Google Tensor G3 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

Google Tensor G3

The Tensor G3 marks the third generation of Google's own chipsets for smartphones and tablets based on Android. This SoC is used for the first time in the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro and Google sees the SoC as a high-end device.

The CPU of the Tensor G3 is composed of three clusters. The first houses a single powerful Cortex-X3 core, which can operate at up to 2.91 GHz, the second offers four performance cores (Cortex-A715) with up to 2.37 GHz and the third cluster has four efficiency cores (Cortex-A510) with up to 1.7 GHz. The clock speeds are therefore not particularly high, so that the pure CPU performance is more on the level of an upper-middle-class SoC. 

An ARM Mali-G715 is used as the graphics unit. Google is silent about the exact number of cores, but the benchmarks and the lack of ray tracing suggest a version with seven cores (G715MP7). 

The core of the Tensor SoCs is the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which is responsible for AI and ML tasks. Here, too, Google owes the public more precise information and only talks about the fact that 150 times more complex AI models can be calculated on the device. 

In addition, Google integrates its isolated security core subsystem, which again uses the Titan M2 co-processor and provides additional protection for its own data on a hardware basis. The G5300i modem is based on the Exynos 5300 and supports Wi-Fi 7.

The Tensor G3 is manufactured in the current 4nm process at Samsung.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform is a high-end SoC for smartphones that was introduced in late 2022 and manufactured in 4 nm at TSMC (N4P). It integrates four different CPU clusters. A fast and big prime core based on the ARM Cortex-X3 architecture and clocked at up to 3.2 GHz for 64 bit applications. Two more ARM Cortex-A715 based performance cores clocked at up to 2.8 GHz (also only for 64 bit apps). Two more Cortex-A710 performance cores at up to 2.8 GHz that can also be used for older apps and three efficiency cores (ARM Cortex-A510 with up to 2 GHz). All cores can use the shared 8 MB level 3 cache.

Thanks to the new architecture and high clock rates, the SD 8 Gen 2 is the fastest mobile CPU for Android based devices and is only topped by current Apple SoCs like the Apple A16 (see benchmarks below).

The chip also integrates a Hexagon accelerator for AI workloads (tensor, scalar and vector). Qualcomm states that its one of the first chips with INT4 support and up to 4.35x performance compared to the previous generation. 

The 18-Bit-Spectra ISP is able to process photos with up to 200 MP and work with videos up to 8k30 (including 10-bit, HDR10+, HLG and Dolby Vision).

A big improvement of the Snapdragon 8 G2 is the integrated Adreno 740 GPU, that now supports Hardware Raytracing and tops even the iGPU in the Apple A16.

The integrated AI Engine can offer up to 4x faster AI performance thanks to the bigger Tensor engine. The 18-Bit-Spectra-ISP also saw some big improvements and is now called Snapdragon Sight.

The integrated Adreno 730 offers a 30% graphics boost compared to the previous Adreno 660.

The integrated Snapdragon X70 5G modem is also new as is the FastConnect 7800 modem with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3 support.