Samsung continues to impress with its latest flagship, the Galaxy S25 Ultra, as it secures a performance edge over Apple’s iPhone 16 Pro Max in the 3DMark Steel Nomad Light benchmark test. This benchmark is a challenging test that evaluates GPU performance without the complexity of ray tracing, and in this case, the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s Adreno graphics processor outperformed Apple’s A18 Pro’s 6-core solution.
In recent comparisons, the Galaxy S25 Ultra had already outshone the iPhone 16 Pro Max in Geekbench 6’s multi-core tests with a nearly 20 percent lead, further solidifying its robust performance credentials. While Apple continues to dominate single-core performance with its A18 Pro chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Elite demonstrates formidable strength, particularly in multi-core and GPU-intensive tasks.
The latest benchmark results reveal that the Galaxy S25 Ultra scored 2,617 points, significantly outpacing the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s score of 1,922, marking a notable 36 percent performance difference. In terms of framerate, Samsung’s flagship hit an average of 19.39 FPS, compared to Apple’s 14.2 FPS in this non-raytraced GPU test.
A contributing factor to the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s superior performance is its enhanced version of the Snapdragon 8 Elite, with performance cores running at higher frequencies. Although the Steel Nomad Light benchmark primarily tests GPU capabilities, it’s possible the Adreno GPU is operating at increased clock speeds, a hypothesis that invites further investigation.
Samsung deserves accolades for their exceptional engineering within the Galaxy S25 Ultra. The device’s larger vapor chamber is expected to offer additional benefits in forthcoming performance evaluations.
For those considering a smartphone upgrade, there’s no better time to explore what Samsung’s premium offering has to offer, especially with enticing promotions currently underway. Keep an eye on future analysis and updates to see how the Galaxy S25 Ultra continues to perform against its competitors.
