Qualcomm got here out swinging on the opening day of its Snapdragon Summit. And it didn’t mince phrases about Intel and Lunar Lake. In response to the agency, its Arm-based Snapdragon X chip is superior to Lunar Lake in nearly each means possible, and it pointed to particular cases through which Intel’s IFA announcement was deceptive. That mentioned, Qualcomm acknowledged that Intel–and AMD–have a bonus in graphics efficiency, however it’s apparently addressing with its next-generation chips.
As it’s possible you’ll recall, Intel formally launched its Lunar Lake cell processors–which it’s advertising and marketing as Core Extremely Collection 2–at IFA in Berlin in early September. We later realized that Intel pulled out the stops to ship this new household of chips about three years sooner than initially anticipated because of it needing to fulfill Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC specs. That effort contributed to Intel’s monetary woes this 12 months, and the microprocessor big loses cash on every Lunar Lake chip it sells.
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However Intel’s claims have been daring.
Intel mentioned that Lunar Lake was “the quickest silicon within the {industry},” with “industry-defining x86 efficiency per watt,” with the quickest CPU core, quickest built-in GPU, best x86 processor, “historic” efficiency per watt, and unmatched AI efficiency. And it very particularly went after Qualcomm in ways in which have been borderline humorous. Throughout its IFA presentation, Intel in contrast Lunar Lake to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X repeatedly and once more.
In the present day, Qualcomm mentioned it was calling bull$%!# on Intel’s claims.
OK, I’m paraphrasing. Nevertheless it addressed a number of particular Intel claims and identified the place the corporate misled the general public about how nicely Lunar Lake competes with Snapdragon X.
Snapdragon X Elite outperforms the highest Lunar Lake and AMD Zen 5 chips in each single-core and multi-core CPU efficiency, Qualcomm says, and opposite to Intel’s claims.
In single core, the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 is 10 p.c quicker than the Intel Core Extremely Collection 2 256V, and it achieves peak efficiency utilizing 38 p.c much less energy than Intel’s entry. Multi-core is much more dramatic. The Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 is as much as 52 p.c quicker than the Intel Core Extremely Collection 2 256V, which wants 113 p.c extra energy to realize peak efficiency than the Qualcomm chip.
Intel claimed that Lunar Lake had “the quickest cores, interval,” Qualcomm factors to Cinebench, Geekbench, and SPECint scores that every one present the Snapdragon X Elite cores outperforming these within the Intel processor. Worse, it factors to deceptive Intel charts that present Lunar Lake being forward. The place Intel claimed a 6 p.c achieve over Snapdragon X within the Cinebench R24 single core take a look at, for instance, Qualcomm demonstrated that Intel is, in reality, behind Snapdragon, by about 7 p.c. And in multi-core Snapdragon is an unbelievable 92 p.c quicker than Lunar Lake.
It pointed to a equally deceptive chart demonstrating Lunar Lake’s superiority over Snapdragon X and AMD Zen 5 within the Geekbench 6 single-core take a look at. However AMD and Qualcomm each beat Intel on this measure as nicely, with Snapdragon popping out on prime. Right here, once more, Snapdragon X toasts Lunar Lake, with a 44 p.c efficiency benefit. (Snapdragon X is about 4 p.c quicker than Zen 5.) Intel notably by no means even talked about muti-core efficiency, Qualcomm added.
The SPECrate2017 scores present related gaps between Intel’s claims and actuality. You get the thought: The place Intel was allegedly forward of Qualcomm by as a lot as 56 share factors based mostly on an Intel chart, the Snapdragon X truly comes out forward. And in testing the chips side-by-side in the identical PC chassis, the Snapdragon X Elite was 52 p.c quicker at peak energy and 41 p.c quicker at equal energy. AMD additionally beats Intel on this take a look at, although it falls nicely in need of Snapdragon.
The most important challenge for Lunar Lake, maybe, is that efficiency drops off dramatically when used on battery energy. The place Snapdragon gives near peak efficiency on battery–it appears to drop off 7 to 13 p.c beneath just a few workloads however in no way or negligibly beneath most—Lunar Lake normally displays enormous efficiency drop-offs of 15 to 56 p.c, relying on the workload. Snapdragon X is as much as 163 p.c quicker than Lunar Lake when examined in the identical PC chassis, Qualcomm says.
Intel additionally claimed that Lunar Lake one way or the other outperformed Snapdragon X on battery, however Qualcomm’s chip delivers 16 p.c extra battery life whereas not compromising efficiency. Lunar Lake requires 24 to 37 p.c extra energy to carry out duties like Groups video calls, stream YouTube movies, or use Microsoft 365 desktop apps than does Snapdragon X when examined in the identical PC chassis.
As for Intel’s NPU claims, Qualcomm notes that Lunar Lake requires 311 p.c extra energy than Snapdragon X Elite to realize that stage of efficiency, and that Snapdragon X is quicker and extra environment friendly when used on battery energy. And working the Procyon AI take a look at, Lunar Lakes runs about 9 levels Celsius–about 48 levels Fahrenheit–hotter than Snapdragon X in the identical PC chassis when plugged in, and about 7/44 levels hotter on battery energy, whereas taking a 20 p.c efficiency hit.
Briefly, Qualcomm claims that its Snapdragon X Elite retains its management in CPU efficiency, on-battery efficiency, battery life, and NPU energy and effectivity.
After all, Qualcomm didn’t handle Intel’s one large efficiency benefit: GPU efficiency. For all the problems Intel’s had in recent times, GPU efficiency isn’t one in every of them: Lunar Lake is a significant leap ahead on this space over its predecessor, Meteor Lake, which was itself a significant leap ahead over previous-generation Core chips. Qualcomm admitted as a lot, noting solely that it targeted on CPU efficiency and battery life with its first-generation Snapdragon X chips. And that GPU efficiency could be a spotlight in a coming technology of those chips.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon will handle the Intel claims in his keynote at this time on the Snapdragon Summit.