Tensor G2 processor Google Pixel 7 disappoints with its first leak

Google continues to hide some key details about the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro, its next flagship smartphones. One of them is information related to Tensioner G2, the second generation of its own chip, which purportedly could have significant improvements in terms of performance and power efficiency. However, the details of this chip were revealed in advance thanks to a new reference pointand reveal, unfortunately, a few significant changes compared to its predecessor in some areas.

According to leaked data in a performance test, The Tensor SoC of the Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro will retain the same processor as the Pixel 6 processor.. That is, it will have an eight-core processor, two of which will be Cortex-X1, two more will be Cortex-A76 and the remaining four; Cortex-A55. However, the new chip manufacturing process, which will be 4 nanometers from the original Tensor’s 5 nanometers, will slightly improve the clock speeds of several cores.

For example, the Cortex-X1 Tensor G2 processor will run at a maximum frequency of 2.85 GHz, up from 50 MHz for its predecessor. Instead, the two Cortex-A76 cores will run at 2.35GHz, up from 100MHz for the previous SoC. According to the leader, this increase in speed will offer Cuba Wojciechowski, about 10% improvement in multi-core performance compared to the first generation Tensor. However, single-core performance will be very similar to last year’s model.

The Tensor G3 GPU, which will appear in the Google Pixel 7, is 20% more powerful.

Google appears to have modified the Tensor G3 GPU, the chip that will ship with the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. will go from Mali-G78 to Mali-G7010 which, according to ARM, is up to 20% faster than the previous generation. Plus, it’s 20% more efficient and 35% more powerful on machine learning tasks.

However, the GPU enhancements in the Tensor processor they don’t make the Google Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro compete in terms of performance with other premium models on the market. In fact, its Geekbench score is significantly lower than other competing smartphones. The single-core score of 1068, for example, is well below the 1882 score achieved by the A16 Bionic chip in the iPhone 14 Pro. Something similar happens in multi-core tests as well. For example, the Pixel 7 Tensor scores 3149 points while the A16 Bionic exceeds 4000 points.