As we all know, Apple has recently announced the M3 series chipset, and Qualcomm, out of nowhere, has launched its most powerful computer chip ever in the form of the Snapdragon X Elite. Let’s not go into the technical details of both chipsets but talk more about what these chips have to offer and how they stand up against the likes of AMD and Intel, who have dominated the Windows PC market.
Apple M3 and Snapdragon X Elite: What can we expect?
If you go by the charts and compare what both Apple and Qualcomm have used to portray their performance against the competition, you will be shocked to see how good Qualcomm is claiming. We already know how Apple has been banging the doors against Intel, but it is even more surprising to see a new chip like the Snapdragon X Elite posing a serious threat to the likes of AMD and Intel.
In recent comparisons, Apple has compared its new M3 chipset against Intel’s very popular Core i7-1360P processor, and not-so-surprisingly, the M3 matches the performance drawing only 13W, which is almost 1/3rd of that of the Intel chip. Whereas, the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite can also give similar performance when you push the Core i7-1360P to Performance mode (50W) at just 17W.
While the Snapdragon X Elite is based on TSMC’s 4nm node, the new M3 chipset is based on a 3nm node, which makes it even more power efficient. So, this advantage of the ARM architecture will help these chipsets deliver significant battery life. While the X Elite has surpassed 13th Gen Intel chips, it will only lose out to the Apple M3 by small margins, and this means for the first time, Windows laptop makers can achieve better performance and power efficiency, which until now was a strong area for Apple.
This makes laptops that are coming out in 2024 even more interesting, especially for buyers who were planning to buy an AMD/Intel-powered Windows laptop or even a MacBook as well. Though we still have to wait for an answer from Intel or AMD for its next-gen CPUs, it is safe to say that, as a consumer, it has never been better to see such competition in the market.
