Summary
- Pixel phones are not known for their performance due to their outdated Tensor chips and Mali GPUs.
- Google has been improving the GPU performance of its Tensor chips through GPU driver updates.
- Recent GPU driver updates have resulted in significant performance boosts for Pixel phones, especially in gaming and machine learning tasks.
Pixel phones are not known for their performance. Despite their premium price, the Tensor chips powering Google’s phones lag a generation or two behind other flagship mobile SoCs, and that’s with inferior power efficiency. The Mali GPU inside Tensor SoCs doesn’t impress either, falling noticeably short of Snapdragon’s Adreno GPU, which is why gamers tend to steer clear of Pixel phones. Unlike other phone manufacturers, Google can leverage its software expertise to extract more performance from its Tensor chips, and that’s precisely what it has been doing quietly, making its GPUs faster with updates.
Several Pixel owners on Reddit have reported significantly higher GPU benchmark scores in Geekbench than when the phone initially launched, with the biggest gains coming in the Vulkan API benchmark. So, how big are the gains? According to an Android Authority report, the Pixel 7a now scores 62% higher than average in Geekbench 6, while the Pixel 8 and Pixel 9 have seen their scores jump by 31% and 32%, respectively.
While there aren’t any specific numbers to confirm if this performance bump extends to gaming, you should notice a tangible improvement in your Pixel’s gaming experience, especially for games and apps that use the Vulkan API. The faster performance should also extend to apps and machine learning tasks.
Newer GPU drivers have helped improve performance
Google has seemingly achieved this boost by using newer GPU drivers in the latest Android releases. Typically, when a phone launches, it uses a relatively old GPU driver. Most device manufacturers avoid updating it to a newer version to avoid stability issues.
However, Google keeps updating the GPU driver on its Pixel phones to extract better performance. Typically, it ships newer drivers with a quarterly Feature Drop or a new OS version altogether. In December 2023, the company shipped a newer Mali GPU kernel driver for the Pixel 8’s Tensor G3 GPU with the quarterly Feature Drop. This resulted in a significant gaming performance boost, with Genshin Impact’s frame rate jumping from ~20-25fps to over 45 fps.
The company did not stop there, shipping a newer GPU driver (r51p0) for all Tensor chips with Android 15 QPR2. The current Android 16 Beta 3 build uses an even newer GPU driver (r52p0). So, once Android 16 arrives in a few months, your old Pixel phone should perform even better. Granted, these boosts won’t completely close the performance gap between Tensor and other flagship SoCs, but they should help narrow it.
