Snapdragon X Plus is Here to Compete with Apple’s M-Series Chips

Finally, the Snapdragon X Plus processor for PCs has been introduced by Qualcomm. As previously reported, Qualcomm is developing the Snapdragon X Plus, a Snapdragon X series chipset with ten Oryon CPU cores. It is the Snapdragon X Elite version that has been scaled back and has certain CPU and GPU performance reductions.

The Snapdragon X Plus is available in a single variant (X1P-64-100) with a maximum multithreaded frequency of up to 3.4GHz. Unlike its counterpart, it does not feature dual-core boost. The Adreno GPU can achieve up to 3.8 TFLOPS of performance and is compatible with LPDDR5X memory. Manufactured on TSMC’s 4nm process node, the chipset offers a balance of performance and power efficiency.

While the CPU and GPU might be slightly scaled back compared to the Snapdragon X Elite, the Hexagon NPU remains consistent across both processors. The NPU is capable of processing 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), showcasing its impressive performance capabilities.

Qualcomm states that the Hexagon NPU is robust enough to locally run AI models and produce outputs at a rate of 30 tokens per second. Additionally, its NPU can generate code from Codegen, create new music in Audacity using the Riffusion model locally, and provide live caption translations in OBS Studio in 100 languages.

According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon X Plus, while slightly less powerful than the premium-tier Snapdragon X Elite, delivers 37% faster CPU performance than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H. Moreover, it consumes 54% less power while matching the peak performance of the x86 processor.

In total, there are four Snapdragon X series variants, with the Snapdragon X Plus featuring 10 CPU cores and a frequency clocked up to 3.4GHz. In Geekbench 6.2 testing, its CPU scores approximately 2400 in the single-core test and around 13,000 in the multi-core test.

In my view, Qualcomm has positioned the Snapdragon X Plus processor as a budget-friendly option. Nonetheless, its performance competes with the Apple M2 Pro and base Apple M3, which is quite impressive.