by Brad Linder
19 Comments on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite could finally make Windows on ARM viable (official benchmarks released)
It’s been six years since the first Windows laptops with ARM processors hit the streets. But up until now they’ve only lived up tosome of their promises – often delivering long battery life, quick sleep and resume, and always-connected capabilities, but failing to offer the same level of performance you’d expect from even a mid-range Intel or AMD processor.
This could be the year that changes. Qualcomm promised last fall that its Snapdragon X Elite processors wouldn’t just match the competition, butoutperformit in some cases, while offering best-in-class efficiency and on-device AI capabilities. While you can’t actually buy a laptop with a Snapdragon X Elite processor yet, Qualcomm has released some initial benchmarks and invited journalists from a number of publications to go hands-on with reference designs. The results seem very promising… although we won’t be able to gauge actual real-world performance until real PCs with these chips begin to ship.
What we know so far is that Snapdragon X Elite chips will come in 23W and 80W variants, with the former designed for thin and light computers and systems that prioritize long battery life and energy efficiency. It’s basically Qualcomm’s answer to Intel and AMD’s U-series processors.
The 80W variants are meant to go head-to-head with H-series chips.
And the benchmarks released to date suggest they deliver on that promise, with 23W variants offering stronger Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core performance than laptops with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H or AMD Ryzen 7 7840U processors, for example. And the 80W variants come out ahead of Core Ultra 9 185H or Ryen 9 8945HS chips in the same tests (and matching a Core i9-14900HX in single-core performance, but falling behind that chip in the multi-core test).
Apple’s M3 Pro and Max processors still come out ahead in most tests, but not by a huge margin. And Qualcomm’s chips do appear to outperform the entry-level Apple M3 processor.
But… synthetic benchmarks only tell part of the story, especially for a platform like Windows where most applications are not optimized to run natively on ARM-based chips yet.
While earlier Windows on ARM laptops have offered decent performance with native ARM applications, they’ve struggled significantly when running software that was designed for x86_64 architecture… which includes the vast majority of all Windows applications ever released.
Snapdragon X Elite processors will still perform best when running native code, but emulation appears to have improved significantly, with most of the folks who’ve gone hands-on reporting that even applications and games that are not optimized for the platform run smoothly.
That could tip the balance, encouraging more people to buy Windows on ARM PCs, more PC makers to crank out systems with these chips to meet demand, and eventually leading more developers to port their software (or create new apps) that run natively on ARM for even better performance.
What’s more, Snapdragon X Elite chips have neural processing units (NPUs) that promise up to 45 TOPS of AI performance. By comparison, the Intel AI Boost NPU in Meteor Lake processors only delivers up to 11 TOPS, while the Ryzen AI NPU in AMD’s Ryzen 8040 series mobile processors only supports up to 16 TOPS.
For now, there’s not much you can actuallydo with all that hardware-accelerated AI, but that’s set to change. As Paul Thurrott points out, audio and video software including DaVinci Resolve, OBS Studio, and Audacity are building NPU-dependent features for things like real-time captioning of live video streams, person and object detection, and “music” creation. Microsoft plans to decouple more of its Copilot AI assistant features from the cloud, allowing them to run locally in the future. And this is most likely just the tip of the iceberg.
But there are still a number of unanswered questions about Windows PCs with Snapdragon X Elite chips:
- How many variants will there be? (Reports suggest at least three, with different base frequencies)
- How much will they cost?
- Will they really be able to offer the level of performance Qualcomm is promising while also supporting all-day battery life?
- How well will they work with non-Microsoft operating systems (including software that comes preinstalled like ChromeOS and aftermarket solutions like GNU/Linux distributions?
- How will Intel, AMD, and other chip makers (including those who make ARM and RISC-V processors) respond in the coming years?
Apple has already shown that it’s possible to switch a major desktop operating system from x86_64 to ARM. The company introduced its first Macs with Apple Silicon in 2020, and over the past few years the company has transitioned its entire personal computer lineup to run on ARM-based chips that Apple designed in-house.
The situation for Windows will most likely be much more complicated. The advent of truly competitive chips for Windows on ARM computers is unlikely to put Intel or AMD out of business anytime soon, and Windows will most likely be a multi-platform operating system for years to come (if not forever). But it’s starting to look like 2024 could be the start of a seismic shift in the Windows PC space thatresembles the changes Apple began implementing four years ago.
You can read more about benchmarks and read reporters’ first-hand accounts of their hands-on experiences with the Snapdragon X Elite reference designs at some of the following sites:
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19 Comments
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Oh I can’t wait until I can multiboot a Snapkintosh lol
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Too bad for me, my hope for the whole ARM thing was for sub-10W TDP SoCs with excellent efficiency. I’m someone reading Liliputing after all.
I guess Qualcomm trying to compete in the higher TDP categories Intel and AMD are in makes sense. That is, the related “larger” devices have a larger market than what I’m interested in.
