Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks still read well in 2026. The question now is whether the phone around the chip is worth choosing.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks put Qualcomm’s late-2023 flagship at 2,345,563 on AnTuTu 11 and 2,203 single-core with 6,511 multi-core on Geekbench 6, according to NanoReview’s crowd aggregate. Those numbers no longer top the charts, since Qualcomm has since moved on to the 8 Elite line, but they still clear the bar for flagship gaming and heavy daily use. This profile lays out what the chip scores and where it fits for a used buy in 2026.
Qualcomm announced the chip on October 24, 2023, built on a 4-nanometer TSMC process. The CPU pairs one Cortex-X4 at 3.3 GHz with five Cortex-A720 cores and two Cortex-A520 efficiency cores, and the Adreno 750 GPU handles graphics and ray tracing.
The Short Version
- AnTuTu 11 total of 2,345,563 (CR).
- Geekbench 6 at 2,203 single-core and 6,511 multi-core (CR).
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks still place it in flagship territory for gaming, though newer chips score higher.
What the Chip Actually Is
The CPU layout is 1+5+2: one Cortex-X4 at 3.3 GHz, three Cortex-A720 cores at 3.15 GHz, two more A720 cores at 2.96 GHz, and two Cortex-A520 cores at 2.27 GHz. The X4 takes single-thread bursts, the A720 group carries sustained work, and the A520 pair handles background tasks. L2 cache is 1 MB, L3 cache is 12 MB, and the sustained power limit is 8 W.
Memory support runs to LPDDR5X at 4,800 MHz with up to 76.8 GB/s of bandwidth and a 24 GB ceiling, paired with UFS 4.0 or UFS 4.1 storage. The camera pipeline supports a single 200 MP sensor and 8K video capture at 30 frames per second.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks: The Headline Numbers
The headline Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks figure is the AnTuTu 11 total of 2,345,563 (CR). Sub-scores are 700,525 for CPU, 805,478 for GPU, 296,043 for memory, and 543,517 for user experience.
Geekbench 6 adds a CPU-only view: 2,203 single-core and 6,511 multi-core (CR). NanoReview’s summary scores rate CPU performance at 77, gaming at 65, and battery life at 91. The gaming mark looks modest next to the raw scores, a reminder that these are crowd aggregates, not controlled lab runs.
The fastest phone in NanoReview’s list, the Red Magic 9 Pro Plus, reaches 2,647,478 on AnTuTu 11 (CR), about 13 percent above the chip aggregate. Cooling and tuning explain most of that gap.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks by Phone
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks vary by phone. The Red Magic 9 Pro Plus and 9S Pro sit at the top of NanoReview’s list. Lower down the list, the Galaxy Z Fold 6 posts 2,456,969, the Zenfone 11 Ultra reaches 2,444,132, and the iQOO 12 Pro records 2,433,337 on AnTuTu 11 (CR). The gap across the whole list is roughly 9 percent, the margin of the phone, not of the silicon.
Gaming, Graphics and Everyday Speed
Gaming is where Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks stay most convincing in 2026. The Adreno 750 runs at 903 to 1,000 MHz with 1,536 shader units and 2,774 GFLOPS, and it supports hardware ray tracing. Qualcomm claimed at launch that ray tracing improved 50 percent over the previous generation, a company figure reported by WCCFTech, not an independent result.
The 3DMark record in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks backs up the gaming claim. Steel Nomad Light scores 1,652 with 79 percent stability, Solar Bay reaches 8,190 with 72 percent stability, and Wild Life Extreme records 4,676 (CR). Stability in the 70s means scores drop under sustained load.
Everyday speed holds up too. PCMark 3.0 gives the chip 16,318 overall (CR), with photo editing at 31,248 and video editing at 7,905. The video editing mark is the weakest, which fits a chip whose GPU muscle outruns its media pipeline.
CPU, Memory and the AI Pitch
The CPU story is quieter than the GPU one. A single-core Geekbench 6 score of 2,203 (CR) and a multi-core score of 6,511 keep the chip competitive with most 2025 upper-midrange silicon, but it trails the newer Elite chips by a clear margin. That gap shows up in heavy multitasking more than in scrolling, messaging, or streaming.
