Don’t buy a new phone just for gaming, last-gen flagships still perform just as well

Source: Android Authority

Overview

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

The latest flagship Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset is blazing fast in benchmarks, and with more smartphones equipped with the chip now hitting the market, we’re starting to see whether these purported gains hold up in real‑world workloads.

Looking specifically at graphics and gaming, Qualcomm claims 23 % better graphics performance and up to 20 % lower power consumption versus last year. Benchmark results back this up; this year’s flagship phones fly past their predecessors, suggesting a truly next‑gen experience even over models that are only a year old. However, some phones have proven pretty hot under pressure, leaving many of us wondering if we’re hitting the ceiling of graphics performance in a compact mobile form factor.

To see if next‑gen performance is more than just numbers on theoretical tests, I grabbed the new Xiaomi 17 Ultra, complete with the 8 Elite Gen 5, and last year’s 15 Ultra with the original Snapdragon 8 Elite for a within‑brand comparison. I updated both phones to their latest versions and started installing some of Android’s most popular games.

Do you think you need the latest processor to play games smoothly?

6 votes

High‑End Gaming Test

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

To put the phones through their paces, I used a small selection of popular games that can still stress a handset:

Call of Duty: Mobile

• Both phones comfortably hit 120 fps.
• Occasional micro‑stutters dip to ≈80 fps, but they are brief and spaced out.
• Sustained drops for a few seconds appear once the devices reach ≈40 °C, likely due to background, temperature, or power throttling.
• The throttling takes about 20–30 minutes of continuous play to manifest.
• Neither device heats up particularly quickly; both are equally vulnerable to temperature throttling.

Genshin Impact

• Both processors handle 60 fps at maximum graphics without issue.
• Device temperatures peak at a modest ≈35 °C, indicating a relatively easy workload and little chance of throttling over extended sessions.

Asphalt Legends

• A noticeable discrepancy emerges here.
• Despite setting both phones to 120 fps, the Xiaomi 15 Ultra remains capped at 60 fps.
• The phone averages 60 fps and could likely exceed this if allowed, suggesting an arbitrary limitation.
• The lower 5th‑percentile frame times hint that the older chip is slightly less capable in this scenario.
• It’s not uncommon for games to lock certain graphical features to specific chipsets; sometimes cutting‑edge chips are initially left out.
• While the Snapdragon 8 Elite isn’t at fault for this particular limitation, such restrictions can occur even on flagship hardware.

Bottom line:

• COD Mobile and Genshin Impact show the two processors neck‑and‑neck, with minimal temperature concerns.
• Asphalt Legends reveals a modest performance gap, likely due to software‑level frame‑rate caps rather than raw hardware capability.

Emulation Performance Test

Robert Triggs / Android Authority

With top‑tier Android games producing very similar frame rates, I turned to emulation tests to try and pry them apart. I used the demanding PlayStation 2 emulator NetherSX, playing Need For Speed: Most Wanted at 3× native resolution, along with Dolphin and Mario Kart Wii at 4× native resolution, both using OpenGL (generally safer but a bit slower than Vulkan).

Note: Drivers can be more of a factor here than Android games, so keep that in mind before diving in.

It’s been several months since the 8 Elite Gen 5 arrived on the scene, so it should be performing pretty well by now—or at least you’d think. I had to disable multi‑core speed‑up in Mario Kart Wii on the Xiaomi 17 Ultra to avoid graphics synchronization errors.

Future 8 Elite Gen 5 drivers might improve emulation, but performance is already very close today.

Results

• Both phones lock a rock‑solid 60 fps in both titles.
• The 5th‑percentile frame rates are fairly robust, indicating little regular jank or dropped frames.
• Over the full timeline, the Xiaomi 17 Ultra (Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) is marginally smoother, though the difference is hard to notice during gameplay.

Power Consumption

• The 8 Elite Gen 5 shows lower power consumption, suggesting it works less hard to achieve the same frame rates.
• Both phones also exhibited brief spikes above 12 W, coinciding with rare, short CPU spikes. It’s unclear whether these spikes are gaming‑related, caused by a background Xiaomi process, or something else. I’ll avoid drawing firm conclusions here.

Should You Buy a Next‑Gen Phone for Gaming?

Overall, there’s very little performance difference between the Xiaomi 17 Ultra (Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) and last year’s Xiaomi 15 Ultra (Snapdragon 8 Elite) when it comes to popular Android games and emulators.

• A few edge cases exist where certain games support different features or settings.
• Some emulator configurations may need slight tweaking.

In practice, you’ll see almost identical frame rates on either model.

Why You Might Skip the Latest Generation

• Cost efficiency – Last‑generation handsets are often available at a fraction of the price while delivering the same gaming performance.
• Sufficient power – As long as the device can sustain “blisteringly fast, robust” frame rates, newer chips offer diminishing returns for gaming alone.
• Future‑proofing – The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 does give a modest edge for upcoming titles, but the difference isn’t huge.

“Smartphones don’t need more power; they need cheaper chips.” – Read the full argument here.

When the Latest Chip Still Matters

• Long‑term gaming – If you want to guarantee high settings for games released several years from now, the newer chipset adds a little extra headroom.
• Other upgrades – Newer flagships often bring better cameras, AI features, and design refinements that may justify the purchase beyond raw gaming performance.

Bottom Line

If you’re looking for a handset that performs brilliantly in today’s games, the performance gap between this generation and the previous one is minimal. You can comfortably choose a slightly older, cheaper model without sacrificing the gaming experience.

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