MediaTek Dimensity 9500 Shows Samsung Exynos 2600 Why Efficiency Cores Are Overrated

It requires a certain panache to start an industry-wide trend, and MediaTek did just that when it jettisoned efficiency cores in its Dimensity 9300 chip, which was announced back in November 2023.

Now, after two years, the Dimensity 9500 appears to be on par with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 in certain areas and a close second in others, highlighting the overall ineffectiveness of efficiency cores in the process: a lesson that could have greatly benefited the Samsung Exynos 2600.

How MediaTek's Dimensity chip started a broader trend in 2023

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which came out in October 2023, was its last flagship chip that sported efficiency cores, with its processor's architecture structured as follows:

1. 1 ARM Cortex-X4 core
2. 3 ARM Cortex-A720 cores
3. 2 ARM Cortex-A720 cores
4. 2 ARM Cortex-A520 efficiency cores

Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite (Gen 4), which came out in 2024, had no efficiency cores, with the chip bearing:

1. 2 high-performance, Oryon (Phoenix L) cores
2. 6 medium-performance, Oryon (Phoenix M) cores

In essence, MediaTek's Dimensity, the erstwhile runt of the chipmaking world, in conjunction with Samsung's Exynos, took a flamboyant leap back in 2023 by revamping its architecture, and one of the industry's apex predators followed suit. This was a momentous development, one that is quickly shaping up to be an industry-wide trend.

Qualcomm had noted back in 2024 that its Oryon CPU cores within the Snapdragon 8 Elite, clocked at a higher frequency, could perform a less demanding task with as much efficiency as ARM's smaller cores, eliminating the entire raison d'être behind installing such efficiency cores.

Of course, a chip's overall performance is a sum of many parts, with efficiency cores constituting just one part of the equation. Nonetheless, it is an incontrovertible fact that MediaTek's Dimensity chips have become substantially more competitive since 2023.

No MediaTek chip, however, is as competitive as the Dimensity 9500, which features an 8-core CPU:

1. 1 ARM C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.21 GHz with an L2 cache of 2MB
2. 3 ARM C1-Premium cores clocked at 3.50 GHz with a L2 cache of 1MB
3. 4 ARM C1-Pro cores clocked at 2.70 GHz

2 of 9

As such, the performance metrics for MediaTek Dimensity 9500 speak for themselves, with the chip managing to command a higher AnTuTu 10 score than Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, while remaining very competitive in Geekbench 6 scoring as well.

Samsung remains a stickler for efficiency cores

Samsung unveiled its Exynos 2500 chip in June 2025, while MediaTek unveiled the Dimensity 9500 in September 2025. Judging by the scoring difference (below) between the two SoCs, however, you'd think that they launched at least a year apart.

Samsung's Exynos 2500 not only wastes precious CPU resources by employing underpowered efficiency cores but also experiences low yields and thermal stability issues.

In my opinion, Samsung continues to suffer from what might be classified as pyrophobia of sorts: with Exynos chips having long remained synonymous with thermal throttling, Samsung's decision makers might have been conditioned to think that the employment of efficiency cores was a necessary ingredient to prevent a full-blown meltdown.

While that might have been true of Samsung's older nodes, its 2nm GAA process is surprisingly efficient, according to the recent anecdotal evidence. In fact, as per a report that came out earlier today, the Exynos 2600 has already achieved stable yields, with major gains in efficiency and thermal controls, to the tune of around 30 percent, and a significantly bolstered NPU for improved AI performance.

Moreover, as we reported recently, a leaked Geekbench 6 score (from a reputable source) for the as yet unreleased Exynos 2600 painted a fairly upbeat picture, with the SoC managing to secure a single-core score of 3,455 and a multi-core score of 11,621, essentially matching the performance of MediaTek Dimensity 9500 in the single-core category and far exceeding it in the multi-core one.

Just imagine how much better the Exynos 2600 would have performed if Samsung engineers had abandoned their proclivity for efficiency cores. This was not to be, however. Who knows, maybe Samsung would surprise us all with the Exynos 2700.

Key Takeaways:

1. Samsung won't be able to go toe-to-toe with Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon chips until it abandons efficiency cores.
2. Given the apparent efficiency of its 2nm GAA process, Samsung should worry less about thermal stability and more about eking out the last ounce of performance from the chip's cores, especially as this underperformance is costing Samsung bucket loads of money.
3. As per a recent estimate, Samsung would shell out $4 billion just to procure the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chips for the upcoming Galaxy S26 Ultra!

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