CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 12

AMD's new family of Ryzen 8000G "Hawk Point" APUs has been officially launched, with three new SKUs, including the Ryzen 7 8600G, Ryzen 5 8600G, and Ryzen 5 8500G offerings.

The new AMD Ryzen 8000G APUs include a monolithic Zen 4 processor and RDNA 3 graphics, which will slot easily into any AM5 motherboard on the market, and there are many at all price points, making the Hawk Point APU a deliciously budget-friendly option with fantastic CPU and GPU performance in a single APU.

AMD has four new Ryzen 8000G APUs, but only three of them are launching now: Ryzen 7 8700G, Ryzen 5 8600G, and Ryzen 5 8500G are all here now, while the Ryzen 3 8300G arrive later. AMD uses Zen 4 CPU cores on the 8700G and 8600G, while Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores are found on the 8500G and 8300G APUs.

It looks like Intel is preparing a slightly beefed-up Xeon W9-3595X "Sapphire Rapids" HEDT processor, featuring 60 cores and 120 threads of CPU power.

Intel's new Xeon W9-3595X processor features 60 cores and 120 threads that will boost up to 4.8GHz, offering 4 more cores and 4 more threads over the current flagship Xeon CPU, which only boosts up to 4.6GHz. So, Intel has added more cores, and bumped up the maximum CPU boost clock by 200MHz, not bad, not bad.

Along with more cores, more threads, and more boost CPU clocks, Intel's new Xeon W9-3595X processor also has 112MB of L3 cache, which is an upgrade over the 105MB of L3 cache on the Xeon W9-3495X processor. Both of the Xeon "Sapphire Rapids" CPUs feature a 350W, while the Xeon W9-3495X is priced at $5889, we should expect a bump in pricing for the new Xeon W9-3595X processor... but we won't have those details until Intel makes this new Xeon CPU official.

Intel's truly next-gen Nova Lake CPUs will be made on TSMC's new 2nm process node, joining Apple as its first customers on TSMC's queue for its latest fab node.

Intel still has a few CPU generations before we get to Nova Lake, which is expected to be released in 2026 with its CPU Tile made on TSMC's (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) fresh new 2nm process node. Intel's next-gen Nova Lake CPUs will feature the largest architectural uplift in the company's history, eclipsing the huge uplift that Intel delivered with the Core architecture.

I have been writing about Intel's next-gen Nova Lake CPUs over two years ago now if you can believe it, reporting back in August 2021 on the rumors at the time. In that story, Nova Lake was teased as the: "biggest architectural change in cpu architecture since the Core architecture is introduced in 2006. Intel is working to build an entirely new architecture from the ground up much like Ryzen with up to 50% cpu performance improvement from lunar lake. This is also the reason why Glenn Hinton returned".

AMD will be releasing its next-gen Zen 5 architecture later this year, as well as a new 800-series chipset with the flagship X870E chipset ready for high-end Ryzen 8000 series CPUs of the future.

In a new video from Moore's Law is Dead, we hear from one of his sources that Zen 5 "has had a lot of issues" and that the original goal was to rush out another 16-core lineup in the second half of 2024, even if that meant launching before (or without) a new chipset.

The same source continued, saying that they'd be surprised if Zen 5 is ready before the summer of 2024, but said the good news is that AMD could launch X3D variants of Zen 5 processors, or even Zen 5c chiplets into the original announcement of Zen 5 when it happens. The source said that if Zen 5 is delayed at all, it will "at least be aggressive."

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX mobile processor will reportedly feature Samsung LPDDR5X on-package memory, which is a big deal for both Intel and Samsung.

The news is coming from DigiTimes, which reports the news according to its supply chain sources that Samsung would be reportedly landing a "huge" deal this year. Not only would Samsung be getting its heel into the PC market further than it does now, but the move to "on-package" memory was something Apple has been doing exclusively, inside of its M-series processors.

Intel's next-gen Lunar Lake-MX processors are still a while away from release, but we should expect a decent leap in performance across the board... and with on-package Samsung LPDDR5X memory, it'll be an interesting move to say the least.

