Apple A13 Bionic vs Apple A6. Specifications, performance, tests

Background information about the processors being compared, series, generation and market segment.

• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Family
  Apple A series Apple A series
• Generation
  13 6
• CPU group
  Apple A13 Apple A6/A6X
• Predecessor
  Apple A12 Bionic Apple A5
• Successor
  Apple A14 Bionic Apple A7

Basic parameters such as number of cores, number of threads, base and turbo frequency, and cache size. These parameters indirectly tell about the speed of the processor, the higher they are the better.

• Frequency
  1.80 GHz 1.30 GHz
• Turbo (1 Core)
  2.65 GHz No turbo
• Hyperthreading
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  hybrid (big.LITTLE) normal

Internal Graphics does not affect the performance of the CPU, performs the work of the graphics card in its absence or on mobile devices.

• GPU name
  Apple A13 PowerVR SGX543MP3 (3 Cores)
• GPU frequency
  1.80 GHz 0.27 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  2.70 GHz No turbo
• Execution units
  4 6
• Shader
  384 48
• Max. GPU Memory
  4 GB --
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Generation
  10
• Technology
  7 nm 32 nm
• Release date
  Q3/2019 Q3/2012

Built-in codecs used to encode and decode content. Significantly speeds up the required operations.

• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  Decode / Encode No
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  Decode / Encode No
• h264
  Decode / Encode No
• VP9
  Decode / Encode No
• VP8
  Decode / Encode No
• AV1
  No No
• AVC
  Decode No
• VC-1
  Decode No
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode No

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple A6 and Apple A13 Bionic. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• Memory type
  LPDDR4X-4266 LPDDR2-1066
• Max. Memory
  4 GB 1 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  1 2

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple A13 Bionic and Apple A6 to select a cooling system. Note, the TDP value refers to thermal watts, not electrical watts.

• TDP (PL1)
  6 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple A13 Bionic and Apple A13 Bionic, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv7-A32 (32 bit)
• Virtualization
  None None
• L2-Cache
  8.00 MB 1.00 MB
• Architecture
  A13 (Lightning / Thunder) A6
• Technology
  7 nm 32 nm
• Socket
  N/A N/A
• Release date
  Q3/2019 Q3/2012
• Part Number
  -- APL 0598