Apple’s A-series application processors (AP) are known for their outstanding single-core Geekbench scores and according to an “X” post from one Nguyen Phi Hung (via Wccftech), the A18 Pro recently scored a single-core score of 3500 on Geekbench 6. That even tops the 3076 single-core score rung up by the M3 powerhouse SoC. The multi-core score was 8200. To put that in some context, the A17 Pro that powers my iPhone 15 Pro Max recently scored single and multi-core scores of 2890 and 7145 respectively.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 AP, with its sparkly new custom Qualcomm Oryon cores replacing the Arm Cortex cores, recently scored 2845 on the single-core test and a very impressive 10628 for the multi-core score. The reason for the big difference in the multi-core scores registered by the A18 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 can be due to the different configurations used by the chips.
Rumored A18 Pro Geekbench 6 score
Apple uses a six-core setup with two performance cores and four low-power efficiency cores for the A18 Pro while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has a configuration that eschews efficiency cores altogether. Qualcomm’s chip will include two big “Phoenix” cores and six medium “Phoenix” cores. This gives us just the performance side to compare, not the power-efficiency side. Both chips, though, will be produced by TSMC’s second-gen N3E 3nm process node so in theory, efficiency could be close to the same for both SoCs.
Hung goes on to say in a follow-up tweet that it is too early meaning that the A18 Pro has just started the testing process. He says that the 3500 single-core score “looks like the absolute maximum.” There are months to go before the chip makes its debut in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. The iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus are expected to be equipped with the A18 Bionic which will also be built using TSMC’s N3E 3nm node.
