Apple A5 vs Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A5 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Apple A5 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)

CPU comparison

Apple A5 or Apple A15 Bionic (5-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 A5 has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.00 GHz. Up to 1 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Apple A5 was released in Q1/2011.

The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) has 6 cores with 6 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.23 GHz. The CPU supports up to 6 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) was released in Q3/2021.
Apple A series (22) Family Apple A series (22)
Apple A5/A5X (2) CPU group Apple A15 (2)
5 Generation 15
A5 Architecture A15
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple A14 Bionic
Apple A6 Successor Apple A16 Bionic

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A5 is a 2 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.00 GHz. The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) has 6 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.23 GHz.

Apple A5 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
2 Cores 6
2 Threads 6
normal Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.00 GHz
2x Cortex-A9
A-Core 3.23 GHz
2x Avalanche
-- B-Core 2.02 GHz
4x Blizzard

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 A5 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 15.8 TOPS

Internal Graphics

The integrated graphics unit of a processor is not only responsible for the pure image output on the system, but can also significantly increase the efficiency of the system with the support of modern video codecs.

PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores) GPU Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores)
0.20 GHz GPU frequency 1.34 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation 12
32 nm Technology 5 nm
1 Max. displays 3
4 Compute units 20
32 Shader 640
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 6 GB
10 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.

PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores) GPU Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC Decode
No Codec VC-1 Decode
No Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A5 supports a maximum of 1 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) can connect up to 6 GB of memory in 1 memory channels.

Apple A5 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
LPDDR2-800 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
1 GB Max. Memory 6 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 1 (Single Channel)
6.4 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
1.00 MB L2 Cache 16.00 MB
-- L3 Cache 32.00 MB
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Apple A5 has a TDP of --, that of the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) is 7.25 W.

Apple A5 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 7.25 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Apple A5 has a 1.00 MB cache, while the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) cache has a total of 48.00 MB.

Apple A5 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
32 nm Technology 5 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv7-A (32 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
iOS Operating systems iOS
Q1/2011 Release date Q3/2021
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Apple A5 (28%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Apple A5 (5%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-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 A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
496 (28%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
1745 (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 A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
267 (5%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
5402 (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 A5 Apple A5
PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores) @ 0.20 GHz
13 (1%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Apple A15 (5 GPU Cores) @ 1.34 GHz
1713 (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 A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
4777 (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 A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
2245 (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 A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
825116 (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 A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
15.8 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A5 Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)
Apple iPhone 4S
Apple iPad 2
Apple iPad mini (6. Gen)
Apple iPhone 13 Pro
Apple iPhone 13 Pro Max
Apple iPhone 14
Apple iPhone 14 Plus

News and articles for the Apple A5 and the Apple A15 Bionic (5-GPU)

MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ vs Apple A16 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ vs Apple A16 and Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1
Posted by Stefan on 2022-09-22
With the Dimensity 9000+, Mediatek presents the latest of its smartphone chips. The successor to the Mediatek Dimensity 9000 achieves higher CPU and GPU clock frequencies thanks to better binning. The CPU clock of the prime core (A core) increases from 3.0 to 3.2 GHz. And the ARM Mali-G710 MP10 GPU can now clock at 0.9 GHz (previously 0.85 GHz).

Both are a good improvement over the Dimensity 9000 in theory but the increase in performance should not usually be noticeable in practice. In the end, the overall performance of the Mediatek Dimensity 9000+ is impressive: Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is beaten in Geekbench 5 in both the single-core and multi-core benchmarks.
What we know about the new Apple A16 Bionic in Apples iPhone 14
What we know about the new Apple A16 Bionic in Apples iPhone 14
Posted by Stefan on 2022-08-23
Every year Apple releases a new iPhone series and with the release of the series always the latest Apple A processor. This has become even more important in recent years, as it has also formed the basis for Apple's M processor series since 2020. The Apple M processors are based on the same core architecture as the Apple A processors, but have been significantly upgraded in many areas such as memory bandwith, amount of memory or cache.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is more powerful and efficient
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is more powerful and efficient
Posted by Stefan on 2022-07-11
Qualcomm is changing the contract manufacturer from Samsung to TSMC for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1. By switching to the TSMC 4 nm manufacturing process, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 is not only 10 percent faster but also 15 percent more efficient than its predecessor. This makes Qualcomm's TOP SoC one of the fastest smartphone chips on the market.

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