Processors - Page 40

Intel 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake Core i9 processors have been making headlines recently due to widespread reports of crashing and instability, often while gaming. With CPUs drawing more and more power on the high-end, the issues are most likely related to thermal and power delivery on certain 600/700 Series motherboards - and the push to boost clock speeds, benchmark scores, and performance over stability.

ASUS has already addressed the issue with a BIOS update introducing a more sensible 'Intel Baseline Profile' for power limits using Intel's recommended settings. Other big board makers like MSI and GIGABYTE have followed suit with their own BIOS updates and revisions.

In a statement supplied to Igor's Lab, Intel blames motherboard manufacturers for disabling "thermal and power delivery safeguards designed to limit processor exposure to sustained periods of high voltage and frequency." It's a strange stance when the instability lies with the CPU.

AMD's next-gen Ryzen 9050 series "Strix Halo" APU specs have been circulating the rumor mill for a while now, but some new details have surfaced that are getting us excited.

The new Strix Halo APU will be quite the beast, offering 16 cores and 32 threads of next-gen Zen 5 processing power, with 1MB of L2 cache per core, and 32MB per CCD of unified L3 cache (MALL cache). We should see not one but two CCDs on the Strix Halo APU, which will see 8MB of L2 cache per CCD (8 cores per CCD, two CCDs = 16 cores = 16MB of L2 cache in total).

AMD's next-gen Strix Halo APU will feature an upgraded XDNA2-based NPU for AI workloads, offering a much higher 60 TOPS of AI workload performance. Remember: this is 60 TOPS just for the NPU, and not counting what will be capable from the CPU and GPU on Strix Halo. Speaking of the GPU, AMD will include an RDNA 3.5-based GPU with 20 Work Group Processors (WGP).

MSI is the latest motherboard maker to pop up with advice for those who are experiencing PC games crashing with their Core i9 14th-gen or 13th-gen processors - and it includes "some workarounds recommended by Intel."

This advice is delivered in a blog post from MSI on the topic of 'Improving Gaming Stability for Intel Core i9-13900K and Core i9-14900K' processors.

So, let's dive in: Suggested workaround number 1 is simply notching back the processor's power limit to Intel's default of 253W.

AMD will most likely announce its new line of Zen 5 desktop processors at Computex 2024 - and now we can confirm that the line-up will be called the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series thanks to GIGABYTE.

In preparation for AMD's not officially confirmed or announced next-gen Ryzen CPU launch, the big AM5 motherboard makers have started releasing BIOS updates to support future or next-gen Ryzen CPUs. Joining companies like MSI and ASUS, GIGABYTE has released an 'AM5 Next Gen' BIOS update for its GIGABYTE AM5 X670, B650, and A620 motherboards.

The announcement makes it very clear what this is for, stating that the update brings support "for the coming AMD Ryzen 9000 Series" of processors. It doesn't get any more clear-cut than that. Zen 5 is coming very soon, and the desktop line-up will be called the Ryzen 9000 Series.

Qualcomm has been trying for many, many years now to get its Windows on Arm chips up to scratch -- with very, very mixed results -- and now we're being introduced to the new Snapdragon X Elite, which Qualcomm calls the "world's fastest NPU for laptops".

The new Snapdragon X Elite laptop chip has the Qualcomm AI Engine with integrated Qualcomm Hexagon NPU (Neural Processing Unit) with 45 TOPS of AI workload performance. In comparison, Intel's current-gen Core Ultra "Meteor Lake" CPUs top out with 10 TOPS (pun not intended, but it works so well here), while AMD's new Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" APUs have 16 TOPS of AI performance.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite chip has 75 TOPS of AI performance across the CPU + GPU + NPU and micro NPU, while it's made on the 4nm process by TSMC. On the CPU side of things, we've got the Arm-baed Oryon CPU with 12 cores on the Snapdragon X Elite, or 10 cores on the Snapdragon X Plus.

