Apple A9 vs Apple A10 Fusion. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• CPU group
  Apple A9/A9X Apple A10/A10X
• Family
  Apple A series Apple A series
• Generation
  9 10
• Predecessor
  Apple A8 Apple A9
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Successor
  Apple A10 Fusion Apple A11 Bionic

Core counts, threads, cache and clock modes describe the CPU configuration. Performance depends on the workload and comparable measured results.

• A-Core
  2x Twister 2x Hurricane
• B-Core
  - 2x Zephyr
• Base Frequency
  1.85 GHz 1.3 GHz
• Core architecture
  normal hybrid (big.LITTLE)
• CPU Cores
  2 4
• CPU Threads
  2 4
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  No turbo 2.34 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (2 Cores)
  No turbo -
• Turbo Frequency (4 Cores)
  - 2.34 GHz

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

• Execution units
  6 6
• Generation
  6 7
• GPU Frequency
  650 MHz 900 MHz
• GPU name
  Apple A9 Apple A10
• GPU Turbo
  No turbo No turbo
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Max. GPU Memory
  4 GB 4 GB
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q3/2016
• Shader
  192 192
• Technology
  16 nm 16 nm

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

• AV1
  No No
• H.264 / AVC
  Decode Conflicting source values: Decode | Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  No Decode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  No Decode
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• VC-1
  Decode Decode
• VP8
  Decode Decode
• VP9
  No Decode

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple A10 Fusion and Apple A9. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  No No
• Max. Memory
  2 GB 3 GB
• Memory channels
  1 1
• Memory type
  LPDDR4-3200 LPDDR4-3200

• AES-NI
  No No

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple A9 and Apple A10 Fusion Power specifications describe different manufacturer limits. TDP, base power and maximum turbo power are separate values; they do not establish measured system consumption.

• TDP (PL1, legacy label)
  5 W 5 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple A9 and Apple A10 Fusion, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  A9 A10
• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) x86-64 (64 bit)
• L2-Cache
  3 MB 4 MB
• L3-Cache
  4 MB -
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q3/2016
• Technology
  16 nm 10 nm
• Virtualization
  None None