MediaTek’s Biggest Yet: Dimensity 9400 Boasts 30 Billion Transistors

Last year, MediaTek introduced the Dimensity 9300, featuring an “all-big-core” CPU architecture, which significantly enhanced peak performance compared to its predecessor. This year, MediaTek continues to embrace the “all-big-core” design, utilizing TSMC’s second-generation 3nm process technology (N3E), with the aspiration that the new Dimensity 9400 will surpass Qualcomm’s fourth-generation Snapdragon 8, anticipated to be unveiled in the fourth quarter of this year.

According to Wccftech, MediaTek is fully committed to the Dimensity 9400, which will be the largest smartphone System on Chip (SoC) to date. The increased chip size implies a greater number of transistors, with the Dimensity 9400 boasting over 30 billion transistors, at least a 32% increase from the Dimensity 9300’s 22.7 billion.

The Dimensity 9400’s chip size is approximately 150mm². For comparison, the GTX 1650’s TU117 chip measures 200mm², while the GT 1030’s GP108 chip is 74mm². In essence, the SoC used in this smartphone is physically comparable to a desktop GPU. MediaTek’s strategy to pack more transistors is aimed at further enhancing the performance of the Dimensity 9400, with rumors of a 20% improvement in GPU performance and efficiency. Coupled with a higher cache and a larger neural processing unit, edge AI generative speeds will be faster and more efficient. Moreover, the Dimensity 9400 will also support LPDDR5T.

Such a large chip design introduces other challenges, most notably the increase in cost. TSMC’s N3E process is not inexpensive, making the Dimensity 9400 likely the most expensive smartphone SoC MediaTek has ever produced. Power consumption and heat generation pose additional dilemmas for MediaTek, with the introduction of the Arm Cortex-X5 core leading to rapid increases in heat, potentially resulting in chip overheating.