- The new chipset is based on a 4nm process.
- For gaming, there’s Unreal Engine 5 support with Lumen lighting system along with a 25 per cent more powerful GPU compared to its predecessor.
- The Kyro CPU also provides 30 per cent better performance.
The chipset that you’ll see in most Android flagship smartphones going forward has finally been revealed. Qualcomm just announced its Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset with a big focus on generative AI and gaming tech. The company calls it the “Titan of on-device intelligence.” Here’s all you need to know about it.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: specifications
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is based on a 4nm process, unlike the Apple A17 Pro which features a more advanced 3nm process.
- In terms of performance, the CPU with a peak clock speed of 3.3 GHz in its prime core, is 30 per cent more powerful compared to its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. It is also 20 per cent more efficient.
- The GPU on the other hand provides 25 per cent better performance, 25 per cent better power efficiency and 40 per cent better Ray Tracing which also leads to up to 10 per cent overall power savings.
- It supports up to USB 3.1 Gen 2 port, LPDD5X RAM, Wi-Fi 7 (5.8Gbps), and Bluetooth 5.4.
- The new Snapdragon X75 modem enables 5G advanced-ready, 5G mmWave/sub-6Ghz/SA/NSA, up to 10Gbps downlink and up to 3.5Gbps uplink support.
- Qualcomm Spectra ISP supports Real-time Semantic Segmentation photo and video processing (up to 12 layers), up to 8K/30FPS HDR or 4K/120FPS video recording, and up to 200MP image capture. Supported HDR video recording formats include Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG.
- For audio technology, the chipset supports 24-bit 96 kHz lossless music. Qualcomm also has a bunch of its own codecs and suites but the chipset also supports spatial audio with head tracking.
- The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can also support up to 4K/60Hz or QHD+/144Hz on-device displays and up to 8K/30Hz external display. It supports LTPO panels with variable refresh rates along with most HDR formats like Dolby Vision and HDR10+.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: AI and Gaming features
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a “Generative AI powerhouse” that is capable of running up to 10 billion parameters on-device with generation of up to 20 tokens per second. Further, the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU is a whopping 98 per cent faster and 40 per cent more efficient than its predecessor.
With Qualcomm AI Stack, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the first to support multi-modal generative AI models and speculative decoding. It also features a memory bandwidth of up to 4.8GHz and 77Gbps. It also supports Video object erasers, night vision, video bokeh, Dolby HDR photo capture and Photo expansion functionalities on the chipset.
Unreal Engine 5 support with Lumen lighting system allows for “state-of-the-art real-time global illumination and reflections” which is the first for a Snapdragon chipset. It can power up to 8K external display resolution gaming and 240FPS on-device gaming. Support for Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0 and 240Hz to 1Hz QSYNC is also present.
