ARM has announced new and updated ARMv9 processor cores, as well as new embedded GPUs. The company told about the Cortex-X925, Cortex-A725, and updated Cortex-A520 cores. As for the video chips, Immortalis-G925, Mali-G725, and Mali-G625 were introduced.
In 2024, ARM is focused on improving last year’s ARMv9.2 architecture. The company is moving all its latest cores to an improved 3nm process, which should provide performance, energy efficiency, and scalability gains. The new ARM solutions are adapted for mobile applications with artificial intelligence and add support for 64-bit AArch64 instructions. The developments are focused not only on Android gadgets, but also on Windows laptops.
The company promises speeds in excess of 3.6 GHz along with «optimal power, performance and area». The ARMv9.2 architecture on the 3nm process also sees significant improvements with the new large Cortex X925 core, which ARM considers the new top of the line for mobile devices. The architecture has been optimized for higher clock speeds and better efficiency levels, delivering more processing power per watt. This is achieved through several architectural innovations, including extended execution pipelines, improved branch prediction, and enhanced out-of-order execution capabilities. The result of these improvements is an increase in the number of instructions per cycle. Cortex X925 cores will operate at up to 3.8 GHz.
Tests presented by ARM, which should be taken critically, demonstrate significant gains in single-threaded and multi-threaded performance, making these new solutions ideal for a variety of applications. The company even claims that Cortex X925 performance cores are leading the single-threaded benchmark and beating Intel and AMD. ARM also talks about extended battery life due to energy efficiency and better temperature management, improved security, and AI performance. For developers, the company introduced new KleidiAI libraries.
The Cortex-A925 delivers a significant performance improvement over the previous generation of up to 36% per core, as well as up to 46% improvement in AI performance over the Cortex-X4. The Cortex-A725 core is supposed to be an updated Cortex-A720 with 35% performance and 25% energy efficiency improvements. The Cortex-A520 upgrade provides a 15% improvement in energy efficiency and a move to 3nm. The high-performance Cortex X925 cores, the balanced Cortex A725, and the energy-efficient updated Cortex A520 will deliver powerful graphics starting with Immortalis G925.
The new ARM Immortalis-G925, Mali-G725, and Mali-G625 GPUs will cover a variety of consumer devices, from flagship and low-cost smartphones to smartwatches and other devices.
Immortalis-G925 with 10 or more cores, designed for high-performance devices such as flagship smartphones. The Mali-G725 scales from 6 to 9 cores and is designed for premium phones, offering the same API support as the older model, but optimized for lower-end devices. Mali-G625 will have 1 to 5 cores and is aimed at smartwatches and budget smartphones.
The new GPUs are the second iteration of the 5th generation of embedded graphics introduced by ARM in 2023. Compared to last year’s Immortalis-G720, the G925 should provide 37% more frames per second in games along with 30% less power consumption. The company claims a 49% increase in Genshin Impact, +49% in Roblox, and 20% to 72% in other games.
To meet the demand for more complex geometry in games, the Immortalis-G925 introduces a new fragment prepass engine. It eliminates the need for games to sort any objects or primitives and reduces the number of updates when processing geometry workloads. This leads to a 43% reduction in rendering cycles.
Immortalis-G925 improves ray tracing performance by up to 52% on complex objects. Through internal testing of ray tracing content, we continue to improve ray tracing performance. Additionally, developers can slightly reduce the transparency accuracy of game scenes to get up to 52% performance improvement along with a 57% reduction in memory usage. The Immortalis-G925 now supports 50% more shader cores, bringing its top configuration to 24 cores compared to 16 in the previous generation. ARM also paid a lot of attention to improving artificial intelligence processing.
Sources: ARM, AnandTech, TechPowerUp, VideoCardz