MediaTek is apparently going all-out on performance for its upcoming Dimensity 9600 flagship chip, as evidenced by recent reports that suggest the new mobile SoC will incorporate 2 ultra-large ARM CPU cores for the first time ever.
MediaTek Dimensity 9600 appears to be emulating the 2+3+3 CPU architecture of Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip
The Weibo-based tipster, Digital Chat Station, has disclosed that the Dimensity 9600 chip will feature a 2+3+3 configuration of CPU cores (translated via Google):
"🐔🐉 Currently, all phones using this model are TSMC N2P processors, featuring a 2+3+3 dual-core all-large-core architecture. The new phones will most likely debut in September.
Let's bet ahead of time: which one do you think will be stronger this generation?"
While the post does not explicitly mention MediaTek, in Chinese tech circles, the chicken head emoji is often used to refer to the chipmaker due to a pun on the company's given Chinese name.
Coming back, Digital Chat Station reiterates that the new chip, likely to be Dimensity 9600, will leverage TSMC's N2P process, which bestows a performance boost of between 5 percent and 10 percent relative to the N2 node.
The fact that MediaTek has largely given up on efficiency cores within its flagship chip architecture means that the chip designer wants to extract every ounce of efficiency that TSMC's bleeding-edge nodes can offer.
Critically, the Weibo-based tipster believes the chip will sport CPU cores in a 2+3+3 configuration, featuring two Ultra ARM cores for the first time ever, and emulating the expected core configuration of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chip. This means that the CPU core configuration within the Dimensity 9600 is likely to look something like this:
- 2x ARM C2-Ultra core
- 3x ARM C2-Premium cores
- 3x ARM C2-Pro cores
For context, MediaTek's current-gen Dimensity 9500 chip features the following CPU architecture:
- 1 ARM C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.21 GHz with an L2 cache of 2MB
- 3 ARM C1-Premium cores clocked at 3.50 GHz with a L2 cache of 1MB
- 4 ARM C1-Pro cores clocked at 2.70 GHz
Elsewhere, the Dimensity 9600 chip is expected to adopt ARM's new flagship GPU, which is likely to be announced in September 2026 as the Mali-G2 Ultra, and would span over 10+ cores, with mandatory ray tracing. Head over to our dedicated hub page to find out detailed information about MediaTek's upcoming flagship chip.
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