Qualcomm is reportedly increasing the clock speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, its upcoming flagship smartphone chipset. The company is aiming for a peak CPU frequency of 4.26GZ, up around 7% from the previous target of 4.0GHz. This change will allow the new SoC to compete with Apple‘s A18 and A18 Pro processors for the next-gen iPhones. Qualcomm decided to redesign its chip after Apple launched its M4 chip with the new iPads last week.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might get a CPU redesign
Qualcomm will unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 at its annual Snapdragon Summit sometime in October this year. The company was expected to finalize its design around April. That is because chipmakers usually start sampling their latest offerings to partners and potential clients several months before mass production. However, a fresh rumor passed along X says Qualcomm won’t finalize the new Snapdragon’s design before June.
According to X user @jasonwill101, Qualcomm plans to redesign the Snapdragn 8 Gen 4 to speed up its CPU. The source isn’t 100% sure about the authenticity of the information that has reached them but rumors are that the company decided to go back to the drawing board following Apple’s M4 launch. The new iPad processor is incredibly powerful, and Apple will surely bring some of that power to its next iPhone chipsets, the A18 and A18 Pro.
As such, Qualcomm is reevaluating the Snapdragn 8 Gen 4’s CPU design to make it faster. The new targeted frequency of 4.26GHz could result in a massive boost in single-core performance. Coupled with its rumored “2+6” all-big-core CPU cluster (two prime cores and size mid-cores with no efficiency core), the chipset should deliver impressive multi-core performance too. Whether Qualcomm surpasses Apple, time will tell.
The chip will be fabricated on the same TSMC node as Apple M4
Qualcomm will use TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process to manufacture the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. That’s the same process Apple used for its M4 and will use for the A18 and A18 Pro. With a faster CPU, the new Snapdragon may be on par with the upcoming A-series Apple chips in raw performance. Qualcomm may have another reason to incorporate a faster CPU on the new chipset. It reportedly lacks Scalable Matrix Extension (SME).
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be reportedly based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chipset for Windows PCs. Since it does not support the ARMv9 instructions set, the new Snapdragon will lack SME. Effectively, it cannot manage complex workloads as efficiently as the M4. The lack of efficiency cores might also result in overheating when pushed to the limits. OEMs might have to rely on larger cooling systems to compensate for it. More details about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 should surface in the coming months.
2024-05-13 15:06:06