Amlogic S805 vs S905 Benchmarks Comparison

After publishing a benchmark comparison between Amlogic S905 and Rockchip RK3368 yesterday, I was asked to do the same with Amlogic S805 and Amlogic S905. Since I already had the data, I just went ahead to write this post. Bear in mind that Amlogic S805 TV boxes run Android 4.4, while Amlogic S905 devices all feature Android 5.1. So while the table below should give a good estimate of the actual performance improvement between the two generation devices, Amlogic S905 performance will be amplified thanks to optimizations in Android 5.1, for instance the use of ART runtime instead of Dalvik.

Amlogic_S905_vs_S805

With that in mind here are the results comparing the results I got with Videostrong K1 Plus (Amlogic S905) and MXQ S85 (Amlogic S805) TV boxes.

Amlogic S905 Amlogic S805 Ratio
CPU Quad core Cortex A53 @ 2.02 GHz Quad core Cortex A5 @ 1.488 GHz
GPU ARM Mali-450MP ARM Mali-450MP
Antutu 5.x
Overall 28,027 16,448 1.70
Multitask 4,260 2,967 1.44
Runtime 2,721 1,057 2.57
RAM Ops 1,960 1,392 1.41
RAM Speed 2,420 1,590 1.52
CPU Integer (multi-thread) 2,310 1,390 1.66
CPU float-point (multi-thread) 2,483 1,468 1.69
CPU Integer (single thread) 1,587 882 1.80
CPU float-point (single thread) 1,510 930 1.62
2D Graphics(1920×1080) 1,374 904 1.52
3D Graphics (1920×1080) 6,126 2,996 2.04
Vellamo 3.x
Metal 763 551 1.38
Multicore 1,572 1,319 1.19
Browser* 2,002 816 2.45
3DMark – Ice Storm Extreme v1.2
Total score 4,304 2,308 1.86
Graphics score 3,684 1,950 1.89
Physics score 10,468 6,471 1.62

*Vellamo 3.x browser benchmark had an issue that underreported Amlogic S805 performance.

A ratio greater than 1 means S905 is faster than S805, and the new processor outperforms in all categories. This is especially true for the runtime test that combines a faster processor with a better ART runtime. So If you plan to upgrade your Amlogic S805 mini PC to a Amlogic S905 mini PC you’ll notice an obviously performance boost with the new processor.

That for the performance. Price-wise the most cost effective Amlogic S805 TV boxes sell for about $30 (even lower with discounts or promotions), while equivalent Amlogic S905 devices go for around $42, so the price difference is only about $12. Having said that, S805 is a mature platform, and as I found out with Videostrong K1 Plus, the firmware may not be polished yet in S905 devices currently shipping with for instance, the Google Play Store not working very well, and no DRM at all.

DRM_info_K1_Plus
DRM Info Screenshot in K1 Plus

That means Amlogic S905 definitely offers a better performance than Amlogic S805, but at this point (November 2015), there’s probably no rush to buy an Amlogic S905 TV box, unless you are ready to go through some bugs at first, and the lack of DRM – which might not be fixable by firmware updates – is no issue to you.

Share this:
FacebookTwitterHacker NewsSlashdotRedditLinkedInPinterestFlipboardMeWeLineEmailShare

Support CNX Software! Donate via cryptocurrencies, become a Patron on Patreon, or purchase goods on Amazon or Aliexpress

ROCK 5 ITX Rockchip RK3588 mini-ITX motherboard

26 Replies to “Amlogic S805 vs S905 Benchmarks Comparison”

  1. im also interested in power consumption, since they are in develop by the same company, having similar configuration, same Manufacturing Process (28nm afaik) and difference between to soc segment (namely low and ultra low power design).
    it will provide some insights into a35 power design that can be expected in consumer product

  2. @milkboy
    SoC power consumption is tricky to measure as it involves cutting some tracks on the PCB to measure current…

    I could easily measure TV box power consumption, but this will differ greatly between manufacturers. Active power consumption should be similar (for a given SoC), and I did measure it for S812 and RK3288 @ http://www.cnx-software.com/2015/02/17/power-consumption-of-amlogic-s812-and-rockchip-rk3288-tv-boxes/, but power off and standby power consumption will vary a lot between the boards for the same SoC.

  3. is this running a 64-bit or 32-bit kernel on the S905? I noticed that at least some Android machines based on Cortex-A53 (moto g3 in particular, but probably many more) are still entirely based on 32-bit software, and I would expect the 64-bit variant to be more efficient, mostly because of the larger register set.

  4. Cortex A53 should be much faster than A5 even at same clock speed.

    So with +500MHz I would have expected at least a 2x increase in all cpu tests.

    Normalizing the clock many tests provide a score like a Cortex A7.
    But Arm declares the cortex A35 far faster than A7 at the same clock speed and so A53 all the more should be further faster

  5. is 905 design to passive cooling or need fan?
    if it have the same open source as previous socs, i would like a dev board better than a stb, maybe HK will make odroid c2 with this chip.
    but i’ve no info of any board with new amlogic socs.

  6. Erez :
    can You compare the new s905 with the s812 ?
    features and performance ?

    +1
    I have seen two similar TV boxes from one manufacturer, one with s812 and other with s905. The manufacturer positions the second as more powerful version but I’m skeptical here, infact both are 20GHz and 4K whereas s812 has 8 GPUs versus 5 GPUs in s905. So it’s not obvious which is better.

  7. Very interesting to read your comparison reports. Will the increased processing speed in the upgrade to Amlogic S905 have any impact on buffering. Thank you.

  8. I have an MX5 S805 box. The HDMI output pushed signal to my Samsung TV – perfect. The SPDIF Optical out pushes DTS5.1 to my Sony Surround Sound System. No problem.

    I wanted to get a new S905/S905X box. I tried 2 boxes over the last 10 days. Neither box can play DTS through my SPDIF Optical output to my Sony Surround Sound System. Very disappointed. Will this one day come back again? Looks like I will need to hang on to my MX5 box for now and hope that perhaps one day a new box will come out that would support SPDIF Optical output tomy Surround Sound System.

  9. @Len
    Not all boxes support audio pass-through. You need to check reviews online to make sure.
    Sometimes it’s fixed with a firmware update. I don’t know if you are using Kodi or not, but if you are then try SPMC instead.

    Android and Kodi settings must also be configured correctly, but since you’ve had it working for MX5, I’d assume that’s not the issue.

  10. What’s the minimum network/port connection speed you’d recommend in order to run either the S805 or S905 effectively?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...
Boardcon Rockchip RK3588S SBC with 8K, WiFI 6, 4G LTE, NVME SSD, HDMI 2.1...