He Snapdragon 8 3rd generation It’s finally official, and Qualcomm has made it clear that it wants to make the most of the artificial intelligence craze. The new chip for high-end mobile phones, which was introduced along with the Snapdragon X Elite processor for computers, contains several technical innovations. Although the most remarkable thing is that it is the first of its kind support for running multimodal generative AI models.
This means that smartphones incorporating the new SoC will be able to run massive language models (LLMs) such as LLaMA 2 from Meta, Whisper from OpenAI, Ernie 3.5 from Baidu or Stable Difussion from Stability AI, among others. But not only that, as it is also compatible with speech recognition technologies and other machine learning-based systems.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s new AI-focused capabilities take advantage of improved AI engine from Qualcomm. This engine is supported by an 8-core Kyro processor, Adreno GPU and Hexagon Neural Processing Unit (NPU).
But the new mobile SoC is capable of more than just running multi-modal generative AI models. up to 10 billion parameters. It also applies technology in functions that can be everyday use for ordinary people; For example:
- Expand photos beyond their original limits.
- Remove unnecessary objects in the video.
- Create backgrounds for videos or optimize the quality of recordings at night.
- Use 3D ToF cameras to obtain higher resolution depth maps.
According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 NPU is 98% faster and optimizes performance per watt by up to 40% compared to the previous generation SoC.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 promises great performance
Of course, not everything about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is generative AI. Qualcomm’s new mobile chip arrives with the promise of excellent performancewhich is logical considering that it will be present in the next flagships of more than a dozen brands.
The SoC includes a 4nm Kyro processor with 8 cores. What stands out here is that they were distributed differently than in previous years. There is a main core whose frequency reaches 3.3 GHz; still 5 kernels The productive ones reach a frequency of 3.2 GHz. In turn, two effective ones can reach 2.3 GHz. According to Qualcomm, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor delivers 30% faster performance and 20% more efficiency.
Adreno GPU improves performance and energy efficiency by 25 percent. Also ray tracing or 40% better ray tracing. And this last point is really interesting, since Qualcomm claims that the new generation of their mobile chips has been designed to bring new experiences. games to another level.
Actually, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will support ray tracing hardware acceleration with indirect lighting; the latter thanks to Unreal Engine 5.2. Additionally, it will allow you to game at up to 240fps on screens with a 240Hz refresh rate.
More possibilities
Mobile phones with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will be able to use 4K screens, although the refresh rate will be limited to 60Hz. If they want to achieve 144Hz, they must use QHD+ panels. Additionally, adaptive refresh rate will be supported. from 1 to 240 Hz in other resolutions. As for external displays, they will be compatible with resolutions up to 8K at 30Hz or up to 1080p at 240Hz.
As for multimedia, there are also interesting developments here. Qualcomm decided to give an important place HDR content capture, allowing you to take photos in up to 64MP resolution and record 8K videos at 30fps using this technology. On the video side, HDR10, HDR10+, Dolby Vision and HLG are supported; and for photography there will be compatibility with the Ultra HDR format, which Google introduced at I/O 2023.
If we focus on audio, what stands out is the integration of Qualcomm’s Aqstic codec and head-tracking spatial audio technology.
Connectivity is another area that Qualcomm proudly boasts of in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The new smartphone chip includes a 5G modem – Snapdragon X75— which stands out for being the first to include hardware acceleration optimized by artificial intelligence. Additionally, it supports Wi-Fi 7 via FastConnect 7800.
Finally, it is important to note that the new SoC includes Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 fast charging technology. Although it is compatible with up to 24GB LPDDR5X RAM at 4800MHz, as well as UFS 4.0 internal storage.
Which phones will come with the new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Qualcomm announces first flagships with Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 They will arrive in the next few weeks. It is likely that we will not have to wait too long, since the Xiaomi 14 will be released this Thursday, the 26th, which will be the first to use the new SoC.
Among the manufacturers that will use this platform is not only this Chinese brand, but also OnePlus, OPPO, Asus, Realme, Honor, Sony, Vivo and ZTE, among other things. Interestingly, the chipmaker did not include Samsung among the brands that will use the new chip. However, it is logical to assume that the South Koreans will implement this in the Galaxy S24.
Source: Hiper Textual
I’m Ben Stock, a highly experienced and passionate journalist with a career in the news industry spanning more than 10 years. I specialize in writing content for websites, including researching and interviewing sources to produce engaging articles. My current role is as an author at Gadget Onus, where I mainly cover the mobile section.
