Apple A9X vs Apple A8. Specifications, performance, tests

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

• CPU group
  Apple A9/A9X Apple A8/A8X
• Family
  Apple A series Apple A series
• Generation
  9 8
• Predecessor
  Apple A8X Apple A7
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Successor
  Apple A10X Fusion Apple A9

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 Typhoon
• Base Frequency
  2.16 GHz 1.1 GHz
• Core architecture
  normal normal
• CPU Cores
  2 2
• CPU Threads
  2 2
• Hyperthreading / SMT
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Turbo Frequency (1 Core)
  2.26 GHz 1.5 GHz
• Turbo Frequency (2 Cores)
  2.26 GHz 1.5 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.

• Execution units
  12 4
• Generation
  6 5
• GPU Frequency
  650 MHz 530 MHz
• GPU name
  Apple A9X Apple A8
• GPU Turbo
  No turbo No turbo
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Max. GPU Memory
  4 GB 4 GB
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q3/2014
• Shader
  384 128
• Technology
  16 nm 20 nm

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

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

Types, channel quantity of RAM supported by Apple A8 and Apple A9X. Depending on the motherboards, higher or lower memory frequencies may be supported.

• ECC
  No No
• Max. Memory
  4 GB 2 GB
• Memory channels
  2 1
• Memory type
  LPDDR4-3200 LPDDR3-1600

• AES-NI
  No No

Compare the TDP requirements of TDP Apple A9X and Apple A8 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)
  8 W 5 W

Architecture, interfaces, additional instructions supported by Apple A9X and Apple A8, virtual machine technologies and process technology.

• Architecture
  A9 A8
• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) x86-64 (64 bit)
• L2-Cache
  3.00 MB 1.00 MB
• L3-Cache
  - 4.00 MB
• Release date
  Q3/2015 Q3/2014
• Technology
  16 nm 20 nm
• Virtualization
  None None