Apple A9 vs Apple M5 (iPad)

[ VERDICT ] Winner: Apple M5 (iPad) (99/100)

Apple M5 (iPad) leads overall with a score of 99/100 compared to Apple A9 (24/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.

Why choose Apple M5 (iPad):
  • + Higher Performance score (99 vs 18)
[ WINNER ]
Apple M5 (iPad)
Apple

Apple M5 (iPad)

99/100
View Full Specs →

Benchmark Performance Comparison

Normalized Lab Scores
Benchmark measurements and scores across compared devices
Benchmark Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
DeviceBenchmark Score 24.0 Poor —
Performance 18.0 Poor 99.0 Excellent WINNER
NanoReview Score — 99.0 Excellent

Detailed Technical Specifications

AI Accelerator

AI Accelerator specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Neural processor (NPU) Apple M9 —
Neural processor (NPU) — Apple Neural Engine

AnTuTu 11

AnTuTu 11 specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
CPU 162356 965229
GPU 70340 1313129
Memory 60725 458312
Total score 419670 —
UX 126249 660296
Total score — 3396957

CPU

CPU specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Architecture 2x 1.85 GHz – Twister 4x 4.61 GHz –6x 2.95 GHz –
Cores 2 10
Frequency 1850 MHz 4610 MHz
Instruction set ARMv8-A —
L1 cache 64 KB —
L2 cache 3 MB —
L3 cache 4 MB —
Manufacturing TSMC TSMC
Process 14 nanometers 3 nanometers
TDP (Sustained Power Limit) 5 W —
Transistor count 2 billion —
Instruction set — ARMv9.2-A
L1 cache — 192 KB
L2 cache — 16 MB

Connectivity

Connectivity specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
4G support LTE Cat. 6 —
5G support No —
Bluetooth 4.2 6.0
Download speed Up to 450 Mbps —
Modem Qualcomm MDM9635M C1X
Navigation GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS
Upload speed Up to 150 Mbps —
Wi-Fi 5 7
4G support — LTE Cat. 24
5G support — Yes

GeekBench 6

GeekBench 6 specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
API Metal Metal
Asset compression 44.6 MB/sec —
Background blur 2.89 images/sec —
Edge detection 0.14 Gpixels/sec —
Face detection 6.17 images/sec —
Feature matching 0.03 Gpixels/sec —
Gaussian blur 0.31 Gpixels/sec —
HDR 40.2 Mpixels/sec 549.3 Mpixels/sec
HTML 5 Browser 14.2 pages/sec —
Horizon detection 0.1 Gpixels/sec —
Image detection 7.3 images/sec —
PDF Renderer 32 Mpixels/sec —
Particle physics 299.1 FPS —
Photo processing 7.75 images/sec —
Ray tracing 1.28 Mpixels/sec —
Samples 3 tests 4 tests
Stereo matching 7.82 Gpixels/sec —
Asset compression — 576.8 MB/sec
Background blur — 55 images/sec
Edge detection — 2.84 Gpixels/sec
Face detection — 177.6 images/sec
Feature matching — 0.95 Gpixels/sec
Gaussian blur — 5.76 Gpixels/sec
HTML 5 Browser — 374.9 pages/sec
Horizon detection — 2.22 Gpixels/sec
Image detection — 452.7 images/sec
PDF Renderer — 380 Mpixels/sec
Particle physics — 6580.5 FPS
Photo processing — 161.4 images/sec
Ray tracing — 18.3 Mpixels/sec
Stereo matching — 188 Gpixels/sec

Graphics

Graphics specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
FLOPS 249.6 Gigaflops 4147.2 Gigaflops
GPU frequency 650 MHz —
OpenCL version 1.2 —
Pipelines 6 —
Shading units 32 —
Total shaders 192 —
Vulkan version 1.1 —
GPU frequency — 1620 MHz

Info

Info specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Announced September 2015 October 2025
Class Flagship Flagship
Model number APL1022 —
Successor -Apple A19 Pro —
Model number — T8142

Memory

Memory specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Bus 2x 16 Bit 8x 16 Bit
Max bandwidth 14.9 Gb/s —
Max size 4 GB —
Memory frequency 1333 MHz —
Memory type LPDDR4 —
Max bandwidth — 153 Gb/s
Max size — 24 GB
Memory frequency — 4800 MHz
Memory type — LPDDR5X

Multimedia (ISP)

Multimedia (ISP) specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Audio codecs - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV —
Max camera resolution 1x 32MP, 2x 12MP —
Max display resolution 2048 x 1536 —
Storage type NVMe —
Video capture 4K at 30FPS —
Video codecs - H.264- H.265 —
Video playback 4K at 30FPS —
Audio codecs — - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV
Max display resolution — 2752 x 2064
Storage type — NVMe
Video capture — 4K at 60FPS
Video codecs — - H.264- H.265- AV1- VP9
Video playback — 4K at 60FPS

Recent User Tests

Recent User Tests specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Date Benchmark Benchmark
📘 2024-03-13(ゆう) GeekBench GPU —
📘 2024-06-26(Heaven) GeekBench GPU —
📘 2024-07-04(Red) GeekBench GPU —
📘 2026-05-13(TestGame) GeekBench GPU —
📘 2026-07-06(Toxicaliv) — GeekBench GPU
📘 2026-07-17->Libero — GeekBench GPU
📘 2026-08-12(LBWNB) — AnTuTu

3DMark

3DMark specifications comparison
Specification Apple A9 Apple M5 (iPad)
Graphics test — 30 FPS
Section 1 — 88 FPS
Section 2 — 63 FPS
Section 3 — 46 FPS
Stability — 71%

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