MediaTek has officially introduced its top System-on-Chip (SoC), the Dimensity 9300. This chip is the successor to the Dimensity 9200, which was released in November 2022.

Designed using 4-nanometer (nm) third-generation fabrication technology from TSMC, the Dimensity 9300 is set to be a strong competitor to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3. MediaTek has implemented an 8-core high-performance CPU configuration to maximize the Dimensity 9300's performance.

The eight CPU cores consist of one prime core Cortex-X4 running at 3.25 GHz, three Cortex-X4 cores at 2.85 GHz, and four Cortex-A720 cores at 2.0 GHz, all using the Armv9 architecture. There are no efficiency cores or power-efficient CPU cores commonly found in SoCs to handle light tasks while saving power, which could potentially impact the power efficiency of the Dimensity 9300.

However, MediaTek claims that its latest chip actually consumes 33 percent less power than the Dimensity 9200 at the same performance level. Furthermore, the overall CPU performance of the Dimensity 9300 is said to be higher than that of the Dimensity 9200.

In MediaTek's official blog, MediaTek President Joe Chen stated that the Dimensity 9300 is the most powerful flagship chip ever produced by the company. "This chip brings a significant improvement in computational power to smartphones with our innovative All Big Core design (eight high-performance CPU cores)," Chen wrote.

Regarding performance, benchmark scores for the Dimensity 9300 on Geekbench 6.0 reportedly reach 7,600 points. For comparison, its competitor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, with a configuration of one Cortex-X4 core (3.3 GHz), five Cortex-A720 cores (3.2 GHz), and two Cortex-A520 cores (2.30 GHz), scores around 7.50 points.

GPU with ray tracing support

The Dimensity 9300's CPU is accompanied by the Immortalis-G720 MC13 graphics processor (GPU) with 12 cores that support hardware-based ray tracing. This GPU is claimed to have 46 percent higher performance and 40 percent power savings compared to the GPU in the previous Dimensity 9200.

Ray tracing is a graphics rendering technique used in games to calculate lighting effects with precision to create lifelike effects, including light direction, color, and object reflections. Ray tracing has become a common feature in games and computer hardware and is now being applied to mobile devices. Qualcomm has supported ray tracing acceleration since Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and Apple has also implemented it in the A17 Pro chip.

MediaTek claims that the Dimensity 9300 is the first mobile platform to offer a ray tracing experience with a 60 fps frame rate, with global illumination effects equivalent to gaming console level.

The Dimensity 9300 supports LPDDR5T RAM with a speed of 9,600 Mbps and UFS 4.0 storage media supported by Multi-Circular Queue (MCQ). This SoC also supports MiraVision 990 with a refresh rate of up to 180 Hz for WQHD resolution screens and dual active screens for foldable phones. It supports resolutions up to 4K with a 120 Hz refresh rate for TVs, including Google Ultra HDR and MediaTek True Color.

Artificial intelligence processing (AI) is handled by the APU 790, which supports Generative AI acceleration and language model (large language model/LLM) with up to three billion parameters. The APU 790 is claimed to have eight times better processing capability than the previous generation and can generate Stable Diffusion text-to-image AI program images in less than 1 second, saving 45 percent power.

Is This the First Phone with MediaTek Dimensity 9300?

For photography, there is an Imagiq 990 ISP equipped with always-on HDR and the ability to handle video with resolutions of up to 8K at 30 FPS or 4K at 30/60 FPS with cinematic and real-time bokeh modes.

The Dimensity 9300 is also equipped with the R16 5G modem, which supports 4CC-CA Sub-6Hz and 8CC-CA mmWave bands. MediaTek UltraSave 3.0 Plus provides 10 percent better power efficiency than the previous generation.

There is also support for Wi-Fi 7 connectivity with data transfer speeds of up to 6.5 Gbps and Bluetooth audio latency below 35 ms. With low audio latency, users can receive audio with minimal delay.

Other features include the latest Arm MTE technology and a secure processor to ensure a secure smartphone ecosystem with a focus on user privacy.

As reported by KompasTekno from GSMArena on Tuesday, November 7, 2023, the Vivo X100 series is expected to be the first smartphone to be powered by the Dimensity 9300 SoC. Other rumors claim that the Oppo Find X7 will also be powered by MediaTek's top chip.