Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Details: Major Performance Boost

As Qualcomm gears up for the launch of its next-generation flagship mobile platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, new details are emerging about this highly anticipated chip. According to recent leaks from SmartPrix, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be available in two versions: the standard SM8750 and the high-performance SM8750P. The SM8750P will be exclusively featured in the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, while the standard SM8750 will be used in flagship models from manufacturers such as Vivo, Xiaomi, OPPO, Honor, OnePlus, and ASUS.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will leverage TSMC's advanced 3nm process technology and feature Qualcomm’s newly developed Oryon CPU cores. This setup includes two high-performance cores clocked at 4.0GHz and six efficiency cores running at 2.8GHz, paired with the Adreno 830 GPU. The chip will also introduce the FastConnect 7900 solution, which integrates Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth, and Ultra-Wideband (UWB) technologies into a single component. Additionally, it will support the 5G R17 standard and feature the Qualcomm Spectra ISP for enhanced imaging capabilities.

The SM8750 and SM8750P will also include a low-power AI (LPAl) subsystem, equipped with dedicated DSP and AI accelerators (eNPU) for continuous audio processing, always-on camera (ASC) features, and real-time sensor and context data handling through Qualcomm's Sensor Hub (QSH). The chipset supports Qualcomm Aqstic Audio Technologies with the WcD9395 codec for high-fidelity audio and includes advanced security features with the Qualcomm Security Processing Unit. The Hexagon Tensor Processor (HTP) will provide support for Hexagon Vector Extensions (HVX) and Hexagon Matrix Extensions (HMX), and the chip will feature four-channel PoP high-speed LPDDR5X SDRAM.

Recent Geekbench 6 benchmarks indicate that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 achieves a single-core score of 2884 and a multi-core score of 8840, with the reference design incorporating 12GB of memory. Compared to competitors, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 exhibits slightly superior multi-core performance relative to the A17 Pro, though it is marginally slower in single-core tasks.

Further leaks suggest that the Adreno 830 GPU's frequency will be increased to 1250MHz, delivering a performance boost of at least 25% compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3's overclocked Adreno 750 GPU, which operates at 1000MHz. The new Adreno 830 GPU is also expected to match the peak performance of the Dimensity 9300's 12-core Immortalis-G720 GPU while consuming only half the power.

It remains to be seen whether the 1250MHz Adreno 830 GPU will be available in the standard SM8750 or remain exclusive to the high-performance SM8750P. Overall, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is poised to deliver substantial performance gains over its predecessor, with further insights expected at the Snapdragon Summit in October.