Home > CPU Comparison > Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) or Core Ultra X9 388H: what's better?

Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs Intel Core Ultra X9 388H

91 out of 100
Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
VS
75 out of 100
Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
Intel Core Ultra X9 388H

We compared two laptop CPUs: the 3.6 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) with 18-cores against the 2.1 GHz Intel Core Ultra X9 388H with 16-cores. On this page, you'll find out which processor has better performance in benchmarks, games and other useful information.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Performance
  4. Specs
  5. Comments (3)

Review

General overview and comparison of the processors
Single-Core Performance
Performance in single-threaded apps and benchmarks
Multi-Core Performance
Measure performance when all cores are involved
Power Efficiency
The efficiency score of power consumption
Integrated Graphics
iGPU capabilities for gaming and 3D-intensive tasks
NanoReview Final Score
Choose your main usage scenario to recalculate the Final Score and see which CPU suits your needs.
🔌 Usage Scenario:

Key Differences

What are the key differences between 388H and (X2E-96-100)
Advantages of Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
  • Around 74.4 GB/s (48%) higher theoretical memory bandwidth
  • Supports up to 128 GB LPDDR5X-9523 RAM
  • 32% faster in a single-core Geekbench v6 test - 4004 vs 3026 points
  • Has 2 more physical cores
Advantages of Intel Core Ultra X9 388H
  • Has 9 MB larger L3 cache size, helping fully utilize a high-end GPU in gaming
  • More modern manufacturing process – 2 versus 3 nanometers
  • 2% higher Turbo Boost frequency (5.1 GHz vs 5 GHz)

Test in Benchmarks

Comparing the performance of CPUs across various tasks
CPU:
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)
vs
Core Ultra X9 388H

Cinebench

Reputable cross-platform benchmark for high-performance processors
Cinebench 2024 (Single)
Cinebench 2024 (Multi)
Cinebench 2026 (Single) - 539
Cinebench 2026 (Multi) - 5375
Cinebench Scores (27th and 86th place)
Submit your benchmark results

GeekBench v6

The new version of this benchmark emulates common operations often used in real-world apps
Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)
Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)
File compression 2070 MB/sec 1490 MB/sec
Clang compilation 224.4 Klines/sec 141.1 Klines/sec
HTML 5 Browser 599.6 pages/sec 477.4 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 668.6 Mpixels/sec 539.5 Mpixels/sec
Text processing 328 pages/sec 323.1 pages/sec
Background blur 82.4 images/sec 61.5 images/sec
Photo processing 210.7 images/sec 177.3 images/sec
Ray tracing 38.9 Mpixels/sec 28.4 Mpixels/sec
Sources: GeekBench [1], [2]

PassMark

Synthetic test that focuses on raw computational performance for low-level functions
Passmark CPU (Single-Core)
Passmark CPU (Multi-Core)
Integer math 112.4 GOps/sec 91.2 GOps/sec
Floating point math 138.8 GOps/sec 112.9 GOps/sec
Find prime numbers 357M Primes/sec 357M Primes/sec
Random string sorting 58.1M Strings/sec 43.7M Strings/sec
Data encryption 26.6 GBytes/sec 28.4 GBytes/sec
Data compression 381 MBytes/sec 360.2 MBytes/sec
Physics 2130 Frames/sec 3207 Frames/sec
Extended instructions 20B Matrices/sec 29.7B Matrices/sec
Sources: PassMark [3], [4] – 8 & 60 samples

Blender

3D rendering test that measures CPU performance in 3D modeling tasks (uses all cores)
Blender CPU

Performance Per Watt

Shows the score you get per each watt of PL1 TDP
Cinebench 2024 / Watt 20.5 PPW 53.7 PPW
Geekbench 6 Multi / Watt 240.6 PPW 701.8 PPW
Passmark CPU Mark / Watt 385.8 PPW 1468.8 PPW
Blender / Watt - 11.89 PPW
These are rough calculations, as most CPUs surpass PL1 TDP wattage even in multicore workloads.

