Qualcomm unveiled an evolution of its Snapdragon 855 processor, promising a bump in performance and capabilities as it targets a slice of the mobile gaming and AI markets.

The Snapdragon 855 Plus offers a number of improvements over the silicon it unveiled in December 2018, specifically a 15 per cent increase in the speed of graphics rendering using its Adreno 640 GPU, along with higher clock speed using an octa-core Kryo 485 CPU operating at up to 2.96GHz.

In a statement, VP product management Kedar Kondap said the improvements in CPU and GPU “raise the bar for elite gamers”.

Qualcomm highlighted gaming-optimised hardware including a Vulkan 1.1 Graphics Driver, which it said is 20 per cent more power efficient than Open GL ES, while a range of software accelerators aid game reliability and reduce load times.

Also on the feature list is an AI Engine boasting “total capacity of more than 7 trillion operations per second” along with XR technology designed to work with compatible headsets and viewers.

The processor features a Snapdragon X24 LTE modem, with next generation compatibility coming in the form of Qualcomm’s X50 5G modem.

Qualcomm predicted the first commercial devices featuring Snapdragon 855 Plus will be available during the back-half of the year.