MediaTek’s next flagship processor, the Dimensity 9400, is expected to launch in October, ahead of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, which is planned for an October 21st reveal.
A new leak from Digital Chat Station suggests that the Dimensity 9400 will have a 30% improvement in single-core performance compared to its predecessor.
Based on benchmarks, this increase over the Dimensity 9300 (which scored 2,207 in Geekbench 6.2) suggests a potential score of around 2,869 for the Dimensity 9400. This would put it very close to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4’s single-core performance of 2,884. This performance boost could likely be due to the collaboration of MediaTek with Arm on the development of the Cortex-X925 CPU core, codenamed Blackhawk.
Additionally, the leak suggests the Dimensity 9400 achieves this performance while using only 30% of the power consumed by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for similar tasks, highlighting a focus on efficiency.
The Dimensity 9300 featured an all-performance core design, a strategy likely to continue with the 9400. While this approach enhances raw power, it can cause thermal throttling. However, the reported efficiency gains of the Dimensity 9400, along with the use of Samsung’s faster 10.7 Gbps LPDDR5x memory modules, could address these thermal issues and position the chip as a strong competitor in the smartphone processor market.
Both the Dimensity 9400 and Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 are expected to be manufactured on TSMC’s N3 process node, leveling the playing field in terms of raw power.
The real wildcard in this upcoming generation might be Samsung’s Exynos 2500. Rumored to mark a comeback for Samsung’s mobile chip division, it uses the 3GAP process node and incorporates the innovative GAAFET (Gate-All-Around Field-Effect Transistor) technology instead of the traditional FinFET design.
Additionally, there are rumors of an RDNA 3-based integrated GPU suggesting the Exynos 2500 might become a strong contender in the mobile gaming arena.
While MediaTek’s focus on single-core performance and efficiency promises a competitive offering, the true performance picture will only become clear with benchmark results and real-world testing.
