Apple introduced A19 and A19 Pro chips for the iPhone 17 lineup, with a total of three chip variants. The iPhone 17 uses the regular A19 chip, while the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro models have the A19 Pro. All of the chips are built on a more advanced 3-nanometer process.
The iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max have a higher-end A19 Pro chip with a 6-core GPU, and the iPhone Air has an A19 Pro chip with one less GPU core. Here are all the differences, according to Apple:
- A19 - 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU
- A19 Pro (iPhone Air) - 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU
- A19 Pro (iPhone 17 Pro) - 6-core CPU, 6-core GPU
All of the A19 chips have "Neural Accelerators" for each GPU core that boost daily workflows and the performance of local AI models, such as on-device Siri. There's also an updated 16-core Neural Engine, an updated display engine, and an updated image signal processor.
Apple says that the A19 Pro chip has the fastest CPU in any smartphone and the most advanced GPU yet. The CPU includes 50 percent larger last-level cache size, improved front-end bandwidth and improved branch prediction. The GPU features increased math rates, unified image compression, and second-generation dynamic caching. The Neural Accelerators offer 4x the peak compute of the A18 Pro.
The iPhone 17 Pro models have an updated thermal architecture that uses vapor chamber cooling, further enhancing the performance of the A19 Pro chip. With the new chip and the updated thermal design, the CPU and GPU in the A19 Pro deliver 40 percent better sustained performance than the A18 Pro in the iPhone 16 models.
Apple also included 12GB RAM in the iPhone Air and the iPhone 17 Pro models, while the iPhone 17 has 8GB.
