Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 Benchmark Results: 3.74 Million AnTuTu but It Has a Thermal Problem

Can It Maintain Peak Performance?

Written by Ameer Hamza

Nearly every major flagship smartphone arriving in late 2025 and throughout 2026 is built around Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. Devices such as the Galaxy S26 Ultra, OnePlus Nord 6, OnePlus 15T, and the upcoming OPPO Find X9 Ultra all rely on this chipset to deliver top-tier performance.

There’s little doubt about its raw power. The bigger question is how well it performs once the workload becomes demanding for an extended period. To find out, we tested the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 using industry-standard benchmarks along with long gaming sessions to evaluate both peak performance and thermal stability.

Benchmark Performance

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 delivers exceptional benchmark numbers.

During AnTuTu V11 testing, the chipset reached 3,740,686 points, making it one of the fastest Android processors currently available. The custom eight-core Oryon v3 CPU contributed 1,054,518 points, while the Adreno 840 GPU achieved 1,368,986 points.

Geekbench results were equally impressive, recording 3,588 in single-core performance and 10,207 in multi-core testing.

Compared with last year’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, which scored 3,056,121 on AnTuTu, the new chip delivers roughly a 22% performance increase. It also maintains about a 13% advantage over MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500, which reaches 3,316,157 points in the same benchmark.

Breaking the Four Million Barrier

Although many smartphones powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 remain below four million points in AnTuTu, the RedMagic 11 Pro proves what the chipset is capable of.

Thanks to its aggressive cooling system and performance-focused software, the gaming phone surpasses the 4 million mark, recording 4,002,199 points.

This demonstrates that the chipset itself has enough performance headroom. Whether users actually experience that level of speed depends largely on the manufacturer’s cooling solution and software tuning. Phones with larger vapor chambers and more aggressive performance profiles can sustain significantly higher speeds.

CPU Performance Improvements

Qualcomm has pushed the custom Oryon v3 architecture even further this generation.

The two Prime cores now reach 4.60GHz, up from 4.32GHz on the previous model, while the six Performance cores operate at up to 3.62GHz. Combined with architectural refinements and larger cache, Qualcomm claims up to 20% higher CPU performance alongside a 16% improvement in power efficiency.

In Geekbench testing, the new processor delivers approximately 18% faster single-core performance and around 10% better multi-core performance than its predecessor.

Looking back two generations, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 offers nearly 65% more CPU performance than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, highlighting how much Qualcomm’s custom Oryon design has evolved.

Sustained Performance Tells a Different Story

While benchmark numbers are outstanding, prolonged workloads reveal the processor’s biggest weakness.

During a 15-minute CPU Throttling Test, sustained performance dropped to 58% of peak output, indicating significant thermal throttling under continuous stress.

GPU testing produced similar results. The Adreno 840 reached an impressive 6,867 points during the best loop, but after twenty consecutive runs, performance declined to 1,715 points, leaving only 25% stability.

These results show that although the chipset delivers exceptional short-term performance, maintaining those speeds becomes difficult as temperatures increase. The combination of high clock speeds and passive smartphone cooling eventually forces the processor to reduce performance to control heat.

Cooling Makes the Difference

Thermal management is becoming just as important as the processor itself.

Devices equipped with larger vapor chambers and advanced cooling systems are able to maintain higher performance for much longer. Smartphones like the Galaxy S26 Ultra include improved cooling hardware, although maximum performance modes often need to be enabled manually.

If long gaming sessions are important to you, cooling should be a major factor when choosing a phone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

GPU Performance

The Adreno 840 remains one of the fastest mobile graphics processors available.

Games such as Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile ran smoothly at maximum graphics settings without noticeable frame drops during normal gameplay.

However, synthetic GPU stress tests paint a different picture. In 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 achieved a high score of 7,240, but sustained performance declined significantly over repeated runs.

Interestingly, devices powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9500 maintained higher GPU performance during extended stress tests, suggesting better thermal efficiency in long gaming sessions.

This highlights an important point: chipset performance depends not only on the silicon itself but also on software optimization, thermal design, and overall device engineering.

Performance Comparison

Benchmark	Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5	Snapdragon 8 Elite	Dimensity 9500
AnTuTu V11	3,740,686	3,056,121	3,316,157
Geekbench Single	3,588	~3,033	~2,700
Geekbench Multi	10,207	~8,700	~9,100
GPU Stability	25%	~46%	Higher
CPU Sustained Performance	58%	~70%	Higher

Gaming Experience

In everyday gaming, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 performs exceptionally well.

Popular titles like Genshin Impact and Call of Duty Mobile maintain high frame rates with maximum visual settings during shorter gaming sessions.

After roughly 40 minutes of demanding gameplay, however, the phone becomes noticeably warmer, prompting the system to reduce GPU performance to manage temperatures. Most casual users are unlikely to notice this behavior, but competitive gamers who play for extended periods may experience reduced performance over time.

Final Verdict

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is currently the fastest Android processor available, delivering remarkable improvements in CPU power, graphics performance, AI processing, and gaming capabilities.

Its only significant limitation is heat management. Under sustained heavy workloads, thermal throttling reduces performance, making cooling hardware just as important as the chipset itself.

For everyday tasks, photography, productivity, and regular gaming, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 offers an outstanding experience. If your priority is marathon gaming sessions, choose a smartphone with an advanced vapor chamber and a well-designed cooling system to get the most from Qualcomm’s latest flagship processor.