Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: MediaTek Outshines Qualcomm in One Way

Qualcomm has finally launched the Snapdragon 8 Elite with the second-gen Oryon CPU and it looks impressive. Just last month, MediaTek also released its flagship Dimensity 9400 chipset. Now, we can finally analyze both chipsets in detail. From the CPU and GPU performance to even the NPU and ISP, both chipsets promise major improvements. So, we have pitted Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400 in our in-depth comparison below.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: Specs Comparison

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: CPU

Starting off with the CPU of the latest processors, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is built on TSMC’s 3nm (N3E) process node this time around. The Dimensity 9400 has no intentions of staying back and has upgraded to the same process node this year. For your reference, Apple’s A18 Pro is also developed on the same fabrication process.

As for cores, both are octa-core chipsets, with some notable differences in the core classification. The Snapdragon 8 Elite uses eight 2nd-Gen Oryon cores, with two Prime cores clocked up to 4.32GHz. Meanwhile, the six performance cores are capped at 3.53GHz. Both the Prime and Performance cores have separate access to 12MB of L2 cache, bringing the total L2 cache to 24 MB.

In comparison, the Dimensity 9400 is based on the newer Armv9.2 architecture and features eight CPU cores. The prime core, Arm Cortex-X925 clocks up to 3.63GHz and has access to a 2MB L2 cache. In addition, there are 3x Cortex-X4 cores that hit a maximum frequency of 3.3GHz with 1MB L2 cache. Finally, the 4x Cortex-A720 cores peak at 2.4GHz with 512KB of L2 cache. In addition, there’s also 12MB of L3 cache.

The difference is not much when you take a look at the Geekbench 6.3 scores of the chipsets, with the Snapdragon 8 Elite leading by around 10% in both single-core and multi-core tests.

Recently, the AnTuTu score of the Snapdragon 8 Elite leaked, running on the Realme GT 7 Pro, it achieving 3,025,991 points. On the other hand, the Vivo X200 Pro packing the Dimensity 9400 almost matched the performance, standing at 3,007,853 points. One thing is clear though, both the processors outperform the A18 Pro in multi-core tests, except in single-core where Apple still holds an edge.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: GPU

The Snapdragon 8 Elite uses the Adreno 830 GPU, which Qualcomm claims is 40% more powerful than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 while drawing 40% less power. Additionally, the Snapdragon 8 Elite improves the Ray Tracing performance by 37%. It has also gained support for Unreal Engine, Chaos Engine as well as Nanite.

On the other hand, the MediaTek Dimensity’s Mali-G925 Immortalis MP12 GPU promises something similar, claiming to deliver 40% better graphics performance while being 44% more power efficient. Further, the Dimensity 9400 is backed by MediaTek’s HyperEngine which brings Adaptive Gaming Technology 3.0, Super Resolution, and Frame Rate Converter to the table.

Most importantly, we also have a look at Geekerwan’s test results (visit) of the chipsets, and we see the Dimensity 9400 take a small leap ahead in the graphics-intensive 3DMark Steel Nomad Light test. To sum up, the Arm Immortalis-G925 GPU has a slight edge over the Adreno 830 GPU on Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: NPU

With improved chipsets, we are also seeing chipset makers evolve the NPU performance to deliver more AI performance, which is much needed. For starters, the Snapdragon 8 Elite comes with a powerful and improved Hexagon NPU, which is said to be 45% faster than the predecessor’s AI engine. Getting into specifics, it features a 6-core vector accelerator and an 8-core scalar accelerator which is ready to tackle on-device multimodal AI models and Generative AI applications.

On the other hand, the Dimensity 9400 sports MediaTek’s proprietary 8th-gen 890 NPU. According to MediaTek, the latest NPU brings support for high-quality on-device AI video generation, alongside being used to further train LoRA (Learned Rank Augmentation) image generation models. It also brings support for MoE LLMs along with support for Google’s Gemini Nano multimodal model.

Right now, it can’t be said which chipset’s NPU has the most caliber. But, as soon as we get our hands on devices running them, we’ll run a series of AI tests like Geekbench AI and update you right here.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: ISP & Connectivity

Moving on, both the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Dimensity 9400 sport improved ISPs this year. Qualcomm claims that its latest processor is about 33% faster than the last generation.

Meanwhile, MediaTek brings the Imagiq 1090 ISP to the table, which they claim, “is the only flagship chip that can enable HDR video capture throughout the entire zoom range, resembling a professional camera zoom lens, so there’s never a drop in quality.” However, both processors can capture up to 320 MP images and shoot videos up to 8K resolution at 60FPS.

In terms of connectivity options though, the Snapdragon 8 Elite offers a more future-proof Bluetooth 6.0 support in comparison to the Dimensity 9400’s Bluetooth 5.4. However, both chipsets offer support for Wi-Fi 7.

For 5G connectivity, the Snapdragon 8 Elite uses the Snapdragon X80 5G modem which also brings the Snapdragon Satellite support alongside. As per Qualcomm, the latest chipset can offer peak download speeds of up to 10 Gbps.

On the other hand, Dimensity 9400 uses the MediaTek 5G modem which is based on 3GPP Release 17 specifications and delivers up to 7 Gbps of peak download speeds. Only a series of 5G tests will showcase how good the chipsets actually are in real-life scenarios. We’ll get on top of those too as soon as we get our hands on the latest phones packing them, and update this section accordingly.

Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400: Final Thoughts

From the looks of it, we have reached a point in mobile performance where there’s very little difference in the latest and greatest chipsets. While the Snapdragon 8 Elite is definitely bonkers in terms of CPU performance, the MediaTek Dimensity 9400 is no less and offers slightly better GPU performance. At least, that’s what the initial test results and on-paper specifications showcase.

One thing is for sure though – Apple has to really buckle up and do something spectacular with its GPU next year. Samsung’s Exynos 2500 is also coming, and we’re excited to see what that has to offer against these chipsets. We will be running extensive benchmarks on all of these chipsets like we did for the Apple A18 Pro. So, stay tuned for those!

Meanwhile, do drop your thoughts in the comments down below on which you think is the more impressive chipset in our Snapdragon 8 Elite vs Dimensity 9400 comparison.