Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 vs A15 Bionic
We compared the 8-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 (Adreno 735) with the older 6-core Apple A15 Bionic (Apple A15 GPU) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.
Review
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
DeviceFacts Score
Overall chip score
Key Differences
Pros of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
- Supports 97% higher memory bandwidth (67.2 against 34.1 GB/s)
- Has 2 more cores
- Has a smaller size transistor (4 versus 5 nm)
- Shows better (up to 27%) AnTuTu 11 score β 1797K vs 1413K
- Better instruction set architecture
Pros of Apple A15 Bionic
- Higher GPU frequency (~22%)
- 8% higher CPU clock speed (3230 vs 3000 MHz)
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 556525 | 410975 |
| GPU | 503679 | 370837 |
| Memory | 307418 | 164151 |
| UX | 430199 | 467312 |
| Total score | 1797821 | 1413275 |
| Samples | [287 tests] | [69 tests] |
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect DeviceFacts scores.
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 219.8 MB/sec | 208.1 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 156.3 pages/sec | 122.9 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 167.8 Mpixels/sec | 139.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 113.3 images/sec | 125.1 images/sec |
| HDR | 142.1 Mpixels/sec | 179.4 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 16.9 images/sec | 22.3 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 51.2 images/sec | 53.2 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 6.15 Mpixels/sec | 6.26 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 64 tests | 37 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 13.6 images/sec | 35.4 images/sec |
| Face detection | 6.39 images/sec | 44.8 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.47 Gpixels/sec | 0.62 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.55 Gpixels/sec | 0.82 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.54 Gpixels/sec | 0.84 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.11 Gpixels/sec | 0.3 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 26.2 Gpixels/sec | 71.1 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 1701.5 FPS | 2198.2 FPS |
| API | OpenCL | Metal |
| Samples | 40 tests | 19 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 1033 | - |
| Stability | 90% | - |
| Graphics test | 8 FPS | - |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | 4992 | 3765 |
| Stability | - | 71% |
| Graphics test | 19 FPS | 14 FPS |
| Section 1 | 22 FPS | 19 FPS |
| Section 2 | 19 FPS | 14 FPS |
| Section 3 | 16 FPS | 9 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | 3116 | 2854 |
| Stability | 82% | 76% |
| Graphics test | 18 FPS | 17 FPS |
PCMark 3.0
PCMark 3.0
| Web score | 14506 | - |
| Video editing score | 7662 | - |
| Data manipulation score | 15136 | - |
| Photo editing score | 27100 | - |
| Writing score | 19378 | - |
| Phones tested | 14 models | - |
Recent User Tests
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-10-13 (Thobias) | AnTuTu 12 | 2020478 |
| π 2026-10-13 (Christian) | AnTuTu 11 | 1865929 |
| π 2026-10-13 (Christian) | AnTuTu 12 | 2068350 |
| π 2026-10-13 (tcno1) | AnTuTu 12 | 2067842 |
| π 2026-10-10 (Md Khoyrul Islam) | AnTuTu 12 | 1972292 |
Apple A15 Bionic
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-10-14 (Makkar) | AnTuTu 11 | 1191717 |
| π 2026-10-12 -> HotPower | Geekbench 7 CPU | 2155 / 5548 |
| π 2026-10-07 (Hoz4ik) | AnTuTu 11 | 1127460 |
| π 2026-09-25 -> op1 | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2168 / 4988 |
| π 2026-09-23 -> HotPower | AnTuTu 11 | 1184759 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 and A15 BionicCPU
| Architecture | 1x 3 GHz β Cortex-X4 4x 2.8 GHz β Cortex-A720 3x 2 GHz β Cortex-A520 |
2x 3.23 GHz β Avalanche 4x 2.02 GHz β Blizzard |
| Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Frequency | 3000 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.2-A | ARMv8.5-A |
| L1 cache | 128 KB | 256 KB |
| L2 cache | 1 MB | 12 MB |
| L3 cache | 8 MB | - |
| Process | 4 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Transistor count | - | 15 billion |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 7.5 W | 6 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Adreno 735 | Apple A15 GPU |
| Architecture | Adreno 700 | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU frequency | 1100 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| Pipelines | 3 | 5 |
| Shading units | 256 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 768 | 640 |
| FLOPS | 1689.6 Gigaflops | 1712.6 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.3 | - |
| OpenCL version | 2.0 | - |
| DirectX version | 12.1 | - |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Hexagon | Apple Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | - | 15.8 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR4X |
| Memory frequency | 4200 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 4x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 67.2 Gb/s | 34.1 Gb/s |
| Max size | 24 GB | 6 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | UFS 3.1, UFS 4.0 | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2160 | 2732 x 2048 |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 200MP | - |
| Video capture | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video playback | 4K at 120FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264 - H.265 - AV1 - VP8 - VP9 |
- H.264 - H.265 - VP8 - VP9 - Motion JPEG |
| Audio codecs | - AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
- AAC - AAX - AAX+ - AC-3 - AIFF - CAF - E-AC-3 - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | Snapdragon X70 5G | - |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 22 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 6500 Mbps | Up to 7500 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 3500 Mbps | Up to 3000 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 7 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 5.4 | 5.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
Info
| Announced | March 2024 | September 2021 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | SM8635 | APL1W07 |
| Official page | Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 3 official site | - |
| Successor | - Qualcomm Snapdragon 8s Gen 4 | - Apple A19 Pro |
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