A18 Pro Blows Past M3: Single-Core King, Multi-Core Mystery

Apple is currently developing the A18 Pro for this year’s iPhone 16 series, which has seemingly entered its testing phase ahead of schedule. Reports indicate that in the Geekbench 6 benchmark tests, the A18 Pro’s single-core performance surpasses that of the M3 series, although its multi-core performance leaves something to be desired.

According to Wccftech, the A18 Pro scored approximately 3500 in Geekbench 6’s single-core benchmark test and around 8200 in the multi-core test. In comparison, the M3 series scored 3076 in the single-core test, making the A18 Pro about 14% faster.

This year, Qualcomm is also introducing the fourth generation Snapdragon 8, rumored to score 2845 and 10628 in Geekbench 6’s single-core and multi-core tests, respectively. While the A18 Pro outperforms by 23% in single-core tasks, the fourth-generation Snapdragon 8 surpasses it by 29% in multi-core tasks.

Apple’s likely retention of a 2+4 configuration for the A18 Pro – two performance cores coupled with four efficiency cores – may impact its multi-core performance. Qualcomm’s abandonment of efficiency cores in the fourth generation Snapdragon 8 could undeniably boost its multi-core performance. Both the A18 Pro and the fourth-generation Snapdragon 8 are said to be manufactured using TSMC’s N3E process, allowing for a more direct comparison of the two SoCs in terms of performance and efficiency. Additionally, MediaTek is set to introduce the Dimensity 9400, also manufactured using the N3E process, continuing the Dimensity 9300’s 4+4 “all-big-core” CPU architecture, which is expected to deliver commendable performance.

The leak of the A18 Pro’s test results may be premature, as the chip is likely still in the early stages of testing. As time progresses, more accurate test results should emerge.