CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 32

As the rumors indicated yesterday, Apple revealed its new line of M2 chips inside of next-generation 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

The company conducted a presentation where it introduced a new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro that feature Apple's updated line of M2 chips. According to the announcement, the latest MacBook Pro was displayed running on the M2 Pro and M2 Max SOCs (system on a chip). More specifically, the new M2 Pro is built on a 5nm process, sports 40 billion transistors, and features 10/12 cores along with 32 GB of unified memory. The M2 Max is where Apple has slapped all of the bells and whistles, with the company throwing in 12 Cores and 96 GB of unified memory.

So, where is the biggest difference? The GPU configurations. Notably, the M2 Pro features 19 GPU cores with a larger L2 cache that comes with a 30% performance increase when compared to the M1 Pro. The M2 Max steps things up again with a whopping 38 GPU cores, a large cache, and the same performance increase of 30% compared to the M1 Max. Here's where things get a little dicey.

As the fabrication of smaller nodes becomes more costly, we might see a slower adoption of high-end tech from companies. TSMC's N3 or 3nm class is the next node that will power chips. However, a new report indicates that due to the cost of manufacturing the technology, TSMC is considering lowering prices to entice adoption by companies like AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.

N3 uses EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography for production, and the EUV scanners, according to China Renaissance, can cost anywhere between USD 150 to USD 200 million. This puts the foundry price of 3nm wafers at over USD 20,000 each.

In the graphics and CPU space, it's expected that NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace successor, Blackwell, will utilize the 3nm process. Alongside AMD for Zen 5 architecture - which the company has hinted at in the past. We probably won't see these products until the second half of 2024. As it stands, the high-cost brand-new N3 looks like it will be limited to Apple, with the optimized version being the one that will appeal to a broader range of companies.

After showcasing a new CPU that could hit 6 GHz clock speeds out-of-the-box, albeit briefly, Intel has not only confirmed that it was the new flagship Intel Core i9-13900KS - but it's out now for USD 699.

The USD 699 price point puts it at $110 more than the Intel Core i9-13900K, a monster of a CPU sporting a 5.8 GHz top speed. Naturally, this is the sort of CPU targeting the enthusiast market, where performance is king.

The cool thing is that the 6 GHz speed is out-of-the-box and achievable with standard AIO cooling and no overclocking - via what Intel calls Thermal Velocity Boost.You can see it action here.

Intel has been teasing a new CPU that can hit 6.0 GHz out-of-the-box with a standard AIO cooler and no overclocking, which is an impressive feat. Although Intel hasn't put a name to this mysterious CPU, odds are it's the new Intel Core i9-13900KS.

Intel's Gaming Technical Marketing Lead Jason Xie showcased the CPU hitting 6.0 GHz in a new video where he runs the 7zip benchmark with two cores active. Jason notes that the CPU doesn't stay on 6.0 GHz for the entire run as "6.0 GHz depends on the environment, power, thermals, and the software itself".

What's impressive here is that the CPU runs using the default stock settings, an off-the-shelf ASUS Z790 motherboard, and a Corsair AIO cooler. Usually, when we see benchmarks and clock speeds on CPUs hit crazy speeds, there's some overclocking and custom cooling. "We are running default settings, so no tricks," Jason Xie adds.

CES 2023 - Intel's new lineup of mobile processors includes 32 different SKUs with varying performance aimed at particular segments, but its Intel Core i9-13980HX takes the mantle as the "world's fastest mobile processor" with up to 5.6GHz speeds

Intel's CES presence was a resounding call to arms against its competitors. Intel announced a staggering amount of 13th Gen hybrid architecture processors at CES with 32 chips in total spread across four different processor series including a new peak HX Series.

The pinnacle of HX Series is the Intel Core i9-13980HX that offers "extreme performance" with a whopping 24-core processor with 32-threads that is capable of hitting a blazing-fast 5.6GHz, complete with 36MB of cache for better in-game perf and higher FPS.

