‘Gpu performance of Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is higher than that of Apple A16’

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 can achieve better GPU performance than the Apple A16 with the same power consumption. This is what YouTube channel Geekerwan claims. It is the first time that Qualcomm has surpassed Apple in this area.

Geekerwan’s tests show that Qualcomm has taken a big step in the GPU field with the 8 Gen 2 compared to the 8+ Gen 1 and 8 Gen 1. The YouTube channel has focused, among other things, on measuring the power consumption of SoCs at certain clock speeds in benchmarks. This allows it to create graphs that show how much power a SoC needs to achieve certain performance.

The better GPU performance in benchmarks does not immediately lead to better performance in games. The channel shows that the game Genshin Impact on the Apple A16 in the iPhone 14 Pro Max and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in the Xiaomi 13 Pro both lead to 55 to 58fps at similar settings, but the iPhone requires less power for this: around 4.5W versus 6.5W. The tests were done in GFXBench 5.0.

Due to limitations in cooling and power consumption, the phone does not get the most out of the Adreno 840 GPU, because it can play Genshin Impact at 4k at 30fps or at 1440p at 60fps, while it renders it at 720p by default. The phone does get warm and the power consumption increases.

In terms of CPU performance, the Apple A16 still beats the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. With a comparable power consumption, the Apple SoC scores higher in Geekbench 5. The A16 is largely the same as the A15. This is also because Apple is said to have canceled a planned GPU upgrade.