Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 Review: Premium Android Productivity And Entertainment

Name: Samsung Galaxy Tab S3
Brand: Samsung

by Jennifer Johnson — Tuesday, May 16, 2017, 12:37 PM EDT

Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 - Graphics And Gaming

Next we'll test the Galaxy Tab S3 with GFXBench, which has been one of our standard mobile graphics performance benchmarks for quite a while now. In order to ensure display refresh (v-sync) and resolution are not limiting factors, we are comparing Offscreen test results here. GFXBench tests OpenGL ES graphics workloads; we're specifically testing OGLES 2.0 and 3.0 rendering performance in the following two benchmark modules.

3D Graphics Benchmarks: GFX Bench & 3DMark

Pushing The Pixels

GFX TRex

GFX Manhattan

We have quite a few tablets we can compare in the T-Rex Offscreen benchmark since we’ve used this particular test for quite a while. The Manhattan test is a little newer for us, however. As you can see, the Galaxy Tab S3 performs exceptionally well in the T-Rex offscreen test, earning the top spot by a decent margin. In the Manhattan Offscreen ES 3.0 test, the Galaxy Tab S3 again earns the top spot, beating out four other tablets we have for comparison.

We also ran Futuremark's 3DMark benchmark, which has been a staple 3D graphics benchmark at HotHardware across all mobile and desktop platforms for many years. In this case we were running 3DMark Ice Storm Unlimited, which is targeted for mobile devices and also runs at 720p in offscreen mode, so as to take display resolution out of the equation. This test and its 3D graphics engine are also based on the OpenGL ES 2.0 API.

3dMark 1

3dMark 2

The Galaxy Tab S3 puts up a strong number in the physics test, earning the best score of all devices we have for comparison. This tablet also performs very well in the other components of the test, displaying competitive graphics horsepower and earning the second spot behind the NVIDIA SHIELD tablet in the Graphics and overall Ice Storm components of the test.

Digging a little deeper, you can see the Galaxy Tab S3 and NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet are neck and neck in the GT1 and GT2 test modules, with the Galaxy Tab S3 outperforming the NVIDIA SHIELD Tablet in the GT2 component/ The reverse is true in the GT1 component.

3DMark Sling Shot is a new benchmark module that's been added to the 3DMark mobile suite, so again we have fewer results in our database to share, though we do have a few top-shelf Android phones for comparison including the new Galaxy S8 and S8+. Sling Shot is a much more advanced OpenGL ES 3.1 and Metal API-based test that employs some advanced rendering techniques like volumetric lighting and particle illumination. In this test we again run the Offscreen mode, so as to remove display resolution differences from the equation and thus can compare cross-platform results more reliably.

3DMark Sling

Keep in mind the Galaxy Tab S3 is the only tablet in this chart. Also, the new Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8+ are powered by the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 which is about 25 percent faster than the previous generation Snapdragon 820 found in the Galaxy Tab S3. As a result, the Galaxy Tab S3 finds itself about where we’d expect – in the middle of the chart, trailing slightly behind the Galaxy S8 and S8+.