Snapdragon 821 vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
We compared the 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 (Adreno 530) with the newer 8-core Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (Adreno 840) 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 significantly better (up to 12.6x) AnTuTu 11 score β 3950K vs 312K
- Performs 11.9x better in floating-point computations
- Has a smaller size transistor (3 versus 14 nm)
- Supports 185% higher memory bandwidth (84.8 against 29.8 GB/s)
- Has 4 more cores
- 102% higher CPU clock speed (4740 vs 2342 MHz)
- Higher GPU frequency (~2x)
- Better instruction set architecture
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 84002 | 1112833 |
| GPU | 72699 | 1494722 |
| Memory | 62840 | 442350 |
| UX | 92820 | 900177 |
| Total score | 312361 | 3950082 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [283 tests] |
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 43.4 MB/sec | 421.8 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 26.6 pages/sec | 238 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 35.3 Mpixels/sec | 286.6 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 9.82 images/sec | 330.6 images/sec |
| HDR | 35.1 Mpixels/sec | 308.4 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 1.79 images/sec | 40.7 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 7.1 images/sec | 98.7 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 993.9 Mpixels/sec | 14.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 21 tests | 79 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 1.2 images/sec | 51.9 images/sec |
| Face detection | 1.09 images/sec | 24.9 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.04 Gpixels/sec | 0.72 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.05 Gpixels/sec | 1 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.01 Gpixels/sec | 2.04 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | - | 0.36 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 1.1 Gpixels/sec | 115.4 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 51.3 FPS | 4390.2 FPS |
| API | Vulkan | Vulkan |
| Samples | - | 50 tests |
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | - | 2737 |
| Stability | - | 67% |
| Graphics test | - | 20 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | - | 12156 |
| Graphics test | - | 46 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 52 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 46 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 40 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | - | 6490 |
| Graphics test | - | 38 FPS |
PCMark 3.0
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 3763 | 31126 |
| Video editing score | 5829 | 8963 |
| Data manipulation score | 4163 | 19422 |
| Photo editing score | 11521 | 62111 |
| Writing score | 4882 | 40875 |
| Phones tested | - | 13 models |
Recent User Tests
Qualcomm Snapdragon 821
No benchmark results yet
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-30 (HoΓ ng HαΊ£i) | AnTuTu 12 | 3638992 |
| π 2026-09-28 (Nikko) | AnTuTu 11 | 3512813 |
| π 2026-09-28 (nminh) | AnTuTu 12 | 4038854 |
| π 2026-09-27 (Johnnis) | AnTuTu 12 | 3903835 |
| π 2026-09-26 (JJJ) | AnTuTu 12 | 3290752 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 821 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5CPU
| Architecture | 2x 2.342 GHz β Kryo 2x 1.6 GHz β Kryo |
2x 4.74 GHz β Oryon Gen 3 Prime 6x 3.63 GHz β Oryon Gen 3 Performance |
| Cores | 4 | 8 |
| Frequency | 2342 MHz | 4740 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| L1 cache | 64 KB | 192 KB |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 12 MB |
| L3 cache | - | 12 MB |
| Process | 14 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Transistor count | 2 billion | - |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 11 W | 8 W |
| Manufacturing | Samsung | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 530 | Adreno 840 |
| Architecture | Adreno 500 | Adreno 800 |
| GPU frequency | 653 MHz | 1300 MHz |
| Pipelines | 1 | 3 |
| Shading units | 256 | 512 |
| Total shaders | 256 | 1536 |
| FLOPS | 334.3 Gigaflops | 3993.6 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.0 | 1.4 |
| OpenCL version | 2.0 | 3.0 |
| DirectX version | 11 | 12.1 |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon 680 | Hexagon |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR4 | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 1866 MHz | 5300 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 29.8 Gb/s | 84.8 Gb/s |
| Max size | 8 GB | 24 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.0 | UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1 |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2160 | 3840 x 2540 |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 28MP, 2x 13MP | 1x 320MP |
| Video capture | 4K at 30FPS | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
| Video playback | 4K at 30FPS | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264 - H.265 - VP8 - VP9 |
- H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP8 - VP9 |
| Audio codecs | - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
- AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | X12 | Snapdragon X85 |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 12 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | No | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 600 Mbps | Up to 12500 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 150 Mbps | Up to 3700 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 5 | 7 |
| Bluetooth | 4.1 | 6.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
Info
| Announced | August 2016 | September 2025 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | MSM8996 Pro-AC | SM8850-AC, SM8850-5-AC, SM8850-1-AD |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 official site | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 official site |
| Successor | - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | - |
Cast your vote
Total votes: 6