Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) vs Apple A17 Pro

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A17 Pro
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Apple A17 Pro

CPU comparison

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) or Apple A17 Pro - 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 Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) has 4 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. Up to 16 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) was released in Q4/2021.

The Apple A17 Pro has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.78 GHz. The CPU supports up to 8 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Apple A17 Pro was released in Q3/2023.
AMD Ryzen 5 (84) Family Apple A series (22)
AMD Aerith (Steam Deck) (1) CPU group Apple A17 (1)
3 Generation 17
Aerith (Zen 2) Architecture A17
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple A16 Bionic
Valve Steam Deck (2023 Refresh) Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) is a 4 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz). The Apple A17 Pro has 6 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.78 GHz.

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Characteristic Apple A17 Pro
4 Cores 6
8 Threads 6
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
Yes Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.40 GHz (3.50 GHz) A-Core 3.78 GHz
-- B-Core 2.11 GHz

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.

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Characteristic Apple A17 Pro
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 35 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.

AMD Custom Radeon Graphics (Steam Deck) GPU Apple A17 Pro (6 GPU Cores)
1.00 GHz GPU frequency 1.40 GHz
1.60 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation --
7 nm Technology 3 nm
2 Max. displays 3
8 Compute units 24
512 Shader 768
No Hardware Raytracing Yes
No Frame Generation No
8 GB Max. GPU Memory 6 GB
12 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.

AMD Custom Radeon Graphics (Steam Deck) GPU Apple A17 Pro (6 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 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) supports a maximum of 16 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Apple A17 Pro can connect up to 8 GB of memory in 1 memory channels.

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Characteristic Apple A17 Pro
LPDDR5-5500 Memory LPDDR5-6400
16 GB Max. Memory 8 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 1 (Single Channel)
88.0 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 51.2 GB/s
No ECC No
2.00 MB L2 Cache 20.00 MB
4.00 MB L3 Cache 24.00 MB
3.0 PCIe version --
8 PCIe lanes --
7.9 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) has a TDP of 15 W, that of the Apple A17 Pro is 11 W.

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Characteristic Apple A17 Pro
15 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 11 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
4 W TDP down --
100 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) has a 6.00 MB cache, while the Apple A17 Pro cache has a total of 44.00 MB.

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Characteristic Apple A17 Pro
7 nm Technology 3 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8.6-A (64 bit)
SSE4a, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, FMA3 ISA extensions --
FF3 Socket --
AMD-V, SVM Virtualization None
Yes AES-NI No
SteamOS (Arch Linux) Operating systems iOS
Q4/2021 Release date Q3/2023
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) (42%)
Apple A17 Pro (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) (60%)
Apple A17 Pro (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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
849 (40%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
2140 (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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz
3592 (61%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
5868 (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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
1278 (43%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
2952 (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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz
4365 (58%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
7462 (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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
AMD Custom Radeon Graphics (Steam Deck) @ 1.60 GHz
1638 (76%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
Apple A17 Pro (6 GPU Cores) @ 1.40 GHz
2147 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
57 (100%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
0 (0%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
275 (100%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 3.50 GHz
975 (100%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.80 GHz
4359 (100%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
1108570 (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).
Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405)
4C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A17 Pro Apple A17 Pro
6C 6T @ 3.78 GHz
35 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Valve Steam Deck (AMD Custom APU 0405) Apple A17 Pro
Valve Steam Deck Apple iPhone 15 Pro
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

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