• MediaTek has beefed up the CPU big cores, enabling OEMs to drive significant performance gains, which will potentially challenge Qualcomm’s dominance.
• The Dimensity 9400 brings an agentic AI engine, enabling AI to run autonomously. The availability of multimodal capabilities enables AI use cases related to images, sound, video and spoken language.
• Due to early launches from vivo and OPPO, we will see YoY growth (Dimensity 9400 vs Dimensity 9300) in the chipset shipments.

MediaTek recently launched its fourth-generation premium chipset Dimensity 9400. The company has emerged as a strong competitor in the premium smartphone chipset market after launching the Dimensity 9000 in Q1 2022. MediaTek’s flagship (>$600) revenue crossed $1 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow by 50% YoY in 2024.

MediaTek is expanding into the flagship Android chipset market, which is dominated by Qualcomm. Therefore, the company is relying on Chinese smartphone OEMs to drive its market share. The Dimensity 9400 launch event too was China-focused with less emphasis on the global market. MediaTek’s fourth-generation flagship volumes are expected to more than double compared to its first-generation flagship. China will mainly drive these volumes, with some global volumes coming from smartphones and tablets.

Overall, competition in the flagship chipset market is growing. Qualcomm will soon launch its next-generation flagship with custom Oryon cores, boosting performance and efficiency. Samsung’s Exynos chipsets have re-entered the Galaxy S series, reclaiming some volume from Qualcomm. Besides, Google’s Tensor focuses on GenAI advancements. Smartphone OEMs now have more options for flagship chipsets, allowing them to diversify their offerings and negotiate better pricing with chipset vendors. With the migration to 3nm, we expect chipset prices to increase, continuing the upward trend observed over the past two to three years.

MediaTek’s recent advancements in performance and efficiency, now comparable to Qualcomm's latest flagship chipsets, show the company’s intent to compete directly in the premium segment. This competition will raise industry standards and bring greater benefits to end users, creating a win-win situation for all.

Source: MediaTek

Source: MediaTek

Dimensity 9400 key specifications

The Dimensity 9400, the fourth and latest addition to MediaTek’s flagship series, delivers a significant performance enhancement with its second-generation All Big Core design, based on Arm's v9.2 CPU architecture. It also features the most advanced GPU and NPU, providing exceptional performance while maintaining a highly power-efficient design. The Dimensity 9400 is built on TSMC’s 3nm process node. It is 40% more power-efficient than its predecessor Dimensity 9300, enabling users to experience extended battery life.

The Dimensity 9400 combines an octa-core CPU, offering a 35% improvement in single-core performance and a 28% improvement in multi-core performance compared to the Dimensity 9300.

• One ARM Cortex-X925 CPU. Prime core clocked at up to 3.626GHz
• Three ARM Cortex-X4 CPUs. Prime core clocked at up to 3.3GHz
• Four ARM Cortex-A720 CPUs clocked at up to 2.4GHz

The Dimensity 9400 features a significant increase in chip cache, with a 100% boost in L2 cache and a 50% increase in L3 cache, enhancing overall performance and efficiency.

Source: MediaTek

8th-gen NPU 890 processor

The Dimensity 9400 is powered by MediaTek’s 8th-generation NPU, introducing several industry firsts for outstanding GenAI performance. It is the first mobile chipset to support on-device LoRA training, high-quality on-device video generation, and developer support for agentic AI. To enable users to fully leverage the latest agentic and GenAI applications, the Dimensity 9400 delivers up to 80% faster large language model (LLM), 50 tokens MLLM generation performance and up to 35% more power efficiency than the Dimensity 9300.

The Dimensity 9400 chipset will enhance MediaTek’s agentic AI efforts by delivering more autonomous and intelligent smartphone experiences, particularly with flagship launches from Xiaomi, OPPO and vivo. Unlike traditional AI, which follows fixed instructions, agentic AI adapts by reasoning and learning from its environment without human intervention. The chipset will also support GenAI applications for content creation and voice recognition.

While the primary focus will be on the Chinese market, these optimized AI features are expected to expand globally by 2025, positioning MediaTek and its partner Chinese smartphone OEMs to gain market share in on-device GenAI flagships.

The Dimensity 9400 also supports Gemini Nano with multimodal capabilities. Initially, the multimodal capabilities of Gemini Nano were limited to the Google Pixel 9 series. This support enhances the text-based functionality found in the original version of Gemini Nano.

Source: MediaTek

Immortalis-G925 GPU
With the integration of Arm’s latest GPU, the Immortalis-G925, the Dimensity 9400 offers almost a 41% boost in GPU performance and 44% power reduction compared to the Dimensity 9300. It also has 28% more transistors than the previous generation.

Source: MediaTek

Equipped with the G925, the Dimensity 9400 provides highly immersive gaming experiences, boasting up to 40% faster ray tracing performance compared to its predecessor. Besides, the Dimensity 9400 introduces PC-level features to smartphones, including support for opacity micromaps (OMM) for enhanced realism in effects.

Moreover, the Dimensity 9400 incorporates HyperEngine technology, jointly developed by MediaTek and Arm Accurate Super Resolution (Arm ASR), which enhances super-resolution and provides exceptional picture quality.

The Dimensity 9400 chipset enables HDR video recording using MediaTek’s Smooth Zoom technology, which is designed to reduce power consumption. It offers up to 14% lower power usage during 4K60 video capture compared to the Dimensity 9300. It supports up to six microphones, combined with AI audio-source track-splitting technology, to provide better results for video recording. It also supports tri-fold foldable designs.

Enhanced connectivity
The Dimensity 9400 features a new 4nm architecture-based Wi-Fi/Bluetooth combo chip that reduces power consumption compared to the Dimensity 9300. The new flagship features advanced Wi-Fi 7 technology, offering speeds of up to 7.3 Gbps and up to 50% lower power consumption compared to the previous generation. Wi-Fi 7 supports tri-band concurrency, enabling considerably faster connectivity by utilizing all three bands – 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz – while also increasing the connection distance by 30 meters. Besides, it allows for direct Bluetooth connections between phones at distances of up to 1.5 km and provides a Wi-Fi hotspot that is 25% more power-efficient.

DRAM support and security
The Dimensity 9400 supports LPDDR5X with speeds of up to 10,667 Mbps, offering a 25% performance increase and 25% lower power consumption compared to the Dimensity 9300.

Dimensity 9400 vs Dimensity 9300
The Dimensity 9400 surpasses its predecessor, the Dimensity 9300, in multiple ways. Built on TSMC’s advanced 3nm process, the Dimensity 9400 delivers enhanced performance through its second-generation All Big Core design based on Arm's v9.2 CPU architecture. This chipset incorporates the latest GPU and NPU, providing superior processing capabilities while maintaining a power-efficient design that is 40% more efficient than the Dimensity 9300. Besides, the integration of the 8th-gen NPU 790 allows for innovative features like on-device LoRA training, high-quality video generation and robust support for GenAI, making the Dimensity 9400 a compelling choice for users seeking improved performance and extended battery life.

Source: MediaTek & Counterpoint Research

Expected timeline
The vivo X200 series and OPPO Find X8 series will be the first set of smartphones to support the newly launched MediaTek Dimensity 9400 series. They will be launched in October 2024.