MediaTek just announced the Dimensity 8400 mobile processor. Following a recent trend in flagship SoCs, the new chip is powered only by high-performance cores, without the smaller efficiency cores. Outside the CPU, the new chip also brings flagship features to gaming, photography, and, of course, artificial intelligence.
After pioneering an all “big core” layout processor in 2023 and repeating the strategy with the Dimensity 9400 this year, MediaTek doubled (tripled?) down on the plan with the new mid-range chip: The Dimensity 8400. The new chip promises more performance for daily tasks, with an estimated 41% uplift in multi-core CPU performance.
| MediaTek Dimensity 8400 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 3 | Samsung Exynos 1480 | MediaTek Dimensity 8300 | Qualcomm Snapdragon 7+ Gen 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime core | 1x Cortex-A725 @ 3.25 GHz | 1x Cortex-X4 @ 2.6 GHz | 1× Cortex-A715 @ 3.35 GHz | 1x Cortex-X2 @ 2.91 GHz | |
| Performance core | 3x Cortex-A725 | 4x Cortex A720 @ 2.6 GHz | 4x Cortex A78 @ 2.75 GHz | 3× Cortex-A715 @ 3.2 GHz | 3x Cortex A710 @ 2.49 GHz |
| Efficiency core | 4x Cortex-A725 | 3x Cortex-A520 @ 1.9 GHz | 4x Cortex-A55 @ 2 GHz | 4× Cortex-A510 @ 2.2 GHz | 4x Cortex-A510 @ 1.8 GHz |
| RAM | LPDDR5x-8533 4x 16-bit @ 4266 MHz (68.2.4 GB/s) | LPDDR5x-8400 4x 16-bit @ 4200 MHz (67.2 GB/s) | LPDDR5-6400 2x 16-bit @ 3200 MHz (25.6 GB/s) | LPDDR5x-8533 4x 16-bit @ 4266 MHz (68.2.4 GB/s) | LPDDR5-6400 4x 16-bit @ 3200 MHz (51.2 GB/s) |
| GPU | 7x ARM Mali-G720 (2329.6 GFLOPS) | Adreno 732 (1459 GFLOPS) | AMD RDNA3 (332 GFLOPS) | 6x ARM Mali-G615 (2150.4 GFLOPS) | Adreno 725 (1188 GFLOPS) |
| 5G modem | MediaTek (5.17 Gbps) | Snapdragon X63 (5/3.5 Gbps) | Exynos 5328 (5/1.28 Gbps) | MediaTek (5.17 Gbps) | Snapdragon X62 (4.4/1.6 Gbps) |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.4 | Wi-Fi 7 Bluetooth 5.4 | Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 | Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.4 | Wi-Fi 6E Bluetooth 5.3 |
| Process node | TSMC N4P | TSMC N4P | Samsung 4LPP | TSMC N4P | TSMC N4 |
Instead of using the smaller (and slower) efficiency CPU cores, MediaTek designed the Dimensity 8400 with an all “big core” design. The chip features eight ARM Cortex-A725 at up to 3.25 GHz. Those A725 cores are divided into three tiers, with different amounts of L2 cache memory: 1 core with 1 MB, 3 cores with 512 KB, and 4 cores with 256 KB.
To feed those cores, the Dimensity 8400 supports the latest LPDDR5x-8533 RAM standard, while storage duties are handled by the latest-generation UFS 4 standard.
For graphics rendering, the Dimensity 8400 packs 7 ARM Mali-G720 GPU cores. MediaTek touts 24% better performance and 42% better power efficiency compared to the previous generation Dimensity 8300 chip. While the GPU does not support ray tracing, the Taiwanese company promises smooth rasterization performance.
In true 2024 fashion, the new MediaTek mid-ranger supports major AI apps thanks to its NPU, with promised support for agentic applications. Other cores on the Dimensity 8400 trickle-down features found on the flagship 9000 series, such as improved processing for image capture, dynamic 5G/Wi-Fi switching, and more.
According to MediaTek, the new Dimensity 8400 should come to market soon, with the first phones promised “by [the] end of 2024”. It will be interesting to see whether Qualcomm will adopt a similar “big core” design for its Snapdragon 7 chips.
