Apple : iOS 13 release date, news and rumors |
- iOS 13 release date, news and rumors
- New laptops and improved tech support may make 2019 the 'Year of Razer'
- Android Pie update, features, release date and phones list
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation release date, news and features
- Intel Whiskey Lake release date, news and rumors
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper release date, news and features: everything you need to know
- Intel Coffee Lake-X release date, news and rumors
- AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation release date, news and rumors
- Intel Basin Falls Refresh release date, price and features
- AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation release date, news and features: everything you need to know
- Intel Coffee Lake Refresh release date, news and features
- AMD Ryzen release date, news and features: everything you need to know
- Intel Coffee Lake release date, news and features
- AMD vs Intel: which chipmaker does processors better?
- Best soundbars for TV shows, movies and music in 2019
- ASUS wasn't the only company hit by ShadowHammer
- Next Nvidia Shield Tablet could be a 2-in-1
- Smaller, cheaper Nintendo Switch might surface during E3 2019
- EU to create major biometric database
- Samsung reveals hundred-billion dollar push on logic chips
| iOS 13 release date, news and rumors Posted: 24 Apr 2019 02:11 PM PDT News about iOS 13 release date and features will almost certainly drop in June, and we're already hearing substantial leaks about the big iPhone and iPad update. Apple is poised to include a long-awaited features like Dark Mode and the first-ever home screen redesign, as well as a brand new easier-to-access undo gesture. iOS 13 is bent on making an iPad more like a computer, too, with stackable app tab windows for true multitasking and mouse support, according to new rumors. Some of these ideas we've heard about before. But there are also fresh concepts to come, like a brand new volume slider UI – a long-overdue change for iOS users. Even if the iPhone 11 hardware isn't expected to see dramatic changes, the software could shift a bunch, and that's still good news for Apple's sluggish iPhone sales. Basically it's everything that didn't make it into iOS 12 and iOS 12.2, which has mostly focused on stability. The time has come for Apple's major UI and app redesigns, and we're expecting lots of features that make navigation and UI easier. Here's everything you need to know about iOS 13 and a lot of what we're itching to see in the lead up to Apple WWDC 2019 on June 3.
Apple CEO Tim Cook at the latest iPad Pro event in November (Photo credit: Matt Swider / TechRadar) iOS 13 release date
iOS 13 reveal date is Monday, June 3, as TechRadar correctly predicted months ago. Apple has historically unveiled its new software at its WWDC 2019 keynote in San Jose and it's always the first Monday in June. Last year is was Monday, June 4, 2018, and the year before it was Monday, June 5, 2017. We certainly see a trend here. iOS 13 developer beta: The first iOS 13 beta will likely arrive at or a few days after the WWDC keynote, but it's going to be restricted to paid Apple developers. You should probably wait for the public beta, which is always more stable. iOS 13 public public beta: This is Apple's way of testing features on a larger scale, and that may happen toward the end of June. It's typically a more refined version of the iOS developer beta, although it can still be rough and never includes all of the features implemented in the final version of the software. The official iOS 13 release date: We'll get the new iOS 13 software in its final, stable form at the iPhone launch event, what we're calling the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Max and iPhone 11 XR at the moment. The date? Probably mid-September. We'll know for sure at the iPhone launch event. iOS 13 compatibilityApple has continued to support the iPhone 5S, the first phone with a 64-bit chipset inside of it. It's seen six versions of iOS, as have the iPad Air and iPad mini 2.
iOS 13 could revert to shedding the oldest devices from Apple's compatibility list, like it used to do before 2018. That means iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPad Air 2, iPad mini 3, and iPod Touch 6th generation might be the oldest devices on the iOS 13 compatibility list. Apple would essentially require devices to have the A8 chipset or newer to upgrade to iOS 13. This also happens to be the chip in the HomePod and Apple TV 4th generation, so it brings everything into line. In reality, it's in Apple's best interest that you upgrade your hardware, too. We saw what happened when the company price-dropped its battery replacement service in 2018. Don't expect it to go too far with the iOS 13 compatibility list cuts . There's a rumor that iOS 13 will also axe support for the iPhone 6, iPhone 6S, iPad Air 2, and even the iPhone SE. However, you shouldn't buy into this early speculation. Some publications like guessing in hopes of getting it right vs reporting factual information. One thing's for sure: Whatever happens, don't expect Apple to make an official announcement at WWDC 2019 if the iPhone 5S isn't compatible with iOS 13. The iOS 13 compatible phones will just show up on a slide, or they won't. Also, remember that not every iOS 13 feature will come to all devices on that list. Some new ideas may require the TrueDepth camera, a rear dual-lens system, or 3D Touch. Big iPad changes needed like mouse support
Every two years, the iPad seems to get a flurry of meaningful changes. We saw this with iOS 11 nearly two years ago and iOS 9 two years before that.
That means – in our minds at least – the iOS 13 update is destined to change up the iPad software in an effort to make the iPad a better 'computer'. That was our chief complaint of the iPad 11 and iPad 12.9. Even if iPads have laptop-rivaling specs, iOS 12 has felt limiting on a tablet when we wanted to do real work. We'd love to see a 'Desktop Mode' to improve our workflow, with a menu and taskbar across the top and bottom. Going along with this is our wish to see Bluetooth mouse and cursor support with iOS 13. That may well happen, as multiple sources have now said Apple is working on mouse support (though not necessarily for iOS 13, as no time frame was given). What's more, they also mention USB mice, so it might not be limited to Bluetooth. The Samsung Galaxy Tab S4 added desktop mode and mouse features in 2018, but with terrible touchscreen execution. Apple could do what it does best: refine an existing Android idea until 'it just works.' Interestingly, the latest home screen rumor (more on that below) mentions that it's an iPad-specific change. Apple could be building its new home screen UI revamp for the iPad before it changes anything on the iPhone. The iPad may get external help in two ways when iOS 13 launches. First, iPads could acts as a second monitor for Macs. It sounds sort of like the idea behind third-party apps Luna Display and Duet, but baked into Apple's software and lag-free. Second, iOS 13 could soon give you more access to external hard drives and DSLRs you plug into to the iPad Pro USB-C port. Right now, every photo and video requires importing through the Camera Roll instead of directly to something like Lightroom. We'd like to see external storage support go even further, allowing us to transfer all sorts of files between a hard drive and iPad. It'd allow the iPad Pro to become more productivity-friendly device, as would the long-rumored multi-user support. iPads, after all, are often shared among family members. Home screen redesign
iOS 13 may bring the first-ever major changes to the iOS home screen, and it's overdue. We've had this app tile layout since the first iPhone launched in 2007. It works, sure, but it's also a bit stale.
While last year's rumors mentioned a home screen refresh, it didn't go into detail about the potential changes. We'd, however, envision parts of the current Today screen (that leftmost widget-like screen) making its way onto the home screen. Being able to peek at snippets of information – the 5-day weather forecast, your next calendar appointment, and the latest Apple News headlines – would be a welcome addition to the unchanged iOS app grid. When talking up Apple Watch face complications, the team behind it used the words 'glanceable information' a lot. That would be a natural fit for the iOS 13 home screen. However, the newest iOS 13 rumors suggest that this is an iPad-specific change. We'll have to wait to see if the iPhone can get in on the home screen UI changes, too. iOS 13 Dark Mode seems very likely
iOS 13 may in fact be the update in which Apple finally comes through with the long-rumored 'dark mode.' We've been hearing about it for a number of years. Apple introduced a dark mode for macOS Mojave at WWWC last year, so it's fitting to hear Bloomberg report that iOS 13 is going to do the same for the iPhone and iPad in 2019. Another report backs Bloomberg's up, and lists a few more features like an 'undo' gesture and a volume bar redesign. If the rumor is accurate, this will make it easier to look at apps at nighttime. There's a lot of white and bright hues among current app color schemes, so toning them down would be a great way to compliment the blue-light-reducing Night Shift mode. Camera app revamp
Apple's camera app is extremely basic. It's been a blessing and a curse. It's easy for less tech-savvy iPhone owners to use, but more advanced users are missing out on features that would let them fine-tine their photos and videos.
