Qualcomm has just presented its new chipset Snapdragon 6 Gen4, a notable improvement over its predecessor and a significant evolution in all key areas, including performance, efficiency, gaming, AI, camera and audio.
Official Qualcomm Snapdragon 6 Gen 4: 4nm TSMC and ARMv9 CPU core
The Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 represents the first chip in the series to be fabricated on TSMC's 4nm node, a change from previous generations that used a 4nm node from Samsung and a 6nm one from TSMC. This move to the TSMC node should ensure greater power efficiency and better overall performance.
The new generation uses cores for the first time ARMv9-based CPUsa 720GHz Cortex-A2,3 main core, three 720GHz Cortex-A2,2 large cores, and four 520GHz Cortex-A1,8 small cores. Previous generations used ARMv8 designs (Cortex-A78/A55). Despite the generational leap in CPU design, theCPU performance increase is 11%, measured with Geekbench 5.2.
The new GPU Adreno offers a more significant improvement, with a 29% performance increase over the previous generation. Qualcomm hasn't disclosed many details about the GPU, but the improvement is notable. Furthermore, the new chip is the 12% more efficient than its predecessor.
Furthermore, the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 is the first of the family to support INT4, a technology that allows you to optimize models with multiple parameters to fit into limited amounts of RAM. Qualcomm is working on an AI for text synthesis, for example. The platform supports up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM (up to 3.200MHz), with the option of LPDDR4X (2.133MHz) for more economical designs. For storage, the chip Supports UFS 3.1Wired connectivity includes USB-C 3.1, which can handle a External display up to 4K @ 60Hz, supporting 10-bit color and HDR10+.
The chip can handle displays with Resolution up to 1080p+ and refresh rate up to 144Hz. Mobile GPUs are taking cues from their desktop counterparts, and this Adreno supports Snapdragon Game Super Resolution (upscaling for gaming up to 4K) and Adreno Frame Motion Engine (frame generation that doubles the frame rate while keeping power consumption low).
The connectivity section of the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4 is very familiar. The 5G modem supports sub-6GHz (4×4 MIMO) and mmWave (2×2 MIMO) with downlink speeds up to 2.9Gbps. Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) is supported, including the 6GHz band, così come il Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Adaptive. The receiver GPS supports triple frequency positioning (L1/L5/L2).
For the camera, the chip has Triple 12-bit ISPs with support for up to 200MP sensors. It can record video up to 4K HDR, but the frame rate limit remains at 30fps at that resolution. HDR10 and HLG formats are supported for video, 10-bit HEIF for photos. There is hardware acceleration for H.265 and VP9 playback, but not for AV1.
Realme, Oppo and Honor will be among the first smartphone manufacturers to launch devices based on the Snapdragon 6 Gen 4.
