Qualcomm launched Snapdragon X: Arm processors for Windows laptops and the real alternative to Apple Silicon

Qualcomm has revealed the official details of Snapdragon X, its new ARM processors for Windows PCs. They will be available in a few different configurations, but will mostly offer close performance to each other. The chips are divided into two categories, Snapdragon X Elite, for processors with all active cores, and Snapdragon X Plus, for variants with disabled cores. There are also some differences in frequencies and GPU power between these models.

The Snapdragon X series includes four models to begin with

To begin with, Qualcomm explains the names of these processors. All will be named Snapdragon X, the official brand of this series of processors (similar to Snapdragon 8 on smartphones). The next digit in the name will be the generation. Being the first generation, all the processors released here will be Snapdragon X1. The next letter shows the processor series: E for Elite and P for Plus. It’s followed by a two-digit number that shows how powerful the processor is (the higher the number), the last three digits are currently reserved for various variations between models. Thus, the best performing chipset is Snapdragon X1E-84-100, while the least performing first generation is X1P-64-100.

The X1E-84-100 is a chipset with a 12-core CPU that can reach 3.8 GHz in turbo on all simultaneously and 4.2 GHz on two of them. The chipset is equipped with a GPU of 4.6 TFLOPs has a neural processor of 45 TOPs and Cache memory of 42 MB. The following models are variations of this “complete” chip.

For example, the model immediately below, the X1E-80-100 hits lower frequencies of 3.4 GHz on all cores and 4.0 on two of them, and has a slightly weaker GPU at 3.8 TFLOPs. The rest remains unchanged. In the case of the X1E-78-100, the only difference is the dual-core boost, which still remains at 3.4 GHz.

The X1P-64-100 is not much different either. However, this is a 10-core model, keeping all the other features of the variant above. All Snapdragon X processors are compatible with LPDDR5X-8448 memories and are built on 4nm architecture.

Qualcomm promises better performance than Intel and AMD alternatives

However, Qualcomm promises a 28% increase in performance at the same consumption compared to an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or AMD Ryzen 9 7940H, with a total consumption of 39% lower. Thus, laptops with Snapdragon X chipsets should offer better autonomy, but also superior performance to already existing processors.

The problem would be that in order to run X86 applications, Qualcomm processors would have to pass everything through a compatibility layer that would “translate” the instructions so they could be interpreted by the Arm cores. So, at least initially, performance could be much worse, at least until Microsoft, Arm, and Qualcomm improve the compatibility layer, or until more native apps for Windows on Arm start appearing, as happened a few years ago when Apple made the switch to Apple Silicon processors.

The first Snapdragon X laptops are expected sometime this summer.