A revamp to the camera app was also among last year's leaks, and that's the change that piqued our interest the most. The Samsung Galaxy S9 has the ability to snap a photo with gestures, while the LG V40's video tools allow you to fluidly zoom into anywhere on the screen, not just the dead center. The Google Pixel 3 has added a Night Sight mode that aims to end the need for a frequently-photo-ruining flash. Expect Apple to keep the camera app streamlined, but sprinkle in more advanced tools. And if all we get is the ability to change resolutions and frame rates from within the camera app (and not in the settings menu), that'd be good enough. Health and Activity apps on the iPad
Your health and fitness data deserves to be seen at 9.7 inches and 12.9 inches, and that's what we're hoping for from the iOS 13 update in the coming months. Both the Apple Health app and Activity app (the one with the rings) present a lot of data to comb over, and seeing bars, graphs, running maps, and various numbers stretched out on the big screen would be ideal. Right now, both apps are limited to the Apple Watch and the iPhone. We think Apple will do this eventually. Doctors could review health data with patients more easily, for example, and senior citizens have complained to us that their iPhone is too small to read all of the health data. We'd also like to see both apps on macOS, but one tracked step at a time. SPAM call blocking
iOS 13 needs better SPAM call blocking. Absolutely needs it in 2019. It's one of the best features of the Google Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL, yet the increasing nuisance of telemarketers persists on the iPhone. Okay, last year's iOS update did at least add a call blocking and identification option. But users have to invest in an app (that often costs money annually) to get good SPAM call blocking protection. Apps like Hiya cost $2.99/month or $14.99/year for premium service. The good news is that we see a big shift happening. Verizon is making its SPAM and robocall feature free starting in March, and Apple was recently issued a patent for this sort of feature. Clipboard managerClipboard manager apps do exist, allowing for multi-copy and paste and copy and paste history, but they're all rather limiting because they're not built into the UI. Apple could change this in iOS 13, and it's another way in which productivity on the iPad could be enhanced. Having a full clipboard manager work at the system level would also help prevent copying over what's in our clipboard currently. Change WiFi and Bluetooth via Control CentralConnecting to new WiFi networks or Bluetooth devices without exiting the app you're using is impossible. Sure, Control Center allows you to toggle WiFi and Bluetooth on and off via this drop down menu, but switching between connections requires you to dive into the Settings menu and submenus. That's rather annoying.
iOS 13 could easily change this, with another frosted overlay menu that lets you pick your connections without kicking you out of your current app. This would be especially handy when traveling and constantly cycling through multiple open WiFi networks. It'd be a shortcut within a Control Center shortcut, and we'd be okay with that. Four new AnimojiA handful of new Animoji could be added as part of iOS 13, with a rumor suggesting that a cow, mouse, octopus and emoji face are all being added. There are currently 24 Animoji is Apple's iOS 12.2 roster, so the iOS 13 update would bring the total number to 28 in addition to customizable Memoji avatars. More iOS 13 news to comeiOS 13 is still several days away, even in beta form. However, as we get closer to Apple's WWDC 2019 keynote in June, we expect more leaks to emerge about what the company is working on. If they do pop into the news, we'll report on them here. We'll have to wait for the final version of UI, likely in September with an iPhone 11 launch event. However, the potential iOS 13 features above give you an idea of where the iPhone and iPad software could head in 2019.
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| New laptops and improved tech support may make 2019 the 'Year of Razer' Posted: 24 Apr 2019 01:45 PM PDT Razer already started off 2019 on a strong note with the release of a new 15-inch Razer Blade gaming laptop that ranks among the best gaming laptops around. And, now it's earned a second place ranking for best tech support in the 2019 Tech Support Showdown published by our sister site, Laptop Mag. The ranking sees Razer take second place with a score of 88 points out of a possible hundred. This puts it in second place right behind Apple in first with 91 points. The scores are based on a combination of web support and phone support. Razer scored 58 points out of a possible 60 for web support, earning it the highest grade in that category of all 11 brands considered. But, it only earned 30 points for phone support, which wasn't even available a year ago, and thereby fell below Apple.
Up and up for RazerWhile coming in second place may not sound like the biggest feat, it's a major step up for Razer. The company hasn't been in the laptop-building game for nearly as long as competitors like Apple, Dell, or HP, but it's put on a solid showing against them. Last year, Laptop Mag had rated Razer second to last for its tech support. So, the rise to second place is a big improvement for Razer. And, that big improvement comes on top of some other positive shifts for the company. The Razer Blade 2019 released earlier this year is the most improved release from the company yet. It has great battery life, powerful gaming performance and a sleek design. But, Razer has already upped the ante, releasing a refresh of that Blade with options for a 240Hz 1080p panel or a 4K OLED panel with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. It's also launched a new Razer Blade Pro 17. The combination of new and improved hardware, on top of dramatically improved suppor,t could make this a year for Razer to truly shine.
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| Android Pie update, features, release date and phones list Posted: 24 Apr 2019 01:39 PM PDT Update: We've updated the list of phones that can upgrade to Android Pie, along with when other phones are expected to get the update. Google's Android Pie update launched in late 2018 with a host of improvements to make your phone more personal, more efficient, and overall easier to use - all with a free upgrade to your operating system. After lots of testing, we've found Android Pie to be a splendid feature-filled operating system update with that will have you asking: when is the Android 9 Pie release date for my phone? Good news for some of you: the final software is out on plenty of new flagship phones from Google, Essential, Samsung, Nokia, LG, Sony, Xiaomi, Huawei and more. We've got a full list below, which we will continue to add. The truth is the Android Pie release date will be staggered for many people, with manufacturers (and in the US, the carriers) required to tweak the software before their phones can enjoy the free upgrade. Many phones were updated by the end of 2018, but owners of some phones will have to wait later into 2019. Expect noticable design changes, helpful shortcuts, and a big focus on AI through adaptive settings. We have a full Android Pie features list below, too, along with a phones list detailing which devices are compatible. Here's what you'll see with Android Pie when it comes to your phone. Cut to the chase
Android Pie release dateThis... is complicated. Android Pie did indeed start rolling out in August 2018 as a free over-the-air update. You should see it in the software update menu by now...if your phone is ready to update (for most Android phones, upgrade by navigating to Settings > System > System Update). While many phones have been able to update to Android 9, it still hasn't reached some older phones. As expected, Google Pixel phones were the first to get the update, and all can be upgraded. The Essential Phone also got Android 9 Pie when it launched. Since then, others - starting with flagship models from the big phonemakers - have gotten the greenlight to update. And it should be noted that phones that have come out past Android Pie's launch date generally support the new OS out of the box – especially those that are launching in 2019. The big question is when older phones are getting updated. Here's which phones have already been updated, divvied up by manufacturer. Asus: Essential: Google: HMD/Nokia: Honor: HTC: Huawei: LG: Moto: OnePlus: Oppo: Razer: Samsung: Sony: Vivo: Xiaomi: ZTE: Android Pie release date: soon (2019) While some manufacturers have announced launch dates when their phones are updated, that date might be pushed back later than was initially projected. This is typical of Android updates, especially in the US where carrier approval is required. Asus: BlackBerry: Huawei: LG: Moto: OnePlus: Samsung: Sony: Xiaomi: On to the major Android Pie features. Adaptive battery life
