The last quarter of the year is usually the time when we get to see the future flagship chips from Qualcomm and MediaTek. While Qualcomm would usually announce first, it’s a different ball game in 2024 with MediaTek jumping the gun with the Dimensity 9400.

Made using a 3nm process like Apple’s A18 chips, the Dimensity 9400 follows the same CPU layout as its predecessor where MediaTek chose to use only big cores: a Cortex-X925 prime core running at 3.62Ghz, three Cortex-X4 cores, and four Cortex-A720 cores. This layout promises a 35% better single-performance and 28% better multi-core performance over the Dimensity 9300. Its use of a 3nm process promises as much as 40% better power efficiency, which should translate to better battery life.

Following recent trends in AI, the Dimensity 9400 has an 8th-generation NPU that supports on-device LoRA training and high-quality on-device video generation for improved generative AI performance. That being said, MediaTek claims that its new flagship chip is optimized for Google Gemini Nano with Multimodality.

When it comes to gaming, the Dimensity 9400’s 12-core ARM Immortalis-G925 GPU, promises up to 40% faster ray tracing performance, along with support for opacity micromaps (OMM) for realistic visual effects and up to a 41% peak performance boost with up to 44% power savings. Its Imagiq 1090 supports HDR video recording across the entire Zoom range, with its Smooth Zoom tech promising 14% better consumption at 4K60 video recording. The ISP supports up to a 320-megapixel single camera and up to 8K60 video recording.