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Isnt it based on the same chip as Apples M4 processor? shouldnt they be comparing it to that?
 
M3 sweetness was short live it seems. But, are there laptops available in shops with these chips?
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite SoC can't go into the same form factors at the same performance and a 80 Watt TDP compared to the M3.

The M3 is probably using 1/4th the power of the Snapdragon X Elite in that benchmark.

The performance per watt doesn't even compare. At the same 80 Watt TDP you should probably compare it to the M3 Max, which gets around 21,000 in Geekbench 🤷🏼‍♂️
 


Chipmaker Qualcomm has claimed that its new Snapdragon X Elite PC processor is 21% faster than Apple's latest M3 chip in multi-core performance, although questions remain about its thermal profile.

Snapdragon-X-Elite-chipset.jpg

Demoing PCs with the new chipset, the San Diego manufacturer told Digital Trends that the Snapdragon X Elite records a multi-core Geekbench score of 15,300, whereas Apple's M3 obtains a score of 12,154. What Qualcomm did not mention however is the Snapdragon-powered machine's power consumption as a benchmarking vector, which is an important indicator of efficiency performance.

Qualcomm's upcoming range of 2024 Windows PCs are expected to be offered in different thermal design profiles. The performance-focused 80W profile runs faster but generates more heat and requires active cooling (fans), while the efficiency-focused 23W profile is made to be used in thinner laptops with passive cooling systems. For comparison, Apple's base M3 MacBook Pro houses a single fan, similar to the discontinued 13-inch MacBook Pro, but the M3 Pro and M3 Max use dual-fan designs to allow the additional cores to reach maximum performance under load.

qualcomm-snapdragon-benchmark.jpg

The Snapdragon X Elite was announced in late October, just before Apple announced its new MacBook Pro lineup powered by M3 series chips. Despite the claims of better performance offered by the Elite chip over Apple silicon, Qualcomm conceded that "hardware... is the only thing we can control," and therefore the user experience between the rival machines is "not going to be the same," because "they're running macOS and we're running Windows."

Article Link: Qualcomm Claims Snapdragon X Elite 21% Faster Than Apple's M3 Chip
Their "Elite" binned maxed out chip can beat entry level M3 in multicore? How does it fare against M3 Pro even?

Good though, this might hasten the advent of windows ARM, which is only good for Mac.
 
Its also Windows on ARM and therefore incompatible with most of its apps and games.

If you really need Windows on ARM you'd always be better off buying a cheap M1 MBA and running Win11 in Parallels.
 
Is it faster than M3 Pro and Max though?
Snapdragon X Elite has 12 cores. The M3 has 8 cores.

The Snapdragon X Elite has 50% more cores, but it’s only 21% faster than the base M3.

This means single core performance is probably worse (although the article doesn’t mention it).

The M3 Pro, with 12 cores, and a 15,500 geekbench multi-core score, is a better benchmark for the Snapdragon X Elite’s 15,300 score.

The 16 core M3 Max scores 21,405.
 
Its also Windows on ARM and therefore incompatible with most of its apps and games.

If you really need Windows on ARM you'd always be better off buying a cheap M1 MBA and running Win11 in Parallels.
so a mac with a virtualization software running Windows on ARM is supposed to be better than ARM running Windows directly?
dunno what you have been smoking but please do share
also Windows 11 on ARM has translation feature for running x86/x64 software just like Mac has Rosetta (although the Windows translation is much slower)
 
so a mac with a virtualization software running Windows on ARM is supposed to be better than ARM running Windows directly?
dunno what you have been smoking but please do share
also Windows 11 on ARM has translation feature for running x86/x64 software just like Mac has Rosetta (although the Windows translation is much slower)
I will NOT use Windows i'm sorry, and i can't imagine Linux getting very far with ARM soon either...they don't even have hardware-accelerated browser video playback sorted out yet...
 
Beating on max performance, equal on power draw … just not at the same time. Classical marketing cherry-picking approach, but let's see how it fares in the real world.

I'm super excited that the Windows world will get good ARM chips. It's more important how it compares to Intel, so we can finally leave x64 behind. Better games, Windows and Linux support for ARM will benefit some Mac users, too.
 
