The smartphone chip market has been heating up ever since Apple introduced its A18 Pro chip, with reports of the Snapdragon 8 Elite (previously rumored to be called the 8 Gen 4) and Dimensity 9400 surfacing online. Now, Geekbench scores for all three chipsets have emerged, revealing some interesting findings.
Apple’s Chip Has the Best Single-Core Performance
In benchmarks we conducted earlier on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, the A18 Pro chip achieved a single-core score of 3150 in Geekbench 6. It’s worth noting that in other online benchmarks, it has generally scored upwards of 3400.
On the other hand, the Snapdragon 8 Elite (or 8 Gen 4, or whatever Qualcomm ultimately calls it) achieved a single-core score of 3142 in the leaked iQOO 13 benchmark results. The Dimensity 9400, as seen in the Oppo Find X8 Pro listing, scored 2841 points.

Therefore, when considering single-core performance, the A18 Pro takes the crown, followed by the Snapdragon 8 Elite, and then the Dimensity 9400. The Apple chip excels in everyday tasks, such as launching apps, checking emails, and using social media.
Snapdragon 8 Elite Wins the Multi-Core Round
Moving on to multi-core capabilities, the A18 Pro scored 7974 in our Geekbench test, but it generally scores upwards of 8400 in online benchmarks.
On the other hand, the Snapdragon 8 Elite scores a whopping 10052 points in Geekbench multi-core tests. The Dimensity 9400, while not as powerful as the Snapdragon 8 Elite, still outperforms the A18 Pro with a multi-core score of 8838, nearing the 9000 mark.

With the best multi-core performance, the Snapdragon chip would excel in video editing, gaming, and multitasking. However, that also depends on software optimization and heat management.
The Question Remains: Who Wins the Efficiency Round?
Based on the latest leaks, the custom Snapdragon 8 Elite arriving with the OnePlus 13 is reported to be more efficient than the A18 Pro, directly beating it in power consumption. However, it’s still unclear how the public version of the chip, used by other smartphone manufacturers, will perform in this regard.
The Dimensity 9400, on the other hand, reportedly demonstrates better power efficiency than the A18 Pro during GPU-intensive tasks like gaming and video rendering. This is particularly noteworthy as it’s also 40% more power-efficient than its predecessor.
While Apple and Qualcomm appear to lead in overall performance, and there’s still no clear winner on overall efficiency, the Dimensity chip could excel in the GPU department. However, real-world tests and benchmarks are needed to confirm its actual efficiency across different usage scenarios. Let’s see what they’re up to once we have them for testing.