Google did not touch on the technical specifications of the Tensor G3 at the presentation of the new smartphones, but constantly talked about image processing, video capabilities and the use of artificial intelligence to improve the final results. Even the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro pages do not contain any additional information about the chip. The data now available to American journalists shows why the company decided to remain silent: the processor is still built on the old 4nm manufacturing process, not on Samsung’s new 4nm manufacturing process.

chewing on the spot

Although we don’t know its full specifications yet, past leaks have suggested that the Tensor G3 will have a 9-core processor and Mali-G715 GPU. These are pretty good features, but according to new data While it’s based on an older version of the 4-nanometer LPP (Low Power Plus) process, Samsung already has LPP+.

Tensor G3 is produced on a worse node, which undoubtedly helps Google save significantly on chipset supply, reducing the price of smartphones. However, this does not allow it to compete with Qualcomm in terms of power and energy efficiency. As a result, tests show that the Pixel 8 processor does not hold up very well under heavy load. The disadvantage of using the lower LPP technical process is insufficient energy efficiency.

A teardown of the Pixel 8 revealed that Google used thermal oil along with copper and graphite film to dissipate heat, but this did not help deal with the overheating issue. It turns out that the younger version of the new smartphone series is 11% slower than the Pixel 8 Prodespite using the same Tensor G3 processor.

However, Google has managed to make a lot of improvements in optimization, so you can’t say that the G3 is a complete failure. The basic “raw” performance of the processor compared to analogues does not always play a significant role, since much depends on further combinations with software. You can have a better chip but worse software, and as a result the device won’t perform as well as it would otherwise.

Previous Geekbench 6 single-core and multi-core benchmarks showed: Google managed to increase the image and video processing capabilities of Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro. It’s hard to say whether this will be enough. The smartphones are not yet available for sale, so we do not have long-term tests and reviews.