CPU, APU & Chipsets - Page 148

Intel is like a T-Rex fighting AMD with its little arms right now, with this fact compounded by the rumors of Intel preparing new 6-core CPU parts under the upcoming Coffee Lake CPU architecture for early-2018.

Intel is reportedly working on the flagship Core i7-8700K processor (6C/12T) at 3.7GHz base, and a lowered 95W TDP. Comparing the 8700K against the newly-released Core i9-7800X which has a 140W TDP, it would begin chomping on the heels of the 7800X very quickly - which is probably why Intel isn't launching the 8700K until next year, to give the 7800X some breathing room.

We're also to expect a non-K variant in the form of the Core i7-8700, which will reportedly roll out with a 3.2GHz base clock. There will also be new Core i5 models with up to 6 cores which would be the most interesting part of the Coffee Lake CPU architecture launch.

Huawei's HiSilicon, the producer of chips for Huawei, is gearing up to launch an application processor that combines CPU, GPU and AI functionality into a single chip. This chip will likely be based on the new processors that ARM introduced at Computex earlier this year that have a focus on AI.

ARM's new A75, A55 CPUs, G72 GPU and DynamIQ architecture are all designed to deliver the best possible performance while also being designed to accelerate AI workloads and do faster inference.

Read also: Mate 10 to feature Kirin 970, Huawei's first 10nm SoC

AMD is battling Intel all over the place with its Zen-based processors, with Ryzen 7 kicking things off earlier this year, the impending threat of Ryzen ThreadRipper in the HEDT market, and now the new threat of Ryzen 3 in the low/mid-range markets.

AMD is reportedly getting down and dirty with Ryzen 3, with the Ryzen 3 1300X rumored to hit a price of just $129... but the Ryzen 3 1200 processor will be found as low as $109... not bad considering they're both quad-core CPUs. Ryzen 3 1300X is a 4C/4T processor at 3.5/3.7GHz for base/boost, respectively while the Ryzen 3 1200 is a 4C/4T processor at 3.1/3.4GHz for base/boost, respectively.

Intel has had the low/mid-range markets in its hands for years with the Celeron/Pentium and Core i3/Core i5 families of processors, but AMD is looking to disrupt this market in a massive way if it gets the prices of its upcoming Ryzen 3 processors at less than $130. Considering Ryzen-capable motherboards are also cheaper than their Intel-capable counterparts, AMD could be in for one heck of a ride with Ryzen 3.

Intel has been struggling to come to terms with having major competition in the CPU market again, but then AMD went and stirred up the enterprise market with its upcoming Epyc family of Zen-based CPUs. This has pushed Intel onto the offensive, so much so that they've had to make slides saying AMD's new Epyc CPUs have 4 'glued-together' CPU dies.

As you can see, the slide clearly says that AMD's new Epyc processors is a "re-purposed desktop product for server", and that AMD has a "poor track record" and is a "inconsistent supplier".

Intel is trying to make Epyc not sound strong at all, yet AMD is using a very technologically superior method of using 4 x Zen CPU cores into a single package. Sure, it's not one giant package with all of the CPU cores in it, but rather it is many dies each consisting of CPU cores, all joined together. This has multiple benefits for AMD, especially at the manufacturing level - as it's making Zen CPU dies it will know which ones are successful at maximum speeds and core counts.

If you are old enough, you'll remember the days of the Pentium brand being the strongest CPU in the consumer world - but now, it's been pushed into the budget world while even the Core i3 is considered a budget CPU. Intel shifts into the mid-range with its Core i5 and even slower Core i7 processors, while we have higher-end Core i7 and even the new Core i9 in the enthusiast market.

According to the latest report from DigiWorthy, Intel is effectively killing the Pentium G4560 after great reception from consumers by scaling production down that will make it harder to find in the market. This method is something I'm sure Intel is hoping will push people into the arms of the more expensive Core i3-7100 processor, which is nearly double the price of the Pentium G4560.

The only difference between the Pentium G4560 and the Core i3-7100 is 400MHz in the favor of the Core i3, but it costs twice as much... doesn't make sense, really.

AMD surprised the world with EPYC, but we all knew Intel would have a response, and that response will reportedly be in the form of the new Skylake-SP platform.

