Snapdragon 8 Elite — Qualcomm’s newest high-end cellular processor — was unveiled on the firm’s annual Snapdragon Summit on Monday. Upcoming flagship Android smartphones from a number of producers are anticipated to reach within the coming months with the brand new processor, and the chipmaker has touted new efficiency and effectivity enhancements delivered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The new naming scheme aligns the flagship smartphone chip branding with the corporate’s Snapdragon X Elite that was launched earlier this yr for laptops that supply help for AI options.
This yr, Qualcomm has made some important upgrades to its flagship chipset, such because the exclusion of effectivity cores on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. The new chip can be constructed on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm course of expertise, which permits chipmakers to ship higher efficiency alongside improved effectivity. Smartphone makers can even have the ability to supply longer software program help for handsets geared up by the Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, in line with Qualcomm.
Snapdragon 8 Elite: Top 10 Things to Know About the New Chipset
- Revised naming scheme: Qualcomm switched from a triple digit naming conference for its chips in 2021, which meant that the successor to the Snapdragon 888 arrived because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Three years later, the corporate’s flagship chip is now known as the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which has similarities to the corporate’s laptop computer chip — the Snapdragon X Elite.
- Architectural adjustments: The Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s first chipset to be constructed on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm course of, which can be used to construct Apple’s A18 Pro chip. This yr, Qualcomm has used customized Oryon cores as an alternative of Kryo cores. There are two prime cores clocked at 4.32GHz, together with six cores with a peak clock velocity of three.53GHz. Unlike its predecessor, this chipset doesn’t embody any effectivity cores.
- Performance and effectivity: When in contrast with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the brand new chipset is claimed to supply 40 % improved efficiency, whereas energy effectivity is alleged to be improved by 44 %. Qualcomm additionally says that the up to date Adreno GPU provides a 40 % leap in each energy and effectivity whereas delivering a 35 % enchancment in ray tracing.
- Artificial intelligence: Qualcomm says its newest Hexagon NPU on the Snapdragon 8 Elite can ship a forty five % uplift in AI efficiency, in contrast with the one on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 that was unveiled a yr in the past. The new chip can be designed to supply quicker efficiency whereas working on-device multimodal giant language fashions (LLMs).
- Cameras: Smartphones geared up with the Snapdragon 8 Elite will have the ability to leverage the Hexagon NPU to supply options like on-device picture and video object erasing. These handsets can even have the ability to supply “real-time pores and skin and sky changes” that enable customers to optimise lighting and color whereas capturing pictures.
- Displays: According to the chipmaker, smartphones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip can sport shows with as much as Quad-HD+ decision, with 10-bit color depth, and as much as 240Hz refresh fee. These handsets will also be linked to exterior shows with as much as 8K decision and a 30Hz refresh fee.
- Connectivity options: Customers will get help for Bluetooth 6.0 connectivity, in addition to Wi-Fi 7 by way of the Qualcomm FastConnect 7900 Mobile Connectivity System. The chipmaker says the AI tensor accelerator on the Snapdragon X80 5G Modem-RF System and a 4×6 MIMO resolution will ship multi-gigabit 5G connectivity. The chipset can be claimed to supply a 30 % enhance in GPS accuracy in comparison with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor.
- Gaming enhancements: The new Snapdragon 8 Elite chip can utilise Nanite, the virtualised geometry system on Unreal Engine 5.3, for improved 3D environments, whereas enabling lifelike interactions utilizing Unreal’s Chaos Physics engine. Meanwhile, the Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0 will “double the body fee of video games”, in line with Qualcomm.
- Extended software program help: At the continued Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm SVP Christopher Patrick said that the chipmaker will help the brand new processor for eight years, with eight generations of Android. If a cellphone geared up with this processor arrives with Android 15 out-of-the-box, it may theoretically be up to date to Android 23, assuming the OEM supplies the required software program help. It’s price noting that Samsung and Google at the moment supply seven years of help for current flagship fashions.
- Expected units: Smartphone makers have already confirmed that they are going to launch new smartphones geared up with the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Customers can count on to see new handsets from Asus, Honor, iQOO, OnePlus, Oppo, Realme, Samsung, Vivo, and Xiaomi within the coming weeks or months. Some of those smartphones are anticipated to be launched in China, earlier than they’re launched in international markets.
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