On
Wednesday,
Qualcomm
announced
the
impending
arrival
of
its
Snapdragon
X
Plus
laptop
processor
alongside
more
information
for
its
previously
announced
Snapdragon
X
Elite
chips.
While
this
is
not
the
first
time
we’ve
seen
Qualcomm
processors
in
a
laptop,
it’s
the
first
time
the
company
could
have
a
chip
that
rivals
Apple,
Intel,
and
AMD
on
speed.
The
Snapdragon
X
Plus
is
Qualcomm’s
entry-level
laptop
chip.
It
has
10
cores,
42MB
of
cache,
a
maximum
multithreaded
frequency
of
3.4GHz,
and
an
NPU
with
45
tera
operations
per
second
(TOPS,
or
how
many
mathematical
calculations
it
can
solve
in
a
second)
to
assist
with
fancy-smancy
generative
AI
applications.
But
keep
in
mind,
TOPS
is
an
arbitrary
measurement
that
can
sound
more
impressive
than
it
is
because
it
doesn’t
necessarily
take
into
account
the
type
or
quality
of
those
calculations.
The
Snapdragon
X
Plus
also
supports
LPDDR5x
memory
at
a
maximum
transfer
rate
of
8448
MT/s
and
has
a
3.8
teraflop
(TFLOP)
integrated
Adreno
GPU.
(TFLOP
is
also
a
mathematical
measurement;
it’s
shorthand
for
how
many
trillion
floating-point
operations
it
can
calculate
per
second.
It’s
also
an
arbitrary
measurement,
but
it
sure
sounds
impressive!)
The
chipmaker
is
also
releasing
three
twelve-core
Snapdragon
X
Elite
processors
with
up
to
a
maximum
multithreaded
frequency
of
3.8GHz
and
up
to
a
4.6
TFLOP
iGPU.
All
three
have
the
same
NPU
and
support
the
same
memory
at
the
same
speed
as
the
Snapdragon
X
Plus.
The
top
two
SKUs
have
what
Qualcomm
calls
Dual-Core
Boost,
up
to
4.2GHz,
which
sounds
a
bit
like
Intel’s
Turbo
Boost
or
AMD’s
Turbo
Core.
Those
features
dynamically
adjust
the
processor
frequency,
delivering
more
power
to
the
processor
only
when
it
needs
it.
All
the
new
Snapdragon
processors.Image:
Qualcomm
What
stands
out
the
most
about
these
Arm
processors
is
that
they
do
not
have
a
hybrid
architecture
like
Apple
Silicon
and
Intel’s
chips,
which
divide
up
their
total
number
of
cores
into
performance-dedicated
and
efficiency-dedicated
cores.
Both
companies
have
touted
this
architecture
as
a
great
way
to
reduce
power
consumption
and
increase
battery
life,
and
it
is.
But
Qualcomm
says
all
of
its
Snapdragon
cores
are
“performance
cores,”
and
it
claims
they
still
beat
Apple,
Intel,
and
AMD
on
performance,
power
efficiency,
and
battery
life
—
and
that
PC
games
should
“just
work”
with
Windows
on
Arm,
even
via
emulation.
I
was
able
to
get
some
hands-on
time
with
both
the
Snapdragon
X
Plus
and
Elite,
running
benchmarks
and
playing
games.
This
was
a
highly
controlled
hands-on
demo
spread
across
several
prototype
(reference)
laptops,
and
the
programs
available
to
“test”
the
new
chips
were
chosen
by
Qualcomm,
so
I
wasn’t
convinced
these
Snapdragons
will
be
more
powerful
in
practice
than
what
the
other
chipmakers
offer,
and
I
won’t
be
one
way
or
the
other
until
I
get
my
hands
on
a
finished
product.
But
hot
damn,
they
seemed
competitive.
If
I
were
an
Intel
Ultra
Core,
Apple
M3,
or
AMD
Ryzen
8000
series,
I’d
be
worried.
From
the
numbers
I
saw
at
the
demo
event,
the
Snapdragon
X
Plus
and
Elite
couldn’t
beat
the
Apple
M3
in
single-core
processing
on
either
Geekbench
6
or
Cinebench
2024,
but
they
could
in
multicore.
It
was
too
close
to
call
when
I
compared
them
to
Intel’s
Core
Ultra
9
185H
and
AMD’s
Ryzen
9
8945HS
chip
in
either
benchmark:
single
and
multicore.
The
only
game
I
was
able
to
try
on
a
Snapdragon
X
Elite
processor
was
Control,
but
I
was
impressed
with
how
smooth
it
ran
and
how
responsive
it
was
via
emulation.
The
graphics
settings
were
not
maxed
out
to
the
gills,
but
since
I
was
playing
with
a
controller
and
the
frame
rate
averaged
30fps,
it
was
running
like
a
highly
optimized
console
game
should.
I
briefly
mentioned
this
during
a
recent
Vergecast,
but
I
don’t
think
their
alleged
ability
to
run
generative
AI
programs
faster
than
Intel
or
any
other
AI
chip
will
be
the
Snapdragon
X
Series
chips’
claim
to
fame.
Apple
has
proven
that
sticking
an
Arm-based
SoC
into
a
laptop
can
drastically
increase
battery
life,
decrease
power
consumption,
and
run
a
lot
cooler
than
Intel’s
and
AMD’s
x86
processors.
But
Windows
laptops
have
all
the
weird
and
funky
form
factors
that
would
directly
benefit
from
a
chip
that
competes
with
Apple
Silicon
on
power,
performance,
and
thermals.
Their
greater
potential
is
taking
the
innovative
sprouts
of
dual-screen
and
foldable
laptops
and
helping
them
grow
them
into
a
giant
beanstalk
of
an
ecosystem.
Microsoft
has
so
far
struggled
to
make
any
compelling
Windows
Arm
laptop.
Maybe
this
time,
they’ll
pull
it
off.
(Originally posted by Joanna Nelius)
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