TL; DR
- Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series drops one Adreno GPU slice versus the standard chip.
- CPU, modem, NPU, and memory support remain completely unchanged between the two versions.
- Xiaomi’s testing shows roughly a 10% AnTuTu gap, with Redmi K100 Pro debuting the chip.
Qualcomm’s official documentation confirms a new tier in its 2026 flagship chip family, and Redmi is set to be the first brand shipping it. The new version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, the one that powered flagships like the Galaxy S26 Ultra, OnePlus 15, iQOO 15, and even Samsung’s latest foldables, features an identical CPU, but trims down on the GPU.
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Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V: What Do We Know?
The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series (SM8850-1-AB) carries the same Oryon CPU cores, modem, and NPU as the standard chip. However, Qualcomm has trimmed the graphics hardware. Essentially, it’s a binned version of the flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset.
The practise of disabling the faulty slice (the GPU in this case) and rebranding the chipset as a new model isn’t entirely new. We’ve seen Apple doing this over and over for its ‘e’ series iPhones. Instead of scrapping the silicon wafers that didn’t make it as the 8 Elite Gen 5, the company seems to be repurposing them to 8 Elite Gen 5 V.
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Where the regular 8 Elite Gen 5 runs its Adreno 840 GPU across three slices at 18MB of high-performance cache, the V Series drops to two slices with just 12MB of cache. This brings its GPU scale roughly in line with the non-Elite Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 rather than its flagship sibling.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 V: How Does It Perform?
Xiaomi’s own internal comparison puts the standard chip roughly 10% ahead of the V Series on AnTuTu. The gap traces almost entirely to the missing GPU slice rather than any CPU difference. Everything else, including the 3nm TSMC process, the X85 modem, storage and memory support, remains identical across both versions.
| Spec | 8 Elite Gen 5 (Standard) | 8 Elite Gen 5 V Series |
| CPU Cores | 2 Prime + 6 Performance | 2 Prime + 6 Performance |
| Prime Clock | 4.6GHz | 4.6GHz |
| GPU Slices | 3 | 2 |
| GPU Cache | 18MB | 12MB |
| AnTuTu Gap | Baseline | ~10% lower |
| First Device | — | Redmi K100 Pro |
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What’s interesting is that Redmi has already confirmed the chip will debut inside the K100 Pro and K100 Pro Max, launching in China on August 11. Personally, I don’t think this is something most buyers need to worry about. A 10% dip confined almost entirely to graphics, with the CPU untouched, is a reasonable trade for a lower price point
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