Performance improvement of 45%! Qualcomm launches Snapdragon 8 Elite, the first mobile SoC to use the Oryon core

At the Qualcomm Snapdragon Technology Summit held in Hawaii, Qualcomm CEO Amon said, 'We use the evolution of Snapdragon platform technology to drive innovation in the entire mobile industry.'. Qualcomm announced the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Elite mobile platform, which is currently Qualcomm's strongest and fastest mobile system on chip. Why was it renamed Snapdragon 8 Elite? This is mainly because, like the PC chip released last year, it adopts Qualcomm's self-developed new Oryon CPU architecture. Alex Katouzian, General Manager of Qualcomm Technologies' Mobile, Computing, and XR Business Unit, said, "We bring the leading capabilities of the second-generation Oryon CPU into heterogeneous computing architectures, coupled with Hexogon NPU, Adreno GPU, and Spectral ISP, to create a new mobile platform that can achieve many impossible features in the smartphone field
Heterogeneous architecture brings comprehensive performance breakthroughs, achieving a 45% performance improvement
As the first flagship mobile platform to integrate Qualcomm customized Oryon CPU, Snapdragon 8 Elite has significantly improved CPU, GPU, and AI performance compared to the previous generation 8Gen3.
Alex Katouzian from Qualcomm emphasized, "The Snapdragon 8 Elite uses its self-developed Oryon CPU core, and the Snapdragon 8 Ultimate commercial machine has achieved a significant performance improvement of up to 45% in single threaded and multi-threaded benchmark tests, with an energy efficiency improvement of up to 44%. Compared with the third-generation Snapdragon 8, the performance improvement of the Oryon CPU on the Chrome browser exceeds 62%, leading the entire Android ecosystem, which is a cross generational improvement It is worth noting that this is the first time Qualcomm has applied the Oryon CPU architecture to smartphone processors, previously only the PC chip Snapdragon X Elite was equipped with the Oryon CPU architecture. Qualcomm stated that it also hopes to further expand the Oryon CPU architecture to the automotive end this year, forming comprehensive coverage for computer, automotive, and mobile devices.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite adopts TSMC's second-generation N3E process technology, and the chip adopts a "2+6" combination, that is, 2 ultra large cores and 6 small cores. Specifically, it is equipped with two "Prime Cores" based on the Oryon CPU architecture, with a core frequency of up to 4.32GHz, and six "Performance Cores" with a core frequency of up to 3.53GHz. This combination of kernel sizes ensures balanced performance across a range of tasks. The Snapdragon 8 Elite is equipped with 24MB of L2 cache. Qualcomm evenly divides it into Prime core and Performance core.
The Adreno 830 GPU complements the CPU, with a 40% increase in performance and a 35% increase in ray tracing acceleration compared to the previous generation. The GPU has three parts, each running at a speed of 1.1 GHz, ensuring support for cutting-edge graphics technologies such as Unreal Engine, Nanite, and Chaos Engine.
In terms of game experience, Snapdragon 8 Premium also supports the rich features of Snapdragon Elite Gaming. For example, after the Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0 is enabled, it supports the function of inserting frames, which can double the number of frames of Taris World. Games such as Genshin Impact, Collapse: The Dome Railway also support this feature, which not only upgrades the smoothness of image quality, but also reduces power consumption through inserting frames.
At the same time, Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition also supports the Nanite system of Unreal Engine 5.3 for the first time on smartphones, giving mobile games the potential to enter movie quality 3D environments.
NPU performance improved by 45%, bringing AI experience enhancement
2024 is a milestone year for the development of AI. With the rapid development of AI on the terminal side, we have been improving the capabilities of Qualcomm AI engine to make more intelligent computing within reach. Compared with the third-generation Snapdragon 8, the Hexagon NPU performance of Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition has been improved by 45%, and energy efficiency has been improved by 45%. Combined with the improved CPU and GPU, Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition can dynamically manage AI loads across all cores, "said Alex Katouzian, General Manager of Qualcomm Technologies' Mobile, Computing, and XR Business Group.
It is reported that Qualcomm has launched a redesigned AI-ISP that can work in conjunction with NPU to comprehensively improve performance. We have increased ISP throughput by nearly 35% and energy efficiency by up to 25%. Through this significant improvement, users can use up to three 48 megapixel sensors to capture simultaneously.
In terms of imaging, the Snapdragon 8 Ultimate Edition's Spectra ISP will support features such as unlimited real-time semantic segmentation, ultra low light photo and video shooting, and 320 million pixel photo shooting. In terms of connectivity, Snapdragon X80 5G modem and RF system are used, supporting 6Rx for smartphones for the first time. Simultaneously adopting the Qualcomm FastConnect 7900 mobile connectivity system, supporting Wi Fi 7 and integrating AI, achieving a power consumption reduction of over 40%.