AMD Ryzen 5 7600X leak is great news for PC gamers on a budget – but bad news for Intel

https://ift.tt/zlXs5CB

AMD’s incoming Ryzen 5 7600X has already been seen in benchmarks ahead of the CPU’s release in just under a month, and it looks to be shaping up very nicely.

In fact, there have been multiple sightings of the 7600X, which is a mid-range offering for Zen 4 loaded with six cores due to arrive on September 27, and some of these were picked up by VideoCardz.

As the site reports, the 5600X has been spotted in a couple of Geekbench runs in a PC with an MSI X670E motherboard plus 32GB of DDR5 RAM. The processor achieved single-core scores of 2,092 and 2,174 points, along with 11,337 and 11,369 for multi-core.

In another benchmark we saw on Twitter, highlighted by @harukaze5719, the 7600X is shown recording a result of 2,165 and 11,432. So there appears to be some consistency with these pre-release leaks, pointing to single-core performance of around 2,140 on average, and multi-core of 11,380 or so.

This also matches up with what AMD said in its launch presentation, namely that the 7600X would be capable of around 2,175 for single-core.

In comparison to the processor that it succeeds, the 5600X, AMD’s new 7600X is about 35% faster for single-core and almost 40% quicker for multi-core, going by average Geekbench scores for the outgoing Zen 3 chip.

---

Analysis: Impressive scores and boost speed to boot

That’s a pretty impressive generational performance leap, of course, and the Twitter benchmark showing the single-core result of 2,165 also cites an Intel Core i9-12900KS score of 2,182 for comparison, indicating that the new Zen 4 mid-range performer is very close on the heels of Intel’s current flagship. At least for this one metric – and we do have to be careful about reading too much into results from a single benchmark suite, as ever.

We’ll need a much more thorough range of testing to determine the true power of the 7600X, and what many of us really want to see is actual gaming benchmarks (as opposed to synthetic non-gaming tests). Mind you, AMD has already told us that on average, the Ryzen 5 7600X is around 5% faster than the Core i9-12900K, with the caveat that this is for gaming at 1080p – and of course we need to take any marketing blurb with a degree of caution.

Still, these leaked benchmarks would appear to be a good indication that the bluster of AMD’s launch is looking like it will be backed up when we actually get these processors in for review to put them through their paces properly.

Another interesting point here is that the 7600X is shown boosting to 5395MHz in these benchmarks, which is actually higher than the processor’s officially rated maximum boost of 5.3GHz.

As we’ve explained before, though, AMD will quote a top boost speed for the official spec which every Ryzen CPU of that model is absolutely sure to hit, but in everyday operation, users may see slightly higher clock speeds than that, likely for just brief peaks. (How high or lengthy those peaks might be depends on how lucky you get with the CPU which you purchase, as all have slight variances in terms of performance).

This is why even though the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X is rated at a boost of 5.7GHz, it has been spotted running faster than 5.8GHz in another recent leak. With the Raptor Lake flagship (13900K) supposedly set to boost to 5.8GHz also, the battle of the clock speeds looks like it’s going to be very close indeed for next-gen chips – though performance depends on far more than this frequency, of course.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/xK7GyHj
via IFTTT

Bad news for scalpers – AMD promises plentiful Ryzen 7000 CPU stock at launch

https://ift.tt/oI0jh38

AMD is expecting to have plenty of Ryzen 7000 CPUs on hand to ensure healthy stock levels when the next-gen chips launch in a month, which is obviously great news for anyone hoping to hop on board with Zen 4.

This revelation came during the Ryzen 7000 launch yesterday, in which AMD revealed the Ryzen 9 7950X and 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X. As PC Gamer reports, CEO Lisa Su was asked about supply chain issues and potential stock levels with Zen 4 CPUs, and furnished us with a clear – and positive – answer.

Su replied: “It is true that if you look at the past 18 months there have been a number of things, whether its capacity limitations or logistics. From an AMD standpoint, we have dramatically increased our overall capacity, in terms of wafers, as well as substrates and on the back end. So with our launch of Zen 4 we don’t expect any supply constraints.”

The CEO continued: “Logistically it takes a little bit longer for things to get into region. So we’re having this event at the end of August and we’re on sale on September 27. One of the reasons for that time, frankly, is to make sure that we do have product in region so that people can really look at buying across the board.”

---

Analysis: Clear advantage to AMD in the battle of next-gen CPUs?

The key words that we feel should be focused on here is that AMD has dramatically upped its manufacturing capacity, and the firm does not expect any supply issues. Furthermore, there is the mention of extra time being taken to ensure that there’s enough stock across the board. And we take that to mean the most popular mainstream chips (the workhorse 7600X) and higher-end (Ryzen 9) models will all be in robust health, inventory-wise, at retailers.

Traditionally, top-end CPUs can be thin on the ground at launch for AMD, and so more likely to be subject to the ravages of scalpers (even though these pricier CPUs are by their very nature a more niche proposition than Ryzen 7 or 5 products). It sounds very much like this won’t be the case, though; but promises are one thing, and reality sometimes another.

However, what’s interesting is the rumor mill has for a while now theorized about AMD building up to a big volume launch in September, and indeed that a previous September 15 possible on-sale date was pushed back to later in the month to allow for that to happen. If true, that shows how serious AMD is about ensuring good levels of supply right off the bat.

The other key factor is that with Intel not expected to push out next-gen Raptor Lake processors until October 20, as the latest from the grapevine insists, that gives AMD over three weeks to grab as many sales as possible while Ryzen 7000 is up against Alder Lake CPUs. A battle which Team Red claims it will win very clearly, as you might expect for next-gen versus Intel’s current-gen – though you may not expect the mid-range 7600X to be able to outstrip the flagship Core i9-12900K for 1080p gaming performance, as AMD has claimed is the case (to the tune of 5% or so).

How Zen 4 CPUs stack up to Raptor Lake may be very different than with Alder Lake, of course, and as far as we can tell from various early leaks, it’ll be a close-run race. But AMD could win key victories not just in coming to market the best part of a month earlier, but also with pricing, with Intel rumored to be thinking of putting a premium on Raptor Lake, whereas Team Red has held pricing with Ryzen 7000 compared to Ryzen 5000 (and even reduced it in the case of the flagship 7950X).

Factor in scalpers being left out in the cold – theoretically – if stock levels are healthy for Zen 4 right from the get-go (and they may not be for Raptor Lake), and there could be a potent advantage for AMD in terms of availability and cost, if performance roughly equates.

All this is educated guesswork, naturally, but at the moment, it’s certainly starting to look like AMD is poised to take back the initiative which Intel stole from it in the desktop CPU world when Team Blue pushed out Alder Lake.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/tfdWb9V
via IFTTT

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs could really steal the thunder of Intel’s Raptor Lake launch

https://ift.tt/oI0jh38

Intel’s Raptor Lake processors could go on sale on October 20, according to the latest rumor regarding the launch schedule of the 13th-gen products.

This comes from @wxnod, a leaker on Twitter we’ve heard from before, but not one of the more regular sources – so take some hefty seasoning with this, although the rumor is based on something concrete: a photo of a slide from a purported Intel presentation (first spotted by VideoCardz).

pic.twitter.com/dmTWzKSGFnAugust 30, 2022

See more

If it’s genuine, the shown Raptor Lake GTM (Go to Market) roadmap indicates that 13th-gen CPUs will be revealed on September 27, before the silicon hits shelves starting from October 20.

The slide shows that pre-orders for the flagship Core i9-13900K will kick off on the day that the processors are revealed, with 13700K and 13600K pre-orders starting later, a week before the on-sale date for Raptor Lake chips, meaning October 13. Those will be the initial trio of 13th-gen CPUs to come out, with other models to follow later (including cheaper non-K processors).

---

Analysis: A case of good timing for AMD, in more ways than one?

This is pretty much in line with what we’d already heard from the grapevine, albeit the last rumor pointed to a September 28 unveiling, not September 27. Either way, the expectation is that Raptor Lake will appear at Intel’s Innovation event, on either of those two days that the developer conference runs over – although the first day makes more sense to us (after all, a new generation of desktop processors is a big thing, so you’d imagine it’d have upfront positioning).

That previous rumor floated an on-sale date of October 17, so again, this new October 20 date isn’t far off at all. Consistency of rumors like this is generally a good sign, of course, that these things will turn out to be on, or at least near, the mark. So the broad expectation is Raptor Lake going on sale mid-to-late October.

