Pixel 9's Tensor G4 is suddenly sounding more interesting than before
A couple of days back, a report indicated that Google's next in-house chip, the Tensor G4, might disappoint. It's too soon to draw conclusions though as the Pixel 9, which will likely be the first phone to feature the chip, is months away and the chipset is a work in process right now. Still, the leaked benchmark results were not a good early look, but one leaker has assuaged any fears that the chip will be a letdown.
X leaker @OreXda claims that the Tensor G4 will be based on the Exynos 2400. Past Tensor chips were also based on Samsung's Exynos chipsets and Google apparently needs another year to build a completely customized chip.
Now, if the Tensor G4 were entirely based on the Exynos 2400, it would have been good news. That's because the Exynos 2400 is a powerful 10-core chip and in some aspects, it's better than the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3.
That's not seemingly the case though. The Tensor G4 will be an eight-core chip with one Cortex X4 core clocked at 3.1GHz, three Cortex A720 cores running at 2.6GHz, and four Cortex A520 cores with frequencies of 1.95GHz. Additionally, the chip is rumored to have the Mali G715 GPU, instead of the AMD RDNA3-based Xclipse 940.
The Tensor G3, which powers the Pixel 8, has nine cores, which is an unconventional setup. Most chipmakers, including Qualcomm, stick with eight cores, so the G4 isn't a downgrade because it has one less core.
Google will utilize ARM's latest cores, which will be running at higher clock speeds, so we can expect a nice speed bump. Also, if the chip takes inspiration from the Exynos 2400, it will probably be based on Samsung's third-gen 4nm process. Like the Exynos 2400, it will likely use the fan-out wafer-level packaging technology, which should help the Pixel 9 run cooler.
So while the Tensor G4 will not be as snappy as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or even the Exynos 2400, it will be a decent improvement over the G3, which is all that matters.
FCC OKs Cingular\'s purchase of AT&T Wireless
Things that are NOT allowed: