Do Windows laptops have a new king? Snapdragon X2 Elite promises brutal performance with ridiculous power consumption

Qualcomm has been dedicated to Windows processors for several years, but it was only last year with the first generation of Snapdragon X Elite that it began to be taken seriously. Now comes the second generation, X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme, which has ambitions to finally shake up the laptop market. The paper specifications are tempting – up to 18 cores, a frequency of 5 GHz, and manufacturing on a 3nm TSMC process. But what will it be like in reality?

Three models, one goal: defeat x86

The new Snapdragon X2 family includes three chips. The top-tier X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) has 18 cores – 12 powerful “Prime” cores clocked up to 5 GHz and 6 efficient “Performance” cores at 3.6 GHz. The mid-range X2 Elite (X2E-88-100) also has 18 cores, but with lower clock speeds of 4.7/4 GHz. The entry-level X2 Elite (X2E-80-100) will then offer 12 cores in total.

All three models utilize the third generation of Oryon cores, the same as in the mobile Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. An interesting feature is the hybrid architecture, which combines powerful and efficient cores similar to Intel’s E-core and P-core concept. Cache memory reaches up to 53 MB in the top-tier models.

Bombastic numbers versus reality

Qualcomm is not shy about its confidence. According to its own measurements, the new X2 Elite Extreme is up to 44% faster in single-core and 75% faster in multi-core tests than competing Intel Core Ultra 9 285H or AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370. And all this at the same power consumption.

Even more interesting is the claim that the competition needs up to 222% more energy to achieve the same performance. In practice, this means that while Snapdragon X2 reaches its peak at 50-55 W, Intel climbs to 80 W. These are impressive numbers, but beware – they are based on the Geekbench 6.5 benchmark, which may not reflect real-world performance in everyday applications.

Adreno Graphics: the eternal question mark

The new Adreno X2-90 graphics with a clock speed of up to 1.85 GHz promises 52% higher performance than integrated Intel and AMD graphics. Qualcomm even claims 2.3× better performance per watt compared to the first generation. It supports DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, and OpenCL 3.0.

However – and this is a big “but” – the Adreno graphics in the first generation X Elite were a major disappointment, especially in games. Drivers were problematic, and real-world gaming performance lagged far behind synthetic tests. While Qualcomm promises improvements, caution is advised until we see independent tests.

NPU for AI

Where Qualcomm scores without question is the neural processor Hexagon NPU with 80 TOPS performance. This is significantly more than 48 TOPS for Intel Lunar Lake or 50 TOPS for AMD Ryzen AI 300. In the Procyon AI benchmark, Snapdragon is reportedly 5.7× faster than the competition.

For comparison – Apple M4 has “only” 38 TOPS, so Qualcomm has a clear advantage in AI computations. This is important for the future, as Windows 11 increasingly relies on AI features like Copilot.

Memory and connectivity at a top level

The top-tier Extreme model supports 12-channel 192-bit LPDDR5X memory with a bandwidth of up to 228 GB/s. This is more than most competitors. Entry-level models have an 8-channel 128-bit bus with 152 GB/s, which is still very respectable.

All models support UFS 4.0 storage and offer Snapdragon Guardian technology for remote management – a feature important for business customers.

What’s the catch? In availability and ecosystem

The first laptops with Snapdragon X2 Elite will arrive in spring 2026. That’s still a long way off, and in the meantime, Intel is preparing Panther Lake processors, and AMD is working on a new generation of mobile chips for the AI PC segment. Qualcomm is thus giving the competition plenty of time to prepare a counterattack.

However, the bigger problem remains Windows on ARM itself. Although the situation with x86 application compatibility has significantly improved, it is still not a seamless experience. A lot of specialized software simply doesn’t work on the ARM architecture or runs via emulation with reduced performance.

Does Qualcomm have it in the bag this time?

Snapdragon X2 Elite looks very impressive on paper. The combination of high performance, low power consumption, and a top-tier NPU makes sense at a time when everyone is competing in AI features. Qualcomm also has the advantage of experience from the mobile world, where it dominates in efficiency.

On the other hand, we’ve seen many promising ARM processors for PCs that ultimately disappointed. The first generation X Elite was good, but not groundbreaking. Graphics performance was subpar, and Windows on ARM still has its quirks. Qualcomm must prove that X2 Elite is not just about marketing slides, but about real-world performance in everyday use.

Are you tempted to try a Snapdragon chip in a Windows laptop?

Source: GSMArena, Wccftech