The Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm’s latest laptop SoC design, marks its major entry into the competitive laptop industry. The Snapdragon X Elite includes an exclusive Qualcomm CPU core known as Oryon, which represents a significant attempt by Qualcomm to improve their Arm-based SoCs for Windows laptops. The Snapdragon X Elite wants to leave an indelible impression on the laptop industry while paving the way for more powerful smartphone SoCs in 2024.
Qualcomm has made bold claims regarding the Snapdragon X Elite’s performance, claiming that benchmark results beat those of Intel, AMD, and Arm. Even though actual retail products will be available in mid-2024, the company is eager to demonstrate the SoC’s potential.
Performance: Pushing the Boundaries
As part of their promotional efforts, Qualcomm conducted a closed-door benchmarking session to demonstrate the Snapdragon X Elite’s performance, using reference design laptops equipped with popular benchmark software. This event aimed to confirm the accuracy of Qualcomm’s reported benchmark scores and highlight the capabilities of the new SoC.
Qualcomm’s choice of benchmarks includes Cinebench, Geekbench, PCMark 10, Procyon AI, 3DMark Wildlife Extreme, and GFXBench 5.0 Aztec Ruins. These benchmarks provide insights into the Snapdragon X Elite’s capabilities, with results falling within Qualcomm’s official performance ranges.
In the absence of consistent third-party data for performance comparison, Qualcomm’s own data serves as a reference point. The company compared the Snapdragon X Elite to select Intel, AMD, and Apple systems, demonstrating competitive single-threaded and multi-threaded performance.
The Snapdragon X Elite also showed impressive GPU performance, particularly in GFXBench Aztec Ruins and 3DMark Wildlife Extreme. However, further testing with Windows games is needed to provide a more accurate representation of real-world gaming performance.
What the Chip Entails: Custom CPU Core – Oryon
The Snapdragon X Elite is powered by Qualcomm’s proprietary Arm CPU core, Oryon. This bespoke core represents a significant milestone for the company since it draws on the knowledge of the Nuvia team as well as the architects behind Apple’s acclaimed A/M series SoCs. While Qualcomm is anxious to emphasise Oryon’s potential, critical facts about its architecture are being kept under wraps, fueling speculation about its design and capabilities. The mystery surrounding Oryon adds to the excitement of what this custom CPU core could bring to the world of computing.
A Glimpse into the Future: Smartphone SoCs in 2024
While the Snapdragon X Elite represents a huge step forward for Qualcomm in the laptop market, it also lays the groundwork for future advances in smartphone SoCs. The company’s commitment to pushing the performance envelope with the Snapdragon X Elite indicates that even more powerful smartphone SoCs will be available in 2024, influencing the capabilities and performance of future mobile devices.
As Qualcomm continues to refine the Snapdragon X Elite in preparation for its expected mid-2024 release, the tech world eagerly awaits a closer look at the details that will shape the next era of computing and mobile technology.
