Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite Analysis - More efficient than AMD & Intel, but Apple stays ahead

[paviko]

Strange results for Intel/AMD power usage. Single core tests CB2024 is using 34W! Intel multi core at TDP 20W scores 4 times better than single core at less power (31W and). And more can be written for other results...

[Serhii Kopyl]

Real tests was shown on ASUSs' review and Snapdragon lose every benchmark to Meteors or Rysen's

[Jenifer45]

This is truly a great example of a deceptive review. Hawk Point is just simply better in almost every aspect, not to mention it just destroys utterly Snapdragon X in 3D/gaming. Not by a small margin. While consuming less power. It is the 4th try by qualcomm. Next iteration they better pull a rabbit out of a hat, in 3D they will need over double perf/watt improvement if they want to have any chance agains Strix (Ryzen 300 AI).

+1 You are absolutely right Hawk Point has destroyed and surpassed Intel in watt performance in its latest 14gen processor and it has been seen in many ultrabooks where AMD consumes much less and its graphics power with RDNA 3 is almost double.
Now we will have to wait but AMD ZEN 5 promises, according to synthetic tests carried out, that it surpasses this Qualcomm and what is coming from Intel the 15th gen in ultrabook while waiting for a comparison with the Apple ones.
Of the featured products that can get more performance out of artificial intelligence currently, SURFACE PRO 10, GALAXYBOOK 4 AND MINISFORUM V3.
These types of products are the stars of this 2024. I hope for a neutral and fair comparison from this website.

[JakeR]

I'm seeing lots of fanboys in these comments.  So many people rushing to defend their own CPU choices. Why get so upset that you have to trash Notebookcheck? 

These chips aren't revolutionary, but they're rather efficient and great for day to day work that doesn't involve gaming.  Personally, I would never game on a laptop but I know people out there often place that high up on their list.

I know plenty of people who would consider an ARM based laptop simply because they don't have legacy software (much of it is browser based). 

[Neenyah]

These chips aren't revolutionary,

Qualcomm was literally claiming that they are, for months, they even claimed "The PC Reborn" multiple times in their very own presentations full of bs how their Snapdragon X Elite is "the most powerful and the most capable PC chip ever" and comparing it with everything from Intel 155U to i9 DESKTOP to Apple M3 Pro with bold claims how it's faster and more efficient than all of that. If you don't believe me and if you are lazy to watch the vid above, take a look at their YT channel and have fun: https://www.youtube.com/@snapdragon/videos

but they're rather efficient and great for day to day work that doesn't involve gaming.

Again, THEY (Qualcomm) were claiming at any given opportunity how their SXE chips are capable to game as good as "legacy chips" (that's how they call x86) 😀 All perfectly smooth, fast, playable, no stutters, "next-gen iGPU gaming" and so on, here just one of literally 50+ examples (and that is Qualcomm representative talking, not random YouTube "influencer"): https://youtu.be/Auz3Sde2g_E?t=391

They even made a whole worksonwoa.com website to brag how 1500+ games is tested to be perfectly playable on their chips, here an NBC's article from a month ago: Snapdragon X Elite ohne Fortnite, Roblox & Co.: So gut laufen 1.481 Spiele auf dem ARM-Chip

While in reality not a single of their claims turned out to be true, and reputable (aka not paid by Qualcomm to publicly lie how getting the same performance on battery as when plugged in was never possible before on x86) YouTubers proved that the X Elite is worse in performance per Watt than x86 while generating more heat, more noise and having equally good battery life: Impressive! But Also Not?! Snapdragon X Elite - Asus Vivobook S 15 Review (The Phawx on YT)

Which is why people react as they do.

[Neenyah]

Extremely recommended read, btw: Qualcomm AI/Copilot PCs don't live up to the hype - Watch what they do, not what they say (Jun 18, 2024)

What is Qualcomm hiding and why? Lets start out with the why side, it is easier. The x86 emulation sucks and they know it. Since x86 compatibility is a key marketing message from both players, they want you to believe your software will just run, they have to hide this failing at all costs. Let me split a hair here, the silicon is actually quite good on the x86 emulation front, the team didn't forget everything they did at Apple but coupled with Windows it, well, ends up sucking. Actually that is a bit unfair, lets just say the end user device sucks and not apportion blame to any one part.

When questioned, Qualcomm spokespeople will fall back to to a talking point about apps that they have tweaked/validated/worked on and those run fine, fast-ish, and without hiccups. This is true but that list is mighty short and chances you have a few apps that will blow up. Games, well, again they go back to casual games running fine which they probably do. Real games don't and most non-tweaked games don't either, casual or not. Qualcomm knows this and they are desperate to hide it.

