Vivo X100 Pro Reveals Thermal Throttling Issues With Dimensity 9300

The recently released Vivo X100 Pro, powered by MediaTek's latest flagship chipset, the Dimensity 9300, has provided an early glimpse into the thermal performance of this new SoC. In a CPU throttling test conducted by tech YouTuber Sahil Karoul, the Dimensity 9300 showed significant thermal throttling within just two minutes.

The test stresses all eight CPU cores to their maximum, loading them with up to 100 threads. During the test, one of the Dimensity 9300's cores slowed down dramatically to 0.6GHz, with the others reducing to 1.2GHz and 1.5GHz. This represents a 46% drop in overall CPU performance compared to the chip's stock speeds of up to 3.25GHz.

In contrast, Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in other phones typically maintains around 80% of its performance over 10 minutes in the same test. It spotlights MediaTek's decision to move to a "performance-only" core configuration without less power-hungry efficiency cores.

While the Vivo X100 Pro uses a vapour chamber cooling solution, like many flagship phones, it was unable to prevent the Dimensity 9300 from overheating. Thermal throttling kicked in much faster than on competing chips with a more balanced core setup.

While real-world usage may not trigger such extremes, areas with hot and humid climates, like India, could also aggravate thermal issues. But only time will tell whether or not MediaTek should have stuck to an all-performance CPU design.