Apple A11 Bionic vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A11 Bionic CPU1 vs CPU2 Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
Apple A11 Bionic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus

CPU comparison

Apple A11 Bionic or Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Apple A11 Bionic has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.39 GHz. Up to 3 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Apple A11 Bionic was released in Q3/2017.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.96 GHz. The CPU supports up to 12 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus was released in Q4/2018.
Apple A series (22) Family Qualcomm Snapdragon (102)
Apple A11 (1) CPU group Qualcomm Snapdragon 855/860 (3)
11 Generation 6
A11 Architecture Kryo 485
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple A10 Fusion Predecessor --
Apple A12 Bionic Successor Qualcomm Snapdragon 860

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A11 Bionic is a 6 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.39 GHz. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 2.96 GHz.

Apple A11 Bionic Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
6 Cores 8
6 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.39 GHz
2x Monsoon
A-Core 2.96 GHz
1x Kryo 485 Prime
1.19 GHz
4x Mistral
B-Core 2.42 GHz
3x Kryo 485 Gold
-- C-Core 1.80 GHz
4x Kryo 485 Silver

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Apple A11 Bionic Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware Qualcomm AI engine
2 Neural cores @ 0.6 TOPS AI specifications Hexagon 690 @ 7 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

Apple A11 GPU Qualcomm Adreno 640
1.07 GHz GPU frequency 0.25 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 0.68 GHz
8 GPU Generation 5
10 nm Technology 7 nm
1 Max. displays 1
12 Compute units 4
192 Shader 384
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
3 GB Max. GPU Memory 4 GB
-- DirectX Version 12.0

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Apple A11 GPU Qualcomm Adreno 640
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC No
Decode Codec VC-1 No
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A11 Bionic supports a maximum of 3 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus can connect up to 12 GB of memory in 4 memory channels.

Apple A11 Bionic Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
LPDDR4X-4266 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
3 GB Max. Memory 12 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 4 (Quad Channel)
34.1 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
8.00 MB L2 Cache 2.00 MB
-- L3 Cache 3.00 MB
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Apple A11 Bionic has a TDP of 8 W, that of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus is --.

Apple A11 Bionic Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) --
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple A11 Bionic has a 8.00 MB cache, while the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus cache has a total of 5.00 MB.

Apple A11 Bionic Characteristic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
10 nm Technology 7 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
iOS Operating systems Android
Q3/2017 Release date Q4/2018
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple A11 Bionic to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.6 stars (7 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 5.0 stars (1 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple A11 Bionic (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus (85%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks
Apple A11 Bionic (93%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
932 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
731 (78%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
2569 (98%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
2632 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
1093 (100%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
994 (91%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
1997 (83%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
2397 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
Apple A11 @ 1.07 GHz
409 (39%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
Qualcomm Adreno 640 @ 0.68 GHz
1037 (100%)

AnTuTu 8 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 8 Benchmark measures the performance of a SoC. AnTuTu benchmarks the CPU, GPU, Memory as well as the UX (User Experience) by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu can benchmark any ARM CPU that runs under Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly compareable if the benchmark has been performed under different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 8 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The evaluation consists of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the RAM and the performance of the internal graphics.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
295465 (61%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
487155 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
4360 (99%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
4389 (100%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
0.6 (9%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
7 (100%)

AnTuTu 9 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 9 benchmark is very well suited to measuring the performance of a smartphone. AnTuTu 9 is quite heavy on 3D graphics and can now also use the "Metal" graphics interface. In AnTuTu, memory and UX (user experience) are also tested by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu version 9 can compare any ARM CPU running on Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly comparable when benchmarked on different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The rating is made up of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the working memory, and the performance of the internal graphics.
Apple A11 Bionic Apple A11 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.39 GHz
0 (0%)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
8C 8T @ 2.96 GHz
558430 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A11 Bionic Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 Plus
Apple iPhone 8
Apple iPhone 8 Plus
Apple iPhone X
OnePlus 7T
OnePlus 7T Pro 5G
OnePlus 7 Pro
OnePlus 7T Pro
Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro Premium Edition
Realme X2 Pro

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