Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple A12Z Bionic

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A12Z Bionic
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Apple A12Z Bionic

CPU comparison

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or Apple A12Z Bionic - 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.40 GHz. Up to 24 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 was released in Q4/2023.

The Apple A12Z Bionic has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.49 GHz. The CPU supports up to 6 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple A12Z Bionic was released in Q1/2020.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (102) Family Apple A series (22)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (2) CPU group Apple A12/A12X/A12Z (3)
3 Generation 12
-- Architecture A12
Mobile Segment Mobile
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Predecessor Apple A10X Fusion
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 3.40 GHz. The Apple A12Z Bionic has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 2.49 GHz.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple A12Z Bionic
8 Cores 8
8 Threads 8
hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.40 GHz
1x Cortex-X4
A-Core 2.49 GHz
4x Vortex
2.96 GHz (3.15 GHz)
5x Cortex-A720
B-Core 1.59 GHz
4x Tempest
2.27 GHz
2x Cortex-A520
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 3 Characteristic Apple A12Z Bionic
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
Hexagon NPU @ 34 TOPS AI specifications 8 Neural cores @ 5 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.

Qualcomm Adreno 750 GPU Apple A12Z
0.90 GHz GPU frequency 1.13 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation 9
4 nm Technology 7 nm
2 Max. displays 1
-- Compute units 32
-- Shader 512
Yes Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
6 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 750 GPU Apple A12Z
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
Decode Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 supports a maximum of 24 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Apple A12Z Bionic can connect up to 6 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple A12Z Bionic
LPDDR5X-9600 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
24 GB Max. Memory 6 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
76.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 68.2 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 8.00 MB
12.00 MB L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a TDP of 12.5 W, that of the Apple A12Z Bionic is 15 W.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple A12Z Bionic
12.5 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 15 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a 12.00 MB cache, while the Apple A12Z Bionic cache has a total of 8.00 MB.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Characteristic Apple A12Z Bionic
4 nm Technology 7 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 10/11 (ARM) Operating systems iOS
Q4/2023 Release date Q1/2020
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.0 stars (108 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple A12Z Bionic to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.1 stars (21 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic (63%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic (64%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1709 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
1124 (66%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
6431 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
4718 (73%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
2293 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
1351 (59%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
7117 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
4798 (67%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
Qualcomm Adreno 750 @ 0.90 GHz
2287 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
Apple A12Z @ 1.13 GHz
1152 (50%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1476480 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
779044 (53%)

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 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
34 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
5 (15%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
991 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
4539 (100%)

AnTuTu 10 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 10 benchmark is one of the best-known benchmarks for mobile processors, which is now available in version 10. There is a version for Android-based smartphones and tablets, as well as a version for Apple mobile devices, i.e. iPhones and iPads.

The Antutu 10 benchmark has 3 phases. In the first phase, the device's RAM is tested, in phase 2 the graphics are tested and in the final phase the entire device is pushed to its performance limits by rendering 3D graphics.

Antutu 10 is therefore ideal for comparing the performance of different devices.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
1949480 (100%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
8C 8T @ 3.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A12Z Bionic Apple A12Z Bionic
8C 8T @ 2.49 GHz
717401 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Apple A12Z Bionic
Xiaomi 14
Xiaomi 14 Pro
ASUS ROG Phone 8 Pro
Samsung S24 Ultra
Apple iPad Pro 2020

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