CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 133

Computex 2016 - Intel exec Navin Shenoy confirmed that Intel's 14nm 7th-gen Kaby Lake Core CPU will enter production later this quarter, with an eventual release in 2016.

"I'm excited to tell you that two new products will be coming from Intel later this year: Apollo Lake for the value and entry-level PC, 2-in-1 and tablet, and the 7th Generation Core, formally codenamed Kaby Lake, will be coming later this year. We have over 400 designs coming to market on the Seventh Gen Core, and you can expect lots of innovations from our OEM partners bringing this product to market," said Intel's General Manager of Intel's Client Computing Group Navin Shenoy said during Intel's Computex 2016 keynote.

With the seventh-generation Kaby Lake chip series, Intel has broken its tick-tock cadence for the first time in the last decade, opting instead for the new "process, architecture, optimization" model. Kaby Lake--and the new low-power, entry-level Apollo Lake--will use the same 14nm process node as Skylake and Broadwell-E, but will feature significant microarchitecture tweaks and optimizations. Intel also announced Kaby Lake will natively support USB 3.1 and Thunderbolt 3, with higher-end chips maxing out at 95W TDP.

Computex 2016 - After revealing the $199 VR-ready Radeon RX 480 and the Summit Ridge Zen silicon at Computex, AMD revealed its latest 7th-generation Bristol Ridge and Stony Ridge APUs with massive improvements in CPU and GPU performance and power efficiency.

AMD's new 7th-generation APU lineup is a medley of processors separated in performance tiers across two product families: Bristol Ridge for higher-end gaming and performance, and Stony Ridge for everyday and entry-level use. The APUs range from the lower-end 2.8GHz A6-9210 to the performance-grade 3.7GHz 7th-gen FX 9830P. AMD boasts that Bristol Ridge's premiere FX chips are 56% faster than previous gens, with the entry-level A6 series 51% faster than past generations. The Bristol Ridge APUs are also beating Intel's mobile chips: According to AMD, the new FX-9800P is 50% faster than Intel's i7 6500U processor.

The lineup puts emphasis power efficiency and performance, which is exactly what users need in laptops. AMD's new 7th generation APUs leverage four Excavator cores and eight Radeon Graphics Core Next Cores, with integrated GPUs ranging from Radeon R2 to Radeon R7 graphics. The A10, A12, and FX series support performance gaming features like FreeSync and pairing up with discrete desktop video cards with Dual Graphics, whereas EyeFinity and Framerate Target Control are reserved for the top two models. The FX series also sports DirectX 12 and Vulkan with multi-adapter support.

Computex 2016 - AMD's Computex press conference saw Team Read announce its new roadmap built on Polaris FinFET technology, culminating in the new $199 VR-ready Radeon RX 480, the 7th generation APU line, and a beefy update on Zen.

It's been a bit since AMD's last Zen update, but the next-gen Summit Ridge processor was revealed on stage by Dr. Lisa Su, along with a host of new specifications and details on Zen's different configurations. "We are in the early stages, but the product looks really really good. Zen is delivering 40% more IPC than our previous generations," said AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. "This product is 8 cores, 16 threads, it is FinFET technology, and it is integrated as part of our new AM4 desktop platform. Zen is a new high-performance CPU that scales across multiple market segments, and we're working very hard on our server version of Zen, which is also going very well."

Dr. Su also discussed Zen's integrated future across multiple platforms, including high-performance APUs and embedded markets: "As we bring the high-performance CPU to life, we're also going to integrate Zen with our high-performance graphics in our next-generation APUs. So after Bristol Ridge, you will see integrated APUs with Zen and our GPU architectures. And you'll also see Zen across a number of embedded markets. The power of Zen's grounds-up design allows us to scale it across performance segments as well as low-power markets."

Computex 2016 - Intel has announced its new 10-core 3GHz i7 6950X desktop CPU at its press conference in Taipei, but the chip comes with a staggering price tag.

If you've been looking forward to Intel's celebrated Broadwell-E lineup with its insane 10-core Core i7 6950X CPU, then we have kind of a buzzkill: the processor will cost $1,732. For that premium price, you'll get one of the "most powerful chips" has ever created. With 20 threads, the Core i7 6950X Extreme Edition is fully optimized for simultaneous compute-intensive mega-tasking like 4K gaming while rendering video in the background, and Intel boasts that the i7 6950X renders 3D twice as fast as the Intel Core i7 6700K.

As we expected, Intel also announced three more CPUs in the Broadwell-E Extreme Edition lineup: the 8-core Intel Core i7 6900K ($1,089), the 6-core Core i7 6850K ($617) and Core i7-6800K ($434). Every CPU in the Extreme Edition lineup is unlocked for easy user overclocking, and the processors are all based on Intel's new 14nm Broadwell-E silicon. Check below for full specs on each CPU as well as key features.

AMD is ramping up for quite a large Computex 2016, with the big reveal of the next-gen Polaris-based video cards, and then the exciting new Zen architecture on the CPU side of things. Well, it looks like the new Zen APUs will be exciting, with a purported 50% increase in performance than the previous Kaveri-based APUs.

