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Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and MediaTek's Dimensity 9000 were the first Armv9 flagship chips built on 4nm, announced within two weeks of each other at the end of 2021. Both used a Cortex-X2 prime core and both were sold as big AI upgrades. The obvious difference was the factory. Qualcomm used Samsung's 4nm process, MediaTek used TSMC's.
That difference defined the year. Samsung's Galaxy S22 series shipped with the Qualcomm chip in most markets, ran hot in sustained gaming, and ended up at the centre of a throttling scandal that reached the company's chief executive. MediaTek's chip held its clocks better, won the CPU side of the 2022 AnTuTu charts, and reached almost none of the same buyers in the United States and Europe.
Both are now four years old. In 2026 they turn up in refurbished listings and clearance stock rather than new launches. This revisit uses current aggregate benchmark data, not 2022 marketing, to show what the two chips are actually worth now, which phones carried them, and what the AI claims on their launch slides turned into.
At a Glance
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 1: Samsung 4nm, 1+3+4 cores to 3.0GHz, Adreno 730 at 818MHz, seventh-generation Qualcomm AI engine, LPDDR5 memory.
- Dimensity 9000: TSMC 4nm, 1+3+4 cores to 3.05GHz, Mali-G710 MC10 at 848MHz, APU 590, LPDDR5X memory with more bandwidth.
- Chip-level AnTuTu 11 aggregates put the MediaTek chip about 16 percent ahead overall and about 43 percent ahead on graphics, while the April 2022 AnTuTu charts had the Adreno GPU ahead of the Mali.
- Sustained graphics stability from NanoReview: 71 percent for the Dimensity 9000 against 63 percent for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1. Sources disagree on this metric, and the score section prints both results with their methods.
- The device tables are not like for like: the Snapdragon rows are 2022 flagships and the Dimensity rows are 2023 phones, because no 2022 Dimensity model was sold in the United States or Europe. The chip-level aggregates are the like-for-like comparison.
- Availability was one-sided: no Dimensity 9000 phone launched in the United States in 2022, and the chip only reached Europe in 2023, inside the mid-range OnePlus Nord 3 at 449 euros.
Two chips, one clear difference
The specification sheets read almost identically, and that is the point. Both chips used ARM's new Cortex-X2 core, both kept the same 1+3+4 core layout, and both were marketed with AI at the centre of the pitch. The split was in manufacturing, and in what each company gained from the silicon.
Samsung's 4nm node was the first version of that process. TSMC's 4nm was a refinement of its 5nm family. The practical result showed up in power and heat rather than peak speed. Qualcomm's chip drew more power for the same work, which is why the same s
What the 2022 AI claims became
Both launch events promised an AI leap. Qualcomm said its seventh-generation AI engine delivered up to four times the AI performance of the previous generation, and launch-device tests from reviewers such as HotHardware backed a large jump in AI benchmark scores. MediaTek said its fifth-generation APU 590 was four times more power efficient than the previous generation, a claim about efficiency rather than speed.
The two claims therefore describe different things, and neither is a measurement of the other. The available cross-chip numbers from the period are leaks rather than lab results: a widely circulated AI Benchmark score put the Dimensity 9000 at 692.5 against about 560 for the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, as reported by Notebookcheck from leaker Digital Chat Station.
What matters in 2026 is what those engines can run now. The AI work these chips supported was camera scene detection, voice processing, translation and photo enhancement, all of it narrow and model-specific. Neither chip shipped a runtime for the generative models that arrived on phones in 2024, and neither is on the list of platforms that Google or MediaTek now describe as running small language models on device. A 2022 flagship in 2026 is a fast phone, not an AI phone.
Table 2. AI claims then, reality now
The node question, tested twice
The usual summary of 2022 is that TSMC's 4nm beat Samsung's 4nm, and Qualcomm's own mid-year refresh looks like the proof. The Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 moved to TSMC's process with higher clocks, and its current aggregate jumps from 1.29 million to 1.42 million in AnTuTu 11 and from 2,255 to 2,756 in 3DMark Wild Life Extreme, both from NanoReview's chip pages checked on September 14, 2026.
Sustained performance is messier, and the two sources disagree. PhoneArena's stress test in May 2022 measured a peak of 2,788 that settled at 1,928 on the 8 Plus Gen 1, about 69 percent of peak, against 2,551 settling at 1,226 on the 8 Gen 1, about 48 percent of peak. NanoReview's aggregate stability figures point the other way, with 44 percent for the 8 Plus Gen 1 and 63 percent for the 8 Gen 1.
The lesson is about method, not about the chips. A stability percentage depends on the test length, the phone body, the cooling system and the software build, and single-phone results should never be read as chip specifications. What survives both sources is simpler: the Dimensity 9000 held its clocks better than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 in its own generation, and the Samsung node was the weaker of the two.
