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.
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Normalized Lab Scores| Benchmark | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| NanoReview Score | 24.0 Poor | 99.0 Excellent WINNER |
| Performance | 18.0 Poor | 99.0 Excellent WINNER |
Detailed Technical Specifications
AI Accelerator
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Neural processor (NPU) | Apple M9 | Apple Neural Engine |
AnTuTu 11
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 162356 | 965229 |
| GPU | 70340 | 1313129 |
| Memory | 60725 | 458312 |
| Total score | 419670 | 3396957 |
| UX | 126249 | 660296 |
CPU
| 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 | ARMv9.2-A |
| L1 cache | 64 KB | 192 KB |
| L2 cache | 3 MB | 16 MB |
| L3 cache | 4 MB | — |
| Manufacturing | TSMC | TSMC |
| Process | 14 nanometers | 3 nanometers |
| TDP (Sustained Power Limit) | 5 W | — |
| Transistor count | 2 billion | — |
Connectivity
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 6 | LTE Cat. 24 |
| 5G support | No | Yes |
| 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 |
GeekBench 6
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| API | Metal | Metal |
| Asset compression | 44.6 MB/sec | 576.8 MB/sec |
| Background blur | 2.89 images/sec | 55 images/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.14 Gpixels/sec | 2.84 Gpixels/sec |
| Face detection | 6.17 images/sec | 177.6 images/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.03 Gpixels/sec | 0.95 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.31 Gpixels/sec | 5.76 Gpixels/sec |
| HDR | 40.2 Mpixels/sec | 549.3 Mpixels/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 14.2 pages/sec | 374.9 pages/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.1 Gpixels/sec | 2.22 Gpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 7.3 images/sec | 452.7 images/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 32 Mpixels/sec | 380 Mpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 299.1 FPS | 6580.5 FPS |
| Photo processing | 7.75 images/sec | 161.4 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 1.28 Mpixels/sec | 18.3 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 3 tests | 4 tests |
| Stereo matching | 7.82 Gpixels/sec | 188 Gpixels/sec |
Graphics
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| FLOPS | 249.6 Gigaflops | 4147.2 Gigaflops |
| GPU frequency | 650 MHz | 1620 MHz |
| OpenCL version | 1.2 | — |
| Pipelines | 6 | — |
| Shading units | 32 | — |
| Total shaders | 192 | — |
| Vulkan version | 1.1 | — |
Info
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | September 2015 | October 2025 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | APL1022 | T8142 |
| Successor | -Apple A19 Pro | — |
Memory
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Bus | 2x 16 Bit | 8x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 14.9 Gb/s | 153 Gb/s |
| Max size | 4 GB | 24 GB |
| Memory frequency | 1333 MHz | 4800 MHz |
| Memory type | LPDDR4 | LPDDR5X |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Audio codecs | - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV | - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 32MP, 2x 12MP | — |
| Max display resolution | 2048 x 1536 | 2752 x 2064 |
| Storage type | NVMe | NVMe |
| Video capture | 4K at 30FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
| Video codecs | - H.264- H.265 | - H.264- H.265- AV1- VP9 |
| Video playback | 4K at 30FPS | 4K at 60FPS |
Recent User Tests
| 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
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M5 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics test | — | 30 FPS |
| Section 1 | — | 88 FPS |
| Section 2 | — | 63 FPS |
| Section 3 | — | 46 FPS |
| Stability | — | 71% |
Looking for More Comparisons?
Browse all available head-to-head comparisons or select new devices in the comparison hub.