AMD is currently cooking its next-gen Kraken Point APU, a new premium APU entry that will reportedly feature Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores and an upgraded RDNA 3.5 GPU.

The company is gearing up for its new APUs, codenamed Strix Point and Strix Halo, with Kraken Point sharing similar specs to the Strix Point APU. Both of these new APUs will feature Zen 5 and Zen 5c CPU cores, as well as an upgraded RDNA 3.5 GPU architecture. They'll also both feature an upgraded XDNA 2-based AI processor, with Kraken Point falling under the Strix Point APU when it comes to Zen 5c core counts.

We're hearing new information from leaker "Everest" on X, suggesting that AMD's next-gen Kraken Point APU will feature 4 x Zen 5 and 4 x Zen 5c cores, a total of 8 cores based on the new Zen 5 CPU architecture. Strix Point, however, has 4 x Zen 5 cores and 8 x Zen 5c cores, leaving Kraken Point with one-third fewer Zen 5c cores.

Intel launched its first AI-enabled product with the launch of Meteor Lake not too long ago now, the first member of the new "Core Ultra" branding... and now Intel is coming out swinging when it comes to teasing its next-gen Lunar Lake and Panther Lake processors.

We can expect to see Intel launch its next-gen Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake CPUs later this year, with up to 3x the AI performance over Meteor Lake. But now we're hearing directly from Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, who has promised some major AI improvements with the next-gen Panther Lake CPUs featuring 2x the AI performance that we can expect from Lunar Lake, which has its own major AI performance improvements over Meteor Lake.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said during the Q4 2023 earnings call: "The Core Ultra platform delivers leadership AI performance today with our next-generation platforms launching later this year, Lunar Lake and Arrow Lake tripling our AI performance. In 2025 with Panther Lake, we will grow AI performance up to an additional 2x".

Intel's Arrow Lake processors are on target to release later in 2024, as promised, we've been told (again) by the CEO of the company.

Pat Gelsinger made the revelation during Intel's latest fiscal results (which saw revenue rise by 10% year-on-year).

As PC Gamer spotted, Gelsinger said:

"We are even more excited about breaking into the Angstrom era with Intel 20A and Intel 18A. We are first in the industry to have incorporated both gate-all-around and backside power delivery in a single process node, the latter and expected two years ahead of our competition."

AMD's latest Ryzen 9 7940HX "Dragon Range" mobile processor has been tested by Chinese reviewer "Mitsu" with a bunch of tests conducted that you can check out below:

Mitsu benchmarked the new ASUS Tianxuan 5 Pro gaming laptop, the Chinese version of the TUF Gaming laptop series from ASUS. Inside, it features the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HX processor, 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU. ASUS focuses this gaming laptop on the budget gaming laptop market, with a 280W power supply included.

AMD's latest Ryzen 9 7940HX processor is the flagship "Dragon Range" chip with 16 cores based on the Zen 4 architecture, with a 2.4GHz base CPU clock and up to 5.2GHz max boost clock. AMD designs its new Dragon Range CPU for 55W TDP power consumption.

Intel has just pushed out some new updates for the Linux kernel, which take care of the new Xeon "Sierra Forest" and "Clearwater Forest" CPUs, and now we have some more details on the all-E-Core CPUs.

The next-gen Intel Xeon "Sierra Forest" CPUs are expected to launch later on in 2024, while "Clearwater Forest" won't show its head until sometime in 2025, with both of them featuring their first basic patches that add model numbers. The new patches confirm something that was leaked: Intel will be using Darkmont E-Cores for "Clearwater Forest," while "Sierra Forest" and "Grand Ridge" both use Crestmont-based cores.

Phoronix reports that these new patches were labeled "urgent" and should roll out in perfect timing for Linux 3.8 kernel merge windows, showing that Intel is beginning its journey with its new Xeon "Sierra Forest" and "Clearwater Forest" processors, with more patches expected in the future. The new Linux 6.8 kernel has just reached the RC stage (Release Candidate), while the final version should hit sometime in March 2024.