Qualcomm was reportedly planning to launch the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 with a 4.0GHz target frequency, but with the recent Apple M4 launch with its high clock speed and impressive single-core performance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is now going through a redesign.
This design change for the flagship Android chip is said to be finalized in June and will reportedly target a 4.26 GHz frequency. This change will allow Qualcomm to take on Apple’s A18 and A18 Pro on iPhones, which come with higher clock speeds. Apple’s A-series chips are essentially downscaled versions of M-series SoCs.
Qualcomm's Nuvia is making a comeback, and there might be a redesign finalized in June, with a target frequency of 4.26GHz, aiming at the Apple A18 Chip.#qualcomm
— jasonwill (@jasonwill101) May 11, 2024
Qualcomm is anticipated to unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in October, giving the company several months to finalize its design before distributing it to its smartphone partners.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, with a targeted frequency of 4.26GHz, is expected to enhance single-core performance significantly. Additionally, its rumored ‘2 + 6’ CPU cluster configuration is likely to deliver notable improvements in multi-core performance as well.
The Apple M4 chip is based on TSMC’s 3nm process and Qualcomm is said to use the same process for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which would make for some tight competition between the two, at least in terms of benchmark performance.
Just as Apple’s A-series chips are based on downscaled M-series versions, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will also be based on the Snapdragon X Elite meant for laptops and does not support the ARMv9 instructions set.
However, one advantage that M4 has over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is its support for Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), allowing it to handle more complex tasks, which is why it can hit higher scores in benchmarks. The 8 Gen 4 is not getting SME, so the higher clock speed is likely meant to compensate for that.
