The Google Pixel 10 is coming later this year, powered by the fifth generation Tensor chipset. But Google is reportedly making big changes with the Tensor G5, manufacturing the chips not with Samsung's help, but rival chipmaker TSMC.
It’s expected this will improve the chip's performance, but until now it wasn’t clear how different the new Tensor would be. But, thanks to a report from Android Authority, we may have some insight into how the Tensor G5 will be built — as well as some previously unknown specs.
Leaks had already suggested that the Tensor G5 would be built using TSMC’s 3nm process. That smaller size and greater transistor density mean that the G5 should be noticeably more powerful than its 4nm predecessors, with increased energy efficiency to boot.
Tensor G5: What's changing
The G5 is said to be built with a mix of proprietary Google technology and a few external components.
Those include the CPU and GPU, which Android Authority claims will be coming from Arm and Imagination Technologies, respectively. Google is said to have chosen the same Arm Cortex CPUs as previous Tensor chips, but will be swapping out the Arm Mali GPU for an IMG DXT GPU.
The report also claims that Google has ditched its old video codec solution, which relied on Google's custom “BigWave” and Samsung’s MFC codecs. Instead it reportedly picked an off-the-shelf option from Chips&Media. The display controller is also said to be ditching Samsung's DPU in favor of a VeriSilicon DC9000.
The G5 will also come with a fully custom Image Signal processor (ISP) in the camera, rather than simply tweaking a Samsung-made ISP. That’s quite a significant change, and could prove to be a major benefit to the Pixel 10’s cameras.
Considering that the Pixel 9 Pro is already one of the best camera phones, I’m eager to see what more Google can accomplish by adopting more of its own in-house hardware.
What impact will this have?
The only question we have is how much of an impact this new manufacturing process will have on the Tensor G5 — and the Pixel 10 series’ performance. The fact that the chips are using the same kind of CPU as the old Samsung-made Tensor chips means we probably shouldn’t expect a huge leap in performance. Especially with rumors that the G5 is simply a "TSMC-made version of G4."
That said, any boost we can get from the new 3nm process is more than welcome, considering how relatively weak Tensor performance is compared to rival Snapdragon and Apple A-series chips. But we’re not likely to get any concrete answers just yet.
While we may see some leaked benchmarking scores in the run-up to the Pixel 10’s launch, we won’t get to how well the phones perform until after they’re released. Hopefully that’s some point in later summer, as was the case with Pixel 9 last year.
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