- Google has released the source code for the Pixel 8 series.
- It confirms that the Tensor G3 originally had higher peak frequencies, in line with our early leaks.
- However, Google capped the frequencies to lower values, possibly aiming to prioritize battery efficiency over peak performance.
Google has recently launched the new Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro with the new Tensor G3 SoC. This new SoC is better than the Tensor G2 before, but that was expected. Our own Tensor G3 spec leak suggested that Google would move to a new CPU block with a newer core layout boasting higher peak frequencies. But the final Tensor G3 shipped by Google came with lower frequencies. There was a change of plan somewhere along the way, and the Pixel 8’s source code points to the same.
As highlighted by Kamila Wojciechowska, Google had initially planned to use a higher set of peak frequencies on the Tensor G3 but then changed it to the lower values currently live on the Pixel 8 phones. We can see a bunch of commits in the Pixel 8 Pro’s source code that lowered frequencies for all the cores.