At the Snapdragon Summit held in late October last year, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon X Elite computing platform, integrating the Oryon CPU, Adreno GPU, and Hexagon NPU. This launch not only marked an upgrade in performance and energy efficiency but also introduced enhanced AI capabilities, promising users a higher efficiency and smarter user experience.
The Snapdragon X Elite is crafted using a 4nm process technology, featuring an Oryon CPU with 12 high-performance cores running at 3.8GHz and a total cache of 42MB. It also supports dual-core enhancement, pushing the frequency up to 4.3GHz, a milestone for Qualcomm in achieving PC CPU frequencies above 4.0GHz for the first time.
Its Adreno GPU delivers a performance of 4.6 trillion floating-point operations per second (TFLOPS), and the Hexagon NPU supports a computing power of 45TOPS. The heterogeneous computing power of the Qualcomm AI Engine even reaches 75TOPS. Previously, Qualcomm announced that related products would hit the market by mid-2024, and recently, several models have made their appearance on the Geekbench benchmarking platform.
A Lenovo laptop, with the model number “4810UV0100,” was spotted on GeekBench 6, powered by the Snapdragon X Elite X1E78100 processor, featuring 12 cores with a base frequency of 3.4GHz, slightly lower than the 3.8GHz announced at the launch. The highest frequency remains unknown. The system runs on Windows 11 Pro and is equipped with 32GB of memory. It scored 2427 in single-core and 14254 in multi-core benchmarks.
Previously, a Samsung laptop was also spotted, equipped with the Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 processor. The CPU's base frequency is 4.0GHz, with an acceleration frequency of 4.3GHz. Its single-core score was 2785, with a multi-core score of 13925.
Based on the specs, Samsung's Snapdragon X Elite X1E80100 appears to have a slightly higher frequency than Lenovo's Snapdragon X Elite X1E78100. The former's single-core benchmark scores also lead by about 15%, though its multi-core scores are slightly lower, which is somewhat curious.
Additionally, the benchmark scores for both models are not far off from the 23W version prototypes we tested on-site earlier, suggesting their power consumption should be at similar levels. Theoretically, their performance is close to that of the Core i7-13800H.
It's worth mentioning that, according to previous reports, the Snapdragon X Elite processor comes in four variations, including the two previously mentioned as well as the higher-end X1E8400 and the lower-end X1E76100. The Snapdragon X Plus also offers four versions: X1P64100, X1P61100, X1P56100, and X1P40100, with performance generally increasing with the model number.
Beyond performance, the Snapdragon X Elite boasts impressive energy efficiency. Recently, Qualcomm officially presented a comparison of power efficiency between the Snapdragon X Elite processor and Intel's Core Ultra processors to the media during a Monday afternoon briefing.
The two Intel models involved in the testing were the ASUS Zenbook 14 2024 with a Core Ultra 7 155H and the ASUS ROG Strix 16 Air equipped with a Core Ultra 9 185H, with CPU performance scores based on GeekBench.
According to the official results, in single-threaded tasks, the Snapdragon X Elite is 54% faster than the Core Ultra 7 155H at the same power consumption, or reduces power consumption by 65% at the same performance level; in multi-threaded tasks, the Snapdragon X Elite is 52% stronger than the Core Ultra 7 155H at the same power consumption, or reduces power consumption by 60% at the same performance level.
When compared to the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H, the Snapdragon X Elite outperforms by 51% in single-threaded tasks at equivalent power consumption, or achieves a 65% reduction in power consumption at equivalent performance. In multi-threaded tasks, the Snapdragon X Elite is 41% faster than the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H at equivalent power consumption, or achieves a 58% reduction in power consumption at equivalent performance.
In terms of graphical performance, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite outperforms the Intel Core i7 155H by 36% in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme benchmark at the same power consumption. Alternatively, it reduces power consumption by 50% while maintaining similar performance. It's evident that both in terms of CPU and GPU, the Snapdragon X Elite demonstrates excellent energy efficiency.
Certainly, this year marks the advent of AI-powered PCs, with a significant emphasis on both processor performance and efficiency, particularly in the realm of AI capabilities. The spotlight isn't solely on AI prowess, but also on the array of functionalities, what they can accomplish, and the diverse application scenarios they cater to.
Recently, both AMD and Intel have been showcasing their AI capabilities and application scenarios, notably in the domain of AIGC, during their respective events in collaboration with partners. As for Qualcomm, there hasn't been much news in this arena as of late. However, cracking this domain isn't a solo venture; it requires collaboration with ISV vendors, terminal manufacturers, and other industry partners. It's anticipated that Qualcomm will unveil more updates as they forge ahead in this realm through partnerships and innovation.
