Snapdragon X Elite beats AMD and Intel flagship mobile CPUs in Geekbench 6 – Qualcomm's new laptop chip leads in single- and multi-core tests

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ARM closes the gap with x86.

Snapdragon X Elite
(Image credit: Qualcomm)

@techinmul on X (Twitter) shared performance figures for Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite CPU in Geekbench 6. The ARM CPU's results are incredibly potent, performing on par with Intel's Core i7-13700HX, Core i9-13900H, and AMD's latest Ryzen 9 8945HS mobile flagship. If these numbers match real-world performance, Qualcomm's new ARM-based laptop chip will be able to perform on par with some of the best hardware Intel and AMD have to offer today.

The Snapdragon X Elite scored 2,427 points in Geekbench 6's single-core test and 14,254 points in the benchmark's multi-core test. Compared to Intel's plethora of high-end Core i7 and Core i9 Raptor Lake mobile CPUs, and AMD's top Ryzen 8000-series mobile CPUs, Qualcomm's new chip outperforms them.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite vs. AMD and Intel mobile CPUs
CPUsSingle-CoreMulti-Core
Snapdragon X Elite2,42714,254
Core i9-13900H2,33710,591
Core i7-13700HX2,28411,636
Ryzen 9 8945HS2,37411,650

In the single-core test the Snapdragon chip outperformed the i9-13900H by 3.7%, the i7-13700HX by 5.9%, and Ryzen 9 8945HS by 2.2%. In the multi-core test, the Snapdragon X Elite beat the 13900H by 25.7%, the 13700HX by 18.4%, and the 8945HS by 18.3%.

Assuming these results showcase the Snapdragon's real-world performance; Qualcomm has an incredibly potent chip on its hands. We already knew from previous official coverage that the Snapdragon X Elite would be very fast with its 12 Oryon cores, 42MB of cache, and 4.3GHz peak turbo frequency. These Geekbench 6 results serve as additional confirmation that Qualcomm has reached its performance goals with the Snapdragon X Elite.

Qualcomm is targeting "best-in-class" multi-threaded performance with the Snapdragon X Elite. Unlike its previous laptop chips, Qualcomm is aiming to compete with the best laptop CPUs in the industry. Qualcomm has already revealed that its new chip is 60% more performant than the i7-13800H, and is twice as fast as Intel's i7-1355U and i7-1360P while sipping just a third of the power.

Qualcomm is also going after Apple, which is its main competitor when it comes to ARM-based laptop CPUs. Qualcomm states that the Snapdragon X Elite provides 50% better peak multi-threaded performance than the Apple M2.

We do need to temper these results somewhat, as Geekbench 6 isn't always the best indicator of real-world performance. Still, these results suggest Qualcomm can certainly compete with the best x86 chip makers in the PC landscape, just like Apple. Apple showed that ARM CPUs can be fast and efficient, and Qualcomm is now providing those capabilities in a mainstream Windows 11 solution.

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Aaron Klotz
Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

46 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DavidMV
    This is great news. A duopoly (Intel & AMD) is never good enough for real competition. Adding Apple and Qualcomm into the PC CPU market will definitely help. We probably need a couple more. Still rooting for Intel GPUs too!
    Reply
  • Roland Of Gilead
    Do ARM CPU's employ HT/SMT type tech or is this 12 pure (performance cores). Would the multi scores be even worse for Intel/AMD with HT/SMT off?

    This is an impressive showing. I know it's but one bench, but the numbers seem to tally. With it's efficiency, this could be great news for battery life on Laptops.
    Reply
  • Notton
    With those scores, even if it were 30% slower in real world applications, it'd still be pretty darn fast for only using 10~23W.

    10W is what passively cooled Alder Lake N100 uses, and that only has the performance of an i7-2600k from 10yrs ago.
    Reply
  • Gururu
    This is pretty exciting but very preliminary. I dont think we will see competitive mid-range laptops with these chips for a while and only if Qualcomm keeps at it.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    After 5 years of reading about the whole Nuvia saga, I think I can wait until it reaches the hands of independent reviewers and undergoes a full array of tests. I think we all know Geek Bench can be misleading, especially when comparing different CPU ISAs. At least the OS should be the same.

    BTW, what's the state of the ARM litigation?

    Speaking of litigation, I'll bet Apple is going to hit Qualcomm with a bunch of patent infringement claims, as soon as they get one of these machines into their labs and start analyzing it. There's no way the Nuvia team didn't reuse any of the stuff they patented while at Apple.
    Reply
  • bit_user
    Gururu said:
    I dont think we will see competitive mid-range laptops with these chips for a while
    It's up to Qualcomm. If they were smart, they should price these like mid-range x86 chips. They could take a big chunk of the market, that way.

    Do I think they will??🤣
    Reply
  • bit_user
    DavidMV said:
    This is great news. A duopoly (Intel & AMD) is never good enough for real competition. Adding Apple and Qualcomm into the PC CPU market will definitely help. We probably need a couple more.
    I think MediaTek is rumored to be aiming for this market, probably with a SoC featuring Cortex-X4 + A720 cores and possibly a Nvidia iGPU. CPU performance won't be as fast, but it could be competitive at the lower-end.

    Then, there's that rumor of AMD & Nvidia entering the ARM laptop market, next year.

    Roland Of Gilead said:
    Do ARM CPU's employ HT/SMT type tech or is this 12 pure (performance cores).
    No. There have been some ARM ISA cores with SMT, but none of the mainstream cores you'd find in phones or laptops. So far, ARM cores with SMT have only appeared in some (defunct) server CPUs and embedded cores.

    Notton said:
    10W is what passively cooled Alder Lake N100 uses, and that only has the performance of an i7-2600k from 10yrs ago.
    A better point of comparison, for the N100, would be the i5-6600T (35W Skylake, 4 cores/4 threads). The two perform quite comparably, in the tests I've seen.
    Reply
  • Flayed
    I must be missing something but I don't understand how these chips can run Windows. Does Qualcomm have an x86 license?
    Reply
  • abufrejoval
    Flayed said:
    I must be missing something but I don't understand how these chips can run Windows. Does Qualcomm have an x86 license?
    Two ways:
    1) The code is compiled for AARCH64 (faster, different binaries)
    2) The code is transpiled (or binary translated) from x86 to AARCH64 on the fly via a technology originally developed by Transitive, that's also been used for the Power to x86 transition at the Fruity Cult.

    Unfortunately IBM bought the company and the patents when people like Gene Amdahl thought it was a good idea to run z/Arch mainframe code like this on less expensive hardware, and they've only let it out in bits and pieces e.g. to allow the reverse, running x86 on z/Arch machines.

    Windows (NT) was originally developed by Dave Cutler (of VMS fame) as portable between architectures and used to support quite a few of them, e.g. Alpha, Power and Itanic among them.
    Reply
  • abufrejoval
    Admin said:
    The Snapdragon X Elite has show up in Geekbench 6, and it's beating the top mobile CPUs from AMD and Intel. It's another impressive result for Qualcomm's new ARM laptop CPU.

    Snapdragon X Elite beats AMD and Intel flagship mobile CPUs in Geekbench 6 – Qualcomm's new laptop chip leads in single- and multi-core tests : Read more
    For me the real question is: is this all about replacing a locked down appliance from one vendor with a locked down appliance from another vendor or is it the rebirth of the PC under a new ISA?

    Nobody needs rotten apples from Microsoft!
    Reply