MediaTek Dimensity 8020 vs HiSilicon Kirin 9000 vs MediaTek Dimensity 1200

MediaTek Dimensity 8020

The MediaTek Dimensity 8020 is a ARM-based System-on-a-Chip (SoC) similar to the older Dimensity 1100. It was specifically designed for use in Android smartphones and falls into the mid-range category in terms of performance. It supports all current mobile network standards, including 5G with 2CC-CA (200MHz) and FDD+TDD.

The CPU consists of a total of eight cores divided into two clusters. One cluster has four ARM Cortex-A78 performance cores with speeds of up to 2.6 GHz, while the other cluster has four ARM Cortex-A55 power-efficient cores with speeds of up to 2.0 GHz. LPDDR4 RAM can be used as the memory, and it supports UFS 3.1 as the internal storage.

In terms of connectivity, it offers Dual-5G support, as well as Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

The integrated graphics unit, ARM Mali-G77 MC9, can power displays with a resolution of up to 2560 x 1080 and a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz (possibly only for Full HD+).

The chip is manufactured by TSMC using the current 6nm process in the mid-range segment.

HiSilicon Kirin 9000

The HiSilicon Kirin 9000 is an ARM based high-end octa-core SoC for smartphones and tablet, which was introduced with the Huawei P40 Pro. It integrates eight CPU cores in three clusters. A single high performance ARM Cortex-A77 cores with up to 3.13 GHz for fast single core performance. Three more performance cores (same Cortex-A77 architecture) with up to 2.54 GHz and four efficiency cores based on the ARM Cortex-A55 architecture with up to 2.05 GHz. All 8 cores can be used at once (big.LITTLE).

The integrated graphics card is using the Mali-G78 architecture and features all 24 cores (G78MP24).

For AI acceleration (NPU), the Kirin 9000 integrates the Da Vinci Architecture 2.0 (2 * Ascend Lite and 1 * Ascend Tiny). Huawei specifies 8 MB of system cache (most likely shared for CPU, GPU and AI) and can access LPDDR4X and LPDDR5 main memory. The integrated 5G modem supports SA&NSA, Sub-6G and mmWave. WiFi 6 including VHT160 and Bluetooth 5.2 are also integrated in the chip.

The CPU performance is in the top tier of mobile SoCs of 2020 and slightly above the Snapdragon 865+ and on a level with the older Apple A13 Bionic SoC.

The Kirin 9000 is produced at TSMC in the modern 5nm process.

MediaTek Dimensity 1200

The Mediatek Dimensity 1200 (MT6893) is a high-end SoC with an integrated 5G modem. It includes three CPU clusters. One fast ARM Cortex-A78 at up to 3 GHz with 2x L2 cache, 3 additional A78 with up to 2.6 GHz and for power efficiency four ARM Cortex-A55 cores at up to 2 GHz.

Furthermore, the chip integrates a 9 core ARM Mali-G77 MC9 GPU, a Wi-fi 6 modem (ax), a LPDDR4x memory controller (up to 5266Mbps), a AI processing unit (APU 3.0 with 6 cores) and video de- and encoding (including AV1).

The chip is manufactured in the modern 6nm process and should be very power efficient.