Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is officially introduced. Qualcomm boasts that its latest flagship chipset is faster than the Snapdragon 888.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is Qualcomm's first chipset made with 4nm fabrication. Of course this provides increased performance and efficiency compared to its predecessor which has 5nm fabrication.
The CPU is still implementing a three-cluster design, but using ARMv9. Its main core is Cortex-X2 running at 3.0GHz. Then there are three Cortex-A710 cores with a speed of 2.5 GHz, and four Cortex A510 cores with a speed of 1.8 GHz.
Qualcomm claims CPU performance has increased by 20% and is able to save 30% in power compared to Snapdragon 888.
Although the number is not mentioned, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 brings a new Adreno GPU which also offers increased performance. The chip company from San Diego promises up to 30% graphics improvement and 25% power efficiency.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Photo: Qualcomm
Qualcomm says the new GPU can support screen refresh rates of up to 144Hz at QHD+ resolution. As mobile gaming grows in popularity, Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 also introduces three new elite gaming features aimed at delivering desktop-level performance on mobile.
Given the Adreno Frame Motion Engine allows the GPU to render games at twice the frame rate but using the same amount of power. Alternatively, this feature can keep the FPS the same while cutting power by half.
Another new feature is desktop-grade volumetric rendering. Volumetric rendering is used for dramatic lighting effects, such as ray of light.
In addition, there is Variable Rate Shading (VRS) Pro. The existence of image-based VRS aims to provide smoother performance and stronger details.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Photo: Qualcomm
The new chip will bring significant improvements to connectivity, although the actual speed increase will largely depend on whether the network around the user is also speeding up.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 features an integrated X65 5G modem, which supports sub-6 and mmWave, promising speeds of up to 10 Gbps. The speed of Wi-Fi 6 and 6E is also improved, Qualcomm promises speeds up to 3.6 Gbps.
About the camera, Qualcomm includes three ISPs. For the first time adopting 18-bit technology improved from the previous 14-bit. It is capable of capturing over 4000x more camera data than its predecessor for excellent dynamic range, color and sharpness at speeds of up to 3.2 gigapixels per second.
This means phones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can shoot 108MP images without shutter lag or pair three 36MP cameras for 30fps shooting without shutter lag. It even captures 140 12 MP photos in one second.
All of the above sounds very promising. But we have to wait until we get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 powered device out so we can prove Qualcomm's claims.
