Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, the first 5nm chipset for Windows on ARM devices in 2021. Now it’s time for the next generation. Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 Specs Surface Online Reveals Powerful CPU. According to some latest reports, the company is working on a 12-core chip. A leak, Kuba Wojciechowski, claimed that these will be divided into 8 performance (~3.4 GHz) and 4 efficiency (~2.5 GHz) cores. They are based on Nuvia’s Phoenix design and will use the marketing name “Oryon” (rather than “Kryo” like current Android chips).
Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 specs surfaced online Promising powerful CPU
The reports revealed that there will be 12 MB of shared L2 cache for each block of 4 cores, plus 8 MB of L3 cache, 12 MB of system-level cache, and an additional 4 MB for graphics. Up to 64 GB of LPDDR5X RAM is supported in an 8-channel configuration running at 4.2 GHz.
In addition, the chipset has the Adreno 740 built-in, which is the same GPU as the 8 Gen 2. However, an external GPU is supported with 8 lanes of PCIe 4.0.
There will be 4 additional PCIe 4.0 lanes (which can also be configured as two 2x channels) for NVMe drives, although 2-lane UFS 4.0 storage (up to 1 TB) is also supported as a lower cost option. The chip also gets additional PCIe 3.0 lanes for peripherals such as a Wi-Fi card or modem. The 8cx Gen 4 doesn’t have built-in 5G (unlike its Android counterpart).
The wired connectivity options will be amazing. The chip supports two USB 3 10Gbps ports, plus three USB 4 (Thunderbolt 4) ports with DisplayPort 1.4a. The latter allows it to drive a three-monitor setup, 5K + 4K + 4K.
In addition, the chipset apparently supports video decoding up to 4K/120fps and encoding up to 4K/60fps in several codecs, including AV1 (which Apple’s M2 chips lack).
Most likely, the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 4 will go official in 2024. In addition, it will power Windows laptops and tablets. Qualcomm has promised to reveal more official details about the new chip later this year.
Also see: Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Satellite for Android
