Discussion Qualcomm Snapdragon Thread

[FlameTail]

One week more until device reviews drop...

 

[FlameTail]

A video comparing the specs of all Snapdragon X laptops unveiled so far, and examining which is the best value.

The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x remains as my favourite, for it's excellent combination of features for an excellent price.

 

[Nothingness]

Tuxedo is developing a Snapdragon Linux laptop.

TUXEDO Computers confirmed today they are working on an ARM notebook using the Snapdragon X Elite SoC. A prototype of the laptop was shown last week at Computex in Taiwan with the 12-core X Elite, 2560 x 1600 14-inch display, aluminum body, 32GB of LPDDR5x, one PCIe Gen4 NVMe SSD, and in-development Linux support

I wonder what variant of the SoC they'll use, but the 20W TDP is not very inspiring.

 

[Nothingness]

A video comparing the specs of all Snapdragon X laptops unveiled so far, and examining which is the best value.

View attachment 100945
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x remains as my favourite, for it's excellent combination of features for an excellent price.

This confirms what I alas found: no X1E-80 with 32 GB. I'm starting to think the dev kit would be my best choice.

EDIT: BTW the prices don't look correct unless they are not USD.

 

[FlameTail]

This confirms what I alas found: no X1E-80 with 32 GB. I'm starting to think the dev kit would be my best choice.

Yeah this is the issue with Snapdragon X1 series.

Sure, the top SKUs match or even exceed the competition in benchmarks, but the thing is- those top SKUs are limited to so few devices. So the majority of users buying a Snapdragon X laptop will not experience that performance.

My biggest contention point is that they have disabled Core Boost on all but the two X Elite SKUs (which also happen to be the rarest).

In contrast, Apple gives (almost) identical ST performance in a certain Mx generation. For example, the ST performance difference between the lowest bin Apple M2 to the full-fat M2 Ultra is less than 10%.

Single Core performance is vital. X1E-84-100 -> X1E-78-100, going from 4.2 GHz to 3.4 GHz is a huge difference.

Hopefully, this is something that gets fixed with Snapdragon X2 series.

 

[FlameTail]

This confirms what I alas found: no X1E-80 with 32 GB. I'm starting to think the dev kit would be my best choice.

Do you really need a new laptop, or are you looking to buy the highest end X Elite SKU for "fun"?

 

[Nothingness]

Do you really need a new laptop, or are you looking to buy the highest end X Elite SKU for "fun"?

Oh no I don't need a new laptop, it's just more convenient to hack from the couch. But I can live with ssh so the dev kit is an option... provided it supports Linux.

 

[igor_kavinski]

But I can live with ssh so the dev kit is an option... provided it supports Linux.

Get started with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Arm

Software developers with Windows on Arm computers doing Linux or cloud native development.

learn.arm.com

 

[Nothingness]

Get started with Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) on Arm

Software developers with Windows on Arm computers doing Linux or cloud native development.

learn.arm.com

I don't want that. No way. As far as I'm concerned, Windows only use is to play games

 

[FlameTail]

The Snapdragon 8cx/8c line got replaced by Snapdragon X series with Oryon.

What will happen to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7c line?

Will the spiritual successor of the 7c be born in the Snapdragon X lineup, or will Qualcomm inaugurate a new brand for ultra-affordable processors? ('Snapdragon C' perhaps?)

 

[Tup3x]

I don't want that. No way. As far as I'm concerned, Windows only use is to play games

I only want Linux for command line utilities and it's just simpler if there are Mac users working on the same project. UX is a mess on Linux (well, it's a mess on Windows too but without certain downsides) and there are many downs sides from hardware support to even hardware accelerated video decoding in browsers. VSCode + remote development plugin + WSL2 is best of both worlds.

 

[Nothingness]

I only want Linux for command line utilities and it's just simpler if there are Mac users working on the same project. UX is a mess on Linux (well, it's a mess on Windows too but without certain downsides) and there are many downs sides from hardware support to even hardware accelerated video decoding in browsers. VSCode + remote development plugin + WSL2 is best of both worlds.

That's your preference. Not mine. I didn't claim the way I work is the way to go I can't stand any UI so I fail to see what Windows brings to me except an environment I always felt was hostile (as Gnome, as MacOS UI).

 

[SarahKerrigan]

Oh no I don't need a new laptop, it's just more convenient to hack from the couch. But I can live with ssh so the dev kit is an option... provided it supports Linux.

