Apple A7 vs HiSilicon Kirin 960

Last updated: 2023-11-06

CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A7		HiSilicon Kirin 960
CPU comparison Apple A7 or HiSilicon Kirin 960 - 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 A7 has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.40 GHz. Up to 1 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Apple A7 was released in Q3/2013. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. The CPU supports up to 6 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 was released in Q4/2016.

Apple A series (22)	Family	HiSilicon Kirin (29)
Apple A7 (1)	CPU group	HiSilicon Kirin 960 (2)
7	Generation	5
A7	Architecture	Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53
Mobile	Segment	Mobile
Apple A6	Predecessor	--
Apple A8	Successor	--

CPU Cores and Base Frequency The Apple A7 is a 2 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.40 GHz. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz.
Apple A7	Characteristic	HiSilicon Kirin 960
2	Cores	8
2	Threads	8
normal	Core architecture	hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No	Hyperthreading	No
No	Overclocking ?	No
1.40 GHz 2x Cyclone	A-Core	2.40 GHz 4x Cortex-A73
--	B-Core	1.80 GHz 4x Cortex-A53
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 A7	Characteristic	HiSilicon Kirin 960
--	AI hardware	--
--	AI specifications	--

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 G6430	GPU	ARM Mali-G71 MP8
0.45 GHz	GPU frequency	0.90 GHz
--	GPU (Turbo)	--
--	GPU Generation	Bifrost 1
28 nm	Technology	16 nm
2	Max. displays	2
16	Compute units	8
128	Shader	256
No	Hardware Raytracing	No
No	Frame Generation	No
--	Max. GPU Memory	2 GB
10	DirectX Version	11

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 G6430	GPU	ARM Mali-G71 MP8
No	Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit)	Decode / Encode
No	Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit)	Decode
No	Codec h264	Decode / Encode
No	Codec VP9	No
No	Codec VP8	Decode / Encode
No	Codec AV1	No
No	Codec AVC	Decode / Encode
No	Codec VC-1	No
No	Codec JPEG	Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe The Apple A7 supports a maximum of 1 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 can connect up to 6 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.
Apple A7	Characteristic	HiSilicon Kirin 960
LPDDR3-1333	Memory	LPDDR4-1600
1 GB	Max. Memory	6 GB
1 (Single Channel)	Memory channels	2 (Dual Channel)
12.8 GB/s	Max. Bandwidth	12.8 GB/s
No	ECC	No
1.00 MB	L2 Cache	--
4.00 MB	L3 Cache	4.00 MB
--	PCIe version	--
--	PCIe lanes	--
--	PCIe Bandwidth	--
Thermal Management The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Apple A7 has a TDP of --, that of the HiSilicon Kirin 960 is 5 W.
Apple A7	Characteristic	HiSilicon Kirin 960
--	TDP (PL1 / PBP)	5 W
--	TDP (PL2)	--
--	TDP up	--
--	TDP down	--
--	Tjunction max.	--
Technical details The Apple A7 has a 5.00 MB cache, while the HiSilicon Kirin 960 cache has a total of 4.00 MB.
Apple A7	Characteristic	HiSilicon Kirin 960
28 nm	Technology	16 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	Android
Q3/2013	Release date	Q4/2016
--	Release price	--

show more data		show more data

Apple A7 2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz buy now on Amazon and save! HiSilicon Kirin 960 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz buy now on Amazon and save!

Rate these processors

Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

Apple A7 (73%)

HiSilicon Kirin 960 (100%)

⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks

Apple A7 (35%)

HiSilicon Kirin 960 (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 A7 2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz	278 (73%)
	HiSilicon Kirin 960 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	381 (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 A7 2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz	528 (35%)
	HiSilicon Kirin 960 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	1521 (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 A7 PowerVR G6430 @ 0.45 GHz	115 (47%)
	HiSilicon Kirin 960 ARM Mali-G71 MP8 @ 0.90 GHz	245 (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 A7 2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	HiSilicon Kirin 960 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	403 (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 A7 2C 2T @ 1.40 GHz	0 (0%)
	HiSilicon Kirin 960 8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz	1393 (100%)

Devices using this processor
Apple A7	HiSilicon Kirin 960
Apple iPhone 6 Apple iPhone 6 Plus Apple iPad Mini 4 Apple TV HD Apple HomePod Apple iPod touch (6. Gen)	Huawei Honor 8 Pro Huawei Honor 9 Huawei Mate 9 Huawei Mate 9 Pro Huawei Mate 9 Porsche Huawei MediaPad M5 Huawei Nova 2s Huawei P10

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