Qualcomm Demonstrates its Snapdragon X Elite Computer Chip Outperforming Intel Core Ultra by up to 10 Times in AI Image Generation Tasks

Qualcomm recently shared a video comparing the performance of a Snapdragon X Elite-based laptop to a laptop equipped with an Intel Core Ultra 7 processor in an image generation task. The former considerably outperformed the Intel-based system.

According to the video’s description, the Snapdragon X Elite’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU) has a processing speed of 45 TOPS (trillion operations per second). The NPU’s performance was demonstrated in the video. Both the Snapdragon X Elite and the Intel Core Ultra 7 chip, which from Intel’s Meteor Lake series, also equipped with an NPU, were tested using Stable Diffusion and GIMP image generation programs. For testing, Qualcomm used Stable Diffusion and Fast Stable Diffusion version 1.5. The Intel Core Ultra 7-based system also used Stable Diffusion 1.5 with OpenVINO Backend and user_guide_for_windos_users plugins.

In the Stable Diffusion test, the Snapdragon X Elite-based laptop completed an image generation task in 7.25 seconds, while the Intel-based laptop took 22.26 seconds. Both systems were given the same image description tasks.

In the GIMP generator test, both systems were tasked with generating images of a lion basking in the sun. The Qaulcomm AI Stack native plugin was used for the Snapdragon X Elite system. The Snapdragon chip completed the generation of 10 different lion images in 12.12 seconds, while the Intel-based machine produced only one image in the same amount of time using the OpenVINO plugin. Our editor, Andrey Sozinov, currently at MWC 2024, reported that in a live demo, the Snapdragon X Elite-based laptop outperformed the Intel-based system in the same task by about three times.

As expected, the Snapdragon X Elite excelled in the AI task. In comparison, the NPU included in Intel’s Core Ultra processors only achieves a performance of up to 34 TOPS. Meteor Lake processors are Intel’s first to be equipped with an NPU. It’s stated that Intel’s future Arrow Lake (desktop) and Lunar Lake (mobile) processors will triple the AI performance compared to Meteor Lake. These chips were announced to be in their final development stage at the CES 2024 show and are expected to be launched this year.

It’s worth noting that a few days ago, the Snapdragon X Elite was listed in the Geekbench database, where it delivered impressively high performance compared to mobile processors compatible with x86 from rival companies.