We have a new freshly churned mobile processor Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 from the 3nm TSMC process node that will feature in the upcoming top of the line flagship mobile phones like the Xiaomi 17, Samsung S26, One Plus 15 etc. Qualcomm has this time made several improvements, especially in the on device LLM capabilities, as per the official launch info, there is 37% more NPU performance and INT 2 and FP8 hardware level support and 32K context windows. All of this coupled by what they are calling is a World’s fastest mobile processor with 4.6 GHz frequency of 3rd gen Oryn Prime cores and performance cores frequency is clocked at 3.6 GHz. They have improved Hexagon GPU performance by 23% and 25% more Ray tracing, all these numbers are compared with the last year Elite Gen 3 numbers.

SD Elite Gen 5 Geekbench 6 vs A19 Vs MTD 9500 SoC comparison
SoC | Single-Core Score | Multi-Core Score |
---|---|---|
Apple A19 Pro | 3,895 | 9,746 |
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 3,831 | 12,400 |
MediaTek Dimensity 9500 | 3,900+ | 11,000+ |
Check out announcement video:
The new phones will have on device agentic capability without the cloud uploads, reflection remover, text generation etc. Adreno HPM is a new one, it gives 18MB dedicated GPU cache to the Adreno GPU for smoother and stable gameplay. Qualcomm has also teamed up with Epic Games, with Unreal games optimization featuring the Nanites and Lumen, console quality visuals are coming to the new phones with SD Elite Gen 5.
Check out the official Slide SD Gen Elite 5

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 also features an upgraded Image Signal Processor (ISP) that supports the Advanced Professional Video (APV) codec and a “computational video pipeline” for AI-driven, frame-by-frame video enhancements. It also offers context-aware autofocus, auto exposure, and auto white balance. Additionally, the chip includes the X85 modem, which reduces gaming latency by 50% through AI-enhanced Wi-Fi.
Update: Latest SoC Comparison of GB6 scores
Mobile SoC | Single-Core Score | Multi-Core Score |
---|---|---|
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | 3846 | 12546 |
Snapdragon 8 Elite | 3237 | 10242 |
MediaTek 9500 | 3709 | 10716 |
MediaTek 9400 | 3010 | 9317 |
A19 Pro (iPhone 17 Pro Max) | 4190 | 11054 |
A19 (iPhone 17) | 3849 | 10307 |
A18 Pro (iPhone 16 Pro Max) | 3605 | 9376 |