Specifications

Full technical specification of Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) and Intel Core Ultra X9 388H

General

Vendor Qualcomm Intel
Released September 25, 2025 January 5, 2026
Type Laptop Laptop
Instruction Set ARMv9 x86-64
Codename Snapdragon X Panther Lake
Model number X2E-96-100 388H
Integrated GPU Adreno X2-90 Arc B390
Rival Equivalent - Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) - AMD Ryzen AI Max 390
Intel CPU rating (#28th place)

CPU

Performance Cores
P-Cores 18 4
P-Threads 18 4
Base Frequency (P) 3.6 GHz 2.1 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (P) 5 GHz 5.1 GHz
Efficient Cores
E-Cores - 12
E-Threads - 12
Base Frequency (E) - 1.6 GHz
Turbo Boost Frequency (E) - 4 GHz
Total
Total Cores 18 16
Total Threads 18 16
Bus Frequency 100 MHz 100 MHz
Multiplier 36x 21x
L1 Cache 288K (per core) 192K (per core)
L2 Cache 16MB (shared) 3MB (per core)
L3 Cache 9MB (shared) 18MB (shared)
Unlocked Multiplier No No

Package

Fabrication Process 3 nm 2 nm
TDP (PL1) 96 W 15-25 W (configurable)
Max. Boost TDP (PL2) - 80 W
Socket Custom FCBGA2540
Peak Temperature - 100°C
Laptop processors ranking (6th and 33rd place)

iGPU

Integrated Graphics Adreno X2-90 Intel Arc B390
GPU Base Clock 500 MHz 300 MHz
GPU Boost Clock 1850 MHz 2500 MHz
Shading Units 2048 1536
TMUs 128 48
ROPs 64 24
Execution Units 12 12
TGP - 30 W
iGPU FLOPS
More info: Arc B390 compared to Adreno X2-90

Memory Support

Memory Types - LPDDR5X-9523 - LPDDR5X-9600
Max. Memory Size 128 GB 96 GB
Memory Channels 6 2
Max. Memory Bandwidth 228 GB/s 153.6 GB/s
ECC Support No No

Misc

Official Site Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) official page Intel Core Ultra X9 388H official page
PCI Express Version 5.0 5.0
PCI Express Lanes 12 12

Cast your vote

Choose between two processors
48 (62.3%)
29 (37.7%)
Total votes: 77

Competitors

1. Intel Core Ultra X9 388H vs Intel Core Ultra X7 368H (1)
2. Intel Core Ultra X9 388H vs Intel Core Ultra 9 386H
3. Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs Apple M5 (10-Core) (30)
4. Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs Apple M5 Max (40-сore GPU)
5. Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs Apple M5 Pro (18-Core) (1)
6. Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs Apple M4 Pro (14-Core) (1)
7. Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100) vs Apple M4 Max (16-Core)
Compare other CPUs (460+)

Comments

So which CPU will you choose: Intel Core Ultra X9 388H or Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (X2E-96-100)?
🌐 Register your profile and become part of NanoReview community!
Avatar
Darko March 2, 2026 at 09:29 PM
The perf per watt figures are totally misleading as they assume minimal TDP for Intel chip(no boost) and maximum TDP for Snapdragon.
+6 Reply
Avatar
No name February 14, 2026 at 09:53 PM
If you want efficiency, strong solo & multi score snapdragon will be great, If you like playing AAA games Intel will be great.
+3 Reply
Avatar
ComputerNerd February 2, 2026 at 02:42 AM
Intel Ultra X9 388H CPU wins for practicality due to wider compatibility and gaming. However, the CPU performance is not the best. The new iGPU is amazing. For the apps that do work with Snapdragon CPUs, the performance is amazing! If you don't game or game on a console, this is a winning choice!
+10 Reply
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