Qualcomm has started this year’s Snapdragon Summit by revealing the chipset that will power the next wave of premium Android smartphones. As anticipated by recent leaks, Qualcomm has once more changed the name of its top mobile chipset, just a short time after it introduced the 'Snapdragon 8 Gen' label.
New Name and Features
This time, Qualcomm has opted for 'Snapdragon 8 Elite', though it is still unclear if they will use generational or performance-based endings in the future. Observant individuals will notice that the new chipset shares a name with Qualcomm's most potent laptop SoC, which seems to be more than just a coincidence, hinting at strategic marketing alignment.
Technical Specifications
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is unique as it incorporates Oryon CPU cores, moving away from the usual ARM cores found in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and its earlier versions. As depicted in the graphic provided, the Snapdragon 8 Elite includes two prime cores running at 4.32 GHz, alongside six performance cores capped at 3.53 GHz. In essence, the Snapdragon 8 Elite presents a CPU setup similar to MediaTek's Dimensity 9400 by completely eliminating efficiency cores.
Furthermore, the Snapdragon 8 Elite utilizes TSMC's 3 nm technology and features 12 MB of L2 cache distributed across its prime and performance cores. Qualcomm asserts that this new chipset surpasses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 by 45% in both single and multi-threaded CPU performance. Additionally, the Snapdragon 8 Elite claims a 40% increase in GPU speed and a 45% improvement in NPU speed.
Efficiency and Compatibility
Despite its performance boosts, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is reported to achieve power efficiency gains of 27% for the entire SoC, 40% for its GPU, and 45% for its CPU. The new 'sliced architecture' GPU of the chipset is designed to support Unreal Engine 5.3, Nanite, and the Chaos physics system. Also, Qualcomm has included the Snapdragon X80 5G modem, which enables Wi-Fi 7 and a 4x6 MIMO antenna, allowing for downlink speeds of 5.8 Gbit/s and 10 Gbit/s, respectively.
Interestingly, the Snapdragon 8 Elite will support up to 24 GB of RAM and is expected to provide up to 30% greater location accuracy due to its triple-band GNSS module. Up until now, Qualcomm has announced that companies like ASUS, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, realme, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi will be introducing the first devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite in the next few weeks.
