Apple’s new iPhone 17 lineup is here, powered by the freshly minted A19 and A19 Pro chips. And as usual, the first thing everyone wants to know: how fast are they really? Early benchmarks are rolling in, and the story is a little split.
On the CPU side, the A19 and A19 Pro aren’t exactly blowing minds. But when it comes to graphics performance, Apple might have just turned iPhones into mini gaming machines.
CPU: A Small Bump, Nothing Wild
Early Geekbench results for the A19 Pro in the iPhone 17 Pro Max show a single-core score of 3,895 and a multi-core score of 9,746. Compare that to last year’s A18 Pro, which scored 3,479 and 8,568 — we’re talking about a ~10% bump.
Meanwhile, the regular iPhone 17 with the standard A19 chip clocks in at 3,608 (single-core) and 8,810 (multi-core). That’s about 7% better than the iPhone 16. Not bad, but definitely not the kind of leap Apple users are used to every few years.
In short: if you were expecting blistering CPU upgrades, you might want to lower your expectations.
GPU: Where Things Get Exciting
Now here’s the fun part. A leaked Geekbench 6 Metal score shows the A19 Pro hitting 45,657 points in the GPU test. That’s a massive jump from the A18 Pro’s ~33,000 range — and right in line with Apple’s M2 chip, which averages around 44,473.
Yes, you read that right: the iPhone 17 Pro’s GPU is basically playing in iPad Pro (M2) territory. For mobile gaming, that’s huge. Apple’s been pushing console-level titles like Resident Evil 4 and Death Stranding onto iPhone, and with this kind of horsepower, we can expect that trend to continue.
A Tale of Two Chips
So, what’s the takeaway?
- CPU gains are modest (7–10%), so don’t expect apps to suddenly launch at warp speed.
- GPU gains are massive, making the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max especially appealing for gamers.
- The iPhone Air uses a cut-down version of the A19 Pro GPU (5 cores instead of 6), but it still benefits from the new architecture.
Apple clearly spent this generation focusing on graphics muscle over raw CPU power. And honestly, with mobile gaming heating up, that’s not a bad call.
Comments