Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Rumored To Feature A Chipset Redesign That Will Be Finalized In June, 4.26GHz Is Target Frequency To Take On Apple’s A-Series SoCs

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 design was previously said to be finalized in April this year, with a target frequency of 4.00GHz and above. However, looking at Apple’s M4 and its high clock speeds that help the chipset attain a record-breaking single-core score, Qualcomm is rumored to introduce a chipset redesign with a new target frequency of 4.26GHz. This change is said to be made to take on Apple’s upcoming A18 and A18 Pro, which may also operate at higher frequencies to gain an edge against the competition.

Targeted frequency for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could be reached thanks to TSMC’s 3nm ‘N3E’ process, but the rumored lack of ARMv9 architecture support could leave performance on the table

With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 expected to be announced in October, Qualcomm has several months before its redesign gets sent to its phone partners. Apple’s unveiling of the M4 likely caught the San Diego company off-guard, with @jasonwill101 posting the rumor on X, stating that the upcoming SoC will be tweaked. With its targeted frequency of 4.26GHz, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 could receive a strong boost in single-core performance, and with its rumored ‘2 + 6’ CPU cluster running in unison, we should witness some impressive multi-core results too.

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Given that the M4 is mass produced on TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process, Apple will most probably leverage this technology for the A18 and A18 Pro, giving them the same performance attributes as the newly announced 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models. Qualcomm is also said to mass produce its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 on the same node, so it should be an exciting turn of events as far as benchmark comparisons go. However, the upcoming smartphone chipset is said to be based on the Snapdragon X Elite, which does not support the ARMv9 instructions set.

In short, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will not have Scalable Matrix Extension (SME), which enables chips like the M4 to run