Apple A16 Bionic vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
Across 12 measured categories, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 comes out ahead.
I put the Apple A16 Bionic and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 side by side to see how they really compare. On graphics, the Apple A16 Bionic runs the Apple A16 GPU while the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 runs the Adreno 840. Below I go through the CPU, GPU, memory and connectivity, then the benchmark scores, so you can work out which one is the better fit for you.
Where each chip wins
Apple A16 Bionic
1 advantage
-
Larger L3 cache
24 MB vs 8 MB
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
9 advantages
-
133% higher AnTuTu score
37.89 Lakhs vs 16.28 Lakhs
-
67% faster Geekbench multi-core score
10,983 vs 6,562
-
37% faster Geekbench single-core score
3,690 vs 2,686
-
1,150 MHz higher CPU clock
4610 MHz vs 3460 MHz
-
Newer CPU architecture
ARMv9.2-A vs ARMv8.6-A
-
1 nm smaller semiconductor size
3 nm vs 4 nm
-
Higher GPU FLOPS
3686 GFLOPS vs 1.789 TFLOPS
-
Newer memory type
LPDDR5X vs LPDDR5
-
2,100 MHz higher RAM speed
5300 MHz vs 3200 MHz
Benchmark charts
AnTuTu v11 Total
Geekbench Single-Core
Geekbench Multi-Core
Specifications Comparison
Here is how the Apple A16 Bionic and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 compare across every spec. In each row, the stronger value is highlighted so the differences are easy to spot.
| Launch Date | September 2022 | September 2025 |
|---|---|---|
| Chipset Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Manufacturer | Apple | Qualcomm |
| Model Number | APL1W10 | SM8850 |
| Total Cores | 6 | 8 |
|---|---|---|
| Core Configuration | 2x 3.46 GHz Everest Performance cores 4x 2.02 GHz Sawtooth Efficiency cores |
2 x 4.61 GHz (3rd-gen Oryon cores) 6 x 3.63 GHz (3rd-gen Oryon cores) |
| Max Frequency | 3460 MHz | 4610 MHz |
| Instruction Set | ARMv8.6-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| Process Node | 4 nm | 3 nm |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| L2 Cache | 16 MB | 12 MB |
| L3 Cache | 24 MB | 8 MB |
| TDP | 8 W | - |
| GPU Name | Apple A16 GPU | Adreno 840 |
|---|---|---|
| GPU Frequency | 1398 MHz | 1200 MHz |
| Shading Units | 128 | 512 |
| FLOPS | 1.789 TFLOPS | 3686 GFLOPS |
| Ray Tracing Support | No | Yes |
| NPU | Neural Engine | Hexagon NPU |
| API Support | Metal 3, Vulkan 1.3, OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 3.0 | Vulkan 1.4, OpenCL 3.0, OpenGL ES 3.2 |
| RAM Type | LPDDR5 | LPDDR5X |
|---|---|---|
| RAM Frequency | 3200 MHz | 5300 MHz |
| Memory Bus | 4x 16-bit | 4x16-bit |
| Max Bandwidth | 51.2 GB/s | 84.8 GB/s |
| Max RAM Size | 6 GB | 24 GB |
| Storage Type | NVMe | UFS 4.1 |
| Camera Support | 48 MP | 320 MP |
|---|---|---|
| Video Capture | 4K at 60FPS, 8K at 30FPS | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
| Max Display Resolution | 2796 x 1290 | 4K |
| Video Playback | 4K at 60FPS | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS |
| Video Codecs | H.264, H.265/HEVC, VP8, VP9, ProRes, Motion JPEG | H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, AV1 |
| Audio Codecs | AAC, AAX, AAX+, AC-3, E-AC-3, MP3, MP4, WAV, AIFF, CAF | AAC, LDAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV |
| Modem | Qualcomm Snapdragon X65 | Snapdragon X85 |
|---|---|---|
| Network Support | 5G | 5G |
| Download Speed | 7.5 Gbps | 12.5 Gbps |
| Upload Speed | 3.5 Gbps | 3.7 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi | 6E | 7 |
| Bluetooth | 5.3 | 6.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS | NavIC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS |
| Official page | - | Visit |
|---|
Benchmark results
| Total | 16,28,011 | 37,89,020 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 5,40,612 | 10,80,698 |
| GPU | 3,34,126 | 14,29,751 |
| Memory | 2,11,032 | 4,06,941 |
| UX | 5,42,241 | 8,71,630 |
| Single-Core | 2,686 | 3,690 |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-Core | 6,562 | 10,983 |
Overall Score
Each category scored out of 100.
| Category | Apple A16 Bionic | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Score |
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| GPU Score |
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| Memory Score |
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| Total Score |
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