Arm shows off new Lumex CPU cores and Mali G1-Ultra GPU for smartphone SoCs
Arm has shown off its new CPU and GPU cores for smartphone SoCs launching in 2025-26. MediaTek's Dimensity 9500 is tipped to be one of the first to use them, likely to be followed by Samsung's Exynos 2600. This time, Arm has completely overhauled its CPU and GPU naming schemes, replacing familiar terms like Cortex and Mali with more streamlined, albeit confusing, alternatives.
Arm Lumex
For starters, the smartphone SoC cores will be classified into four categories: Lumex C1-Ultra, Lumex C1-Premium, Lumex-C1 Pro and Lumex C1-Nano. The C1-Ultra is the spiritual successor to the Cortex-X925, while the C1-Premium and C1-Pro are 'middle' cores (successors to the Cortex-A725), and the C1-Nano is the new Cortex-A520. The chipmaker showcased a reference design featuring two Lumex C1-Ultra cores, supplemented by a six-core Lumex-C1 Pro cluster. This may be our first glimpse of the Dimensity 9500.
On the performance front, Arm claims the Lumex C1-Ultra is up to 25% faster than the Cortex-X925, while the Lumex C1-Pro boasts 12% higher power efficiency compared to the Cortex-A725, thanks to 'double-digit' gains in IPC. Its main competitors include successors to Apple's Everest and Sawtooth cores, found on the A19/A19 Pro, and Qualcomm's next-gen Nuvia cores, tipped to debut alongside the Snapdragon 8 Elite 2/Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The Lumex C1-Ultra, Lumex C1-Pro, Lumex C1-Premium and Lumex C1-Nano all arrive with Arm's newest v9.3 architecture. Its most notable change is the addition of the SME2 (Scalable Matrix Extension) instruction set. Arm claims that SME2 can result in up to a 5x performance uplift in AI-driven workloads, while being 3x more power-efficient.
Arm Mali G1-Ultra
The Immortalis branding for Arm GPUs has been replaced with Ultra, with no indication of what lower-end SKUs will be called. An earlier Dimensity 9500 Geekbench listing already showed off the new name. Arm claims the Mali G1-Ultra offers a 20% improvement in raw performance and a 2x increase in ray tracing prowess, resulting in up to a 40% increase in FPS.
While that sounds great on paper, the competition is fierce this time. Along with Apple's GPUs, there are Qualcomm's Adreno 840 and Samsung's Xclipse 950, which may be the Korean chipmaker's first in-house offerings in recent years. Arm hasn't specified exactly when the above parts will debut, but if recent leaks are accurate, it shouldn't be long.
Source(s)
Arm
