Tensor G3 vs A16 Bionic

We compared the 9-core Google Tensor G3 (Mali-G715 MP7) with the older 6-core Apple A16 Bionic (Apple A16 GPU) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

Review

General comparison of performance, power consumption, and other indicators
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score

Key Differences

Main differences and advantages of each chip
Pros of Google Tensor G3
  • Has 3 more cores
  • Supports 33% higher memory bandwidth (68.2 against 51.2 GB/s)
  • Better instruction set architecture
Pros of Apple A16 Bionic
  • Higher GPU frequency (~57%)
  • 19% higher CPU clock speed (3460 vs 2910 MHz)
  • Shows better (up to 15%) AnTuTu 11 score – 1626K vs 1409K

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
1409016
A16 Bionic +15%
1626008
CPU 482403 432740
GPU 384611 490354
Memory 218603 216774
UX 323399 486140
Total score 1409016 1626008
Samples [33 tests] [36 tests]
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
1722
A16 Bionic +53%
2631
Multi-Core Score
4458
A16 Bionic +48%
6602
Asset compression 197.6 MB/sec 234.4 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 134.7 pages/sec 155.2 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 148.4 Mpixels/sec 157.5 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 82.1 images/sec 149.7 images/sec
HDR 142.1 Mpixels/sec 202.6 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 13.2 images/sec 25.9 images/sec
Photo processing 48.4 images/sec 76.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 5.34 Mpixels/sec 6.74 Mpixels/sec
Samples 11 tests 24 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
8076
A16 Bionic +183%
22851
Background blur 10.6 images/sec 39.5 images/sec
Face detection 6.85 images/sec 50.9 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.16 Gpixels/sec 0.73 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.35 Gpixels/sec 1.05 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.32 Gpixels/sec 1.22 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.08 Gpixels/sec 0.29 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 11.9 Gpixels/sec 70.4 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 1088 FPS 2162.5 FPS
API Vulkan Metal
Samples 9 tests 12 tests
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
Score 982 -
Stability 74% -
Graphics test 7 FPS -
3DMark Solar Bay
Score - 4266
Stability - 74%
Graphics test - 16 FPS
Section 1 - 20 FPS
Section 2 - 16 FPS
Section 3 - 12 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Score - 3335
Stability - 71%
Graphics test - 19 FPS

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Google Tensor G3
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-28 (asfiii-malik)AnTuTu 111515235
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-28 (asfiii-baloch)AnTuTu 111515235
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-05 (s1mpick)AnTuTu 111338293
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-04 (reazz)AnTuTu 111356451
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-04 (Bilal Ahmed)AnTuTu 111367231
Apple A16 Bionic
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-21 (Атомная Π±ΠΎΠΌΠ±Π°)AnTuTu 111772840
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-19 (Bear lover)AnTuTu 111714105
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-14 (ZUSEPRO)AnTuTu 111603687
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-31 (LORDroid)AnTuTu 111445126
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-16 (Ronaldo)AnTuTu 111626008

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Tensor G3 and A16 Bionic

CPU

Architecture 1x 2.91 GHz – Cortex-X3
4x 2.37 GHz – Cortex-A715
4x 1.7 GHz – Cortex-A510
2x 3.46 GHz – Everest
4x 2.02 GHz – Sawtooth
Cores 9 6
Frequency 2910 MHz 3460 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9-A ARMv8.6-A
L1 cache - 256 KB
L2 cache - 16 MB
Process 4 nanometers 4 nanometers
Transistor count - 16 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 6 W 8 W
Manufacturing Samsung TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Mali-G715 MP7 Apple A16 GPU
Architecture Valhall 4th gen Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 890 MHz 1398 MHz
Pipelines 7 5
Shading units 128 128
Total shaders 896 640
FLOPS 1594.8 Gigaflops 1789.4 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.3 -
OpenCL version 2.0 -

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Yes Apple Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance - 17 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory frequency 4266 MHz 3200 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 68.2 Gb/s 51.2 Gb/s
Max size 16 GB 6 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type UFS 3.1, UFS 4.0 NVMe
Max display resolution 3840 x 2160 2796 x 1290
Max camera resolution 1x 200MP, 2x 32MP 1x 48MP
Video capture 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP9
- H.264
- H.265
- VP8
- VP9
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- AAC
- AAX
- AAX+
- AC-3
- AIFF
- CAF
- E-AC-3
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem Exynos 5300i -
4G support LTE Cat. 24 LTE Cat. 24
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 7300 Mbps Up to 7500 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 3700 Mbps Up to 3500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 7 6
Bluetooth 5.3 5.3
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS

Info

Announced October 2023 September 2022
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number GS301 (S5P9865) APL1W10
Official page Google Tensor G3 official site -
Successor - Google Tensor G5 - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
186 (47.2%)
208 (52.8%)
Total votes: 394

Comments

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