Both Qualcomm and MediaTek have been pushing the limits of their mid-range smartphone chipsets, delivering high-end performance that was exclusive to flagship SoCs not too long ago. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra are two such examples, offering blazing-fast performance, efficient multitasking, and solid efficiency without a flagship price tag.

But how do these two mid-range chipsets stack up against each other? In this detailed comparison, we break down the benchmark scores and key features to help you pick the right one for your next smartphone upgrade.

Note: The Dimensity 8300 Ultra isn’t an entirely new chip. It shares the same hardware foundation as the standard Dimensity 8300 but includes several firmware-level optimizations, often customized for brands like Xiaomi.

Let’s quickly take a look at the spec sheet:

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Benchmark comparison

Note: The following benchmark tests were conducted on the Poco F6 (powered by Snapdragon 8s Gen 3) and Poco X6 Pro (powered by Dimensity 8300 Ultra).

AnTuTu comparison

In the AnTuTu benchmark comparison, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 edges out the Dimensity 8300 Ultra with an overall score of 1,505,656 — about 4% higher than the 8300 Ultra’s 1,442,661. This lead is primarily driven by its CPU performance, where the 8s Gen 3 posts a 38% higher score (391,859 vs. 283,402), making it more capable in processing-intensive tasks and demanding apps.

While the Snapdragon chip also leads in UX (270,763 vs 264,862), the Dimensity 8300 Ultra holds an advantage in GPU and memory performance. Its GPU score is 531,968 — 3% higher than the Snapdragon’s 517,257 — and its memory score is 11% better (362,429 vs 325,777). Overall, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 comes out slightly ahead in raw performance, especially in CPU-heavy scenarios.

Geekbench comparison

In Geekbench tests, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 shows a clear lead over the Dimensity 8300 Ultra in both single-core and multi-core performance. It scores 1,932 in the single-core test — a substantial 36% higher than the 8300 Ultra’s 1,421. This means better responsiveness in everyday tasks.

The multi-core score also favors the Snapdragon chip, with a score of 4,986 compared to the Dimensity 8300 Ultra’s 4,398 — about a 13% performance gain. This makes the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 a better choice for heavier workloads and multitasking scenarios, offering stronger overall CPU performance.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra — Key differences that matter

Performance

Both the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra are manufactured using TSMC’s 4nm process node, but they use different CPU architecture and instruction sets. The 8s Gen 3’s ARMv9.2-A instruction set offers better performance and security compared to the Dimensity 8300 Ultra’s ARMv9-A.

The 8s Gen 3’s octa-core CPU has 1 x Cortex-X4 large core, 4 x Cortex-A720 performance cores, and 3 x Cortex-A520 efficiency cores. The Dimensity chip, on the other hand, packs four Cortex-A715 performance cores and four Cortex-A510 efficiency cores.

Despite featuring a higher peak CPU frequency (3.35GHz vs 3GHz), the Dimensity 8300 Ultra couldn’t outperform the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 on benchmarks because the latter has newer cores that are more powerful and power-efficient.

For visual rendering, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 features an Adreno 735 GPU, while the Dimensity 8300 Ultra has Mali-G615 MP6. The latter has more pipelines and higher floating-point operations per second (FLOPS). It also runs at a higher frequency than Adreno 735, contributing to better overall performance. Additionally, the chips offer a suite of gaming features from their respective brands, providing smoother and more immersive gameplay.

The chipsets also feature NPUs for on-device AI capabilities — a hexagon NPU for the Snapdragon chip and MediaTek NPU 780 for the other chip, both supporting up to 10 billion parameters.

Connectivity

There are notable changes in the connectivity part as well. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 features an X70 5G modem with up to 6.5Gbps download speed and up to 3.5Gbps upload speed. Over a Wi-Fi 7 connection, the maximum speed it allows is 5.8Gbps.

For the Dimensity 8300 Ultra, the maximum download speed is 5.17Gbps, slightly lower than the Snapdragon chip but more than sufficient for most users. This chip, however, lacks Wi-Fi 7 support, which benefits the Snapdragon chip with better connection speed, stability, and latency.

Camera

The Snapdragon chip features an 18-bit Spectra triple ISP, supporting up to 200MP resolution. It allows up to 4K/60fps video recording and 1080p/240fps slow-motion video recording. The 8s Gen 3 supports real-time semantic segmentation up to 12 layers, enabling more granular optimizations in photos and videos. Additionally, it offers a range of camera features, including Snapdragon Low Light Vision (LLV), noise reduction, Video super resolution, Computational HDR, and AI enhancements. 

The Dimensity 8300 Ultra’s Imagiq 980 14-bit ISP supports a higher 320MP resolution and also offers up to 4K video recording. It also brings semantic segmentation and many camera features, such as AI Color for Capture, Video Bokeh, Video NR, and AI-based (auto-exposure, auto-focus, auto white balance, and face detection).

