For a very long time, Apple has led the business in making mobile chip. Its chips – like the A18 and A18 Pro happen to be really powerful. However, for the last few years, Qualcomm is closing up with its most competitively powerful Snapdragon chips. It just recently announced the Snapdragon 8 Elite, which happens to be a new Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 model. Some real improvements are made by this new chip.
Power Efficiency, Performance Gains
Qualcomm had an important announcement at Snapdragon Summit 2024. The company said the Snapdragon 8 Elite delivers 44% better power efficiency. That means it can do more with less energy. This also shows a 45% lift in performance when running single-threaded and multi-core tests. That’s huge.
So, the million-dollar question: Does Apple care? Is Qualcomm going to overtake, or even surpass, Apple in terms of mobile chip performance? Let’s look at some numbers and charts to find out.

Geekbench Scores: A Closer Look
Let’s run a few checks starting with Geekbench 6. So, in terms of single-core performance, we get an amazing 3,484. It’s close to the M4 in the iPad Pro. Multi-core, we are at 8,568, which is very good. The newer chips are now compared to the older chipsets, like the M1.
Single-Core: The Snapdragon 8 Elite scored 3,234. What really jumped out at me, though, was the multi-core score. Its multi-core performance score came up to 10,059. That’s pretty amazing-good more than a quarter better than what the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 received: 2,240 for single core and 7,120 for multi-core. Oh, man! The gains for the Snapdragon 8 Elite are magnificent!
The main difference here is the cores. The A18 Pro has an in-house six-core CPU, with two performance and four efficiency cores. By comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Elite holds a good position with an eight-core CPU, two performance, and six efficiency cores. This helps Qualcomm take the day with multi-core tasks.
GPU Performance: The Game Changer
And in graphics performance? A18 Pro attained a score of around 28 frames per second in the test of 3D Mark Wildlife Extreme. On the other hand, Snapdragon 8 Elite was able to score an impressive 43 frames per second. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 had a finishing score of around 32 frames per second so that here the new Snapdragon can be distinctly distinguished with the gaming performance.

Overall Scores
AnTuTu benchmark General performance review is quite nice and silky here. A18 Pro scored 1,659,199. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 scored 1,707,064. Still, the Snapdragon 8 Elite boasted a score nearly twice that! That in itself speaks to just how high Qualcomm’s new chip is taking things.
Once again, note that a few of the reasons it gets such a high score may be because of the RAM. A18 Pro has 8 GB of RAM only. This is a lower denomination compared to 24 GB, which was reported by Qualcomm for the Snapdragon 8 Elite. That could easily enhance the score in its performance meter.
Power Efficiency: More Performance, Less Drain
Now you might think that all this extra power would mean worse battery life. But Qualcomm says that the Snapdragon 8 Elite has a 45% improvement in power efficiency. They even suggest users could see up to 2.5 hours more battery life during gaming. Huge, I tell you!
Suppose, now, this is actually embedded in a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra: with the same battery life, that Snapdragon 8 Elite might live beyond the iPhone 16 Pro Max. And, of course, this could completely flip the play on Android handsets and make all of them all the more great for customers.
The Future of Apple Apple’s Response and Future Outlook
With these improvements, it has no choice but to raise the stakes. The A19 Pro will have to be much more efficient and powerful if it is to keep pace with Qualcomm’s advancement. If the latter continues its development path, Apple finds itself in a tight spot.
As time goes on, it will be interesting to see how Apple takes this. Will they be able to beat, match the Snapdragon 8 Elite? The pressure is on!

Apple vs Qualcomm: A New Era in Mobile Chip Performance
Final Thoughts
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is a most powerful SoC changing the landscape of performance in mobile technology. With its stunning marks and efficiency, the chip takes direct shots at Apple’s A18 Pro. While both companies innovate equally at this pace, it is the customers who have to witness the final show. Do you feel that Apple has lost the battle to Snapdragon? Let us know in the comments what you think!
Remember to stay tuned for more updates on mobile technology and chip performance!