The Galaxy S22 story belongs here. Samsung's Game Optimizing Service limited CPU and GPU clocks in thousands of apps, including non-game apps, and Geekbench delisted the S22 and Tab S8. At the March 2022 shareholders meeting the company's DX chief executive apologised and promised users control over performance, as reported by PhoneArena. That episode is a phone-level decision on top of a chip-level problem, and both matter when a 2026 buyer picks up a cheap S22.
Which phones, and what they score
Benchmark results on these devices vary widely with software build, battery age and cooling, so the table below keeps every figure from one aggregator, NanoReview, and prints the test name inside each sustained cell. One caveat before the numbers: this table mixes 2022 Snapdragon flagships with 2023 Dimensity phones, because the 2022 Dimensity models were not sold in the United States or Europe. That is why the chip-level aggregates and the method paragraph below carry the like-for-like comparison.
Table 3. Scores by phone
WLE is 3DMark Wild Life Extreme stability, SNL is 3DMark Steel Nomad Light stability. They are different tests and are not comparable with each other. Geekbench 6 shows single-core and multi-core.
Three readings matter here. First, the same chip produces very different numbers in different phones: the three Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 devices above spread from 1.22 million to 1.35 million in AnTuTu, and the Xiaomi 12 Pro's Geekbench single-core score of 968 sits far below the chip aggregate of 1,662, which is a sign of thermal management rather than a slower chip. Second, the fastest Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 device in NanoReview's database is the 2023 Galaxy S23 FE at 1.44 million, a later phone that was better cooled than the 2022 flagships. Third, the Dimensity 9000 phones that survive in the database are both from 2023, because the 2022 models were never widely sold in the markets this publication covers.
Method for the chip comparison: PetaTech24 took AnTuTu 11 sub-scores from NanoReview's Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and Dimensity 9000 chip pages, both checked on September 14, 2026. The Qualcomm figures are CPU 490,530, GPU 202,615, memory 221,583 and UX 380,143 for a total of 1,294,871. The MediaTek figures are CPU 546,692, GPU 290,175, memory 237,462 and UX 430,138 for a total of 1,504,467. Dividing gives 1.11 times on CPU, 1.43 times on graphics, 1.07 times on memory, 1.13 times on UX and 1.16 times overall in MediaTek's favour. Both sets are chip-level aggregates, so read the ratios as a direction rather than a fixed law.
One flip is worth naming. AnTuTu 11 puts the Mali-G710 clearly ahead of the Adreno 730, which is not how 2022 read the same hardware. The AnTuTu charts published in April 2022, reported by GSMArena, had the MediaTek chip ahead on CPU but behind on graphics and noted that AnTuTu's own staff expected the rankings to shift between phone models. When the benchmark changed its tests, the graphics verdict changed with it.
What is confirmed, what is reported, what nobody knows
Table 4. Status of each major claim
Prices and availability in the US and Europe
Table 5. Devices, availability and prices
US prices are launch prices for the base configurations, from The Verge for the Galaxy S22 series and the OnePlus 10 Pro. European prices are the launch figures reported by SamMobile for the Galaxy S22 family and OnePlus for the 10 Pro and the Nord 3. All prices are for base configurations at launch. D9000 in the Find X5 Pro row means the Dimensity 9000 edition, sold only in China at 5,799 yuan, about 810 euros, from March 2022, while European buyers got the Snapdragon version. Samsung and the other makers do not publish a single Europe-wide price for these models, and local VAT means country pricing differs, so treat the euro figures as launch baselines. Xiaomi's 12 Pro, the other major Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 flagship of the year, launched internationally at 999 dollars with no US release and region-by-region European pricing.
The availability shape is the sharpest fact in the comparison. In the United States the 2022 flagships ran the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, and in Europe the alternative to it was Samsung's own Exynos 2200 inside the Galaxy S22, not MediaTek's chip. Even Vivo's European X80 Pro used the Snapdragon version, while the Dimensity 9000 edition stayed in China, as Notebookcheck reported. Oppo did the same: the Find X5 Pro Dimensity edition was a China model at 5,799 yuan, and Europe got the Snapdragon version at 1,299 euros. The Redmi K50 Pro was a China model too. The Vivo X80 reached India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and much of Southeast Asia but not Europe or the United States, according to Tech Advisor, and Bangladesh is one of those markets with no official US or European price to compare, so buyers there should read a local listing rather than a converted figure. MediaTek's chip only entered Europe in July 2023 inside the mid-range Nord 3 at 449 euros, more than a year after the silicon launched.
For 2026 buyers, both chips now live in the refurbished market. As one dated example, Back Market listed a refurbished 128GB Galaxy S22 Ultra at 307 dollars when checked on September 14, 2026, against the 1,199 dollar launch price. European stock is mostly carrier clearance and refurbished listings that vary by country, so the local listing is the only figure worth trusting.
