Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: Benchmarks and Specs

Apple's in-house A18 chip powers the iPhone 16, while the A18 Pro drives the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max. But does the 'Pro' branding bring substantially better performance? To find out, we have compared the A18 and A18 Pro across a number of benchmarks including AnTuTu, Geekbench, 3DMark, Speedometer, and more. Now, let's go ahead and check out the performance difference.

Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: AnTuTu Score

In the AnTuTu benchmark, the Apple A18 chipset scored 1,790,331 points whereas the premium A18 Pro processor scored 1,859,039 points. The difference in performance comes down to just 3.8%. In fact, both processors have nearly identical scores in the CPU and GPU departments, the difference being negligible. The A18 Pro, however, has achieved a better memory score, so keep that in mind.

Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: Geekbench Score

Next, in the Geekbench 6 CPU test, the A18 scored 3,254 in single-core tasks, and 8,070 in multi-core tasks. On the other hand, the Apple A18 Pro achieved 3,467 in single-core and 8,550 in multi-core. Here, the A18 Pro leads by 6.5% in single-core performance and about 6% in multi-core performance. Since both chipsets feature a 6-core CPU, the performance difference is not big. That said, the A18 Pro enjoys access to a larger cache, which results in slightly better performance.

Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: 3DMark Score

Now, coming to the 3DMark Wild Life Extreme Stress test which measures the GPU performance. In this test, the 5-core A18 GPU surprisingly scores a bit higher than the 6-core A18 Pro GPU. The A18 gets the best loop score of 3,817 whereas the A18 Pro achieves 3,268 points. That said, due to much better stability (90.1% vs 66.3%) on the A18 Pro, its lowest score is higher than what A18 achieved.

I think it comes down to better thermal management on the iPhone 16 Pro, compared to iPhone 16. Since the iPhone 16 Pro features a graphite-clad aluminum substructure, it sustains graphics performance for much longer without dropping performance.

Now, to evaluate ray-tracing performance, we ran the 3DMark Solar Bay test. In this benchmark, the A18 Pro scored 8,018 with 30.5 FPS, whereas the A18 scored a bit lower, achieving 6,645 with 25.3 FPS. Overall, the ray-tracing performance difference comes down to 20%.

Next, in the powerful 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test, the 5-core A18 GPU scored 1,453 with 10.8 FPS. And the 6-core A18 Pro GPU delivered 17% better graphics performance, achieving 1,701 points with 12.6 FPS.

Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: Speedometer 3.0 Score

In the Speedometer 3.0 test, both chipsets are evenly matched. The A18 scored 32.8 points and the A18 Pro got 33.4 points. In effect, you are going to get the same level of web browsing performance and responsiveness.

Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: Benchmark Gallery

Apple A18 vs A18 Pro: Specs Comparison

Verdict

In my assessment, both A18 and A18 Pro are flagship-grade chipsets, and the 'Pro' label doesn't translate to a major leap in performance. The CPU performance is almost the same, but the A18 Pro delivers roughly 10-20%  better graphics performance. And thanks to improved thermal management on the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, you can expect better sustained CPU and GPU performance over longer sessions. Overall, if the chipset is your deciding factor, I would say, both are more alike than different.