According to a report by Pulsestacks on April 8th, the foreign tech media outlet Windows Latest was invited several weeks ago to Qualcomm's headquarters in San Diego to personally experience the Snapdragon X Elite platform products. In their latest blog post, they shared information regarding benchmarks, gaming tests, and NPU performance.
Benchmarks
The media utilized software like 3D Mark and Jetstream for their analysis, and PulseStacks reported on the comparison between the Snapdragon X Elite 23W processor (system power, not package power) and the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor, based on this media coverage:
| Benchmark Comparison | Snapdragon X Elite 23w | Intel Core Ultra 7-155h |
|---|---|---|
| 7-Zip File Compression (lower is better) | 18.98s | 21.09s |
| Visual Studio Code Compilation (lower is better) | 30.56s | 68.14s |
| 3D Mark GPU Benchmark | 39.11 FPS | 33.98 FPS |
| Spectometer2.0 (Edge – Native ARM, higher is better) | 438 | 376 |
| Spectometer2.0 (Chrome – Native ARM, higher is better) | 457 | 413 |
| JetStream 2 (Chrome – Native ARM, higher is better) | 316.765 | 295.098 |
| Geekbench 6 CPU | 2774 single / 14027 multi | 2401 single / 13001 multi |
| Procyon – AI Inference Benchmark | 1716 (Qualcomm SNPE) | 514 (Intel OpenVINO) |
The data reveals that the X Elite holds its ground, outperforming the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H in every benchmark test, while consuming less power. The X Elite's total system power is around 23 watts, significantly lower than the Intel system's CPU, which consumes over 100 watts.
Power and Performance
One noteworthy aspect is Qualcomm's distinctive description of power consumption for the Snapdragon X Elite. Traditional chipmakers typically measure CPU power consumption in terms of TDP (Thermal Design Power), a figure used to gauge the expected heat output under load effectively. Qualcomm, however, adopts the measure of system total power, a method continued from its approach for mobile platforms like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. This implies that the 23W is not solely the CPU's power consumption but that of the entire system, indicating that the CPU's actual power usage is even lower.
Gaming Benchmarks The Snapdragon X Elite processor was tested with games, including hands-on experiences with "Baldur's Gate 3", "Control", and "Red Dead Redemption 2" by the media present.
Baldur's Gate 3 The media wasn't clear on the graphics settings used during the test, but the demo ran at 1080p resolution, hovering around 30 frames per second without any hitches.
Red Dead Redemption 2 Similarly, this game ran at 1080p resolution, but with frame rates significantly higher than 30fps.
These systems are not marketed as gaming systems but serve as proof of Qualcomm's collaboration with Microsoft to enable modern games to run smoothly on Windows 11 ARM (and the X Elite GPU).
On-Device AI One of the more intriguing aspects of the X Elite platform is its on-device artificial intelligence processing. While both Intel and AMD have released their own products with dedicated NPUs (or Neural Processing Units), the X Elite stands out as the most powerful, at least in terms of specifications.
Intel combines its NPU with its CPU/GPU to handle on-device AI, aiming to enhance processing capabilities, which may lead to increased battery life and reduced performance. However, the dedicated NPU on the X Elite boasts enough raw processing power to handle all AI tasks without needing the CPU or GPU (though it can run on the GPU/CPU if required).
Artificial intelligence performance is currently measured in TOPS (trillions of operations per second), with Qualcomm officially stating the following specs for the Snapdragon X Elite processor:
| Processor | NPU PowerPeak (with GPU/CPU) | Snapdragon X Elite | 45 TOPS | 75 TOPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intel Meteor Lake | 11 TOPS | 34 TOPS | ||
| AMD Ryzen Hawk Point | 16 TOPS | 38 TOPS |
So, what does this mean in real-world performance/applications? It signifies that you can process AI models incredibly fast. The demonstration included on-device Stable Diffusion, which can generate images from text prompts:
It's important to note that Stable Diffusion runs entirely locally, utilizing just the Hexagon NPU, and the demonstration was impressively swift, so much so that the media mentioned the video was recorded over several takes due to the rapid generation speed.
Upcoming Product Launch Dates You might wonder when we can expect to see devices equipped with this chip. According to information obtained from Qualcomm by the media, OEM manufacturers like Dell, Acer, Lenovo, and even Microsoft's own Surface line are set to launch a plethora of new products by the summer of 2024.
