While Apple has been making huge strides with its own Mac chips in recent years, we haven’t really seen anything in the Windows world that can match it for both performance and efficiency at the same time. Now, Qualcomm is claiming its upcoming Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite chips can finally do just that — but there’s a serious catch involved.
According to PC World, Qualcomm demoed the Snapdragon X Elite at its Snapdragon Technology Summit, where the chipmaker claimed that its latest efforts would trounce everything that came before it, in particular Intel’s 13th-generation processors.
In that demo, reporters were shown a set of pre-performed benchmarks that put Qualcomm’s chips right at the top of the pile across a variety of tests. For example, in Cinebench 2024, the Snapdragon X Elite chip scored 1,227 in the single-threaded test and 136 in the multi-threaded test. The closest non-Qualcomm competitor was the Intel Core i7-13800H, which scored 996 and 115, respectively.
Elsewhere, Qualcomm has previously claimed that its latest Snapdragon X chips could go toe-to-toe with the Intel Core i9-13980HK. However, none of the benchmarks provided by PC World actually show that chip competing against the Snapdragon X, so we can’t be sure that those claims hold water.
As impressive as these results are, they raise a few questions. For one thing, both Apple and Intel are due to launch new chips — in Apple’s case, later today — that could blow the Snapdragon X out of the water. Apple’s M3 series chips are expected to be a major step up over the M2 (which Qualcomm claimed its Snapdragon X trounced), while Intel’s Meteor Lake chips have similarly high expectations.
Plus, it’s not like Qualcomm can say consumers can get their hands on the Snapdragon X right now, as it’s not due out for months. By that time, its apparent performance prowess could look pretty outdated, providing its rivals’ offerings are as strong as they’re rumored to be.
That said, it’s encouraging to see more competition in the PC space to challenge the dominance of Intel and AMD. Because the Snapdragon X is built on Arm architecture, it should be able to combine top-level performance with solid efficiency, enabling it to balance low temperatures and high output.
That’s something PC chips have struggled with for years — Intel and AMD perform well, but often ramp up the heat and power draw in ways Apple silicon never does. If Qualcomm can finally offer an Apple-like chip to Windows users, that’ll be a step forward for the PC world, regardless of whether Meteor Lake and the M3 outperform it in the long run.
Nearly a month after announcing the GPT-6.1 Sol model, OpenAI unveiled GPT-6.1 Terra today. The latest addition to the family focuses on computer use, visual reasoning, coding, and professional work, while costing 50% less through the API than GPT-5.6 Terra.
OpenAI says Terra can handle everything from filling out browser forms and working inside spreadsheets to interpreting technical drawings and editing videos. The company says it can also complete computer-based tasks more than three times faster than GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol.
ASUS has started selling its UGen Intel Arc Pro B70 graphics card in Europe, bringing its take on Intel’s workstation GPU to customers with a hefty €1,799 recommended price. The card is available in Germany and Austria, while ASUS lists it at CHF 1,799 in Switzerland.
Intel first introduced the Arc Pro B70 in March 2026, with its own branded model starting at $949. ASUS’s version arrives several months later with the same core GPU architecture but a different cooling design and a higher power rating. The price also places it well above Intel’s original starting point, although the two prices are not directly comparable because ASUS’s European figure includes VAT.
Anthropic has officially filed to go public, and buried inside its S-1 is a blunt warning about the technology at the center of its business. The maker of Claude AI says advanced AI could cause everything from large-scale cyberattacks and geopolitical instability to catastrophic or even existential risks for humanity.
The warnings take up a surprisingly large part of the filing. Axios notes that more than 90 pages, or roughly a third of the prospectus, focus on risk factors. Many of them warn about what could happen as AI systems become more capable and autonomous.