Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max outshines Galaxy S25 Ultra in gaming efficiency and thermals with Wuthering Waves and Genshin Impact
According to synthetic GPU benchmarks, there is no denying that the Snapdragon 8 Elite SoC pulls well ahead of the Apple A18 Pro in tests such as 3D Mark's Steel Nomad, where the A18 Pro manages around 2,100 points compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite's impressive 2600 points. Real-life gaming is a different story, however, with Apple seemingly continuing to reign supreme in terms of efficiency and thermals.
As Dame Tech discovered in his recent testing, the iPhone 16 Pro Max does outshine the recently unveiled Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is powered by the Snapdragon 8 Elite for Galaxy SoC along with a larger cooling setup. As shown by recently leaked benchmarks, the performance difference between the standard variant and the "for Galaxy" variant is minimal. Moreover, do note that there may be discrepancies in the power consumption measurement methods between the two platforms, which is worth keeping in mind.
Apple A18 Pro: Efficiency champ
Starting off with Genshin Impact, we run into an issue - the Galaxy S25 Ultra is limited to 60 FPS, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max, clearly, is not. As a result, the iPhone 16 Pro Max clocked an impressive 95.2 FPS, while the S25 Ultra was limited to 59.9 FPS. Interestingly, however, the iPhone 16 Pro Max consumed 6.3 watts of power - mere 0.4 watts more than the S25 Ultra's 5.9 watts. Temperature wise, the iPhone 16 Pro Max managed to run cooler, at 41º C compared to the S25 Ultra's 43º C.
Moving to Wuthering Waves, both the devices were seemingly limited to 60 FPS, with the iPhone 16 Pro Max and S25 Ultra managing 59 FPS and 59.2 FPS respectively. The iPhone continued to be more efficient, drawing only 5.4 watts compared to the S25 Ultra's 7.2 watts, despite running at a higher resolution of 1705 x 786. Both devices managed 1% lows of 51 FPS, falling well short of the RedMagic 10 Pro's 59 FPS. Although, the RedMagic did consume a lot more power, at 9.1 watts.
Gaming smartphones reign supreme, but not in efficiency
In Zenless Zone Zero, the A18 Pro-powered iPhone 16 Pro Max pulled in 6.4 watts, while averaging 97.5 FPS with 1% lows of 63 FPS. The Snapdragon 8 Elite-powered Galaxy S25 Ultra, on the other hand, pulled in 6.5 watts despite only managing 59 FPS, likely due to yet another soft limit, with 1% lows of 48 FPS. Finally, we witness something very similar in Honkai: Star Rail 3, where the iPhone managed a whopping 104.6 FPS with a power draw of 6.3 watts and 1% lows of 64 FPS, compared to the S25 Ultra's 59.2 FPS with a slightly lower power draw of 5.6 watts with 1% lows of 30 FPS. The RedMagic 10 Pro (currently $749 on Amazon) managed 60.2 FPS with 1% lows of 57 FPS, and pulled in roughly around 7.2 watts.
Source(s)
Dame Tech via YouTube, spotted by Wccftech
