A Qualcomm executive had previously hinted that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, now officially called the Snapdragon 8 Elite, was going to be more expensive than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 as the company would adopt its in-house CPU designs from hereon. While this would force phone partners to evaluate their position and profitability structure of the devices they manufacture, they will have to draft a new strategy for next year because a report claims that the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 will be even more expensive to mass produce.
The price of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 could be reduced by using Samsung and TSMC foundries, but Qualcomm will have to observe if yields improve
A report from KiPost that was spotted by Android Authority and tipster Jukanlosreve mentions that smartphone profits will be negatively affected next year when Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2. The details do not mention the exact pricing of the next chipset, but given that the Snapdragon 8 Elite is estimated to cost $240, its successor could fetch a higher sum.
Fortunately, with Qualcomm reported to have started testing the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2 much earlier than anticipated, it is possible that we will witness a bevy of improvements. Despite the advancements made by the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400, they continue to lack Scalability Matrix Extensive (SME), which helps run complex workloads more efficiently, leading to a significant single-core and multi-core performance bump.
According to a previous rumor, the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9500 could deliver a 20 percent improvement in multi-core gains because of this perk. As for which manufacturing process Qualcomm will leverage next year, it will most likely use TSMC’s 3nm N3P node, which will present some upgrades over the current-generation N3E process.
However, the San Diego firm was previously reported to have intentions of bringing Samsung into the fold to reduce wafer costs, but that will only be possible if the Korean foundry manages to overcome its low yields issue, as its continued struggles with the 3nm GAA technology will form a shadow of doubt in Qualcomm’s mind. While we always recommend readers treat such reports with a pinch of salt, we cannot ignore that wafer manufacturing on advanced lithography is expensive, and there appears to be no respite in sight.
News Source: KiPost
