Items tagged with Intel
Each passing day brings us a little bit closer to Intel's upcoming Alder Lake launch. We know Alder Lake arrive before the end of the year, assuming Intel sticks with its stated release schedule, but details about different SKUs will have to wait. Official details, that is—unofficially, the leaks and rumors scene has been a goldmine of sorts, and as we head into the weekend, a couple of mobile Alder Lake parts have surfaced online. The stars of the latest benchmark leaks are a couple of Alder Lake-P processors. This is the designation given to Intel's mobile Alder Lake stack. Like the desktop variants (Alder Lake-S), they are manufactured on an enhanced 10-nanometer SuperFin process, combing...
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In June, Intel officially lifted the veil draping its "Beast Canyon" NUC 11 Extreme system, and it definitely lives up to its name. Powering Beast Canyon is an Intel Compete Element complete with up to a Core i9-11900KB Tiger Lake B Series processor. Now, SimplyNUC is taking preorders for NUC 11 Extreme with two different CPU options. The base configuration comes with a Core i7-11700KB processor for $1,399, while an upgraded config gets you the above-mentioned Core i9-11900KB for $1,599. Both systems come standard with 8GB of DDR4-3200 memory and a 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD. While those RAM/storage specs are probably not enough to satisfy enthusiasts' needs, the two SO-DIMM slots support up to 64GB...
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It took some time for Intel to move past 14-nanometer manufacturing in any kind of meaningful way (let's not talk about Cannon Lake), but it appears the company has now done that. We say this because during a recent earnings call with investors, Intel chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger revealed that the company is producing more 10nm wafers than 14nm wafers these days. "We are pragmatic about the work in front of us, but supremely confident of our future. Under IDM 2.0, our factory network continues to deliver and we are now manufacturing more 10-nanometer wafers than 14-nanometer," Gelsinger said. "As 10-nanometer volumes ramp, economics are improving with 10-nanometer wafer cost 45 percent...
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In our latest 2.5 Geeks livestream, we talk about Sapphire’s excellent Nitro+ Radeon RX 6800 XT, a super-fast Intel NVMe data center SSD, Dell’s top-of-the-line, new UltraSharp 4K webcam and a bunch of other tech news. We hope you enjoy it -- and don't forget to like and subscribe to our YouTube channel! Show Notes: 01:49 - Dell Latitude 7320 Detachable Revisited: Refined And Ready 05:22 - TCL 20 Pro 5G Review: Premium Features, Midrange Pricing 08:58 - Samsung Confirms August 11 Galaxy Unpacked Event For Galaxy Z Fold 3 And Z Flip 3 12:47 - Intel Core i9-12900K Alder Lake CPU Reportedly Crushes Ryzen 9 5950X In Rendering Benchmark 17:20 - Dell UltraSharp 4K Webcam Sneak Peek 23:22...
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Mobile workstations come in all shapes and sizes. Recently we took a look at the HP ZBook Fury 15 G7, a powerful mobile workstation with ISV-certified drivers that could replace many desktops, but in a more portable form factor. Many engineers need the type of power and reliability offered by a machine the size of the ZBook Fury 15 G7, to work with the latest 3D modeling apps, not to mention content creators that need all the video editing punch they can get, with some portability as well. However, many others in the same organization may need the same ISV-certified drivers with more portability and perhaps less power, to get critical work done while on the road. For those folks, there's...
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What will Intel's upcoming Alder Lake CPUs bring to the performance spectrum? Perhaps a retaking of the crown against AMD's finest. That is getting waaaay ahead of things, but if you are pulling for Alder Lake to hoist Intel back on top, then you will be interested in the latest supposedly leaked benchmark run featuring a Core i9-12900K processor. The Core i9-12900K has been making the rounds lately, because apparently qualification samples are in the wild (and being sold for insane prices). For anyone who is unfamiliar with the terminology, QS chips are essentially later revision engineering samples sent out to OEMs and sometimes reviewers, in anticipation of a pending launch. They are typically...
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Last week Intel launched its 30.0.100.9684 graphics driver, the first official non-beta release for Microsoft's upcoming Windows 11 operating system. Intel's early efforts beat out both NVIDIA and AMD when offering product-quality drivers for current-generation graphics hardware. However, buried within the release notes for the recent driver release was a reference to a potential release window for Windows 11. The release notes include the usual references to Windows 10 operating systems ranging from the October 2018 Update to the most recent May 2021 Update. However, there's a reference to one other operating system at the bottom of the list, which says "Microsoft Windows 11-64 October 2021...
