Snapdragon 845 performance preview: small improvements to CPU, decent boost to web workloads, GPU sees 30% better performance, 30% improvement in power vs. 835
In what has become an annual tradition for Qualcomm, the company has once again opened the doors of their San Diego headquarters …
Context & Ripple Effects
Qualcomm detailed the Snapdragon 845 back in December, promising 30% faster graphics and better power efficiency, and AnandTech's San Diego preview is the first independent check on those claims. The verdict splits cleanly: the CPU is only a small step up from the 835, web workloads improve more meaningfully, and the GPU and power figures land at roughly the promised 30%.
That split matters because it sets the template for what a Snapdragon generation is actually selling. In the years of related coverage that follow — from the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 — Qualcomm keeps leading its announcements with GPU, AI, and efficiency numbers while CPU uplift stays in the 10–20% band.
First-order effects
- Phone makers building 2018 flagships on the 845 get a gaming and battery-life story rather than a raw-speed one, since AnandTech's measurements confirm the gains concentrate in the Adreno GPU and power draw, not the CPU cores.
- Qualcomm's December marketing claims are now validated where they were strongest (GPU, power) and exposed where they were thinnest (CPU), giving reviewers and buyers a precise map of what the 845 upgrade actually buys over an 835 device.
Second-order effects
- With CPU gains this modest, differentiation between consecutive Android flagships shifts to GPU-bound uses — gaming, rendering, sustained workloads — pressuring device makers to market around displays, thermals, and battery instead of processor speed.
- The pattern puts pressure on Qualcomm's rivals to match the efficiency-per-watt framing; a competitor still competing on peak CPU clocks is arguing against the metric the category leader has just anchored.
Third-order effects
- If the cadence holds — and the later coverage suggests it does, with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 pairing a 35% CPU claim against 25% GPU and 4.35x AI gains — flagship silicon increasingly becomes defined by which workloads it accelerates rather than by general-purpose core speed, pushing mobile SoCs toward workload-defined design.
- An annual launch rhythm where each generation's headline number migrates further from the CPU toward GPU and AI accelerators points to a structural split: general-purpose performance becomes a maintenance item, while specialized blocks carry the pricing power.
The trend: Flagship mobile SoCs are shifting from general-purpose CPU speed races toward workload-defined silicon, with GPU, AI, and power-efficiency gains carrying each year's pitch.