Qualcomm has just refreshed its high-end mobile chip with the launch of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. According to the company, its CPU is 35% more powerful than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the GPU is 25% more powerful than the Adreno 730. Will this be true?

Today we compare the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to reveal all its differences and see how much it has improved. We’ll take a walk through the processor and graphics chip, but also its connectivity, ISP, and neural chip to cover all the details. Could it be that Qualcomm made a significant leap between the two generations or are we facing a rather timid improvement?

Comparison table of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs. Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 specifications

A CPU with the latest ARM cores, new configuration and “35% more power”

While both SoCs are manufactured in 4nm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 uses TSMC’s second-generation node. This is a more refined node than Samsung’s (used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1), allowing for better power efficiency for the new chip. In fact, Qualcomm claims that Gen 2 is up to 40% more efficient than Gen 1 at the same clock speed.

Qualcomm used ARM’s new cores as the basis for designing its next-generation Kryo cores, but distributed them in a strange way. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is internally divided into three clusters, which are actually four because one of them has two types of cores:

• 1x ARM Cortex-X3 core @ 3.2 GHz (high performance and with 1 MB dedicated L2 cache).
• 2x ARM Cortex-A715 cores @ 2.8 GHz + 2x ARM Cortex-A710 cores @ 2.8 GHz (performance).
• 3x ARM Cortex-A510 cores @ 2 GHz (power saving, these are the revised A510s).

With this 1+4+3 core configuration, Qualcomm puts most of them in the “high performance” box. Its objective? Let your Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 be pure raw power. Instead, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 opts for a more classic 1+3+4 structure , with 4 performance cores and 4 for energy savings. The Gen 1 configuration looks like this:

• 1x ARM Cortex-X2 core @ 2.99 GHz (high performance and with 1 MB dedicated L2 cache).
• 3x ARM Cortex-A710 cores @ 2.5 GHz (performance).
• 4x ARM Cortex-A510 cores @ 1.8 GHz (energy saving).

Qualcomm claims that the CPU of its Gen 2 is 35% more powerful than that of the Gen 1, but the first benchmarks of the new SoC say otherwise. If we stick to the tests that we leave you below, we are talking about an average improvement of 23% between single-core and multi-core performance .

The Adreno 740 GPU is 25% more powerful than the Adreno 730 and supports ray tracing

One fun fact about the release of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is that Qualcomm didn’t give its new GPU much hype . Yes, there are improvements to the Adreno 740 over the Adreno 730, but Qualcomm didn’t make much of them, although some are important.

Among these novelties, it turns out that the new graphics chip is 25% faster and up to 25% more efficient than the previous one. It may not be a huge jump, but we feel like it’s a decent enough improvement to care about.

The other great novelty that this graph receives is that it is the first Adreno GPU compatible with Ray Tracing . Hardware-accelerated ray tracing brings much more realistic shadows and highlights to games, which we’ll all appreciate. With this, Qualcomm formally catches up with graphics technologies, as Samsung (Exynos 2200) and MediaTek (Dimensity 9200) had already done so.

What other improvements are there in the Adreno 740? Up to 30% better performance in apps using Vulkan 1.3 , as well as new versions of Qualcomm’s imaging technologies: Snapdragon Elite Gaming, Snapdragon Shadow Denoiser, and Adreno Frame Motion Engine. In addition, it is compatible with the new AV1 codec and is capable of decoding 8K and 60 FPS videos. The Adreno 730 chip only goes as far as 8K video decoding at 30 FPS.

When it comes to screen compatibility, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 does not introduce new features compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Both chips support the following screen configurations :

• 4K resolution with 60 Hz refresh rates.
• QHD+ resolution and below with speeds up to 144 Hz .
• Compatible with an external display with 4K @ 60 Hz resolution .
• Support for LTPO 2.0, 10-bit color depth, HDR10, HDR10+, HDR Vivid, HLG, Dolby Vision, and OLED color compensation.

