MediaTek's new flagship Dimensity 1200 detailed explanation: Can the Snapdragon 888 stand on the high end when it "turns over"?

On January 20, 2021, MediaTek held an online press conference for Dimensity's new products and officially released a new generation of flagship 5G chips, Dimensity 1200.

Compared with the previous generation of Dimensity 1000 series, the new generation of Dimensity 1200 has greatly improved in CPU/GPU performance, 5G, AI, camera, video, games, etc., which is expected to help MediaTek further stabilize the high-end market.

First TSMC 6nm EUV process

As we all know, the Dimensity 1000 series launched by MediaTek in 2019 is based on TSMC’s 7nm process, while the Dimensity 1200/1100 is the first to use TSMC’s 6nm EUV process.

According to TSMC’s data, compared with the 7nm process, its 6nm EUV process has increased the transistor density by 18%, which also means that its performance has increased by about 18%, or the core area can be maintained with the same number of transistors. Reduced by 18%, the power consumption and cost can be further reduced.

TSMC’s data shows that under the same performance conditions, the 6nm EUV process can reduce power consumption by 8% compared to 7nm.

Of course, the 6nm EUV process is slightly inferior in performance and power consumption compared to the 5nm EUV process currently mass-produced by TSMC, but the gap is not large and it has a cost advantage. According to industry sources, Dimensity's next-generation flagship will also use TSMC's 5nm process.

3.0GHz Cortex-A78 super core

In order to hit the high-end flagship market, since the previous generation of the Dimensity 1000 series, MediaTek has begun to focus on creating a new flagship processor.

To this end, MediaTek greatly improved the performance of the Dimensity 1000 series CPU and GPU, not only directly adopted four ARM Cortex-A77 cores + four Cortex-A55 configurations, making Dimensity 1000 series the world's first Based on the Cortex-A77 quad-core chip, the CPU performance far exceeds the competition.

At the same time, Dimensity 1000 also made the world's first ARM's latest Mali-G77 GPU at the time, which integrates 9 cores, making Dimensity 1000 series far superior to competing products in GPU performance.

Similarly, the new Dimensity 1200/1100 launched by MediaTek has also been greatly improved in CPU and GPU performance.

Dimensity 1200 adopts 1+3+4 flagship three-plex architecture design in the CPU core architecture, including an ARM Cortex-A78 super-large core with the main frequency of up to 3.0GHz, which further improves the performance of the single-core.

The data shows that compared to the previous generation Cortex-A77, Cortex-A78's architecture performance has increased by 7%, power consumption has been reduced by 4%, cores have been reduced by 5%, and the quad-core cluster area has been reduced by 15%.

The focus of Cortex-A78 itself is also on the balance of performance, power consumption and area, which helps to improve the battery life of 5G mobile phones. Although it seems that the performance improvement is not large, it will be further amplified under the blessing of advanced process technology.

According to the data released by MediaTek, with the support of the 3.0GHz super core, the cold start speed of the Dimensity 1200 in many applications has increased by 9% to 25% compared with the flagships of friends.

As for why not use ARM’s current strongest Cortex-X1 core as the super-large core, I guess MediaTek may also consider the power consumption of 5G mobile phones more. For example, the flagship processor based on the ARM Cortex-X1 ultra-large core that has been on the market recently has been exposed to the problem of power consumption.

In addition to the 3GHz Cortex-A78 super core, the Dimensity 1200 also has three Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 2.6GHz, and four small A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz.

According to data released by MediaTek, the overall performance of the Dimensity 1200 CPU is 22% higher than the previous generation Dimensity 1000+, and the energy efficiency is increased by 25%.

In terms of GPU configuration, Dimensity 1200 is consistent with the previous generation Dimensity 1000 series, which is still Mali-G77 MC9. Although the configuration has not changed, but with the blessing of 6nm EUV technology, the frequency has increased.

According to official data, the performance of the Dimensity 1200 GPU has increased by 13% compared to the previous generation.

5G network experience is further enhanced

As one of the few 5G chip suppliers in the world, MediaTek is also very strong in communication technology.

