Apple A5X vs Intel Atom C3850

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A5X CPU1 vs CPU2 Intel Atom C3850
Apple A5X Intel Atom C3850

CPU comparison

Apple A5X or Intel Atom C3850 - 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 A5X 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 4 memory channels. The Apple A5X was released in Q1/2011.

The Intel Atom C3850 has 12 cores with 12 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. The CPU supports up to 256 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Intel Atom C3850 was released in Q3/2017.
Apple A series (22) Family Intel Atom (108)
Apple A5/A5X (2) CPU group Intel Atom C3000 (20)
5 Generation 5
A5 Architecture Denverton
Mobile Segment Desktop / Server
-- Predecessor --
Apple A6X Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A5X has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 2 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple A5X is 1.00 GHz while the Intel Atom C3850 has 12 CPU cores and 12 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Intel Atom C3850 is at 2.10 GHz (2.40 GHz).

Apple A5X Characteristic Intel Atom C3850
2 Cores 12
2 Threads 12
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.00 GHz Frequency 2.10 GHz
-- Turbo Frequency (1 Core) 2.40 GHz
-- Turbo Frequency (All Cores) 2.40 GHz

NPU AI performance

The performance values of the processor's AI unit. The isolated NPU performance is specified here, the total AI performance (NPU+CPU+iGPU) can be higher. Processors with support for artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) can process many calculations, especially audio, image and video processing, much faster than classic processors.

Apple A5X Characteristic Intel Atom C3850
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The Apple A5X or Intel Atom C3850 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.

PowerVR SGX543MP4 (4 Cores) GPU no iGPU
0.20 GHz GPU frequency --
-- GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation --
45 nm Technology
1 Max. displays
8 Compute units --
64 Shader --
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory --
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 SGX543MP4 (4 Cores) GPU no iGPU
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
No Codec h264 No
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC No
No Codec VC-1 No
No Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A5X can use up to 1 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 12.8 GB/s. The Intel Atom C3850 supports up to 256 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 38.4 GB/s.

Apple A5X Characteristic Intel Atom C3850
LPDDR2-800 Memory DDR4-2400
1 GB Max. Memory 256 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
12.8 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 38.4 GB/s
No ECC Yes
1.00 MB L2 Cache 12.00 MB
-- L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 16
-- PCIe Bandwidth 15.8 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple A5X is --, while the Intel Atom C3850 has a TDP of 25 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple A5X Characteristic Intel Atom C3850
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 25 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. 100 °C

Technical details

The Apple A5X is manufactured in 32 nm and has 1.00 MB cache. The Intel Atom C3850 is manufactured in 14 nm and has a 12.00 MB cache.

Apple A5X Characteristic Intel Atom C3850
32 nm Technology 14 nm
Chiplet Chip design Monolithic
Armv7-A (32 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4.1, SSE4.2
-- Socket BGA 1310
None Virtualization VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d
No AES-NI Yes
iOS Operating systems Windows 10, Linux
Q1/2011 Release date Q3/2017
-- Release price 323 $
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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 A5X Apple A5X
PowerVR SGX543MP4 (4 Cores) @ 0.20 GHz
26 (100%)
Intel Atom C3850 Intel Atom C3850
@ 0.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A5X Intel Atom C3850
Apple iPad 2 (3. Gen) Unknown

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