…In Geekbench 6.5 single-core, the X2 Elite Extreme posts a score of 4,080, edging out Apple’s M4 (3,872) and leaving AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 (2,881) and Intel’s Core Ultra 9 288V (2,919) far behind…
…The multi-core story is even more dramatic. With a Geekbench 6.5 multi-core score of 23,491, the X2 Elite Extreme nearly doubles the Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (11,386) and comfortably outpaces Apple’s M4 (15,146) and AMD’s Ryzen AI 9 370 (15,443)…
…This isn’t just a speed play — Qualcomm is betting that its ARM-based design can deliver desktop-class performance at mobile-class power draw, enabling thin, fanless designs or ultra-light laptops with battery life measured in days, not hours.
One of the more intriguing aspects of the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is its memory‑in‑package design, a departure from the off‑package RAM used in other X2 Elite variants. Qualcomm is using a System‑in‑Package (SiP) approach here, integrating the RAM directly alongside the CPU, GPU, and NPU on the same substrate.
This proximity slashes latency and boosts bandwidth — up to 228 GB/s compared to 152 GB/s on the off‑package models — while also enabling a unified memory architecture similar in concept to Apple’s M‑series chips, where CPU and GPU share the same pool for faster, more efficient data access…
… the company notes the “first half” of 2026 for the new Snapdragon X2 Elite and Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme…
X2 “Elite Extreme” probably in ideal conditions vs. the base M4 chip in a real-world device. Sure, nice single core results but Apple will likely counter with the M5 (the A19 Pro already reaches around 4,000 and the M chips can probably clock a bit higher). And the M4 Pro and Max already score as high or higher in multi-core. Real world in a 14 inch laptop.
It doesn’t “crush” the M4 series at all and we’ll see how it’ll perform in a comparable power/thermal envelope.
I don’t hate what Qualcomm is doing here, but these chips only work properly under Windows and the Windows app ecosystem still hasn’t embraced ARM all that much, and from what I’ve heard Windows’ x64 to ARM translation layer is not as good as Rosetta 2. Linux support is pretty horrible, especially at launch.
The X1 Elite never lived up to its geekbench scores, and the drivers are absolute dogshit.
The X2 Elite wont match Apple or AMD in real world scenarios either, I’d wager.
Then Apple releases M5.
I am simple person. I see geekbench, I ignore claims and rest of article.
And here I am with my cheap old quad core doing my stuff.
Except for the theoretical interest, what are we supposed to do with stuff like that? Is it just more data centers? Does I sound like 640KB is enough?
As an example, you could replace on-disk caching of resized images in photoprism with on-the-fly resized images, effectively trading large disks for faster CPU while retaining equivalent application performance.
Ah, a not at all theoretical example but a real life one 😁 /s
It’s a real life example for me. I have too many photos for my cache drive to handle so I have to limit which photos I put into photoprism.
*X Elite opens browser windows faster under desktop cooling.
FTFY
When the Snapdragon GPU performance is on par with AMD’s 780m or above then we can talk.
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme
That doesn’t sound very high end, I think I’ll wait for the Pro version, preferably Pro Plus.
Elite Extreme
Sounds like it focuses more on shiny RGB than performance.
BadDragon X2 Elite Extreme MAGNUM
The Rare version?
The Raw Rare version ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
It sounds like an advertisement for a condom or dildo
Don’t you want to put on some of this thermal paste?
Where this is going, baby, you don’t need no thermal paste!
faints on floor
Keep in mind the original X Elite benchmarks were never replicated in real world devices (not even close).
They used a desktop style device (with intense cooling that is not possible with laptops) and “developed solely for benchmarking” version of Linux (to this day X Elite runs like shit in Linux).
This is almost certainly a premeditated attempt at “legal false advertising”.
Mark my words, you’ll never see 4,000 points in GB6 ST on any real products.
They also used the base M4, not M4 Pro or Max
Now this all makes sense
M4 Max doesn’t have the fastest single core in Apple’s arsenal either, the king is A19 now (yup, the one in iPhones):
lol that’s just the cherry on the whole apple pie.
