Dimensity 9500 to Debut Arm Travis CPU with Major IPC Boost

In the ever-evolving landscape of smartphone chipsets, performance and power efficiency remain critical battlegrounds. The upcoming MediaTek Dimensity 9500 is poised to become a significant disruptor in this competitive arena. Recent leaks suggest that the Dimensity 9500 will be the first to integrate Arm's new "Travis" CPU core, offering unprecedented improvements in computing power, AI capabilities, and energy efficiency for next-generation flagship smartphones.

According to reports, the Dimensity 9500 will adopt an advanced CPU architecture featuring one 3.23GHz "Travis" ultra-core, three 3.03GHz "Alto" performance cores, and four 2.23GHz "Gelas" efficiency cores. Notably, the Travis core is expected to debut the latest Arm Cortex-X930 architecture. For graphics, the SoC will be equipped with a new Mali-G1 Ultra MC12 GPU, initially clocked at 1GHz, with full performance details to be revealed next month.

Arm has confirmed that Travis will be the first public CPU core to support the Armv9 architecture with SME (Scalable Matrix Extension), designed to accelerate AI and complex workloads through enhanced vector-matrix operations. Compared to the Cortex-X925, Travis is anticipated to deliver double-digit percentage gains in IPC (instructions per clock), offering a major performance leap for multithreaded tasks.

The inclusion of SME brings significant benefits for AI computing, image recognition, and large-scale language model inference. Performance insights suggest the Dimensity 9500 could achieve up to 20% improvement in multi-threaded performance, reinforcing its capabilities for high-demand AI scenarios.

Built on TSMC's cutting-edge 3nm process node, the Dimensity 9500 is expected to achieve 10% lower power consumption at the same frequency while increasing transistor density by 5%. These enhancements contribute to improved energy efficiency, thermal control, and overall performance, which are crucial for next-generation mobile devices. The chip will also feature comprehensive upgrades across its CPU, GPU, and NPU cores, emphasizing AI and multimedia acceleration, thanks in part to its SME support.

MediaTek has been steadily advancing in its development of high-performance, energy-efficient mobile platforms. With the Dimensity 9500, the company is set to strengthen its position in the flagship chipset market.

The Dimensity 9500 is scheduled for official launch in September 2025.