CPU, APU & Chipsets News - Page 3

With the launch of the new Ryzen 7000 CPU range last year and the Ryzen 7000 X3D CPUs dropping soon, AMD decided to switch from its AM4 motherboard standard to the new PCIe Gen5 and DDR5-powered AM5. The by-product of this meant that those early Ryzen 7000 adopters had to fork out for a new CPU, motherboard, and fast DDR5 memory. And as with anything new, none of that came cheap.

Ryzen 7000 CPU range and AM5

With AM5 set to be the Ryzen standard for the foreseeable future, AMD has confirmed that its board partners are getting ready to launch a new range of B650 motherboards that will be more affordable. This means prices will be much closer to the USD 125 promised when the first B650E and B650 motherboards hit the scene.

AMD expects these motherboards to launch in Q1 2023, with full overclocking support and cutting-edge AM5 features.

AMD has confirmed the launch dates and pricing for its highly anticipated Ryzen 7000 X3D lineup, which includes three models.

Ryzen 7 7800X3D compared to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D

These CPUs are the successor to the popular Ryzen 7 5800X3D with increased 3D V-Cache, which is said to deliver improved gaming performance across the entire line-up. On that front, AMD has showcased some of its internal 1080p benchmarks for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, compared to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. Covering popular titles like Rainbow Six Siege, CS:GO, and DOTA 2, you're looking at a 20-30% increase.

Naturally, companies like to cherry-pick their results, so we'll have to wait until reviews start showing up to see if it's the same story across most games.

Based on recent earnings, Intel experienced one of its worst quarters, closing out 2023 and predicting a surprise 40% decline in revenue for the first quarter of this year. This led to a staggering USD 8 billion loss in Intel Corp market value, leading to industry analysts like Rosenblatt Securities' Hans Mosesmann calling the outcome "the historic collapse of Intel."

Intel did remain profitable for 2022, with a net income of USD 8 billion, but that was a sizable drop compared to 2021'a USD 19.9 billion. Intel has massive billion-dollar cost reduction targets for 2023 to increase income, which will continue through 2025, where it plans to achieve somewhere between USD 8-10 billion in savings.

The bad news isn't limited to Intel, as industry-wide PC shipments dropped by up to 30% during the 2022 holidays. Of course, AMD's competition has also had an impact, with Intel's share of the PC and server space dropping to around 70% compared to 90% in 2017. There's also TSMC, which manufactures as many chips as Intel. Things will become even more interesting in the coming years as companies like NVIDIA, Apple, and even Amazon enter the processor market.

It's worth noting outright that the official product pages for the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000X3D with 3D V-Cache have removed the note about overclocking. But that didn't stop several people from noticing that there was a specific mention of "Unlocked for Overclocking: Yes," pointing to the new line of X3D CPUs supporting base overclocking like the full Ryzen 7000 line-up.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D Gaming Processor

It wouldn't be the first time this had happened, as not that long ago, a Valentine's Day release date of February 14 was listed before it was removed, and AMD chimed in that it was an error. So, this could be another typo or mistake that has since been corrected.

But if it wasn't, and AMD was planning to announce that these 3D V-Cache powered chips feature an unlocked design for overclocking, then that would be an excellent addition to the line-up. The removed overclocking feature in the specs also noted AMD's recommendation that users use auto-tuning options like Curve Optimizer.

As the rumors indicated yesterday, Apple revealed its new line of M2 chips inside of next-generation 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros.

M2, M1 Max, M2 Max SOCs

The company conducted a presentation where it introduced a new Mac Mini and MacBook Pro that feature Apple's updated line of M2 chips. According to the announcement, the latest MacBook Pro was displayed running on the M2 Pro and M2 Max SOCs (system on a chip). More specifically, the new M2 Pro is built on a 5nm process, sports 40 billion transistors, and features 10/12 cores along with 32 GB of unified memory. The M2 Max is where Apple has slapped all of the bells and whistles, with the company throwing in 12 Cores and 96 GB of unified memory.

