Qualcomm this morning is taking the wraps off of a brand new smartphone SoC for the mid-range market, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The second of Qualcomm’s down-market ‘S’ tier Snapdragon 7 components, the 7s sequence is functionally the entry-level tier for the Snapdragon 7 household – and actually, most Qualcomm-powered handsets in North America.
With three tiers of Snapdragon 7 chips, the 7s can simply be misplaced within the noise that comes with extra highly effective chips. But the newest iteration of the 7s is a little more attention-grabbing than common, as relatively than reusing an present die, Qualcomm has seemingly minted an entire new die for this half. As a outcome, the corporate has upgraded the 7s household to make use of Arm’s present Armv9 CPU cores, whereas utilizing bits and items of Qualcomm’s newest IPs elsewhere.
| Qualcomm Snapdragon 7-Class SoCs | ||||
| SoC | Snapdragon 7 Gen 3 (SM7550-AB) |
Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 (SM7635) |
Snapdragon 7s Gen 2 (SM7435-AB) |
|
| CPU | 1x Cortex-A715 @ 2.63GHz 3x Cortex-A715 4x Cortex-A510 |
1x Cortex-A720 @ 2.5GHz 3x Cortex-A720 4x Cortex-A520 |
4x Cortex-A78 @ 2.4GHz 4x Cortex-A55 |
|
| GPU | Adreno | Adreno | Adreno | |
| DSP / NPU | Hexagon | Hexagon | Hexagon | |
| Memory Controller |
2x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 25.6GB/s @ 2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s |
2x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 25.6GB/s @ 2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s |
2x 16-bit CH
@ 3200MHz LPDDR5 / 25.6GB/s @ 2133MHz LPDDR4X / 17.0GB/s |
|
| ISP/Camera | Triple 12-bit Spectra ISP
1x 200MP or 64MP with ZSL 4K HDR video & 64MP burst seize |
Triple 12-bit Spectra ISP
1x 200MP or 64MP with ZSL 4K HDR video & 64MP burst seize |
Triple 12-bit Spectra ISP
1x 200MP or 48MP with ZSL 4K HDR video & 48MP burst seize |
|
| Encode/ Decode |
4K60 10-bit H.265
H.265, VP9 Decoding Dolby Vision, HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 1080p120 SlowMo |
4K60 10-bit H.265
H.265, VP9 Decoding HDR10+, HDR10, HLG 1080p120 SlowMo |
4K60 10-bit H.265
H.265, VP9 Decoding HDR10, HLG 1080p120 SlowMo |
|
| Integrated Radio | FastConnect 6700 Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.3 2×2 MIMO |
FastConnect Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.4 2×2 MIMO |
FastConnect 6700 Wi-Fi 6E + BT 5.2 2×2 MIMO |
|
| Integrated Modem | X63 Integrated
(5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
Integrated
(5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
X62 Integrated
(5G NR Sub-6 + mmWave) |
|
| Mfc. Process | TSMC N4P | TSMC N4P | Samsung 4LPE | |
Officially, the Snapdragon 7s is assessed as a 1+3+Four design – which means there’s 1 prime core, Three efficiency cores, and Four effectivity cores. In this case, Qualcomm is utilizing the identical structure for each the prime and effectivity cores, Arm’s current-generation Cortex-A720 design. The prime core will get to turbo as excessive as 2.5GHz, whereas the remaining A720 cores will turbo as excessive as 2.4GHz.
These are joined by the Four effectivity cores, which, as is custom, are based mostly upon Arm’s present A5xx cores, on this case, A520. These can increase as excessive as 1.8GHz.
Compared to the outgoing Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, the change in Arm cores represents a reasonably important improve, changing an A78/A55 setup with the aforementioned A720/A520 setup. Notably, clockspeeds are fairly much like the earlier era half, so a lot of the unconstrained efficiency uplift on this era is being pushed by enhancements in IPC, although the quicker prime core ought to provide a bit extra kick for single-threaded workloads.
All advised, touting a 20% enchancment in CPU efficiency over the 7s Gen 2,…
