Qualcomm’s flagship processor for laptops is finally here and has started rolling out in markets in India and abroad. OEMs like Asus, Samsung, Lenovo, Acer, and more have already put out laptops powered by the Snapdragon X Elite. Promising raw power and state-of-the-art AI processing, the SoC is set to take on Apple’s best. Here’s a quick comparison of the Snapdragon X Elite and the Apple M3 Pro chipsets.
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| Parameter | Snapdragon X Elite | Apple M3 Pro |
| Instruction Set | ARMv9 | ARMv8 |
| CPU Cores | 12 (12x high-performance cores) | 12 (6x high-performance cores + 6x efficiency cores) |
| Fabrication Process | 4nm | 3nm |
| Transistors | – | 37 billion |
| Maximum Frequency | 3.8GHz (Turbo Boost Frequency: 4.3GHz) | 4.05GHz |
| Integrated GPU | Adreno 750 GPU | Apple M3 GPU |
| RAM | 64GB | 36GB |
| RAM Type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5 |
| Maximum Memory Bandwidth | 135 GB/s | 150 GB/s |
In This Article
Snapdragon X Elite vs Apple M3 Pro: CPU
The Snapdragon X Elite SoC is built on a 4nm process and consists of 12 CPU cores, all of which are high-performance cores. The chipset has a maximum frequency of 3.8GHz which can be boosted up to 4.3GHz by two cores.
Meanwhile, the Apple M3 Pro is built on a 3nm process and consists of 12 CPU cores. The key difference is that 6 of these are high-performance cores while the remaining 6 are efficiency cores. The maximum frequency of the M3 pro is clocked at 4.05GHz.
Snapdragon X Elite vs Apple M3 Pro: Benchmarks
On the Geekbench 6 app, the Snapdragon X Elite scored 2,952 points on the single-core test and 15,553 points on the multi-core test. The Apple M3 Pro scored 3,081 and 15,025 points respectively. In comparison, the Apple M2 Pro scored 2,661 (single-core) and 14,634 (multi-core) and the Snapdragon X Plus secured 2,425 and 13,100 points.
Snapdragon X Elite vs Apple M3 Pro: GPU
The X Elite supports Adreno 750 GPU while the M3 Pro makes use of Apple’s next-gen GPU. The former scores between 10,000 – 11,000 points in the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme test with frame rates varying between 38.5 and 44.5 FPS. Meanwhile, the M3 Pro scores 13,000 points and sustains an average frame rate of 36/1 FPS.
Snapdragon X Elite vs Apple M3 Pro: AI
AI is one of the biggest talking points of the current-gen SoCs and chipsets. The X Elite SoC is equipped with the notable Hexagon AI engine. Using its NPU, the chipset can perform 45 trillion operations per second. Using all of its units (CPU, NPU, and GPU), the chipset can perform up to 75 TOPS (total operations per second). Meanwhile, the Apple M3 Pro can only perform up to 18 trillion operations per second with its 16-core Neural Engine. This is fewer than the Apple A17 Pro SoC (35 TOPS)
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Conclusion
Apple’s M Series processors are considered the gold standard of computing, but Qualcomm has finally put out a worthy competitor in the Snpadragon X Elite. As evidenced by the Geekbench 6 numbers, both chipsets are pretty evenly matched when it comes to the CPU specs. In terms of GPU performance, both processors need to make improvements to meet the intensive gaming demands. However, when it comes to AI processing, the Snapdragon X Elite pulls ahead of its Apple counterpart.
