Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100

The Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 is a pretty fast ARM architecture processor (SoC) for use in Windows laptops. As the second-fastest X Elite chip in September 2024, the X1E-84-100 has 12 Oryon CPU cores running at up to 4.2 GHz, along with the 4.6 TFLOPS Adreno X1-85 iGPU, the 45 TOPS Hexagon NPU and an impressively fast LPDDR5x-8448 memory controller delivering over 100 GB/s of throughput. USB 4.0, TB 4 and PCIe 4 are all onboard, too.

Two slower Snapdragon X Elite flavors exist, known as the X1E-80-100 and X1E-78-100. In the meantime, the X1E-00-1DE is a special version of the X1E-84-100 aimed at system makers and software developers that has just slightly higher single-core and dual-core Boost clock speeds of 4.3 GHz but otherwise the same CPU/GPU/NPU configuration.

Architecture and Features

The Oryon cores (3 clusters of essentially identical cores; 12 threads) are mostly based on Nuvia IP and they reportedly make use of 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 however it does not appear to support eGPUs as of September 2024.

Like most X Elite and X Plus processors, the X1E-84-100 is based on the larger die codenamed Hamoa. The processor is believed to have at least 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 present for accelerating AI workloads.

Performance

When all of the 12 cores are under load, they run at up to 3.8 GHz. The 4.2 GHz clock speed is only achievable under single-thread or dual-thread loads.

If the Galaxy Book4 Edge 16 review is any indication, the Snapdragon is almost as fast as the Core Ultra 7 155H in applications compiled for ARM while being up to 30% slower when executing x86 code.

A lot depends on how high the power limits of the system are, and how competent its cooling solution is.

Graphics

The 4.6 TFLOPS X1-85 iGPU has 1,536 unified shaders running at up to 1,500 MHz. It is reportedly (ChipsAndCheese) based on the significantly older Adreno 730 iGPU, rendering the X1-85 DX12-compatible but not DX12 Ultimate-compatible. AVC, HEVC and AV1 video codecs can be both hardware-decoded and hardware-encoded; with VP9, only decoding is possible. The highest monitor resolution supported is UHD 2160p rather than SUHD 4320p.

Its gaming performance is in many use cases almost as good as the Intel Arc 8 for reasonably playable experience in many 2023 and 2024 games such as Baldur's Gate 3 at 1080p on low graphics settings.

Power consumption

An X1E-84-100 can eat up to 80 watts depending on the system and the power profile chosen. This will differ from one laptop to another, with most designs expected to target the ~45 W sweet spot. The Samsung laptop that we finished testing in early September certainly does.

It must be said that the power consumption figures include RAM, unlike it is with most Intel and AMD chips.

The Qualcomm SoC is built with the TSMC N4P process for better-than-average, as of H2 2024, energy efficiency.

Codename	Oryon
Series	Qualcomm Snapdragon X
Series: Snapdragon X Oryon Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-00-1DE 3.8 - 4.3 GHz 12 / 12  Oryon Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-84-100 « 3.8 - 4.2 GHz 12 / 12  Oryon Qualcomm 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 10 / 10  Oryon Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-46-100 - 4 GHz 8 / 8  Oryon Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 - 3.4 GHz 8 / 8  Oryon
Clock Rate	3800 - 4200 MHz
Number of Cores / Threads	12 / 12 12 x 4.2 GHz Qualcomm Oryon
TDP Turbo PL2	80 Watt
Manufacturing Technology	4 nm
GPU	Qualcomm SD X Adreno X1-85 4.6 TFLOPS
64 Bit	64 Bit support
Architecture	ARM
Announcement Date	04/24/2024
Product Link (external)	www.qualcomm.com

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