18-bit ISP Spectra Triple repeats, but is smarter in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2

For its new SoC, Qualcomm did not design a new image processing chip (ISP) but instead opted to improve upon the 18-bit Spectra Triple . The revised version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 still has the same photography and video recording capabilities, but it’s smarter.

What do we mean by “smarter”? Because the ISP Spectra makes better use of the Hexagon DSP in image post-processing . The ISP on both Snapdragon 8s supports Cognitive AI, but Qualcomm claims it’s much more polished on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.

What benefits does this bring? Not to get technical: Images with more vivid and natural colors , better management of white balance, more natural contrasts, improved bokeh effect and more. The compatibility with 18-bit ISP Spectra Triple cameras can be summarized in the following points:

• Photographic sensors up to 200 MP with Zero Shutter Lag (no delay).
• A camera up to 108 MP recording at 30 FPS with ZSL.
• Two 64 MP + 36 MP cameras recording at 30 FPS with ZSL.
• Three cameras up to 36 MP each recording at 30 FPS with ZSL.
• Video recording in 8K @ 30 FPS with HDR and slow motion in 720p @ 960 FPS.

5G connectivity is little improved, but the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 supports WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.3

While the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 debuts the Snapdragon X70 RF-modem, it doesn’t represent a noticeable improvement over the Gen 1 Snapdragon X65. Both chips support 5G mmWave and sub-6Ghz cellular networks on all global bands. Both handle download speeds up to 10 Gbps, but the download speed is different: 3.5 Gbps on the X70 and 3 Gbps on the X65.

On the other hand, things do change when you compare the FastConnect 7800 (Gen 2) chip and the FastConnect 6900 (Gen 1). The 7800 supports WiFi 7, while the 6900 sticks to WiFi 6E . Yes, both standards are capable of operating in the 2.4Ghz, 5Ghz and 6Ghz bands, but there is one crucial difference: the WiFi 7 standard can handle channels twice as wide (320MHz) as the WiFi 6E standard. (160MHz).

With this, the FastConnect 7800 chip is capable of handling speeds up to 5.8 Gbps , much higher than the 3.6 Gbps of the FastConnect 6900. Another change between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and Gen 1 is that the new model supports Bluetooth 5.3. Otherwise, both SoCs are very similar in terms of connectivity: Bluetooth LE, adaptive aptX, lossless aptX, and dual-frequency GPS (L1 and L5).

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s Hexagon DSP flies, same with RAM and storage

Qualcomm isn’t used to giving away many details about its neural processing unit (NPU) lately. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2’s 8th Gen Hexagon DSP is beast. According to the manufacturer, it is 435% more powerful and faster than that of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 . Yeah, it’s 4 times better and 60% more efficient per watt of power consumed, absolutely insane.

Not having enough of this, Qualcomm introduced several improvements: real-time speech translation for multiple languages , and better performance on Hexagon Vector eXtensions, Tensor Accelerator, Scalar Accelerator, and Direct Link.

Hand in hand with the above, it turns out that Qualcomm also improved the RAM and storage compatibility of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The latest generation chip supports LPDDR5X @ 4200 MHz RAM, as well as UFS 4.0 . Instead, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 supports LPDDR5 @ 3200 MHz and UFS 3.1, both slower formats.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is a nice leap, especially in efficiency, connectivity, and AI

As a conclusion to this comparison, we can say that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is definitely superior to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 , but with nuances.

Many of us expected better performance from its CPU and GPU , but the increase was a bit timid in these sections. However, Qualcomm’s new SoC has some features that completely overshadow the previous comment:

• Its energy efficiency is fantastic , so you can expect less hot mobiles.
• Its NPU is absurdly powerful , so expect even cooler photos and better learning from your daily routines.
• The connectivity is one of the best you can currently find, so you will hardly have to worry about slow browsing speeds.

Would it be worth making the leap from a mobile with Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to one with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2? In most cases no. But if you’re coming from less powerful (or older) chips, you should definitely go straight for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 .

The post Is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 that great? We benchmarked it against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to find out first appeared on CuteRank.