Leaked A20 Pro chip diagram suggests 7-core GPU and wider LPDDR5x memory bus

A supply chain leak has provided new information on the A20 Pro chip that's set to power the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro, detailing how improved gaming performance and more fluid everyday use are in the cards.Apple's iPhone 18 Pro will feature numerous improvements over the iPhone 17 Pro.Coming via a post on the Weibo social network, the leak claims that the A20 Pro's chip layout was reverse-engineered from its solder positions. This method allows the leaker to identify different aspects of the chip and make assumptions based on what they see.Based on the newly plotted layout, the leaker claims that the A20 Pro's efficiency CPU cores will have 8MB of L2 cache to share between them. That would represent an increase over the 6MB of cache offered to cores in the iPhone 17 Pro's A19 Pro. Rumor Score: 🤯 Likely Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

A Chinese leaker with some track record has posted images of claimed circuit diagrams of the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro models. These suggest that the new A20 Pro chip may have seven GPU cores – one more than its predecessor – and a faster memory interface … more…

An alleged solder joint diagram for Apple's A20 Pro chip suggests the processor will deliver a number of significant upgrades, including a seven-core GPU, a wider memory interface, and a larger L2 cache for its efficiency cores. The claims come from a Weibo user who says the layout was reconstructed by mapping the chip's solder ball positions and overlaying them with die level images to sketch out where each block of the processor sits. According to the post, the resulting outline points to a two and four core CPU configuration and a seven core GPU, with the top of the die housing the GPU and the CPU occupying the center. Based on the layout, the leaker expects the A20 Pro's efficiency cores to share an 8MB L2 cache, up from 6MB on the A19 Pro, while the performance cores retain their existing 16MB L2 cache. The size of the shared system level cache is not yet known, but the leaker believes it is unlikely to shrink given the chip's new image signal processor and neural engine. With regards to the GPU, the seven core configuration would mark an increase from the six cores on the A19 Pro, a jump of roughly 16%. The leak also points to a 96-bit memory interface for LPDDR5x RAM, up from the 64-bit interface on the A19 Pro, a 50% increase that would meaningfully boost memory bandwidth. Graphics performance tends to scale with memory bandwidth, so the wider bus could have an additional impact on top of the additional GPU core. The A20 Pro is highly likely to debut the iPhone 18 Pro and ‌iPhone 18 Pro‌ Max next week. It could also be used in Apple's first foldable iPhone. Related Roundups: iPhone 18 Pro, iPhone FoldThis article, "iPhone 18 Pro Chip Leak Indicates Major GPU and Memory Bandwidth Improvements" first appeared on MacRumors.comDiscuss this article in our forums

Macworld A leak on the Chinese social media site Weibo, 白饭炒白米饭, has posted images of what are purported to be the solder joint diagram for the A20 Pro (the diagram showing all the little contact points by which the chip is attached to the board beneath). This account has correctly leaked details of some Apple chips or products in the past. From there, the leaker has used the layout and the previous chip block diagram to estimate some of the layout of the new A20 chip—a rough diagram of some of the major components. Weibo – 白饭炒白米饭 There are three details gleaned from this process, if you trust in its accuracy. First, we have seven GPU cores. The A19 Pro has six. Second, there’s a 96-bit memory interface for LPDD5x RAM. The A19 Pro had a 64-bit interface. Third, there will still be a 6-core CPU configuration, with two high-performance cores and four efficiency cores. How does all this compare to the A19 Pro, and what could it mean? Well, the smaller efficiency cores all share a single 8MB L2 cache, which is 2MB more than before. That will speed things up a bit when the efficiency cores do bigger jobs on larger data sets. The two performance cores share a 16MB L2 cache (two 8MB blocks in the diagram), which is the same as before. It’s not clear if any of these cores have architectural design changes or if these cores are Apple’s “Super Cores.” Going up from 6 GPU cores to 7 is an increase of about 16 percent. We think it’s likely that the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max will have all GPU cores enabled, but the folding iPhone Ultra (very thin and difficult to cool) will have one core disabled, just as the iPhone Air has one A19 Pro GPU core disabled. Graphics performance tends to be highly constrained by memory bandwidth, which is where the change to the memory interface gets interesting. Apple is not making the jump to LPDDR6 this year, sticking with LPDDR5x again, but a 50 percent wider interface means 50 percent more memory bandwidth. If Apple increases the memory clock speed, it can be even more. So while there are “only” 16 percent more GPU cores, the increase in memory bandwidth and the potential for higher clock speeds or GPU core architectural improvements means that we can expect 20-30 percent higher GPU performance. That’s not unprecedented, but it’s more than we predicted in our A20 preview. AI is increasingly important to Apple, and it shares many core architectural features between its A-series mobile chips and its M-series chips for Macs. So it makes sense that Apple is investing heavily in GPU performance, memory bandwidth, and GPU compute features—all of which help with running or training local AI models. Fortunately, even if you don’t care about AI performance, all of this increased GPU performance and memory bandwidth will also mean better performance for 3D games and other graphics-intensive apps and tasks.