Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy vs Intel Core i3-1315U

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy Mobile Platform is a high-end SoC for smartphones that was introduced in late 2022 and manufactured in 4 nm at TSMC (N4P). It integrates four different CPU clusters. A fast and big prime core based on the ARM Cortex-X3 architecture and clocked at up to 3.36 GHz for 64 bit applications. Two more ARM Cortex-A715 based performance cores clocked at up to 2.8 GHz (also only for 64 bit apps). Two more Cortex-A710 performance cores at up to 2.8 GHz that can also be used for older apps and three efficiency cores (ARM Cortex-A510 with up to 2 GHz). All cores can use the shared 8 MB level 3 cache. Compared to the normal SD 8 Gen 2, the "for Galaxy" version offers a 160 MHz higher clocked prime core.

Thanks to the new architecture and high clock rates, the SD 8 Gen 2 is the fastest mobile CPU for Android based devices and is only topped by current Apple SoCs like the Apple A16 (see benchmarks below).

The chip also integrates a Hexagon accelerator for AI workloads (tensor, scalar and vector). Qualcomm states that its one of the first chips with INT4 support and up to 4.35x performance compared to the previous generation. 

The 18-Bit-Spectra ISP is able to process photos with up to 200 MP and work with videos up to 8k30 (including 10-bit, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision).

A big improvement of the Snapdragon 8 G2 is the integrated Adreno 740 GPU, that now supports Hardware Raytracing and tops even the iGPU in the Apple A16.

The integrated AI Engine can offer up to 4x faster AI performance thanks to the bigger Tensor engine. The 18-Bit-Spectra-ISP also saw some big improvements and is now called Snapdragon Sight.

The integrated Adreno 730 offers a 30% graphics boost compared to the previous Adreno 660.

The integrated Snapdragon X70 5G modem is also new as is the FastConnect 7800 modem with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 support.

Intel Core i3-1315U

The Intel Core i3-1315U is a mid-range mobile CPU for thin and light laptops based on the Raptor Lake-U series. It was announced in early 2023 and offers 2 performance cores (P-cores, Golden Cove architecture) and 4 efficient cores (E-cores, Gracemont architecture). The P-cores support Hyper-Threading leading to 8 supported threads when combined with the E-cores. The clock rate ranges from 1.2 to 4.5 GHz on the performance cluster and 0.9 to 3.3 GHz on the efficient cluster. The performance of the E-cores should be similar to old Skylake cores (compare to the Core i7-6700HQ). All cores can use up to 10 MB L3-cache. Compared to the faster i5 and i7 models, the i3 does not include vPro features.

Performance

Thanks to the 100 MHz higher Boost clock speed of the P-Cores, the i3-1315U should be slightly faster than the old i3-1215U.

Features

The integrated memory controller supports various memory types up to DDR5-4800, DDR4-3200, LPDDR5-5200, and LPDDR4x-4267. The Thread Director (in hardware) can support the operating system to decide which thread to use on the performance or efficient cores for the best performance. For AI tasks, the CPU also integrates GNA 3.0 and DL Boost (via AVX2). Quick Sync in version 8 is the same as in the Rocket Lake CPUs and supports MPEG-2, AVC, VC-1 decode, JPEG, VP8 decode, VP9, HEVC, and AV1 decode in hardware. The CPU only supports PCIe 4.0 (x8 for a GPU and two x4 for SSDs).

The integrated graphics card is based on the Xe-architecture and offers 64 of the 96 EUs (Execution Units) operating at up to 1.25 GHz.

The CPU is rated at 15 W base power (TDP, PL1) and 55 W max. Turbo power (PL2) and the whole SoC is manufactured in a further improved 10nm SuperFin process at Intel, which is known as Intel 7.