Qualcomm promises an ARM PC chip that is 50% more efficient than Apple’s M2 chip

Qualcomm has been talking to us about this for nearly two years and it’s coming: Snapdragon

Qualcomm has officially introduced its new chip for future laptops. Based on the ARM architecture, like Apple with its Mx chips from 2020, the Snapdragon X Series laptop chip aims to combine dramatically superior performance over current CPUs with record-breaking power efficiency.

And of course, expect artificial intelligence. Lots of artificial intelligence.

Performance in the service of self-government

The Snapdragon X chipset’s CPU is based on 12 cores.Orion» High performance up to 3.8 GHz, with two of these cores able to reach a boost frequency of 4.3 GHz. Qualcomm did not opt ​​for the big LITTLE technology, which combines high-performance cores with other low-consumption cores for less demanding, background tasks.

With an engraving resolution of 4nm (the same as that of the iPhone 15), Qualcomm promises twice the performance of Intel’s 13th generation processors at the same power consumption. Compared to Apple’s M2 chipset, the Snapdragon X will perform 50% better during multi-threaded tasks.

In general, the chip will consume 65 to 70% less power for equal performance. Qualcomm thus aims to maintain the autonomy of future laptops without compromising performance.

A promising new Adreno GPU

Within the snapdragon

In terms of power efficiency, the manufacturer wants to replace iGPUs from Intel and AMD with twice the performance for the same consumption. No more laptops that spin while gaming?

With this new GPU, a device that integrates Snapdragon

Finally, up to 64GB of LPDDR5x RAM will be supported with a bandwidth of 136GB/s, which places itself between the M2 and M2 Pro.

“Designed for AI” chip

What would a chip be in 2024 without its neural processing unit (Neural processing unit)? This computation module will allow to significantly accelerate tasks associated with generative AI, such as LLMs (GPT-4 type of ChatGPT), but also tools such as Stable Diffusion or Midjourney.

Qualcomm promises 4.5 times better performance than competitors. Since NPUs have not yet become democratized in our laptops, take this statement with a grain of salt.

This NPU will also allow you to accelerate the AI ​​functions of your creative tools like Photoshop and soon Windows Copilot.

Architecture focuses on the future

The build will be compatible with 5G and Wi-Fi 7 as well as lossless audio. Finally, the manufacturer will introduce Qualcomm Seamless technology, promising a seamless experience between different types of devices, a kind of software ecosystem to rival Apple’s simplicity.

The first PCs with the most powerful chip of the bunch, the Snapdragon With Intel and AMD compatible with ARM.