Qualcomm is rumored to take a big risk with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 SoC،
This October, probably about a week before Halloween, Qualcomm will announce the next iteration of its flagship application processor (AP), the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. The SoC, codenamed “Sun”, will be manufactured by TSMC in using its 3nm Process Node. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is going to be a big deal for Qualcomm as it will use Qualcomm's custom Oryon CPU cores for the first time.
According to an article on Weibo written by
Digital Chat Station (via
AndroidAuthority) and translated by Google Translate, the SM8750 (the chipset's model number) will feature two large “Phoenix” cores and six medium “Phoenix” cores. There will be no small CPU cores which are typically low-power, high-efficiency cores designed to handle less strenuous tasks and save battery power.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC will still use Arm's Cortex CPU cores
In the same vein, MediaTek's newest flagship Dimensity 9300 AP features four main Cortex-X4 CPU cores and four Cortex-A720 performance CPU cores. The lack of efficiency of the CPU cores has led some to express concerns about the chipset overheating and in a recent stress test, the chip throttled its performance by 46% due to heat. MediaTek called the test “flawed.” The chip designer also claims that the Dimensity 9300 saves 10-15% on power requirements when performing heavy or “typical” tasks. It also offers up to 33% power savings when operating at the same performance level as the Dimensity 9200.
Qualcomm reduced the number of small cores starting with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 which had three small cores compared to four on its predecessor. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which will be found on high-end Android phones by 2024, only has two small cores. Like MediaTek with Dimensity 9300, if Digital Chat Station is right, Qualcomm will open itself to concerns and worries about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 AP overheating.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will be used in 2025 on the Galaxy S25 Ultra and some of the other models in the Galaxy S25 line. We could see TSMC and Samsung Foundry doubling down on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 that Samsung will use to power some of its flagship phones in 2026.
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