Introduction

The MediaTek Dimensity 8000, Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, and Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 span nearly five years of mobile chip releases — from a 2021 flagship carried into budget phones today, to a 2022 sub-flagship, to a 2025 mid-range chip. This comparison matters precisely because of that spread: it tests whether “newer” reliably means “better” when the newest chip here is aimed squarely at the mid-range while the oldest is a repurposed flagship. All three tie on NanoReview’s composite score, which makes the category-by-category breakdown the real story. Every figure below comes from NanoReview’s published specifications and benchmark data for each chip.

Processor Overview

Dimensity 8000, Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, and Snapdragon 870 come from three distinct positioning strategies. The Dimensity 8000, announced March 2022 on TSMC’s 5nm node, skips a prime Cortex-X core entirely, running four Cortex-A78 and four Cortex-A55 cores with a GPU whose model name NanoReview doesn’t disclose. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, announced August 2025 on TSMC’s 4nm node — the newest process here — uses a more conventional 1+3+4 Cortex-A720/A520 layout paired with an Adreno 810 GPU, but is explicitly classified as a mid-range chip rather than a flagship. The Snapdragon 870, announced January 2021 on TSMC’s 7nm node, is a rebadged flagship-tier chip with a Cortex-A77-based 1+3+4 layout and an Adreno 650 GPU, and remains classified as Flagship on NanoReview despite its age. All three share TSMC as their foundry, which removes fabrication-partner quality as a variable in this particular comparison — any performance gaps here come from architecture generation and product-tier positioning, not different foundries.

CPU Architecture & Processing Power

This is a genuinely mixed CPU race with no single chip sweeping every metric. On AnTuTu 11’s total score, the Dimensity 8000 leads at 1,080,933, ahead of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s 1,041,898 (about 3.75% behind) and the Snapdragon 870’s 1,010,069 (about 7% behind). But on AnTuTu’s CPU sub-test specifically, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 leads at 416,505, ahead of the Snapdragon 870’s 378,231 and the Dimensity 8000’s near-identical 377,652.

Geekbench 6 flips the picture again: the Snapdragon 870 — the oldest chip in this comparison by up to four and a half years — posts the highest single-core (1298) and multi-core (3520) scores of the three. That’s about 18.3% higher single-core and 6.4% higher multi-core than the Dimensity 8000 (1097 / 3309), and about 6.1% higher single-core and 11.1% higher multi-core than the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (1223 / 3168). NanoReview’s CPU Performance sub-score agrees with Geekbench: Snapdragon 870 scores 43, Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 scores 41, and Dimensity 8000 scores 40.

The practical takeaway is unusual for a three-chip comparison spanning this much time: no chip wins every CPU benchmark, and the newest chip (Snapdragon 7s Gen 4) doesn’t have the strongest CPU by any measure except AnTuTu’s specific CPU sub-test. For general responsiveness, the 2021 Snapdragon 870 remains competitive with, and in Geekbench actually ahead of, chips released one and four years after it.

GPU & Gaming Performance

GPU performance here shows one of the sharpest theoretical-versus-measured disconnects in this series of comparisons. On paper, the Snapdragon 870’s Adreno 650 has by far the highest rated output at 1029.1 GFLOPS — more than double the Dimensity 8000’s 537.6 GFLOPS and more than double the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s Adreno 810 at just 458.2 GFLOPS. That last figure is notable on its own: the newest chip in this comparison has the lowest theoretical GPU output of the three, even below a chip released more than four years earlier.

Measured results don’t follow that order at all. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 has the highest AnTuTu GPU sub-score (187,783), ahead of the Dimensity 8000’s 157,488 and the Snapdragon 870’s 155,526. On Geekbench GPU Compute, the Dimensity 8000 leads at 5832, ahead of the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s 4716 and the Snapdragon 870’s 3381 — the lowest of the three despite having the highest theoretical GFLOPS. On the one 3D graphics benchmark that both the Dimensity 8000 and Snapdragon 870 have supplied — 3DMark Wild Life Extreme — the Dimensity 8000 edges ahead at 1296 (7 FPS) versus the Snapdragon 870’s 1224 (7 FPS), a gap of about 5.9%; the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 has no Wild Life Extreme result in the supplied data, so a three-way comparison on that specific test isn’t possible.

