Full Tensor G5 specs reveal big and small changes coming to the Pixel 10

Google’s Tensor G5, destined for next year’s Pixel 10, might be the most awaited chip in the series yet. For the first time ever, Google is designing the chip completely internally without relying on Samsung for the bulk of the work. The expectation is this will make it more competitive, as the previous and even current Tensor models lag behind other chipset manufacturers. But will it actually happen? So far we haven’t heard anything about the specs of the new chip, but that finally changes today.

Thanks to a massive leak from Google’s gChips division, Android Authority has viewed credible documents from around the end of the Tensor G5’s design that tells us everything about Google’s next-gen chip.

More weird CPU decisions

Pixel 9’s Tensor G4 featured an upgraded CPU cluster compared to its predecessor — at least on paper because, in practice, the performance is only marginally faster — just 6% quicker in our multi-core tests. This is because Google dropped a mid-cluster core, probably in an attempt to reduce power usage.

The Tensor G5 upgrades the CPU cluster again, but not in a way you’d probably expect. Google has decided to keep the same single Arm Cortex-X4 primary core, which is an interesting choice given the new Cortex-X925 promises some big improvements. It also decided to shift the core clusters around again: the mid cluster now has five Cortex-A725 cores, instead of three Cortex-A720 on Tensor G4, and the little cluster has been shrunk accordingly to only two Cortex-A520 cores. I’ve compiled the specs below:

Obviously, it’s hard to predict performance based on specs alone, but a change like this should give the Tensor G5 at least a decent multi-core performance improvement. It is disappointing, however, to see the same Cortex-X4 used again.

A brand-new GPU

One area that particularly surprised me about the Tensor G5 while reviewing the documents was the GPU. There aren’t many vendors providing GPU IP, and Google has been using Arm Mali for all its past Tensor chips, so why would that change now? Well, I don’t know, but it did. The Tensor G5 comes with a GPU from Imagination Technologies (or IMG) — the DXT-48-1536 running at 1.1 GHz.

Unfortunately, we don’t know much about the new GPU except for two interesting details: first, it will come with ray tracing support, which is new to Google chips, which typically skip such “gaming” features. The second and perhaps just as important detail is the support for GPU Virtualization, allowing the use of accelerated graphics in a virtual machine. Google has been working on various virtualization-based features for a while, so it makes sense this was included.

I’ve compiled the new GPU specs in the table below:

Google’s phones have always had great AI features, and AI is obviously one of the main reasons why Tensor chips even exist. By including custom-designed TPUs, Google can achieve much more impressive experiences than would otherwise be possible with an off-the-shelf chip.

The Tensor G5 comes with a modestly faster TPU compared to the Tensor G4 (which itself was exactly the same as the Tensor G3). The TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) value is almost 40% larger, but that doesn’t translate well to real-world performance. Google’s internal benchmarks suggest the new TPU is only 14% faster. The improved TPU also comes with a few new features for Google’s developers, such as small embedded RISC-V cores to allow running operations that are not implemented in hardware, as well as support for on-device training. I’ve compiled the new TPU specs below:

As we’ve already revealed, the Tensor G5 is built on TSMC’s 3 nm-class N3E process node, similar to Apple’s A18 Pro, for example. Interestingly the die size is 121 mm^2, whereas the Apple A18 Pro’s is only 105 mm^2, making the G5 a noticeable larger chip.

While the specs of Google’s upcoming Tensor G5 don’t look super impressive on paper, it’s worth remembering that it’s still a chip that will be in a Pixel phone, where software is arguably more important than the hardware. It will be interesting to see how Google utilizes the new hardware to bring new features to the Pixel 10 series.