Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

By now, it has been established that the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra will exclusively feature Qualcomm's latest flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor. Additionally, the Galaxy S24 and S24+ will also offer versions powered by the Exynos 2400 in Europe or Korea.

Upon the introduction of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, Qualcomm emphasized its remarkable artificial intelligence co-processor and the accompanying AI-related features. While this is commendable, it is pertinent to examine the upgraded raw processing power of the CPU and GPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, as it pertains to the performance of the Galaxy S24 Ultra. Qualcomm has addressed this by providing official benchmark scores that highlight the speed difference between the Galaxy S24 series and its predecessor, the Galaxy S23.

The key specifications of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are as follows:

- Utilizes the 4nm TSMC production method

- Superior system efficiency, boasting a 10% increase

- A more powerful and efficient Kryo CPU, which is 30% faster and 20% more frugal than its predecessors:

- 1 x Cortex-X4 @ 3.3GHz

- 3 x A720 @ 3.2GHz

- 2 x A720 @ 3.0GHz

- 2 x A520 @ 2.3GHz

- Improved performance and energy efficiency by 25% in the Adreno GPU

- AI capabilities enhanced with 98% improved performance and 40% better performance per watt

- Spectra ISP that supports 8K HDR and features multi-camera real-time semantic segmentation, HDR photo technology from Dolby, and dual always-sensing cameras

- Includes Snapdragon Elite Gaming features and new hardware accelerated ray tracing with global illumination

- Equipped with Snapdragon X75 5G Modem-RF System with 10 Gbps peak download speeds

- Supports Qualcomm FastConnect 7800 Mobile Connectivity System, offering Wi-Fi 7 with 5.8 Gbps speeds

The benchmark scores for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are as follows:

- Geekbench single core: 2329 points

- Geekbench multi-core: 7526 points

- AnTuTu: 2.14 million points

- PCMark: 21628 points

- GFXBench Aztec Ruins OpenGL (High Tier) Offscreen (1440p): 83 FPS

- GFXBench Aztec Ruins Vulkan (High Tier) Offscreen (1440p): 96 FPS

- 3Dmark WildLife Extreme: 32 FPS

- Jetstream 2 browser test: 241

Qualcomm claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 offers a 30% increase in Kryo CPU processing power and a 25% improvement in GPU performance compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. Despite utilizing the 4nm production nodes, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benefits from second-generation 4nm production processes, resulting in improved stability and compatibility.

Comparing benchmark results with other devices:

- Geekbench 5 Single (Higher is better):

- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: 1583

- Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: 1884

- Geekbench 5 Multi (Higher is better):

- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: 4937

- Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: 5491

- 3DMark Extreme (High) (Higher is better):

- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: 3828

- Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: 3382

- Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: 3103

- Google Pixel 8 Pro: 2382

- 3DMark Extreme (Low) (Higher is better):

- Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra: 1951

- Apple iPhone 14 Pro Max: 2327

- Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max: 2394

- Google Pixel 8 Pro: 1622

In summary, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 demonstrates significant speed advancements when compared to its predecessor, the Gen 2 in the Galaxy S23 Ultra. Furthermore, the new Snapdragon processor competes favorably with the formidable 3nm Apple A17, although it falls behind in single-core performance as Apple's processors typically have higher clock speeds. It is important to note that this Qualcomm reference platform is optimized for performance, boasting an impressive 24GB RAM. Ultimately, the processing power of the Galaxy S24 is shaping up to be around a third faster than that of the S23.