The iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max might sport the world’s first 3nm SoC from TSMC, the A17 Pro, but it is all for nothing if Apple cannot outfit a decent cooling solution to control the temperatures of the chipset when running intensive applications. As a result of this negligence, Apple’s latest A-series silicon thermal throttles, causing games like Genshin Impact to stutter uncontrollably. Fortunately, one Chinese creator took matters into his own hands, as he mods one iPhone 15 Pro with a vapor chamber, giving it incredible cooling capabilities.
Genshin Impact, running on a modded iPhone 15 Pro, now maintains a solid 60FPS; AnTuTu also receives a notable bump in the overall score
The efforts to upgrade the iPhone 15 Pro’s cooling solution were performed by an unnamed Chinese content creator, and Revegnus managed to share proof of the results on X, but did not care to name the individual who was behind the actual efforts. Regardless, the vapor chamber mod allows Apple’s 6.1-inch flagship to see a temperature drop of 10 percent when running intensive applications, not to mention improvements in the 3DMark Solar Bar Unlimited benchmark.
For those wondering how a modded iPhone 15 Pro would handle a visually impressive game such as Genshin Impact, the comparison shows that the handset maintained a solid 60FPS, along with seeing improvements in the AnTuTu benchmark. This can mean that Android devices equipped with a Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and a vapor chamber have the potential to outperform the A17 Pro based on these tests, so it is a missed opportunity for Apple to gain some bragging rights.
The lack of an effective thermal solution on the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max and the subsequent gimping of the A17 Pro’s sustained performance could also be the reason why Apple is said to be exploring a graphene thermal solution for the iPhone 16 series next year. However, there is no word if this cooler will be more effective than using a vapor chamber, and we should mention that incorporating the latter is most costly.
For now, see what is possible when companies focus more on improving their high-end products’ heat dissipation systems rather than just investing resources to mass produce cutting-edge chipsets.
