Dimensity 9500 vs A17 Pro

We compared the 8-core MediaTek Dimensity 9500 (Mali-G1 Ultra MP12) with the older 6-core Apple A17 Pro (Apple A17 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 MediaTek Dimensity 9500
  • Performs 2.5x better in floating-point computations
  • Shows significantly better (up to 2.4x) AnTuTu 11 score – 3455K vs 1467K
  • Supports 67% higher memory bandwidth (85.3 against 51.2 GB/s)
  • Has 2 more cores
  • Higher GPU frequency (~23%)
  • 11% higher CPU clock speed (4210 vs 3780 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
3455738
1467470
CPU 991635 374357
GPU 1343858 463612
Memory 348931 184670
UX 771314 444831
Total score 3455738 1467470
Samples [119 tests] [21 tests]
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.

GeekBench 6

The GeekBench test shows raw single-threaded and multithreaded CPU performance
Single-Core Score
3293
2969
Multi-Core Score
10243
7599
Asset compression 397.3 MB/sec 254.1 MB/sec
HTML 5 Browser 292.7 pages/sec 166 pages/sec
PDF Renderer 328.1 Mpixels/sec 180.7 Mpixels/sec
Image detection 234.3 images/sec 178.7 images/sec
HDR 328.1 Mpixels/sec 240.3 Mpixels/sec
Background blur 40.9 images/sec 26.7 images/sec
Photo processing 109.9 images/sec 77.8 images/sec
Ray tracing 10.3 Mpixels/sec 7.76 Mpixels/sec
Samples 29 tests 32 tests
Compute Score (GPU)
A17 Pro +10%
28057
Background blur 47.2 images/sec 55.5 images/sec
Face detection 26.1 images/sec 65.1 images/sec
Horizon detection 0.78 Gpixels/sec 0.8 Gpixels/sec
Edge detection 1.31 Gpixels/sec 1.08 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur 1.68 Gpixels/sec 1.11 Gpixels/sec
Feature matching 0.31 Gpixels/sec 0.43 Gpixels/sec
Stereo matching 91.9 Gpixels/sec 87.6 Gpixels/sec
Particle physics 3324.6 FPS 3313.9 FPS
API Vulkan Metal
Samples 14 tests 22 tests
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!

3DMark

A cross-platform benchmark that assesses graphics performance in Vulkan (Metal)
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
3119
1391
Score 3119 1391
Stability 57% 71%
Graphics test 23 FPS 10 FPS
3DMark Solar Bay
13319
6089
Score 13319 6089
Stability - 73%
Graphics test 51 FPS 23 FPS
Section 1 55 FPS 29 FPS
Section 2 52 FPS 23 FPS
Section 3 43 FPS 16 FPS
3DMark Wild Life Extreme
Score - 3655
Stability - 63%
Graphics test - 21 FPS

PCMark 3.0

Benchmark for evaluating overall system performance in everyday workloads
PCMark 3.0
Web score 14375 -
Video editing score 5995 -
Data manipulation score 12159 -
Photo editing score 34571 -
Writing score 22695 -
Phones tested 4 models -

Recent User Tests

The latest benchmark tests that have been submitted by users
MediaTek Dimensity 9500
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-09 (tiktok: @anonchapix)CPU Throttle81%
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-07 (Asura)CPU Throttle63%
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-03 (chapix)AnTuTu3935655
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-28 -> Rlamac012AnTuTu3729488
πŸ“˜ 2026-08-23 (vakiho)AnTuTu3455310
Apple A17 Pro
DateBenchmarkResult
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-11 (Zabza)AnTuTu1599694
πŸ“˜ 2026-09-10 (elio)AnTuTu1445771
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-28 (human)GeekBench GPU26734
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-28 (human)GeekBench CPU2892 / 7293
πŸ“˜ 2026-07-28 (human)GeekBench CPU2892 / 7293

Specifications

Full list of technical specifications of Dimensity 9500 and A17 Pro

CPU

Architecture 1x 4.21 GHz – C1-Ultra
3x 3.5 GHz – C1-Premium
4x 2.7 GHz – C1-Pro
2x 3.78 GHz – Everest
4x 2.11 GHz – Sawtooth
Cores 8 6
Frequency 4210 MHz 3780 MHz
Instruction set ARMv9.3-A ARMv8.6-A
L1 cache 192 KB 256 KB
L2 cache 2 MB 16 MB
L3 cache 16 MB -
Process 3 nanometers 3 nanometers
Transistor count - 19 billion
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 9 W 8 W
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC

Graphics

GPU name Mali-G1 Ultra MP12 Apple A17 GPU
Architecture Valhall 5th gen Apple Bionic GPU
GPU frequency 1716 MHz 1398 MHz
Pipelines 12 6
Shading units 128 128
Total shaders 1536 768
FLOPS 5271.5 Gigaflops 2147.2 Gigaflops
Vulkan version 1.4 -
OpenCL version 3.0 -
DirectX version 12.1 -

AI Accelerator

Neural processor (NPU) MediaTek NPU 990 Apple Neural Engine
NPU theoretical performance 100 TOPS 35 TOPS

Memory

Memory type LPDDR5X LPDDR5
Memory frequency 5333 MHz 3200 MHz
Bus 4x 16 Bit 4x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 85.3 Gb/s 51.2 Gb/s
Max size 24 GB 8 GB

Multimedia (ISP)

Storage type UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1 NVMe
Max display resolution - 1290 x 2796
Max camera resolution 1x 320MP 1x 48MP
Video capture 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video playback 8K at 60FPS, 4K at 120FPS 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs - H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP9
- H.264
- H.265
- AV1
- VP8
- VP9
- Motion JPEG
Audio codecs - AAC LC
- FLAC
- HE-AACv1
- HE-AACv2
- MP3
- AAC
- AAX
- AAX+
- AC-3
- AIFF
- CAF
- E-AC-3
- MP3
- MP4
- WAV

Connectivity

Modem - Snapdragon X70
4G support LTE Cat. 24 LTE Cat. 24
5G support Yes Yes
Download speed Up to 10700 Mbps Up to 7500 Mbps
Upload speed - Up to 3500 Mbps
Wi-Fi 7 6
Bluetooth 6.0 5.3
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS, NAVIC

Info

Announced September 2025 September 2023
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number MT6993 APL1V02
Official page MediaTek Dimensity 9500 official site -
Successor - - Apple A19 Pro

Cast your vote

So, which SoC would you choose?
39 (84.8%)
7 (15.2%)
Total votes: 46

Comments

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