The original Snapdragon X Elite benchmark couldn't even beat the Apple M3, let alone the M4!

Ever since Apple released the brand new M4 chipset with the iPad Pro OLED, people have been curious to compare it with the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. On May 20, 2024, Microsoft finally unveiled the highly anticipated Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor.

Since then, everyone's been asking the same question: How does the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor compare to Apple's M4 chipset? Additionally, people are curious to know how the new X Elite compares to the old generation M3 chipset.

The original Snapdragon X Elite benchmark couldn't even beat the Apple M3, let alone the M4! Picture 1

Over the past few months, we've been hearing a lot about the powerful specs of this new AI CPU. And now, a series of early benchmark results have started to appear via Geekbench. These numbers are interesting.

The Geekbench website shows the initial benchmark of the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite. Although the metrics differ slightly (which is quite common for these benchmarks), there is still one thing in common. Single core scores range from 2,200 to 2,800. Depending on the number of cores the chip has, the multi-core score reaches around 14,000 points.

For a fair comparison between the new X Elite and the old Apple M3, the M3 MacBook Pro is the best machine to consider. Impressively, the M3 Pro MacBook Pro scored 3,000 single-core and 15,000 points in the multi-core test.

These figures clearly show that the M3 chip outperforms the Snapdragon X Elite in single-core tests, while the multi-core results demonstrate that Apple's chip is once again in the lead. According to reports, Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite runs hotter than Apple M3.

Coming to Apple's M4 chipset, there is only one chip to consider and there are 9 or 10 cores depending on the iPad Pro in question. So it's a difficult distinction. According to Geekbench results, the M4 processor can easily achieve 3,700 single-core points and up to 14,500 multi-core points when it has 10 cores. When dropping to the 9-core model, the score drops to about 13,000. Since the laptop has a cooling mechanism, those scores should improve with the M4 on the MacBook.

While the figures suggest Apple may have the edge, this isn't all bad news for PC fans. The initial benchmark of Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite is not bad but really good. Microsoft and Qualcomm believe that the new generation of Qualcomm chips will target AI workflows, which is likely to become an important goal in the future. Apple has the Neural Engine, and in the future, AI computing will become a big focus for chip and computer manufacturers.

Certainly, we can expect Apple's M4 Pro and M4 Max to have significantly higher performance than the Snapdragon X Elite chip. What will the end result be? Are Apple Silicon chips strong in the long run?

Marvin Fry

Update 25 May 2024