New models of Snapdragon X Plus CPUs
As recently reported, Qualcomm was about to expand the range of ARM processors for laptops downwards to lower the starting price of Windows ARM PCs. Now, Qualcomm has actually released the new models of Snapdragon X Plus processors, and there are even more of them than expected. More importantly, the cheaper SKUs are now improved quite a bit. They finally have a decent single-threaded boost, which has been a weakness until now.
These new processors are a continuation of the Snapdragon X Elite series released in June, and feature the same Oryon architecture that we analyzed in a separate article. Qualcomm has also added cheaper X Plus series, which until now had only one 10-core model, to accompany the premium 12-core X Elite models. Now it’s adding three more Plus SKUs, with which there will be two ten-core and two cheaper octa-core models to choose from in the Plus line.
Read more: Laptops with ARM Snapdragon X Elite processors and Nuvia cores are here
The first model already released in June, the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100, had 10 cores, 36 MB of L3 cache (12 MB in each of the three CPU core clusters) and a clock speed of 3.4 GHz. Its main weakness was that the maximum clock speed was only 3.4 GHz even for single-threaded programs. The biggest attraction of Oryon processors is the high single-threaded performance, which rivals the fastest mobile processors from Intel and AMD (or Apple) in Geekbench 6 or Cinebench R24, for example. But this is true at their peak clock speed of 4.3GHz, while at 3.4GHz (only 79% of that) this advantage disappears.
The raw performance of the Adreno GPU in this model is 3.8 TFLOPS. That, on the other hand, is where this X Plus model fares quite well (performance is lower than in the top X Elite models with 4.6 TFLOPS, but not by that much).
Slower octa-core
That processor is now joined by a lower-end eight-core counterpart that we have already known about from previous leaks: the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100. This one leaves only two quad-core clusters and 24 MB of L3 cache (2×12 MB) enabled, but like all models it has 6 MB of SLC (system cache). The performance of this processor in multi-threaded applications will be slightly reduced due to only eight cores, at the same time it has a lower maximum clock speed for all the enabled cores – 3.2 GHz. Its single-core boost is 3.4 GHz, the same as the previous 10-core, so single-core performance will be the same (in both the good and bad sense).
This model is further differentiated by the cut down integrated GPU, which apparently has significantly fewer units. Instead of the 3.8 TFLOPS, it’s stated performance is just 1.7 TFLOPS.
With this new (as with the previous existing) Snapdragon X Plus SKU, the biggest problem for most users is probably the reduced clock speed available for single-threaded applications, on which the performance of, for example, a web browser or most common applications will depend. You’ll also miss this performance when running emulated x86 apps. The emulation benefits from the higher clock speeds on the higher-end Snapdragon X Elite models as it helps mitigate the performance disadvantage against x86 processors running the app natively.
New version, or revision, of Snapdragon X Plus with a big boost
However, there are two new models entering the picture that we hadn’t heard about before. In fact, Qualcomm has now added another SKU with 10 cores and another SKU with 8 cores to the previous X Plus models, which have similar specs to the versions just described, but with the addition of a higher clock speed for single-threaded applications, so the previously discussed 1T performance problem is largely solved.
Why this wasn’t the case with the first two models (and also with one of the 12-core models, the Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100), we don’t know. It’s possible that Qualcomm didn’t manage to make the high boost work in the first revision of the chips, and this silicon is sold in models with that low 3.4GHz maximum clock speed, while the other models already have newer, revised versions of the chip where the boost is feasible.
The new improved ten-core is called Snapdragon X Plus X1P-66-100. It again has 36 MB of L3 cache (12 MB in each of the three CPU core clusters). The maximum clock speed under all-core loads is unchanged at 3.4 GHz. However, a boost has now been added and the maximum clock speed is up to 4.0 GHz. This speed is the same as the higher-end X Elite X1E-80-100, but while the Elite can boost to this clock on two cores, the Plus SKU X1P-66-100 can only provide it on one core. Unless the scheduler or processes running in the background mess things up, decent single-core performance should be had on this processor (in this case, the CPU has 93% of the clock speed of the top model).
The Adreno GPU in this model is also apparently in the same configuration as on the first ten-core, with Qualcomm claiming 3.8 TFLOPS of performance. Thus, this X1P-66-100 model is a better option in every way than the previously available Snapdragon X Plus X1P-64-100 model. Should you be buying an ARM laptop, it makes a lot of sense to try to find a model with this one boosting to 4.0 GHz.
And in the same vein, Qualcomm has now also officially launched an upgraded version of the octa-core model: the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-46-100. Again, it has only two quad-core clusters enabled and 24 MB of L3 cache (2×12 MB) and 6 MB of SLC. Performance will be better than the previous octa-core even in multi-threaded applications, as the all-core boost (maximum clock speed for all the enabled cores) has been increased from 3.2 GHz to 3.4 GHz.
But the important part is again that this model has a single-core boost of 4.0 GHz, i.e. as in the improved previous ten-core, so this model will have the same relatively high single-core performance close to the high-end models. The GPU, however, is similarly slow to the first octa-core, although its performance has increased slightly to 2.1 TFLOPS. Still, it’s probably going to be good for undemanding old games at most.
For those interested in exotic PCs who don’t want to spend outrageous sums, the X1P-46-100 is probably the best way to give ARM Windows a try. Qualcomm has previously said that it would like to make the cheapest laptops with Snapdragon X Plus processors available for purchase starting from 700 USD in 2025. For now, though, the cheapest Snapdragon X Plus X1P-46-100 models will probably cost a bit more, and it’s probably going to take a while to reach said price point.
The significantly weakened integrated GPU could be a hint that both octa-core Snapdragon X Plus models could be based on a different smaller chip, which has been mentioned in earlier leaked news and is said to be internally called Purwa (the codename for the twelve-core chip is Hamoa, according to leaks). This could also be evidenced by the fact that they have a different “part number” (XI-45), while both the ten-core X Plus and the twelve-core X Elite share the same part number XI-85. Part number XI-45 seems to correlate with the weak GPU, while all XI-85 models have at least 3.8 TFLOPS of performance.
It is possible that some of the octa-core processors (or even temporarily all of them) will initially be manufactured from harvested defective deis of the more expensive Hamoa design. This may be why even laptops with these octa-core chips will be relatively more expensive at first, and will reach the 700 USD target when the Purwa chip is mass-produced for these SKUs.
The first laptops with the octa-core models should already be on sale. All Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus models still retain NPU with 45 TOPS (same performance as in the Elite SKUs), so even these cheaper processors can form the basis of the so-called Copilot+ PCs.
Sources: TechPowerUp, VideoCardz
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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