The new MediaTek Dimensity 9300 goes all in on power and generative AI

What you need to know

• MediaTek has announced its next chip for 2024, the Dimensity 9300, which uses an "All Big Core design" for enhanced performance and efficiency.
• The latest chip also utilizes large language models (LLM), such as the Meta Llama 2, for an AI boost in the modern-day industry.
• The Dimensity 9300 leverages generative AI features for usage with text, images, and music on phones arriving later in 2023 and into 2024.

MediaTek is moving into the next generation of phones with its newly revealed Dimensity 9300 chip. The newly revealed chip from the Taiwanese maker apparently features a "one-of-a-kind All Big Core" design, with four Arm Cortex-X4 cores clocked at a max speed of 3.25GHz and four Cortex-A720 cores clocking in at 2.0GHz. The chip is built on a 4nm process.

This differs significantly from Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, which uses just one prime X4 core, five performance cores, and two efficiency cores. However, MediaTek's design omits the efficiency cores completely while leaning heavily into the powerful prime cores.

Getting into the meat of things, MediaTek's Dimensity 9300 APU 790 AI processor is said to reduce power consumption by 45%. This is an even more significant reduction in energy usage when comparing it with last year's Dimensity 9200 chip. Moreover, the processor is "eight times faster" than its predecessor.

For gamers, MediaTek is leveraging the latest flagship Arm Immortalis-G720 in its new SoC. The company is hopeful it will "supercharge" mobile gamers as the chip boosts graphical performance by almost 46% while using no more power than its 2022 variant did. Additionally, the chip will also drop power consumption while gaming by around 40%. With the upgrade, Android phones utilizing the Taiwanese brand's SoC should see games run at 60fps.

The MediaTek Dimensity 9300 takes advantage of the generative AI advancements the industry has been striving for this year. Much like the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, the Dimensity 9300's APU 790 AI processor gains some much-needed help from the brand's AI ecosystem to allow it to leverage large language models (LLM) such as Meta Llama 2, Baichuan 2, Baidu AI LLM, and others.

With regard to Meta's Llama 2, we knew for quite some time the two companies were meeting to figure out a way to integrate the model into MediaTek's new chip. The company says such an AI tool will help the chip provide on-device generative AI features such as text, images, and music to users with the help of developers.

These AI advancements are also coming through with its camera upgrades, as it will detect primary and background objects in real-time. Alongside its MiraVision Picture Quality, the 9300 SoC can adjust contrast levels, sharpness, and color of the main object in your camera's focus. It'll additionally bring a sense of "depth" to your recordings.

MediaTek explains that the Dimensity 9300's photography and recording capabilities are furthered by utilizing a low-power AI-ISP and always-on HDR (up to 4K resolution) for 60fps videos. Real-time bokeh tracking and "professional-quality" bokeh enhancements are other perks of the chip's camera efforts.

Some more technical bits state the 2023 MediaTek chip supports LPDDR5T 9600Mbps memory. In terms of connectivity, the chip supports Wi-Fi 7 up to 6.5Gbps with MediaTek Xtra Range integration, which extends the range of connectivity for users.

MediaTek, unfortunately, didn't comment as to what phone brands consumers may find sporting its latest chip. However, the company states the first phones with the Dimensity 9300 SoC will begin arriving at the end of 2023 and into next year.