Intel Celeron N4120 vs Apple A9X

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Intel Celeron N4120 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A9X
Intel Celeron N4120 Apple A9X

CPU comparison

Intel Celeron N4120 or Apple A9X - 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 Intel Celeron N4120 has 4 cores with 4 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.60 GHz. Up to 8 GB of memory is supported in 2 memory channels. The Intel Celeron N4120 was released in Q4/2019.

The Apple A9X has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.26 GHz. The CPU supports up to 4 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple A9X was released in Q3/2015.
Intel Celeron (165) Family Apple A series (22)
Intel Celeron J4000/N4000/N5000 (11) CPU group Apple A9/A9X (2)
9 Generation 9
Gemini Lake Architecture A9
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor Apple A8X
-- Successor Apple A10X Fusion

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Intel Celeron N4120 has 4 CPU cores and can calculate 4 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the Intel Celeron N4120 is 1.10 GHz (2.60 GHz) while the Apple A9X has 2 CPU cores and 2 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the Apple A9X is at 2.26 GHz.

Intel Celeron N4120 Characteristic Apple A9X
4 Cores 2
4 Threads 2
normal Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.10 GHz Frequency 2.26 GHz
2.60 GHz Turbo Frequency (1 Core) --
2.50 GHz Turbo Frequency (All Cores) --

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.

Intel Celeron N4120 Characteristic Apple A9X
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

The Intel Celeron N4120 or Apple A9X 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.

Intel UHD Graphics 600 GPU Apple A9X
0.20 GHz GPU frequency 0.65 GHz
0.70 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
9.5 GPU Generation 6
14 nm Technology 16 nm
3 Max. displays 1
12 Compute units 48
96 Shader 384
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
8 GB Max. GPU Memory 4 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.

Intel UHD Graphics 600 GPU Apple A9X
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 Decode / Encode
Decode / Encode Codec VP9 No
Decode / Encode Codec VP8 Decode
No Codec AV1 No
Decode / Encode Codec AVC Decode
Decode Codec VC-1 Decode
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The Intel Celeron N4120 can use up to 8 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is 38.4 GB/s. The Apple A9X supports up to 4 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 51.2 GB/s.

Intel Celeron N4120 Characteristic Apple A9X
LPDDR4-2400, DDR4-2400 Memory LPDDR4-3200
8 GB Max. Memory 4 GB
2 (Dual Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
38.4 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 51.2 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 3.00 MB
4.00 MB L3 Cache 4.00 MB
2.0 PCIe version --
6 PCIe lanes --
3.0 GB/s PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the Intel Celeron N4120 is 6 W, while the Apple A9X has a TDP of 8 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

Intel Celeron N4120 Characteristic Apple A9X
6 W TDP (PL1 / PBP) 8 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
4.8 W TDP down --
105 °C Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Intel Celeron N4120 is manufactured in 14 nm and has 4.00 MB cache. The Apple A9X is manufactured in 16 nm and has a 7.00 MB cache.

Intel Celeron N4120 Characteristic Apple A9X
14 nm Technology 16 nm
Monolithic Chip design Chiplet
x86-64 (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv8-A (64 bit)
SSE4.1, SSE4.2 ISA extensions --
BGA 1090 Socket --
VT-x, VT-x EPT, VT-d Virtualization None
Yes AES-NI No
Windows 10, Windows 11, Linux Operating systems iOS
Q4/2019 Release date Q3/2015
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the Intel Celeron N4120 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 2.7 stars (12 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the Apple A9X to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 0 stars (0 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 2 CPU benchmarks
Intel Celeron N4120 (58%)
Apple A9X (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 3 CPU benchmarks
Intel Celeron N4120 (95%)
Apple A9X (93%)

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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
448 (69%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
652 (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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz
1478 (100%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
1198 (81%)

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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
362 (47%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
763 (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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz
1076 (86%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
1251 (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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
Intel UHD Graphics 600 @ 0.70 GHz
134 (27%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
Apple A9X @ 0.65 GHz
499 (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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz
2542 (100%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
2501 (98%)

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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
165 (100%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz
407 (100%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 1.10 GHz
0 (0%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
272103 (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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.60 GHz
77 (100%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Intel Celeron N4120 Intel Celeron N4120
4C 4T @ 2.50 GHz
197 (100%)
Apple A9X Apple A9X
2C 2T @ 2.26 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Intel Celeron N4120 Apple A9X
Unknown Apple iPad Pro (1. Gen)

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