Notebookcheck Logo

Apple A15 Bionic vs Apple A16 Bionic

Apple A15 Bionic

► remove from comparison Apple A15

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 A16 Bionic

► remove from comparison Apple A16

The Apple A16 Bionic is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the iPhone 14 Pro (2022) models. It offers 6 cores divided in two performance cores (codename Everest, up to 3.46 GHz) and four power-efficiency cores (codename Sawtooth, up to 2.02). According to Apple, the most improvements were made to the efficiency cores and the improved memory bandwidth (+50% thanks to LPDDR5). According to the die analysis from angstronomics, the e-core cluster still has the same 4 MB L2 cache, but the p-cores now offer 16 MB L2 cache. The SLC (System Level Cache) however seems to be reduced to 24 MB.

The Neural Engine still offers 16 cores and offers an increased performance of 17 TOPS (vs. 15.8 of the A15) for AI tasks. The integrated graphics engine still offers 5 cores and benefits mostly from the higher memory bandwidth. The new display engine supports adaptive refresh rates down to 1 Hz, the new always-on display, and improved anti-aliasing (for the dynamic island animations).

The CPU performance only shows small improvements to the last generation (Apple A15 Bionic). Still, the A16 is by far the fastest mobile CPU for smartphones and leaves e.g. the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 easily behind (in Geekbench 5.4 single- and multi-thread tests).

The chip is manufactured on the modern 4nm process at TSMC and integrates nearly 16 billion transistors (compared to the 15.8 billion of the A15 and 11.8 of the A14). Apple emphasized on efficiency and e.g. mentioned 20% power savings for the big performance cores and class-leading efficiency of the e-cores.

ModelApple A15 BionicApple A16 Bionic
SeriesApple Apple A-SeriesApple Apple A-Series
Series: Apple A-Series
Apple A18 Pro compare - 4 GHz6 / 6 cores
Apple A18 compare - 3.8 GHz6 / 6 cores
Apple A15 Bionic « 2.02 - 3.23 GHz6 / 6 cores32 MB L3
Apple A12 Bionic compare - 2.49 GHz6 / 6 cores
Apple A6x compare1.4 GHzcores
Apple A6 compare1 GHzcores
Clock2020 - 3230 MHz2020 - 3460 MHz
L2 Cache16 MB20 MB
L3 Cache32 MB24 MB
Cores / Threads6 / 66 / 6
Transistors15800 Million16000 Million
Technology5 nm4 nm
FeaturesARMv8 Instruction Set, Machine Learning Controller, 16-Core Neural Engine, Secure Enclave, Advanced Image Signal ProcessorARMv8 Instruction Set, Machine Learning Controller, 16-Core Neural Engine, Secure Enclave, Advanced Image Signal Processor
iGPUApple A15 GPU 5-CoreApple A16 GPU 5-Core
ArchitectureARMARM
Announced
CodenameCrete

