QUALCOMM

Big Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 leak reveals block diagram and two SoC variants

Qualcomm is scheduled to launch its next-gen Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor later this month. But before the official unveiling, a leak just spoiled the surprise with a detailed look at the processor’s design and the long list of features it’ll pack.

This is likely the most substantial leak since August, and unless Qualcomm makes an official announcement, it might be the closest we get to the full picture.

The leak comes from a Baidu user named ‘SalothSar,’ who shared a block diagram of the chip along with a spec sheet of supported technologies. While the details are highly technical, we’ll focus on the key highlights from the leak.

Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 comes in two flavors...The leak confirms the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will come in two flavors — the SM8750 and the SM8750P. The latter is likely the performance variant of the chip with a slightly overclocked CPU. However, the main differentiation between them is in cellular connectivity. 

The spec sheet reveals the standard SM8750 supports both mmWave and sub-6GHz 5G bands, while the SM8750P only supports Wi-Fi. 

For memory, both versions will use the familiar LPDDR5X RAM standard. Although there have been rumors of LPDDR6 RAM support, this leak suggests that we might have to wait for Snapdragon 8 gen 5 for that upgrade.

The storage standard is also the same as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, that is UFS 4.0, which will utilize two lanes dedicated from the PCIe bandwidth pool. This configuration allows for impressive read and write speeds of up to 4,500MB/s and 4,000MB/s, respectively.

The leak also sheds light on display capabilities. The Adreno 8-series DPU, the display processing unit powering the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, is reportedly capable of driving displays with resolutions exceeding 4K (3,840 x 2,560) at a smooth 144Hz refresh rate. 

Whether or not smartphone manufacturers will capitalize on this capability with such high pixel-density displays remains to be seen. 

Interestingly, the leak suggests that the core functionalities of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 haven’t undergone a dramatic overhaul compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. 

However, the standout feature of this generation’s SoC is Qualcomm’s custom Oryon CPU cores. These cores are designed to deliver substantial improvements in both single-core and multi-core performance. We’ve already seen some impressive results from early benchmarks of the OnePlus 13 on Geekbench 6.

This chip will mark the debut of the custom Oryon CPU cores, similar to those used in the Snapdragon X for laptops. The change in name to something more in line with the Windows ARM-dedicated line suggests a renewed branding strategy on the part of the company. The specifications also confirm support for the new UFS 4.0 standard for storage, although Qualcomm has opted to keep LPDDR5X for volatile memory, instead of adopting LPDDR6.

The UFS controller will use two PCIe lanes, allowing a theoretical transfer rate of up to 4,500 MB/s for reading and 4,000 MB/s for writing. The GPU, codenamed Adreno A750, will support displays of up to 3,840 x 2,560 pixels with a 144Hz refresh rate. Qualcomm will offer two variants of the chip: one with a 5G modem (codename: SM8750) and another with Wi-Fi connectivity only (SM8750P).

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