UNISOC SC9863A vs HiSilicon Kirin 960

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CPU comparison with benchmarks


UNISOC SC9863A CPU1 vs CPU2 HiSilicon Kirin 960
UNISOC SC9863A HiSilicon Kirin 960

CPU comparison

UNISOC SC9863A or HiSilicon Kirin 960 - 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 UNISOC SC9863A has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 1.20 GHz. Up to GB of memory is supported in 0 memory channels. The UNISOC SC9863A was released in Q2/2019.

The HiSilicon Kirin 960 has 8 cores with 8 threads and clocks with a maximum frequency of 2.40 GHz. The CPU supports up to 6 GB of memory in 2 memory channels. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 was released in Q4/2016.
UNISOC 4G (10) Family HiSilicon Kirin (29)
UNISOC 4G 28nm (2) CPU group HiSilicon Kirin 960 (2)
0 Generation 5
-- Architecture Cortex-A73 / Cortex-A53
Mobile Segment Mobile
-- Predecessor --
-- Successor --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

The UNISOC SC9863A has 8 CPU cores and can calculate 8 threads in parallel. The clock frequency of the UNISOC SC9863A is 1.20 GHz while the HiSilicon Kirin 960 has 8 CPU cores and 8 threads can calculate simultaneously. The clock frequency of the HiSilicon Kirin 960 is at 2.40 GHz.

UNISOC SC9863A Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 960
8 Cores 8
8 Threads 8
hybrid (big.LITTLE) Core architecture hybrid (big.LITTLE)
No Hyperthreading No
No Overclocking ? No
1.20 GHz
4x Cortex-A55
A-Core 2.40 GHz
4x Cortex-A73
1.60 GHz
4x Cortex-A55
B-Core 1.80 GHz
4x Cortex-A53

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.

UNISOC SC9863A Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 960
-- AI hardware --
-- AI specifications --

Internal Graphics

The UNISOC SC9863A or HiSilicon Kirin 960 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.

PowerVR GE8322 GPU ARM Mali-G71 MP8
0.55 GHz GPU frequency 0.90 GHz
-- GPU (Turbo) --
-- GPU Generation Bifrost 1
20 nm Technology 16 nm
1 Max. displays 2
1 Compute units 8
-- Shader 256
No Hardware Raytracing No
No Frame Generation No
-- Max. GPU Memory 2 GB
10 DirectX Version 11

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.

PowerVR GE8322 GPU ARM Mali-G71 MP8
No Codec h265 / HEVC (8 bit) Decode / Encode
No Codec h265 / HEVC (10 bit) Decode
No Codec h264 Decode / Encode
No Codec VP9 No
No Codec VP8 Decode / Encode
No Codec AV1 No
No Codec AVC Decode / Encode
No Codec VC-1 No
No Codec JPEG Decode / Encode

Memory & PCIe

The UNISOC SC9863A can use up to GB of memory in 0 memory channels. The maximum memory bandwidth is --. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 supports up to 6 GB of memory in 2 memory channels and achieves a memory bandwidth of up to 12.8 GB/s.

UNISOC SC9863A Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 960
LPDDR4X, LPDDR4, LPDDR3 Memory LPDDR4-1600
Max. Memory 6 GB
0 Memory channels 2 (Dual Channel)
-- Max. Bandwidth 12.8 GB/s
No ECC No
-- L2 Cache --
-- L3 Cache 4.00 MB
-- PCIe version --
-- PCIe lanes --
-- PCIe Bandwidth --

Thermal Management

The thermal design power (TDP for short) of the UNISOC SC9863A is --, while the HiSilicon Kirin 960 has a TDP of 5 W. The TDP specifies the necessary cooling solution that is required to cool the processor sufficiently.

UNISOC SC9863A Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 960
-- TDP (PL1 / PBP) 5 W
-- TDP (PL2) --
-- TDP up --
-- TDP down --
-- Tjunction max. --

Technical details

The UNISOC SC9863A is manufactured in 28 nm and has 0.00 MB cache. The HiSilicon Kirin 960 is manufactured in 16 nm and has a 4.00 MB cache.

UNISOC SC9863A Characteristic HiSilicon Kirin 960
28 nm Technology 16 nm
Unknown 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 Android
Q2/2019 Release date Q4/2016
-- Release price --
show more data show more data


Rate these processors

Here you can rate the UNISOC SC9863A to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 3.3 stars (3 ratings). Rate now:
Here you can rate the HiSilicon Kirin 960 to help other visitors make their purchasing decisions. The average rating is 4.0 stars (2 ratings). Rate now:


Average performance in benchmarks

⌀ Single core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
UNISOC SC9863A (39%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 (100%)
⌀ Multi core performance in 1 CPU benchmarks
UNISOC SC9863A (50%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 (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.
UNISOC SC9863A UNISOC SC9863A
8C 8T @ 1.20 GHz
147 (39%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 HiSilicon Kirin 960
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
381 (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.
UNISOC SC9863A UNISOC SC9863A
8C 8T @ 1.20 GHz
768 (50%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 HiSilicon Kirin 960
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
1521 (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.
UNISOC SC9863A UNISOC SC9863A
PowerVR GE8322 @ 0.55 GHz
35 (14%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 HiSilicon Kirin 960
ARM Mali-G71 MP8 @ 0.90 GHz
245 (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.
UNISOC SC9863A UNISOC SC9863A
8C 8T @ 1.20 GHz
0 (0%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 HiSilicon Kirin 960
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
403 (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.
UNISOC SC9863A UNISOC SC9863A
8C 8T @ 1.20 GHz
0 (0%)
HiSilicon Kirin 960 HiSilicon Kirin 960
8C 8T @ 2.40 GHz
1393 (100%)

Devices using this processor

UNISOC SC9863A HiSilicon Kirin 960
Unknown Huawei Honor 8 Pro
Huawei Honor 9
Huawei Mate 9
Huawei Mate 9 Pro
Huawei Mate 9 Porsche
Huawei MediaPad M5
Huawei Nova 2s
Huawei P10

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