Winners & losers: Qualcomm is expanding its Arm-based Windows laptop push with the Snapdragon X2 Plus lineup and is using new benchmark data to claim the chips can outperform current AMD and Intel mobile CPUs in both raw performance and power efficiency. The company shared results for 10-core and 6-core X2 Plus variants with VideoCardz, presenting them as faster and more efficient than x86 rivals across CPU, GPU, and AI workloads when tested under what Qualcomm describes as comparable power limits. The benchmarks are drawn from Geekbench 6.5 and UL's Procyon suite, run on Windows 11 laptops. Qualcomm claims the 10-core X2 Plus can deliver up to 3.1× higher multi-core CPU performance at the same power level as competing processors, while reaching up to 52 percent higher peak performance in those tests. Single-threaded results are also emphasized. Qualcomm reports up to 3.5× better efficiency in single-core workloads, with Geekbench 6.5 peak scores coming in 28 percent higher than those of AMD's Ryzen AI 7 350 and Intel's Core Ultra 7 256V and 265U reference systems. Qualcomm frames these results as evidence that the X2 Plus can sustain higher per-core performance while consuming less power – a key advantage, it argues, for lightly threaded tasks that still dominate many everyday PC workloads. The company also highlights gains over the first-generation Snapdragon X Elite. For the 10-core X2 Plus, Qualcomm claims up to 35 percent higher single-core CPU performance, 17 percent higher multi-core performance, 29 percent better GPU performance, and a 78 percent increase in NPU performance compared with the earlier X Elite series. The six-core X2 Plus is said to deliver similar improvements, with up to 35 percent higher single-core CPU performance, 39 percent higher GPU performance, and the same 78 percent NPU uplift versus its direct predecessor. To establish its comparisons, Qualcomm used specific rival laptops. The 10-core Snapdragon X2 Plus (X2P-64-100) was benchmarked against AMD's Ryzen AI 7 350 in an Asus ZenBook 14 (UM3406KA), as well as Intel's Core Ultra 7 265U and 256V chips in the Dell XPS 13 (9350) and Dell Pro 16 Plus (PN615250), respectively. AI performance is central to Qualcomm's pitch. The company reports that the X2 Plus NPU scores 83,624 points in Geekbench AI, which it characterizes as roughly six times the performance of Intel's Core Ultra 7 265U in the same test. In UL's Procyon Computer Vision benchmark, the X2 Plus NPU is said to score nearly 6.4× higher than the Intel reference system. Qualcomm notes that the Ryzen AI 7 350 configuration did not produce a valid result in this Procyon workload, leaving no direct AMD comparison for that test. Qualcomm also detailed how the X2 Plus fits within the broader Snapdragon X2 lineup. The Snapdragon X2 Elite family includes three primary SoCs: the X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100), featuring 18 cores (six performance and 12 prime) with boost clocks of up to 5.0 GHz for both single- and dual-core workloads; a second 18-core variant, the X2E-88-100, boosting to 4.7 GHz in single- and dual-core operation; and the 12-core X2E-80-100, rated at 4.7 GHz for single-core and 4.4 GHz for dual-core workloads. The X2 Plus models step down in core count but are positioned for higher per-core clocks in mid-range premium notebooks. Both the 10-core X2P-64-100 and the 6-core X2P-42-100 list a maximum boost frequency of 4.0 GHz in Qualcomm's specifications, while their maximum sustained multi-core frequencies have not yet been disclosed.

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