Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 vs Apple M3 Max 16-Core vs Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100
► remove from comparisonThe Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 is a pretty fast ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops. The X1E-78-100 is the least powerful member of the Snapdragon X Elite processor series, as of May 2024; as such, it has 12 Oryon CPU cores (3 clusters of equally powerful cores; 12 threads) running at no more than 3.4 GHz. Other key features include the 3.8 TFLOPS Adreno X1-85 iGPU, the 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU and an impressively fast LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller.
The top dog, known as the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100, is thought to be based on the same die with the same NPU but with higher GPU clock speeds, higher CPU clock speeds and possibly higher power targets as well.
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 the X Elite is compatible with GeForce or Radeon discrete graphics cards.
The SoC is said to have 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
Our first benchmarks (featuring a 35 W X Elite X1E-78-100) revealed very decent CPU performance figures that see the X Elite going head-to-head with the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U. It's also not much faster or slower than the Apple M3 chip with 10 GPU cores. While not groundbreaking, this should be good enough for the user to be able to run any applications in 2024 and 2025.
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 supposedly delivers pale in comparison to the slowest current-generation professional Nvidia Ada graphics card for laptops, the RTX 500 Ada, that's good for up to 9.2 TFLOPS.
Its gaming performance is rather underwhelming according to our in-house testing results. While slightly faster than the aging Iris Xe (96 EUs), the Adreno fails to outgun 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-78-100 is set to be slightly less power-hungry than its more powerful brothers. Expect to see anything between 20 W and 45 W under long-term workloads depending on the system and on the performance profile chosen. That's exactly what Ryzen HS chips normally consume.
The SoC is built with a 4 nm TSMC process for decent, as of H1 2024, energy efficiency.
Apple M3 Max 16-Core
► remove from comparisonThe Apple M3 Max (16 Core) is a system on a chip (SoC) from Apple for notebooks that was launched towards the end of 2023. It integrates a new 16-core CPU with 12 performance cores with up to 4.06 GHz and 4 efficiency cores with 2.8 GHz. There is also a slimmed-down 14-core variant with a 30-core GPU.
Thanks to the higher clock rates and architectural improvements, the processor performance is also significantly better than the M2 Max in benchmarks and can keep up with the fastest mobile CPUs (such as a Core i9-13900HX).
The M3 also integrates a new graphics card with dynamic caching, mesh shading and ray tracing acceleration via hardware. In the top model, all 40 cores of the chip are used and support up to 5 displays simultaneously (internal and 4 external).
GPU and CPU can jointly access the shared memory on the package (unified memory). This is available in 48, 64 and 128 GB variants and offers 400 GB/s maximum bandwidth (512 bit bus).
The integrated 16-core Neural Engine has also been revised and now offers 18 TOPS peak performance (compared to 15.8 TOPS in the M2 but 35 TOPS in the new A17 Pro). The video engine now also supports AV1 decoding in hardware. H.264, HEVC and ProRes (RAW) can still be decoded and encoded. Like its predecessor, the Max chip offers two video engines and can therefore encode and decode two streams simultaneously.
Unfortunately, the integrated WLAN only continues to support WiFi 6E (no WiFi 7), unlike the small M3 SoC thunderbolt 4 is also supported (max 40 Gbit/s).
The chip is manufactured in the current 3nm process (N3B) at TSMC and contains 92 billion transistors (+37% vs. Apple M2 Max). Under load, the CPU part consumes up to 56 watts, the chip can use a total of 78 watts.
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100
► remove from comparisonThe Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 is a relatively affordable ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops that is rumored to debut some time in H2 2024. The X1P-42-100 is thought to have 8 Oryon CPU cores (8 threads) running at a not yet known clock speed of at least 3.0 GHz. As far as other key features are concerned, the X Plus probably comes with the same 3.8 TFLOPS Adreno X1-85 GPU, 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU and LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller that its bigger and smarter brother, the X1P-64-100, employs.
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 SoC is said to have 8 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. A 45 TOPS NPU for accelerating AI workloads is most likely included.
This X Plus chip does not make use of the same die that the X1P-64-100, X1E-78-100, X1E-80-100, X1E-84-100 are based on.
Performance
The faster X1P-64-100 (10 CPU cores running at higher clock speeds) is about as fast as the Intel Core i7-13700H and the 9-core Apple M4 are in multi-thread workloads. This means the X1P-42-100 will most likely be about as fast as the Intel Core i7-12650H and the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H which is not bad at all for what is supposedly an almost budget CPU.
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 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 supposedly 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 rather 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 X1P-42-100 is most likely going to be less power-hungry than its more powerful X Elite brothers. Expect to see anything between 10 W and 35 W under long-term workloads because that's what Ryzen U chips normally consume.
The SoC is built with a 4 nm TSMC process for decent, as of H1 2024, energy efficiency.
Model | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 | Apple M3 Max 16-Core | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series | Qualcomm Snapdragon X | Apple Apple M3 | Qualcomm Snapdragon X | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Codename | Oryon | Oryon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Series: Snapdragon X Oryon |
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Clock | <=3400 MHz | 2748 - 4056 MHz | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cores / Threads | 12 / 12 8 x 3.4 GHz 4 x 3.4 GHz Qualcomm Oryon | 16 / 16 12 x 4.1 GHz Apple M3 P-Core 4 x 2.7 GHz Apple M3 E-Core | 8 / 8 8 x Qualcomm Oryon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP | 35 Watt | 78 Watt | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
TDP Turbo PL2 | 45 Watt | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Technology | 4 nm | 3 nm | 4 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
iGPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Adreno X1-85 (3.8 TFLOPS) | Apple M3 Max 40-Core GPU | Qualcomm Snapdragon X Adreno X1-85 (3.8 TFLOPS) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Architecture | ARM | ARM | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Announced | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manufacturer | www.qualcomm.com | www.apple.com | www.qualcomm.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Transistors | 92000 Million | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set |