The Galaxy S25’s Snapdragon 8 Elite processor truly lives up to its “Elite” branding. Packed with exceptional specs, the chip promises unprecedented CPU, GPU, and AI performance, along with groundbreaking camera enhancements. The first official benchmark scores for the new Snapdragon are now in — and boy, they are impressive!
Snapdragon 8 Elite benchmarks are nothing short of impressive
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is Qualcomm’s first mobile chipset to feature its custom Oryon CPU cores. The octa-core processor has two prime cores clocked at 4.32GHz and six performance cores at 3.53GHz. Even the base frequency is significantly higher than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3’s peak, resulting in a notable leap in benchmark scores. The performance difference between the two generations is practically day and night.
At the Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm provided a reference device to demonstrate the new chip’s capability. The device is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, of course, and paired with 24GB of LPDDR5x RAM, 1TB of UFS 4.0 storage, a 6.8-inch WFHD+ 144Hz AMOLED display, and a 4,167mAh battery. It delivered benchmark scores comparable to the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s A18 Pro, even surpassing the Apple silicon in some areas.
In Geekbench v6 single-core CPU tests, the Snapdragon 8 Elite achieved scores of over 3,200. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 reaches around 2,300, while the A18 Pro crosses 3,400. The new Qualcomm processor leaves the competition miles behind in multi-core performance with a score of over 10,400. The A18 Pro follows distantly with a score of around 8,400, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 languishes at under 7,000.
The AnTuTu CPU benchmarks tell the same story. The Snapdragon 8 Elite delivered scores north of 3 million when its predecessor barely crossed 2 million. And we might sound repetitive, but yeah, the story remains unchanged for the GPU performance in Geekbench tests. The new Qualcomm processor scored close to 18,000, compared to the Galaxy S24 Ultra’s 12,000. Qualcomm pulled off something amazing this year.
If you prefer to evaluate the GPU performance with the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite outperforms the competition here as well. Its score of 7,100 is distantly followed by the Galaxy S24 Ultra (around 5,000). Of course, benchmark scores aren’t always representative of a phone’s real-world performance, but are often indicative of what you can expect. These scores tell you volumes about the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s performance levels.
There may be an even faster Snapdragon for the Galaxy S25 series
The Snapdragon 8 Elite is in a league of its own with its super-fast CPU cores. Qualcomm says it has focused on user experience rather than benchmark scores, but the new chip doesn’t falter anywhere. And that’s good news for Galaxy fans as it’s rumored to power the Galaxy S25 series globally. What’s better? The new Samsung flagships might get an even faster Snapdragon 8 Elite with an overclocked CPU and GPU.
Leaked benchmarks have previously shown a peak speed of 4.53GHz being tested on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, while there are also rumors of a variant clocking at 4.57GHz. The latter outscored the A18 Pro in single-core performance as well, achieving scores of over 3,400. It’s multi-core scores topped 11,000. With these performance levels, the Galaxy S25 Ultra with Snapdragon 8 Elite could be a powerhouse. If you plan to buy the phone, sign up for our mystery boxes to get free accessories when you pre-order it through the program.