Capsule toy vending machines, or 'gacha' machines, can be found all over Japan. They dispense random toys and collectibles for a small fee, with themed machines covering everything from popular anime franchises to Hello Kitty to stuff as simple and pure as dinosaur toys. Now, we can add Intel CPUs to the list, as someone has spotted a capsule toy machine in Japan that dispenses random Intel CPUs.

Over on X, user @LaurieWired posted a link and YouTube clip from Sawara-San (which is in Japanese) showing that they managed to snag an Intel Core i7-8700 CPU for just 500 Yen (which is around $3 USD) from this CPU Gacha machine. The machine is located outside 1's PC, a store that sells new and second-hand PC parts and things like cameras.

The Intel Core i7 8700 is not that old, with the eighth-generation Coffee Lake from 2018 closely matching the performance of the flagship Intel Core i7 8700K. It's old by 2024 standards for mid-range CPUs, but for around $3, it's a bargain. It's a 6-core 12-thread CPU with a 4.7 GHz Boost Clock - not too shabby. Except, this random 'gacha' version ran into issues.

Hot on the heels of huge success in designing its own custom chips for use in Macs, iPhones, iPads, and more, Apple is now reportedly turning its attention to designing the chips that will power its future AI endeavors. Apple is strongly thought to be working on new AI features for the iPhone and its other platforms and while some of the large language models and other components will run on those devices, a server in the cloud will also be required for some features. Now, it's thought Apple is working to design the chips that will power those servers.

That's according to a poster on the Weibo Chinese social network, at least. The user is said to have 25 years of experience in the integrated circuit industry, including work on the famous Intel Pentium chips, and suggests that the new AI server chips will be based on TSMC's 3nm manufacturing process. That process is already used to produce Apple's M3 Mac and future iPad chips as well as the A17 Pro that powers its best iPhones.

TSMC has long been a key partner in Apple's supply chain and is already producing some of its most important chips, including those that power the new Apple Vision Pro spatial computer. That means it's the obvious choice to produce future AI server components as well, and it's easy to see why Apple might want to go that route. By designing its own chips Apple can ensure that it has full control over what they can do and how they work. It's a process that has stood Apple in good stead in other products, and there is little reason why it won't do the same server-side.

Qualcomm is rumored to be revealing its Snapdragon X Plus chip at an event tomorrow, and it seems like this will indeed be happening, as the details of the SoC have just been leaked.

VideoCardz has got hold of some apparent press slides detailing the three variants of the Snapdragon X Elite, as well as the Snapdragon X Plus silicon which will run alongside it (there'll just be one version of that - to begin with, anyway).

The rumor mill was correct in its assertion that the Snapdragon X Plus would be a 10-core SoC, cut down a pair of cores compared to the 12-core Elite CPU. At least assuming this leak is correct anyway - we must treat any pre-release spillage with some caution until the info is confirmed by Qualcomm, which will no doubt happen at the mentioned event tomorrow.

Intel's 14th-gen and 13th-gen Core i9 CPUs have been hit by issues with crashing when running some PC games, and while a cure of sorts has been pushed out by one motherboard vendor, namely ASUS, we now know the extent of the catch with this fix.

You're unlikely to have missed this one, but just in case, the crashes for the mentioned top-end processors seem to be worse with games that use the Unreal Engine - but whatever the case, they're a definite pain, and at this point, widely reported.

Cue ASUS with a band aid that arrived in the form of a firmware update for its Intel Z790, B760, and H770 motherboards, which came packing a new 'Intel Baseline Profile.'

Intel and the Pentagon have partnered up under the CHIPS Act to begin manufacturing advanced microchips, according to a recent press release from Intel.

Specifically under the national security accelerator program that is funded by the CHIPS Act, Intel and Pentagon have agreed to team up to produce early test samples of advanced microchips, granting the US government access to leading chip manufacturing technologies for the first time. The advanced chips Intel and the Pentagon are developing will be part of Intel's 18A manufacturing process, the company's next-generation process node.

