Despite the age of the PowerVR G6200, it’s still a capable mid-range GPU that’s perfect for 1080p applications. Compared to the Adreno 405 in the Snapdragon 617, we’re looking at a 52% boost in performance, which leads to better frame rates in high-end Android games. This is the sort of performance I’d expect from a current mid-range handset. Compared to some other mobile GPUs available in similarly priced phones, the Adreno 430 in the Snapdragon 810 is more than twice as fast. The Adreno 418, found in the popular Google Nexus 5X that’s available at a competitive price, is 55% faster. And despite the relative strength of the PowerVR G6200 compared to the Snapdragon 617, the older Snapdragon 801 still beats this MediaTek SoC by 30% in graphics workloads.
There is a small throttling concern with the HTC One X9’s SoC, particularly in graphics workloads. The PowerVR G6200 throttles by around 18% under heavy load, whereas the Snapdragon 617 does not throttle. The G6200 still delivers superior long term performance than the Adreno 405, but the gap closes to 28% after around 20 minutes.
Storage performance is disappointing. The One X9’s 32 GB of NAND has good random read and write speeds, which leads to acceptable app loading performance, however sequential speeds fall well below other devices I’ve tested. Manufacturers shouldn’t neglect sequential performance to boost random performance, or vice versa, and that’s exactly what HTC has done here.
