Home > Smartphone processors comparison > Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs A18 Pro โ€“ what's better?

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs A18 Pro

Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
VS
A18 Pro
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
A18 Pro

We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (Adreno 750) with the newer 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.

  1. Review
  2. Differences
  3. Benchmarks
  4. AnTuTu v11
  5. GeekBench 6
  6. Specs
  7. Comments (46)

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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
  • Has 2 more cores
  • Supports 28% higher memory bandwidth (76.8 against 60 GB/s)
  • Shows better (up to 32%) AnTuTu 11 score โ€“ 2345K vs 1782K
  • Performs 21% better in floating-point computations
Pros of Apple A18 Pro
  • 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 benchmarks
SoC:
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
vs
A18 Pro

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 +32%
2345563
A18 Pro
1782199
CPU 700525 521852
GPU 805478 562674
Memory 296043 187942
UX 543517 509731
Total score 2345563 1782199
Samples [443 tests] [15 tests]
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.
Submit your AnTuTu result

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
2203
A18 Pro +62%
3570
Multi-Core Score
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
6511
A18 Pro +37%
8923
Asset compression 256.8 MB/sec 299.9 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 190.9 pages/sec 191.2 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 209.1 Mpixels/sec 196.8 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 168.6 images/sec 319.6 images/sec
HDR 208.6 Mpixels/sec 289.5 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 24 images/sec 37.6 images/sec
Photo processing 63.6 images/sec 91 images/sec
Ray tracing 7.27 Mpixels/sec 9.03 Mpixels/sec
Samples 139 tests 14 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
15378
A18 Pro +116%
33278
Background blur 26.9 images/sec 62.5 images/sec
Face detection 13.2 images/sec 78.2 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.7 Gpixels/sec 0.98 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.61 Gpixels/sec 1.3 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.98 Gpixels/sec 1.5 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.18 Gpixels/sec 0.49 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 43.4 Gpixels/sec 100 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 3083.6 FPS 3659.7 FPS
API OpenCL Metal
Samples 90 tests 7 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
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
1652
A18 Pro +5%
1732
Score 1652 1732
Stability 79% 71%
Graphics test 12 FPS 13 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 +8%
8190
A18 Pro
7585
Score 8190 7585
Stability 72% -
Graphics test 31 FPS 29 FPS
Section 1 36 FPS 35 FPS
Section 2 31 FPS 30 FPS
Section 3 26 FPS 21 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Score 4676 -
Graphics test 27 FPS -

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
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

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-20 -> nsy567808AnTuTu2317311
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-19 -> nsy567808AnTuTu2317311
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-09 (Lunka)AnTuTu2094129
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-06 (Asfi)AnTuTu2176056
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-06 (Ashish)AnTuTu2259113
Add View all (580)
Apple A18 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-20 (thuanday)AnTuTu2043169
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-09-17 (Jonibek)AnTuTu1692383
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-08-21 (Neuron)AnTuTu1500141
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-07-21 (l1tsemerr)AnTuTu1650968
๐Ÿ“˜ 2026-06-15 (Anton)AnTuTu1782199
Add View all (32)

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and A18 Pro

CPU

Architecture 1x 3.3 GHz โ€“ Cortex-X4
3x 3.15 GHz โ€“ Cortex-A720
2x 2.96 GHz โ€“ Cortex-A720
2x 2.27 GHz โ€“ Cortex-A520		 2x 4.05 GHz โ€“ Everest
4x 2.42 GHz โ€“ Sawtooth
Cores 8 6
Frequency 3300 MHz 4050 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9.2-A ARMv9.2-A
L1 cache - 192 KB
L2 cache 1 MB 16 MB
L3 cache 12 MB -
Process 4 nanometers 3 nanometers
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 8 W 10 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 750 Apple A18 Pro GPU
Architecture Adreno 700 Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 903-1000 MHz 1490 MHz
Pipelines 6 6
Shading units 256 128
Total shaders 1536 768
FLOPS 2774 Gigaflops 2289 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 APL1V07
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 official site -
Successor - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 - Apple A19 Pro
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.

