Qualcomm has unveiled its latest ARM-based chipset for laptops, the Snapdragon X Elite, as a direct competitor to Intel and Apple‘s offerings. The company aims to capture a larger share of the PC chipset market by focusing on performance and efficiency.

Advanced process node and core configuration

The Snapdragon X Elite is built on a 4nm process node, which allows for higher performance and power efficiency compared to its predecessors. It features 12 high-performance Oryon cores with a clock speed of up to 3.8 GHz, and single and dual-core boost up to 4.3 GHz. Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon X Elite matches Intel’s 13th Gen CPUs in multi-threaded performance while consuming 68% less power. Furthermore, it outperforms Apple’s M2 chip by 50% in peak multi-threaded performance.

Impressive graphics and AI capabilities

The integrated Adreno GPU in the Snapdragon X Elite is rated at 4.6 TFLOPs, with support for DirectX 12 API. It can drive up to three external UHD monitors at 60Hz and features a powerful Adreno video processing unit (VPU) that supports 4K60 10-bit encodes and decodes for H.264, HEVC (H.265), and AV1 files.

In addition, the Snapdragon X Elite includes a Hexagon NPU with 45 Tera operations per second (TOPs), which excels at generative AI tasks. It can handle over 13 billion parameters running on the device and generate 30 tokens per second.

Memory, storage, and connectivity

The Snapdragon X Elite supports LPDDR5x RAM with up to 136 GB/s memory bandwidth and 42MB total cache. It also supports PCIe Gen4 or UFS 4.0 storage for fast data transfer rates.

In terms of connectivity, the Snapdragon X Elite features a FastConnect 7800 System with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, as well as a Snapdragon X65 5G modem for cellular connectivity with up to 10 Gbps peak download speeds.

Audio and camera capabilities

The Snapdragon X Elite supports lossless audio playback thanks to the Qualcomm Aqstic DAC. It also features the Qualcomm Spectra image signal processor (ISP) with support for up to 36MP dual cameras and 4K HDR video capture.

The Snapdragon X Elite is a powerful and efficient chipset that offers impressive performance and capabilities for laptops. With its advanced process node, high-performance cores, and advanced graphics and AI capabilities, it is poised to compete with Intel and Apple’s offerings in the PC chipset market.

This article was originally published on October 24, 2023, at 6:30 pm ET.