The Snapdragon X Elite is Qualcomm’s new Windows chip built for AI

Qualcomm has been doing nothing but perfecting its approach to developing quality SoCs and processors for smartphones and computers. The Snapdragon X Elite is a product of that process and is meant to hold its own against the competition – namely, Apple’s M2 chip.

Built for Windows laptops, the Snapdragon X Elite is built to handle anything a PC can throw at it and then some, emphasizing AI processing. The chip is built on a 4nm process and set up to handle the LPDDR5x memory standard, which remains the fastest memory type available on the PC market.

Internally, the X Elite is built on an Oryon three-cluster CPU configuration – each with four 3.8GHZ cores. The 12-core processor can bring that speed up to 4.3GHz for two cores at a time for an extra boost, namely when handling heavier processes like AI generation.

One of the biggest draws is the X Elite’s display ability, with the ability to handle two 5K external displays at once. Onboard displays can also hit 4K with 120Hz, which sets the X Elite up as an excellent option for handling a larger workspace off of a laptop. For those who need even more, the X Elite is rated for three external UHD displays, though the real-life performance of a setup like that is currently unknown. On the audio side, the X Elite will also equip the laptop that bears it lossless audio with Qualcomm’s high-end sound processing.

Qualcomm is also hedging a lot on AI with the onboard Hexagon NPU. The neural processing unit is rated for 45 TOPs – trillion operations per second. With that, it’s fair to say the X Elite is heavily focused on AI, with what Qualcomm states is a 100x increase in operations per second over the leading unnamed competition.

This all comes down to a more efficient and robust processor than much of what’s on the market. An SoC that can focus on AI while maintaining efficient cooling and battery life is big, considering artificial operations take a lot of processing to handle appropriately.

Qualcomm is touting twice the CPU performance at the same amount of power used compared to Intel’s 12-core i7 processor. Conversely, the X Elite is rated for 65% less power consumption to reach the same level of performance for a 14-core i7.

As far as real-world performance goes, it’ll be a little while. PCs with the new X Elite are estimated to arrive sometime around the middle of 2024. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of improvements Qualcomm’s new PC chip brings to AI and CPU performance.