We now know from AMD’s launch of Ryzen 7000 CPUs yesterday that these chips will be on sale on September 27 – coincidentally (ahem), the same day as the Raptor Lake reveal (interesting timing indeed). This looks like a bit of anticipated thunder-stealing from Team Red, and means that Intel’s Raptor Lake products will be out just over three weeks after Zen 4, in theory.

That’s a fair head-start for AMD to bag a good amount of next-gen sales and tempt folks over to the Ryzen side, with some compelling reasons to do so aside from earlier availability. Namely that the value proposition of the initial batch of Zen 4 processors looks strong, as higher-end models didn’t turn out to be pricier than Ryzen 5000, in the end, as some speculation suggested. Furthermore, rumor has it there will be plentiful stock of Ryzen 7000 chips, and that should hopefully put paid to any scalping-related price hiking, which is often something that blights a new product launch like this.

AMD is also releasing Zen 4 on a new AM5 platform, which means more future-proofing than Intel Raptor Lake, which will be the last incarnation of Team Blue’s silicon on the current CPU socket.

It looks like Intel has its work cut out in a number of ways, then, particularly as the chip giant is looking to notch up its pricing across a range of chips, and that may include Raptor Lake processors – with early retail price leaks certainly hinting at that. However, we can hardly draw any conclusions on the cost front yet, but hiking price tags seems like a prospect Intel can ill afford, really, due to all the above reasons.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/2u9R8Js
via IFTTT

AMD Details Ryzen 7000 Launch: Ryzen 7950X and More, Coming Sept. 27th

https://ift.tt/oI0jh38

AMD’s "together we advance_PCs”l ivestream presentation just wrapped up moments ago, where AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su set the stage for the release of the next generation of AMD Ryzen desktop CPUs. Building off of AMD’s Ryzen 7000 announcement back at Computex 2022, the eagerly anticipated presentation laid out AMD’s launch plans for their first family of Zen 4 architecture-based CPUs, which will see AMD kick things off with a quartet of enthusiast-focused chips. Topping out with the 16 core Ryzen 9 7950X, AMD’s Ryzen 7000 chips will be launching in just over 4 weeks’ time, on September 27^th, with AMD expecting to handily retake the performance crown across virtually all categories of the PC CPU space, from gaming to content creation.

Driving AMD’s gains in this newest generation of desktop CPUs is a combination of architectural improvements underpinning the Zen 4 architecture, as well as moving production of the CPU core chiplets to TSMC’s leading-edge 5nm process. The combination of which will allow AMD to deliver what they are saying is now a 13% increase in IPC over their Zen 3 architecture – up from an 11% claim as of Computex – as well as a sizable increase in CPU clockspeeds. The top-end Ryzen 9 7950X will have a maximum turbo clockspeed of 5.7GHz, 800MHz (16%) higher than the equivalent Ryzen 9 5950X. As a result, AMD expects to deliver a 29% generational increase in single-threaded performance, and even more in multi-threaded workloads.

from AnandTech https://ift.tt/bdgmxt8
via IFTTT

AMD Ryzen 7000 "together we advance_PCs” Live Blog (7pm ET/23:00 UTC)

https://ift.tt/uCeQyDd

At long last the date is here. AMD this evening will be broadcasting their "together we advance_PCs” event, which will be focused around the upcoming launch of their next-generation Ryzen 7000 processors.

AMD first unveiled their Ryzen 7000 platform and branding back at Computex 2022, offering quite a few high-level details on the forthcoming consumer processor platform while stating it would be launching in the fall. The new CPU family will feature up to 16 Zen 4 cores using TSMC's optimized 5 nm manufacturing process for the Core Complex Die (CCD), and TSMC’s 6nm process for the I/O Die (IOD). AMD has not disclosed a great deal about the Zen 4 architecture itself, though their Computex presentation has indicated we should expect a several percent increase in IPC, along with a further several percent increase in peak clockspeeds, allowing for a 15%+ increase in single-threaded performance.

The Ryzen 7000 series is also notable for being the first of AMD’s chiplet-based CPUs to integrate a GPU – in this case embedding it in the IOD. The modest GPU allows for AMD’s CPUs to supply their own graphics, eliminating the need for a discrete GPU just to boot a system while, we expect, providing enough performance for basic desktop work.

Tonight's presentation, in turn, should finally see AMD moving on to talking about launch details for the Ryzen 7000 CPUs and the associated AM5 platform. That should include performance expectations and a bit more on the motherboards. And, of course, information on the specific chip SKUs that will be hitting the market, including core configurations, clockspeeds, and prices. With any luck we may get a bit more on the Zen 4 architecture as well, as alongside CEO Dr. Lisa Su, CTO Mark Papermaster is slated to present part of the event.

The event is set to kick off tonight, August 29^th, at 7pm ET (23:00 UTC). So be sure to join us for our live blog coverage around the announcement of the next generation of AMD desktop CPUs.

from AnandTech https://ift.tt/h8SE3KX
via IFTTT

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X CPU spotted boosting to 5.85GHz, which could worry Intel

https://ift.tt/CmKQR9H

AMD’s Ryzen 9 7950X, the incoming flagship for next-gen Zen 4 processors, has been spotted boosting up to 5.85GHz – but there are caveats to be observed here.

This latest Zen 4 leak comes from a Weibo user (a social media platform in China), so must be treated with more caution than usual, and it was flagged up by HXL on Twitter (a regular source of hardware leakage, with the tweet being highlighted by VideoCardz).

Raphael 2x Durango CCD 16x Persephone CoreRyzen 9 7950X 5.7GHz (PBO/XFR 5.85GHz)5.85 vs 5.8（Intel RPL）https://t.co/BZM5fHaU5G pic.twitter.com/Uc5VDMZ0bKAugust 28, 2022

See more

As you can see, the leaker purportedly has a Ryzen 9 7950X that hits 5.85GHz as mentioned – huge amounts of salt required, of course, and exactly what that speed means, we’ll discuss shortly – and Intel’s Raptor Lake flagship will apparently reach 5.8GHz at top speed in comparison.

The speed of 5.85GHz does line up with a previous top speed floated for the Zen 4 flagship by Angstronomics (a well thought of source), and the Weibo leaker does also provide a CPU-Z screenshot of the pre-release 7950X.

---

Analysis: Whichever way you dice it, the 7950X looks pretty sharp

Clearly this is one we need to be pretty skeptical about, but if true, the 7950X being capable of that kind of boost is obviously quite the eye-opener. Now, the leaker makes the point that the Ryzen CPU actually boosts to 5.7GHz, with 5.85GHz recorded via PBO (Precision Boost Overdrive – in other words, the automated overclocking mode you can switch on to get a bit more performance out of your chip).

However, as another well-known Twitter leaker (Uzzi38) chimes in, what’s actually happening with this sample 7950X is that it is hitting 5.85GHz with no PBO needed, but this is just a peak frequency – reached probably pretty briefly, here and there. In other words, the quoted max boost on the box of the flagship Zen 4 chip will be lower than this (more like the mentioned 5.7GHz).

Exact speeds will, as ever, depend on the quality of the processor you buy – there’s always some variance within CPU models, known as the silicon lottery – but whatever the case, AMD will have an official (default) max boost set at a suitably low level so all chips can reliably hit it, for obvious reasons.

Whatever the case for the exact top boost speed for the Ryzen 9 7950X, it looks like it’ll be very close to the same ballpark as the Raptor Lake champ, the Core i9-13900K. Once again, this is another hint that the battle between Zen 4 and Intel’s 13th-gen silicon will be a very close one.

We’ll know a lot more about Ryzen 7000 tomorrow, as AMD has its launch event for the next-gen processors going ahead via a livestream. There’s a good chance we’ll find out the official rated boost speed for the flagship 7950X at this event.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/5LpGvZV
via IFTTT

AMD to bring suped-up gaming performance in early 2023 with Ryzen 9 7950X3D

https://ift.tt/fD0TZdK

The first round of AMD’s ‘Zen 4’ Ryzen 7000 CPUs will be arriving very soon, with a September release all but confirmed by Team Red ahead of its livestream event on August 29. But more interestingly for many gamers, YouTuber and leaker Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID) has stated that we can expect to see the suped-up 3D V-Cache Ryzen 7000 chips in Q1 2023.

