Qualcomm Says New Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC Has 'World's Fastest Mobile CPU'

[MacRumors]

Qualcomm today unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, which features a next-generation custom Qualcomm-designed Oryon CPU instead of the semi-custom Kryo Arm-based chips from prior SoCs. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features the "world's fastest mobile CPU," outperforming even the A18 Pro chip in the iPhone 16 Pro series.

The Oryon CPU is built on a 3-nanometer process, much like Apple's most recent chips. It has eight cores in total, including two prime cores and six performance cores, and it is able to reach peak CPU speeds of 4.32 GHz. Qualcomm also claims that it has the "industry's largest shared cache" to enable "insanely fast data retrieval." There's also a new "Adreno" GPU, and Qualcomm says it uses a "revolutionary sliced architecture" for faster performance and battery life optimizations.

Qualcomm built the chip with generative AI in mind, and it has an included Qualcomm AI Engine with Multimodal Gen AI that Qualcomm says can better understand voice, text, and images, viewing the world through the camera on a smartphone to help with tasks.

Compared to prior-generation Qualcomm chips, the Snapdragon 8 Elite features 45 percent faster CPU performance and 44 percent better power efficiency.

The chip integrates the Qualcomm Snapdragon X80 5G modem with Wi-Fi 7 and 5G support. It will be used in Android-based devices from companies like Google, Samsung, OnePlus, Xiaomi, and more.

Article Link: Qualcomm Says New Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC Has 'World's Fastest Mobile CPU'

 

[vertsix]

If so, good. Competition is good.

 

[brofkand]

If all of this is true, we knew it was a matter of time that the competition would catch up. Even Intel is making great strides with moving x86 closer to ARM (although they're still quite a ways off). Apple Silicon truly revolutionized the industry, and Apple should get a lot of credit for it. Although I'm quite critical of Apple in a lot of aspects, the M3 15" MacBook Air is the best laptop I've ever owned, and in my opinion the best laptop ever built.

 

[anshuvorty]

Ok, what about that heat dissipation, sounds like it will get pretty toasty...

 

[ss2cire]

Neat, I think anything that pushes apple to improve their SoCs is a good thing

 

[GMShadow]

Is the claim 'fastest clock speed' or 'fastest when we put eleventy billion cores against one Apple core'?

Their footnote says compared to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and a 45% ST improvement would put them at 3,101. A18 Pro is 3350ish. That's wouldn't be the fastest so it sounds like more Qualcomm bullcrap.

Multithread would be about 9,690 compared to 8,080ish, but that's with eight cores to six...so again, not an even comparison, but not a surprise from Qualcomm.


And their launch partners are mostly known benchmark cheaters, so I hope the testers take that into account.

 

[iMean]

Pffft, we all know that 8GB Apple RAM equals 16 GB Android RAM, so 4 Ghz 8 Core Android CPU equals 2 Ghz 4 Core Apple CPU. So, all good.

 

[brofkand]

Ok, what about that heat dissipation, sounds like it will get pretty toasty...

so do Apple's chips...all the overheating issues with the A17 Pro...

 

[jz0309]

Ok, I like competition, it’s good for consumers.

 

[RumorConsumer]

Is the claim 'fastest clock speed' or 'fastest when we put eleventy billion cores against one Apple core'?

Their footnote says compared to a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and a 45% ST improvement would put them at 3,101. A18 Pro is 3350ish. That's wouldn't be the fastest so it sounds like more Qualcomm bullcrap.

Multithread would be about 9,690 compared to 8,080ish, but that's with eight cores to six...so again, not an even comparison, but not a surprise from Qualcomm.


And their launch partners are mostly known benchmark cheaters, so I hope the testers take that into account.

Funny. I want them be competitive with but not beat Apple. The drag racer in me.

 

[blazerunner]

The comments here so far are actually refreshing. No cheerleading 👍

 

[Biro]

So we’ll be offered the performance of this chip combined with the X80 modem. If the chip doesn‘t get too hot and use too much power, it could be enough to get me to sample Android again.

It seems like Apple is getting pounded from all sides these days - legal and technical. Props to Apple for much of the advances they have brought us. And I’ll defend Apple if I think they are right. But the company‘s cynical attitude toward its customers is the source of a lot of its problems.

 

[Hogswarts]

It's fastest only if you don't care about power consumption.

 

[JohnC1959]

If so, good. Competition is good.

strongly agree! Some may complain that Apple is lagging, but this will drive them to further improve. In the end who knows who will have the best but regardless, all key players will provide something yet better than today and so I win.

 

[MrTemple]

It's fastest only if you don't care about power consumption.

Drop the phone when the CPU pinned and you've got yourself a China Syndrome.

 

[smulji]

Ok, what about that heat dissipation, sounds like it will get pretty toasty...

Nothing a good cooling system can't handle

 

[ahmedreda]

it might be the fastest CPU, but not necessarily the most powerful SoC. I believe Apple is still 2–3 years ahead of the competition with the most capable GPU currently on the market.

 

[syklee26]

Yes, but that software...

 

[chrono1081]

Ok, I like competition, it’s good for consumers.

Not always, actually not even most of the time. Look at streaming services.

 

[DBZmusicboy01]

Pffft, we all know that 8GB Apple RAM equals 16 GB Android RAM, so 4 Ghz 8 Core Android CPU equals 2 Ghz 4 Core Apple CPU. So, all good.

Hasn’t been the case since iOS 13ish
The management has been horrendous the past 5 years.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I would love for these companies to double down on efficiency. 45% improved performance is nice and all but I think I'm not alone in saying 45% less power usage would be much more appreciated.

 

[The_Martini_Cat]

I did not see a benchmark result there. Just a bunch of percentage improvements from a base that is unknown to me, and not further elucidated in the graphic. 🍸🐈

 

[JohnC1959]

I would love for these companies to double down on efficiency. 45% improved performance is nice and all but I think I'm not alone in saying 45% less power usage would be much more appreciated.

yep. However if faster then there's at least an opportunity to throttle down at times to save power while still running as fast as prior generation chips.

 

[UpsideDownEclair]

4.32 GHz in a phone... We’ll see. Actually genuinely curious about that. The P cores on M4 run at 4.4 GHz, but that’s not a phone SoC, so yeah.

 

[JohnC1959]

4.32 GHz in a phone... We’ll see. Actually genuinely curious about that. The P cores on M4 run at 4.4 GHz, but that’s not a phone SoC, so yeah.

This brings up a thought I've been having about phones and computers. I think we're about at the point where those that don't need a high power computer should be able to connect their phone to a dock that connects a monitor and keyboard and use their phone like a computer. The phone's OS could detect that it's docked then allow more desktop/laptop like user interface.