Well, this sure isn’t going to re-ignite the x86 vs. ARM performance arguments, right? Early, admittedly controlled, benchmarks from the new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme show it wiping the floor with top new CPUs from AMD and Intel in both single-core and multi-core performance.
Here are the results from Geekbench 6.5 and how they compare against the likes of the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V and Qualcomm’s original Snapdragon X Elite as tested by PCWorld. Note that some of these results come from Geekbench 6.1, but they should still be comparable.
In a similar fashion, the new Snapdragon trounces both x86 and its predecessor in Cinebench 2024. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) has an 18-core CPU – 12 Prime cores running at 4.4GHz with all cores active (and boosting to 5.0GHz when thermals allow) and six Performance cores running at 3.6GHz (no boost for these).
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: Geekbench 6.5 • Cinebench 2024
Qualcomm announced three chips in the X2 generation – the X2 Elite Extreme (96), X2 Elite (88) and X2 Elite (80) with different CPU, GPU and cache configurations, though the same 80 TOPS NPU (more on that in a bit). However, during the launch event, the company allowed only the top chip (Elite Extreme) to be tested and in Qualcomm-controlled circumstances. Still, journalists were allowed to observe the tests running.
The tests were done with laptops plugged into the wall rather than running off battery. According to Qualcomm, performance is the same either way. Here are the expected test scores, according to internal testing:
Expected benchmark results for the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme
Additionally, the test devices had 48GB of DDR5X RAM, though it’s not clear whether that was soldered on-chip RAM or external RAM in slots. The X2 Elite Extreme supports both options, while the other two Elites only use external RAM (up to 128GB). There’s a trade-off – soldered RAM is faster, slots make laptops user-upgradeable since sticks are easy to swap. Also worth noting is that the Extreme chip has a wider 192-bit memory interface (228GB/s) than the other two chips, which have 128-bit buses (152GB/s).
Alright, GPU tests next. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme has an Adreno X2-90 GPU running at up to 1.85GHz. In 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, the Snapdragon was 80% ahead of Intel’s iGPU (Arc 140V) and AMD’s iGPU (Radeon 890M). Compared to its predecessor, the improvement is a massive 2.6x.
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme: 3DMark Steel Nomad Light • UL Procyon Vision
With every hardware and software company rushing out to announce new AI features, the NPU matters a ton. The new 80 TOPS (INT8) comes close to tripling the performance of the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-80-100) and it similarly leaves Intel’s AI acceleration in its rear view mirror. That’s better than the TOPS rating would have you believe, considering the original X Elite NPU is rated at 45 TOPS.
The first devices with the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips should be released in Spring 2026. Hopefully, we will see benchmarks of the two non-Extreme chips by then.
