Google switched to TSMC for the Pixel 10’s Tensor G5 chip and replaced Arm’s Mali GPU with Imagination’s PowerVR. But both moves did not have the intended consequences, as the Tensor G5’s performance and efficiency lagged behind the competition. The GPU performance in particular sticks out like a sore thumb and in many cases is even slower than the Pixel 9. Many users blame outdated GPU drivers for the poor display. Google has now confirmed that updates for the Pixel 10 GPU drivers are on the way.
The Tensor G5 uses Imagination Technologies’ PowerVR DXT-48-1536 GPU, a fairly powerful graphics chip that supports Vulkan 1.3, tile-based deferred rendering, and 1.5TFLOPS FP32 performance. Still, the Pixel 10 struggles to run modern games smoothly and even scores lower than the Pixel 9 in GPU benchmarks.
Frustrated Pixel 10 owners on Reddit did some research and discovered that outdated GPU drivers were the likely culprit. The phone comes with an outdated driver (v24.3), which doesn’t even support Android 16. Right around the time the Pixel 10 came out, Imagination Technologies introduced a new driver (v25.1), with compatibility with Android 16 and Vulkan 1.4.
Given the performance issues, you’d expect Google to include the fix in a monthly Pixel update, but that hasn’t happened yet.
In a statement to Android AuthorityHowever, a Google spokesperson confirmed that it plans to update the Pixel 10’s GPU driver.
We continue to improve driver quality in our monthly and quarterly system updates. For example, the most recent patch releases from September and October included driver improvements. We plan further GPU driver updates in future releases.
Confusingly, the company says it even rolled out driver updates with the September and October updates. However, they did not bring any noticeable performance improvement or solve any of the existing problems.
Google is no stranger to updating its Pixel GPU drivers
Google has updated GPU drivers on Pixel phones before, so it’s not exactly surprising that the company will do this for the Pixel 10. In all previous cases, the updates also significantly improved GPU performance.
What’s surprising is that given the Pixel 10’s poor GPU performance, it’s taking this long for the company to roll out a newer driver build. The latest Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3.1 still has the older driver.
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