Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 Comparison

Is the newly released Apple A13 Bionic better than Snapdragon 845 and Kirin 980? Is it worthy of calling a major update over Apple A13? We will answer all these questions in this Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 Comparison.

While the Apple A13 Bionic is inside the iPhone 11 was recently introduced to the market, many people have already started comparing with other processors, and that is what we will do today.

Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 Comparison

Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 – Specs Sheet Comparison

SOC	Apple A13 Bionic	Snapdragon 845	Kirin 980
CPU	2x Vortex at 2.65 GHz 4x Tempest at 1.59 GHz	4x Kryo 385 at 2.8 GHz 4x Kryo 385 at 1.8 GHz	2 X Cortex-A76 @2.6GHz 2 X Cortex-A76 @1.92GHz 4 X Cortex-A55 @1.8GHz
Process Technology	7 nm TSMC	10nm	7nm LPP
GPU	Apple integrated GPU	Adreno 630	Mali-G76
Memory	LPDDR4 at 1600 MHz	LPDDR4x at 1866 MHz SD 3.0 (UHS-I)	2-LPDDR4x 1866MHz
Bluetooth	5.0	5.0	5.0
WiFi	802.11 ac	802.11 ad, 802.11 ac MU-MIMO	802.11 ac

Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 – CPU Difference

Speaking of the CPU configuration, the new Apple A13 Bionic SoC was manufactured in a process technology of 7nm TSMC, and a six-core CPU. This distributes its six cores in two groups, 2x Vortex cores at a primary clock speed of 2.65 GHz and 4x Tempest cores at a primary clock speed of 1.59 GHz. On the other hand, the Snapdragon 845 is manufactured in a process technology of 10nm and has a custom octa-core CPU Kryo 385. This CPU distributes its eight cores in two groups, power in the main and energy savings in the secondary. So, we have 4 Cortex-A75 cores at a primary clock speed of 2.8GHz and 4 Cortex-A55 cores at a secondary clock speed of 1.8GHz.

That being said, the Kirin 980 is presented with a 7nm TSMC technology and an octa-core configuration in two clusters 4 + 4. There are 2 Cortex-A76 cores, which work at a speed of 2.6GHz with one of the latest ARM lithographs; 2 Cortex-A76 cores, this time at 1.92GHz, are essential for energy-saving or less demanding tasks; and finally, we have 4 Cortex-A55 cores @ 1.8GHz which are low-powered.

Winner: Apple A13 Bionic

Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 – GPU Comparison

In the graphic department, the Apple A13 Bionic works based on a design created by the American company, which not only has four cores, but also comes with a speed of 1100MHz. On the other hand, the Snapdragon 845 is much better in this category, having equipped an Adreno 630 with a speed of 730MHz, which is the second-best GPU of the company so far, being a leader in the industry. The top Qualcomm GPU is Adreno 640, which was introduced in Snapdragon 855, so the 630 is really close.

On the other hand, the Kirin 980 premiered at the time a powerful 7nm Mali-G76 GPU unit with a speed of 720MHz. This offers amazing game speeds and 60FPS in the vast majority of games.

Winner: Apple A13 Bionic

Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 – Other Specs Comparison

Artificial Intelligence

The new SoC launched by Apple, the Apple A13 Bionic, has many good features, but without the help of artificial intelligence, this development could not have been achieved. The improved AI power used in this processor is able of enable advanced photo and video editing tools, this being an extra point. On the other hand, to handle all AI-related tasks, the Snapdragon 845 has a third-generation Hexagon 685 DSP AI engine that performs well, just as the Snapdragon 670 and the Snapdragon 665.

Lastly, the Kirin 980 has a dedicated NPU only for the artificial intelligence, and has a really good AI score in benchmark. Also, the machine learning and profound play a decisive role both to improve performance and to improve the photographic section. For example, it improves its ability to recognize objects, claiming to be twice as fast as the Snapdragon 845 and almost four times faster than Apple’s A11.

Winner: Kirin 980

Connectivity

In the connectivity department, the Apple A13 Bionic uses LTE for download, and it also has dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB 3.1 and type C, NFC and GPS. That being said, the Snapdragon 845 offers advanced specifications with the X20 LTE modem. For download uses LTE Cat. 18 that offers speeds of up to 1.2Gbps and for load makes use of LTE Cat. 13 with speeds of 150Mbps. It also has dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, USB 3.1 and type C, NFC, GPS, and RF.

Meanwhile, the Kirin 980 can achieve 5G by connecting it with the Balong 5000 modem. The modem integrated in the processor features category 21 LTE for download and the same category 13 technology for upload. In addition, Bluetooth continues in its 5.0 version, counting on Wi-Fi with dual ac connectivity that will allow us to connect to 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks.

Winner: Kirin 980

Our Verdict

Concluding the Apple A13 Bionic Vs Snapdragon 845 vs Kirin 980 Comparison, the 3 sets of chips have a different CPU and GPU architecture, which are evidently led by the Kirin 980 and the Apple A13 Bionic. That being said, the Kirin 980 knows how to defend itself better in categories such as artificial intelligence and connectivity, so the extra points it gets are many, such as to win this big competition, but that does not detract from the Apple A13 Bionic, which knew how to defend itself in a great way with its CPU and GPU.

Kirin 980 and Apple A13 Bionic > Snapdragon 845

Overall Winner: Kirin 980 and Apple A13 Bionic

Hope you liked our SoCs comparison. Want to know something? Let us know in the comments. Please do rate the comparison down below. Meet you at the next comparison.