Microsoft has unveiled the Surface Laptop 7, featuring the Snapdragon X Elite processor, but independent reviews are not yet available. The Copilot+ PC, announced by Microsoft, is set to begin shipping on June 18.
Signal65, led by Ryan Shrout, conducted thorough testing of the Snapdragon X Elite processor on the Surface Laptop 7, comparing its performance with Apple’s MacBook Air M3. It’s worth noting that this research was commissioned by Microsoft.
The Surface Laptop 7th Edition is powered by the second-most powerful SKU (X1E-80-100) of the Snapdragon X Elite lineup, boasting 12 CPU cores (8P+4E). Two cores can reach a maximum frequency of 4.0GHz, with a standard frequency of 3.4GHz. The laptop also includes fans for active cooling.
In contrast, Apple’s fanless MacBook Air M3 features 8 CPU cores (4P+4E) and can reach speeds of up to 4.05GHz.
CPU and GPU Performance
In the Geekbench 6.3 single-core test, the Apple M3 outperforms the Snapdragon X Elite by about 15%. However, in the multi-core test, the Snapdragon X Elite takes the lead by 15%. Moving on to the Cinebench 2024 single-thread test, the Apple M3 is approximately 17% faster, but in the multi-thread test, the Snapdragon X Elite outperforms with a significant 30% lead.
These results indicate that while the Snapdragon X Elite lags slightly in single-core tasks, it excels in multi-threaded tasks.
In the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test, which stresses the GPU, Apple M3’s 10-core GPU is about 31% faster than the Snapdragon X Elite’s Adreno GPU. This difference is similar in the Solar Bay and Steel Noman tests, with percentages close to 29% and 35%, respectively. It’s evident that Apple has a powerful GPU compared to the Snapdragon X Elite’s Adreno GPU.
The report emphasizes that Cyberpunk 2077, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, and Borderlands 3 ran smoothly on Snapdragon X Elite at 1080p resolution with low settings. For a list of Windows games compatible with Snapdragon X Elite, refer to our linked article.
In web browsing performance tests like Speedometer and JetStream, where the native version of Chrome was used, the M3 outperformed the Snapdragon X Elite by 40% and 27%, respectively. Both chipsets performed similarly in Office 365 tasks. In media processing, the Snapdragon X Elite proved to be about 25% faster than the Apple M3 in encoding media files.
NPU Performance
Qualcomm has frequently claimed leadership in AI inference on edge devices, a claim that appears to hold true. In the Procyon AI Computer Vision benchmark, the Snapdragon X Elite’s Hexagon NPU performed twice as well as the Apple M3’s 16-core Neural Engine, a remarkable achievement. The Hexagon NPU can independently handle up to 45 TOPS (trillion operations per second).
Thermal Performance
While the Snapdragon X Elite demonstrates strong performance in CPU, GPU, and NPU tasks, putting it in close competition with the Apple M3 in various areas, its efficiency leaves something to be desired. Despite having an active cooling system, the Surface Laptop 7 reached a peak temperature of 37.4 degrees Celsius during the Cinebench 2024 single-thread test. While MacBook Air, which reached 35.1 degrees Celsius without fans.
The temperature difference becomes more pronounced in the multi-thread test. The Surface Laptop 7 reached 50.3 degrees Celsius, while the Apple MacBook Air remained cooler at 45.8 degrees Celsius. While the Snapdragon X Elite outperforms x86 processors, it still falls behind the Apple M3 in terms of performance-per-watt.
Under full load on all cores, the Surface Laptop 7 also generates some fan noise, measuring at 32.2 dbA, whereas the MacBook Air M3 remains silent.
Emulation Performance
The report highlights Microsoft’s significant improvements to the Prism emulation layer on Windows on ARM (WoA). Running under emulation, the Surface Laptop 7 achieves performance levels equivalent to native x86 apps, a remarkable achievement.
The report continues by stating that “The emulated performance on the new device exceeds even the native performance of the 12th Gen Core i7 in the previous generation Surface Laptop 5. This impressive feat should reassure consumers considering a new PC with this processor”.
Powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor, the Surface Laptop 7 offers up to 21 hours of battery life when playing videos, 16% more than the Apple MacBook Air M3. In overnight battery discharge tests, the Surface Laptop 7 only lost 1% after 8-9 hours of being in a closed-lid scenario.
The report suggests that the Snapdragon X Elite processor is a strong competitor to Apple’s M3 silicon. In many cases, the Surface Laptop 7 either outperforms or matches the performance of the MacBook Air M3, all for $200 less. However, Qualcomm still has work to do to close the efficiency gap against Apple Silicon. Are you considering purchasing a Copilot+ PC? Let us know in the comments below.
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