Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus competes (maybe) with Intel Core i5

Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon X Plus. That is a slightly lighter version of the Snapdragon

Qualcomm shows the Snapdragon X Plus. That is a light version of the previously announced Snapdragon X Elite. The architecture of both chips is very similar and they share the same NPU and Adreno GPU, but the Plus version is slightly less endowed in the core department than its big brother.

The Snapdragon X Plus is equipped with ten computing cores, clocked at 3.4 GHz and does not have boost functionality. In contrast, the X Elite has twelve computing cores at 3.8 GHz, with boost capacity up to 4.3 GHz. Both chips have exactly the same Oryon cores on board, built at 4 nm and flanked by 42 MB of cache.

Few details

This ARM processor compares somewhat to its big brother, such as a Core i5 versus a Core i7. In other words, both chips seem very capable, but only one of the two is equipped for peak performance.

Technical comparison is difficult. After all, Qualcomm remains very sparing with details about the new chips. This way we know how much cache the X series has, but not the distribution across levels. We know the number of cores, but not the distribution. AMD and Intel are usually very in-depth when they release new chips, especially when they outperform the competition. Everything here remains fairly superficial.

Qualcomm previously claimed that its Snapdragon X Elite surpasses the best from Intel and AMD. There are too few technical details available to analyze those claims. The performance per watt of the Snapdragon The chip designer repeats this claim for the Snapdragon X Plus. This light processor is also said to perform better than traditional x86 chips.

Misleading benchmarks?

Qualcomm bases this on Geekbench tests that we have to believe, without substantiation as to why the performance would be better. However, those benchmarks are not beyond discussion. Technology website SemiAccurate even states that Qualcomm is outright cheating.

SemiAccurate determines on the authority of anonymous sources at manufacturers and Qualmcomm itself that the communicated figures are not reproducible. The performance of the chips themselves is said to be half lower than what Qualcomm publicly claims.

wait

We are not aware of the sources ourselves and cannot verify these claims. In our opinion, the findings create sufficient doubt about the Snapdragon X Elite and the new X Plus. We will have to test how good the chips really are ourselves. We think it would be wise not to immediately order a laptop with Snapdragon X Elite before independent results verify the performance claims.