Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Touts 4GHz 'Phoenix' Cores, Aims for High-Efficiency Leap

On many occasions, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has been speculated to forsake ARM's CPU designs in favor of Qualcomm's own Oryon or Phoenix cores.

The new SoC is said to be mass-produced on TSMC's upgraded 3nm technology, meaning it will most likely boast more power efficiency than the Snapdragon 8 Generation 3. These efficiency gains may allow the performance Phoenix cores to function at greater clock speeds, as one tipster claims that reaching 4.00GHz is no longer a pipe dream.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 High-Performance 'Phoenix' Cores Are Rumored to Reach 4.00GHz

Previous speculations suggested that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 might lose efficiency cores, as Qualcomm appears to be taking the same path as MediaTek with its Dimensity 9300. This modification should allow the forthcoming chipset to achieve stronger multi-core performance at the expense of power consumption, however the improved 3nm manufacturing process may assist to mitigate that disadvantage.

It will also include a “2 + 6” CPU cluster, but as Digital Chat Station did not specify which cores were tested at 4.00GHz, we can infer they were the high-performance ones. If Qualcomm can sustain these frequencies in the final product, it will be a huge improvement over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, whose Cortex-X4 tops out at 3.30GHz.

The increased frequency of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4's Phoenix core should improve single-threaded performance, while a dual-core solution will naturally contribute to multi-threaded workloads.

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Shows Promising Performance, but Caution Advised Pending Official Release

The tipster has not compared the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 against Apple's A-series or M-series chips, but we have previously reported that Qualcomm is testing the Adreno 830, and earlier tests have shown that the GPU is faster than the M2, as per WCCFTech.

These enhancements certainly seem appealing, but only if Qualcomm maintains these characteristics when the flagship chipset is officially released. For the time being, we advise our readers to take this rumor with a grain of salt, and we will provide additional information as it becomes available.

Photo: Masaru Kamikura, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons