Qualcomm has been on the move setting up for the Snapdragon X Elite and doesn't rest on its laurels. The prominent tech leaker Roland Quandt has released several teasers about what might be the "Snapdragon X2 Elite" series of devices (likely code-named as SC8480XP) undergoing tests with whopping memory of 64GB.
But there is more: Quandt seems now to be increasingly convinced that the new silicon quite possibly based on the next-generation Oryon V3 CPU architecture could have as many as 18 cores against the still most improbable initial guess. If true, this is a significant jump.
All eyes are now on many PC enthusiasts, who would hope Qualcomm has learned something from its first foray in the landscape of the original Snapdragon X Elite. While those chips, introduced with Microsoft's support for Copilot PCs, sounded promising, enthusiasm was decreased by AMD and Intel introducing their power-efficient, AI-boosted laptop processors into the field.
Eighteen cores would equal a 50% improvement over first-generation X Elite models. Add in performance gains expected from a newer architecture, and things could become quite interesting for the Windows-on-Arm ecosystem.
The ambitions for the next-generation chip would appear to reach beyond laptops. The rumor mill has it that the Snapdragon X2 Elite would launch toward what might be the desktop or even the server space. So, why the inference. During some testing, Qualcomm was reportedly running chips such as the SC8480XP accompanied by serious cooling solutions -- in fact, all-in-one liquid cooling with 120mm radiators was reported used. That could be well beyond what is traditionally developed in a laptop for thermal management.
Previously, we heard the SC8480XP was being tested in System-in-Package (SiP) format, which included 48GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD directly on the package. The new mention of 64GB RAM suggests that Qualcomm might be coming up with even more powerful configurations.
While Quandt was still at Computex 2025 watching over Qualcomm, this is probably not the forum for their announcement but probably from some unofficial channels - perhaps a little chit-chat with a device partner. So as with all leaks, take with a grain of salt until we have the authorities telling us.
Since Computex is over, and which held no official mention of what may be dubbed Snapdragon X2 Elite or even "Snapdragon X2 Ultra Premium," the focus falls on the Snapdragon Summit, which will likely be held in September. This would be the most likely time for Qualcomm to officially announce its next generation of processors. Hopefully, we'll also learn more about their exciting new Windows-on-Arm devices that partners are developing.
