Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra gains speed from new processor, cooling system and upgraded memory

Samsung’s latest flagship, the Galaxy S26 Ultra, incorporates a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy processor that Samsung says is 19% faster in CPU performance, 24% faster in GPU performance and 39% faster in neural-processing unit (NPU) speed compared with the chip used in the S25 Ultra. The company notes that the faster CPU should reduce app launch times and make multitasking smoother, while the GPU gains are aimed at higher frame rates in games. The upgraded NPU is intended to accelerate on-device AI tasks such as photo processing and text summarisation.

To address heat-related throttling, the device uses Samsung’s largest vapor-chamber cooling system in an Ultra model, which the manufacturer claims improves heat dissipation by 21% over the S25 Ultra. The larger chamber is designed to keep the processor at higher speeds for longer periods during intensive activities like gaming or video recording.

Built on a 3 nm process, the Snapdragon chip is said to consume less power per operation, which Samsung says helps maintain performance while improving battery efficiency. The phone ships with 12 GB of RAM in most configurations and an optional 16 GB in the 1 TB storage variant, allowing more applications to stay active in memory. Samsung also highlights UFS 4.0 storage, which provides faster read and write speeds than the UFS 3.1 used in earlier flagships, benefiting app launches, large-file transfers and high-bitrate video recording.

Overall, Samsung positions the combination of a faster processor, enhanced cooling, higher RAM capacity and UFS 4.0 storage as a comprehensive performance upgrade for the Galaxy S26 Ultra.