While we're still months away from the iPhone 17 series launch, rumors and supposed leaks are already coming in thick and fast from all corners of the internet. According to the latest industry whispers, the iPhone 17 Pro Max, the flagship line's premium option, could be getting a 15-20% performance boost courtesy of a new Apple A19 Pro chip.
Last year's iPhone 16 Pro Max is already the best iPhone for gaming to date, offering top-tier performance in everything from triple-A games such as Death Stranding and Resident Evil Village to the indie hits in the Apple Arcade games library. Still, we've come to expect performance upgrades from Apple's yearly launches, and it's worth saying that we've seen bigger boosts than 20% before, but we'll take what we can get.
The new rumor is courtesy of Weibo leaker Digital Chat Station, via Notebookcheck, who's proven to be a pretty reliable source in the last couple of years. According to DCS, the iPhone 17 Pro Max's A19 chip is capable of an estimated Geekbench 6 score of around 4,000 in single-core testing and 10,000 in multi-core testing, beating out the iPhone 16 Pro Max's score of around 3,500 and 9,000, respectively. That's all on paper, though, and we'll have to wait to get our hands on the device to see if there's a noticeable performance boost in the best iPhone games.
Given the big reveal of the new Apple Games app from this week's WWDC 2025 keynote, it looks like the tech giant is doubling down on its commitment to mobile gamers in terms of both performance and hardware. Honestly, it's refreshing to see, especially considering that gaming has long felt like an afterthought during Apple presentations and the overbearing emphasis on AI following the slightly turbulent introduction of Apple Intelligence in the last year or so.
It's worth saying that while the tipster who shared this latest iPhone 17 Pro Max leak has a pretty proven track record, it's always worth taking pre-launch details with a pinch of salt until we get confirmation from Apple. If you can't wait around for the next generation of iPhones to upgrade, be sure to check out our guides to the best gaming phones and the best Android phones while you're here. Or, if you're more of a console gamer, see our list of the best handheld consoles.