If you’re a big fan of mobile gaming, we’re sure you want to know more about which devices have the best hardware. In this article, we look at the Apple A17 Pro chip in more detail, explaining why we think it might be the best GPU chip currently on the market.
How Does the A17 Pro Chip Compare to Other Apple Chips?
As one of Apple’s newer releases, the A15 Bionic chip was widely seen as one of the best on the market, holding its own against most other products available, but Apple has completely changed the game with the A17 Pro.
Users have reported that performance has increased substantially, improving the overall gaming experience while allowing users to play many different types of games.
Many forums and tech channels have reported that it’s much more responsive, which means apps and other core functions work faster and operate at a higher level.
Even huge apps, which often require a lot of cached data, don’t tend to stutter much at all, even though you would expect the phone to be overloaded.
It can’t be overstated how extensive an upgrade this latest line of high-power Apple chips is. With the A17 Pro chip, we’re reaching performance levels comparable to Apple’s M1 chip, which you’ll find inside their base-level desktop products. The fact that there is even a comparison in hardware says it all.
What Makes The A17 Pro Chip Special?
Apple’s A17 Pro chip represents a giant leap forward for Apple in terms of performance and capabilities and for their entry into new markets.
While Apple has prioritized photographers and videographers in recent years, which makes perfect sense, the latest hardware developers indicate a long-overdue gaming market pivot.
According to Greg Joswiak, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing, this couldn’t be more true, saying that the A17 Pro chip “ushers in a new chapter of performance and games never before seen on iPhone.”
It’s great that we’re seeing and hearing all the right things from Apple, but most of the terminology used means little to most users (and even gamers).
While saying that the A17 pro chip is built using 3-nanometer technology and features an AV1 decoder might not mean much, you can be sure that this is impressive and represents a huge step forward.
This all results in a CPU up to 10% faster than its predecessor. Even more impressively, its leading GPU reportedly improves performance by up to 20%, enhancing usability and energy efficiency.
But what does this mean? Well, devices that use the A17 Pro chip, such as the Apple iPhone 15 Pro, will be able to do things smartphones have never been able to do. AAA games were previously seen as off-limits to mobile devices, but with these substantial performance upgrades, this is no longer the case.
According to Apple executives, the “iPhone 15 Pro brings true-to-life gaming to the palm of users’ hands with console titles never before seen on a smartphone.”
We’re not talking about B-list games either, with titles like Resident Evil Village, Resident Evil 4, Death Stranding, and Assassin’s Creed Mirage being name-dropped by Apple as being compatible.
Apple A17 Pro vs Snapdragon 8 Gen 2
The biggest rival to Apple’s A17 pro chip is widely claimed to be the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is a relative newcomer to the market when we look at usage and caliber.
Both are incredibly powerful and represent the pinnacle of current technology, but we think that Apple has the edge, making it the current go-to for mobile gamers.
Apple’s A17 Pro chip is only currently available if you have an iPhone 15 Pro or Pro Max model, but we’d expect this to be the standard for all new iPhones moving forward.
This exclusivity — which we’ve come to expect from Apple — can’t be said for Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This powerful chip is available in several top devices, including the Samsung Galaxy S23, Motorola Edge 40 Pro, and OnePlus 11, so it’s much easier to get your hands on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2.
Like with the A17 pro chip, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 is said to be much more powerful than its predecessor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1+. However, one of the key differences is that Qualcomm has used 4-nanometer technology, and while this is still impressive, it’s not quite at the level of the Apple A17 Pro chip.
Playing on Your Mobile Phone
No matter which new chip you choose, we’re sure it’ll be a good choice — as long as you research beforehand, you’ll likely be thrilled with the technology. That said, you can’t go wrong with the range of A17 Pro chip iPhones, which look like the real deal.