San Diego-based chipmaker Qualcomm has renewed ambitions to take over the ARM-based PC market and is eyeing the gaming space for the first time. The company launched four new chipsets, two for PCs using the ARM architecture and one each for mobile and gaming. All new chipsets are named according to the company’s new chip nomenclature.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021 wrapped up on December 1. As expected, the company went ahead with a new naming scheme for its upcoming line of mobile platforms, also called system on a chip. Now a standalone brand, separate from the ‘Qualcomm’ prefix, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, launched on day 1 of the summit, is the latest entrant in the Snapdragon series, building upon the success of its predecessor, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888.
While day 1 focused on how the company is moving forward with a renewed take in the lucrative semiconductor space with a rebrand, day 2 of the tech summit saw the U.S.-based chipmaker extend its foray into personal computing. Qualcomm launched the next generation of two of its PC chips along with a gaming chip for handheld devices.
These are:
- Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3
- Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3
- Snapdragon G3x Gen 1
Both Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 are ARM-based chips designed to help expedite the adoption of the ARM architecture for Windows machines. Both are successors to the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 and Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 2, respectively, released earlier in 2021.
However, the first-generation Snapdragon 8cx was released nearly three years ago, the development and market potential of which seemed to have dwindled. None of the two chips managed to make a mark in the industry, even with a couple of iterations developed in partnership with Microsoft for its line of Surface notebooks (Microsoft SQ1, SQ2).
Notwithstanding that, these third generation of Snapdragon chips for PCs promise to offer a power-packed punch, significantly better than the previous ones. That is not to say that they’ll be on par with some of the other flagship processors out there from AMD or Intel. But looking at the chip specifications, it seems Qualcomm is finally here to give existing PC chip players a run for their money.
See More: Snapdragon to Operate As a Standalone Brand, Says Qualcomm
First off, Microsoft is slowly adapting to ARM-based hardware. The Redmond-based tech giant included ARM in the App AssureOpens a new window program, which promised app compatibility across hardware other than the x86 it currently uses. Later, Microsoft also enabled 64-bit emulation for app Insider builds using ARM64EC (Emulation Compatible). One such update was for its suite of productivity apps Microsoft Office.
ARM64EC is a new application binary interface that is interoperable with x64/x86 CPUs. Native app support for ARM64 (as opposed to emulation) and shedding the 32-bit hardware is a tectonic shift in how Microsoft wants to proceed with its future outlook. It may have influenced Qualcomm’s decision to reignite what it envisioned three years ago when it launched the Snapdragon 8cx in 2018.
Even the recently launched Windows 11 supports a lot of ARM devices. Moreover, Chrome OS, Google’s operating system powering Chromebooks, are also compatible with ARM. The hallmark of Chromebooks is to provide a lightweight, energy-efficient computing experience, which ARM is suited to.
It is hard to say if Qualcomm’s new chips will dethrone Intel, AMD, and others considering these new chipsets aren’t designed for compute-intensive operations. Apple is also using an ARM-based M1 chip for its computers. But the Apple M1 is internally-built and has received a phenomenal response, which is why business from Apple is a dubious proposition at best.
With the Nuvia acquisitionOpens a new window , Qualcomm is also working on its next generation of chips for Windows, possibly rising to the level of Apple M1s. Until that happens, let us take a look at the specifications of the new chips, two of which are for PCs and one for mobile.
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3, Snapdragon 8, Gen 1 Specifications
|
Chipset |
PC | Mobile | |
| Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 | Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 |
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 |
|
|
Process Node |
5 nm | 6 nm | 4 nm |
| CPU Cores | 8 core [4 Cortex-X1 Kryo, 4 Cortex-A78 Kyro] | 8 core [4 Cortex-A78 Kryo, 4 Cortex-A55 Kyro] |
8 core [1 Cortex-X2 Kyro, 3 Cortex-A710 Kyro, 4 Cortex-A510 Kyro] |
|
CPU Performance (over prev.) |
85% | 60% | 20% |
| GPU Performance | 60% | 70% |
30% |
|
Power Efficiency |
“25+ hours on a single charge†| “Multi-day battery life†| 25% |
| Connectivity | 5G | Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E | 5G | Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E |
5G | Wi-Fi 6/Wi-Fi 6E |
|
Wi-Fi Bands |
2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 60 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz | 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, 6 GHz |
| Peak Download Speed | 10 Gbps | 3.6 Gbps | 3.7 Gbps | 2.9 Gbps |
10 Gbps | 3.6Gbps |
|
AI Engine |
29 TOPS (3x Gen 2) | 6.5 TOPS | NA (888 provided 26 TOPS) |
| Camera | 4K HDR Video, 4K Ultra HD, 720p @ 480 FPS, Up to 24 MP | 4K HDR, Up to 64 MP (Single), 22 MP (Triple) |
8K HDR video, 720p @ 960 FPS, Up to 200 MP |
|
Support |
Pluton TPM architecture, UFS 3.1, Qualcomm Neural Processing Engine SDK support for AI, Runtime Memory Encryption, NVMe over PCIe, Location | Microsoft PlayReady 3, Windows 11, UFS 2.1, eMMC 5.1, SD 3.0 |
Location, NFC, |
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Snapdragon G3x Gen 1
Qualcomm is known mostly for its chipsets for mobile devices. After launching a couple for PC and finally following up on two upgrades this year alone, the company is opening up a new front: gaming.
The Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 is designed to provide a pure gaming experience on portable Android handheld gaming devices but not Valve Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and others. Since it supports all Android games and game streaming services such as Xbox Game Cloud, Stadia, GeForce Now, it is reasonable to speculate that Qualcomm’s gaming focus is for mobile devices, at least for now.
Qualcomm also collaborated with gaming hardware provider Razer to develop a gaming developer kit. However, the development kit will only be available to developers to build on the company’s first real step toward the mobile gaming segment. So consumers and original equipment manufacturers will have to wait for the development kit for Snapdragon G3x Gen 1 until Qualcomm builds an ecosystem around it.
The Razer developer kit sports a 6.65†OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. It has full HD+ and 10-bit HDR support. A 5-megapixel 1080p camera supporting 60 fps is built in the dev kit and two microphones for live streaming. It also has four speakers and supports 5G and Wi-Fi 6E. Specifications of the purpose-built chip itself remain undisclosed for now.
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