Entry-level Snapdragon X SoC challenges AMD Ryzen 7 8840U in Geekbench 6 multi-core benchmark

At CES 2025, Qualcomm announced a new entrant to its desktop-class Snapdragon lineup, the Snapdragon X. It was the silicon giant's only new SoC that saw the light of day at the event, sporting eight high-performance Oryon cores clocked at 3.0 GHz along with a 45 TOPS NPU. Evidently, this chip is targeted primarily at the entry-level notebook segment.

It now appears that we have some concrete information regarding how well the latest desktop ARM SoC will perform, courtesy of Rolan Quandt, who was able to squeeze out a Geekbench 6 run on a host system at the show. The Snapdragon X, housed in a 16-inch Asus Vivobook laptop, managed some decent multi-core performance, albeit the single-core performance leaves a lot to be desired.

Before we dive into the results, it is worth noting that the laptops are yet to exit the QC stage, so there is likely some more performance on the table. In single-core, the 8-core Snapdragon X managed to rake in around 2,121 points. In multi-core, on the other hand, the performance is more enticing, at around 10,492 points. The multi-core performance puts it roughly in the same ballpark as the slightly higher-tier Ryzen 7 8840U "Hawk Point" chip, although the Snapdragon X does lose out somewhat significantly in single-core performance.

Of course, it all boils down to how affordably the Snapdragon X-powered laptops will be priced. Qualcomm intends to target the $600 segment, although prices for decently equipped notebooks will possibly end up higher. It can be expected that Qualcomm will likely have the upper hand in efficiency and battery life, although its 1.7 teraflops Adreno iGPU is no match for even the entry-level Radeon 740M iGPU that has been on the market for quite a while now.

For folks who prioritize battery life and have workflows that can be dealt with in an ARM-based system, the Snapdragon X does look pretty impressive, provided that iGPU performance is not paramount. Of course, that is true only if the upcoming systems are priced justifiably.

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