Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 vs Apple A18 Pro: Can the New Snapdragon Compete with Apple’s Best?

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro models were launched with the A18 Pro chipset. This processor was developed on TSMC’s 3nmm process with a 6 core CPU (2 x 4.05GHz + 4 x 2.2GHz), a 6 core GPU, and a 16 core Neural Engine that is capable of 35 trillion operations per second. The 6 core graphics unit has a 1.45GHz clock frequency with support for hardware accelerated Ray Tracing.

Meanwhile, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 is also rumored to be based on the 3nm process from TSMC. Similar to the A18 Pro, it also has two prime cores but with a higher 4.37GHz clock speed (previously expected to be 4.09GHz) and six efficiency cores clocked at 2.78GHz. This processor is rumored to be coupled with the Adreno 830 GPU, which may have a 1.25GHz clock frequency and Ray Tracing support.

So now that we know what each of these are packing, let’s see how they compare. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 recently surfaced on GeekBench, which is a popular benchmarking platform. It achieved a score of 2884 points in the single core test and 8840 points in the multi core test. It is worth noting that the score was for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which was running at a 4.09GHz clock speed and not 4.37GHz.

On the other hand, Apple’s A18 Pro received around 3,500 points in the single core test in GeekBench and 8,200 points in the multi core test. So it seems like Qualcomm is nearing Apple in terms of single core performance. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 likely won’t outperform the A18 Pro in single core, but it might be closer in performance than the previous generation. Qualcomm is set to launch its flagship chipset next month, so stick around for more updates.