TL;DR
- A new Tensor G6 leak appears to support old reports of a move to a PowerVR CXT GPU.
- Compared to the DXT GPU in the G5, we may not see any graphics performance gains.
- For the CPU, the Tensor G6 may move to Arm’s new C1-Ultra and C1-Pro cores.
Google’s Pixel 11 phones are still a few months away, but we’ve been anticipating this hardware for basically years at this point — and that includes the latest Tensor G6 SoC we’re expecting to power the lineup. Going back as far as 2024, though, we’ve been anticipating certain sacrifices that might pop up in the Tensor G6, including the use of a GPU originally intended for the G4. And now as we get closer to seeing this silicon actually debut, we’re starting to hear a little more about what to expect from it.
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Just like the info we looked at back in February about the possibility of the Tensor G6 arriving with a Titan M3 security chip, once again our source is one of the accounts behind the Mystic Leaks Telegram channel (Thanks: Dylan H). We only get a little tease for the moment, but it’s enough to reveal a few details about the chip:
While much of that’s redacted, we can see a few important details in here. For starters, we find all those bear code names we’ve been associating with the Pixel 11 family for ages now, here positively associated with the devices.
But the more interesting info is up top, and shows some changes we can expect from the Tensor G6 itself. Instead of an octa-core arrangement like we had on the G5, it looks like we might be dropping to a seven-core setup. At least, while the top of the image here is obscured, the rest of those figures align with Geekbench benchmark reports published a couple months ago, purporting to show what the Pixel 11 Pro XL can do. While it’s difficult to put much faith in benchmarks claiming to represent unreleased devices, the match in clock speeds and core counts is certainly interesting — and would suggest we only get the one 4.11 GHz core.
This also shows Google moving to Arm’s latest C1-Ultra and C1-Pro cores, just like we’ve seen Samsung do with the Exynos 2600. So far, this all sounds great; but what about that GPU? The PowerVR CXT-48-1536 dates back to 2021, and the Tensor G5 already uses the DXT-48-1536. When we looked at this possibility back in late 2024, we noted that Google seemed to be prioritizing minimizing die size with the choice to effectively “backtrack” on the G6’s GPU — and that even at best, this might represent a lateral move. Considering how underwhelmed we’ve been with Pixel 10 gaming that’s not exactly the sort of move we’re looking forward to.
Maybe Google will find a way to squeeze some extra performance out of that choice that we’re not expecting. But it also feels a bit two steps forward, one step back, when Pixel fans really crave some no-compromise progress.
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