Discussion Qualcomm Snapdragon Thread

Page 23 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
Different speeds and possibly lower/higher power versions. Bin quality plays a role there. I don't think it makes sense to make two chips. The second one would have to be much smaller and at that point it would be budget mobile chip (or Chromebook chip at best).

I mean... in the past Qualcomm used to make a lower end 7c series in addition to the flagship 8cx series. Those had different dies for sure.

Since they have retired the old naming scheme, the successor to the 7c+ Gen 3 will come under the Snapdragon X branding.

Also I don't think the Snapdragon X Elite is suitable to address the <$600 chromebook market. It would be too expensive. So there is incentive to make a second die, with a 64 bit memory bus I guess.
 
Mar 11, 2004
23,077
5,559
146

Do you guys think the Snapdragon X Plus is it's own die, or derived from the X Elite's die?

Ugh, can one company name their products in a sensible manner?

Er, didn't Qualcomm show off benchmarks where their GPU stomped AMD/Intel? But now its rated at about 4.5TF? I was expecting a GPU comparable to AMD's big APU coming later this year. Instead, its half of what Hawk Point is rated for. That's disappointing as I was hoping this chip would maybe offer some competition for gaming handhelds.
 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
Ugh, can one company name their products in a sensible manner?

Er, didn't Qualcomm show off benchmarks where their GPU stomped AMD/Intel? But now its rated at about 4.5TF? I was expecting a GPU comparable to AMD's big APU coming later this year. Instead, its half of what Hawk Point is rated for. That's disappointing as I was hoping this chip would maybe offer some competition for gaming handhelds.

Are you using Teraflops to calculate performance? That's a fool's errand. Everyone knows that GPUs of different architectures should not be compared using Teraflops.

Hence why benchmarks exist. They are better metric to compare performance.

 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
I realize that yes. But as for why, area. M3 is almost double (or 66% more) GPU cores than the iPhone 15 and M2 is double the 4/5c A15 stuff at 8/10. Apple does still raise clocks some ofc.

I don’t think Qualcomm added as many units, they added some I believe to the 740 but most of it seems like the result of basically doubling the frequency from the 660-750mhz range to 1.4GHz from the rumors, which brings us from that 2-2.2tflops range to the 4.6TFLOPs, albeit obviously perf/w will suffer a bit.

This explains what I had been grappling with a few months ago: Why did X Elite GPU consume 4x the power of the 8G2 GPU, while delivering only 2x the performance.

It also explains how Qualcomm managed to fit 12P cores, a 45 TOPS NPU and a performant GPU in a 172 mm² die.



X Elite Gen 2 will reportedly use overclocked Adreno 830.

For reference, Adreno 830 will be the GPU in Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. It's performance matches X Elite GPU and is 10% faster than M2 in 3DMark WLE.
 
Reactions: Ghostsonplanets

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106

Qualcomm will hold an event on March 18 to release a new mobile SoC.

They haven't specified which, but it is believed to be the 8s Gen 3. The 7+ Gen 3 may also be announced at the same event.

I wonder if they'll drop any details about Snapdragon X Elite, or the even more elusive X Plus?
 

SpudLobby

Senior member
May 18, 2022
578
366
96
This explains what I had been grappling with a few months ago: Why did X Elite GPU consume 4x the power of the 8G2 GPU, while delivering only 2x the performance.

Yeah it was obvious. They just thought “well we already have an efficient GPU arch and it’s good enough at 5-15W, so we’ll just add one GPU core(?) and gun it”.

Which honestly, that’s fine. Still better than Intel and AMD current gen and at worst will tie them in 10-15W stuff next gen, and I would be willing to bet still better below 10W.

And yep see they’re gonna do it again with the 830. Might have an extra few hundred ALUs but basically a supercharged one.
It also explains how Qualcomm managed to fit 12P cores, a 45 TOPS NPU and a performant GPU in a 172 mm² die.
It explains it kind of, yeah, Adreno 740 looks like it’s what 1/4 to 1/7th of the die on the 8 Gen 2? Right? It’s already huge. Like if Qualcomm made it 66%% larger what’re they adding, 10-18mm^2?

Still would make the part a bit larger than Phoenix (like 188mm^2) assuming A740 is 20-30mm^2.



I think another reason they’re able to make it so area efficient is partially that wrt the GPU area and efficiency, and not splurging on display engines, but also — their cache structure allows them to, and their cores probably aren’t as big as they’d be if they targeted 4.8-5.2GHz. They try for 4.3 (at least on two clusters), but that might really blow things up past that.

And remember AMD still have like 24MB of cache total with their 8 cores not including L1. Qualcomm basically just have L2 totalling 36MB. That’s more for QC but not too crazy
 

SpudLobby

Senior member
May 18, 2022
578
366
96

1800 Euros for the X Elite in a Book 4 Edge (Edge being the Arm branding version) with a 16/512GB config.

An M3 in an MBP with that config is about 1759 Euros.

And the Intel version of this is 1900 Euros starting.

But most interesting is — what will the marginal pricing be like for more RAM/SSD?
 
