A18 Pro Leads with Best ‘Performance Per Watt’ in Single-Core Tests, as Snapdragon 8 Elite Falls Short in One Crucial Area

The Snapdragon 8 Elite may currently hold the title as the fastest smartphone chipset in Geekbench 6’s multi-core results, marking a significant achievement for Qualcomm. However, Apple’s A18 Pro still outperforms its newest rival in terms of power efficiency and single-core performance, according to recent tests.

Snapdragon 8 Elite Consumes More Power but Delivers a Lower Single-Core Score Compared to A18 Pro

In tests conducted by YouTube channel Aifu Technology, multiple benchmarks were run to showcase the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s strengths. However, when it came to Geekbench 6’s single-core results, one key aspect stood out—Apple continues to dominate this category. The A18 Pro achieved an impressive score of 3,413 points with a power draw of 6.6W, while Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite came in 5.5% slower, scoring 3,233 points.

In terms of power efficiency, the A18 Pro also came out ahead. While the Snapdragon 8 Elite consumed 6.9W of power, the A18 Pro drew slightly less at 6.6W. Both chipsets are produced using TSMC’s 3nm ‘N3E’ node, resulting in almost identical power consumption figures in some tests. The small difference of 4.5% in power draw can be attributed to the margin of error, and future tests on commercial smartphones may show Qualcomm’s chipset matching Apple’s in terms of efficiency.

Clock Speeds Could Be the Key to Snapdragon 8 Elite’s Power Draw

It’s important to note that the Snapdragon 8 Elite’s performance cores were clocked at their maximum of 4.32GHz during testing, which naturally leads to higher power usage. In previous tests, the Oryon cores were seen operating at 4.20GHz, such as in the Galaxy S25 Ultra’s leaked benchmark scores. As a result, it will be interesting to see how lowering the clock speeds could impact power consumption and overall performance per watt for Qualcomm’s SoC.

For now, while the Snapdragon 8 Elite makes a strong showing in multi-core benchmarks, Apple’s A18 Pro remains the leader in single-core performance and efficiency. Future updates and more comprehensive testing will reveal whether Qualcomm can close the gap in this critical metric.