Qualcomm has revealed the Snapdragon X Elite, touting it as the most powerful and efficient processor for PCs, specifically designed to handle artificial intelligence applications.
This Arm-compatible, 12-core processor is built using a 4nm manufacturing process and is slated to be available in Windows computers by mid-2024.
The CPU core, named Oryon, was developed by an engineering team from Nuvia Corp., a company that Qualcomm acquired for approximately $1.4 billion in 2021.
A consequence of this acquisition is an ongoing dispute between Qualcomm and Arm regarding Qualcomm’s right to use a license for the Arm instruction set architecture (see Qualcomm steps up Oryon battle with Arm).
The Snapdragon X Elite’s 12-core Oryon CPU operates at a base clock frequency of up to 3.8GHz, with a boost mode reaching 4.3GHz when limited to one or two cores.
The Adreno GPU in the Snapdragon X Elite delivers up to 4.6 TFLOPS of performance, supporting displays with 4K Ultra HD resolution at a 120Hz refresh rate.
The Hexagon NPU offers 45 TOPS of neural networking inference for AI applications. Qualcomm’s software AI Engine leverages all processor resources, including the CPU, GPU, NPU, and micro NPU, to achieve 75 TOPS, enabling on-device execution of generative AI models with over 13 billion parameters.
Snapdragon X Elite also features advanced camera capabilities, lossless audio, robust connectivity through 5G and Wi-Fi 7, along with multi-day battery life and enterprise-grade security.
During the launch, Qualcomm presented endorsements from executives at Asus, Lenovo, HP, Samsung, and Microsoft, praising the Snapdragon X Elite’s capabilities.
Shortly before the launch, it was reported that Nvidia and AMD are expected to offer processors for Windows PCs in 2025.