The Dimensity 1000 launched at the end of 2019 has won multiple firsts in 5G performance: the world’s first 5G single chip supporting 5G dual-carrier aggregation, and the world’s fastest 5G single chip (downstream peak rate up to 4.7Gbps, uplink The peak rate can reach 2.5Gbps), the world’s first 5G single chip supporting 5G+5G dual card dual standby, the world’s first 5G single chip with integrated Wi-Fi 6, the world’s most energy-efficient 5G baseband, and the world’s strongest GNSS satellite Positioning navigation system.

According to Li Yanji, deputy general manager of MediaTek’s wireless communications division, the Dimensity 1200 released this time has also maintained a continuous leadership in 5G, supporting independent (SA) and non-independent (NSA) networking modes, and full frequency bands (including Global new 5G frequency band) + 5G dual-carrier aggregation (2CC CA), dynamic spectrum sharing (DSS), MediaTek 5G UltraSave power-saving technology, and dual card 5G standby and dual card VoNR voice services under the 5G SA/NSA dual-module network.

The measured data provided by MediaTek shows that the downward speed in dense urban and suburban areas is more than twice faster than that of competing flagships, and the downward speed in urban areas is also 25% faster than competing flagships.

In addition, in order to create a panoramic full-time seamless 5G connection experience, the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 supports 5G high-speed rail mode (which can stabilize the downlink rate above 400Mbps), 5G elevator mode and other application modes.

Through intelligent scene perception, fast signal capture and tracking, intelligent network search and network stationing, the terminal have efficient and stable 5G performance, combined with MediaTek 5G UltraSave power-saving technology to bring lower power consumption 5G communication.

According to data released by MediaTek, the light-load power consumption of the Dimensity 1200 5G baseband in SA and NSA modes is 40% and 35% lower than the flagships of friends, and the power consumption of the heavy load is 46% lower than the flagships of friends. And 43%.

6-core APU 3.0 blessing to enhance AI multimedia experience

The AI ​​performance of mobile processors has been a focus of attention by mobile processor manufacturers in recent years. And MediaTek began to make efforts in this area very early and achieved good results.

As early as 2018, MediaTek took the lead in integrating APU (AI processor: Artificial intelligence Processing Unit) 1.0 in its Helio P60 chip, which strengthened the AI ​​performance of the chip, and then this chip quickly gained success in the market.

After tasting the sweetness, MediaTek continued to increase its weight and further upgraded to APU 2.0 on the Helio P90 released at the end of 2018. At that time, MediaTek also successfully sent the Helio P90 to first place in the AI ​​Benchmark of the Zurich Institute of Technology with its APU 2.0.

Similarly, at the end of 2019, MediaTek’s new flagship mobile chip Dimensity 1000 series APU was further upgraded to the APU 3.0 version. For the first time, it adopted a multi-core architecture with 2 large cores + 3 small cores + 1 small core. Reached 2.5 times of the previous APU 2.0, while the energy efficiency increased by 40%. With the improvement of AI performance brought by APU 3.0, MediaTek Dimensity 1000 has once again topped the AI ​​Benchmark rankings.

Of course, AI's running score is only a manifestation of AI hardware performance. More importantly, how to use AI hardware performance to bring users more improvements in actual experience. In this regard, users are paying more and more attention to the effects of multimedia such as taking pictures and video recording of mobile phones, which naturally becomes the focus of AI.

This time, although the Dimensity 1200 released by MediaTek also uses APU 3.0, thanks to the blessing of the 6nm EUV process and the optimization of software and hardware, the APU3.0 of the Dimensity 1200 is compared with the AI ​​of the previous generation Dimensity 1000 series. Energy efficiency has improved again, further releasing AI's capabilities in multimedia.

According to data released by MediaTek, the APU performance of the Dimensity 1200 is 45% to 90% higher than the flagships of friends in various tests.

In terms of taking pictures, Dimensity 1200 can support up to 200 million pixels to take pictures; in terms of video recording, Dimensity 1200 can support AV1 video encoding format, supporting leading chip-level single-frame progressive 4K HDR video technology (Staggered HDR), That is, when users to record 4K video, they can perform 3 exposure fusion processing for each frame, so that the video quality has an excellent dynamic range, and the color, contrast, detail and other aspects are significantly improved.

So what kind of help can the APU 3.0 equipped with Dimensity 1200 bring to photo and video recording?

According to MediaTek, APU 3.0 can give full play to the advantages of mixed precision, flexibly use integer precision and floating-point precision arithmetic, and achieve higher AI application energy efficiency.

