Mid-Tier Snapdragon Gets Cortex-A720 Treatment

This morning, Qualcomm is introducing a new SoC for mid-range smartphones – Snapdragon 7s Gen 3. The second of the inexpensive parts of Qualcomm’s S-tier Snapdragon 7, the 7s series is functionally an entry-level device. level for the Snapdragon 7 family – and, indeed, for most Qualcomm-based phones in North America.

Thanks to the three tiers of Snapdragon 7 chips, the 7s can easily get lost in the noise that comes from more powerful chips. But the latest version of 7 is a little more interesting than usual because instead of reusing an existing die, Qualcomm has apparently created an entirely new die for the part. As a result, the company updated the 7s family to use Arm’s current Armv9 processor cores while using chunks of Qualcomm’s latest IP elsewhere.

Officially, the Snapdragon 7s is classified as a 1+3+4 design, meaning there is 1 main core, 3 performance cores, and 4 efficiency cores. In this case, Qualcomm is using the same architecture for both core and performance cores—Arm’s current-generation Cortex-A720 design. The main core gets turbo speeds up to 2.5 GHz, while the rest of the A720 cores get turbo speeds up to 2.4 GHz.

These are joined by 4 efficiency cores, which are traditionally based on the current Arm A5xx cores, in this case the A520. They can boost the frequency up to 1.8 GHz.

Compared to the previous Snapdragon 7s Gen 2, the Arm core swap is a pretty significant upgrade, replacing the A78/A55 setup with the aforementioned A720/A520 setup. Notably, the clock speeds are very similar to those of the previous generation, so most of this generation’s unlimited performance gains come from improvements in IPC, although the faster main core should offer a little more power for single-threaded workloads.

Overall, a 20% improvement in processor performance is touted over the 7s Gen 2, although that claim doesn’t specify whether that’s single-threaded or multi-threaded performance (or a mixture of both).

Meanwhile, graphics are handled by one of Qualcomm’s Adreno GPUs. As usual, the company isn’t revealing any significant details about the specific GPU configuration being used, or even what generation it is. A general look at the specs didn’t reveal any major features that weren’t present in other parts of the Snapdragon 7. And Qualcomm isn’t reducing high-end features like ray tracing to such a low-key part. However, I had previously heard through the tea leaves that this could be the next generation design (Adreno 800 series); although if that’s the case, Qualcomm certainly isn’t trying to draw attention to it.

Interestingly, however, the video decoding unit on the SoC appears to be quite outdated. Even though this is a new technology, Qualcomm has chosen not to include AV1 decoding – or at least has chosen not to include it – so H.265 and VP9 are the most advanced codecs supported.

Compared to the CPU performance gains, the expected performance gains for Qualcomm’s GPU are more significant. The company claims that the 7s Gem 3 will provide a 40% improvement in GPU performance compared to the 7s Gen 2.

Finally, the Hexagon NPU on the SoC includes some of Qualcomm’s latest IP technologies as the company continues to aggressively push artificial intelligence across all of its chip segments. Notably, the version of the NPU used here gets INT4 support for low-precision client output, which is new for the Snapdragon 7s family. As with other third-generation Qualcomm SoCs, there is a strong focus on local (on-device) LLM execution.

In terms of performance, Qualcomm says customers should expect a 30% improvement in AI performance compared to the 7s Gen 2.

All these blocks are powered by a 32-bit memory controller. Interestingly, Qualcomm has chosen to support the older LPDDR4X even with this new chip, so the maximum memory bandwidth depends on the type of memory used. For LPDDR4X-4266 it will be 17 GB/s, and for LPDDR5-6400 it will be 25.6 GB/s. In both cases, this is identical to the throughput available on the 7s Gen 2.

Lastly, the 7s Gen 3 also includes some new and more powerful cameras. We’re still looking at Spectra’s trio of 12-bit ISPs, but the maximum resolution in zero shutter lag and burst modes has been increased to 64MP. Otherwise, video recording capabilities are identical on paper, as the 7s Gen 2 already supports 4K HDR capture.

Meanwhile, on the wireless front, the 7s Gen 3 features one of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 5G modems built-in. Like its predecessor, the 7s Gen 3 supports Sub-6 and mmWave bands with a maximum (theoretical) throughput of 2.9 Gbps.

However, eagle-eyed chip watchers will notice that Qualcomm is dispensing with any version information from this point on. So while the 7s Gen 2 used a Snapdragon X62 modem, the 7s Gen 3 modem doesn’t have that designation – it’s just a built-in Snapdragon modem. The company said the change was made to “simplify overall branding and ensure consistency with other IP blocks in the chipset.”

Likewise, the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth unit has lost its version number; now it’s just a FastConnect block. In terms of features and specs, this appears to be the same Wi-Fi 6E unit we’ve seen in half a dozen other Snapdragon processors, offering 2 spatial streams with up to 160MHz channel width. However, it’s worth noting that since this is a newer SoC, it is certified to support Bluetooth 5.4, as opposed to the 5.2/5.3 certification that other Snapdragon 7 chips have.

Finally, the Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 itself is built on TSMC’s N4P process, the same process we’ve seen in the last few Qualcomm SoCs. And thanks to this, Qualcomm has now completely ported the entire Snapdragon 8 and Snapdragon 7 lineups from Samsung’s 4nm process nodes; all of their state-of-the-art chips are now manufactured at TSMC. And, like similar transitions in the past, this shift in technology nodes will lead to increased energy efficiency. While this isn’t the only reason, overall Qualcomm claims a 12% improvement in power savings.

To summarize, the launch customer for Qualcomm Snapdragon 7s Gen 3 will be Xiaomi, which will be the first to release a new phone with this chip. Many of the other usual suspects will follow, including Realme and Sharp, while the much larger Samsung is also planning to use the chip at some point in the coming months.