With the Dimensity 9000, MediaTek has a powerful SoC in its range. Like Qualcomm’s Plus models, MediaTek has added Dimensity 9000+, which achieves higher CPU and GPU clock speeds with a more stringent rating. Qualcomm is partially defeated, Apple is still ahead. The GPU cannot keep up with the competition.
It rarely happens that MediaTek chips of the highest performance class make it to Europe. However, the publishers now have a test device that already uses the new Dimensity 9000+ and thus the best of the best from MediaTek. Details about the smartphone must remain under wraps at this time.
Dimension 9000+ can log higher
While Qualcomm has shifted production from Samsung to TSMC for the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 (reference), MediaTek has pretty much always been a regular customer of the Taiwanese foundry. For the latest Plus model, only stricter binning is used, that is, a special selection of powerful chips that achieve higher clock speeds than the standard model. For the Dimensity 9000+, MediaTek has increased the maximum clock of the Arm Cortex-X2 from 3.00 to 3.20 GHz. The GPU, on the other hand, which also comes from Arm with the Mali-G710 MC10, is said to work 10 percent faster. The starting point was a clock rate of 850 MHz, but 10 percent more performance doesn’t necessarily mean a higher clock rate of 85 MHz, and a new official figure is still pending.
Single-core performance is still Apple’s domain
No other manufacturer can match Apple’s single-core performance on Geekbench. Following on top are the A15 from last year and the A14 from 2020. When the iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro were introduced, Apple said that competitors would still have a hard time with the A13. However, in this comparison, Dimensity 9000+ ranks ahead of Qualcomm in terms of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the newer Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1.
MediaTek has the highest multicore performance
It looks even better for MediaTek in the multi-core measurement. Considering the same Cortex-X2 clock and the faster Cortex-A710, it’s no surprise that the chip is ahead of Qualcomm and roughly on par with the A15. In this comparison, the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 reaches the performance level of the Apple A14.
MediaTek already supports LPDDR5X-7500
PCMark 3.0, which is only available for Android, paints a clear picture in favor of MediaTek. In the test device configuration with 16 GB LPDDR5X-7500, the Dimensity 9000+ is 14 percent ahead of Qualcomm’s current generation. The Dimensity 9000+ can also be paired with a slower LPDDR5-6400 like Qualcomm and would probably do a bit worse in this constellation. Qualcomm doesn’t support the latest standard yet, but it will likely do so with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 expected in November. Apple recently switched from LPDDR4X-4266 to LPDDR5-6400 for the A16.
Qualcomm and Apple have faster GPUs
However, Qualcomm still has the powerful Adreno GPU under its belt. MediaTek does not offer any in-house development in this area and has to fall in line behind Qualcomm and Apple with the Mali-G710 MC10 purchased from Arm. In 3DMark, the Dimensity 9000+ is the closest to keeping up and even lands ahead of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in the demanding “Wild Life Extreme” but behind the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 while only ranking third. in normal. “Wild Life” behind Apple and Qualcomm is enough. Using the older OpenGL ES 3.0 and 3.1 APIs, MediaTek even marches to the top of the rankings with a 4 percent and 10 percent lead, respectively.
Third place behind Apple and Qualcomm shows up in GFXBench. However, the Arm Mali-G710 MC10 is anything but slow and often only achieves a few FPS less. Competitors like Google with a GPU also purchased from ARM or Samsung with the GPU developed in cooperation with AMD perform worse.
First impression of the Dimension 9000+
The first impression of the MediaTek Dimensity 9000+ is positive. In terms of CPU performance, MediaTek is slightly better than Qualcomm, but this is only due to the slightly higher clock speeds. Ultimately, both companies depend on Arm’s developments in this area. Qualcomm will only be able to take a bigger leap with their own Nuvia designs, if they are allowed to. Apple impressively shows what a custom design can achieve. The A15 only falls behind MediaTek and Qualcomm due to fewer performance cores.
The GPU remains a Qualcomm and Apple strength, but MediaTek is anything but poorly served with Arm’s GPU “off the peg” and only has to admit defeat by a few percentage points. In return, the group saves several billion US dollars in development costs and potential patent disputes.
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