Rumor: Apple's upcoming A9-series chips benchmarked, show 20-30% jump over A8

Apple's A9 chimes in with a single-core score of 2090 and a multi-core tally of 3569, compared to the respective averages of 1611 and 2892 shown by the A8 found in the iPhone 6 series. The A9X chalks up 2109 and 5101 in the same benchmarks, compared to 1808 and 4526 for the iPad Air 2's A8X.

Samsung's Exynos 7420 —  which powers the flagship S6, S6 Edge, Note 5, and S6 Edge+ —  bests Apple's A9 on multi-core workloads with a score of 5048, but falls behind on single-core tasks by posting a 1486. Huawei's Kirin 950 and LG's Nuclun 2 also beat out Samsung's entry.

The graph —  the authenticity of which cannot be determined — comes from Weibo via GforGames.

Apple is expected to reveal the A9 alongside a set of new iPhones at a special event early next month. The A9X —  which is likely to debut alongside a new iPad —  might bow at the same event, though it's not clear whether Apple plans to hold a separate iPad introduction at a later date.

Samsung and TSMC are believed to have begun mass production for the A9 in July.