I wonder how well the X Elite performs at < 15W TDP.
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Same. I hope this SoC scales down well. Makes me wonder if the rumors of an ARM based Surface Go or 11″ Surface Pro will remain rumors for a while.
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Qualcomm, like Apple and Intel, is just as pathetic. This year’s version of the AMD CPU will trample them like a cigarette.
Wait!
We have to write to TSMC – don’t let AMD mass produce, we will buy your production capacity!We have to write to M$ to make AMD products work worse than ours!
Uncle Sam! subsidize us but don’t give AMD or much less!
It’s sad to see how it positions its players in the market and reduces companies that listen to customers to the margins…
If Amd becomes niche again, nvidia will soon share its fate. For Intel and Apple, fighting the lonely Nvidia will be fun.
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Is this bait to spark a discussion or just a seething fanboy?
AMD will trample Qualcomm? Nvidia, the most profitable and fastest growing producer will soon vanish? lol, I mean LOL! :’-D
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Unfortunately it is true that trillionaire companies like Nvidia won’t just vanish overnight because AMD.
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if AMD becomes marginal again due to the Lobbying of Intel, M$, DELL, Qualcomm, Apple, nVidia will be left alone. Currently, AMD is making it competitive in CPU and GPU. Let’s assume that AMD falls and Apple, Intel, M$, Qualcomm band together to block Nvidia and we will see how this rich company will win against these giants. At the moment, AMD is creating a buffer for Nvidia I’m not an AMD fan..
I’m a fan of riscV. I’ve eyes and I know how to use them. Your eyes will only open when AMD collapses.
This isn’t bait for spark discussion…
Let Linux establish great cooperation with AMD like M$ with Qualcomm. Will it be normal for you? For me, the closed solution like Apple is f*cked up.Reply
You really think making nonsensical assumptions and pretending multi billion companies are comparable to children on a playground grants you any insight?
Let’s assume the moon falls and the sun and Jupiter band together to block Mars. Would you not know the outcome?
Seriously, best entertainment this week so far!
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I wonder how Linux will run on one of these and if the translation layer will work for Linux programs… Probably not, but one can hope.
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If it doesn’t have UEFI and an unlocked bootloader I’ll never be interested in it. I know a day is probably coming where I won’t have a choice, because most people don’t even know what those things are, or why you wouldn’t want to have to spend more money to use something other than Windows, or think that Linux users deserve any respect, and oh my god we’ve got to have remote attestation to get rid of bots and anyone else saying things we don’t like on the internet nothing else could ever work, but I’m still going to put up with it begrudgingly at best.
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I’m wary of Qualcomm ARM systems after my Windows on ARM dev kit 2023 which crashes whenever the seemingly powerful GPU is heavily loaded. If Microsoft release a 2024 dev kit for a similarly low-ish price I’d still check it out but I won’t be spending £1000+ to try a Snapdragon X Elite.
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The fact that AI is mentioned causes my brain to immediately disengage and I doubt it’ll be capable of much.
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I’m with you when it comes to things like chatbots and creating pictures, emails, videos based on text prompts. I have no interest. But real-time capturing of live video is actually pretty cool, even if it’s not something everyone is going to need. I’m hoping to see more use-cases for NPUs in the future, because if AI is going to be a thing, I’d rather it be a thing I can run locally than something that locks me into cloud-based services.
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Yep. I write automation code for work. A coworker who doesn’t, and doesn’t know any programming, often used to bring nonworking chatgpt crap to me.
I refuse to fix those for a few reasons:
1. He has learned nothing.
2. It would be easier for me to start from scratch than figure out what/why chatgpt did and why it’s broken.
3. He wants a programming job and will use those as “proof”. Nah fam.Chatgpt is basically chat googling and it’s terrible.
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Looking forward to the 3rd party benchmarks and reviews… out of curiosity, not expecting to pay the premium.
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Based on my estimations, emulation definitely takes a hit.
Last calculation it was about x2.3 times slower, it’s probably closer to x1.9 now/upon release. Which is a marked improvement over the x4-x7 slower we saw it evolve from the QSD 835 days (competing against Intel Atom x7-7850, despite native performance closer to Intel Core-M i7-675Y).So where does that leave us?
Basically, Windows Laptops with ARM in 2025 is around the level of 2021 MacBooks. Despite the newer lithography and technology, all that efficiency and battery life is wasted, because Microsoft has “good emulation” versus Apple which had an even better “hybrid acceleration” with their M1 Debut. Slower, less efficient, and older technology BUT the software was cohesive and developers were on board…. and for the meantime they had special dedicated hardware to accelerate certain x86 threads on their ARM chipset.Am I optimistic ?
