Apple A5 VS Apple A4 — differences in specs

Comparing Apple A5 vs Apple A4

Comparison of video cards Apple A5 vs Apple A4 in benchmarks and specifications.

Differences Specifications

Differences

Top features of Apple A5

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Higher clock speed

1.00 GHz 0.80 GHz

Around -25% better clock speed

Top features of Apple A4

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Specifications

Complete list of technical specifications

Apple A5 Apple A4

CPU generation and family

Let's find out which one of Apple A5 and Apple A4 is of a more recent generation, and what segment it belongs to.

Specification	Value
Name	Apple A5 Apple A4
Family	Apple A series Apple A series
CPU group	Apple A5/A5X Apple A4
Segment	Mobile Mobile
Generation	5 4
Successor	Apple A6 --

CPU Cores and Base Frequency

In this block we are going to compare Apple A5 vs Apple A4 by main technical specifications: number of cores and threads, base and maximum frequencies, process technology and cache size. The higher these specifications are, the more powerful your CPU will be.

Specification	Value
CPU Cores / Threads	2 / 2 1 / 1
Core architecture	normal normal
Cores	2x Cortex-A9 1x Cortex-A8
Hyperthreading / SMT	No No
Overclocking	No No
Frequency	1.00 GHz 0.80 GHz
Turbo Frequency (1 Core)	-- 1.00 GHz

Internal Graphics

Common specifications for integrated graphics cards in Apple A5 and Apple A4 along with supported interfaces and connection options. This block has no effect on the final efficiency of the CPU.

Specification	Value
GPU name	PowerVR SGX543MP2 (2 Cores) PowerVR SGX535
GPU frequency	0.20 GHz
GPU (Turbo)	No turbo No turbo
Execution units	4 2
Shader	32 2
Max. displays	1 1
Direct X	10 10.1
Technology	32 nm 65nm
Release date	Q1/2012 Q4/2007

Hardware codec support

Let's compare the support of video codecs between Apple A5 and Apple A4. Hardware support of video decoding by embedded graphics cards directly affects the speed and quality of rendering videos.

Specification	Value
h265 / HEVC (8 bit)	No No
h265 / HEVC (10 bit)	No No
h264	No No
VP8	No No
VP9	No No
AV1	No No
AVC	No No
VC-1	No No
JPEG	No No

Memory & PCIe

To choose the best model between Apple A5 and Apple A4 you need to pay special attention to memory type, clock frequency, multi-channel features, and PCIe version. The higher these numbers are, the better your CPU will be. Keep in mind that the maximum memory and frequency may also depend on the model of the motherboard.

Specification	Value
Memory type	LPDDR2-800 LPDDR2-800
Max. Memory	1 GB
Memory channels	2 (Dual Channel) 1 (Single Channel)
Bandwidth	6.4 GB/s --
ECC	No No
AES-NI	No No

Thermal Management

Let's find out what TDP value would be better for Apple A5 or Apple A4? The Thermal Design Power (TDP) indicates the maximum amount of heat that should be dissipated by the chip cooling system. However, the value of TDP gives only a rough indication of the real power consumption of the CPU.

Specification	Value

Technical details

Here you can find a comparison of 2nd and 3rd level cache sizes for Apple A5 and Apple A4 CPUs along with a list of ISA extensions.

Specification	Value
Technology	32 nm 45 nm
Chip design	Chiplet Chiplet
Socket	N/A N/A
L2-Cache	1.00 MB 0.51 MB
Architecture	A5 A4
Operating systems	iOS iOS
Virtualization	None None
Instruction set (ISA)	ARMv7-A32 (32 bit) ARMv7-A32 (32 bit)
Release date	Q1/2011 Q2/2010
Part Number	APL 0498 --