Compared to last year when the Oryon CPU design was first announced, no specific details were disclosed. This year, Qualcomm officially announced the first processor using the Oryon CPU design.PC-class processor Snapdragon X EliteLater, in this interview, Kedar Kondap, Qualcomm's Senior Vice President and General Manager of Computing and Gaming, emphasized the collaboration with Taiwan's supply chain and partners to promote Windows on Snapdragon design. He also explained that by reintroducing a fully in-house architecture design, the Snapdragon X Elite achieves higher computing performance than previous products while also extending device usage through its low power consumption.
Qualcomm is confident in the development of Snapdragon X Elite applications
While the products launched this time still target mainstream device applications, Qualcomm has directly mentioned Intel's Core i7-1355U, Core i7-1360P, Core i7-13800H, and even the Core i9-13980HX, unlike previous descriptions that simply compared them to similar products.
Qualcomm also compared this processor to x9 processors, including AMD's Ryzen 7940 86HS, and even directly to Apple's M2 and M2 Max, which use the Arm instruction set and proprietary architecture. Qualcomm clearly emphasized its confidence in the Snapdragon X Elite's ability to deliver superior computing performance, AI execution efficiency, and power consumption in many scenarios.
The core configuration this time uses a total of 12 Oryon CPUs, 3 clusters, and all of them are used as performance cores. Unlike previous mobile processors, it does not maintain a big and small core configuration. Only 2 designated cores are retained to increase the operating frequency from 3.8GHz to 4.3GHz. The emphasis is on providing a certain form of big and small core operation through this approach, but the goal is to squeeze out higher computing performance.
While a design like the Snapdragon X Elite's will obviously consume more power and run hotter from a mobile processor's perspective, laptops actually have more room for heat dissipation than smartphones. Furthermore, the design characteristics of the Arm instruction set processor mean that even with higher power consumption, it's still significantly more energy-efficient than x86 architecture processors. Therefore, there's no need to specifically rely on energy-saving cores for general operation.
Qualcomm's overall design demonstrates its high confidence in this processor, even collaborating closely with Microsoft to add underlying DirectX 12 API compatibility. This allows many Windows-based games and applications requiring DirectX resources to run smoothly on Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops and other devices, leading Qualcomm to expect this to attract even more user support.
Retain some flexibility for future upgrades
As for the lack of PCIe support for discrete GPUs or external graphics cards, Qualcomm's focus is to ensure the Sapdragon X Elite meets the needs of the mainstream laptop market. Most users in this market use their laptops for work, as well as for daily life and entertainment. Therefore, in addition to basic computing performance and sufficient battery life, the laptop must also be capable of gaming, video viewing, and even creative content editing.
However, the demands of these user groups are clearly different from those of the heavy users at the top of the market pyramid. Therefore, Qualcomm is not in a hurry to meet all market demands with a single product, or to build a track record by first satisfying the needs of a few applications. Instead, it adopts a market strategy similar to Apple's, first satisfying the needs of the largest user groups in the market. After gaining a certain level of word-of-mouth support, it may consider expanding the user market upward or downward.
While Qualcomm emphasized delivering more powerful computing performance than previous products in the design of the Snapdragon X Elite, it also appears to have retained some flexibility for future upgrades.
For example, regarding support for discrete graphics cards, Qualcomm stated in a subsequent Q&A that it does allow OEMs to incorporate discrete graphics cards into their designs, but this depends on the OEM's product design.
For example, the Snapdragon X Elite features only the Snapdragon X5 65G data module, not the newer Snapdragon X8 3G data module currently used in the Snapdragon 5 Gen 75. This may be because this specification already meets most usage needs. However, it is not ruled out that future higher-end processors with different core configurations and operating clock speeds may incorporate more advanced 5G data module specifications.
Future product designs may even see operating clock speeds increased to above 5GHz, enabling them to compete with higher-end processors from Intel and AMD and capture market demand for higher computing performance. Furthermore, by adjusting core configurations and other factors, Qualcomm may also offer different tiers of Snapdragon X Series processors, appealing to entry-level market segments.
Improving the compatibility of software and application services is the current priority
What Qualcomm should do now is to cooperate deeply with Microsoft to make market users more willing to accept products designed with Windows on Snapdragon.
After all, judging from the past few years of implementation, although previously launched Windows on Snapdragon design products have already achieved good computing performance and battery life, the fact that most software still operates with analog compatibility and there is a lack of application services that can be natively executed in the Arm instruction set design environment has resulted in a small number of users willing to use Windows on Snapdragon design products.
We continue to work closely with Microsoft and provideTools and ResourcesThis makes it easier for developers to migrate or create compatible Arm instruction set applications and services. In addition, the addition of support for DirectX 12 APIs in Snapdragon X Elite will increase the usability of Snapdragon X Elite design products.
Launch more processor products to meet different market demands
Although Kedar Kondap did not disclose product details other than the Snapdragon X Elite in this interview, it is certain that Qualcomm will indeed launch more processor products to meet different market needs. Perhaps at events such as Computex 2024 next year, there will be more clear answers.
The first wave of laptops powered by the Snapdragon X Elite processor is expected to be launched by Lenovo, Dell, and HP. Further products are expected to be announced in the second quarter of next year, including models from manufacturers like ASUS and Acer. These products will be released in the third or fourth quarter.
