The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor delivers what Qualcomm promises. The chip is actually more powerful than its counterparts from Intel and AMD.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite is faster than chips from the Intel Core i7 series and even the new Core Ultra 7 series. AMD’s processors can’t keep up with the ARM-based chip either. Qualcomm made this promise earlier and was met with skepticism. Now the new CPU, tailor-made for Windows laptops, really does seem to be a powerhouse. This is shown by our own tests, in which we compare the Snapdragon X series with the competition.

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In certain cases, the differences are very large. For example, when it comes to the Snapdragon’s rendering performance, there is no comparison with classic laptop chips that fit in the same laptop chassis. In this context, the Snapdragon X Elite delivers about 76 percent more horsepower than the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H, even though the chip is more efficient. The AMD Ryzen 7 7840U also cannot keep up with the Snapdragon X Elite: the Snapdragon performs 63 percent better.

Even with more general workloads, the conclusion remains the same: the Snapdragon X Elite is a powerhouse. The difference is not always that big. When looking at different loads, the Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite performs about three percent better than the Intel Core Ultra 7 and 30 percent better than the AMD Ryzen 7 7840U.

For workloads optimized for ARM, the benefits are obvious. Applications that have to go through Windows’ Prism emulation layer will obviously benefit less from the new chip’s capabilities. However, this is not the fault of Qualcomm, but of Microsoft.