Ryan Whitwam
2024-03-19 09:00:00
www.extremetech.com
As expected, Qualcomm has revealed a new Arm chip for smartphones in the Snapdragon 8 family. However, the latest Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is not a successor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3—yes, it’s another instance of Qualcomm’s famously confusing model names. Instead, you’ll see this chip in “budget flagship” smartphones that cost less than the top-of-the-line units. However, the new part still has most of the high-end features you’d expect from Snapdragon 8 chips.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 3 use TSMC’s 4nm process node, and the 8s Gen 3 is no different. This architectural consistency helped to integrate features of the Gen 2 and Gen 3 to make a chip that offers good performance at a lower price.
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (SM8635) has eight CPU cores like the 8 Gen 3, but the arrangement is different. There’s a Cortex X4 prime core clocked at 3GHz, 300MHz lower than the more expensive chip. Instead of having five A720 cores at two different clocks, it has four at 2.8GHz, which is lower than both A720 islands in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Qualcomm rounds out the new chip with three Cortex A520 CPUs at 2GHz—again, several hundred megahertz slower than the flagship chip.
Qualcomm has kept the 18-bit Spectra ISP in the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, but it loses the 8K video recording support enjoyed by both the 8 Gen 3 and Gen 2. It still supports up to three rear cameras, but slow-motion video has been limited to 1080p240—a higher resolution but much lower frame rate than the SD8 Gen 3’s 720p960 video. Video decoding is limited to 4K, but you get AV1 and Dolby Vision decoding.
The older Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 shares its memory controller and cellular modem with the 8s Gen 3. In both cases, these components are less capable than what you’d get in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Although, these components won’t make a significant difference in daily use. For example, the 8s Gen 3’s X70 modem maxes out at 5Gbps, but the newer X75 can hit 10Gbps. Good luck finding a 5G network that can get anywhere close to either of those limits. The GPU appears to be carried over directly from the Gen 2, supporting ray tracing but not global illumination like the Gen 3.
Credit: Qualcomm
Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 supports on-device artificial intelligence models with up to 10 billion parameters. However, it doesn’t have the same NPU as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Instead, it uses the DSP (digital signal processor) from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which lacks on-device AI support. The company seems to have made firmware changes to enable better AI processing without a hardware upgrade.
The first devices with this chip are expected to launch later this month. The announcements will come from all the usual Chinese suspects, like Honor, Redmi, and Xiaomi. While the chip is initially aimed at Chinese device makers, the 8s Gen 3 might appear in other markets.