HSINCHU, September 15 — MediaTek announced its flagship Dimensity 9600 Pro system-on-chip on Tuesday, claiming the milestone of being the first company to announce a chip built on the new 2nm process node. The company, which describes itself as the world’s number one provider of mobile chipsets, said the Dimensity 9600 Pro combines flagship performance and power efficiency with advanced agentic AI experiences. The announcement positions the 2nm process node as the next generation of silicon for MediaTek’s Dimensity lineup.
The chip uses a 2+3+3 All Big Core CPU design: two C2-Ultra cores clocked up to 4.55GHz, three C2-Pro big cores at 4.35GHz and three C2-Pro big cores at 3.1GHz. MediaTek says this delivers up to 17% higher single-core performance and up to 15% higher multi-core performance than the previous generation, along with a 61% reduction in multi-core power consumption.
An upgraded Dimensity Scheduling Engine coordinates hardware and software to allocate computing, power and memory resources. The design is supported by a larger 34.5MB cache and, for the first time in the Dimensity line, LPDDR6 memory and UFS 5.0 storage.
Dual NPUs and the agentic pitch
For AI, the chip carries a dual-NPU architecture and an Agentic AI Engine. Its second-generation Super Efficient NPU cuts power consumption by 40% for always-on AI, while the NPU 1090 delivers 51% higher LLM prefill performance and 55% higher token generation per watt, supporting on-device models up to 30B parameters. MediaTek says this enables agentic capabilities such as smart analysis of on-device data, proactive assistance and personalized responses that learn user preferences and act like a digital twin.
An AI Computing Fusion Architecture brings the CPU and NPU together. JC Hsu, corporate senior vice president at MediaTek and general manager of the Wireless Communications Business Unit, said AI is central to the smartphone experience and devices need greater performance, efficiency and intelligence to keep pace with evolving user demands.
Gaming and imaging
Gaming is handled by the integrated G2-Ultra NX GPU, which MediaTek says delivers up to 27% higher peak performance, 24% lower power consumption at peak performance and 18% faster raytracing, for on-device gaming at up to 185fps. The new MediaTek Dimensity Neural Graphics Architecture combines GPU and AI computing, and MediaTek HyperEngine further optimizes gameplay. For imaging, the Dimensity 9600 Pro features the Imagiq 1290 ISP and a new Dimensity AI Imaging Fusion Architecture combining ISP and NPU capabilities.
It supports NPU-powered 60fps motion capture, introduces 4K240 native direct-output ultra-slow-motion video to the Dimensity platform, and adds 4K60 AI True Color Tone, 4K120 cinematic log and 17EV imaging. The source material also references the MediaTek Dimensity 9600M as bringing flagship experiences to additional devices, though details beyond that framing were not provided.
What to watch next is whether the 2nm claim holds up against rival announcements, and how quickly devices carrying the Dimensity 9600 Pro reach shelves.
