Apple A9 vs Samsung Exynos 7904. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• CPU group
  Apple A9/A9X Samsung Exynos 7872/7884/7885/7904
• Family
  Apple A series Samsung Exynos
• Generation
  9 2
• Predecessor
  Apple A8 -
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Successor
  Apple A10 Fusion -

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 Cortex-A73
• B-Core
  - 6x Cortex-A53
• Base Frequency
  1.85 GHz 1.6 GHz
• Core architecture
  normal hybrid (big.LITTLE)
• CPU Cores
  2 8
• CPU Threads
  2 8
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  No turbo 1.8 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (2 Cores)
  No turbo -
• Turbo Frequency (8 Cores)
  - 1.8 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.

• DirectX Version
  - 11
• Execution units
  6 2
• Generation
  6 Bifrost 1
• GPU Frequency
  650 MHz 770 MHz
• GPU name
  Apple A9 ARM Mali-G71 MP2
• GPU Turbo
  No turbo No turbo
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Max. GPU Memory
  4 GB 2 GB
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q2/2016
• Shader
  192 32
• 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 Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  No Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  No Decode
• JPEG
  Decode / Encode Decode / Encode
• VC-1
  Decode No
• VP8
  Decode Decode / Encode
• VP9
  No No

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Samsung Exynos 7904 and Apple A9. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  No No
• Max. Memory
  2 GB -
• Memory channels
  1 2
• Memory type
  LPDDR4-3200 LPDDR4-1866

• AES-NI
  No No

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple A9 and Samsung Exynos 7904 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 -

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple A9 and Samsung Exynos 7904, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  A9 Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53
• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• L2-Cache
  3 MB -
• L3-Cache
  4 MB -
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q1/2019
• Technology
  16 nm 14 nm
• Virtualization
  None None