We already knew that AMD’s 3D V-Cache technology would be making an appearance in Ryzen 7000, but this leak gives us greater insight into what we can expect. According to MLID, AMD is readying two chips: the Ryzen 7 7850X3D, and the uber-powerful Ryzen 9 7950X3D.

The 3D V-Cache technology is a boon for gamers, as it allows AMD to ‘stack’ L3 cache memory on the processor die, which provides boosted performance in games. The first CPU to receive this tech was the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which was incredibly able to outperform the more expensive Intel Core i9-12900K in some games thanks to its whopping 100MB cache.

---

Analysis: 3D V-Cache could solidify AMD’s position as the ‘gamer’s choice’ of CPU

Choosing the best processor for a gaming PC can be a tricky business. Your processor won’t have as big an impact on games as your graphics card, naturally, but it can represent a performance bottleneck if it lags behind your other components, and some games (such as real-time strategy titles) do benefit from a superior CPU more than others.

Pricing will obviously be key here, but if AMD’s 3D Ryzen chips are able to outperform Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs in games while costing less it’ll be a slam dunk for Team Red. The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is already arguably the single best choice for building a high-end gaming rig right now, so we can expect AMD to keep that momentum going for the second generation of 3D CPUs.

Intel’s i7-13700K is looking to provide some serious competition, with recently leaked benchmarks suggesting that it shreds the non-3D Ryzen 7 7700X in synthetic tests. But the average gamer won’t be worried about number-crunching performance; it’s all about the game framerates, and there’s where the 3D chips will excel. We can’t wait to get our hands on them.

Via TweakTown.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/Lnk0cU7
via IFTTT

Intel Raptor Lake CPUs spotted with price tags that could leave an easy win for AMD

https://ift.tt/mK6whpY

Intel’s Raptor Lake processors have already been spotted online at a retailer over in Canada, and if the prices provided are anything to go by, we can expect a bit of a step up compared to current Alder Lake CPUs.

VideoCardz spotted that well-known leaker @momomo_us posted the prices on Twitter, though obviously these are price tags in Canadian dollars, and we must further bear in mind that at this early stage, before release, this pricing is just a placeholder.

In other words, it’s just a ballpark idea of where Intel might be pitching Raptor Lake chips (indeed, Team Blue itself likely hasn’t finalized MSRPs at this point – not if the release date rumors are right, anyway, as that could still be some way off).

🇨🇦🤔 pic.twitter.com/DlUa2vCS4wAugust 24, 2022

See more

Performing a quick currency conversion to US dollars for the flagship Core i9-13900K shows that it’s roughly $730 (around £620, AU$1,050), although that doesn’t really mean much, as the reality of pricing is that such conversions are never a direct affair (on top of the fact that this isn’t official pricing anyway, of course).

What’s more instructive is to look at relative pricing compared to current-gen Alder Lake products on sale at this Canadian outlet. So, in the case of the flagship, the 12900K weighs in at about $630 in US currency (around £530, AU$900) – which gives us a rough estimate of the 13900K being about a hundred bucks extra, or 15% more expensive. Take that ballpark with a whole heap of caution, naturally.

Doing the same thing with the other Raptor Lake CPUs listed, the 13700K is around 17% dearer than the 12700K, and the 13600K is 15% pricier than its Alder Lake counterpart. So roughly we’re looking at about a 15% price hike versus 12th-gen products for Intel’s mid-to-high range 13th-gen processors.

---

Analysis: A worrying potential glimpse of prices? Well, we wouldn’t panic just yet

Assuming such a price bump of this kind of order comes to fruition – with all the caveats mentioned already – this wouldn’t be entirely unexpected. Why? Because Intel has already made it known that pricing for most of its processors (and other chips) could be bumped by 10% to 20%, which falls pretty much in line with the 15% hike for Raptor Lake which is pointed to by this Canadian retailer.

Before we go running to the hills in a panic about costly next-gen CPUs from Intel, though, we’d temper these expectations somewhat. It seems unlikely, at least to us, that Team Blue would implement such a uniform price hike throughout the Raptor Lake range.

Top-end processors like the 13900K can certainly command more of a premium – especially as this flagship CPU supposedly offers an ‘extreme performance’ mode, and could be aimed even more firmly at enthusiasts as a result – but to see the same uptick in pricing on a 13600K? It could happen, but we’d imagine that increases further down the Raptor Lake range would be more modest.

Furthermore, Intel really needs to consider how its incoming 13th-gen line-up will stack up compared to AMD’s Ryzen 7000 chips. And the rumors thus far suggest that Team Red won’t be cranking up price tags for these Zen 4 CPUs – at least not with the mainstream offerings (meaning high-end chips could still have an extra premium on top). We’ve heard that twice on the grapevine, now – apply plentiful skepticism here, still – but Intel will have, too, and surely must take relative competitiveness into account when pricing Raptor Lake away from the higher-end CPUs.

On a final note, these placeholder prices turning up now does also suggest that maybe Intel’s Raptor Lake processors may be closer to release than we think. Previous rumors have indicated an October on-sale date, following a late September reveal, so it seems like this might be on track. However, AMD could still pip Intel to the post with a swifter next-gen launch, as Ryzen 7000 chips are expected to hit shelves at some point in September (with an imminent reveal), and have already appeared in leaked product listings at retailers (in Canada, again) the best part of a fortnight ago.

Moreover, AMD is rumored to have plentiful stock ready for when Ryzen 7000 CPUs debut, and that could be a massive boon in terms of pricing, too – ensuring scalpers don’t get their nefarious oars in, upping price tags from MSRP levels, as happens all too often these days with hardware launches.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/5uC4Bri
via IFTTT

AMD Announces Ryzen 7000 Reveal Livestream for August 29th

https://ift.tt/4azKdZv

In a brief press release sent out this morning, AMD has announced that they will be delivering their eagerly anticipated Ryzen 7000 unveiling later this month as a live stream. In an event dubbed “together we advance_PCs”, AMD will be discussing the forthcoming Ryzen 7000 series processors as well as the underlying Zen 4 architecture and associated AM5 platform – laying the groundwork ahead of AMD’s planned fall launch for the Ryzen 7000 platform. The event is set to kick off on August 29^th at 7pm ET (23:00 UTC), with CEO Dr. Lisa Su and CTO Mark Papermaster slated to present.

AMD first unveiled their Ryzen 7000 platform and branding back at Computex 2022, offering quite a few high-level details on the forthcoming consumer processor platform while stating it would be launching in the fall. The new CPU family will feature up to 16 Zen 4 cores using TSMC's optimized 5 nm manufacturing process for the Core Complex Die (CCD), and TSMC’s 6nm process for the I/O Die (IOD). AMD has not disclosed a great deal about the Zen 4 architecture itself, though their Computex presentation has indicated we should expect a several percent increase in IPC, along with a further several percent increase in peak clockspeeds, allowing for a 15%+ increase in single-threaded performance.

The Ryzen 7000 series is also notable for being the first of AMD’s chiplet-based CPUs to integrate a GPU – in this case embedding it in the IOD. The modest GPU allows for AMD’s CPUs to supply their own graphics, eliminating the need for a discrete GPU just to boot a system while, we expect, providing enough performance for basic desktop work.

AMD Desktop CPU Generations
AnandTech	Ryzen 7000 (Raphael)	Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer)	Ryzen 3000 (Matisse)
CPU Architecture	Zen 4	Zen 3	Zen 2
CPU Cores	Up To 16C / 32T	Up To 16C / 32T	Up To 16C / 32T
GPU Architecture	RDNA2	N/A	N/A
GPU Cores	TBD	N/A	N/A
Memory	DDR5	DDR4	DDR4
Platform	AM5	AM4	AM4
CPU PCIe Lanes	24x PCIe 5.0	24x PCIe 4.0	24x PCIe 4.0
Manufacturing Process	CCD: TSMC N5 IOD: TSMC N6	CCD: TSMC N7 IOD: GloFo 12nm	CCD: TSMC N7 IOD: GloFo 12nm

The new CPU family will also come with a new socket and motherboard platform, which AMD is dubbing AM5. The first significant socket update for AMD in six years will bring with it a slew of changes and new features, including a switch to an LGA-style socket (LGA1718) and support for DDR5 memory. Providing the back-end for AM5 will be AMD’s 600 series chipsets, with AMD set to release both enthusiast and mainstream chipsets. PCIe 5.0 will also be supported by the platform, but in the interest of keeping motherboard prices in check, it is not a mandatory motherboard feature.

