Qualcomm Raises the Bar on Thin, Light PC Performance With New CPU

The new Snapdragon X Plus 8-core is designed to uphold high-performance standards while extending battery life by multiple days on Copilot+ PCs.

This week, Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor, a new X Series member designed specifically to meet modern computing needs. 

Different offerings in the Snapdragon X series.

With hybrid work environments and digital collaboration becoming more prominent, users expect devices that can balance performance with battery life, all while handling complex tasks like video editing, gaming, and AI-based workloads. These demands call for processors that can handle intense computational loads while maintaining power efficiency.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Plus 8-core is a high-end processor that offers a blend of high performance, power efficiency, and advanced AI processing capabilities.

Snapdragon X Plus 8-Core Architecture

Built on a 4nm process node, the CPU (product brief linked) utilizes Qualcomm's Oryon architecture, featuring eight cores with a maximum clock speed of 4.0 GHz for single-core operations. The processor benefits from a large 30-MB cache to enhance multithreaded and latency-sensitive applications. Its memory subsystem supports LPDDR5x RAM, delivering a bandwidth of 135 GB/s and a transfer rate of 8,448 MT/s, optimizing multitasking and AI workloads.

The Adreno GPU drives graphics performance with 2.1 TFLOPS for demanding graphical tasks and gaming. The Qualcomm Hexagon NPU anchors AI performance, providing 45 TOPS and enabling efficient machine learning and neural network tasks. Additionally, dual micro NPUs on the Qualcomm Sensing Hub enhance low-power AI processing for tasks such as voice recognition and environmental sensing.

Performance specifications of the Snapdragon X series. 

The X Plus 8-core also features a video processing unit (VPU), particularly for high-definition video streaming and multimedia tasks. The Qualcomm Adreno VPU supports 4K UHD encoding at 30 frames per second with H.264, HEVC (H.265), and AV1 video formats, ensuring efficient compression and high-quality output for video recording. On the playback side, the device handles 4K UHD 60 fps decoding, supporting both 8-bit and 10-bit formats. Its advanced concurrency capabilities also allow simultaneous 4K video decoding and 1080p video encoding.

Snapdragon X Plus 8-Core Connectivity

The processor integrates Qualcomm’s FastConnect 7800 Mobile Connectivity System, which supports Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. The Wi-Fi operates in the 6 GHz, 5 GHz, and 2.4 GHz spectral bands and supports up to four concurrent spatial streams.

Additionally, a Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System unlocks peak cellular download speeds of 10 Gbps and peak upload speeds of 3.5 Gbps. The Modem offers 1,000-MHz bandwidth for mmWave, 300-MHz bandwidth for sub-6 GHz, and various other features, including Dynamic Spectrum Sharing and Qualcomm’s 5G PowerSave.

Display capabilities support up to three external UHD monitors at 60 Hz, making it suitable for multi-display setups. The Snapdragon X Plus also features advanced AV1 video codec support for 4K HDR streaming, while the Spectra ISP supports up to 36 MP cameras with 4K HDR video capture.

The Impact of Snapdragon X Plus

According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon X Plus 8-core processor can deliver 61% faster CPU performance and 179% less power than competing offerings. The CPU responds to the growing need for high-efficiency computing in AI, immersive graphics, and digital collaboration. As hybrid work continues to evolve, the demand for processors capable of handling AI workloads, multi-display setups, and real-time communication will only increase. Select PCs from Acer, ASUS, Dell Technologies, HP, Lenovo, and Samsung powered by the 8-core are now available on the market.