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
2314 (59%)
1611 (41%)
Total votes: 3925

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5. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Google Tensor G4 (19)
6. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (19)
7. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite (Gen 4) (79)
8. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs MediaTek Dimensity 9300 (155)
9. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Samsung Exynos 2400 (99)
10. Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs MediaTek Dimensity 9300 Plus (67)
Compare other chipsets (190+)

Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of A18 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, or ask any questions
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Avatar
Nicky April 6, 2025 at 10:59 PM
Isn't kinda embarrassing to compare a 2023 chipset to a 2024 chipset๐Ÿค”
+28 Reply
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Steve December 1, 2024 at 01:15 AM
Gaming performance should either be lower for Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or higher for the A18 Pro because the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 has a lot of thermal issues when gaming.
+41 Reply
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True December 7, 2024 at 02:00 AM
True man, a18 is better
+22 Reply
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Gabriel January 12, 2025 at 04:53 PM
More like phones using it have that problem if you use samsung or asus or even redmagic they don't have that problem
0 Reply
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Abdullah Jubair January 22, 2025 at 03:05 PM
Cheap chinese phones tht comes with a snapdragon 8 gen 3 may have heating issues. I personally never faced them with the S24 ultra.
+4 Reply
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Tyler November 30, 2024 at 09:34 PM
Seeing as the a18 is an entire year newer and still doesn't jump forward remarkably, it's tough to say it's all that great. Apples single core has always been pretty excellent but at this day in age I'd put multicore performance up there as more important. Gen 3 is a year older and still puts up a decent fight on multiple fronts, clearly Apple is still a contender but not the ruler it once was.
+8 Reply
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Shreyansh November 11, 2024 at 06:43 PM
Sd 8 gen 3 is better because of gpu and 24 gb ram support for gaming but cpu of A18 pro seems better.Gaming needs not only cpu but also better gpu and additional ram support so sd 8 gen 3 is better.
+20 Reply
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Chal na September 30, 2025 at 02:22 PM
Lol nope apple just lacks gpu power in terms of performance
0 Reply
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Apple and Android November 8, 2024 at 05:42 PM
Both are good the apple chip is more recent but Qualcomm is coming out with the 8 elite soon. both companies are good. apple makes good products but is closed source and Qualcomm is more versatile.
+3 Reply
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somone#47 October 15, 2024 at 05:56 PM
People need to accept that Iphones are actually good and not trash like everyone says, and I'm saying this as a Samsung fan
+37 Reply
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_Suru November 3, 2024 at 02:54 AM
yeah. agree. I'm also an android enjoyer, and i respect all mobile brands. it is just that there's so much brainrotted ifan that alway prove they are better. Apple product is good, but their fanbase is just too annoying.
+8 Reply
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a18 crap November 25, 2024 at 11:20 AM
iphone is trash bot 15w slow charge quick discarge 60 hz what is better hahahahahah even 300$ android outpoerform this crap iphone you are cult blinded apple cult
+9 Reply
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This Guy June 8, 2025 at 06:08 PM
I am a Samsung user, I disagree with you. The camera support is great remember. Samsung has the best camera innovation.
0 Reply
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pavlecom September 4, 2026 at 03:25 AM
This Guy, More corrected is Huawei are the No1 in camera innovations for years, & it's well known fact. But stay with your thought as you wish.
0 Reply
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Tugsuu October 12, 2024 at 03:21 AM
I just watched a video comparing the Samsung S24 Ultra and the iPhone 16 Pro Max playing Genshin Impact on max graphics settings. The Samsung S24 Ultraโ€™s frame rate dropped to 40 FPS, while the iPhone 16 Pro Max only dropped to 63 FPS. In the video, the iPhone 16 Pro Max performed almost twice as well as the Samsung S24 Ultra. I donโ€™t understand why the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is considered equivalent to the A18 Pro. Is it that Android devices lack optimization for games?
+17 Reply
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MasterMCGS October 14, 2024 at 09:00 PM
s24 ultra isnt the best gaming phone
+18 Reply
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Someone out there October 18, 2024 at 07:11 AM
Is Samsung S24 ultra the only phone using SD 8 gen 3? Why not compare with Asus, Redmagic, Xiaomi 14u and more? Rubbish๐Ÿ˜‚
+7 Reply
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Unknown October 19, 2024 at 06:55 AM
Samsung is not for gaming, remember that, go with Red Magic or ROG for the gaming
+6 Reply
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Jon October 20, 2024 at 09:17 PM
I use the Nubia Z60 Ultra (with the 8 gen 3) and it's insanely good for gaming. Also, in the wild life stress test it managed to get the second highest score, only behind the Asus Rog phone, which is an actual gaming phone unlike mine. Samsung's cooling is atrocious because too much space is taken up by the S-pen. No matter how hard they try this limitation of space will always put it at a disadvantage compared to it's competitors
+4 Reply
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_Suru November 3, 2024 at 02:52 AM
