Garmin Just Put 25 Hz GNSS in the Catalyst 2 — Can the Fenix 9 Get It Too?

Garmin’s new Catalyst 2 brings 25 Hz multi-GNSS positioning to motorsport. The obvious question for regular readers here: could that capability be added to a watch later?

The answer comes down to what “25 Hz” actually means in the Catalyst 2 — and what the GPS chips inside Garmin’s wearables are capable of doing.

The Current Chipset Ceiling – it’s actually 10Hz, not 5Hz – the ceiling is not the full story

Garmin watches have shipped with GNSS (GPS) chips from two main vendors: Airoha and, more recently, Synaptics. Both have performance limits documented by their respective manufacturers.

The Airoha AG3335 series — widely used across the Garmin lineup — is hardware rated for a maximum navigation output rate of 10 Hz. The newer Synaptics SYN4778, a dual-frequency L1/L5 chip targeting wearable applications, does not document output above 10 Hz in published materials, though independent confirmation of its maximum rate remains limited. No manufacturer material for either chip references 20 Hz or 25 Hz standalone GNSS capability.

Thus, the current wearable GNSS silicon from the two vendors Garmin uses tops out at approximately 10 Hz.

What Catalyst 2’s “25 Hz” Actually Means

Garmin satellites fix at 10 Hz, separately record onboard motion sensor data, and blend both into a single position stream at 25 Hz. That’s high-end automotive GNSS practice, with some competitors and older Garmin devices resolving at 10 Hz.

Why Watches Face Additional Problems

Setting aside chipset limits, watches face structural constraints that don’t exist in a dash-mounted motorsport device: power budgets are tight on Garmin’s ageing internal architectures, and storage cannot write data fast enough to keep up. Even that ignores recording constraints: FIT files are typically written at 5 records per second for standard position data, though the specification does permit higher-rate data to be stored using arrays within individual records — a technique Garmin already applies to accelerometer and gyroscope logging.

These are ecosystem constraints that represent engineering trade-offs that must be addressed before higher-rate positioning can be meaningfully exposed to the buyer on the watch or in post-activity analysis.

The Paths to 25 Hz on a Wrist

Three routes exist, with very different likelihoods.

New GNSS silicon rated above 10 Hz. No current wearable chip from Airoha or Synaptics supports it. That means a next-generation chip or a new vendor. Some of my research found that the u-blox M10 family already supports 25 Hz in GPS-only mode and 10 Hz in full multi-GNSS mode. The UBX-M10150-CC, launched in November 2024 and aimed squarely at sports watches, reaches 12 Hz in high-performance mode. The UBX-M10150-KB, released in October 2025, targets a different market segment and is a larger chip; it is not a direct wearable successor. The silicon exists. Garmin has not adopted u-blox chips, likely due to price, accuracy, and power efficiency.

A fused output rate using the motion sensor already in the watch is technically feasible. But a 5 Hz recording (2025) already carries a significant battery penalty for downhill sport modes.

A selective high-rate sport mode for motorsport, ski racing or sail racing that trades battery for position resolution. The most realistic near-term path is consistent with how Garmin has previously differentiated activity profiles.

The practical ceiling for standard FIT position records sits at 5 Hz, though the specification’s array mechanism already accommodates higher-rate sensor data. Whether Garmin would extend that approach to GNSS position streams for niche sports remains an open question.

Some ideas I had include parallel streams that could log standard 5 Hz position alongside additional staggered streams recorded as developer fields, effectively reconstructing a higher-rate track in the FIT file for Garmin’s analytics to interpret — without breaking the FIT file ecosystem. Alternatively, higher-rate acceleration derived directly from the sensors, rather than inferred from position changes, could be recorded with the same timestamps, capturing what raw position data misses.

The Bottom Line

Think of your Fenix-owning friends who own Porsches for track days, go skiing or sail racing. These buyers may want higher-resolution data for more precise speed and positioning.

Wearable GNSS chipsets currently used by Garmin are limited to approximately 10 Hz navigation output. Catalyst 2’s 25 Hz figure is almost certainly a sensor-fusion rate, not a raw GNSS one. Bringing that to a watch will require a newer chip generation or a firmware-enabled fused positioning mode with meaningful battery trade-offs.

This is all technically possible, but architecturally non-trivial for a watch. The speculation here is not evidenced in anything Garmin or its chipset vendors have published for wearables.

Then again, the Fenix 9 hasn’t been released yet. It could feature in that or one of its derivatives (MARQ).

Likelihood: slim.

Last Updated on 16 March 2026 by the5krunner

the5krunner

tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors.