Apple A9 vs Apple A5X. 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
  9 5
• CPU group
  Apple A9/A9X Apple A5/A5X
• Predecessor
  Apple A8 --
• Successor
  Apple A10 Fusion Apple A6X

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
  1.85 GHz 1.00 GHz
• Turbo (1 Core)
  No turbo No turbo
• Turbo (2 Cores)
  No turbo No turbo
• Hyperthreading
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  normal 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 A9 PowerVR SGX543MP4 (4 Cores)
• GPU frequency
  0.65 GHz 0.20 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  No turbo No turbo
• Execution units
  6 8
• Shader
  192 64
• Max. GPU Memory
  4 GB --
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Generation
  6
• Technology
  16 nm 45 nm
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q1/2012

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

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

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple A5X and Apple A9. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• Memory type
  LPDDR4-3200 LPDDR2-800
• Max. Memory
  2 GB 1 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  1 4

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple A9 and Apple A5X to select a cooling system. Note, the TDP value refers to thermal watts, not electrical watts.

• TDP (PL1)
  5 W

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

• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv7-A32 (32 bit)
• Virtualization
  None None
• L2-Cache
  3.00 MB 1.00 MB
• L3-Cache
  4.00 MB --
• Architecture
  A9 A5
• Technology
  16 nm 32 nm
• Socket
  N/A N/A
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q1/2011
• Part Number
  -- APL 5498