Pavel Kotov
Qualcomm announced the release of the Snapdragon X Plus laptop processor and provided additional information about the older Snapdragon X Elite models. The company was the first to release chips that could compete in speed with products from Apple, Intel and AMD.
Image source: Qualcomm
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus processor is the entry-level product in the lineup. It has 10 Oryon cores, a 42 MB cache, a clock speed of 3.4 GHz, and an AI accelerator (NPU) with a performance of 45 Tops. The chip supports LPDDR5x memory with speeds up to 8448 MT / s and has an Adreno graphics subsystem with a performance of 3.8 teraflops.
Qualcomm will also release three 12-core Snapdragon X Elite processors clocked at 3.8 GHz and integrated graphics with up to 4.6 Tflops – all three models have the same NPU and memory support at the Snapdragon X Plus level. The two main models in the line are characterized by the Dual-Core Boost function (up to 4.2 GHz) – this is a kind of analogue of Intel Turbo Boost and AMD Turbo Core: this function allows you to change the frequency of the processor, if that is necessary. , increasing its performance.
Processors from Qualcomm are characterized by the absence of hybrid architecture, which is found in Apple and Intel chips with productive and efficient cores. Both companies say the architecture reduces power consumption and improves battery life, but Qualcomm says all Snapdragon cores are “performance” cores, outperforming Apple’s cores, Intel , and AMD in terms of performance, power efficiency, and battery life. and computer games should “just work” with the Arm version of Windows, even through an emulator.
In practice, the system based on Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite coped well with the game Control, showing high performance in the emulator, writing The Sea. The graphics settings weren’t top notch, but the game ran at 30 frames per second. Apple has proven that the Arm platform on a laptop can significantly increase battery life compared to systems on Intel and AMD chips. With the arrival of Qualcomm Snapdragon X processors, this opportunity will open for Windows laptops.
The first laptops with Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips are expected by the middle of the year.