Processors - Page 2

PC component bundles have been around for a long time, but are often tied to retailers putting together packs of essential parts needed for an upgrade or new build. From motherboards to coolers, CPUs, and memory, bundles make sense when you're looking to pick up two, three, or more parts at a time.

What makes this latest bundle interesting is that it looks like AMD has partnered with Cooler Master and V-Color to offer a CPU kit (sans motherboard) for PC enthusiasts and gamers in China - via @unikoshardware on X. The bundle pairs AMD's brand-new Ryzen 7 9850X gaming CPU, which was announced earlier this year at CES 2026, with Cooler Master's HYPER 612 APEX PRO air cooler and 32 GB of V-Color's Manta XFinity RGB DDR5-6000 memory.

According to reports, the bundle was announced at a recent Cooler Master press event, but there's no word on a potential price. With the current memory crisis affecting retail DDR5 pricing, the hope is that this bundle offers consumers a more affordable way to pick up 32GB of V-Color DDR5 memory with their new CPU.

Microsoft has marked another milestone for gamers with its Xbox app now available on all Arm-based Windows 11 PCs, paving the way for NVIDIA's new N1X and N1 Arm-based processors expected to be baked inside of new waves of gaming laptops later this year.

Players are now open to download and enjoy a huge range of games from the Xbox PC app game catalog on Arm-based Windows 11 systems, with over 85% of the Game Pass catalog compatible on these PCs. Microsoft is also actively working with partners to expand support for Arm-based games "even further".

For titles that aren't supported locally just yet, Xbox Cloud Gaming remains an "easy way to jump in" while Microsoft works with partners to broaden compatibility.

AMD's recently announced Ryzen AI 400 Series of processors, aka 'Gorgon Point,' kept the same mix of Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores, RDNA 3.5 graphics, and XDNA 2 NPUs, as the Ryzen AI 300 Series - albeit with increased frequencies and expanded memory support. According to a new report over at Videocardz, AMD is planning to do the same for its Ryzen AI MAX 300 Series, which will include a new flagship 'Gorgon Halo' processor.

AMD Ryzen AI MAX+ 395, codename 'Strix Halo,' is a beast of an APU, featuring 16 cores, 32 threads, and an integrated Radeon 8060S graphics card with an impressive 40 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. 'Gorgon Halo,' which we presume will be part of a new Ryzen AI MAX 400 Series, will reportedly follow the same path by increasing CPU and GPU frequencies and clock speeds.

Strix Halo's Radeon 8060S is currently clocked at 2900 MHz, so the expectation is that it will be pushed to 3+ GHz, similar to the GPUs in the Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 and HX 470, which top out at 3.1 GHz.

AMD announced the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D at CES, an overclocked version of what's widely considered to be the fastest CPU for PC gaming - the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The notable difference here is the increased Boost Clock speed, which has increased by 400 MHz to 5.6 GHz. As the CPU still sports the same 8 'Zen 5' Cores with 16 Threads, 104MB of cache, and a 120W TDP rating, the Ryzen 7 9850X3D will sit alongside the Ryzen 7 9800X3D at retail.

And with that, AMD has confirmed the release date and pricing for the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D, with the CPU expected to launch on January 29 with a SEP (MSRP) of $499 USD. This puts its price only $30 higher than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, a modest premium to pay for gaming performance that is, on average, 27% faster than Intel's flagship desktop processor, the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K.

That said, with the Ryzen 7 9850X3D only a few percentage points faster than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, it's a CPU for those building a new rig or upgrading from older components. Interestingly, as part of today's announcement, AMD has confirmed that the 2nd Gen 3D V-Cache technology in the Ryzen 7 9850X3D means "high-frequency memory is not required," so it can be paired with entry-level DDR5 kits without sacrificing performance.

NVIDIA's long-awaited N1X and N1 laptop processors are expected to debut in Q2 2026, with the new Arm-based chips to hopefully ignite the WoA (Windows on Arm) platform in new gaming laptops.

In a new DigiTimes report, we're hearing that NVIDIA's new N1X chips will debut inside of new laptops in Q1, with the new N1X-based laptops hitting retail in Q2, just as the company has reportedly been pulling out of high-end GeForce RTX 50 series graphics cards, the big push will be from its new venture: N1X and N1-based laptops using Arm-based CPU cores.

