MediaTek announces Helio G90 and G90T SoCs for the affordable gaming smartphone

MediaTek recently announced two new chipsets for an emerging affordable gaming smartphone market. The MediaTek Helio G90 and G90T are the company’s first line of gaming-grade system-on-chip. The G90 series chipsets combine the latest CPU and GPU cores, a significant improvement in AI performance and ultra-fast memory to deliver a more fluid gaming experience at possibly, a more affordable price.

The Helio G90 and G90T features proprietary HyperEngine Game Technology that fine-tunes the handset to ensure optimum performance when gaming.

According to the Taiwan-based chip manufacturer, the SoCs also feature an intelligent network prediction engine, which detects degrading Wi-Fi quality and automatically switches to LTE connection as a backup. The chips also come with a “rapid response engine” to make touchscreen controls more responsive. The Helio G90 and G90T chips also support HDR 10.

General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communication business TL Lee said, “With the Helio G90 series, you get a super-fast and responsive display and reduced lag for smoother gameplay - because every millisecond counts in the game world. Whether it's Fortnite, PUBG or other top titles, this chip is a gaming powerhouse.”

The latest MediaTek octa-core chipsets use ARM Cortex-A76 and Cortex-A55 CPUs with the Mali-G76 graphics processor and fabricated on a 12nm TSMC FinFET architecture. The Media Tek G90T supports up to 10GB of RAM, while the G90 supports up to 8GB LPDDR4x RAM.

The Helio G90T supports up to four cameras, while the regular version maxes out at three. Additionally, both chipsets offer support for Electronic Image Stabilisation (EIS). The MediaTek G90 and G90T support up to 48-megapixel and 64-megapixel sensors, respectively.

While the new MediaTek SoCs may lack the juice to power the top-end gaming smartphones, they could make their way on to a new breed of affordable gaming smartphones like the Vivo iQOO Neo, which utilises an older flagship chipset. The MediaTek G90 series will likely make its way on to mid-tier handsets, which would otherwise opt for a Snapdragon 730 or 730G SoC.