Android Pie has been designed to give you a more consistent battery by using on-device machine learning to figure out which apps you'll use in the next few hours and which you won't use until later, if at all today. With 30% reeducation in CPU app wake-ups for apps, adaptive battery helped us eke out a few more hours of device use when we tested it. And now the software is final, so it should be even better. Google partnered with Deep Mind to refine its deep learning algorithms and it's having a big effect on Android battery life, according to Dave Burke, Google's VP of Engineering for Android. Adaptive brightness is the most meaningful new Android Pe feature in our own deep minds. Adaptive brightness
Current auto-brightness settings aren't good enough, according to Google, and that's why it's giving phone makers a more power efficient way to calibrate phone screen brightness based on both the environment and learned behavior. Google calls this adaptive brightness and claims that 50% of users who tested this Android Pie feature have stopped manually adjusting the brightness because of it. Even if you still reach to manually adjust the brightness, overall, you should be doing it less. That's what we experiencing when running Android Pie on a Pixel 2. App actions
Google is inserting more prediction tools into its app drawer. Previously, you'd see a top row of predicted apps, normally based on your usage history. That was helpful. Android Pie goes a step further with app actions that predict what you'll do next, and these shortcuts sit in a row right underneath the predicted app icons. This boils down to shortcuts for calls, or a run routine based on the fact that you just plugged in headphones and run every day at this time with an app like Strava. It's like Android Pie is reading your mind. App slices
You won't see app slices until later this year, but Google has issued an API to developers to create more shortcuts around its operating system interface. This is starting in search, of course (after all, this is Google, we're talking about). The best example at Google IO was with the ride-hailing app, Lyft. Searching for 'Lyft' will provide the app as an answer, but also shortcuts to your top destinations, like work and home, each with a price already listed. It's saving you from having to go into the app menus in order to select these options. App slices via the search bar can extend to Google Photos, too. If you look up Hawaii, you'll see photos from a vacation, for example, and checking into a hotel may soon be easier when you look up your hotel name. Instead of having to wade through the clunky third-party app, you may be able to just select 'check in'. Android Pie navigation changes
Android Pie has a new system navigation interface in order to make multi-tasking easier to understand, with a single clean home button. It's very much an iPhone X horizontal bar to replace the typical home and recent buttons. This is part of Google's plan to make the UI simpler and adapt to the all-screen phone designs out there. It's more approachable to new users, according Google. You can swipe up from the bottom anywhere in the operating system to see recent open apps as well as five predicted app at the bottom of the screen to save you time. Swiping up a second time and you'll see your app drawer. With this one-two swipe gesture, Google has essentially combined the all-apps and overview spaces gesture into one. You can do one better than Apple's iPhone interface. Android Pie will let you scroll through all of your apps very quickly by sliding right and left with the horizontal bar at the bottom. It's like a video you're scrubbing through, but for app selection. Form our experience, it takes time to get used to the navigation changes (as do almost all software changes), but retraining your brain for Android Pie is worth it in the end. Everything feels intuitive. Volume slider and screen rotation fixedThe volume slider has moved again, and this time it's off to the right side near the volume rocker. That makes sense, but it does more than just get a new home.
Pressing the volume keys will now adjust the media volume instead of sometimes (but you're not quite sure when) controlling the ringer volume. The ringer can be turned on and off through a software toggle button when you adjust the volume. Your reaction may be like ours: "Why wasn't it always this way?!" You can also now manually control screen orientation. This is done via a pop-up icon that appears when you rotate the screen. You won't have to rely on the phone to (often mistakenly) rotate the screen for you. Android Pie 'Digital Wellbeing'It's no secret that we use our smartphones too much, and you probably do, too (you are on a technology website, after all). But how much time?
Like a Fitbit tracker gauges for activity and informs to motivate you, Google's Android Pie update includes a 'Digital Wellbeing' dashboard to monitor how long you've been using your phone and specific apps. Digital Wellbeing is supposed to aid you in understanding what you're spending too much time on so that you can adjust your behavior.
It even comes with an app timer and to send you notifications when you cross a self-imposed threshold, and a new Shush feature is launching as a Do Not Disturb shortcut when you turn your phone over on its front face. In addition to silencing alarms, it won't even display visual notifications. Think of Google as eliminating both audible and visual noise from your life when these modes are enabled. Digital Wellbeing is one of the biggest, most fundamental new features in Android Pie and we've already taken a deep-dive into it, explaining it in detail and giving an early verdict on it. Given that it's still in beta we were fairly impressed, but noted that it needs a degree of pro-activeness to get much from it and that it could really do with parental controls. You can find our full thoughts on it here: Making room for more Android notch displaysAndroid Pie makes room for notched displays, and we've seen a lot of them on new Android phones in the last few months – pretty much everyone but Samsung. The use of a notch cutout means that some of Android's standard interface staples have shifted. Looking for the time? It's now on the top left corner of the screen. App notification icons pile next to it, which could get dicey if A.) you use a lot of apps, or B.) your next Android phone has a notch (Google has planned ahead for this, thankfully.) Some other design changes we noticed: Text is more sharp, there's generally more color in the menus, transition animations have been touched up, and some stuff has been moved around. It looks and feels fresh, even in this very early software build. The Pixel Launcher now has a rounded-off edge, matching the look of notification windows that you see when you wake up your phone. This is obviously a minor touch, but it plays into the overall look that Google is going for with Android Pie.
Ambient Display has been overhauled, at least compared to what came before it on Pixel XL and what currently exists on the latest Pixel 2 XL Oreo software. The date and day of week no longer display underneath the time, but it still displays app notification icons.
You'll have to squint to notice this welcome improvement The biggest change here is that down at the screen's bottom, it displays the battery percentage, so that you don't have to wake it to know whether you need to plug in or not. We look forward to Google making more updates to Ambient Display as the dev preview continues.
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| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation release date, news and features Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:55 PM PDT While AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation launched in April 2018 and brought notable performance and power improvements. Then, in August 2018, AMD launched Threadripper 2nd Generation, producing the very best high-end desktop (HEDT) processors on the market – well, at least until Intel’s Basin Falls Refresh launched (albeit for a much higher price). Similar to the move from Ryzen to Ryzen 2nd Generation, the second release of Threadripper gives us a big boost in performance and efficiency. It’s not just core counts that see a boost, but Threadripper 2nd Generation boosts power management and brings higher clock speeds across its lineup. This helps boost the price to performance ratio in chips like the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X. Ryzen 3rd Generation is on the horizon now, too, and it looks like AMD is ready to repeat its magic with Threadripper 3. Plus, we’re already starting to see some rumors trickle out about the architecture that will be behind Threadripper 4th Generation. So, now that AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation processors have been on the market for nearly a year, we decided to explore everything there is to know about the workstation processors. So, b e sure to keep this page bookmarked – we’ll keep it updated with any Threadripper 2nd Generation information that pops up.
Cut to the Chase
Ryzen Threadripper Generation 2 release dateSince Computex 2018, we knew that Ryzen Threadripper Generation 2 would launch in the second half of 2018. And, now the entire lineup, including the the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX and the Ryzen Threadripper 2950X has launched between August and October 2018.
