Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Computing
  3. News

Qualcomm says its new chips are 4.5 times faster at AI than rivals

By
Two Qualcomm Snapdragon chips.
Andrew Martonik / Digital Trends

Qualcomm just announced two powerful new processors that excel at generative AI, one for laptops and the other for phones. As the potential applications for artificial intelligence continue to expand from text to images, video, and beyond, faster processing on your own device is becoming more important.

The Snapdragon X Elite is Qualcomm’s exciting new laptop processor, boasting best-in-class CPU performance for Windows laptops and impressive GPU speed. For phones, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 blasts by the previous generation with 30% greater speed while drawing 20% less energy from your battery.

Foz Do Arelho, Portugal, February 27, 2020 - Laptop, Camera, Pad and phone on a bench at the seaside. Image on the laptop screen saying digital nomad.
Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptops should work well for photographers. Foz Do Arelho / Qualcomm

CPU and GPU specifications are important, but with its latest release of chips, Qualcomm emphasized the AI processing power of its latest chips. With this improved performance, Qualcomm optimized several generative AI models to run locally on Snapdragon laptops and phones — and it’s claims against Intel, AMD, and Apple are impressive.

So just how fast is it at AI? Well, according to Qualcomm, the new Snapdragon X Elite chips provides 45 TOPS (trillions of operations per second) on INT4 AI benchmark tests and 30 tokens per second on Meta’s advanced Llama 2 AI model. Qualcomm says that’s 4.5 times faster than competitors. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is claimed to process 20 tokens per second, provide real-time segmentation to separate objects in an image for advanced photo processing, and run stable diffusion for image generation in less than a second.

The Snapdragon X Elite is also capable of running 13-billion parameter generative AI models on-device. For phones, 10-billion parameter models can run on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Durga Malladi, Qualcomm’s senior vice president and general manager of technology planning and edge solutions, says the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is the first to support multi-modal (images, text, and more) on phones.

Beyond just raw performance, Qualcomm says its on-device AI helps keep queries and results secure, ensuring user privacy. Since your selfies, personal photos and videos, voice, and text are all used with the new multi-modal AI apps, your biometrics and personal data are potentially at risk if you upload to cloud-based AI.

While cloud-based AI is experiencing the growing pains of rapid adoption, as well as the struggles to scale up quickly enough, local AI processing can offer lower latency, less energy use, and lower cost.

A phone with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is shown taking a picture of a woman on a boardwalk.
A phone with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will have enhanced photo-processing capabilities. Qualcomm

Qualcomm explained this is all possible because of the synergy of technology. Several of the most popular AI models have been optimized for Snapdragon processors and make use of the CPU, GPU, NPU (neural processor), and sensing hub working together to deliver results significantly faster than the previous generation. The new chips also support superfast LPDDR5X memory to remove processing bottlenecks.

As the demand for AI increases, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite for laptops and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for phones are ready to make image generation faster, text processing quicker, and both more secure by enabling on-device processing. It will be interesting to see what the first laptops and phones that launch with Qualcomm’s new chips can do with these enhanced capabilities.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Alan Truly
Alan Truly
Computing Writer
Alan is a Computing Writer living in Nova Scotia, Canada. A tech-enthusiast since his youth, Alan stays current on what is…
Lenovo’s Surface Pro alternative is $70 off right now
The Lenovo IdeaPad D Series 2-in-1 laptop with its detachable keyboard on a white background.

Even with the discounts from Surface Pro deals, Microsoft's 2-in-1 devices are still pretty expensive. If you like their versatility but they're beyond your budget, here's an affordable alternative -- the Lenovo IdeaPad D Series 2-in-1 laptop for only $360 from Walmart, following a $70 discount on its original price of $430. We're not sure how long this offer will last though, so if you're interested in taking advantage of it, it's highly recommended that you proceed with the transaction right now.

Why you should buy the Lenovo IdeaPad D Series 2-in-1 laptop
The Lenovo IdeaPad D Series 2-in-1 laptop looks and works similar to the Microsoft Surface Pro 9, with a detachable keyboard that also functions as protection for its 10.9-inch touchscreen with 2000 x 1200 resolution. It's much more affordable though, as it comes with the Qualcomm Kryo 468 processor and 8GB of RAM. It's not the fastest 2-in-1 laptop out there, but it's going to be more than enough to handle regular tasks such as doing online research and creating reports.

Read more
HP’s 34-inch curved gaming monitor is down to $350 today
The HP Omen 34c gaming monitor with video game art on the screen.

You won't be able to maximize your gaming PC if you're still using an outdated display. You should upgrade your screen to something like the HP Omen 34c gaming monitor, which you can get from Best Buy at $130 off. Instead of its original price of $480, you'll only have to pay $350, but time may already be running out for you to take advantage of this offer. If you want the savings when buying this gaming monitor, you're going to have to proceed with the purchase immediately.

Why you should buy the HP Omen 34c gaming monitor
The HP Omen 34c gaming monitor features a 34-inch screen with QHD resolution that will let you appreciate the graphics of the best PC games, and a 165Hz refresh rate exceeds the recommended range by our computer monitor buying guide. The 1500R curvature of the gaming monitor's display fills your peripheral vision for complete immersion in the game that you're playing, while HP's Eye Ease technology reduces blue light emissions to keep your eyes comfortable even after you've been looking at the screen for several hours.

Read more
Intel’s next-gen Arrow Lake may introduce some major changes to desktop chips
Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger presents Intel's roadmap including Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake, and Panther Lake.

It's been a busy Computex for Intel, but one of its most exciting announcements -- at least for consumers -- slipped a little under the radar. The company will soon expand its portfolio of desktop processors with the next-gen Arrow Lake, and we now have a rough idea of when CPUs will hit the market and how much of an improvement we can expect. Interesting bonus: Some of the new Z890 motherboards will support CAMM2 memory.

According to Wccftech, Intel is planning to officially unveil Arrow Lake in September during the Intel Innovation event, and the processors will launch shortly after, sometime in October this year. Desktop users are the lucky ones here, as they're the ones who will get access to Arrow Lake first -- laptop chips will follow at an undisclosed date. However, laptop users already get plenty to sink their teeth into with this year's Lunar Lake.

Read more