NanoReview’s own Gaming Performance sub-score puts the Dimensity 8000 highest at 20, with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 and Snapdragon 870 tied at 18. The Snapdragon 870 does have a supplied real-game FPS table (tested on a Xiaomi Black Shark 4): PUBG Mobile at 88 FPS (Ultra), World of Tanks Blitz at 107 FPS (Ultra), and Genshin Impact at 49 FPS (Ultra) among others — useful context for that specific chip, though it isn’t available for the other two, so it can’t be compared directly. Taken together, the Dimensity 8000 has the most consistent real-world gaming edge of the three, while the Snapdragon 870’s high theoretical GFLOPS doesn’t translate into the strongest measured GPU results, and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s low theoretical GFLOPS doesn’t stop it from posting the best AnTuTu GPU sub-score. None of the supplied data indicates ray-tracing support on any of the three chips.

Manufacturing Process & Efficiency

All three chips are manufactured by TSMC, but on different nodes: 5nm for the Dimensity 8000, 4nm for the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (the newest process here), and 7nm for the Snapdragon 870 (the oldest). TDP is disclosed for two of the three: Dimensity 8000 and Snapdragon 870 both list 6W; the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s TDP is not disclosed in the supplied data.

Despite having the least modern process node, the Snapdragon 870 doesn’t have the worst efficiency profile — that distinction goes to itself, in fact, on NanoReview’s Battery life sub-score: Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 leads at 91, Dimensity 8000 follows at 89, and Snapdragon 870 trails at 86. So the newest chip here does deliver the clearest efficiency win of the three, even though its TDP figure isn’t disclosed and its raw compute leadership is limited to one sub-benchmark.

RAM, Memory & Storage Support

All three chips cap out at 16GB of RAM, but bandwidth differs sharply — and not in the direction chip age would suggest. The Dimensity 8000 has the highest memory bandwidth at 51.2 Gb/s, using a full 4×16-bit memory bus. The Snapdragon 870 follows at 44 Gb/s, also on a 4×16-bit bus. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 trails badly at just 25.6 Gb/s — despite being the newest chip here, it uses a narrower 2×16-bit memory bus, roughly half the channel width of both rivals. This is a real, disclosed cost-cutting measure in a chip marketed in 2025, and it’s the kind of spec that can bottleneck app-loading and memory-bound tasks regardless of CPU or GPU speed.

Storage support tells a similar story about product-tier positioning rather than age: the Snapdragon 870 supports UFS 3.0 and UFS 3.1, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 supports UFS 2.2 and UFS 3.1 (meaning it can be configured with the older, slower UFS 2.2 standard in cheaper builds), and the Dimensity 8000 supports UFS 3.1 only. None of the three chips supports UFS 4.0, which is worth noting given how common that standard has become even in some smaller, older chips covered elsewhere.

AI & NPU Capabilities

None of the three chips has a disclosed TOPS figure in NanoReview’s specification tables. The Dimensity 8000 names its accelerator as the MediaTek APU 580, the Snapdragon 870 names its accelerator as the Hexagon 698, and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s NPU is listed simply as present without a model name. Not enough disclosed data exists to compare AI throughput across these three chips.

ISP, Camera & Video Capabilities

The Snapdragon 870 supports the broadest camera configuration of the three, listing 1x200MP or 2x25MP simultaneous sensor support, versus a single 1x200MP sensor for both the Dimensity 8000 and Snapdragon 7s Gen 4. As always, these are chip-level ISP ceilings, not a promise of actual photo quality from any specific phone.

Video capability is where the newest chip in this comparison falls furthest behind. The Snapdragon 870 — the oldest chip here — supports 8K capture and playback at 30FPS, plus 4K at 60FPS, the strongest video spec of the three. The Dimensity 8000 supports 4K at 60FPS for both capture and playback. The Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 is limited to 4K at 30FPS for both capture and playback — the weakest video ceiling of the three, despite being the newest silicon. Codec support adds another wrinkle: the Dimensity 8000 is the only one of the three with AV1 decode support, listing H.264, H.265, AV1, and VP9; the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 lists H.264, H.265, and VP9 (no AV1); and the Snapdragon 870 lists H.264, H.265, VP8, and VP9 (also no AV1). For anyone who streams AV1 content specifically, the Dimensity 8000 has a real, disclosed advantage that neither rival matches.

