Apple A9 vs Apple M3 (iPad)
[ VERDICT ]
Winner: Apple M3 (iPad) (97/100)
Apple M3 (iPad) leads overall with a score of 97/100 compared to Apple A9 (24/100), offering superior measured performance and technical specifications.
Benchmark Performance Comparison
Normalized Lab Scores| Benchmark | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| NanoReview Score | 24.0 Poor | 97.0 Excellent WINNER |
| Performance | 18.0 Poor | 98.0 Excellent WINNER |
Detailed Technical Specifications
AI Accelerator
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Neural processor (NPU) | Apple M9 | Apple Neural Engine |
| NPU theoretical performance | — | 18 TOPS |
AnTuTu 11
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| CPU | 162356 | 782907 |
| GPU | 70340 | 1029236 |
| Memory | 60725 | 305749 |
| Total score | 419670 | 2777287 |
| UX | 126249 | 659395 |
CPU
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | 2x 1.85 GHz – Twister | 4x 4.05 GHz –4x 2.75 GHz – |
| Cores | 2 | 8 |
| Frequency | 1850 MHz | 4050 MHz |
| Instruction set | ARMv8-A | ARMv8.6-A |
| L1 cache | 64 KB | 256 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 | 20 W |
| Transistor count | 2 billion | 25 billion |
Connectivity
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| 4G support | LTE Cat. 6 | — |
| 5G support | No | Yes |
| Bluetooth | 4.2 | 5.3 |
| Download speed | Up to 450 Mbps | Up to 7500 Mbps |
| Modem | Qualcomm MDM9635M | — |
| Navigation | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo | GPS, GLONASS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS |
| Upload speed | Up to 150 Mbps | Up to 3500 Mbps |
| Wi-Fi | 5 | 6 |
GeekBench 6
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| API | Metal | Metal |
| Asset compression | 44.6 MB/sec | 458.1 MB/sec |
| Background blur | 2.89 images/sec | 48.2 images/sec |
| Edge detection | 0.14 Gpixels/sec | 1.93 Gpixels/sec |
| Face detection | 6.17 images/sec | 108.3 images/sec |
| Feature matching | 0.03 Gpixels/sec | 0.62 Gpixels/sec |
| Gaussian blur | 0.31 Gpixels/sec | 2.41 Gpixels/sec |
| HDR | 40.2 Mpixels/sec | 422.1 Mpixels/sec |
| HTML 5 Browser | 14.2 pages/sec | 270.6 pages/sec |
| Horizon detection | 0.1 Gpixels/sec | 1.43 Gpixels/sec |
| Image detection | 7.3 images/sec | 287.2 images/sec |
| PDF Renderer | 32 Mpixels/sec | 299.9 Mpixels/sec |
| Particle physics | 299.1 FPS | 4690 FPS |
| Photo processing | 7.75 images/sec | 116.1 images/sec |
| Ray tracing | 1.28 Mpixels/sec | 13.4 Mpixels/sec |
| Samples | 3 tests | 4 tests |
| Stereo matching | 7.82 Gpixels/sec | 128.9 Gpixels/sec |
Graphics
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| FLOPS | 249.6 Gigaflops | 3179.5 Gigaflops |
| GPU frequency | 650 MHz | 1380 MHz |
| OpenCL version | 1.2 | — |
| Pipelines | 6 | 9 |
| Shading units | 32 | 128 |
| Total shaders | 192 | 1152 |
| Vulkan version | 1.1 | — |
Info
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Announced | September 2015 | October 2023 |
| Class | Flagship | Flagship |
| Model number | APL1022 | — |
| Successor | -Apple A19 Pro | — |
Memory
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Bus | 2x 16 Bit | 8x 16 Bit |
| Max bandwidth | 14.9 Gb/s | 102.4 Gb/s |
| Max size | 4 GB | 24 GB |
| Memory frequency | 1333 MHz | 3200 MHz |
| Memory type | LPDDR4 | LPDDR5 |
Multimedia (ISP)
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Audio codecs | - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV | - AAC- AIFF- CAF- MP3- MP4- WAV |
| Max camera resolution | 1x 32MP, 2x 12MP | 1x 48MP |
| Max display resolution | 2048 x 1536 | 2732 x 2048 |
| 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 M3 (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 | — |
| 📘 2025-09-28->will09 | — | GeekBench CPU |
| 📘 2026-01-26(Bearry) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-03-03(Bearry) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-03-21(Noora) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-03-22(Noora) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-04-08(Bearry) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-04-12(Kaimen) | — | AnTuTu |
| 📘 2026-04-17(Jacob) | — | AnTuTu |
3DMark
| Specification | Apple A9 | Apple M3 (iPad) |
|---|---|---|
| Graphics test | — | 20 FPS |
| Section 1 | — | 52 FPS |
| Section 2 | — | 38 FPS |
| Section 3 | — | 28 FPS |
| Stability | — | 70% |
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