Ryzen Threadripper Generation 2 priceRyzen Threadripper proved to be a much more affordable line of high-end desktop processors than Intel Skylake-X, and it appears these 2nd Generation chips will continue the trend. Here’s the pricing of the AMD Threadripper Generation 2:
Although Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation introduces two higher-end SKUs to the series, AMD’s new HEDT chips (processors for high-end desktop computers) are actually more affordable than the ones they’ve replaced. The $899 (about £690, AU$1,210) Ryzen Threadripper 2950X is notably $100 cheaper than the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X that initially launched with a $999 (£845, AU$1,359) price tag. Likewise, the Ryzen Threadripper 2920X runs for $649 (about £500, AU$880) and is also more affordable than its predecessor, the $799 (£689, AU$1,069) Ryzen Threadripper 1920X. At the top-end of the series, the $1799 (about £1,380, AU$2,430) Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX remains more affordable than Intel’s flagship $1,999 (about £1540, AU$2,700) Core i9-7980XE.
Ryzen Threadripper Generation 2 specsThanks to moving to the same Zen+ 12nm architecture used in the recent Ryzen 2nd Generation processors, Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation gains better power management, higher clock speeds and most notably a huge increase in possible core counts. Here’s a quick spec breakdown of the current Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation lineup:
Of course, the highlight of AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation lineup has to be the 32-core and 64-thread 2990WX. What’s more impressive is that the CPU is apparently capable of running up to 4.2GHz – a noticeable upgrade over the 1950X top speed of 4.0GHz with half as many cores and threads. Some may point out that the 28-core processor that Intel showed off at Computex hit 5GHz, but we’re still not 100% sure of the particulars (i.e. cooling setup) surrounding that demo and Intel later clarified it achieved that speed with overclocking. You may have also spotted the WX suffix at tail end of AMD’s two top-end HEDT processors, and this is to signify a new series of consumer workstation-grade processor meant for creators and innovators. AMD is specifically targeting these two CPUs at creators and innovators such as video editors, those in design and general media creators. Meanwhile, the X-series Threadripper 2nd Generation processors, the 2920X and 2950X, cater towards streaming gamers who need that extra processing power to drive 4K livestreaming as they game. Once again AMD flexes the strength of its 12nm architecture, by giving us an 2950X that’s 0.3-0.5Ghz faster than the 1950X it replaces, and we haven’t even gotten to overclocking yet. Luckily, AMD is also sticking to the same TR4 Socket, so anyone looking to upgrade once Threadripper Generation 2 drops shouldn’t have to worry about buying a new board. However, unlike the Ryzen 2nd Generation jump to an X470 chipset, AMD isn’t introducing a new chipset to replace the existing X399 platform – at least in name anyway. Instead, users will find a few new Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation-ready X399 motherboards designed with improved overclocking performance and power consumption. Thankfully, though, older motherboards are compatible after installing the latest BIOS, and it won’t require you to boot them with an original Ryzen Threadripper CPU or UEFI Boot Kits. Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation featuresAlthough Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation hasn't jumped to a new chipset, it has got a new bag of tricks thanks to enhanced features and even one that's brand new. Precision Boost originally controlled CPU frequencies down to 25MHz increments. Now with version two, AMD has sprinkled in an algorithm that ensures the processor intelligently runs at its thermal and electrical limit whenever tasked. Extended Frequency Range 2 (XFR2) has also seen a significant buff allowing it to enable 16% additional processor performance across any number of cores and threads. On the previous generation of Ryzen Threadripper chips, XFR could only influence a small number of cores. Lastly, Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) is a brand new feature that allows AMD's newest HEDT CPUs to exceed their specifications and max out their power draw from the abundant VRMs on X399 motherboards. Though users will technically void their warranty by doing so, PBO can help users achieve overclocks hitherto undreamt of. AMD itself achieved a 5.1GHz overclock across all 32-cores with a liquid-nitrogen cooled processor. AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation PerformanceWe finally got our hands on the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX, and we have to say: the performance is phenomenal. While a lot of the benchmarks need to be updated to recognize the bonkers amount of cores that the 2990WX offers, you can basically throw any workload at the 2990WX and have a ton of performance to spare. Where the 2990WX falters is in its gaming performance. It falls behind the much more affordable Intel Core i7-8700K and the Ryzen 7 2700X, but that should be expected. Do us a favor – don’t spend $2,000 on a processor for gaming, it’s just not worth it. Buy two RTX 2080 Tis instead. Then, there’s the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX. At $1,199 (£1,199, AU$2,729), it does keep up with other HEDT processors like the 2990WX or the Intel Core i9-7980XE. However, oddly enough, it’s beaten out by the Intel Core i9-9900K in a lot of workloads. This is worrisome because of just how much cheaper Intel’s mainstream Core i9 is. Even if the Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX does beat Intel’s chip in heavily multi-threaded tests like Cinebench, the value just isn’t there right now. So, unless your workload specifically demands all the cores and threads you can get, like say, if you’re working in an animation studio – you might want to look at the Intel Core i9-9900K and save a couple bucks. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Whiskey Lake release date, news and rumors Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:54 PM PDT Intel Whiskey Lake has been officially launched, and it’s the latest line of 8th-Generation mobile processors behind the next generation of laptops. This next-gen mobile architecture was announced back at Computex 2018 alongside the Amber Lake Y-series fanless chips. We’re not sure why there are two different mobile microarchitectures, but they’re both products of the third refinement of Skylake. Both Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake will take Kaby Lake Refresh’s spot as the best processors for laptops and Ultrabooks. But, what about those Coffee Lake U-series processors announced in April 2018? Unfortunately, Coffee Lake U didn’t make it into many laptops beyond the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2018. It seems like most laptop manufacturers skipped Coffee Lake U in favor of Whiskey Lake, likely due to the minimal improvements over Kaby Lake R. But, there are plenty of Whiskey Lake processors out there these days, like the Huawei MateBook 13 and the Razer Blade Stealth. So, even though Intel is still suffering from supply problems, Whiskey Lake is behind some of the best Ultrabooks out right now, like the new Dell XPS 13. So, with that in mind, we’ll dive into everything Whiskey Lake has to offer. Keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll keep it updated with all the latest info. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: TechRadar Release dateWhile Whiskey Lake was announced back in 2018, it wasn’t until CES 2019 that we really started to see them show up in actual devices. There are plenty of new devices with Whiskey Lake and Amber Lake chips, like the Dell XPS 13, the new Asus ZenBooks and the thin and light Acer Swift 7 2019. And, if you’re looking for the more powerful H-series mobile processors, Intel has just released its 9th-generation Coffee Lake Refresh chips for laptops. These will be behind most gaming laptops and mobile workstations this year, while Whiskey Lake will remain behind most Ultrabooks. As for the next generation of Ultrabook-class processors: Intel has announced its Ice Lake processors, built on a 10nm process. These chips will apparently launch in late 2019, but we will probably start seeing laptops using these chips in early 2020 – much like the launch of Whiskey Lake.
Image Credit: TechRadar PriceBecause Whiskey Lake is a mobile microarchitecture, it’s unlikely that the price of the actual chip will affect most consumers. For instance, the Intel Core i5-8250U is listed at $297 (about £225, AU$400) and the Intel Core i7 8550U at $409 (about £310, AU$551). However, these aren’t really public facing prices, and is rather what laptop manufacturers pay to include these chips in their laptops. So, we’re getting 3 15W TDP U-series processors and 3 5W Amber Lake Y-series chips. With a Core i3 (or m3), i5 and i7 in either category, we can expect a pretty wide range of laptops starting at around $500 (around £389, AU$680) for the m3 and i3 laptops, whereas Core i7-backed notebooks will be more expensive, likely around $1,000 (£760, AU$1,350). Either way, Whiskey Lake was just launched, so we’re sure we’ll see pricing for the laptops sporting these new processors in the very near future.
