Qualcomm moved to 3nm and claimed 45 per cent more NPU speed at 45 per cent better efficiency, pivoting its messaging to multimodal input and longer context. It gave no parameter count, no token rate and no named model, making this generation harder to compare than its predecessor.
Snapdragon 8 Elite
The naming break (no Gen number) and a step backwards in disclosure: the parameter ceiling published a year earlier disappeared.
Silicon from Qualcomm
9 chips on record, newest first.
-
2026Relative only
-
2026Relative only
-
2025
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme
Not stated by Qualcomm Hexagon NPU
The Qualcomm Hexagon NPU features 80 TOPS of AI processing
Absolute -
2025
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
3nm Hexagon NPU with Fused AI Accelerator
37% faster Hexagon NPU, 16% better performance per watt
Relative only -
2024Relative only
-
2023
Qualcomm Cloud AI 100 Ultra
Not stated by Qualcomm PCIe card, 64 AI cores, 576 MB SRAM, 150 W
ML capacity (INT8): 870 TOPs
Absolute -
2023
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
4nm Hexagon NPU
Up to 98% faster Hexagon NPU; on-device models up to 10B parameters at up to 20 tokens/sec (Llama 2 7B)
Relative only -
2022Relative only
-
2021
Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
4nm 7th Gen AI Engine with Hexagon processor
AI Engine up to 4x faster than predecessor
Relative only