Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) vs Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)

CPU comparison

Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) or Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) - 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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.23 GHz. Up to 6 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) was released in Q3/2021.

The Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) has 10 cores with 10 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) was released in Q3/2021.
Apple A series (22) Family Apple M series (23)
Apple A15 (2) CPU group Apple M1 (9)
15 Generation 1
A15 Architecture M1
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple A14 Bionic Predecessor --
Apple A16 Bionic Successor Apple M2 Pro (10-CPU 16-GPU)

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) has 6 CPU cores and can calculate 6 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) is 3.23 GHz while the Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) has 10 CPU cores and 10 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) is at 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz).

Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Characteristic Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
6 Cores 10
6 Threads 10
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
3.23 GHz
2x Avalanche
A-Core 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz)
8x Firestorm
2.02 GHz
4x Blizzard
B-Core 0.60 GHz (2.06 GHz)
2x Icestorm

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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Characteristic Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
Apple Neural Engine AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 11 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) or Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) 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 A15 (5 GPU Cores) GPU Apple M1 Pro (14 Core)
1.34 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.30 GHz
12 GPU Generation 1
5 nm Technology 5 nm
3 Max. displays 3
20 Compute units 224
640 Shader 1792
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
6 GB Max. GPU Memory 32 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 A15 (5 GPU Cores) GPU Apple M1 Pro (14 Core)
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) can use up to 6 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 34.1 GB/s. The Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 102.4 GB/s.

Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Characteristic Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
LPDDR4X-4266 Memory LPDDR5-6400
6 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
34.1 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 102.4 GB/s
No ECC No
16.00 MB L2 Cache 28.00 MB
32.00 MB L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version 4.0
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) is 7.25 W, while the Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) has a TDP of 45 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Characteristic Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
7.25 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 45 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) is manufactured in 5 nm and has 48.00 MB cache. The Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) is manufactured in 5 nm and has a 28.00 MB cache.

Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Characteristic Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
5 nm Technology 5 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8.5-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
-- Socket --
None Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
No AES-NI Yes
iOS Operating systems macOS
Q3/2021 Release date Q3/2021
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) (97%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) (41%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) (100%)

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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
1745 (99%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
1768 (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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
4777 (38%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
12574 (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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
2245 (94%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
2397 (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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
5402 (44%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
12407 (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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores) @ 1.34 GHz
1713 (37%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
Apple M1 Pro (14 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
4580 (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 A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
15.8 (100%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 0.60 GHz
11 (70%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
113 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
802 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The single-core test only uses one CPU core, the amount of cores or hyperthreading ability doesn't count.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
1534 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 and is also based on the Cinema 4 Suite. Cinema 4 is a worldwide used software to create 3D forms. The multi-core test involves all CPU cores and taks a big advantage of hyperthreading.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
12390 (100%)

AnTuTu 9 Benchmark

The AnTuTu 9 benchmark is very well suited to measuring the performance of a smartphone. AnTuTu 9 is quite heavy on 3D graphics and can now also use the "Metal" graphics interface. In AnTuTu, memory and UX (user experience) are also tested by simulating browser and app usage. AnTuTu version 9 can compare any ARM CPU running on Android or iOS. Devices may not be directly comparable when benchmarked on different operating systems.

In the AnTuTu 9 benchmark, the single-core performance of a processor is only slightly weighted. The rating is made up of the multi-core performance of the processor, the speed of the working memory, and the performance of the internal graphics.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
825116 (100%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 0.60 GHz
0 (0%)

Blender 3.1 Benchmark

In the Blender Benchmark 3.1, the scenes "monster", "junkshop" and "classroom" are rendered and the time required by the system is measured. In our benchmark we test the CPU and not the graphics card. Blender 3.1 was presented as a standalone version in March 2022.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
10C 10T @ 3.20 GHz
192 (100%)

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)

Efficiency of the processor under full load in the Cinebench R23 (multi-core) benchmark. The benchmark result is divided by the average energy required (CPU package power in watts). The higher the value, the more efficient the CPU is under full load.
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
3.23 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
12,390 CB R23 MC @ 45 W
275 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)
Apple iPad mini (6. Gen)
Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Apple iPhone 14
Apple iPhone 14 Plus
Apple MacBook Pro 14 (2021)
Apple MacBook Pro 16 (2021)

News and articles for the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) and the Apple M1 Pro (10-CPU 14-GPU)

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In this article we describe how Apple could realize this and why the price should also go up.
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