ARM’s next-gen graphics promise 4K support, better efficiency

Chip designer ARM has unveiled its next-gen graphics, video, and display technologies. ARM licenses its designs to other companies so it’ll be a while before the first processors with ARM’s new technology hit the streets.

The first products with ARM Mali-T800 series graphics, Mali-V550 video, and Mali-DP550 display processor technology should launch in late 2015 or early 2016.

So what can we expect from ARM’s next-gen technology? In a nutshell, more energy-efficient performance, support for H.265/HEVC video playback, and support for high-resolution videos.

The Mali-V550 video decoder, for instance, can handle 1080p video at 60 frames per second on a single core, or up to 4K content at 120 frames per second with 8-cores.

ARM’s highest-performance graphics chip design is the new Mali-T860 GPU which will replace this year’s Mali-T760. There are also Mali-T820 and Mali-T830 options for lower-cost devices.

All three of the new T800 series graphics processor designs support OpenGL ES 3.1, OpenCL 1.2, DirectX 11, and Android Extension Pack. But the higher the model number, the higher the overall performance of the graphics chip, with the T860 supporting up to 16 cores and clock speeds up to 695 MHz.

Want a more in-depth look at the new chips? Check out AnandTech’s coverage of the Mali T800 Series and MaliV550/DP550 designs.