Reactions: Tlh97 and FlameTail

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
Yeah it was obvious. They just thought “well we already have an efficient GPU arch and it’s good enough at 5-15W, so we’ll just add one GPU core(?) and gun it”.

Which honestly, that’s fine. Still better than Intel and AMD current gen and at worst will tie them in 10-15W stuff next gen, and I would be willing to bet still better below 10W.

And yep see they’re gonna do it again with the 830. Might have an extra few hundred ALUs but basically a supercharged one.

To be frank, I dislike this strategy. I wished Qualcomm would simply double the ALU count instead of bazooking the clock speed. Spend the transistors, spend the die area. Give us the pinaccle of efficiency. Perhaps that wish derives from that part in me which wants Snapdragon X to be the Apple Silicon equivalent for Windows. This is a concept I made a while back, where I assumed Qualcomm would not cost cut on the transistor budget:



But I can understand Qualcomm'a choice. Unlike Apple, they have to sell the chips to OEMs and still make a profit.


It explains it kind of, yeah, Adreno 740 looks like it’s what 1/4 to 1/7th of the die on the 8 Gen 2? Right? It’s already huge. Like if Qualcomm made it 66%% larger what’re they adding, 10-18mm^2?

Still would make the part a bit larger than Phoenix (like 188mm^2) assuming A740 is 20-30mm^2.

Here's die shots of 8 Gen 3 and 8 Gen 2:



The other absolutely huge thing is the Image Signal Processor.
 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106

1800 Euros for the X Elite in a Book 4 Edge (Edge being the Arm branding version) with a 16/512GB config.

An M3 in an MBP with that config is about 1759 Euros.

And the Intel version of this is 1900 Euros starting.

But most interesting is — what will the marginal pricing be like for more RAM/SSD?

That should be... $1500 in the US?
 

SpudLobby

Senior member
May 18, 2022
578
366
96
That should be... $1500 in the US?
Yeah and in practice I think this stuff does go on sale, the MSRP is kind of fake. All that matters to me is that the Intel version is like 100 euros more, tells us the Snapdragon itself probably isn't uniquely expensive or something.

Marginal RAM/SSD pricing would be interesting to see from Samsung, Lenovo, and Microsoft though.

But honestly Samsung is nontrivial but more as a halo in a way for ultraportables, sure it helps but it's NBD. I am more interested to see these three:

Lenovo
HP
Dell
 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106

McGuire has said some interesting things.

“I think in this first phase, you’re going to see traditional chassis along the brand lines that these PC OEMs have already established,” McGuire commented. Following this he highlighted two products in particular: “So a Surface Pro is still a Surface Pro, and a Lenovo Yoga is still a Lenovo Yoga.”

Looking further afield, McGuire highlighted how this first phase will run through “the back to school holiday,” and then you’ll see OEMs “get into their next cycles.” What does this next cycle look like?

“It’s not just about the fact that our platforms are small and energy efficient, but it’s going to be about this idea of distributed compute,” McGuire ponders. This is something he spoke to us at length about when defining what an AI PC is — simply put, it’s not just one device, it’s multiple AI-enable devices coming together to form a anticipatory, proactive assistant in your life.

And sure, there are other more physical elements that McGuire does talk about, such as the miniaturization of the Snapdragon X Elite component meaning that laptop makers could add a bigger battery into its chassis, but he sees a future in his metaphorical crystal ball surrounding how “use cases are being distributed across different device form factors within a person’s daily life.”

That last part is intriguing. Is it alluding to on-package memory?
 
Jul 27, 2020
16,344
10,356
106
Why is the gap in 7-zip so much narrower?
Probably not optimized very well for WoA yet. Visual Studio is obviously going to be decently optimized coz Microsoft wants WoA to succeed and they actually develop the compiler so they know how to make it fly on ARM.
 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
Not strictly Snapdragon news, but Qualcomm related nonetheless:


This is big news for Qualcomm's cloud/server aspirations.

Cerebras has selected Qualcomm's Cloud AI 100 Ultra to be paired with their wafer-scale processors. The product will be available starting Q2/Q3 2024.
 

gdansk

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2011
2,123
2,630
136
Big news for cloud/server? You had me all excited that it could be mean a Nuvia-derived server CPU of sorts. It looks like it is a PCIe and M.2 add-in card for inference made on 7nm. Like Versal AI or Gaudi. Well, I guess it might do well in AI hype market but there's a lot of competition in that space presently.

I would also like to complain that Qualcomm makes it difficult to access information about the Cloud AI 100 processors in particular the SDK.
Since other people complained about AMD requiring an account to download a development-mode driver, I'd note there's even less open documentation here and they require company verification (why) to download the SDK and documentation. Of course, I'm not the target market but I was bored enough to read more about it if I could have.
 
Reactions: moinmoin

Nothingness

Platinum Member
Jul 3, 2013
2,423
754
136
Probably not optimized very well for WoA yet. Visual Studio is obviously going to be decently optimized coz Microsoft wants WoA to succeed and they actually develop the compiler so they know how to make it fly on ARM.
It looks like the Arm specific part was not updated for 2 years: https://github.com/ip7z/7zip/tree/main/Asm/arm64
If you compare against x86 code, you'll also notice that it has more hand-written code than the Arm counterpart: https://github.com/ip7z/7zip/tree/main/Asm/x86
 
Reactions: igor_kavinski

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106

The most intriguing thing is that it seems the Surface Pro 10 and Surface Laptop 6 exclusively come in the ARM version (Snapdragon X). No x86, no Intel.

