Apple is no longer the big boss of mobile chipsets.
Apple is no longer the lion of mobile chipset performance. Given the leaked Galaxy S25 series benchmarks of its Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 processor, it is not even the tiger. Now, however, it has become clear that it is only the one-trick leopard that just runs fast for shorter bursts.
Enough with the big cat references but, somewhere along the quest for ravishing AI calculations, Apple lost the crown of the fastest CPU and GPU gun in the Wild Silicon West. This, however, might have been a deliberate strategy on the part of Apple, as today’s mobile chipsets are way too powerful for anything an app or a game may throw at them.
Until recently, Apple was willing to pull ahead of the Qualcomms and MediaTeks of this world, riding on a steady supply of the highest quality wafers hence clock frequencies, as well as customized GPU designs. Now that everyone is a TSMC foundry client vying for the latest production node, this has become harder or uneconomical for it to pull off, and it gets beat quite often.Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra vs iPhone 16 Pro benchmarksPerformance at twice the price
Typically, Qualcomm makes a custom Snapdragon processor version for Samsung that is clocked higher than for its other customers, and is tailored to its needs that are now revolving around artificial intelligence calculations.
Thus, Samsung’s upcoming S25 family of flagship phones will also be powered by a special version of Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 chipset called, as usual, Snapdragon for Galaxy.
Given that the S24 series managed to beat the Apple A17 in the graphics subsystem benchmarks, the S25 is likely to reinforce that trend.
3DMark Extreme(High)Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra4960
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max4236
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Extreme(Low)Higher is better
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra2710
Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max2632
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The reference board of that same chipset has appeared in benchmark databases clocked at 4.