Image Credit: Intel SpecsIntel introduced three Whiskey Lake processors, a Core i3, a Core i5 and a Core i7. The Core i5 and i7 are both four-core, eight-thread chips, much like their Kaby Lake R brethren, whereas the Core i3 still rocks two cores and four threads. Where they really set themselves apart is in their clock speeds. The stock clocks on the Core i5 and i7 are virtually the same as the Core i5-8250U and Core i7-8550U at 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz respectively. But Intel, has boosted the boost clocks for the Core i5-8265U and Core i7-8565U drastically – up to 4.6GHz and 3.9GHz, respectively. We haven’t seen what this performance hike translates into RE: real world performance, but average users likely won’t notice a difference. However, this much of an increase in Turbo Boost speeds can back up Intel’s claim that Whiskey Lake can have up to a double-digit increase in performance over 7th-generation Kaby Lake processors. As far as the integrated GPU goes, though, it looks like Intel is sticking with the Intel UHD Graphics 620 chip found in the Kaby Lake-R chips, so don’t expect vastly improved GPU performance with this new microarchitecture – even if Intel says gamers will be able to play games using just the integrated graphics. What’s probably more noteworthy than clock speeds and GPU improvements, though is the fact that Intel has found a way to integrate 802.11 AC Wi-Fi into the PCH on Whiskey Lake processors. This functionality isn’t included in the Amber Lake Y-series chips, but Intel is offering discrete solutions for those fanless models – on top of eSIM support for laptop makers that want to build LTE modems into new laptops. We’re sure we’ll get more information about how these new processors perform once we get our hands on laptops running them. So, until then, be sure to check back often, as we’ll add any information that comes our way. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| AMD Ryzen Threadripper release date, news and features: everything you need to know Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:54 PM PDT In 2017 AMD released its Ryzen line of processors, but it didn’t stop there. Later that year, AMD launched three impressively overclockable high-end desktop CPUs – named ‘Threadripper’. AMD didn’t stop after launching the Threadripper 1950X, however. AMD followed that up with the Threadripper 2nd Generation processors, spearheaded by the 2950X and 2990WX. These processors were incredibly powerful, even leading AMD to suggest that cryptocurrency miners use these HEDT chips instead of graphics cards – a credit to the high compute power on offer. We will probably see Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation chips later this year, based on AMD’s new Zen 2 process. These HEDT processors, thanks to their smaller manufacturing process, will create a wider performance gap than what we saw when Ryzen 2nd Gen followed the first. We’ll likely see inflated core counts, not to mention beefier clock speeds. So, here’s everything you need to know about AMD Ryzen Threadripper – from the release date to prices, even performance. And, as always, be sure to keep this article bookmarked, as we’ll update it with any new information that comes our way. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: AMD AMD Ryzen Threadripper release dateAMD Ryzen Threadripper first two processors the 1950X and 1920X arrived on August 10, 2017. While AMD’s entry level Ryzen Threadripper 1900X came out a few weeks later on August 31, 2017. And, it looks like AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation followed in the first’s footsteps – the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990X launched on August 13, 2018 with the rest of the high-end CPUs coming in the following months. AMD isn’t going to slow down, either, AMD is planning on supporting Threadripper with new chips until at least 2020, according to some leaks. AMD Ryzen Threadripper priceAt long last, we now have firm details on what price the AMD Ryzen Threadrippers will release at. They’re not cheap, but you can expect to pay less for more performance than you would get with a comparable Intel chip. The prices of all the AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors as they launched are as follows.
As for the competition, Intel’s closest competitor to the 1950X, the Core i9-7960X will set you back a whopping $1,699 (around £1,315, AU$2,200). The Threadripper 1900X’s closest octa-core competitor from Intel is the Core i7-7820X at a much more reasonable $599 (£529, AU$869). AMD Ryzen Threadripper specs and powerAMD Ryzen Threadripper processors absolutely destroyed everything else on the market when they first hit the streets. This is thanks to their insane core counts and multi-threaded performance. It wasn’t until Skylake-X hit the street that Intel got a leg up, and even then the price-to-performance ratio just wasn’t there. The specs for the Ryzen Threadripper chips are as follows:
To put this into perspective, the Intel Core i9-7960X has packs the same 16-cores and 32-threads as the Threadripper 1950X and so on and so forth with the Intel Core i9-7920X vs Threadripper 1920X and Intel Core i7-7820X vs Threadripper 1900X we've setup. However, now that the Ryzen 2nd Generation has made it to market, you can find about 10% better performance in the Threadripper 2950X – with a lower price tag. Making it a great option for aspiring PC enthusiasts. The Threadripper series uses AMD’s SMT (Simultaneous Multithreading) technology found in other Ryzen chips. Finally, the Ryzen Threadripper series processors uses a TP3 socket, which is a modified variant of the SP3 socket originally designed for AMD’s beefy server chips that go up to 32-cores. In the future, AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors will be even more impressive. AMD’s Zen 2 architecture will see the manufacturing process drop from 14nm to 7nm, boosting efficiency, and thus the power of the upcoming Threadripper 3rd Generation. And, AMD won’t stop there. Recent reports show that AMD will be using extreme ultraviolet (EUV) Lithography to manufacture its 7nm+ processors. So, the future of Threadripper should be very exciting.
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| Intel Coffee Lake-X release date, news and rumors Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:53 PM PDT Before we get into all the Coffee Lake-X information, let’s just get one thing out of the way: it’s not confirmed to exist in any way, shape or form. Everything from here on out is speculation and rumor. Intel has had a rough couple of years. Ever since the onset of AMD Ryzen and Threadripper, Intel has been on the defensive – haphazardly throwing out CPU refreshes to keep ahead of AMD. When AMD Ryzen Threadripper first came out, Intel responded with Skylake-X, which outpowered AMD’s HEDT offerings, but only just barely. Fast forward to 2018, and AMD Threadripper 2nd Generation arrived, heralded by the Threadripper 2990 WX, a 32-core, 64-thread behemoth. Later, in December 2018, Intel responded with Basin Falls Refresh. So, where does that leave Coffee Lake-X? Well, it’s hard to say. Coffee Lake-X actually did exist at one point, according to speculation from the Motley Fool, but it looks like it was scrapped. It doesn’t help that the next HEDT platform by Intel will indeed be Cascade Lake-X, so we’re not sure if we’ll ever see Coffee Lake-X. We essentially don’t know anything about Coffee Lake-X, let alone if it’s actually a thing. But, that won’t stop us from speculating, however. So, keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll update it if we hear anything. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: TechRadar Release dateThis is where things get a little hard to predict. If our earlier speculation is true, and Intel uses Coffee Lake-X to compete with Threadripper 2nd Generation, we might see an announcement soon – the first chips of this series are slated to release in Q3 2018. However, while it’s hard to even find vague speculation about Coffee Lake-X, we have seen a leaked roadmap that points to a ‘Basin Falls Refresh’ launching in the HEDT space later this year. Whether that’s Coffee Lake-X or not, we’re not sure, but we won’t have to wait long to find out. Intel supposedly confirmed a forthcoming X399 chipset, which would likely be the chipset that would support Coffee Lake-X, but we have no idea when that’s coming out, either. We’ll just have to wait until Intel to make some kind of announcement about the release date of its next HEDT platform.
