Apple's A9 processor makes some big gains in performance over its predecessor. Single-core scores... [+]
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A quick analysis done by chipworks makes an educated guess at some of the changes in the A9, including "possibly" a six-core GPU, or graphics processing unit, which handles image and multimedia tasks, among other things. The CPU, or central processing unit, on the A9 is still two cores -- albeit faster cores based on the "new transistor architecture," as indicated by Apple at the iPhone 6S launch earlier this month.
Technical aspects of the chip design aside, speed is what matters to consumers because it allows apps to load faster, improves gaming, and boosts the performance of image and video processing, to mention just a few. It's also worth noting that the iPhone 6S and 6S Plus come with 2GB of RAM versus 1GB for the previous generation of iPhones. That additional RAM can boost performance in lots of ways too.
Benchmarking I've done via Geekbench 3 on my iPhone 6S Plus show a big jump in performance over the last-gen iPhone 6 Plus, which uses the older A8 chip. Comparing the new 6S Plus with the older 6 Plus, for example, showed a single-core score of 2,535 versus 1,607, respectively (higher scores are better). Multi-core scores were also impressive: 4,404 vs. 2,870, for the 6S Plus and 6 Plus, respectively. And the single-core score on the new 6S Plus even handily beat my iPad Air 2 (packing Apple's A8X chip). The iPad scored 1,794, considerably slower than the 6S Plus.
And comparisons with the Samsung Galaxy 6S Edge show it either neck and neck (multi-core) or a lot faster (single-core), according to results posted by AppleInsider. (Clarification: single-core A9 performance is over 90 percent faster than the Galaxy 6S Edge, according to Geekbench results.) Maybe more surprising are the benchmarks posted by Anandtech that show the 6S' flash (NAND) storage performance now approaching that of a PC. Smartphone/tablet flash storage has always lagged way behind PCs but that may be changing now.