The remaining major disclosures that AMD hasn’t made – and which we’re expecting to see at their next event – will be around the Zen 4 architecture itself, as well as information on specific Ryzen 7000 SKUs. Pricing information is likely not in the cards (the industry has developed a strong tendency to announce prices at the last minute), but at the very least we should have an idea of how many cores to expect on the various SKUs, as well as where the official TDPs will land in this generation given AM5’s greater power limits.

Meanwhile, AMD’s press release does not mention whether the presentation will be recorded or live. Like most tech companies, AMD switched to pre-recorded presentations due to the outbreak of COVID-19, which in turn has been paying dividends in the form of breezier and more focused presentations with higher production values. While relatively insignificant in the big picture of things, it will be interesting to see whether AMD is going back to live presentations for consumer product unveils such as this.

In any case, we’ll find out more during AMD’s broadcast. The presentation is slated to air on August 29^th at 7pm Eastern, on AMD’s YouTube channel. And of course, be sure to check out AnandTech for a full rundown and analysis of AMD’s announcements.

from AnandTech https://ift.tt/G0DcpsA
via IFTTT

AMD could time Ryzen 7000 CPU launch to disrupt Intel Raptor Lake reveal

https://ift.tt/vkIgejd

AMD was rumored to be planning to have its Ryzen 7000 processors launch – as in hit the shelves, and be available to buy – on September 15, but a fresh leak suggests that Team Red has pushed back that date, and the intended new timeframe happens to coincide with the expected Intel Raptor Lake unveiling.

That’s the word from sources who spoke to Wccftech, who believe that AMD has shifted the launch of next-gen CPUs based on Zen 4 to late September.

The contention is that the new date is September 27, which as mentioned is the day on which Intel has its Innovation event, and is rumored to be readying our first glimpse at next-gen Raptor Lake processors. Note that for Intel, this will just be a reveal, ahead of sales kicking off in October (in theory); whereas for AMD, this will supposedly be when the actual products are on sale.

AMD’s reveal will come much earlier, at the end of this month if rumors are right, on August 29 to be precise. The thinking is that we’ll be treated to a quartet of new CPUs: the Ryzen 9 7950X, 7900X, and 7700X plus 7600X.

---

Analysis: Running interference with Raptor – or something else?

If true – and we’d be very careful about assuming it is – this would be a pretty confident move for AMD on the face of it. In effect, by shifting the date to coincide with the Raptor Lake launch, it’s pretty much a direct challenge; a throwing down the gauntlet, if you will, and the assumption would be that this is how confident AMD is in Zen 4.

After all, if AMD had any doubt here, surely the company would want to get Ryzen 7000 out there before Raptor Lake, with the window of opportunity to rack up a couple of weeks of sales (if it went with that previous rumored date of September 15), before anyone knew about the relative power of Intel’s 13th-gen range.

Unless there’s another reason for this apparent pushback. We have also heard that AMD wants to get large volumes of the initial Zen 4 CPUs out there, so maybe production hasn’t gone as swiftly as Team Red envisaged, and it needs more time to ensure high stock levels from the get-go.

Either way, this should be music to the ears of consumers, if you think about it: either AMD is highly confident in its Ryzen 7000 silicon, or it wants to make sure there’s plentiful supply (which would certainly be refreshing at launch time, particularly for the top-end Ryzen 9 models). Maybe even both of the above will be true, but we shouldn’t get carried away with rumors, as we’ve all been burnt before on that score.

There is another way to look at the purported date shift, however, namely that AMD doesn’t want to give Intel the chance to evaluate Ryzen 7000 CPUs for comparisons with Raptor Lake at the latter’s unveiling. Ultimately, we can’t be sure of the reasoning here – if any – but our personal feeling for a while now, based on the various leaks which have sprung up in recent times, is that the race between Zen 4 and Raptor Lake is going to be a pretty close call.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/sS1W2Nc
via IFTTT

Intel Meteor Lake CPUs could be more like Raptor Lake than we expected

https://ift.tt/vkIgejd

Intel’s Meteor Lake processors, which will follow next-gen Raptor Lake CPUs, are the subject of fresh speculation regarding how powerful these chips might turn out to be.

As Wccftech spotted, we’ve seen a couple of tweets appear on Meteor Lake, from Raichu (see below) and another renowned leaker Harukaze5719, the latter of which further points to rumors from Coelacanth Dream pertaining to info gleaned from Intel’s open source database.

1/xAbout Meteor lake.MTL focus on how to improve the efficiency of the instruction execution, it will not widen the microarchitecture crazy like Alder lake.May 18, 2022

See more

The upshot is that based on digging around for model IDs for the cores of Intel’s CPUs, it seems that the move from Raptor Lake to Meteor Lake will involve an all-new architecture for efficiency cores, but not for performance cores (stick your finest skeptical hat on here, of course, as this is just a rumor).

As you’ll doubtless recall, with current-gen Alder Lake, Intel switched to use hybrid tech with a mix of these two different types of cores in its processors. Performance cores are standard (full-power) cores, whereas efficiency cores are, as the name suggests, less performant cores which are designed for power-efficiency.

What this means is that while the efficiency cores will benefit from a whole new redesigned architecture, the performance cores – which are known as Redwood Cove for Meteor Lake – could essentially be just another refinement to Alder Lake’s performance cores (Golden Cove, which will be honed to become Raptor Cove in the next-gen CPUs).

---

Analysis: Expect more multi-core grunt and efficiency, then?

What does this mean for those thinking about waiting for Meteor Lake, which represents Intel’s drop down to 7nm finally (and will require a new socket and motherboard, which next-gen Raptor Lake won’t, as the latter is simply a refresh of Alder Lake)?

Well, as Raichu explains in the above Twitter thread, Intel may not be introducing any revolutionary architectural changes at a fundamental level with Meteor Lake’s performance cores, but Team Blue will still be doing plenty to pep up how powerful these cores are. Like working on improving the overall efficiency of executing instructions, branch prediction, and other technical bits and pieces to mean faster performance for the end user, even if these cores aren’t built on a new architecture.

On the other hand, efficiency cores will be rebuilt from the ground up with a new architectural take, although of course, this is all just theorizing and should be taken with a hefty amount of seasoning.

As Raichu envisages, this could mean 14th-gen processors won’t be upping the stakes massively with single-core performance and clock frequencies compared to Raptor Lake, and instead what we’ll get is more oomph to provide better multi-core performance, and power efficiency improvements.

That tack and focus on multi-core going forward also makes sense in light of other rumors which have already pointed to Intel keeping on with its current strategy for Raptor Lake of major increases with the efficiency core count (with performance cores sticking at a maximum of eight).

As to when we’ll actually see a new architecture for Intel’s performance cores – which are, after all, the main cores capable of doing a lot more heavy lifting – that won’t happen until Lion Cove, the rumor mill reckons, which will be part of Arrow Lake, the following (15th) generation after Meteor Lake.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/jUS3Zxp
via IFTTT

Intel’s faster Arc GPUs could be priced to take on Nvidia

https://ift.tt/B5wQS0O

Intel has dropped a hint regarding how much some of its higher-end Arc graphics cards will cost.

As VideoCardz spotted, this comes back to Intel’s scavenger hunt competition which kicked off early in 2021, offering a bundle of prizes for winners including an Arc GPU – the problem being that those graphics cards haven’t yet been released, of course.

Meaning that the promised Arc A770 and A750 GPUs didn’t get sent to winners yet (obviously), so Intel offered an alternative prize for those who did not want to wait any longer.

Those alternatives have just been revealed, and they are the Core i7-12700K or Core i5-12600K processors. So now folks who earlier opted to receive a different prize can get one of those CPUs, or if that’s not to their liking, elect to take the original prize and hang on for an A7 series graphics card. Note that this decision needs to be made by August 19 (this coming Friday).

What’s interesting about this is that Intel’s blurb mentions that the overall prize value will be of “equivalent” worth to the original Arc GPU plus package of goodies (as you might expect). Therefore we can glean that the A770 roughly matches the value of a 12700K processor, and the same should be true of the A750 regarding the 12600K. Currently, the MSRPs of those processors are $409 and $289 respectively in the US.

---

Analysis: Putting together the pieces of the pricing puzzle

This is a suggestion – and it is just that, a hint which we must take with a great deal of caution – that the A770 might be pitched at $400 in the US (around £330, AU$570), and the A750 at $300 (around £250, AU$430), or perhaps just under these potential MSRPs.

