HiSilicon Kirin 960 vs HiSilicon Kirin 980. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• CPU group
  HiSilicon Kirin 960 HiSilicon Kirin 980
• Family
  HiSilicon Kirin HiSilicon Kirin
• Generation
  5 7
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile

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

• A-Core
  4x Cortex-A73 2x Cortex-A76
• B-Core
  4x Cortex-A53 2x Cortex-A76
• Base Frequency
  1.8 GHz 1.8 GHz
• C-Core
  - 4x Cortex-A55
• Core architecture
  hybrid (big.LITTLE) hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE)
• CPU Cores
  8 8
• CPU Threads
  8 8
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  2.4 GHz 1.9 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (8 Cores)
  2.4 GHz 2.6 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 12
• Execution units
  8 10
• Generation
  Bifrost 1 Bifrost 3
• GPU Frequency
  900 MHz 720 MHz
• GPU name
  ARM Mali-G71 MP8 ARM Mali-G76 MP10
• GPU Turbo
  No turbo No turbo
• Max. displays
  2 2
• Max. GPU Memory
  2 GB 4 GB
• Release date
  Q2/2016 Q3/2018
• Shader
  256 160
• Technology
  16 nm 7 nm

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

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

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by HiSilicon Kirin 980 and HiSilicon Kirin 960. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  No No
• Max. Memory
  6 GB 8 GB
• Memory channels
  2 4
• Memory type
  LPDDR4-1600 LPDDR4X-2133

• AES-NI
  No No

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP HiSilicon Kirin 960 and HiSilicon Kirin 980 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 6 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by HiSilicon Kirin 960 and HiSilicon Kirin 980, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53 Cortex-A76 / Cortex-A55
• Instruction set (ISA)
  ARMv8-A64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• L3-Cache
  4 MB 2 MB
• Release date
  Q4/2016 Q4/2018
• Technology
  16 nm 7 nm
• Virtualization
  None None