Qualcomm pitched the chip as its first mobile platform built for on-device generative AI, and the Hexagon NPU is the hardware behind that claim. In practice, the AI features buyers meet are phone-level, such as photo editing and live translation, and they depend on the phone maker’s software.
Connectivity: Who Actually Gains
The Snapdragon X75 modem supports 5G with download speeds up to 10,000 Mbps and upload up to 3,500 Mbps. That download figure is a theoretical peak under ideal conditions, not a speed any buyer should expect daily. The advantage matters most for buyers in the US, where carriers operate mmWave networks. Most buyers in Bangladesh, South Asia, and much of Europe run on sub-6 GHz 5G or LTE, where the extra modem headroom brings no daily benefit.
Battery: A Phone Question, Not a Chip Verdict
NanoReview rates battery life at 91 (CR). That number is easy to misread, since battery life is not something Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks measure directly. It reflects the endurance of the phones tested, and battery size, display, and software shape the result far more than the chip.
No chip winner on battery can be named, because battery life is a property of the phone, not the chip. Buyers who care about endurance should compare the specific phone’s battery capacity and screen-on time, not the chip inside it.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks and the 2026 Used Buy
For a used buy, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks are the strongest argument in the chip’s favor. AnTuTu 11 above 2.3 million and Geekbench 6 multi-core above 6,500 still describe a flagship-class phone. The risk is not speed but age: these phones are three years into their software support window, so buyers should confirm how many OS updates remain.
A 2024 flagship with this silicon delivers most of the everyday and gaming performance of a new phone. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks show the gap is narrowest in daily use, while the trade is a shorter update runway and a battery that may show wear.
- Pick an 8 Gen 3 phone if you want 2024 flagship gaming and camera hardware and you have checked the remaining software support.
- Skip it if you need the longest update window or the fastest sustained performance, and look at the newer Elite chips instead.
Quick Answers
What do Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks show in 2026?
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 benchmarks show a chip that still scores at flagship level: AnTuTu 11 at 2,345,563, Geekbench 6 at 2,203 single-core and 6,511 multi-core, and 3DMark Solar Bay at 8,190, all NanoReview crowd aggregates (CR). Newer chips score higher, but the gap matters most for sustained gaming.
Which phones use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3?
NanoReview lists the Red Magic 9 Pro Plus, Red Magic 9S Pro, Nubia Z60 Ultra, Honor 300 Pro, ROG Phone 9 FE, Redmi K70 Pro, ROG Phone 8 Pro, Galaxy Z Fold 6, Zenfone 11 Ultra, and iQOO 12 Pro. Xiaomi’s 14 series was first to ship with the chip, per WCCFTech.
Is the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 still good for gaming?
Yes, for most games. The Adreno 750 scores 8,190 on 3DMark Solar Bay and 805,478 on the AnTuTu 11 GPU sub-test (CR). Stability near 72 percent on Solar Bay means long sessions throttle somewhat, so a gaming phone with better cooling holds frame rates longer.
How does the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 compare with the newer Elite chips?
It sits a generation behind. The Elite line uses newer CPU cores and higher clocks, so it scores higher. The 8 Gen 3 still handles flagship gaming and daily use.
Does the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 support Wi-Fi 7 and 5G?
Yes. The chip pairs the Snapdragon X75 modem with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4, with 5G download speeds rated up to 10,000 Mbps under ideal conditions.
Sources
- NanoReview, Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 specs and benchmarks (CR crowd aggregate), accessed October 31, 2026. nanoreview.net
- WCCFTech, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Goes Official With Up To A 3.30GHz Clock Speed Boost, 50% Ray Tracing Performance Bump, On-Device AI Support and More, October 24, 2023. wccftech.com
Score methodology: Lab-reviewer (LR) scores come from named outlets’ controlled testing. Crowd (CR) scores come from aggregator databases (NanoReview) that pool user-submitted results and are less controlled. Company (MF) numbers are manufacturer claims. This article treats CR as directional and MF as attributed.