No, but Yes. No I don’t think this will be as painless as imagined and won’t move the needle forward as much as the hype machine suggests. But Yes I do think this will put pressure on AMD to innovate harder, and especially Intel which is FAR behind at this point. Still I think the resident x86 manufacturers are safe now and in the near future, but this should put some needed pressure on their behind.Reply
Speaking of Microsoft emulation. In general tasks (office stuff, business software, light gaming) emulation on Windows 11 is now about 70-80% compared to native ARM. 2x times hit only happens with SIMD heavy code (SSEx and alike), namely in ffdshow on CPU only.
I got these numbers on my own testing, but its close to benchmarks in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY-tMBk9Vx4. This video also shows that, in fact, Microsoft emulation is on par with Apple, even while lacking specialized CPU and memory modes (new x86 simulation ARM extensions were not yes standardized when SD Gen 3 was designed, but I suspect Elite will have them). Apple now mostly benefits from very fast memory and huge caches, but still number crunching on M chips actually sucks big time even on native ARM.Speaking of SSE, many games are not that intensive on vmath, so they run good already (and its not like these notebooks are good for gaming anyway). There is a thread on reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/SurfaceGaming/comments/10twnyb/other_surface_pro_9_wsq3_gaming_compatibility/), and looks like many games from 7 years ago are good as long as they do not use Vulkan. QQ said that new chips will have Vulkan driver on windows.
But the thing is, future software will depend heavy on power efficient hardware accelerators, like video encoders/decoders, and especially tensors. In a few years game rendering, video/audio codecs, art and movies production will be 90% DLNN, and the rest of the tasks are not CPU intensive. So Intel, AMD and ARM will be fine in general: competition focus will shift to so called “AI” area, where everyone is on equal grounds now (except NVidia). x86/64 will still be behind on battery life on laptops, nothing you can do about it.
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Larger laptops (16in) tend to have ample room for a cooler and big battery. Or even a sizeable chipset, like for AI or GPU. And x86 systems tend to scale really well, whilst the ARM systems don’t. Plus that larger screen, keyboard, trackpad, numberpad, speakers and camera do make getting “work done” much better.
So this is the field where Traditional Laptops will hold the line. Especially if you have some sort of dependency on legacy code. ARM will infect all the handheld, tablet, and ultrabook fields. A market that I am very fond of, but even I am planning to shift into the larger notebook category.
I do hope that AMD does innovate. HARD. And make some of the best x86 cores in history. Then water it all down, and treat it as some co-processor or hardware accelerator. I’d love to see AMD build something like a 1+4 system (1 HUGE Zen, 4 Big Cortex-X) to be able to have that +24hour battery life AND have legacy support for the ultraportable segment. Then just scale that up. Like a 2+8 for thin laptops, maybe a 4+16 for work notebooks, and a 16+16 for desktops. That last one sounds weak, but I’m talking each new x86 core about twice as big as the current Zen4+ core. So that 16+16 design won’t be losing to the likes 7800x3D in any single test, let alone the bigger/faster processors AMD is announcing in the coming months.
To be fair, the market could have been dominated by Intel but they dropped the ball. They should’ve done a BIG.little design with Atom Cherry Trail and Intel Sky Lake as early as 2015 or as late as 2017. And they should have switched to TSMC Lithography for their Core-i9 and Core-i7 products, whilst keeping their Intel Foundry for the now lower cost Intel Core-i5 and Core-i3 products. And they should’ve released ARC first-generation dGPU back in 2018 against the likes of AMD Vega56 and Nvidia RTX-2080Ti. This would’ve given them time to get a foothold in the market, and take advantage of the cryptoboom, silicon shortage, and cov id lockdowns. And ramping up such a segment to push out all their inferior efficiency lithography would’ve given them the freedom to pivot in the chipset market. It really would’ve hampered AMD and their rise, with Ryzen not being as influential because Intel moved the market and moved the needle. But that’s all hindsight, and instead Intel is a rich boy treading water to stay alive by tapping into their corrupt and deep savings. Leadership problem. Or skill issue.
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Agree on workstation class laptops. Not an area for me anymore though, prefer light laptops and tablets recently, since they are now powerful enough to get most of the work done, and build (or now even buy) sub-9L desktops for heavy lifting. Together with portable displays they are compact enough to be taken on a trip when light notebook is not enough. With DL tough, looks like 9L will not be enough soon, if I’ll need to host something of 4070/4090 size. I’ll have to go workstation laptop route too, or use remote access/cloud instead.
Btw, Intel still holds ARM license, but not sure if we will see hybrid CPUs used in mass as you described. More and more things will be offloaded to either GPU or tensor cores, and E-Cores are much closer to ARM efficiency already.
i3 and i5 are failed i7/i9 dies usually (Intel used TSMC a few times though indeed), but I suppose you aware of that. But yeah there is a huge chance that their desire to feed their own factories at cost of releasing subpar CPUs did hurt them in a long run, thinking that “people do not care of TDP in desktop”.
