MediaTek, Qualcomm's main rival in the high-end smartphone processor space, is already working on its next flagship chip, the Dimensity 9400.
LEAK: MediaTek Dimensity 9400 will be better than the Snapdragon 8 Gen4
This chip will be the first to use the TSMC's 3nm process, the same one used by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen4. However, the Dimensity 9400 will have some advantages over its competitor, both in terms of performance and energy efficiency.
The Dimensity 9400 will be the successor to the Dimensity 9300, the first smartphone chip to use all large cores: four Cortex-X4 cores and four Cortex-A720 cores. The Dimensity 9300 has already surpassed the Snapdragon 8 Gen3 and the Apple A17 Pro in multi-core performance.
The Dimensity 9400, which will debut next year, will be even more powerful and innovative. According to the blogger Digital Chat Station, the Dimensity 9400 will continue with the full core architecture of the Dimensity 9300, but will use TSMC's 3nm process for the first time, the N3E. This process offers a speed improvement of up to 18% for the same power consumption or a 32% reduction in power consumption for the same speed. Furthermore, the 3nm process brings a 60% increase in logic density.
The Dimensity 9400 will be MediaTek's first smartphone chip to use a 3nm process, but it won't be the only one. Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen4 will also use the N3E, while the Apple A17 Pro will use the N3B. However, according to some industry experts, N3B has very poor yield and metal stacking performance. For these reasons, N3B will not become TSMC's main node. In contrast, the N3E will use fewer EUV lithography layers, reducing them from 25 to 21. It will be easier to produce and will have a higher yield. The cost will naturally be reduced, but the transistor density will be lower.
In addition to using the 3nm process, the Dimensity 9400 is suspected of using a self-developed architecture solution and will not use Arm's Cortex X5. This could mean that MediaTek has developed a custom core that could offer superior performance and functionality over Arm's standard core. Furthermore, the Dimensity 9400 could integrate an Nvidia-designed GPU, according to rumors. This could give the chip an edge in mobile gaming, especially if it supports ray tracing, a technology that makes scenes more realistic and detailed.
It will be interesting to see how Qualcomm will behave in the market and how it will react.
