MediaTek Unveils Dimensity 9600 Pro 2nm Mobile Chip

MediaTek has unveiled the Dimensity 9600 Pro, the company’s first 2nm mobile chipset and the first to adopt Arm’s next-generation C2 CPU cores and Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU. MediaTek emphasizes CPU, GPU and AI compute improvements across the SoC.

CPU architecture and performance

MediaTek says the CPU cluster has been reshaped to include two Ultra-class cores at the top end. The company lists the configuration as 2x Arm C2-Ultra plus two groups of C2-Pro cores, presented as 3x C2-Pro plus 3x C2-Pro. Clock speeds were not disclosed. MediaTek claims a 17% increase in single-core performance and 37% better single-core efficiency. For multi-threaded workloads the company reports 15% higher performance and 61% better efficiency. The chip includes 16MB of L3 cache and 10MB of SoC cache.

GPU, NPU and imaging

The graphics block is an Arm Mali-G2 Ultra NX. MediaTek says the GPU can support more than 185 frames per second in gaming and reports the following improvements:

• Peak GPU performance up 27%
• Ray tracing 18% faster
• GPU power efficiency improved by 24%

MediaTek also highlights neural graphics rendering to enable higher-quality super resolution. The chipset integrates the MediaTek NPU 1090. According to the company, the NPU 1090 doubles INT4 throughput versus the NPU 990 used in the Dimensity 9500, delivers 55% better token generation per watt and provides 51% faster pre-fill when reading prompts. The NPU subsystem includes a hardware compression engine for the key-value cache.

The ISP can route image and video processing work directly into the NPU. Sensor support is listed up to 200 megapixels, and video capture can reach 8K at 60 frames per second. The video decoder now supports VVC, also known as H.266.

Memory, storage, connectivity and availability

The Dimensity 9600 Pro supports LPDDR5X and LPDDR6 memory; MediaTek states LPDDR6 is about 33% faster but carries higher cost. Storage is UFS 5.0. The integrated modem implements 3GPP Release 17, sub-6GHz 4x4. The GNSS suite remains the same as prior models. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 7 (be), tri-band operation up to 7.3 GHz, and Bluetooth 6.2.

MediaTek has said the first smartphone using the Dimensity 9600 Pro has already been announced. The company has not disclosed whether or when a vanilla Dimensity 9600 will be released.

Key specification differences versus the Dimensity 9500

The company supplied a comparison with the Dimensity 9500. Notable differences include node shrink from 3nm to 2nm, the shift to Arm C2 cores, the new Mali-G2 Ultra NX GPU, the NPU 1090, UFS 5.0 storage, and LPDDR6 support. Camera and video capability entries differ: the 9500 lists sensor support up to 320MP while the 9600 Pro lists up to 200MP, and the 9600 Pro adds VVC decoding for 8K60 10-bit video in addition to HEVC, AVC, VP9 and AV1. Display capability remains up to WQHD+ at 180 Hz.