Apple announced its iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro smartphones on Tuesday, the latter of which comes with a new chip and a host of promised upgrades like ray tracing that the company says will make video games run smoother on the device. In addition, games like Capcom’s Resident Evil Village and Resident Evil 4’s remake will be available for the new iPhone 15 Pro model, according to the announcement video.
The tech giant says that its iPhone 15 Pro’s A17 Pro chip, which contains its graphics processor or GPU, is the key to the device’s gaming performance. The chip offers mesh shading, which increases graphics performance by optimizing shader processing.
Additionally, the chip will have hardware-accelerated ray tracing that Apple says will allow some games to offer 30 frames per second to create a smoother, less stuttered gaming experience. Ray tracing is a rendering technology that allows for more realistic lighting effects in 3D environments and has been praised as one of the more recent advancements in video game tech.
The iPhone 15 Pro also sports metal FX upscaling, another feature in Apple's chip that helps improve graphics while conserving phone battery. It also supports console game controllers like the PlayStation 5 controller, and offers variable refresh rates that allows users to change the refresh rate of their phone’s screen (higher refresh rates generally equate to a better gaming experience).
In the announcement, Ubisoft Mobile Executive Producer Fabrice Navrez said that the A17 Pro chip allows Ubisoft to offer gamers higher resolution, more dynamic lighting, and more environmental visual effects. Ubisoft’s games Tom Clancy's The Division Resurgence and Assassin’s Creed: Mirage will be released for the iPhone 15 Pro in 2024.
Fish Ling and Meng Wang, employees of Chinese video game development and publishing company Hoyoverse, said that the new chip has allowed them to improve the performance of their games Honkai: Star Rail and Genshin Impact.
“This is the future of mobile gaming, all thanks to the power of iPhone 15 Pro,” said Resident Evil 2 producer Tsuyoshi Kanda.
Preorders for the iPhone 15 and its Pro version begin on September 15, with retail availability set for September 22.