Amlogic S905Y4, comparative Vs all current SoC

Today we present the comparison of the new AMLogic S905Y4 SoC against the rest of SoCs on the market. A processor for Android Box of all kinds, an interesting chip that we will surely see in multiple devices.

The S905Y4 SoC is a Quad Core with ARM Cortex-A35 cores that integrates a Mali-G31 MP2 GPU for graphics. On the video side, it supports native decoding of H.265, VP9 and AV1 video with 4K@120fps support up to 8K and basic HDR. This is an integrated device that covers the entry-level range and is very similar to the S905W2 we saw recently.

Let’s see how it performs against options from other manufacturers such as Allwinner, Nvidia or Rockchip.

Amlogic S905Y4 specifications

Test hardware

We will perform our performance tests using the MECOOL KM7 integrates as engine an AMlogic S905Y4 SoC. The RAM memory is 2/4 GB DDR4 and for storage we have 16/32 GB, we can expand it thanks to the micro SD card reader. For wireless connectivity we have wifi aC Dual Band and Bluetooth 5.0. The connectors are not too many, we only see a couple of USB 2.0 ports, analog audio and video output, 10/100 network port and a HDMI 2.0 video output connector. It has Android TV 11 Certified but no official Netflix support.

• The Mecool KM7 TV-Box with Android TV 11 certified can be purchased on AliExpress only for $59.

General specifications

The new AMLogic S905Y4 SoC appears to be manufactured in 12 nm for power consumption and thermals, but we have no confirmation, and features four ARM Cortex-A35 CPU cores up to 1.8 GHz. It has native connections for HDMI 2.1 up to 4K@120fps or 8K, USB 3.0 support, internal storage up to eMMC, Ethernet 10/100 and audio capability up to 8 channels of audio input and output. On the graphics side we have the Mali-G31 MP2 GPU with Vulkan.

CPU

This new SoC AMLogic S905Y4 Quad Core has four ARM Cortex-A35 cores, is capable of reaching 2 GHz and surprises us with only 32 bit ABIs due to firmware limitations, hardware does support ARMv8-A instruction set.

• As we see the system don’t supports ABI armeabi-v8a, so we can NOT run 64bit applications.
• CPU id: serial 37 / revisión r1p0.

GPU

In the graphics section we have the Mali-G31 MP2 GPU with a maximum speed of 650Mhz and performance up to 1.3 Gpix/s per core = 2.6Gpix/s (0.65 Gpix the Mali-450). It has support for OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.2. We also have support OpenCL 2.0 FP, Render Script, support L2 Cache up to 512MB and bus AMBA 4 ACE-LITE. With this GPU we can play powerful titles like PUBG in low settings

VPU

For the video we found the Advanced Video Engine integrated for decoding that support codecs h.265, VP9 and the new AV1 codec, compatible with HDR  formats and support for REC709 / BT2020 profiles. This system allows us to take video up to UHD 4K@120fps or 8K resolutions without problems thanks to its HDMI 2.1 video output that theoretically can be compatible with automatic refresh synchronization, but this will depend on the implementation in the firmware and the technology of our TV.

Android system

The system that we find in this first Box that we are going to analyze is based on Android 11 (API 30), the kernel that controls the system is the kernel 5.4.86, a fairly modern version and that fortunately leaves behind the kernel 4 that we had in the models with previous SoC.

Performance test

We performed several performance tests with the Amlogic S905Y4 SoCs, VS them against the Nvidia Shield TV’s Tegra+ SoC, the Fire TV Stick 4K’s Mediatek, the extended Allwinner H616, the Rockchip RK3356 and the latest and most popular Amlogic SoCs in the industry.

Geekbench

A test that gives us some very interesting values of the raw power testing of the CPU in mono core and multi core in addition to GPU computing. As we can see the results are very similar to those of its brother S905W2, in terms of CPU we have less power than the S905X4, but it is not very significant and for multimedia use is similar.

3DMark

The graphical performance test par excellence with a fairly solid continuity in terms of results which helps us when comparing GPU performance historically. As we can appreciate the Mali-G31 MP2 GPU has identical performance to the S905X4 and the S905W2, this is the aspect we have no limitations with respect to its rival.

PCMark

This test gives us an idea of the performance level for desktop applications of this hardware performing tasks such as video editing, managing text or audio files, something that is increasingly used in Android. The results of this test reveal that the new S905Y4 is slightly below the S905X4 as it has slightly less CPU computational power, it is equal to the S905W2.

VPU and Sound

We put this SoC to the test with several performance tests regarding video playback on the AMLogic S905Y4 to check the formats supported by the integrated VPU. As we can see the results are good with h.265 and VP9 P2 codecs up to 4K@120fps resolutions and even for 8K, we have support for the new AV1 codec, but only works in streaming services like Youtube or using the internal player for local files. We have good performance with 10bit color formats, we also have HDR support in the basic format.

• Image quality: Correct colors and acceptable processing / NO image quality adjustments.
• HDR support: Basic HDR supported / Can be disabled.
• HDMI-CEC: Compatible.
• Auto framerate: Not available by default.
• Sound: By default the firmware support DD or DTS up to 5.1. See review of the specific model.

• SW = does not have hardware acceleration and may have some frameskip in very heavy files.

Conclusions

After our comparison, it is possible to say that the new AMLogic S905Y4 SoC is almost identical to the S905W2 and has a similar power to the current S905X4. The raw single-core and multicore performance of the Cortex-A35 is lower than the A55 found in the Amlogic S905X4, but this is not very significant for everyday use. On the graphics power aspect the Mali-G31 MP2 GPU maintains a fairly good level and is perfectly functional, it defends itself quite well and remains with good figures to allow gaming even in demanding titles like PUBG at low level of detail.

The AMLogic S905Y4 processor seems to be a good choice in terms of video playback, on the one hand, we have support for the new AV1 codec, although it seems that the Android 11 firmware gives problems for now in this aspect. We can play h.265 or VP9 content in 4K@120fps quality without issues and even reach 8K. We have support for basic HDR, it is compatible with HDMI-CEC and its system is Android 11 which can be improved in some aspects.

Once tested the new AMLogic S905Y4 we conclude that we have a pretty good performance in its range, if we need a basic Android TV-Box for KODI and multimedia we will have a good positive experience with this new Amlogic chip.

Other comparatives

• NVidia Tegra+ Quad Core
• Amlogic S905W2 Quad Core
• Amlogic S905X4 Quad Core
• Amlogic S905X3 Quad Core
• Amlogic S905X2 Quad Core
• Mediatek Helio X20/23/27 Deca core
• Mediatek MT8695 Quad Core
• All Reviews with more information of latest models