Two practical warnings apply to any 2022 flagship now. The Galaxy S22 Ultra's software support ends with Android 16, the OnePlus 10 Pro ended at Android 14 and the Nord 3 at Android 15, so security patches on these devices are close to finished or already over. And these are the chips whose AI feature set was frozen before generative models reached phones. If the AI part of the phone matters, a 2022 flagship is the wrong purchase in 2026 at any price.
How this article was checked
This is a specification and benchmark comparison, not a hardware test. PetaTech24 did not run these phones or verify these scores first hand, and no first-party benchmark runs are claimed here. Every figure comes from the named source in its table, and where two sources disagree, as they do on sustained graphics performance, both results are printed instead of being averaged into one convenient number.
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FAQ
Is the Dimensity 9000 faster than the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1?
In current AnTuTu 11 aggregates it leads by about 16 percent overall and about 43 percent on graphics. In 2022 the split was narrower, with the MediaTek chip ahead on CPU and the Qualcomm chip ahead on graphics in the charts of that year. Both chips are slow by 2026 standards and sit near the bottom of any current mid-range comparison.
Why was the Galaxy S22 so slow in sustained tests?
Two reasons. Samsung's 4nm process made the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 power hungry, and Samsung's own Game Optimizing Service limited clocks in thousands of apps, including non-game apps, until an update let users prioritise performance after a public apology from the company's DX chief executive in March 2022.
Which phones had the Dimensity 9000?
The 2022 models were the Redmi K50 Pro in China, the Oppo Find X5 Pro Dimensity edition, the Vivo X80 and the Xiaomi 12 Pro Dimensity edition, all of them Asia-focused. In 2023 the chip reached Europe in the OnePlus Nord 3 mid-ranger and appeared in the China-only OnePlus Ace 2V. American buyers had no Dimensity 9000 option in either year.
Is a 2022 flagship still worth buying in 2026?
Only as a cheap secondary phone. AnTuTu 11 totals of 1.22 million to 1.54 million are respectable for the price of a used unit, but software support has ended or is ending, battery health is unknown, and the AI features these chips shipped stop at camera and voice processing. Nothing on these devices runs today's on-device generative models.
Should I buy a used Galaxy S22 Ultra instead of a OnePlus Nord 3?
They solve different problems. The Nord 3 has the faster and cooler chip of the two, the newer support window of the pair and a much lower price. The S22 Ultra has the better camera system, a 1440p display, wireless charging and the S Pen, but its chip throttles harder, its software support ends with Android 16 and used units are four years old. Buy the Nord 3 for performance per dollar and the S22 Ultra for camera and screen, and check battery health on either before paying.
Bottom line
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 and the Dimensity 9000 were a fair fight on paper and an unfair one in the shops. MediaTek built the better-balanced 2022 flagship chip on TSMC's node and won the CPU comparisons of the day, then watched the market it needed stay closed: no United States launch, and Europe only in 2023. Qualcomm's chip shipped in every Western flagship of that year, ran hotter, and dragged its phones into a throttling apology. Four years on, both are equal in the way that matters most for a buyer: neither gets modern AI features, and neither is still getting full software support. The chip that aged well was the one most people could not buy.
Sources
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 product page and FastConnect 6900 product brief, Qualcomm, for the 7th gen AI engine and Wi-Fi 6E.
- Dimensity 9000 product page, MediaTek, for the APU 590 efficiency claim and Wi-Fi 6E 2x2.
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 full specification table, XDA, for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth versions.
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 chip page and Dimensity 9000 chip page, NanoReview, checked September 14, 2026.
- Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 chip page, NanoReview.
- Device pages used for the score table: Galaxy S22 Ultra (Snapdragon), Xiaomi 12 Pro, OnePlus 10 Pro, OnePlus Ace 2V and OnePlus Nord 3, NanoReview.
- Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 launch benchmarks including AI results, HotHardware.
- MediaTek Dimensity 9000 AI and efficiency claims, Gizchina.
- Dimensity 9000 leak on AI Benchmark and efficiency, Notebookcheck.
- AnTuTu charts with the Dimensity 9000 against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, GSMArena.
- Snapdragon 8 Plus Gen 1 stress test results and Samsung apology over Galaxy S22 throttling, PhoneArena.
- OnePlus 10 Pro pricing for the US and Europe, Xiaomi 12 Pro international launch at 999 dollars and OnePlus Nord 3 launch and pricing, The Verge.
- Official Galaxy S22 series pricing and availability, SamMobile.
- Oppo Find X5 Pro Dimensity edition for China, GSMArena, and Find X5 Pro Europe review with the Snapdragon only, Notebookcheck.
- Vivo X80 Pro Europe launch without the Dimensity 9000, Notebookcheck.
- Vivo X80 global availability and pricing, Tech Advisor.
- Refurbished Galaxy S22 Ultra listing, Back Market, checked September 14, 2026.
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