Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Apple A18
We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (Adreno 750) with the newer 6-core Apple A18 (Apple A18 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 Gen 3
- Performs 45% better in floating-point computations
- Has 2 more cores
- Supports 28% higher memory bandwidth (76.8 against 60 GB/s)
- Shows better (up to 19%) AnTuTu 11 score β 2345K vs 1972K
Pros of Apple A18
- Higher GPU frequency (~49%)
- Has a smaller size transistor (3 versus 4 nm)
- 23% higher CPU clock speed (4050 vs 3300 MHz)
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 700525 | 611649 |
| GPU | 805478 | 589953 |
| Memory | 296043 | 181123 |
| UX | 543517 | 589751 |
| Total score | 2345563 | 1972476 |
| Samples | [443 tests] | [29 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 | 256.8 MB/sec | 286.8 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 190.9 pages/sec | 184.2 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 209.1 Mpixels/sec | 201.2 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 168.6 images/sec | 297.2 images/sec |
| HDR | 208.6 Mpixels/sec | 279.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 24 images/sec | 36.2 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 63.6 images/sec | 90 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 7.27 Mpixels/sec | 8.68 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 139 tests | 6 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 26.9 images/sec | 49.2 images/sec |
| Face detection | 13.2 images/sec | 71.8 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.7 Gpixels/sec | 0.86 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.61 Gpixels/sec | 1.14 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.98 Gpixels/sec | 1.44 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.18 Gpixels/sec | 0.39 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 43.4 Gpixels/sec | 77.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 3083.6 FPS | 2811.1 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | Metal |
| Samples | 90 tests | 4 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 1652 | 1579 |
| Stability | 79% | 75% |
| Graphics test | 12 FPS | 12 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | 8190 | 6750 |
| Stability | 72% | - |
| Graphics test | 31 FPS | 26 FPS |
| Section 1 | 36 FPS | 31 FPS |
| Section 2 | 31 FPS | 26 FPS |
| Section 3 | 26 FPS | 20 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | 4676 | - |
| Graphics test | 27 FPS | - |
PCMark 3.0
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 16536 | - |
| Video editing score | 7905 | - |
| Data manipulation score | 14260 | - |
| Photo editing score | 31248 | - |
| Writing score | 19168 | - |
| Phones tested | 41 models | - |
Recent User Tests
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-25 (gertjan28) | AnTuTu 11 | 2286235 |
| π 2026-09-24 (neko_rhythm) | AnTuTu 11 | 2406819 |
| π 2026-09-24 (Denislav Antimov) | AnTuTu 12 | 2573019 |
| π 2026-09-23 (DEMON77) | AnTuTu 12 | 2536327 |
| π 2026-09-23 (Dairy_Milk) | AnTuTu 12 | 2593648 |
Apple A18
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-07-30 (Dddd) | AnTuTu 11 | 1905485 |
| π 2026-07-18 (Aj) | AnTuTu 11 | 1949745 |
| π 2026-07-15 (vovachips) | AnTuTu 11 | 1842572 |
| π 2026-07-03 (iTzRageeh) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 3531 / 9122 |
| π 2026-07-03 (iTzRageeh) | AnTuTu 11 | 2045650 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Apple A18CPU
| Architecture | 1x 3.3 GHz β Cortex-X4 3x 3.15 GHz β Cortex-A720 2x 2.96 GHz β Cortex-A720 2x 2.27 GHz β Cortex-A520 |
2x 4.05 GHz β Everest 4x 2.42 GHz β Sawtooth |
| Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Frequency | 3300 MHz | 4050 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 8 MB |
| L3 cache | 12 MB | - |
| Process | 4 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 8 W | 9 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 750 | Apple A18 GPU |
| Architecture | Adreno 700 | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU frequency | 903-1000 MHz | 1490 MHz |
| Pipelines | 6 | 5 |
| Shading units | 256 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 1536 | 640 |
| FLOPS | 2774 Gigaflops | 1907 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.3 | - |
| OpenCL version | 2.0 | - |
| DirectX version | 12.1 | - |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | - | 35 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 4800 MHz | 3750 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 76.8 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 2160 | - |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 200MP | 1x 48MP |
| Video capture | 8K at 30FPS, 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 X75 | Snapdragon X71 5G |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 10000 Mbps | Up to 10000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 3500 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 7 |
| Bluetooth | 5.4 | 5.3 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC |
Info
| Announced | October 2023 | September 2024 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | SM8650-AB, SM8650-AC | APL1V08 |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 official site | - |
| Successor | - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 | - Apple A19 |
Further details
Notes on Snapdragon 8 Gen 3:
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy has a 100 MHz higher CPU and GPU clock speed. It has a higher GPU performance rate of up to 3072 Gigaflops.
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