Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Everything We Know So Sar
Qualcomm’s next flagship mobile platform is nearly here, and the company is leaning into a new naming era. The chip is expected to debut as Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a direct successor to last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite with promises of stronger performance and better efficiency. With launch just days away, leaks, benchmark listings, and supply-chain chatter already sketch a detailed picture of what’s coming.
Name and lineup
Qualcomm’s label may look odd at first, but it maps to the older “Gen” cadence: 8 Gen 1, 8 Gen 2, 8 Gen 3, 8 Elite as the de-facto fourth generation, and now 8 Elite Gen 5. Alongside the Elite, Qualcomm is rumored to unveil a slightly down-binned Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 at the Snapdragon Summit on September 23, with more affordable “8s Gen 5” variants likely landing around mid-2026.
Process and architecture
A full jump to TSMC’s 2nm node isn’t happening this round. Instead, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is tipped to stay on TSMC’s 3nm family, moving from N3E to the higher-efficiency N3P. Expect incremental gains: reports suggest roughly 5% better performance at the same power versus last year’s 3nm implementation.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 CPU layout and clocks
Early device listings point to a familiar 2+6 CPU cluster, but with custom Oryon cores clocked far higher than before. A Xiaomi 17 Pro listing has been spotted with two Oryon cores at 3.63 GHz and six at 4.61 GHz, while a “for Galaxy” Samsung tune is rumored to flip that, showing two cores at up to 4.74 GHz and six at 3.63 GHz. Cache is reportedly getting a bump from 24MB total (12MB L2 + 12MB L3) to 32MB (16MB L2 + 16MB L3), which should help both latency-sensitive apps and sustained workloads.
Graphics and AI
On the GPU side, the new Adreno 840 is said to step up from the Elite’s Adreno 830, with reported clocks around 1.20 GHz versus 1.10 GHz previously. Some leaks claim the upgraded NPU could reach up to 100 TOPS, which—if accurate—would put the chip’s on-device AI throughput in notebook-class territory for certain tasks.
Early performance signals
A Xiaomi device believed to be the 17 Pro has appeared on Geekbench 6.4 with the 8 Elite Gen 5, posting 3,831 single-core and 11,525 multi-core—healthy uplift over Snapdragon 8 Elite’s typical 3,179/10,114 results. Apple’s A18 Pro remains ahead in single-core at around 3,461, but the new Snapdragon seems to punch harder in multi-core. AnTuTu scores haven’t been formally published yet; reliable chatter pegs the new platform at roughly 4.4 million points on version 11.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Availability and first adopters
Xiaomi is widely expected to be first out of the gate—likely with the Xiaomi 17 Pro—followed by Samsung’s Galaxy S26 lineup, which may again carry a “Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy” badge. We’ll get confirmed specs, features, and OEM timelines at the Snapdragon Summit next week.
Bottom line
If the leaks hold, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 looks like a classic Qualcomm “tick-plus”: a refined 3nm node, higher Oryon clocks, fatter caches, a faster Adreno, and a notably stronger NPU. Expect better sustained performance, improved power efficiency, and heavier AI acceleration across 2025–2026 Android flagships.
