iPhone 15 Pro Max sees marked performance and thermal management improvements after iOS 17.0.3 update

Right after launch, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max received criticism for their poor thermal management and throttling under sustained load. Apple promised a software update fix, and it now seems the iOS 17.0.3 OTA update significantly improves those weak points of the new iPhones.

As tested by Chinese reviewer "Ah Zheng Is Very Hard", the iPhone 15 Pro Max sees notable improvements in performance and thermals after the update to iOS 17.0.3. Performance-wise, the iPhone 15 Pro Max makes the jump from a GPU score of 27,163 on iOS 17.0.2, to 27,381 on iOS 17.0.3. CPU scores are identical, so it's likely said GPU improvements can be chalked up to variance.

Gaming performance definitely improves, though, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max running iOS 17.0.3 recording an average framerate of 116.9 FPS on Honor of Kings. On iOS 17.0.2, it only managed an average framerate of 105.4 FPS. Last year's iPhone 14 Pro Max, for some perspective, averages 103 FPS on iOS 17.0.3. 

There's a notable drop in temperatures while gaming as well, with the iPhone 15 Pro Max seeing around a 2°C drop in front and rear temperatures across a number of titles. Great success, some would say.

Buy the Apple iPhone 15 Pro on Amazon.