Qualcomm May Increase Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 Clock Speeds Only To Gain An Advantage In Geekbench Against Apple; SoC May Not Deliver Real-World Benefits

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is expected to be announced in October this year, but with a few modifications, as an earlier rumor claimed that Qualcomm will adjust its frequency to reach 4.26GHz, possibly to obtain an advantage against Apple and its upcoming A18 chipsets. However, based on a recent discussion, it appears that these changes are only being done so Qualcomm can have an edge against its rival in Geekbench, with potentially little to no benefit in real-world applications.

Geekbench issues a meaningful break between each workload to minimize throttle; Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s increased clock speeds could take advantage of the benchmark’s nature

Looking at Apple’s M4, its maximum clock speed of 4.40GHz on the performance cores allowed it to reach a new world record in Geekbench 6’s single-core results. This signifies the benchmarking suite’s propensity to post a higher score if the frequency of the processor or chipset is raised. If one assumes that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 cannot sustain its rumored 4.26GHz clock speeds for very long, they are probably correct, but Geekbench was never designed to test out sustained workloads.

In fact, according to an interesting find posted by INIYSA on X, Geekbench has a long 5-second break before it moves to the next workload, as this helps to minimize the throttling on the processor or the chipset. The very nature of Geekbench 6 should allow the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to operate at its maximum capabilities, likely translating into a better single-core and multi-core score. Unfortunately, the same results may not be replicated when the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is stressed for more extended periods.

It appears that Qualcomm’s primary goal is to have bragging rights over Apple in Geekbench. The San Diego chipset market attempted this previously when it claimed that its Snapdragon X Elite is up to 21 percent faster than Apple’s M3 in multi-core results. The company conveniently left out single-core performance, as Apple has yet to be dethroned in this category. Whether or not it is the right move to make is something we will find out in the coming months. Also, we can only comment on the real-world benefits of increasing the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s frequency to 4.26GHz when proper test results come out, so stay tuned.