| | | First Tests: Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Shows Some Serious Speed
September 29, 2025
Edited By: Wendy Sheehan Donnell
Lofty clocks, lots of cores, AI horsepower to spare, and a rebuilt GPU: The new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip looks like a pace-setter in the laptop-CPU race. Here's how it shapes up in early tests against rival AMD, Apple, and Intel silicon.
--------------We might well have to call the new X2 chips something else entirely: “X-traordinary.”--------
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and X2 Elite: Specs Compared
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| SOC DETAILS | CPU Variant | X2E-96-100 | X2E-88-100 | X2E-80-100 | X1E-84-100 (top version) |
| Process Technology | 3nm | 3nm | 3nm | 4nm | | CPU SPECS | Cores (Total) | 18 | 18 | 12 | 12 |
| Cores (Prime) | 12 | 12 | 6 | 0 |
| Prime Core Multicore Max Frequency | 4.4GHz | 4.0GHz | 4.0GHz | 3.8GHz |
| Prime Core Boost Frequency | 5.0GHz (up to two cores) | 4.7GHz (up to two cores) | 4.7GHz (up to two cores) | 4.2GHz (up to two cores) |
| Performance (Efficiency) Cores | 6 | 6 | 6 | NA |
| Performance Core Multicore Max Frequency | 3.6GHz | 3.4GHz | 3.4GHz | NA |
| Total Cache | 53MB | 53MB | 34MB | 42MB | | GPU SPECS | GPU Version | X2-90 | X2-90 | X2-85 | X1-85 |
| Peak Frequency | 1.85GHz | 1.7GHz | 1.7GHz | 1.5GHz |
| API Support | DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, OpenCL 3.0 | DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, OpenCL 3.0 | DirectX 12.2 Ultimate, Vulkan 1.4, OpenCL 3.0 | DirectX 12.1, Vulkan 1.3, OpenCL 3.0 | | NPU SPECS | NPU TOPS (INT8) | 80 | 80 | 80 | 45 | | MEMORY SPECS | Peak Memory Support | 128GB+ | 128GB | 128GB | 64GB |
| Memory Type | LPDDR5x | LPDDR5x | LPDDR5x | LPDDR5x |
| Memory Bandwidth | 192-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit | 128-bit |
Snapdragon X2 Elite ExtremeSnapdragon X2 EliteSnapdragon X2 EliteSnapdragon X Elite
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