Discussion Qualcomm Snapdragon Thread

[Tup3x]

I wonder if Qualcomm has had second thoughts about releasing the X1E-78-100.

Back then, I was rather disturbed by the fact that they chose to release a chip without Core Boost at all.

No hype trains please!

I think they should have made the model number more clear. "X Elite 7800" and "X Elite 8000" would have been simpler than X1E-78-100/X1E-80-100 which no one uses. Or maybe they should have called it X Pro... In any case, it's clocked quite a bit lower and people don't know what they are buying.

+32% IPC for sure, trust me.

Unreal battery life

Lenovo Thinkpad T14s review

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-Gen-6-laptop-review-Snapdragon-X-Elite-enables-epic-battery-life.868214.0.html

View attachment 104117
It's also the most expensive X Elite laptop unveiled so far (but that's expected for a Thinkpad, I suppose).

On a sidenote, it seems Qualcomm's Fastconnect WiFi solution is pretty good. Faster than the Intel BE200.

It's unfortunate that it doesn't use the faster variant. Also I really don't know why Lenovo keeps using trash screens in their T-series laptops. While my T14 Gen 1 screen has good quality (at least it had 100% sRGB coverage), it's incredibly slow and makes me want to puke after a minute. It doesn't help that it's a 60 Hz screen. Doesn't look like things have changed...

 

[adroc_thurston]

While my T14 Gen 1 screen has good quality (at least it had 100% sRGB coverage), it's incredibly slow and makes me want to puke after a minute. It doesn't help that it's a 60 Hz screen. Doesn't look like things have changed...

Power-optimized panels are all slow.
Apple '120Hz' panel on MBPs is an utter joke.

 

[ikjadoon]

Unreal battery life

Lenovo Thinkpad T14s review

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-Gen-6-laptop-review-Snapdragon-X-Elite-enables-epic-battery-life.868214.0.html

View attachment 104117
It's also the most expensive X Elite laptop unveiled so far (but that's expected for a Thinkpad, I suppose).

On a sidenote, it seems Qualcomm's Fastconnect WiFi solution is pretty good. Faster than the Intel BE200.

Wow, what an impressive battery life result. What has Lenovo improved that HP did not, to get nearly double the efficiency with the same CPU, RAM, and similar screens & batteries?

I didn't catch this chart on Notebookcheck; I wonder how might NBC investigate why these laptops got such divergent battery life. I can't remember the last time I saw any laptop beat 1200 minutes, except for the M1 MBP 13".

Either HP made some mistakes (some poorly optimized sub-system / IO / device), or Lenovo truly optimized this laptop.

Would love to have a notebook engineer tear these two laptops down and figure out what happened.

 

[Nothingness]

Wow, what an impressive battery life result. What has Lenovo improved that HP did not, to get nearly double the efficiency with the same CPU, RAM, and similar screens & batteries?

I guess the screen makes a significant difference here.

 

[POWER4]

Unreal battery life

Lenovo Thinkpad T14s review

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-Gen-6-laptop-review-Snapdragon-X-Elite-enables-epic-battery-life.868214.0.html

View attachment 104117
It's also the most expensive X Elite laptop unveiled so far (but that's expected for a Thinkpad, I suppose).

On a sidenote, it seems Qualcomm's Fastconnect WiFi solution is pretty good. Faster than the Intel BE200.

WHAT??

That was not my experience (which arguably only lasted a few days) with the T14s by any means! It had only slightly better battery life than my previous-gen T14s with an Intel processor. I would believe more if those numbers were from a Surface Laptop.

 

[poke01]

Apple '120Hz' panel on MBPs is an utter joke.

Agree. That’s due to mini-LED panel, a horrible panel and it has smearing and response times are bad.

The only good solution is OLED, the M4 iPads don’t have such issues. I hope all laptops manufacturers move to OLED more specifically tandem-OLED as it’s significantly less power hungry than mini-led and offers better contrast than LCD.

I guess the screen makes a significant difference here.

Panel specs do make a difference.

 

[adroc_thurston]

That’s due to mini-LED panel

Naa, there are fast miniLEDs out there.
It's just the price you pay for low power floor.

 

[Doug S]

The only good solution is OLED, the M4 iPads don’t have such issues. I hope all laptops manufacturers move to OLED more specifically tandem-OLED as it’s significantly less power hungry than mini-led and offers better contrast than LCD.

Nobody was even making tandem OLED in volume until Apple wanted it for the new iPad Pro. It was basically seen as something only for the auto market to increase panel life.

I imagine they want it for Macbooks too but it takes time for OEMs to ramp up production (maybe that's one reason why we haven't seen any Macs yet even though M4 is obviously ready) and of course increases cost. But I wouldn't be shocked to see it on MBP, though surely not on all of them. As with iPhone with first Pro, then base, and now next spring SE it'll probably take a few years to make all the way down to MBA.

 

[FlameTail]

Nobody was even making tandem OLED in volume until Apple wanted it for the new iPad Pro. It was basically seen as something only for the auto market to increase panel life.

I imagine they want it for Macbooks too but it takes time for OEMs to ramp up production (maybe that's one reason why we haven't seen any Macs yet even though M4 is obviously ready) and of course increases cost. But I wouldn't be shocked to see it on MBP, though surely not on all of them.

See;

Question - 👑Apple: The OLED Roadmap👑

Apple will launch the 11- and 12.9-inch iPad Pro in 2024. Apple will launch an 8.3-inch OLED iPad mini tablet PC in 2026 and a 10.8-inch OLED iPad Air tablet PC with an LTPS backplane and single-structure RGB OLED in 2027. Omdia estimates that BOE plans to produce these panels in its newly...

forums.anandtech.com

Apple's OLED Roadmap.

