The Snapdragon 8 Elite was officially announced in October last year, and assuming you forgot about its specifications, the flagship SoC comprised two performance cores running at a default clock speed of 4.32GHz and six efficiency cores operating at 3.53GHz. There is evidence that the chipset’s performance cores could reach 4.57GHz, but that is if sufficient cooling was applied.
However, the core count for that version did not change, and Qualcomm had not hinted about bringing in a less powerful version of its top-end silicon until now. Apparently, there is another Snapdragon 8 Elite that features one less core, and likely exists to allow Qualcomm’s partners to continue launching flagships with the SoC, but keeping the price in check.
Snapdragon 8 Elite with a 7-core cluster is likely the result of chip-binning, Qualcomm following the same approach as Apple and others
The new Snapdragon 8 Elite features the unique identifier ‘SM8750-3-AB,’ and thankfully, the two performance and efficiency cores are running at their same default clock speed, meaning that Qualcomm made no compromise in this area. The San Diego firm has reduced the total number of cores, so smartphones that ship with this SoC will flaunt a 7-core configuration instead of an 8-core one.
It is clear that Qualcomm has resorted to chip-binning, which is an approach followed by Apple when using an A17 Pro with one less GPU core for the iPad mini 7 last year. This strategy allows companies to develop less powerful versions of their current-generation chip instead of discarding the entire batch. This particular variant might not compromise on the single-core scores, but its multi-core result will be lower than the 8-core part.
Then again, given how expensive it is to produce the Snapdragon 8 Elite, some of Qualcomm’s phone partners will gladly want to save up on component costs for a small performance cut that is only visible in synthetic benchmarks. The only problem is for consumers, as they have to keep a closer eye on a smartphone’s specifications before undertaking a purchase.
Oftentimes, a buyer will get overly excited over the fact that a Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered handset is available for less than the typical price of a flagship powered by Qualcomm’s chipset, so looking at these details with an eagle eye just became a whole lot more important.
News Source: Qualcomm
