Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 CPU1 vs CPU2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3

CPU comparison

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.36 GHz. Up to 24 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 was released in Q4/2022.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.00 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 8 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 was released in Q3/2022.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (102) Family Qualcomm Snapdragon (102)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (2) CPU group Qualcomm Snapdragon SQ3 (1)
2 Generation 2
Cortex-X3 / -A715 / -A510 Architecture Kryo 680
Mobile Segment Mobile
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Predecessor --
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is 3.36 GHz while the Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 has 8 CPU cores and 8 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 is at 3.00 GHz.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8 Cores 8
8 Threads 8
hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.36 GHz
1x Cortex-X3
A-Core 3.00 GHz
4x Kryo 680 Gold
2.80 GHz
4x Cortex-A715/A710
B-Core 2.40 GHz
4x Kryo 680 Silver
2.00 GHz
3x Cortex-A510
C-Core --

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware --
Hexagon 780 @ 26 TOPS AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 or Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

Qualcomm Adreno 740 GPU Qualcomm Adreno 690
0.68 GHz GPU frequency --
-- GPU (Turbo) --
8 GPU Generation 6
4 nm Technology 7 nm
2 Max. displays 0
-- Compute units --
-- Shader --
Yes Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
6 GB Max. GPU Memory --
12.1 DirectX Version 12.0

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Qualcomm Adreno 740 GPU Qualcomm Adreno 690
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can use up to 24 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 67.0 GB/s. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 supports up to 16 GB of memory in 8 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 68.3 GB/s.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
LPDDR5X-8400 Memory LPDDR4X-2133
24 GB Max. Memory 16 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 8 (Octa Channel)
67.0 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 68.3 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
8.00 MB L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is --, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 has a TDP of --. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) --
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is manufactured in 4 nm and has 8.00 MB cache. The Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 is manufactured in 5 nm and has a 0.00 MB cache.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
4 nm Technology 5 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv9-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
Android, Windows 10/11 (ARM) Operating systems Android, Windows 10 (ARM)
Q4/2022 Release date Q3/2022
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.2 stars (49 ratings). Rate now:
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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (89%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (68%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
1502 (89%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
1688 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
5089 (68%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
7538 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
605 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
3571 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
1985 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
5315 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
198 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
1261 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
Qualcomm Adreno 740 @ 0.68 GHz
1740 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
Qualcomm Adreno 690 @ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

AnTuTu 9 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 9 benchmark is very well suited to measuring the performance of a smartphone. AnTuTu 9 is quite heavy on 3D graphics and can now also use the "Metal" graphics interface. In AnTuTu, memory and UX (user experience) are also tested by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu version 9 can compare any ARM CPU running on Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly comparable when benchmarked on different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The rating is made up of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the working memory, and the performance of the internal graphics.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
1281650 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
1057 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
117 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
771 (100%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
8C 8T @ 3.36 GHz
26 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Qualcomm Snapdragon Microsoft SQ3
Unknown Microsoft Surface Pro 9

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