NVIDIA's new N1X and N1 processors will be fabbed on TSMC's 3nm process node, with a design that looks similar to the GB10 chip inside of the GB10 mini AI supercomputer systems. On the next-gen side of things, the report adds that the upcoming N2X and N2 processors could arrive in Q2 2027, which is just over a year away now, as NVIDIA continues to drum into new Arm-based laptop markets.

After saying Samsung and TSMC cannot meet Tesla's growing demand for new chips, the electric car company has announced the AI5 chip design is in "good shape", and production will begin.

The news comes from Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who wrote in an X post that the AI5 chip design is in "good shape" and that Tesla will restart work on the Dojo 3 supercomputer. This announcement comes after Tesla stated a few months ago that it was axing the Dojo supercomputer project following a shortage of hardware, specifically from companies such as NVIDIA.

The decision to shut down Dojo 3 came after key members of the team left Tesla, but now that the project is back online, we can assume the only thing that is needed is compute power.

Intel's new Bartlett Lake P-Core only CPU will have up to 12 Performance Cores on the flagship Core 9 273PQE variant, aimed at the Embedded market.

The new Bartlett Lake CPUs from Intel will arrive in the Core 5, Core 7, and Core 9 variants with only P-Cores in tow, with PE, PTE, PEF, and PQE variants unveiled in recent leaks. Intel's upcoming Bartlett Lake CPUs will have SKUs with up to 12 P-Cores, but there are 3 different variants of this chip.

Intel's upcoming Bartlett Lake CPU family will have multiple SKUs under the Core 5, Core 7, and Core 9 series for a total of 12 SKUs. We don't have much new information from the latest leaks, other than the SKU names and their boost clock speeds, which will range between 5.2GHz on the Core 5 213PE, and up to 5.9GHz for the flagship Core 9 273PQE processor.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor has been recently benchmarked on Geekbench, with more single-core and multi-core performance than the Ryzen 9 9950X3D.

In a new post from leaker @9550pro on X, we have the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor benchmarked on the GIGABYTE X870 AORUS Tachyon ICE motherboard. The new 9950X3D2 scored 3553 points in the single-core run of Geekbench, and 24,340 points on the multi-core tests, besting the 9950X3D by around 7%.

AMD's new Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor has the same 16-core, 32-thread CPU power of the 9950X3D, but both of the CCDs have a 3D V-Cache chiplet (X3D cache) underneath the cores, making it the first CPU in history to have a mammoth 192MB of L3 cache (96MB + 96MB). CPU clock speeds aren't any different, with the Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 processor boosting at up to 5.6GHz.

At CES 2026, AMD formally announced the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D CPU for PC gamers, pushing the clock speed up to 5.6 GHz, a notable increase over the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's 5.2 GHz. Naturally, it also features AMD's 3D V-Cache technology, which has proven to be highly effective at boosting gaming performance.

During our time with AMD at CES, we got a closer look at the Ryzen 7 9850X3D, literally, as we saw a delidded version of what looks to be a retail-ready sample of the CPU. Per our image above, you can also see the single CCD below the central I/O die.

As for the underlying hardware, it features 8 Zen 5 cores with 104 MB of cache. The TDP rating remains the same as the baseline Radeon 7 9800X3D model at 120W. Based on the company's internal benchmarks, the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is about 27% faster at 1080p gaming than the Intel Core Ultra 285K.

AMD has officially unveiled the new replacement for the best-in-slot gaming CPU, the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, as the company has unveiled a new selection of CPUs at CES 2026.

The CPU AMD is now putting forward as its fastest gaming-focused CPU to date is the AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D, a refresh of the Zen 5 architecture that comes with very similar specifications when directly compared to the 9800X3D, but with performance metrics that exceed it. According to AMD the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is a 8-core 16 thread CPU that features a 5.6GHz boost clock, 104MB cache (L2 + L3), and a 120 TDP.