I strongly suspect it will work, in the sense of having no active measures to prevent Linux running; no WoA system has ever been specifically specifically locked to running NT. How long it takes to have a full driver set is another question.

You probably already saw this video but it seems there's a pretty aggressive timeline for getting full mainline support.

 

[FlameTail]

The Snapdragon 8cx/8c line got replaced by Snapdragon X series with Oryon.

What will happen to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7c line?

Will the spiritual successor of the 7c be born in the Snapdragon X lineup, or will Qualcomm inaugurate a new brand for ultra-affordable processors? ('Snapdragon C' perhaps?)

PC makers hoping for a Chromebook refresh cycle

Kids can be rough despite efforts to keep budget computers out of landfill

www.theregister.com

If Qualcomm is to cash in on the Chromebook Refresh Cycle, they'd better release a successor to the Snapdragon 7c.

 

[Nothingness]

I strongly suspect it will work, in the sense of having no active measures to prevent Linux running; no WoA system has ever been specifically specifically locked to running NT. How long it takes to have a full driver set is another question.

You probably already saw this video but it seems there's a pretty aggressive timeline for getting full mainline support.

I have already reported on the work Qualcomm is doing to enable Linux with Linaro, that's a great change from what happened with the previous WoA devices. But I don't want to be the guinea pig of their efforts, or buy a device that was poorly designed with a buggy BIOS/UEFI that would prevent installation of Linux. I will have to train my patience

 

[StinkyPinky]

Samsung are crazy for not offering 32GB on their laptops. Then again, so is Dell but they are always crazy.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Samsung are crazy for not offering 32GB on their laptops.

Asus beckons you to their Vivo laptop.

 

[FlameTail]

Olrak just tweeted this:

Snapdragon X Plus tier holds both Purwa and Hamoa parts?

 

[FlameTail]

Oh man.

What have they done?💀

They unveiled their shiny new naming scheme only 8 months ago, and they already borked it in the first generation itself...

I could write a 500-word rant, but I'll do a point summary:

(1) There is a huge variation in the SKUs within a tier. For example, the difference between the ST performance of X1E78100 and X1E80100 is huge (3.4 GHz vs 4.0 GHz).

(2) There doesn't seem to be clear logic as to what defines a tier. When X Elite and X Plus was unveiled,

(A) I thought the CPU core count would determine the tier (12 core = X Elite, 10 core = X Plus). But that's clearly not the case because the 8-core CPU parts also fall under the X Plus tier.

(B) I thought SKUs from a certain die, would belong to a certain tier. For example: Hamoa = X Plus, X Elite and Purwa = X. But that's clearly not the case, if Purwa parts also go into the X Plus tier. This is particularly contentious, because there are bigger differences between Hamoa and Purwa parts- as revealed in the Android Authority leak:

Exclusive: Here's what Qualcomm didn't tell you about the Snapdragon X series

The upcoming Snapdragon X1 will be available in five different models: see their specs and performance here.

www.androidauthority.com

The Purwa parts have inferior media encoders/decoders, as well as less PCIe lanes.

(3) The numbers such as 84, 80, 78, 46 etc.. seem to be arbitrarily chosen. They could have made the first digit represent the CPU, and second digit represent the GPU. But they haven't. It's all messed up.

________

Bottom line, what this means is that there's more confusion for customers. The tier name (Elite, Plus) is merely a marketing gimmick and doesn't mean much. Because the tier name is devalued, consumers need to look at the full SKU name (eg: X1E78100) to know exactly what they are getting.

When Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X naming scheme back last year, I thought they would follow Apple's approach with a clean and clear naming scheme. However, as we get more information, it seems they are going more in an Intel/AMD direction in terms of how messy the naming scheme is.

 

[Tup3x]

Yeah, their naming scheme is just bad.

 

[Doug S]

They must have hired someone from Intel marketing to come up with that many different SKUs for two parts, and create that much confusion about which is better than which through meaningless part numbers.

 

[gdansk]

Yet except the developer kit part it all makes sense.
Bigger number = better.

 

[SarahKerrigan]

They must have hired someone from Intel marketing to come up with that many different SKUs for two parts, and create that much confusion about which is better than which through meaningless part numbers.

Itanium had a trivial and comprehensible SKU name scheme (at least, starting with Montecito.) Just sayin'.

 

[CouncilorIrissa]

Itanium had a trivial and comprehensible SKU name scheme (at least, starting with Montecito.) Just sayin'.

You'll never let go, won't you?

 

[SarahKerrigan]

You'll never let go, won't you?

I think you already know the answer to that.