MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro Debuts as Its First 2nm Chip

MediaTek has introduced the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its inaugural chipset built on a 2nm production process and the company's first to incorporate Arm's latest CPU and GPU architectures. This cutting-edge platform enhances CPU performance, graphics, AI processing, memory, and storage capabilities, with a strong focus on energy efficiency.

The Dimensity 9600 Pro utilizes an eight-core CPU, comprising two Arm C2-Ultra cores and six C2-Pro cores. Three of the C2-Pro cores incorporate 1MB of L2 cache, while the remaining three utilize 512KB. The exact clock speeds have not been disclosed by MediaTek. When compared to the Dimensity 9500, the new CPU exhibits up to a 17% boost in single-core performance and a 37% enhancement in single-core efficiency.

Multi-core performance sees a 15% increase, while efficiency gains can reach up to 61%. The chip also incorporates 16MB of L3 cache and 10MB of system-level cache.

The Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU takes charge of graphics, touted by MediaTek to deliver up to 27% higher peak graphics performance, 18% quicker ray tracing, and a 24% improvement in power efficiency. The GPU supports gaming rates exceeding 185fps and introduces neural graphics rendering for enhanced super-resolution image quality.

A significant AI upgrade is represented by MediaTek's new NPU 1090. When juxtaposed with the NPU 990 found in the Dimensity 9500, INT4 AI performance has doubled. MediaTek further asserts a 55% increase in token generation per watt and 51% faster prompt pre-fill performance. Additionally, a dedicated hardware compression engine is included to handle KV cache, aiding in the reduction of memory requirements for on-device generative AI tasks.

The chipset offers support for both LPDDR5X and LPDDR6 memory, with LPDDR6 boasting up to 33% superior performance. Storage capabilities have been upgraded from UFS 4.1 to UFS 5.0. Connectivity features include Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6.2, and a Release 17 5G modem with sub-6GHz 4×4 MIMO. The Dimensity 9600 Pro also bolsters camera and video functionalities, supporting cameras with sensors up to 200MP and video recording up to 8K at 60fps.

Video decoding now supports VVC/H.266 alongside HEVC, AVC, VP9, and AV1. Displays capable of up to WQHD+ resolution at 180Hz are also accommodated.

MediaTek has announced that the first smartphone equipped with the Dimensity 9600 Pro is already in existence, with additional devices anticipated to follow. However, the company has yet to confirm whether a standard Dimensity 9600 will also be unveiled.