The most stark difference lies in feature set and API support. The Mali-450 is strictly limited to (with some extensions for 3.0, but not full compliance). This means any modern game or application requiring OpenGL ES 3.0+ features—such as compute shaders, geometry shaders, or advanced texture compression (ASTC)—will simply not run, or will fall back to a degraded software mode. In contrast, the Mali-G31 MP2 fully supports OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan . Vulkan, in particular, is a low-overhead API that allows developers to extract significantly more performance from the same hardware by reducing CPU driver bottlenecks. For any device running Android 9 or later, the G31 is a mandatory baseline, while the Mali-450 is effectively legacy hardware.

To begin, it is crucial to recognize that these two GPUs belong to different architectural eras. The is a relic of the Utgard architecture, first introduced in 2012. It was the workhorse behind many popular mid-range chipsets of the early 2010s, such as the MediaTek MT6582 and the HiSilicon Kirin 910. The Utgard architecture is a traditional, fixed-function pipeline that lacks unified shaders. Conversely, the Mali-G31 is part of the modern Bifrost architecture, launched in 2018. Bifrost brought fundamental changes, including a clause-based execution engine and, most importantly, support for OpenGL ES 3.2 and Vulkan 1.1 .

In practical terms, a user buying a device with a Mali-450 in 2024 would face a frustrating experience. Many apps on the Google Play Store would simply refuse to install due to missing API requirements. Games like PUBG Mobile , Genshin Impact , or even Call of Duty: Mobile would be unplayable or invisible. On the other hand, a device with a Mali-G31 MP2, while still an entry-level solution, can run these games at low settings (e.g., 30fps at 720p) and supports the modern Android UI rendering pipeline (HWUI) efficiently.