The stakes have always been high for the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is thankfully now out of the bag and available for pre-orders. There’s also a pre-order offer where you can grab the Galaxy S25 Ultra for just $399 with trade-in and get free Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. But the real kicker? The biggest upgrade for the Galaxy S25 Ultra is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy chipset.
When Qualcomm first unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite, it was pretty clear that the Galaxy S25 series would feature it. And yep, that hunch was spot on. There were whispers that Samsung might include its in-house Exynos chipset in the Galaxy S25 series for some regions, but that didn’t come to pass. Instead, the Snapdragon 8 Elite powers the Galaxy S25 Ultra globally. This is one of the reasons why you’ll want to take the plunge and upgrade to the Galaxy S25 Ultra.
Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite brings some significant upgrades over last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which powers the Galaxy S24 Ultra. But how does the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy (SM8750-AC) stack up against last year’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy?
TL;DR: Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy is a Pretty Solid Upgrade
Samsung (via Android Authority) says that the new chip offers a 37% faster CPU, 30% faster GPU, and 40% faster NPU compared to the previous generation. For comparison, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy delivered a 20% CPU boost, 26% GPU improvement, and 42% faster NPU over the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. The notable jump in CPU performance is what really stands out, while the GPU and NPU upgrades follow the usual generational trends.
Qualcomm also worked with Samsung on the Galaxy S25 series’ ProScaler image scaling solution and mDNIe technology to improve display efficiency. According to Mishaal Rahman, Samsung claims the SM8750-AC is “completely custom” compared to previous “for Galaxy” chipsets, with better integration into Samsung’s camera hardware, though the specifics of that integration are still up in the air. The SM8750-AC also includes an overclocked NPU, but neither Samsung nor Qualcomm have shared further details.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy comes with 150 MHz faster Prime CPU cores and a 9% faster Adreno 830 GPU, which now runs at up to 1,200 MHz thanks to a 100 MHz boost. Early benchmarks show a slight improvement from the CPU overclock, with just a 2% lead in single-core performance. However, the GPU clock boost does result in a 6% gain in Geekbench 6.3 Vulkan tests (via NotebookCheck).
At the end of the day, this chip aces up the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s sleeve. Packing a punch, the phone’s definitely worth considering!
