Apple A10 Fusion vs Apple A12 Bionic

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A10 Fusion CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A12 Bionic
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A12 Bionic

CPU comparison

Apple A10 Fusion or Apple A12 Bionic - which processor is faster? In this comparison we look at the differences and analyze which of these two CPUs is better. We compare the technical data and benchmark results.

The Apple A10 Fusion has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.34 GHz. Up to 3 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Apple A10 Fusion was released in Q3/2016.

The Apple A12 Bionic has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.49 GHz. The CPU supports up to 4 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Apple A12 Bionic was released in Q3/2018.
Apple A series (22) Family Apple A series (22)
Apple A10/A10X (2) CPU group Apple A12/A12X/A12Z (3)
10 Generation 12
A10 Architecture A12
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple A9 Predecessor Apple A11 Bionic
Apple A11 Bionic Successor Apple A13 Bionic

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A10 Fusion has 4 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple A10 Fusion is 2.34 GHz while the Apple A12 Bionic has 6 CPU cores and 6 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple A12 Bionic is at 2.49 GHz.

Apple A10 Fusion Characteristic Apple A12 Bionic
4 Cores 6
4 Threads 6
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.34 GHz
2x Hurricane
A-Core 2.49 GHz
2x Vortex
1.09 GHz
2x Zephyr
B-Core 1.59 GHz
4x Tempest

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. Algorithms for ML improve their performance the more data they have collected via software. ML tasks can be processed up to 10,000 times faster than with a classic processor.

Apple A10 Fusion Characteristic Apple A12 Bionic
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 8 Neural cores @ 5 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The Apple A10 Fusion or Apple A12 Bionic has integrated graphics, called iGPU for short. The iGPU uses the system's main memory as graphics memory and sits on the processor's die.

Apple A10 GPU Apple A12
0.90 GHz GPU frequency 1.13 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
7 GPU Generation 9
16 nm Technology 7 nm
1 Max. displays 1
24 Compute units 16
192 Shader 256
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
4 GB Max. GPU Memory 4 GB
-- DirectX Version --

Hardware codec support

A photo or video codec that is accelerated in hardware can greatly accelerate the working speed of a processor and extend the battery life of notebooks or smartphones when playing videos.

Apple A10 GPU Apple A12
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A10 Fusion can use up to 3 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 25.6 GB/s. The Apple A12 Bionic supports up to 4 GB of memory in 1 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 34.1 GB/s.

Apple A10 Fusion Characteristic Apple A12 Bionic
LPDDR4-3200 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
3 GB Max. Memory 4 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 1 (Single Channel)
25.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
3.00 MB L2 Cache 8.00 MB
4.00 MB L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple A10 Fusion is 5 W, while the Apple A12 Bionic has a TDP of 6 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple A10 Fusion Characteristic Apple A12 Bionic
5 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 6 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple A10 Fusion is manufactured in 10 nm and has 7.00 MB cache. The Apple A12 Bionic is manufactured in 7 nm and has a 8.00 MB cache.

Apple A10 Fusion Characteristic Apple A12 Bionic
10 nm Technology 7 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
iOS Operating systems iOS
Q3/2016 Release date Q3/2018
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple A10 Fusion to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 2.0 stars (2 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple A12 Bionic to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.0 stars (4 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Single-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
776 (70%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
1116 (100%)

Geekbench 5, 64bit (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 5 is a cross plattform benchmark that heavily uses the systems memory. A fast memory will push the result a lot. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
1422 (52%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
2731 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Single-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The single-core benchmark only evaluates the performance of the fastest CPU core, the number of CPU cores in a processor is irrelevant here.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
853 (66%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
1286 (100%)

Geekbench 6 (Multi-Core)

Geekbench 6 is a benchmark for modern computers, notebooks and smartphones. What is new is an optimized utilization of newer CPU architectures, e.g. based on the big.LITTLE concept and combining CPU cores of different sizes. The multi-core benchmark evaluates the performance of all of the processor's CPU cores. Virtual thread improvements such as AMD SMT or Intel's Hyper-Threading have a positive impact on the benchmark result.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
1207 (51%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
2353 (100%)

iGPU - FP32 Performance (Single-precision GFLOPS)

The theoretical computing performance of the internal graphics unit of the processor with simple accuracy (32 bit) in GFLOPS. GFLOPS indicates how many billion floating point operations the iGPU can perform per second.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
Apple A10 @ 0.90 GHz
346 (60%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
Apple A12 @ 1.13 GHz
576 (100%)

AnTuTu 8 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 8 Benchmark measures the performance of a SoC. AnTuTu benchmarks the CPU, GPU, Memory as well as the UX (User Experience) by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu can benchmark any ARM CPU that runs under Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly compareable if the benchmark has been performed under different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 8 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The evaluation consists of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the RAM and the performance of the internal graphics.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
227804 (54%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
425605 (100%)

Estimated results for PassMark CPU Mark

Some of the CPUs listed below have been benchmarked by CPU-monkey. However the majority of CPUs have not been tested and the results have been estimated by a CPU-monkey’s secret proprietary formula. As such they do not accurately reflect the actual Passmark CPU mark values and are not endorsed by PassMark Software Pty Ltd.
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
4846 (100%)

Performance for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)

Processors with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors. The performance is given in the number (trillions) of arithmetic operations per second (TOPS).
Apple A10 Fusion Apple A10 Fusion
4C 4T @ 2.34 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A12 Bionic Apple A12 Bionic
6C 6T @ 2.49 GHz
5 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A10 Fusion Apple A12 Bionic
Apple iPhone 7
Apple iPhone 7 Plus
Apple iPad (6. Gen)
Apple iPhone XR
Apple iPhone XS
Apple iPhone XS Max
Apple iPad mini (5. Gen)
Apple iPad Air (3. Gen)

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