The vivo X100 Pro, along with the vanilla X100, launched in China in mid-November. The Pro variant boasted being the first device to be powered by the MediaTek Dimensity 9300. However, it seems like cooling the chipset with an ‘All Big Core’ CPU design is a struggle according to a CPU throttle test on the vivo X100 Pro.
vivo X100 Pro – MediaTek Dimensity 9300
What is the ‘All Big Core’ design on the Dimensity 9300?
Most chipsets offer different cores to build the CPU. These are usually divided into Prime cores or the most powerful cores for the heaviest of tasks, big cores that handle serious tasks, and small cores for light tasks. Because of the load they take on, each core also consumes a varying amount of power with the Prime requiring the most and the small core requiring the least.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, for example, has one Prime core (Arm Cortex-X4) and is accompanied by big/Performance cores (Arm Cortex A720) and small/Efficiency cores (Arm Cortex A520).
The Dimensity 9300, on the other hand, only is equipped with four prime cores (Arm Cortex-X4) and four big/performance cores (Arm Cortex-A720). With no small cores to handle light tasks, we can imagine how much the power consumption is and how much cooling becomes a problem.
This was apparently the case with a recent test by Sahil Karoul on X on the vivo X100 Pro.
What happened with the tests on the vivo X100 Pro?
The vivo X100 Pro ran through a CPU throttling test which is designed to run all the CPU cores at full capacity to fully test how the device copes with maximum load.
Based on the test, the Dimensity 9300 on the X100 Pro throttled to 46% of its max performance in just two minutes. The photo reveals that through this throttling, one core drops to 0.6GHz from the max frequency of 3.25 GHz. This performance is despite the vapor chamber on the X100 Pro that is designed to move heat away from the chipset.
For comparison, GSMArena did a test on a Snapdragon 8 Gen 2-powered device on the same test and it runs to around 80% of its performance after more than 10 minutes.
What does this mean for the vivo X100 Pro and the MediaTek Dimensity 9300?
That said though, benchmarking tests are meant to really push hardware to its limits and aren’t representative of its performance in everyday use. Especially with most users of smartphones using their devices for general productivity, photography, video, and gaming.
The performance of the Dimensity 9300 on the X100 Pro though is still disappointing and concerning.
That said, it’s hard to say how both the chipset and device actually perform on an everyday basis without experiencing it firsthand. However, we’ll definitely share our own experience with the vivo X100 Pro if we’re given the opportunity.
Ram found his love and appreciation for writing in 2015 having started in the gaming and esports sphere for GG Network. He would then transition to focus more on the world of tech which has also began his journey into learning more about this world. That said though, he still has the mentality of "as long as it works" for his personal gadgets.
