The iPhone 15 Pro Max, Galaxy S24 Ultra, and Vivo X100 Pro are three of the most formidable smartphones on the market, each powered by top-of-the-line chipsets designed to handle the most demanding tasks. Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro Max features the Apple A17 Pro chipset with a hexa-core processor reaching 3.77GHz and a novel 6-core GPU architecture. Samsung’s Galaxy S24 Ultra is equipped with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 (SD8G3) featuring an octa-core configuration up to 3.4GHz and an Adreno 750 GPU peaking at 1GHz. The Vivo X100 Pro, on the other hand, runs on the MediaTek Dimensity 9300 (D9300) with an ‘all big’ octa-core processor that includes four large cores and four mid cores, clocking up to 3.25 GHz, alongside its Mali G720-Immortalis GPU featuring a 12-core setup.
In a direct comparison of their CPU and GPU performance, we began with the Geekbench 6 test, renowned for its real-world task simulations, such as machine learning activities associated with photography and language models. For GPU testing, the devices underwent the Wild Life Extreme Stress Test, which intensely works the graphics over a 20-minute session and reveals both the highest and lowest performance scores.
The Geekbench 6 outcomes highlighted the iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chip leading by over 30% in single-core performance compared to the Galaxy’s SD8G3 and Vivo’s D9300, reflecting its advantage in tasks that typically use a single-core. When it comes to multi-core performance, crucial for more complex operations, the D9300 exhibits competitive results nearly matching the A17 Pro, while the SD8G3 follows closely behind.
The 3D Mark Wild Life Extreme Stress Test results showed a different landscape with both the SD8G3 and D9300 surpassing the A17 Pro in peak GPU performance. Notably, the iPhone’s chip demonstrated the highest stability during the test at 61.4%, indicating superior thermal management, potentially owing to its advanced 3nm manufacturing process and despite relying on a basic graphite thermal solution.
Externally, the highest temperature was recorded on the Vivo X100 Pro at 44 degrees Celsius, whereas the SD8G3 and A17 Pro both stayed under 40 degrees Celsius. The Vivo device takes advantage of a vapor chamber cooling system, as does the Galaxy S24 Ultra, with Samsung having implemented a significantly larger vapor chamber compared to its predecessor.
In conclusion, though the A17 Pro chipset leads in CPU tasks, the SD8G3 and D9300 are the frontrunners in GPU performance. Despite this, thanks to AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution technology integrated into Apple’s MetalFX framework, the iPhone 15 Pro Max might still offer competitive gaming performance, even with seemingly less raw graphics power.
Moreover, when considering the combination of CPU, GPU, and machine learning acceleration via NPUs, these smartphones are increasingly designed to tackle AI-related tasks on-device, which is a distinct advantage over processors that require cloud processing, as it enhances privacy, reduces latency, and conserves battery life. This reveals the importance of benchmarks in understanding the capabilities of modern high-performance smartphones.