AMD's new processors will arrive on the AM4 socket, with the flagship SKU offering 12 compute cores, with 4 of them Compute-based, while the rest will reside on the GPU side. The flagship APU will have 4 x CPU cores at 3.7GHz, with Turbo boosting it to 4.2GHz, with 2MB of L2 cache. On the GPU side, we'll have 8 x GCN 3.0-based compute units, with 512 streaming processors and a TDP of 65W. According to the latest leaks, AMD will have a low-power version that consumes 35W with a default clock of 2.9GHz and Turbo boost of up to 3.8GHz.

The performance tier SKU will be kicked down to 10 compute cores, with 4 dedicated to the compute side, and 6 to the graphics side. These chips will arrive in two different variants, with the highest APU hitting 3.5GHz and 3.8GHz on boost, while the 35W version will have a clock speed of 2.8GHz and boost of 3.5GHz. The budget ones will have 6 compute cores, at up to 3.5GHz and 3.8GHz on turbo, with 1MB of L2 cache. The graphics side has 4 compute units, and 256 GCN 3.0-based stream processors.

AMD will reportedly keep its next-gen Zen CPUs at the higher-end of the scale when they launch later this year, with 6- and 8-core variants being the status quo.

The dual- and quad-core variants of Zen won't launch at first, but AMD is expected to launch Bristol Ridge-based dual- and quad-core processors right away. AMD will reportedly be using 8-core dies in the fabrication process of Zen-based processors because it's the best way to get the most out of the production of its Summit Ridge processors.

This means AMD can not only provide a very powerful processor, but it'll cost the company less to only make a higher-end version at first, rather than multiple SKUs. This all falls onto the shoulders of the yields, which if they're not good - we might see dual- and quad-core versions of Zen quicker than normal. If the yields are good, AMD could finally find itself in a better position to fight Intel's unstoppable CPU dominance.

AMD's Wraith Cooler has been an unbridled success for them, and a way to show that the stock cooling system that comes with a boxed CPU doesn't have to be an afterthought. The Wraith cooler, however, was only available for certain processors despite it being a very good cooler. They've listened to the feedback from reviewers and gamers alike and have thoroughly expanded their in-house stock coolers to encompass more of their processor line.

The Wraith cooler itself is now included with the FX 8350 and the FX 6350 processors. Those aren't exactly the hottest processors at stock, though they do overclock well if they have the right solution connected to them. The Wraith cooler, though not the ultimate device, can still allow for raising the multiplier and the voltage by a bit for a modest overclock without melting your system or the CPU. Actually, it's pretty silent and does a great job of controlling thermals at stock and slightly beyond.

They've also developed other cooling solutions to include with their lower-end CPU and APU's as well. Those solutions aren't quite as spiffy as the Wraith, though they're far more efficient than what was included before. More fins and a better-designed fan mean lower temperatures at far more acceptable sound levels.

Intel's next-gen CPUs are right around the corner, with NCIX listing the new Core i7-6950X with a pre-order price of a wallet-busting $2349.99. The Core i7-6900K has a pre-order price of $1495, while the Core i7-6850K is $889, and the Core i7-6800K at $629.

These prices are not official and are inflated for pre-orders, with the normal pricing set to be somewhere around $1609, $1024, $602, and $422 for the Core i7-6950X, Core i7-6900K, Core i7-6850K and Core i7-6800K respectively. Why should we be excited about these new CPUs from Intel? Well, the new Broadwell-E processors will feature four variants, with the flagship being the 10-core/20-thread Core i7-6950X. The one below it will be the 8-core CPU found in the Core i7-6900K, while the other two CPUs will be 6-core variants.

Intel is expected to launch its new Broadwell-E family of processors in the coming months, with a big show at Computex 2016 in June.

Intel's Broadwell-E processors have already been listed on NCIX, available for pre-order, just ahead of the official release. The prices that are shown, however, are actually somewhat higher than what we think the actual MSRP to be once they hit the streets. If you're an early adopter, then you can now be among some of the first to receive your CPU's if you pre-order now.

The server-oriented Broadwell-EP parts have been released in full already and have shown incremental, though significant, increases in performance over their Haswell-EP counterparts. The real gain is power-efficiency, however, where the smaller node and accumulative changes have led to far better performance/watt numbers.

The new processors will be compatible with the 2011 v3 socket physically and also be compatible with Intel's X99 motherboard chipset, though the latter will require a BIOS update to be able to support the new microcode. That makes it an easy upgrade, though, for those looking for either power savings or wanting to continue to have the absolute fastest processor available. All four new processors were spotted, and their prices are after the break. The top-end 10 core i7-6950X is listed at $2349.98.

Intel has officially unveiled its new Apollo Lake platform, which is the next-generation family of Atom-based notebook SoCs. Apollo Lake uses a new x86 microarchitecture, as well as a new generation graphics core that will provide more performance.

The new Apollo Lake family is set to take on the affordable all-in-ones, mini PCs, hybrid devices, notebooks and even tablet PCs when it launches in the second half of this year. Apollo Lake is built on the new Atom-based x86 microarchitecture known as Goldmont, with a new graphics core that includes Intel's impressive 9th-generation architecture that is found in the current Skylake processors.

The new Apollo Lake family includes support for dual-channel DDR4, DD3L, and LPDDR3/4 memory which allows PC makers to make devices with all sorts of form factors, thanks to the impressive memory support. We also have support for the usual SATA drives, PCIe x4 drives and eMMC 5.0 - USB Type-C support is also included, as well as various wireless technologies.