Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100

The Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 is an ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops. The X1E-78-100 is the slowest member of the Snapdragon X Elite product family, as of May 2024; as such, it has 12 Oryon CPU cores (8 P-cores and 4 E-cores) running at no more than 3.4 GHz. Other key features include a 3.8 TFLOPS Adreno GPU, a 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU and an impressively fast LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller.

The top dog, known as the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100, uses the same die with the same GPU, the same NPU and the same number of CPU cores but its CPU cores and its iGPU run at much, much faster clock speeds than what an X1E-78-100 can muster.

Architecture and Features

Qualcomm Oryon cores are said to be based on the ARM v8.7 microarchitecture. Much like modern AMD and Intel processors, the Snapdragon chip is compatible with USB 4 and thus with Thunderbolt 4; it remains to be seen if the X Elite is compatible with GeForce or Radeon discrete graphics cards.

The Qualcomm SoC is said to have 12 PCIe 4 and 4 PCIe 3 lanes for connecting various kinds of devices. NVMe SSDs are supported with a throughput of up to 7.9 GB/s; furthermore, most laptops built around the chip are expected to have 16 GB of LPDDR5X-8448 RAM. There is also a 45 TOPS NPU for accelerating AI workloads.

Performance

If the official performance data is any indication, the X Elite should be noticeably slower than the 9-core Apple M4 in multi-thread workloads while consuming a lot more power in most scenarios. We'll make sure to update this section once we have in-house testing results.

Like any other Windows on ARM platform, the Snapdragon X chip works best with applications and games compiled specifically for ARM processors, of which there aren't many for the time being.

Graphics

The integrated Adreno GPU is supposed to be DirectX 12-compatible (not DirectX 12 Ultimate-compatible; as the rumors have it, there is no ray tracing of any kind here). It is also supposed to deliver up to 3.8 TFLOPS of performance. For reference, the slowest professional Nvidia Ada Generation graphics card for laptops, the RTX 500 Ada, delivers up to 9.2 TFLOPS.

The Qualcomm iGPU will let you use up to 3 UHD 2160p monitors simultaneously. 2160p120 integrated displays are supported, as are the popular AV1, HEVC and AVC video codecs (both decoding and encoding).

Power consumption

The X1E-78-100 is most likely going to be less power-hungry than its more powerful brothers. Expect to see anything between 20 W and 45 W under long-term workloads because that's what Ryzen HS chips normally consume.

The SoC is built with a 4 nm TSMC process for decent, as of H1 2024, energy efficiency.

Series

Qualcomm Snapdragon X

Codename

Oryon

Series: Snapdragon X Oryon

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100	- 4.2 GHz	12 / 12	Oryon
Snapdragon X Elite X1E-80-100	- 4 GHz	12 / 12	Oryon
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 «	- 3.4 GHz	12 / 12	Oryon
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100	- 3.4 GHz	12 / 12	Oryon
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100		8 / 8	Oryon