MediaTek has launched the Dimensity 9600M alongside the more powerful Dimensity 9600 Pro.
The new chipset will power the standard Vivo X500, while the Vivo X500 Pro and Pro Max will use the Dimensity 9600 Pro. This positions the 9600M as the more affordable option in MediaTek’s latest flagship lineup.
Although MediaTek places the chip in its new 9600 series and says it uses technologies from the Dimensity 9600 Pro platform, its underlying hardware remains very close to last year’s Dimensity 9500.
Mostly the Same Hardware as Dimensity 9500
The Dimensity 9600M is manufactured using TSMC’s 3nm N3P process, the same node used for the Dimensity 9500.
Its all-large-core CPU includes one C1-Ultra core at 4.21GHz with 2MB of L2 cache, three C1-Premium cores at 3.5GHz with 1MB of L2 cache each, and four C1-Pro cores at 2.7GHz with 512KB of L2 cache each.
The chip also includes 16MB of L3 cache and 10MB of system cache, matching the Dimensity 9500.
The same Arm Mali-G1 Ultra MC12 GPU handles graphics as in the previous chip.
The NPU is also unchanged at the hardware level, with MediaTek using the same APU 990, including the compute-in-memory efficiency core introduced with the Dimensity 9500.
Memory support remains at LPDDR5X running at 10,667MHz, while storage support continues to use four-lane UFS 4.1.
Camera Hardware Also Remains Unchanged
The imaging hardware follows the same configuration as the Dimensity 9500.
The Dimensity 9600M supports camera sensors of up to 320MP, along with 8K video at 60fps, 4K at 120fps with electronic image stabilization, and 4K at 60fps cinematic video recording.
It continues to use MediaTek’s Imagiq-based imaging pipeline.
New Scheduling and Gaming Improvements
One of the main changes is the move to Dimensity Scheduling Engine 3.0, replacing the second-generation scheduler used in the Dimensity 9500.
The newer scheduling system is designed to improve how the chipset manages CPU, GPU, and memory resources.
MediaTek also says the Dimensity 9600M can support gaming at up to 185fps with neural network rendering.
However, the underlying frame interpolation hardware remains unchanged and continues to use MRFC 3.0.
New AI Features
Most of the larger changes are on the software side. The NPU now supports Gemini Nano 4 and Qwen 3.5 Omni 4B.
MediaTek has also added a new camera agent that can provide photography suggestions based on what the user is shooting.
Overall, the Dimensity 9600M is largely a refreshed version of the Dimensity 9500 rather than a major hardware upgrade.
The key changes come from the newer scheduling system, small clock-speed adjustments, and additional AI features, while the core CPU, GPU, NPU, memory, storage, and imaging hardware remain largely unchanged.
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