Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM)'s latest mobile processors, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, have made their debut, showcasing both impressive capabilities and areas for improvement. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, featured in Xiaomi (OTC:XIACF)'s new Xiaomi 14 Pro, delivers significant performance enhancements but with a notable increase in power consumption. Meanwhile, the mid-range Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset has shown only minimal gains in performance compared to its predecessors.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC stands out with its advanced configuration of one prime core, five performance cores, and two efficiency cores. However, recent SPEC benchmark tests reveal a substantial 28 percent rise in power usage per watt and an 11 percent drop in efficiency over the previous Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Plus model. Despite these concerns, Qualcomm is looking forward to future improvements with its Snapdragon X Elite platform featuring laptop-grade chips and proprietary Oryon cores.
In contrast, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 chipset boasts enhancements in AI performance efficiency and promises improved mobile gaming experiences due to better AI capabilities and efficient power usage across tasks. Superior camera functionalities and cutting-edge connectivity features such as advanced Wi-Fi and Bluetooth updates are also part of the package. Brands like HONOR and vivo are expected to launch devices with this new processor later this month.
Yet, the performance of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 on Geekbench suggests only slight improvements over the older Snapdragon 7 Gen 1. The Honor 100, powered by the new chipset, scored a single-core score of 1,139 and a multi-core score of 3,375. This is just marginally better than its predecessor found in the Honor 90 which scored single/multi-core tests of 1,119/3,261. The results indicate that software optimization might be affecting performance levels.
Qualcomm remains optimistic about its next-generation chipsets with the anticipation of the Snapdragon X Elite platform's Oryon cores potentially setting new standards for performance and efficiency in future devices.
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