Google Pixel 10's Tensor G5 may not deliver the big performance boost you hoped for

Google’s Pixel 10 lineup is almost a year away from launch. But there’s already a lot of buzz around it, with reports suggesting the company will finally switch to TSMC’s superior node for fabricating future Tensor chips. The Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 will supposedly be Google’s first entirely in-house developed SoC, no longer based on Samsung’s Exynos platform. If you were expecting this change to result in radical performance improvements, that might not be the case.

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Based on a leaked document from Google’s “gChips” division, a report from Android Authority has detailed the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 SoC. The Pixel 9‘s Tensor G4 delivered modest efficiency improvements, primarily due to Google’s decision to drop a mid-cluster core to reduce power consumption. However, it still stuck with Arm’s older “big” Cortex X4 CPU core despite the Cortex-X925 promising better performance and efficiency.

With the Tensor G5 reportedly being developed in-house and on a new node, you’d expect Google to switch to Arm’s newer CPU cores. Surprisingly (and disappointingly), that won’t happen. Instead, Google will purportedly stick with an 8-core CPU but rearrange the core cluster, switching to a 1 + 5 + 2 layout.

The report states the Pixel G5’s big cluster will retain the Cortex-X4 CPU. The mid-cluster, comprising five cores, will switch to Arm’s newer Cortex-A725 CPU, while the little cluster will feature 2x Cortex A-520 cores.

Below is a table comparing the CPU architecture and core clusters of Tensor G4 with the upcoming Tensor G5.

As evident, the CPU cluster is not getting as big of an upgrade as you were expecting. The switch to 5 CPU cores for the mid-cluster should improve the multitasking performance. But the Tensor G5’s overall performance will likely be behind Qualcomm’s flagship Snapdragon 8 Elite and MediaTek’s Dimensity 9400 SoC by a few generations.

At least efficiency should get a big boost thanks to the switch to TSMC’s 3nm N3E node. Apple and Qualcomm also use this node to fabricate their latest flagship chips, the A18 Pro and Snapdragon 8 Elite.

A new GPU and modest performance boost for the TPU

Google has so far used Arm’s Mali GPUs on its Tensor SoCs. However, the Tensor G5 will switch to Imagination Technologies’ DXT-48-1536 GPU, supposedly clocked at 1.1GHz. The same company previously used to provide GPUs for iPhones and iPads. Little is known about this new GPU, but the report indicates it supports ray tracing and GPU virtualization. The Tensor G4’s Mali-G715 GPU does not support both of these features.

Google’s Tensor chips are known for their AI performance, and given the modest CPU and GPU improvements, you might expect the Tensor G5 to excel in that area. But even that won’t happen, with the Tensor G5’s TPU reportedly delivering only a 14% performance improvement in Google’s internal benchmarks. That’s relatively modest, especially since the Tensor G4 used the same TPU as 2023’s Tensor G3.

Despite such modest upgrades, the Tensor G5’s SoC will have a die size of 121 mm^2, making it much larger than Apple’s A18 Pro chip, which measures 105 mm^2 and does duty inside the iPhone 16 Pro.

Overall, if you were expecting the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 to finally catch up to the competition and deliver outstanding performance, you may want to temper your expectations. Based on this leak, Google’s next Tensor SoC is unlikely to bring radical performance improvements and will presumably deliver only marginal gains.