Pixel 9 Pro decimates Pixel 10 Pro in GPU benchmark; both far behind Galaxy S25+ and iPhone 16 Pro

The Pixel 10's Tensor G5 chipset is the first Pixel chip manufactured by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC). The switch from Samsung Foundry to TSMC was expected to uplift performance, and Google was all praises for its new chipset during the unveiling, but it might not be all that it was cracked up to be, at least as far as GPU performance is concerned.

The Tensor G5 was built on a 3nm node, which is the latest generation of fabrication technology and a step up from the 4nm process used for the Tensor G4. Advanced manufacturing tech usually leads to better performance and efficiency.

Google says the Tensor G5 has a 34 percent faster CPU and a 60 percent more powerful Tensor Processing Unit (TPU). TPUs are Google-made chips that accelerate machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tasks.

The chip features a revised CPU layout, switching from one big core, three primary cores, and four little cores to one big core, five medium cores, and two little cores.

Google claims that the Tensor G5 will make its new phones feel faster in everyday use. It also powers on-device AI features and has a new Image Signal Processor (ISP) for improved camera performance.

The company barely talked about the GPU, only mentioning that the chip featured an updated GPU IP. It said that the Pixel 10 lineup ran top games well without going into the specifics.

Rumors indicate that Google has switched from Arm’s Mali GPU to the Imagination DXT-48-1536 GPU. Google has confirmed that it lacks hardware-accelerated ray tracing, which is a tech employed by the likes of Apple and Qualcomm for realistic lighting and reflections in games.

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