That makes sense given that we’ve just seen Intel release benchmarks for the Arc A750 which show the graphics card performing ably against Nvidia’s RTX 3060. That Nvidia graphics card has an MSRP of $329, so dipping just under that would fit the apparent bill for Intel, if it wanted to produce a mid-range GPU that undercuts Team Green – and that’s presumably what Team Blue will be aiming for. The rumor mill has previously floated figures of around the $300 mark for the price of the A750, so again, that’s another piece which slots into the overall puzzle here.

As for the top-end A770 GPU, pitching it at about $400 would put the card at around the same price level as the RTX 3060 Ti, and based on what we’ve heard thus far about rumored performance, that would again make sense. It all depends on how aggressively Intel wants to price its beefier Arc Alchemist graphics cards, and given the rocky launch and many delays around these desktop GPUs so far, maybe the firm will want to give buyers more reasons to purchase than we’ve seen thus far (with concerns around graphics driver quality doubtless being off-putting to some folks).

Is the fact that the alternative prizes are being sent out soon a sign that maybe these Arc GPUs aren’t too far off release, either? That’s one way you could read this, perhaps, but with the way the Arc desktop launch has gone so far, we wouldn’t hold our breath.

With all the delays, the worry is that these Arc graphics cards are going to be facing off against AMD and Nvidia’s next-gen line-ups, although that said, the RTX 4060 is far from expected to be one of the first Lovelace GPUs out of the gate.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/bd2ZAp6
via IFTTT

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs listed at retailer, suggesting launch could be soon

https://ift.tt/B5wQS0O

AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors have been spotted online, with product listings popping up at a Canadian retailer.

One of the crew of regular hardware leakers on Twitter, @momomo_us, flagged up the CPUs which are listed at retailer PC Canada.

🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/6OyYrKSuDzAugust 14, 2022

See more

The initial Zen 4 processors to be seen at the retailer would seem to match the chatter from the rumor mill, which predicted the Ryzen 9 7950X and 7900X, plus the 7700X and 7600X would go on sale first. And those are the models which are now available for pre-order at PC Canada, but still, we need to regard this with caution (the retailer could just be making things up based on current speculation, to grab a bit of publicity, for all we know).

If you recall with its current-gen CPUs, AMD released the same models first, but with one key difference – we got the 5800X, not 5700X (that didn’t arrive until much later). Launching with the 7700X off the bat would be a good thing for consumers who are looking for a more affordable 8-core processor.

Seeing these Ryzen 7000 chips appear now is theoretically a good sign that the rumored September 15 date for the next-gen processors to be on shelves is looking on target. We’d normally expect these kind of instances of retailers jumping the gun to occur in the month running up to launch. (Note that we should see a reveal event before then, in fact, the grapevine contends that Zen 4 will be unveiled on August 29, which is only a couple of weeks away now).

---

 Analysis: So what about those prices?

There’s one other thing to discuss here apart from the Ryzen 7000 models which are purportedly about to be sprung on us, and that is, of course, their pricing. As always with these kind of leaks, the pricing may be awry, and it’s very likely that these are placeholder price tags – just guesses, in other words. AMD may not have settled on final price points itself at this stage, after all.

Furthermore, these are CPUs being sold without a cooler (not boxed, and intended for PC builders to use), and what’s more, even then the prices have changed since the leak was originally spotted by Wccftech. All of which is to say that we’d just ignore the prices given here for the most part.

If we look at the price tags (at the time of writing) comparatively to Ryzen 5000 models, and compare the most expensive 7950X to the most affordable 7600X, then the pricing ratio between flagship and mid-range is actually pretty much what you’d expect relative to current-gen products. In other words, the same kind of pricing looks to be maintained throughout the range for Ryzen 7000 as Ryzen 5000, so not much will change in theory.

This would appear to go against the recent rumor that the 7950X and 7900X are going to be more expensive than their Ryzen 5000 counterparts, but in all honesty, we really wouldn’t read much into this. Mind you, the speculation about high-end CPUs for Zen 4 being pricier is just a rumor, too, so should also be regarded with a hefty amount of skepticism.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/lR6nbCa
via IFTTT

RAM for your PC could soon be much cheaper

https://ift.tt/VF0gshc

Memory for your PC could soon get a fair bit cheaper according to an analyst firm, which has just revised its predictions to suggest heavier drops in the price tags of RAM sticks.

TrendForce tells us that the DRAM market is witnessing Korean manufacturers dropping prices to stoke demand from customers in the midst of oversupply, and these reduced prices are going to lead to considerably cheaper memory modules going forward.

While TrendForce had previously estimated a fall in pricing for consumer RAM sticks to the tune of 8% to 13% in Q3, that has been revised to a predicted quarterly decline of at least 13%, or maybe up to 18% – which is almost a fifth cheaper.

That’s quite a hefty drop down, and it’s a trend which is apparently set to continue into Q4, the analyst firm observes, where a further 3% to 8% drop is forecast (again, more than the original prediction which was for pricing to only fall at 5% at the most, and in the best-case scenario, price tags would remain the same in Q4).

Beyond that, TrendForce believes that the “possibility of sustained decline cannot be ruled out”, meaning we could see further downward movement as 2023 rolls around.

---

Analysis: Play a waiting game for RAM, if you can

The upshot of all this is that if you’re thinking of buying new RAM, it might be worth waiting longer for some decent further price reductions – particularly if it’s more expensive system memory, or larger capacity modules, that you’ve got your eye on.

The caveat here is that while this is very likely the case for DDR4 memory, at least if the analyst firm is correct – and all the signs point that way – price tags for the newest standard, DDR5 RAM, may not come down to the same extent.

That said, as DDR5 matures it’ll become less expensive (and more performant) anyway, so it’s worth holding off for a while yet purely on that basis. As you may recall, DDR5 has already witnessed some big price drops in the last couple of months, and there’s no reason to believe that won’t continue.

So, if you’re mulling a RAM upgrade, our advice is to try to stay strong and hold out a bit longer. And even those building a new PC might want to play a waiting game, not just for slightly cheaper RAM prices, but likely some fair old drops with GPU pricing which are likely in the cards (so to speak) right now. Indeed, with Ryzen 7000 and Raptor Lake CPUs, as well as next-gen graphics cards all coming soon, it’s surely a good time to be patient, anyway.

Via Tom’s Hardware

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/RaFful7
via IFTTT

Nvidia GPU shipments could plummet – meaning further price falls?

https://ift.tt/VF0gshc

Nvidia’s graphics card shipments for 2022 could fall dramatically, at least if a new prediction is right.

This comes from a DigiTimes report which claims that, going by forecasts from Taiwanese graphics card suppliers, Nvidia’s shipments for this year are set to fall by something like 40% to 50%.

DigiTimes underlines that this will mean the amount of money raked in by Team Green will also drop substantially, or indeed as the report puts it, revenue is set to decline at a “pace beyond imagination” – which sounds pretty serious.

All of this is down to the crypto crash and an overall post-pandemic weakening in demand for desktop GPUs.

---

Analysis: More fuel on the GPU price cut fire?

This prediction for Nvidia lines up with the firm’s recent fiscal results which showed a chunky drop in revenue, and gaming graphics cards were badly hit, with sales falling by 33% year-on-year. So the rest of 2022 ushering in drops of 40% in shipments, or maybe more, is not an unbelievable scenario; although we must of course be very cautious when it comes to predictions like this from DigiTimes. Obviously, this is just educated guesswork at what’s around the corner for Nvidia, and things may turn out differently.

That said, looking at the current economic climate – which is seriously shaky on a number of fronts – it’s not difficult to imagine that the rest of 2022 will be a sticky wicket for Team Green. As inflation and cost of living hikes hit home and heap misery on consumers, there’s clearly going to be less money to spend on more frivolous things like upgrading graphics cards.

As you may have seen, Nvidia and its partners have already been dropping prices to counter what Team Green described as a ‘significant’ decline in sell-through projections for fiscal Q2, and as we’ve argued before, we anticipate further price cuts to come on current-gen Ampere GPUs.

There is purportedly still a fair bit of excess RTX 3000 stock to clear before next-gen Lovelace graphics cards are launched (and those new GPUs take much of the remaining momentum out of current-gen sales). And this forecast of potential further weakness for Nvidia as the rest of 2022 plays out – if the company really does experience a revenue decline at an ‘unimaginable’ pace – might reinforce the need to generate further RTX 3000 sales via more discounting.

