MediaTek Dimensity 9600M launched as rebranded Dimensity 9500 w/ minor changes

Apart from the MediaTek 9600 Pro, the company also introduced the 9600M.

MediaTek Dimensity 9600M

New name, nearly the same performance

MediaTek has unveiled another new chip alongside its recent flagship launches: the Dimensity 9600M. 

On paper, the 9600M appears to be a fresh addition to MediaTek's 2026 chip roster. It features an all-large-core CPU design, a flagship GPU with neural rendering support, and a dual-NPU configuration. 

MediaTek has also said the chip draws on platform technologies from the Dimensity 9600 Pro, including its graphics architecture. A closer comparison of the two chips' specifications, however, tells a different story.

Despite its newer name, the Dimensity 9600M shares almost all of its core specifications with last year's Dimensity 9500. Both chips are built on TSMC's 3nm N3P process and deliver comparable performance.

The CPU configuration is unchanged: a single C1-Ultra core clocked at 4.21GHz with 2MB of L2 cache, three C1-Premium cores at 3.5GHz with 1MB of L2 cache apiece, and four C1-Pro cores at 2.7GHz with 512KB each, alongside 16MB of L3 cache and 10MB of system cache.

The GPU situation is much the same as well. Both chips use an Arm Mali-G1 Ultra MC12, listed identically across MediaTek's spec sheets. 

NPU tasks are handled by the same APU 990 in both cases, including the compute-in-memory efficiency core that debuted with the 9500. Memory and storage specs also carry over unchanged, with LPDDR5X memory rated at 10667MHz and UFS 4.1 storage across four lanes.

Camera capabilities follow the same pattern, with both chips topping out at a 320MP sensor, 8K60 and 4K120 video with EIS, and 4K60 cinematic recording—all built on the same Imagiq-based imaging pipeline introduced with the 9500.

Where does the 9600M differ?

A handful of upgrades do set the 9600M apart. MediaTek has moved to version 3.0 of its Dimensity Scheduling Engine, up from the second-generation version found in the 9500, promising better coordination of CPU, GPU, and memory resources.

Gaming performance also gets a boost, with MediaTek citing frame rates up to 185fps when neural network rendering is enabled—though the underlying frame-interpolation hardware, MediaTek's MRFC 3.0, remains unchanged from the previous chip.

The more substantial updates are on the software side. The NPU now supports Gemini Nano 4 and Qwen 3.5 Omni 4B, and a new camera agent can offer shooting suggestions in real time.

Finally, this chip will be available first on the vivo X500. The higher variants will use the Dimensity 9600 Pro instead.

What do you guys think?