Early tests reveal the iPhone 15 Pro Max might not handle AAA games so well after all

Cal Jeffrey

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In context: During Apple's Wonderlust event, it seemed eager to hype the iPhone 15 Pro's ability to handle AAA games, calling the device the "next generation of mobile gaming." Cupertino claims the phone can natively run big, high-fidelity games like Assassin's Creed Mirage, Resident Evil 4 Remake, and even Death Stranding, with hardware-accelerated ray tracing.

All these titles and more are getting native iOS ports, but can the iPhone 15 truly handle such taxing games? The answer is not a simple yes. Wccftech notes that in leaked pre-release Geekbench 6 tests, the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro only held a single-digit advantage over the A16 Bionic. More recent benchmarks show the A17 with a considerably better 20-percent improvement over the A16. That seems like a modest gain, but it might be enough extra juice to drive a triple-A game.

As it turns out, it is enough horsepower to play a game like Resident Evil Village, but not without some "beefy" exterior cooling solution. Chinese hardware reviewer Geekerwan performed extensive tests with the iPhone 15 Pro Max and revealed that it experiences extreme thermal throttling with surface temperatures reaching 48C (118F) during benchmarking.

Apple claimed that the A17 Pro was four times faster than the A16 Bionic when performing ray-tracing tasks. This brag might be valid for a short run, but for a gaming session of more than a few minutes, the device gets so hot that thermal throttling kicks in, dropping frames per second from the mid-40s to around 30fps while running Resident Evil Village.

While this news is somewhat disappointing, it's too early to say that the iPhone 15 pro won't run AAA games well. The primary reason is that the RE Village game Geekerwan used was not the official iOS version, which doesn't even have a solid launch date yet. He sideloaded it to the device, probably running on an emulator, which is not a one-to-one comparison.

Capcom will presumably (hopefully?) do quite a bit of optimization for the official iOS release. As we know, optimization is a crucial part of game design on any platform, including high-end PCs. It is the difference between a game struggling to run like crap or cruising along buttery smooth. For example, the highly optimized Genshin Impact ran on the A17 Pro at a smooth 59.1fps. Unfortunately, that was only marginally better than the A16 Bionic which could run it at 56.5fps.

While it's wise to hold our expectations in check, it seems premature to write off the iPhone 15 as a gaming device, sight unseen. Let's see how it performs while running the official port.

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Even if the next iPhone could play AAA titles at decent quality and refresh rates, would there really be many people interested? Would Apple really invest a lot to make it an ecosystem that worked for gamers? I think we are still years away from one device to rule them all and I think most people are okay with that.
 
No one is surprised not even Pikachu - as I stated this might make sense for an Ipad pro
But who is going to torture their phone out and about - we all kind of new thermals would be bad - now we need to see the other main point - battery life - people out and about want all day power.
So at home - if you can afford an iPhone Pro with heaps of memory - get a Steam Deck ( was recently on sale to boot ) and you probably have a switch

Plus I can not comment - but how do these AAA games even look on such a small screen - with tiny HUD etc - as designed for much larger screens
 
No one is surprised not even Pikachu - as I stated this might make sense for an Ipad pro
But who is going to torture their phone out and about - we all kind of new thermals would be bad - now we need to see the other main point - battery life - people out and about want all day power.
So at home - if you can afford an iPhone Pro with heaps of memory - get a Steam Deck ( was recently on sale to boot ) and you probably have a switch

Plus I can not comment - but how do these AAA games even look on such a small screen - with tiny HUD etc - as designed for much larger screens
As far as screen size goes...the Pro Max has a 6.7" screen and the Steam Deck isn't exactly massively larger with a 7" screen, plus the Pro Max has a higher refresh rate and higher resolution OLED panel compared to the LCD on the Deck. Switch also has an OLED screen at 7" but lower resolution and refresh rate. Once you drop to the standard iPhone Pro, then the difference is pretty stark. You would definitely notice the difference in screen size between the Pro Max and a Switch/Steam Deck but I don't think it would massively hurt the experience given the comparative advantages the Pro Max has.
 
As far as screen size goes...the Pro Max has a 6.7" screen and the Steam Deck isn't exactly massively larger with a 7" screen, plus the Pro Max has a higher refresh rate and higher resolution OLED panel compared to the LCD on the Deck. Switch also has an OLED screen at 7" but lower resolution and refresh rate. Once you drop to the standard iPhone Pro, then the difference is pretty stark. You would definitely notice the difference in screen size between the Pro Max and a Switch/Steam Deck but I don't think it would massively hurt the experience given the comparative advantages the Pro Max has.

Given the other two have active cooling, bigger batteries, and better controls, I can guess which one will offer a superior experience, for a fraction the price to boot.
 
Looks like a nice market for "Pro Gamer accessories" attachable coolers with an Apple logo starting at 199$ incoming.
 
As far as screen size goes...the Pro Max has a 6.7" screen and the Steam Deck isn't exactly massively larger with a 7" screen, plus the Pro Max has a higher refresh rate and higher resolution OLED panel compared to the LCD on the Deck. Switch also has an OLED screen at 7" but lower resolution and refresh rate. Once you drop to the standard iPhone Pro, then the difference is pretty stark. You would definitely notice the difference in screen size between the Pro Max and a Switch/Steam Deck but I don't think it would massively hurt the experience given the comparative advantages the Pro Max has.
cheers - didn't realise pro was so big - Apple always mocked larger phones
 
I am shocked -- shocked! -- to hear the iPhone could not rival consoles that are much larger in size, allow for vastly superior cooling, accommodate more storage, and are what most modern AAA games were designed around.
 
As far as screen size goes...the Pro Max has a 6.7" screen and the Steam Deck isn't exactly massively larger with a 7" screen, plus the Pro Max has a higher refresh rate and higher resolution OLED panel compared to the LCD on the Deck. Switch also has an OLED screen at 7" but lower resolution and refresh rate. Once you drop to the standard iPhone Pro, then the difference is pretty stark. You would definitely notice the difference in screen size between the Pro Max and a Switch/Steam Deck but I don't think it would massively hurt the experience given the comparative advantages the Pro Max has.
The Steam Deck's display is a significantly larger display due to its aspect ratio (16:10 vs iPhone 19.5:9) and doesn't have a pill shaped hole on the left side of the display.
 
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Given the other two have active cooling, bigger batteries, and better controls, I can guess which one will offer a superior experience, for a fraction the price to boot.
I mean....the quality of the games isn't even a competition, Switch and Steam Deck wins hands down. But then, the original comment was on screen size and that's the aspect of the experience I was commenting on.
 
The Steam Deck's display is a significantly larger display due to its aspect ratio (16:10 vs iPhone 19.5:9) and doesn't have a pill shaped hole on the left side of the display.
I hadn't considered that, thank you. Then yeah, the other handheld consoles have bigger screens.
 
It's not premature. It's a device that can play games, like any other phone. But you won't be getting it to play the latest AAA games, like any other phone.
Yeah, Apple is lying 😂This article is clickbait nonsense, guy playing the game on an emulator? Phones get hot and throttle when doing intensive tasks? 😂
 
Even if the next iPhone could play AAA titles at decent quality and refresh rates, would there really be many people interested? Would Apple really invest a lot to make it an ecosystem that worked for gamers? I think we are still years away from one device to rule them all and I think most people are okay with that.
Yeah, I'm sure gamers have no interest in playing AAA titles natively on their phone. Lol.
 
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