According to Twitter tipster RGcloudS (via Wccftech), whose account is followed by reliable tipster Ice universe, the unannounced Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 chipset, which will probably power the Galaxy S24 series next year, could see a 15% hike in clock speed for the X-4 high-performance core compared to the X-3 core used on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. The version of the chipset used on the Galaxy S23 line features an overclocked X-3 core running at 3.36GHz.
So that would mean that the X-4 core on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could feature a 3.70GHz clock speed. Until the specs are officially announced, we don’t know whether the Galaxy version of the chipset will also be the beneficiary of the same 15% hike. If so, that would take the X-4 core on the Galaxy version of the chip to 3.86GHz. RGcloudS says that the clock speed of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will top that of the Apple A17 Bionic SoC due to debut in the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Ultra later this year.
More importantly, the tipster says that with the 15% hike in the X-4 clock speed, there will be a bigger jump in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s performance compared with the improvement seen in the current generation of the chip. He states that Qualcomm will stick with the 1-4-3 core configuration found on the current chip.
The regular Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 features an X-3 high-performance core clocked at 3.20GHz
This gives the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, like its predecessor, one high-performance core, four performance cores, and three efficiency cores. The first-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 featured a 1-3-4 configuration with one less performance core and one additional efficiency core. The difference is that the clock speed in the high-performance core was increased by 6.6% between the first two generations of the silicon compared to the 15% that we expect to see with the upcoming component.
Interestingly, the tipster says that the upcoming chip might be produced using TSMC’s 4nm process node instead of moving to 3nm. Apple chip production will reportedly use all of TSMC’s 3nm capabilities this year which means that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 could be produced using the 4nm node unless Qualcomm turns to Samsung Foundry to manufacture the chipset. Qualcomm has switched back and forth before, and Sammy’s 3nm yields have supposedly improved, so that could be an option.
