Than eight cores of the smartphone processor is better than four?

What are the differences between quad-core and eight-core smartphone processors? The explanation is quite simple. In eight-core chips, there are twice as many processor cores as quad-core ones. At first glance, the eight-core processor seems to be twice as powerful, is not it? In fact, nothing like this is happening. To understand why the eight-core processor does not double the performance of the smartphone in half, it will take some clarification. The future in the field of smartphone processors has already come. Eight-core processors, which you could only dream of only recently, are becoming more widespread. But, it turns out, their task is not to improve the performance of the device.
These explanations were published by Jon Mundy in the article "Octa-core vs Quad-core: Does it make a difference?" On the pages of the Trusted Reviews resource.
Four- and eight-core processors. Performance
The terms "eight-core" and "quad-core" reflect the number of cores of the central processor.
But the key difference between these two types of processors - at least as of 2015 - is the way to install processor cores.
In a quad-core processor, all the cores are capable of working simultaneously, providing fast and flexible multitasking, making 3D games more smooth and speeding up the camera, and performing other tasks.
Modern eight-core chips, in turn, simply consist of two quad-core processors, which distribute various tasks among themselves depending on their type. Most often in the eight-core chip there is a set of four cores with a lower clock speed than in the second set. When you need to perform a complex task, for it, of course, takes a faster processor.
A more precise term than the "eight-nuclear" would be "double quad." But it does not sound so beautiful and is not suitable for marketing tasks. Therefore, these processors are called eight-core processors.
Why do we need two sets of processor cores?
What is the reason for combining two sets of processor cores that transmit tasks to each other in one device? To ensure energy efficiency.
A more powerful CPU consumes more power and the battery has to be charged more often. And the batteries are a much weaker link of the smartphone than the processors. As a result - the more powerful the smartphone processor, the more capacious battery it needs.
At the same time, for most smartphone tasks, you will not need as much processing power as a modern processor can provide. Moving between home screens, checking messages and even web navigation are not so demanding for CPU resources tasks.
But HD-video, games and work with photos are such tasks. Therefore, the eight-core processors are quite practical, although it is difficult to call this elegant solution. A weaker processor handles less resource-intensive tasks. More powerful - more resource-intensive. As a result, the total energy consumption is reduced in comparison with the situation when only a processor with a high clock frequency would process all tasks. Thus, the dual processor primarily solves the problem of increasing energy efficiency, rather than performance.
Technological features
All modern eight-core processors are based on the ARM architecture, the so-called big.LITTLE.
This eight-core architecture big.LITTLE was announced in October 2011 and allowed four low-performance cores Cortex-A7 to work together with four high-performance cores Cortex-A15. ARM has since repeated this approach every year, offering more capable chips for both sets of processor cores of the eight-core chip.
Some of the major chip manufacturers for mobile devices have focused their efforts on this example of the "eight-core" big.LITTLE. One of the first and most notable was Samsung's own chip, the famous Exynos. Its eight-core model has been used since the Samsung Galaxy S4, at least in some versions of the company's devices.
Quite recently, Qualcomm also started using big.LITTLE in its eight-core Snapdragon 810 CPU chips. This processor is based on such well-known novelties of the smartphone market as HTC One M9 and G Flex 2, which has become a great achievement of LG.
In early 2015, NVIDIA introduced the Tegra X1, a new super-productive mobile processor that the company intends for automotive computers. The main function of X1 is its console-challenging graphics processor, which is also based on the big.LITTLE architecture. That is, it will also become eight-nuclear.
Is the difference for the average user great?
Is the difference between a four-and eight-core smartphone for a regular user? No, in fact it is very small, says Jon Mandi.
The term "eight-core" introduces some ambiguity, but in fact it means duplication of quad-core processors. As a result, two independently working quad-core sets are obtained, united by a single chip to improve energy efficiency.
Do you need an eight-core processor in every modern smartphone. There is no such need, says Jon Mandi and gives an example of Apple providing decent energy efficiency of their iPhone with a dual-core processor.
Thus, the eight-core architecture of ARM big.LITTLE is one of the possible solutions to one of the most important tasks concerning smartphones - the time of operation from one battery charge. According to Jon Mandi, as soon as there is another solution to this problem, the trend of installing two quad-core sets in a single chip will stop, and such solutions will be out of fashion.