Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)

CPU comparison

In this CPU comparison, we compare the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) and use benchmarks to check which processor is faster.

We compare the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 8 core processor released in Q1/2022 with the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) which has 6 CPU cores and was introduced in Q3/2021.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (102) Family Apple A series (22)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 7/8 Gen 1 (3) CPU group Apple A15 (2)
1 Generation 15
Cortex-X2 / -A710 / -A510 Architecture A15
Mobile Segment Mobile
Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 Predecessor Apple A14 Bionic
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Successor Apple A16 Bionic

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.00 GHz. The processor can compute 8 threads at the same time. The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) clocks with 3.23 GHz, has 6 CPU cores and can calculate 6 threads in parallel.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
8 Cores 6
8 Threads 6
hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.00 GHz
1x Kryo Prime
A-Core 3.23 GHz
2x Avalanche
2.50 GHz
3x Kryo Gold
B-Core 2.02 GHz
4x Blizzard
1.80 GHz
4x Kryo Silver
C-Core --

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.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
Hexagon 780 @ 26 TOPS AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS

Internal Graphics

Graphics (iGPU) integrated into the processor not only enable image output without having to rely on a dedicated graphics solution, but can also efficiently accelerate video playback.

Qualcomm Adreno 730 GPU Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores)
0.82 GHz GPU frequency 1.34 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
7 GPU Generation 12
4 nm Technology 5 nm
0 Max. displays 3
-- Compute units 20
-- Shader 640
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
8 GB Max. GPU Memory 6 GB
12.1 DirectX Version --

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.

Qualcomm Adreno 730 GPU Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores)
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

Up to 16 GB of memory in a maximum of 4 memory channels is supported by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, while the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) supports a maximum of 6 GB of memory with a maximum memory bandwidth of 34.1 GB/s enabled.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
LPDDR5-6400 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
16 GB Max. Memory 6 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 1 (Single Channel)
51.2 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
2.00 MB L2 Cache 16.00 MB
6.00 MB L3 Cache 32.00 MB
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has a TDP of --. The TDP of the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) is 7.25 W. System integrators use the TDP of the processor as a guide when dimensioning the cooling solution.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 7.25 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has 8.00 MB cache and is manufactured in 4 nm. The cache of Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) is at 48.00 MB. The processor is manufactured in 5 nm.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
4 nm Technology 5 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv9-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
Android, Windows 10 (ARM) Operating systems iOS
Q1/2022 Release date Q3/2021
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.3 stars (6 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.8 stars (10 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
1229 (70%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
1745 (100%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
3722 (78%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
4777 (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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
1322 (59%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
2245 (100%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
3490 (65%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
5402 (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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
Qualcomm Adreno 730 @ 0.82 GHz
745 (43%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores) @ 1.34 GHz
1713 (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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
948574 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
825116 (87%)

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).
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
26 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
15.8 (61%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1
8C 8T @ 3.00 GHz
7023 (100%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Xiaomi 12 Pro Apple iPad mini (6. Gen)
Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Apple iPhone 14
Apple iPhone 14 Plus

News and articles for the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)

MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ vs Apple A16 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ vs Apple A16 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Posted by Stefan on 2022-09-22
With the Dimensity 9000+, Mediatek presents the latest of its smartphone chips. The successor to the Mediatek Dimensity 9000 achieves higher CPU and GPU clock frequencies thanks to better binning. The CPU clock of the prime core (A core) increases from 3.0 to 3.2 GHz. And the ARM Mali-G710 MP10 GPU can now clock at 0.9 GHz (previously 0.85 GHz).

Both are a good improvement over the Dimensity 9000 in theory but the increase in performance should not usually be noticeable in practice. In the end, the overall performance of the Mediatek Dimensity 9000+ is impressive: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is beaten in Geekbench 5 in both the single-core and multi-core benchmarks.
What we know about the new Apple A16 Bionic in Apples iPhone 14
What we know about the new Apple A16 Bionic in Apples iPhone 14
Posted by Stefan on 2022-08-23
Every year Apple releases a new iPhone series and with the release of the series always the latest Apple A processor. This has become even more important in recent years, as it has also formed the basis for Apple's M processor series since 2020. The Apple M processors are based on the same core architecture as the Apple A processors, but have been significantly upgraded in many areas such as memory bandwith, amount of memory or cache.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is more powerful and efficient
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is more powerful and efficient
Posted by Stefan on 2022-07-11
Qualcomm is changing the contract manufacturer from Samsung to TSMC for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. By switching to the TSMC 4 nm manufacturing process, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is not only 10 percent faster but also 15 percent more efficient than its predecessor. This makes Qualcomm's TOP SoC one of the fastest smartphone chips on the market.

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