Display, memory, and storage

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 supports up to 4K Ultra HD screen resolution at 60 frames per second (FPS), while the Dimensity 8300 Ultra peaks at WQHD+ (also known as 2K) at 120Hz.

Regarding memory and storage, both chips feature UFS 4.0 storage and LPDDR5x RAM (up to 4.2GHz frequency).

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Which is better?

Both the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra are powerful mid-range chipsets that bring flagship-tier performance to more affordable smartphones. However, if performance is your top priority, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 clearly has the upper hand. It consistently outperforms the Dimensity 8300 Ultra in benchmark tests, thanks to its newer core architecture. It also brings better connectivity support with Wi-Fi 7 and faster 5G speeds.

However, if you prefer better GPU performance and more memory bandwidth — and don’t mind skipping Wi-Fi 7 — the Dimensity 8300 Ultra is still a fantastic and well-rounded chipset for everyday use. The choice ultimately boils down to your preferences.

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The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra are high-performance chipsets for powering flagship devices. The former was announced in October last year, and the latter was announced a month later. Both chips have eight cores and are fabricated on TSMC’s 4nm process, although many critical differences set them apart.

In this post, we’ll compare the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra on various benchmarks and explore the key differences between them to find out how the two chips stack up against each other.

Let’s begin with the spec sheet comparison:

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Benchmarks

[Note: We have used the Poco X6 Pro (Dimensity 8300 Ultra) and OnePlus 12 (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) for benchmark results.]

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Geekbench

Geekbench evaluates a device’s performance through a series of tests designed around practical scenarios. The tests include image processing, compression (text & image), speech recognition, and PDF rendering, to name a few.

Here’s how the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 did on Geekbench 6:

In Geekbench 6 tests, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3-powered OnePlus 12 has scored 2,130 points in the single-core test and 6,175 points in the multi-core test. In contrast, the Dimensity 8300 Ultra-powered Poco X6 Pro has 1,256 single-core score and 4,207 multi-core score.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chip is significantly better than the Dimensity 8300 ultra, as far as the Geekbench scores are concerned. The scores are almost 1.5 times better than the Dimensity chip.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: AnTuTu

AnTuTu is a popular benchmarking platform that runs a device through a series of tests that measure different aspects of its performance, such as CPU, GPU, memory, and UX. The combined score represents the overall performance of a device.

Here’s how the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 did on AnTuTu 10:

The Dimensity 8300 Ultra has scored 1,301,564 points, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has taken a clear lead with a total AnTuTu score of 1,753,326, which is more than 30% as compared to the Dimensity chip. Even the individual CPU, GPU, memory, and UX performance scores for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 are better than those of the other chip.

So, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has outperformed the Dimensity 8300 Ultra with significant differences on benchmarks. But what’s causing a big performance gap? Let’s look at the critical differences between the two below for better understanding.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Key Differences

Both chips have eight cores and are built on TSMC’s 4nm process node. However, they have different cores and core clusters. For instance, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 features one Cortex-X4 prime core, which offers great performance and is highly efficient but is absent on the Dimensity 8300 Ultra. Rather, the Dimensity chip relies on four Cortex-A715 cores for performance, and the other four are Cortex-A510 power-efficiency cores.

In addition to a Cortex-X4, the Snapdragon chip has five Cortex-A720 high-performance cores and two Cortex-A520 power-efficiency cores. Clearly, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has the advantage of higher-performance cores with better power efficiency, which should give a significant performance advantage.

Both chips have their version of GPUs: Adreno 750 on the Snapdragon chip and Mali-G615 MC6 on the MediaTek chip. The former does have better performance retention and supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing technology. So, you’ll have a better gaming experience on devices powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 than Dimensity 8300 Ultra.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has an X75 5G modem with 10 Gbps peak download speed, while Dimensity 8300 Ultra’s modem only has a peak download speed of 5.14 Gbps. Also, the former chip supports Wi-Fi 7, which is lacking on the other chip.

The two chips also differ in camera capabilities. The Snapdragon chip gets you an 18-bit Image Signal Processor (ISP), whereas the Dimensity chip has a 14-bit ISP. However, the latter supports a 320MP single camera (vs. 200MP on the Snapdragon chip), but it’s not a big thing, to be honest.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Verdict

Both Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra are high-performance chipsets. However, the former chip has significantly better CPU and GPU performance. So, for gaming and high-performance tasks such as video editing, you’d want to get a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 device. However, for light usage, both the chips would work absolutely fine. In fact, you’d be able to save some money by getting a Dimensity 8300 Ultra device, but only if high-end gaming and video editing are not your thing.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Phones

• Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (review)
• iQOO 12 Pro (review)
• OnePlus 12 (review)
• Xiaomi 14 Ultra (review)
• Vivo X Fold 3

MediaTek Dimensity 8300 Ultra Phones

• Poco X6 Pro (review)

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The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a scaled-down version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 flagship chipset (Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs 8 Gen 3 comparison) designed to cater the premium mid-range smartphone segment. Qualcomm’s key competitor, MediaTek, also has the Dimensity 8300 Ultra targeting the same segment. But how do these two chipsets stack up against each other? Let’s put the two chipsets to the test to see which one is better.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Benchmarks

[Geekbench 6 scores]

[AnTuTu V10 scores]

Clearly, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 outperforms the Dimensity 8300 Ultra in both Geekbench v6 and AnTuTu v10 benchmarking tests.