After all, it’s crucial that Nvidia’s graphics card making partners can get rid of excess Ampere stock before RTX 4000 GPUs can be fully unleashed (and if that stock clearance doesn’t happen in good time, we might even see all but the RTX 4090 delayed until 2023, as the rumor mill has already suggested).

Nvidia isn’t the only company to be affected by the current economic woes, of course. The DigiTimes report also asserts that AMD and Intel now have a gloomier outlook for shipment and revenue projections for this year. Intel expects a revenue drop of between $8 and $11 billion, and a 10% drop in PC sales compared to 2021.

AMD expects shipments to drop by around 15%, but its revenue for Q3 should still go up slightly, putting it in a better position than Intel – after it took market share off Team Blue in server CPUs and embedded processors during Q2, during which Team Red’s revenue grew massively (by 70%, no less).

Via Tom’s Hardware

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/vGHgX2F
via IFTTT

The AlphaCool Eisbaer Aurora 360 AIO Cooler Review: Improving on Expandable CPU Cooling

https://ift.tt/AcGj0hO

Today, we are taking a look at the updated version of the Alphacool Eisbaer AIO CPU cooler, the Eisbaer Aurora. For its second-generation product, Alphacool has gone through the Eisbaer design and improved every single part of this cooler, from the pump to the radiator and everything in-between. Combined with its unique, modular design that allows for additional blocks to be attached to this otherwise closed loop cooler, and Alphacool has a unique and powerful CPU cooler on its hands – albeit one that carries a price premium to match.

from AnandTech https://ift.tt/DdUScl3
via IFTTT

AMD’s fastest Ryzen 7000 CPUs could have a fancy box, but may get pricier

https://ift.tt/rjiy4Gx

AMD’s packaging for its fastest Ryzen 7000 processors has purportedly been leaked, and it looks very smart indeed – plus there’s some news on pricing, although that suggests these top-end models might be costlier than existing Ryzen 5000 heavyweights.

The picture of the box for next-gen Ryzen 9 CPUs was aired by VideoCardz, with the tech site observing that it is supposedly taken from an internal presentation conducted by AMD. Add your own skepticism at this point, and indeed VideoCardz notes it hasn’t been able to confirm with other sources whether the pic is genuine, so bear that in mind – though the image is a good fake if it isn’t the real thing.

Also remember that this is for the Ryzen 9 models, the most premium chips for Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4), and the boxes for lesser spec CPUs will likely look different (often some considerable effort is made with the packaging for expensive silicon, to make buyers feel they’re getting something special – just look at Intel’s mock gold wafer for the Alder Lake flagship).

(Image credit: VideoCardz)

Of further interest here is that the source of the leaked image provides gossip on the potential pricing of Zen 4 processors, although this should be treated with extra helpings of caution. The theory is that the Ryzen 7 7700X will launch at the same recommended price as the Ryzen 7 5700X, and that on the whole, AMD will look to maintain price tags at the same level as Ryzen 5000, with some exceptions.

Namely the higher-end Ryzen 9 models – the ones with the fancy boxes – that’ll apparently cost more than existing Ryzen 9 chips from the current generation. Also, the Ryzen 7 7800X will be dearer than the 5800X, the source contends.

In theory, AMD will have the initial Ryzen 7000 CPUs on shelves come September 15, with a launch event now expected on August 29, according to the rumor mill.

---

Analysis: Stock levels will be key, not just price tags

Regarding the spillage relating to pricing, we should be wary of putting all that much faith in this, as AMD may still be mulling and adjusting possible pricing itself at this point, still a month before launch (or maybe more, of course; we can’t be sure of that rumored launch timeframe by any means). However, broadly we’d expect Ryzen 7000 prices to (roughly) mirror Ryzen 5000 as predicted, so that makes sense – and if there’s one area Team Red might hike price tags, it’d be those Ryzen 9 models, which folks expect to pay a premium for anyway.

The mention of the 7800X possibly being more costly is a curious one though. Mainly because, if the grapevine is right on the initial launch models for Zen 4, these will be the Ryzen 9 7950X and 7900X, alongside the 7700X and 7600X – the 7800X is not expected to debut next month.

What this does in theory show is that the 7800X is being planned and pricing is being looked at by AMD, so it may not be too far behind if this processor isn’t part of the initial batch of Zen 4 CPUs pushed out. Hiking the price on that chip is possible, of course, but feels a bit odd, as it’d make the value proposition compared to the 7700X (which is apparently sticking with the same pricing as the current-gen) even shakier (assuming they’re both 8-core CPUs, as is traditional, and we’ve no reason to believe Team Red would divert from that strategy).

One possibility is maybe this rumor refers to the 3D V-cache version of the 7800X, which would logically be a model AMD will produce for the next-gen range (given the 5800X3D is the only such CPU thus far). And yes, we’d fully expect that to run a premium and possibly be even more expensive than currently pitched.

Whatever the case, we wouldn’t worry too much about that particular CPU yet, but the broader indication of pricier top-end models does raise a few question marks. In the past, those Ryzen 9 processors have been very difficult to find post-launch, so that could lead to a situation where scalping makes the hiked prices even more expensive, which obviously wouldn’t be pleasant.

That said, the expectation is that AMD could well have a lot of stock on hand for the Ryzen 7000 launch, so hopefully that’ll include higher-end models. If those processors are around in plentiful enough supply, that’ll leave scalpers out of luck, as with commanding premiums they are relatively niche CPUs, with more consumers going to be looking at the 7600X, along with the 7700X as an affordable 8-core option.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/dpv5rMe
via IFTTT

Intel Raptor Lake leak shows a seriously fast CPU to worry AMD – except for one key detail

https://ift.tt/Ua5O3De

Intel’s Raptor Lake flagship CPU has been spotted in leaked benchmarks which show some seriously speedy multi-core performance, albeit at a cost in terms of the power usage that the Core i9-13900K guzzles.

This comes from OneRaichu (as flagged up by VideoCardz) on Twitter, a regular hardware leaker who has provided benchmarks drawn from Cinebench R23, although as always we should be skeptical about any such leakage and the possibility that it might be faked.

Left: Under the power and current unlimited setting.(default frequency, almost 340-350w)Right:Under the power limited setting.(default frequency, almost 250w) pic.twitter.com/rxISzs55eUAugust 7, 2022

See more

If true, this certainly shows the 13900K processor in an impressive light for performance, as it managed to hit 2,290 in single-core and 35,693 in multi-core. This was at default settings for clock speeds and power, with the CPU consuming 254W in the test – which is actually the rumored ‘PL2’ power limit of the 13900K (the max power usage when running flat out at top Turbo speeds).

OneRaichu notes that the 13900K was running at 5.8GHz on two performance cores, and 5.5GHz across the other six. VideoCardz also points out a further leak from ECSM that consists of an Aida 64 stability test, and this shows two cores hitting 5.8GHz with the others at 5.5GHz, too.

Back to OneRaichu’s leak, which gets more interesting as it also offers up a Cinebench run without any power limit settings for the CPU. While single-core wasn’t affected here, the multi-core result jumped much higher to 40,616, albeit that the CPU was chugging the best part of 100W more power to achieve this (the processor hit a peak of 345W).

As VideoCardz points out, this suggests that compared to the current 12900K, the incoming 13900K flagship will be around 30% faster for multi-core performance (and 48% faster with that unlimited power setting), and 48% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X (67% with unlimited power). Although it’s worth noting that Intel’s 13th-gen will be facing off against the next-gen Ryzen 7950X, though.

---

Analysis: Underlining what we’ve already heard about Raptor Lake

That’s quite an eye-opening leap in performance, of course, but as we’ve already noted, we need to be very careful about leaks – and indeed reading too much into results drawn from a single benchmarking tool anyway.

In short, we should consider those percentages with a great deal of caution, particularly in the case of dropping the power limits for Cinebench R23 runs. Doing so requires a seriously beefy cooling solution, and while we don’t know what was used in the main spillage here, in the case of the ECSM (Aida 64) leak, we’re told a 360mm all-in-one liquid cooler was employed to keep temperatures at 90 degrees with a power usage of 314W (not too far off what was reached in the Cinebench testing with unlimited power).

All of this seems to back up recent speculation that we’re looking at boost speeds of around 5.8GHz for the flagship processor, and that Raptor Lake should be a bit easier to cool than Alder Lake. The latter will be good news for overclockers, of course, as they should be able to juice up Intel’s next-gen CPUs more while keeping thermals relatively reasonable.

