Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

Update 6/14/24: A slew of new Geekbench 6 results have emerged, revealing that the Snapdragon X Elite performs in a way that is roughly in line with what Qualcomm claimed. At least in the Galaxy Book4 Edge, these results show that the processor can indeed reach the advertised 4GHz and achieve single-core speeds that are consistent with Qualcomm’s claims. However, multi-core speeds are still a bit lower than expected, but not by a significant margin.

Although these new results indicate that there is more to the story than just the peak performance of Qualcomm’s new chips, it is crucial to wait for proper reviews to thoroughly assess the performance of these processors. At present, it seems that the software is not yet final, so it is difficult to draw firm conclusions about performance before the processors are officially released on June 18.

Original story below:

Recommended Videos

Benchmark data for the upcoming Snapdragon X Elite chip are already making the rounds, and they are quite disappointing. A user on Reddit, u/caponica23, received the Samsung Galaxy Book Edge 14 early and shared a detailed post with some initial findings. And it turns out that the performance of the Snapdragon X Elite chip inside the PC is significantly lower than what was anticipated.

In Geekbench, the user showcased single-core results of 1,841 and multi-core results of 11,537. That’s not great. For comparison, Qualcomm had stated in early demonstrations that the Snapdragon X Elite could reach a score of 2,977 in single-core and 15,086 in multi-core performance. The user also tested the laptop by playing Resident Evil Village at 1080p and reported severe frame drops even when AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) was set to Performance mode.

Arif Bacchus / Digital Trends

These benchmark results contradict the few times we have witnessed the Snapdragon X Elite in action. It provided a solid gaming experience for us in Control, and we had heard from Qualcomm that it would be able to outperform Apple’s M3 in the MacBook Air. However, these benchmark results tell a different tale.

Perhaps the most damning comparison comes on X (formerly Twitter), where one user claims that the Snapdragon X Elite’s single-core performance is slower than that of an iPhone 12 Mini. Oh dear.

For those who can’t quite grasp how truly miserable this situation is, the actual big core performance of the X Elite is slower than the 4-year-old A14 chip in the iPhone 12 mini.

Qualcomm initially inflated the single-core score to 3200, but in the actual Windows environment, it dropped to 2900,… pic.twitter.com/SFxk8sEMZm

— INIYSA (@lafaiel) June 13, 2024

There is an explanation for this. The unit that was tested was limited to a clock speed of 2.52GHz, while the Snapdragon X Elite is supposed to be able to reach 4GHz. It’s just hard to tell whether the chip is intentionally limited or if there will be some sort of update that will enhance performance before the first Snapdragon X Elite laptops go on sale next week.

One reason the chip might be limited could be battery life. In their testing, the user found that the Samsung Galaxy Book Edge 14 could last for approximately 14 hours on a full charge. This is a significant improvement compared to most Windows laptops, although it still falls short of the MacBook Air. The concerning aspect is that if the Snapdragon X Elite indeed operates at higher clock speeds at launch, the battery life is likely to diminish rapidly.

Based on these results, it seems that you either face lower performance or shorter battery life with the Snapdragon X Elite, but it’s still too early to make any definitive statements. The first laptops will be released next week on June 18, but we recommend waiting for reviews before making a decision to invest in this unproven computing platform.