The only difference between the 9850X3D and its predecessor is the boost clock total, with the 9850X3D being 0.4GHz faster than the 9800X3D's maximum boost clock of 5.2GHz. The remaining specifications are exactly the same, but given the increase in boost clock we can expect modest gains across both single and multithreaded tasks. Leaked performance testing between the two CPUs indicates an approximate 5% performance gain with the 9850X3D.

AMD has just introduced its new Ryzen 7 9850X3D processor at CES 2026, offering up to 60% more gaming performance than Intel's far more power-hungry Core Ultra 9 285K.

The new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is now the (new) fastest gaming processor on the planet, with AMD also announcing the best gaming and creation processor -- the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D. AMD provided some in-house benchmarking comparing its new Ryzen 7 9850X3D against the Core Ultra 9 285K, where it comes out on top across the board.

The 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 5 processing power comes with a beefier 5.6GHz CPU boost clock speed, the same 104MB of L2+L3 cache and 120W TDP, and on the current AM5 socket. The biggest difference between the 9800X3D and 9850X3D is the clock speed increase (5.2GHz versus 5.6GHz) giving it an even bigger edge over the 285K.

When it comes to picking up a CPU purely for PC gaming, AMD's Zen 5-powered Ryzen 7 9800X3D with its 3D V-Cache technology is widely considered the best choice if all you're looking for is maximizing your frames. Well, at CES 2026, AMD has officially confirmed that the Ryzen 7 9850X3D is coming, and it will indeed be faster than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D.

The configuration for the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D remains virtually the same, aside from the CPU Boost Clock increasing to 5.6 GHz from 5.2 GHz on the baseline Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The rest of the specs remain unchanged, as the CPU still sports 8 Zen Cores with 16 Threads, 104MB of cache, and a 120W TDP rating.

As part of its CES 2026 presentation, AMD confirmed that the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D is on track for a Q1 2026 release; however, no pricing was given. That said, we should expect it to launch with a higher price than the Ryzen 7 9800X3D's $479 USD MSRP.

AMD has kicked off CES 2026 by pulling the curtain back on a new family of processors designed to power the ambitious exponentially evolving future of artificial intelligence software.

Team Red gave details on the new AMD Ryzen AI Max and AI Max Pro series processors, which will be coming in the form of five SKUs. At the top of the list is the AMD Ryzen AI Max+, which sports 16 cores 32 threads with up to 5.1 GHz max boost clocks, 80MB of cache, 50 peak TOPS, 40 graphics cores, and 60 TFLOPS. The Max+ will be coming in three SKUs, the 395, 392, and 388.

The Ryzen AI Max has two SKUs, the 390 and 385, with the 390 being the beefier out of the two with 12 cores and 24 threads, a boost clock of 5.0GHz, 50 TOPS, 32 graphics cores, and 48 GPU TFLOPS. AMD is also touting the Max+ series of the processors to have 1.4x faster AI performance in tokens per second, 1.8x faster at multitasking, 1.8x faster at content creation, and 1.6x faster at gaming.

At CES 2026, AMD announced a new lineup of client processors, including the Ryzen AI 400 Series, which will power a wide range of laptops and even desktops this year. Building on the success of the Ryzen AI 300 Series, these CPU, GPU, and NPU chips are Copilot+ and AMD ROCm-ready with the integrated AMD XDNA 2 NPU offering up to 60 AI TOPS of performance.

The 60 AI TOPS is only available in the flagship Ryzen AI 9 HX 475 model, which includes 12 Zen 5 Cores with 24 Threads, a Max Boost clock speed of 5.2 GHz, 36MB of Cache, and 16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units. AMD notes that the integrated Radeon GPU features an impressive GPU Boost Clock speed of 3.1 GHz, which should deliver faster gaming performance than previous generations.

As part of its announcement, AMD provided benchmark results and performance comparisons between the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (which is also a 12 Core 24 Thread processor but with 55 TOPs) and the Intel Core Ultra 9 288V running at an efficient 30W.

Intel's new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs were unveiled at CES 2026 today, the first AI PC processors fabbed on its new in-house Intel 18A process node, designed and manufactured on American soil.

The new Panther Lake CPUs are a big moment for Intel in many ways, with one of the major ones being that Intel Foundry fabbed the new Core Ultra Series 3 processors on US soil, a big win for the semiconductor arm of Intel against TSMC. The new Intel 18A process is the most advanced semiconductor process ever developed and manufactured in the United States.

