Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Chipset for Upcoming Flagships Likely to Debut at Qualcomm Summit – Here’s What We Know
Qualcomm plans to host its second Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii from October 21 to 23, where it is expected to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset. The event is highly anticipated by the tech community, as Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile processor is expected to bring significant improvements in performance and efficiency.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset is rumored to use the 3nm process technology developed by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). This could bring significant improvements in power efficiency and overall performance compared to previous generations. Qualcomm’s marketing director, Don McGuirealluded to this timeline during his presentation at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2024) held in Barcelona.
Expected Specifications for Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Chipset
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is said to be powered by Qualcomm’s proprietary Oryon CPU, which was first announced at the Snapdragon Summit 2022. The new CPU is expected to offer improved gaming performance and may support LPDDR6 RAM. Additionally, the chipset may include an upgraded Neural Processing Unit (NPU). Sources say that the SoC’s main core will be clocked at 4.2GHz, a significant increase from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s maximum clock speed of 3.4GHz.
According to preliminary Geekbench scores, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could surpass Apple’s A17 Pro SoC in terms of processing power. The chipset is said to score over 3,000 in single-core tests, slightly higher than the A17 Pro’s 2,999. In multi-core benchmark tests, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 scored 10,000.
Read more: Performance Comparison: MediaTek’s Upcoming Dimensity 8400 Chipset Could Beat the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
However, some reports cast doubt on these claims. A recent post by user X@negativeonehero suggests that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may have lower peak GPU performance than the Apple A17 Pro, potentially on par with MediaTek’s Dimensity 9300. The user also speculates that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may only show marginal improvements in CPU performance.
Despite differing opinions, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to be more power efficient than previous generations, with a reported power consumption of 8W during multi-core benchmarking.
Exclusive Launches and Future Devices
Xiaomi has reported has secured exclusive first-mover rights to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, meaning the Xiaomi 15 Pro could be the first smartphone to feature the new chipset. Other high-end smartphones, including the Samsung Galaxy S25 series and OnePlus 13, are also expected to adopt the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in 2025.
