Qualcomm's New Chip: Can It Compete?

Qualcomm has launched a new chip called the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. It's made using TSMC's 3nm N3X process, which is all about making things faster. But speed isn't everything. This chip is Qualcomm's first 3nm chip for laptops. It has some cool features, like a 192-bit memory bus and 128GB of memory. Together, they give it a memory bandwidth of 228GB/s. That's pretty fast, but it's still not as fast as Apple's M4 Pro, which has a bandwidth of 273GB/s. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme also uses higher voltages to reach higher speeds. But this means it's not as efficient as the 3nm N3P process. In tests, it couldn't beat Apple's M4 Max in single-core or multi-core performance.The chip also has a System-in-Package (SiP) design. This means it has multiple circuits and components in one package. It's similar to Apple's unified RAM architecture, where memory chips are close to the CPU to increase memory bandwidth. But the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme has its problems. In graphics tests, the M4 Pro is up to 45% faster. And even when the chip runs beyond 100W, it still can't match Apple's top-end silicon. So, is the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme a step forward or a misstep? It's hard to say. Qualcomm has focused on performance, but the results are mixed. It will be interesting to see how it performs in real-world use.