Apple M1 (7-GPU) vs Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU). Specifications, performance, tests

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

• Family
  Apple M series Apple A series
• CPU group
  Apple M1 Apple A15
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Generation
  1 15
• Predecessor
  -- Apple A14 Bionic

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.

• CPU Cores / Threads
  8 / 8 6 / 6
• Core architecture
  hybrid (big.LITTLE) hybrid (big.LITTLE)
• A-Core
  4x Firestorm 2x Avalanche
• B-Core
  4x Icestorm 4x Blizzard
• Overclocking
  No No

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 M1 (7 Core) Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores)
• GPU frequency
  1.30 GHz 0.60 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  No turbo No turbo
• Execution units
  112 160
• Shader
  896 1280
• Max. GPU Memory
  8 GB 8 GB
• Max. displays
  2 3
• Generation
  1 12
• Technology
  5 nm 5 nm
• Release date
  Q4/2020 Q3/2021

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

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

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) and Apple M1 (7-GPU). Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• Memory type
  LPDDR4X-4266 LPDDR4X-4266
• Max. Memory
  16 GB 8 GB
• Memory channels
  2 (Dual Channel) 1
• ECC
  No No
• PCIe
  4.0
• AES-NI
  Yes No

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple M1 (7-GPU) and Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) to select a cooling system. Note, the TDP value refers to thermal watts, not electrical watts.

• TDP (PL1)
  15 W 8.5 W
• TDP up
  20 W --
• TDP down
  10 W --

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple M1 (7-GPU) and Apple M1 (7-GPU), virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Technology
  5 nm 5 nm
• Socket
  N/A N/A
• L2-Cache
  16.00 MB 16.00 MB
• Architecture
  M1 A15
• Virtualization
  Apple Virtualization Framework None
• Instruction set (ISA)
  ARMv8-A64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• ISA extensions
  Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
• Release date
  Q4/2020 Q3/2021
• Part Number
  APL 1102 --