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Apparently there is already pent up demand for Intel's upcoming Alder Lake CPUs that are slated to launch by the end of the year. As such, later revision engineering samples (known as qualification samples, or QS chips) are fetching big bucks—up to around $1,200 for the flagship of the bunch, the Core i9-12900K. It is interesting to see these QS chips sell for so much money. Alder Lake is a major new architecture that brings with it a new platform (600 series chipset), a new socket (LGA 1700), and support for DDR5 memory and PCI Express 5.0. That means interested buyers will need access to a new motherboard and a limited selection of DDR5 memory to actually use the QS chips. Buyers are...
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Alder Lake is Intel's next significant architectural shift for its family of Core processors consumer desktop and laptop product segments. Intel's 12th generation processors will be built on an enhanced 10nm SuperFin process, feature a hybrid big.LITTLE-style core arrangement and support both DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies. The first Alder Lake processors are due during Q4 2021, although it's not clear if the desktop or mobile processor will launch first (or if they will launch simultaneously). According to previous rumors, a potential October launch for Alder Lake would coincide with the release of Microsoft's next-generation Windows 11 operating system. A newly leaked Intel Commercial Client...
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Intel has vowed to aggressively expand its chip manufacturing business, and a huge part of that effort could apparently include buying GlobalFoundries, which was spun off of AMD over a decade ago. It's said Intel is willing to pay around $30 billion if a deal can be hammered out. That would rank as Intel's biggest acquisition ever. Whether or not a deal can be consummated remains to be seen, but this a bold and ambitious move that could shake up the semiconductor industry. It might also be the kind of thing Intel had in mind when it brought back Pat Gelsinger to serve as the company's chief executive officer, following the departure of Bob Swan. That's not to say Intel had planned a buyout of...
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Surprising as it may seem, Intel is the first company to release a stable (read: not beta) graphics driver tuned for Windows 11, beating both AMD and NVIDIA to the punch. This kind of aggressive push bodes well for Intel's efforts to infiltrate the modern discrete GPU market, and as far as gamers are concerned, specifically its Xe-HPG part. Just to be clear, the driver Intel just released is not for its upcoming lineup of discrete graphics cards, like the DG2 card for gaming. instead, the WDDM 3.0-compliant driver is for various integrated graphics solutions, dating back to ones found on its 6th Gen Core and related Pentium Silver and Celeron processors. That also includes its newest integrated...
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There have been lots of leaks pertaining to Alder Lake, the hybrid CPU architecture Intel will launch later this year. As we get closer to launch, the leaks presumably become more reliable, and so we might already know some finalized details about three upcoming SKUs, including what is poised to be the flagship CPU of the bunch, the Core i9-12900K. In case you've missed our extensive previous coverage, Intel has talked a little bit about Alder Lake, saying it will combine high performance Golden Cove cores with more power efficient Gracemont cores, in the same package. It is similar in concept to Arm's big.LITTLE philosophy that has been a huge hit in the mobile space. That's essentially Arm's...
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Within a matter of months, Intel will introduce its first Alder Lake processors, effectively marking a near wholesale transition to hybrid computing, and kicking off the DDR5 memory era. From an official standpoint, SKUs and specifications are still a mystery. Unofficially, however, leaks and rumors paint an interesting picture, the latest of which details a supposed Core i9-12900K processor. What about this hybrid architecture, you say? Intel dipped its toes into hybrid waters with Lakefield, but will really embrace heterogeneous computing in the x86 space with Alder Lake. This comes by way of combining high performance Golden Cove cores with power efficient Gracemont cores in the same package....
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This past March, Intel gave us some insight into its upcoming 12th generation Alder Lake and 13th generation Raptor Lake processor platforms. Technical documents on Intel's website provided an "overview of high-level compatibility guidance between Alder Lake S and Raptor Lake S" for its customers. This weekend, further documentation was discovered, which details Intel's "Alder-Raptor Lake PCH-S SATA Controller." Given the naming, there's no question that Alder Lake and Raptor Lake feature a related CPU architecture that will share supporting chipsets. The documentation was submitted to the SATA-IO, which is responsible for the SATA specification that hardware vendors adopt on motherboards and...
