New leak says the Pixel 9's Tensor G4 chip is a minor upgrade

Google’s upcoming Pixel 9 series is set to include a series of upgrades in both the hardware and feature department, but that doesn’t necessarily include the Tensor G4 chip. Not in the way some people might think or hope.

One thing is basically certain. The Pixel 9 series will use the Tensor G4 chip. But it won’t be much of an upgrade it seems. A new leak suggests that the Tensor G4 will be more of a minor upgrade and not really deliver heaping boosts of performance compared to the Tensor G3. While it’s too early to make any real judgments until devices have been used and tested, this doesn’t exactly scream excitement.

If the chip is indeed only a minor upgrade, then that seems like a far cry from the term “game-changing” that Google used in its promotional materials which leaked back on July 25. This doesn’t mean the new Tensor G4 won’t deliver better performance. It is an upgrade so the performance should be better. How much better is what’s likely going to be in question now until people can get their hands on the new phone.

Pixel 9 Tensor G4 chip will use a new ARM cortex arrangement

Google’s new Tensor G4 chip may or may not be disappointing for performance enthusiasts. Here’s what’s rumored so far based on the new leak. The Tensor G4 is using a new Cortex core arrangement that includes the Cortex-A520, the Cortex-A720, and the Cortex-X4. These are a slight step up from the Pixel 8’s Cortex-A510, Cortex-A715, and Cortex-X3 setup.

The leak, which comes from Android Authority (spotted by Android Central), states that clock speeds will be higher but not by much. Noting that this could impact the multi-core performance due to the arrangement having one less total core than the chip in the Pixel 8 series phones.

The Tensor G4 uses the same GPU

While the core setup uses new core models, the GPU is apparently going to stay the same. It’ll be using the Mali-G715 GPU with a slightly higher clock speed of 940 MHz. This should still result in better graphics rendering performance but it might only be marginally better. Google’s Pixel 8 isn’t terrible at rendering graphics in games or any other apps. However, it wasn’t exactly on par with the industry’s most powerful flagships either.

Time will tell whether or not the Tensor G4 is truly “game-changing” or not.