The Apple A15 SoC Performance Review: Faster & More Efficient
by Andrei Frumusanu on October 4, 2021 9:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Mobile
- Apple
- Smartphones
- Apple A15
Conclusion & End Remarks
Today’s investigation into the new A15 is just scratching the tip of the iceberg of what Apple has to offer in the new generation iPhone 13 series devices. As we’re still working on the full device review, we got a good glimpse of what the new silicon is able to achieve, and what to expect from the new devices in terms of performance.
On the CPU side of things, Apple’s initial vague presentation of the new A15 improvements could either have resulted in disappointment, or simply a more hidden shift towards power efficiency rather than pure performance. In our extensive testing, we’re elated to see that it was actually mostly an efficiency focus this year, with the new performance cores showcasing adequate performance improvements, while at the same time reducing power consumption, as well as significantly improving energy efficiency.
The efficiency cores of the A15 have also seen massive gains, this time around with Apple mostly investing them back into performance, with the new cores showcasing +23-28% absolute performance improvements, something that isn’t easily identified by popular benchmarking. This large performance increase further helps the SoC improve energy efficiency, and our initial battery life figures of the new 13 series showcase that the chip has a very large part into the vastly longer longevity of the new devices.
In the GPU side, Apple’s peak performance improvements are off the charts, with a combination of a new larger GPU, new architecture, and the larger system cache that helps both performance as well as efficiency.
Apple’s iPhone component design seems to be limiting the SoC from achieving even better results, especially the newer Pro models, however even with that being said and done, Apple remains far above the competition in terms of performance and efficiency.
Overall, while the A15 isn’t the brute force iteration we’ve become used to from Apple in recent years, it very much comes with substantial generational gains that allow it to be a notably better SoC than the A14. In the end, it seems like Apple’s SoC team has executed well after all.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
204 Comments
View All Comments
Ppietra - Wednesday, October 6, 2021 - link
michael2k,process node differences cannot account for the degree of difference in efficiency. N6 to N5P would account for less than 30% reduction in power at the same clock speed (using same design).
What we observe is a 60% reduction in energy vs the D1200 while achieving almost the same performance at a lower clock speed. Apple’s design has a better IPC while consuming much less. Even if we were to compensate for process node advantage we would still have around 40% reduction in energy consumption.
Anyway, Andrei has mentioned that these power consumption values are also affected by other things, not just the CPU cores, so clearly Apple is doing a better job at keeping power under control.
Fulljack - Thursday, October 7, 2021 - link
Snapdragon 888 are fabricated on Samsung 5nm LPE and NOT TSMC N5 (5nm)erinadreno - Monday, October 4, 2021 - link
Not exactly a fan of Apple's design choice of mobile phone SoC. Yes the performance is good, but no integrated modem, hence larger PCB and/or smaller battery. They basically trade area with performance. Due to the lack of peripherals and smaller screen, it's difficult to utilize the full potential while still burning the energy.The same design philosophy (M1) is a lot better on tablet and laptop where performance is less likely to be wasted.
melgross - Monday, October 4, 2021 - link
That’s not an Apple design choice. That’s a Qualcomm limitation. Qualcomm won’t allow Apple (or anyone else) to integrate their modems on a chip not made by Qualcomm. Nevertheless, Apple’s overall phone designs are still more efficient.michael2k - Monday, October 4, 2021 - link
1) That's like complaining about Intel's lack of integrated NVIDIA GPU2) They increased the battery size year over year, so that claim is false
3) They aren't trading area with performance, as indicated by their sandwich PCB, they're trading heat dissipation for reduced performance; the heat dissipation of the CPU + GPU is what limits the performance, but that also probably also helps with increased battery life too
4) Peripherals? WTF are you talking about
5) Smaller screen? WTF? 5.4", 6.1", and 6.7" aren't generally smaller screens, especially when their performance is unrivaled, their battery life is good, and their energy efficiency is some of the best out there
It's like you commented without even reading the article!
erinadreno - Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - link
They increased battery size year over year, yet still beat by pretty much any other smartphone. The area means ASIC area and package size, Apple could step back their design with smaller die size and lower performance, like 1+3 CPU and 3 cluster GPU config for mobile. The sandwich PCB is the indication of trading area with performance. They just circumvent the area problem by having thermal issue. Peripherals are the hardware/software platform around the processor, OS, IO devices, etc. iPhone pretty much lack any real application (not apps) where this much processing power is needed, other than playing games for 5 minutes. I'd agree 6.7" is a large screen, but the other two are definitely small in today's market.jospoortvliet - Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - link
How are they beat by almost every other phone? Their battery life is in the absolute top. Sure they achieve that with a smaller battery and thus lower weight and size - to the benefit of their customers - but hey, that's what it means to be perf per watt leader.markiz - Friday, October 15, 2021 - link
Meh. iPhone never had good battery life. In fact, it was terrible for many years. And they had slow charging. Still do.That said, Galaxy S line also had until S21 poor battery life, about the same.
But there are numerous other high/er end phones that fare much better. I guess in USA only iphone and galaxy matter so you look at it differently.
It was also heavier slightly.
e.g. iphone 11 194g, S20 163
So there was no benefit to the customer in these regards.
cha0z_ - Tuesday, October 5, 2021 - link
my 11 pro max already sh*ts on all top current android phones and 13 pro max sh*ts on my phone on top of all top current gen android phones. They do it with smaller battery? This is not a bad thing, will let you guess why by yourself.markiz - Friday, October 15, 2021 - link
Iphone 13 has worse battery life then S21.pro max 13 has slight advantage, but galaxy is a half step behind. Maybe they can do better with s22. It's not at all correct to say that it shits on them in this particular regard.