Qualcomm Introduces Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform That Makes Everything Faster, Smarter

Earlier than you realize it, 2022 will finish, and which means a brand new wave of smartphones can be on the horizon, pushed by a brand new Qualcomm silicon platform. Lots of the next-gen flagship units anticipated to launch subsequent yr will seemingly run on Qualcomm’s newest cellular platform, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. the standard array of efficiency and effectivity enhancements. Qualcomm can also be altering the CPU core configuration, this time round, to keep up assist for legacy apps and provides new apps a bit extra energy.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU and GPU Sources Elevated Throughout the Board

This Snapdragon 8 Generation 2 it is nonetheless an octa-core chip, however the structure of the CPU islands has modified. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has one most important core, three efficiency cores, and 4 effectivity cores (a fairly typical structure), whereas the Gen 2 switches to a 1+2+2+3 setup. There’s nonetheless a most important core on the menu, a Cortex X3 with a excessive clock pace of as much as 3.2 GHz for improved single-threaded efficiency. The low-power cores are the identical Cortex-A510 we noticed in final yr’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, however now there are three as an alternative of 4.

The 4 efficiency cores are cut up into pairs; two of them are Cortex-A710s and two are Cortex-A715s. All these cores are clocked as much as 2.8 GHz, however there’s a motive for the duality. The A710 is the most recent kernel to run 32-bit native purposes, and there are nonetheless some areas (like China) the place 32-bit purposes are required. Total, Qualcomm claims a 40% improve in energy effectivity with this setup, whereas sustaining optimum compatibility and bettering general efficiency.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Projected Efficiency Beneficial properties

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 additionally brings an up to date Adreno GPU to the occasion and guarantees a 25% efficiency enhance in comparison with Gen 1. Video games that may profit from Vulkan 1.3 assist ought to see a rise of as much as 30%. Qualcomm states that these efficiency features additionally include energy financial savings of as much as 45%.

The brand new chip provides {hardware} ray tracing assist for extra reasonable in-game lighting and reflection results, and the primary mobile-optimized assist for the Unreal Engine 5 Metahumans Framework.

Replace, 11/16/22: The corporate supplied a reside demo of each in-game and hardware-accelerated ray tracing on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 prototype telephone.

Qualcomm additionally highlights the AI ​​enhancements of the brand new processor. The generation-to-generation machine studying enhancements we see in cellular chipsets are sometimes important, however solely in sure use circumstances. So Qualcomm claims a 4.35x improve in AI efficiency, however 60% higher energy effectivity might be extra essential. Qualcomm says you possibly can count on new digital camera options in addition to quicker pure language processing when paired with a “Cognitive ISP.”

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 makes use of a neural community to acknowledge faces, garments and different objects within the scene. Thus, it will possibly robotically improve your photos even at ultra-high resolutions. For instance, Samsung’s model new 200 MP ISOCELL HP3 picture sensor is optimized for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 platform. That is additionally the primary Snapdragon chip to assist the AV1 codec, as Intel and NVIDIA are providing of their newest Arc and GeForce desktop GPUs.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 – Enhanced 5G Efficiency and Wi-Fi 7 with Severe Bandwidth

After all, this would not be a flagship Snapdragon chip with out best-in-class connectivity. The brand new X70 modem can run two 5G SIMs concurrently with the assistance of what Qualcomm calls a “5G AI Processor”. It helps as much as 10 Gbps downstream and as much as 3.5 Gbps with 2×2 MIMO for millimeter wave and 4×4 MIMO for sub-6GHz. Qualcomm claims that is additionally the primary cellular chip with Wi-Fi 7 assist, nevertheless it’s potential that MediaTek might dispute this characterization after their latest announcement. Regardless, so long as delivery units arrive within the US, Qualcomm seems to be following inside.

OEMs like Qualcomm, Asus ROG, OnePlus, Motorola and extra are ready to see Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 energy units. Samsung is clearly not on the listing, however it’s anticipated to depend on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in lots of areas as effectively. Qualcomm normally leaves it as much as Samsung to make its personal bulletins. The Galaxy S23 is not anticipated to launch till early 2023, however the first telephones with the eighth Gen will begin showing in late 2022.