 

[FlameTail]

There is a livestream going on now:

Snapdragon for India

They announced a new entry level SoC with 5G : The Snapdragon 4s Gen 2.

They are also talking about some other stuff, such as bringing Snapdragon X laptops to India.

Here's a liveblog for those who don't want to watch the stream:

Qualcomm for India Live updates: Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 to power Xiaomi budget smartphones

Qualcomm for India Live updates: Snapdragon 4s Gen 2 to power Xiaomi budget smartphones

www.thehindu.com

 

[FlameTail]

Qualcomm also teased that they will be announcing something at IFA Berlin 2024:

Purwa-based Snapdragon SKUs perhaps?

 

[FlameTail]

Interesting Development: Mesa Freedreno driver gets support for Adreno 700 series graphics.

Mesa's Freedreno Gallium3D Driver Lands Initial Adreno 700 Series Support - Phoronix

www.phoronix.com

 

[ikjadoon]

I guess the screen makes a significant difference here.

There are a few differences, fair, but not as many as I would expect. The HP has a slightly higher resolution & is a touch screen. Lenovo goes out of their way to call it a "low power" screen, which I assume is an LTPS backplane vs a-Si backplane. The Lenovo does have a higher peak brightness (478 nits) vs the HP (315 nits), so it may be sitting lower on the brightness / power curve.

HP
14.00 inch 16:10, 2240 x 1400 pixel 189 PPI, 10-point capacitive, IPS, glossy: yes, 60 Hz

Lenovo
14.00 inch 16:10, 1920 x 1200 pixel 162 PPI, NE140WUM-N6G, IPS LED, glossy: no, 60 Hz

 

[ikjadoon]

Some negative news re: Surface after Microsoft's earnings. Unfortunately, Microsoft had lower Surface division sales this quarter (March to June 2024) and is expecting even fewer sales next quarter (July to September 2024).

Microsoft’s cloud revenues rule again in Q4, as Surface continues to dip

Office and cloud are strong for Microsoft’s revenues.

www.theverge.com

That means Surface revenue, or what Microsoft now calls devices revenue, has declined again this quarter by 11 percent. The last time Microsoft’s Surface revenue was up was in Q1 FY23, the quarter ended September 30th, 2022.

...

Microsoft CFO Amy Hood says the company’s devices revenue will continue to decline next quarter, in low to mid single digits.

Of course, this is the whole division's sales. Maybe without X Elite / X Plus, Microsoft's sales would've been even worse. Perhaps when the next U.S. IDC report comes in, we'll see how much Microsoft's laptops / desktops have sold, if they can break into the top 5 (which they rarely do). Tablets perhaps, then.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Dell XPS 13 (9345) review: Same great looks, now with Snapdragon X Elite

Dell’s sleek XPS 13 paired with Qualcomm’s efficient Snapdragon X Elite make for a compelling ultraportable.

www.tomshardware.com

Oh nice. At least Qualcomm (or should we say Dell?) managed to do something right.

 

[FlameTail]

Purwa-based Snapdragon SKUs perhaps?

The sooner they release it, the better!

Bring Snapdragon X to the sub-$1000 segment!

 

[FlameTail]

The X4 core in the 8 Gen 3 is huge.

 

[MS_AT]

View attachment 104216
The X4 core in the 8 Gen 3 is huge.

4 times the cache 4 times the size

 

[LightningZ71]

Probably circuit padded to boost max clocks a bit too... 500Mhz faster...

 

[FlameTail]

Research Note about the Snapdragon X Elite launch:

RESEARCH NOTE: Qualcomm Pulled Off the Impossible with the Snapdragon X AI PC Notebook Platform

I have been in and around the PC market for nearly 35 years, working at system houses, chip vendors that cater to those companies, and now as the head of a technology industry firm covering the PC market. Working for PC makers and chip companies, I spent my time leading product management...

moorinsightsstrategy.com

Also good news, Dev Kit will be available next month:

Snapdragon Dev Kit: first Mini-PC with Snapdragon X Elite is priced at $899, available in August - VideoCardz.com

Snapdragon Dev Kit, the first ‘desktop’ featuring X Elite series A US retailer has listed the Dev Kit featuring Qualcomm’s new PC processor, with estimated availability set for August 23. This isn’t an official launch of the first Mini-PC featuring the Snapdragon X Series; rather, it’s just the...

videocardz.com

 

[igor_kavinski]

Oh look, pay more for the X1E80100 and still lose in some MT benchmarks! https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/compare/7134255?baseline=7141731

 

[DrMrLordX]

Also good news, Dev Kit will be available next month:

That is surprisingly affordable, considering how much you have to pay to get a lappie with one of these things. And you get the best SoC SKU to boot which is nearly impossible to do anywhere else. And 32GB RAM!

 

[FlameTail]

How many pipeline stages does Oryon have?

@DavidC1 mentioned that Cortex X925 has 11.

 

[Nothingness]

How many pipeline stages does Oryon have?

@DavidC1 mentioned that Cortex X925 has 11.

Counting pipeline stages makes little sense with modern processors. What you want to know is the branch mispredict latency in various circumstances. I think some reviewers measure that.

Do you have a link where @DavidC1 made that claim? I'd like to understand the context.

 

[FlameTail]

Do you have a link where @DavidC1 made that claim? I'd like to understand the context:

Sure.

Post in thread 'Zen 6 Speculation Thread' https://forums.anandtech.com/threads/zen-6-speculation-thread.2619444/post-41265959