That said, enthusiasts who want to push hard with a Raptor Lake flagship twinned with an RTX 4090 – with its rumored high power demands – could well have their work cut out in terms of keeping everything suitably cool and stable.

AMD’s incoming Zen 4 processors are also looking very promising performance-wise, with boost speeds rumored to be reaching similar levels to Raptor Lake – but in what might be a crucial twist, better power efficiency is expected from Ryzen 7000 silicon. Furthermore, there may be more stock of Zen 4 chips around on launch, or so the latest rumor reckons…

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/H1MJnSZ
via IFTTT

Intel Arc was doomed from the start, and MSI’s new GPU won’t change that

https://ift.tt/bTefyEC

MSI has revealed its first Intel Arc GPU, a low-profile graphics card containing the budget-friendly Arc A380 board - the same somewhat-underwhelming GPU that has already been launched in China by manufacturers Gunnir and ASRock. The MSI A380 is currently only available in pre-built PCs, showing up in a sensibly-priced MSI gaming desktop on Chinese online retailer Tmall.

MSI’s new version of the A380 card is compact and doesn’t require an external power connector (it draws power directly from the motherboard's PCIe slot), which could be a boon for gamers looking for a graphics card that isn’t too power-hungry - especially in the face of Nvidia’s monstrous power requirements for the upcoming RTX 4000 series.

But it all feels a bit ‘too little, too late’ for Intel Arc. German tech site Igor’s Lab claimed last week that one AIB partner - the manufacturers who produce third-party models of GPUs for Nvidia, AMD, and Intel - has dropped out of the Arc program completely due to concerns over quality. This would be a serious blow for Intel, especially when the company has already been facing major difficulties in the Arc rollout.

---

Opinion: Intel has been on the back foot with its GPUs for years, and will struggle to catch up now

(Image credit: Intel / VideoCardz)

While Intel’s current-gen Alder Lake CPUs might be doing just fine, its GPU venture - which it first announced three whole years ago - has seemingly stumbled over every hurdle in its path. Covid delays, the global chip shortage, and presumably the war in Ukraine have all badly impacted the development and rollout of the Arc series, and it looks like Intel might have fallen into a game it has no way to win.

See, while Intel has been busy trying to get its first-generation Arc GPUs up to speed with Nvidia and AMD’s current-gen counterparts, those two competitors haven’t exactly been resting on their laurels. Nvidia’s RTX 4000 and AMD’s RDNA 3 GPUs are on the way, and current performance details suggest that Intel is going to be left in the dust almost immediately.

The constant ball-fumbling on Intel’s part hasn’t helped, either. From its own performance-boosting feature causing issues to a single missing line of code tanking ray-traced performance, Arc has had a seriously rocky initial launch; and that’s before we’ve even properly seen the desktop cards on sale in the West.

Even beyond troubles like these, general performance has been lackluster. The higher-end A7 cards have failed to impress, and while the A380 seen here is decent, it’s not doing anything to set itself apart from the competing RTX 3050 and RX 6400 cards. Lower-spec A3 cards have been even weaker from the performance-per-dollar perspective.

It’s honestly hard to see how Intel could possibly claw this one back from the brink. While its current best hope seems to be to position itself as a wallet-friendly alternative to Nvidia’s pricey but powerful GPUs, it’s only going to take one strong budget option from Nvidia or AMD to sink Arc for good. It’s sad, because a third major player producing graphics cards was exciting, but sadly it looks like Arc isn’t going to catch up for a while - if at all. 

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/y5ejXbM
via IFTTT

Watch out Intel – AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs could arrive with plenty of stock in September

https://ift.tt/3z1Jm8v

AMD’s Ryzen 7000 processors are set to arrive on September 15, and that’s a hard on-sale date – meaning the CPUs will be on shelves, and in plentiful quantities, if fresh whisperings from the grapevine prove to be correct.

This comes from YouTuber Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID), who claims that AMD will actually have next-gen Zen 4 CPUs ready to be sent to reviewers on August 10. Take some large helpings of seasoning with that, of course, but the point here is that the processors are ready to go out for folks to start playing with and testing next week.

So, prepare yourself for a lot more info and leakage on how Ryzen 7000 chips are shaping up in the very near future. But more to the point, this suggests that AMD could actually launch Zen 4 silicon this month if the company really wanted to, at least in a more limited fashion.

But the plan, MLID asserts, is to run production for a while and have a “very big high-volume launch” of the entire initial line-up in September. (Those first CPUs out the gate are rumored to be the Ryzen 7950X, 7900X, 7700X and 7600X.)

This is doubly important because MLID reckons that Intel is struggling to push out Raptor Lake on time for its theoretically intended debut in October. Indeed, the leaker suggests that this may be more of a paper launch for Intel’s 13th-gen processors, so those chips may not arrive in larger quantities until later in the year.

---

Analysis: Intel set to be on the back foot with next-gen CPUs?

What this could mean is AMD has the shelves full of Ryzen 7000 processors, and all the key high-end to mid-range chips, in the middle of September, and those products will be going up against current-gen Intel Alder Lake CPUs. Because Raptor Lake may not pitch up in quantity until several months afterwards, as even if Intel does launch in October, this won’t be a case of plentiful 13th-gen stock flowing right out of the gate.

In short, the rumor is that Team Red will have quite a big head-start on Team Blue; bigger than we thought, because for a while now, it’s been common speculation that AMD is going to beat Intel to the punch for release timeframes in the next-gen CPU wars.

If MLID is correct, of course, which is a sizeable if – but the leaker seems pretty confident that AMD is in a good place for shaping up to a big launch. So much so, that the company could even bring things forward for a start of September launch for Ryzen 7000, rather than the middle of the month. (Although we suspect even if this was possible, Team Red could still want to leave a bit more time to sell more Ryzen 5000 stock through anyway, before Zen 4 appears.)

When Raptor Lake does arrive in force, the battle of the next-gen processors is likely to be a very closely fought one, at least in terms of raw performance. AMD may, however, score wins in other metrics like power efficiency, and the newness of the platform – Zen 4 is on AM5, a new socket and motherboard, which will be good for future upgrades. Whereas Raptor Lake will be the last generation to use the current (Alder Lake) socket for Intel, so that means no possibility of further upgrading to a newer generation Intel CPU in those PCs without changing the motherboard too.

Pricing will, of course, be a key factor, and we have no clue how that will turn out yet. Is there a prospect that with Raptor Lake theoretically coming a fair bit later than Ryzen 7000, Intel will have to price competitively to get back in the game, so to speak? That’s pure speculation, and given past history, it seems unlikely anyway, but we shall see.

One thing’s certain, namely that this will be a fascinating battle of new generations, with AMD currently looking like it’s in a good position to regain some serious ground in terms of desktop CPU turf, after Intel has had considerable success with Alder Lake this year.

Don’t forget that AMD also has 3D V-cache versions of Ryzen 7000 to come, and MLID also reckons that these could arrive sooner than you might think – likely in the first half of 2023. If it’s early next year, then that could be another major factor for Intel to worry about, as 3D V-cache spins on Zen 4 CPUs are going to be quite something for gamers.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/CY9EeVk
via IFTTT

UCIe Consortium Incorporates, Adds NVIDIA and Alibaba As Members

https://ift.tt/sivUrKf

Among the groups with a presence at this year’s Flash Memory Summit is the UCIe Consortium, the recently formed group responsible for the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) standard. First unveiled back in March, the UCIe Consortium is looking to establish a universal standard for connecting chiplets in future chip designs, allowing chip builders to mix-and-match chiplets from different companies. At the time of the March announcement, the group was looking for additional members as it prepared to formally incorporate, and for FMS they’re offering a brief update on their progress.

First off, the group has now become officially incorporated. And while this is largely a matter of paperwork for the group, it’s none the less an important step as it properly establishes them as a formal consortium. Among other things, this has allowed the group to launch their work groups for developing future versions of the standard, as well as to offer initial intellectual property rights (IPR) protections for members.

More significant, however, is the makeup of the incorporated UCIe board. While UCIe was initially formed with 10 members – a veritable who’s who of many of the big players in the chip industry – there were a couple of notable absences. The incorporated board, in turn, has picked up two more members who have bowed to the peer (to peer) pressure: NVIDIA and Alibaba.

NVIDIA for its part has already previously announced that it would support UCIe in future products (even if it’s still pushing customers to use NVLink), so their addition to the board is not unexpected. Still, it brings on board what’s essentially the final major chip vendor, firmly establishing support for UCIe across all of the ecosystem’s big players. Meanwhile, like Meta and Google Cloud, Alibaba represents another hyperscaler joining the group, who will presumably be taking full advantage of UCIe in developing chips for their datacenters and cloud computing services.

Overall, according to the Consortium the group is now up to 60 members total. And they are still looking to add more through events like FMS as they roll on towards getting UCIe 1.0 implemented in production chiplets.

from AnandTech https://ift.tt/Cmx56lI
via IFTTT

AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs could be a huge generational leap for boost speeds

https://ift.tt/1Jm0Oet

AMD’s next-gen flagship Zen 4 processor could be clocked much faster than its predecessor, potentially being capable of boosting up to 5.7GHz, and other CPUs in the Ryzen 7000 range will receive a similar level of turbocharging, if the latest from the rumor mill is right.

As VideoCardz reports, this actually comes from two different sources, Wccftech and Expreview on Bilibili (a Chinese video sharing site), so we need to exercise more caution than normal here, given that we wouldn’t rate these as the most reliable sources of leakage. That said, the purported specs match up across both sources, so that lends a bit more weight to the rumors here.

The theory is that AMD is set to launch four initial processors for the Ryzen 7000 range, and those will be the Ryzen 9 7950X, Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X and Ryzen 5 7600X, which marries with previous speculation too. While all core counts remain the same as their Ryzen 5000 counterparts, clocks are ramped up seriously.

The flagship Ryzen 9 7950X (with 16-cores) is supposedly set to run with a base clock of 4.5GHz and boost to 5.7GHz, which would represent a huge step up compared to the current 5950X – an increase of 1.1GHz and 800MHz respectively, in fact.

For the Ryzen 9 7900X (12-cores), AMD is said to be aiming for a base clock of 4.7GHz and boost to 5.6GHz, which again is a big leap compared to the 5900X which has clocks of 3.7GHz and 4.8GHz. Both these top-end chips are said to have a TDP of 170W by default (a figure mentioned by AMD before), though they’ll chug 230W when the boost pedal is flat to the metal (that’s the rated PPT or Package Power Tracking, the maximum power consumption allowed).

AMD’s mid-range 8-core product, the Ryzen 7 7700X, is apparently going to hit 4.5GHz for its base clock and 5.4GHz boost, with the Ryzen 5 7600X (6-core part) achieving a boost of 5.3GHz. Those chips will have a TDP of 105W (and a PPT of 142W).

---

Analysis: Cranking those clocks, but with a trade-off

We already knew that AMD has big things planned for clock speed increases with Zen 4 processors due to what we’ve heard on the rumor mill, with the likes of an 8-core CPU (presumably the 7700X) reaching 5.2GHz in a leak of an early sample from months back.

Moreover, Team Red has actually demonstrated the pre-release Ryzen 9 7950X hitting 5.5GHz for all-core boost. So, the possibility of boosting up to a maximum of 5.7GHz for the incoming flagship is not as much of a stretch as it may first seem, but of course, we’d do well to remain suitably skeptical about these claims as already mentioned.

If true, there’s likely to be an expected trade-off for AMD managing to crank boost clocks so much with Zen 4, namely that there may not be much in the way of overclocking possible, given that there simply won’t be much headroom left to play with. Indeed, Wccftech suggests that in a similar way to overclocking not being an option with the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, there’ll be a voltage limit also in place for Ryzen 7000 chips to deny overclockers, but again, we’ll have to see.

Mind you, if this is the situation, rather than looking at it as a case of being disappointing that there may not be any scope for enthusiasts to push for faster speeds through big overclocks, it’s actually a good thing that the majority of folks who’ll never engage in overclocking will be getting high clocks out of the box.

AMD’s next-gen Ryzen chips aren’t alone in building expectations of high clock speeds off the bat, as Intel’s Raptor Lake CPUs are rumored to be set to go as high as 5.7GHz or 5.8GHz, and sample processors have already been spotted overclocked to 6GHz and beyond on multiple occasions.

The difference with AMD, though, is that in one generation, the above rumored increases in clock speeds – both base and boost to the tune of 1GHz, or pretty close to that – would be a huge eye-opener. Whereas Intel’s Alder Lake is already up there with a boost of 5.5GHz for its current flagship.

Intel may hold the lead with Alder Lake right now, but AMD looks like having a strong comeback with Ryzen 7000 built on the entirely new Zen 4 architecture, and it’s likely to be a closely fought battle with Team Blue’s incoming Raptor Lake silicon later this year (with Zen 4 CPUs looking likely to reach the shelves first, just about).

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/zMOsQgo
via IFTTT

Intel Raptor Lake causes jaws to drop with 13700K CPU spotted at 6.2GHz overclock

https://ift.tt/TO0BSIU

Intel’s Raptor Lake processors have appeared in another couple of leaks, with the rumor mill cranking into high gear around these 13th-gen chips, and purported pre-release samples of the Core i9-13900K and Core i7-13700K being spotted – with the latter running at a seriously speedy 6.2GHz.

Let’s start with that 13700K leak that VideoCardz flagged up. It consists of a qualification sample chip (meaning essentially a finished CPU, sent out for testing) benchmarked on CPU-Z while being clocked at almost 6.2GHz (6185MHz) across all its performance cores (with the efficiency cores running at 4189MHz), as shared on Twitter by QXE.

Well because you guys liked me being a rumormill so much 🙃13700K QS. pic.twitter.com/pH2kL34JReAugust 2, 2022

See more

Note that this isn’t QXE’s benchmarking – rather a third-party from Discord, so apply some extra skepticism at this point on top of the usual caution around any leak – but if it is genuine, it’s pretty impressive to see the 13700K reach that clock speed. What we don’t know is anything about the cooling used (we’ll come back to that).

Furthermore, the single-core benchmark result on CPU-Z hit 1,010, which is very speedy, and outdoes the recent Raptor Lake leaks we’ve seen. Multi-core was less impressive at 11,877, but then hyper-threading was disabled (with the voltage ramped up in a big way to 1.536 Volts in an effort to get a big overclock and single-core result, basically).

Wccftech (via VideoCardz) also spotted a second Raptor Lake leak from Baidu (again, apply plentiful seasoning here) showing an engineering sample Core i9-13900K. This was overclocked to 6GHz, using a similar voltage to the 13700K above (1.546V), but with the efficiency cores disabled. The flagship achieved a score of 976 for single-core in CPU-Z.

The most interesting bit with this second piece of spillage is seeing the 13900K hit 6GHz using standard cooling, meaning nothing exotic, just an all-in-one liquid cooling setup – or so the leaker claims.

---

Analysis: Raptor Lake looks promising for enthusiasts and tinkerers

It’s a real eye-opener to see that the Core i7-13700K is already being pushed well over the 6GHz mark across all cores, even with the caveats mentioned – the most notable being that unlike the 13900K leak, we don’t know what cooling was used. And there’s a suggestion that the CPU used some fancy cooling method beyond traditional means (not nearly as far as the likes of liquid nitrogen, mind, but certainly something beefy).

Furthermore, running at that kind of voltage (1.5V+) is not really representative of what might be considered reasonable for everyday usage with Raptor Lake. What’s fine for a short round of benchmarking is not necessarily okay for constant use, of course, and if you did push a Raptor Lake chip this hard on an ongoing basis, it would likely start to fray around the edges before too long (unless you got lucky with your silicon).

What we’re trying to say here is don’t expect to buy a 13700K and have it running in excess of 6GHz in your PC. However, what this mounting pile of 6GHz overclocks – we’ve seen a number for Raptor Lake now – point to is that the 13th-gen CPUs should be good for juicing up nicely. Indeed, the leaker QXE makes the assertion that Raptor Lake will be better than Alder Lake when it comes to running at higher voltages for overclocking, saying: “Also 1.3V should be fine this gen to cool unlike Alder.”

So, these are all promising signs that Raptor Lake will take a sizeable step forward in performance terms, particularly for those enthusiasts who are going to engage in overclocking their 13th-gen CPU.

Rumor has it that Raptor Lake processors will arrive in October, and if that turns out to be the case, they’ll be beaten to launch by AMD’s Ryzen 7000 CPUs for which we’ve now heard official confirmation that they’ll arrive before September is out.

from TechRadar: computing components news https://ift.tt/lrdRz8y
via IFTTT