With the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme, Windows 11 on Arm is finally catching up with Apple’s M4 lineup, but it’s still behind Apple’s 10-core M5 in single-core performance. The most powerful Windows 11 on Arm chip is Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100, and it posted a Geekbench single-core score of 4,072 and 23,611 in multi-core.
Windows Latest previously obtained benchmarks for a reference design (not an actual device) running Snapdragon X2 Elite, and it posted a score of 3,849 in single-core and up to 16,222 in multi-core. Now, we have more details of other SKS, including the MacBook-killer beast “Elite Extreme.”
Before I talk about the numbers for the SKUs, let’s take a look at all Elite and Elite Extreme SKUs in the Snapdragon X2 series:
| SKU | Cores | Max / Base CPU clock | TDP | Memory | NPU |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X2E-80-100 | 12 | Up to 4.7 GHz / 3.4 GHz | 55W | LPDDR5X | 80 TOPS |
| X2E-84-100 | 12 | Up to 4.7 GHz / 3.4 GHz | 70W | LPDDR5X | 80 TOPS |
| X2E-88-100 | 18 | Up to 4.7 GHz / 3.4 GHz | 55W | LPDDR5X | 80 TOPS |
| X2E-90-100 | 18 | Up to 4.7 GHz / 3.4 GHz | 70W | LPDDR5X | 80 TOPS |
| X2E-96-100 (Elite Extreme) | 18 | Up to 5.0 GHz / 3.6 GHz | 82W | LPDDR5X | 80 TOPS |
There’s also a Snapdragon X2 Plus SKU that I have not included in the table because we don’t have details of the chip. Plus is particularly for low-end hardware, so it’s not going to be better than any of these “X2E” chips listed above. It doesn’t deserve our attention for now, as we’re looking at the best-performing Windows on Arm CPUs.
YouTuber Alex Ziskind, who had early access to Snapdragon chips, also shared Geekbench screenshots of the reference units running X2 Elite Extreme, and they align with the data previously exclusively obtained by Windows Latest:
I used these Snapdragon X2 benchmark numbers and compared them against the existing Apple M chips, and the results are surprisingly interesting.
How powerful are the Snapdragon X2 Elite and Extreme chips compared to the Apple M3 and Apple M4 variants?
Qualcomm has up to five SKUs in the Snapdragon X2 Elite lineup, which includes the Extreme variant.
However, we only have benchmarks for reference units running Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-80-100, X2E-88-100, and X2E-96-100 “Elite Extreme,” so it’s possible that Qualcomm might not ship the other SKUs we’ve seen earlier, or they could be for internal testing only.
Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-80-100
X2E-80-100 appears to be the base variant in the Elite lineup. According to internal Geekbench tests (not available on the Geekbench website), this chip has 12 cores, and it posted a score of 3,850 in single-core and 16,171 in multi-core.
Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-80-100 already sits well above Apple M3, which is about 2,997 in single-core and 11,464 multi-core. Qualcomm’s chip also edges past M3 Pro on multi-core (M3 Pro is typically around the mid-15K range).
Next, I looked up the numbers for Apple’s base M4. It’s basically in the same single-core class, as M4 posted single-core scores in the 3,700 to 3,800 range (rounded off). The base M4 can even come out slightly ahead of the Snapdragon X2 Elite base variant on multi-core because it has more cores to throw at the workload than the M3.
Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-80-100
Next up, we’ve the Snapdragon X2 Elite X2E-88-100, which has 18 cores.
According to Geekbench local tests, the second most powerful “Elite” SKU with 18 cores achieves a score of up to 3,838 in single-core performance. This is more or less at the same level as the 12-core variant, but it meaningfully raises multi-core to 20,320.
For comparison, Apple M3 Max is typically in the 21,000 multi-core tests.
X2E-88-100 is a bit below M4 Pro multi-core (typically low-23,000K). Single-core is still close to base M4, but usually behind M4 Pro or M4 Max.
Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme X2E-96-100 is the most powerful ARM processor for Windows 11
So far, the numbers have shown that the above two Snapdragon chips, with 12 and 18 cores, can compete head-to-head with some of the M4 chips. But if you thought that 20,000 is the best Qualcomm can do in multi-core tests, you are in for a shock. There’s another SKU in the Snapdragon X2 lineup that smokes most of Apple’s Silicon.
The beast processor is Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme “X2E-96-100. This has 4,072 points in single-score and a whopping 23,611 in multi-core. On single-core, it’s effectively in M4 Max territory, which is usually in the 4,000 range.
On multi-core, Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme is slightly ahead of what you usually see for M4 Pro (we spotted multiple listings showing M4 Pro at 23,000 for multi-core).
However, Elite Extreme is still behind M4 Max, which can go above 26,000 points in multi-core tests.
Here’s a table comparing Snapdragon X2 X2E-80-100, X2E-88-100, and X2E-96-100 (Elite Extreme) with Apple M lineup:
| Chip | Cores | Geekbench 6.5 Single-core | Geekbench 6.5 Multi-core |
|---|---|---|---|
| X2E-80-100 | 12 | 3,850 | 16,171 |
| X2E-88-100 | 18 | 3,838 | 20,320 |
| X2E-96-100 (Elite Extreme) | 18 | 4,072 | 23,611 |
| Apple M3 | Base | 2,997 (2,976–3093) | 11,464 (10,655–12,031) |
| Apple M3 Pro | 12 | 3,136 (3,078–3146) | 15,422 (14,691–15,877) |
| Apple M3 Max | 16 | 3,134 (3,031–3175) | 21,220 (21,083–21,409) |
| Apple M4 | 10 | 3,783 (3,715–3913) | 15,426 (15,172–15,564) |
| Apple M4 Pro | 14 | 3,918 (3,870–3976) | 23,081 (22,696–23,164) |
| Apple M4 Max | 16 | 4,070 (4,025–4102) | 26,814 (26,610–26,873) |
| Apple M5 | 10 | 4,351 (4,298–4367) | 18,053 (17,795–18,126) |
Qualcomm has delivered with Snapdragon X2. Now, it’s your turn, Microsoft
Snapdragon X2 is clearly a strong platform, and now the ball is in Microsoft’s court. The company needs to meaningfully improve Windows 11 if it wants to compete with Apple.
We learned from Qualcomm that some of these Snapdragon PCs will begin shipping by April 2026 with Windows 11 26H1. This new release of Windows is based on a new platform update, and while there are no noticeable feature or UI upgrades, Windows 11 26H1 has been specifically optimized for Qualcomm’s new SKUs.
Sources believe that these chips can deliver even better numbers in benchmarks if Microsoft figures out something for Windows 11’s underlying performance issues.
