There are three details gleaned from this process, if you trust in its accuracy.
- First, we have seven GPU cores. The A19 Pro has six.
- Second, there’s a 96-bit memory interface for LPDD5x RAM. The A19 Pro had a 64-bit interface.
- Third, there will still be a 6-core CPU configuration, with two high-performance cores and four efficiency cores.
How does all this compare to the A19 Pro, and what could it mean? Well, the smaller efficiency cores all share a single 8MB L2 cache, which is 2MB more than before. That will speed things up a bit when the efficiency cores do bigger jobs on larger data sets. The two performance cores share a 16MB L2 cache (two 8MB blocks in the diagram), which is the same as before.
It’s not clear if any of these cores have architectural design changes or if these cores are Apple’s “Super Cores.”
Going up from 6 GPU cores to 7 is an increase of about 16 percent. We think it’s likely that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will have all GPU cores enabled, but the folding iPhone Ultra (very thin and difficult to cool) will have one core disabled, just as the iPhone Air has one A19 Pro GPU core disabled.
Graphics performance tends to be highly constrained by memory bandwidth, which is where the change to the memory interface gets interesting. Apple is not making the jump to LPDDR6 this year, sticking with LPDDR5x again, but a 50 percent wider interface means 50 percent more memory bandwidth. If Apple increases the memory clock speed, it can be even more.
So while there are “only” 16 percent more GPU cores, the increase in memory bandwidth and the potential for higher clock speeds or GPU core architectural improvements means that we can expect 20-30 percent higher GPU performance. That’s not unprecedented, but it’s more than we predicted in our A20 preview.