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Intel has been making noise in virtually all segments of the storage market as of late. A few weeks back, we took a look at the Optane Memory H20, which combines 3DXpoint media with traditional NAND on hybrid M.2 device to accelerate the storage subsystem in mainstream notebooks and PCs. More recently, we evaluated the blazing-fast, ultra-pricey Optane SSD P5800X for high-performance workstations, and we can't forget about the budget friendly SSD 670p that arrived in early March. Today, we’ll shift our focus to the enterprise space and inspect Intel’s recently-announced PCIe Gen 4 SSD D7-P5510 series, which targets data center applications with high-capacities, and enhanced throughput...
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Industry veteran Shlomit Weiss is returning to Intel to lead the company's full range of chip development and design—the entire CPU silicon gamut, in other words. Weiss brings with her over three decades of experience in the semiconductor space, much of which was spent at Intel (28 years) before leaving for Mellanox Technologies, which was acquired by NVIDIA for $6.9 billion in 2019. In a sense, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is bringing the band back together, who himself returned to the Santa Clara outfit earlier this year to serve as its band leader, replacing former boss Bob Swan. Gelsinger had previously served various roles at Intel spanning 1979 to 1989, and was named the company's first...
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In case there was any doubt, the answer is yes, your ASRock Z590 OC Formula motherboard will play nice with Windows 11 when it ships out later this year. Same goes for ASRock's X570 Aqua and a host of other motherboards based on various AMD and Intel chipsets. There are still other Windows 11 requirements at play, but as far as motherboards go, anything relatively modern should be good to go. For the most part, we have not had to discuss motherboard compatibility when new versions of Windows came out in the past. For example, if your PC was running Windows 7, the motherboard would not have prevented you from running Windows 8/8.1 when it arrived, or Windows 10. It has become a topic now, however,...
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We were really impressed with Intel's latest high-performance notebook CPUs from the Tiger Lake-H family when we got to try them out in a test platform. Intel arguably produced the single fastest x86 notebook CPU on the planet, with blistering single-threaded speed and heavy multi-threaded prowess. However, we were itching to get our hands on a retail sample with these CPUs so we could verify that shipping products were just as fast. Enter ASUS and the powerful ROG Zephyrus M16, a brand-new model of sleek gaming notebook with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics and one of Intel's latest Core i9 processors. ASUS didn't just incorporate Intel's latest mobile platform and call it a day, though. The...
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Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is not having any trouble finding clients for its advanced 3-nanometer node technology. A couple of industry giants have already reportedly tapped TSMC to fabricate 3nm silicon for them, including Apple, which will inject them first into an upcoming lineup of iPad tablets, and Intel. Generally speaking, smaller nodes translate to better performance and power efficiency, along with other potential benefits that are baked into the silicon. Of course, it is a bit more complicated than that—when comparing nodes from two different manufacturers, it is not as simple as saying the smaller number is a better one. Be that as it may, TSMC is major...
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When we reviewed the Intel Optane SSD 905P back in 2018, despite a significant price premium over NAND-based SSDs, we gave the drive and Editor’s Choice award due to its exceptional performance where it mattered most for consumers, e.g. access times and random transfers at low queue depths. Intel Optane solid state drives typically offer much better latency characteristics, more consistent and predicable performance with a variety of workloads -- regardless of how much drive capacity is being used – and their endurance ratings are off the charts. The only caveats with the 905P were pricing, and sequential performance that wasn’t quite as high as the top-end NAND-based SSDs of...
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At long last, Intel appears to be on the cusp of launching its first modern discrete graphics card for gaming based on its Xe architecture. In preparation for the launch, which Intel recently said is "right around the corner," the company is inviting 'Official Odssey Card' holders to register within Intel's Developer Zone website to score some free swag (a t-shirt and perhaps some other stuff). I'm not an Odyssey card holder (aw nuts!), but from what I can tell, those cards were given out to attendees of different events, to be redeemed later. That day has come. The card itself is not the interesting part, though—it's the confirmation from Intel that its Xe-HPG graphics solution for gaming...
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The official announcement of Windows 11 last month brought both excitement and confusion for enthusiasts. A brand-new Windows operating system only comes around every few years, but Microsoft’s hardware requirements left many scratching their heads. Chief among them is the instance on mandatory TPM 2.0 modules and AMD Ryzen 2000 or 7th generation Intel Core (and newer) processors. The processor cutoff was particularly puzzling, considering that AMD’s first-generation Ryzen 1000 processors came out in 2017, which is not that old in the grand scheme of things. For example, the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 1800X is still a perfectly acceptable processor for everyday productivity tasks. After...
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