Sep 21, 2024 15:00:00

How much has the iPhone 16's A18 chip, which supports Apple Intelligence, evolved from the previous generation? Benchmark comparison

Apple's

iPhone 16 , which was released on Friday, September 20, 2024, is equipped with the A18 SoC, which was developed for AI, and is the first iPhone without a brand name to support Apple's proprietary AI function , Apple Intelligence . At the time of writing, Apple Intelligence is not yet available in Japan, but I was curious to see how much the A18 has evolved from the previous generation, so I compared the benchmark results with the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro.

iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus - Apple (Japan)
https://www.apple.com/jp/iphone-16/

For this reason, I prepared the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 16. I decided to use ' Geekbench 6 ' and ' Geekbench AI ' to compare the performance of the CPU, GPU, and AI accelerator of the installed SoC.

The specifications of the SoC installed in the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 16 are as follows. The benchmark test was performed three times at room temperature of 25°C, and the highest score was the result. Click

here to jump to the table summarizing the benchmark results of the three models.

		iPhone 15	iPhone 15 Pro	iPhone 16
On-board SoC		A16 Bionic	A17 Pro	A18
architecture		64bit ARMv8.6-A	64bit ARMv8.6-A	64bit ARMv9.2-A
Manufacturing Process		TSMC 4nm (N4P)	TSMC 3nm (N3)	TSMC 3nm (N3E)
CPU	core	6 cores: 2 high-performance cores + 4 high-efficiency cores	6 cores: 2 high-performance cores + 4 high-efficiency cores	6 cores: 2 high-performance cores + 4 high-efficiency cores
	L1 Instruction Cache	128KB	128KB	128KB
	L1 Data Cache	64KB	64KB	64KB
	L2 Cache	16MB (high performance core) 4MB (high efficiency core)	16MB (high performance core) 4MB (high efficiency core)	16MB (high performance core) 4MB (high efficiency core)
GPU		Apple A16 GPU 5-core	Apple A17 Pro GPU 6 cores	Apple A18 GPU 5-core
AI Accelerator		Apple Neural Engine 16 cores	Apple Neural Engine 16 cores	Apple Neural Engine 16 cores
RAM		6GB	8GB	8GB

◆iPhone 16-A18
First, the CPU benchmark results. The A18's CPU single-core performance was 3213, and the CPU multi-core performance was 7786.

The single-core performance breakdown is as follows:

The multi-core performance breakdown is as follows:

The GPU's Metal benchmark score was 27974.

Here's a breakdown of Metal performance:

Here are the scores from Geekbench AI. The 'Single Precision Score' was 4238 for

single-precision floating-point calculations, the Half Precision Score was 32251 for half-precision floating-point calculations, and the Quantized Score was 44326 for quantized calculations.

The accuracy and score of the calculations performed are as follows:

◆iPhone 15-A16 Bionic
The A16 Bionic CPU score for the iPhone 15 was 2601 for single-core performance and 6452 for multi-core performance. The results this time are for 'Your Device,' and the 'Average' displayed below it is the average score for that SoC in Geekbench 6.

The single-core performance breakdown is as follows:

The multi-core performance breakdown is as follows:

The GPU's Metal benchmark score is 22968.

Here's a breakdown of Metal performance:

The performance scores from Geekbench AI were Single Precision Score of 2231, Half Precision Score of 12798, and Quantized Score of 14796.

The accuracy and score of the calculations performed are as follows:

◆iPhone 15 Pro - A17 Pro
The A17 Pro equipped with the iPhone 15 Pro had a single-core performance result of 2841 and a multi-core performance result of 7012.

The single-core performance breakdown is as follows:

The multi-core performance breakdown is as follows:

The GPU's Metal benchmark score is 28412.

Here's a breakdown of Metal performance:

The performance scores from Geekbench AI were Single Precision Score of 3947, Half Precision Score of 24439, and Quantized Score of 33716.

The accuracy and score of the calculation process are as follows.

Summary of results
The results are summarized in the table below. Looking at the scores alone, it can be said that the A18's CPU performance and AI processing performance are definitely improved compared to the A16 Bionic, let alone the A17 Pro. In particular, the A18 recorded 1.8 to 3 times the AI processing performance of the A16 Bionic, which is understandable why Apple was promoting it as 'developed for AI functions.' GPU performance has improved compared to the A16 Bionic, but there was almost no difference compared to the A17 Pro.

						iPhone 15	iPhone 15 Pro	iPhone 16
SoC						A16 Bionic	A17 Pro	A18
CPU					Single Core	2601	2841	3213
					Multicore	6452	7012	7786
GPU						22968	28412	27974
Neural Engine					Single Precision Score	2311	3947	4238
					Half Precision Score	12798	24439	32251
					Quantized Score	14796	33716	44326

Next time, I'll be reviewing the new features of the iPhone 16 and the parts that caught my attention when using it, so stay tuned.

·to be continued