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Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite variant rumored to have 50% more CPU cores — New chip with 18 cores and 64GB RAM is reportedly already in testing

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And the certainty that these SoCs will pack 18 Oryon V3 cores continues to grow.

Lenovo Snapdragon X mini-PC
(Image credit: Lenovo)

A seasoned tech tipster has stated that Qualcomm is testing Snapdragon X2 Elite devices in configurations with 64GB of RAM. Roland Quandt, best known for his exclusives published via Germany’s WinFuture.de, stated this weekend that the “SC8480XP aka SD X2 Elite [is] in testing with 64GB RAM.” He is also more convinced than ever that this upcoming Oryon V3 CPU architecture chip will come packing 18 cores.

PC enthusiasts are hopeful that Qualcomm has learnt some lessons from its initial Snapdragon X Elite venture. It had a lot of help from Microsoft to spearhead Copilot PCs using the first Oryon architecture processors last June. However, interest in them fell sharply as AMD and Intel responded rather swiftly with their own power-sipping but potent AI/NPU-enhanced laptop processors.

The last time we heard murmurings about the touted SC8480XP was back in March. At the time, we highlighted that 18 cores would increase the CPU core count by 50% vs the first-gen Snapdragon X Elite. Moreover, the newer architecture is expected to deliver its own performance boost.

Rumors also point to the Snapdragon X2 Elite looking to push into the desktop side of the market, or even servers. This notion comes from chatter about Qualcomm testing chips like the SC8480XP with advanced cooling solutions, including a 120mm radiator toting AiO. That would mark quite an intergenerational change.

Moving on to other SoC specs, like onboard RAM, the last we heard, the SC8480XP was being tested in Qualcomm SiP (system in package) format with 48GB RAM on board, as well as a 1TB SSD storage on board. Now it looks like options with up to 64GB of RAM on board may be offered.

New processors expected in September

Quandt was at Computex 2025 and kept a keen eye on Qualcomm developments during the show. If his leaked info didn’t come via a Qualcomm contact, perhaps a device partner talked about upcoming SC8480XP configurations behind closed doors somewhere in Taipei. Whatever the source, please add a touch of salt to these leaks until we hear directly from Qualcomm or a device partner.

Since we’ve sailed by Computex without any official Snapdragon X2 Elite, or what might be called Snapdragon X2 Ultra Premium, news, we are most likely looking at the Snapdragon Summit 2025, in September, for Qualcomm to take the wraps off its next-gen processors. We will also hopefully see designs that Qualcomm’s partners have come up with to sell these Windows-on-Arm devices to us.

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Mark Tyson
Mark Tyson
News Editor

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • bit_user
    I'm just eager to see how much improvement Qualcomm can pack into these, given the previous ones were 1st gen. I'm hoping they can catch Apple (or, at least the performance of the last Apple cores to be made on whatever node Qualcomm ends up using).

    Also, I'm hoping they're ARMv9-A and feature a decent SVE2 implementation.
    Reply
  • Notton
    18 cores is all fine and dandy on a mobile chip, but what about the iGPU and memory bandwidth?

    IMO, the current benchmark to beat is SteamOS/bazzite/Linux on an Ryzen 7840/Z1X/Z2X for efficient and mobile, which is 8-core CPU, 12CU GPU, 120GB/s memory bandwidth.
    If you want to go money is no object, fully decked out mobile, you get a Ryzen 395 with 16-cores, 40CU, and 256GB/s memory bandwidth.

    and if you want overpriced, stuck on Win11, and 2 (now 3) generations behind, you get a Snapdragon X Elite with Adreno X1.
    Snapdragon is great on Android, but this Win11 foray feels illfated. The drivers feel as polished as Mediatek on Android.
    Reply
  • hush now
    Notton said:
    The drivers feel as polished as Mediatek on Android.
    there's nothing wrong with MediaTek on Android. the Dimensity 9400e is currently one of the most efficient SOC in the mobile world rn. Notebookcheck website confirmed it in a recent article with hands on benchmark tests.
    Reply
  • Notton
    hush now said:
    there's nothing wrong with MediaTek on Android. the Dimensity 9400e is currently one of the most efficient SOC in the mobile world rn. Notebookcheck website confirmed it in a recent article with hands on benchmark tests.
    Have you tried streaming a game on it, as in decoding over steam link (remote play), or moonlight/Artemis?
    because >30ms to decode video is unforgivable for such a high end device. Funny thing is, the low end G99 has similar decode times.
    Where as a Snapdragon 7 is <5ms. Even the SD680/685 will pull off <20ms.
    This is all 1080p/60 streaming.
    Reply
  • Overflow21
    Have to say it's basically useless to me rn.

    I rly love things like long battery life. However, Qualcomm seems reluctant to help with the Linux support. Needs to wait longer until at least the communities/canonical finished dealing with x elite.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Overflow21 said:
    Qualcomm seems reluctant to help with the Linux support. Needs to wait longer until at least the communities/canonical finished dealing with x elite.
    Huh? They seem quite active, from what I can tell:
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-X-Elite https://www.phoronix.com/news/Two-Years-Improving-ARM-Laptops https://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-Adreno-X1-85-GPU-Linux https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.15-Media-Subsystem https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.16-QCOM-USB-Audio-OLOAD
    Reply
  • Overflow21
    bit_user said:
    Huh? They seem quite active, from what I can tell:
    https://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-Snapdragon-X-Elitehttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Two-Years-Improving-ARM-Laptopshttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Qualcomm-Adreno-X1-85-GPU-Linuxhttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.15-Media-Subsystemhttps://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.16-QCOM-USB-Audio-OLOAD
    Yea but still far away from production ready

    https://www.phoronix.com/review/snapdragon-x-elite-linux-benchmarks
    I kept watching the progress since the release and, maybe I'm too pessimistic, to me I saw Qualcomm is losing their interest in supporting Linux. (I don't blame them cuz it didn't sell well even for windows laptops).

    On the other side, I totally understand it's pretty difficult to work on drivers, and that's why I'm still waiting for laptops from tuxedo to release.
    Reply
  • IBM296
    Whatever Qualcomm does, I hope they don't use the corny name of X2 Ultra Premium lol.

    Consumers already expect a premium package when they buy a product with the name Ultra in it. Imagine Samsung selling Galaxy S25 Ultra Premium or Apple selling Apple Watch Ultra 2 Premium lmao.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    bit_user said:
    Huh? They seem quite active, from what I can tell:
    Qualcomm seems somewhat lower than AMD-level active in the sense that they put out a barebones that barely works in some cases and then they hope that "the community" will pick up the slack on their behalf.

    How long have we been waiting for proper OpenCL on AMD cards? It seems to me to be like that on the same level or so.

    I don't see how it could be said that Qualcomm's Linux driver situation can be considered day-one supported in the same way it is on Windows.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    ezst036 said:
    How long have we been waiting for proper OpenCL on AMD cards? It seems to me to be like that on the same level or so.
    That's getting a bit off-topic, but AMD does support OpenCL on the ROCm-supported cards. What was "abandon-ware" was the CLover OpenCL they initially worked on, in Mesa. The community decided to dump that, in favor of RustiCL, which is now going quite well (not that I've personally used it, yet).

    ezst036 said:
    I don't see how it could be said that Qualcomm's Linux driver situation can be considered day-one supported in the same way it is on Windows.
    That wasn't the claim. The statement I responded to was that they're being "reluctant". Nothing in their activity, over the past few years, looks to me like reluctance. Sure, it's not at the level that I would like to see, but I wouldn't call it reluctant.
    Reply