Qualcomm Goes All In on AI for Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Mobile Processor

pcmag.com:

Qualcomm on Tuesday announced the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, its premium system-on-a-chip for mobile devices. The 8 Gen 3 will be the engine behind the leading Android phones and tablets over the coming year. Much like last year's 8 Gen 2, the new SoC banks on AI to set it apart from competing chips. What's different is that Qualcomm is pushing generative AI in particular directly onto devices for faster and more secure results.

In addition to on-device generative AI, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 makes improvements to core aspects of the SoC, including Snapdragon Connect, Snapdragon Elite Gaming, Snapdragon Sight, and Snapdragon Sound. AI calculations should lead to stronger connections between devices across longer distances, 240fps gaming with more realistic lighting, generative AI backgrounds and in-video object erasers, and higher-quality music streaming.

The first consumer devices are expected to reach the market in just a few weeks.

Qualcomm changed up the chip architecture again to better manage how devices balance performance needs with efficiency. The 8 Gen 3's Kryo CPU is built around a 4nm process and is still an octa-core SoC but now has a single prime core, five performance cores, and two efficiency cores. Last year's 8 Gen 2 and a one-four-three core configuration. The prime core is an Arm Cortex-X4 clocked at up to 3.3GHz, while the performance cores are clocked at up to 3.2GHz and the efficiency cores are clocked at up to 2.3GHz. The CPU has access to a 12MB L3 cache and delivers 30% faster peformance compared to the outgoing chip.

The Adreno GPU sees improvements across the board as well. Qualcomm says it pushes 25% faster performance along with 25% better power efficiency and can support a 1Hz variable refresh