We’ve known MediaTek P-series for mid-range “premium” smartphones, and MediaTek X-Series for higher-performance mobile devices for a few years, but the company is now introducing G-series processors specifically designed for mobile gaming starting with MediaTek Helio G90 and G90T processors.
Both feature eight Arm Cortex-A76/Cortex-A55 cores clocked at up to 2.05GHz coupled with an Arm Mali-G76 3EEMC4 with speeds up to 800MHz, as well as “HyperEngine Game Technology”, an umbrella name covering multiple features we’ll cover further below.
MediaTek Helio G90T specifications:
- CPU – Arm Cortex-A76 plus Cortex-A55 octa-core up to 2.05GHz “with a large L3 cache”
- GPU – Arm Mali-G76 3EEMC4 with speeds up to 800MHz
- AI Acceleration – Up to 1TMACs AI Performance
- Memory – LPDDR3, LPDDR4x up to 2133MHz, 10GB RAM max
- Storage – eMMC 5.1, UFS 2.1
- Display – Up to 2520 x 1080
- Video
- Encoding – H.264, H.265 / HEVC @ 4K 30fps, FHD 120fps, HD 240fps
- Playback – H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP-9 @ 4K 30fps, FHD 120fps, HD 240fps
- Connectivity
- Cellular
- Technologies – Carrier Aggregation (CA), CDMA2000 1x/EVDO Rev. A (SRLTE), FDD / TDD LTE, HSPA+
- Specific Functions – 4X4 MIMO, 3XCA, 256QAM, TAS 2.0, HPUE, IMS (VoLTE\ViLTE\WoWi-Fi), eMBMS, Dual 4G VoLTE (DSDS), Band 71
- LTE Category – Cat-12 DL / Cat-13 UL
- GNSS – Beidou, Galileo, Glonass, GPS
- Wi-Fi – Wi-Fi 5 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac)
- Bluetooth 5.0
- FM Radio
- Cellular
- Camera
- ISP – 24MP+16MP, 48MP, 64MP
- Capture FPS – 64MP @ 22.5fps, 48MP @ 30fps; 24MP + 16MP @ 30fps
- Features – 3X ISP; AI Face Detection; HW depth engine; AINR; Single-Cam/Dual-Cam Bokeh; Hardware Warping Engine (EIS); Rolling Shutter Compensation (RSC) engine; MEMA 3DNR; Multi-Frame Noise reduction;
- Misc – CorePilot, NeuroPilot, Pump Express, Tiny Sensor Hub
- Process – 12nm FinFET
MediaTek did not think it would be useful to provide details about the differences between G90 and G90T, but all numbers above are for Helio G90T, so I’d expect it to be the fastest device, and Helio G90 CPU and GPU are likely clocked lower.
Back to the “HyperEngine Game Technology”. Here’s what if offers according to the press release:
- Networking Engine – If it detects the Wi-Fi signal degrading, it triggers Wi-Fi and LTE concurrency that takes just milliseconds, and keeps the network connection smooth and the game lag-free.
- Dual Wi-Fi Connections – Allows a single smartphone antenna to be connected to two Wi-Fi bands (2.4GHz/5GHz) or two routers simultaneously. It could just be RSDB (Real Simulatenous Dual Band).
- Call & Data Concurrency – When your smartphone receives a call it won’t drop the data connection, and you can defer a call without leaving the game.
- Rapid Response Engine – Uses touch acceleration to improve in-game action-to-display speeds so the game world is streamed and rendered fast and fluidly.
- Resource Management Engine – Intelligently directs device resources including CPU and GPU for optimum performance and automatically delivers smooth, fluid, high-performance frame rates in games.
- Picture Quality Engine – Supports the latest HDR10 standard with 10-bit color depth on HDR-enabled smartphone displays
MediaTek Helio G90 & G90T processors are said to be ideal for top titles such as Fornite, PUBG, or KOG.
MediaTek did not provide any details about the timing of commercial availability of end devices powered by MediaTek Helio G90/G90T processor. More details can be found in the product page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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2x CA76 + 6x CA55?
I had the same question.
I wonder if it’s the first time a SoC maker only talks about a “mix” of cores without more details about the split.
xda-dev indeed confirms 2xA76 (cf https://www.xda-developers.com/mediatek-helio-g90-series-hyperengine-game-technology-launched/).
I can see XDA also has the differences between G90 and G90T
* 2x ARM Cortex-A76 up to 2GHz vs 2x ARM Cortex-A76 up to 2.05GHz
* ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 up to 720MHz vs ARM Mali-G76 3EEMC4 up to 800MHz
Yes as reported around the net.
I thought the same. When they announce numbers that look obviously quad+quad like this but never mention it, this smells like marketing.
Mali GPU for a gaming SoC is a bit odd as a choice, Mediatek would have been better of going with PowerVR instead, they have a lot of GPU design just for this
Judging by the G52mp2 in the S922X, Mediatek might do fine with the G76mp4.
Who would want a PowerVR GPU?
Yes, PowerVR serie 9 is way more powerful than Mali with much better drivers also
Both PVR series 9 and Mali (I assume you mean Bifrost?) are extensive lineups of designs — from ultra-LP entry level to console-class designs. So which PVR9 is ‘way more powerful than’ which Mali?
I know but for the same die area, TDP and clock, powerVR is way more advanced than Mali, even features wise, you should take a look on their looseless vs loose compression technic totaly transparent managed by hardware, it saves bandwith up to 50% without noticeable degradation of picture quality, besides that their VPU is way more supported with good drivers for 10 bit HEVC playback, even if Mali support 10 bit they lack proper drivers support in the majority of cases
Can you point to a single benchmark or website that is showing real device comparison of PowerVR ? Looks like you’ve just taken the marketing spiel from the website,
I’m big fan of Simon F.’s original PVRTC, but the times when IMG were the sole vendor providing reasonable TC hw implementations are long gone. ASTC in its variants is an industry standard nowadays — the Android GLES extension pack 31A mandates ASTC LDR. BTW, both IMG’s and ARM’s (and all other I’m aware of) TCs are lossy — I’m not sure what you refer to by lossless TC. But more importantly, framebuffer compression is playing important role with increasing render target resolutions and framerate requirements (e.g. 120Hz displays and VR) and there ARM have a really solid solution in the form of AFBC + transaction elimination. To the best of my knowledge the only thing IMG have to offer there are overdraw savings from TBDR, but that does not work to the extent ARM’s solution does.
Helio G90 Antutu 7 benchmark: 222,282 points
https://www.cnx-software.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/helio-g90-antutu-7.jpg
Source: https://www.droidshout.com/mediatek-helio-g90-spotted-on-antutu-geekbench/
1.56x A311D’s CPU (but with half the big cores)
1.90x A311D’s GPU
Given how S922X/A311D is a top-of-the-line SBC SoC, these new MTs are formidable. Let’s see how they perform thermally.