The iPhone 18 Pro Max has demonstrated surprisingly strong performance while running the PC version of Grand Theft Auto V through an experimental gaming project.
The game reportedly reached up to 80 frames per second (FPS) using Vapor, a project designed to run PC and Mac games on Apple devices.
Vapor developer StephenDev0 published the benchmark on September 27. During the GTA V built-in benchmark, the game averaged around 66 FPS during the city-driving section.
Other scenes reached an average of approximately 80 FPS.
GTA V Runs at 1080p on iPhone
The benchmark was conducted at 1080p resolution using DirectX 11.
Texture quality was set to High. FXAA and 16x anisotropic filtering were enabled.
Population density was set at 75%, while distance scaling was set to 50%. Sharp shadows were also enabled.
MSAA was disabled, while most other graphics settings remained at Normal.
These settings allowed the iPhone to maintain performance above 60 FPS in several sections of the benchmark.
Vapor Makes PC Gaming Possible
GTA V does not have a native iPhone version.
Instead, Vapor allows software designed for PC and Mac to run on Apple hardware. The project uses translation technologies, including just-in-time compilation, to handle software that was not originally designed for iOS.
This process creates additional overhead compared with a game developed specifically for iPhone.
Despite that limitation, the benchmark shows GTA V running at a relatively high frame rate on the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
A20 Pro Powers the Performance
The iPhone 18 Pro Max is powered by Apple’s A20 Pro chip, which provides the processing power required for demanding workloads.
Some comparisons have linked the reported GTA V performance to desktop graphics hardware such as Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650.
However, such comparisons should be treated carefully. The benchmark was not a controlled side-by-side test with identical hardware, power limits and frame-time measurements.
The iPhone 18 Pro Max also features an upgraded cooling system designed to support sustained performance during demanding tasks.
Vapor Is Still in Development
Vapor remains an experimental project, and its developer has acknowledged that some issues still need to be addressed.
The current benchmark should therefore not be considered a final measure of GTA V performance on the iPhone 18 Pro Max.
Still, the results demonstrate the growing capabilities of modern smartphone hardware.
Running the PC version of GTA V above 60 FPS at 1080p through a translation layer represents a significant technical achievement and highlights how far mobile processors have advanced.
