Qualcomm has officially unveiled the 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processor based on the 64-bit Oryon architecture, designed for Windows PCs. The manufacturer claims that the chip combines high-performance cores created using the 4nm process technology, advanced AI capabilities, and is also highly energy efficient.
Image source: Qualcomm
The official processor specifications are fully confirmed by an earlier leak. On all cores, the Snapdragon X Elite is capable of operating at up to 3.8 GHz, and on one or two it can automatically overclock to 4.3 GHz. Additionally, it became known that the chip has 42 MB of total cache memory.
According to Geekbench 6.1 multi-threaded performance tests, the Snapdragon X Elite processor delivers up to two times the performance of its competitor, but uses 1/3 the power of the latter.
Here are some statements Qualcomm made as part of the Snapdragon X Elite announcement:
their processor is faster than the Apple M2 Max and Intel Core i9-13980HX in single-threaded performance; It reaches the level of maximum peak multi-threaded performance of the Apple M2 Max, but at the same time its power consumption is 30% lower; It achieves the same peak multi-threaded performance of the Core i9-13980HX while consuming 70% less power than its competitor.
Snapdragon X Elite has a built-in Adreno graphics core that provides performance of 4.6 teraflops. The integrated GPU is 80% to 2 times more powerful than competitors’ integrated graphics, Qualcomm says, while being 20% to 25% more energy efficient. The company draws its conclusions based on 3DMark Wild Life Extreme tests. The graphics subsystem also claims to support screens with resolutions up to 4K, refresh rates up to 120 Hz in HDR10 mode.
The Snapdragon X Elite processor also features a specialized Qualcomm AI Engine with a combined performance of up to 75 TOPS. The Hexagon NPU (Neural Processing Unit) coprocessor included in it provides performance of 45 TOPS in INT4 operations, which is up to 4.5 times the capabilities of current processors that can be found in modern laptops on the market, the company says.
The chip can run generative large language models (LLMs) with more than 13 billion parameters. In addition, the NPU is responsible for advanced security features, privacy, authorization functions, and even the operation of the Snapdragon X Elite-based device in sleep mode.
The Snapdragon X Elite includes the Snapdragon X65 5G modem, which provides download speeds of up to 10 Gbps and upload speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps. The existing Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 module provides support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.
Also included in the Snapdragon X Elite are two specialized 18-bit Qualcomm Spectra Image Signal Processors (ISPs). The chip claims to support configurations of two 36-megapixel or one 64-megapixel cameras with the ability to record 4K video in HDR mode. In addition, the chip’s new Video Processing Unit graphics engine supports AV1 encoding and decoding.
Snapdragon X Elite supports up to eight 16-bit LPDDR5X memory channels at 8533 MT/s, thereby delivering a peak throughput of 136 GB/s. The maximum supported amount of RAM is 64 GB. It also claims to support SD v3.0 memory cards, PCIe 4.0 solid-state NVMe drives and UFS 4.0 flash memory, three USB-C, three USB4, two USB3.2 Gen2 and one eUSB2 interfaces. Thanks to the processor’s capabilities and support for multiple connectors, up to three external UHD monitors can be connected to systems based on it.
The first personal computers based on Snapdragon X Elite are expected by mid-2024.
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