The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a few months away, but we have an idea of what to expect already.
Every year, we get a new Qualcomm Snapdragon chipset, and the new flagship chipset that can potentially power the best Android phones next is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. We expect it to use cores based on the newly announced Arm Total Compute Solutions 2023 cluster, but the core layout and other parts of the chip largely remain a mystery. There have been some leaks that give us an idea of what to expect, but nothing hugely comprehensive.
In terms of naming conventions, it seems that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has part code SM8650 and is codenamed either Lanai or Pineapple. “Lanai” especially makes sense, as Snapdragon chipsets have often shared a codename with either Hawaiian islands or events. (The Snapdragon 888 was Lahaina, a historic town on the island of Maui; the 8 Gen 1 was Taro, a Hawaiian cuisine; and the 8 Gen 2 was Kalama, a beach in O’ahu.) But otherwise, here’s what we know.
Core layout and no 32-bit support
The best leak we’ve seen so far comes from renowned leaker Kamila Wojciechowska, who has been responsible for a number of high-profile leaks surrounding devices like the Google Pixel Fold. She suspects that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will come with a 1+2+3+2 core layout resembling something like the following:
- 2x Arm cores (codenamed Hayes), A5xx, “Silver” cores
- 3x Arm cores (codenamed Hunter), A7xx, “Gold” cores
- 2x Arm cores (codenamed Hunter) A7xx, “Titanium” cores
- 1x Arm core (codenamed Hunter ELP), Xx, “Gold+” core
There are a couple of details to unpack here, with the first being that Qualcomm hasn’t used its Kryo Silver and Kryo Gold marketing terms in a long time. Wojciechowska says that these names match what was in the code, so it’s probably leftover from that era. It’s unlikely that Qualcomm will go back to that marketing since it currently uses “Efficiency,” “Performance,” and “Prime” as the classifiers for its typical three clusters. These are likely just codenames used internally for classification and separation purposes.
As Wojciechowska has also reported, there is no 32-bit support, which lines up with the newly announced cores from Arm, which don’t have a 32-bit execution mode. Armed with that information, it’s possible that the core layout may be something like the following:
- 2x Cortex-A520 cores
- 3x Cortex-A720 cores
- 2x Cortex-A720 cores (at a higher clock rate)
- 1x Cortex-X4 core
This would match with the slides that Arm shared showing a CPU with a 1+5+2 cluster, as the clusters that Arm shows in their slides are what they would recommend to partners to use based on their own internal testing. That doesn’t mean that partners such as Qualcomm will, but it’s an indication of the direction that Qualcomm will be taking the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
Also, leaks and rumors from DigitalChatStation have now recently corroborated this core layout, with a suggestion that the prime core would have a frequency of an astonishingly high 3.7GHz. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen, but that would be the highest frequency in any mobile chip if that were the case. They have also said that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be fabricated on TSMC’s N4P.
New Adreno 750 GPU
While Qualcomm has been a lot less forthcoming with GPU information than with other recent Snapdragon iterations (instead electing to simply name them “Adreno GPU”), there is still an internal numbering system. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 came with the Adreno 740, and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will come with the Adreno 750.
While we don’t know a lot about this particular GPU just yet, Wojciechowska reported that it was being tested currently at a clock rate of 770MHz. That’s subject to change, though, and may not necessarily stick around.
When will the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 release?
The Snapdragon flagship series typically gets announced at the Snapdragon Summit every year, and this year’s event is taking place from Oct. 24-26. After that, we expect the first devices to be released in China shortly after, with international releases expected to arrive in early 2024.