Report: Snapdragon X Elite beats Apple M3 MacBook Air and has better emulation

Ben Schoon | Apr 8 2024 - 9:25 am PT

Windows PCs have been due for more efficient ARM-based chips for a while, and it sounds like the Snapdragon X Elite will do just that, delivering better performance than Apple’s M3 and even besting Apple on app emulation.

Apple Silicon, starting with the M1, brought about a big change to computing with drastic improvements to power efficiency without giving up raw horsepower. As such, the MacBook has become the gold standard in laptops, and Windows hasn’t really had a good answer. There have been attempts at ARM-based chips for Windows, but none have really delivered enough.

Now, though, Microsoft reportedly believes that Snapdragon X Elite will not only match Apple, but beat out the company’s latest offering.

Sources speaking to The Verge claim that Microsoft is preparing demos of Snapdragon X Elite that show the Windows chip beating the Apple M3 in the latest generation of MacBook Air when it comes to CPU tasks and AI acceleration. It’s also said that emulation for apps not yet optimized for ARM will be “faster… than Rosetta 2.”

Early impressions of the chip’s performance have been promising.

As for when these new chips will actually become available, the demos mentioned are apparently planned for May 20 ahead of Microsoft’s Build developer conference.

Beyond just the raw power of these new chips, Microsoft will also be making a further push for “AI PCs” including a new “AI Explorer” feature that uses the Elite’s NPU to scan through what the user is working on to create a timeline where you can recall what was previously going on. Other features would improve video streaming, add background blur to Windows Studio Effects, be able to great AI-generated images (for free), and also let Copilot access the clipboard to improve answers and prompts.

Meanwhile, Google recently launched ARM support on Chrome for Windows, and new leaks have also suggested a “Snapdragon X Plus” will offer a slightly cut-down version of the Elite, probably at a lower cost.