CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 1

Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh processors are nearly here, or at least that's the rumor, and we've just had another hint of how these next-gen CPUs could be priced.

Intel's next-gen desktop CPUs should be with us in just over two weeks, so the rumor mill reckons (Image Credit: Intel)

As VideoCardz spotted, this comes from a retailer in Canada (and not the first one to spill purported pricing).

That retail outlet was Canada Computers, with the product pricing no longer visible, as is usually the case with these sorts of leaks when they're widely reported. (Indeed, it should be noted that the Raptor Lake Refresh products weren't directly visible on the website, but could be viewed if the specific model was searched for).

AMD's Zen 5 chips will perhaps be a more modest step forward than some rumors indicate - though we should be very cautious about performance predictions anyway.

That's the gist of the most recent video uploaded by YouTuber Moore's Law is Dead, with the leaker going to great pains to make a few things clear.

Namely that we won't see a fundamental shift in architecture and design until Zen 6. While Zen 5 is a major redesign for AMD, the overall layout remains the same as Zen 4 (and it may still suffer from some of the issues that this layout entails).

Intel's 14th Gen CPUs are set to arrive very soon, with rumors pointing to an October Raptor Lake Refresh launch. Although Intel has yet to announce the new generation formally, we've already seen benchmarks leak for the flagship Intel Core i9-14900KF and Intel Core i9-14900K flagship CPUs and seen that the new 6 GHz boost clocks on the high-end are delivering some impressive results.

Geekbench 6 scores for the upcoming Intel Core i9-14700KF CPU.

Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/93301/intel-core-i9-14900kf-cpu-benchmarks-leak-and-it-is-15-faster-than-the-13900k/index.html

Based on these results, the Intel Core i9-14900KF is set to be the world's fastest consumer CPU across single and multi-core tests. Today comes more info on the Intel Core i7-14700KF, which sits in the mainstream or more affordable region and is the successor to the popular Intel Core i7-13700KF.

A few days ago, Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Client Computing Group at Intel, told PCWorld that the company's new Meteor Lake CPUs will make their way to desktop PCs in 2024. Turns out this is not the case, or at least the traditional desktop socket we're used to.

Clarifying the comments, Intel now states Meteor Lake is only coming to AIO desktop solutions like mini-PCs that use mobile chips directly soldered to the motherboard.

"Meteor Lake is a power efficient architecture that will power innovative mobile and desktop designs," Intel clarifies in a statement made to the German publication ComputerBase. "[This also includes] desktop form factors such as All-in-One (AIO). We will have more product details to share in the future."

Last week, Intel confirmed that its next-generation Meteor Lake CPUs were coming in December, though only for the laptop space. With all of the architectural changes on the way, it's the biggest shake-up to design, manufacturing, and capabilities we've seen in a long time from Intel.

Intel's Meteor Lake for the laptop space presents a major architectural shake-up.

However, with the desktop space set to get a Raptor Lake Refresh line-up of CPUs next month under the traditional Intel Core i7 and i9 banner and the new laptop and mobile Meteor Lake CPUs set to sport the new Core Ultra branding, it's all a little confusing. This raises the question of when we'll see the new Meteor Lake architecture and the CPU rebrand in the desktop space.

Even though Intel's 14th Generation Core processors are coming this year, the company has confirmed that desktop Meteor Lake is on the cards for 2024.

Intel has lifted the lid on the first Core Ultra Meteor Lake chips, which will first hit the laptop market this December - and it's a major shake-up to the design, manufacturing, and capabilities found in Intel CPUs.

Meteor Lake and the new Core Ultra chip rebranding is more than a simple name change and codename for a new generation, as Intel has revamped almost everything about these CPUs, so much so that Intel states that Meteor Lake represents the largest client SoC architectural shift in 40 years.

The biggest upgrade comes with the underlying process technology, with the first generation of Core Ultra CPUs using the new 7nm Intel 4 process that will deliver 20% better performance per watt than the 10nm Intel 7 process. The other major advancement is Intel's new packaging technology called Foveros, which uses 3D stacking.

ASUS has finally launched the cheaper version of its popular ROG Ally gaming handheld, with the USD 600 model sporting a different chipset in the form of the non-Extreme AMD Ryzen Z1 APU. Outside of this, it retains the same impressive 7-inch 120 Hz 1080p display, 512GB of internal storage, and 16GB of DDR5 memory.

However, major differences exist between this model and the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip in the more expensive launch ROG Ally, which costs roughly $100 more. Feedback from reviewers who have gone hands-on with the new Ryzen Z1 model has shown that it is not as powerful as Valve's Steam Deck - which was one of the ROG Ally's big selling points.

The Phoenix-based Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU is one of the fastest mobile processors for gaming, sporting 8 cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock of over 5 GHz. The Ryzen Z1 only comes with 6 cores, but the real difference for portable gaming comes from the Z1's four RDNA 3 cores versus the Z1 Extreme's 12.

Intel's Raptor Lake Refresh series is rumored to launch next month. CPUs from the new lineup are already starting to appear online - with the flagship Intel Core i9-14900KF popping up in Geekbench 6 results with impressive performance.

Geekbench 6 scores for the upcoming Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU via user 'OneRaichu.'

Earlier this month, we reported on CPU-Z benchmark results for the new 6.0 GHz Intel Core i9 14900K (with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores), where it delivered a decent performance boost compared to the 13th gen flagship.

According to the flagship Intel Core i9-14900KF results, it's set to be the world's fastest consumer CPU across single and multi-core tests. The Geekbench results come from user OneRaichu, who looks to have run multiple tests on the new flagship Intel CPU - with the highest single-core score being 3,497.

After several delays due to worker shortages and equipment hurdles, mass production at TSMC's US-based semiconductor foundry is now on track for 2025. But, according to a new report (via TrendForce), the company is planning to begin small-scale production in Q1 2024 - with an estimated monthly capacity of around 4,000 to 5,000 wafers.

TSMC's U.S.-based Fab 21 semiconductor facility, image credit: TSMC.

The production size might be small, but it will mean that the Fab 21 facility in Arizona will produce Made in the U.S.A. chips for some of its customers - including AMD, Apple, and NVIDIA. With the AI boom, TSMC's capacity to produce chips at its Taiwanese facilities could be fully booked for 2024, so even as a pilot line for production in the U.S., companies will most likely greet this news positively.

TSMC's Fab 21 Phase 1 construction began in April 2021 with a production target of early 2024 set by the company - which has since been pushed to 2025, a one-year delay. Some reasons for the delay cited in the article include the aforementioned worker and skill shortage, equipment installation issues, local union protests, and even the different safety regulations in the U.S. compared to Taiwan.

Intel's upcoming Raptor Lake-S Refresh lineup will launch soon, with the flagship Intel Core i9 14900K CPU of the new 14th Gen Core desktop processors leading the pack. Featuring the same 24-core count of the Core i9 13900K (with 8 P-Cores and 16 E-Cores), the most significant difference looks to be an overall increase in clock speed to 6.0 GHz.

And with that, we can expect a decent performance boost compared to the 13th gen flagships - according to leaked synthetic CPU-Z benchmark results from @wxnod. Naturally, as pre-release and unconfirmed figures, these results should be taken with a dose of salt - but as an indicator of what to expect, things are looking good for Intel's 14th gen flagship.

The new Core i9 14900K outperforms the Core i9 13900K in single-thread performance by up to 9.7%, and it also manages to outdo the beefed-up Core i9 13900KS by around 3.5%. To add some icing to the performance cake, the 14900K also beats the 13900K in multi-threaded performance by roughly the same margin.