Snapdragon 865 vs A14 Bionic

We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 (Adreno 650) with the newer 6-core Apple A14 Bionic (Apple A14 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 865
  • Performs 84% better in floating-point computations
  • Has 2 more cores
  • Supports 29% higher memory bandwidth (44 against 34.1 GB/s)
Pros of Apple A14 Bionic
  • Higher GPU frequency (~2.2x)
  • Has a smaller size transistor (5 versus 7 nm)
  • Shows significantly better (up to 44%) AnTuTu 10 score – 1073K vs 743K
  • Announced 10-months later
  • 9% higher CPU clock speed (3100 vs 2840 MHz)
  • Better instruction set architecture
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Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 10

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
A14 Bionic +44%
1073536
CPU 232044 264493
GPU 198128 320681
Memory 130839 180637
UX 182486 297879
Total score 743719 1073536
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
A14 Bionic +87%
2094
Multi-Core Score
A14 Bionic +46%
4799
Asset compression 150.9 MB/sec 167 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 84.1 pages/sec 105.5 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 109.4 Mpixels/sec 116.4 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 74.7 images/sec 95.7 images/sec
HDR 102.4 Mpixels/sec 147.6 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 10.4 images/sec 17.6 images/sec
Photo processing 32.6 images/sec 51.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 4.19 Mpixels/sec 5.18 Mpixels/sec
Compute Score (GPU)
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3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Wild Life Performance
A14 Bionic +73%
7603
Stability 99% 77%
Graphics test 26 FPS 45 FPS
Score 4402 7603

Gaming

Table of average FPS and graphics settings in mobile games
PUBG Mobile 60 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Call of Duty: Mobile 61 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Fortnite 30 FPS
[Ultra]
-
World of Tanks Blitz 60 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Genshin Impact 60 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang 59 FPS
[Ultra]
-
Device Xiaomi Mi 10 Pro
1080 x 2340
-
We provide average results. FPS may differ, depending on game version, OS and other factors.

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 865 and A14 Bionic

CPU

Architecture 1x 2.84 GHz – Kryo 585 Prime (Cortex-A77)
3x 2.42 GHz – Kryo 585 Gold (Cortex-A77)
4x 1.8 GHz – Kryo 585 Silver (Cortex-A55)
2x 3.1 GHz – Firestorm
4x 1.8 GHz – Icestorm
Cores 8 6
Frequency 2840 MHz 3100 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8.2-A ARMv8.5-A
L1 cache 512 KB 128 KB
L2 cache 1 MB 8 MB
L3 cache 4 MB -
Process 7 nanometers 5 nanometers
Transistor count 10.3 billion 11.8 billion
TDP 5 W 6 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Adreno 650 Apple A14 GPU
Architecture Adreno 600 Apple GPU
GPU frequency 587 MHz 1278 MHz
Execution units 2 4
Shading units 512 64
Total shaders 1024 256
FLOPS 1202.1 Gigaflops 654.3 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.1 -
OpenCL version 2.0 -
DirectX version 12.1 -

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5 LPDDR4X
Memory frequency 2750 MHz 2133 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 44 Gbit/s 34.1 Gbit/s
Max size 16 GB 6 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Neural processor (NPU) Hexagon 698 Neural Engine
Storage type UFS 3.0, UFS 3.1 NVMe
Max display resolution 3840 x 2160 2732 x 2048
Max camera resolution 1x 200MP, 2x 25MP -
Video capture 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 60FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 8K at 30FPS, 4K at 60FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9 H.264, H.265, Motion JPEG
Audio codecs AAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV AAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV, AC-3, E-AC-3, AAX, AAX+

Connectivity

Modem X55 -
4G support LTE Cat. 22 LTE Cat. 18
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 7500 Mbps Up to 7500 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 3000 Mbps Up to 2500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 6 6
Bluetooth 5.1 5.0
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, SBAS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo

Info

Announced December 2019 September 2020
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number SM8250-AB APL1W01
Official page Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 official site -

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
503 (45.2%)
610 (54.8%)
Total votes: 1113

Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of A14 Bionic and Snapdragon 865, or ask any questions
Avatar
A14 monster 28 April 2023 22:34
Even though everyone is basically worshipping A14 bionic right now, we can't deny the fact that Qualcomm made something good here with the snapdragon 865 staying relatively cool as compared to the A14 processor, I mean this thing heats up like my oven and I'll need to play heavy games directly under a fan or an air-conditioned environment and even so, it still heats up like its nobody's business.
+2 Reply
Avatar
865 favorite child 29 April 2023 19:48
Even though the A14 bionic beat the crap out of the 865, I still think the Snapdragon 865 stayed relatively cooler than the A14 bionic. Lol
0 Reply
Avatar
Lee 08 July 2021 06:40
A14 is overprice. In fact Snapdragon 865, is running pretty close to neck to neck race. The A14 lead with a small margin only. So Snapdragon 865 price is value for money
+14 Reply
Avatar
mkay 04 November 2021 10:57
“small margin” lol ..........
+3 Reply
Avatar
a Martin 10 November 2021 13:59
mkay, Is +71% single core performance for the A14 ”small margin”? :D Even +18% in multicore performance for the A14 despite having to cores less than the 865. 🤷‍♂️
+5 Reply
Avatar
A14 booty 17 April 2023 08:06
mkay, 😅 "small margin" I love the Snapdragon 865 because it stays relatively cool to the touch compared to the A14 processor and I see some stutters when in my user interface while using my iPhone 12.. however when provided with sufficient cooling, the A14 performance is unlike I've ever seen before.
+4 Reply
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