Display Support

The Snapdragon 870 supports the highest display resolution of the three at 3840 x 2160, well ahead of the Dimensity 8000’s 2960 x 1440 and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s 2900 x 1300 — the lowest of the three, despite being the newest chip. As with the other multimedia specs, this is a chip-level ceiling, not a guarantee that any specific phone ships with a display at that resolution. Refresh rate figures are not disclosed for any of the three chips.

Modem, 5G & Connectivity

Modem performance follows the same “newer isn’t always faster” pattern seen in memory and video. The Snapdragon 870’s X55 modem posts by far the fastest disclosed speeds: up to 7500 Mbps download and 3000 Mbps upload, more than double the Dimensity 8000’s 4700/2500 Mbps and more than double the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s 2900/1600 Mbps — the slowest modem of the three, despite the 7s Gen 4 being the newest chip by three to four years. Real-world 5G speeds rarely reach any chip’s theoretical maximum, but the gap here is large enough to be a meaningful disclosed difference, not just a marketing number.

Wi-Fi generation is tied across all three at Wi-Fi 6. Bluetooth favors the newest chip: Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 supports Bluetooth 6.0, ahead of the Dimensity 8000’s 5.3 and the Snapdragon 870’s 5.2. GNSS breadth favors the Snapdragon 870, which lists GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, and NAVIC — seven systems, the broadest of the three — versus six systems each for the Dimensity 8000 and Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (both missing SBAS).

Benchmark Comparison

All three chips were tested with AnTuTu 11 and Geekbench 6, so those comparisons are valid across all three. 3DMark Wild Life Extreme and PCMark 3.0 results exist for only two of the three chips each, so those comparisons are noted as two-way where applicable.

AnTuTu 11 total score: Dimensity 8000 leads at 1,080,933, followed by Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 at 1,041,898 (about 3.75% behind) and Snapdragon 870 at 1,010,069 (about 7% behind the Dimensity 8000). The CPU sub-score actually favors the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (416,505) over the Dimensity 8000 (377,652) and Snapdragon 870 (378,231), while the GPU sub-score again favors the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (187,783) over the Dimensity 8000 (157,488) and Snapdragon 870 (155,526) — meaning the Dimensity 8000’s overall AnTuTu lead comes primarily from its Memory (208,961) and UX (336,832) sub-scores rather than raw CPU or GPU output.

Geekbench 6: Snapdragon 870 leads both single-core (1298) and multi-core (3520), ahead of Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (1223 / 3168) and Dimensity 8000 (1097 / 3309, notably beating the 7s Gen 4 on multi-core despite trailing badly on single-core — a reflection of its all-A78 core layout lacking a high-clocked prime core). On GPU Compute, Dimensity 8000 leads at 5832, ahead of Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s 4716 and Snapdragon 870’s 3381.

3DMark Wild Life Extreme: Available for Dimensity 8000 (1296, 7 FPS) and Snapdragon 870 (1224, 7 FPS) — Dimensity 8000 leads by about 5.9%. No result is supplied for the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, so this specific test can’t be compared across all three.

PCMark 3.0: Available for Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 (13,701) and Snapdragon 870 (12,227) — Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 leads by about 12.1%. No result is supplied for the Dimensity 8000, so this test likewise can’t be compared across all three.

Real-World Performance

Everyday use: No single chip dominates CPU benchmarks outright — Dimensity 8000 leads AnTuTu total, Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 leads AnTuTu’s CPU sub-test, and Snapdragon 870 leads Geekbench 6 single- and multi-core — so day-to-day responsiveness is likely to feel broadly comparable across all three despite their different ages.

Gaming: Dimensity 8000 has the highest NanoReview Gaming Performance sub-score and the highest Geekbench GPU Compute result, giving it the most consistent real-world gaming edge, even though the Snapdragon 870 has by far the highest theoretical GPU GFLOPS and the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 has the highest AnTuTu GPU sub-score.

AI: No TOPS figures are disclosed for any of the three chips, so no real-world AI performance comparison can be made from the supplied specifications.

Camera: Snapdragon 870’s broader camera sensor support and clearly superior video specs (8K capture/playback) are chip-level capabilities only, not a guarantee of output quality from a specific phone; the Dimensity 8000’s unique AV1 decode support is a genuine, separate advantage for playback efficiency.

