Apple A19 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Benchmarks and Specs

While Apple launched its flagship A19 Pro processor with the iPhone 17 series, Qualcomm has just unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, its flagship chipset for Android phones. With the introduction of 3rd-gen Oryon CPU cores, Qualcomm is claiming that the Snapdragon 8 Gen 5 has the "world's fastest CPU". So, to settle the silicon race between Apple and Qualcomm, here is our comparison between the A19 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.

A19 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Geekbench Score

The Apple A19 Pro has surfaced on Geekbench, running on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. In the Geekbench 6 CPU test, the A19 Pro scored 3,895 in single-core and 9,746 in multi-core. Meanwhile, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has re-appeared on Geekbench with an impressive performance, running on the upcoming Xiaomi 17 Pro device. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 achieved 3,831 in single-core and 11,525 in multi-core.

Going by these early numbers, it seems the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has finally matched the A19 Pro in single-core performance for the first time which is very impressive. And in multi-core tasks, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 leads by over 18%.

That said, there are some caveats worth noting. Apple has only packed six CPU cores on the A19 Pro, while the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 has eight CPU cores, naturally giving it an edge in multi-core performance.

Qualcomm has also raised the frequency much higher on the 8 Elite Gen 5 (4.61GHz vs 4.26GHz). Despite the lower frequency, the A19 Pro does marginally better than the 8 Elite Gen 5 in single-core workloads, which means Apple's CPU is still better in terms of energy efficiency and performance-per-watt.

A19 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5: Specs Comparison

In our previous comparison between the A18 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite, we concluded that Qualcomm had nearly surpassed Apple in most segments, except in single-core CPU performance. Now, with the latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, packing the 3rd-gen Oryon CPU cores, Qualcomm appears to have matched Apple in single-core performance as well.

Both the A19 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 are fabricated on TSMC's 3nm (N3P) process node. Apple has gone with its usual 6-core CPU setup on the A19 Pro, however, Qualcomm has employed an 8-core CPU setup, much like its earlier processors.

On the GPU side, the Snapdragon 8 Elite already had a substantial lead, and with the second iteration, Qualcomm may post even higher scores with its powerful Adreno 840 GPU against the 6-core A19 Pro GPU. That said, the final verdict will come down to benchmarks, so stay tuned to see who takes the crown for 2025’s best mobile chipset.