At long last, Qualcomm has officially unveiled its next-gen Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 chip alongside a standard non-extreme variant called the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6. Both chipsets are built on a 2nm process and feature Qualcomm's custom Oryon v4 CPU with peak speeds of up to 5.0 GHz. The new chipsets also bring a next-generation Adreno GPU and an upgraded Hexagon NPU for on-device AI agents.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 Specifications
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 is fabricated on TSMC’s 2nm N2P process that delivers generational gains over Qualcomm’s past 3nm chips. The chip was earlier referred to as the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro, but the ‘Pro’ label has been dropped in favour of the ‘Extreme’ branding.
The processor sports the new Oryon v4 CPU, which is configured in a 2 + 6 layout. The full setup includes 2x prime cores clocked at up to 5.0 GHz and six performance cores at up to 4.0 GHz. This makes the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 the first chip to reach the 5 GHz clock speed on smartphones.
In terms of memory, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 gets support for the latest LPDDR6 memory, as well as UFS 5.0 storage, which is twice as fast as the UFS 4.1 found in older chips.
For gaming, Elite ‘Extreme’ gets the upgraded Adreno 850 GPU with a three-slice design and 18 MB of graphics memory for better throughput and gaming performance.
On top of that, the Adreno 850 GPU includes AI-dedicated matrix cores, which are exclusive to the Extreme chipset. These power a new feature called Adreno Neural Fusion, which uses AI for super resolution upscaling(up to 1080p or 1440p) and frame generation in games. Qualcomm says it delivers richer visuals in games and longer playtime.
Like other chip companies, Qualcomm is marketing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 for the ‘agentic age’. "As the agentic AI age evolves, our multi-flagship strategy allows us to push the boundaries of what's possible for mobile while bringing our latest AI innovations to a broader range of premium devices," said Chris Patrick, SVP and GM of Mobile Handsets at Qualcomm.
Its improved Hexagon NPU includes a transformer-focused Element Accelerator and a 50% larger shared memory. Together, they significantly improve on-device AI performance and provide deeper contextual understanding for agentic AI tasks. It can run Mixture of Experts (MoE) models with more than 30 billion parameters.
For photography, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 gets AI-powered camera capabilities, along with Advanced Professional Video (APV) support and Intelligent Pixel Control. There’s also support for video recording up to 8K @ 60fps and ultra HD slow-motion video capture up to 4K @ 240fps.
For connectivity, the Extreme chipset brings the new Snapdragon X105 5G modem and FastConnect 8800 for Wi-Fi 8 and Bluetooth 7.0.
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 will officially debut on the Xiaomi 18 Pro Max.
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An Affordable Non-Extreme Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 Chip Makes Its Mark
Qualcomm also unveiled a standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip. It is very similar to the Extreme variant and is built on the same TSMC 2nm manufacturing process. It packs the same 8-core Oryon v4 CPU that can reach up to 5.0 GHz.
However, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is slightly trimmed down in certain areas like memory, GPU, cache, and camera, which makes it an affordable option for most premium phones. You don't get AI matrix cores and Adreno Neural Fusion inside the Adreno 845 GPU and it only supports LPDDR5X memory.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 is expected to power the Xiaomi 18 Pro, iQOO 16, and the Oppo Find X10 Ultra.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 will go toe-to-toe with MediaTek’s recently launched Dimensity 9600 Pro chip, which is its direct competitor. It will also take on Apple's powerful A20 Pro chip. We’ll be testing all these chips soon to see how they fare against each other. So stay tuned for those comparisons.
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