The 18A process node is expected to be manufacturer ready sometime in the second half of 2024, and the 20A manufacturing process expected to begin around the same time. What will the 18A chips offer? According to Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger, 18A provides exceptional power management capabilities that is comparable to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company's (TSMC) 2-nanometer technology.

Fresh revelations on the rumor mill about the highest-end next-gen APUs from AMD have prompted excitement levels around Strix Point Halo to spike upwards.

If the info taken from the Chiphell forums is correct - and we should definitely add a whole load of salt to these claims, as it isn't the most reliable source in our experience - the Strix Point Halo APU will bristle with 16 cores.

In fact, this processor will supposedly run with a pair of CCDs with 8 cores apiece, meaning it'll be an APU with 16 full Zen 5 cores - effectively using the same chiplets that will be deployed inside 'Granite Ridge' (likely Ryzen 9000) next-gen desktop CPUs - quite a prospect.

Those who are suffering at the hands of the well-documented issues with Intel's 14th-gen and 13th-gen high-end CPUs that are crashing when playing PC games might be interested to learn about some new advice given by a PC maker.

This comes from boutique PC outfit Falcon Northwest, which got in touch with Hot Hardware to share some potential tweaks and solutions for those running a Core i9 processor from the current or last-gen range in an ASUS motherboard.

You can check out the tips in the above post on X (formerly Twitter) which was recently updated.

Intel Foundry has announced that it's completed the assembly of the industry's first commercial High Numerical Aperture (High-NA) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine.

ASML provided Intel, its first customer, with the $380 million Twinscan EXE:5000 High-NA lithography machine. Yesterday, it shipped its second High-NA EUV lithography machine to a mystery customer. Intel has now assembled its High-NA EUV lithography machine at its D1X fab in Oregon, a milestone for Intel as this prepares the company for its Intel 14A process node in 2025.

The new ASML Twinscan EXE:5000 machine will allow Intel to print features up to 1.7x smaller than what's possible with existing EUV tools, eventually letting Intel shrink down to smaller transistors than what's possible with standard Low-LA EUV machines, which will provide huge 2.9x transistor density improvement for a single exposure.

Intel's fleet of next-gen "Granite Rapids-AP" processors in the future Xeon 6 family of CPUs have leaked details, with the flagship Xeon 6 processor featuring up to 128 P-Cores and CPU clocks of up to 3.2GHz.

The information on the Granite Rapids-AP processors comes from RainNymph, a member of the Intel Insiders Community. The four SKUs that have been leaked are the Xeon 6980P, 6979P, 6972P, and 6960P, which all feature differing core counts.

It starts with 72 cores for the Xeon 6960P, 96 cores with the Xeon 6972P, 120 cores for the Xeon 6979P, and finally, 128 cores for the Xeon 6980P. All of these new Xeon 6 processors are based on the new Redwood Cove P-Core architecture, the same one found inside Intel's new Meteor Lake CPUs. Intel's new Xeon 6 processors are rated at up to 500W of power, with boost clocks ranging between 2.7GHz and 3.5GHz

We've just had further bits of info drip through on next-gen Ryzen CPUs which suggest that Zen 5 desktop chips are set to arrive sooner rather than later.

What will presumably be the Ryzen 9000 series has already been the subject of a couple of recent leaks in beta BIOS releases from ASUS and MSI.

Well, now those hidden-away-mentions have become official, with both of those motherboard makers announcing up front that their new firmware for AM5 chipset toting boards supports next-gen Ryzen processors.

Intel's next-generation Lunar Lake-MX has been renamed to Lunar Lake-V, which features up to 8 CPU cores, 8 Xe2 GPU cores, and up to 32GB of on-package LPDDR5X memory.

