Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen leak signals Samsung will demolish Apple processors?

Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra on a stand in green in a split screen with iPhone 14 Pro Max in purple being held
(Image credit: Laptop Mag)

A recent Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 leak could mean serious trouble for iPhone, as a rumor reported by MyDrivers suggests that the processing power will see a 15% boost in performance. 

Combined with a previous leak from Digital Chat Station on Weibo that suggested that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3's Adreno 750 GPU could be 50% stronger than the 740, Apple could be seriously outpaced if the company doesn't step up to meet this performance increase from Qualcomm.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to defeat iPhone?

Apple's processing power is often a step ahead of what Qualcomm can deliver, with Apple's A16 Bionic chip outdoing the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in our tests. For example, during our Geekbench 5.4 performance test, iPhone 14 Pro Max achieved a score of 5,333, while the Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra was a step behind at 5,081.

If the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 will truly deliver a 15% processing performance boost alongside a 50% graphical increase, things are looking incredibly good for Samsung

But is Apple really in that much trouble? The company's A17 Bionic chip has yet to be revealed officially, and until we know exactly how much stronger it is, it's entirely possible iPhone will come out on top once again when we test the next generation of smartphones. Perhaps Qualcomm will finally have packed enough of a performance boost into its chips to make it go head to head (or potentially beyond) Apple, but we're still unsure.

See more

There's plenty of other information about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 out there from reliable Twitter leaker Kuba Wojciechowski, who briefly discussed its codename of Lanai or Pineapple, a launch in late 2023, and the first of the series that includes a "titanium" cluster. 

Regardless, Laptop Mag will be testing both the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and A17 Bionic chip to see which one comes out on top when those chips are in our hands.

Momo Tabari
Contributing Writer

Self-described art critic and unabashedly pretentious, Momo finds joy in impassioned ramblings about her closeness to video games. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Media Studies from Brooklyn College and five years of experience in entertainment journalism. Momo is a stalwart defender of the importance found in subjectivity and spends most days overwhelmed with excitement for the past, present and future of gaming. When she isn't writing or playing Dark Souls, she can be found eating chicken fettuccine alfredo and watching anime.