Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 performance cores hit 4.2GHz, scores 10K in multi-core benchmark, says a leak

Qualcomm‘s next flagship mobile processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, will introduce a major change for its smartphone’s SoC line in the form of custom-designed Oryon CPU cores.

Today, tipster Digital Chat Station revealed a detail that suggests a major boost in performance that will put pressure on MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400.

The tipster claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s high-performance core has a clock speed of staggering 4.2GHz. It was 2021 when the Snapdragon 888+ made headlines for reaching 3GHz speed, and now, just three years later, we’re talking about over 4GHz for a smartphone SoC.

Furthermore, the tipster revealed that a laboratory prototype of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 scored impressively on benchmarks, likely Geekbench with 3,000 points in single-core and 10,000 points in multi-core. 

Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, it’s a jump of 35.5% and 33.9% in single-core and multi-core performance, respectively.  Below are the average Geekbench scores for the latest smartphone SoCs:

In response to a user comment, the tipster also confirmed that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm node.

While this will improve performance and efficiency, Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 phones are expected to come with a higher price tag due to increased wafer costs from TSMC. A report earlier today revealed that the phones with the new SoC will cost around 4,500 yuan. 

To put that into context, Xiaomi 14 launched for a starting price of 3,999 yuan (~ $550), so we are talking about a direct price increase of around 500 yuan (~ $70). Also, Xiaomi 15 is rumored to be the first smartphone to feature the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC.