The third musketeer steps up! After NVIDIA and Intel took the wraps off their latest wares, Qualcomm is here with what it hopes will power the next generation of Windows on ARM PCs.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G.
We have been hearing about what the chip giant had been cooking for some time now.
And this newest launch from the company comes after nearly 21 months since it introduced its novel Snapdragon 8cx Compute Platform at the Snapdragon Technology Summit in 2018. At last year’s gathering, the firm focused on adding new tiers with the Snapdragon 7c and 8c.
But now, the Snapdragon 8x Gen 2 5G is in the house!
In terms of performance, while the original locked horns with an 8th generation U-series Core i5, this new entrant competes with the 10th generation variant of the Core i5, that being Ice Lake. Speaking in numbers, these new chip promises an 18% improvement overall, and 39% per-watt.
And when compared to the hybrid solution that Intel paddles, Lakefield, we are looking at an 51% uptick overall, and 58% per-watt.
Of course, these are all optimizations, as the architecture remains the same.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G also boasts the same features as its predecessor. These include the ability to drive two 4K displays, without Thunderbolt support at that. And you also have the Qualcomm AI Engine that can be used for features like gaze correction for cameras.
All in all, there’s a lot to like here.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 5G will start shipping in products later this year, with companies like Acer and HP on the frontlines with their new devices.