Yesterday Qualcomm finally unveiled the Snapdragon Tech Summit 2022 the latest chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. With this Qualcomm has once again become the pioneer of the mobile chip, beating the recently launched MediaTek Dimensity 9200 processor.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is dazzling, it will power the new flagship smartphones in 2023. Many brands have confirmed they will launch models with this processor by the end of the year. Qualcomm is calling it a "breakthrough artificial intelligence" SOC and it will be used by brands such as ASUS ROG, HONOR, iQOO, Motorola, nubia, OnePlus, Oppo, RedMagic, Sharp, Sony, Vivo, XINGJI/MEIZU, ZTE and of course the Xiaomi/Redmi duo.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has an eight-core CPU that runs at a maximum speed of 3.2 GHz. The extreme performance core is the new 3.2 GHz Cortex-X3 designed by ARM. The auxiliary cores are 2.8 GHz Cortex-A715 and 2.0 GHz Cortex-A510. Clock speeds have been increased compared to the predecessor Qualcomm chips, using the excellent TSMC 4nm+ (N4P) manufacturing technique. TSMC manufacturing techniques have been proven time and again to be successful.
On the GPU side, Qualcomm's 25% showed a performance increase over its predecessor. It has some of the new features seen in its competitors. Some of these are that it has hardware-based ray tracing technology. API supports include OpenGl ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 FP and Vulkan 1.3. Qualcomm has talked about a new feature called Snapdragon Shadow Denoiser, this feature is estimated to make some changes to the shadows in games based on the scene. Variable Rate Shading (VRS) has been around since Snapdragon 888, but this is a different feature. The new Adreno GPU aims to deliver the best gaming experience.
Qualcomm promises a 4.3-fold increase in AI performance and performance per watt is claimed to have improved by 60%. The new Hexagon processor performs better, allowing faster processing of photos. A close relationship has been established with sensor manufacturers and Qualcomm has made some changes accordingly. The Samsung ISOCELL HP3, the first 200 MP image sensor optimised for Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, delivers professional-quality photos and videos. It's also the first Snapdragon chipset equipped with AV1 codecs, which support video capture up to 8K HDR and up to 60 frames per second.
Finally, there's also a significant improvement in internet connectivity with the Snapdragon X70 5G Modem, which can reach mobile internet speeds of up to 10 Gbps download and 3.5 Gbps upload. On the wifi side, it's the first time a Qualcomm chip supports Wifi-7 and offers peak speeds of 5.8 Gbps.
The Xiaomi 13 will be a nice phone, especially the Pro version. How about the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 chip? Are you looking forward to the Xiaomi 13 release?