For example, in terms of taking pictures, MediaTek also works with Hongsoft’s AI algorithm, combined with MediaTek’s APU multi-task scheduling mechanism, and through the high integration of AI technologies such as AI noise reduction, AI exposure, and AI object tracking, it can bring users "rapid night shooting" and "Super panoramic night shooting" and other new camera experiences.

Real shot effect comparison

In addition, MediaTek has also joined hands with Jigan Technology, through the AI ​​multi-person real-time segmentation technology, it can also achieve multi-person background replacement, multi-passenger removal and other mobile phone video shooting special effects.

MediaTek also brought AI video technologies such as AI multi-person blurring, multi-depth-of-field smart focus, and AI streaming media image quality enhancement, bringing more innovative possibilities for vlog creation and live broadcasting.

In addition, combined with Dimensity 1200 HDR10+ video coding technology and AI-SDR technology, it can output Staggered HDR video effects in full, bringing users a more amazing end-to-end cross-screen HDR experience.

HyperEngine 3.0 makes the game more enjoyable

In recent years, the popularization of smartphones and 4G mobile networks has greatly promoted the development of online multiplayer mobile games. The data also shows that there are currently more than 2.2 billion mobile game users worldwide, which shows the huge market potential. Especially with the popularity of "Honor of Kings" and various "Chicken Eating" mobile games, users are paying more and more attention to the game performance and experience of mobile phones. Many mobile phone manufacturers have entered the gaming mobile phone market one after another. For example, Black Shark, Nubia Red Devils, and Asustek have launched special gaming mobile phones.

In this context, at the end of July 2019, MediaTek also launched its first gaming phone chip-Helio G90T, together with the chip-level game optimization engine technology HyperEngine, including network optimization engine, intelligent load control engine, control Optimize the engine and image quality optimization engine to enhance the game experience in all aspects.

Subsequently, MediaTek introduced the HyperEngine to the Dimensity 1000 series, and further upgraded to the latest HyperEngine 2.0 version. The game optimization engine of the Dimensity 1200 launched this time has been upgraded to the latest HyperEngine 3.0, bringing industry-leading innovations in the four core features of network optimization engine, control optimization engine, intelligent load control engine, and image quality optimization engine. technology.

For example, in terms of network optimization, a mobile phone equipped with Dimensity 1200 can realize dual-sim simultaneous game calls under a 5G network connection. Users can receive calls from the secondary card while the main card is playing mobile games, and the game continues to be online.

The newly launched super hotspot and high-speed rail game modes can optimize the network for different game environments, effectively reducing game network latency and lag.

At the same time, the Dimensity 1200 has also been certified by TUV Rheinland for high-performance gaming network connection and has passed 6 dimensions and 72 scenarios of test items, fully covering the entire networked gaming experience. Dimensity 1200 is also the world's first mobile phone chip that has passed the TUV Rheinland high-performance gaming network connection certification.

In terms of control optimization, for the high frame rate screens currently preferred by mobile game users, the control engine of HyperEngine 3.0 allows the multi-finger touch time report to maintain a stable high frame operation.

In addition, Dimensity 1200 is also the first to support the Bluetooth LE Audio (Bluetooth Low Energy Audio) standard. Compared with the traditional TWS true wireless Bluetooth headset, it can be expanded to dual-channel streaming audio. Combined with MediaTek’s optimization, the terminal And TWS headphones get lower latency and extend the battery life of the headphones.

In terms of image quality optimization, the image quality optimization engine of HyperEngine 3.0 can achieve HDR+-level image quality optimization with zero power consumption. At the same time, MediaTek also deploys the key graphics technology-Ray Tracing, which will end-game level The introduction of game rendering technology into mobile terminals can provide game manufacturers, developers, and terminals with powerful graphics processing capabilities, bring mobile game players comparable real game screens and lead the trend of mobile terminal graphics technology.

In terms of load control, the intelligent load control engine of HyperEngine 3.0 adds high brush power saving for games (12% power saving), smart healthy charging (effective temperature control and lower temperature by 3℃), Wi-Fi 6 power-saving mode (saving Power up to 28mA), designed to balance performance and power consumption, extend battery life and battery life.

