Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 represents a significant departure from conventional ARM CPU architectures, opting instead for custom Oryon cores developed post the Nuvia acquisition. This flagship SoC will pioneer the use of these custom cores alongside a transition to the advanced 3nm fabrication process, provided by TSMC's second-generation technology. By moving to this process, Qualcomm anticipates enhanced power efficiency, countering concerns over increased power consumption despite the chipset's augmented capabilities (Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 single-core power consumption can reach 10W) The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will feature Qualcomm's proprietary 'Phoenix' cores, organized in a '2 + 6' configuration without dedicated efficiency cores, similar to MediaTek's Dimensity 9300 strategy. This change aims to optimize multi-core performance, leveraging the efficiency gains inherent to the 3nm process to compensate for the absence of dedicated efficiency cores. Initial reports indicate significant performance enhancements, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 purportedly surpassing its predecessor by 46% in multi-core Geekbench 6 tests, positioning it competitively against Apple's A17 Pro and the M3 chipset.
