Alien: Isolation Performance on iPhone 16 Pro Max Disappoints, A18 Pro GPU Performance Questioned

Alien: Isolation Performance on iPhone 16 Pro Max Disappoints, A18 Pro GPU Performance QuestionedApple recently unveiled the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, featuring the new A18 Pro SoC, claiming in its presentation that the new SoC offers 20% better gaming performance than its predecessor. While this may be true in some cases, recent testing with Alien: Isolation reveals that the A18 Pro GPU still has some shortcomings in gaming

Alien: Isolation Performance on iPhone 16 Pro Max Disappoints, A18 Pro GPU Performance Questioned

• Apple recently unveiled the iPhone 16 Pro and Pro Max, featuring the new A18 Pro SoC, claiming in its presentation that the new SoC offers 20% better gaming performance than its predecessor. While this may be true in some cases, recent testing with Alien: Isolation reveals that the A18 Pro GPU still has some shortcomings in gaming.

• According to tests by MrMacRightPlus, the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max can barely manage 30FPS in Alien: Isolation at its native resolution of 2868 1320 pixels. While Alien: Isolation is an AAA-grade game ported to the iPhone, it's still a decade-old title, meaning it should run relatively easily.

• However, the A18 Pro's performance improves significantly after lowering the game resolution, reaching 60FPS after the resolution change. However, the 30FPS limit may not entirely be due to insufficient A18 Pro SoC performance. Alien: Isolation doesn't allow players to adjust the game's resolution; it only offers "Graphics" and "Performance" presets for adjusting the game's resolution and quality settings. On the iPhone 16 Pro Max, switching to the "Performance" preset still only manages 60FPS, while the "Graphics" preset is capped at 30FPS.

Despite the lower resolution and reduced detail, the frame rate still drops to 30FPS in certain scenes, mainly due to the loading of textures and new environment models. MacRightPlus also notes that the phone heats up after playing for a while, indicating that the hardware is being pushed, but its clearly not being pushed to its limits.

Interestingly, the "Graphics" mode uses significantly more GPU memoryaround 500MBcompared to the "Performance" mode, which uses closer to 400MB.

Regardless, this will likely be disappointing for some iPhone 16 Pro users, whose new devices are unable to fully utilize the 120Hz ProMotion display in an older title. However, there should be a noticeable improvement in performance in more modern games, as they are more likely to utilize ray tracing and upscaling technologies that the A18 Pro can leverage.