There is also a low-profile version of Dimensity 1100

It is worth mentioning that in addition to the Dimensity 1200, MediaTek also launched a low-profile version of the Dimensity 1100. The main difference is that the 3.0GHz super core is removed and replaced by a 2.6GHz quad-core A78+2.0GHz quad-core A55. In addition, the GPU clock speed is also slightly lower, and the camera supports up to 108 million pixel photography, and the performance of APU 3.0 is also slightly lower by 12.5%. In addition, Dimensity 1100 only supports FHD + 144Hz screen refresh rate, while Dimensity 1200 can support FHD + 168Hz.

Can Dimensity 1200 stand firm in the high-end market?

Although MediaTek Dimensity 1000 was directly targeted at Qualcomm’s flagship platform Snapdragon 855 series when it was released, and it was superior to its competitors in all indicators, but MediaTek’s past 4G chips were mostly used in low-end Models, lack of brand support in the high-end flagship mobile phone market, coupled with the fact that mobile phones using Dimensity 1000 were not released in time, people once doubted its 5G market capabilities. MediaTek also quickly adjusted its strategy and launched the new Dimensity 1000+ in May 2020. Although the hardware parameters have not changed, the software has undergone a comprehensive upgrade, further enhancing its competitiveness as a 5G flagship platform.

Subsequently, Dimensity 1000+ was soon adopted by iQOO Z1, Realme X7 Pro, Redmi K30 Supreme Commemorative Edition, OPPO Reno5 Pro and other products. The Honor V40 to be released in the near future also uses Dimensity 1000+.

It is particularly worth mentioning that in the previous OPPO Reno3 series, Reno3 is equipped with Dimensity 1000L, priced at 3399 yuan; Reno 3 Pro is equipped with Qualcomm Snapdragon 765G, priced at 3999 yuan. The OPPO Reno5 released not long ago is equipped with Snapdragon 765G, priced at 2699 yuan; Reno5 Pro is equipped with Dimensity 1000+, priced at 3399 yuan.

It can be seen that OPPO's product positioning difference between the Dimensity 1000 series and the Snapdragon 765 has changed in the Reno5 series. And this seems to reflect OPPO's recognition of the flagship positioning of the Dimensity 1000 series.

Thanks to the success of the Dimensity series, according to the data released by Dr. Xu Jingquan, Vice President and General Manager of the Wireless Business Unit of MediaTek, mobile phone chip shipments in the third quarter of 2020 have become the world's first. By the end of last year, Dimensity’s 5G mobile platform shipments had exceeded 45 million units, helping MediaTek to become the world’s largest 5G smartphone chip manufacturer.

After Dimensity 1000+ successfully entered the high-end market last year, the more powerful Dimensity 1200 launched by MediaTek is expected to further stabilize the high-end market.

Since last year, affected by the continuous suppression of Huawei by the United States, domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo have also had to pay more attention to supply chain security and have begun to change the situation of excessive reliance on Qualcomm chips in mid-to-high-end product lines. MediaTek’s The Dimensity series has naturally become a good choice.

Especially in recent days, the United States has also included Xiaomi on the list of companies owned or controlled by the Chinese military (MEU list). Although from the current point of view, Xiaomi’s continued purchase of Qualcomm’s mobile phone chips may not be affected, but this move will It will force Xiaomi to find ways to reduce its dependence on American components in order to deal with more severe sanctions from the United States that it may face in the future. At the same time, the inclusion of Xiaomi in the EMU list in the United States will inevitably aggravate OPPO, Vivo and other Chinese mobile phone manufacturers' concerns about such risks, forcing them to make corresponding countermeasures in advance to deal with possible risks.

Therefore, in this context, from the perspective of strengthening supply chain security, domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo will inevitably further reduce their dependence on American components. This also means that Qualcomm, the dominant player in the mid-to-high-end mobile phone chip market, will be directly affected, and MediaTek, another major mobile phone chip manufacturer, will benefit from it.

In addition, from the perspective of market competition, as Huawei’s mobile phones are limited by Kirin chip manufacturing and third-party 5G chip procurement, which has led to a sharp decline in market share, domestic manufacturers such as Xiaomi, OPPO, and Vivo want to get more With more market share vacated by Huawei, it is necessary to provide more differentiated and market-competitive product portfolios. Especially in the high-end flagship mobile phone market, the only flagship 5G chips currently available are Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 and Dimensity 1200. If domestic mobile phone manufacturers want to reduce their dependence on Qualcomm, the Dimensity 1200 will naturally become a preferred solution.

