Snapdragon X Elite Benchmarks: Does it beat the Apple M2?


Qualcomm introduced its flagship Snapdragon X Elite PC chip at its Snapdragon Summit 2023 last week. The latest flagship PC SoC from has 4nm System-on-a-Chip design, housing a 12-core Qualcomm Oryon CPU clocked at up to 3.8GHz with Dual-Core Boost up to 4.3 GHz for superfast responsiveness.

This promises up to 2x fast CPU and 2x GPU performance compared to x86. At the event, Qualcomm said that the Oryon CPU offers better Single-threaded CPU performance compared to Apple M2 Max and Intel I9-13980HX procesors.

It also said that the Oryon CPU consumes 30% less power than the Apple M2 Max and 70% less power than the Intel i9-13980HX at peak performance.

It is fabricated using the TSMC 4nm Process Technology. We got to check out the reference designs at the event, and here are the official benchmark scores.

The Snapdragon X Lite reference device has two configurations, Config A with 80W max TDP, 15.6″ QHD LCD screen and a 87Wh battery, and the Config B model has a 23W TDP, 14.5″ 2.8K OLED screen and a 58Wh battery.

Geekbench 6 Single-Core

The Snapdragon X Elite tops the Geekbench 6 single-Core benchmark by scoring 2940 points, and the 23W TDP model is better than most other competing processors.

Geekbench 6 Multi-Core

The Snapdragon X Elite grabs the third spot in the Geekbench 6 single-Core benchmark by scoring 15130 points, and the 23W TDP model is better than most other competing processors.

Cinebench 2024 Single-Thread

Both the Snapdragon X Elite versions top the Cinebench 2024 single-thread benchmark.

Cinebench 2024 Multi-Thread

The Snapdragon X Elite grabs the third spot in the Cinebench 2024 Multi-Thread benchmark by scoring 1220 points, and the 23W TDP model is better than M2 Pro and M1 Pro.

GFXBench Aztec Ruins Vulkan (Normal Tier)

In the GPU benchmark, the Apple M2 Ultra, M2 Pro and M1 Pro grab the top spots, but the Snapdragon X Elite is better than the Apple M2, Intel and Ryzen chips.

3D Mark Wildlife Extreme

Similarly, the Apple M2 Pro and M1 Pro top the 3D Mark GPU benchmark, the Snapdragon X Elite Config A model grabs the third spot, and the 23W TDP model is behind the Apple M2, but it is better than the Ryzen and Intel chips.

Here are the values from other benchmarks shared by Qualcomm

  • UI Procyon AI – 1750 – 1800
  • PCMark 10 (Config A)- 12869 to 13112
  • PCMark 10 (Config B) – 12433 to 13516

These values of Snapdragon X Elite are way better than the old Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip, and it also beats the Apple M1 and M2 series chips in Single-Core benchmarks. It also beats Intel and Ryzen chips in most benchmarks and gives a tough competition to Apple chips in GPU benchmarks.

Qualcomm already confirmed that devices based on Snapdragon X Elite will start rolling out mid-2024. The company has also announced HP, Acer, ASUS, Dell, HONOR, Lenovo, Microsoft Surface, Samsung and Xiaomi as OEM partners. We will have to wait for a few more months to find out how laptops from these companies perform.


Author: Varun Krish

Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Apple iPhone 13 Pro and Google Pixel 6. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+ You can also mail Varun Krish