The semiconductor market may be in tension, but MediaTek is not idle. About a year after the launch of the Dimensity 9000, the Taiwanese firm presented the Dimensity 9200, its new SoC for the most high-end smartphones. A date that is surely not chosen at random since it allows it to outdo its competitor Qualcomm, which should unveil the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 during the week of November 14, 2022.
The MediaTek Dimensity 9200. © MediaTek
Slightly revised formula
This chipset benefits from a second-generation 4 nm engraving signed TSMC, which promises more efficiency thanks to new ARM cores. On the CPU side, we are therefore entitled to a Cortex-X3 core at 3.05 GHz supported by three Cortex-A715 cores at 2.85 GHz and four Cortex-A510 cores at 1.8 GHz. Similar frequencies to the previous generation, but MediaTek claims a real boost in power. The founder announces a 12% increase in single-core performance and 10% in multi-core. It also claims to have improved heat dissipation, as well as power consumption by up to 25%.
This last point is crucial for manufacturers, who cannot simply offer a deluge of raw power despite the general autonomy of the smartphone. Chips like the Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1 or the more confidential MediaTek 9000+ confirm this trend.
For the record, MediaTek specifies that this Dimensity 9200 supports LPDDR5X 8533 MHz RAM, but also UFS 4.0 flash memory.
First on wifi 7
The Taiwanese was especially strong by announcing that the SoC is the first compatible with the wifi 7 standard.
The SoC is the first to be compatible with the wifi 7 standard. © MediaTek
It incorporates a modem engraved in 6 nm supposed to offer 50% greater coverage and speeds 170% faster than wifi 6 (5 GHz). An update to Bluetooth 5.4 is also on the agenda.
A promising graphic part
MediaTek has apparently not forgotten graphics performance. Equipped with an Immortalise-G715 MC11 GPU, the Dimensity promises the raytracing on mobile. The firm also introduced its Hyper Engine 6.0 technology, which is supposed to reduce real-time shadows and improve ambient occlusion. Here again, it promises a jump of around 15% in the number of frames per second.
The GPU will be able to support the raytracing in games. © MediaTek
The SoC would even have exceeded the impressive score of 1,260,000 points on Antutu. Enough to rub shoulders with Qualcomm, or even Apple. It should be remembered, however, that these scores are hardly representative of performance in use and must be taken with a grain of salt.
Rapid deployment
The photo is not left out. The Dimensity 9200 is thus equipped with a new APU 690 processor for artificial intelligence, a chip dedicated to the display (MiraVision 890), as well as the Imagiq 890, an ISP dedicated to image processing. The SoC is the first to display native support for RGBW sensors (supposed to offer better brightness) up to 320 Mpx. For video, we stay on 8K at 30 fps.
The first smartphones hosting the SoC should be available at the end of 2022 for China and during the following year for us. It’s a safe bet that Vivo will use it on its X90 Pro, but other Chinese players could quickly follow. One thing is certain, MediaTek has every intention of growing its market share in the premium segment.