VideoCardz has the exclusive, without any comments and provided the slides on their own. The new Skylake-SP processors will arrive with up to 28C/56T, up to 38.5MB of last-level cache (LLC), and up to 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes. There will be support for 6-channel RAM with 2 x RDIMMS, LRDIMMs, or 3DS LRDIMMs at up to 2666MHz, while the TDP will float somewhere between 70W and 205W.

The new Intel C620 series chipset will have up to 14 SATA 3 ports, up to 14 x USB 3.0 ports and up to 10 x USB 3.0 ports. There will be some motherboards with up to 4 x 10GbE ports, if you need some serious networking performance, too.

Intel's new Core i9-7900X has been on the market for just a few weeks, but it has already been pushed to world record heights of 6.01GHz on liquid nitrogen, setting a new 10-core CPU and highest ever single processor world record. The hardware used:

SOFOS1990 is no stranger to breaking OC world records, hitting 6016MHz at 1.6V on the 10C/20T processor at a super-cold -110C (-116F). Sofos used GIGABYTE's Aorus X299 SOC Champion motherboard, alongside the enthusiast grade Corsair AX1500i PSU.

1.6V is pretty damn high for voltage, and no processor will withstand that for hours on end let alone daily use. For overclocking purposes, it's fine - but that's where the super-chilly LN2 comes into play.

AMD is advanced towards being the first to market with HBM2 on a consumer graphics card with the upcoming Radeon RX Vega, placing the VRAM onto the interposer, along with the GPU die. It's an incredible feat, and a big change from the spread of DRAM chips around the GPU, using precious PCB space. Well, researchers at Stanford and MIT are doing one better: putting the CPU and RAM onto a single unit.

The researchers have teased a prototype processor that is made from graphene carbon nanotubes, with resistive RAM (RRAM) layered on top. The team says that their prototype chip is "the most complex nanoelectronic system ever made with emerging nanotechnologies", creating a 3D computer architecture. Carbon is the key here, as the use of silicon for the CPU isn't good for the high temperatures required, as the RRAM cells would be damaged.

I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that DARPA and NSF are funding the project, with the carbon nanotube sensors also able to detect gases, because the information can be processed and measured on-chip.

Today is a new day, and that means new Ryzen ThreadRipper leaks: with some news of AMD's upcoming flagship Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X processor throwing up its fists in a Geekbench database war with Intel's latest and greatest Core and Xeon CPUs.

This time, we're looking at the Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X which is AMD's flagship 16C/32T processor with a base clock of 3.4GHz. We should expect boost CPU clocks of 3.6GHz, while XFR will take it to 3.8GHz. There'll be 32MB of L3 cache, and 8MB of L2 cache for a total of 40MB. But we're here for the performance numbers, right? In the single-core test on Geekbench, the Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X scored 4074, but compared to Intel's new Core i9-7900X with 10C/20T of performance - the 1950X gets thrashed, with the 7900X hitting 5403.

But no one is going to be buying AMD's new Ryzen ThreadRipper CPUs for their single-core performance, so moving onto the Geekbench multi-core score on the Ryzen ThreadRipper 1950X we have 26,768 - which is a much better result, and closer to the 33,945 that the Core i9-7900X scores. AMD will surely have many more optimizations to make to its Ryzen ThreadRipper CPUs and the upcoming X399 chipset, but for now Intel is in the lead by a massive margin. Somewhere that AMD can destroy Intel is on price... something Intel seems to be happy keeping a premium on.

Intel must be shaking in its boots over the various threats from AMD, and now there's news that AMD has scooped back a huge 10.4% of the CPU market share from Intel... all in Q2 2017.

PassMark's quarterly market share report has interesting results, from thousands of submissions that flow through their database each quarter. Remember: PassMark's market share data comes from benchmark submissions, and not total systems sold - it also doesn't include any operating systems other than Windows.

AMD now owns 31% of the CPU market, which is a huge freakin' deal compared to the 20% they had just three months ago. This is the largest CPU share dominance AMD has enjoyed over the last 10 years, and a 10% gain in the CPU market in a single quarter is a massive achievement.