keep promoting Amlogic S905 as a 2.0 GHz processor, and I noticed CPU-Z and Antutu also reported the maximum frequency to be 2.02 GHz.
In that case the performance should be about the same for both processors. Let’s find out by comparing benchmark results between Amlogic S905 based MINIX NEO U1 (Android 5.1) and Amlogic S905X powered MINI M8S II (Android 6.0) using Antutu 6.x, Vellamo 3.x, and 3DMark Ice Storm Extreme 1.2. A ratio greater than one means Amlogic S905X is the fastest for a given test.
| Amlogic S905 | Amlogic S905X | Ratio | |
| CPU | Quad core Cortex A53 @ 1.5 GHz* | Quad core Cortex A53 @ 1.5 GHz* | |
| GPU | Penta-core ARM Mali-450MP | Penta-core ARM Mali-450MP | |
| Antutu 6.x | |||
| Overall | 38,032 | 33,553 | 0.88 |
| 3D (1920×1080) | 3,979 | 3,099 | 0.78 |
| UX | 15,690 | 12,365 | 0.79 |
| CPU | 13,458 | 12,438 | 0.92 |
| RAM | 4,905 | 5,651 | 1.15 |
| Vellamo 3.x | |||
| Metal | 1,235 | 910 | 0.74 |
| Multicore | 1,589 | 1,491 | 0.94 |
| Browser | 2,157 | 1,855 | 0.86 |
| 3DMark – Ice Storm Extreme v1.2 | |||
| Total score | 4,327 | 4,183 | 0.97 |
| Graphics score | 3,698 | 3,709 | 1.00 |
| Physics score | 10,689 | 7,561 | 0.71 |
[*Update: Amlogic S9xx processors have recently been found to be limited to 1.5 GHz only]
Please note that currently most S905 TV boxes run Android 5.1, while Amlogic S905X devices are already running Android 6.0, so the latter may benefit from some small performance boosts due to more recent firmware. But in any case, that represents a side-by-side comparison of what you can expect from devices sold on July/August 2016, although some Amlogic S905 devices are now getting Android 6.0 Marshmallow firmware updates.
The main takeaway is that you should expect slightly lower performance from Amlogic S905X compared to S905, so the new processor is only interesting if you need 4K VP9 hardware decoding (not usable for YouTube 4K, except in the upcoming Xiaomi Mi Box), and/or High Dynamic Range support, or if the price is cheaper compared to an equivalent S905 TV box.
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.
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