Processors - Page 4

Whispers are again circulating that AMD has new Ryzen 3D V-Cache processors on the horizon for its Zen 5 family, one of which will have the cache on both of its two chiplets.

That's the top-end CPU, of course, which according to the new leak from Chi11eddog on X (flagged by VideoCardz), will be the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2.

The '2' tacked onto the end of the X3D indicates that this is the first (theoretical) 3D V-Cache offering with such a dual-cache configuration, carrying a total of 192MB of L3 cache (in two 96MB pools).

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan has headed to the Middle East to sit down with Saudi officials to reportedly ink a new partnership deal.

Reports from Arab News indicate that Lip-Bu Tan has met with the Saudi Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Abdullah Al-Swaha, to discuss new areas of which Intel and Saudi Arabia can benefit from developing Intel's semiconductor business, along with advanced computing technology. Additionally, the discussion involved developing Intel's artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Lip-Bu Tan has been on a tear when it comes to deals as the new Intel CEO recently inked a partnership with NVIDIA, SoftBank, and the Trump Administration, and now it seems a new deal is in the works with Saudi Arabia.

Intel's 18A process or node, created in-house at its US-based Fab 52 semiconductor facility or Intel Foundry in Arizona, is set to be used in the company's upcoming Panther Lake and Clearwater Forest chips. The production-ready technology and Foundry are open for business, and Intel is looking to partner with big tech to manufacture new chips and technologies using the 18A or 18A-P process.

One of these new customers, according to a report over at SemiAccurate (via TechPowerUp), is Microsoft. The company is apparently planning to use Intel's 18A process for its next-gen Maia 3 accelerator for AI, codenamed "Griffin." And with that, depending on the yields and success of its latest AI hardware, Microsoft could also tap future Intel process technology like 18A-PT and 14A for future Maia accelerators.

Microsoft expressing interest in leveraging Intel technology for its AI accelerators isn't new. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella released a statement about Microsoft's plans to use 18A for an undisclosed chip when Intel announced its Foundry roadmap in early 2024.

Intel's Core Ultra X9 388H processor, rumored to be the flagship for the incoming Panther Lake mobile range, could have some seriously powerful integrated graphics going by a new leak.

As Wccftech reports (via VideoCardz), this leak surfaced at Laptop Review Club, and if you haven't heard of that, we wouldn't blame you - but you probably have heard of Golden Pig Upgrade, a regular hardware leaker who works with the site.

Intel has already told us that the 12-core Arc Xe3 integrated GPU (in the Core Ultra X9 388H) is set to be up to 50% quicker than Lunar Lake, and the leak shows the iGPU hit around 6300 in 3DMark Time Spy - which is some 30% faster than Lunar Lake (add your own seasoning with this, of course).

Apple has just announced its new M5 processor, which has some big upgrades across the board for new MacBook Pro laptops, a new Vision Pro headset, and new M5 iPad Pro.

The new Apple M5 processor features up to 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, which might not sound like a lot, but they are much faster and more efficient than the previous-gen M4 chip. Apple's new M5 processor and its 10-core CPU configuration splits into 6 performance and 4 efficiency cores, just like the M4, but each of the cores has up to 15% more multi-threaded performance than the M4.

Apple's new M5 silicon also provides a bigger 30% upgrade in graphics performance, alongside a Neural Accelerator inside of each CPU and GPU core, Apple's new M5 processor is up to 4x faster in compute capabilities over the M4. Not bad for a single generation.

Intel will be launching its new Panther Lake laptop processors as the Core Ultra 300 series, but with tweaked naming with the flagship reportedly called the Core Ultra X9 388H, with more members of the new SKUs revealed in HWMonitor. Check it out:

Intel formally announced its new Panther Lake CPUs with some details revealed at its recent Tech Tour 2025 event, but now CPU ID has added in support for the new Panther Lake CPUs and their naming convention being confirmed, and the SKUs to be launched.

HWMonitor v1.60 includes support for the Core Ultra X 3X8H, Core Ultra 3X5H, and Core Ultra 3X0U processors, with the new Core Ultra X series having four members:

Apple is expected to announce its next-gen M5 processor this week along with other product announcements, with news that the new M5 chip will be fabbed on TSMC's 3nm "N3E" process node.

In a new report from the Commercial Times, we have new details on Apple's next-gen silicon, where we can expect the next-next-gen M6 processors to be unveiled in 2026 and they could be Apple's first foray into the bleeding-edge 2nm process node for its next-next-gen MacBook laptops.

Apple's upcoming M5 processor will compete with other laptop processors including Qualcomm's newly-released Snapdragon processors and MediaTek's new chips. However, its competitors' chips are fabbed on the higher-end N3P process node, compared to the M5 reportedly fabbed on N3E.

Intel and AMD have partnered to introduce new improvements to the x86 instruction set, with the two competing companies coming together in a joint initiative to strengthen the future of x86 computing.

The joint initiative was formed in October 2024, and today marks a one-year anniversary, with Intel and AMD outlining a bunch of new standardizing features for x86. The goal of the initiative is to enhance compatibility, predictability, and consistency across x86 processor-based productions, which includes everything from supercomputers to handheld gaming devices.

