Processors

AMD's upcoming refreshed Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor performance has leaked out again, with 5% more performance than the 9800X3D, and 20% more performance than the Zen 4-based 7800X3D in new PassMark testing.

The new 9850X3D will retain the 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 5-based CPU power that the 9800X3D has, but with 400MHz more clock speeds @ 5.6GHz, over the 9800X3D. It retains its 120W TDP and 96MB of L3 cache, too. In new PassMark testing, AMD's new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is 5% faster in both single-core and multi-core PassMark tests over the 9800X3D, while it's a much bigger 20% faster than the 7800X3D.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor will be a fantastic upgrade for those continuing on the AM5 platform from a CPU like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, as you'll enjoy higher clock speeds, more performance, and second-generation 3D V-Cache. If you're using the 9800X3D then you will want to skip this upgrade, and maybe fly up to the unreleased Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor in 2026 with dual X3D cache stacks (and 16C/32T of power).

Intel could be fabbing the chips that will go into Apple's new iPhone 21 smartphone in 2028, extending its partnership with Apple beyond just Mac processors.

In a recent report from insider Ming-Chi Kuo, who claims that Intel has signed a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Apple to use its new Intel 18A-P process node, GF Securities analysts Jeff Pu and Evan Lee reiterate their expectation that Intel will indeed make Apple M-series chips on its new 18A-P process node starting in 2027.

However, the GF Securities analysts are now looking further out, predicting that Intel's momentum will continue with a win for Apple's "non-Pro smartphone SoC" in 2028. These new chips would be fabbed on the Intel 14A process node, with the firm expecting "firm visibility" on this huge deal by the end of 2025.

Samsung has posted a new teaser for its Exynos 2600 mobile processor, with the company saying its next-gen Exynos 2600 has been "Refined at the Core". Check out the teaser trailer:

Samsung's next-gen Exynos 2600 processor has been not just "Refined at the Core", but it has been "optimized at every level" and "the next Exynos is coming. It's time to express the exceptional. Coming soon". Personally, I really don't like the PR crap these companies push out, and Samsung isn't the only one, Qualcomm does it massively, AMD, Intel, all of them.

However, underneath... Samsung's next-gen Exynos 2600 processor is being fabbed on the company's new in-house 2nm GAA "SF2" process node. Samsung's new Galaxy S26 smartphones in 2026 will feature the new Exynos 2600 processor, but only the Galaxy S26 and Galaxy S26 Plus variants, while the flagship Galaxy S26 Ultra will be powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon processor.

AMD's rumored Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor looks to be real given that it has been accidentally listed ahead of its release by Team Red.

Of course, that launch remains theoretical until we actually get official confirmation of the Ryzen 9850X3D, but as Olrak highlighted on X (via VideoCardz), there's an entry for drivers and downloads pertaining to this 3D V-Cache CPU on AMD's French website.

It'd be unlikely for this mistake to happen if AMD wasn't planning on wheeling out the Ryzen 9850X3D soon, but we still can't take this as cast-iron proof that the processor is waiting in the wings.

In a bid to reduce its reliance on chips made abroad, China has placed significant focus on developing processors domestically. While China remains quite far behind in performance from its homegrown chips, the vice chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association has given us a peek behind the curtain at where the country stands in terms of performance compared to the competition.

According to Wei Shaojun, a new domestically made processor using a 14nm process and 18nm DRAM nodes can match the performance of NVIDIA's 4nm chips. Shaojun pitched the design of this chip as a catalyst for China to reduce its dependence on NVIDIA's CUDA ecosystem, and, more specifically, on US-made chips.

DigiTimes reports that Shaojun didn't reveal many technical specifications for the chip, but did say that the 14nm logic has been bonded directly to the 18nm DRAM, resulting in a substantial increase in memory bandwidth and a significant reduction in compute latency. Additionally, Shaojun states that the system achieved a total throughput of 120 TFLOPS and a power efficiency of 2 TFLOPS per watt.

Intel will reportedly begin fabbing Apple's lowest-end M-series processor on American soil as early as 2027, with Intel looking to become an advanced-node semiconductor supplier to Apple moving forward.

