Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: Apple Fights to Retain Its Ground

Qualcomm released its flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, featuring the second-generation Oryon CPU. Qualcomm claims that this chipset has restored the leadership to the Android ecosystem from Apple. So to test the claim, we have compared Snapdragon 8 Elite and A18 Pro in a comprehensive manner. On that note, let’s dive deep and find out which is the most powerful smartphone chipset in the world.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: Specs Comparison

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: CPU

The CPUs on Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple A18 Pro are in some ways similar. Both chipsets are manufactured on TSMC’s 3nm (N3E) process node and have a similar CPU cluster. The Snapdragon 8 Elite has a (2+6) CPU setup, and the A18 Pro has a (2+4) layout, however, Qualcomm has packed two extra CPU cores.

In addition, just like Apple, Qualcomm has removed the L3 cache and uses L1+L2+SLC. In fact, the L1 cache size is the same across both chipsets. The similarity is interesting because the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s Oryon CPU is designed by Gerard Williams, the former chief architect of Apple Silicon.

That said, Qualcomm has added a large 12MB L2 cache for two Oryon prime cores, and another 12MB L2 cache for six Oryon cores, adding to a total of 24MB L2 cache. A18 Pro has a combined 20MB L2 cache. In this regard, the Snapdragon 8 Elite indeed has the largest cache size.

One architectural difference between the Snapdragon 8 Elite and A18 Pro is that the former is still based on the older Armv8 design whereas Apple has implemented the Armv9.2a design on the A18 Pro. As a result, A18 Pro gets SME support, and that results in better CPU performance for some AI workloads. On the latest Geekbench 6.3 benchmark, the A18 Pro is likely to score better due to SME implementation.

Coming to the CPU core design, Qualcomm has packed the second-gen Oryon CPU cores on the Snapdragon 8 Elite. It’s 57% more efficient and 30% more powerful than the first-gen Oryon CPU, found in Snapdragon X Elite.

As a result, Snapdragon 8 Elite’s next-gen Oryon CPU performs exceptionally well, even without SME. Not to mention, the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s max CPU clock speed is 4.32GHz, even higher than the A18 Pro’s 4.05GHz peak frequency.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: Benchmarks

In our A18 Pro benchmark testing, it scored 3,358 in Geekbench single-core and 8,184 in multi-core. In comparison, the leaked Geekbench results for the upcoming Xiaomi 15, powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, show a score of 3,213 in single-core and 10,093 in multi-core.

Despite the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s increased clock speed, the A18 Pro narrowly leads in single-core performance by around 5%, likely helped by the SME units. But with eight Oryon cores (vs six on A18 Pro), Qualcomm beats Apple by delivering 23% better performance. Keep in mind that these are early figures, and retail units usually score lower than the initial leaked numbers.

Geekerwan (visit) has shared some interesting results, benchmarking Snapdragon 8 Elite on Qualcomm’s Reference Device (QRD). In the Speedometer 3.0 test that measures the responsiveness of webpages, the A18 Pro delivers 6% better performance than the Snapdragon 8 Elite. Earlier, the gap was more than 50% with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 so this is a promising result.

In the Geekbench multi-core test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers slightly better performance than the A18 Pro at the same power level (12W). It means that for the first time, Qualcomm’s CPU has managed to beat Apple in terms of performance-per-watt.

By the way, the Snapdragon 8 Elite goes even further, consuming up to 17W to deliver the best CPU performance on mobile phones, gaining over 10,000 points on Geekbench. And under 10W, the Snapdragon 8 Elite scores around 9,000 points.

As for single-core performance, Xiaobai (visit) shows that the A18 Pro delivers around 10% better performance than the Snapdragon 8 Elite while drawing only 6.6W. SD 8 Elite consumed close to 7.6W. It means that in single-core performance, Apple is still the leader in the industry.

In summary, the second-gen Oryon CPU cores are not just powerful, but also highly efficient. While the Snapdragon 8 Elite is slightly behind the A18 Pro in single-core performance, Qualcomm now seems to have a truly competitive CPU that can stand up to Apple’s A-series processors.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: GPU

In the GPU department, the new 8-series Adreno 830 GPU on Snapdragon 8 Elite hits it out of the park. Qualcomm was already ahead of Apple in mobile graphics performance for the past two generations, and with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, it has gained even more ground.

Qualcomm has introduced a new Sliced architecture where each of the three GPU slices is clocked up to 1.1GHz. Overall graphics performance is improved by 40% and Ray Tracing performance sees a 35% improvement. Qualcomm has also added 12MB GMEM (Generalized Memory Management) to the GPU for faster rendering.

Geekerwan shows that in the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test, Snapdragon 8 Elite’s Adreno 830 GPU delivers much better performance at lower power than A18 Pro’s 6-core GPU.

In the Wuthering Waves game, the Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers 58.4 FPS while drawing 5.3W. In comparison, the 6-core GPU on the A18 Pro offers 56.3 FPS at 5.4W. In Honkai: Star Rail, the Snapdragon 8 Elite matches the A18 Pro’s GPU at the same power level.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: NPU

Finally, coming to the NPU. Qualcomm says its new Hexagon NPU on Snapdragon 8 Elite can output more than 70 tokens per second while running LLMs on the device. In addition, it has access to faster dual-channel LPDDR5X memory, that can deliver speeds up to 10.7 Gbps. Qualcomm has not disclosed the TOPS figure for Snapdragon 8 Elite’s NPU.

On the other hand, Apple’s 16-core Neural Engine on A18 Pro can deliver up to 35 TOPS. Currently, it’s hard to evaluate the NPUs on both chipsets, but we will soon run Geekbench AI tests and share the results with our readers.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs A18 Pro: Has Qualcomm Done It?

With the second-gen Oryon CPU, Qualcomm has indeed taken a huge leap in performance and efficiency, especially when you compare the Snapdragon 8 Elite with the 8 Gen 3 from last year. However, Apple continues to hold its ground in single-core CPU performance.

Sure, the Snapdragon 8 Elite achieves far better multi-core results, but that’s largely due to the extra two cores. The A18 Pro utilizes relatively slower memory and clock speeds, yet it beats the Snapdragon 8 Elite in single-threaded tasks while drawing less power.

In the GPU department, well, the Snapdragon 8 Elite comprehensively beats the A18 Pro. It’s time for Apple to improve its GPU architecture substantially. So to sum up, yes, the gap has narrowed significantly, but Qualcomm’s claim of restoring leadership to the Android ecosystem is not here yet, as far as the CPU is concerned.