A18 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 4: A Comprehensive Performance Comparison

Apple’s latest A18 Pro chipset powers the iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, promising substantial improvements in CPU performance with a huge CPU performance increase while promising some GPU enhancements as well as NPU capabilities. Here we will compare with the upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 to see how it stacks up against.

A18 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 4

CPU Comparison

The Apple A18 Pro features TSMC’s 3nm process node, also used by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. Apple’s chipset has two performance cores that can hit up to 4.04GHz and four efficiency cores on the side for a total of six-core configuration. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is rumored to offer eight cores at the same time, along with Nuvia-designed Oryon cores. Early leaks suggest that two of these Oryon cores can reach up to 4.32GHz, while the remaining six are clocked at 3.53GHz. Unlike the A18 Pro, Snapdragon’s setup does not include efficiency cores.

Apple’s A18 Pro utilizes the Armv9.2a architecture with SME (Scalable Matrix Extension) support for enhanced AI performance, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 relies on the older Armv8 architecture. Geekbench scores reveal that the A18 Pro scores 3,409 in single-core and 8,492 in multi-core tests, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 scores 3,236 and 10,049, respectively. Although the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 multi-core performance is higher, the A18 Pro has an edge over single-core with a gap of just around 5%.

GPU and NPU Comparison

It is worth mentioning that the GPU of the A18 Pro has not changed much, but higher clock speeds and faster memory lead to a 20% acceleration relative to its predecessor. On the other end, Qualcomm’s new Adreno 830 GPU could edge out or downright surpass Apple’s A18 Pro in terms of ray tracing, on the soon-to-be-seen Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.

Apple continues to provide it with last year’s 16-core Neural Engine, for up to 35 TOPS. As for the performance of Hexagon NPU in Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, it is not that clear though either or we can say hopefully this will be better at running on-device AI models efficiently.

Connectivity

The iPhone 16 series from Apple will more than likely make use of the Snapdragon X75 5G modem, whereas the newer X80 is set to become available with Qualcomm’s new chipset. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 boasts Bluetooth 5.4, whereas the A18 Pro includes Bluetooth 5.3.

Conclusion

In broad strokes, the A18 offers greater performance per watt and single-core power while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 dominates in multi-core scores as well as GPU grunt. While real-world usage with the iPhone 16 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Gen4 is still largely uncharted territory, these initial comparisons should give us a good idea about what to expect from those upcoming chipsets in terms of performance.

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