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Only good things can come out of this (hopefully).
  • If Qualcomm is worse, they'll try to catch up over time, widening support for ARM64 architecture along the way. Thus pushing software vendors.
  • If they actually get better, Apple will be pushed to innovate even more and we'll get better devices (sooner).
  • If they are about the same, then there's more choice hardware-wise. Some of you use or are sometimes forced to use non-macOS machines and this will make them better.
  • They might even end their endeavour if they'll be unsuccessful, but that's just square one.
  • (Unlikely) Or they might get sooo much better over long time that Apple will decide to switch and in that case that's OK.
Might even affect gaming.

All this while supporting arm company. Competiton is a good thing as many have already said.
 
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So, qualcomm maybe will ever release chip fastwr than base m3 - good, but it consumes probably much more power… and, no match vs m3 pro/max/ultra… but competition is good, hopefully qualcomm will push apple more in future.
 
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Being vertically integrated has always been Apple's strength (aside from allowing them to skirt antitrust lawsuits). 😬

They make the M3 chip, are able to optimise macOS to run well on it, and have the clout to get developers on board as well (in part because they know that it's only a matter of time before Intel Macs stop being supported). What we probably don't realise is how much coordination it takes behind the scenes to make this all work.

Qualcomm can make the most powerful chip in the world in terms of raw power, but they still need to convince Microsoft to take the time and resources to optimise their OS for the chip (will Microsoft even be willing to maintain 2 versions of windows in tandem?). Encouraging developers to come on board and port their apps over to ARM represents the next hurdle (they may not think it's worth their time and effort if the market share of ARM PCs remains small, but then manufacturers may not want to make ARM PCs to sell if the apps aren't there, hence vicious cycle).

Too many different players, each with their own priorities and vested interests. Competition is good, only if it's meaningful. 😉
 
So underwhelming on Qualcomm's part.
Why are you going to hype your product so high if you're going to underdeliver and you know it?
What? Theie first try and its VERY significant compared to Apple's 2nd generation and possibly 3rd generation chips and you're making this kind of comment?

Ideally your comment should be simply stating let's wait until the product ships into real windows laptops, then let's see real.woeld benchmarks and performance.

Yet you sound like M.R. post of this thread ....

Demoing PCs with the new chipset, the San Diego manufacturer told Digital Trends that the Snapdragon X Elite records a multi-core Geekbench score of 15,300, whereas Apple's M3 obtains a score of 12,154. What Qualcomm did not mention however is the Snapdragon-powered machine's power consumption as a benchmarking vector, which is an important indicator of efficiency performance.

Qualcomm's upcoming range of 2024 Windows PCs are expected to be offered in different thermal design profiles. The performance-focused 80W profile runs faster but generates more heat and requires active cooling (fans), while the efficiency-focused 23W profile is made to be used in thinner laptops with passive cooling systems. For comparison, Apple's base M3 MacBook Pro houses a single fan, similar to the discontinued 13-inch MacBook Pro, but the M3 Pro and M3 Max use dual-fan designs to allow the additional cores to reach maximum performance under load.

So BOTH Apple's and Qualcomm's arm chips require active cooling then, because EACH generates more heat, Got It!!
 
Multicore is basically meaningless for most people. Single core is what makes a computer fast in regular use.

Also, let’s see the pride of these things. I was just looking at arm laptops yesterday out of curiosity. I saw a think of for 1800 with one of those mediocre current snapdragon chips and 8GB of ram and 256GB SSD. Not exactly compelling.
 
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Being vertically integrated has always been Apple's strength (aside from allowing them to skirt antitrust lawsuits). 😬

They make the M3 chip, are able to optimise macOS to run well on it, and have the clout to get developers on board as well (in part because they know that it's only a matter of time before Intel Macs stop being supported). What we probably don't realise is how much coordination it takes behind the scenes to make this all work.

Qualcomm can make the most powerful chip in the world in terms of raw power, but they still need to convince Microsoft to take the time and resources to optimise their OS for the chip (will Microsoft even be willing to maintain 2 versions of windows in tandem?). Encouraging developers to come on board and port their apps over to ARM represents the next hurdle (they may not think it's worth their time and effort if the market share of ARM PCs remains small, but then manufacturers may not want to make ARM PCs to sell if the apps aren't there, hence vicious cycle).

Too many different players, each with their own priorities and vested interests. Competition is good, only if it's meaningful. 😉
This was NOT always the case:
G3, G4 and G5 and Intel were NOT designed by Apple! The interconnect or Southbridges were designed or co developed by Apple.

This means you're incorrect of Applle alwsy being vertically integrated. Sorry false.

Apple does NOT, I repeat, does NOT Make ANY M series chips! They designed them and collaborate on the design with TSMC.
 
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