Qualcomm and Apple make some of the best smartphone chips. Hence, it’s always exciting to put them to the test. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, announced in late 2023, is already powering high-end phones from many brands such as Xiaomi, Samsung, OnePlus, Vivo, and more. The Apple A18, on the other hand, is a newer chip released in September. It is the driving force behind the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus.
Both Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Apple A18 make big performance claims over their predecessors. But how do the two chips stack up against each other? We’ll look at the benchmark data and key differences to pick the correct winner.
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Apple A18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | October 2023 | September 2024 |
| Process node | 4nm | 3nm |
| Manufacturer | TSMC | TSMC |
| CPU cores | 8 | 6 |
| CPU architecture | 1 x 3.3GHz — Cortex-X4 3 x 3.15GHz — Cortex-A720 2 x 2.96GHz — Cortex-A720 2 x 2.27GHz — Cortex-A520 | 2 x 4.04GHz (High-performance) 4 x 2GHz (Energy-efficient) |
| GPU | Adreno 750 GPU Hardware-accelerated ray tracing Support for Unreal Engine 5.2 Lumen Snapdragon Elite Gaming features | Apple 5-core GPU Hardware-accelerated ray tracing |
| NPU | Hexagon NPU engine Run AI models up to 10B parameters | 16-core neural engine 35 TOPS |
| Memory | LPDDR5X, up to 4800MHz Up to 24GB RAM | LPDDR5X, up to 7500MHz Up to 8GB |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth v5.4 Downlink: 10Gbps Uplink: 3.5Gbps | Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth v5.3 Downlink: 10Gbps Uplink: 3.5Gbps |
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple A18: Benchmark
[Note: For benchmark results, we tested the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (Snapdragon 8 Gen 3) and Apple iPhone 16 (A18).]
Geekbench
Geekbench is a popular benchmarking tool for measuring CPU capabilities of a device. Here, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has scored 2,287 single-core points and 6,992 multi-core points. The Apple A18 leads with 3,258 single-core points and 7,894 multi-core points.
As far as the raw CPU performance is concerned, the Apple A18 is ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Apple A18 | |
|---|---|---|
| Single core | 2,287 | 3,258 |
| Multi core | 6,992 | 7,894 |
AnTuTu
AnTuTu measures the overall capabilities of a device, while also detailing performance numbers of CPU, GPU, memory, and UX.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 scored 1,805,437 AnTuTu points, whereas the Apple A18 fell short with 1,762,656 AnTuTu points.
If you look at the AnTuTu score breakdown in the table below, the Apple A18 has a stronger CPU. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has significantly better GPU and memory scores, which makes it an AnTuTu winner.
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Apple A18 | |
|---|---|---|
| AnTuTu score | 1,805,437 | 1,762,656 |
| CPU | 452,262 | 449,432 |
| GPU | 663,679 | 711,513 |
| Memory | 402,251 | 230,885 |
| UX | 287,245 | 370,826 |
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple A18: Key differences
The Snapdragon chip has 8 CPU cores, whereas the Apple A18 has only 6 cores. Despite this, the A18 is leading the CPU chart on benchmarks. There are multiple reasons for this, one key reason being a higher peak frequency on the Apple A18 (4.04GHz vs. 3.3GHz on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3).
The process technology also affects the chip’s performance and efficiency. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is built using TSMC’s 4nm process, while the Apple A18 uses TSMC’s 3nm cutting-edge technology, which yields better performance and power efficiency.
Both chips have excellent GPUs: Adreno 750 on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and a 5-core GPU on the Apple A18. Both support hardware-accelerated ray tracing, while the Adreno 750 also has Snapdragon Elite Gaming features to enhance the gaming experience.
For machine learning and AI tasks, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 integrates a hexagon NPU engine with support for up to 10B parameters. The Apple A18, on the other hand, has a 16-core neural engine that can handle up to 35 trillion operations per second (TOPS).
Although both chips support LPDDR5X RAM, the Apple A18 has a higher peak frequency of 7500MHz (vs. 4800MHz on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3). For connectivity, both support Wi-Fi 7 and have the same peak upload/download speeds, with one difference being a newer Bluetooth standard on the Snapdragon chip.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple A18: Verdict
Both are high-performance chips and can smoothly handle day-to-day tasks and resource-intensive tasks, such as editing and gaming. However, from the benchmark data, it’s clear that the Apple A18 has better CPU performance, whereas the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 excels in GPU and memory performance.
There isn’t likely to be a massive performance gap between the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Apple A18 Pro. However, the latter should be more power-efficient because of the smaller transistor. The Apple A18 should offer better CPU performance and power efficiency. However, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 might be a better choice for high-end gaming.
Popular SoC battles:
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