Intel, AMD and Apple gets a formidable competitor in PC; Qualcomm' Snapdragon X Elite
Date: 30/10/2023
The competition in the processor for PC and notebook market is further getting heated up by launching of Snapdragon X Elite by Qualcomm at Snapdragon Summit 2023. Qualcomm said this new 4.3 GHz, 12-core, 64-bit Arm processor is 2X better in performance compared to Intel's Core i9-13980HX of x86 Architecture and some of the Apple's PC and notebook processors such as Apple M2. Qualcomm also claims Snapdragon X Elite GPU is 80% faster and 80% more efficient than the Radeon 780M. There is a clear indication that Arm based PC processors to eat away X86 dominated desktop and notebook market.
Below are pictures comparing Snapdragon X Elite with other such processors presented at Qualcomm Snapdragon Summit 2023:
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon spent significant time during his presentation highlighting how Snapdragon X Elite beats Intel and Apple chips in performance. In a new story by FC, he was quoted "It’s the fastest CPU for a laptop, period. Period! It’s faster than anything Apple, anything AMD, anything Intel. But it’s also delivering performance that is faster than the fastest desktop gaming PC from AMD. It’s at the same level as some of the fastest CPUs you can buy from Intel for a gaming rig, one that is liquid-cooled. And we’re doing all of that in a laptop, in a battery-powered device."
Irrespective of the powerful chip, what defines success in this market is support of software. Microsoft and Intel have worked together for long time, where people used to call that as Wintel partnership. Now Microsoft is supporting Arm processor core based Windows systems, that's where is the entry of Qualcomm into this domain. With Qualcomm announcing Snapdragon Seamless, a cross-platform technology that facilitates the seamless integration of Android, Windows, and Snapdragon devices with other operating systems, you can see lot more OS independent systems coming up in the market.
“Snapdragon Seamless fundamentally breaks down the barriers between OEMs, devices and operating systems. It’s the only cross-device solution to truly put the user first,” said Dino Bekis, VP and GM, wearables and mixed signal solutions, Qualcomm.
A large number of laptop OEM manufacturers such as HP, Lenovo, Asus, Dell and Acer. Honor, Microsoft, Samsung and Xiaomi planning to release Snapdragon X Elite based mobile PC systems in the market in the year 2024.
Qualcomm entered PC and notebook market when the mobile phone processor market getting saturated. However until now it was more of a technology development and launch of few chips with no great market success. Compared to Qualcomm 's previous PC specific chips, the difference with the launch of this new chip is, it outperforms competitor's chips. Let's look deep into the performance of this chip compared to Qualcomm's previous chips and other leading processors in the market.
We got to see whether this new processor will eat in to the share of Intel, AMD and Apple who clearly hold this market.
With Intel no more having most advanced fab in terms of lower manufacturing nodes, Intel is losing it's market share to AMD and Apple for getting their chips manufactured using most advanced fab by TSMC. And with TSMC getting into 4 nm and 3 nm volume production, it's going to help companies such as AMD, Apple and Qualcomm to have a further lead over Intel in this market. Snapdragon X Elite is fabricated using TSMC 4 nm process.
Every desktop and mobile PC user upgrades to new system once in 3 to 5 years to reap benefits of more and more available advanced computing in latest systems. Personal computing market is going to be present ever, however with shrinking profit margins and tight competition. It can be said same-thing for smartphone market. World buys an average of 400 to 500 million PCs and smart phones every year, and nearly 50-50 share of each.
That's the reason the chipmaking companies such as Apple and Qualcomm are designing processors targeting both the markets. We got to see is this a advantageous strategy! Intel and AMD has no presence in smartphone market, and MediaTek has no presence in PC market. There are news that MediaTek in working on a PC chip in partnership with nVidia. Will Intel and AMD stay away from smartphone market?
In that sense Apple and Qualcomm to have market first advantage.
Snapdragon X Elite uses custom integrated Qualcomm Oryon CPU handling AI data lot better than competition and consuming less power. If you look deep into this new processor, it is highly AI centric, aim to bring a lot of personal AI at the edge.
Here are points taken from Qualcomm press release and the product's details pages:
The Snapdragon X Elite platform features the custom integrated 4nm System-on-a-Chip architecture, 12-core Qualcomm Oryon delivering up to 2x faster CPU performance compared to competition, matching competitor peak performance with one-third of the power. Snapdragon X Elite also packs Qualcomm Adreno GPU.
The AI-application made Snapdragon X Elite features generative AI models with over 13 billion parameters on-device with 4.5 times faster AI processing power than competitors. Qualcomm AI Engine is powered by Hexagon NPU and updated dual Micro NPU inside the ultra-low power Qualcomm Sensing Hub.
Features 5G and Wi-Fi 7 with Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System and Qualcomm FastConnect 7800.
PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite are expected from leading OEMs starting mid-2024.
Snapdragon X Elite is designed to support the intelligent and power-intensive tasks of the future that will enable powerful productivity, rich creativity, and immersive entertainment experiences from anywhere.
“Snapdragon X Elite represents a dramatic leap in innovation for computing as we deliver our new, custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU for super-charged performance that will delight consumers with incredible power efficiency and take their creativity and productivity to the next level,” said Kedar Kondap, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Compute & Gaming, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “Powerful on-device AI experiences will enable seamless multitasking and new intuitive user experiences, empowering consumers and businesses alike to create and accomplish more.”
Other key features:
Enterprise-grade security for enhanced protection from chip to cloud.
Support for AV1 encode and decode for up to 4K HDR video streaming
Immersive, lossless audio for high-fidelity music and entertainment with your wireless headphones with Snapdragon Sound.
Support for up to three external UHD monitors running at 60 Hz, delivering snappier and smoother display experiences.
LPDDR5x memory with 136 GB/s bandwidth for faster AI experiences and efficient multitasking.
Advanced MIPI camera support for high-quality imaging and intelligent features, such as auto-framing, background blur, and facial authentication at lower power consumption.
Some popular tweets:
Snapdragon X Elite first custom Arm64 CPU for full Windows on Arm
Double the performance and energy efficiency of certain Core i7
It will be in laptops by mid-2024
Qualcomm partnering with Microsoft, Lenovo, Dell, and HP
Developers' information is shared in Qualcomm's website with User Guide, Application Note, Reference, Design Resources, Guidelines, Knowledgebase Articles. For details visit:
https://www.qualcomm.com/products/mobile/snapdragon/pcs-and-tablets/snapdragon-x-elite#Overview
Qualcomm has not disclosed the number of transistors in Snapdragon X Elite, at 4 nm it's easily around 20 Billion and more. It's our estimate.
Here is a one more interesting article we suggest to read in "The Register" with the title "Sorry Pat, but it's looking like Arm PCs are inevitable" analysing how Arm is slowly taking x86 sockets not only PC and note book market but also in the wide server market.
