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As expected, Apple's Bionic A17 Pro SoC is overall faster than the A16. In multi-core CPU performance, early Geekbench results suggest just a small bump, but in single-core loads, we see a 10% increase. As for the GPU, we see bigger gains in this department, with Geekbench Metal entries for the A17 Pro GPU scoring almost 20% higher than the A16 GPU.
In Geekbench 6 (via Tom's Hardware), Apple's A17 Pro SoC's 2,914 single-core score even matches AMD's Ryzen 9 7950X and Intel's Core i9-13900K results. However, it's worth noting that Apple's A17 Pro runs at 3.75 GHz, while the others go up to 5.70/5.80 GHz. Still, as is usually the case, one metric does not reveal the whole picture.
If we look at the performance per core, the A17 Pro is giving us 4,526 while the A16 gives us 4,455.
Not that different at all in terms of the performance of each core.
Looks like Apple is saving the gains for the A18 Pro by keeping the clock speed the same as on A16!
— Vadim Yuryev (@VadimYuryev) September 15, 2023
Compared to its predecessor, the A17 Pro is about 10% quicker in the single-core test. Considering the new CPU operates at a ~10% higher clock, the performance increase seems to come exclusively from that, which suggests Apple hasn't made any microarchitectural CPU advancements to its new chip. Moreover, Apple's A17 Pro only scored about 7,200 points in the multi-core test, which is just ~5% higher than the average A16.
Moving to the A17 Pro GPU, Vadim Yuryev (via Wccftech) shared a Geekbench 6 entry where we see the SoC's 6-core GPU scoring a 27,158 Metal score. That's a considerable 20% improvement compared to its predecessor. However, note that the A16's GPU only had five cores. As Yuryev pointed out, if we do the math to get the performance per core, the A17 Pro cores get 4,526 points each, while the A16 Bionic achieves 4,455 points per core. Still, the A17 Pro's graphics score matches the figures stated in Apple's marketing materials, even if that comes from only adding a core to the GPU.
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KitGuru says: The generational uplift brought by the A17 Pro SoC may not be as significant as many hoped for. Still, it's more than enough to guarantee that it will be the fastest smartphone chip on the market the moment it launches.
