Apple A9 vs A10 Fusion

We compared the 2-core Apple A9 (PowerVR GT7600) with the newer 4-core A10 Fusion (PowerVR GT7600) SoC. Here you will find the pros and cons of each chip, technical specs, and comprehensive tests in benchmarks, like AnTuTu and Geekbench.

Review

General comparison of performance, power consumption, and other indicators
CPU Performance
Single and multi-core processor tests
Gaming Performance
GPU performance in games and OpenCL/Vulkan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score

Key Differences

Main differences and advantages of each chip
Pros of Apple A9
  • Has a smaller size transistor (14 versus 16 nm)
Pros of Apple A10 Fusion
  • Has 2 more cores
  • 26% higher CPU clock speed (2340 vs 1850 MHz)
  • Shows better (up to 23%) AnTuTu 11 score – 516K vs 419K

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
419670
A10 Fusion +23%
516981
CPU 162356 202669
GPU 70340 63274
Memory 60725 84317
UX 126249 166721
Total score 419670 516981
Samples Less than 3 Less than 3

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
633
A10 Fusion +39%
882
Multi-Core Score
1014
A10 Fusion +46%
1484
Asset compression 44.6 MB/sec 57.7 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 14.2 pages/sec 38.7 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 32 Mpixels/sec 44.8 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 7.3 images/sec 14.2 images/sec
HDR 40.2 Mpixels/sec 56.1 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 2.89 images/sec 4.38 images/sec
Photo processing 7.75 images/sec 13.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 1.28 Mpixels/sec 1.7 Mpixels/sec
Samples 3 tests 4 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
3185
A10 Fusion +37%
4352
Background blur 7.83 images/sec 11 images/sec
Face detection 6.17 images/sec 9.32 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.1 Gpixels/sec 0.13 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.14 Gpixels/sec 0.17 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.31 Gpixels/sec 0.4 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.03 Gpixels/sec 0.04 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 7.82 Gpixels/sec 10.9 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 299.1 FPS 415.5 FPS
API Metal Metal
Samples 4 tests 2 tests

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Score - 693
Stability - 85%
Graphics test - 4 FPS

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple A9
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-13 (TestGame)Geekbench 6 GPU3180
πŸ“˜ 2026-05-13 (TestGame)Geekbench 6 CPU644 / 901
πŸ“˜ 2024-07-04 (Red)Geekbench 6 GPU3195
πŸ“˜ 2024-06-26 (Heaven)Geekbench 6 GPU3185
πŸ“˜ 2024-06-26 (Heaven)Geekbench 6 CPU633 / 1014
Apple A10 Fusion
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-23 (TeknoPiri)AnTuTu 11497446
πŸ“˜ 2025-08-15 (hellz1)Geekbench 6 GPU4352
πŸ“˜ 2024-02-21 (Cap1bara_tech)Geekbench 6 CPU882 / 1484

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Apple A9 and A10 Fusion

CPU

Architecture 2x 1.85 GHz – Twister 2x 2.34 GHz – Hurricane
2x 1.05 GHz – Zephyr
Cores 2 4
Frequency 1850 MHz 2340 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8-A ARMv8-A
L1 cache 64 KB 64 KB
L2 cache 3 MB 3 MB
L3 cache 4 MB 4 MB
Process 14 nanometers 16 nanometers
Transistor count 2 billion 3.3 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 5 W 5 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name PowerVR GT7600 PowerVR GT7600
Architecture PowerVR Series7XT (Rogue) PowerVR Series7XT (Rogue)
GPU frequency 650 MHz 650 MHz
Pipelines 6 6
Shading units 32 32
Total shaders 192 192
FLOPS 249.6 Gigaflops 249.6 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.1 1.1
OpenCL version 1.2 1.2

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Apple M9 No

Memory

Memory type LPDDR4 LPDDR4
Memory frequency 1333 MHz 1333 MHz
Bus 2x 16 Bit 2x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 14.9 Gb/s 14.9 Gb/s
Max size 4 GB 4 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type NVMe NVMe
Max display resolution 2048 x 1536 2048 x 1536
Max camera resolution 1x 32MP, 2x 12MP 1x 32MP, 2x 12MP
Video capture 4K at 30FPS 4K at 30FPS
Video playback 4K at 30FPS 4K at 30FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- H.264
- H.265
- VC-1
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem Qualcomm MDM9635M Qualcomm MDM9645M
4G support LTE Cat. 6 LTE Cat. 12
5G support No No
Download speed Up to 450 Mbps Up to 600 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 150 Mbps Up to 100 Mbps
Wi-Fi 5 5
Bluetooth 4.2 4.2
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo

Info

Announced September 2015 September 2016
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number APL1021 APL1W24
Successor - Apple A19 Pro - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
223 (26%)
636 (74%)
Total votes: 859

Comments

Please give your opinion on the comparison of A10 Fusion and Apple A9, or ask any questions
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happy May 10, 2024 at 12:29 AM
The A9 chip has over 330,000 points on antutu.... Total Score 339,313pt CPU 110,403pt GPU 80,830pt MEM 61,944pt UX 86,136pt
+26 Reply
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Tammy Sharon Loretta Stafford April 26, 2021 at 04:45 PM
The only difference I detect is a faster and smoother gaming experience
+100 Reply