Qualcomm has quietly added a new variant to its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 family: the SM8850-1-AB, aka the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series. Positioned as a gaming-focused chipset, the SoC shares identical specs to the regular Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, with one key upgrade.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series Specifications and Features
Despite the "V-Series" branding and gaming-forward positioning, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series (SM8850-1-AB) shares practically the entire architecture of the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset (SM8850-AC).
The only key difference between them is in the Adreno High Performance Memory (HPM) allocation. Compared to the 18 MB HPM on the standard model, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series features 12 MB HPM.
The new SoC is built on the same 3nm N3P TSMC process and consists of Qualcomm's latest 3rd Gen Oryon cores in a 2 + 6 configuration. Two of these cores are clocked at 4.61GHz while the remaining six cores are clocked at 3.63GHz.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series also boasts an Adreno 840 GPU and a new Hexagon NPU, boasting 100 TOPS. Moreover, the SoC gets the same 20-bit tiplse ISP as the SM8850-AC and is also compatible with Samsung's APV (Advanced Professional Video) codec.
In terms of connectivity, the SM8850-1-AB features the Snapdragon X85 modem, offering 12.5 Gbps downlink and 3.7 Gbps uplink speeds. The SoC also brings support for Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.0 and UWB, via the FastConnect 7900 chip.
That said, here is a quick rundown of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series key specs:
| Specifications | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series |
|---|---|
| Process Node | TSMC's 3nm (N3P) |
| CPU | 8-core 3rd-gen Oryon CPU |
| CPU Cores | 2x 3rd-gen Oryon (4.61GHz), 6x 3rd-gen Oryon (3.63GHz) |
| GPU | Adreno 840 GPU |
| Modem | Qualcomm X85 5G, FastConnect 7900 with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 6.0 |
| Charging | Qualcomm Quick Charge 5 |
| ISP | Spectra Triple 20-bit |
| NPU | New Hexagon NPU, Up to 100 TOPS |
| Memory | UFS 4.1, LPDDR5X up to 24 GB and 5300MHz |
The first set of phones to be powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series is the Redmi K100 Pro series, which is launching in China on August 11, 2026. The lineup is expected to include the Redmi K100 Pro and Redmi K100 Pro Max.
That said, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V-Series (SM8850-1-AB), Qualcomm now has four different models of the 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset. Apart from the standard SM8850-AC, there is also the SM8850-1-AD, aka the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy and the SM8850-5-AC, a 7-core 8 Elite Gen 5 model found inside the Oppo Find N6.
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