Snapdragon X Plus To Feature 10-Core CPU Cluster, According To Geekbench 6, With Two ‘ML’ Scores Showing Different Results

A few hours have passed since Apple officially unveiled the M4 and the first iPad Pro featuring the SoC has allegedly been benchmarked on Geekbench 6. Sadly, we cannot compare the single-core and multi-core scores against the M3 or the M2 because the leak revolves around the chipset’s Machine Learning performance, but that does not mean we cannot dive deep and check out its other specifications.

The M4 announcement during Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event painted a rosy picture for potential buyers, and they would have likely believed that the latest iPad Pro models would have access to four performance and six efficiency cores. Unfortunately, that is not the case here because Apple cleverly hid the finer details from its audience, and to actually get the chipset with the 10-core CPU, you have to avoid the 256GB or 512GB models altogether. Hearing this is disappointing because the base model does not come cheap and is currently listed for pre-order at $999.

The new iPad Pro range has received incredible design and hardware improvements, with the inclusion of the M4 chipset and Tandem OLED making these premium tablets a cut above the rest, particularly the M2 models. Here, we take an in-depth look at the latest models and see what sets them apart from their own predecessors and the competition.

Apple introduced the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max last year with 8GB RAM, making it the first time since the iPhone 14 lineup that the company exceeded the 6GB RAM limit. However, with on-device AI and other features being extremely memory-intensive, the company will have little choice but to introduce an upgrade. Sadly, those waiting impatiently for the iPhone 16 launch will be disappointed as one analyst predicts that 12GB RAM will debut on the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Huawei will reportedly unveil its first 5nm chipset for the Mate 70 flagship series in October later this year, but previous rumors did not divulge the official name of the silicon. Fortunately, just a short time passed, and new information came through, claiming that the SoC would be called Kirin 9100, and it obtained a score of 1.1 million in AnTuTu as part of its initial performance run.

The Apple Vision Pro might not be a hit in the consumer market as updated shipment estimates have dropped to 400,000 to 450,000 units for 2024, but the $3,499 head-mounted wearable is a success in the enterprise division, with companies thoroughly impressed with what has been crammed into the device. During Apple’s Q2 2024 earnings, CEO Tim Cook revealed that half of Fortune 100 companies have purchased the AR headset, and it has proven itself to deliver immense utility in various applications.

Qualcomm is expected to officially unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 in October this year, so it is no surprise that the flagship’s engineering sample is being thoroughly tested and benchmarked to iron out the problems before commercial units are sent to the company’s phone partners. However, early results show that the chipset’s performance is beyond disappointing, with the performance cores said to be running at a significantly lower resolution than what previous reports suggested.

The Dimensity 9400 is scheduled to be announced later this year, and one of the most significant differences between it and chipsets like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and A17 Pro is that MediaTek will not rely on custom cores for its upcoming SoC. Instead, ARM’s current CPU designs will be utilized, which might give an impression that the Dimensity 9400 is at a distinct disadvantage. However, one tipster claims that MediaTek and ARM are collaborating to use the latter’s ‘BlackHawk’ architecture in the upcoming silicon, potentially delivering better Instructions Per Clock (IPC) performance than competing current-generation chips.

Huawei was previously rumored to be developing an Apple M1 competitor to take that ARM-based chipset market share away from the company. However, according to the latest information, the Chinese firm is using the Taishan V130 architecture to mass produce a silicon that can come close to the M3’s multi-core performance. It appears that Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite is not the only one trying to carve out a piece of the pie.

The Snapdragon X Elite was previously reported to operate on two power limits; 23W and 80W. However, according to the latest findings, Qualcomm’s newest ARM chipset can touch almost 100W, and that is for the CPU alone, making it a power guzzler compared to its closest competition, Apple’s M3 Pro. However, there are several variables to keep in mind before criticizing the massive power draw of the chipset, and we will be talking about those details here.

The Snapdragon X Elite performance numbers that nearly everyone has seen would likely present an impression that Qualcomm has finally developed a capable ARM-based SoC that delivers some much-needed competition to Apple Silicon. Unfortunately, that would have been the case if the San Diego chip giant had not allegedly manipulated benchmarks. One report says that the benchmark claims are impossible to recreate for Qualcomm’s partners that will eventually use the Snapdragon X Elite in various notebook models.

Qualcomm officially took the wraps off the Snapdragon X Elite, revealing that there was not one but three SKUs that will be found in various premium notebooks, with the fourth one being the less powerful Snapdragon X Plus. The SoC was recently benchmarked in the upcoming Microsoft Surface Laptop 6, operating at 4.00GHz, suggesting that it is one of the two versions that supports boost clock technology. The scores show that Qualcomm’s latest and greatest silicon continues to outpace Apple’s M3, but it has yet to overtake the higher-end chipsets.