Snapdragon X: Qualcomm makes Arm chips cheaper and desktop-ready
Image: Qualcomm
The Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus series Arm chips will be followed by Qualcomm at CES 2025 with the new Snapdragon. The first chip is the X1-26-100 with eight Oryon cores and a maximum of 3.0 GHz. Snapdragon is also coming to desktops.
According to Qualcomm’s counting method, the X1-26-100 marks the start of the four Snapdragon X series. The company distinguishes between Snapdragon X Elite, X Plus with 10 cores,
Multi-core clock reduced to 3.0 GHz
The new series, with the Compared to this variant, the X1-26-100 loses 200 MHz in multi-core clock, leaving 3.0 GHz (see table). Qualcomm is not using the dedicated single-core boost from the next larger X1P-42-100.
Snapdragon X vs. Intel Core 5 120U
The Snapdragon X series is aimed at laptops in the $600 class. Qualcomm is therefore positioning itself even more widely and wishes to take advantage of this step to push its own Arm chips further on the market and offer another model to counter the x86 competition. x86 chips like the Intel Core 5 120U aka Intel Core Series 1 aka Raptor Lake-U are up for grabs.
CPU performance and consumption compared to Intel (Image: Qualcomm) Image 1 of 4
Compared to this Intel model, the single-core performance of Geekbench 6.2 is up to 163% higher with the same consumption (6.1 W). At equal performance, the Intel chip consumes 168% more (16.5 W). For the multi-core test, Qualcomm reports a 157% performance increase at ISO power (14.5W). According to Qualcomm, Intel chips consume 240% more power (49.3 W) for the same multi-core performance.
Comparison of GPU and NPU in Intel
Even if the GPU is not particularly powerful with the Adreno X1-45, which is reduced to 1.7 TFLOPS, the Intel iGPU would be beaten there too. At 8W, 3DMark Wildlife Extreme (Vulkan) performance would be 319% higher. With the same graphics performance, Intel achieves 258% higher consumption (28.7 W). As the editorial team found out on the basis of the X1P-42-100, the smaller Adreno GPU, despite its theoretical superiority, is still hardly suitable for gaming.
Equipped entirely without NPU, the Intel Core 5 120U has no chance in AI benchmarks such as Procyon against the Snapdragon X, which, like all Qualcomm models, retains the 45 TOPS NPU. Areas such as memory interface, 4nm production and multimedia features also remain intact.
NPU comparisons (Image: Qualcomm) Image 1 of 2
Qualcomm received commitments for the smaller Snapdragon
Snapdragon X for small desktop PCs
At CES, Qualcomm is also giving the green light to the use of Snapdragon X chips in desktop computers. However, that didn’t stop early vendors such as Geekom from introducing matching systems such as the Geekom QS1 ahead of Qualcomm’s announcement. Variants with SoCs X1E-80-100, X1E-78-100 and X1P-42-100 are planned.
According to Qualcomm, the first “AI desktop PCs powered by Snapdragon X Series processors with PC Copilot+ experiences” are the Lenovo ThinkCentre neo 50q QC and IdeaCentre Mini It is already known that the Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X series processors will be used for the IdeaCentre Mini x. Lenovo promises the system for April at prices starting at 799 euros. Geekom has also already mentioned the second quarter as the date for its Qualcomm solution.
Snapdragon X Elite Snapdragon X Plus Snapdragon -26-100 Update TSMC 4nm CPU type Oryon Kerne 12 10 8 Group 4P + 4P + 4P 4P + 3P + 3P? Boost (max. Single-Core) 4.3 GHz 4.2 GHz 4.0 GHz 3.4 GHz 4.0 GHz – 4.0 GHz 3.4 GHz – Boost (max. Dual-Core) 4.3 GHz 4.2 GHz 4.0 GHz – Multi-Thread (max. Multi-Core) 3.8 GHz 3.4 GHz 3.2 GHz 3.0 GHz Total cache 42 MB 30 MB GPU type Adreno X1-85 Adreno 5K60 2 × video encoding 4K30 in H.264, HEVC (H.265), AV1 Decode 1 × 4K60/4K120 in H.264, HEVC (H.265), VP9, AV1 NPU 45 TOPS Octa-Channel RAM LPDDR5X-8448 to 135 GB /s Storage NVMe SSD, PCIe 4.0 UFS UFS 4.0 SD SD 3.0 USB 3 × USB 4.0, 2 × USB 3.2, 1 × eUSB 2.0 ISP Spectra Dual ISP, 2 × 36 MP or 1 × 64 MP, 4K-HDR Wi-Fi/BT M.2 PCIe 3.0 FastConnect 7800, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.4 WWAN Snapdragon downlink: 10 Gbps, uplink: 3.5 Gbps
Techconseil received information about this item from Qualcomm under NDA. The only requirement was the earliest possible publication date.
Topics: Arm CES 2025 Qualcomm Snapdragon processors Source: Qualcomm
Marc deciphers processors by testing their performance for gaming, content creation, and artificial intelligence.
