Although Qualcomm may have plans to introduce new chipsets at its yearly Snapdragon Summit, that is still a long way off, so Microsoft’s Surface Pro 9 won’t benefit from the most cutting-edge hardware. Instead, a new update states that it will include Qualcomm’s current Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3; nevertheless, it is likely to receive some modifications and be renamed the SQ3.
According to earlier rumors, Microsoft would eventually combine its Surface Pro family, meaning the Surface Pro 9 would be available in both ARM and Intel-based versions. Since Qualcomm was the only company specializing in ARM chips for Windows-based computers at the time, we had no idea which precise SoC would power its internals, but our first instinct was that Microsoft’s 2-in-1 would come equipped with a customized Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3.
The Surface Pro 9 will have Microsoft’s SQ3 chip
Microsoft will create the chip in partnership with Qualcomm and is based on the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3, according to Rich ‘Rose Gold’ Woods on Twitter. The CPU and GPU clock speeds of the SQ3 chip could differ somewhat, but aside from that, the SoC will largely resemble Qualcomm’s silicon.
The Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 performs admirably, but it falls short of the M1, let alone the M2, which justifies Qualcomm’s acquisition of Nuvia to enable the development of specialized chipsets to compete with Apple. Additionally, we anticipate that the Surface Pro 9 will have pen support and all the benefits of an ARM-based CPU, including 5G capability and outstanding battery life.
Performance and economy will differ between the two Surface Pro 9 models depending on the Intel-based variants, which are likely to have 12th-generation CPUs designed for compact computers.
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