In a new post by insider and analyst Ming-Chi Kuo on X, we're hearing that Apple had previously signed an NDA with Intel and obtained the advanced-node 18AP PDK 0.9.1GA. Kuo says that these key simulation and research projects (such as PPA) are "tracking in line with expectations" and Apple is now waiting for Intel to release PDK 1.0/1.1, which is currently scheduled to arrive in Q1 2026.

Apple plans on having its lowest-end M processor fabbed on the Intel 18AP process node as early as Q2-Q3 2027, but this could change depending on the PDK 1.0/1.1 release, says Kuo.

Intel is finally preparing to take on AMD's awesome X3D cache on its CPUs with next-gen Core Ultra 400K series "Nova Lake-S" desktop CPUs reportedly featuring 144MB of bLLC (big cache) as an answer to 3D V-Cache (X3D) on Ryzen X3D series CPUs.

The latest reports suggest that Intel will only include its bLLC cache on the next-gen Core Ultra 400K unlocked SKUs, while AMD still offers X3D cache across a far wider range of Ryzen CPUs. In a new post from leaker @Jaykihn, who says that the Core Ultra 400K series will feature 144MB of bLLC (Big Last Level Cache).

AMD has been using its X3D cache on mid-range Ryzen CPUs which cost under $500, to beat out much more expensive flagship CPUs from Intel without any pool of cache, meaning gamers could buy a far cheaper CPU and still have commanding gaming performance thanks to the X3D cache.

Update: AMD reached out to us to inform us that this article had some incorrect information, with AMD telling me that Wccftech's story included "two sets of data" that were "mixed up". We've got some updated graphs that better compare AMD's "Strix Halo" APUs against Intel's new Core Ultra 386H "Panther Lake" CPU, with this article updated with that new information.

Intel's upcoming Core Ultra 9 386H "Panther Lake" CPU has been benched early, still unable to beat AMD's flagship Strix Halo APU in Geekbench 6, but great single-core and multi-core performance against its other processor rivals.

Intel will officially unveil its new Core Ultra 300 series "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026 in January, with plenty of leaks and information in the wild and in the links below. So far, we've been seeing engineering sample (ES) processors which don't usually run at retail CPU clock speeds, but now it looks like we've got some benchmarks from proper, closer to retail silicon.

Intel will be unveiling its new Arrow Lake-S Refresh CPUs in 2026, with some new details on the Core Ultra 200K Plus family of processors, and the new naming scheme that includes the Core Ultra 9 290K Plus, Core Ultra 7 270K Plus, and Core Ultra 5 250K Plus processors.

We've been hearing rumors of Intel's new Arrow Lake-S Refresh processors for a while now, which should act as the last hurrah for the LGA-1851 socket before shifting to the new LGA-1954 socket for the launch of the next-gen Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake" desktop CPUs.

Intel's new Arrow Lake-S Refresh processors will include the tweaks and features that the Arrow Lake-S chips got in the form of special boost features and more, as well as some new surprises. The Core Ultra 9 290K Plus succeeds the Core Ultra 9 285K while keeping its 8P+16E CPU core configuration, but increases the Thermal Velocity Boost to 5.8GHz (up from 5.7GHz on the 285K). The E-Core turbo speeds also increase to 4.8GHz, while power limits remain the same at 125W base, and 250W max turbo TDP.

Intel's next-generation Core Ultra 400 series "Nova Lake" desktop processors will feature a next-gen NPU6 chip, offering 1.5x the AI performance inside of the upcoming "Panther Lake" desktop chips with NPU5 coming in early 2026.

In a new post on X from leaker @jaykihn0, we're hearing Nova Lake desktop CPUs will feature an upgraded NPU6 design for higher AI performance, whether consumers want/need it or not. NPU3 is inside of the "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors from Intel that launched in 2023, the same NPU inside of "Meteor Lake" chips for laptops, while NPU5 inside of "Panther Lake" next year will top out at 50 TOPS of AI performance.

We knew that Nova Lake would feature an NPU for the desktop, and that it would (obviously) be faster, but now we have some firmer details from leaks that NPU6 will feature 74 TOPS of INT8 performance for AI workloads, a significant upgrade over the 50 TOPS from Panther Lake.

Intel's next-generation Xeon "Diamond Rapids" CPUs will be supported on its next-gen "Johnson City" reference platform, spotted inside of a new NBD shipping manifest.

