How the new A16 Bionic compares to every other Apple chip

At the heart of every Apple device is an Apple processor. Apple has used its own processors in its iPhones and iPads for some time, while the Mac line has almost completed its transition away from Intel chips. Apple has far more devices with its own silicon than Intel’s now — all that’s left are the high-end Mac mini and Mac Pro — and by the end of 2023, every product Apple makes is likely to be powered by a homegrown chip.

The remarkable thing about Apple’s silicon is its performance—major PC and Android chip makers can’t ignore Apple’s chips because they’re being overtaken. But all chips are not created equal. Understanding the performance differences between each chip will help with your purchasing decisions, especially when choosing between iPhone 14 or MacBook models. Knowing how each chip performs gives you a better idea of ​​which products to buy and whether it’s worth your money to step up to a higher model.

Let’s take a look at how the new processors compare to the rest of the processors in the iPhone, iPad, and Mac lineup, and see how each performs and what that means for you. For the sake of consistency, we have used the Geekbench 5 benchmarks. (The results are our own, but we’ve checked our numbers against the Geekbench database to make sure the results are expected.) Here’s each chip and how the benchmarks compare.

Every processor compared

Before we get into the individual processor, let’s let the chips fall where they may. It’s a somewhat predictable chart, of course, with M1 Pro/Max Macs at the top, followed by a mix of iPads and iPhones. But there are still some fascinating results: iPad Pro owners can say that their tablet is about as fast as a MacBook Air, and that would not be an exaggeration. And the difference between the $399 iPhone SE and the $899 iPhone 14 isn’t as big as their price difference suggests.

iPhone processors

Before we compare the performance of each iPhone processor, let’s take a look at the specifications so that we can understand the differences between them.

Now let’s look at how each processor works. Not surprisingly, the A16 Bionic in the iPhone 14 Pro is the fastest. The iPhone 14 and iPhone 13 both have an A15 Bionic processor, but the iPhone 13 has one less GPU core than the iPhone 13 Pro, giving it better graphics performance.

Apple still sells the iPhone 12, which has an A14 Bionic. It’s actually not much slower than the iPhone 13’s A15 Bionic – the specs between the two processors are practically the same, with the A15 Bionic’s performance cores having a slightly faster clock speed and more RAM. If price is the main priority over the camera and other features, consider the iPhone 12 instead of the iPhone 13.

The speed difference is more apparent between the iPhone 12’s A14 Bionic and the chips in the iPhone 14 models. This could be the last hurray for the A14 Bionic, as the iPhone 12 will be replaced by the 13 as the low-cost option with Apple’s next big iPhone rollout next fall, though it’s possible it will make it into the next Apple TV revision.

iPad processors

The staggered release of Apple’s iPad series creates a strange performance order of the CPU and its device.

The A15 Bionic is newer than the A14 Bionic that was in the previous iPad Air, but the performance difference between the two is small, which is probably one of the reasons why Apple went with an M1 when they upgraded the iPad Air in 2022. A15 The Bionic in this tablet needs to be clocked down to maintain a proper operating temperature, so it’s not as fast as the A15 Bionic in the iPhone 13 Pro. The A13 Bionic on the entry-level iPad will likely disappear after a fall update, which would spell the end of that processor.

The M1-equipped iPad Pros and iPad Air are the fastest models, and the gap between them and the iPad and iPad mini is significant. The staggered release makes it hard to predict what Apple will do with the CPUs in the iPad and iPad mini; The iPad is likely to get the A15 Bionic in its next upgrade, but what about the iPad mini? Apple could choose to give it an M1 or M2 processor to differentiate it from the entry-level iPad, although the mini’s small frame means it’s more likely to get the A16.

Mac processors

With Apple’s M series of chips for Mac, the company’s release schedule involves the base version in the MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro and other Macs. Apple then modifies it to create advanced versions.

The latest M-Series chip is the M2, which was released with the new 13-inch MacBook Pro and MacBook Air in summer 2022, right after WWDC. The M2 replaces the M1 in these Macs, but Apple may stick around M1 models to offer low-cost options, such as the $999 M1 MacBook Air.

With the M2, Apple claims an 18 percent improvement in overall CPU performance over the M1. In the multi-core CPU test, we are able to confirm Apple’s claim. The single-core CPU test showed a lower increase of 13 percent for the M2.

The M1 Ultra is a beast of a chip that doubles the CPU multi-core performance of the M1 Max, which has half as many CPU cores. It also blazes in GPU performance.

As for the M1 Max, it differs from the M1 Pro with its graphics performance – the 32-core GPU gives it a big boost. The only unit we haven’t personally tested is the 8-core CPU, 14-core GPU from the M1 Pro in the $1,999 14-inch MacBook Pro, but online benchmarks show CPU performance about 20 percent slower than the 10-core The CPU, 16-core GPU M1 Pro.

An interesting comparison between the 8-core CPU M1 Pro and the low-end M1 can be found. The 8-core M1 Pro offers an increase of about 30 percent, and the $1,999 14-inch MacBook Pro costs about 33 percent more than the M1-based $1,499 13-inch MacBook Pro. In terms of pure performance, you pay a little more than a dollar per percentage point.

The chip that started it all, the good old M1, may seem slow compared to the M1 Pro and M1 Max – but that’s not to undermine Apple’s original Mac processor. Keep in mind that the M1 blows past the Intel processors it replaced, resulting in significant price/performance value.