Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite benchmarks leaked: Can they be faster than Apple M3?

New Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite benchmark details have surfaced online. These chips have been announced to launch as Qualcomm's first ARM-based alternatives to Apple M3 and Intel Core chips for thin and light laptops. These processors will be based on the Oryon architecture and three variants are in the talks now: the X Plus X1P-64, the X Elite X1E-78, and the X1E-80.

The latest news about these chips comes from Android Authority, who listed detailed specs and performance marks of all three options along with comparisons against the Intel Ultra 7 155H and Apple M3 Pro.

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What are the specs of Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite?

The new Snapdragon X Plus and Elite have been announced as high-performance laptop CPUs (Image via Qualcomm)

The Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 is touted to be a ten-core CPU. It will mostly power budget and entry-level GPUs. Four of these cores will be efficient and the remaining six will be high-performance.

Besides this, a X1P-42-100 chip with eight performance cores is also rumored. However, not much is known about the processor currently.

In the Elite lineup, three CPUs are rumored. We might get the X1E-78-100, the X1E-80-100, and the X1E-84-100. All of these processors are rumored to feature twelve cores, with eight of them being performance-rated and the remaining four efficient-rated.

	X1 Elite (X1E-84-100)	X1 Elite (X1E-80-100)	X1 Elite (X1E-78-100)	X1 Plus (X1P-64-100)	X1 Plus (X1P-42-100)
Performance cores	8x Oryon - 3.8GHz	8x Oryon - 3.4GHz	8x Oryon - 3.4GHz	6x Oryon - 3.4GHz	8x Oryon - ?
Efficiency cores	4x Oryon - 3.8GHz	4x Oryon - 3.4GHz	4x Oryon - 3.4GHz	4x Oryon - 3.4GHz	-
Turbo	4.2GHz up to two cores	4.0GHz up to two cores	-	-	-
GPU frequency	1.5GHz	1.25GHz	1.25GHz	1.25GHz	?
Video hardware	4K 60 fps encode, 4K 120 fps decode				4K 30 fps encode, 4K 60 fps decode
PCIe	8+4 lanes of PCIe 4.0, 2+2 lanes of PCIe 3.0				4+4 lanes of PCIe 4.0, 2+2 lanes of PCIe 3.0

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Leaked benchmark results of the Snapdragon X Plus and X Elite are promising

The new Snapdragon X series is powered by Oryon CPus and Adreno GPUs (Image via Qualcomm)

Benchmark leaks of the Snapdragon X Plus and Elite chips are promising. Geekbench 6 performance data has been revealed by Android Authority, which shows that the processors can compete against the latest 15th gen Intel Ultra 7 155H and the Apple M3 Pro processors.

Below is a comparison of the CPU and GPU scores of the chips:

	X1 Elite (X1E80100)	X1 Elite (X1E78100)	X1 Plus (X1P64100)	Intel Ultra 7 155H	Apple M3 Pro (18-core GPU, 12-core CPU)
CPU TESTS
Geekbench 6 (single-threaded)	2790	2418	2419	~2300	~3200
Geekbench 6 (multi-threaded)	14309	14077	13139	~13000	~16000
Cinebench 2024 (single-threaded)	122.83	107.4	109.1	~100	~140
Cinebench 2024 (multi-threaded)	~1100 (depends on thermals)	891.7	841.5	~900	~1100
GPU TESTS
3DMark Wildlife Extreme Score	6051	6208	6245	~5000	~14500
GFXBench Aztec Ruins Normal Tier	262.373	276.59	276.26	~240	~600
AI TESTS
Procyon AI total score	1746	1772	1779	~200	~900

The Apple M3 Pro will be the faster option in terms of both CPU and GPU performance. However, the price points targeted by the Snapdragon X Plus and Elite laptops will make them interesting.

These days, your options for an efficient and thin ARM-based laptop are rather limited. Other than Apple, both Intel and AMD strictly use x86 in all of their mobile chips, thereby leaving users with just a few handful of expensive MacBooks. With the upcoming Snapdragons, however, things might change for the better.

There isn't any information about the release date, laptop variants, or prices yet. However, we can expect more to be revealed in the near future,