The advisory group has outlined key technical milestones to include as features in upcoming x86 processors, which have been outlined below. One of the announced features is FRED, or Flexible Return and Event Delivery, which AMD and Intel intend to reduce latencies and increase software reliability with a "modern interrupt model." Additionally, AVX10 is the next-generation vector and general-purpose instruction set extension, designed to boost throughput and enable portability across client, workstation, and server CPUs.

It looks like 2026 flagship smartphones will be even more expensive than the already expensive smartphones of today, as Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor costs more to make than previous gen Snapdragon chips.

In a new post on X from Abhishek Yadav, we have some price estimates for each of Qualcomm's flagship Snapdragon smartphone processors, ranging from the first Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 through to the just-announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5... and boy, things are getting more and more expensive with each generation of mobile chip released.

Qualcomm is reportedly charging between $240 and $280 per Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 processor, and this doesn't include the royalties that the companies have to pay to Qualcomm to use their chips... so it is a little more than that on top. Qualcomm started out charging $120-$130 for its Snapdragon 8 Gen 1 a few years ago, but the price has slowly been rising and now it's closer to $300 per chip (once again, without OEMs paying royalties).

Intel's new Fab 52 semiconductor facility at its Ocotillo campus in Chandler, Arizona, produces the most advanced logic chips on American soil, and is part of the $100 billion that Intel is investing to expand its domestic semiconductor operations.

The company has advanced R&D and production in Oregon, joined by high-volume fabrication in Arizona, as well as packaging operations in New Mexico, providing Intel a unique position to support key national priorities and provide strategic capacity for Intel Foundry customers.

The company says that its Fab 52 facility builds on Intel's vast 56 years of US-based R&D and manufacturing advancement, and marks a major milestone as the company builds a trusted leading-edge US foundry for the AI era.

Intel will be launching its next-generation Panther Lake "Core Ultra Series 3" processors at CES 2026, available inside of new laptops in Q1 2026.

The new Panther Lake CPUs will feature new technologies including new P-Cores, E-Cores, Xe3 GPU cores, and NPU/IPU. Intel is combining all of this technology into a multi-tile solution that will not just be for laptops, but new AI PCs, and other products.

One of the more exciting things about Panther Lake is that the CPU tile is being fabbed in-house on Intel's new 18A process node, while the Xe3 GPU will be fabbed at TSMC on its N3E process node.

Apple's new M5 series processors are going to be an interesting change from the current-gen M4, with the M5 Pro and M5 Max chips to have a new chip design that separates the CPU and GPU blocks.

This is particularly useful for Apple as it can offer a chip with less CPU cores but maxed-out GPU cores, or vice versa, maxed-out CPU cores and less GPU cores. Apple looks to be using TSMC's new SoIC-MH advanced packaging, as well as fabbing its new M5 series processors on TSMC's new 3nm "N3P" process node, just like its new A19 and A19 Pro chips.

The regular M5 chip won't be using the new SoIC-MH advanced packaging, but the higher-end M5 Pro and M5 Max processors would be using it.

AMD has announced a new line of Zen5 CPUs, the Ryzen Embedded 9000 Series processors, designed for "industrial PCs, automation systems, and machine vision applications." AMD notes that its embedded lineup is designed to meet the "performance, energy efficiency, and long-term reliability" requirements of industrial computing applications. The new Ryzen Embedded 9000 Series ships with "seven years of product availability and reliability."

As for the lineup, it mirrors the specs and configuration of the desktop Ryzen 9000 Series, including X3D models that utilize the company's 3D V-Cache technology. The full lineup, which can be found below, includes the entry-level 6-core AMD Ryzen Embedded 9600X processor, featuring a maximum frequency of 5.4 GHz and a TDP rating of 65W, and the flagship 16-core AMD Ryzen Embedded 9950X3D processor, boasting a maximum frequency of 5.7 GHz and a TDP rating of 170W.

Like the desktop series, these Embedded variants are all built using the company's latest Zen 5 architecture, with support for PCIe Gen5, DDR5 memory, and are also based on the AM5 socket. It's unclear what separates these new CPUs from the non-Embedded counterparts, other than AMD confirming that they're designed for long-term use and reliability for at least seven years.

NVIDIA and Intel announced a partnership a couple of weeks ago where the two chipmakers will be developing a custom x86 processor together, but it seems that will cause operational concerns for the supply chain and OEMs, like Acer.

We will see the combination of Intel's x86 architecture with NVIDIA RTX GPU chiplets to create what should be quite a powerful x86 processor in the near future, but not everyone is happy about the deal. The supply chain is concerned that it adds another overhead in the supply chain, as companies will now need to build their ecosystems for three different architectures -- AMD, Intel, and Intel-NVIDIA.

Yet, we didn't see any moaning when Qualcomm entered the race with its Arm-based SoC running Windows... interesting, just thought I'd say that aloud (well, write it out).