Insider Golden Pig Upgrade has leaked the name change to Lunar Lake-V, that Intel is dropping the "MX" branding from Lunar Lake and using the "V" branding. That means these processors will fall into the new Core Ultra 200V series CPU family when they launch later this year and into 2025.

Intel will use a single die for its Lunar Lake-V processors, with 4 P-Cores based on the Lion Cove CPU architecture and 4 LP-E Cores based on the Skymont CPU architecture. Golden Pig Upgrade says that Intel's Lunar Lake-V fleet of processors will all feature the same core count but will vary with CPU frequency, up to 8 Xe2 GPU cores, on-package LPDDR5X-8533 memory, and an optional fanned or fanless design.

AMD has announced the new AMD Ryzen PRO 8040 Series processors for business laptops and mobile workstations and the new AMD Ryzen PRO 8000 Series desktop processors for professionals. Designed for the age of the AI PC, it's the first set of PRO chips from AMD with built-in NPUs for AI workloads.

Like other 8000-series 'Hawk Point' and 'Phoenix' products, these are built on the tried-and-true Zen 4 architecture that has been powering Ryzen for a few years (we have to wait a bit longer until we see Zen 5). They have the bonus of AI acceleration and onboard RDNA graphics. These are similar to previous client-facing chips that launched earlier this year, with additional tweaks and services to suit the professional market.

In fact, the addition of AI hardware, the AMD Ryzen PRO 8040 Series for laptops and the AMD Ryzen PRO 8000 Series of desktop processors for workstations, have made AMD the first company to offer professional CPUs with AI NPUs for both environments. Intel has yet to launch a desktop CPU with a built-in NPU.

It appears AMD is gearing up to release its next-generation Zen 5 desktop processors as another motherboard vendor has integrated support for what looks like Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.

The update was discovered by leaker HXL and was posted to X, formerly Twitter, with the screenshot showing MSI has released a new firmware update for its AM5 chipset motherboards that feature AGESA 1.1.7.0. The image showcases the release date for the BIOS update was the April 12, 2024 and according to its description it will be for "next-gen CPU," presumably AMD's Ryzen 9000.

To add some more credit to this discovery is the fact that ASUS rolled out the same BIOS update a few weeks ago that introduced AGESA version 1.1.7.0 to its boards. It now appears two motherboard manufacturers have prepped their boards for the release of a next-gen CPU, which indicates that AMD is only just around the corner from releasing them. When could we see an unveiling?

Intel's new Beechnut City validation platform is being used to test out next-gen Xeon 6 "Granite Rapids" and "Sierra Forest" processors. Check it out:

The new Beechnut City validation platform was leaked by "YuuKi_AnS", with a sleek red PCB that brings me back to the motherboards from the 90s. This isn't aimed at the market, so there will be no chance of buying it, as it's been designed for validation and further testing.

We don't have one CPU socket but two LGA-4710 socket CPUs that will support dual Granite Rapids or Sierra Forest Xeon 6 CPUs. The leaker also teased possible SKU names for Intel's next-gen Xeon 6 series: Xeon 6 6900E/P (Platinum), Xeon 6 6700E/P (Gold), and Xeon 6 6500P (Bronze).

MSI has just unleashed the new AGESA ComboPi 1.1.7.0 patch, which supports AMD's next-gen Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" CPUs coming later this year.

MSI's new MPG B650 Carbon Wi-Fi motherboard firmware confirms Zen 5 support by using "next-gen CPU" in its description. We should expect AMD's next-gen Ryzen 9000 series, codenamed Granite Ridge, to usher in the next-generation Zen 5 architecture with some hearty improvements.

We should expect AMD to unveil its next-generation Zen 5 processors that will fill its Ryzen 9000 series family of CPUs, led by the flagship Ryzen 9 9950X processor that we've seen benchmarked in Cinebench R24 recently with 46% more multi-threaded performance over the current Zen 4-powered Ryzen 9 7950X processor.