Referreport
With its Snapdragon X processors, US manufacturer Qualcomm has made a perfect start: Alongside Intel and AMD, the company based in San Diego, California, is now the third CPU supplier for Windows notebooks. And before Intel launches its Core Ultra 200 processors (“Lunar Lake”) and AMD its Ryzen AI 300 CPUs (“Strix Point”) were ready for the market, the CPUs of the Snapdragon X series also the only processors to receive Microsoft’s Copilot+ certification for extensive use of Microsoft’s AI applications.
Disadvantage: The Elite and Plus variants were expensive computing units, so there were no notebooks for under 1,000 euros until now. That is now set to change with two cheaper 8-core CPUs that the company, founded in 1985, presented in the run-up to IFA 2024. Qualcomm also classifies them in the Snapdragon X Plus series.
On the System-On/a-Chip (SoC), the X1P-46-100 model has eight “Oryon” cores with a base clock speed of 3.4 gigahertz, the X1P-42-100 variant works at a maximum of 3.2 gigahertz. A single core of the X1P-46-100 model can work briefly at up to 4.0 gigahertz for demanding tasks, while the smaller X1P-42-100 model can work at a maximum of 3.4 gigahertz. The two 8-core processors store calculated data in a 30 megabyte buffer.
All Snapdragon-X CPUs at a glance
|
platform
|
Snapdragon X10
|
Snapdragon X10
|
Snapdragon X10
|
Snapdragon 835
|
Snapdragon 835
|
Snapdragon 835
|
Snapdragon 835
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Model
|
X1E-84-100
|
X1E-80-100
|
X1E-78-100
|
X1P-66-100
|
X1P-64-100
|
X1P-46-100
|
X1P-42-100
|
|
Cores (CPUs)
|
12
|
12
|
12
|
10
|
10
|
8
|
8
|
|
Cache
|
42 megabytes
|
42 megabytes
|
42 megabytes
|
42 megabytes
|
42 megabytes
|
30 megabytes
|
30 megabytes
|
|
CPU clock (base)
|
3.8 gigahertz
|
3.4 gigahertz
|
3.4 gigahertz
|
3.4 gigahertz
|
3.4 gigahertz
|
3.4 gigahertz
|
3.4 gigahertz
|
|
CPU clock (boost; two cores)
|
4.2 gigahertz
|
4.0 gigahertz
|
no boost
|
4.0 gigahertz (single core only)
|
no boost
|
4.0 gigahertz (single core only)
|
3.4 gigahertz (only one core)
|
|
Graphics chip (GPU)
|
Adreno
|
Adreno
|
Adreno
|
Adreno
|
Adreno
|
Adreno
|
Adreno
|
|
GPU calculations / sec
|
4.6 teraFLOPS
|
3.8 teraFLOPS
|
3.8 teraFLOPS
|
3.8 teraFLOPS
|
3.8 teraFLOPS
|
2.1 teraFLOPS
|
1.7 teraFLOPS
|
|
AI unit
|
Hexagon NPU
|
Hexagon NPU
|
Hexagon NPU
|
Hexagon NPU
|
Hexagon NPU
|
Hexagon NPU
|
Hexagon NPU
|
|
AI Pace (Trillion Operations/sec.)
|
45 TOPS
|
45 TOPS
|
45 TOPS
|
45 TOPS
|
45 TOPS
|
45 TOPS
|
45 TOPS
|
|
Memory type (RAM)
|
LPDDR5x
|
LPDDR5x
|
LPDDR5x
|
LPDDR5x
|
LPDDR5x
|
LPDDR5x
|
LPDDR5x
|
|
RAM transfer rate (max.)
|
8448 MT/s
|
8448 MT/s
|
8448 MT/s
|
8448 MT/s
|
8448 MT/s
|
8448 MT/s
|
8448 MT/s
|
|
RAM size (max.)
|
64 gigabytes
|
64 gigabytes
|
64 gigabytes
|
64 gigabytes
|
64 gigabytes
|
64 gigabytes
|
64 gigabytes
|
|
SSD type
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
M.2 PCIe 4.0
|
|
Display type (max.)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
4K (120Hz)
|
|
WiFi
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
Wi-Fi 7
|
|
Bluetooth
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
Bluetooth5.4
|
|
Mobile phone (optional)
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
Snapdragon X65 5G
|
|
USB ports (max.)
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
3 x USB 4.0, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen2, 1 x USB 2.0
|
The following applies to both new SoCs: Depending on the laptop variant, notebook manufacturers can dock a 5G module for mobile Internet access to the SoC if required. Depending on the version, the network is accessed via the latest WiFi 7 or WiFi 6 (E). A memory card reader can also be connected to the SoC, Windows 11, users save programs and data on a M.2 SSD with PCI Express 4.0 connector – the newer PCI Express 5.0 SSDs cannot be operated at full speed on the Snapdragon-X platforms.
These two CPUs should now enable notebook manufacturers to offer cheaper laptops in the price range of 799 euros to 999 euros. Manufacturers such as Acer, Asus, Honor, HP, Lenovo and Samsung have already announced the first models – delivery is scheduled for the end of September.
Source: German