Although in terms of chip specifications, the Snapdragon 888 based on Samsung's 5nm process and the Cortex-X1 super core is indeed slightly higher than the Dimensity 1200, but from the current market feedback, Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 is in power consumption. There has been a "rollover" when running large games, there will be a frequency reduction problem, and the performance will drop to a level equivalent to the previous generation Snapdragon 865. Outsiders questioned that Samsung's 5nm process might even be inferior to TSMC's 7nm.

Therefore, at the moment when Snapdragon 888 was exposed to the power consumption "rollover" problem, for the MediaTek Dimensity 1200 based on TSMC's 6nm process, it is undoubtedly an opportunity to seize the high-end market.

It is worth noting that the current wafer foundry capacity continues to be in short supply, and many chip supply problems have appeared. For mobile phone brand manufacturers, maintaining a sufficient and stable supply of mobile phone chips is also the key to competing for market share.

According to Xinzhixun, a large part of the supporting power management IC required for the shipment of Qualcomm's Snapdragon series of chips was handed over to SMIC's 8-inch factory line. According to industry analysis, Qualcomm orders at least 600,000 power management IC wafers at SMIC every year, accounting for almost 40% of Qualcomm's own supply. However, in December of last year, the United States included SMIC on the list of entities. Although SMIC stated that it would not have a significant adverse effect on the mature process, company operations, and financial conditions in the short term, it would not be necessary to obtain the mature process The licensing of equipment and components and mature manufacturing processes may also be affected, which will also affect the supply of Qualcomm power management ICs.

A few months ago, Qualcomm had already actively started to transfer orders. However, due to the full capacity of other foundries, it was not reported until December last year that UMC received an order for Qualcomm’s power management IC, but UMC The 8-inch capacity itself is always in full production, so Qualcomm may also have difficulty getting enough capacity. And since the supporting power management ICs required for 5G mobile phones are significantly increased compared to 4G mobile phones, the power management IC production capacity required by Qualcomm is also significantly increased compared to the past.

Therefore, from the perspective of supply, Qualcomm may have the problem of insufficient power management IC supply in the future, resulting in limited shipments of Snapdragon processors. In contrast, MediaTek’s 5G power management chips are mainly manufactured by UMC. In order to deal with the problem of insufficient production capacity of power management ICs, MediaTek also began to look for other suppliers very early. At the end of last year, there was news in the industry that MediaTek Has achieved a large number of Power Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's 12-inch power management IC wafer production capacity.

Regarding this year's 5G market, Dr. Xu Jingquan, vice president and general manager of the Wireless Business Unit of MediaTek, said that this year there will be more than 200 operators worldwide providing 5G services, and it is expected that the shipment of 5G mobile phones will reach 500 million units. Therefore, MediaTek is also very optimistic about the market performance of the Dimensity series of 5G chips this year.

According to previous reports from Taiwanese media, MediaTek’s orders for 5G mobile phone chips have increased substantially thanks to the large increase in orders from mainland mobile phone manufacturers such as OPPO, vivo, and Xiaomi. In order to ensure supply, it is reported that MediaTek has expanded TSMC’s 7nm and 6nm production in the first quarter of this year. It is expected that TSMC’s 7nm and 6nm production will reach 110,000 in the first quarter. Based on this estimate, it is expected that in the first half of 2021, MediaTek's Dimensity series 5G chip shipments will reach 80 to 90 million sets, or it will reach 1.6 to 1.8 times the 2020 annual shipments.

On the whole, MediaTek’s Dimensity 1200 and Qualcomm Snapdragon 888/865 have already occupied the right place in the high-end smartphone market competition (Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 power consumption rollover, the United States continues to restrict American products and technology The supply of some Chinese companies and the supply guarantee of MediaTek have been completed). Next, it depends on the terminal performance of the mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi, Vivo, OPPO, Realme, and so on at the MediaTek platform.

It is worth noting that at the press conference, Lu Weibing, President of Xiaomi Group, President of China, and General Manager of Redmi Brand, said that Redmi will first launch the new platform of Dimensity flagship core. In addition, Realme executives also stated that Realme will be the first to launch a new flagship mobile phone brand based on Dimensity.