Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs M1 (iPad)

We compared two 8-core processors: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (with Adreno 750 graphics) and Apple M1 (iPad) (). 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 3
  • Has a smaller size transistor (4 versus 5 nm)
  • Shows better (up to 16%) AnTuTu 11 score – 2345K vs 2027K
  • Better instruction set architecture
  • Supports 13% higher memory bandwidth (76.8 against 68.25 GB/s)
Pros of Apple M1 (iPad)
  • Higher GPU frequency (~28%)

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
2345563
2027700
CPU 700525 629472
GPU 805478 687856
Memory 296043 214672
UX 543517 495700
Total score 2345563 2027700
Samples [443 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
Multi-Core Score
M1 (iPad) +35%
8775
Asset compression 256.8 MB/sec 331.8 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 190.9 pages/sec 174.3 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 209.1 Mpixels/sec 223.3 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 168.6 images/sec 192.9 images/sec
HDR 208.6 Mpixels/sec 290 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 24 images/sec 34.7 images/sec
Photo processing 63.6 images/sec 72.7 images/sec
Ray tracing 7.27 Mpixels/sec 9.72 Mpixels/sec
Samples 139 tests 5 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M1 (iPad) +116%
33168
Background blur 26.9 images/sec 59.4 images/sec
Face detection 13.2 images/sec 71.1 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.7 Gpixels/sec 1.09 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.61 Gpixels/sec 1.52 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.98 Gpixels/sec 1.6 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.18 Gpixels/sec 0.42 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 43.4 Gpixels/sec 107 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 3083.6 FPS 3208.4 FPS
API OpenCL Metal
Samples 90 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) +19%
1965
Score 1652 1965
Stability 79% 77%
Graphics test 12 FPS 15 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
8190
6406
Score 8190 6406
Stability 72% 83%
Graphics test 31 FPS 24 FPS
Section 1 36 FPS 30 FPS
Section 2 31 FPS 24 FPS
Section 3 26 FPS 19 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Score 4676 5045
Stability - 76%
Graphics test 27 FPS 30 FPS

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
PCMark 3.0
Web score 16536 -
Video editing score 7905 -
Data manipulation score 14260 -
Photo editing score 31248 -
Writing score 19168 -
Phones tested 41 models -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-24 (Denislav Antimov)AnTuTu 122573019
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (DEMON77)AnTuTu 122536327
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Dairy_Milk)AnTuTu 122593648
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (Zeeshan Ali)AnTuTu 112317592
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-22 (Blackz)AnTuTu 112368229
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 3 and M1 (iPad)

CPU

Architecture 1x 3.3 GHz – Cortex-X4
3x 3.15 GHz – Cortex-A720
2x 2.96 GHz – Cortex-A720
2x 2.27 GHz – Cortex-A520
4x 3.2 GHz – Firestorm
4x 2.1 GHz – Icestorm
Cores 8 8
Frequency 3300 MHz 3200 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9.2-A ARMv8.5-A
L1 cache - 192 KB
L2 cache 1 MB 12 MB
L3 cache 12 MB -
Process 4 nanometers 5 nanometers
Transistor count - 16 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 8 W 14 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 750 -
Architecture Adreno 700 -
GPU frequency 903-1000 MHz 1278 MHz
Pipelines 6 -
Shading units 256 -
Total shaders 1536 -
FLOPS 2774 Gigaflops 2617 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 - 11 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR4X
Memory frequency 4800 MHz 2133 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 8x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 76.8 Gb/s 68.25 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 16 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1 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 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- 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 X75 -
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 3500 Mbps Up to 2500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 7 6
Bluetooth 5.4 5.0
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS

Info

Announced October 2023 November 2020
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number SM8650-AB, SM8650-AC APL1102
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 official site -
Successor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 - Apple M4 (iPad)
Further details
Notes on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3:
    - Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy has a 100 MHz higher CPU and GPU clock speed. It has a higher GPU performance rate of up to 3072 Gigaflops.

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
478 (41.7%)
668 (58.3%)
Total votes: 1146

Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of M1 (iPad) and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, or ask any questions
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Avatar
Shanto November 27, 2024 at 10:23 AM
Snapdragon 860 in poco bc dead why?
0 Reply
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Meme March 20, 2024 at 03:50 PM
Finally, it took snapdron 3 years to be on par/slightly slower the m1
+25 Reply
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Daine Ramos Quitco April 26, 2024 at 02:05 AM
Well, this time they're not joking around with the Snapdragon 8, Gen 4.
+29 Reply
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Ajay September 10, 2024 at 03:46 PM
3 year ago M1 was computer soc and snapdragon still mobile and tablets processor..
+8 Reply
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Krysy January 11, 2024 at 07:51 AM
Wow, I am an Apple fanboy, but I must say, Snapdragon is already performing way better than Bionic. I don't even think next year's A18 Bionic will catch up to the 8Gen3. Although, I'd still choose the M1 over the 8Gen3.
+36 Reply
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Coconut June 22, 2024 at 10:14 AM
Since M series chips have become the mainstream product of Apple, the position of Bionic has become the beta testing unit of M chips. Even if Bionic is slightly behind, it is totally fine because it is only used on the iPhone, which doesn't care about productivity. In the coming years, Apple will still mainly focus on M chips and Vision Pro; Bionic will no longer be the best phone chip until Apple has new plans.
+2 Reply
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idk, ballinspector January 7, 2024 at 05:34 AM
The original Apple M1 was way ahead of its time--it was released three years ago, now. And it's still beating the newest flagship, well, at least in CPU performance, because Qualcomm has done quite a lot with their igpus. I wouldn't be surprised if Arm integrated gpus can beat entry-level desktop ones in the next few years.
+9 Reply
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Aiman January 12, 2024 at 12:09 AM
Qualcomm has a tremendous amount of potential. They haven't even utilized 3nm technology yet, and they're still surpassing Apple. Just imagine how powerful their System On a Chip (SoC) would be with 3nm.
+17 Reply
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idk, ballinspector February 15, 2024 at 07:28 PM
Aiman, Remember, the 8 gen 4 will also use Qualcomm's custom Oryon cores. This means the Gen 4 might, or might not be faster than the M1, and if we're lucky, it might contend with the M2. However, I'm very worried about the power consumption; if the leaks are true, the Gen 4 is set to chew through over 14 watts.
+6 Reply
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Bru March 20, 2024 at 03:53 PM
The 8 gen 3 seems slightly slower in gpu performance looking at the 3d wildlife extreme results
0 Reply
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X3NOZ May 1, 2024 at 10:41 AM
Bru, Gpu frequency of 8gen3 here is 770mhz 8gen3 for galaxy can go upto 900mhz something and it will outperform M1 in wildlife
+4 Reply
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Lee May 10, 2024 at 06:24 AM
X3NOZ, Still cannot compete with M2 chip.
+1 Reply
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Aray July 4, 2024 at 01:37 PM
Lee, Are you serious Chipset for laptop & tablet with 2x TDP comparison with Chipset for Phone. even Lastest Bionic can't even defeat 8 gen 3 in GPU.
+7 Reply