Seems like they’re also using two different Intel chips in their testing for some reason.
I’ll take cherrypicking for $500, Alex
desktop-class performance at mobile-class power draw
This made my bullshit detector go haywire.
I imagine things would be much closer if they put a giant heatsink that Ryzen 370 they’re comparing and ran it at its 54W configurable TDP instead of the default 28W.
Shouldn’t they also be comparing it to Strix Halo instead?
Ah. Thanks for the context.
Well, after they have product out, third parties will benchmark them, and we’ll see how they actually stack up.
I saw someone liquid cool an Arduino to push it to the max, but you couldn’t declare it to be a regular benchmark…
Let me know when these X elite chips have full Linux compatibility and then I’ll be interested. Until then, I’ll stick with Mac, it has the better hardware.
LOL.
Friendly Question: has M4 full linux support?
M1 still doesn’t have full Linux support, unfortunately. They’ve done a lot of good work, but it isn’t there yet. Yet, another reason not to buy snapdragon PCs yet.
No, neither does M3. You can read more about this project here: https://asahilinux.org/docs/platform/feature-support/m4/ Even M2 and M1 support is still being worked on.
I think I see what you’re saying. My gripe is that if I want a laptop/tablet with a great ARM chip, with long battery life, my options all force me to use one of two operating systems that I’d prefer not to use for ideological reasons. If I’m forced to use one, because I want an ARM device, I might as well use the one that has the best hardware. M5s are right around the corner and the MacBook Airs are really competitive.
If I misinterpreted your question, then no, as far as I’m aware, none of the M series has FULL support. The M1s and M2s are pretty close though.
Not who you asked, but at bare minimum macOS continues to be certified UNIX.
GNU is Not Unix.
Absolutely ture, your comment being? I think they were simply referencing the fact that there is a lot more software out there that can be made to semi easily run on linux/unix based systems.
Also while Linux is not the same as UNIX, interacting with them is much more similar than, say, interacting with Windows. They use a lot of the same conventions and managing macOS can be a lot like managing Linux if you want it to be.
As long as you don’t try to use sed or grep. Literally the only reason I learned perl was because of the flag incompatibilities between macos Unix and Linux utils.
Yeah true, but if you use macOS expecting Linux that doesn’t make any sense. Then it’d just be Linux with a different DE lol. Hopefully doesn’t come across as snarky but pointing these differences out always seems rather pointless to me, they do exist but I mean yeah it’s not the same os.
Also while Linux is not the same as UNIX, interacting with them is much more similar than, say, interacting with Windows.
If you use only GUI, the underlying system philosophy is practically irrelevant.
If you use CLI, you can literally use the same distribution within WSL as you use on a Linux computer. I like using openSUSE’s zypper in WSL more than I like brew on macOS.
Yeah brew sucks ass
Man… I knew this answer would come. 😀
I’m going to call semi-bullshit here, or there is a major revisionist version or catch. If this were true, they’d be STUPID to not be working fast as hell to get full, unlocked Linux support upstreamed and start selling this as a datacenter competitor to what Amazon, Microsoft, and Amazon are offering, because it would be an entirely new class of performance. It could also dig into Nvidia and AMDs datacenter sales at scale if this efficient.
They put desktop cooling on the testbench apparently.
They’re also comparing to only the base M4 chip, not the Pro.
Also the M5 could still come out this year. But it also might not so it’s still a fair comparison till then.
Anyway if you’re looking for a Windows laptop specifically and don’t need anything that doesn’t run on ARM, it might be pretty damn good. I’d still wait for independent benchmarks.
Qualcomm is pretty dumb. Even if this were true, they’d still be leaving Linux support to the community.
Yeah I’ll wait for independent benchmarks, thanks.
With actual devices
In my experience, arm64 is nowhere close to x64 with heavy multi processing/threading loads.
desktop-class performance at mobile-class power draw
checks source
Nothing to see here, folks.
This will be super cool when we actually have OSs that can run on them!
