iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max Benchmarks Reveal GPU Performance Improvements With New A17 Pro Chip

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max GPU performance in some tests reportedly exceeds Apple's claims made during its presentation on September 12.

Written by David Delima, Edited by Siddharth Suvarna | Updated: 19 September 2023 15:51 IST

iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max Benchmarks Reveal GPU Performance Improvements With New A17 Pro Chip

iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models were launched by the company on September 12

Highlights

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max run on Apple's new A17 Pro chip
The 3nm chipset is claimed to be 20 percent faster than its predecessor
The iPhone 15 Pro A17 chip benchmarks appear to confirm Apple's claims

iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max benchmarks have revealed the improvements in GPU performance on both of Apple's flagship smartphones that were launched earlier this month. This year, Apple equipped both Pro models with an A17 Pro chip, while the regular models feature the A16 Bionic chip found on last year's iPhone 14 Pro. Apple says the 3nm A17 Pro chip is equipped with 6 GPU cores that are up to 20 percent faster than its predecessor, while offering improved efficiency.

MySmartPrice has published GFXBench benchmarks for three handsets in the iPhone 15 series of smartphones — the iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the iPhone 15 Plus. In some of the tests, it appears that the A17 Pro chip slightly exceeds Apple's claims of improved GPU performance made during its 'Wonderlust' launch event on September 12.

Compared to the iPhone 15 Plus with its A16 Bionic chip, the iPhone 15 Pro rendered a larger number of frames with the Aztec Ruins High Tier Offscreen test. The iPhone 15 Pro models rendered about 8 more frames per second than the iPhone 15 Plus during the benchmark test, as per the report. During the Normal Tier Offscreen test, the Pro model reportedly rendered 10 more frames per second than the iPhone 14 Pro that was launched last year.

iPhone 16 Pro May Sport 'Tetraprism' Zoom Lens from iPhone 15 Pro Max: Kuo

Meanwhile, the Manhattan 3.1 Offscreen test showed that the A17 Pro chip offered around a 48fps improvement over the iPhone 15 Plus with the A16 Bionic chip. This amounts to an increase of nearly 31.5 percent over the previous generation chipset which means the GPU performance of the new iPhone 15 Pro models could be even higher than Apple's claims during its presentation.

Benchmarks are synthetic tests and only tell half of the story about a smartphone or computer's performance — there are several other factors that affect performance such as ambient temperature and software optimisation.

As per a previous report, the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max are equipped with 8GB of RAM, marking the first time that Apple has increased the amount of RAM in its smartphones since the iPhone 13 Pro was launched in 2021. The company does not typically reveal the amount of RAM or the battery capacity of its smartphones, but these are usually revealed by benchmarks and teardowns of the handsets a few weeks after the devices make their debut.

Is the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 the best foldable phone you can buy in India right now? We discuss the company's new clamshell-style foldable handset on the latest episode of Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Apple iPhone 15 Pro

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.10-inch

Processor Apple A17 Pro

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

OS iOS 17

Resolution 1179x2556 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Design
Display
Software
Performance
Battery Life
Camera
Value for Money

Good
Excellent display
USB Type-C
AAA gaming
Excellent all-round performance
Good primary and telephoto camera
Customisable Action Button

Bad
Gets hot quickly when stressed
Slow wired charging
Expensive

Read detailed Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max review

Display 6.70-inch

Processor Apple A17 Pro

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 256GB, 512GB, 1TB

OS iOS 17

Resolution 1290x2796 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

Apple iPhone 15 Plus

KEY SPECS
NEWS

Display 6.70-inch

Processor Apple A16 Bionic

Front Camera 12-megapixel

Rear Camera 48-megapixel + 12-megapixel

RAM 8GB

Storage 128GB, 256GB, 512GB

OS iOS 17

Resolution 1290x2796 pixels

More Apple mobiles Apple mobiles price in India

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Further reading: iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro Max, iPhone 15 Plus, iPhone 15 Pro benchmarks, iPhone 15 Pro Max benchmarks, iPhone 15 Plus benchmarks, A17 Pro, A16 Bionic, GPU, Apple

David Delima

Email David Delima

As a writer on technology with Gadgets 360, David Delima is interested in open-source technology, cybersecurity, consumer privacy, and loves to read and write about how the Internet works. David can be contacted via email at DavidD@ndtv.com, on Twitter at @DxDavey, and Mastodon at mstdn.social/@delima. More