In introducing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, Qualcomm said it intended to make the "world's fastest mobile system on chip." Based on our look at some Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 benchmarks ahead of the chip's announcement, it may not just be marketing hype.
I had a chance to benchmark the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 on a Qualcomm-supplied reference device during this week's Snapdragon Summit, which I'm attending as a guest of the chip maker. And on most of the tests I ran, the Qualcomm-powered device produced the best numbers I've seen from a mobile device — including the just-released iPhone 17 Pro Max and its A19 Pro chipset.
If you remember from our iPhone 17 Pro benchmarks, the A19 Pro powering Apple's latest Pro phones had jumped ahead of Qualcomm's current Snapdragon 8 Elite silicon in many key tests. Most notably, the A19 Pro had closed the gap with Qualcomm's chip on graphics benchmarks, even outperforming phones like the Galaxy S25 Ultra on some tests.
Now it seems that Qualcomm is returning the favor with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. While the chipset isn't powering any currently available phones — that'll change soon, Qualcomm says — it will start appearing in a number of leading Android devices, including, we assume, some of the Galaxy S26 phones coming out early next year. And that will give us a chance to see if these initial strong numbers hold up in actual devices.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 specs
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is built on a 3nm process and draws much of its processing power from a 3rd generation Oryon CPU. The 8-core CPU features two main cores running at 4.6GHz and six 3.6GHz performance cores.
For graphics, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 uses an Adreno GPU with a sliced architecture; each slice runs at 1.2GHz.
All of that should translate to a 20% improvement in single-thread Geekbench performance over the current Snapdragon 8 Elite, Qualcomm says, while multicore scores should go up by 17%. Qualcomm expects a 23% improvement in graphics performance.
The test device I used for benchmarking featured a Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset optimized for performance. The 6.8-inch phone was loaded with 24GB of memory, which doubtlessly helped the new Snapdragon chipset show off its performance chops.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Geekbench scores
Geekbench measures CPU performance, showing off both single-core and multicore results. The former result illustrates how a CPU performs for tasks like web browsing while multicore numbers reflect tasks like multitasking. It's a helpful number for comparing performance by devices using different chipsets.
Device | Chipset | Geekbench 6 result (single core / multicore) |
Qualcomm Reference Device | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 3,832 / 12,208 |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | Snapdragon 8 Elite | 3,031 / 9,829 |
iPhone 17 Pro Max | A19 Pro | 3,871 / 9,968 |
Google Pixel 10 Pro XL | Tensor G5 | 2,322 / 6,288 |
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 certainly delivered on Qualcomm's predicted 20% boost to single-core Geekbench numbers, beating the Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Galaxy S25 Ultra by 26%. Multicore numbers saw a 24% improvement from one generation to the next.
But it's the iPhone 17 Pro Max comparison that will draw the most attention. While Apple's phone still posts the better single-core result, if only by a little, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5's 12,208 figure on the multicore test was 22% better than the result we just recorded for the iPhone 17 Pro Max's A19 Pro silicon. That would seem to suggest Android phones that turn to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will likely enjoy an edge when it comes to multitasking and running processor-intensive apps.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 graphics scores
Recent iterations of the premium Snapdragon chipset have shown big gains in graphics performance, so much so that Apple had to scramble to close the gap with the A19 Pro. Apple succeeded, but our initial Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 benchmarks indicate that Qualcomm's silicon is inching back ahead.
Device | Chipset | 3DMark Solar Bay Unlimited (fps) | 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Unlimited (fps) | 3DMark Steel Nomad Light Unlimited (fps) |
Qualcomm Reference Device | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 55.31 | 40.83 | 18.19 |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | Snapdragon 8 Elite | 42.36 | 35.4 | 16.19 |
iPhone 17 Pro Max | A19 Pro | 46.63 | 35.03 | 18.63 |
Google Pixel 10 Pro XL | Tensor G5 | N/A | 20.73 | 7.66 |
On 3DMark's Solar Bay Unlimited test, the iPhone 17 Pro Max had posted the best frame rates we've seen at 46.63 frames per second, finishing ahead of the Galaxy S25 Ultra's 42.36 fps result. But the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered device pulls ahead with a 55.31 fps tally, beating last year's Snapdragon chip by 30% and topping the A19 Pro by 19%.
Likewise, on the more demanding Wild Life Extreme Unlimited test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 posted a 40.83 fps score. That's better than both the Galaxy S25 Ultra and iPhone 17 Pro Max, which finished pretty much even on that test.
3DMark's Steel Nomad Light Unlimited is one area where the iPhone 17 Pro Max still enjoys a lead over Qualcomm's latest chip, but only just. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 posted a 18.19 fps result that fell just shy of the A19 Pro's 18.63 fps average.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 video transcode testing
A real-world test Tom's Guide likes to run involves transcoding a video using Adobe Premiere Rush and timing the results. It's a test that Apple's iPhone has typically dominated, completing the test in half the time it takes the best Android phones.
Device | Chipset | Adobe Premiere Rush transcoding (Mins:Secs) |
Qualcomm Reference Device | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 0:47 |
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra | Snapdragon 8 Elite | 0:52 |
iPhone 17 Pro Max | A19 Pro | 0:22 |
Google Pixel 10 Pro XL | Tensor G5 | 2:19 |
Qualcomm officials emphasized to me that this particular reference device hadn't been optimized for video transcoding, so take these results with a grain of salt. But the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 still managed to shave 5 seconds off the time it took the Galaxy S25 Ultra to transcode a video.
It's still a far cry from the 22 seconds it takes the A19 Pro-powered iPhone 17 Pro Max to complete that task, but it's certainly a step in the right direction for the latest Qualcomm silicon.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 outlook
Keep in mind the numbers we're seeing here aren't coming from a shipping Android phone, so the actual results could differ once Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered phones hit the market. But what we've seen so far is very encouraging from a performance standpoint — and it throws down the gauntlet for Apple's next iPhone silicon.
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