Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Allegedly Tested On Engineering Unit Shows Single-Core, Multi-Core Performance That Outclasses A16 Bionic

The lack of chip engineers stationed at Apple meant that the company’s latest A16 Bionic would not deliver that massive performance gap when compared to the A15 Bionic while also losing out on some features like ray tracing. In fact, if the same performance gap exists with the A17 Bionic, there is a possibility that the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ends up beating it, according to the latest alleged performance results.

New information also claims that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 exhibits 20 percent improved power efficiency compared to the ‘previous generation’

On the Korean website DCinside, a user by the name of ‘USA’ has shared scores of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, showing that the SoC tested on an engineering sample beats the A16 Bionic in Geekbench 5’s single-core and multi-core results with scores of 1,930 and 6,236, respectively. Those are some impressive numbers, and assuming that commercial smartphones deliver the same result, it may end up beating Apple as the performance leader in mobile chipsets.

When we checked on Geekbench 5’s leaderboards, the highest score obtained by the A16 Bionic in both single-core and multi-core was 1,874 and 5,384, respectively, so what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has achieved, at least right now, is truly phenomenal. Additional information claims that Qualcomm’s upcoming flagship chipset is also 20 percent more energy-efficient than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but we did not get any power consumption or temperature details.

These are what appear to be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s single-core and multi-core test results of Geekbench 5

These improvements suggest that Qualcomm may have sampled the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 on TSMC’s 3nm process, but it is not confirmed if mass production will happen on the same technology. Qualcomm was earlier said to be unsure if it wants to use TSMC’s 3nm node due to rising wafer prices, but assuming Samsung’s own 3nm GAA process fails to deliver promising results, the San Diego firm will have little choice in the matter.

The A17 Bionic launching later this year might prioritize battery life over performance, so there is a high chance that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 ends up taking the crown from Apple’s A-series lineup, but as we have said before, treat this leak with a pinch of salt. There is no telling what other roadblocks Qualcomm could face when additional tests are done, but as far as a first impression goes, we are pleased to see some competition in this space.