Qualcomm is introducing its Snapdragon X Elite chip, targeting Windows on ARM laptops and aiming to gain ground in the PC chipset market by emphasizing performance and efficiency. The chip is produced using a 4nm process node and features 12 high-performance Oryon cores with a base clock of 3.8 GHz and single and dual-core boost speeds of up to 4.3 GHz. Qualcomm claims that the CPU matches Intel’s 13th generation CPUs in multi-threaded performance while consuming 68% less power. It also asserts that the Snapdragon X Elite outperforms Apple’s ARM-based M2 chip with 50% faster peak multi-threaded performance.
In terms of graphics, the X Elite boasts an integrated Adreno GPU rated at 4.6 TFLOPs and supports DirectX 12 API. It can accommodate up to three external UHD monitors at 60Hz and features an Adreno video processing unit (VPU) that supports 4K60 10-bit encoding and decoding for H.264, HEVC (H.265), and AV1 files. Qualcomm has incorporated a Hexagon NPU with 45 Tera operations per second (TOPs) that excels in Generative AI tasks, capable of handling over 13 billion parameters on-device and generating 30 tokens per second.
The chip supports LPDDR5x RAM with up to 136 GB/s memory bandwidth and 42MB total cache. It also offers PCIe Gen4 or UFS 4.0 storage options. On the connectivity front, the Snapdragon X Elite features a FastConnect 7800 System that supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, along with a Snapdragon X65 5G modem for cellular connectivity, offering peak download speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The X Elite supports lossless audio playback through the Qualcomm Aqstic DAC and includes the Qualcomm Spectra image signal processor (ISP) with support for up to 36MP dual cameras and 4K HDR video capture.
