Ouch, another Snapdragon 8 Elite handset overheats

Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite guarantees large issues for late 2024 and 2025 flagship smartphones. From a brand new customized CPU to unmatched graphics efficiency, pictures, and enhanced AI capabilities, it’s the chip that claims to do all of it, and, for essentially the most half, it does. Nonetheless, our preliminary impressions of the chip have been tainted by exceedingly excessive temperatures when positioned underneath stress.

First, the realme GT7 Professional overheated throughout benchmark assessments. Even after a patch to deal with a “software program compatibility subject” with 3DMark, the handset nonetheless hit a 47.7°C inner temperature, making for a telephone that’s uncomfortable to carry when operating full tilt. Subsequent, the admirably performing ASUS ROG Cellphone 9 remained cool in its default efficiency mode however noticed appreciable efficiency throttling to maintain these temperatures at a cool 34.9°C. Left unleashed in “X-Mode,” the telephone recorded a scorching 55.8°C (admittedly nearly as sizzling as final 12 months’s mannequin), although its sturdy cool resolution stored efficiency regular. There’s a cause ASUS recommends a cooler accent for longer gaming classes.

Most just lately, I’ve been testing out the brand new HONOR Magic 7 Professional. Whereas operating the telephone via 3DMark’s benchmark check, the telephone as soon as once more grew to become unstuck, this time within the demanding Photo voltaic Bay ray-tracing check, shutting down the app because of overheating. See the warning popup beneath.

Though Photo voltaic Bay didn’t full, regardless of eight separate makes an attempt, I efficiently ran 3DMark’s two Wild Life stress assessments (one thing we initially couldn’t obtain with the realme). As earlier than, temperatures are alarming; Wild Life hit 47.8°C whereas Wild Life Excessive peaked at 50.1°C, full with a discount to only 46.8% of its preliminary efficiency within the case of the latter. Evidently, the telephone was uncomfortably heat by the top of the runs and wanted a very long time to chill again down.

I’ve been operating these stress assessments for a number of generations now, and digging up previous knowledge factors for HONOR’s handsets reveals a transparent improve in temperatures lately, with a noticeable bounce when transferring to the Snapdragon 8 Elite. See the graph beneath, however observe that we are able to’t get hold of temperature knowledge for a telephone that doesn’t full the check.

Whereas there are, in fact, variations in design, PCB structure, and cooling setups between handset generations, a temperature improve of between 5-8°C in simply a few years shall be right down to the chip, a minimum of partly. Moreover, processors have benefitted from supposedly extra environment friendly manufacturing nodes lately, which ought to have allowed chips to eat much less energy and, subsequently, run cooler. As a substitute, Qualcomm has put these financial savings in the direction of further efficiency, with larger temperatures arising as a substantial facet impact.

This isn’t to single out HONOR; the entire Snapdragon 8 Elite handsets we’ve seen thus far run hotter (at full tilt) and/or sacrificed extra efficiency in a bid to remain cool than their predecessors. The brand new OnePlus 13 additionally clocks peak temperatures of 45.8°C in stress assessments, up from a far cooler 39.3°C on the OnePlus 12. It’s only a query of how way more warmth in comparison with final 12 months. So what does this imply for the chip and handsets powered by it? Is it a dud you need to keep away from?

First, there’s a distinction between these fairly excessive stress check situations and the temperatures you’ll see in real-world situations. I’ve spent some time enjoying actual video games on Snapdragon 8 Elite telephones and haven’t observed the telephones’ floor temperatures get anyplace close to as sizzling as the inner numbers recorded right here. These stress assessments push telephones above and past extra mainstream functions that don’t require the chip to run at full tilt, so contemplate them a worst-case consequence for temperatures and a best-case consequence for efficiency potential.

Nonetheless, that doesn’t recommend this isn’t a trigger for concern. A warmer chip means the telephone’s internals are prone to run significantly hotter if utilizing the telephone throughout charging, and there’s an elevated threat of efficiency throttling and software shutdowns when utilizing the telephone in a heat atmosphere, reminiscent of navigating on a automotive dashboard. Then, there are future functions to contemplate. A telephone constructed to final 5 to seven years should cope with apps and video games which may find yourself stressing the telephone’s efficiency capabilities, probably leading to larger temperatures than we see in in the present day’s apps. Stress assessments signify excessive use circumstances by in the present day’s requirements, however they could be extra mainstream in 4 or 5 12 months’s time.

Maybe worse for the Snapdragon 8 Elite is that there’s a competing product in the marketplace that gives comparable efficiency with out the excessive temperatures — MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400. We benchmarked the chip and located peak stress check temperatures 3°C to 11°C cooler at their peaks, relying on which handsets you examine. See the Discover X8 Professional and vivo X200 Professional within the graph beneath. Word that vivo’s cooling resolution isn’t nearly as good as OPPO’s, and efficiency is scaled again additional to maintain temps cool. Moreover, the Dimensity 9400 runs video games nearly in addition to the 8 Elite, which makes you query precisely what’s happening inside Qualcomm’s newest flagship.

I don’t need to speculate an excessive amount of on the supply of the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s troubles, however there are a few potential ache factors to have a look at with its all-new elements. Though Qualcomm says they’re a ground-up growth, the customized Pheonix-L and -M CPU cores share their foundations with the Oryon cores within the laptop-grade Snapdragon X platform. Maybe there are some first-gen structure teething troubles holding these cores cool or particular software program optimizations that aren’t all the time adopted, particularly as they will hit a colossal 4.32GHz. Qualcomm has additionally beefed up its Adreno GPU with a brand new tri-slice structure — a higher-performing design that would, in idea, scale as much as laptops. As soon as once more, a brand new structure may not be operating fairly as ideally as the corporate hoped in a confined kind issue or would possibly require additional optimization from companions to stability appropriately.

Additional investigation is required to see exactly what TDP these elements pull, however based mostly on the warmth output, I wager it’s fairly excessive when operating at full tilt. In any occasion, Qualcomm is clearly pushing the efficiency envelope with the Snapdragon 8 Elite, however that’s come on the expense of upper temperatures which might be inflicting some handsets to fail assessments that haven’t troubled earlier fashions. On the identical time, realizing these excessive benchmark leads to precise functions isn’t essentially possible — you actually don’t want an 8 Elite to run the most well-liked Android video games, for instance.

On the plus facet, the Snapdragon 8 Elite appears to offer sturdy efficiency with out extra battery drain and is, in lots of situations, really a extra frugal chip than its predecessor. Temperature is simply a part of the story, however they’re undoubtedly one thing to contemplate when eying up a next-gen buy. Working at full tilt, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is undeniably a sizzling chip.