Raytracing, Unreal Engine 5 and Frame Generation – The leaked specs of the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 processor promise a lot.
The iPhone 15 Pro phones have led the way and it looks like the Android phones will follow suit: Triple AAA gaming on mobile.
A leak now reveals the technical specifications of the Snapdragon 8 Gen3. This promises not only console-level gaming, but also plenty of enhancements for generative AI features – Qualcomm calls it the “titan of on-device intelligence. “
NextGen-level AI and gaming
The leak comes from (MSPoweruser) and reveals all the technical specs on Qualcomm’s new flagship processor.
On ray tracing level, the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 is said to be able to compete with the iPhone 15 Pro. Qualcomm talks about “console-defying”, i.e. a performance that is supposed to put even consoles in the shade – at least that’s how MSPoweruser is supposed to have heard it.
The chip will also be able to upscale cutscenes in games to a maximum of 8K.
While the Snapdragon 8 Gen2 already supports hardware-accelerated ray tracing, the new Adreno GPU in the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 will support five more features that promise to take mobile gaming to a new level.
Table of Contents
Unreal Engine 5 Lumens
UE 5 Lumen is a dynamic global illumination and reflection system designed for the next generation of consoles. It enables diffuse inter-reflection with infinite bounces and indirect specular reflections in large, detailed environments.
Unreal Engine 5 Global Illumination
UE 5 Global Illumination is a generic term for various options to simulate lighting interactions with geometry and material surfaces.
Unreal Engine 5 Reflections
UE 5 Reflections are various systems to represent reflective material surfaces. These include Lumen Reflections, Ray Tracing Reflections, Screen Space Reflections, Reflection Captures and Planar Reflections.
Snapdragon Game Super Resolution
This is an upscaling technology, like Nvidia DLSS, AMD FSR and Intel XeSS. This upscales games in a lower resolution to a higher one. This increases the FPS number and reduces the energy consumption.
Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0
This technology generates additional frames to increase the frame rate of games. The technology is similar to DLSS Frame Generation and AMD Fluid Motion Frames.
What are the improvements compared to the predecessor?
- The new Adreno GPU is both 25 percent faster and more efficient.
- The new CPU has five performance cores with up to 3.2 GHz and two efficiency cores with a maximum of 2.3 GHz. It is 30 percent faster and 20 percent more efficient.
- The chip makes the biggest leap in the NPU, which is responsible for AI processes. Compared to its predecessor, this is now 98 percent faster and 40 percent more efficient.
According to MSPoweruser, these are the full technical specifications for the Snapdragon 8 Gen3:
AI Engine
- Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU
- Qualcomm® Kryo™ CPU
- Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPU
- Fused AI accelerator architecture
- Hexagon scalar, vector, and tensor accelerators
- Hexagon Direct Link
- Upgraded Micro Tile Inferencing
- Upgraded power delivery system
- Support for mix precision (INT8+INT16)
- Support for all precisions (INT4, INT8, INT16, FP16)Qualcomm® Sensing Hub
- Dual micro NPUs for audio and sensors
- Dual Always-Sensing ISPs to support
- two concurrent Always-Sensing Cameras
- Support for INT4 precision
CPU
- 64-bit architecture
- 1 Prime core, up to 3.3 GHz
- 5 Performance cores, up to 3.2 GHz
- 2 Efficiency cores, up to 2.3 GHz
GPU
- Real-time Hardware-Accelerated Ray Tracing with Global Illumination
- Support for Unreal Engine 5 Lumen Global Illumination and Reflections System
- Snapdragon Game Super Resolution
- Adreno Frame Motion Engine 2.0
- Snapdragon Game Post Processing Accelerator
- HDR gaming (10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut)
- Snapdragon Shadow Denoiser
- API support: OpenGL® ES 3.2, OpenCL™ 2.0 FP, Vulkan® 1.3
- Hardware-accelerated H.265, VP9, AV1 decoder
- HDR Playback Codec support for HDR10+, HDR10, HLG, and Dolby Vision
5G modem
- Snapdragon® X75 5G Modem-RF System
Memory
- Memory Density: Up to 24 GB
- Support for LP-DDR5x memory, up to 4800 MHz
Connectivity
- Wi-Fi Generation: Wi-Fi 7
- Peak Speed: 5.8 Gbps
- 802.11be, 802.11ax, 802.11ac, 802.11a/b/g/n
- Wi-Fi Spectral Bands: 6 Ghz, 5 GHz, 2.4 GHz
- Channel Bandwidth: 320/240/160/80/40/20 MHz
- 8-stream sounding (for 8×8 MU-MIMO)
- MIMO Configuration: 2×2 (2-stream)
- MU-MIMO (uplink & downlink)
- 4K QAM
- OFDMA (Uplink & Downlink)
- High Band Simultaneous (HBS) Multi-Link
- Wi-Fi Security: WPA3-Enterprise, WPA3-Enhanced Open, WPA3 Easy Connect, WPA3-Personal Integrated Bluetooth
- Bluetooth Audio: Snapdragon Sound™ Technology with support for Qualcomm XPAN Technology, Qualcomm® aptX™ Voice, aptX Lossless, aptX Adaptive, and LE Audio
- Bluetooth Features: Bluetooth 5.4, LE Audio, Dual Bluetooth antennas
- USB: Version 3.1 Gen 2; USB Type-C Support
display support
- 4K @ 60 Hz
- QHD+ @ 144 Hz
- Maximum External Display Support:
- Up to 8K @ 30 Hz
- Up to 1080 @ 240 Hz
- Variable Refresh Rate support for 240 Hz to 1 Hz
- 10-bit color depth, Rec. 2020 color gamut
- HDR10, HDR10+, HDR vivid, and Dolby Vision
Audio support
- Qualcomm Aqstic™ audio codec
- Qualcomm Aqstic smart speaker amplifier
- Total Harmonic Distortion + Noise (THD+N)
- Playback: -108dB
- Qualcomm® Audio and Voice Communication Suite
- Spatial audio with head-tracking
Camera support
- Cognitive ISP, Triple 18-bit ISPs
- Up to 36 MP triple camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- Up to 64+36 MP dual camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- Up to 108 MP single camera @ 30 FPS with Zero Shutter Lag
- 8K HDR video capture + 64 MP photo capture @ 30 FPS
- 4K video capture @ 120 FPS
How do you feel about smartphones becoming more powerful and soon being able to play blockbuster games like Resident Evil VIII and Assassin’s Creed Mirage on them? Is this interesting for you and would you replace the console with a cell phone in the future, should there soon be more games for them? Write us your opinion on this topic in the comments!
