Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X2 Elite CPU Is Another Stab at Burying Intel

Qualcomm’s nascent push into PCs now has the sequel chip that will set the tone for what to expect from Windows-based machines going into 2026. This year, Qualcomm doesn’t have just one flagship CPU; it has two. Announced at its Snapdragon Summit in Hawaii (full disclosure: travel and lodging were paid by Qualcomm, and Gizmodo did not guarantee any coverage as a condition of accepting the trip), the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme (a name that, if you say it, immediately cues a radical guitar rip) make performance promises that stress its graphics capabilities more than ever. Whether or not it will be actually good for graphics tasks, including gaming, will depend on how Qualcomm can counter the app compatibility conundrum.

Qualcomm’s X2 series stands as the sequel to last year’s Snapdragon X processors. While you can find plenty of PCs with a Snapdragon X Elite, Snapdragon X Plus, and the more recent Snapdragon X, the X2 Elite and X2 Elite Extreme are both “flagship level,” even if Qualcomm is mostly focusing on the performance of the more powerful processor and its more radical branding.

More power for Windows on ARM

The X2 Elite Extreme features 18 of Qualcomm’s Oryon CPU cores on a 3nm process with a 53MB cache. Of the 18 cores, 12 are “prime cores” running at 4.4GHz or up to 5GHz with dual-core boost. An extra six performance cores are running at 3.6GHz. Clock speeds never tell the full story of how powerful a chip can be. It does suggest the processors will be very responsive, but for raw data processing, we need to see how they perform in action. ARM-based processors like those made by Qualcomm are notably more power-efficient than other microarchitectures. The new X2 Elite chips should offer 31% better performance at the same wattage compared to the X Elite.

The big surprise is how much work Qualcomm put into its Adreno GPU, or graphics processing unit. The chipmaker claimed the new GPU offers 2.3x better performance per watt. While the company implied we’ll get better frame rates, the new GPU should also better support ray tracing for more realistic lighting effects in games. Of course, what matters more is if you can run all your favorite games in the first place.

Compatibility is still a conundrum

The Snapdragon X series are ARM-based CPUs. This means they’re using a completely different chip microarchitecture compared to x86 used by Intel and AMD. That has led to compatibility issues for a multitude of apps. Sure, Microsoft and Qualcomm have tried to work with developers to enable apps on ARM-based machines. Adobe’s Creative Suite is all working with ARM on Windows. At Snapdragon Summit, Qualcomm said Razer would be optimizing its Synapse app for ARM sometime in the near future, while Maxon apps like ZBrush will soon work with Snapdragon X laptops by early 2026. But some apps, like the drafting tool AutoCAD, remain incompatible with ARM. The problem is that many apps can’t be easily ported without a lot of effort, especially games. Currently, Microsoft is trying to push its Prism emulator to let some games run on these systems. There are also rumors that Valve, which runs the game marketplace Steam, is working on its own ARM compatibility layer.

In its conference, Qualcomm showed a list of games that are currently working on ARM or will be in the near future. That includes Fortnite through Epic Online Services anti-cheat. The lingering issue of anti-cheat compatibility will still hinder other online titles.

The first Snapdragon X PC lineup was meant to push Microsoft’s adoration for AI. The first Copilot+ PCs didn’t grant us the keys to the AI promised land as Microsoft suggested they would, especially after the security snafu with the auto-screenshotting Recall feature. Qualcomm is still pushing the AI narrative with a more powerful NPU, or neural processing unit. It’s a special part of the chip that’s only good enough to handle redundant or background AI tasks. The new NPU on the Snapdragon X2 hits 80 TOPS, or trillions of operations per second, compared to 45 on the Snapdragon X lineup. It may enable more on-device AI without overloading the GPU, though somebody will have to come up with a feature that makes the case for limited AI models.

Qualcomm promises we’ll get new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme-powered PCs early in 2026. Expect CES 2026 to be packed to the gills with ARM-based lightweight laptops. We can expect they will be the more premium offerings, but with tariffs causing havoc on PC costs, it’s hard to speculate just what pricing tier X2 might fit into.