- The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 nearly matches the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in every major benchmark.
- The Adreno 740 GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is marginally better than the Adreno 735 GPU on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3.
- In terms of efficiency, I think the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 does a better job due to newer ARM cores, even if they are underclocked.
We recently compared the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and concluded that there are significant gaps in performance between the two chipsets, with the former not offering the same flagship-tier performance. We also pitted the newly launched Snapdragon 7 Plus Gen 3 against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, the previous-gen flagship chipset, to evaluate their performance.
And if you look at it objectively, then the 8 Gen 3s seems closer in performance to the SD 7+ Gen 3 and SD 8 Gen 2. Therefore, here is a benchmark comparison between the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, including Geekbench, AnTuTu, CPU Throttling test, and more.
Note: We ran the tests on the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro powered by the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and the OnePlus 12R powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Specs Comparison
Before you proceed, take a look at the specs for the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. You can also head to our explainer on the Snapdragon chipset naming scheme to understand the new nomenclature.
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Release Data March 2024 November 2022 Process Node TSMC 4nm TSMC 4nm CPU Octa-core Kryo CPU
1x 3.0GHz (Cortex-X4)
4x 2.8GHz (Cortex-A720)
3x 2.0GHz (Cortex-A520)Octa-core Kryo CPU
1x 3.2GHz (Cortex-X3)
2x 2.8GHz (Cortex-A715)
2x 2.8GHz (Cortex-A710)
3x 2.0GHz (Cortex-A510)GPU Adreno 735
Hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing
AFME 2.0Adreno 740 GPU
Hardware-accelerated Ray Tracing
Unreal Engine 5
Game Post Processing AcceleratorNPU Hexagon NPU
Run AI models up to 10B parametersHexagon NPU Camera Support Cognitive ISP, Triple 18-bit ISPs
Up to 200MP photo capture
108MP ZSL, 64+36 ZSL, 36+36+36 ZSL
4K HDR video capture at 60 FPS18-Bit Spectra ISP
Cognitive ISP
Snapdragon SightConnectivity Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, LE Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, LE Modem Snapdragon X70 5G Modem
Peak Download Speed 6.5 Gbps
Peak Upload Speed 3.5 GbpsSnapdragon X70 5G Modem
Peak Download Speed 10 Gbps
Peak Upload Speed 3.5 GbpsStorage / RAM Support UFS 4.0
LPDDR5X memory up to 4200MHzUFS 4.0
LPDDR5X memory up to 4200MHzAV1 Codec Support HW-accelerated AV1 Decode only HW-accelerated AV1 Decode only NavIC Support Yes Yes
Geekbench 6 CPU Score
As it’s evident from the Geekbench 6 CPU test, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 performs on similar lines to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The newly launched Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 achieves a single-core score of 1,999 points and 5,273 in the multi-core test.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, on the other hand, received 1,934 in the single-core test and 5,367 in the multi-core test. Despite clocking the cores at a lower frequency, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 manages to rival the CPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 due to newer cores available on the SD 8s Gen 3.
Geekbench 6 CPU Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Single-core 1,999 1,934 Multi-core 5,273 5,367
AnTuTu Benchmark Score
Next, in the AnTuTu benchmark test, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 again comes close to Qualcomm’s 2022 flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 scored 1,523,930 in the AnTuTu test and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 got 1,535,770 points.
In fact, in the CPU test, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 scored slightly higher than the SD 8 Gen 2. That said, the GPU on the 8 Gen 2 is marginally better.
AnTuTu Benchmark Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 AnTuTu Score 1,523,930 1,535,770 CPU 391,196 388,627 GPU 520,531 605,405 Memory 344,714 256,269 UX 267,489 285,469
CPU Throttling Test
In the CPU Throttling test, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 did a much better job than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. As the 8s Gen 3 packs newer cores having better efficiency, it can sustain a high workload on its CPU without sacrificing performance.
In the 15-minute test, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 throttled to 94% of its maximum performance whereas the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 throttled to 75% of its maximum performance. However, this also depends on the cooling system used by OEMs and how well they’ve implemented it.
Geekbench GPU Test
Since 3DMark kept crashing on the Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro, we did the Geekbench GPU test to find the performance difference between both Adreno GPUs. The Adreno 735 GPU on the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 got 8,838 in the OpenCL test and 10,154 in the Vulkan test.
In comparison, the Adreno 740 GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC scored a bit higher in the OpenCL test, achieving 9,133 points. However, in the Vulkan test, the 8 Gen 2 scored 9,109 points. I’d say both GPUs are quite capable with support for hardware-accelerated ray tracing and are both equally matched.
Geekbench 6 GPU Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 OpenCL 8,838 9,133 Vulkan 10,154 9,109
AI Performance Test
For the final AI performance test, we ran the Geekbench ML app to evaluate the NPU performance of both chipsets. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 scored 612 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 got 383 points. The low score of both chipsets might be attributed to the fact that Qualcomm chipsets currently don’t support the NNAPI backend properly. We tried to run other AI benchmarking apps, but Xiaomi Civi 4 Pro refused to launch those apps.
The Verdict: Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
The new Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 from Qualcomm matches the performance of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in nearly all areas. If I had to choose a chipset between the two options, I would definitely go with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3. Why? It boasts slightly underclocked but newer ARM cores which would improve the battery life and thermal performance of the chipset.
But that’s my opinion and choice at the end of the day. What do you think about the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3? Would you pick it over the previous-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 2? Let us know in the comments below.
