Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite PC platform was unveiled yesterday at the Snapdragon Summit 2023 in Hawaii. It's being highlighted as a true x86 alternative, enabling a more powerful experience for Windows-powered laptops running on ARM-based chipsets.
However, the discussion has been entirely centered around using the Snapdragon X Elite for Windows laptops. This begs the question, could there potentially be desktop PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite? While Qualcomm isn't making any announcements related to that yet, it's also not shutting the door to that possibility.
Desktops powered by Snapdragon X Elite could arrive in the future
This came up during the Q&A session today with Qualcomm's SVP of Compute Kedar Kondap and Nitin Kumar, Senior Director, Product Management during the Q&A session. The company is making substantial claims about the power efficiency of the Snapdragon X Elite. The pair mentioned that this will enable “multi-day” battery life for laptops powered by this new chipset.
What's interesting to note is that all 12 cores of the Oryon CPU in the Snapdragon X Elite are high performance cores, all running at 3.8GHz, with two cores being able to dual boost up to 4.3GHz. Qualcomm highlights the fact that it's able to run all high performance cores at considerably less power consumption compared to the competition, achieving a great mix of top-tier performance with multi-day battery life.
The conversation shifted to the possibility of Snapdragon X Elite being used for desktops, as there's obviously no concerns about battery life there. They mentioned that while Qualcomm isn't making any announcements regarding this today, the possibility exists. Whether or not this happens down the line remains to be seen.
Qualcomm has already talked about the versatility of the Oryon CPU inside the Snapdragon X Elite. The pair mentioned that there's nothing preventing it from going into other areas of business. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon already confirmed on day one of the Snapdragon Summit that Oryon CPU will be coming to Snapdragon mobile chipsets next year.
Given Qualcomm's approach to Snapdragon X Elite and how its evolving from being a communications company to connected processing company, it really wouldn't be surprising if we eventually end up with desktop PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite. They've already confirmed that discrete GPUs can be used with this chipset, so that won't be a limitation on desktops.
Disclaimer: Qualcomm is hosting a large group of international media for the Snapdragon Summit 2023 from October 24-26 in Hawaii, including SamMobile. All opinions and analyses remain our own with Qualcomm receiving no advance preview or exercising any control over our coverage.
