Last week at the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm made headlines by announcing its next-generation line of PC chips, featuring the Snapdragon X2. This new series will be available in two distinct variants: the X2 Elite and the X2 Elite Extreme. During a benchmarking session held in beautiful Hawaii, I had the opportunity to closely examine the performance capabilities of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme using reference laptops provided by Qualcomm. Here’s a comprehensive overview of the insights gained from my experience and how these chips stack up against their closest competitors, including Apple’s MacBooks. (It’s worth noting that Qualcomm covered part of my travel expenses to attend the Snapdragon Summit, but they do not influence my reporting.)
To kick off the performance evaluation, I utilized Cinebench 2024, a renowned benchmark based on Maxon's Cinema 4D, widely recognized as a standard in the realms of 3D modeling and animation. This intensive application is cross-platform, making it an ideal choice for assessing peak performance levels. To my astonishment, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, equipped with 18 cores, delivered exceptional multi-core performance. The benchmark score I recorded was 1,974, showcasing a remarkable 62 percent increase over the base M4 chip found in a 15-inch MacBook Air. Notably, it also outperformed the M4 Pro in a 16-inch MacBook Pro by 15 percent, trailing only behind Apple's most potent laptop chip, the M4 Max.
In contrast, comparing the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme to current Intel offerings is almost futile. The previous Snapdragon X Elite had already established a lead against Intel's multi-core performance, particularly when matched against Intel's Lunar Lake chips like the Core Ultra 7 258V. As we look ahead, Intel is set to launch its next-gen Panther Lake chips this fall, which may bring some enhancements across their chip range, including improvements in single-core CPU and GPU performance.
Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon X2 Elite chips will achieve a 39 percent boost in single-core performance compared to their predecessor. My Cinebench score of 161 corroborates this claim, although it still lags behind Apple’s M4 chip, which has dominated single-core performance since its introduction in 2020. It’s also significant to note that the M4 has been available since late 2024, with rumors circulating about the M5’s imminent launch.
When it comes to integrated graphics, the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Elite Extreme present a promising outlook. The initial Snapdragon X chips were criticized for their underwhelming integrated graphics performance relative to Intel, AMD, and Apple options. While we await the competitors' launches in 2026, the generational improvements seen in the X2 Elite Extreme are substantial. The new graphics architecture reportedly boosts performance by up to 80 percent.
I conducted a test using 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, a common gaming benchmark, and the results were impressive: the laptop scored 5,628, marking a 53 percent increase over Intel's Lunar Lake chips, which previously led in integrated graphics. Additionally, in the 3DMark Solar Bay benchmark, the Snapdragon X Elite Extreme was 30 percent faster than the Apple M4. However, it’s essential to keep in mind that while the Snapdragon X2 shows significant improvements, it does not yet rival the performance of discrete GPUs like the Nvidia RTX 5050 typically found in dedicated gaming laptops.
Despite these advancements, gaming on an ARM-based Windows laptop still poses challenges, particularly regarding game compatibility. It remains to be seen if Qualcomm can sway gamers away from traditional x86 Windows laptops. Although it may not hold up against Apple's high-end MacBook Pro systems like the M4 Max, Qualcomm is finally establishing itself as a viable competitor in the integrated graphics domain, making gaming on ARM-based laptops a more realistic prospect than in the past.
While I did not conduct specific application testing, the enhanced graphics capabilities are equally vital for creative tasks. During the keynote presentation, Qualcomm highlighted that the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme achieves a 28 percent increase in performance for Adobe Photoshop, 43 percent in Adobe Lightroom, and 47 percent in Premiere Pro compared to the previous generation Snapdragon X Elite. However, further real-world testing is necessary to validate these claims.
It's crucial to clarify the distinctions between the X2 Elite Extreme and the standard X2 Elite. The benchmarking session featured the top-tier model, the X2E-96-100, which boasts 18 cores and a dual-core boost clock of 5 GHz. The confusion arises with the two versions of the Snapdragon X2 Elite: one equipped with 18 cores and another with 12 cores. The primary difference lies in memory bandwidth, where the X2 Elite Extreme supports 12-channel memory with speeds reaching up to 228 GB per second, compared to the 8-channel memory of the X2 Elite.
While this may seem like a minor difference, it becomes significant for memory-intensive AI workloads, where the lower bandwidth of the X2 Elite could hinder performance. The focus of the X2 Elite Extreme appears to be on enhancing AI capabilities rather than merely improving traditional CPU or GPU performance. Qualcomm aims to push AI integration in its premium configuration, but the most notable performance leaps seem to be between the 12-core and 18-core versions of the X2 Elite.
Qualcomm’s decision to introduce another high-performance chip with distinct branding is intriguing, particularly as the company has found success with its mid-tier chips that often appear in laptops priced around $1,000. This strategic move may be pivotal for Qualcomm as it aims to capture 50 percent of the Windows PC market share within the next five years. However, to achieve this goal, it is essential to deliver strong performance in real-world applications, which we will only fully understand once these processors are integrated into actual laptops.
