A new rumor suggests that Qualcomm and MediaTek’s next high-end processors could finally catch up to, or even surpass, the performance of Apple’s most powerful chips.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 and the Dimensity 9500 promise to be serious competitors for Apple’s future M4 chipyet used in the company’s laptops. They would also have a big head start on the A19 chips in the next iPhone 17.
Indeed, according to the leaker Digital Chat Station on Weibo, these two SoCs could reaching around 4000 points in Geekbench 6 single-core testsa score comparable to that expected for Apple’s M4 chip. This significant advance would be made possible thanks to the adoption of several major technological innovations.
What do we know about the future Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2?
The two processors will notably integrate ARM’s Scalable Matrix extension, a technology previously exclusive to Apple which allows more efficient management of complex workloads. This functionality, combined with 3 nm “N3P” engraving from TSMC, could finally make it possible to closing the gap with Apple chips in terms of single-core performance.
The operating frequencies look set to be particularly high. The Dimensity 9500 should reach 4 GHz for its performance cores, while The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 could push its Oryon cores up to 5 GHz. The cores dedicated to energy efficiency would run at 4 GHz, but this information should be taken with a grain of salt for the moment.
Qualcomm would have chosen to keep a “2+6” configuration for its processor, similar to the previous generation. The American company entrusted production exclusively to TSMC, as Samsung failed to resolve its production efficiency problems.
If this information is confirmed, 2025 could mark a turning point in the mobile processor industry. For the first time, Android manufacturers would have chips capable of competing with Apple in all aspects, including performance on a core, where the Cupertino company has until now dominated without sharing.
These rumors should nevertheless be taken with caution while awaiting tests on marketed devices. Both processors are expected to be officially unveiled at the end of the year, and used in the coming OnePlus 14, Xiaomi 16 ou encore Galaxy S26.
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