The Snapdragon 8 Elite represents a brand new hope within the cellular area – it’s the primary chipset in a protracted whereas that has customized CPU cores (and isn’t popping out of Apple). The GPU is all customized too and a brand new era in addition. And Qualcomm discovered a method to increase the clock velocity larger than another smartphone chipset by fairly some margin. All of it seems to be nice on paper, let’s see whether or not expectations meet actuality.
Right here we are going to give attention to how the 8 Elite compares towards the 2 earlier generations of Snapdragon 8-series. We’re engaged on a separate submit that can pit the Elite towards its chief rival, the Dimensity 9400.
We will likely be utilizing the Realme GT7 Professional for this take a look at
We will likely be utilizing the Realme GT7 Professional for our first spherical of checks for the Snapdragon 8 Elite. And as talked about above, we’ve picked out some Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and eight Gen 2 telephones for comparability. A few of these are gaming telephones, so they need to signify the very best efficiency of the older chipsets. To that finish, we must always point out that we put the telephone in GT mode (i.e. excessive efficiency mode) for these checks.
Let’s have a look at the CPU first as that’s the largest change this era. It makes use of Oryon cores, two variations of them – two Prime cores and 6 Efficiency cores. These aren’t Cortex cores like in MediaTek and Samsung chipsets, however an in-house design from Qualcomm. Observe that these aren’t the identical Oryon cores that we noticed within the Snapdragon X Elite in laptops, however as a substitute a second era.
2x 4.32GHz Oryon prime cores + 6x Oryon efficiency cores
The 2 Prime cores run at as much as 4.32GHz, which is an insane velocity for a pocketable gadget. Apple’s A18 Professional broke the 4GHz barrier earlier this 12 months, however solely simply – it runs at as much as 4.05GHz. The Dimensity 9400’s Cortex-X925 stays under 4GHz and runs at 3.63GHz. Exterior of laptops, the very best clock velocity you’ll find on a cellular gadget is the Apple M4 within the iPad Professional (2024) tablets at 4.4GHz. However do needless to say these are 11” and 13” tablets and have a a lot simpler time protecting cool.
Geekbench 6, the telephones neatly group themselves into generations. The 8 Elite represents a large 31% increase in multi-core efficiency over the very best 8 Gen 3 outcomes – and people come from gaming telephones in most effort mode and the overclocked “for Galaxy” chip within the S24 Extremely.
Flipping over to the only core take a look at, that is the place the high-frequency of the Oryon Prime cores ought to shine. And shine it does with a blinding 36% lead over the very best of the remaining. Wanting again one other era, the Oryon posts double the rating of some 8 Gen 2 telephones (Cortex-X3 Prime core) or only a 52% larger rating than the very best 8 Gen 2 telephone in its prime efficiency mode.
Let’s have a look at graphics subsequent. The Adreno 830 is constructed on a brand new structure utilizing a sliced design with devoted reminiscence for every slice. The 830 has three of those slices clocked at as much as 1.1GHz.
Three GPU slices at as much as 1.1GHz, plus devoted reminiscence
As soon as once more, the generational divide is sort of clear. The 3DMark Wild Life Excessive take a look at (operating at 2160p) posted a rating 21% larger than the very best we’ve seen from Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s Adreno 750. Going again to the 8 Gen 2, the distinction is a surprising 68%.
The 8 Elite brings the most recent iteration of hardware-accelerated ray tracing. This tech is gaining floor on cellular after getting established on desktop first. The 2-year previous 8 Gen 2 GPU solely manages round half the rating of the brand new Elite chip. The distinction with the 8 Gen 3 is a tamer 26%, however that’s nonetheless a powerful generational enchancment.
Lastly, AnTuTu tries to mix CPU, GPU, reminiscence and different checks right into a singular rating that represents total efficiency. With all these factored in, there may be much more variability – a well-specced 8 Gen 2 telephone can come near a much less performant 8 Gen 3 telephone. However as soon as once more the Snapdragon 8 Elite – or slightly the Realme GT7 Professional that homes it – leads the older fashions by some margin (round 25%).
This isn’t the top of this story, simply the primary chapter. We nonetheless have extra checks to run, together with the all-important sustained efficiency take a look at. We additionally have to run checks with GT mode disabled (we did run a couple of and the telephone didn’t lose a lot efficiency).
We additionally encountered some troubles throughout testing, however this would possibly simply be as a result of teething points – the complete Realme GT7 Professional reveal is scheduled for November 4, though the corporate has confirmed some particulars already and is even letting us run some checks on the assessment unit we have now on the workplace.
