The midrange processor series from Qualcomm hasn’t been well welcomed lately because a number of manufacturers have chosen to stick with flagship CPUs from the previous generation rather than the midrange models. Qualcomm has now unveiled the new Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 CPU, which focuses mostly on on-device AI capabilities, in an attempt to address this problem. Everything you require is provided here.
Performance
The 7 Gen 3 chip, which is made using 4nm technology by TSMC, has three performance cores operating at 2.4GHz, four efficiency cores operating at 1.8GHz, and one Prime core running at 2.6GHz. According to Qualcomm, this equates to a 15% boost in performance and a 20% gain in efficiency over the 7 Gen 1.
Christopher Patrick, senior vice president and general manager of Qualcomm Technologies’ mobile phone division, stated during his discussion of the performance that their objective is to strike a balance between energy efficiency and performance, giving a wider range of customers access to premium experiences that were previously exclusive to high-end devices.
A Focus on AI
The main topic of conversation in 2023 has been artificial intelligence, since all of the leading tech companies have integrated the technology into their products. For instance, Google debuted a number of AI capabilities with its Pixel 8 series, such as image editing tools that let users choose different faces for group shots or use AI to improve the quality of videos. However, Google’s exclusive Tensor processor allowed for the achievement of these capabilities.
Qualcomm has therefore increased the AI capability of the 7 Gen 3 processor by 90% while lowering power consumption by 60% in order to make these capabilities available to a wider audience. By reducing dependency on cloud-based solutions, this on-device AI capabilities lowers latency while improving privacy and security.
It’s crucial to remember that, despite the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3’s potent generative AI capabilities, different manufacturers will use different implementations in their smartphones because of things like memory configurations and model requirements.
GPU
A key component of the Snapdragon 7 Gen 3, the Adreno 720 GPU promises a 50% performance gain over its predecessor, making it maybe the second most talked about feature in Qualcomm’s presentation. It also supports a number of APIs, including Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL ES 3.2, and OpenCL 2.0 FP, which enhances gaming and graphics rendering.
In a demonstration, the chip used 20% less power while still maintaining an amazing 80 frames per second in Aztec Ruins 1080P games.
Image Processing and Audio
In recent years, software—particularly image signal processing and artificial intelligence—has become more and more important for photos and movies. The chipset’s Spectra three ISPs improve color management, focusing, and skin restoration in light of this, enabling the shooting of up to 200MP images and 4K computational HDR films. It also offers a 32+21MP twin camera combination or a 21MP triple camera setup in terms of setups.
Additionally, the processor offers improvements in audio quality, including clear speech and video pass-through as well as spatial audio based on head tracking.
Connectivity
The chip has an X63 5G modem with dual-SIM dual-pass DSDA for connection. It also supports Bluetooth 5.3, Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E via the Qualcomm FastConnect 6700.
When will the 7 Gen 3 chip-equipped phones launch?
Brands like Samsung haven’t made any significant announcements, but according to reports, Honor has unveiled its Honor 100 series, which is powered by the 7 Gen 3 processor. After going through Geekbench testing, the phone—which was first released in China—scored 1139 points in single-core tests and 3375 points in multi-core tests, providing some indication of its true capability.
In contrast, the Snapdragon 7 Gen 2 Plus received 4402 points in the multi-core test and 1691 points in the single-core test, to put these results into context. This implies that the chip is not a straight successor to the 7 Gen 2 series, but rather a midpoint between the standard 7 Gen 2 and the 7 Gen 2 Plus.
