Pixel 9 Pro XL Has Terrible Gaming Performance; Test Shows New Tensor G4 Is Slower Than Tensor G2 When Running Genshin Impact, Despite Running Cooler

The Tensor G4 was never going to stand out in against the competition in gaming performance, which was to be expected, as a Google executive previously pointed out that the chipset was not designed to break any benchmarking records but to improve the user experience.

Well, if you are a Pixel 9 Pro XL owner, you will be pretty disappointed to learn about the flagship’s gaming experience when running Genshin Impact because not only is it unable to run the title at a decent framerate, but it is slower than Google’s previous-generation Tensor G2 powering the Pixel 7 Pro. During the test, it was revealed that the Pixel 9 Pro XL’s thermals are impressive, but why is it not able to churn out a solid framerate? It looks like we will find out.

Tensor G4 runs the coolest compared to the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 and A17 Pro, but it cannot push higher FPS in Genshin Impact

During the extensive test, Dame Tech found out that the Pixel 9 Pro XL pushes an average framerate of 39.2FPS in Genshin Impact at the 720p resolution, with various visual settings set to their maximum limit. The Galaxy S24 Ultra’s Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 is 31 percent faster than the Tensor G4, while the iPhone 15 Pro Max’s A17 Pro is 51 percent ahead. While it was almost certain that the Pixel 9 Pro XL would not be winning any awards in this category, what caught us off-guard was that the Tensor G4 is slower than the Tensor G2 running in the Pixel 7 Pro.

Google’s chipset from two years ago registers an average framerate of 45.3FPS in Genshin Impact, making it 15 percent faster. While drawing out the comparisons, we noticed that the Tensor G4 runs the coolest at 37 degrees Celcius, concluding that the SoC is not thermal throttling, which is typically the reason for poor gaming performance. We also saw that the content creator did not add the total power consumption, but we speculate that if thermals are not the issue, then the Pixel 9 Pro XL could have a power limiter enabled, which Google might have implemented to