Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs M1 (iPad)

We compared two 8-core processors: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 (with Adreno 730 graphics) and Apple M1 (iPad) (Apple M1 GPU). Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

Review

General comparison of performance, power consumption, and other indicators
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

Main differences and advantages of each chip
Pros of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
  • Has a smaller size transistor (4 versus 5 nm)
  • Better instruction set architecture
Pros of Apple M1 (iPad)
  • Higher GPU frequency (~56%)
  • Performs 56% better in floating-point computations
  • Shows significantly better (up to 57%) AnTuTu 11 score – 2027K vs 1294K
  • Supports 33% higher memory bandwidth (68.25 against 51.2 GB/s)
  • 7% higher CPU clock speed (3200 vs 3000 MHz)

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
M1 (iPad) +57%
2027700
CPU 490530 629472
GPU 202615 687856
Memory 221583 214672
UX 380143 495700
Total score 1294871 2027700
Samples [90 tests] [9 tests]
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +44%
2385
Multi-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +110%
8775
Asset compression 151.4 MB/sec 331.8 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 104.2 pages/sec 174.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 124.3 Mpixels/sec 223.3 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 88.5 images/sec 192.9 images/sec
HDR 119.9 Mpixels/sec 290 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 12.3 images/sec 34.7 images/sec
Photo processing 38.4 images/sec 72.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 4.49 Mpixels/sec 9.72 Mpixels/sec
Samples 54 tests 5 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M1 (iPad) +483%
33168
Background blur 9.81 images/sec 59.4 images/sec
Face detection 4.42 images/sec 71.1 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.3 Gpixels/sec 1.09 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.36 Gpixels/sec 1.52 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.41 Gpixels/sec 1.6 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.04 Gpixels/sec 0.42 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 15.8 Gpixels/sec 107 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 1079.5 FPS 3208.4 FPS
API OpenCL Metal
Samples 30 tests Less than 3
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
M1 (iPad) +170%
1965
Score 729 1965
Stability - 77%
Graphics test 5 FPS 15 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
Score - 6406
Stability - 83%
Graphics test - 24 FPS
Section 1 - 30 FPS
Section 2 - 24 FPS
Section 3 - 19 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
M1 (iPad) +124%
5045
Score 2255 5045
Stability 63% 76%
Graphics test 13 FPS 30 FPS

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
PCMark 3.0
Web score 13237 -
Video editing score 7311 -
Data manipulation score 10976 -
Photo editing score 27827 -
Writing score 15631 -
Phones tested 16 models -

Gaming

Table of average FPS and graphics settings in mobile games
PUBG Mobile 88 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Call of Duty: Mobile 60 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Fortnite 42 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Shadowgun Legends 89 FPS
[Ultra]
-
World of Tanks Blitz 114 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Genshin Impact 40 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Device Xiaomi Poco F4 GT
1080 x 2400
-
We provide average results. FPS may differ, depending on game version, OS and other factors.

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-26 (ouroburos)AnTuTu 121165425
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-25 (Ray white)Geekbench 7 CPU1474 / 3645
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-23 (KΓΌn)Geekbench 7 CPU868 / 3663
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-23 (KΓΌn)Geekbench 7 CPU658 / 2154
πŸ“˜ 2026-10-22 (Santx7)AnTuTu 121410427
Apple M1 (iPad)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-24 -> op1Geekbench 6 CPU2420 / 8793
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-04 (クラ硢)AnTuTu 112074840
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-18 (Avacada)Geekbench 6 CPU2385 / 8775
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-08 (AL10)AnTuTu 112123766
πŸ“˜ 2026-03-29 (Blizz)AnTuTu 112011970

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and M1 (iPad)

CPU

Architecture 1x 3 GHz – Cortex-X2
3x 2.5 GHz – Cortex-A710
4x 1.8 GHz – Cortex-A510
4x 3.2 GHz – Firestorm
4x 2.1 GHz – Icestorm
Cores 8 8
Frequency 3000 MHz 3200 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9-A ARMv8.5-A
L1 cache - 192 KB
L2 cache 1 MB 12 MB
L3 cache 6 MB -
Process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Transistor count - 16 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 5.3 W 14 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 730 Apple M1 GPU
Architecture Adreno 700 Apple GPU
GPU frequency 818 MHz 1278 MHz
Pipelines 2 8
Shading units 512 128
Total shaders 1024 1024
FLOPS 1675.3 Gigaflops 2617 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.1 -
OpenCL version 2.0 -
DirectX version 12.1 -

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon Apple Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance - 11 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory frequency 3200 MHz 2133 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 8x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 51.2 Gb/s 68.25 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 16 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type UFS 3.1 NVMe
Max display resolution 3840 x 2160 2732 x 2048
Max camera resolution 1x 200MP -
Video capture 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- VP8
- VP9
- H.264
- H.265
- VP9
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem Snapdragon X65 -
4G support LTE Cat. 24 LTE Cat. 18
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 10000 Mbps Up to 7500 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 3670 Mbps Up to 2500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 6 6
Bluetooth 5.3 5.0
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS

Info

Announced December 2021 November 2020
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number SM8450 APL1102
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 official site -
Successor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 - Apple M5 (iPad)

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
39 (30.5%)
89 (69.5%)
Total votes: 128

Comments

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