Apple A19 (iPhone 17 Entry-Level SoC)
Overview
Apple A19 (codename Tilos) is Apple's SoC for iPhone 17 (5-core GPU standard) and iPhone 17e (4-core GPU entry variant), released 2025-09-09. Built on TSMC 3rd-gen 3nm (N3P), it features a 6-core CPU (2P @ 4.26 GHz + 4E @ 2.6 GHz), 5-core GPU (each core with integrated Neural Accelerators), 16-core Neural Engine (improved memory bandwidth), and 8 GB LPDDR5X. Compared to the A18, performance is up ~20%, GPU compute up ~40% (from Neural Accel), and the iPhone 17 runs Apple Intelligence's on-device 3B LLM continuously. It is the latest generation of Apple's 5-core GPU A-series, with 1 fewer GPU core / half the SLC / less memory (8 vs 12 GB) compared to the A19 Pro.
Core Specifications
| Item | Parameter |
|---|
| Architecture | Apple A-Series (iPhone mobile SoC) |
| Process | TSMC 3rd-gen 3nm (N3P) |
| Transistors | ~15 billion (estimated) |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2P @ 4.26 GHz + 4E @ 2.6 GHz) |
| L1/L2/L3 Cache | 1.4 MB L1 / 12 MB L2 / 12 MB SLC |
| GPU Cores | 5 (iPhone 17 standard) / 4 (iPhone 17e entry) |
| GPU Clock | 1620 MHz |
| GPU New Features | Per-core Neural Accelerators (4× A18 peak compute), hardware ray tracing, Dynamic Caching 2.0 |
| Neural Engine | 16-core, improved memory bandwidth |
| Neural Engine Compute | ~35 TOPS INT8 (estimated; Neural Accel 4× from GPU compute) |
| Unified Memory | 8 GB LPDDR5X |
| Memory Bandwidth | ~51.2 GB/s (8 GB @ 6400 MT/s) |
| Media Engine | Hardware H.264/HEVC/ProRes/ProRes RAW/AV1 decode, hardware ray tracing |
| Interface | USB 2.0 (Lightning port limitation) |
| TDP | ~8 W (iPhone sustained load) |
| Launch Devices | iPhone 17 (5-core GPU, from $799), iPhone 17e (4-core GPU, from $599) |
| Launch Date | 2025-09-09 |
| iPhone 17 256GB | $799 |
Comparison with A18 / A19 Pro
| Metric | A19 (iPhone 17) | A18 (iPhone 16) | A19 Pro (iPhone 17 Pro) |
|---|
| Process | 3nm N3P | 3nm N3 | 3nm N3P |
| CPU Cores | 6 (2P+4E) | 6 (2P+4E) | 6 (2P+4E) |
| CPU Frequency | 4.26 GHz | 3.9 GHz | 4.26 GHz |
| GPU Cores | 5 | 5 | 6 |
| GPU Neural Accel | Yes (4× A18 compute) | No | Yes (4× A18 Pro compute) |
| Neural Engine | 16-core + bandwidth boost | 16-core | 16-core + bandwidth boost |
| L3 SLC | 12 MB | 8 MB | 32 MB |
| Unified Memory | 8 GB | 8 GB | 12 GB |
| Cooling | Standard aluminum | Standard aluminum | Laser-welded vapor chamber |
| Sustained Performance | +20% vs A18 | Baseline | +40% vs A18 Pro |
| Price (base) | $799 (256GB) | $799 (128GB) | $1,099 (256GB) |
| Model / Task | Quantization | Performance | Notes |
|---|
| Apple Intelligence on-device 3B LLM | Apple built-in | ~25+ tok/s | Fully NPU+GPU cooperative |
| Siri local enhancements | Apple built-in | Real-time | iOS 26 on-device |
| Image Playground image generation | Apple built-in | < 1.5s | On-device Diffusion |
| Visual Intelligence object recognition | Apple built-in | Real-time | Camera + LLM |
| Llama 3.1 8B (Q4_K_M) | llama.cpp | ~15 tok/s | Third-party benchmark |
| Stable Diffusion XL (CoreML) | FP16 | ~1.0 it/s | Image generation |
| Whisper Large V3 (CoreML) | FP16 | 2.5× real-time | Speech transcription |
5-core GPU Performance Balance: Compared to the A19 Pro's 6-core GPU, the A19's 5-core GPU loses about 15-20% performance in GPU-intensive LLM inference scenarios, but the iPhone 17 costs $300 less ($799 vs $1,099), offering better value.
Use Cases
- iPhone 17 standard ($799, 6.1" OLED 120Hz, dual camera)
- iPhone 17e entry ($599, 6.1" OLED 60Hz, single camera, spring 2026)
- Daily AI (Siri, Visual Intelligence, image generation)
- Mobile gaming (GPU performance sufficient for AAA mobile titles)
- On-device LLM inference (Apple Foundation Models 3B)
- Education / student market ($599 entry price)
- Replacement for iPhone 15 / 16 (4-year upgrade cycle)
| Item | Information |
|---|
| Vendor | Apple Inc. |
| Design | Apple in-house (Cupertino, CA) |
| Fab | TSMC Taiwan (3nm N3P line) |
| Software Stack | iOS 26 |
| AI Framework | Core ML, MLX, Create ML, Apple Intelligence |
| Launch Price | iPhone 17 256GB $799 / 512GB $899 |
| iPhone 17e Price | 128GB $599 / 256GB $699 / 512GB $899 |
| Made in India | Foxconn India Sriperumbudur plant (partial iPhone 17) |
Key Features
- 3rd-gen 3nm (N3P) process, improved power efficiency
- 5-core GPU + integrated Neural Accelerators (per-core matrix units)
- 16-core Neural Engine + improved memory bandwidth
- 12 MB SLC system-level cache
- USB 2.0 limitation (Lightning port, 480 Mbps transfer)
- Wi-Fi 7, 5G mmWave, Thread smart home
- ProMotion 120 Hz (iPhone 17) / 60 Hz (iPhone 17e)
- Ceramic Shield 2 (3× scratch resistance)
- 48MP dual camera (iPhone 17: 48MP Main + 12MP Ultra Wide)
- 18MP Center Stage front camera
- Action Button (replaces mute switch)
- Camera Control Button (quick capture)