Image Credit: TechRadar SpecsThis is where things get interesting. Now, we have no idea what the Coffee Lake-X chips are going to look like, but they have to be basically better than Skylake-X, which is already absolutely bananas. If you need a refresher, the specs for the 7th-generation HEDT processors are as as follows:
That last one, the Core i9-7980XE was the most powerful consumer processor of the last year, and still is at the time of this writing. However, that processor costs nearly $2,000. Remember that rumor we mentioned earlier about the 32-core, 64-thread AMD Threadripper 2990X that’s supposedly launching for less than that? That’s exactly what Intel is going to need top with Coffee Lake-X. Earlier, at Computex 2018, Intel showed off a 28-core 56-thread CPU clocked at 5GHz. And, while that processor later turned out to be a Cascade Lake-X processor with a completely different LGA-3647 socket, that might actually be what Intel needs to release – and for much less than the rumored $10,000 that processor might end up costing. At the end of the day, we won’t know what Intel’s next line of HEDT processors is going to look like until it’s actually announced, but we do know that if Intel is going to stay competitive after Threadripper 2 comes out, it will need to come out with some beefy CPUs at a competitive price. And, you can rest assured that the moment Intel does that, we’ll update this page with any relevant information. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation release date, news and rumors Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:52 PM PDT When the first generation Ryzen processors came out nearly three years ago, AMD changed the market. And, now that Ryzen 2nd Generation processors have been out for a year, Tem Red has dominated that market, more than doubling Intel’s sales, according to a German retailer. But, it gets better: AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation processors will bring the 7nm Zen 2 process to mainstream processors for the first time. Considering the fact that Intel is having considerable issues introducing 10nm Cannon Lake chips, and even its next HEDT lineup will likely stay on 14nm, AMD has swooped in and upstaged its rival before it even has a chance to launch Lakefield or Ice Lake, while also introducing some for the most impressive consumer processors yet. We can’t wait for Ryzen 3rd Generation. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation release dateAt CES 2019, AMD announced its first Ryzen 3000-series processors will arrive sometime in the middle of 2019. Unfortunately, the chipmaker didn't give us an exact date, but Ryzen 3rd Generation does seem to be releasing a little later than previous launches. The first generation of Ryzen processors hit the market in March 2017 and Ryzen 2nd Generation arrived a month later in April 2018. With that in mind, it's a bit surprising Ryzen 3000-series chips will be coming a bit later – our best guess is they'll arrive in May to July at the latest (we hope). In fact, we’ve seen a new rumor that suggests that AMD Ryzen 3000 chips will be launching alongside AMD Navi graphics cards in July. In fact, AMD CEO Lisa Su herself teased that she would reveal the “next generation of high-performance AMD platforms and products” at the AMD Computex 2019 keynote. If this is true, it would line up with the mid-2019 window that AMD announced at CES 2019. So, we’ll have to wait until Computex to see when we’ll be able to get our hands on AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation processors.
Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation priceAMD didn't announce any pricing information on its upcoming 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 3000-series processor so don’t have any empirical proof what it'll cost unfortunately. However, thanks to a curiously detailed report from a YouTuber named AdoredTV, we have model names and prices for nearly every possible Ryzen 3rd Generation processor. Here’s how much Ryzen 3rd Generation processors may cost:
This list of prices might seem compelling and on-track with AMD’s traditional pricing, but we would take it with a grain of salt, especially since recent retail leaks place the prices higher than the AdoredTV leak. Those new prices are:
Still, we would wait until AMD actually unveils pricing, because Team Red has a track record of lowering the prices of its processors going from Ryzen to Ryzen 2nd Generation. The AMD Ryzen 7 1700X originally launched with a $399 (£389, AU$569) price and it was succeeded by the more affordable $329 (£349, AU$515) AMD Ryzen 7 2700X. With that in mind, we couldn’t imagine/would be disappointed if the Ryzen 7 3700X were to cost more. For now, it seems AMD will hold onto the same pricing scheme from its current slew of chips going into the next generation.
Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation specsSo far we only know of one Ryzen 3000-series processor and that is a 8-core and 16-thread chip designed to go toe-to-toe with Intel's flagship Core i9-9900K. On its CES 2019 keynote stage, AMD On benchmarked its secretive processor with Cinebench to achieve a score of 2023. Comparatively the Intel Core i9-9900K and AMD Ryzen 7 2700X scored 1,873 and 1,798 points, respectively, in our own testing. What’s more impressive is that the new Ryzen 3000 chip seems to be more power efficient than Intel’s current Coffee Lake Refresh lineup. During the Cinebench demo, AMD also displayed the maximum power draw of the Intel system running at 179.9 watts (W) while the new Ryzen system maxed out at 133.4W. Overall it seems that, Ryzen 3rd Generation's 7nm architecture affords it 12% more performance while making AMD chips about 30% more power efficient than Intel's latest 14nm CPU architecture. This is all thanks to the smaller 7nm Zen 2 platform, which introduces a massive die shrink. Previously, Ryzen 2nd Generation processors were built on a 12nm Zen+ architecture that introduced a slight die shrink from the original 14nm Zen architecture. And, it looks like AMD isn’t stopping there. AMD’s Zen 3 processors, built on a 7nm+ process, will use extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV). That might not mean much to you, but this new method will reportedly lead to boosted transistor density and power efficiency. Despite being built on a new architecture, Ryzen 3000 CPUs will still fit into the AM4 socket used by Ryzen 2nd Generation and the original Ryzen processors. That said, Ryzen 3rd Generation is introducing something new with PCIe 4.0 support. However, it seems like, at least according to some leaked specs, that the 8-core chip AMD revealed at CES is nowhere near the top of the pile. For instance, the AMD Ryzen 9 3850X is rumored to have 16 cores and 32 threads with a max boost of 5.1GHz. That’s far better than any consumer chip on the market right now. The rest of the rumored lineup is listed below.
Before you get too excited about unlocking even more power from your Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 or AMD Radeon VII, PCIe 4.0 will only enhance your storage solutions for now.
Image Credit: TechRadar Aside from the single unnamed processor AMD introduced, we've also seen a multitude of leaks that have pretty much outlined what Ryzen 3rd Generation processors there will be and they are as follows:
We heard the first murmurs of what Zen 2 processors could do as early as October 2018. In the report suggested that AMD Radeon Technologies Group received its first engineering sample for the unreleased architecture in the form of an 8-core chip capable of reaching frequencies up to 4.5GHz. Whether this rumored processor and the one AMD officially announced are one and the same remains to be seen. In December 2018, the rumors began to really head up as we received an almost complete breakdown of this new series of CPUs. This nearly complete set of listings came from a YouTuber named AdoredTV and while they seemed unlikely to be true, a Russian retailer would later back up the influencer’s report with nearly identical specs on all its product pages for the whole series of chips. We’re not sure if the Russian retailer was just cribbing AdoredTV’s video like a cheat sheet, but so far no other rumors or reports have contradicted what we know so far. In fact, notorious leaker Tum Apisak revealed a leaked UserBenchmark entry for a 12-core, 24-thread Ryzen 3000 processor. This leaked processor didn’t have any kind of product name attached to it, but it’s still exciting. This is all we know so far, but we’re certain that AMD will show off the specifics of Ryzen 3rd Generation later in the year.
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| Intel Basin Falls Refresh release date, price and features Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:52 PM PDT The wait for the next iteration of Intel’s HEDT lineup is over, and it’s been quite a ride. There was speculation that there would be a Coffee Lake-X, a Cascade Lake-X or a new Skylake-X HEDT platform. The latter proved to be the one that actually existed, this ‘Basin Falls Refresh’ is out now, helmed by the new 18-core Intel Core i9-9980XE. However, right now it’s rumored that Intel is planning on releasing a Cascade Lake-X later this year, based on its 14nm process. In a lot of ways, the Basin Falls Refresh lineup looks a lot like the initial Skylake-X line that it follows. It features the same amount of cores, but the clock speeds get a boost, along with some enhanced features. These new HEDT processors largely follow in the footsteps of Coffee Lake Refresh, another CPU lineup announced at the same event. The biggest question that crops up with Basin Falls Refresh, though, especially in the midst of the heightened Intel vs AMD battle, is whether or not these new processors provide a better value than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation processors. To answer that question and more, we decided to gather up everything there is to know about Basin Falls Refresh. From the release date to pricing, and even a bit about the performance of Basin Falls Refresh. So, keep this page bookmarked and we’ll keep this article updated with all the latest Basin Falls Refresh news. Cut to the chase
Intel Basin Falls Refresh release dateThe AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation platform launched back in August 2018, and ever since then, we’ve been waiting with bated breath for Intel to launch something to compete with it. Now Basin Falls Refresh processors are finally here, and ready to take Threadripper 2nd Generation on. Intel Basin Falls Refresh priceWe were initially hoping that Intel would price this new HEDT platform more competitively – especially considering how AMD is gaining popularity right now. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to happen, with Intel instead pricing its Basin Falls Refresh pretty much exactly how it priced its 7th-generation Skylake-X processors. The prices for all the new X299 chips are as follows, from lowest to highest price.
