MediaTek Dimensity 9300+ doubles down on AI ahead of potential US launch

Ben Schoon | May 7 2024 - 6:43 am PT

MediaTek has just announced its latest flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9300+, ahead of plans to launch in a “premium” Android phone in the US this year.

In a press release, MediaTek details the Dimensity 9300+. The new chip is an upgraded version of the Dimensity 9300 that launched last year and, as you’d expect, it’s heavily focused on AI.

The new chip, MediaTek says, “is designed to accelerate on-device generative AI processing.” That’s accomplished firstly through the chip just being more powerful. The all-big-core design returns with a total of four Cortex-X4 cores, one of which is now at 3.4GHz, up from the 3.25GHz of the regular 9300. The bigger boost to on-device AI, though, comes with MediaTek’s “NeuroPilot Speculative Decode Acceleration technology” which, in combination with a stronger “AI engine,” allows for LLMs to run with up to 33 billion parameters, with the chip able to run “several billion parameters” at up to 22 tokens per second.

In simple terms, MediaTek says the Dimensity 9300+ can run at more than 2x the rate of competing offerings.

MediaTek adds that Dimensity 9300+ supports “on-device LoRA Fusion and NeuroPilot LoRA Fusion 2.0” which can help developers run generative AI apps on devices running the chip. It also supports Gemini Nano alongside Meta Llama 2 and 3, and other on-device LLMs.

Outside of AI, the chip’s various upgrades should make it an even faster performer compared to the standard 9300.

It’s not clear when the first devices running this updated chip will hit the market, but it seems likely we’ll hear more in the weeks to come.

It’s also very possible that Dimensity 9300+ will make its way to a smartphone sold in the US. Just this month at an analyst event, MediaTek confirmed that it will launch one of its high-end chipsets in a “premium” Android phone in the US for the first time. What device and what chip that will be is still unknown, but 9300+ seems like a strong candidate.