The new A17 Bionic chip is expected to be unveiled at the ‘Wonderlust’ event on September 12, where the iPhone 15 series will be the center of attention. Unfortunately, the new processor will not power all four models as it did last year; While only the more premium ‘Pro’ versions will have the new chip, the A16 Bionic will power the base models.This year, however, we expect to see major differences between the two chipsets, and while we don’t currently have any legitimate performance or power efficiency statistics to compare, we’ll focus on four key features that we believe will exist between the two.
New production technique (TSMC N3P vs N4P)
Apple will likely focus on TSMC’s 3nm process used for mass production of the A17 Bionic and will talk about it at the event. As many of you know, an advanced manufacturing process has direct positive effects on the performance and energy efficiency of the chipset. However, there have been reports that the A16 Bionic is actually a 5nm silicon marketed as 4nm, so assuming the A17 Bionic is a ‘true’ 3nm chip, the differences between the two will be more noticeable.
We can say that the biggest feature of TSMC’s new technology is on the efficiency side. Compared to the N5 production process, there is up to 30 percent less energy consumption in the 3nm, that is, N3P process, or a performance gain of up to 15 percent at the same consumption level. Therefore, users who switch to iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max will notice increases in both battery time and performance. Another important point will be on the heating side, and Pro models will heat less under load.In addition, A17 Bionic will be the first processor produced in the 3nm process. Although MediaTek recently announced its own 3nm processor, there is a difference between announcing a product and using it in devices. We know that almost all of TSMC’s 3nm production lines are allocated to Apple. Therefore, the 3nm process will be exclusive to Apple for a while. Probably other companies will start using TSMC’s 3mn bands in 2024.
High performance in games with more powerful GPU
Apple is not expected to make any changes with the A17 Bionic, at least in the configuration of the processor, that is, the CPU core. Therefore, in this generation, we expect a 6-core CPU configuration consisting of two performance cores and four efficiency cores. On the other hand, it has been stated that there will be upgrades for a while, especially on the GPU side, which affects game performance. According to reports, we can see a 6-core GPU in the A17 Bionic. The GPU in the A16 Bionic was 5-core.Another difference in the rumors was that the performance cores were said to operate at a frequency of 3.70GHz, which makes the A16 Bionic’s performance cores slightly higher than the 3.46GHz speed. Apple has proven for several years that a 6-core CPU outperforms its 8-core rivals in both single-core and multi-core benchmarks. However, the same cannot be said for the GPU side.
More RAM
Some rumors believe Apple will continue to limit the amount of RAM on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max to 6GB while using LPDDR5 technology like last year. However, a spec comparison published by TrendForce shows that the A17 Bionic will have 8GB of RAM. With the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus rumored to ship with the A16 Bionic, Apple is likely to reuse last year’s hardware to save on production costs.Ray tracing support
A16 Bionic was being tested on ray tracing by Apple engineers before its official launch in 2022, and there were various reports on this subject. However, the tests were inconclusive and we could not see ray tracing support in the A16 Bionic. One reason why this doesn’t happen is because ray tracing is a heavy workload. Apple probably opted for a longer battery and a cooler chip instead of games with better visuals.
Since performance and thermal budget capacity increases with TSMC’s new generation 3nm process, Apple can support ray tracing in the A17 Bionic. The upcoming Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Dimensity 9300 will have ray tracing support, so it would be a good idea if the A17 Bionic provides the same visual improvements from the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max.
