Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 Rescue Moves Chip to TSMC

An update to Qualcomm’s mid-cycle plus chip, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1, has been announced. As usual, Qualcomm promises some modest improvements over the existing 8 Gen 1 chip. The company said the chip will provide “10% better CPU performance”thanks to 200 MHz peak CPU acceleration (now up to 3.2 GHz) and 10% GPU acceleration. The real shock is the claim of “30% more power efficiency”for the CPU and GPU.

As for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Plus, Qualcomm is moving the chip from Samsung Foundry to TSMC, which appears to be the source of the power boost. This is a major blow to Samsung’s 4nm process compared to TSMC’s 4nm process, but is consistent with earlier reports of issues at the Samsung Foundry.

Replacing foundries as part of a mid-cycle refresh isn’t normal, and Qualcomm seems to be saving the day a bit with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. The chip hasn’t performed well in the real world, with the processor regularly performing lower benchmark scores than the flagship Snapdragon 888 2021.

Qualcomm doesn’t do much for phones year after year, and regularly falls behind the Apple SoC team by years. Usually, the only reliable update Qualcomm can provide is some measurable percentage of improvements in a benchmark. The GPU has been improved for 2022, but the drop in CPU power after Qualcomm said it would be 20 percent faster is a big disappointment. With a foundry shift and higher CPU frequency, Qualcomm’s 2022 CPU can finally be faster than its 2021 counterpart.