While benchmarking results are good for testing chip compatibility, they do not reflect real-world performance. Hence, you should also consider other factors before reaching a conclusion.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: CPU

Both are octa-core chipsets but have different core configurations and architectures. The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 features a (1+4+3) core architecture, while the Dimensity 8300 Ultra has opted for a (1+3+4) architecture. This means the former has an additional performance core, while the latter has the advantage of an additional power-efficient core.

The Dimensity chip has a Cortex-A715 prime core clocked at 3.35 GHz, but the Cortex-X4 in the Snapdragon chip is more powerful and offers high single-threaded performance. Moreover, the SD 8s Gen 3 has more powerful Cortex-A720 cores (vs Cortex-A715 in Dimensity 8300 Ultra), and that too in higher numbers.

Compared to the Cortex-A510 (in Dimensity 8300 Ultra), the Cortex-A520 (in SD 8s Gen 3) is 22% more power efficient with an 8% performance uplift. Hence, the Snapdragon chip is more power efficient than the Dimensity one.

The CPU cores do not decide a device’s overall performance, as it also depends on factors such as GPU, RAM, and storage, which we’ll examine in the subsequent sections.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: GPU

The ARM Mali-G615 MC6 GPU (in Dimensity 8300 Ultra) has a slight edge over the Adreno 735 (in Snapdragon 8s Gen 3) in raw graphical power due to more cores. However, Adreno GPUs are reputable for being power-efficient while offering better performance.

Although the Dimensity 8300 Ultra might offer better GPU performance, it may not be as power efficient as the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is. Adreno 735 (in Snapdragon 8s Gen 3) offers a good mix of both performance and power efficiency.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: NPU

One of the key features of these two chipsets is their ability to run generative AI tasks without an internet connection. These octa-core chipsets support generative AI models with up to 10 billion parameters.

So far, only high-end phones from brands like Samsung and Google integrate generative AI. However, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 chipsets should bring these features to slightly cheaper models. But that’s totally up to smartphone manufacturers.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Multimedia

The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 features a Qualcomm Spectra 18-bit Triple Cognitive ISP, and the Dimensity 8300 Ultra has MediaTek Imagiq 980 ISP to convert raw data captured by the phone’s sensor into a final image.

While the Snapdragon chip supports up to 200MP single camera, the Dimensity chip supports a maximum of 320MP single camera. However, both chips can take 4K videos at 60 frames per second (FPS).

Both Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra have powerful imaging capabilities. However, you also need a high-quality camera sensor to take stunning shots.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Display

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3-powered devices can have up to QHD+ resolution @ 144Hz or 4K Ultra HD @ 60Hz, while phones with the Dimensity 8300 Ultra chip can go up to WQHD+ @ 120Hz or FullHD+ @ 120Hz. Both chips support HDR10+.

Clearly, the Snapdragon chip supports higher resolution. But again, smartphone manufacturers decide the maximum display resolution of a device powered by either of these two chipsets.

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Connectivity

Both chipsets support necessary connectivity features such as 5G, Bluetooth 5.4, NFC, GPS, and NavIC, although they differ in terms of Wi-Fi support.

The SD 8s Gen 3 supports Wi-Fi 7, while the Dimensity 8300 Ultra supports up to Wi-Fi 6E. The Wi-Fi 7 technology (in Snapdragon 8s Gen 3) significantly improves the download/upload speed, latency, and congestion management. So, you can expect a faster and more reliable connection with the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3-powered phone, compared to Dimensity 8300 Ultra phones. 

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs Dimensity 8300 Ultra: Conclusion

Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and Dimensity 8300 Ultra are powerful chipsets aiming to capture the mass premium segment. Both the chipsets have impressive benchmarking results and look good on the spec sheet. However, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has powerful cores, offering additional performance advantage over the Dimensity 8300 Ultra. The latter one supports a higher camera resolution and a more powerful GPU.

The chipsets also have GenAI capabilities to perform AI tasks on-device without an internet connection.

Choosing one of these two chipsets boils down to your preference. However, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has an edge over the Dimensity 8300 Ultra in almost every dimension.

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