The Dimensity 9000 chipset from MediaTek is designed to propel the Taiwanese chipmaker into the forefront. While the new chip appears solid on paper, how well is it actually equipped to take on Snapdragon 888+? We take a look.
Manufacturing Process
The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 is the first SoC in the business to be constructed using a 4nm process. Furthermore, it employs TSMC’s innovative N4 design, which gives the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 an advantage over the Snapdragon 888+, which was made on a 5nm process.
The TSMC-designed 4nm technology aids the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 chip in being more efficient and reliable and offering powerful speed.
Design
Although both chipsets share the 1+3+4 CPU design, the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 has more advanced units and is significantly quicker. The Dimensity is also the first mobile SoC to feature ARM’s Cortex-X2 core, which was unveiled in May 2021 and is based on ARM’s V9 design.
CPU
The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 is the first chip in the industry to have the Mali-G710 GPU. The 10 core GPU inside, according to MediaTek, has a maximum frequency of around 850MHz. The Adreno 660 has a maximum frequency of 840MHz, which is higher than the Snapdragon 888+ GPU.
ISP
The Dimensity 9000’s ISP can also process up to 9 gigapixels per second. The Snapdragon 888+’s Spectra 580 ISP, on the other hand, can only handle 2.7 gigapixels per second.
Memory
The MediaTek Dimensity 9000 is the first chipset to enable LPDDR5X memory, while the Snapdragon 888+ only supports LPDDR5. The new LPDDR5X RAM standard outperforms LPDDR5, increasing performance by nearly 33%, from 6400Mbps to 8533Mbps.
In addition, the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 has a 6MB system cache, which is twice as large as the Snapdragon 888 SoC. This will improve the performance and power efficiency of all blocks on MediaTek’s flagship processor.
Conclusion
In general, the Mediatek Dimensity 9000 outperforms the Qualcomm Snapdragon 888. A side-by-side comparison of the Dimensity 9000 and the Snapdragon 888 and 888+ is shown below.
| SoC | MediaTek Dimensity 9000 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 888/888 Plus |
| CPU | 1x ARM Cortex-X2 @ 3.05GHz2x ARM Cortex-A710 @ 2.85GHz4x ARM Cortex-A510 @ 1.80GHz | Prime core:Snapdragon 888: 1x ARM Cortex-X1 @ 2.84GHzSnapdragon 888 Plus: 1x ARM Cortex-X1 @ 2.995GHz3x ARM Cortex-A78 @ 2.4GHz4x ARM Cortex-A55 @ 1.8GHz |
| GPU | Mali-G710 @ ~850MHz | Adreno 660 @ 840MHz |
| Memory | LPDDR5 @ 3200MHz or LPDDR5X @3750MHz6MB Cache | LPDDR5 3200MHz3MB cache |
| NPU/APU | 6-core APU | Hexagon 780 |
| ISP | Imagiq790 18-bit ISPSingle Sensor up to 320MP Triple Sensor 32+32+32MP | Triple 14-bit Spectra 580 ISP1x 200MP or 84MP with ZSL4K video & 64MP burst capture |
| Manufacturing node | TSMC N4 (4nm) | Samsung 5LPE (5nm) |