It’s pretty clear that these processors, like their predecessors, are extremely expensive, and are probably not a great value for most everyday desktop users. However, with some of these chips being nearly double the price of their Threadripper equivalents (at least in terms of core counts), it remains to be seen whether or not they will be competitive among content creators and enthusiasts. Only time and benchmarks will tell.
Image Credit: Intel Intel Basin Falls Refresh specsIt goes without saying that these new Basin Falls Refresh processors bring some major improvements to Intel’s HEDT lineup. The biggest improvement here is the support of up to 68 PCI-E lanes (still only 44 natively on the CPU, though, the chipset supports the remaining 24). These new processors also feature much higher clock speeds, which should help in single threaded applications like gaming. The Specifications of the Basin Falls Refresh is as follows:
It should be immediately noticeable that as the core count goes up, the base clock speeds go down, this is largely due to increasing power and heat constraints as the core denisty goes up throughout the processor family Still, the boost clocks are pretty stable throughout. Unfortunately, cache on these new Basin Falls Refresh processors is identical to the last generation, with 24.75MB on the Core i9-9980XE, which is the same amount found on the 7980XE.
Image Credit: TechRadar Intel Basin Falls Refresh performanceNow, we’ve only tested one of the Basin Falls Refresh chips, the Core i9-9980XE. However, we can use this flagship chip to get a feeling for how the Basin Falls Refresh lineup performs. The improved clock speeds on these Basin Fall Refresh processors lead to improved performance across the board, but in heavily threaded workloads, like Cinebench R15, the Intel Core i9-9980XE still lags behind the Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX. Now, Intel claims that this new lineup is going to lead to up to 108% faster performance over the 2990WX in Adobe Premiere. You might want to take this with a grain of salt, because while we haven’t measured Adobe Premiere performance ourselves, we do have Cinebench numbers for both the Intel Core i9-9980XE and the 2990WX. The Threadripper 2990WX scored 4,913 in Cinebench, whereas the Intel Core i9-9980XE scored 3,640. Now, obviously Cinebench and Adobe Premiere aren’t the same program, but the tasks are comparable enough to make Intel’s claims seem fishy.
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| AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation release date, news and features: everything you need to know Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:51 PM PDT Intel used to be the de facto ruler of the processor world, crafting the best processors on the market – no contest. However, with Ryzen, the game changed entirely. And, now that AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation has been out for a while, Team Red is dominating the market, more than doubling the sales of Intel’s chips, according to a German retailer. As far as the current generation goes, though,we’ve had a chance to review a wide range of Ryzen 2nd Generation processors from the Ryzen 5 2600X to the powerhouse that is the Ryzen 7 2700X, we know AMD isn’t holding back as it pushes power and value even further. We have also heard rumors of a Ryzen 7 2800X, which should give the recent Coffee Lake Refresh processors a run for their money – but, with the advent of AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation, likely at Computex 2019, we doubt that particular processor will ever surface. Plus, AMD is hard at work on Zen 2, the architecture behind the next generation of Ryzen. And, according to the latest rumors, we could see up to 16-cores on the flagship, and clock speeds up to 5.0GHz. If any of this is real, the processor world will shake when these next-gen chunks of silicon drop sometime in mid-2019. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: AMD AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation release dateThe wait for the new AMD chips is finally over. The first generation Ryzen processors shipped out in March 2017 and rolled out throughout 2017. Now, Ryzen 2nd Generation chips have launched at around the same time of year, on April 19, 2018. Beyond the first few chips AMD released, the timeline points to released for both the 2nd Generation Ryzen Pro and Ryzen Threadripper chips throughout the second half of 2018. Ryzen Pro chips are designed for business and IT use-cases, with up to 8-cores and 16-threads. Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation is the ‘big daddy’ of AMD’s offering with up to 32-cores for die-hard creative types. AMD also announced a Ryzen 5 2500X and Ryzen 3 2300X, but at this point we don’t think these mid-range chips will ever make it to market. Intel’s Coffee Lake Refresh has been out for a few months now, and Ryzen 3rd Generation chips are supposedly right around the corner at Computex 2019. Those are all desktop chips, and AMD has launched the Ryzen 7 2700U, along with Ryzen 5 and 3 parts earlier this year. And, laptops are starting to roll out with these chips. And, even though AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation is right around the corner, AMD may be releasing 50th anniversary editions of some of its parts, including the beloved Ryzen 7 2700X.
Image Credit: AMD AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation priceAMD plans for its second generation of Ryzen chips to be just as affordable as the first batch. Granted, delivering more affordable CPUs has always been AMD's edge, but for the first time in years, the cheaper Ryzen chips could honestly hang with, if not surpass, Intel's offerings. AMD has decided to continue its course with the 2nd Generation models. It was imperative that it delivered affordable, high-performing CPUs. And while we haven’t seen the pricing for the mid-range chips, what we’ve seen so far seems to fall in line with the pricing for the first generation.
