Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 (or Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3) is a fast mid-range SoC with 8 cores for smartphones and tablets (mainly Android-based).

The SoC was introduced in March 2024 and brings some improvements compared to its predecessor Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2. According to the manufacturer, this includes 15% more processor performance and 45% more GPU performance.

Qualcomm combines an ARM Cortex-X4 Prime core with clock speeds of up to 2.8 GHz with four Cortex-A720 cores at 2.6 GHz and three economical Cortex-A520 efficiency cores at 1.9 GHz. An Adreno 732 is used as the GPU, which supports Vulkan 1.1 and Snapdragon Elite Gaming.

The integrated ISP can process photos from a 200 MP camera and 4K HDR videos at 60 fps. New AI functions from the Snapdragon 8 series are designed to enable better automated post-processing of photos.

The SoC also supports fast UFS 4.0 memory. Qualcomm also installs a Snapdragon X63 5G modem that achieves a download speed of up to 4.2 Gbit/s. The FastConnect 6900 chip supports Wi-Fi 7.

The SoC is manufactured in the modern 4nm process at TSMC.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen. 3 for Galaxy (SM8650) mobile platform is a high end SoC for Android-based smartphones and tablets. Compared to the normal SD8 Gen3, the "for Galaxy" variant offers a 90 MHz higher clocked prime core and a higher clocked GPU.

The cryo-CPU is based on ARM's v9.2 architecture and consists of three clusters: The first includes a fast prime core (ARM Cortex-X4) with up to 3.39 GHz. The second consists of three power cores with up to 3.2 GHz and two additional cores clocking at up to 3.0 GHz (all Cortex-A720). The efficiency cluster consists of two power-saving cores (Cortex-A520) that operate at up to 2.3 GHz. The SoC uses the integrated Adreno 750 for graphics acceleration. 

Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen. 2 for Galaxy, Qualcomm promises a 25 percent higher GPU clock rate, whose power consumption is said to have been reduced by 25 percent at the same time. Similarly, the CPU's performance is announced to be now a whopping 30 per cent faster and requires 20 per cent less power.

A special focus is also placed on machine learning (AI). The integrated Hexagon NPU is 98% faster than its predecessor and promises a 40% improvement in efficiency. Qualcomm's AI engine is the first to support multimodal generative AI models, including LLM, LVM and ASR, and can process up to 10 trillion parameters directly on the SoC. Image manipulation is said to be possible within fractions of a second. In addition, the NPU of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is also capable of INT4 and Meta Llama 2. 

Also back on board is Snapdragon Sight, Qualcomm's brand for camera functions. In addition to Ultra HDR, Dolby HDR is also supported for photos. Photos can now be enhanced by generative AI models and with the Video Magic Eraser (ArcSoft), unwanted people and objects can also be removed from videos. In addition, the ISP is able to distinguish real photos from AI-generated content. This is again a triple ISP (Image Signal Processor), which works with 18 bits and up to 12 layers. 

The integrated Snapdragon X75 Modem-RF 5G system allows simultaneous transfers of 5G-mmWave and 5G-Sub6, enabling data rates of up to 10 GBit/s in download and up to 3.5 GBit/s in upload. In addition, the modem is able to support all known 5G bands worldwide. Qualcomm's FastConnect 7800 is once again responsible for local communication, which can handle Bluetooth 5.4 with LE Audio and Wi-Fi 7, among other things.

The SoC is manufactured by TSMC in a 4 nm process.