Rockchip RK3568, benchmarks Vs all current SoC

Today we present our benchmarks for the new Rockchip RK3568 SoC against the rest of the SoCs on the market. A processor intended for development board, Android Box and tablets.

The RK3568 SoC is very similar to the RK3566, only their input and output interfaces change. These SoCs have a Quad Core configuration with ARM Cortex-A55 cores that integrates a Mali-G52 MP2 GPU for graphics. In the video section we have native decoding of H.265, VP9 video with 4K@60fps support. A processor that comes to cover the entry range and offers more power than its Amlogic competition but fewer options in the video section.

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

Rockchip RK3568 specifications

Test hardware

We will perform our performance tests where we will use the RKM V7 integrates as engine a Rockchip RK3568 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 + BT 4.0 or Wifi 6 + BT 5.0. The connectors are a USB 2.0 port, another USB 3.0 port, Gigabit network port and HDMI 2.0a video output connector. It has Android 11 with specific options for digital signage such as screen rotation or remote power on.

• The RKM V7 TV-Box for digital signage can be purchased on AliExpress from $127.

General specifications

This new Rockchip RK3568 SoC is manufactured in 22 nm, has four ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores up to a maximum of 1.99 GHz and can be found limited to 1.8 GHz. It has native connections for HDMI 2.0a up to 4K@60fps, USB 3.0 support, internal storage up to eMMC, Gigabit Ethernet and audio capability up to 8 channels of audio input and output. On the graphics side we have the Mali-G52 MP2 GPU with Vulkan support.

• The differences between RK3566 and RK3568 lie in the connectivity options.

CPU

The new Rockchip RK3568 Quad Core SoC has four ARM Cortex-A55 cores, is capable to go up 1.99 GHz and the manufacturing process is 22 nm, leaving behind the 28 nm that Rockchip used until recently for all its SoCs.

• As we see the system supports ABI armeabi-v8a, so we can run 64bit applications.
• CPU revision r2p0 = RK3568/66 / r0p1 = RK3288 / r0p4 = RK3328.

GPU

This SoC integrates the Mali-G52 MP2 GPU with a maximum speed of 850 MHz and performance up to 6.8 Gpix/s, per core 3.4 Gpix/s (0.65 Gpix Mali-450 / 1.3Gpix Mali-G31). Support for OpenGL ES 3.2 and up to Vulkan 1.0 is available. We also have OpenCL 2.0 FP support, Render Script, L2 Cache support up to 512MB, AMBA 4 ACE-LITE bus and AXI. With this GPU we can play powerful titles like PUBG at medium/low settings.

VPU

In this processor we find the video decoding engine that supports h.265, VP9 codecs and does not support AV1 codec or HDR formats and we do not see anything special to control color profiles. This system allows us to take video up to UHD 4K@60fps resolutions without problems thanks to its HDMI 2.0a video output, we also have the usual image quality settings in Rockchip. Undoubtedly, Rockchip is behind Amlogic in image processing and light years behind in the support of certified video or audio codecs.

Android system

The system that we found the device we used in our analysis is based on Android 11 (API 30), the kernel that controls the system is the kernel 4.19.193, a somewhat old version and that is asking for the jump to version 5.

Performance test

We performed several performance tests with the Rockchip RK3568, VS them against the Nvidia Shield TV’s Tegra+ SoC, the Fire TV Stick with Mediatek, Allwinner devices 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 a little above the Amlogic SoCs, in terms of CPU we have less power than the S905X3/X4, but it is not a very significant difference.

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 check from the results, the Mali-G52 MP2 GPU has superior performance to the Amlogic G31, which may be better for games or emulators.

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 result is a sum of all these aspects and is influenced by the overall hardware components. The results of this test reveal that the RK3568 SoC falls somewhat short of the S905X3/X4.

VPU and Sound

We ran a series of tests with various video playback performance tests on the Rockchip RK3568 to check the formats supported by the integrated VPU. As we can see, the results are correct with h.265 and VP9 P2 codecs up to 4K@60fps resolutions. We do not have support for the new AV1 codec, something that limits it for the future. We also do not have efficient support for 10bit color, and we do not have HDR support.

• Image quality: Correct colours and acceptable processing / WITH image quality adjustments.
• HDR support: Not supported, they are reproduced in basic SDR color.
• HDMI-CEC: Not available in base firmware.
• Auto framerate: Not available by default.
• Sound: By default, the firmware does NOT support DD or DTS sound. See review of the specific model.

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

Conclusions

After performing our comparison, it is possible to say that the Rockchip RK3568 SoCs offer us a higher raw power than their Amlogic competitors, but it is worse in multimedia. The monocore and multicore raw performance of the Cortex-A55 is quite high at 1.99 GHz. On the graphics power side, the Mali-G52 MP2 GPU maintains a good level and is perfectly functional. This GPU copes quite well and is left with good figures to enable gaming even in demanding titles such as PUBG or 3D emulators at a good level.

The Rockchip RK3568 processors have as a weak point its video playback capabilities, we do NOT have support for the new AV1 codec and neither do we have support for HDR image information. We can play h.265 or VP9 content in 4K@60fps quality without problems, and we see no trace of support for HDMI-CEC. On a positive note, the Android 11 system is quite clean and stable, but it lacks configuration options.

Having tested the Rockchip RK3568 SoCs, we can say that these processors are powerful but not very attractive for video playback. It is an interesting product for development boards, digital signage, emulators … but Amlogic is much better in the multimedia aspect.