Snapdragon X2 Elite vs Apple M5: Qualcomm's Chip Outdoes Apple Silicon in Multi-Core Benchmarks

Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor at the Snapdragon Summit in September 2025, and PCs powered by the chipset are expected to hit the market in the first half of 2026. The new chip has now reportedly surfaced in early benchmarks, with comparisons being made against Apple's Apple M5 chipset. The leaks suggest that Qualcomm's next-generation Snapdragon X2 Elite could bring Windows-on-Arm devices closer to Apple Silicon in raw performance metrics.

Snapdragon X2 Elite vs Apple M5: Benchmarks Compared

Early benchmark tests of a company-provided, pre-production Asus Zenbook unit powered by the Snapdragon X2 Elite processor were conducted by YouTube channel Hardware Canucks. It's worth noting that the laptop in the video is shown as running early firmware and drivers, while the chip isn't final, too, offering only a glimpse of its capabilities.

The comparison appears to be based on Cinebench, Blender, and HandBrake testing. In leaked Cinebench 2024 results, the Snapdragon X2 Elite posted a multi core score of 1,432, which is ahead of the Apple M5's 1,153 score in the same test. This indicates an improvement in terms of heavily threaded workloads, such as during video editing and rendering.

However, the Apple M5 chip maintained its advantage in single core performance, with 200 points in Cinebench's single core test versus the X2 Elite's 146, which suggests that Apple will maintain its lead.

In Blender 5.01 rendering benchmarks, the Snapdragon X2 Elite completed the task in approximately 3 minutes and 31 seconds, while the M5 took about 5 minutes and 33 seconds to finish the same job. In HandBrake video transcoding, the X2 Elite wrapped up the workload in 3 minutes and 29 seconds, compared with the M5's 5 minutes and 14 seconds.

Both of the aforementioned benchmarks indicate that Qualcomm's new flagship PC chip may pull ahead of the M5 silicon in multi core and content creation workloads. Apple's chip, meanwhile, appears to lead in single-core responsiveness, indicating its proficiency in lightly threaded applications.

Qualcomm claims its new Snapdragon X2 Elite platform delivers up to 31 percent better performance at ISO power and consumes 43 percent less power than the preceding Snapdragon X Elite chip. The chipset platform is designed for scaling form factors, which means it can be used across a range of laptops, 2-in-1 PCs, and devices with other form factors.