Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 vs A18 Pro
We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (Adreno 840) with the older 6-core Apple A18 Pro (Apple A18 Pro 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
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
Pros of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
- Shows significantly better (up to 2.2x) AnTuTu 11 score β 3950K vs 1782K
- Performs 74% better in floating-point computations
- Supports 41% higher memory bandwidth (84.8 against 60 GB/s)
- Has 2 more cores
- 17% higher CPU clock speed (4740 vs 4050 MHz)
Pros of Apple A18 Pro
- Higher GPU frequency (~15%)
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 1112833 | 521852 |
| GPU | 1494722 | 562674 |
| Memory | 442350 | 187942 |
| UX | 900177 | 509731 |
| Total score | 3950082 | 1782199 |
| Samples | [283 tests] | [15 tests] |
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 421.8 MB/sec | 299.9 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 238 pages/sec | 191.2 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 286.6 Mpixels/sec | 196.8 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 330.6 images/sec | 319.6 images/sec |
| HDR | 308.4 Mpixels/sec | 289.5 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 40.7 images/sec | 37.6 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 98.7 images/sec | 91 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 14.1 Mpixels/sec | 9.03 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 79 tests | 14 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 51.9 images/sec | 62.5 images/sec |
| Face detection | 24.9 images/sec | 78.2 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.72 Gpixels/sec | 0.98 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 1 Gpixels/sec | 1.3 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 2.04 Gpixels/sec | 1.5 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.36 Gpixels/sec | 0.49 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 115.4 Gpixels/sec | 100 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 4390.2 FPS | 3659.7 FPS |
| API | Vulkan | Metal |
| Samples | 50 tests | 7 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 2737 | 1732 |
| Stability | 67% | 71% |
| Graphics test | 20 FPS | 13 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | 12156 | 7585 |
| Graphics test | 46 FPS | 29 FPS |
| Section 1 | 52 FPS | 35 FPS |
| Section 2 | 46 FPS | 30 FPS |
| Section 3 | 40 FPS | 21 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | 6490 | - |
| Graphics test | 38 FPS | - |
PCMark 3.0
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 31126 | - |
| Video editing score | 8963 | - |
| Data manipulation score | 19422 | - |
| Photo editing score | 62111 | - |
| Writing score | 40875 | - |
| Phones tested | 13 models | - |
Recent User Tests
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-30 (HoΓ ng HαΊ£i) | AnTuTu 12 | 3638992 |
| π 2026-09-28 (Nikko) | AnTuTu 11 | 3512813 |
| π 2026-09-28 (nminh) | AnTuTu 12 | 4038854 |
| π 2026-09-27 (Johnnis) | AnTuTu 12 | 3903835 |
| π 2026-09-26 (JJJ) | AnTuTu 12 | 3290752 |
Apple A18 Pro
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-27 (FontFrontPromptORG) | Geekbench 7 CPU | 3087 / 8369 |
| π 2026-09-23 -> Rappzzzz | AnTuTu 11 | 2043169 |
| π 2026-09-20 (thuanday) | AnTuTu 11 | 2043169 |
| π 2026-09-17 (Jonibek) | AnTuTu 11 | 1692383 |
| π 2026-08-21 (Neuron) | AnTuTu 11 | 1500141 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and A18 ProCPU
| Architecture | 2x 4.74 GHz β Oryon Gen 3 Prime 6x 3.63 GHz β Oryon Gen 3 Performance |
2x 4.05 GHz β Everest 4x 2.42 GHz β Sawtooth |
| Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Frequency | 4740 MHz | 4050 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| L1 cache | 192 KB | 192 KB |
| L2 cache | 12 MB | 16 MB |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | - |
| Process | 3 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 8 W | 10 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 840 | Apple A18 Pro GPU |
| Architecture | Adreno 800 | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU frequency | 1300 MHz | 1490 MHz |
| Pipelines | 3 | 6 |
| Shading units | 512 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 1536 | 768 |
| FLOPS | 3993.6 Gigaflops | 2289 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.4 | - |
| OpenCL version | 3.0 | - |
| DirectX version | 12.1 | - |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | - | 35 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 5300 MHz | 3750 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 84.8 Gb/s | 60 Gb/s |
| Max size | 24 GB | 8 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1 | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2540 | - |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 320MP | 1x 48MP |
| Video capture | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS | 4K at 120FPS |
| Video playback | 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS | 4K at 120FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP8 - VP9 |
- H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - 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 | Snapdragon X85 | Snapdragon X71 5G |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 12500 Mbps | Up to 10000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 3700 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 7 |
| Bluetooth | 6.0 | 5.3 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
Info
| Announced | September 2025 | September 2024 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | SM8850-AC, SM8850-5-AC, SM8850-1-AD | APL1V07 |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 official site | - |
| Successor | - | - Apple A19 Pro |
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