One of the first rumors about the Tensor G2, the new chipset that will power the Pixel 7 series, revealed that the chip will keep the X1, A76 and A55 CPU cores (in a 2 + 2 + 4 configuration) like the original. Now developer Kuba Wojciechowski gives more credit to this claim by examining the details of a Geekbench result and other clues.
Same Cortex-X1 core as before (note: 3396 decimal = 0xD44 hex)
The Tensor G2 will reportedly be manufactured in Samsung’s 4nm process (the original chip came from Samsung’s 5nm foundries), which allowed for slight increases in CPU clock speeds. The two Cortex-X1 cores have the increased limit of 50 MHz to 2.85 GHz (although this peak is likely to be reached with only one active X1), the two Cortex-A76 cores achieved a greater increase of 100 MHz at 2.35 GHz, based on Geekbench data.
Yes, the G2 still uses the A76 cores, even though they were two generations before the release of the original Tensor (they have been replaced by the A77 and A78). And that’s not counting the new ARMv9 cores, which have replacements for all three cores: X3, A715, and an updated A510. Moving to ARMv9 took too much redesign.
Wojciechowski estimates that clock speed spikes can lead to a 10% (or so) improvement in multi-core and barely single-core performance. But the developer also points out that this may not be a bad thing – Geekbench only measures maximum performance, not sustained performance. And ARM’s recent projects have focused on delivering higher performance at the cost of more power and heat draw, which has created problems for phone makers.
Either way, it appears the CPU is the only part of the Tensor G2 that hasn’t changed much.
For starters, the Mali-G78 MP20 GPU will be replaced with the Mali-G710 we saw in the Dimensity 9000, for example. ARM claims the new GPU is 20% faster and 20% more efficient than the G78 for graphics rendering and 35% faster for machine learning tasks. The actual improvement will depend on the number of cores and the frequency, so it is yet to be determined.
Although the Tensor chip is named after the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), the GPU actually does a lot of the heavy lifting in the Google Camera processing pipeline. The TPU itself appears to be a second generation part, nicknamed Jaineiro. The Exynos-based ISP may also have been revamped. Overall, the new G2 chip could provide tangible improvements to image processing and AI tasks.
What’s more, the chipset will reportedly feature a new S5300 5G modem from Samsung, which will be based on NR Release 16. This promises better performance, stability and efficiency than previous Release 15 parts.
There are still some CPU-heavy tasks out there, but for tasks that matter to Google – after all, pixels are famous for their cameras – the new chip should be a marked improvement.
As for what’s to come next, the Tensor 3 is already in the works and rumored to be fabricated with Samsung’s new 3nm Gate-All-Around process.
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