Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Apple A15 Bionic
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In this comparison, we take a closer look at two SoCs, Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs Apple A15 Bionic, based on their benchmarks and specifications. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 comes with an octa-core CPU paired with an Adreno 840 GPU, while the Apple A15 Bionic comes with a hexa-core CPU and the Apple A15 GPU.
Why Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 is better than Apple A15 Bionic
- 43% Faster CPU clock speed (4610 MHz vs 3230 MHz )
- More advanced 3 nm process vs 5 nm
- Newer CPU architecture (ARMv9.2-A vs ARMv8.5-A)
- Geekbench 6 shows 51% faster single-core and 90% faster multi-core performance
- Better multitasking with 8 cores compared to 6
- Uses newer LPDDR5X memory compared to older LPDDR4X
- 149% higher memory bandwidth (84.8 GB/s vs 34.1 GB/s)
- 115% higher compute performance (3.68 vs 1.712 TFLOPS)
- 148% higher memory frequency (Up to 5300 MHz vs 2133 MHz)
- Released 4 years later - (september 2025 vs september 2021)
Performance scores
CPU score
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
98
Apple A15 Bionic
60
GPU score
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
97
Apple A15 Bionic
65
Memory score
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
100
Apple A15 Bionic
58
Total score
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
98
Apple A15 Bionic
61
AnTuTu 10
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 +172%
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
3,726,403
Apple A15 Bionic
1,370,514
| CPU | 1,075,208 | 397,445 |
| GPU | 1,385,137 | 346,512 |
| MEM | 400,897 | 164,227 |
| UX | 865,161 | 462,330 |
| TOTAL | 3,726,403 | 1,370,514 |
Geekbench 6
Single-Core
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 +51%
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
3,524
Apple A15 Bionic
2,341
Multi-Core
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 +90%
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
10,887
Apple A15 Bionic
5,742
| Single-Core | 3,524 | 2,341 |
| Multi-Core | 10,887 | 5,742 |
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
vs
Apple A15 Bionic
General
| SoC Name | Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | Apple A15 Bionic |
| Launch Date | september 2025 | september 9, 2021 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model Number | SM8850 | APL1W07 |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
CPU
| Core Configuration | 2 x 4.61 GHz (3rd-gen Oryon cores) 6 x 3.63 GHz (3rd-gen Oryon cores) |
2x 3.23 GHz Avalanche (Performance) 4x 2.02 GHz Blizzard (Efficiency) |
| CPU Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Max Clock Speed | 4610 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| Architecture | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv8.5-A |
| L2 Cache | 12 MB | 12 MB |
| L3 Cache | 8 MB | 32 MB |
| Process Node | 3 nm | 5 nm |
| TDP | - | 6 W |
GPU
| GPU | Adreno 840 | Apple A15 GPU |
| GPU Architecture | Adreno 800 | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU Frequency | 1200 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| Neural Processing Unit | Hexagon NPU | 16-core Apple Neural Engine |
| Shading Units | 512 | 128 |
| Compute Performance | 3.68 TFLOPS | 1.712 TFLOPS |
| Ray Tracing Support | Yes | No |
| Max Refresh Rate | 240 Hz | 120 Hz |
| Vulkan | 1.3 | - |
| OpenCL | 3.0 | - |
| DirectX | 12.1 | - |
Memory & Storage
| Memory Type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR4X |
| Frequency | Up to 5300 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Bus | 4x16-bit channels | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max Bandwidth | 84.8 GB/s | 34.1 GB/s |
| Max RAM Size | 24 GB | 6 GB |
| Storage Type | UFS 4.1 | NVMe |
ISP & Multimedia
| Max Camera | 320 MP | 12 MP |
| Max Display Resolution | 4K @ 60Hz | 2732 x 2048 |
| Video Recording | 8K @ 60FPS, 4K @ 120FPS | 4K at 60 FPS |
| Video Playback | 8K @ 60FPS, 4K @ 120FPS | 4K at 60 FPS |
| Video Codecs | H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, AV1 | H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, Motion JPEG, ProRes |
| Audio Codecs | AAC, LDAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV | AAC, AAX, AAX+, AC-3, AIFF, CAF, E-AC-3, MP3, MP4, WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | Snapdragon X85 | Qualcomm Snapdragon X60 |
| 4G | Yes | Yes |
| 5G | Yes | Yes |
| Download Speed | Up to 12.5 Gbps | Up to 7.5 Gbps |
| Upload Speed | Up to 3.7 Gbps | Up to 3.0 Gbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 6.0 | 5.0 |
| Navigation | NavIC, GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, QZSS, BeiDou |