Benchmarks

3DMark - 3DMark Sling Shot Extreme (ES 3.1) Unlimited Physics
100%
1 A15 +
min: 1852     avg: 2027     median: 1913 (18%)     max: 2307 Points
3DMark - 3DMark Sling Shot (ES 3.0) Unlimited Physics
100%
1 A15 +
2130 Points (24%)
Geekbench 6.4 - Geekbench 6.4 Single-Core
100%
A15 +
2332 Points (58%)
110%
A16 +
min: 2465     avg: 2574     median: 2566 (64%)     max: 2644 Points
Geekbench 6.4 - Geekbench 6.4 Multi-Core
100%
A15 +
5661 Points (22%)
118%
A16 +
min: 5939     avg: 6448     median: 6673 (26%)     max: 6923 Points
Geekbench 6.0 - Geekbench 6.0 Single-Core
100%
1 A16 +
2531 Points (80%)
Geekbench 6.0 - Geekbench 6.0 Multi-Core
100%
1 A16 +
6460 Points (27%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Single-Core
100%
A15 +
min: 1590     avg: 1723     median: 1734 (68%)     max: 1755 Points
109%
A16 +
min: 1878     avg: 1882     median: 1883 (74%)     max: 1885 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Multi-Core
100%
A15 +
min: 4559     avg: 4755     median: 4788 (9%)     max: 4914 Points
113%
A16 +
min: 4688     avg: 5273     median: 5433 (10%)     max: 5538 Points
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
100%
A15 +
min: 413.6     avg: 455.6     median: 451 (1%)     max: 507.3 ms
96%
A16 +
min: 411.4     avg: 462.6     median: 469.9 (1%)     max: 506 ms
Sunspider - Sunspider 1.0 Total Score *
100%
A15 +
77 ms (1%)
137%
A16 +
min: 55.7     avg: 56.2     median: 56.2 (1%)     max: 56.7 ms
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
100%
A15 +
min: 57143     avg: 63305     median: 64026.5 (48%)     max: 65969 Points
116%
A16 +
min: 68554     avg: 73020     median: 74261 (56%)     max: 75718 Points
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
100%
A15 +
min: 188     avg: 188.3     median: 188 (52%)     max: 189 Points
107%
A16 +
min: 201     avg: 213     median: 202 (55%)     max: 236 Points
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
100%
A15 +
min: 219     avg: 254.3     median: 250 (45%)     max: 279 Points
115%
A16 +
min: 286     avg: 288.3     median: 287.5 (52%)     max: 292 Points
Antutu v9 - AnTuTu v9 Total Score
100%
A15 +
min: 722973     avg: 788523     median: 800415 (39%)     max: 832548 Points
121%
A16 +
min: 949107     avg: 1066570     median: 971870 (47%)     max: 1373450 Points
Antutu v9 - AnTuTu v9 CPU
100%
A15 +
min: 192891     avg: 209810     median: 209802 (52%)     max: 227638 Points
117%
A16 +
min: 245636     avg: 275383     median: 246294 (61%)     max: 363306 Points
Antutu v10 - AnTuTu v10 Total Score
100%
1 A16 +
min: 1388870     avg: 1413010     median: 1399540 (46%)     max: 1464080 Points
Antutu v10 - AnTuTu v10 CPU
100%
1 A16 +
min: 364610     avg: 375815     median: 374190 (11%)     max: 390270 Points
PassMark PerformanceTest Mobile V1 - PerformanceTest Mobile V1 CPU Tests
100%
A15 +
min: 10349     avg: 10411     median: 10410.5 (1%)     max: 10472 Points
104%
A16 +
10812 Points (1%)
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
100%
A15 +
min: 1132     avg: 1156     median: 1145 (43%)     max: 1190 Points
116%
A16 +
min: 1260     avg: 1307     median: 1329 (50%)     max: 1332 Points
Power Consumption - Geekbench 5.5 Power Consumption 150cd *
100%
1 A15 +
min: 4.54     avg: 4.9     median: 5 (2%)     max: 5.64 Watt
135%
1 A16 +
min: 3.48     avg: 4.3     median: 3.7 (2%)     max: 6.25 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
100%
1 A15 +
min: 0     avg: 0.7     median: 0.7 (1%)     max: 1.415 Watt
81%
1 A16 +
min: 0.776     avg: 1.3     median: 0.9 (1%)     max: 2.87 Watt

Average Benchmarks Apple A15 Bionic → 100% n=13

Average Benchmarks Apple A16 Bionic → 114% n=13

- Range of benchmark values for this graphics card
red legend - Average benchmark values for this graphics card
* Smaller numbers mean a higher performance
1 This benchmark is not used for the average calculation

Add one or more devices and compare

In the following list you can select (and also search for) devices that should be added to the comparison. You can select more than one device.

restrict list:
v1.33
log 11. 10:03:47

#0 ran 0s before starting gpusingle class +0s ... 0s

#1 checking url part for id 13825 +0s ... 0s

#2 checking url part for id 14602 +0s ... 0s

#3 redirected to Ajax server, took 1752221027s time from redirect:0 +0s ... 0s

#4 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Thu, 10 Jul 2025 05:20:26 +0200 +0s ... 0s

#5 composed specs +0.004s ... 0.004s

#6 did output specs +0s ... 0.004s

#7 getting avg benchmarks for device 13825 +0.001s ... 0.005s

#8 got single benchmarks 13825 +0.009s ... 0.014s

#9 getting avg benchmarks for device 14602 +0.001s ... 0.014s

#10 got single benchmarks 14602 +0.007s ... 0.022s

#11 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.022s

#12 min, max, avg, median took s +0.013s ... 0.035s

#13 return log +0s ... 0.035s

Please share our article, every link counts!
Mail Logo
> Expert Reviews and News on Laptops, Smartphones and Tech Innovations > Benchmarks / Tech > Processor Comparison - Head 2 Head
Redaktion, 2017-09- 8 (Update: 2023-07- 1)