In an exciting development, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite has emerged as the fastest smartphone chipset in Geekbench 6’s multi-core performance tests, challenging Apple’s long-standing dominance. However, when it comes to power efficiency and single-core performance, the story takes a different turn.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite, though powerful, consumes slightly more energy than Apple’s A18 Pro and trails behind in Geekbench 6’s single-core results. Tests conducted revealed that while the A18 Pro scored an impressive 3,413 points with a power draw of 6.6W, the Snapdragon 8 Elite came close with a score of 3,233 points, consuming 6.9W. Despite being just 5.5% slower, the Snapdragon chip’s power efficiency still lags, albeit only slightly, hinting that mass production on TSMC’s 3nm ‘N3E’ node results in similar power consumption for both chipsets.
Interestingly, the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s performance cores in the reference design are tested at a maximum clock rate of 4.32GHz, which contributes to its higher power consumption. Previous leaks have hinted at a lower clock speed of 4.20GHz for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, suggesting potential for improved efficiency with reduced frequencies. It remains to be seen how adjusting the clock speeds might enhance the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s performance per watt, and updates are anticipated to shed light on this aspect.
Overall, while the Snapdragon 8 Elite holds its ground firmly in multi-core performance, the quest for better power efficiency continues in Qualcomm’s effort to level the playing field with Apple.
