“Gpu performance 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 at the same power consumption. That claims YouTube channel Geekerwan. It is the first time that Qualcomm has surpassed Apple in that area.

Geekerwan’s tests show that Qualcomm has taken a big step in the gpu area 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 benchmarking. As a result, it can create graphs that show how much power a SOC needs to achieve certain performances.

The better GPU performance in benchmarks does not immediately lead to better performance in games. The channel shows that the game Genshin Impact in 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 that: 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 rendering it at 720p by default. The phone does get warm and the power consumption shoots up.

In terms of CPU performance, the Apple A16 is still the boss of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. With similar power consumption, the Apple soc scores higher in Geekbench 5. The A16 is largely the same as the A15. That is also because Apple would have canceled a planned GPU upgrade.