MediaTek Dimensity 9500: Full Specs Leak Shows Major Upgrades Ahead of Launch

The countdown is on for MediaTek’s next big launch, and if leaks are to be believed, the Dimensity 9500 may represent a turning point for the company’s flagship chip strategy. With less than three weeks to go before its official debut, an avalanche of details is spilling out from trusted insiders, painting a picture of an SoC that not only leapfrogs the Dimensity 9400 series but also positions itself toe-to-toe with Qualcomm’s most powerful silicon.

According to industry tipsters, the Dimensity 9500 will stick with the tried-and-true ‘1 + 3 + 4’ CPU configuration but with boosted speeds across the board.

The prime performance core – codenamed Travis – reportedly climbs to a striking 4.21GHz, while the three mid-tier Alto cores push to 3.50GHz. Even the efficiency-focused Gelas cluster sees a lift to 2.70GHz, ensuring daily tasks run fluidly without draining the battery. These upgrades alone hint at a significant performance edge compared to the Dimensity 9400 and 9400+.

The graphics story is equally intriguing. MediaTek is said to be rolling out a brand-new 12-core ARM Mali-G1 Ultra GPU clocked at 1.00GHz. What makes this noteworthy isn’t just the raw horsepower, but the whispers about a reworked microarchitecture tailored for smoother ray tracing and smarter energy consumption

. With mobile gaming increasingly leaning on console-style effects, this could prove to be a defining feature for devices powered by the 9500.

Cache memory is another area where the new SoC flexes its muscles. L3 cache is reportedly bumped up to 16MB – an improvement over the 12MB offered in the previous flagship line – while maintaining a 10MB system-level cache. That additional headroom could translate to fewer slowdowns in demanding multitasking scenarios. On top of this, the 9500 will reportedly debut support for ARM’s Scalable Matrix Extension, an advanced instruction set designed to handle complex AI and machine learning workloads more efficiently. Pair that with MediaTek’s upgraded NPU 9.0 promising 100 TOPS (trillion operations per second), and the stage is set for a big leap in on-device intelligence.

Memory and storage capabilities are equally future-proofed. With compatibility for 4-channel LPDDR5X RAM clocked at 10,667MHz and UFS 4.1 storage, the chip seems engineered to remove bottlenecks across the system. Early benchmarking leaks even claim a staggering 4 million points on AnTuTu – putting it right alongside Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5, a sign that MediaTek isn’t just playing catch-up anymore but standing firmly in the race for performance dominance.

Perhaps the most curious twist in this saga is timing. Normally, ARM unveils its next-generation Cortex cores in May, but rumors suggest MediaTek may reveal the Dimensity 9500’s secrets before ARM’s own announcements this year. If true, it would be a rare moment of role reversal in the industry, with a chipmaker seemingly leapfrogging its supplier’s publicity cycle. Whether this was intentional strategy or opportunistic timing remains to be seen, but it underscores just how aggressive MediaTek’s positioning has become.

As the launch date approaches, one thing is clear: the Dimensity 9500 isn’t just another incremental upgrade. It represents a statement of intent from MediaTek, aiming to redefine what its flagship silicon can deliver. From higher clock speeds and GPU redesigns to expanded AI chops and benchmark-shattering performance, the 9500 may be remembered as the moment MediaTek stepped fully into the big leagues.