Why Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is already a success

There was a time when the announcement of such an innovative chip, like Intel’s future Lunar Lake, would have been the “chip” event at Computex in Taipei. But neither Intel nor AMD, both of which announced mainstream processors, had the usual impact. The announcements of Lunar Lake, Ryzen 9000 and others were placed in the background in favor of a chip: the Snapdragon PC Reborn.

During its Computex conference, Qualcomm not only saw the big names in PC production on stage for the first time. But what’s more, the media coverage of his chip is unprecedented. With no less than 22 PC references from different manufacturers, this batch of machines is the largest ever recorded by Qualcomm. A Qualcomm until now accustomed to one or two machines launched out of politeness by players keen to try previous chips, but never won over… until the Snapdragon X Elite, a chip for which expectations are enormous.

A welcome wind of modernity

We could talk for 1000 years about the importance of the ARM instruction set and its supposed superiority. In truth, this is not the case, not only Intel, but also Qualcomm say so! If Qualcomm’s Oryon cores seem to be excellent, both from the point of view of performance and energy consumption, it is especially necessary to emphasize the importance not of the CPU, but of the SoC. This all-in-one chip (System on a Chip), which powers our PCs and brings together CPU (central processor), GPU (graphics processor), NPU (neural processor) and a whole host of other elements (ISP, memory controller , etc.).

If all PC “processors” (especially laptops) are SoCs de facto, the Snapdragon X Elite stands out for its modernity. Its NPU is proven by years of smartphone tweaking. Its image processor or ISP (Image Signal Processor) is much more advanced than those of AMD and Intel with its triple interface and its MIPI connectivity (which supports cutting-edge sensors and ultra-fast data rates). But above all, more than performance at all costs, its raison d’être is to offer the best performance/watt ratio.

An energy efficiency approach necessary in the IT world, not only to please marketers who will be able to display up to 30 hours of autonomy on product sheets. But above all for us… And our planet: energy is expensive, producing it has an impact. Optimizing each watt as best as possible is both an economic and ecological bonus. By designing a champion chip (well, in theory, we’re waiting for the tests!) in the performance per watt ratio, Qualcomm scored two points.

The first is technical, with promises of enormous efficiency, providing more endurance, less heating and less noise. The second point concerns its notoriety. World number 1 in smartphone chips in value (MediaTek is first in volume), Qualcomm was at best a curiosity, at worst an unknown in the very closed world of the PC. However, his name and that of his chip are now everywhere, even among the competition.

Everyone competes against Qualcomm

Among the successes that can be credited to the Snapdragon X Elite is its consideration by the competition. Whether it is Intel or AMD, the slides published by the two masters of x86 chips during this Computex 2024 all contained, at one time or another, comparisons with the Qualcomm processor.

A success, when we remember that Qualcomm began its Windows on ARM adventure seven years ago. A real way of the cross started by an unconvincing mobile Snapdragon 835, followed by numerous chips with more or less merit. But never enough power, software compatibility (Microsoft was hardly effective in the first years!), nor support from the industry. An industry which was not very convinced by the American’s chips. Among the few PCs powered by a Snapdragon, only Lenovo’s ThinkPad X13s and its Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 were entitled to some honors. Mainly for its record battery endurance… In the Windows world.

Manufacturers benefit from competition

Computex 2024 was an opportunity for all chip designers such as Intel, AMD and therefore Qualcomm to show off to all PC manufacturers. Each plenary conference was an opportunity to bring partner brands on stage. However, Taiwan is the Mecca of PCs, with not only the big brands Acer, Asus, MSI and Gigabyte, but also the giants Quanta, Compal and Winstron, these large groups which manufacture PCs for the entire industry. . Ensuring the good graces of these beautiful people is a way of ensuring that these key players in the industry develop chassis carrying the chips.

If in the past, only one brand appeared alongside Cristiano Amon (CEO of Qualcomm), this year, the big names from Asus, HP, Dell and Lenovo came to promote the Qualcomm chip on stage. Machine sellers who benefit here from the qualities of the Snapdragon X Elite as powerful additional negotiating leverage. This additional competition is necessarily welcome for these manufacturers in reducing costs (and/or increasing their margins, which are quite low).

In addition to these important players, another giant has come to drive the point home: the software giant Microsoft.

The Snapdragon X Elite wakes up Microsoft

The world’s largest market capitalization, Microsoft, makes most of its profits thanks to the cloud and AI. But Microsoft has undoubtedly had little taste of the rise of Mac Ms in the homes of its employees. The reality is that the M1 chip and its daughters have literally exploded Apple’s sales among wealthy American audiences – to which Microsoft employees belong. A hard blow for the image (and history!) of the parent company of Windows!

After launching the Windows on ARM project with Qualcomm during COMPUTEX 2017, the Redmond firm adopted a fairly soft – or pragmatic – approach? Although it did launch a Surface Pro Its Office suite was in fact available in a native ARM64 version on M1 Macs two years before the Windows version!

The Snapdragon X Elite chip allowed Microsoft to change its tone. And of course: its two new Surface devices (Pro X and Laptop 13.8) are both powered by Qualcomm chips. And only Qualcomm chips currently benefit from Copilot+ certification. This is while the chips announced by AMD and Intel are supposed to offer the same pure performance and a powerful NPU.

Success lies in emulation

Many questions and doubts surround the very close launch – this June 18 in the USA – of the first PCs integrating Snapdragon X Elite and Plus chips. Qualcomm’s initial design would be too complex and expensive from an energy management point of view, pointed out Semi-Accurate. Some manufacturers would have restricted performance to take advantage of the sobriety of the chip (and integrate less dense, and therefore less expensive, batteries), etc.

If Qualcomm’s commercial success is multifactorial and depends on many parameters, many analysts assure that the chip itself is excellent. A success which allows Microsoft and manufacturers in the PC world to now have major negotiating leverage. A weight that puts pressure on Intel and AMD to accelerate innovations to catch up with the Mac world. A competition which could perhaps, quickly, allow the PC world to regain technological ascendancy over Apple. And that alone is a huge success.