While Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 has been generating significant buzz over the last few months, MediaTek has been busy prepping up its formidable contender. The Dimensity 9400, as hyped by other rumors and leaks, is set to surprise the industry once more with its chipset configuration this coming fall.
No Efficiency Cores, Part Two
According to a leak from prominent tipster Digital Chat Station via Weibo, the Dimensity 9400 would most likely forego the traditional approach of incorporating lower-power efficiency cores to bump overall processing speeds. Instead, it is rumored to be using a combination of Cortex-X5, Cortex-X4, and Cortex-A7xx cores. The exact configuration was not specified, but the general consensus predicts a one-three-four configuration (respectively) for an eight-core chip.
This unconventional approach mirrors MediaTek's strategy with the Dimensity 9300, which previously combined four Cortex-X4 Prime CPU cores and four Cortex-A720 Performance CPU cores. This configuration allowed it to go toe-to-toe with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, though initially, some reports stated that this caused thermal throttling issues, which was later refuted.
The leak also indicated that the Dimensity 9400 will be officially unveiled in October, and will be manufactured using TSMC's cutting-edge 3nm process node. This jump should inherently provide the new SoC with newer efficiency improvements both in energy and thermal departments. But again, as with the rumors about the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, the configuration itself (pushing clocks and performance cores) might somewhat negate this advantage, even if proven to be a significant leap from its predecessor.
Early Benchmarks Checks Out
Early benchmark leaks last January painted an encouraging picture for MediaTek's upcoming flagship. According to the results, the Dimensity 9400 achieved a single-core score of 2776 and a multi-core score of 11,739, very slightly losing in single-core, while also winning a bit in multi-core compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
Sure, none of these leaks are substantial and should be taken with a grain of salt at the moment. But, if the recently unveiled SoC configuration turned out to be accurate, then this second attempt to purely go for performance cores would once again be considered a relative success.
Number crunching with performance cores aside, MediaTek's efforts to optimize its chips for generative AI workloads (in collaboration with Google) could also give the Dimensity 9400 an edge. With AI capabilities becoming increasingly important in mobile devices, a chip optimized for tasks like image generation and language processing could be a significant selling point.
Price as a Trump Card
As you may have already realized, both the Dimensity 9400 and the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 are rumored to launch in October, as usual setting the stage for the two chip giants for their respective Q4 releases. Qualcomm's offering is expected to feature its custom Oryon cores, promising impressive performance and efficiency gains.
As for MediaTek, we could very well see the company leverage pricing as its trump card. While Qualcomm may price the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 at a premium, MediaTek can take the initiative to offer a more affordable alternative with the Dimensity 9400, without compromising on performance.
We shall soon have a better idea once the rumored Dimensity 9300+ is confirmed to show up this coming May.