Battery/efficiency: Snapdragon 7s Gen 4’s highest Battery life sub-score gives it the clearest efficiency edge of the three, consistent with it being built on the newest, smallest process node.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Dimensity 8000

• Strength: Highest AnTuTu 11 total score (1,080,933) and highest NanoReview Gaming Performance sub-score (20) of the three.
• Strength: Only chip of the three with AV1 codec support, and leads Geekbench GPU Compute (5832).
• Weakness: Lowest Geekbench 6 single-core score (1097) of the three, a direct result of having no prime Cortex-X/A7xx core.
• Weakness: GPU model name isn’t disclosed by NanoReview, and it has the lowest maximum display resolution tied closely with the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4.

Snapdragon 7s Gen 4

• Strength: Highest Battery life sub-score (91) and newest process node (4nm) of the three.
• Strength: Highest AnTuTu CPU sub-score (416,505) and AnTuTu GPU sub-score (187,783), plus the only Bluetooth 6.0 support.
• Weakness: Lowest theoretical GPU GFLOPS (458.2), slowest modem (2900/1600 Mbps), and lowest max display resolution (2900×1300) of the three, despite being the newest chip.
• Weakness: Narrow 2×16-bit memory bus giving the lowest bandwidth (25.6 Gb/s) of the three, and the weakest video spec (4K/30FPS only, no AV1).

Snapdragon 870

• Strength: Highest Geekbench 6 single-core (1298) and multi-core (3520) scores, and highest CPU Performance sub-score (43) of the three — despite being the oldest chip by up to 4.5 years.
• Strength: Strongest video spec (8K/30FPS, 4K/60FPS), highest display resolution (3840×2160), fastest modem (7500/3000 Mbps), and broadest GNSS coverage (7 systems) of the three.
• Weakness: Lowest Battery life sub-score (86) and lowest AnTuTu total score (1,010,069) of the three.
• Weakness: Lowest measured GPU results (AnTuTu GPU sub-score and Geekbench GPU Compute) despite having by far the highest theoretical GFLOPS (1029.1).

Best Processor For Different Users

• Best for Gaming: Dimensity 8000 — highest Gaming Performance sub-score and Geekbench GPU Compute result.
• Best for AI: Not enough disclosed data (no TOPS figures for any chip) to name a winner.
• Best for Efficiency: Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 — highest battery-life sub-score and newest process node.
• Best for Camera/Video: Snapdragon 870 — broadest camera sensor support and the only 8K video spec.
• Best for Raw CPU (Geekbench): Snapdragon 870 — highest single- and multi-core scores despite its age.
• Best Balanced Choice: Snapdragon 870 — leads the most individual categories overall, from CPU and video to modem speed and GNSS coverage.

Final Verdict

1. Snapdragon 870 — Best Overall Despite launching more than four years before the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4, it leads the highest number of individual categories in this comparison: Geekbench 6 single- and multi-core scores, theoretical GPU output, camera sensor breadth, video capability (the only 8K spec here), display resolution, modem speed, and GNSS coverage.

2. Dimensity 8000 — Best For Gaming It trails on Geekbench and connectivity specs, but leads the AnTuTu total score, the Gaming Performance sub-score, and Geekbench GPU Compute — and it’s the only chip of the three with AV1 decode support, a real advantage for modern video playback.

3. Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 — Best For Efficiency As the newest chip here, it has the best battery-life sub-score and the newest process node, but it’s held back by a narrowed memory bus, the slowest modem, the lowest display resolution, and the weakest video spec of the three — a clear case of mid-range product positioning outweighing its newer silicon.

Best for Gaming: Dimensity 8000 Best for AI: Not enough disclosed data to name a winner Best for Efficiency: Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 Best Balanced Choice: Snapdragon 870

Bottom Line: Choose a device built on the Snapdragon 870 if CPU responsiveness, camera flexibility, video capability, and connectivity speed matter most — it’s the oldest chip here, but the supplied data shows it still leading in more categories than either newer rival. Choose the Dimensity 8000 if gaming performance and AV1 video support are the priority. Choose the Snapdragon 7s Gen 4 mainly for battery efficiency, and go in aware that several of its specs — memory bandwidth, modem speed, display resolution, and video capture — are the weakest of the three despite it being the newest chip.