The upcoming iPhone 14 series is expected to be split into two camps: the Pro models will get the new Apple A16 chipset, better cameras and a different screen configuration. The vanilla models stick with the current A15 chip, 12MP cameras and a notched screen.
The current iPhone 13 series already shows a small split in performance: the vanilla phones have 4-core GPUs, the Pros have 5-core GPUs. Also, the vanilla models have 4 GB of RAM, while the Pros get 6 GB (both LPDDR4X).
The iPhone 14 and 14 Max are expected to get the 5-core GPU version of the A15 chipset, plus more RAM – 6 GB LPDDR4X – so they will have an advantage over the current models.
Predicted A16 Geekbench Scores: 2,000 single-core • 5,700 multi-core
But how fast will the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max be? Macworld tries to answer this question. The first thing to note is that the new A16 chips will be made on TSMC’s N4P node, an iterative improvement over the N5P node used for the A15, but not a full generation jump.
The new A16 chip is expected to be larger – 18-20 billion transistors, an increase of 15 billion. The company could also see some improvement by switching to ARMv9. ARM managed to make some profit with the Cortex-A715 and X3 coresfor example.
All things considered, the CPU can deliver a modest 15% performance boost. Apple is expected to keep the same core configuration (2 large, 4 small).
The switch to faster RAM is also expected to bring a performance boost – DigiTimes reports that the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max will use the new LPDDR5 type, which offers 50% more bandwidth than LPDDR4X and is more energy-efficient to boot. However, both models will stick to a 6GB capacity.
As for the GPU, the prediction is that Apple will stick with 5-cores to avoid the chip getting too big or maybe going to 6-cores. Either way, GPU performance is expected to increase by 25-30%.
Predicted 3DMark scores for the Apple A16 chipset
Apple will also need to beef up its ISP and machine learning hardware to handle the higher resolution — the 14 Pro series would make the jump to a 48MP camera and 8K video recording. This could also increase Cinematic Mode’s resolution limit from 1080p to 4K.
Finally, Apple is stuck with Qualcomm modems for the foreseeable future, so the A16 chipset will likely be paired with the Snapdragon X65. Whether the vanilla iPhone 14 handsets will also get the new modem is unclear.
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