Qualcomm has quietly listed a new variant of its flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-series chipset on its official website. Carrying the model number SM8850-1-AB, the new silicon is confirmed to power the upcoming Redmi K100 Pro series. While it shares most of its specifications with the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, Qualcomm appears to be positioning it differently, with a greater emphasis on gaming.
Same performance, but gaming takes centre stage
According to Qualcomm’s official product brief, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-series chip (SM8850-1-AB) features the same CPU and GPU configuration as the regular 4.6GHz Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. It includes two Oryon prime cores clocked at up to 4.6GHz, six performance cores running at up to 3.62GHz, and an Adreno GPU operating at 1.2GHz. The chipset also retains the same Hexagon NPU, X85 5G modem, FastConnect 7900 connectivity system, LPDDR5X memory support, UFS 4.1 storage compatibility, and Qualcomm Spectra ISP found on the standard variant.
The only documented hardware difference between the two versions is Adreno High Performance Memory (HPM). The regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 features 18MB of dedicated Adreno HPM, whereas the SM8850-1-AB includes 12MB. Aside from this, Qualcomm lists the same core hardware specifications for both chipsets.
The new gaming-focused version joins three other Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 variants already available. The SM8850-AC is the standard version used in most flagship smartphones, while the SM8850-1-AD is the higher-clocked edition found in Samsung flagship devices as well as Red Magic and Legion gaming phones. Qualcomm also offers the SM8850-5-AC, a 7-core variant powering the Oppo Find N6 foldable. With the arrival of the SM8850-1-AB, Qualcomm now offers manufacturers another option for flagship phones that prioritize gaming performance without changing the platform’s core CPU and GPU frequencies.
While Qualcomm promotes the regular and the new SM8850-1-AB variants with the tagline “Game smarter, not harder,” the official documentation show that gaming technologies such as Tile Memory Heap, Mesh Shading, Unreal Engine 5 optimizations, Snapdragon Game Super Resolution 2.0, Adreno Frame Motion Engine 3.0, and hardware-accelerated ray tracing are also available on the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The Redmi K100 Pro series, which is set to launch on Aug. 11 in China, will be the first smartphone lineup to feature this new chipset variant. It remains to be seen whether more brands adopt the gaming-optimized platform in upcoming flagship devices. What seems certain is that the Poco F9 Pro and F9 Ultra, which will be rebranded versions of the K100 Pro and K100 Pro Max, will feature the same chip.
For more daily updates, please visit our News Section.
Stay ahead in tech! Join our Telegram community and sign up for our daily newsletter of top stories!
Comments