Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs M4 (iPad)
We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (Adreno 840) with the older 10-core Apple M4 (iPad) (custom) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.
Review
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score
Key Differences
Pros of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
- Shows better (up to 27%) AnTuTu 11 score β 3950K vs 3116K
- 5% higher CPU clock speed (4610 vs 4410 MHz)
Pros of Apple M4 (iPad)
- Supports 42% higher memory bandwidth (120 against 84.8 GB/s)
- Has 2 more cores
- Higher GPU frequency (~13%)
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 1112833 | 915032 |
| GPU | 1494722 | 1135331 |
| Memory | 442350 | 349968 |
| UX | 900177 | 715682 |
| Total score | 3950082 | 3116013 |
| Samples | [283 tests] | [3 tests] |
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 421.8 MB/sec | 501.5 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 238 pages/sec | 305.6 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 286.6 Mpixels/sec | 317.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 330.6 images/sec | 416.7 images/sec |
| HDR | 308.4 Mpixels/sec | 461.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 40.7 images/sec | 54.3 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 98.7 images/sec | 139.8 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 14.1 Mpixels/sec | 14.9 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 79 tests | 7 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 51.9 images/sec | 103 images/sec |
| Face detection | 24.9 images/sec | 124.8 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.72 Gpixels/sec | 1.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 1 Gpixels/sec | 2.32 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 2.04 Gpixels/sec | 2.8 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.36 Gpixels/sec | 0.73 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 115.4 Gpixels/sec | 164.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 4390.2 FPS | 4657.1 FPS |
| API | Vulkan | Metal |
| Samples | 50 tests | 6 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 2737 | 3477 |
| Stability | 67% | 71% |
| Graphics test | 20 FPS | 26 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | 12156 | 14286 |
| Graphics test | 46 FPS | 54 FPS |
| Section 1 | 52 FPS | 63 FPS |
| Section 2 | 46 FPS | 56 FPS |
| Section 3 | 40 FPS | 43 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | 6490 | - |
| Graphics test | 38 FPS | - |
PCMark 3.0
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 31126 | - |
| Video editing score | 8963 | - |
| Data manipulation score | 19422 | - |
| Photo editing score | 62111 | - |
| Writing score | 40875 | - |
| Phones tested | 13 models | - |
Recent User Tests
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-25 (Klax) | AnTuTu 12 | 3939764 |
| π 2026-09-24 -> Diman5700 | AnTuTu 12 | 4172973 |
| π 2026-09-23 (Raze) | AnTuTu 12 | 3920421 |
| π 2026-09-22 -> Chubzuey | AnTuTu 12 | 4214043 |
| π 2026-09-21 (ΠΠ½Π΄ΡΠ΅ΠΉ) | AnTuTu 11 | 4084489 |
Apple M4 (iPad)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-07 (Lexapes) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 57080 |
| π 2026-09-07 (Lexapes) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 3907 / 15397 |
| π 2026-09-07 (Lexapes) | AnTuTu 11 | 3396741 |
| π 2026-08-03 (Astreeek) | AnTuTu 11 | 2940000 |
| π 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 52952 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and M4 (iPad)CPU
| Architecture | 2x 4.74 GHz β Oryon Gen 3 Prime 6x 3.63 GHz β Oryon Gen 3 Performance |
4x 4.41 GHz β 6x 2.85 GHz β |
| Cores | 8 | 10 |
| Frequency | 4610 MHz | 4410 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| L1 cache | 192 KB | 192 KB |
| L2 cache | 12 MB | 16 MB |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | - |
| Process | 3 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Transistor count | - | 28 billion |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 8 W | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 840 | - |
| Architecture | Adreno 800 | - |
| GPU frequency | 1300 MHz | 1470 MHz |
| Pipelines | 3 | - |
| Shading units | 512 | - |
| Total shaders | 1536 | - |
| FLOPS | 3993.6 Gigaflops | 3763.2 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.4 | - |
| OpenCL version | 3.0 | - |
| DirectX version | 12.1 | - |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | - | 38 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 5300 MHz | 7500 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 8x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 84.8 Gb/s | 120 Gb/s |
| Max size | 24 GB | 24 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1 | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2540 | 2752 x 2064 |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 320MP | - |
| Video capture | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video playback | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP8 - VP9 |
- H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP9 |
| Audio codecs | - AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
- AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | Snapdragon X85 | Snapdragon X71 |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 12500 Mbps | Up to 10000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 3700 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 6.0 | 5.3 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
Info
| Announced | September 2025 | May 2024 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | SM8850-AC, SM8850-5-AC, SM8850-1-AD | - |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 official site | - |
Further details
Notes on M4 (iPad):
- There is slightly slower (5-7%) version of M4 that uses 3 performance + 6 efficiency cores array in 256GB/512GB models of iPad Pro.
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