Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4: Leaked Details Hint at Powerful Apple M-Series Competitor
Qualcomm is gearing up to take on Apple's M1 and M2 chips with its upcoming Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 processor. Leaks suggest a significant performance jump, with 12 CPU cores, a powerful Adreno 740 GPU, and support for discrete graphics.
(Image source: Kuba Wojciechowski)
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4: Key Features and Leaked Specs
Leaks from developer Kuba Wojciechowski suggest that the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4, codenamed "Hamoa," will feature a configuration of 8 performance cores and 4 efficiency cores, similar to Intel's Alder Lake and Raptor Lake processors. The performance cores are said to reach clock speeds of up to 3.4GHz.
The GPU is expected to be the same Adreno 740 found in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, supporting DirectX 12, OpenCL/DirectML, and Vulkan 1.3. It can reportedly drive up to three displays simultaneously, with two at 4K resolution and one at 5K.
Other notable features include a powerful Hexagon Tensor NPU for AI processing, support for up to 64GB of LPDDR5X RAM, and—in a move similar to Apple's M2—support for a discrete GPU connected via PCIe 4.0.
With these impressive specs, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 could finally provide a compelling alternative to Apple's M-series chips for Windows On-ARM laptops.