This is groundbreaking. I did not expect Microsoft to pull an Apple, and ditch Intel/x86 entirely. I was expecting the Snapdragon X Elite version to co-exist alongside the Meteor Lake one.

If anything this shows Microsoft is throwing their gauntlet into Windows On ARM. It reflects that they have high confidence in it's capability.
 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
Of course it kinda makes sense why Microsoft is going to release the SL6 and SP10 with only Snapdragon X. The X Elite is more performant and more efficient than Meteor Lake.

The other caveat is that (as per the same report) Microsoft is indeed going to release a Surface Pro and Surface Laptop with Meteor Lake. However, these Meteor Lake versions are for business (not consumers), and they will not be called SP10 and SL6, but rather SP9+ and SL5+ or some other branding.

 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
Geekerwan reviews the new Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3






SPEC CPU power curve😍
 
Last edited:

MarkizSchnitzel

Senior member
Nov 10, 2013
404
32
91
I don't get these graphs. By these graphs, 8G3 is more efficient then 7+G3 and any other SOC in every scenario, and we know from devices that this is not the case.
So what gives? The graphs are embellished?
 

gdansk

Platinum Member
Feb 8, 2011
2,123
2,630
136
and we know from devices that this is not the case.
Do we?
The chart shows 8G3 is about as efficient at around 2W in GB5 MT but pulls away after that.
And the 3rd chart shows that sub 1.5W (per core?) the A720 is more efficient in SPEC than X4.
I'm not saying it is perfect but generally... in line with expectations.
 
Reactions: Tlh97 and hemedans

hemedans

Member
Jan 31, 2015
194
96
101
I don't get these graphs. By these graphs, 8G3 is more efficient then 7+G3 and any other SOC in every scenario, and we know from devices that this is not the case.
So what gives? The graphs are embellished?
Yes 8 gen 3 is more efficient than 7+ gen 3 even in devices, check video he test some games and 7+ gen 3 was meh, devices with 8 gen 3 have Excellent battery life, so it can replicate that efficiency in real life too.
 

FlameTail

Platinum Member
Dec 15, 2021
2,356
1,274
106
I don't get these graphs. By these graphs, 8G3 is more efficient then 7+G3 and any other SOC in every scenario, and we know from devices that this is not the case.
So what gives? The graphs are embellished?
The idea is that in low-load workloads, the 8G3 will consume less power than 7+ G3. But when you push them with a high load, 8G3 will consume more power than 7+ G3.

That does not mean it is less efficient, as yhe 8G3 would still deliver higher "FPS per watt" in games for instance.

Smartphone reviewers have noted this when comparing flagship and midrange phones.
 
sale-70-410-exam    | Exam-200-125-pdf    | we-sale-70-410-exam    | hot-sale-70-410-exam    | Latest-exam-700-603-Dumps    | Dumps-98-363-exams-date    | Certs-200-125-date    | Dumps-300-075-exams-date    | hot-sale-book-C8010-726-book    | Hot-Sale-200-310-Exam    | Exam-Description-200-310-dumps?    | hot-sale-book-200-125-book    | Latest-Updated-300-209-Exam    | Dumps-210-260-exams-date    | Download-200-125-Exam-PDF    | Exam-Description-300-101-dumps    | Certs-300-101-date    | Hot-Sale-300-075-Exam    | Latest-exam-200-125-Dumps    | Exam-Description-200-125-dumps    | Latest-Updated-300-075-Exam    | hot-sale-book-210-260-book    | Dumps-200-901-exams-date    | Certs-200-901-date    | Latest-exam-1Z0-062-Dumps    | Hot-Sale-1Z0-062-Exam    | Certs-CSSLP-date    | 100%-Pass-70-383-Exams    | Latest-JN0-360-real-exam-questions    | 100%-Pass-4A0-100-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-300-135-exams-date    | Passed-200-105-Tech-Exams    | Latest-Updated-200-310-Exam    | Download-300-070-Exam-PDF    | Hot-Sale-JN0-360-Exam    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Exams    | 100%-Pass-JN0-360-Real-Exam-Questions    | Dumps-JN0-360-exams-date    | Exam-Description-1Z0-876-dumps    | Latest-exam-1Z0-876-Dumps    | Dumps-HPE0-Y53-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-HPE0-Y53-Exam    | 100%-Pass-HPE0-Y53-Real-Exam-Questions    | Pass-4A0-100-Exam    | Latest-4A0-100-Questions    | Dumps-98-365-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-98-365-Exam    | 100%-Pass-VCS-254-Exams    | 2017-Latest-VCS-273-Exam    | Dumps-200-355-exams-date    | 2017-Latest-300-320-Exam    | Pass-300-101-Exam    | 100%-Pass-300-115-Exams    |
http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    | http://www.portvapes.co.uk/    |