Apple A9 vs A13 Bionic

We compared the 2-core Apple A9 (PowerVR GT7600) with the newer 6-core A13 Bionic (Apple A13 GPU) 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 A13 Bionic
  • Has 4 more cores
  • Shows significantly better (up to 2.6x) AnTuTu 11 score – 1101K vs 419K
  • Performs 2.5x better in floating-point computations
  • Supports 129% higher memory bandwidth (34.1 against 14.9 GB/s)
  • Has a smaller size transistor (7 versus 14 nm)
  • Higher GPU frequency (~89%)
  • 43% higher CPU clock speed (2650 vs 1850 MHz)
  • Better instruction set architecture

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
419670
A13 Bionic +163%
1101851
CPU 162356 296803
GPU 70340 301818
Memory 60725 149834
UX 126249 353396
Total score 419670 1101851
Samples Less than 3 [47 tests]

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
633
A13 Bionic +176%
1749
Multi-Core Score
1014
A13 Bionic +293%
3989
Asset compression 44.6 MB/sec 146.8 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 14.2 pages/sec 90.1 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 32 Mpixels/sec 103.5 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 7.3 images/sec 85.1 images/sec
HDR 40.2 Mpixels/sec 130.3 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 2.89 images/sec 13.9 images/sec
Photo processing 7.75 images/sec 38.5 images/sec
Ray tracing 1.28 Mpixels/sec 4.69 Mpixels/sec
Samples 3 tests 12 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
3185
A13 Bionic +336%
13902
Background blur 7.83 images/sec 20.3 images/sec
Face detection 6.17 images/sec 25.6 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.1 Gpixels/sec 0.44 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 0.14 Gpixels/sec 0.68 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 0.31 Gpixels/sec 0.77 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.03 Gpixels/sec 0.19 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 7.82 Gpixels/sec 45.7 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 299.1 FPS 1367.9 FPS
API Metal Metal
Samples 4 tests 8 tests

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Solar Bay
n/a
2564
Score - 2564
Stability - 74%
Graphics test - 10 FPS
Section 1 - 12 FPS
Section 2 - 10 FPS
Section 3 - 7 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
n/a
2001
Score - 2001
Stability - 70%
Graphics test - 11 FPS

Gaming

Table of average FPS and graphics settings in mobile games
PUBG Mobile - 57 FPS
[Ultra]
Call of Duty: Mobile - 60 FPS
[Ultra]
Fortnite - 60 FPS
[High]
World of Tanks Blitz - 60 FPS
[Ultra]
Genshin Impact - 59 FPS
[Ultra]
Mobile Legends: Bang Bang - 60 FPS
[Ultra]
Device - Apple iPhone 11 Pro
828 x 1792
We provide average results. FPS may differ, depending on game version, OS and other factors.

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 A13 Bionic
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-21 (Π•Π²Π³Π΅Π½ΠΈΠΉ :))AnTuTu 111178640
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (nuri)AnTuTu 111133524
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (Ianzzzz)AnTuTu 111090244
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (Ianzzzz)AnTuTu 111090244
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-04 (Feonton)AnTuTu 11915377

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Apple A9 and A13 Bionic

CPU

Architecture 2x 1.85 GHz – Twister 2x 2.65 GHz – Lightning
4x 1.6 GHz – Thunder
Cores 2 6
Frequency 1850 MHz 2650 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8-A ARMv8.4-A
L1 cache 64 KB 128 KB
L2 cache 3 MB 8 MB
L3 cache 4 MB -
Process 14 nanometers 7 nanometers
Transistor count 2 billion 8.5 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 5 W 6 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name PowerVR GT7600 Apple A13 GPU
Architecture PowerVR Series7XT (Rogue) Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 650 MHz 1230 MHz
Pipelines 6 4
Shading units 32 64
Total shaders 192 256
FLOPS 249.6 Gigaflops 629.8 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.1 -
OpenCL version 1.2 -

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Apple M9 Apple Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance - 5 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR4 LPDDR4X
Memory frequency 1333 MHz 2133 MHz
Bus 2x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 14.9 Gb/s 34.1 Gb/s
Max size 4 GB 4 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type NVMe NVMe
Max display resolution 2048 x 1536 2688 x 1242
Max camera resolution 1x 32MP, 2x 12MP -
Video capture 4K at 30FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 4K at 30FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- H.264
- H.265
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC
- AIFF
- CAF
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV
- AAC
- AAX
- AAX+
- AC-3
- AIFF
- CAF
- E-AC-3
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem Qualcomm MDM9635M -
4G support LTE Cat. 6 LTE Cat. 18
5G support No No
Download speed Up to 450 Mbps Up to 1200 Mbps
Upload speed Up to 150 Mbps Up to 350 Mbps
Wi-Fi 5 6
Bluetooth 4.2 5.0
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo

Info

Announced September 2015 September 2019
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number APL1021 APL1W85
Successor - Apple A19 Pro - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
46 (11.5%)
354 (88.5%)
Total votes: 400

Comments

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