A15 Bionic vs A12 Bionic
We compared two 6-core processors: Apple A15 Bionic (with Apple GPU graphics) and A12 Bionic (Apple A12 Bionic GPU). Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.
Review
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulcan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score
Key Differences
Pros of Apple A15 Bionic
- Announced 3-years and 1-month later
- Shows significantly better (up to 50%) AnTuTu 9 score – 791K vs 527K
- Has a smaller size transistor (5 versus 7 nm)
- 30% higher CPU clock speed (3240 vs 2490 MHz)
- Supports 25% higher memory bandwidth (42.7 against 34.1 GB/s)
- Higher GPU frequency (~7%)
- Better instruction set architecture
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Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 9
| CPU | 208246 | 143402 |
| GPU | 322246 | 186891 |
| Memory | 131426 | 91638 |
| UX | 135941 | 107048 |
| Total score | 791259 | 527967 |
GeekBench 5
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Image compression | 224.8 Mpixels/s | 132.8 Mpixels/s |
| Face detection | 43.1 images/s | 14.5 images/s |
| Speech recognition | 136.1 words/s | 67.8 words/s |
| Machine learning | 104.9 images/s | 54.1 images/s |
| Camera shooting | 49.3 images/s | 14.6 images/s |
| HTML 5 | 5.64 Mnodes/s | 3.27 Mnodes/s |
| SQLite | 1270 Krows/s | 745 Krows/s |
3DMark
3DMark Wild Life Performance
| Stability | 79% | 69% |
| Graphics test | 52 FPS | 31 FPS |
| Score | 8739 | 5237 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of A15 Bionic and A12 BionicCPU
| Architecture | 2x 3.24 GHz – Avalanche 4x 2.02 GHz – Blizzard |
2x 2.49 GHz – Vortex 4x 1.6 GHz – Tempest |
| Cores | 6 | 6 |
| Frequency | 3240 MHz | 2490 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8.5-A | ARMv8.3-A |
| L1 cache | 256 KB | 128 KB |
| L2 cache | 32 MB | 8 MB |
| Process | 5 nanometers | 7 nanometers |
| Transistor count | 15 billion | 6.9 billion |
| TDP | 6 W | 6 W |
Graphics
| GPU name | Apple GPU | Apple A12 Bionic GPU |
| GPU frequency | 1200 MHz | 1125 MHz |
| Execution units | 5 | 32 |
| Shading units | 640 | 256 |
| FLOPS | - | 560 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | - | 1.1 |
| OpenCL version | - | 2.0 |
| DirectX version | - | 12 |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR4X | LPDDR4X |
| Memory frequency | 4266 MHz | 2133 MHz |
| Bus | - | 1x 64 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 42.7 Gbit/s | 34.1 Gbit/s |
| Max size | 8 GB | 12 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Neural processor (NPU) | Neural Engine | Yes |
| Storage type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 2732 x 2048 | 2688 x 1242 |
| Max camera resolution | - | 2x 12MP |
| Video capture | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video playback | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video codecs | H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, Motion JPEG | H.264, H.265, Motion JPEG |
| Audio codecs | AAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV, AC-3, E-AC-3, AAX, AAX+ | AAC, AAC‑LC, Apple Lossless, HE‑AAC, Linear PCM, AAX и AAX+, HE‑AAC v2, MP3 |
Connectivity
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | LTE Cat. 18 |
| 5G support | Yes | No |
| Download speed | - | Up to 1000 Mbps |
| Upload speed | - | Up to 150 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 6 | 5 |
| Bluetooth | 5.0 | 5.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo |
Info
| Announced | September 2021 | September 2018 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | APL1W07 | APL1W81 |
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