MediaTek's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 challenger has unique configuration, plenty of power

The MediaTek Dimensity 9300 chipset is grabbing plenty of attention thanks to its unusual configuration. Tipster Digital Chat Station recently posted the rumored specs on Chinese social media site Weibo and the silicon has the potential to be a powerhouse. According to the post, the chip will include 1 Cortex-X4 prime CPU core, 3 Cortex-X4 prime CPU cores, and 4 Cortex-A720 performance CPU cores. There are no efficiency cores. The GPU is Arm's Immortalis G720 MC12.

While specific benchmark scores for the chip have yet to be made public, Digital Chat Station says that on AnTuTu version 10, the Dimensity 9300 outscored the CPU and GPU scores of the soon-to-be-announced Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. The Dimensity 9300 is built on TSMC's N4P process node which is actually an optimized 5nm process. TSMC says that the N4P delivers an 11% performance boost over the original N5 5nm process.

The N4P node that the Dimensity 9300 is built on, brings a 22% increase in power efficiency, a 6% hike in transistor density, and a 6.6 % performance increase over the N4, the first 4nm process used by the foundry. The Dimensity 9300 chipset is expected to provide a 15% performance boost compared to its predecessor, the Dimensity 9200, with a 40% reduction in power consumption.

The Dimensity 9300 should make its debut in the Vivo X100 series which is expected to be released next month. Consider how competitive the application processor market will be by the first quarter of 2024. We've already seen the only 3nm smartphone chipset produced to date, the A17 Pro, released as the chip powers the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. The Dimensity 9300 SoC should be running the Vivo X100 series before 2023 is done.

And by the first quarter of next year, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 for Galaxy and the Exynos 2400 (yes, that chip is in the conversation) will be powering some units belonging to Samsung's Galaxy S24 flagship line. Speaking of the Exynos 2400 SoC, it is unique in its own right with a deca-core configuration..

As long as overheating isn't an issue on any of these chipsets, phone fanatics will be happy. The first scare turned out to be a false alarm when overheating on the iPhone 15 Pro line turned out to be a software issue not related to the A17 Bionic. MediaTek told us last month that reports saying that the Dimensity 9300 was overheating were not true, and there are fears about the Exynos 2400 thanks to Samsung's past history.