The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is Qualcomm’s latest and greatest mobile chipset, featuring a third-generation Oryon CPU and a new Adreno 840 GPU, promising a significant boost to performance and power efficiency. The chip also brings notable upgrades to AI capabilities, camera, and connectivity.
We recently compared the 8 Elite Gen 5 against last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek’s newest Dimensity 9500 flagship chip, and the result was the same: a solid advantage for the 8 Elite Gen 5. Now, we are comparing it against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, Qualcomm’s last flagship chip to utilize a Kryo CPU, to see how significant a leap it is over 2023’s flagship.
Let’s begin with benchmark numbers.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: benchmark comparison
Note: The benchmark scores were obtained by testing the Xiaomi 17 (powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5), as shared by Digital Chat Station. For the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, we used the Xiaomi 14.
Geekbench score
On Geekbench 6, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 obtains 3,621 single-core points and 11,190 multi-core points. On the other hand, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 only manages 2,203 points and 6,714 points in single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. That’s about 66% higher scores for the newest Snapdragon flagship, which can make a significant difference, especially in demanding tasks.
| Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Single core | 3,621 | 2,203 |
| Multi core | 11,190 | 6,714 |
AnTuTu score
On the AnTuTu 11 platform, the Xiaomi 17 (powered by Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5) almost touches the 4 million mark. Some high-end devices, including the Honor Magic 8 and Vivo X300 Pro, have scored over 4 million AnTuTu points. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, on the other hand, gets about 2.3 million points. That’s a solid 66% increase in the total AnTuTu score for the 8 Elite Gen 5.
The breakdown of AnTuTu scores reveals that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 achieves a 62% increase in CPU score (1,100,475 vs 678,642) and a more impressive 73% boost in GPU score (1,380,010 vs 796,929). The memory (533,709 vs 353,336) and UX (857,866 vs 509,202) scores also greatly favour the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
| Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| AnTuTu score | 3,872,080 | 2,338,109 |
| CPU | 1,100,475 | 678,642 |
| GPU | 1,380,010 | 796,929 |
| Memory | 533,709 | 353,336 |
| UX | 857,866 | 509,202 |
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: spec sheet
| Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | September 2025 | October 2023 |
| Process node | 3nm (TSMC) | 4nm (TSMC) |
| CPU cores | 8-core | 8-core |
| CPU cores | 2 x 4.61 GHz — Oryon (3rd gen) 6 x 3.63 GHz — Oryon (3rd gen) | 1 x 3.3 GHz — Cortex-X4 3 x 3.15 GHz — Cortex-A720 2 x 2.96 GHz — Cortex-A720 2 x 2.27 GHz — Cortex-A520 |
| GPU | Adreno 840 Ray tracing support Snapdragon Elite Gaming features | Adreno 750 Ray tacing support Snapdragon Elite Gaming features |
| NPU | Qualcomm Hexagon NPU | Qualcomm Hexagon NPU |
| Memory | LPDDR5X, up to 5.3 GHz | LPDDR5X, up to 4.8 GHz |
| Storage | UFS 4.1 | UFS 4.0 |
| Camera | Qualcomm Spectra Triple ISP (20-bit) Up to 320MP single camera Up to 8K video recording Supports real-time semantic segmentation Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec support | Qualcomm Spectra Triple ISP (18-bit) Up to 200MP single camera Up to 8K video recording Supports real-time semantic segmentation |
| Connectivity | Snapdragon X85 5G modem Download speed: 12.5 Gbps (peak) Upload speed: 3.7 Gbps (peak) Wi-Fi 7 (peak speed: 5.8 Gbps) Bluetooth 6.0 | Snapdragon X75 5G modem Download speed: 10 Gbps (peak) Upload speed: 3.5 Gbps (peak) Wi-Fi 7 (peak speed: 5.8 Gbps) Bluetooth 5.4 |
Key upgrades to Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is manufactured using TSMC’s advanced 3nm (N3P) process node, which offers better performance and power efficiency than TSMC’s 4nm node for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
The CPU also brings significant upgrades, with the 8 Elite Gen 5 opting for the third-generation Oryon CPU cores, which offer greater performance while also significantly improving power efficiency. The GPU also receives significant upgrades in performance, power efficiency, and ray tracing capabilities. The newer NPU is significantly more capable and can perform numerous tasks on-device.
The latest Snapdragon chip also features a new Snapdragon X85 5G modem with higher peak upload and download speeds, a newer Bluetooth standard, and improved connection stability.
Popular chip battles:
1. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Dimensity 9500
2. Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Snapdragon 8 Elite
3. Dimensity 9500 vs Dimensity 9400
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