Intel will be introducing 12 new processors under its Panther Lake CPU family, with four of them being the newly-named "Core Ultra X", four of them will be regular Core Ultra branded chips, while four more will be U-series chips.

In a new leak on the Chiphell forums, we've heard what the Intel Panther Lake family of laptop processors looks like, with what appears to be only the new "Core Ultra X" flagship Panther Lake laptops CPUs getting the full 12 Xe3 "Celestial" GPU cores, leaving the rest of the Panther Lake chips only getting 4 Xe3 GPU cores.

The top three chips inside of the new Core Ultra X family include the Core Ultra 9 X388H, Core Ultra 7 X368H, and Core Ultra 7 X358H all featuring 12 Xe3 GPU cores (and the same 4+8+4 CPU configuration). The last of the Core Ultra X chips is the Core Ultra 5 X338H which drops down to a 4+4+4 CPU configuration, and down to 10 Xe3 GPU cores.

Intel will be introducing its new Panther Lake CPU architecture on October 9, a new hybrid architecture that will show the "most refined" hybrid P-Core/E-Core setup for next-gen laptops.

We don't know everything we want to know about the hybrid architecture of Panther Lake just yet, but there are some teases from Intel engineers who have talked about the core improvement of the new architecture, and how Intel has made it a priority to make sure their P/E-core setup is optimal for the mobile laptop. We've got exciting things like a power island with low-power cores to run tasks, and Thread Director and OS scheduling that are just a couple of the exciting upgrades that Panther Lake has, that Lunar Lake doesn't.

Intel says there is an essential focus on dedicating the Lunar Lake platform for OEM adoption, where companies like Microsoft, Lenovo, and other laptop makers are "excited" to use an Intel product again. Intel's Jim Johnson, GM & VP of Client Computing Group, says that with Lunar Lake, the idea Intel had was to provide an "exquisite mobile phone-like fashion" product, but with Panther Lake, the focus is on beefing up hybrid compute.

Valve has published the Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for September 2025, and we've already reviewed the latest developments in the discrete GPU space. Check out our analysis here for a look at how NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 50 Series, led by the GeForce RTX 5070, is proving to be the most popular brand-new GPU option for PC gamers in 2025.

Yes, Radeon RX is still a distant second to GeForce RTX, even after receiving strong reviews and community sentiment surrounding RDNA 4 cards, such as the Radeon RX 9070 XT and the new mainstream Radeon RX 9060 XT. However, if you take a look at the CPU side of the latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey results, AMD is rapidly gaining ground and taking market share directly from Intel with its 8-core and 16-core Ryzen lineup.

According to the data, Intel CPUs still make up the majority of systems jumping onto Steam, with a 57.68% share compared to AMD's 42.32%. However, examining the trend over the last five months of Steam data, AMD's market share has increased by over 2%, while Intel's has decreased by the same amount.

An ultra-rare engineering sample of an unreleased Pentium 4 has hit the internet, with a purported Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 980 clocked at 4.0GHz turning up on Reddit. Check it out:

Reddit user diegunguyman is the owner of the purported Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 980 processor, sharing some images of the ES chip both on the front, and back.

The Redditor posted on multiple subreddits to try and get an answer at what he was looking at, as he explained: "the only text on the CPU itself was written in Sharpie, just the model number and clock speed, 4GHz". There was no official documentation to reference, so the Redditor posted on r/pcmasterrace and r/Intel looking for answers.

Intel will only be detailing its next-gen Panther Lake CPU architecture at its big October 9 reveal event, with no detailed specifications being released, and we won't see reviews until after CES 2026 in over three months' time.

That's right... we won't be seeing anything really juicy about Panther Lake until 2026, according to Chinese leaker "Golden Pig Upgrade" who said that the release of Panther Lake on October 9 is "only related to the architecture analysis, the detailed specifications and reviews will have to wait until after CES next year. Good things come to those who wait, so wait patiently, 18A".

18A is in reference to Intel's new 18A process node built in-house at its semiconductor fab, compared to its previous generation CPUs being fabbed in Taiwan at TSMC. The embargo lift on October 9 will see tech media, YouTubers, and influencers discuss the Panther Lake CPU architecture. This means we'll get the nitty-gritty on the new Cougar Cove Performance and Darkmont Efficiency cores, as well as some details for its next-gen Xe3 "Celestial" GPU for the first time, as Xe3 debuts in Panther Lake.

A user on Reddit has posted about his 9800X3D processor dying for the SECOND time, installed into an ASRock motherboard, a brand he says will not recommend to people, and will never use another ASRock motherboard ever again.

In the post on Reddit, user "ShendonZ" said his first AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor died earlier this year in June, that AMD gave him another CPU but he RMA'd the motherboard back to ASRock for them to say the motherboard would be fine with the latest BIOS update. But two and a half months later, and the same thing has happened in about the same amount of time it was used.

ASRock's recommendation of updating the BIOS is something that happened over burned AMD processors on their motherboards, but it seems that didn't help... let's hope this isn't a (new) sign of things to come with dying Ryzen CPUs installed into ASRock's motherboards.