Qualcomm makes a lot of chips. There is a Snapdragon for every budget, from the entry-level 4-series to the upper mid-range 7-series and all the way up to the flagship 8-series. If you want the fastest Snapdragon in a phone today, only one chip matters: the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Here is everything you need to know about it, what phones it powers, and how it actually performs.
The Chip: Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 was announced by Qualcomm on September 25, 2025 at its annual Snapdragon Summit, and Qualcomm officially describes it as the world's fastest mobile system-on-a-chip. It is built on TSMC's 3nm process and uses Qualcomm's third-generation Oryon V2 CPU cores two Prime cores running at up to 4.61GHz and six Performance cores running at up to 3.63GHz.
The GPU is the Adreno 840, which delivers 23% better graphics performance than the previous generation. The Hexagon NPU the chip dedicated to AI processing is 37% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Elite from 2024. Cellular speeds have also improved, with the X85 5G modem supporting download speeds of up to 12.5 Gbps, up from 10 Gbps on the previous generation.
The special Samsung variant of the chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 For Galaxy, pushes clock speeds slightly higher the Prime cores reach 4.74GHz on this version, making it the fastest individual implementation of the chip available in any production phone.
How Fast Is It Actually
In Geekbench 6 benchmark testing, the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 scores approximately 3,920 in single-core and around 12,200 in multi-core. The For Galaxy variant scores slightly higher in single-core, consistent with its higher clock speed. In AnTuTu, devices running this chipset consistently hit scores above 4 million points the Vivo Pad 6 Pro with this chip recently recorded 4,132,697 in AnTuTu's May flagship tablet rankings.
For context, the Snapdragon 8 Elite from 2024 scored just under 3 million in AnTuTu. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from 2023 sat at 2.27 million. The performance trajectory across three generations is steep, and the Elite Gen 5 represents a significant step up even from the already-fast 2024 Elite.
The image signal processor also received a major upgrade Qualcomm claims a 4x improvement in dynamic range, with three 20-bit AI ISPs working simultaneously for better low-light photography and more realistic color reproduction.
What Phones Use the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
The chip is now in flagship devices from every major Android manufacturer. Samsung's Galaxy S26 series uses the standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Galaxy S26 and S26 Plus, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra gets the overclocked For Galaxy variant. Among phones tested, the Galaxy S26 Ultra's For Galaxy implementation currently leads all Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 devices in single-core CPU performance.
The Xiaomi 17 series launched with the chip, as did the OnePlus 15. The OPPO Find X9 Ultra uses it alongside the Find X9 Pro which uses the Dimensity 9500, making it one of the rare direct Qualcomm versus MediaTek comparisons on the same device family. The Honor 600 Pro, vivo X200 Ultra, and Motorola Razr Ultra also run the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in their respective configurations.
How the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Compares to Its Rivals
The two main competitors to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the flagship Android space are MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 and Apple's A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 series.
Against the Dimensity 9500, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 leads in single-core CPU performance and typically in overall AnTuTu totals, while the Dimensity 9500 is competitive in multi-core scenarios and has shown advantages in GPU ray tracing tests in real-world device comparisons. Neither chip has a sweeping advantage across every metric.
The Naming Confusion Worth Clearing Up
Qualcomm's naming between the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 can create genuine confusion. These are two different chips. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is the flagship, launched September 2025. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 is a slightly lower-tier chip that launched shortly afterward, designed for phones where the full Elite performance is not the priority. In AnTuTu, the 8 Gen 5 scores around 2.96 million lower than the 8 Elite and 8 Elite Gen 5. If you want the fastest Snapdragon in a phone, it is the 8 Elite Gen 5, not the 8 Gen 5.
Which Phone Has the Fastest Snapdragon Right Now
Based on benchmark results across devices currently available, the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra with the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 For Galaxy variant leads in single-core CPU performance among all Snapdragon-powered phones. The standard Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in the Xiaomi 17, OnePlus 15, and OPPO Find X9 Ultra all perform within a few percentage points of each other in the same tier.
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