IFA 2024: Qualcomm Unveils Cheaper Snapdragon X Plus 8-Core Chip
Qualcomm on Wednesday announced the launch of the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core CPU, ahead of its upcoming IFA 2024 event in Berlin. The new Snapdragon chipset is a more affordable variant of the company’s 10-core Arm-based laptop processors that launched earlier this year, and is built on the same 4nm process technology. The chipset also features the same Oryon CPU cores as the company’s other X-series processors, and supports on-device artificial intelligence (AI) applications and features.
Snapdragon X Plus 8-Core Features
The octa-core Snapdragon X Plus chipset comes equipped with eight of Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU cores with 30MB of CPU cache — 12MB less than the more expensive X Plus chips — along with support for up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM. The X1P-42-100 variant has a peak clock speed of 3.2GHz and a 1.7 TFLOPS Adreno GPU, while the X1P-46-100 chip has a slightly higher clock speed of 3.4GHz with a faster 2.1 TFLOPS GPU.
The Adreno GPU on the recently announced Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processors supports up to three external displays at 4K resolution with a 60Hz refresh rate. Meanwhile, the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU is capable of up to 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS) for on-device AI features on compatible applications.
Qualcomm says the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chip will support PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD or UFS 4.0 storage. Devices equipped with the processor will also be able to support cameras up to 36 megapixels with support for 4K HDR video recording via the company’s Spectra ISP.
The Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chipset
Photo Credit: Qualcomm
The Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF system on the processor supports mmWave and Sub-6GHz 5G networks with download speeds of up to 10Gbps. The Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 mobile connectivity system supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. Computers equipped with the chipset can also be equipped with up to three USB 4.0 ports.
Qualcomm also claims that the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chipset is capable of delivering up to twice the battery life of its nearest competitor — the Intel Core Ultra 7 155U processor. It’s currently unclear how the chip performs against Apple’s power-efficient M2 chip.
Availability Snapdragon X Plus 8-Core
Computers powered by the new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core chipset are available starting today from OEMs including Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung. Ahead of IFA 2024, Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano Amon said that pricing for these laptops will start at $799 (roughly Rs. 67,100).
