Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor will get up to 4.26 GHz to beat Apple A18 — insider

According to insightQualcomm is increasing the clock speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 mobile processor to 4.26 GHz. This change will allow the chip to compete with the upcoming A18 and A18 Pro chips for the iPhone, which can also operate at higher frequencies. The frequency race comes amid the release of a productive M4 processor from Apple with high frequency, which helped him achieve high results in single-core tests. Earlier it was reported that the design of Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be finalized in April this year with a target frequency of 4.00 GHz.

The increase in processor frequency can be achieved thanks to TSMC’s 3nm N3E process. But the lack of support for the ARMv9 architecture may hinder high performance. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to be announced in October, so Qualcomm has a few months before its updated design is sent to partners. The introduction of Apple’s M4 probably caught the company by surprise and forced it to redesign the chip. With a frequency of 4.26 GHz, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 can get a significant boost in single-core performance, and the «2 + 6» core structure can add outstanding multi-core results.

Given that the M4 is produced on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, Apple will likely use the same technology for the A18 and A18 Pro. Qualcomm will also reportedly mass-produce Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 on the same technology, so the market is in for some exciting competition. It is noted that the upcoming processor is based on the Snapdragon X Elite, which does not support the ARMv9 instruction set.

This means that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will not have the Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which allows the M4 to perform complex work tasks more efficiently and is also one of the reasons for the high single-core and multi-core results in Geekbench 6. The new Qualcomm for smartphones is less productive due to the lack of SME, so the new target frequency of 4.26 GHz may be justified.

However, there is the issue of cooling. Phone manufacturers need to install larger evaporation chambers to allow the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to run at maximum performance for a long time, otherwise all of Qualcomm’s efforts will come to naught.

Source: Wccftech