M5 (iPad) vs A18 Pro

We compared the 10-core Apple M5 (iPad) (custom) with the older 6-core A18 Pro (Apple A18 Pro 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 M5 (iPad)
  • Supports 155% higher memory bandwidth (153 against 60 GB/s)
  • Shows significantly better (up to 91%) AnTuTu 11 score – 3396K vs 1782K
  • Performs 81% better in floating-point computations
  • Has 4 more cores
  • 14% higher CPU clock speed (4610 vs 4050 MHz)
  • Higher GPU frequency (~9%)

Benchmarks

Performance tests in popular benchmarks
SoC:
vs

AnTuTu 11

The AnTuTu Benchmark measures CPU, GPU, RAM, and I/O performance in different scenarios
M5 (iPad) +91%
3396957
1782199
CPU 965229 521852
GPU 1313129 562674
Memory 458312 187942
UX 660296 509731
Total score 3396957 1782199
Samples [3 tests] [15 tests]

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
M5 (iPad) +17%
4193
3570
Multi-Core Score
M5 (iPad) +78%
15913
8923
Asset compression 576.8 MB/sec 299.9 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 374.9 pages/sec 191.2 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 380 Mpixels/sec 196.8 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 452.7 images/sec 319.6 images/sec
HDR 549.3 Mpixels/sec 289.5 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 55 images/sec 37.6 images/sec
Photo processing 161.4 images/sec 91 images/sec
Ray tracing 18.3 Mpixels/sec 9.03 Mpixels/sec
Samples 4 tests 14 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
M5 (iPad) +128%
76009
33278
Background blur 153 images/sec 62.5 images/sec
Face detection 177.6 images/sec 78.2 images/sec
Horizon detection 2.22 Gpixels/sec 0.98 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 2.84 Gpixels/sec 1.3 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 5.76 Gpixels/sec 1.5 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.95 Gpixels/sec 0.49 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 188 Gpixels/sec 100 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 6580.5 FPS 3659.7 FPS
API Metal Metal
Samples 4 tests 7 tests

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
M5 (iPad) +137%
4104
1732
Score 4104 1732
Stability 71% 71%
Graphics test 30 FPS 13 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
M5 (iPad) +128%
17310
7585
Score 17310 7585
Graphics test 66 FPS 29 FPS
Section 1 88 FPS 35 FPS
Section 2 63 FPS 30 FPS
Section 3 46 FPS 21 FPS

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
Apple M5 (iPad)
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-09 (patrick)AnTuTu3511739
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-12 (LBWNB)AnTuTu3396957
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-17 -> LiberoGeekBench GPU76909
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-17 -> LiberoGeekBench CPU4193 / 15913
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-06 (Toxicaliv)GeekBench GPU76009
Apple A18 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-20 (thuanday)AnTuTu2043169
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-17 (Jonibek)AnTuTu1692383
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-21 (Neuron)AnTuTu1500141
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-21 (l1tsemerr)AnTuTu1650968
πŸ“˜ 2026-06-15 (Anton)AnTuTu1782199

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of M5 (iPad) and A18 Pro

CPU

Architecture 4x 4.61 GHz –
6x 2.95 GHz –
2x 4.05 GHz – Everest
4x 2.42 GHz – Sawtooth
Cores 10 6
Frequency 4610 MHz 4050 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9.2-A ARMv9.2-A
L1 cache 192 KB 192 KB
L2 cache 16 MB 16 MB
Process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) - 10 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name - Apple A18 Pro GPU
Architecture - Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 1620 MHz 1490 MHz
Pipelines - 6
Shading units - 128
Total shaders - 768
FLOPS 4147.2 Gigaflops 2289 Gigaflops

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) Apple Neural Engine Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance - 35 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5X
Memory frequency 4800 MHz 3750 MHz
Bus 8x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 153 Gb/s 60 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 8 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type NVMe NVMe
Max display resolution 2752 x 2064 -
Max camera resolution - 1x 48MP
Video capture 4K at 60FPS 4K at 120FPS
Video playback 4K at 60FPS 4K at 120FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP9
- H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- 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 C1X Snapdragon X71 5G
4G support LTE Cat. 24 LTE Cat. 24
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed - Up to 10000 Mbps
Upload speed - Up to 3500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 7 7
Bluetooth 6.0 5.3
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC

Info

Announced October 2025 September 2024
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number T8142 APL1V07
Successor - - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
47 (75.8%)
15 (24.2%)
Total votes: 62

Comments

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