Snapdragon X Elite Destroys Intel Core Ultra in AI Performance Comparison

Qualcomm has posted a video comparing the AI performance of its Snapdragon X Elite chipset to that of Intel’s new Core Ultra, and it’s not even close: The X Elite trounces the best that Intel has and by a wide margin, giving Windows on Arm (WOA) fans the hope the need for the platform’s release in just a few months.

“Unlock the future of computing with laptops powered by Snapdragon X Elite, featuring a groundbreaking 45 TOPS NPU that delivers unparalleled AI capabilities,” the description of the video notes. “Experience lightning-fast on-device AI image generation, outperforming Intel Core Ultra 7 laptops by up to 3 times. Witness the preeminence of Snapdragon X Elite as it beats the competition in image generation tests on GIMP — a popular image editing app — while showcasing speeds up to 10 times faster than competitors. The next-gen AI PC revolution is here thanks to Snapdragon X Elite.”

TOPS (Trillions/Tera Operations per Second) is how we currently measure the performance of NPU hardware, and it is perhaps not surprising that Intel’s first processors with an integrated NPU under-perform Qualcomm, given its years of experience with NPUs. We know that Intel’s Core Ultra lineup can deliver up to 34 TOPS across the CPU, GPU, and NPU combined, but Intel has never broken out the scores for each component, and its NPU almost certainly scores much lower than that. Also, that score is for the most powerful Intel Core Ultra chipset, the 7-165U. Qualcomm is comparing its Snapdragon X Elite to the next chip down, the Intel Core Ultra 7-155U.

Benchmarks are one thing, but what’s really interesting here is the raw performance in real-world AI-accelerated tasks. Qualcomm provides two head-to-head local image generation comparisons, both using Stable Diffusion 1.5 and GIMP.

Stable Diffusion 1.5 is fully optimized for Qualcomm’s NPU, but Qualcomm at least ensured that the Intel system was as optimized as possible for that platform’s CPU, GPU, and NPU. In the first test, the X Elite system needed 7.25 seconds to generate a single image, while the Intel Core Ultra system required 22.26. So the X Elite was over three times faster. And in the second test, which involved generating multiple images, the X Elite generated one image each second, while Intel required 12 seconds per image. So the X Elite system generated 10 images in the time it took Intel to generate just one.

Intel’s NPUs can only improve, and it’s highly likely that local AI solutions like Stable Diffusion will further optimize for the volume seller of microprocessors. But this is still a nice comparison for WOA fans, despite a few caveats.

It’s also worth pointing out that AI workloads like this aren’t exactly mainstream, and don’t matter as much as real-world performance across standard productivity tasks using web browsers, Microsoft Office, and the like. But here, too, there is some good news: According to recently leaked benchmarks, the Snapdragon X Elite scored 2574 in single-core tests and 12,562 in multi-core. Those are stellar numbers that outperform the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and the Intel Core Ultra 7-165U.

Those scores are also comparable to the Apple Silicon M2 Pro, at least in single-core, though they fall short of higher-end M2 and M3 family chipsets. The M3 Max scores about 3130 in single-core and about 21,000 in multi-core.