Qualcomm throws down the gauntlet with Snapdragon 8 Elite: World’s fastest mobile CPU
The game-changing Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile CPU will spearhead a new generation of AI experiences on mobile.
Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite Mobile Platform at the Snapdragon Summit 2024 in Maui, which it says is both the most powerful and the world’s fastest mobile system-on-a-chip ever made. At a glance, the new 3nm chip is definitely impressive:
First Snapdragon Mobile Platform featuring next-gen custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU
Fastest mobile CPU in the world with 4.32 GHz peak CPU speeds
Hexagon NPU supports longer token input for on-device generative AI. Built to handle multi-modal AI seamlessly while prioritizing privacy
Spectra ISP supports limitless real-time semantic segmentation, ultra-low light photo and video, and 320 MP photo capture
Adreno GPU adds sliced architecture with dedicated memory per slice—ensuring faster, smoother performance and optimized battery life. Supports QHD+ 240 Hz display
Mobile-first support for Unreal Engine 5.3 with Nanite
Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System with first 6Rx for smartphones; and Qualcomm FastConnect 7900 Mobile Connectivity System with WiFi 7
Slew of devices already in the pipeline from leading OEMs and smartphone brands including ASUS, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, OPPO, RealMe, Samsung, Vivo, Xiaomi, and more
Honor and Xiaomi devices will launch before the end of October
Qualcomm is not resting on its laurels; instead, it is actively ensuring that it maintains its leadership position and continues to push forward. The pace of development is accelerating rapidly, allowing Qualcomm to foster a vibrant and dynamic ecosystem that supports its OEM partners. This collaboration enables them to excel in bringing market-leading connected devices to consumers. It’s impressive to witness the remarkable achievements Qualcomm has made in such a short time this year.
Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 8 Elite is 44% more efficient than last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processors, has a 45% faster NPU, 40% improved GPU performance, 50% CPU performance uplift, and much more. The slide below illustrates the scale of the improvements.
A Transformative Leap
This latest innovation marks a transformative leap in performance, heralded by a new name and striking visual design. Its unprecedented performance merits a premium variant, thus introducing the 8 Elite. This is truly cutting-edge technology, which boasts a vast array of IPs and key architectural upgrades. Make no mistake, this elevates it beyond a mere SOC with major enhancements in image processing and overall functionality.
At its core lies the second-generation Qualcomm Oryon CPU, featuring the fastest cores in the industry. Qualcomm's established presence in mobile computing lends credibility to this advancement and instils confidence in its ability to push boundaries even further. The new chip sets a formidable performance benchmark for real-world use cases, achieving speeds previously unseen in the mobile world. If this performance is what we see in the new products, this is a landmark development. It not only reinforces Qualcomm's leadership in the field, it promises to redefine user experiences across a wide range of devices and applications.
Hardware was always going to be important in this new era of on-board genAI. As such, the Hexagon NPU has been designed to be able to cope with the new generation of multimodal AI systems that can process text, images and video without having to resort to the cloud, maintaining privacy. It is the first mobile chip to be able to run Stable Diffusion.
Pushing the user experience
Qualcomm is focusing on enhancing crucial user experiences. As you would expect from all this, image processing is front and centre of these efforts. The latest iteration of the company’s Cognitive ISP has been rebuilt from the ground up and renamed AI ISP. This enables the company to deliver the latest AI image manipulation on-device rather than in the cloud, accelerating speed and giving users more of the features that they increasingly look for. The processing power to enable something like Video Object Eraser that lets you remove unwanted elements from moving video on-device is unprecedented.
There is a big emphasis on gaming. The company's latest innovations allow for data storage directly on the device, reducing the need for constant data transmission. This results in more fluid and prolonged gaming sessions, thanks to the increased raw processing power. In a significant move, the Snapdragon Studios team is collaborating to launch triple-A title Grid Legends exclusively on the Qualcomm Adaptive Engine.
The introduction of the Adreno GPU marks a milestone in mobile gaming technology, as it's the first instance of Unreal Engine's Nanite geometry technology being implemented on a mobile platform. This effectively provides high-end, photorealistic desktop PC performance in a handheld device. Meanwhile, optimised performance and support of the Unreal Chaos Physics Engine authentically renders complex physics simulations and lifelike object interactions.
Lastly, connectivity has not been overlooked. The Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System incorporates a dedicated AI tensor accelerator, enabling it to achieve multi-gigabit 5G speeds across a broader range of locations. Among a range of industry firsts, it boasts the industry's first 4x6 MIMO solution, which contributes to its enhanced performance. Additionally, the system offers a 30% improvement in location positioning accuracy, providing users with more precise geolocation capabilities. The FastConnect 7900 Mobile Connectivity System is the first to integrate WiFi ranging, Bluetooth wireless technology, and UWB proximity technologies for precision object tracking, building access control, and more.