Qualcomm's heat secret: samsung's hpb now fueling snapdragon

It wasn’t that long ago that whispers of Samsung’s Exynos APs being a disaster—a consistent, frustrating problem—were the loudest in the industry. Now, Qualcomm’s quietly adopting a key element from Samsung’s success: the heat Path Block, or HPB. The shift is significant, and far from a simple copycat move.

A copper solution, born from crisis

Initially, Samsung’s Exynos 2600, designed to combat thermal throttling in the Galaxy S26 series, introduced the HPB – a substantial copper heat sink directly atop the processor. This wasn’t just aesthetic; it forced a redesign, relocating DRAM to the side of the chip to maximize direct contact with the heat sink. The result? A 30% reduction in operating temperatures compared to previous Exynos iterations. It was a calculated risk, and it paid off.

The hpb’s journey continues

That improved HPB design has now been refined for the Exynos 2700, integrated into devices like the Galaxy S26 and S26+ shipping in Europe, South Korea, India, and across Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. In the US, Canada, and China, those same devices rely on the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5. But the story doesn’t end there. Qualcomm is now leveraging a similar approach with its Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 series, though early reports suggest it’s less effective than Samsung’s implementation – a crucial detail often overlooked.

Sf2p and the 7-core gamble

The Exynos 2700 utilizes Samsung Foundry’s enhanced SF2P 2nm process, boasting a 12% performance boost and a 25% reduction in power consumption. Qualcomm, however, is experimenting with a “binned” 7-core variant of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, sacrificing one performance core to dial back clock speeds and achieve a lower, more palatable price point – potentially around $300 per chip. This move will likely see the SoC utilized in sub-flagship devices.

Side-by-side: a second generation approach

The latest iteration, dubbed ‘Side-by-Side’ (SbS), further refines the setup. The Exynos 2700 and DRAM are now positioned adjacent to each other, with the second-generation Heat Path Block directly above them, drawing heat from both components and dispersing it away from the CPU. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 employs a similar HPB, but with noticeably less thermal performance. Reptalica’s recent observations confirm this discrepancy, highlighting Samsung’s continued ingenuity.

Looking ahead: two snapdragon 8 elite gen 6 variants

Don’t expect a deluge of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 variants. Qualcomm is sticking with just two: the high-end SM8975, featuring LPDDR6 RAM and supporting nearly double the memory bandwidth – vital for improving on-device AI processing, and the cost-conscious SM8950 utilizing LPDDR5X. It’s a strategic move to maintain premium pricing on devices like the Galaxy S27 Ultra. Qualcomm’s shift to a 2+3+3 cluster configuration, incorporating a 16MB L2 cache, underscores their commitment to latency reduction.