Apple A6 vs Apple A15 Bionic vs Apple A18
Apple A6
► remove from comparisonThe Apple A6 is a dual-core SoC found in the iPhone 5 with ARM compatible CPU cores. The A6 was developed by Apple and supports the extended ARMv7s instruction set. The clock rate of the CPU is between 800 to 1200 MHz depending on the CPU load. The integrated GPU is a PowerVR SGX543MP3 at 266 MHz.
Apple A15 Bionic
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The Apple A15 Bionic is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the iPhone 13 and iPad Mini (2021) models. It was announced late 2021 and offers 6 cores divided in 2 performance cores and four power efficiency cores. The CPU performance increases only slightly compared to the A14, but GPU (in the higher end models) offers higher gains.
The chip is manufactured in 5nm and integrates 15.8 billion transistors (compared to the 11.8 of the A14).
Apple A18
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The Apple A18 is a powerful smartphone processor and formal successor to the A16. This new member of the Apple A processor series debuted in September 2024 alongside the iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Plus; it features 2 performance cores and 4 efficient cores along with a 35 TOPS NPU and the 5-core A18 GPU.
The chip is normally paired with 8 GB of RAM. It is said to be in large part based on the v9.2A ARM microarchitecture for near-Apple M4 IPC. 5G, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.3, various satellite navigation systems and NFC are all supported here.
The more expensive A18 Pro SoC has the same 2 P-cores and 4 E-cores running at slightly higher clock speeds; its graphics adapter is on the other hand significantly faster than what the A18 has. Another crucial little detail is that USB 3.x support is either missing, or disabled somehow on the A18 for USB 2.0 speeds only whereas the A18 Pro has no such issue.
Performance
Multi-threaded benchmarks put it in the same ballpark as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and the Dimensity 9300. As expected from Apple, the A-series processor delivers breathtaking single-thread performance that just about matches the significantly more power-hungry Apple M3 chip. This suggests the P-cores can almost hit the 4 GHz mark when required.
Graphics
Like any modern graphics adapter, the 5-core A18 GPU is RT-enabled. It delivers benchmark scores that are most comparable to the G715 MP11 and the G615 MP6.
Power consumption
It appears the chip is able to briefly consume up to about 9 W when under high load, with average sustained power consumption figures hovering around 3-4 W.
The pretty modern TSMC N3E manufacturing process makes the A-series chip very power-efficient, as of late 2024.
| Model | Apple A6 | Apple A15 Bionic | Apple A18 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series | Apple Apple A-Series | Apple Apple A-Series | Apple Apple A-Series | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Series: Apple A-Series |
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| Clock | 1000 MHz | 2020 - 3230 MHz | <=3800 MHz | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Cores / Threads | 2 | 6 / 6 | 6 / 6 2 x Apple A18 P-Core 4 x 4.0 GHz Apple A18 E-Core | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Technology | 32 nm | 5 nm | 3 nm | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Architecture | ARM | ARM | ARM | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Announced | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L2 Cache | 16 MB | 4 MB | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L3 Cache | 32 MB | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Transistors | 15800 Million | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Features | ARMv8 Instruction Set, Machine Learning Controller, 16-Core Neural Engine, Secure Enclave, Advanced Image Signal Processor | 16-core Neural Engine, USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| iGPU | Apple A15 GPU 5-Core | Apple A18 GPU | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| TDP Turbo PL2 | 9 Watt |
Benchmarks
Average Benchmarks Apple A6 → 100% n=2
Average Benchmarks Apple A15 Bionic → 1632% n=2
Average Benchmarks Apple A18 → 2550% n=2
- Average benchmark values for this graphics card* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation
