Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 vs M4 (iPad)

We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 (Adreno 740) with the newer 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

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 Apple M4 (iPad)
  • Higher GPU frequency (~2.2x)
  • Performs 80% better in floating-point computations
  • Supports 79% higher memory bandwidth (120 against 67.2 GB/s)
  • Shows significantly better (up to 77%) AnTuTu 11 score – 3116K vs 1757K
  • 38% higher CPU clock speed (4410 vs 3200 MHz)
  • Has 2 more cores
  • Has a smaller size transistor (3 versus 4 nm)
  • Better instruction set architecture

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
M4 (iPad) +77%
3116013
CPU 553922 915032
GPU 434880 1135331
Memory 311861 349968
UX 456381 715682
Total score 1757044 3116013
Samples [238 tests] [3 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
M4 (iPad) +84%
3683
Multi-Core Score
M4 (iPad) +152%
13402
Asset compression 218.9 MB/sec 501.5 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 145.2 pages/sec 305.6 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 168.3 Mpixels/sec 317.1 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 133 images/sec 416.7 images/sec
HDR 167.2 Mpixels/sec 461.1 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 18.8 images/sec 54.3 images/sec
Photo processing 34.5 images/sec 139.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 5.78 Mpixels/sec 14.9 Mpixels/sec
Samples 132 tests 7 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M4 (iPad) +481%
53792
Background blur 12.3 images/sec 103 images/sec
Face detection 5.1 images/sec 124.8 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.53 Gpixels/sec 1.7 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.56 Gpixels/sec 2.32 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.36 Gpixels/sec 2.8 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.12 Gpixels/sec 0.73 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 32.6 Gpixels/sec 164.7 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 2177.4 FPS 4657.1 FPS
API OpenCL Metal
Samples 66 tests 6 tests
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
M4 (iPad) +218%
3477
Score 1092 3477
Stability 67% 71%
Graphics test 8 FPS 26 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
M4 (iPad) +169%
14286
Score 5312 14286
Stability 67% -
Graphics test 20 FPS 54 FPS
Section 1 23 FPS 63 FPS
Section 2 20 FPS 56 FPS
Section 3 17 FPS 43 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Score 3667 -
Stability 45% -
Graphics test 21 FPS -

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
PCMark 3.0
Web score 13957 -
Video editing score 7265 -
Data manipulation score 14272 -
Photo editing score 32179 -
Writing score 17828 -
Phones tested 9 models -

Gaming

Table of average FPS and graphics settings in mobile games
PUBG Mobile 90 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Call of Duty: Mobile 60 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Fortnite 56 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Shadowgun Legends 118 FPS
[Ultra]
-
World of Tanks Blitz 120 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Genshin Impact 59 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang 59 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Device ZTE Nubia Red Magic 8 Pro
1116 x 2480
-
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 2
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Ciciz)AnTuTu 122032599
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Ciciz)AnTuTu 122032599
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Horizon377)AnTuTu 121894819
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-22 (DiKevoLi'Phone)AnTuTu 121844320
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-21 (Mil)AnTuTu 121763249
Apple M4 (iPad)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (Lexapes)Geekbench 6 GPU57080
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (Lexapes)Geekbench 6 CPU3907 / 15397
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (Lexapes)AnTuTu 113396741
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-03 (Astreeek)AnTuTu 112940000
πŸ“˜ 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User)Geekbench 6 GPU52952

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 and M4 (iPad)

CPU

Architecture 1x 3.2 GHz – Cortex-X3
2x 2.8 GHz – Cortex-A715
2x 2.8 GHz – Cortex-A710
3x 2 GHz – Cortex-A510
4x 4.41 GHz –
6x 2.85 GHz –
Cores 8 10
Frequency 3200 MHz 4410 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9-A ARMv9.2-A
L1 cache - 192 KB
L2 cache 1 MB 16 MB
L3 cache 8 MB -
Process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
Transistor count 16 billion 28 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 8.5 W -
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 740 -
Architecture Adreno 700 -
GPU frequency 680 MHz 1470 MHz
Pipelines 3 -
Shading units 512 -
Total shaders 1536 -
FLOPS 2089 Gigaflops 3763.2 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.3 -
OpenCL version 2.0 -
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 4200 MHz 7500 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 8x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 67.2 Gb/s 120 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 24 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type UFS 3.1, UFS 4.0 NVMe
Max display resolution 3840 x 2160 2752 x 2064
Max camera resolution 1x 200MP -
Video capture 8K at 30FPS, 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 X70 Snapdragon X71
4G support LTE Cat. 24 LTE Cat. 24
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 10000 Mbps Up to 10000 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 3500 Mbps Up to 3500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 7 6
Bluetooth 5.3 5.3
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS

Info

Announced November 2022 May 2024
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number SM8550-AB -
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 official site -
Successor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 -
Further details
Notes on Snapdragon 8 Gen 2:
    - There's also the "Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy," which only differs by having a 160 MHz higher CPU clock and a 39 MHz higher GPU clock, resulting in 2208.8 GFLOPS for the GPU. Generally, you won't notice this difference in real-life usage, including games.
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.

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
48 (26.4%)
134 (73.6%)
Total votes: 182

Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of M4 (iPad) and Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, or ask any questions
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Avatar
matej July 9, 2025 at 10:39 AM
So, I do not like Apple to not have (soon native) a terminal like Termux. I would buy it, but only a tablet and that without the ecosystemβ€”Mac, iOS, Apple Watch... It would be a pain. So rather 1/3-1/2 with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy (on SM Tab S9 5G) compatible with Linux and Windows than Apple...
0 Reply
Avatar
Dejvi May 3, 2025 at 09:03 PM
M4 ipad snaps the dragon lmao
0 Reply