On Wednesday, ahead of IFA 2024, the largest consumer technology exhibition in Germany’s Berlin, Qualcomm introduced a new 8-core variant of its Snapdragon X Elite Plus chip, reducing the cost of entry-level Copilot+ PCs from $999 to $700. According to Qualcomm, the new eight-core Snapdragon X Plus still delivers the same amount of AI performance (45 TOPs) as the 10-core variant, and packs an octa-core CPU built on top of the Oryon CPU architecture for the best possible power efficiency, performance, and all-day battery life. One of the first laptops featuring the eight-core Snapdragon X Elite will come from Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung and will be available starting today. "With the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core, we are now bringing to more users these transformative AI experiences and the best-in-class performance and unprecedented battery life of our power-efficient custom Qualcomm Oryon CPU. We’re proud to be working with leading global OEMs and retail partners to expand our portfolio and enable enterprise customers and consumers," said Cristiano Amon, president and CEO, Qualcomm Incorporated. Qualcomm claims the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus (X1P-46-100) delivers 61 per cent faster CPU performance at a lower power envelope compared to the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U with its 12-core CPU. The chip’s neural processing unit (NPU) offers up to 45 TOPs of AI performance and supports all Copilot+ PC features, while the Adreno GPU can handle up to 4K external monitors at a 60Hz refresh rate. Qualcomm also asserted that this chip outperforms the M2-powered MacBook Air in multi-core CPU, AI, and wireless network performance. There are two SKUs of the 8-core Snapdragon X Plus, the X1P-46-100 with up to a 4 GHz single-core boost clock frequency and the X1P-42-100 with up to 3.4 GHz of single-core boost clock frequency. Both processors are fabbed using a 4nm process and support up to 64 GB of RAM along with UFS 4.0 and NVMe Gen4 storage type. These chips offer the latest wireless connectivity standards, including Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Platform Part Number Qualcomm Oryon™ CPU Qualcomm Adreno™ GPU Qualcomm Hexagon™ NPU TFLOPS CPU Cores Total Cache Max Multi-Core Frequency Boost Frequency Adreno GPU Hexagon NPU Snapdragon X Plus XIP-66-100 10 42 MB 3.4 GHz 4.0 GHz (Single-Core) 3.8 45 Snapdragon X Plus XIP-64-100 10 42 MB 3.4 GHz None 3.8 45 Snapdragon X Plus XIP-46-100 8 30 MB 3.4 GHz 4.0 GHz (Single-Core) 2.1 45 Snapdragon X Plus XIP-42-100 8 30 MB 3.2 GHz 3.4 GHz (Single-Core) 1.7 45