So, where is the biggest difference? The GPU configurations. Notably, the M2 Pro features 19 GPU cores with a larger L2 cache that comes with a 30% performance increase when compared to the M1 Pro. The M2 Max steps things up again with a whopping 38 GPU cores, a large cache, and the same performance increase of 30% compared to the M1 Max. Here's where things get a little dicey.

As the fabrication of smaller nodes becomes more costly, we might see a slower adoption of high-end tech from companies. TSMC's N3 or 3nm class is the next node that will power chips. However, a new report indicates that due to the cost of manufacturing the technology, TSMC is considering lowering prices to entice adoption by companies like AMD, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm.

N3 uses EUV (extreme ultraviolet) lithography for production, and the EUV scanners, according to China Renaissance, can cost anywhere between USD 150 to USD 200 million. This puts the foundry price of 3nm wafers at over USD 20,000 each.

In the graphics and CPU space, it's expected that NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace successor, Blackwell, will utilize the 3nm process. Alongside AMD for Zen 5 architecture - which the company has hinted at in the past. We probably won't see these products until the second half of 2024. As it stands, the high-cost brand-new N3 looks like it will be limited to Apple, with the optimized version being the one that will appeal to a broader range of companies.

After showcasing a new CPU that could hit 6 GHz clock speeds out-of-the-box, albeit briefly, Intel has not only confirmed that it was the new flagship Intel Core i9-13900KS - but it's out now for USD 699.

The USD 699 price point puts it at $110 more than the Intel Core i9-13900K, a monster of a CPU sporting a 5.8 GHz top speed. Naturally, this is the sort of CPU targeting the enthusiast market, where performance is king.

The cool thing is that the 6 GHz speed is out-of-the-box and achievable with standard AIO cooling and no overclocking - via what Intel calls Thermal Velocity Boost.You can see it action here.

Intel has been teasing a new CPU that can hit 6.0 GHz out-of-the-box with a standard AIO cooler and no overclocking, which is an impressive feat. Although Intel hasn't put a name to this mysterious CPU, odds are it's the new Intel Core i9-13900KS.

Intel's Gaming Technical Marketing Lead Jason Xie showcased the CPU hitting 6.0 GHz in a new video where he runs the 7zip benchmark with two cores active. Jason notes that the CPU doesn't stay on 6.0 GHz for the entire run as "6.0 GHz depends on the environment, power, thermals, and the software itself".

What's impressive here is that the CPU runs using the default stock settings, an off-the-shelf ASUS Z790 motherboard, and a Corsair AIO cooler. Usually, when we see benchmarks and clock speeds on CPUs hit crazy speeds, there's some overclocking and custom cooling. "We are running default settings, so no tricks," Jason Xie adds.

CES 2023 - Intel's new lineup of mobile processors includes 32 different SKUs with varying performance aimed at particular segments, but its Intel Core i9-13980HX takes the mantle as the "world's fastest mobile processor" with up to 5.6GHz speeds

Intel's CES presence was a resounding call to arms against its competitors. Intel announced a staggering amount of 13th Gen hybrid architecture processors at CES with 32 chips in total spread across four different processor series including a new peak HX Series.

The pinnacle of HX Series is the Intel Core i9-13980HX that offers "extreme performance" with a whopping 24-core processor with 32-threads that is capable of hitting a blazing-fast 5.6GHz, complete with 36MB of cache for better in-game perf and higher FPS.

AMD has finally revealed what we've been reporting on leaks for a while now at CES 2023 with the introduction of their new Ryzen CPUs rocking second-gen 3D V-Cache technology. The new flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D has been announced, and man, what a processor it will turn out to be.

The new AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor is a 16-core, 32-thread CPU with a base CPU clock of up to 4.2GHz and a boost CPU clock of up to 5.7GHz, with a whopping 144MB of cache, and a 120W TDP. This is the same CPU clocks as the Ryzen 9 7950X, which is available now, but we have a TDP that has 50W shaved off it -- 120W versus 170W.

AMD has benchmarks of its new flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor during its CES 2023 keynote, comparing it against Intel's current best Core i9-13900K "Raptor Lake" CPU which had the new Ryzen 9 7950X3D being between 9% and 24% faster in gaming.