Apple A9 vs AMD Ryzen 3 3250U

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Apple A9 CPU1 vs CPU2 AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
Apple A9 AMD Ryzen 3 3250U

CPU comparison

Apple A9 or AMD Ryzen 3 3250U - 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 A9 has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.85 GHz. Up to 2 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Apple A9 was released in Q3/2015.

The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U has 2 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.50 GHz. The CPU supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U was released in Q1/2020.
Apple A series (22) Family AMD Ryzen 3 (33)
Apple A9/A9X (2) CPU group AMD Ryzen 3000U (Dali) (2)
9 Generation 2
A9 Architecture Dali (Zen+)
Mobile Segment Mobile
Apple A8 Predecessor --
Apple A10 Fusion Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Apple A9 has 2 CPU cores and can calculate 2 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Apple A9 is 1.85 GHz while the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U has 2 CPU cores and 4 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U is at 2.60 GHz (3.50 GHz).

Apple A9 Characteristic AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2 Cores 2
2 Threads 4
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading Yes
No Overclocking ? No
1.85 GHz Frequency 2.60 GHz
-- Turbo Frequency (1 Core) 3.50 GHz
-- Turbo Frequency (All Cores) 2.60 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 A9 Characteristic AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The Apple A9 or AMD Ryzen 3 3250U 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 A9 GPU AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 (Raven Ridge)
0.65 GHz GPU frequency 1.00 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
6 GPU Generation 8
16 nm Technology 14 nm
1 Max. displays 3
24 Compute units 3
192 Shader 192
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
4 GB Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
-- DirectX Version 12

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 A9 GPU AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 (Raven Ridge)
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode / Encode
Decode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode Codec AVC Decode / Encode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Apple A9 can use up to 2 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 25.6 GB/s. The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U supports up to 32 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 38.4 GB/s.

Apple A9 Characteristic AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
LPDDR4-3200 Memory DDR4-2400
2 GB Max. Memory 32 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
25.6 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 38.4 GB/s
No ECC Yes
3.00 MB L2 Cache 1.00 MB
4.00 MB L3 Cache 4.00 MB
-- PCIe version 3.0
-- PCIe lanes 8
-- PCIe Bandwidth 7.9 GB/s

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Apple A9 is 5 W, while the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U has a TDP of 15 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Apple A9 Characteristic AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
5 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 15 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up 25 W
-- TDP down 12 W
-- Tjunction max. 95 °C

Technical details

The Apple A9 is manufactured in 16 nm and has 7.00 MB cache. The AMD Ryzen 3 3250U is manufactured in 14 nm and has a 5.00 MB cache.

Apple A9 Characteristic AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
16 nm Technology 14 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) x86-64 (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions SSE4a, SSE4.1, SSE4.2, AVX2, FMA3
-- Socket FP5
None Virtualization AMD-V, SVM
No AES-NI Yes
iOS Operating systems Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux
Q3/2015 Release date Q1/2020
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Apple A9 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.2 stars (5 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the AMD Ryzen 3 3250U to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.5 stars (6 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Apple A9 (70%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks
Apple A9 (58%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U (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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
558 (71%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
783 (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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
1024 (63%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
1632 (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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
632 (68%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
932 (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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
921 (58%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
1588 (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 A9 Apple A9
Apple A9 @ 0.65 GHz
250 (65%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
AMD Radeon RX Vega 3 (Raven Ridge) @ 1.00 GHz
384 (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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
2053 (53%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
3859 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
309 (100%)

Cinebench R20 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R20 is the successor of Cinebench R15 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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
751 (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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
172160 (100%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
22 (100%)

CPU-Z Benchmark 17 (Multi-Core)

The CPU-Z benchmark measures a processor's performance by measuring the time it takes the system to complete all benchmark calculations. The faster the benchmark is completed, the higher the score.
Apple A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
827 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 3.50 GHz
138 (100%)

Cinebench R15 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R15 is the successor of Cinebench 11.5 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 A9 Apple A9
2C 2T @ 1.85 GHz
0 (0%)
AMD Ryzen 3 3250U AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
2C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
344 (100%)

Devices using this processor

Apple A9 AMD Ryzen 3 3250U
Apple iPhone 6s
Apple iPhone SE (1. Gen)
Acer Aspire 3 (A314-22-R0YJ)
ASUS VivoBook 15 F512DA (90NB0LZ3-M22030)
Laptops

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