iPhone 18 Pro Max and Galaxy S26 Ultra compared in performance
In fresh performance tests, the iPhone 18 Pro Max significantly outperformed the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra in speed CPU, graphics, and stability under sustained load.
The largest gap appeared in 3DMark—the Apple A20 Pro chip is approximately 38% faster than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy, yet in the AI test, the Samsung smartphone scored higher.
iPhone 18 Pro Max is faster in CPU and graphics
In Geekbench 6, the iPhone 18 Pro Max scored 4741 points in single-core mode and 12,789 points in multi-core mode. The Galaxy S26 Ultra showed 3785 and 11,563 points respectively. Thus, Apple’s smartphone has an advantage of about 25% under single-core load and 11% when using multiple cores.
The newer Geekbench 7 maintains roughly the same picture: iPhone scores 4025 and 11,525 points versus Galaxy’s 3149 and 10,612 points. Here, the difference is approximately 28% and 9%, respectively.
| Test | iPhone 18 Pro Max | Galaxy S26 Ultra |
|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6, single core | 4741 | 3785 |
| Geekbench 6, multiple cores | 12,789 | 11,563 |
| Geekbench 7, single core | 4025 | 3149 |
| Geekbench 7, several cores | 11,525 | 10,612 |
| 3DMark Solar Bay Unlimited | 67.9 frames per second, 17,850 points | 49.37 fps, 12,984 points |
| Stability in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme | 79.4% | 53.9% |
| Geekbench AI 1.7 | 71,974 | 83,047 |
The difference is especially noticeable in the graph. In 3DMark Solar Bay Unlimited, the iPhone 18 Pro Max delivered 67.9 fps compared to 49.37 fps for the Galaxy S26 Ultra. This advantage is approximately 38%.
Even the standard iPhone 18 Pro with the same A20 Pro chip achieved 61.93 fps and was approximately 25% faster than Samsung. The higher result for the Pro Max is likely due to additional cooling headroom in its larger chassis.
A new cooling system helps the iPhone 18 Pro Max
The difference became even more noticeable under sustained load. In 20 consecutive runs of 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, the iPhone 18 Pro Max retained 79.4% of its initial performance, while the Galaxy S26 Ultra retained 53.9%. The difference is 25.5 percentage points.
For comparison, a standard iPhone 18 Pro showed only 62.8%. In other words, the Pro Max benefited most from the new cooling system, even though both Apple smartphones use the same A20 Pro chip.
Apple has moved to a 2-nm process for the A20 Pro chip. The chip features a six-core CPU, a seven-core GPU, and two 16-core Neural Engines. Memory bandwidth increased by 50% compared to the A19 Pro. Additionally, the evaporative chamber area has tripled relative to the iPhone 17 Pro, and the new layout enables heat to be dissipated directly from the processor.
The Galaxy S26 Ultra uses a 3-nm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for Galaxy with CPU Oryon, Adreno graphics, and NPU Hexagon. Samsung also redesigned the vapor chamber specifically for sustained workloads. At launch, the company claimed performance gains of up to CPU 19%, GPU 24%, and NPU 39% compared to the previous generation.
Galaxy S26 Ultra leads in Geekbench AI
The only test in the comparison where the Galaxy S26 Ultra scored higher was Geekbench AI 1.7. Samsung achieved 83,047 points versus 71,974 for the iPhone 18 Pro Max, approximately 15% more.
However, directly interpreting this result as a Snapdragon advantage in AI performance is incorrect. On the Galaxy, the test used TensorFlow Lite with Qualcomm QNN, while on the iPhone it used Core ML with the Neural Engine. Different software platforms and hardware acceleration methods significantly affect final scores; therefore, the result shows Samsung’s advantage specifically in this Geekbench AI configuration, not across all machine learning tasks.
Thus, the first comparable tests show that the iPhone 18 Pro Max has the most pronounced advantage in classic computing, gaming, and sustained graphical workloads. In everyday use, the difference may not match the percentages from synthetic benchmarks, but the new cooling system allows the large iPhone to maintain peak performance noticeably longer.
Sales of the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max began on September 18.
