Samsung Galaxy S25 chipset will get a higher clock speed in the redesign
By ForGeeks In April, Qualcomm reportedly finalized the design of its upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 (AP) application processor, which is due in October. However, after Apple’s upcoming M4 chip posted record-breaking results in single-core benchmarks, the rumor mill claims that Qualcomm has decided to redesign the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset by June, raising its target clock speed from 4GHz to 4.26GHz.
The rumor mill claims that Qualcomm has decided to redesign the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset by June, raising its target clock speed from 4GHz to 4.26GHz.
According to subscriber «X» @jasonwill101, Qualcomm’s decision to take the lead over Apple’s high-end M- and A-series silicon makes sense because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be manufactured by leading foundry TSMC using the second-generation 3nm (N3E) process. This node will also be used by TSMC to build Apple’s M4 components and the A18 and A18 Pro chipsets that will be used to power the non-Pro and Pro variants of the iPhone 16 lineup, respectively.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 AP design, however, will be based on the Snapdragon X Elite laptop processor, which doesn’t work with the ARMv9 instruction set. That means Qualcomm’s new flagship smartphone chip won’t feature Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), a feature that allows chips like Apple’s M4 to handle complex tasks more efficiently and is one of the reasons why the M4 scored stunning single-core and multi-core scores in Geekbench 6 — 3,767 and 14,677 points, respectively.
M4-based iPad Pro Geekbench test shows record-breaking performance that caught Qualcomm’s eye’— Galaxy S25 chipset will get a higher clock speed during redesign
M4-based iPad Pro Geekbench test shows record-breaking performance that caught Qualcomm’s eye
Possibly realizing that the lack of SME means a performance hit to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, Qualcomm is increasing the chip’s clock speed to its target of 4.26GHz to try to compensate for the performance drop expected due to the lack of SME. Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will also not use ARM’s Cortex processor cores, instead using Qualcomm’s custom Phoenix cores.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will also not use ARM’s Cortex processor cores.
Qualcomm plans to complete the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 redesign by June
Although the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC is a smartphone chip and competes with the A18 and A18 Pro rather than the M4, Apple’s latest A-series smartphone chipsets, which are also manufactured using TSMC’s second-generation 3nm N3E process technology, are expected to deliver outstanding performance. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 configuration includes 2 large Phoenix processor cores and 6 mid-sized Phoenix processor cores. Note the absence of small, low-power Phoenix processor cores.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Gen 4 will include 2 large, low-power Phoenix processor cores.
This chip design not only makes the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 AP a potentially high-performance device in smartphones, but it could also be a potential «pig» for the battery. It also means that phone makers using the chip will have to take precautions when it comes to heat dissipation. Larger vapor chambers could be used to dissipate heat away from the processor.
Some of these measures could be used to dissipate heat from the processor.
We’ll probably learn more this October when Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is unveiled at October’s Snapdragon Summit. The AP is expected to be used in the US versions of the Samsung Galaxy S25 and Galaxy S25+. It’s also expected to power the Galaxy S25 Ultra in all markets.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to be used in all markets.
