Apple M2 Pro vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100
Apple M2 Pro
► remove from comparisonThe Apple M2 Pro is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the early 2023 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers all 12 cores available in the chip divided in eight performance cores (P-cores) and four power-efficiency cores (E-cores). The E-cores clock with up to 3.4 GHz, the P-Cores up to 3.7 GHz (mostly 3.3 GHz in multi-threaded workloads and 3.4 GHz in single threaded).
The big cores (codename Avalanche) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 36 MB shared L2 cache (up from 24 MB in the M1 Pro). The four efficiency cores (codename Blizzard) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 24 MB SLC (System Level Cache).
The unified memory (16 or 32 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 256 Bit memory controller (200 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU.
Apple states that the M2 Pro has a 25% higher performance than the M1 Pro in Xcode compiling.
The integrated graphics card in the M1 Pro offers all 19 cores.
Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine (faster than M1 Pro), a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including ProRes).
The M2 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC (second generation) and integrates 40 billion transistors.
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100
► remove from comparisonThe Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 is a pretty fast ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops. The X1E-80-100 is the second-fastest member of the Snapdragon X series, as of May 2024; as such, it has 12 Oryon CPU cores (3 clusters of equally powerful cores; 12 threads) running at up to 4.0 GHz, the 3.8 TFLOPS Adreno X1-85 GPU, the 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU and an impressively fast LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller.
The faster Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 is thought to be based on the same die with the same NPU and the same number of CPU cores but with a higher GPU and CPU clock speeds.
Architecture and Features
Qualcomm Oryon cores are in part based on Nuvia IP; they most likely make use of the ARM v8.7 microarchitecture. Much like modern AMD and Intel processors, the Snapdragon chip is compatible with USB 4 and thus with Thunderbolt 4 but it remains to be seen if it is is compatible with GeForce or Radeon discrete graphics cards.
The Qualcomm SoC is thought to have at least 12 PCIe 4 and 4 PCIe 3 lanes for connecting various kinds of devices. NVMe SSDs are supported with a throughput of up to 7.9 GB/s; furthermore, most laptops built around the chip are expected to have 16 GB of LPDDR5X-8448 RAM. There is also a 45 TOPS NPU for accelerating AI workloads.
Performance
When all of the 12 cores are under load, they can run at up to 3.4 GHz. The much more desirable 4.0 GHz clock speed is only achievable under single-thread or dual-thread loads.
Given the very similar clock speeds, its multi-thread benchmark scores should be about the same as that of the X1E-78-100 for Ryzen 7 7840U and Apple M3-like performance in most real-world tasks. We'll make sure to update this section once we get our hands on a system powered by the X1E-80-100.
Like any other Windows on ARM platform, the Snapdragon X chip works best with applications and games compiled specifically for ARM processors. If making use of the built-in x86 to ARM emulation mode, a performance penalty of about 20% is to be expected.
Graphics
The integrated 3.8 TFLOPS Adreno X1-85 GPU is DirectX 12-enabled but not DirectX 12 Ultimate-enabled, despite featuring VRS and ray tracing support. The 3.8 TFLOPS of performance that it delivers pale in comparison to the slowest current-generation professional Nvidia Ada graphics card for laptops, the RTX 500 Ada, that delivers up to 9.2 TFLOPS.
Its gaming performance is somewhat underwhelming. While slightly faster than the aging Iris Xe (96 EUs), the Adreno is not fast enough to outpace the Radeon 780M meaning there is little point in comparing it with full-fat discrete graphics cards. Baldur's Gate 3, a triple-A title released in 2023, is pretty much unplayable at 1080p / Low. GTA V, a game that saw the light of day in 2015, is playable at 1080p / High.
The Qualcomm iGPU will let you use up to 3 UHD 2160p monitors simultaneously. 2160p120 integrated displays are supported, as are the popular AV1, HEVC and AVC video codecs (both decoding and encoding). The hardware does not support the VVC codec; that feature remains a Lunar Lake exclusive for now.
Power consumption
The X1E-80-100 is most likely going to be less power-hungry than its more powerful brother (the latter can be set to consume up to 80 Watts). Expect to see anything between 20 W and 45 W under long-term workloads because that's what Ryzen HS chips normally consume.
The SoC is built with a 4 nm TSMC process for decent, as of H1 2024, energy efficiency.
Model | Apple M2 Pro | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Apple Apple M2 | Qualcomm Snapdragon X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Snapdragon X Oryon |
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Clock | 2424 - 3504 MHz | <=4000 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L1 Cache | 3.3 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L2 Cache | 36 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
L3 Cache | 24 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 12 / 12 | 12 / 12 12 x 4.0 GHz Qualcomm Oryon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 40000 Million | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 5 nm | 4 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Apple M2 Pro 19-Core GPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Adreno X1-85 (3.8 TFLOPS) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | ARM | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Oryon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP Turbo PL2 | 80 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | www.qualcomm.com |