SoC powering the Galaxy S25 series will copy Apple's A-series iPhone chipsets in one key way
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The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was just spotted on a benchmark test of the Galaxy S24+ and the component is expected to sport a core configuration of 1+2+3+2. This would seem to indicate that the processor will carry more "performance" cores and fewer "efficiency" cores. The chipset will be overclocked, the hallmark of the Snapdragon "for Galaxy" line. If produced using TSMC's 3nm mode, devices using the SoC should see nice gains in performance and energy efficiency.
Even though the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has yet to be announced, tipster Digital Chat Station (via Wccftech), who in the past was the first to tell the world about the change in how Qualcomm was naming its Snapdragon chipsets, has already spilled some beans about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. With Qualcomm's purchase of Nuvia last year for $1.4 billion, the company will produce custom cores to replace Arm's Cortex cores.
According to Digital Chat Station, Qualcomm will use a configuration that Apple has already employed on its A-series chipsets which have two-performance cores and six power/efficiency cores. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, says the tipster, will be made up of two Phoenix L CPU cores and six Phoenix M CPU cores. The new cores will reportedly support the next upgrade to RAM, LPDDR6, and will be produced using TSMC's N3E process node.
Digital Chat Station is worried about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4
The TSMC N3E process node is the second generation of 3nm chip production for the world's leading foundry and is expected to be notable for three things. It will be less expensive than the first 3nm node which priced smartphone manufacturers except for Apple (which got its typical volume discount) out of the market. And it reportedly tones down the performance and energy efficiency improvements you might have expected from an enhanced version of a cutting-edge node.
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And as Wccftech also points out, we could see an improvement in yield which, combined with the lower production cost, is why more phone manufacturers have been waiting for the N3E process node before moving to 3nm chipsets for their handsets. By the time the process node is used to manufacture the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, things should be running smoothly on the production end of things.
And depending on whether or not Samsung returns to a revamped and rumored deca-core Exynos 2400 for the Galaxy S24 series (the aforementioned Geekbench test suggests that this is not happening), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 for Galaxy chip, with its new custom in-house CPU cores, could be powering the Galaxy S25 line.
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