Notebookcheck News — Tech — Sat, 29 Aug 2026 19:29:00 +0200
Summary
Chinese hardware reviewer Geekerwan has published what appears to be the first power-efficiency test of Google's Tensor G6 and Tensor G5 chips, both built on TSMC's 3nm process. In CPU testing (Geekbench 6), the Tensor G6 tracked closely with the Tensor G5, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and Huawei's Kirin 9030 Pro in the low-to-mid power range, topping out at roughly 8,000 points near 11W—well behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite's approximately 10,100 points at 15W and Apple's A17 Pro and A19 Pro. The GPU results (Steel Nomad Light) showed a similar gap, with the Tensor G6 peaking at around 1,200 points at roughly 6W compared to the Snapdragon 8 Elite's approximately 2,550 points near 9.5W. Geekerwan assessed the Tensor G6's CPU efficiency as roughly in line with the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and its GPU efficiency closer to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, placing it a few years behind current flagship silicon from Qualcomm and Apple. Notably, the Kirin 9030 Pro, reportedly manufactured on SMIC's older N+3 process (roughly comparable to TSMC's N6), achieved near parity in efficiency with the 3nm Tensor chips.
Tensor G5 and G6 trail rivals on performance per watt, testing shows (Pixel 10 pictured)
Geekerwan's first efficiency test of the Tensor G6 and G5 shows that both trail the Snapdragon 8 Elite and Apple's A-series chips in CPU and GPU performance per watt, while the Kirin 9030 Pro matches the Tensor chips despite being manufactured on a much older process node.
Chinese hardware reviewer Geekerwan has published what appears to be the first power-efficiency test of both Google's Tensor G6 and its predecessor, the Tensor G5, in a Bilibili post. The chips are built on TSMC's 3nm process (N3E for the G5 and N3P for the G6). The test plots performance against power draw in CPU (Geekbench 6) and GPU (Steel Nomad Light) workloads and compares the results with those of several rival chips, including Huawei's Kirin 9030 Pro, which was reportedly built on SMIC's N+3 process, a node roughly comparable to TSMC's N6.
3DMark Steel Nomad Lite power curve for Tensor G5 and G6
On the CPU curve, the Tensor G6 tracks closely with the Tensor G5, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and Kirin 9030 Pro throughout the low-to-mid power range, topping out at roughly 8,000 points near 11W. That leaves it well behind the Snapdragon 8 Elite curve, which reaches about 10,100 points at 15W, and even further behind the Apple A17 Pro and A19 Pro data points, which show higher scores at comparable or lower power draw.
The GPU curve shows a similar gap. The Tensor G6's Steel Nomad Light result peaks at around 1,200 points at roughly 6W, again close to the Tensor G5, Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, and Kirin 9030 Pro curves, while the Snapdragon 8 Elite reaches about 2,550 points near 9.5W and the Apple chips post much higher scores.
Geekerwan summarized the results by placing the Tensor G6's CPU efficiency roughly in line with that of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and its GPU efficiency closer to that of the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. This puts it a few years behind current flagship silicon from Qualcomm and Apple. The Kirin 9030 Pro's near parity in efficiency with the Tensor G5 is notable, given that it uses an older, less dense process than the 3nm chips against which it is plotted.
Giang Bùi - Tech Writer - 127 articles published on Notebookcheck since 2026
Instead of sports, I spent my school years buried in researching about everything tech, looking into chips and specs instead of doing whatever normal kids did. I am now writing for NotebookCheck, hoping that research finally reaches more people than just me and a text file.
Original article: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Pixel-11-s-Tensor-G6-and-Pixel-10-s-Tensor-G5-still-fall-behind-in-performance-per-watt-testing-shows.1381970.0.html Source: Notebookcheck News