MediaTek beats US rival Qualcomm to 2nm smartphone chips
Key Points
- Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek has beaten US chipmaker Qualcomm to launching a 2nm smartphone chipset.
- The Dimensity 9600 Pro chip is built on TSMC's 2nm manufacturing process, the same node which will be used by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6.
- MediaTek said its new chip offers 51% faster AI performance and 17% better single-core CPU performance, all while improving power efficiency.
- The first smartphone to feature the Dimensity 9600 Pro will be the Oppo Find X 10 Pro Max, which is expected to launch in the coming weeks.
Taiwanese chipmaker MediaTek has revealed its new smartphone chipset built on TSMC’s 2-nanometer process.
With the announcement, MediaTek has beaten its US-based rival Qualcomm to market with a 2nm smartphone chip that is already set to launch in a smartphone.
Mediak’s first chip built on TSMC’s 2nm N2P process is the Dimensity 9600 Pro, which will power the Oppo Find X10 Pro Max smartphone.
The Find X10 Pro Max is expected to launch in China in October, bringing MediaTek’s chipset to the hands of consumers ahead of Qualcomm’s upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip, which has not yet officially been announced.
Samsung’s Exynos 2600 chipset is built on a 2nm process, but on its fabrication node, not on that of TSMC, which is the company that manufacturers semiconductors for every other major fabless chipmaker in the world, including rivals MediaTek and Qualcomm.
While MediaTek has historically focused more on the budget end of the smartphone market, it now squarely competes with Qualcomm in the premium smartphone segment.
MediaTek’s flagship Dimensity 9600 Pro features a 2+3+3 All Big Core CPU design, which MediaTek says results in a 61% reduction in multi-core power consumption. The chipset has two C2-Ultra cores with up to 4.55GHz clock speeds, three C2-Pro big cores at 4.35GHz, and three C2-Pro big cores at 3.1GHz.
The new chipset delivers 17% higher single-core performance and 15% better multi-core performance than the previous generation.
The Dimensity 9600 Pro is also designed for high-speed on-device AI compute, pairing a “Super Efficient NPU” with 40% reduced power consumption for always-on AI with a high-speed NPU that offers 51% higher LLM prefill performance.
This NPU configuration supports complex on-device AI applications, including models up to 30B parameters.
MediaTek’s new flagship chipset also sports an improved G2-Ultra NX GPU, with up to 27% higher peak performance, 24% lower power consumption, and 18% faster raytracing.
In addition to the Dimensity 9600 Pro, MediaTek also announced the more budget-oriented Dimensity 9600M, which is designed for power-efficient performance.
The first smartphones powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9600 Pro and Dimensity 9600M are expected to launch this quarter, the first of which will be the Oppo Find X 10 Pro Max.
More information about the flagship Oppo smartphone powered by this chipset will be revealed in the coming weeks.
