We only recently stumbled upon some new spec information about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and news of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has already begun to circulate. For 2024, Qualcomm‘s flagship SoC should be the first to feature custom Nuvia cores. Thanks to mass production on TSMC’s N3E process, the silicon is said to be not only power-efficient, but its rumored multi-threading numbers show an impressive leap forward, offering faster performance than Apple’s M2.
Nuvia cores, also known as Oryon, are rumored to provide up to 40% multi-core performance boost to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
Revegnus said in his tweet that since Apple appears to have secured most of TSMC’s 3nm chip supply for its products, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be based on the manufacturer’s N3E process, the second-generation 3nm node. The release is expected to offer improved performance and energy efficiency numbers over the first iteration, and according to the tipster, the proof seems to be in the multi-core numbers.
Not only is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 said to ditch ARM’s CPU design in favor of its custom Oryon cores, but the switch is said to offer up to a 40% multi-core performance boost compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. In a tweet, Revegnus pointed out that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can hit 6,500 on Geekbench 5′s multi-threaded benchmark, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 can break the 9,000 mark on the same test, and in the process Beyond the M2. For reference, the M2 can score between 8,800 and 9,000 in Geekbench 5.
According to the specs listed in the tweet, Qualcomm will feature two “Nuvia Phoenix” performance cores and six “Nuvia Phoenix M” efficiency cores. However, we think the official name may be based on Oryon, since Nuvia is the name of the company Qualcomm acquired to develop these custom CPU designs. The difference in single-core scores between the two generations of chipsets is only 15%, so it’s possible that Apple’s A18 Bionic will beat it in that one test without much trouble, although it’s too early to comment. In addition to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, Qualcomm is also said to be working on a SoC with a 12-core CPU (8 performance cores and 4 energy efficiency cores), called the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4. However, unlike the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which may be found in smartphones, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 could power compact and light laptops thanks to an extensive spec leak that talks about NVMe, external GPU support, and more .
While the latest rumors have us excited, Revegnus hasn’t provided any evidence for these numbers, so take those details with a grain of salt until we confirm them.
Post time: Mar-28-2023