Today, Qualcomm unveiled the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3, a new high-end smartphone processor for flagship killers. It brings most of the important high-end features from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, its flagship smartphone chipset for this year. So, what’s different between them?
The naming might confuse many users, as the 8s Gen 3 might make it feel like it is better than the 8 Gen 3. However, that’s not the case.
Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3: What’s different?
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a trimmed-down version of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. So, it sits below the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and even the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in some aspects. It is tailor-made for the so-called flagship killer phones and would be a great fit for the Galaxy S24 FE if it exists.
This new chip has an underclocked CPU and one less high-performance CPU core than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. As you can see in the comparison table below, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is made using the same 4nm process node from TSMC as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. However, it has one prime Cortex-X4 CPU core clocked at 3GHz, four Cortex-A720 CPU cores clocked at 2.8GHz, and three Cortex-A520 CPU cores clocked at 2GHz.
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 | Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 | ||
| Fabrication Tech | 4nm TSMC | 4nm TSMC | 4nm TSMC |
| CPU (Prime Cores) | 1x Cortex-X3 @ 3.2GHz | 1x Cortex-X4 @ 3.0GHz | |
| CPU (Big Cores) | 2x Cortex-A715 @ 2.8GHz 2x Cortex-A710 @ 2.8GHz |
4x Cortex-A720 @ 2.8GHz |
3x Cortex-720 @ 3.15GHz |
| CPU (Small Cores) | 3x Cortex-A510 @ 2.0GHz | 3x Cortex-A520 @ 2.0GHz | |
| RAM | LPDDR5x 4,200MHz | LPDDR5x 4,200MHz | |
| Storage | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.0 | UFS 4.0 |
| USB | USB 3.1 (5Gbps) | USB 3.1 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | |
| GPU | Adreno 740 | Adreno 735 | Adreno 750 |
| Cellular Modem | X70 5G | X70 5G | X75 5G |
| ISP | Triple 18-Bit Spectra | Triple 18-Bit Spectra | |
| Video | 8K HDR @ 30fps 4K @ 120fps |
4K HDR @ 60fps 1080p @ 240fps |
8K HDR @ 30fps |
The Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has five high-performance CPU cores and three power-efficient CPU cores. In comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a total of six high-performance CPU cores and two power-efficient CPU cores. The Adreno 735 GPU in the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is less powerful than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s Adreno 750 GPU and lacks support for ray-tracing’s global illumination effects.
The RAM is also underclocked, and the new chip supports up to 24GB LPDDR5X DRAM and 4,200MHz (600MHz lower than Snapdragon 8 Gen 3).
The built-in ISP of this chip can record 4K 60fps videos but lacks support for 8K 30fps video recording, which is possible with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. Even for slow-motion videos, it tops out at 1080p videos at 240fps. In comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 supports recording 4K slow-motion videos at 120fps, which is possible on the Galaxy S24.
The Snapdragon X70 5G modem inside the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 is a step below the Snapdragon X75 5G modem used in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. So, its peak theoretical cellular download speeds are capped at 5Gbps instead of 10Gbps on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. The rest of the features remain similar to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
So, the Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 has a slower CPU, a less powerful (but still powerful) GPU, slightly slower RAM, and a slower 5G modem. It also lacks features like 8K video recording and 4K 120fps slow-motion video recording. However, it will still be great for high-end gaming and other high-end tasks.