Kirin 970 vs A11 Bionic
We compared the 8-core HiSilicon Kirin 970 (Mali G72 MP12) with the newer 6-core Apple A11 Bionic (Apple 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/Vulcan
Battery life
Efficiency of battery consumption
NanoReview Score
Overall chip score
Key Differences
Pros of HiSilicon Kirin 970
- Supports 100% higher memory bandwidth (29.8 against 14.9 GB/s)
- Has 2 more cores
Pros of Apple A11 Bionic
- Shows better (up to 20%) AnTuTu 9 score – 386K vs 322K
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 9
| CPU | 76021 | 127124 |
| GPU | 96440 | 119206 |
| Memory | 66735 | 54151 |
| UX | 82554 | 82801 |
| Total score | 322402 | 386825 |
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.
GeekBench 5
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Image compression | 90.1 Mpixels/s | 128.4 Mpixels/s |
| Face detection | 11.4 images/s | 21.9 images/s |
| Speech recognition | 24.4 words/s | 45.2 words/s |
| Machine learning | 21.3 images/s | 39.6 images/s |
| Camera shooting | 11.2 images/s | 24.2 images/s |
| HTML 5 | 1.59 Mnodes/s | 3.16 Mnodes/s |
| SQLite | 415.6 Krows/s | 756.85 Krows/s |
3DMark
3DMark Wild Life Performance
| Stability | 75% | 62% |
| Graphics test | 4 FPS | 19 FPS |
| Score | 832 | 3216 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Kirin 970 and A11 BionicCPU
| Architecture | 4x 2.36 GHz – Cortex A73 4x 1.84 GHz – Cortex A53 |
2x 2.39 GHz – Monsoon 4x 1.42 GHz – Mistral |
| Cores | 8 | 6 |
| Frequency | 2360 MHz | 2390 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv8-A |
| L1 cache | - | 64 KB |
| L2 cache | 512 KB | 8 MB |
| L3 cache | 2 MB | - |
| Process | 10 nanometers | 10 nanometers |
| Transistor count | 5.5 billion | 4.3 billion |
| TDP | 9 W | 8 W |
Graphics
| GPU name | Mali G72 MP12 | Apple GPU |
| Architecture | Bifrost | - |
| GPU frequency | 850 MHz | - |
| Execution units | 12 | 3 |
| Shading units | 192 | - |
| FLOPS | 347 Gigaflops | 325 Gigaflops |
| Vulkan version | 1.0 | 1.0 |
| OpenCL version | 2.0 | 2.1 |
| DirectX version | 12 | 12 |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR4X | LPDDR4 |
| Memory frequency | 1866 MHz | 1866 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 2x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 29.8 Gbit/s | 14.9 Gbit/s |
| Max size | 8 GB | 3 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Neural processor (NPU) | Yes | Neural Engine |
| Storage type | UFS 2.1 | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | 3840 x 2160 | 2436 x 1125 |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 48MP, 2x 20MP | 2x 12MP |
| Video capture | 4K at 30FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video playback | 4K at 60FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video codecs | H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9, VC-1 | H.264, H.265, Motion JPEG |
| Audio codecs | 32 bit@384 kHz, HD-audio | AAC, AIFF, CAF, MP3, MP4, WAV |
Connectivity
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 18 | LTE Cat. 12 |
| 5G support | No | No |
| Download speed | Up to 1200 Mbps | Up to 600 Mbps |
| Upload speed | Up to 150 Mbps | Up to 150 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 5 | 5 |
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | 5.0 |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo |
Info
| Announced | September 2017 | September 2017 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | Hi3670 | APL1W72 |
| Official page | HiSilicon Kirin 970 official site | - |
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Total votes: 95