For its latest high-end phones, the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max, Apple has once again built a dedicated SoC, the A18 Pro. An upgrade on the A18 that comes with the standard iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus models, here we’re looking at how the new chip compares to last year’s A17 Pro, which powered the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
Each year, a performance boost is to be expected, but how much more power can you expect from the new chips and what new features do they deliver?
In this guide, you can find out the main differences, including how the new chip is used with Apple Intelligence.
The A18 Pro uses 2nd generation 3nm architecture and is more efficient
Apple moved to a 3nm process for last year’s A17 Pro, and has a refined version of that same process for the A18 Pro, with smaller transistors. As a result, A18 Pro is designed to be more powerful and efficient.
According to Apple’s figures, the A18 Pro can deliver the same performance as the A17 Pro using 20% less power.
The A18 Pro is 15% faster than the A17 Pro
Last year, the A17 Pro was ‘only’ 10% faster than its predecessor, but this year, the A18 Pro goes further and is 15% faster.
That’s despite the CPU having the same arrangement of cores: the 6-core CPU has two performance and four efficiency cores.
In addition to the reduction in transistor size, larger caches and dynamic caching help boost performance.
The A18 Pro is built for Apple Intelligence
Apple Intelligence is used throughout the iPhone 16 range, and the A18 Pro is built to maximise the technology. That includes a 16-core neural engine, which is capable of 35-trillion operations per second, as well as having 17% more memory bandwidth.
There are new Machine Learning accelerators that are directly programmable, which unlocks some new features, with some Apple Intelligence features limited to the iPhone 16 Pro.
The A18 Pro has a 20% faster GPU
Although the A18 Pro and A17 Pro both have a six-core GPU, the A18 Pro’s GPU is 20% faster, according to Apple’s benchmarks. Again, efficiencies through the new architecture help boost performance.
Apple also says that the A18 Pro is up to two times faster at ray tracing.
The A18 Pro has new dedicated media features, including a new video encoder and image signal processor (ISP), both of which support up to two times the amount of data.
This enables new features, including 120fps 4K video, which supports frame-by-frame cinematic colour grading in Dolby Vision.
