The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the company’s biggest launch this year. After the announcement in October 2023, it is already entering the mass market, starting with Xiaomi 14 and Xiaomi 14 Pro.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is considerably upgraded from its predecessor 8 Gen 2. The key areas of improvement are performance, AI, capabilities, and efficiency. However, the processor will continue with the TSMC 4nm architecture.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is an 8-core chipset. It features 1 core Cortex-X4 at 3300MHz, the Prime core with the most performance. It has 3 Cores, Cortex-A720 at 3150MHz, which are the performance cores.
The 8 Gen 3 has 2 more cores, Cortex-A720 at 2960 MHz, which are mid-tier performance cores. Finally, it has 2 cores, Cortex-A520 at 2260 MHz, for efficiency. The prime core has a really good clock speed, and the 8 Gen 3 interestingly drops one of the small cores (efficiency cores) in favor of a mid-performance core. Since the small cores aren’t the best on the market anyway, this shouldn’t significantly impact the chip’s efficiency.
This core design is said to be a good balance of efficiency and performance. In terms of GPU, the SoC is going to use the Adreno 750. This GPU is based on Adreno 700 architecture and is said to be clocked at 770MHz, and the GPU also supports Ray Tracing. Initial test graphs show it’s more efficient than Apple’s best A17 Pro SOC while maintaining better performance.
However, like last year, Qualcomm is partnering with Samsung to make a “For Galaxy” chipset. Last year, it was the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy, which had minor performance and efficiency improvements for Samsung phones. And it looks like the trend is continuing this year with 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy, according to a report from Ice Universe.
The Adreno 750 chipset in 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy is said to feature a 1000MHz overclocked GPU. To put this into perspective, the 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy used in the S23 series used the Adreno 740 GPU with a max output of 719MHz. The 28% boost in clock speed theoretically translates to better performance in benchmarks and some CPU-intensive tasks.
It’s unclear whether the 10-core Exynos 2400 chipset can match this efficiency level. The GPU on the Exynos 2400, the XClipse 940, might actually have an even higher 1200MHz clock speed. Comparing the two chipsets will be interesting. However, we don’t yet know how the 4LP++ Samsung Node will perform. TSMC’s 4nm node is historically more reliable, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 uses that node.
Samsung is offering two different chipsets depending on your region. Some regions get the Exynos 2400 SOC, and others get the 8 Gen 3, but this division is only for the Galaxy S24 and S24 Plus. The S24 Ultra will use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in all regions.
Qualcomm didn’t officially confirm whether there’s an exclusive version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Samsung. This clock speed is not official information from Qualcomm either, so take this with a pinch of salt until the Galaxy Unpacked event in January. We’ll find out more about the 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy at this event, which will also introduce the Galaxy S24 lineup.
Samsung will use the 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy chip even on the Fold 6 and Flip 6. We don’t yet know whether there are plans for a tablet lineup in 2024. If there are, then those might use the 8 Gen 3 as well. In the future, Qualcomm might release an 8 Gen 3 with higher GPU clock speeds for other companies. They might call it the 8+ Gen 3. They might launch variants with the 3nm TSMC N3E node as well.
