HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 970 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)

CPU comparison

HiSilicon Kirin 970 or Apple A15 Bionic (4-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 HiSilicon Kirin 970 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. Up to 8 GB of memory is supported in 4 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 970 was released in Q3/2017.

The Apple A15 Bionic (4-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 (4-GPU) was released in Q3/2021.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Apple A series (22)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (1) CPU group Apple A15 (2)
6 Generation 15
Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53 Architecture A15
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 2.40 GHz. The Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) has 6 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 3.23 GHz.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
8 Cores 6
8 Threads 6
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A73
A-Core 3.23 GHz
2x Avalanche
1.84 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
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.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-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.

ARM Mali-G72 MP12 GPU Apple A15 (4 GPU Cores)
0.75 GHz GPU frequency 1.34 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
Bifrost 2 GPU Generation 12
16 nm Technology 5 nm
1 Max. displays 3
12 Compute units 16
192 Shader 512
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory 6 GB
12 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.

ARM Mali-G72 MP12 GPU Apple A15 (4 GPU Cores)
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 / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode
Decode / Encode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 supports a maximum of 8 GB of memory in 4 memory channels. The Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) can connect up to 6 GB of memory in 1 memory channels.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
LPDDR4X-2133 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
8 GB Max. Memory 6 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 1 (Single Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 34.1 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 16.00 MB
2.00 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 HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a TDP of 9 W, that of the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) is 7.25 W.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
9 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 7.25 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) cache has a total of 48.00 MB.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
10 nm Technology 5 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
Android Operating systems iOS
Q3/2017 Release date Q3/2021
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the HiSilicon Kirin 970 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 5.0 stars (5 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.5 stars (17 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (20%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (30%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
349 (20%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
1745 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
1455 (30%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
4777 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
ARM Mali-G72 MP12 @ 0.75 GHz
330 (24%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
Apple A15 (4 GPU Cores) @ 1.34 GHz
1370 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
2245 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
5402 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
806250 (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).
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU) Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
6C 6T @ 3.23 GHz
15.8 (100%)

Devices using this processor

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)
Huawei Honor 10
Huawei Note 10
Huawei Play
Huawei Honor View 10
Huawei Mate 10 Pro
Huawei P20
Huawei Nova 3
Huawei Nova 4
Apple iPhone 13 mini
Apple iPhone 13

News and articles for the HiSilicon Kirin 970 and the Apple A15 Bionic (4-GPU)


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