From PC Mag: Qualcomm's next-generation mobile chips are getting a massive architectural overhaul. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6, revealed today, are the company's first chips built on a 2nm process, engineered specifically to handle the complex workloads of agentic AI without draining the system.
The silicon does more than help AI perform. Both devices introduce the 6G modem to the mass market. The Elite Extreme Gen 6 also includes 18MB of High Performance Memory (HPM) and dedicated Adreno AI matrix cores. Expect this silicon to power upcoming flagship phones from Motorola and Samsung, as well as other models sold overseas in the coming months. Here's what to know about the new chip.
The new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 and 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 both demonstrate Qualcomm's prowess in mobile processing, but they're meant for differing tiers of devices. The regular Elite targets core flagship needs, like improved agentic AI processing, better automatic photo editing, and more granular controls over camera sensors. The 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 takes it up a notch by adding a 50% larger shared memory bank to the Hexagon NPU, dedicated Adreno AI matrix cores for gaming, and support for professional video capture. Both chips clock in at 5.0GHz.
Both chips feature a reengineered Hexagon NPU with the new Hexagon Element Accelerator, a processing block designed for fast AI operations and large context windows up to 32K. For always-on background intelligence, there's also an upgraded Qualcomm Sensing Hub with dual micro-NPUs that deliver 85% better performance and 20% more efficiency at running AI tasks than its predecessor. The two chips also contain the new Qualcomm X105 5G Modem-RF with FastConnect 8800, which helps set the stage for future 6G networks.
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