Dimensity 9500 vs M4 (iPad)
We compared the 8-core MediaTek Dimensity 9500 (Mali-G1 Ultra MP12) with the older 10-core Apple M4 (iPad) (custom) 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 MediaTek Dimensity 9500
- Performs 40% better in floating-point computations
- Higher GPU frequency (~17%)
- Shows better (up to 21%) AnTuTu 11 score β 3760K vs 3116K
- Better instruction set architecture
Pros of Apple M4 (iPad)
- Supports 41% higher memory bandwidth (120 against 85.3 GB/s)
- Has 2 more cores
- 5% higher CPU clock speed (4410 vs 4210 MHz)
Benchmarks
Performance tests in popular benchmarksAnTuTu 11
| CPU | 1048345 | 915032 |
| GPU | 1432351 | 1135331 |
| Memory | 476680 | 349968 |
| UX | 803286 | 715682 |
| Total score | 3760662 | 3116013 |
| Samples | [119 tests] | [3 tests] |
AnTuTu results from iOS and Android are not directly comparable! They won't affect NanoReview scores.
GeekBench 6
Single-Core Score
Multi-Core Score
| Asset compression | 397.3 MB/sec | 501.5 MB/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 292.7 pages/sec | 305.6 pages/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 328.1 Mpixels/sec | 317.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 234.3 images/sec | 416.7 images/sec |
| HDR | 328.1 Mpixels/sec | 461.1 Mpixels/sec |
| Background blur | 40.9 images/sec | 54.3 images/sec |
| Photo processing | 109.9 images/sec | 139.8 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 10.3 Mpixels/sec | 14.9 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 29 tests | 7 tests |
Compute Score (GPU)
| Background blur | 47.2 images/sec | 103 images/sec |
| Face detection | 26.1 images/sec | 124.8 images/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.78 Gpixels/sec | 1.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Edge detection | 1.31 Gpixels/sec | 2.32 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 1.68 Gpixels/sec | 2.8 Gpixels/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.31 Gpixels/sec | 0.73 Gpixels/sec |
| Stereo matching | 91.9 Gpixels/sec | 164.7 Gpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 3324.6 FPS | 4657.1 FPS |
| API | Vulkan | Metal |
| Samples | 14 tests | 6 tests |
Compute results use different APIs (Metal vs Vulkan/OpenCL) and are not directly comparable!
3DMark
3DMark Steel Nomad Light
| Score | 3119 | 3477 |
| Stability | 57% | 71% |
| Graphics test | 23 FPS | 26 FPS |
3DMark Solar Bay
| Score | 13319 | 14286 |
| Graphics test | 51 FPS | 54 FPS |
| Section 1 | 55 FPS | 63 FPS |
| Section 2 | 52 FPS | 56 FPS |
| Section 3 | 43 FPS | 43 FPS |
PCMark 3.0
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
MediaTek Dimensity 9500
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-22 (MΓ‘ximo) | AnTuTu 12 | 3660205 |
| π 2026-09-20 (Forgolka) | AnTuTu 12 | 3407758 |
| π 2026-09-19 (Niranjan M) | AnTuTu 12 | 3402395 |
| π 2026-09-19 (hi) | AnTuTu 12 | 3291469 |
| π 2026-09-16 (Asura) | CPU Throttle | 70% |
Apple M4 (iPad)
| Date | Benchmark | Result |
|---|---|---|
| π 2026-09-07 (Lexapes) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 57080 |
| π 2026-09-07 (Lexapes) | Geekbench 6 CPU | 3907 / 15397 |
| π 2026-09-07 (Lexapes) | AnTuTu 11 | 3396741 |
| π 2026-08-03 (Astreeek) | AnTuTu 11 | 2940000 |
| π 2026-04-26 (BG-M4-User) | Geekbench 6 GPU | 52952 |
Specifications
Full list of technical specifications of Dimensity 9500 and M4 (iPad)CPU
| Architecture | 1x 4.21 GHz β C1-Ultra 3x 3.5 GHz β C1-Premium 4x 2.7 GHz β C1-Pro |
4x 4.41 GHz β 6x 2.85 GHz β |
| Cores | 8 | 10 |
| Frequency | 4210 MHz | 4410 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv9.3-A | ARMv9.2-A |
| L1 cache | 192 KB | 192 KB |
| L2 cache | 2 MB | 16 MB |
| L3 cache | 16 MB | - |
| Process | 3 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| Transistor count | - | 28 billion |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 9 W | - |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
Graphics
| GPU name | Mali-G1 Ultra MP12 | - |
| Architecture | Valhall 5th gen | - |
| GPU frequency | 1716 MHz | 1470 MHz |
| Pipelines | 12 | - |
| Shading units | 128 | - |
| Total shaders | 1536 | - |
| FLOPS | 5271.5 Gigaflops | 3763.2 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 | 38 TOPS |
Memory
| Memory type | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5X |
| Memory frequency | 5333 MHz | 7500 MHz |
| Bus | 4x 16 Bit | 8x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 85.3 Gb/s | 120 Gb/s |
| Max size | 24 GB | 24 GB |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Storage type | UFS 4.0, UFS 4.1 | NVMe |
| Max display resolution | - | 2752 x 2064 |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 320MP | - |
| 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 - VP9 |
| Audio codecs | - AAC LC - FLAC - HE-AACv1 - HE-AACv2 - MP3 |
- AAC - AIFF - CAF - MP3 - MP4 - WAV |
Connectivity
| Modem | - | Snapdragon X71 |
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 24 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | Yes | Yes |
| Download speed | Up to 10700 Mbps | Up to 10000 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 |
Info
| Announced | September 2025 | May 2024 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | MT6993 | - |
| Official page | MediaTek Dimensity 9500 official site | - |
Further details
Notes on M4 (iPad):
- There is slightly slower (5-7%) version of M4 that uses 3 performance + 6 efficiency cores array in 256GB/512GB models of iPad Pro.
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