After introducing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Qualcomm announced a chip that rivals the Apple M1 at the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2021. There are two chipsets presented to power the laptop, namely Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 and Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is designed to deliver extreme performance to fit into a premium ultra-slim, fanless laptop aka the MacBook Air M1 competitor. Meanwhile, to strengthen the entry-level Windows PC and Chromebook ecosystem with 5G connectivity, the Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 Compute Platform is presented.
"Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 builds on the technological breakthroughs that have transformed the PC industry, delivering a premium experience with breakthrough performance per watt, immersive camera and audio with enhanced AI acceleration, lightning-fast 5G connectivity, and chip-to-cloud security in thin systems. fanless," said Miguel Nunes, vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
"With Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3, we are raising the bar at entry-level by extending 5G mobile computing across the ecosystem. Whether for consumers, businesses or education, the Snapdragon computing platform delivers the capabilities and experiences that our ecosystem customers and end users need."
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is built with 5nm fabrication promising superior performance and efficiency. Combined with other optimizations, it is possible to drastically improve the performance of Qualcomm Kryo CPUs, while maintaining similar power consumption to the previous generation, resulting in stunning new levels of efficiency.
With the integration of a new prime core, Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 delivers up to 85% improved performance and up to 60% better performance per watt than competitive x86 platforms. This means users will experience premium computing power to work faster in productivity applications with up to several days of battery life.
During GPU-intensive activities, such as web browsing, video and photo editing, and video conferencing, users will benefit from the excellent graphics and software experience of the Qualcomm Adreno GPU with an astonishing 60% increase in performance over the previous generation.
This premium platform also supports games with full HD resolution (up to 120 FPS) and is optimized to allow users to play games up to 50% longer than competing platforms.
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 offers the most powerful connectivity for an always-connected laptop. Support for the Snapdragon X55, X62, or X65 5G Modem-RF system allows devices powered by Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 to achieve lightning-fast speeds of up to 10 Gbps.
Snapdraon 8cx Gen 3 also features Qualcomm FastConnect 6900 to enable the fastest 6/6E Wi-Fi speeds available - with Wi-Fi Dual Station, developed in collaboration with Microsoft for Windows 11, leveraging Qualcomm 4-stream Dual Band Simultaneous technology.
Devices powered by 8cx Gen 3 also seamlessly switch between 6/6E Wi-Fi networks and 5G or 4G LTE. Combined with Snapdragon's leading-edge computing efficiency, this Always Connected capability also allows the user's device to remain Always On. This means their devices can stay up to date and instantly activated, available at the touch of a button, with almost no wakeup time.
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 also brings innovation in video and audio capabilities, providing sharp visuals and clear audio on laptops. Leveraging Qualcomm Spectra ISP with improved camera startup times, users can start video conferencing up to 15% faster compared to the previous generation.
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 features the latest generation 3A - Auto focus, White Balance, and Auto Exposure - so calls with Teams or Zoom will adapt user movements and lighting settings with high-quality video. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 enables clear audio in almost any setting, with Qualcomm Noise and Echo Cancellation technology - part of the Qualcomm Voice Suite.
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 Photo: Qualcomm
The feature is enhanced through AI acceleration to improve the clarity and quality of the user's audio. That means users' laptops can remove unwanted background noises like dogs barking or neighbors mowing their lawn. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 also supports camera quality up to 4K HDR, and up to 4 cameras for new use cases.
In addition to enabling everyday features that users can rely on, AI capabilities are delivered to support key power optimizations for AI workloads. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 delivers an incredible 29+ TOPS of AI acceleration, almost 3X that of leading competitive platforms, helping users experience a better AI experience.
With the rapid adoption of AI capabilities to accelerate app experiences, users will experience more advanced security, new modern uses, and an enriched experience. For example, Qualcomm AI Engine's outstanding balance of performance and efficiency allows Microsoft to provide more accurate face detection and segmentation, for use cases such as background blur, without affecting system responsiveness.
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 is designed to bring security from the chip to the cloud. In addition to chipset-level layered Secure Boot processes and mobile connectivity security, the 8cx Gen 3 continues to enable Microsoft Secured-core PCs for high-level protection out of the box.
For managed systems in the enterprise or education segment, Qualcomm Secure Processing Unit (SPU) implements Microsoft Pluton TPM for Windows 11 and can also help store sensitive data such as credentials, personal data and encryption keys securely directly on the SoC.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 chip also introduces a camera security framework that supports Windows Hello facial login and a dedicated Computer Vision processor for continuous authentication that helps ensure users' devices are automatically locked when they leave their device. 8cx Gen 3 also introduces runtime memory encryption, while the Zero Trust framework can use more sensors and connection health monitoring to enable real-time authentication of access to enterprise resources.
Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3
Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 is tailor-made for users across the PC and Chromebook ecosystem. Built with 6nm fabrication, it delivers up to 40% faster CPU performance and 35% better graphics performance than the previous generation.
Qualcomm AI Engine enables AI accelerated experience through 6.5 TOPS performance, which is unprecedented at entry level. Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 also introduces blazing-fast 5G connectivity for the first time in an entry-level platform, raising the bar for connectivity accessible to users of affordable devices.
The integrated Snapdragon X53 5G Modem-RF system supports 5G sub-6 and mmWave- enabling download speeds of up to 3.7 Gbps. The addition of FastConnect 6700 delivers multi-gigabit 6 and 6E Wi-Fi at speeds up to 2.9 Gbps. The enhanced connectivity technology in Snapdragon 7c+ Gen 3 will allow laptops to stay connected quickly, powerfully and efficiently for entry-level Windows PCs and Chromebooks.
