Snapdragon X Elite may not beat Apple M4 in benchmark tests: Here's why

Qualcomm's ' Snapdragon X Elite ' is a PC SoC equipped with 12 'Qualcomm Oryon' CPU cores with a maximum speed of 3.8GHz, a 'Qualcomm Adreno' GPU with a maximum speed of 4.6TFLOPs, and a 'Qualcomm Hexagon' NPU with a computing power of 4.45TOPs. It has become a hot topic because it is installed in Microsoft's AI PC ' Copilot+ PC ' compatible model. The Snapdragon X Elite has been touted as having higher CPU performance than Apple's M2 and M3, but IT news site Wccftech points out that it may lose in benchmark tests to the 'M4' installed in the iPad Pro (2024) .

Apple's M4 Has Reportedly Adopted The ARMv9 Architecture, Allowing It To Run Complex Workloads More Efficiently, Resulting In Higher Single & Multi-Core Gains
https://wccftech.com/apple-m4-adopts-armv9-run-complex-workloads-efficiently/

Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite is an Arm-based SoC announced by Qualcomm in 2023, and has the ability to run AI models in a local environment, like Microsoft's AI-oriented PC 'Copilot+ PC.'

Microsoft announces 'Copilot+ PC', equipped with Arm processor 'Snapdragon X Elite' for local AI execution - GIGAZINE

Meanwhile, the 'M4' was announced as the chip to be installed in the new iPad Pro at Apple's product launch event held on May 7, 2024.

Next-generation Apple Silicon 'M4' arrives, achieving AI processing performance that exceeds that of other companies' NPUs - GIGAZINE

The benchmark results for the M4-equipped iPad Pro using Geekbench 6 are summarized in the following article. Looking at the scores, we can see that the CPU performance has improved significantly compared to the previous model, the M2-equipped iPad Pro.

I tried running a benchmark on the iPad Pro (2024), which is equipped with the M4 chip and has significantly improved performance from the previous generation - GIGAZINE

It has been pointed out that the improvement in the M4's benchmark score from the M2 is not simply due to an increase in the CPU core frequency or the number of cores, but due to a fundamental change in the design of the M4 chip.

According to YouTuber Vadim Yuryev, the M4 uses the Armv9 architecture, which allows the chipset to efficiently execute complex workloads. Yuryev said that the Armv9 architecture supports SME (Scalable Matrix Extension) / SVE (Scalable Vector Extension) 2 extended instructions for matrix operations, which Wccftech argued worked in its favor in the single-core and multi-core performance tests of Geekbench 6.

The M4 chip is finally using ARMv9 architecture which supports SME/SVE2 which means it can more efficiently run more complex workloads compared to previous NEON.

This means Geekbench scores might be higher than regular CPU rendering performance.

But for consumers, Geekbench is KING https://t.co/UZz01XpXl2 pic.twitter.com/cKX9qSBLr2

— Vadim Yuryev (@VadimYuryev) May 9, 2024

In fact, it was said that Apple's M1, M2, and M3 series had an instruction called 'AMX' implemented. This AMX performs matrix multiplication on the CPU, and although it has not been officially documented, an unofficial specification has been compiled on GitHub. Intel has also released an extended instruction set of the same name, ' AMX ', which performs matrix multiplication on the CPU, but it is said to be different from the AMX on Apple Silicon.

GitHub - corsix/amx: Apple AMX Instruction Set
https://github.com/corsix/amx

This AMX has not been supported by Geekbench until now, and it has not been a plus for performance measurements. On the other hand, SME/SVE2 implemented in the Armv9 architecture is a new matrix multiplication instruction extension that replaces Apple's AMX, and has been supported since Geekbench version 6.3. Therefore, the CPU performance score in Geekbench 6 has increased significantly since the M4, which uses SME/SVE2.

In fact, it has been reported that the M4 outperforms Intel's Core-i9 14900 KS in CPU single-threaded performance scores, and it has been pointed out that support for SME/SVE2 is the main reason for the increase in CPU performance scores.

Report that Apple M4 beats Intel Core i9-14900KS in benchmark results - GIGAZINE

The Snapdragon X Elite is an Arm-based chip like the M4, but it uses the Armv8 architecture and does not support SME/SVE2. Therefore, when comparing the scores in Geekbench 6, it is said that it will lose to the M4 installed in the iPad Pro and the A18 Pro installed in the iPhone 16, which is expected to be announced in the fall of 2024.

Although various verification results have shown that the M4 uses the Armv9 architecture, Apple has not officially announced that the M4 uses the Armv9 architecture.