The compute die, which houses the CPU and NPU, is fabbed on Intel 18A, but the IO and GPU aren't -- they're either fabbed on TSMC or possibly on the Intel 3 process node (especially for lower-tier SKUs). This detail was released through leaks in October 2025, but now Panther Lake is (nearly) officially here.

Intel has launched its new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026, packed with its heavily upgraded Arc B390 integrated GPU that provides RTX 4050 levels of gaming performance.

The new Arc B390 inside of the new Panther Lake CPUs is providing up to 77% more gaming performance over the integrated GPU inside of the Core Ultra 9 288V "Lunar Lake" CPU, and up to 53% faster AI versus the 288V.

The first foray for Intel's new GPU architecture is the Arc B390 inside Panther Lake, with the flagship Arc B390 providing some rather kick ass performance over its predecessors, and more importantly, its competitors.

Intel has officially released its new Core Ultra Series 3 "Panther Lake" CPUs at CES 2026, its first processors fabbed on its in-house Intel 18A process node, designed and manufactured on American soil.

The new Intel Core Ultra Series 3 processors will be powering over 200 designs from its partners, with Intel saying that its new Panther Lake CPUs will be the "most broadly adopted and globally available AI PC platform Intel has ever delivered".

Intel's new Core Ultra Series 3 mobile processors will include new Core Ultra X9 and Core Ultra X7 processors with powerful CPU and GPU performance.

Intel will reportedly have four SKUs of next-gen desktop Nova Lake CPUs with bLLC (Big Last Level Cache) with differing core counts, ready to fight AMD's super-popular X3D processors.

The flagship Intel Core Ultra 9 series "Nova Lake" CPU for the desktop will feature up to 52 cores and 288MB of bLLC cache, while the Core Ultra 7 chip will feature up to 28 cores and 144MB of bLLC cache. It wasn't long ago that we were reporting on leaks that only Intel's new unlocked K-series Nova Lake desktop CPUs in the "Core Ultra 400S" family would feature bLLC cache.

In new rumors from @Haze2K1, we're hearing that Intel will have four SKUs with bLLC but one of them will feature a different core configuration. The four SKUs in question will feature two dual compute tile models which will be part of the Core Ultra 9 family, and two single compute tiles that will be ready for the Core Ultra 7 family.

AMD will be launching its next-gen Zen 6 CPUs next year, but after that -- and after Zen 7 -- we've got the new Zen 8 and Zen 9 processors that some juicy new leaks have just provided us with purported codenames of AMD's future-gen Zen chips.

In a new video from leaker Moore's Law is Dead, we're hearing that Zen 8 is codenamed "Penelope" and Zen 9 is codenamed "Nemesis" and that both new CPU architectures will be on AMD's next-gen AM6 socket. AMD's upcoming Zen 6 processors will debut on AM5 extending the lifespan of current motherboards, while Zen 7 is also expected to debut on AM5 before AMD moves onto the newer AM6 socket for Zen 8 and Zen 9.

We should expect to see Zen 8 and Zen 9 processors launching sometime 2029-2030 and 2032-2033, respectively, both on the new AM6 socket and we should also see PCIe Gen6 and DDR6 memory support, but hopefully the DRAM shortage has worked its way out of the system by then.

Samsung Foundry is reportedly close to securing a deal to fab Intel 8nm PCH chips, which would be another important semiconductor contract win for the South Korean giant.

In a new report from Korean media outlet Hankyung picked up by analyst @Jukan on X, we're hearing that Samsung Foundry is "on the verge" of securing an order for Intel's 8nm chips (PCH or Platform Controller Hub). Full-scale production is expected to kick off next year, with the PCH being a semiconductor that supports the CPU by handling functions like information input/output and device controls inside of computers including PCs and servers.

Intel has reportedly migrated (scaled down) the PCH -- previously fabbed at Samsung's 14nm foundry lines in Austin, Texas -- to an 8nm process, deciding to trust Samsung with semiconductor production again. Samsung Foundry's 8nm production line located in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province, so PCH production would take place on South Korean soil once again.