The shipment log teases the "JNC" server board hardware with a label of "Validation Material", with JNC standing for Johnson City, a reference platform being used by Intel and its partners to test performance, capabilities, and features of the next-gen Xeon "Diamond Rapids" processors on next-gen platforms.

We don't know much from these new details other than two listings referring to "1SPC 500 DMR" which could be a 500W TDP range for Diamond Rapids CPUs, while the other lists a higher 650W TDP. In a separate listing, the JNC Multi-S platform is teased, numbered "2+1+1S" with 1S referring to a single-socket setup, but it could easily be a label for a multi-socket, or even multi-chiplet Diamond Rapids configuration.

Intel's new W890 platform details have leaked, created to design the company's Xeon "Granite Rapids" workstation CPUs, offering up to 86 cores and 172 threads of processing power.

The new Intel Xeon "Granite Rapids" CPUs will use the E2 Socket (LGA 4710) that will come in both Expert and Mainstream segments, supporting Granite Rapids CPUs with up to 350W TDPs and up to 16 P-Cores. On the memory side, it supports both standard DDR5 DIMMs and RDIMMs, with RDIMM support with up to 5200 MT/s speeds and up to 2TB RAM capacity.

On the PCIe lanes side of things, the Expert CPUs feature up to 112 PCIe lanes (96 x Gen5 lanes and 16 x Gen4 lanes), while the Mainstream platform supports up to 80 PCIe Gen5 lanes but lacks Gen4 lanes completely. The CPUs are connected to the W890 chipset using a Gen4 x 8 lane DMI interface, while the PCB is also packed with features.

Intel will officially launch its new Core Ultra 3 series "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026 on January 5, but before that we've got a new leak and some early testing of a 10-core Panther Lake "ES" processor with 16GB LPDDR5X memory, and tested with up to 65W PL2 rating.

A new post with a bunch of juicy pictures and early tests from leaker @YuuKi_AnS on X shows an early engineering sample of Intel's new Panther Lake CPU, with some early silicon on the PTL 16C/4Xe3 die configuration. We have four tiles and a filler tile on the SoC, with the package base around a BGA 2540 socket configuration, with this specific CPU featuring a "000C06C0" device ID.

The test platform used was the Intel RVP (Reference Evaluation Platform) that supports both LPCAMM2 and standard LPDDR5X memory configurations, with this particular ES processor featuring 16GB of LPDDR5X memory that is assembled using an ADL-P "Alder Lake" frame. There are four SK hynix "H58G56BK8BX068-418A" DRAM modules with a rated speed of 7467MHz.

AMD's powerful Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor is now available at under MSRP pricing in the United States, dropping to $449 on Amazon in early Black Friday sales.

The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is an 8-core, 16-thread chip based on the Zen 5 architecture, with 96MB of L3 cache and second-generation 3D V-Cache, which when paired with any AM5 motherboard -- and some of them you can get for $100-$150 -- will give you some truly amazing CPU performance that doesn't require a 360mm AIO liquid cooler to keep thermals down.

The official price of the 9800X3D sits at $479, but with $30 off on Amazon right now it drops to $449 -- below its $479 MSRP. The $30 off deal won't last forever, so if you've been holding off on the 9800X3D... now might be your time. Pair this bad boy with a budget B850 chipset and 16/32GB of RAM and you've got a monster CPU + mobo + RAM upgrade on the (relatively) cheap.

Intel will officially introduce its next-generation Core Ultra 3 series "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026 on January 5, after its initial tease in October 2025.

The new Intel Panther Lake CPUs are the first out of the fabs on its new in-house Intel 18A process node, with new P-Core and E-Core architectures, fresh next-gen Xe3 "Celestial" integrated graphics, a new 5th-generation NPU for AI workloads, and more.

Intel is also introducing a new naming scheme for its higher-end Panther Lake processors with the introduction of the "Core Ultra X" branding, with new chips ranging from the Core Ultra X9 388H down to the Core Ultra 5 322 processor. The higher-end Core Ultra X9 388H, Core Ultra 7 X368H, and Core Ultra 7 X358H processors will feature 12 Xe3 GPU cores, offering higher gaming performance than other Panther Lake CPUs that feature 10 Xe3 GPU cores, while most of the stack features just 4 Xe3 GPU cores.

