Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 vs Apple A5

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 CPU1 vs CPU2 Apple A5
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Apple A5

CPU comparison

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 or Apple A5 - 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 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.50 GHz. Up to 4 GB of memory is supported in 1 memory channels. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 was released in Q4/2015.

The Apple A5 has 2 cores with 2 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.00 GHz. The CPU supports up to 1 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The Apple A5 was released in Q1/2011.
Qualcomm Snapdragon (104) Family Apple A series (22)
Qualcomm Snapdragon 610 (4) CPU group Apple A5/A5X (2)
2 Generation 5
Cortex-A53 Architecture A5
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor Apple A6

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 is a 8 core processor with a clock frequency of 1.50 GHz. The Apple A5 has 2 CPU cores with a clock frequency of 1.00 GHz.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic Apple A5
8 Cores 2
8 Threads 2
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture normal
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.50 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
A-Core 1.00 GHz
2x Cortex-A9
1.20 GHz
4x Cortex-A53
B-Core --

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.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic Apple A5
Qualcomm AI engine AI hardware --
Hexagon 546 AI specifications --
-- NPU + CPU + iGPU --

Integrated graphics (iGPU)

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.

Qualcomm Adreno 405 GPU PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores)
0.55 GHz GPU frequency 0.20 GHz
0.55 GHz GPU (Turbo) --
4 GPU Generation --
28 nm Technology 32 nm
0 Max. displays 1
-- Compute units 4
48 Shader 32
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory --
11 DirectX Version 10

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.

Qualcomm Adreno 405 GPU PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores)
Decode Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) No
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) No
Decode / Encode Codec h264 No
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 No
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC No
Decode Codec VC-1 No
Decode / Encode Codec JPEG No

Memory & PCIe

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 supports a maximum of 4 GB of memory in 1 memory channels. The Apple A5 can connect up to 1 GB of memory in 2 memory channels.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic Apple A5
LPDDR3-1866 Memory LPDDR2-800
4 GB Max. Memory 1 GB
1 (Single Channel) Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
7.5 GB/s Max. Bandwidth 6.4 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache 1.00 MB
-- L3 Cache --
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The TDP (Thermal Design Power) of a processor specifies the required cooling solution. The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 has a TDP of --, that of the Apple A5 is --.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic Apple A5
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) --
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 has a 0.00 MB cache, while the Apple A5 cache has a total of 1.00 MB.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Characteristic Apple A5
28 nm Technology 32 nm
Chiplet Chip design Chiplet
Armv8-A (64 bit) Instruction set (ISA) Armv7-A (32 bit)
-- ISA extensions --
-- Socket --
None Virtualization None
No AES-NI No
Android Operating systems iOS
Q4/2015 Release date Q1/2011
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

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Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (58%)
Apple A5 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 (100%)
Apple A5 (31%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
287 (58%)
Apple A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
496 (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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
867 (100%)
Apple A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
267 (31%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
Qualcomm Adreno 405 @ 0.55 GHz
53 (100%)
Apple A5 Apple A5
PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores) @ 0.20 GHz
13 (24%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
1176 (100%)
Apple A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
301 (100%)
Apple A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)

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.
Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Qualcomm Snapdragon 617
8C 8T @ 1.50 GHz
893 (100%)
Apple A5 Apple A5
2C 2T @ 1.00 GHz
0 (0%)

Devices using this processor

Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 Apple A5
Unknown Apple iPhone 4S
Apple iPad 2

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