Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs Apple M4 Pro and Intel CPUs shows single-core dominance and 50% multi-core uplift vs last gen
The Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme SoC for Windows laptops is finally official. With 18x 3rd-gen Oryon CPU cores running at up to 5 GHz and a new Adreon X2-90 GPU with a 1.8 GHz boost clock, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme aims to compete with the top x86 processors as well as Apple’s latest M4 series. According to official benchmarks, which we promptly covered, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme appears to be a beast.
That said, first-party benchmarks should always be taken with a giant grain of salt, as they are often inflated to paint the respective products in the best light. Thankfully, Qualcomm did allow independent media to run tests on the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme-based reference laptops. While far from ideal, these tests give us a different set of data to see the true capability of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme vs other competitors.
Case in point, Ryan Shrout’s Signal65 tested the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme in Geekbench 6.5, Cinebench 2024, and 3DMark and posted the results on X.
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme CPU performance
Per Ryan, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme currently contains “the fastest laptop CPU core” that Signal65 has ever tested. Per Signal65’s testing, the 3rd-gen Oryon CPU inside the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is around 40% faster than the first-gen Oryon cores of the Snapdragon X Elite in Geekbench 6.5 and 27% faster in Cinebench 2024. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme also reportedly dominates the Intel Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake in single-core performance, with up to 40% better performance in Geekbench and 33% uplift in Cinebench.
However, Apple is still quite competitive, as the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is allegedly ~4% ahead of the Apple M4 Pro in Geekbench 6.5 single-core, while the M4 Pro takes a 9% lead in Cinebench.
When it comes to multi-core performance, the 18-core Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme CPU is twice as fast as the Snapdragon X Elite in Cinbench 2024, according to Signal65. This result is considerably better than the numbers we posted yesterday, where the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme was around 130% faster than the X Elite in the same test. The delta between the two CPUs is around 52% in Geekbench.
Compared to the Apple M4 Pro, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme reportedly performs the same in Geekbench and seems to be around 13% better in the Cinebench 2024 benchmark. The Intel Arrow Lake Core Ultra 9 285H shows a similar performance difference as the Snapdragon X Elite, while the Lunar Lake Core Ultra 7 258V is much slower.
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme GPU performance
As we mentioned while covering the official benchmarks, the Adreno X2-90 iGPU of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, while noticeably faster than last-gen, is not nearly as impressive as the CPU. Signal65 also confirms this, as the Apple M4 Pro outperforms the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme by 31% in 3DMark Solar Bay and by 39% in 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmarks. These numbers match our previous reporting.
However, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme still comfortably clears the Windows competition, as it is allegedly 2.4x faster than the Snapdragon X Elite and 85% faster than the Intel Arc 140v iGPU of Lunar Lake processors in Steel Nomad.
All in all, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is shaping up to be a giant leap forward over the Snapdragon X Elite in both the CPU and GPU departments. However, how capable Windows laptops powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme will be is a different story. Initial reactions to the Snapdragon X Elite were also quite positive. But all the hype surrounding Qualcomm’s first real push into the Windows laptop space died down when reviews of the Snapdragon-equipped laptops went live.
So, in addition to being powerful on paper, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme-based laptops will also need to be marked improvements in everything from efficiency and performance to app compatibility.
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