Summary
- MediaTek has confirmed to launch the Dimensity 9500 on September 22, 2025.
- The chip promises ray-tracing support, faster memory, and 100 TOPS AI processing.
- Dimensity 9600, MediaTek's 2nm chipset, has also been confirmed to debut in second half of 2026.
MediaTek has officially announced that it will unveil its next flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9500, on September 22, 2025, in China. Upon launch, the chipset will compete directly against Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5.
The Dimensity 9500 comes a day earlier than the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 (previously thought to be Snapdragon 8 Elite 2), which will land on September 23, 2025. It will be built on TSMC's 3nm process and is tipped to feature a 1 + 3 + 4 CPU core setup. A prime core clocked at over 4 GHz will be driving the setup.
As per reports, the Dimensity 9500 will also be a gaming beast, thanks to a new Mali-G1 Ultra GPU, which will bring support for hardware-based ray tracing and efficiency gains of up to 40%. Other highlights expected to include are 16 MB of L3 cache and a powerful NPU rated at around 100 TOPS.
The first smartphones powered by the Dimensity 9500 are expected to debut as early as October with the Vivo X300 series, followed by Oppo's Find X9 lineup. As per early benchmark sightings, we also know that the Dimensity 9500 can hit over 4 million on AnTuTu.
Looking beyond this launch, MediaTek also confirmed progress on its next-gen Dimensity 9600, which will be the company's first chipset based on TSMC's 2nm N2P process. Scheduled for release in the second half of 2026, the chipset is said to deliver up to 18% higher performance and 36% lower power consumption. However, Samsung's Exynos 2600 could beat MediaTek to it.
That said, there's no doubt that competition between the Dimensity 9500 and Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 will be intense. It will be interesting to see, however, which chipset takes the crown.
