Testing the brand new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1

Introduction

Qualcomm announced the next flagship Snapdragon platform today - the Qualcomm 8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 mobile chipset. These Plus models are traditionally overclocked versions of the vanilla chipsets, but there's more to this upgrade than usual.

The highlights of the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 platform include improved CPU and GPU performance, as well as a new Spectra ISP, premium Snapdragon Sound, and more power efficient NPU computing.

Let's start with the CPU and GPU updates. According to Qualcomm, the SD 8+ Gen 1 offers 10% faster CPU performance and 10% faster GPU clock over the SD 8 Gen 1. But what's quite impressive is the expected 30% better power efficiency of the two - this is a result of the TSMC's more efficient fabrication process. Indeed, Qualcomm has replaced Samsung with TSMC for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 manufacturing.

The most notable improvements in the gaming department are the Volumetric rendering support and the improved power efficiency, which should offer up to 1-hour extra gaming time compared to the regular SD 8 Gen 1 on a similar setup (display, RAM, battery).

The improved Spectra ISP now supports 8K HDR video capturing, as well as Bokeh effects and Face tracking simultaneously. The supported HDR format is HDR10+ with 10-bit color.

Qualcomm has bragged a lot about the improved AI performance - now up to 20% improvement per watt. What this means is that instead of more power, the AI Engine is now uses 20% less power than on the SD 8 Gen 1. The AI Engine has a lead role in the real-time bokeh effects, among many other uses.

So, long story short, the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 offers a bit faster performance as far as CPU and GPU speeds are concerned. But the most important update is the vastly improved power efficiency - 30% for CPU and GPU, 20% for AI, and an overall 15% in compound use. According to the official numbers, this allows for 1 extra hour of gaming, 88 more minutes of streaming, or 25 extra minutes of 5G video chat.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 at a glance:

• Chipset: Qualcomm SD8475 Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (4 nm TSMC)
• CPU: Octa-core (1x3.2 GHz Cortex-X2 & 3x2.75 GHz Cortex-A710 & 4x2.0 GHz Cortex-A510).
• GPU: Adreno 730 @900Hz.
• Cellular modem: Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 5G.
• Wi-Fi/Bluetooth modem: Fastconnect 6900.
• ISP: Qualcomm Spectra with 8K HDR10+ video, Simultaneous Bokeh and Face tracking.
• Misc: Qualcomm Aqstic audio codec (WCD9385).

And here comes the fun part. We received a special ROG Engineering device from Asus, which has the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 inside. It is not a commercial device, so don't take this as a hint that we have something mysterious or unannounced in our hands. It's an engineering device made to showcase Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 capabilities.

So, let's run some benchmarks and see what happens.