During the month of 2023, Snapdragon unveiled the new Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor, while in the month of November Mediatek dimensity 9000. Though an assortment of high-end cellphones will likely run on these motherboards in 2024, cellphone makers are accepting these CPUs quickly.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Mediatek dimensity 9000 benchmarks
Smartphones that use the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs. Dimensity 9300 have recently been released. You managed to secure some time on the two different Dimensity-equipped Vivo X100 Pro and qualcomm Snapdragon-powered REDMAGIC 9 Pro. This serves as the initial chance to compare these new chipsets to one another in devices that are used in the real world.
A few characteristics are shared by the two processors: hardware-based ray tracing capabilities, Bluetooth 5.4, and a TSMC 4nm manufacturing. Otherwise, however, you’re looking at two different strategies.
With one large Cortex-X4 core, five medium Cortex-A720 cores, and two small Cortex-A520 cores, Qualcomm uses a 1+5+2 CPU architecture. This indicates that, in comparison to the previous flagship Snapdragon processor, will have one more medium core and one less small core.
Here, Qualcomm is also increasing the clock speed. Compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 base model, all of these cores are operating at a higher frequency. On paper, the combination of a faster clock speed and more modern CPU cores seems rather promising.
In contrast, the Mediatek dimensity 9000 has four Cortex-X4 CPU cores and four medium Cortex-A720 cores instead of any small cores. At first look, this seems like a rather aggressive strategy.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 9300 specs:
| Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 | Dimensity 9300 | |
|---|---|---|
| CPU Config | 1x 3.3GHz (Cortex-X4) 3x 3.2GHz (Cortex-A720) 2x 3GHz (Cortex-A720) 2x 2.3GHz (Cortex-A520 Refresh) | 1x 3.25GHz (Cortex-X4) 3x 2.85GHz (Cortex-X4) 4x 2GHz (Cortex-A720) |
| GPU | Adreno Ray tracing support Global illumination | Arm Immortalis-G720 MC12 Ray tracing support Global illumination |
| DSP | Hexagon (fused scalar, tensor, and vector) Mixed precision INT8/INT16 INT4 support | APU 790 INT8/INT16 INT4 support |
| RAM support | LPDDR5X | LPDDR5T |
| Camera | • 200MP single shot • 108MP single with zero shutter lag • 64MP+36MP with zero shutter lag • Triple 36MP with zero shutter lag • Dolby HDR photo • Real-time semantic segmentation for photos and videos (up to 12 layers) • 8K/30fps HDR video • 4K/120fps slow-motion | • 320MP single shot • HDR video • Real-time semantic segmentation for photos and videos (up to 16 layers) • 8K/30fps • 4K/60fps |
| Charging | Quick Charge 5 | USB-PD PPS |
| 4G/5G Modem | X75 LTE/5G (integrated) 10,000Mbps down 3,500Mbps up | LTE/5G (integrated) 7,000Mbps down |
| Other networking | Bluetooth 5.4 Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6/6E (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n | Bluetooth 5.4 Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6/6E (802.11ax), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac), 802.11a/b/g/n |
| Process | TSMC 4nm (N4P) | TSMC 4nm (4nm+) |
The large X4 core in the Mediatek dimensity 9000 has a faster clock speed than the other three X4 cores, which have a slower 2.85GHz clock speed similar to the medium A715 cores in the Dimensity 9200. The four Cortex-A720 medium cores in this instance, however, are only clocked at 2GHz. Stated differently, MediaTek has an abundance of large and medium cores, but it’s not using them all to their maximum potential. This raises questions about the implications for multi-core workloads.
In addition, Qualcomm provides its excellent Adreno GPU and X75 modem, whilst MediaTek uses Arm’s Immortalis-G720 MC12 graphics and its own internal modem.
Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs. Dimensity 9300
As far as single-core and multi-core CPU performance is concerned, Apple’s A17 Pro continues to outperform both Android CPUs. Furthermore, the single-core benefit is really significant. But the race for second place amongst the new Android processors is fierce.
When it comes to single-core results, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 in the REDMAGIC 9 Pro has a tiny advantage, while theMediatek dimensity 9000 in the vivo 100 Pro comes in close second in the multi-core race. The findings using a phone from a different manufacturer might theoretically go either way since it’s near enough.
Given that MediaTek’s CPU has four powerful Cortex-X4 cores, you would expect it would do well in the multi-core test. But keep in mind that the three other X4 cores peak out at 2.85GHz, while just one of these cores is tuned beyond 3GHz (3.25GHz, to be exact). When combined with Qualcomm’s choice to boost clock rates on six cores and provide additional cache, the Mediatek dimensity 9000 narrowly defeats the Snapdragon processor.
Stress testing: Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 vs Dimensity 9300
Benchmark tests conducted once only provide us with an indication of peak performance. But if Apple-beating speeds are limited to two seconds, then who really cares? thus performed some GPU stress tests on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and Mediatek dimensity 9000 phones. Although this is more demanding than actual gaming situations, it still provides us with a notion of what to anticipate from very extended gaming sessions, protracted video recording sessions, and other persistent use cases that are equally demanding. While some throttling is expected in these testing, which one throttles more?
Whichever is better a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 or the Mediatek dimensity 9000?
Considering that MediaTek as well as Qualcomm have been trading blows in both single-core and multi-core benchmarks, it is apparent that both of these companies’ recently released processors measure up similarly in terms the CPU capacity. In the graphics processing unit (GPU) tests, meanwhile, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 clearly surpasses the others, but the Mediatek dimensity 9000 remains the best option overall.
Stress testing is a different story, as the vivo X100 Pro with the Dimensity 9300 processor even performs worse than silicon from earlier generations. Though it doesn’t provide a flawless experience, the Snapdragon-powered REDMAGIC 9 Pro has a distinct advantage over more recent Apple and MediaTek silicon as well as older chipsets.
