Dimensity 9600 Pro: First Mobile Chip With H.266 Support
MediaTek has officially launched the Dimensity 9600 Pro, its latest flagship mobile SoC and the first smartphone chip to fully adopt Arm’s CSS for Mobile 2 platform.
Built on TSMC’s N2 2nm process, the Dimensity 9600 Pro combines an updated all-big-core CPU architecture with Arm’s next-generation GPU, dedicated neural acceleration, MediaTek’s NPU 1090, faster memory and storage interfaces, upgraded imaging capabilities, and expanded connectivity features.
The new chip also introduces H.266/VVC video codec support to MediaTek’s flagship platform for the first time, targeting more efficient high-resolution video storage and transmission.
🚀 2nm Process and CSS for Mobile 2 #
The Dimensity 9600 Pro succeeds the Dimensity 9500 and is aimed at high-end smartphones and tablets across the Android ecosystem.
Its biggest architectural change is the move to TSMC’s N2 2nm manufacturing process, combined with Arm’s CSS for Mobile 2 platform. The reference implementation includes a new CPU architecture, Mali G2-Ultra NX graphics, and dedicated neural acceleration capabilities.
The Dimensity 9600 Pro is the first mobile SoC to fully implement the CSS for Mobile 2 platform. Earlier designs, such as the Xiaomi 18 Fold’s Xring O3, adopted only the new Arm GPU component from the platform.
MediaTek says the combination of the new process technology and Arm’s updated microarchitecture delivers substantial performance and efficiency gains over the Dimensity 9500.
📈 CPU Performance and Efficiency #
The Dimensity 9600 Pro retains MediaTek’s all-big-core CPU strategy rather than adding traditional efficiency cores.
Its eight-core configuration consists of:
- 2× C2-Ultra cores at up to 4.55 GHz, each with 2MB of L2 cache
- 3× C2-Pro cores at up to 4.35 GHz, each with 1MB of L2 cache
- 3× C2-Pro cores at up to 3.1 GHz, each with 512KB of L2 cache
The CPU cluster includes 16MB of L3 cache. Combined with the 10MB System-Level Cache (SLC) in the system interconnect, total cache capacity excluding L1 reaches 34.5MB.
That is only slightly above the Dimensity 9500’s 33MB total, indicating that much of the generational improvement comes from architecture and process technology rather than a major increase in cache capacity.
According to MediaTek’s performance figures, the Dimensity 9600 Pro delivers:
- 17% higher single-core performance
- 15% higher multi-core performance
- 37% lower single-core power consumption
- 61% lower multi-core power consumption
MediaTek also reports a 40% increase in LLM token generation speed, while power consumption falls by 27% at equivalent token-generation performance.
SME2 Configuration #
Arm’s CSS for Mobile 2 reference platform uses two SME2 units in the CPU cluster to accelerate CPU-side AI workloads.
MediaTek confirmed that the Dimensity 9600 Pro instead integrates a single SME2 unit. The company indicated that CSS reference configurations are not mandatory and that Arm allows chip designers to adjust individual components to balance die area across the SoC.
This approach allows MediaTek to allocate silicon resources to other compute, graphics, AI, imaging, and connectivity functions.
💾 LPDDR6 and UFS 5.0 Bring Major I/O Upgrades #
The memory subsystem receives a significant upgrade with support for LPDDR6-12800.
MediaTek claims a 33% increase in theoretical memory bandwidth compared with the LPDDR5X-10667 interface used by the Dimensity 9500.
Storage also moves to the newer UFS 5.0 standard. MediaTek says the interface doubles read and write transfer rates compared with UFS 4.0.
The combination of faster memory and storage is particularly relevant to AI workloads, where models and datasets can place sustained pressure on memory bandwidth and storage throughput.
🎮 Mali G2-Ultra NX GPU Adds Neural Acceleration #
Graphics processing is handled by the Arm Mali G2-Ultra NX, another component originating from the CSS for Mobile 2 platform.
The Dimensity 9600 Pro features:
- 14 GPU cores
- 14 ray-tracing units
- 6 Neural Accelerators (NX)
The six NX units are fewer than the eight used by Arm’s reference platform. As with the CPU’s SME2 configuration, MediaTek has adjusted the reference design to accommodate its own die-area allocation strategy.
MediaTek reports a 27% increase in peak GPU performance while reducing power consumption by 24% at peak performance. Ray-tracing performance is also claimed to improve by 18%.
Neural Rendering Pipeline #
The NX accelerators are designed primarily for AI-assisted graphics technologies, including:
- Neural Super Sampling (NSS)
- Neural Super Sampling Denoising (NSSD)
- Neural Frame Rate Upsampling (NFRU)
These technologies allow the GPU to trade native rendering resolution, image quality, frame rate, and power consumption.
