Qualcomm Unveils Snapdragon X Elite, Aims to Rival Apple, Intel and AMD with High-Performance, Energy-Efficient PC Processor

New Snapdragon X Elite chip, developed by Qualcomm's Apple-influenced Nuvia subsidiary, is said to offer superior performance and power efficiency, aiming to boost the transition from traditional x86 CPUs to Arm chips for PCs; products expected in mid-2024.

Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X Elite, a high-performance, energy-efficient PC processor designed to rival Apple, Intel, and AMD. It was developed by the company's Apple-influenced Nuvia subsidiary.
The chip, the first significant product of Qualcomm's acquisition of Nuvia, uses a new CPU core architecture known as Oryon, supporting 12-core CPUs.
The Snapdragon X Elite is reportedly faster than an Intel Core i7 13800H and can match its performance with 65% less power. It also claims to outperform AMD's 780M GPU with 80% less power consumption.
The new chip leverages AI functionality, with Qualcomm claiming its Hexagon neural processing unit can support 45 trillion operations per second, nearly three times that of Apple's M2 chips.
Although the Snapdragon X Elite is designed for Windows laptops, a key test of its success will be its ability to smoothly run legacy x86 code and apps, similar to Apple's M1 chips.
Products featuring the Snapdragon X Elite are expected to hit the market in mid-2024.