We benchmark the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3

We have our very first Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered smartphone in for review, and we are eager to show you the performance jump the new hardware platform offers. While we cannot talk specifics about this particular smartphone just yet, nobody stops us from going through the benchmark scores it can output.

Below, you will see the best scores we've gotten from several of the top hardware platforms across all our reviews.

The average numbers (not listed there for brevity) are a bit lower, so keep that in mind. These numbers are best-case scenarios. We didn't include the averages because we had only two (best) points of reference for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, too - one provided by Qualcomm as a reference score and another we captured ourselves using this review unit.

Along the regular SM8550-AB model of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 below, you will also see the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC, which is the overclocked version that ships in some devices that you can see here.

We start with the CPU-intensive Geekbench test. As per Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 should be 30% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. We weren't able to reach Qualcomm's official numbers, unfortunately.

The jump in performance that we observed was nevertheless a healthy 25% in multi-core. The single core performance difference was less than stellar at about 11%.

GeekBench 6

  • Multi-core
  • Single-core
SD 8 Gen 3 reference - Qualcomm
7501
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
6953
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
5693
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
SD 8 Gen 2
5556
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
SD 8+ Gen 1
4603
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Dimensity 9200+
4518
Dimensity 9200+
SD 8 Gen 1
3947
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
SD 8 Gen 3 reference - Qualcomm
2329
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
2277
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
2114
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
SD 8 Gen 2
2043
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Dimensity 9200+
1939
Dimensity 9200+
SD 8+ Gen 1
1776
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
SD 8 Gen 1
1672
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

Next, GPU tests. Here, Qualcomm claims the new Adreno 750 GPU is 25% faster than the Adreno 740 inside the SD 8 Gen 2. Plus, it is also more power-efficient and should offer 40% better raytracing.

In our offscreen testing, the new GPU was 16% better than the one in the non-overclocked SD 8 Gen 2 in the 1440p OpenGL ES 3.1 test, 13% better in the Vulkan test, and almost 22% better in the 1080p OpenGL ES 3.1 graphics benchmark.

GFXBench (offscreen)

  • Aztek ES 3.1 High 1440p
  • Aztek Vulkan High 1440p
  • Car Chase ES 3.1 1080p
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
72
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Adreno 750
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
64
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC Adreno 740
SD 8 Gen 2
62
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Adreno 740
Dimensity 9200+
60
Dimensity 9200+ Immortalis-G715 MC11
SD 8+ Gen 1
47
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 1
43
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
78
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Adreno 750
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
72
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC Adreno 740
SD 8 Gen 2
69
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Adreno 740
Dimensity 9200+
61
Dimensity 9200+ Immortalis-G715 MC11
SD 8+ Gen 1
52
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 1
48
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
158
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Adreno 750
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
134
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC Adreno 740
SD 8 Gen 2
130
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Adreno 740
Dimensity 9200+
114
Dimensity 9200+ Immortalis-G715 MC11
SD 8+ Gen 1
104
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 1
97
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Adreno 730

We also got around 15% improvement compared to the non-overclocked SD 8 Gen 2 in the 1440p 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme test, which runs offscreen again.

In the 3D Mark Solar Bay test, which is a ray tracing benchmark, we saw a whopping 43.5% improvement in performance from our Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 device.

3DMark (offscreen 1440p)

  • Wild Life Extreme
  • Solar Bay
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
4331
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Adreno 750
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
3909
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC Adreno 740
SD 8 Gen 2
3776
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Adreno 740
Dimensity 9200+
3567
Dimensity 9200+ Immortalis-G715 MC11
SD 8+ Gen 1
2838
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 1
2557
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Adreno 730
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
7760
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Adreno 750
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
5656
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC Adreno 740
SD 8 Gen 2
5406
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Adreno 740
Dimensity 9200+
5005
Dimensity 9200+ Immortalis-G715 MC11

Finally, who doesn't love a good AnTuTu comparison chart? This compound benchmark takes into account many aspects of the devices, including storage, RAM, display resolution, etc so it's not a great tool for comparing platforms. It's much better to compare specific devices.

In this test, our mystery review phone, which uses the latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, occupied the #1 spot in our all-time review chart. Nice!

AnTuTu 10

SD 8 Gen 3 reference - Qualcomm
2139281
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
SD 8 Gen 3 real-life score
2107464
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
SD 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
1650939
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SM8550-AC
SD 8 Gen 2
1598447
Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Dimensity 9200+
1470464
Dimensity 9200+
SD 8+ Gen 1
1262803
Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
SD 8 Gen 1
1129280
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1

So overall, it's a great showing from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. We are looking at up to 22% net performance improvement in CPU and GPU performance compared to the best Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 devices we've ever tested.

And it's worth noting our test phone didn’t get excessively hot during benchmarking, just warm, which is another promising thing for the new chipset.

While the SD 8 Gen 1 model had unimpressive sustained performance and stability, the SD 8 Gen 2 improved this aspect, and it seems the SD 8 Gen 3 could be doing even better.

We will have even more information for you next week after our stress tests are over and we are finally allowed to reveal the identity of this test device with a full review.

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