While Qualcomm has indeed managed to grab attention with its new Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 processor, MediaTek has gotten applause for its renewed effort to develop a flagship chipset. This year, the war between Qualcomm and MediaTek is heated, as the Taiwanese chipmaker has put all its card on the table. So who is going to take the crown of the best Android processor this year? Well, to find the answer, we have compared Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Dimensity 9000 in this article. We have compared the CPU, architecture, GPU, modem, and more for these two flagship chipsets. So without any delay, let’s pit Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000 and find out the winner.

We have compared the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Dimensity 9000, keeping all the essential aspects in mind. From CPU and GPU to modem, we have covered everything in this comparison. You can expand the table below and move to any section you want.

  • Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: SpecificationsSnapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: CPUSnapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: GPUSnapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: ISPSnapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: AI and MLSnapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: Modem and Wireless Tech

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: Specifications

Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 vs Dimensity 9000: CPU

In this comparison between Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Dimensity 9000, let’s discuss the CPU first. There are many similarities between both the processors, right from the architecture to the core selection. Both the processors are built on the 4nm process technology. But Dimensity 9000 has used TSMC’s fabrication process, whereas Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is based on Samsung’s 4nm foundry. Besides that, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Dimensity 9000 are developed on ARM’s new Armv9 architecture that promises to deliver better performance, improved power efficiency, and security.

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has an octa-core CPU with ARM’s most powerful Cortex-X2 core clocked at 3.0GHz; three new Cortex-A710 cores clocked at 2.5GHz and four high-efficiency Cortex-A510 cores clocked at 1.8GHz. Similarly, the Dimensity 9000 takes advantage of ARM’s Cortex-X2 core, but it’s clocked a notch higher at 3.05GHz. Plus, three Cortex-A710 cores can go up to 2.85GHz, again a bit higher than A710’s 2.5GHz on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Finally, four new power-efficient A510 cores are clocked at 1.8GHz, just like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. As we can see, Mediatek is holding back no punches and going aggressive with both Cortex-X2 and the balanced A710 core in terms of core frequency.

Qualcomm says the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is 20% faster and 30% more power-efficient than its predecessor. On the other hand, MediaTek has not put forth any such figures in public. We will have to wait for the official benchmark numbers of both Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Dimensity 9000 before we deliver a conclusion.

However, if you want a rough estimate, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has scored 1035020 in the AnTuTu benchmark test whereas MediaTek Dimensity 9000 has scored 1007396, as per recent leaks. Going by the raw numbers and the AnTuTu leak, it’s clear that MediaTek seems to have finally built a flagship chip that can compete against Qualcomm’s best offering. In fact, it’s almost close to surpassing Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in synthetic tests.

Coming to the GPU front, Qualcomm is known for custom-designing the Adreno GPU, whereas MediaTek sticks to ARM’s Mali GPU. The GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 brings 30% faster performance with 25% less power draw than its predecessor, as per Qualcomm’s claims. On the other hand, Dimensity 9000’s Arm Mali-G710 GPU promises a performance boost of 20% than its predecessor, perhaps referring to the Mali-G77 GPU.

As far as the hardware is concerned, both Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Dimensity 9000 come with capable GPUs. However, we will have to wait to test out the sustained thermal performance, especially on MediaTek’s flagship chipset.

Note that both the processors have support for native Vulkan API, which is a good thing. One more thing to note here is that the GPU on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is capable of driving a 144Hz display (up to Quad-HD+ resolution), whereas the Dimensity 9000 SoC goes much higher with screens supporting up to 180Hz at Full HD+ resolution. It seems like the Dimensity 9000 has got a powerful GPU on its hand, but you should wait for our detailed review.

Of late, both the companies have improved their ISPs by leaps and bounds. The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comes with a new 18-bit ISP that can capture 3.2 Gigapixels in a second. In comparison, the 18-bit HDR ISP on the Dimensity 9000 can capture 9 Gigapixels per second. It’s unclear whether MediaTek is counting pixel data from all three cameras, which would result in a higher Gigapixel count. Nevertheless, both the ISPs are pretty performant, and you will have no issues as far as the camera experience is concerned.

Now moving to other camera features, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 can take 240 photos of 12MP resolution in one second. It also comes with a 5x enhancement in low-light photography and a dedicated engine for Bokeh video recording. Additionally, HDR videography has improved with four levels of dynamic range. Not to mention, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is capable of shooting 8K videos in HDR, which is amazing.

In terms of AI and ML performance, Qualcomm has been the leader in the Android smartphone segment. Qualcomm says the 7th-gen AI engine on the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 is four times more powerful than last year’s Snapdragon 888 while being 1.7x more power-efficient. In contrast, the Dimensity 9000’s 5th-gen AI processing unit (APU) is 4 times more power-efficient than its predecessor. In terms of performance, MediaTek says the AI performance is 50% to 90% faster than last year’s Snapdragon 888.

If we put these numbers into perspective, despite a substantial increase in AI performance, the MediaTek Dimensity 9000 is still behind Qualcomm’s 7th-gen AI Engine. We await to test both the processors on GeekBench ML in the Tensorflow Lite NNAPI test to find the actual scores. For now, we can say that these numbers will only make sense when OEMs bring a meaningful AI experience to the device.

Finally, we come to the connectivity part. Being the leader in radio technology, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 has the best 5G modem in town. It comes with an upgraded 5G modem that can go up to 10Gbps in peak download speed. It also supports a host of 5G features such as Carrier Aggregation, mmWave, and sub-6GHz bands.

Moving to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 comes onboard with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E. The Qualcomm processor also comes with Bluetooth 5.2 technology support. On the other side, the Dimensity 9000 has support for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3, and Bluetooth LE. In a way, the Dimensity 9000 is the first smartphone processor with support for the latest Bluetooth 5.3 standard.