While the iPhone 18 Pro has received a decent update this year, Apple's flagship chip is getting a big upgrade. The A20 Pro chipset has launched and it's built on TSMC's 2nm process, packing a 7-core GPU and two new Super cores. So this year too, we are getting a powerful A20 Pro chipset with industry-leading CPU performance. On that note, here is everything we know about the Apple A20 Pro chipset.
A20 Pro: The First 2nm iPhone Chip
The A20 Pro is Apple's first iPhone chip built on TSMC's N2 process node. Apple has finally moved on from the 3nm (N3-series) node that was used from the A17 Pro to the A19 Pro. That said, Apple adopted the 2nm node a couple of weeks earlier with the Apple M6 processor. The company unveiled the new Mac mini in August with the M6 chip and it's the company's first 2nm chip.
The upgrade to a 2nm process is significant because it's TSMC's first node to switch from FinFET transistors to a gate-all-around (GAA) nanosheet design. It's one of the biggest change to transistor structure in more than a decade.
Compared to the older N3E node, TSMC's N2 delivers up to 20% higher transistor density and nearly 10 to 15% faster. It also consumes 25 to 30% less power, which is remarkable.
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A20 Pro CPU
First off, the A20 Pro brings a 6-core CPU just like before, but with two new Super cores and four new efficiency cores. Apple says the two super cores are up to 20% faster and the company is calling them "desktop class" and the fastest in any smartphone.
Apart from that, Apple has taken inspiration from its M-series chips and fused the A20 Pro chipset with the memory side by side. As a result, the A20 Pro is much better at heat dissipation. Best of all, the chipset is supported by a vapour chamber that is 3x larger on the iPhone 18 Pro, so the chip can sustain the peak performance for much longer.
In fact, Apple claims up to 40% better sustained performance than the A19 Pro and 2x more than the A18 Pro. As for the cache size, the efficiency cores have access to a larger 8MB of L2 cache.
Coming to benchmark scores, the outgoing A19 Pro chip posts 3,895 in Geekbench single-core and 9,746 in multi-core from a 6-core CPU cluster. That single-core figure already beats desktop-class chipsets and every Android flagship chip on the market. And the current fastest Android flagship, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, manages 3,588 single-core and 10,207 multi-core in our own testing.
I think the A20 Pro might cross the 4,300 mark in Geekbench 6 single-core, but let's wait for our independent testing. In any case, Apple has brought new Super cores to the CPU and with bigger caches and more transistors, so it appears, the A20 Pro may set a new bar with industry-leading CPU performance.
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A20 Pro GPU and Neural Engine
Leaked board shots suggested the A20 Pro's die size is nearly the same as the A19 Pro, which means Apple is not trying to build a bigger chip. The A19 Pro already brought serious upgrades to the 6-core GPU with Neural Accelerators (essentially tensor cores).
Now with the A20 Pro, Apple has added an extra GPU core, moving to a 7-core GPU from a 6-core GPU on the A19 Pro. Apple says the new A20 Pro GPU delivers up to 40% faster graphics performance, which is huge. The new Neural Accelerators inside the GPU are 2x faster at FP8 performance, which is great for running on-device LLMs.
Apple has also moved to 96-bit LPDDR5X memory, up from the 64-bit bus on the A19 Pro. It delivers 50% more memory bandwidth, which will help all compute units on the chipset, from the GPU to the Neural Engine.
With the new 7-core GPU, Apple is trying to win the graphics race as it has lost the crown for the past few years. Qualcomm and MediaTek have been quite aggressive here and the Dimensity 9500 chipset already beats the A19 Pro in most GPU tests, so the A20 Pro can't afford to stand still.
Apart from that, the A20 Pro brings a larger Neural Engine. The A19 Pro runs a 16-core Neural Engine while the A20 Pro packs a Dual 16-core Neural Engine (32-core). It lines up perfectly with Apple's push on on-device Apple Intelligence, a smarter Siri AI and heavier local models.
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A20 Pro Modem and Connectivity
The A20 Pro also arrives with Apple's next big in-house 5G modem. The iPhone 18 Pro models and the iPhone Duo move to Apple's third-generation C2 modem. The Apple C1 arrived with the iPhone 16e and the C1X in the iPhone Air, which Apple said was 2x faster than the C1.
The Apple C2 modem also brings satellite connectivity. Apple says the new C2 modem is 50% faster at uploads while consuming 15% less battery. And it supports mmWave 5G too, but available only in the US. Finally, Apple's N1 wireless chip handles Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 and Thread.
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A20 Pro Specs
| Specs | A20 Pro |
|---|---|
| Process Node | TSMC N2 (2nm) |
| CPU | 6-core (2 super + 4 efficiency) |
| GPU | 7-core Apple GPU with Neural Accelerators |
| Neural Engine | Dual 16-core Neural Engine (32-core) |
| Memory | 12GB, 96-bit bus, LPDDR5X |
| Modem | Apple C2 5G modem with satellite connectivity |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, Thread (Apple N1) |
The A20 Pro is the most powerful iPhone chip Apple has designed in years. It has moved to a 2nm node and GAA transistors, which should lead to better efficiency and sustained-performance gains. The CPU has also received two new Super cores and the GPU has received an extra core.
That said, Apple's competitive lead has reduced to single-core performance and efficiency in recent years while Android chips have leapfrogged in multi-core CPU and GPU performance. Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 (earlier called 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro) is said to touch the 5GHz frequency on a mobile chip and the next-gen Oryon cores may deliver blistering performance.
The A20 Pro is certainly the best all-round phone chip, but in other areas, Qualcomm and MediaTek are doing exceptionally well. In fact, Xiaomi's Xring O3 is also quite competitive, but it remains behind in single-core CPU performance.
Lastly, I would say, wait for our in-house benchmark testing to truly understand what performance improvements the A20 Pro chip brings over the competition.
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