Apple A17 Pro disappoints in maiden Geekbench run; rumour suggests it is a rebadged A16 Bionic

Like last year, Apple spent little time talking about its shiny new mobile SoC, the A17 Pro. Given that it is the world's first commercially available 3 nm smartphone SoC, one would expect a more detailed presentation. A trio of recently unearthed Geekbench listings could explain Apple's silence.

The Apple A17 Pro scored 2,914 and 7,199 in Geekbench 6.2's single and multi-core tests. Compared to the A16 Bionic, this accounts for a ~10% increase in single-core performance and 5% in multi-core. The former is more or less on par with Apple's claims. It also confirms an earlier rumour which suggested Apple was forced to nerf the A17 Pro's performance.

While the number is disappointingly low, it could be marginally better once retail units are out and about. Besides, Apple may have emphasised more on the GPU-specific improvements to cement the A17 Pro's position as a gaming powerhouse with hardware-accelerated raytracing and the ability to run AAA games such as Resident Evil 4. 

@Tech_Reve stumbled upon some interesting information on Weibo. It seems that the A17 Pro is essentially an A16 Bionic with an additional GPU core and a few minor tweaks. Apple may have been forced to redesign the chip at some point due to issues with TSMC's N3E node. Perhaps we'll see the true potential of the A17 Pro next year alongside its N3E version.

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