MediaTek Dimensity 8050 vs Apple M1 Pro vs MediaTek MT8188J

MediaTek Dimensity 8050

The MediaTek Dimensity 8050 is an ARM-based SoC (System-on-a-Chip) manufactured at TSMC using the 6nm process.  It supports all current mobile standards including dual-SIM 5G (5G SA & NSA, max 4.7 Gbps download and 2.5 Gbps upload). The SoC also supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2.

The MediaTek Dimensity 8050 was specially designed for use in Android smartphones and is classified in the upper mid-range in terms of performance.

The CPU part consists of three clusters: a fast performance core, based on the ARM Cortex A78 architecture and clocked at up to 3 GHz. The second cluster consists of three Cortex-A78 cores with up to 2.6 GHz. Four ARM Cortex-A55 cores with up to 2 GHz are installed as a power-saving cluster.

The integrated ARM Mali-G77 MC9 graphics unit can drive displays with a resolution of up to 2,560 x 1,080 and a refresh rate of up to 144 Hz (possibly only with Full HD+).

Technically, the SoC is similar to the older Dimensity 1300.

Apple M1 Pro

The Apple M1 Pro is a System on a Chip (SoC) from Apple that is found in the late 2021 MacBook Pro 14 and 16-inch models. It offers  all 10 cores available in the chip divided in eight performance cores (P-cores with 600 - 3220 MHz) and two power-efficiency cores (E-cores with 600 - 2064 MHz). There is no Turbo Boost for single cores or short burst periods. The cores are similar to the cores in the Apple M1. The entry level model offers only 8 cores.

The big cores (codename Firestorm) offer 192 KB instruction cache, 128 KB data cache, and 24 MB shared L2 cache (up from 12 MB in the M1). The four efficiency cores (codename Icestorm) are a lot smaller and offer only 128 KB instruction cache, 64 KB data cache, and 4 MB shared cache. CPU and GPU can both use the 24 MB SLC (System Level Cache). The efficiency cores (E cluster) clock with 600 - 2064 MHz, the performance cores (P cluster) with 600 - 3228 MHz.

The unified memory (16 or 32 GB LPDDR5-6400) next to the chip is connected by a 256 bit memory controller (200 GB/s bandwidth) and can be used by the GPU and CPU.

The integrated graphics card in the M1 Pro offers all 16 cores.

Furthermore, the SoC integrates a fast 16 core neural engine, a secure enclave (e.g., for encryption), a unified memory architecture, Thunderbolt 4 controller, an ISP, and media de- and encoders (including ProRes).

The M1 Pro is manufactured in 5 nm at TSMC and integrates 33.7 billion transistors. The peak power consumption of the chip was advertised around 30W for CPU intensive tasks. In the Prime95 benchmark the chip uses in our tests (with a MBP16) 33.6W package power and 31W for the CPU part. In idle the SoC only reports 1W package power.

MediaTek MT8188J

The MediaTek MT8188J is a mid-range ARM SoC (System-on-a-Chip) introduced in the first quarter of 2023, primarily used in Android-based tablets. It is manufactured using a 12-nanometer process and features a total of eight CPU cores (Octa-Core). These consist of two fast Cortex-A78 cores and 6 Cortex-A55 cores that work together in a big.LITTLE configuration.

The A78 cores of the MediaTek MT8188J can clock at speeds of up to 2.2 GHz, while the A55 cores can reach speeds of up to 2 GHz (going down to 500 MHz). For graphics processing, it employs an ARM Mali-G57 MP2 GPU. Additionally, it includes a video decoder with support for H.264 and H.265.

In addition to the CPU and GPU, the chip integrates an LPDDR4 memory controller, capable of supporting up to 8 GB of RAM. The SoC also includes a modem for WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.3, and LTE up to Cat.7.