The MediaTek Dimensity 9300 chipset features an interesting configuration consisting of four Cortex-X4 prime CPU cores and four Cortex-A720 performance CPU cores. Power-inefficient cores? No, those are for wimps. The Dimensity 9400 SoC will have one Cortex-X5 Prime CPU core, four Cortex-X4 Prime CPU cores, and four Cortex-A720 performance CPU cores. Hey, mom. Again, no efficiency core.
Additionally, this chipset will be the first Dimensity component manufactured using TSMC's 3nm process node. Indeed, it will be the foundry's second-generation 3nm process node, N3E, which should lead to better performance and improved energy efficiency. According to the China Times (via Wccftech), MediaTek CEO Rick Tsai said at a ceremony on Tuesday that the Dimensity 9400 application processor (AP) will arrive in the fourth quarter and will have AI capabilities comparable to other chipsets. .
Although MediaTek did not specifically refer to the chip as the Dimensity 9400, it seems likely that Tsai was referring to the fabless chip designer's next flagship chip. Dimensity 9400, like the previous generation, supports his LPDDR5T RAM, which is key to the chip's ability to perform on-device AI functions. The chip is expected to outperform his 33 billion parameter large-scale language model in Dimensity 9300. This should enhance his AI capabilities on the chip.
Dimensity 9400 AP configuration is not for the faint of heart
The Dimensity 9400 AP's most obvious rival is Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4. It is powered by Qualcomm's proprietary Oryon cores and also does not have efficiency cores like the Dimensity 9400. Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will also be produced by TSMC using second generation 3nm. node.
There were concerns that the lack of efficiency cores would cause the Dimensity 9300 SoC to overheat, and in fact there were some rumors last September, which MediaTek of course denied. Stress tests performed on the Dimensity 9300 SoC showed that the chipset's performance degraded by 46% after stress was applied to the AP's cores. Meanwhile, this chip runs the Vivo X100 series, and we didn't find any significant overheating issues outside of the aforementioned stress tests. This bodes well for the Dimensity 9400 AP.
