Apple A19 Pro hands-on GPU benchmarks show 40% upgrade versus A18 Pro but the Snapdragon 8 Elite is hardly inferior
Apple's new iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max both feature the A19 Pro chipset. The new SoC has now been put through hands-on tests by notable reviewers, showing off its GPU performance in the process.
As tested by Xiaobai's Tech Reviews, Apple's A19 Pro scores 6,557 on 3DMark's WildLife Extreme test. The A18 Pro on last year's iPhone 16 Pro Max scores 4,812 on that same test comparatively, indicating about a 35% uplift in GPU performance across generations.
Interestingly, however, while the A19 Pro significantly outperforms its predecessor on this test, it still lags behind the Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Elite. The two chipsets score 7,003 and 7,156 respectively, and that gap will only widen, with the Dimensity 9500 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 both set to debut next week.
That said, the A19 Pro excels on a heavy raytracing benchmark like the Solar Bay Extreme test. It scores 2,411 versus the A18 Pro 1,612, indicating 50% better performance. Both the Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Elite are significantly weaker here, too, scoring 1,160 and 1,277 respectively.
It's a similar affair on Steel Nomad Light, where the A19 Pro scores 2,956 versus the A18 Pro's 2,102—a 40% differential. In comparison, a Snapdragon 8 Elite device like the OnePlus 13 (buy on Amazon) scored 2,599 on this test in our reviews, while the Dimensity 9400-powered Vivo X200 Pro scored 2,495.
Conclusively, the A19 Pro offers around 40% better GPU performance compared to last year's A18 Pro. The nature of benchmarks means there isn't a definitive winner when compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400, however, with those two offering better raw performance but significantly worse ray-tracing performance.
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