AMD has finally revealed what we've been reporting on leaks for a while now at CES 2023 with the introduction of their new Ryzen CPUs rocking second-gen 3D V-Cache technology. The new flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D has been announced, and man, what a processor it will turn out to be.

The new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU with a base CPU clock of up to 4.2GHz and a boost CPU clock of up to 5.7GHz, with a whopping 144MB of cache, and a 120W TDP. This is the same CPU clocks as the Ryzen 9 7950X, which is available now, but we have a TDP that has 50W shaved off it -- 120W versus 170W.

AMD has benchmarks of its new flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor during its CES 2023 keynote, comparing it against Intel's current best Core i9-13900K "Raptor Lake" CPU which had the new Ryzen 9 7950X3D being between 9% and 24% faster in gaming.

Intel's upcoming Core i5-13500 processor has been tested in engineering sample (ES) form, with the small review taking a gander at the performance, and thermal/power of the "Q8WH" engineering sample of the Core i5-13500 "Alder Lake" CPU.

We should expect some changes in the final retail version of Intel's new Core i5-13500, as the CPU tested is an older version called ES2 -- so it's not a production sample, or is it a qualification sample. As for the CPU itself, Intel's new Core i5-13500 processor is a 14-core, 20-thread CPU based on the older Alder Lake C0 silicon.

The new CPU will be part of the non-K series which has a default TDP of just 65W, with 6 Performance cores and 8 Efficient cores -- for a total of 14 cores and 20 thread of CPU power. The leaked review of the Intel Core i5-13500 engineering sample has a CPU boost clock of up to 4.8GHz, confirmed in the review itself.

Intel has come out swinging in a big way celebrating the 75th anniversary of the transistor, where at IEDM 2022 (the International Electron Devices Meeting) that the company is aiming for 10x density improvements in packaging technology, using a novel material that is just 3 atoms thick in order to advance transistor scaling.

Intel has unveiled its latest research breakthroughs that are fueling the innovation pipeline in order to keep Moore's Law on track towards 1 trillion transistors by the year 2030, where at the IEDM 2022 conference, Intel researchers showed off the latest advancements in 3D packaging technology.

The researchers showcased a huge 10x improvement in density, using novel materials for 2D transistor scaling beyond RibbonFET, including a super-thin material that is just 3 atoms thick. This will pave the way for massive improvements in energy efficiency and memory for higher-performing computing, as well as more advancements in the world of quantum computing.

I don't know why people try to do this, but I don't think it'll ever stop either... but a Chinese woman who pretended to be pregnant tried to smuggle over 200 full Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs through customs with a prosthetic belly. Yeah, a fake pregnancy.

Chinese customs authorities report that a woman named "Zhao" from Zhuhai, Guangdong, recently entered Macau and was on her way back to China mainland through the Gongbei Port in Zhuhai, but walking through, Chinese customs authorities noticed something wasn't right... and that's when the inspection began.

Zhao said that she was around 5-6 months pregnant, but once the Chinese customs authorities had a closer look, they discovered she had a fake prosthetic belly attached. The size of the belly made the woman look like she was 5-6 months pregnant, but she was still walking comfortably. Underneath her top once the fake prosthetic belly was taken away, the authorities discovered 202 Intel "Alder Lake" CPUs and even 9 smartphones... all held together with scotch tape, and more.

AMD is celebrating its Holiday Deals on discounted Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors, with some new retail desktop CPU packaging... check it out:

AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors are still available on the cheap, just like they were last week and over the weekend with the one-two-punch discounts of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, but now AMD is keeping the Zen 4 chips cheap.. with some refreshed CPU packaging.

The new packaging sports an outline on AMD's own logo, which looks better from the outside... but other than that, there's not much new here. But the bigger deal here is that AMD's discounted pricing on their fleet of Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors seems permanent, and not just for the Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts, which is awesome for consumers.