Should I upgrade to the iPhone 16 Pro with the A18 Pro? We compared the benchmark results with the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16



Apple's

iPhone 16 Pro/Pro Max , released on Friday, September 20, 2024, is a flagship model equipped with the A18 Pro SoC, which was developed specifically for AI, and is compatible with Apple's proprietary AI function, Apple Intelligence. To check the performance of the A18 Pro installed in the iPhone 16, we compared the benchmark results with the iPhone 16 equipped with the A18 and the previous generation iPhone 15 Pro equipped with the A17 Pro.

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

The specifications of the SoC installed in the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Pro are as follows. Click here to jump to the table summarizing the benchmark results of the three models.
iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Pro
On-board SoC A17 Pro A18 A18 Pro
architecture 64bit ARMv8.6-A 64bit ARMv9.2-A 64bit ARMv9.2-A
Manufacturing Process TSMC 3nm (N3) TSMC 3nm (N3E) 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 A17 Pro GPU 6 cores Apple A18 GPU 5-core Apple A18 GPU 6 cores
AI Accelerator Apple Neural Engine 16 cores
35TOPS		 Apple Neural Engine 16 cores
35TOPS		 Apple Neural Engine 16 cores
35TOPS
RAM 8GB LPDDR5 8GB LPDDR5 8GB LPDDR5


The A18 Pro's CPU core has been redesigned and the process rules have been changed from the previous generation A17 Pro, and Apple claims that it is 'up to 15% faster than the A17 Pro.' In addition, the Neural Engine, which is the NPU, shows the same computing performance of 35 TOPS for the A17 Pro, A18, and A18 Pro, but the A18 and A18 Pro have improved AI processing performance due to improved memory bandwidth.

If we compare the specs alone, the only difference between the A18 and A18 Pro is the number of GPU cores, but High Yield, an engineer at semiconductor analysis research firm Chipwise , points out that the A18 and A18 Pro are designed as different chips in the first place.



To actually compare the performance of the CPU, GPU, and Neural Engine, we ran benchmark tests on the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16, and iPhone 16 Pro using Geekbench 6 and Geekbench AI . The tests were run three times at a room temperature of 25°C, and the highest score was recorded as the result.



◆iPhone 15 Pro
First, here are the benchmark results for the iPhone 15 Pro, the only one of the three models in the iPhone 15 series. The CPU's single-core performance was 2842, and the multi-core performance was 7020.



The GPU performance score was 28562.



Geekbench AI benchmark test results for AI performance.

Single Precision score was 4002, Half Precision score was 24371, and Quantized score was 33479.



◆iPhone 16
Next, the CPU benchmark results for the iPhone 16, which is a lower-end model of the iPhone 16 Pro and is equipped with the A18 chip, showed a single-core performance of 3129 and a multi-core performance of 7622.



The GPU performance score is 28007.



The Geekbench AI scores were 4239 for Single Precision, 32264 for Half Precision, and 44258 for Quantized.



◆iPhone 16 Pro
The iPhone 16 Pro's CPU benchmark scores are 3376 for single-core performance and 8219 for multi-core performance.



GPU performance is 32954.



The Geekbench AI scores were 4601 for Single Precision, 32135 for Half Precision, and 44672 for Quantized.



Summary
The following table summarizes the benchmark scores of the three models.

iPhone 15 Pro iPhone 16 iPhone 16 Pro
SoC A17 Pro A18 A18 Pro
CPU Single Core 2842 2841 3376
Multicore 7020 7012 8219
GPU 28562 28412 32954
Neural Engine Single Precision Score 4002 4239 4601
Half Precision Score 24371 32264 32135
Quantized Score 33479 44258 44672


In terms of CPU and GPU performance, it exceeds the scores of the A17 Pro and A18. The benchmark score of the Neural Engine, which is the AI performance, is almost the same as the A18, and is better than the previous generation A17 Pro. There is almost no difference between the A18 and A18 Pro in the calculation processing using the Neural Engine, but the CPU and GPU performance of the A18 Pro is higher than that of the A18. Overall, the A18 Pro installed in the iPhone 16 Pro has the highest performance. However, at the time of writing, Apple Intelligence, which demonstrates high AI performance, is not available in Japan, so unless you play games that require high graphic performance or use heavy applications, there is no need to replace it right now.

Related Posts:

in Review,   Mobile,   Software,   Hardware, Posted by log1i_yk