At every iPhone launch we expect the same faster and more powerful processor chat. With the new A16 Bionic, present only on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max models, the story was a little different: Apple preferred to focus on efficiency, GPU and image processing. Now we understand the reason better: a Geekbench test showed that the CPU performance of the new chip has almost no advances compared to the A15 Bionic.
The test was posted by Ice Universe on Twitter and republished by Gizmochina on Friday (9). It is not known how the user managed to run the evaluation, considering that smartphones begin to be sent on the 16th. But if the numbers are really an iPhone 14 Pro (or 14 Pro Max with the A16 Bionic), they are very close to the past generation.
The same A15 Bionic that teamed the IPhone 13 Pro models is now on the traditional iPhone 14 models. This is already a sign that Apple still believes they are good chips. However, the presentation itself seems to have gone the other way, rather than hitting the same performance key.
It is 40% faster than the best processor in the competition (which is in the race of the A13 Bionic);
Neural Engine can perform 17 trillion operations per second;
The GPU has 50% more bandwidth (it was not clear, but it may be compared to the A15 Bionic);
Note that Apple used the 2019 A13 Bionic to compare CPU performance compared to the new Apple Silicon. As I mentioned in the first point, the focus was another.
Apple mentioned the three focus areas for the A16 Bionic: efficiency, display and cameras. In fact, there have been improvements in performance. The new SoC is the first manufactured in the 4-nanometer process. It also contains approximately 16 billion transistors (almost a billion more than its predecessor).
So far, all natural. Here’s where the company introduces the Display Engine, the new component responsible for processing screen-related tasks such as refresh rate control, always-on screen, 2,000 nits brightness peaks, and anti-aliasing feature to make Dynamic Island animations better.A16 Bionic (Image: Reproduction/Apple)
Finally, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of marketing, commented that the A16 “flexes all muscles depending on the camera system”, which for the first time brings a 48 megapixel sensor. The “muscles” are the set formed by CPU, GPU, Neural Engine and image signal processor (ISP), which reach 4 trillion operations per photo.
Even if CPU performance has disappointed, you can tell that the A16 has brought exciting improvements in other areas of SoC. Apple already stays on top when we think of chips for iPhones and iPads —just can’t accommodate certain companies like it.
