Recently Samsung has dethroned Apple in global phone sales. The world of mobile tech is moving faster than ever to provide users with the latest and best technology available in order to make the user experience better. It’s a race against the clock to put out the best possible tech out there and mobile processors are no exception.
Snapdragon has made itself the staple in the world of Android phones. The performance provided by Snapdragon chips are truly unbeaten. Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is currently the latest from the company and is in use for top flagships such as Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra. At the same time Apple released its latest chip A17 Pro. Apple takes pride in its own innovation and is designed to outperform while delivering a premium experience to users. Now let’s take a look at how these two top contenders fare against each other when compared.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
The latest Snapdragon is a 4nm technology with Octa cores. It has 1x 3.3 GHz Cortex-X4, 3x 3.2 GHz Cortex-A720, 2x 3.0 GHz Cortex-A720 and 2x 2.3 GHz Cortex-A520. For GPU it has Adreno which is designed by Qualcomm having hardware ray tracing capabilities. It supports LPDDR5X memory. In case of connectivity it has Bluetooth 5.4 as well as Wi-Fi 7 Ready. The processor has a frequency of 3300 MHz. Lastly for power consumption it has a TDP of 6.3 W.
Apple A17 Pro
The latest Apple chipset is a Six core processor with 3nm technology. It contains 2x 3.78 GHz High-performance cores with 4x 2.11 GHz High efficiency cores. The 6-core Gpu is also designed by Apple having hardware ray tracing capabilities. It supports LPDDR5 memory. The chipset has Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E for connectivity. Moreover the chipset has a frequency of 3780 MHz. Lastly it has a TDP of 8 W.
Base Hardware Comparison
Now if we look at the specs and compare them we can see that both CPUs have slight advantages in different fields. While the Snapdragon provides 8 cores the Apple processor only has 6 cores. But Apple provides better single core performances as they are more optimized as we will see in the benchmarks.
In size comparison the Apple processor wins too as it has a 3nm technology compared with 4nm of Qualcomm. But smaller size doesn’t translate to lower TDP in this case as the A17 Pro consumes more power with a TDP of 8 W compared with the Snapdragon only at 6.3 W.
The Apple processor also has a higher base clock with 3780 MHz compared with 3300 MHz for the Snapdragon. In the memory department the Snapdragon offers a better option of LPDDR5X while Apple offers LPDDR5.
Apple also lags behind in the connectivity department providing Bluetooth 5.3 and Wi-Fi 6E while the Qualcomm option offers the latest tech Bluetooth 5.4 and Wi-Fi 7 Ready.
Both options offer hardware ray tracing. But Apple has a more optimized GPU compared with the Qualcomm version. Qualcomm is trying to improve in this regard. Nonetheless the GPU by Qualcomm is able to deliver nearly console equivalent graphics as it supports Global Illumination and Reflection System powered by Unreal Engine 5 Lumen.
Benchmarks
The benchmark tests done by Nano Review provide insights into the performance of the two processors. The A17 Pro outclasses the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in GeekBench 6 single and multi core testing. The Snapdragon had a score of 2193 compared with Apple’s 2953 in single core performance. In terms of multiple cores the performance gap is really small as Snapdragon scored 7304 compared with A17 Pro’s 7441. But in the 3D Mark benchmark the Snapdragon smashed the Apple processor with a score of 16526 while Apple only had 10008. This almost amounts to a 50% better performance from the Snapdragon processor.
So Who is the Winner?
It’s almost a bit tricky to distinguish both processors as the best out there as both of them are best in their own ways. Apple devices and hardwares are far more optimized than any other devices as Apple has a centralized system that enables developers to provide the perfectly balanced software for their hardwares. As a result the A17 Pro outclasses other chipsets.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has great base build with more cores and a better GPU but it lacks the optimized sophistication that Apple has mastered. Besides, even with better hardware it lacks behind in performance as the performance of the chipset also depends on the devices it is used in.
With everything in consideration it can be concluded that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 from Qualcomm is a better hardware. If proper optimizations are in place this chipset can outperform the Apple’s A17 Pro without a doubt.
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