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After this test, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 isn’t my definitive gaming chip anymore

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Why This Matters

This comparison highlights the evolving performance landscape between Qualcomm's Snapdragon and MediaTek's Dimensity chips, emphasizing how flagship processors continue to push the boundaries of mobile gaming and multitasking. For consumers, it underscores the importance of choosing devices based on specific performance needs, as even similar phones can differ significantly depending on the silicon inside.

Key Takeaways

Outside of Samsung, it’s not often that two similar flagship phones launch with entirely different silicon inside, but with the Find X9 Pro and X9 Ultra, we have a rare opportunity for an interesting benchmark comparison. With the Ultra powered by Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 and the other by MediaTek’s Dimensity 9500, this is about as close as we get to a like-for-like chipset showdown.

Because both devices share similar specs, cooling approaches, and software optimizations, this comparison strips away many of the usual variables and puts the spotlight squarely on the silicon. That gives us a rare chance to see how Qualcomm and MediaTek’s top-tier 2026 processors really stack up when everything else is held (mostly) equal.

Two phones, same brand, different chips; a unique benchmarking opportunity.

It’s worth noting that the Pro has a screen resolution of 1,272×2,772, compared to 1,440×3,168 for the Ultra. However, 3DMark’s graphics tests we’ll be using render at a fixed resolution (typically 2560×1440) and simply scale to fit, so the different displays won’t affect performance. I also have the 16GB RAM in the X9 Pro, but just 12GB in the Ultra. Again, the benchmarks we’re running aren’t going to come close to maxing this out, so it won’t influence the results here.

The most important factor here is that we have two phones that should use very similar, if not identical, performance and battery optimizations, yet they run two different chips. So let’s dive in to see what our usual benchmarks have to say.

Snapdragon vs Dimensit:y 2026 edition Starting with CPU tests via Geekbench 6, we can see that Qualcomm’s custom Oryon CPU cores continue to lead the Arm C1-Ultra and C1-Pro. This gives the Find X9 Ultra a 13.5% single-core gain over its older sibling, a marginal win for rare situations that require a little extra grunt, such as game emulation. Multi-core is similar, with a 13.1% win for the Snapdragon, which might translate into just about tangible gains when the phone is working hard on multiple or multi-threaded tasks.

This benefit translates over to PC Mark’s Work 3.0 tasks, which test performance across simulated video editing, document compression, and other common tasks. Once again, the Snapdragon comes out 14.8% ahead here, also proving that more RAM does not translate into more performance in these work-related benchmarks.

The results are somewhat turned on their head when we move to graphics. Arm’s G1-Ultra GPU has made solid gains this year and actually now outperforms Qualcomm’s Adreno 840 in the single-run 3DMark tests I ran. MediaTek’s chip scores a 5.9% win in the demanding Wild Life Extreme test and hands in a more substantial 13.3% win in the ray-tracing-based Solar Bay test. That latter result points to a decent lead for Arm, though ray tracing remains a niche in mobile games. In most Android games, performance is likely to be very, very close between these two chips.

Unfortunately, the Find X9 Pro doesn’t sustain this performance lead for very long. It only takes a couple of runs/minutes for the Ultra to take the lead, and it holds a reasonable advantage for about half of the stress tests. In the second half, both phones are throttling quite hard, with results jumping up and down as performance is cut back to allow them to cool off. The behavour is pretty similar on both models, though the Ultra a little more erratic.

You will note, however, that the Find X9 Pro runs substantially cooler, keeping its temperatures below 40°C (104°F), while the Ultra almost hits 49°C (120°F) before throttling really hits hard. This results in a much hotter handset with the Ultra. Given that the two end up with very similar performance levels by the end of the stress tests, I’d argue the MediaTek chip is doing a better job on balance, and would certainly be more comfortable to hold during those long gaming sessions.

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