Apple A17 Pro (iPhone 15 Pro, First 3nm)
Overview
Apple A17 Pro is Apple's SoC for iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max, released on 2023-09-12. It is the world's first 3nm smartphone chip (TSMC N3B), with 19 billion transistors. Features include a 6-core CPU (2P @ 3.78 GHz + 4E), 6-core GPU (first hardware ray tracing on iPhone), 16-core Neural Engine 35 TOPS, 8 GB LPDDR5, USB 3 (10 Gbps, farewell Lightning limitations), and AV1 hardware decode. The A17 Pro is the first time Apple brings ProRes hardware acceleration, hardware ray tracing, and AV1 decode to iPhone, making it the mobile gaming king (capable of running AAA titles like Resident Evil 4 and Assassin's Creed Mirage).
Core Specifications
| Item | Parameter |
|---|
| Architecture | Apple A-Series (iPhone mobile SoC) |
| Process | TSMC 3nm (N3B) — world's first 3nm chip |
| Transistors | 19 billion (1.2× A16's 16 billion) |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2P @ 3.78 GHz + 4E) |
| L1/L2/L3 Cache | 1.4 MB L1 / 16 MB L2 / 24 MB SLC |
| GPU Cores | 6 (first hardware ray tracing) |
| GPU New Features | Hardware ray tracing, Dynamic Caching, Mesh Shading |
| Neural Engine | 16-core, 35 TOPS INT8 (2× A16's 17 TOPS) |
| Unified Memory | 8 GB LPDDR5 |
| Memory Bandwidth | ~51.2 GB/s (8 GB @ 6400 MT/s) |
| Media Engine | Hardware H.264/HEVC/ProRes/ProRes RAW/AV1 decode |
| ProRes | First hardware-accelerated ProRes encode/decode on iPhone |
| Interface | USB 3 (10 Gbps, farewell Lightning USB 2.0) |
| TDP | ~8-10 W (iPhone sustained load) |
| Launch Devices | iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max (starting $999/$1,199) |
| Launch Date | 2023-09-12 |
| iPhone 15 Pro 128GB | $999 |
| iPhone 15 Pro Max 256GB | $1,199 |
Comparison with A16 Bionic
| Metric | A17 Pro | A16 Bionic | Improvement |
|---|
| Process | 3nm N3B | 4nm N4P | World's first 3nm |
| Transistors | 19 billion | 16 billion | +19% |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2P+4E) | 6 (2P+4E) | Same |
| CPU Frequency | 3.78 GHz | 3.46 GHz | +9% |
| GPU Cores | 6 + HW ray tracing | 5 | +1 core + ray tracing |
| Neural Engine | 35 TOPS | 17 TOPS | 2.1× |
| Memory | 8 GB LPDDR5 | 6 GB LPDDR5 | +2 GB |
| Interface | USB 3 (10 Gbps) | Lightning USB 2.0 | 21× faster |
| AV1 Decode | Supported | Not supported | All new |
| ProRes | Hardware accelerated | Software | Cinematic grade |
| Single-core | +10% | Baseline | Improved |
| Multi-core | +12% | Baseline | Improved |
| Model / Task | Quantization | Performance | Notes |
|---|
| Llama 2 7B (Q4_K_M) | llama.cpp | ~10 tok/s | Fits in 8GB |
| Stable Diffusion XL (CoreML) | FP16 | 0.8 it/s | Image generation |
| Whisper Large V3 (CoreML) | FP16 | 2× real-time | Speech transcription |
| Live Translation | Apple built-in | Real-time | iOS 17 |
| Image Segmentation (Person Seg) | CoreML | 60 FPS | Video conferencing |
| Object Recognition (VNCoreML) | CoreML | 120 FPS | Camera |
35 TOPS Breakthrough: The A17 Pro's Neural Engine delivers 2.1× the compute of the A16, making it the first iPhone capable of 35 TOPS-level on-device AI inference. While still below the M2/M3 series, it comfortably runs 7B quantized LLMs.
Use Cases
- iPhone 15 Pro / Pro Max (AAA mobile gaming: Resident Evil 4, Assassin's Creed Mirage, Genshin Impact max settings)
- Mobile video production (external SSD ProRes LOG recording)
- 3D modeling & AR (Reality Composer, ARKit)
- Professional photography (48MP ProRAW, 5× telephoto periscope)
- Developer: Core ML model deployment
- On-device LLM inference (llama.cpp running 7B quantized)
| Item | Information |
|---|
| Vendor | Apple Inc. |
| Design | Apple in-house (Cupertino, CA) |
| Fab | TSMC Taiwan (3nm N3B line, world's first 3nm) |
| Software Stack | iOS 17 — iOS 18 |
| AI Framework | Core ML, MLX, Create ML |
| Launch Price | iPhone 15 Pro 128GB $999 / 256GB $1,099 |
| iPhone 15 Pro Max Price | 256GB $1,199 / 512GB $1,399 / 1TB $1,599 |
| Discontinued | 2024-09 (A18 Pro launch) |
| EOL Price | Discontinued, used market $500-$700 |
Key Features
- 3nm (N3B) process — world's first 3nm chip (six months ahead of Qualcomm)
- 19 billion transistors (1.2× A16's 16 billion)
- 6-core GPU + hardware ray tracing (first on iPhone)
- 16-core Neural Engine 35 TOPS (2.1× A16)
- 8 GB LPDDR5 (1.3× A16's 6 GB)
- USB 3 (10 Gbps) (farewell Lightning USB 2.0 limits)
- ProRes hardware acceleration (cinematic-grade video production)
- AV1 hardware decode (streaming power efficiency)
- Wi-Fi 6E, 5G sub-6 + mmWave, Thread
- ProMotion 120 Hz, Always-On Display
- Titanium frame (iPhone 15 Pro Max lightest Pro Max ever)
- Action Button (replaces mute switch)
- 48MP ProRAW + 5× periscope telephoto (Pro Max)