Apple’s M4 lineup of chipsets secures another victory in the win column against the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. First, it was the M4 Max that beat Qualcomm’s fastest chipset in Cinebench 2024’s single-core and multi-core tests, and now we have the much slower M4 Pro that has taken the silicon to the cleaners in GPU workloads. In two synthetic benchmarks tested, the ‘middle of the pack’ Apple Silicon is up to 45 percent faster. Let us check out the details below.
Regardless of whether it loses to the M4 Pro in 3DMark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited and 3DMark Solar Bar Unlimited, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is faster than Intel’s and AMD’s integrated graphics processors
A ‘Qualcomm Reference Design’ board with 48GB of LPDDR5X RAM was tested against a host of processors and chipsets, of which we decided to focus on the M4 Pro, since both belong to the same category of ARM-based silicon. While the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme’s iGPU makes short work of the solutions housed by various Intel and AMD processors, the same story cannot be replicated against the M4 Pro. You can check out the detailed comparison below.
ComputerBase ran two synthetic GPU tests, 3DMark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited and 3DMark Solar Bar Unlimited, and found that the M4 Pro’s 20-core graphics processor is up to 45.7 percent faster than the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme. While Qualcomm’s fastest chipset’s specifications are currently unavailable, a Reference Design hints that the SoC is operating at increased frequencies for testing purposes, with the entire configuration able to run at a higher power limit.
3DMark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (22,946 points) vs M4 Pro (33,434 points) - M4 Pro is 45.7 percent faster
3DMark Solar Bar Unlimited
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (5,687 points) vs M4 Pro (7,817 points) - M4 Pro is 37.45 percent faster
Even with a potentially higher power limit, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is no match for the M4 Pro, suggesting that the retail units powering future notebooks in the first half of 2026 might generate lower scores. Apple has yet to unveil its M5 series, and it has already established a lead against its rival. What is even more disappointing is that the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Snapdragon X2 Elite are both mass produced on TSMC’s new 3nm ‘N3P’ architecture, so technically, these chipsets are more advanced than Apple’s M4 series.
In compute tests, the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme has the upper hand against the M4 Pro, losing in just one category
Thankfully, the picture is not as bleak in the single-core and multi-core compute performance side of things, as the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme beats the M4 Pro in Geekbench 6’s single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads. As for Cinebench 2024’s single-core run, it is the only test where the M4 Pro obtains victory, but only by a measly 7.45 percent. As for the expanded comparison, you can see the details below:
Geekbench 6.3
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (4,072 in single-core, 23,693 in multi-core) vs M4 Pro (3,822 in single-core, 22,550 in multi-core) - Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is 6.53 percent faster than the M4 Pro in the single-core test and 5.07 percent faster in the multi-core test.
Cinebench 2024
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (161 in single-core, 1,964 in multi-core) vs M4 Pro (161 in single-core, 1,679 in multi-core) - M4 Pro is 7.45 percent faster than the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme in the single-core test, while the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is 16.97 percent faster in the multi-core test.
The Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme’s 18-core configuration made the difference in the aforementioned benchmarks, but we are still disappointed that Qualcomm continues to lag behind Apple’s M4 family, which has been out for nearly an entire year. Hopefully, we can witness more tests in which there is some meaningful competition from the GPU side, so stay tuned.
News Source: ComputerBase
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