Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme outpaces Intel Core Ultra X9 and AMD Ryzen AI 9 by up to 83% in tests

Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme Beats Core Ultra X9 and Ryzen AI 9 in Laptop Tests ... but ...

Signal65 has published comparative testing of retail Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, Intel Core Ultra X9 388H and AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 notebooks. We Immediately have to state that QUALCOMM funded this research. The Snapdragon system used an 18-core processor containing twelve Prime and six Performance cores, a maximum 5GHz frequency and 48GB of LPDDR5X memory. The Intel and AMD systems each used 32GB, making the comparison representative of the chosen retail notebooks but not perfectly platform matched. Signal65 reports that Snapdragon was up to 53% faster than the Intel system and 83% faster than AMD in selected Geekbench 7 results. Its maximum Cinebench 2026 multi-core advantage reached 87%, while selected Procyon computer-vision workloads reportedly placed it near twice Intel's result and approximately 2.4 times AMD's. Particularly noteworthy is the claim that the Snapdragon notebook, operating on battery under a balanced profile, beat the plugged-in x86 systems using their highest-performance settings across the report's CPU and AI tests. Those figures should not be converted into a universal performance ranking. Application compatibility, native Arm64 code availability, graphics performance, sustained cooling, battery capacity and each manufacturer's power configuration materially affect a notebook comparison. The report also contains at least one apparent system-table error, attributing Intel Arc B390 graphics to the AMD notebook. That does not automatically invalidate measured results, but it reinforces the need for independent replication and corrected documentation. Snapdragon's 80-TOPS NPU has a substantial advertised advantage over the 50-TOPS units in the compared Intel and AMD processors. Actual AI performance still depends on model precision, runtime optimization and whether the workload can use the NPU rather than falling back to CPU or GPU execution. Test platformCPU configurationNPUMemory Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme18 cores, up to 5.0GHz80 TOPS48GB LPDDR5X Intel Core Ultra X9 388H16 cores, up to 5.1GHz50 TOPS32GB AMD Ryzen AI 9 46510 cores, up to 5.0GHz50 TOPS32GB Reported Snapdragon CPU leadUp to 53% versus Intel and 83% versus AMD

A Battery-Powered Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme System Beats A Plugged-In Intel Core Ultra X9 System, While Also Surpassing AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 In Geekbench 7 By 83%

That Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is a very capable chip is no longer a debatable point. Even so, the degree of outperformance that the chip has just registered against its competitors is a surprise, as demonstrated by Signal65 in its own testing of the chip. The NPU within the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme offers "nearly 2x the AI performance of the Intel system and 2.4x the AMD system in AI Computer Vision," according to Signal65 Signal65 has just put Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100, Intel Core Ultra X9 388H, and AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 chips through their paces, delivering a few surprising tidbits in the process. Before going further, let's review the architecture of each of these three chips. The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 has 18 CPU cores (12 Oryon Prime Cores + 6 Oryon Performance Cores), with a max frequency of 5.0GHz, an Adreno X2-90 GPU, Qualcomm's Hexagon NPU that delivers a performance of 80 TOPS, and 48 GB of LPDDR5X. In contrast, the Intel Core Ultra X9 388H has 16 CPU cores (4P + 8E + 4LPE), with a max frequency of 5.1GHz, an Arc B390 (12 Xe3 cores) GPU, Intel's NPU 5 that delivers a performance of 50 TOPS, and 32 GB of LPDDR5X. Finally, the AMD Ryzen AI 9 465 has 10 CPU cores (4 Zen 5 + 6 Zen 5c), with a max frequency of 5.0 GHz, an Arc B390 (12 Xe3 cores) GPU, AMD's XDNA 2 NPU that delivers a performance of 50 TOPS, and 32 GB of LPDDR5X. This brings us to the core of today's topic. Signal65 has just thoroughly tested the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, Intel's Core Ultra X9, and AMD's Ryzen AI 9 465, delivering the following interesting findings: These findings suggest that Intel's Core Ultra X9-based systems are not only more expensive, on average, than their Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme-based counterparts, but also offer performance that is wholly subpar. Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.