Qualcomm Launches 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 With 8K/60 Video
Updated
Updated · CNET · Sep 22
Qualcomm Launches 2nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 With 8K/60 Video
3 articles · Updated · CNET · Sep 22
Summary
Qualcomm’s new flagship mobile chips split into two tiers, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 positioned above the 8 Elite Gen 6 for heavier on-device AI workloads in premium Android phones.
Built on a 2nm process, both chips target faster, more efficient AI; the Extreme version supports 30-billion-plus parameter models, adds AI matrix cores, and expands shared NPU memory to 16MB—50% above its predecessor.
Performance gains versus last year’s Gen 5 reach 13% CPU, 44% GPU and 35% NPU on the Extreme chip, while both chips hit 5GHz and improve CPU efficiency by 37% and GPU efficiency by 40%.
Camera and media upgrades are a key selling point: the Extreme chip supports 8K video at 60 fps, 4K at 240 fps, and an AI-enhanced Advanced Professional Video codec.
Xiaomi and Motorola already showed phones using the chips at Snapdragon Summit in Maui, with Motorola’s Signature 27 set to use the Extreme version later this year.
With Qualcomm's new chips processing AI entirely on-device, will this finally end cloud data harvesting, or just create new privacy loopholes?
As smartphones run massive 30-billion-parameter AI models locally, are tech giants simply offloading their exorbitant cloud computing costs onto your battery?