And don't get me started on drivers. Got any hardware that isn't brand new? A printer bought during Covid perhaps? Scanners? Low level tools? Antivirus/antimalware? Got a game with an anti-cheat thread? VPN? This stuff WILL break on the Qualcomm ARM PCs unless they have tweaked it and chances are they haven't. And won't. These companies are desperate for this knowledge to not get out, and they are making sure it doesn't by making sure only tame reviewers and fluffy youtubers get devices. Even they they won't have time to dig in to the defects they do find.

This is all to back the official message of fast and compatible, one of which is kinda true. Compatibility is not good enough, games break on the consumer side and corporate apps are hit and miss. Worse yet there wasn't a single mention of remote management since the November 2023 reveal. If you actually test the product you will find this out and possibly write it up before the official message has a chance to be repeated enough to 'become truth'. Don't believe the hype.

[mudahar]

The response here seems mildly uninformed.... But it is doing really well imo. Looking at battery life to performance its doing really well. Emulation is proven to be really good only 10-15% nerf but otherwise very powerful for its power usage. Battery life is really strong, gaming is still where it struggles but its not too far off from what Intel is doing in their integrated GPU. I think we'll start seeing a lot more driver optimization now that its out here and will get tons of adoption similar to the days of M1. I'm sure gaming performance will continue to improve through driver optimization as well.

[chris@amd]

Let's not be naive, apple M1 came out almost 4years ago and it was compared to 2019-2020 cpus. intel was in 4core-10xx era and zen was in infancy as zen2 was quite new and not widely available. M1 implementation in the time was nothing short of marvelous. not only was better in performance but way better in efficiency and there wouldn't be any future x86 in mac ecosystem so switch was inevitable. also remember macOS carries way less baggage than windows. organizational/pro software almost non existent in macOS and most developer software/kits used are open source. which is in contrast to windows world. so adaptation in mac world happened due to superior silicon and no future alternative and less effort. these are not met in current day windows world. there would be upcoming and superior x86 SOCs. difficult to change/modify multi billion dollar x86 software developed in the past and far more legacy closed software. there is also gaming as lots of windows users are casual gamers.
so let's face it, snapdragon is not M1 and certainly windows is not mac. i believe if apple not started 4 years ago it wouldn't stand a chance today against current x86 progress specifically AMD. snapdragon is a web browsing/media consumption chip and does it very well and needs to be much cheaper to be attractive.

[Somebody]

Notebookcheck, how came the qualcomm chip score almost identical numbers (14000) in Geekbench 6 multi, even though power levels were different (50w, 45w, 35w, 20w)?

How???

[Somebody]

Andreas Osthoff — if you are the editor of this article, tell me how you calculated points/per watt for multi core. Did you take Cinebench 2024 as a reference? If so, what kind of formula did you use? Cause, I am getting different numbers....

[gobogob]

nice vid explaining why the same X Elite machine can have a million different benchmarks (spoiler - Windows usual power plan/power mode fuckery)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDRV9eEJOk8

[Consumer_Not]

Actually, when previous gen Zen 4 is configured to the same optimum TDP for the X Elite, the AMD is more efficient, faster, and runs everything... Not to mention the just released Zen 5 which is even better.

So the conclusion of this review is simply wrong.

Review on Youtube by Phaux. Impressive! But Also Not?! Snapdragon X Elite

[gogoarm]

is more efficient, faster,

yeah if your workflow is running benchmarks 100% of the time

by Phaux

guy is a nobody
amd shills are ready to trust anyone as long as he is in their echo chamber

[gogoarm]

In the multi-threaded test, the CBR24 supposedly won the M3 Max, but in the energy efficiency picture at the top of the list is no longer the M3 Max, but the simple M3 (the author probably hoped that no one would notice the substitution), which loses to any AMD in the multi-threaded test exactly 1.5 times, and the M3 Max there is no even multi-threaded energy efficiency in the results, which means that it is below par and loses even to hot Intel chips.

that's because they have never measured M3Max in Cinebench 2024, lol

They have efficiency numbers for Cinebench R23 w/screen off though
M3 382 points/W
M3Max 306 points/W
155H 242 points/W

if you don't know why M3Max is less efficient than M3 then you shouldn't be here at all in the first place (spoiler - because it has much more to power)

[vladteapa]

It's weird how almost nobody is talking about the price.

Most, if not all, 32GB RAM configurations are well above 2000$. That's an insane mark-up for a soldered RAM machine that has trouble running native x86 software. Pretty sure Zen 5 and whatever Intel is cooking next is going to bury this. This chip is not even that competitive with current gen x86 chips.

This in not an Apple M competitor chip as it cannot run fanless and windows is not MACOS.