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The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus reportedly runs into the same efficiency problems due to the Cortex X2 core's high power draw. It could force Qualcomm to underclock the SoC a little and potentially fall short of its targetted gains in performance.
www.notebookcheck.net
Hence, Qualcomm could be forced to underclock the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1's prime Cortex X2 core. It could mean that the performance differential between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1's Plus and non-Plus variants could be even more marginal, which shouldn't ideally be a problem as the former still has the potential to best the latter due to TSMC's supremacy in the chipmaking space.
I thought the Cortex X series were intended for tablets and larger devices anyway. The phone makers shoving them in smaller devices are going to have to downclock anyway.. (or use -A cores).
I thought the Cortex X series were intended for tablets and larger devices anyway. The phone makers shoving them in smaller devices are going to have to downclock anyway.. (or use -A cores).
They couldn't, really. There's strong AP coming from Apple. Even if Cortex X series is intended for tablets(ARM didn't really specify where to use it though), Android phones have no choice but to use it to fend off Apple's penetration. Since the performance per power of Cortex X3 is already decided as well, I think Android makers need to rely on more 'gimmicks' for 2~3 years(super nice camera...etc) to hide heat and battery life issues(compared to Apple). I think that's part of a reason why Qualcomm decided to buy Nuvia.
They couldn't, really. There's strong AP coming from Apple. Even if Cortex X series is intended for tablets(ARM didn't really specify where to use it though), Android phones have no choice but to use it to fend off Apple's penetration. Since the performance per power of Cortex X3 is already decided as well, I think Android makers need to rely on more 'gimmicks' for 2~3 years(super nice camera...etc) to hide heat and battery life issues(compared to Apple). I think that's part of a reason why Qualcomm decided to buy Nuvia.
Agreed re: Apple performance being so far ahead.. but I’m thinking that — is it really a problem with the process node? Or is it that the core was targeting a higher power envelope than what people are using it for — so of course they have downclock the chips to “get the power down” to a phone size device..
Agreed re: Apple performance being so far ahead.. but I’m thinking that — is it really a problem with the process node? Or is it that the core was targeting a higher power envelope than what people are using it for — so of course they have downclock the chips to “get the power down” to a phone size device..
We already have two chips: N5 based Apple A15 (released 2021) and N4 based Mediatek dimensity 9000 (released 2022) but A15's still far ahead in every metric. So we can't really say it's a process node problem. ST performance of A15 chip is still more than 30% faster than X2 with 7% higher clock(3.0Ghz Dimensity 9000 vs 3.2Ghz A15). If X2 chip is designed for higher power(thus higher clock) then it should be running at 4+Ghz to fight against 3.2Ghz A15 chip but power consumption will go 'boom'. So, It seems like ARM's design problem to me. Maybe they're earning too little to cover all designs they introduced?
The performance charts are still dominated by Snapdragon chips. Interestingly, the value for money charts are as well. Qualcomm used to be have the...
www.gsmarena.com
In the March 2022 AnTuTu benchmarks, the best phone using the Dimensity 9000 (made on TSMC 4nm) was narrowly beaten by phones using the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (not Plus; made on Samsung 4nm). The reason is amusing: the top 3 Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 phones had better cooling. It's implied the Dimensity 9000 phones were still somewhat throttled back. Aside from this, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 had a slightly better Adreno GPU, although Dimensity 9000 CPU is a little better.