Apple A7 vs HiSilicon Kirin 980. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• CPU group
  Apple A7 HiSilicon Kirin 980
• Family
  Apple A series HiSilicon Kirin
• Generation
  7 7
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Successor
  Apple A8 -

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

• A-Core
  2x Cyclone 2x Cortex-A76
• B-Core
  - 2x Cortex-A76
• Base Frequency
  1.3 GHz 1.8 GHz
• C-Core
  - 4x Cortex-A55
• Core architecture
  normal hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE)
• CPU Cores
  2 8
• CPU Threads
  2 8
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  1.4 GHz 1.9 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (2 Cores)
  1.4 GHz -
• Turbo Frequency (8 Cores)
  - 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
  10 12
• Execution units
  4 10
• Generation
  - Bifrost 3
• GPU Frequency
  450 MHz 720 MHz
• GPU name
  PowerVR G6430 ARM Mali-G76 MP10
• GPU Turbo
  450 MHz No turbo
• Max. displays
  1 2
• Max. GPU Memory
  - 4 GB
• Release date
  Q3/2013 Q3/2018
• Shader
  64 160
• Technology
  28 nm 7 nm

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

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

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by HiSilicon Kirin 980 and Apple A7. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  No No
• Max. Memory
  1 GB 8 GB
• Memory channels
  1 4
• Memory type
  LPDDR3-1333 LPDDR4X-2133

• AES-NI
  No No

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple A7 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)
  - 6 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple A7 and HiSilicon Kirin 980, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  A7 Cortex-A76 / Cortex-A55
• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• L2-Cache
  1 MB -
• L3-Cache
  4 MB 2 MB
• Part Number
  S5L8960X -
• Release date
  Q3/2013 Q4/2018
• Technology
  28 nm 7 nm
• Virtualization
  None None