Qualcomm has released some fresh details on its new Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme and Snapdragon X2 Elite processors, where the flagship Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme can use 100W of power when it's "unconstrained".

The new power figures come from Qualcomm directly, as the company hasn't defined the Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme chip and its TDP, as its power is dependent on OEM partners to specify power limits on their products. For laptop makers, they need to consider multiple factors like dimensions, weight, cost targets, surface, exhaust air temperatures, and noise levels.

All of these factors work out the "Platform Sustained SoC Power Dissipation Capability" where if Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X2 Elite and Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme were to run at higher sustained clock speeds, improved thermal solutions are then mandatory.

Qualcomm recently held a deep-dive event on its upcoming release of Arm-based Snapdragon X2 Elite processors for Windows devices, set to launch in 2026. The APU includes the company's new Adreno X2 GPU, which it says will unlock a new level of performance, directly competing with and outperforming its Intel and AMD x86 counterparts.

With performance that is reportedly 2.3X faster than its predecessor, PC gaming fans will be pleased to learn that when the Snapdragon X2 Elite arrives, over 90% of the most played games will be playable at launch. This includes native driver support for DirectX 12.2 Ultimate and Vulkan 1.4, so the Arm-based APU won't have to rely entirely on emulation for PC gaming.

The 2.3X figure refers to the gaming performance of the flagship Snapdragon X2 Elite Extreme compared to the first-generation Snapdragon X Elite, and it's impressive when you see Forza Horizon 5 go from 32 FPS to 71 FPS, DOOM Eternal go from 42 FPS to 107 FPS, and Counter-Strike 2 go from 49 FPS to 103 FPS.

Intel has said that it's making great progress on its next-gen Intel 14A node, as well as talking about its recent partnership with NVIDIA, and what we'll see in the future regarding CPUs and GPUs.

At the recent 2025 RBC Capital Markets Global Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications Conference, Intel VP John Pitzer discussed the upcoming Intel 14A process node, and how it will be an important milestone for the company, as well as its NVIDIA partnership, and more.

Intel 18A will be found inside of chips later this year with Intel's upcoming Core Ultra 300 "Panther Lake" CPUs with ramping in early 2026, but after that we'll see Intel 14A which will feature two huge innovations: second-gen GAA (Gate-All-Around) transistor design, and the second is optimized backside power delivery.

Intel's new Xeon 654 processor has leaked out, with some more details learned about the company's new Granite Rapids-WS workstation processors.

The upcoming Intel Xeon 654 processor is an 18-core, 36-thread workstation CPU with 72MB of cache, and CPU clocks of up to 4.80GHz. We should expect the company to unveil two variants of its Granite Rapids-WS chips, with a 4-channel DDR5 memory version, and 8-channel "Expert" family. The mainstream Granite Rapids CPUs have 80 PCIe Gen5 lanes, while the Expert chips have 128 PCIe Gen5 lanes.

We will see Intel launch a much higher-end Granite Rapids-WS processor in the form of a beastly 86 cores and 172 threads, which was leaked a couple of months ago. The new Intel Xeon 654 processor with its 18C/36T was tested on a reference "GNR-WS" platform joined by 32GB of DDR5 memory.

AMD will be launching its next-generation Zen 6-based EPYC "Venice" CPUs in 2026, which will rock a huge 70% performance and efficiency leap over the current-gen Zen 5 EPYC chips, 30% more thread density, and more.

AMD's upcoming Zen 6 EPYC "Venice" CPUs will be fabbed on TSMC's new bleeding-edge 2nm (N2P) process node, with up to 256 cores and 512 threads (256C/512T) of Zen 6 processing power. In AMD's official slides, EPYC Venice CPUs will have 70% more performance and efficiency, and a 30% improvement in thread density.

Zen 6 EPYC Venice CPUs will pack a huge 256C/512T of processing power, which is a 33.3% improvement over Zen 5 EPYC Turin, which tops out at 192C/384T. Not only that, there are optimizations and improvements with Zen 6, on top of the fact that it's fabbed on TSMC's latest 2nm process node. The entire Zen 6 family of processors -- Olympic Ridge for desktop, Medusa for laptops -- are fabbed on TSMC N2P.