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Apple’s upcoming 3nm A17 Bionic chip could feature a 6-core CPU and a 6 GPU cores. For comparison, the iPhone 15 Pro’s A16 Bionic uses a 5-core GPU.
Based on TSMC’s 3nm node, the A17 Bionic will seemingly ship with 6GB LPDDR5 RAM. The iPhone 14 Pro series also ships with the same 6GB RAM.
iPhone 15 Pro could sport the same amount of RAM as iPhone 14 Pro
Leaker @URedditor, who has previously shared some accurate Apple-related leaks, provided more details about the company’s next A-series chip. While the A17 Bionic will apparently have the same number of CPU cores as the A16 Bionic, Apple will bump its clock speed. Codenamed Coll (t8130), the leaker claims the high-performance A17 cores will run at 3.7GHz. That’s a notable jump from the A16’s 3.46GHz clock speed.
Coupled with other architectural improvements, the A17 Bionic should deliver a 15-20% jump in CPU performance. While there’s no mention of the GPU’s clock speed in the leak, the additional core will help with performance. And coupled with TSMC’s 3nm node, the A17 Bionic should deliver a performance boost without consuming more power.
Sadly, it does not appear that Apple will bump the RAM on the iPhone 15 Pro series. These phones will ship with 6GB RAM, the same as the iPhone 14 Pro. As per the source of the leak, “8GB seems unlikely (but maybe not impossible.”)
A17 Bionic is exclusively for Apple’s 2023 Pro iPhones
As with the iPhone 14 series, Apple will keep its latest Bionic chip reserved for the Pro models. The regular iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus will use last year’s A16 Bionic instead. Similarly, the leaker claims the 2024 iPhone 16 models will use the A17 Bionic. The Pro models will use the A18 Bionic, referred internally as the t8140.
Last year’s A16 Bionic brought modest improvements. Based on the rumors, the iPhone 15 Pro’s A15 Bionic should offer a better performance jump. More importantly, it appears Apple will focus on efficiency this year, which should bode well for battery life.