Apple introduced the A18 and A18 Pro chips with the new iPhone 16 Series at their September 2024 Keynote.
The A18 chip, built on a second-gen 3nm process, powers the standard iPhone models. It features a six-core CPU and a five-core GPU, offering a 30% boost in CPU performance over the A16 Bionic. Despite having one less GPU core than last year’s A17 Pro, it promises a 40% improvement in graphics performance. Additionally, it includes a 16-core Neural Engine, which Apple claims is twice as powerful as the previous generation.
Next up is the A18 Pro chip. It features a six-core CPU, a six-core GPU, and a 16-core Neural Engine. According to Apple, the CPU is 15% faster than the A17 Pro and retains the same two performance cores and four efficiency cores setup.
What’s a bit puzzling is that the Neural Engine on the A18 Pro also promises 35 TOPS, just like the A17 Pro. Yet, Apple claims it’s faster this time around.
The A18 Pro chip stands out with a 17% boost in memory bandwidth, which speeds up on-device models, making Apple Intelligence run 15% faster on the iPhone Pro. Apple also improved image processing, claiming that iPhone 16 Pro devices are twice as efficient at video encoding.
For gamers, the new thermal design helps manage heat better, and the chips now support ray tracing for more realistic graphics. Additionally, the iPhone 16 models will now support “AAA” games, a feature previously limited to the iPhone 15 Pro.
