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Apple A15 Bionic vs Apple A18

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 A18

► remove from comparison Apple A18

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.

ModelApple A15 BionicApple A18
SeriesApple Apple A-SeriesApple Apple A-Series
Series: Apple A-Series
Apple A18 Pro compare - 4 GHz6 / 6 cores
Apple A18 - 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
Apple A18 Pro compare - 4 GHz6 / 6 cores
Apple A18 « - 3.8 GHz6 / 6 cores
Apple A15 Bionic2.02 - 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 MHz <=3800 MHz
L2 Cache16 MB4 MB
L3 Cache32 MB
Cores / Threads6 / 66 / 6
2 x Apple A18 P-Core
4 x 4.0 GHz Apple A18 E-Core
Transistors15800 Million
Technology5 nm3 nm
FeaturesARMv8 Instruction Set, Machine Learning Controller, 16-Core Neural Engine, Secure Enclave, Advanced Image Signal Processor16-core Neural Engine, USB 2.0 (480 Mbps)
iGPUApple A15 GPU 5-CoreApple A18 GPU
ArchitectureARMARM
Announced
TDP Turbo PL29 Watt

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 6.3 - Geekbench 6.3 Single-Core
100%
A15 +
2332 Points (59%)
140%
A18 +
min: 3149     avg: 3263     median: 3263 (83%)     max: 3377 Points
Geekbench 6.3 - Geekbench 6.3 Multi-Core
100%
A15 +
5661 Points (22%)
142%
A18 +
min: 7663     avg: 8013     median: 8012.5 (31%)     max: 8362 Points
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Single-Core
100%
A15 +
min: 1590     avg: 1723     median: 1734 (68%)     max: 1755 Points
134%
A18 +
2327 Points (91%)
Geekbench 5.5 - Geekbench 5.1 - 5.5 64 Bit Multi-Core
100%
A15 +
min: 4559     avg: 4755     median: 4788 (9%)     max: 4914 Points
128%
A18 +
6130 Points (11%)
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 - Kraken 1.1 Total Score *
100%
A15 +
min: 413.6     avg: 455.6     median: 451 (1%)     max: 507.3 ms
157%
A18 +
min: 284.5     avg: 287.4     median: 287.4 (0%)     max: 290.2 ms
Sunspider - Sunspider 1.0 Total Score *
100%
1 A15 +
77 ms (1%)
Octane V2 - Octane V2 Total Score
100%
A15 +
min: 57143     avg: 63305     median: 64026.5 (53%)     max: 65969 Points
145%
A18 +
min: 90158     avg: 93106     median: 93106 (78%)     max: 96054 Points
WebXPRT 4 - WebXPRT 4 Score
100%
A15 +
min: 188     avg: 188.3     median: 188 (52%)     max: 189 Points
140%
A18 +
263 Points (72%)
WebXPRT 3 - WebXPRT 3 Score
100%
1 A15 +
min: 219     avg: 254.3     median: 250 (45%)     max: 279 Points
Antutu v9 - AnTuTu v9 Total Score
100%
1 A15 +
min: 722973     avg: 788523     median: 800415 (39%)     max: 832548 Points
Antutu v9 - AnTuTu v9 CPU
100%
1 A15 +
min: 192891     avg: 209810     median: 209802 (52%)     max: 227638 Points
Antutu v10 - AnTuTu v10 Total Score
100%
1 A18 +
min: 1419440     avg: 1525880     median: 1525870 (51%)     max: 1632300 Points
Antutu v10 - AnTuTu v10 CPU
100%
1 A18 +
min: 367061     avg: 397748     median: 397748 (12%)     max: 428435 Points
PassMark PerformanceTest Mobile V1 - PerformanceTest Mobile V1 CPU Tests
100%
A15 +
min: 10349     avg: 10411     median: 10410.5 (1%)     max: 10472 Points
121%
A18 +
12600 Points (2%)
CrossMark - CrossMark Overall
100%
A15 +
min: 1132     avg: 1156     median: 1145 (43%)     max: 1190 Points
127%
A18 +
min: 1407     avg: 1450     median: 1449.5 (54%)     max: 1492 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
114%
1 A18 +
min: 3.8     avg: 4.4     median: 4.4 (2%)     max: 4.91 Watt
Power Consumption - Idle Power Consumption 150cd 1min *
100%
1 A15 +
min: 0     avg: 0.7     median: 0.7 (1%)     max: 1.415 Watt
90%
1 A18 +
min: 0.693     avg: 0.8     median: 0.8 (1%)     max: 0.873 Watt

Average Benchmarks Apple A15 Bionic → 100% n=9

Average Benchmarks Apple A18 → 137% n=9

- 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

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v1.28
log 16. 18:51:27

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

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

#2 checking url part for id 18007 +0s ... 0s

#3 redirected to Ajax server, took 1739728287s time from redirect:0 +0s ... 0s

#4 did not recreate cache, as it is less than 5 days old! Created at Sun, 16 Feb 2025 05:19:29 +0100 +0s ... 0s

#5 composed specs +0.007s ... 0.007s

#6 did output specs +0s ... 0.007s

#7 getting avg benchmarks for device 13825 +0.001s ... 0.008s

#8 got single benchmarks 13825 +0.01s ... 0.017s

#9 getting avg benchmarks for device 18007 +0.001s ... 0.018s

#10 got single benchmarks 18007 +0.005s ... 0.023s

#11 got avg benchmarks for devices +0s ... 0.023s

#12 min, max, avg, median took s +0.012s ... 0.035s

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

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> 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)