The Dimensity 9400 is scheduled to be announced later this year, and one of the most significant differences between it and chipsets like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 and A17 Pro is that MediaTek will not rely on custom cores for its upcoming SoC. Instead, ARM’s current CPU designs will be utilized, which might give an impression that the Dimensity 9400 is at a distinct disadvantage. However, one tipster claims that MediaTek and ARM are collaborating to use the latter’s ‘BlackHawk’ architecture in the upcoming silicon, potentially delivering better Instructions Per Clock (IPC) performance than competing current-generation chips.
Dimensity 9400 could feature an optimized version of ARM’s Cortex-X5 to deliver unrivaled single-core performance
It has been rumored that just like the Dimensity 9300, MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 will lack any efficiency cores, giving it an edge in multi-threaded workloads. However, with the addition of the Cortex-X5, which uses ARM’s new BlackHawk architecture, Weibo tipster Digital Chat Station claims that the internal testing is promising. While the leakster shared no performance metrics, he mentions that IPC is higher than Apple’s A17 Pro and Qualcomm Nuvia, with the latter most likely being the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4.
The Dimensity 9400 is said to feature the largest die size for a smartphone, measuring 150mm² in size and packing 30 billion transistors. This size advantage could give MediaTek plenty of room to incorporate a bigger cache and other improvements, putting the SoC a league above its competition. However, a rumor was doing the rounds earlier, claiming that the Cortex-X5 faced high power draw and overheating problems. It is possible MediaTek and ARM have addressed these issues, but we have to monitor various benchmarks to learn the truth.
With the exception of Google and Apple, every other smartphone maker has partnered with MediaTek, with Vivo reportedly the first Dimensity 9400 customer. It is likely that the Chinese company witnessed firsthand what this chipset is capable of and decided to secure the first shipment to use in its future flagships. Looking at how impressive the Dimensity 9300 is, we have high hopes for the Dimensity 9400 and that MediaTek delivers on all fronts, raising the competition bar.
News Source: Digital Chat Station