Arm says its neural rendering approach can reduce the number of natively rendered pixels to as little as one-eighth, with the remaining pixels generated through AI-based processing.
🧠 NPU 1090 Adds Dedicated AI Processing #
Beyond the neural accelerators integrated into the CPU and GPU, MediaTek equips the Dimensity 9600 Pro with its own NPU 1090.
The NPU consists of:
- 1 Performance Core
- 1 Flexible Core
The platform also incorporates eNPU 2.0, which connects to the sensor hub for low-power, always-on AI sensing applications.
This gives the SoC several layers of AI acceleration, ranging from CPU-side SME2 processing to GPU neural rendering and dedicated NPU workloads.
📷 Imagiq 1290 and New H.266/VVC Support #
The imaging subsystem uses MediaTek’s Imagiq 1290 ISP, which connects directly to the NPU through what MediaTek calls an AI Image Fusion Architecture.
Video capabilities include:
- 4K 120fps Log video recording
- 4K 240fps high-resolution slow motion
- H.266/VVC hardware codec support
The addition of H.266/VVC is one of the most notable media-related changes in the Dimensity 9600 Pro.
Why H.266 Matters #
H.266, also known as Versatile Video Coding (VVC), is designed as the successor to H.265/HEVC.
For comparable visual quality, VVC can significantly reduce the bitrate required for video. MediaTek cites potential bitrate reductions of roughly 30% to 50% compared with H.265/HEVC.
That makes the codec particularly relevant to high-resolution video applications, where bandwidth and storage requirements increase rapidly.
For smartphones, native H.266 support could eventually reduce the amount of storage required for high-quality video and lower bandwidth requirements when compatible services and playback hardware become widespread.
📡 Connectivity Gets a Broad Update #
The Dimensity 9600 Pro retains support for up to 5-carrier aggregation (5CA) on its 5G modem, with a theoretical peak downlink speed of 7.4 Gbps.
Bluetooth support also moves from Bluetooth 6.0 to Bluetooth 6.2.
The minimum connection interval can reach 375 microseconds, improving responsiveness for supported peripherals. The updated implementation also enhances the security of Channel Sounding, the Bluetooth technology used for ranging and positioning.
GNSS positioning receives an efficiency improvement as well, with MediaTek claiming up to 65% lower energy consumption in specific scenarios.
⚡ Performance Gains Span the Entire SoC #
Compared with the Dimensity 9500, MediaTek’s headline improvements include:
| Subsystem | Dimensity 9600 Pro Improvement |
|---|---|
| CPU single-core performance | +17% |
| CPU multi-core performance | +15% |
| CPU single-core power | -37% |
| CPU multi-core power | -61% |
| LLM token generation | +40% |
| Equivalent LLM performance power | -27% |
| Memory bandwidth | +33% |
| UFS storage speed | +100% |
| Peak GPU performance | +27% |
| Peak GPU power consumption | -24% |
| Ray tracing performance | +18% |
The figures illustrate MediaTek’s broader strategy: rather than focusing on a single CPU or GPU benchmark, the Dimensity 9600 Pro upgrades nearly every major subsystem.
🔬 A More AI-Centric Flagship SoC #
The Dimensity 9600 Pro represents a substantial expansion of AI acceleration throughout the mobile platform.
Its CPU includes SME2 support, the GPU adds dedicated Neural Accelerators, the NPU 1090 handles dedicated AI workloads, and eNPU 2.0 extends AI processing into the sensor subsystem.
At the same time, faster LPDDR6 memory, UFS 5.0 storage, upgraded imaging hardware, and H.266/VVC support address the data-intensive workloads generated by modern AI and multimedia applications.
The result is a flagship SoC that combines the Arm CSS for Mobile 2 architecture with MediaTek-specific configurations rather than simply reproducing Arm’s reference implementation.
📱 Dimensity 9600 Pro Targets the Next Flagship Generation #
With TSMC’s 2nm process, an all-big-core CPU, Mali G2-Ultra NX graphics, NPU 1090, LPDDR6-12800, UFS 5.0, advanced imaging, and first-generation H.266/VVC support, the Dimensity 9600 Pro brings upgrades across the entire mobile platform.
Its H.266 capability is especially notable because the codec’s potential 30% to 50% bitrate reduction could become increasingly valuable as smartphones move toward higher-resolution video capture and AI-generated media.
The bigger story, however, is the SoC’s system-level approach. MediaTek is combining faster general-purpose compute with increasingly specialized AI, graphics, imaging, memory, storage, and connectivity engines—making the Dimensity 9600 Pro a full implementation of Arm CSS for Mobile 2 rather than simply a new CPU or GPU design.