HiSilicon Kirin 970 vs Apple M1 (7-GPU)

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


HiSilicon Kirin 970 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple M1 (7-GPU)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 Apple M1 (7-GPU)

CPU comparison

HiSilicon Kirin 970 or Apple M1 (7-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 M1 (7-GPU) has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 3.20 GHz. The CPU supports up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple M1 (7-GPU) was released in Q4/2020.
HiSilicon Kirin (29) Family Apple M series (25)
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (1) CPU group Apple M1 (9)
6 Generation 1
Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53 Architecture M1
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 M1 (7-GPU) has 8 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz).

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8 Cores 8
8 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
2.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A73
A-Core 0.60 GHz (3.20 GHz)
4x Firestorm
1.84 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
B-Core 0.60 GHz (2.06 GHz)
4x Icestorm

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 M1 (7-GPU)
-- AI hardware Apple Neural Engine
-- AI specifications 16 Neural cores @ 11 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 M1 (7 Core)
0.75 GHz GPU frequency 0.39 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) 1.30 GHz
Bifrost 2 GPU Generation 1
16 nm Technology 5 nm
1 Max. displays 2
12 Compute units 112
192 Shader 896
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
2 GB Max. GPU Memory 8 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 M1 (7 Core)
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
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 M1 (7-GPU) can connect up to 16 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple M1 (7-GPU)
LPDDR4X-2133 Memory LPDDR4X-4266
8 GB Max. Memory 16 GB
4 (Quad Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 68.2 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 16.00 MB
2.00 MB L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version 4.0
-- 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 M1 (7-GPU) is 18 W.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple M1 (7-GPU)
9 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 18 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up 25 W
-- TDP down 10 W
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The HiSilicon Kirin 970 has a 2.00 MB cache, while the Apple M1 (7-GPU) cache has a total of 16.00 MB.

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Characteristic Apple M1 (7-GPU)
10 nm Technology 5 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8.5-A (64 bit)
-- ISA extensions Rosetta 2 x86-Emulation
-- Socket --
None Virtualization Apple Virtualization Framework
No AES-NI Yes
Android Operating systems macOS
Q3/2017 Release date Q4/2020
-- 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 (4 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple M1 (7-GPU) to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.9 stars (48 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (20%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
HiSilicon Kirin 970 (19%)
Apple M1 (7-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 M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1742 (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 (19%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7650 (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 (14%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
Apple M1 (7 Core) @ 1.30 GHz
2290 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Single-Core)

The Cinebench 2024 benchmark is based on the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxon's 3D program Cinema 4D. The benchmark runs are each 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
112 (100%)

Cinebench 2024 (Multi-Core)

The Multi-Core test of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark uses all cpu cores to render using the Redshift rendering engine, which is also used in Maxons Cinema 4D. The benchmark run is 10 minutes long to test whether the processor is limited by its heat generation.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
509 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Single-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
1503 (100%)

Cinebench R23 (Multi-Core)

Cinebench R23 is the successor of Cinebench R20 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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
7759 (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 M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
2369 (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 M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
8576 (100%)

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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
117 (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.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
14463 (100%)

Blender 2.81 (bmw27)

Blender is a free 3D graphics software for rendering (creating) 3D bodies, which can also be textured and animated in the software. The Blender benchmark creates predefined scenes and measures the time (s) required for the entire scene. The shorter the time required, the better. We selected bmw27 as the benchmark scene.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 3.20 GHz
314 (100%)

CPU performance per watt (efficiency)

Efficiency of the processor under full load in the Cinebench R23 (multi-core) benchmark. The benchmark result is divided by the average energy required (CPU package power in watts). The higher the value, the more efficient the CPU is under full load.
HiSilicon Kirin 970 HiSilicon Kirin 970
2.40 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
7,759 CB R23 MC @ 18 W
431 (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 M1 (7-GPU) Apple M1 (7-GPU)
8C 8T @ 0.60 GHz
11 (100%)

Devices using this processor

HiSilicon Kirin 970 Apple M1 (7-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
Unknown

News and articles for the HiSilicon Kirin 970 and the Apple M1 (7-GPU)


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