What do leaked Weibo circuit board diagrams reportedly reveal about Apple’s upcoming A20 Pro chip for the iPhone 18 Pro—including its six core CPU and cache configuration, possible move from a six to seven core GPU, widened LPDDR5x memory interface and estimated graphics performa

The leak suggests a materially more graphics- and bandwidth-oriented A20 Pro, but it is not confirmation: the images are alleged board solder/pad layouts, not an authenticated chip die or Apple specification. The September 9 Apple event is confirmed; the chip and device details remain reported expectations. 101

• Reported core layout: The reconstruction retains a six-core CPU—two performance cores plus four efficiency cores—and reportedly raises the shared efficiency-core L2 cache to 8 MB, double the prior 4 MB claim. 811

• GPU and memory: It points to a seven-core GPU, versus six in A19 Pro, plus a 96-bit LPDDR5X interface rather than 64-bit. 89

  • All else equal, the extra GPU core represents roughly 16.7% more shader-core count, while 96 versus 64 bits represents 50% more theoretical memory-bus width. Neither figure translates directly into benchmark performance: clocks, GPU architecture, thermals, RAM speed, and software matter.
  • Thus, a meaningful graphics uplift—especially in bandwidth-limited games, ray tracing, and high-resolution rendering—is plausible, but an exact “X% faster GPU” conclusion cannot be drawn from pad counts alone.

• Reliability: Treat the CPU-cache, GPU-core, and bus-width claims as low-to-moderate-confidence inferences, not established facts. The source reportedly reconstructed the layout by mapping solder points, and board-level routing can indicate interface width and package organization, but cannot by itself prove active-core counts, cache size, clock speeds, memory data rate, or final product binning. 107

• Separate 18% / 30% claims: A different Weibo leaker, Fixed Focus Digital, claimed about 18% higher performance and up to 30% better power efficiency versus A19 Pro. 16 Those numbers are unsupported by published Apple benchmarks or independently verifiable test data, so they should be regarded as unconfirmed targets/rumor figures—not measured A20 Pro results. The “18% performance” claim also should not be conflated with the board-layout-derived GPU speculation.

• Process and package: Reporting says TSMC will fabricate A20 Pro on its first-generation 2 nm process, reportedly using gate-all-around transistors, and that Apple may use Wafer-Level Multi-Chip Module (WMCM) packaging. 154 WMCM is said to integrate/package memory more closely with the processor; the expected benefits are board-space savings and potentially better signal paths, but the precise RAM type remains inconsistent across reports—some say LPDDR5X, earlier reports said LPDDR6. 98

• Expected devices: The strongest repeated expectation is A20 Pro in iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max; some reporting also assigns it to a rumored iPhone Ultra/foldable, but that is less certain. 1516

• Launch: Apple has officially scheduled its “Surprise and shine” special event for September 9 at 10 a.m. Pacific, streamable on Apple’s website, Apple TV, and YouTube. 1 Reports place it at Apple Park in Cupertino with select media invited, but Apple’s own event notice does not confirm which products will be announced. 101