Pixel 8a With An Underclocked Tensor G3 SoC Shows Up In Latest Benchmark Leak, With Disappointing Results

wccftech.com:

Google is yet to officially release the Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro, and already, the Pixel 8a has shown up in a benchmark leak, with none other than the company’s next SoC, the Tensor G3. One primary difference we noticed in the results was that the chipset was running at lower clock speeds, as indicated in the single-core and multi-core results.

Strangely, the Pixel 8a went through its paces in Geekbench 5 rather than Geekbench 6, so the results that you are seeing below are lower than what the smartphone would have achieved in the updated benchmark test. An earlier rumor stated that the Tensor G3 would feature a 9-core CPU cluster, and in the benchmark, that is exactly what we spot, with the fastest core operating at 2.91GHz, along with 8GB RAM. The device is codenamed ‘Atika,’ which is supposedly the internal designation of next year’s mid-ranger.

As for the results, the Pixel 8a is able to obtain a single-core and multi-core score of 1,218 and 3,175, respectively, though we are disappointed with these results, as the Tensor G3 is a whole generation behind the competition, such as the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2. In Geekbench 5, GSMArena reports that Qualcomm’s current-generation flagship silicon obtains a score of 1,479 and 4,803, respectively, putting it ahead of the Tensor G3 by a fair margin. With the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 launch right around the corner, that performance gap will widen.

There were rumors that Google was going to discontinue the Pixel-A series, likely due to lack of sales, but with the Pixel 8a seemingly showing up on Geekbench 5, it appears that those plans may have changed. Also, it is possible for the Pixel 8a to show up in a performance leak earlier than anticipated because it is expected to feature nearly the