New benchmarks show Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite chip outperforming Apple M5 in multi-threaded tasks, with up to 50% improvement over its predecessor.
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Qualcomm appears to be seriously targeting leadership in the Windows laptop segment. New tests of the Snapdragon X2 Elite unexpectedly show that the chip can not only confidently outperform its predecessor, the Snapdragon X Elite, but also challenge Apple's M5—and in some scenarios, even surpass it. This is an important signal for the company: its first foray into the laptop segment was just a warm-up.
The benchmarks were conducted by Hardware Canucks on a pre-production ASUS Zenbook with early driver and firmware versions, so the results cannot be considered final. Nevertheless, even in this state, the Snapdragon X2 Elite looks impressive. The processor operated at a 31W power package, just a few watts higher than the M5, but demonstrated a noticeable advantage in multi-threaded tasks. Across CPU and GPU tests, the improvement relative to the Snapdragon X Elite reaches nearly 50%.
The new chip particularly shone in heavy workloads like rendering and video encoding, where it is significantly faster than the previous generation and often outpaces Apple's solutions. However, in tasks reliant on graphics and professional software, the gap between architectures becomes less clear-cut, and the M5 still holds strong positions. Overall, the fact that an ARM chip from Qualcomm can consistently compete at this level seemed unlikely until recently.
The test authors emphasize that commercial devices may show different results—optimization of Windows 11, final drivers, and firmware could affect both performance and battery life. But it's already clear: the Snapdragon X2 Elite is a serious step forward for Qualcomm and another wake-up call for traditional market players.