During the Snapdragon Summit 2023 in Hawaii, Qualcomm announced its new Snapdragon X Elite PC platform. The company’s claims regarding the performance and power efficiency of this chipset have generated a lot of buzz. Notably, the integrated GPU is outperforming competitors’ current solutions.
An interesting question arises: Can a dedicated or discrete GPU be connected to the Snapdragon X Elite to enhance graphics performance? This becomes relevant if the chipset is to power gaming-focused notebooks. During a Q&A session with Qualcomm, we discovered that any manufacturer will indeed have the option to use a dedicated GPU with the Snapdragon X Elite.
Qualcomm’s Stance on Discrete GPUs
Qualcomm’s SVP of Compute, Kedar Kondap, and Nitin Kumar, Senior Director of Product Management, addressed this question during the Q&A session. They clarified that nothing prevents an OEM from choosing to utilize a discrete GPU alongside the Snapdragon X Elite. Qualcomm acknowledges the advanced capabilities of the integrated Adreno GPU in this chipset but leaves the choice to manufacturers. It is worth noting that the initial product launches will feature integrated GPUs.
Qualcomm emphasizes that it is not directly comparing the integrated GPU with discrete options. Thus, the GPU performance comparisons shown at the reveal were against integrated competitors. Despite this, the possibility of using discrete GPUs is exciting, especially for Samsung, as it plans to incorporate the chipset in its future notebooks.
Samsung has confirmed its intention to develop PCs running on the Snapdragon X Elite. We believe that this new chipset, combined with the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra, will be a perfect match.
The current-gen Galaxy Book 3 uses an x86 Intel chipset alongside an NVIDIA RTX 4070 discrete GPU. By enabling OEMs to choose discrete GPUs alongside the Snapdragon X Elite, Qualcomm allows Samsung to consider incorporating a discrete GPU in the Galaxy Book 4 Ultra if they decide to shift to this ARM-based processor.
