Updated 4/26/24 : Added astatement from Qualcomm .
If you travel along technical school outside the Earth of Apple , you may have noticed that Qualcomm has been catch a mountain of aid lately . That ’s because the society is promoting its upcoming Snapdragon X Plus and Elite chips , which are n’t give-up the ghost to be in PC laptop computer until this summer . As part of its marketing , Qualcomm compares its check ’ performance to Intel ( of course ) , but it also call out Apple ’s late M3 chip .
According to Qualcomm ( viaPCWorld ) , its Snapdragon X Elite poker chip is 28 percentage faster and the Snapdragon X Plus chip is 10 percent faster than the Apple M3 in a MacBook Pro in Geekbench testing . Which , for chips that will embark some seven months after the M3 launched , leaves an impression – at least Qualcomm intend so .
However , these are Qualcomm - allow numbers and one major point that is entrust out of the M3 comparison is magnate consumption ( not to mention memory and price ) . Apple takes a great tidy sum of superbia in the fact that its french-fried potatoes provide top performance while being efficient .
In fact , Qualcomm ’s chart below comparing multi - threaded performance based on powerfulness consumption prominently does n’t include any Apple chips . For a mobile chip , that ’s a notable elision — especially since it dispute Apple at every other tour .
Qualcomm
There are other flags , such as the fact that Qualcomm does n’t include the M3 Pro or M3 Max . Would n’t an X Elite ( which has 12 processor cores ) versus a M3 Pro or M3 Max be a better comparison ? Seems so . Then there ’s the whole yield of whether Qualcomm ’s benchmarks are credible at all , which the websiteSemiAccurateclaims is n’t the sheath , and “ the numbers that they are showing to the press and are not realizable with the setting they claim . ”
A representative from Qualcomm supply the follow instruction to Macworld : “ We stand behind our functioning claim and are aroused for consumer to get their hands on Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus machine soon . ”
In any case , why should Apple user even care what these new Qualcomm chips do ? After all , you ca n’t ( formally ) work macOS on a microcomputer laptop – even our sister site , PCWorld , says it “ does n’t care as much about how the Adam Elite and X Plus shape up to Apple ’s in effect . ” If anything , it just shows the importance of Apple in the market , and in the very militant reality of personal computer laptop computer , you seek to find customers wherever you may . Even with a importantly undersized market share , Apple makes a short ton of noise with the Mac , and PC makers will do everything they can to win over microcomputer emptor that the devices they deal are just as respectable .
As for whether the X Plus and X Elite really do outperform the M3 , we ’ll just have to wait and see when PCWorld test the chip after they become available this summertime . They ’ll probably match up in some benchmarks with some asterisks and caveats . Also , Apple’sM4 is expected after this year , so this comparison will eventually be moot .
