Google Pixel phones have experienced their GPU performance increase significantly in recent times with the upgrade in GPU drivers. The performance can be particularly noticed in games and machine learning workloads, enhancing the overall experience. Despite being premium in nature, Pixel phones have never dominated other flagships in pure performance, which is largely due to their Tensor processors and Mali GPUs. But Google’s software presence has allowed them to squeeze more out of the chips through updates.
The recent boost in performance is because the newer GPU drivers in new Android releases. Typically, when a phone comes out, it comes with an older GPU driver, which most firms don’t update in order to maintain stability. Google continues to update the Pixel phone graphics drivers, which in turn release new ones as Feature Drops with the new OS versions or on a quarterly basis. For instance, a newer Mali GPU kernel driver was released along with December 2023, and an even newer one (r52p0) accompanies the Android 16 Beta 3 build.
Pixel phone owners have experienced hugely noticeable Geekbench GPU score boosts during updates to the newest Android versions. The enhancements can be observed in various Pixel devices, with users reporting increases of up to 62% in GPU. The enhancements are not limited to the Android 16 beta but have also been felt by users on the latest stable release of Android 15. The performance enhancements can be observed in Vulkan API benchmark scores, which means that apps utilizing the API will benefit the most from the enhancements.
While these improvements won’t completely eliminate the performance gap between Pixel phones and other high-end smartphones, they do help to narrow it. The enhanced GPU performance should make real-world functionality better, especially machine learning and computer vision operations. However, the real-world impact will be based on app use of the new drivers and whether apps leverage features that have been significantly improved.
Google’s approach of enhancing performance via software updates highlights the company’s focus on optimizing existing hardware instead of total reliance on hardware updates. The approach keeps older Pixel phones in line and provides users with better performance in the process, even though the phones may not begin at the top of the performance charts.
Beyond gaming and machine learning, other graphically demanding tasks will also become smoother with the improved GPU performance and contribute to more seamless UI interactions. More fluid animations and responsive haptics have been observed by users, particularly on newer Pixels like the Pixel 9 series. Overall, these updates reflect Google’s commitment to making the user experience on Pixel devices better with continuous software enhancements.
