A recent major leak has revealed the chip design of the upcoming Tensor G5, which is expected to be included in the Pixel 10.

Google has always been in a somewhat odd middle ground when it comes to chip performance, with the Pixel series often falling short of Apple's A-series and Qualcomm's Snapdragon flagships; the Tensor G5 is the first product to be completely internally designed, setting it apart from its predecessors. It is different from its predecessors because it is the first product to be completely internally designed. We had not heard much about the design of this chip, but recent leaked information from Google's gChip division (via Android Authority) has revealed all about Google's next-generation chip.

The Tensor G5 has some interesting changes regarding the CPU cluster, with Google opting to keep the same single Arm Cortex-X4 primary core as the Tensor G4. It also increased the number of Cortex-A725s in the mid-cluster to five, while limiting the little cluster to two Cortex-A520 cores. The biggest change, however, is that Tensor G5 is a 3nm chip. This brings Tensor finally on par with Apple's A18 and Snapdragon 8 Elite.

Google is also moving away from the Arm Mail GPU used in previous Tensor chips. Instead, the Tensor G5 will feature a GPU from Imagination Technologies, the DXT-48-1536, running at 1.1 GHz. Information on the capabilities of the new GPU is limited, but we do know that it supports ray tracing. The Tensor G5 also supports GPU visualization and can use accelerated graphics in virtual machines. This is a perfect fit considering the virtualization-based features Google is working on.

Finally, improvements have also been made to the TPU, which should mean improved AI performance. According to the report, the Tensor G5's TOPS (Trillions of Operations Per Second) value is 40% larger, and Google's internal benchmarks indicate that the new TPU is about 14% faster than the previous model.

The TPU also includes several new features for Google developers, including a smaller embedded RISC-V core and on-device training support similar to the iPhone. Finally, the new chip appears to be significantly larger than the Apple A18 Pro, with a die size of 105 mm^5 compared to 121 mm^2 for the Tensor G5.

Overall, the specs of the new chip do not look that special, with only minor improvements. But when it comes to performance, the chip is only part of the equation. For now, we'll just have to wait and see what the Pixel 10 can do with this chip and whether it will help make it one of the best Android phones.