Rumored Geekbench score for A18 Pro is just what you’d expect

Apple's A-series application processors (APs) are known for their exceptional single-core Geekbench scores and, according to a Message “X” from a certain Nguyen Phi Hung (via Wccftech), the A18 Pro recently achieved a single-core score of 3,500 on Geekbench 6. This even surpasses the single-core score of 3,076 achieved by the powerful M3 SoC. The multi-core score was 8,200. To put that in some context, the A17 Pro that powers my iPhone 15 Pro Max recently achieved single-core and multi-core scores of 2,890 and 7,145 respectively.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 AP, with its new custom Qualcomm Oryon cores replacing the Arm Cortex cores, recently achieved a score of 2845 in the single-core test and a very impressive score of 10628 for the multi-core score. The big difference in multi-core scores recorded by the A18 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 may be due to the different configurations used by the chips.

Apple uses a six-core configuration with two performance cores and four low-power cores for the A18 Pro, while the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has a configuration that avoids efficiency cores altogether. Qualcomm's chip will feature two large “Phoenix” cores and six mid-sized “Phoenix” cores. This only gives us the performance side to compare, not the energy efficiency side. However, both chips will be produced by TSMC's second-generation 3nm N3E process node, so in theory the efficiency could be close to the same for both SoCs.

Hung goes on to say in a follow-up tweet that it's too early, meaning the A18 Pro has just started the testing process. He says the score of 3,500 on a single core “feels like the absolute maximum.” There are months to go before the chip debuts in the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max. THE iPhone16 And iPhone16 Plus is expected to be equipped with the A18 Bionic which will also be built using TSMC's 3nm N3E node.