Apple A7 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 855

Let's find out which one of Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 is of a more recent generation, and what segment it belongs to.

• Name
  Apple A7 Qualcomm Snapdragon 855
• Segment
  Mobile Mobile
• Family
  Apple A series Qualcomm Snapdragon
• Generation
  7 6
• CPU group
  Apple A7 Qualcomm Snapdragon 855/860
• Successor
  Apple A8 --

In this block we are going to compare Apple A7 vs Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 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.

• Frequency
  1.30 GHz 1.80 GHz
• CPU Cores
  2 8
• Turbo (1 Core)
  1.40 GHz 2.84 GHz
• CPU Threads
  2 8
• Hyperthreading
  No No
• Overclocking
  No No
• Core architecture
  normal hybrid (Prime / big.LITTLE)
• A core
  2x Cyclone 1x Kryo 485 Prime
• B core
  -- 3x Kryo 485 Gold
• C core
  -- 4x Kryo 485 Silver

Common specifications for integrated graphics cards in Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 along with supported interfaces and connection options. This block has no effect on the final efficiency of the CPU.

• GPU name
  PowerVR G6430 Qualcomm Adreno 640
• GPU frequency
  0.45 GHz 0.25 GHz
• GPU (Turbo)
  0.45 GHz 0.59 GHz
• Execution units
  4 4
• Shader
  64 384
• Max. GPU Memory
  -- 4 GB
• Max. displays
  1 1
• Generation
  5
• DirectX Version
  10 12.0
• Technology
  28 nm 7 nm
• Release date
  Q3/2013 Q1/2019

Let's compare the support of video codecs between Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855. Hardware support of video decoding by embedded graphics cards directly affects the speed and quality of rendering videos.

• h265 / HEVC (8 bit)
  No Decode / Encode
• h265 / HEVC (10 bit)
  No Decode / Encode
• h264
  No Decode / Encode
• VP9
  No Decode / Encode
• VP8
  No Decode / Encode
• AV1
  No No
• AVC
  No No
• VC-1
  No No
• JPEG
  No No

To choose the best model between Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 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.

• Memory type
  LPDDR3-1333 LPDDR4X-4266
• Max. Memory
  1 GB 16 GB
• ECC
  No No
• Memory channels
  1 4

AES-NI encryption support for CPUs Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855.

• AES-NI
  No No

Let's find out what TDP value would be better for Apple A7 or Qualcomm Snapdragon 855? 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.

Here you can find a comparison of 2nd and 3rd level cache sizes for Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 CPUs along with a list of ISA extensions.

• Instruction set (ISA)
  x86-64 (64 bit) ARMv8-A64 (64 bit)
• Virtualization
  None None
• L2-Cache
  1.00 MB 2.00 MB
• L3-Cache
  4.00 MB 3.00 MB
• Architecture
  A7 Kryo 485
• Technology
  28 nm 7 nm
• Socket
  N/A N/A
• Release date
  Q3/2013 Q4/2018
• Part Number
  S5L8960X SM8150

List of devices based on Apple A7 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 855.

• Used in
  Apple iPhone 6Apple iPhone 6 PlusApple iPad Mini 4Apple TV HDApple HomePodApple iPod touch (6. Gen) OnePlus 7 ProOnePlus 7 Pro 5GSony Xperia 1Sony Xperia 5Xiaomi Mi 9Oppo Reno 10x Zoom