A20 Pro Leak Points to 7-Core GPU and 96-Bit Memory Interface for iPhone 18 Pro

Leaked solder joint diagrams for Apple's A20 Pro chip point to a seven-core GPU, up from six cores on the A19 Pro that powers the iPhone 17 Pro. The reconstruction comes from a post on Weibo by an account with a track record of accurately leaking some Apple chip and product details.



The diagrams are not images of the chip itself. The leaker mapped the A20 Pro's solder ball positions and overlaid them with die-level imagery to sketch where each block of the processor sits. The resulting layout places the GPU at the top of the die and the CPU in the center.


On the CPU side, the reconstruction points to the same six-core configuration as the A19 Pro, with two performance cores and four efficiency cores. The efficiency cores are expected to share an 8MB L2 cache, up from 6MB, while the performance cores retain their existing 16MB. The size of the shared system-level cache is not yet known, but the leaker believes it is unlikely to shrink given what the account describes as a new image signal processor and neural engine.

For the GPU, the leaker tested six-, seven-, and eight-core designs across more than ten possible arrangements, concluding that seven cores provided the most plausible fit. That would give the A20 Pro one more GPU core than the six-core A19 Pro, an increase of roughly 16%.

Macworld also reports that the layout points to a 96-bit memory interface for LPDDR5x RAM, 50% wider than the A19 Pro's 64-bit interface. The figure matches the 96-bit bus surfaced in a June motherboard leak, though that earlier leak pointed to LPDDR6 memory rather than LPDDR5x. With the additional GPU core, greater memory bandwidth, and the possibility of higher clock speeds or architectural improvements, Macworld estimates graphics performance could rise 20 to 30 percent.

The A20 Pro is expected to debut in the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max at Apple's September 9 event, with the chip also expected in Apple's first foldable iPhone. Pro models are likely to ship with all seven GPU cores enabled, while the thinner foldable could have one disabled, as Apple did with the A19 Pro used in the iPhone Air.