Qualcomm announces its latest Arm-based processor - Snapdragon X Elite for Windows laptops at its ongoing Snapdragon Summit 2023. Fabbed using a 4nm process, the Snapdragon X Elite features a 12-core Oryon CPU, Adreno GPU, and a dedicated AI engine that can run on-device generative AI models. This 64-bit processor designed for laptops running on Windows OS features a 12-core CPU cluster with up to 3.8GHz, including a new single and dual-core boost technology that ramps up the CPU clock speed up to 4.3 GHz, making it one of the fastest Arm-based processors. The graphics are handled by Adreno GPU which can offer up to 4.6 TFLOPs of performance. For context, the graphics chip on the Xbox Series S can only offer up to 4 TFLOPs of graphics performance. Similarly, the chip also beholds the Qualcomm Hexagon neural processing unit (NPU) that can process on-device large language models with up to 13 billion parameters. Unlike an X86 architecture-based processor for Windows laptops, the Snapdragon X Elite not only offers enhanced performance but also delivers stellar power efficiency, which results in enhanced battery life and the company claims to offer multi-day battery life per charge. While laptop processors aren't always known for camera processors, the Snapdragon X Elite is different and can support up to 64 MP cameras and 4K HDR video recording. Not just that, the chip package also includes a Snapdragon X65 5G model, capable of offering modern connectivity solutions, including 5G with up to 10Gbps download speed. The onboard Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 system also adds Wi-Fi 7 and the latest Bluetooth 5.4 capabilities with support for Bluetooth LE. As per the display output, which is an integral part of a laptop, it is compatible with eDP v1.4b standard and can support up to 4K resolution display at up to 120Hz refresh rate and it can also support up to three external 4K resolution screens or two at 5K resolution. The Snapdragon X Elite is compatible with power-efficient LPDDR5x type RAM, with up to 64 GB and eight channels. Similarly, it also supports UFS 4.0 and NVME PCIe Gen 4 storage standards. The chip also includes enterprise-grade security and with support for AV1 codec, it should be able to handle high-resolution video encoding and decoding without any issue. With this chip, Qualcomm is definitely considering replicating Apple's success with Arm-based M1/M2 chips, which even helped the company to improve its market share in the personal computer segment. Qualcomm will be partnering with various PC OEMs to integrate its latest Snapdragon X Elite chip in the coming days.