the s24 is not optimize for gaming. there are so much bloatware that stop the chip to perform well.
+2 Reply
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a18 crap November 25, 2024 at 11:19 AM
remember a18 always lose in real life on on fake benchmark wins hahahah
0 Reply
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Samsung crap June 27, 2025 at 04:11 PM
a18 crap, Remember who tops the benchmarks just to show the most outrageously atrocious real life performances tests, (its samsung obviously)
0 Reply
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Shweba October 12, 2024 at 03:00 AM
Bionic chip always better in single core and multi core in this universe.
+3 Reply
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Garri man October 10, 2024 at 08:53 PM
android fannnnn buh a18 pro can play AAA games
+1 Reply
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Emulation October 13, 2024 at 08:47 AM
Winulator would like to have a word with you. Considering it's an emulator, one could imagine how native ports of such AAA games out there would hypothetically perform on a Gen 8, Series 3 without the additional overhead.
+3 Reply
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Lakitha October 6, 2024 at 11:26 AM
Why do people think apple sells garbage when iPhone are winning against Samsung
+5 Reply
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_Suru November 3, 2024 at 03:00 AM
actually, none are winning. imagine ss sells ram chip, and screen to apple. its like a great deal for both. despite apple is winning against samsung, iphone is still loosing against most flagship android, not only their performance, but also their flexibility. i gotta admit apple is good, yes it is, but the only reason why people think it is garbage because they are overpriced phone. imagine getting a 16 pro max for 1200$, and it perform just exactly how a 700$ flagship android. lower the price, thats the key.
+5 Reply
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Qualcomm October 2, 2024 at 01:31 PM
Tensor chip left the chat ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ˜†
+19 Reply
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Corona Baba October 2, 2024 at 01:30 PM
Take deep breath, and breath out slowly! 8Gen3 is better than A18Pro. It will be known after remobed bloatwares on 8Gen3 to compete with no bloatwared A18Pro.
+8 Reply
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Flynn October 27, 2024 at 01:56 PM
8Gen3 better but not really smooth to match with Android OS. A18Pro is completely matching with IOS
+5 Reply
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Newone October 2, 2024 at 06:42 AM
How come A18 is more powerful, but can't play 8k60? And a weak gen3 can Even wifi 7 speed test shows that android phones have double speed of A18. Check vids on YT
+18 Reply
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Pablo October 1, 2024 at 08:23 AM
Buying an iphone is literally paying more for less performance
+13 Reply
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Lakitha October 6, 2024 at 11:25 AM
No it's not Samsung is paying more for less
+6 Reply
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Jon October 20, 2024 at 09:19 PM
Lakitha, Samsung S24 Ultra specifically has awful cooling because of the s-pen. Other 8 gen 3 devices like OnePlus 13, Honor Magic 6 Pro, Red magic 9 Pro all have much stronger performance than both the iPhone 16PM + the S24U
+1 Reply
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Samsung September 29, 2024 at 07:06 PM
Bro Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is WAY BETTER, iphone uses other parts and are GARBAGE
+30 Reply
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Apple September 26, 2024 at 01:54 AM
Bro A18 pro is WAY BETTER, samsung uses other parts and are GARBAGE
+34 Reply
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Ram Srikanth September 27, 2024 at 04:45 AM
In your dreams man ๐Ÿ˜น
+15 Reply
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Ngetich Ezra September 27, 2024 at 03:48 PM
A18 still toggles with low speeds just like the other apple chips.The iphone is useless
+7 Reply
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you wil be inecerateted September 28, 2024 at 05:55 PM
samsung sehr good, stop saying lies
+3 Reply
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Kiril September 28, 2024 at 05:59 PM
Did you miss the part where it said 20% higher total AnTuTu score also those "other parts" smoke the apple equivalents
+2 Reply
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Kauรงuk September 28, 2024 at 07:34 PM
You can't take someone serious with a user name "apple" easily
+9 Reply
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Go_For_iPhone October 4, 2024 at 10:12 PM
Yeah bro that's true. but why are you called Apple? Are you some apple worker promoting iPhone? Well its really good so i wouldnt be surprised if you werent
0 Reply
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Someone October 11, 2024 at 05:15 PM
Too bad that Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 can actually utilize and harness its max performance.
0 Reply
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Marci October 12, 2024 at 02:05 AM
Kiril, AnTuTu scores aren't really good for comparisons since they differ with the OS and optimizations. Geekbench and 3DMark are what you should be looking at. Though, apple chips focus on single core performance rather than multi-core for power efficiency so you would see that single core scores on apple chipsets are really high while multi-scores aren't.
+12 Reply
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Samsung crap June 27, 2025 at 04:16 PM
Kiril, And did you miss the part where it is clearly written below that antutu doesn't affect scores just because its meant for testing androids only and not iPhones
0 Reply
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Jah July 3, 2025 at 02:14 AM
Samsung crap, All yall needs to sybau๐Ÿ˜‚โœŒ๏ธ
0 Reply
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