Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs M3 (iPad)
We compared two 8-core processors: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (with Adreno 750 graphics) and Apple M3 (iPad) (Apple M3 GPU). 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 Gen 3
- Better instruction set architecture
Pros of Apple M3 (iPad)
- Higher GPU frequency (~38%)
- Has a smaller size transistor (3 versus 4 nm)
- Supports 33% higher memory bandwidth (102.4 against 76.8 GB/s)
- 23% higher CPU clock speed (4050 vs 3300 MHz)
- Shows better (up to 18%) AnTuTu 11 score β 2777K vs 2345K
- Performs 15% better in floating-point computations
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 700525 | 782907 |
| GPU | 805478 | 1029236 |
| Memory | 296043 | 305749 |
| UX | 543517 | 659395 |
| Total score | 2345563 | 2777287 |
| Samples | [443 tests] | [8 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 | 256.8 MB/sec | 458.1 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 190.9 pages/sec | 270.6 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 209.1 Mpixels/sec | 299.9 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 168.6 images/sec | 287.2 images/sec |
| HDR | 208.6 Mpixels/sec | 422.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 24 images/sec | 48.2 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 63.6 images/sec | 116.1 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 7.27 Mpixels/sec | 13.4 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 139 tests | 4 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 26.9 images/sec | 86.1 images/sec |
| Face detection | 13.2 images/sec | 108.3 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.7 Gpixels/sec | 1.43 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.61 Gpixels/sec | 1.93 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.98 Gpixels/sec | 2.41 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.18 Gpixels/sec | 0.62 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 43.4 Gpixels/sec | 128.9 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 3083.6 FPS | 4690 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | Metal |
| Samples | 90 tests | 3 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 1652 | 2695 |
| Stability | 79% | 70% |
| Graphics test | 12 FPS | 20 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | 8190 | 10356 |
| Stability | 72% | - |
| Graphics test | 31 FPS | 39 FPS |
| Section 1 | 36 FPS | 52 FPS |
| Section 2 | 31 FPS | 38 FPS |
| Section 3 | 26 FPS | 28 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | 4676 | - |
| Graphics test | 27 FPS | - |
PCMark 3.0
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
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-30 (EA Fran) | AnTuTu 12 | 2452758 |
| π 2026-09-30 (Nyvronis) | AnTuTu 12 | 2649328 |
| π 2026-09-29 -> Alejandro Sorin | AnTuTu 12 | 2597186 |
| π 2026-09-29 (Gadji TΓ¦mΓ¦v) | AnTuTu 12 | 2438906 |
| π 2026-09-29 (Ratiii) | Geekbench 7 CPU | 1995 / 6875 |
Apple M3 (iPad)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-04-17 (Jacob) | AnTuTu 11 | 2015536 |
| π 2026-04-12 (Kaimen) | AnTuTu 11 | 2811760 |
| π 2026-04-08 (Bearry) | AnTuTu 11 | 2838721 |
| π 2026-03-22 (Noora) | AnTuTu 11 | 2779459 |
| π 2026-03-21 (Noora) | AnTuTu 11 | 2708158 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and M3 (iPad)CPU
| Architecture | 1x 3.3 GHz β Cortex-X4 3x 3.15 GHz β Cortex-A720 2x 2.96 GHz β Cortex-A720 2x 2.27 GHz β Cortex-A520 |
4x 4.05 GHz β 4x 2.75 GHz β |
| Cores | 8 | 8 |
| Frequency | 3300 MHz | 4050 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv8.6-A |
| L1 cache | - | 256 KB |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 16 MB |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | - |
| Process | 4 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Transistor count | - | 25 billion |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 8 W | 20 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 750 | Apple M3 GPU |
| Architecture | Adreno 700 | Apple GPU |
| GPU frequency | 903-1000 MHz | 1380 MHz |
| Pipelines | 6 | 9 |
| Shading units | 256 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 1536 | 1152 |
| FLOPS | 2774 Gigaflops | 3179.5 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 | - | 18 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5 |
| Memory frequency | 4800 MHz | 3200 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 8x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 76.8 Gb/s | 102.4 Gb/s |
| Max size | 24 GB | 24 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 | 1x 48MP |
| 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 X75 | - |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | - |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 10000 Mbps | Up to 7500 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 3500 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
Info
| Announced | October 2023 | October 2023 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | SM8650-AB, SM8650-AC | - |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 official site | - |
| Successor | - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | - |
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.
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