Apple A9 vs A15 Bionic
We compared the 2-core Apple A9 (PowerVR GT7600) with the newer 6-core A15 Bionic (Apple A15 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
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
Pros of Apple A15 Bionic
- Performs 6.9x better in floating-point computations
- Shows significantly better (up to 3.4x) AnTuTu 11 score β 1413K vs 419K
- Has 4 more cores
- Has a smaller size transistor (5 versus 14 nm)
- Supports 129% higher memory bandwidth (34.1 against 14.9 GB/s)
- Higher GPU frequency (~2.1x)
- 75% higher CPU clock speed (3230 vs 1850 MHz)
- Better instruction set architecture
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 162356 | 410975 |
| GPU | 70340 | 370837 |
| Memory | 60725 | 164151 |
| UX | 126249 | 467312 |
| Total score | 419670 | 1413275 |
| Samples | Less than 3 | [69 tests] |
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 44.6 MB/sec | 208.1 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 14.2 pages/sec | 122.9 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 32 Mpixels/sec | 139.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 7.3 images/sec | 125.1 images/sec |
| HDR | 40.2 Mpixels/sec | 179.4 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 2.89 images/sec | 22.3 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 7.75 images/sec | 53.2 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 1.28 Mpixels/sec | 6.26 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 3 tests | 37 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 7.83 images/sec | 35.4 images/sec |
| Face detection | 6.17 images/sec | 44.8 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.1 Gpixels/sec | 0.62 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.14 Gpixels/sec | 0.82 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.31 Gpixels/sec | 0.84 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.03 Gpixels/sec | 0.3 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 7.82 Gpixels/sec | 71.1 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 299.1 FPS | 2198.2 FPS |
| API | Metal | Metal |
| Samples | 4 tests | 19 tests |
3DMark
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | - | 3765 |
| Stability | - | 71% |
| Graphics test | - | 14 FPS |
| Section 1 | - | 19 FPS |
| Section 2 | - | 14 FPS |
| Section 3 | - | 9 FPS |
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
| Score | - | 2854 |
| Stability | - | 76% |
| Graphics test | - | 17 FPS |
Recent User Tests
Apple A9
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-05-13 (TestGame) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 3180 |
| π 2026-05-13 (TestGame) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 644 / 901 |
| π 2024-07-04 (Red) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 3195 |
| π 2024-06-26 (Heaven) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 3185 |
| π 2024-06-26 (Heaven) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 633 / 1014 |
Apple A15 Bionic
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-25 -> op1 | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2168 / 4988 |
| π 2026-09-23 -> HotPower | AnTuTu 11 | 1184759 |
| π 2026-09-19 -> HotPower | Geekbench 6 GPU | 21284 |
| π 2026-09-19 (Vova) | AnTuTu 11 | 1297615 |
| π 2026-09-19 -> HotPower | Geekbench 6 CPU | 2423 / 5985 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Apple A9 and A15 BionicCPU
| Architecture | 2x 1.85 GHz β Twister | 2x 3.23 GHz β Avalanche 4x 2.02 GHz β Blizzard |
| Cores | 2 | 6 |
| Frequency | 1850 MHz | 3230 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv8.5-A |
| L1 cache | 64 KB | 256 KB |
| L2 cache | 3 MB | 12 MB |
| L3 cache | 4 MB | - |
| Process | 14 nanometers | 5 nanometers |
| Transistor count | 2 billion | 15 billion |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 5 W | 6 W |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | PowerVR GT7600 | Apple A15 GPU |
| Architecture | PowerVR Series7XT (Rogue) | Apple Bionic GPU |
| GPU frequency | 650 MHz | 1338 MHz |
| Pipelines | 6 | 5 |
| Shading units | 32 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 192 | 640 |
| FLOPS | 249.6 Gigaflops | 1712.6 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.1 | - |
| OpenCL version | 1.2 | - |
AI Accelerator
| Neural processor (NPU) | Apple M9 | Apple Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | - | 15.8 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 | 6 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 2048 x 1536 | 2732 x 2048 |
| 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 - VP8 - VP9 - 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. 24 |
| 5G support | No | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 450 Mbps | Up to 7500 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 150 Mbps | Up to 3000 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 5 | 6 |
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | 5.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
Info
| Announced | September 2015 | September 2021 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | APL1021 | APL1W07 |
| Successor | - Apple A19 Pro | - Apple A19 Pro |
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