‘Benchmarks aren’t everything’: Qualcomm explains the real-world differences between the Snapdragon 8 Elite and 8 Gen 3

At Snapdragon Summit 2024, Qualcomm unveiled its caller Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile chipset pinch nan accustomed trading cocktail of flashy benchmark scores and bold capacity promises (“the GPU is 40% faster” etc...), but it tin beryllium difficult to discern really – aliases so if – these on-paper improvements will heighten nan real-world acquisition of Android users.

Qualcomm, of course, is acutely alert that good-looking numbers don’t show nan full story, and nan semiconductor elephantine was happy to elaborate connected nan tangible benefits of its Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset erstwhile posed a mobility connected nan matter successful a roundtable question and reply attended by TechRadar.

Chris Patrick, SVP of Qualcomm’s Mobile Handset division, began his refreshingly jargon-free reply by referencing nan Snapdragon 8 Elite’s gaming-related upgrades: “Gaming is 1 usage lawsuit that really pushes a smartphone chipset to its limit [because] it keeps consuming each imaginable processing resource,” nan erstwhile technologist explained.

“The quality betwixt playing a crippled erstwhile it's struggling to render nan frame, aliases struggling to process aggregate characters connected nan surface [...] and nan acquisition we’ve had testing Oryon [the CPU wrong nan Snapdragon 8 Elite] [is stark]. Those experiences are now effortless. There's nary lag. The instrumentality isn't heating up anymore, moreover astatine ridiculous levels of detail. So, that's a beautiful compelling [upgrade].”

“We’ve besides talked astir web browsing,” Patrick continued. “In a way, web browsing seems old-fashioned but successful nan end, that's what group do pinch phones, right? Download, consume, and interact pinch web pages – location are mobile versions and past desktop versions.

“Now, pinch this elite people of processor, you don’t request nan mobile type [of web pages] anymore. Even a much complex, much heavy, much feature-rich desktop type [of a page] will consciousness effortless. The instrumentality [equipped pinch Snapdragon 8 Elite] will not struggle to load it. Those aforesaid web engines are astatine nan bosom of many, galore applications. Many applications that you run, they’re utilized to accepting immoderate limitations – now, they’ll beryllium snappy and responsive. This will make a large impact.”

Also successful attendance astatine nan roundtable interview, Shahin Farahani, Senior Director of Product Management astatine Qualcomm, weighed successful pinch his thoughts connected nan Snapdragon 8 Elite’s real-world upgrades: “There are a fewer much [upgrades] that are easy to explain. [With nan Snapdragon 8 Elite] I now person a higher [generative AI] solution disposable to maine – 512 x 512 image solution before, now I tin do 1024 x 1024. That’s 4 times bigger.

“You [also] get importantly amended powerfulness saving,” Farahani continued. “If you look astatine nan GPU powerfulness complaint erstwhile playing a game, it’s 40% much efficient, truthful you’re getting overmuch longer artillery life. Benchmarks are portion of immoderate [chipset] evaluation, but they’re not everything.”

So location you person it, folks. Slicker gaming, smoother web browsing, and amended artillery life brought astir by improvements successful CPU and GPU ratio – that’s Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite upgrade committedness successful a nutshell.

As for which upcoming devices will vessel pinch nan caller chipset, we cognize that nan Xiaomi 15 and Honor Magic 7 will decidedly characteristic nan Snapdragon 8 Elite, while as-yet-unannounced devices including nan Samsung Galaxy S25 and OnePlus 13 will besides surely travel suit. Here’s hoping adjacent year’s best Android phones tin rival Apple’s best iPhones for power.

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