Apple A12Z Bionic GPU vs Qualcomm Adreno 690 vs Apple A12 Bionic GPU

Apple A12Z Bionic GPU

The Apple A12Z Bionic graphics card is the integrated GPU in the Apple A12Z Bionic SoC in the 2020 iPad Pro models. It was designed by Apple and not licensed by PowerVR and should be based on the same architecture as the A12X and A12 GPUs with more cores. The A12Z offer 8 GPU cores, where the older A12X in the 2018 iPad Pro series offered 7. Interestingly, Apple did not choose to create a new variant of the current Apple A13 chip used in the iPhone 11 models.

The architecture should be similar to the older PowerVR graphics cards like the A10 GPU, but currently Apple is not disclosing any information about the architecture.

The performance should be slightly faster than the old iPad pro models and therefore significantly faster than the iPhone SoCs and Android competitors.

The chip should be still manufactured in 7nm at TSMC and offer a very good efficiency.

Qualcomm Adreno 690

The Qualcomm Adreno 690 is an integrated graphics card in the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3 SoC for Windows laptops. According to Qualcomm, the 690 is up to 60% faster than the previous generation. In our tests with the Lenovo ThinkPad X13s, the Adreno 690 was only on par with a low en Intel UHD Graphics iGPU and not well suited for 3D games.

The chip is manufactured in 5nm at Samsung (5LPE) and suited for fanless laptops.

Apple A12 Bionic GPU

The Apple A12 Bionic graphics card is the second generation of integrated GPUs that was designed by Apple and not licensed by PowerVR. It can be found in the Apple iPhone Xs (Max) and Xr includes 4 cores and supports Metal 2. According to Apple, the 7nm manufactured GPU offers 50% increased performance compared to the A11 Bionic. Therefore, it should be one of the fastest graphics cards for smartphones (like the Adreno 630).

The architecture should be similar to the older PowerVR graphics cards like the A10 GPU, but currently Apple is not disclosing any information about the architecture.