Last year, the quad-core Ryzen 3 1300X debuted at $129 (£112, AU$169), while Intel's Core i3 7350K went for $149 (£169, AU$299). Bump up to the hexa-core Ryzen 5 1600X, and we saw it offered for $249 (£249, AU$359) – compare that to the quad-core Intel Core i5-7600K at $239 (£219, AU$339), although you lose a couple of cores in the process. We saw the biggest price difference with the Ryzen 7 1800X, which at $499 (£500, around AU$650) was nearly half the price of Intel's Core i7-5960X/6900K. Of course, this lead to Intel introducing a more affordable Intel Core i7-8700K and Intel Core i7-7820X. Meanwhile, the AMD Threadripper 1950X came in at $999 (£999, AU$1,439) and delivered even stronger performance than Intel's like-priced Core i9-7900X. Of course, AMD recently dropped its Ryzen prices across the board alongside the 2nd Generation announcement, keeping things competitive with Intel as the two companies wage war for your CPU-buying dollars. AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation specsRyzen 2nd generation processors offer quite the generational leap over their predecessors. They're built using a new 12-nanometer process, which will cram in even more transistors and thus provide more raw speed along the way. According to AMD 12nm process results in an approximately 16% performance increase and 11% better lower power draw over the original Ryzen's 14nm process. We have finally seen some rumors swirling around about the Ryzen 2nd Generation APUs, which will succeed the Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G. According to PCGamesN, the next generation APUs will be coming out next year, and will feature the same Zen+ 12nm architecture as current Ryzen 2nd Generation CPUs. This could mean APUs could see a similar boost to performance as we saw when the first generation Ryzen chips were succeeded. AMD says that the Ryzen 2nd Generation chips will be the smallest and fastest desktop processors to date – lofty promises, but ones that are sure to excite PC enthusiasts and users of all stripes. Ryzen 2nd Generation chips will deliver higher clock speeds and introduce the enhanced Precision Boost 2 technology to boost performance during high-drain scenarios. And, now that we’ve gotten our hands on the Ryzen 7 2700X and the Ryzen 5 2600X, we know that AMD has succeeded in pushing its specs. The 2700X with its 8-cores, 16-threads and speedy boost clock of 4.3GHz that outperforms the Intel Core i7-8700K, AMD has fully embraced the enthusiast market. Even the lower-end Ryzen 5 2600X pushes performance into the next generation with 6-cores, 12-threads and a 4.2 GHz boost clock. We’ve also seen leaked benchmarks for the yet-to-be announced Ryzen 3 2300X and Ryzen 5 2500X. The former is apparently a four-core, four-thread processor clocked at 3.5GHz and a 4.0GHz boost clock. Meanwhile the rumored Ryzen 5 2500X is a four-core, eight-thread chip, featuring a 3.6GHz core clock, boosting up to 4.0GHz. We don’t have any pricing or release date information on these rumored chips, but we assume they’ll be great entry-level and mid-range options, respectively – when and if they come out. Recently, we saw a leak from ASRock pointing to the existence of some low-power E-series Ryzen 2nd Generation chips, the Ryzen 5 2600E and Ryzen 7 2700E. These chips will have a much lower 45W TDP and feature an 8-core design for the Ryzen 7, and 6-cores for the Ryzen 5 – according to the rumor reported by Wccftech. But, it doesn’t end with the desktop chips. AMD has also released Ryzen 2nd Generation mobile chips in the Ryzen 7 2700U, Ryzen 5 2500U, Ryzen 3 2300U and Ryzen 3 2200U. These all have Vega graphics packed in, meaning you can comfortably do some light gaming on them. The two higher-end chips are four-core, eight-thread processors with boost clocks of 3.8GHz and 3.6GHz for the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5, respectively. The Ryzen 3 2300U and 2200U are four-core, four-thread chips with 3.4GHz boost clocks. The core difference in these two chips is that the former features stronger Vega graphics, while the 2200U has a higher base clock of 2.5GHz. AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation is a distillation of everything AMD wanted to do with Ryzen. And, if the specs of the early Ryzen 2nd Generation CPUs are anything to go off of, we’re very excited to see what this lineup looks like by the end of 2018. AMD has a very technical primer on Precision Boost 2 from its Ryzen Mobile Processor with Radeon Vega Graphics, in case you want to dig into the specs. We've seen some SenseMi improvements in AMD's recent Ryzen-based desktop APUs, so it stands to reason that we'll see similar performance and efficiency increases in the Ryzen 2nd Generation line. That could include optimized power usage through Pure Power smart sensors and improved overclocking potential from Extended Frequency Range 2.
Image Credit: AMD Anyone looking to upgrade from Ryzen Gen 1 will be happy to know that AMD has kept the same AM4 socket intact, so you won’t need to buy a new motherboard to slot one of these CPUs into your machine. There is also an enhanced X470 chipset that’s optimized for Ryzen 2nd Generation with lower power consumption. Keep in mind that AMD calls the heart of Ryzen 2nd Generation the Zen+ architecture, rather than Zen 2. What’s the difference? Well, Zen 2 will be an entirely new architecture built on a 7nm process, which – as you can imagine – could provide a world of difference when it comes to power and performance.
Image Credit: TechRadar AMD's roadmap shows the Zen 2 and Zen 3 (listed at "7nm+") cores coming somewhere between the release of the Zen+ and the year 2020, so that's more likely to appear in 2019. Zen 2 design is reportedly complete at this point, and it "improves on Zen in multiple dimensions" according to AMD. And the Zen 3 is "on track," as well. AMD could be primed to shake up the CPU industry all over again with the Zen 2, but that's not what we'll see this year: Zen+ is what's powering the Ryzen 2nd Gen chips. Even so, there's plenty of reason to be excited for the Ryzen 2nd Generation chips, especially if you’re in the market for a PC upgrade this year. And, even with Intel on the defensive, it’s safe to say that AMD knocked it out of the park. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Coffee Lake Refresh release date, news and features Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:50 PM PDT When Intel launched the 8th-generation Coffee Lake processors, no one knew what was going on. But, we weren’t fooled again when it launched the 9th Generation Intel Coffee Lake Refresh lineup. This time around, Intel brought higher core counts and faster clock speeds across the board. Coffee Lake Refresh bridges the gap between Coffee Lake and AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation – or it will until AMD launches its 3rd Generation Ryzen chips. We’ll see how successful Coffee Lake Refresh is once we’ve finished testing all the different chips, but just judging by the Intel Core i9-9900K, Intel has succeeded in performance, even if the sales don’t reflect that success. With Intel’s first mainstream, 8-core, 16-thread processors for consumers, Coffee Lake Refresh changes everything. Now, this is just the highlight reel, but there is so much more Coffee Lake Refresh information out there, so strap in for the long ride and we’ll tell you everything there is to know about the latest from Intel. Cut to the chase
Intel Coffee Lake Refresh release dateAt its 2018 Desktop Launch Event, Intel finally revealed when we can get our hands on its 9th Generation desktop lineup. The good news is that all the speculation was pretty much spot on – preorders are live now, and the chips will start shipping out on October 19. Then, in April 2019, Intel filled out the Coffee Lake Refresh lineup both on the desktop and the mobile side. Over on mobile, we’re getting new H-series laptop chips, which should be behind the best gaming laptops this year. Alongside these mobile chips, we’re getting new desktop CPUs, namely the non-K variants. All of these new chips should start shipping soon. The only exception would be the Intel Core i5-9400F, which is a non-overclockable chip without graphics. But, it’s significantly cheaper than the Intel Core i5-9600K. Intel Coffee Lake Refresh priceNow that Intel has announced its new desktop platform, we now know what the pricing is going to look like. For the most part, it falls in line with what Intel charged for Coffee Lake desktop chips, though the Intel Core i9 is much more expensive than the competition, namely the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X. But, at least Intel is giving users the choice to get processors without integrated graphics for the same price. The prices are as follows:
We’re sure that Intel is going to pad this lineup with other mid-range and entry-level processors over the next year or so to pad out these massive price gaps. Until then, though, we can still expect fantastic multi-core performance at a reasonable price.
Intel Coffee Lake Refresh specsNow that Intel has shown us what Coffee Lake Refresh is capable of, we have a clear picture of what these new processors look like. And, now that the Coffee Lake Refresh lineup is fleshed out, here is the core consumer lineup.
This lineup is noteworthy, as it marks the first Intel Core i7 chip in a while without hyperthreading – instead it just features eight single-threaded cores. Still, that should be plenty, especially considering the impressive 4.9GHz boost clock. Luckily, there is still a 9th-generation consumer chip that retains hyperthreading in Intel’s Core i9-9900K. Then, there’s the F-series chips, which don’t come with the same Intel UHD 630 integrated GPU as the rest of the lineup. This lack of a GPU doesn’t come with a price drop, but it looks like they’re designed for OHM use. Intel might be pushing core counts even higher in the future. A recent forum post suggests that deca-core ‘Comet Lake’ processors, based on the same 14nm process as Coffee Lake Refresh are incoming. Either way it looks like Intel won’t be done with 14nm any time soon, unfortunately: its upcoming Cascade Lake processors will be based on the same process. These new processors also feature much improved thermal performance, thanks to a soldered thermal interface material (STIM). This should help these processors overclock more efficiently without having to resort to exotic cooling solutions to stretch the performance out. This is big, because Intel has stuck with non-soldered thermal paste to transfer heat between the processor dies and the IHS – much to the chagrin of enthusiasts and overclockers. This new soldered material should be a much more efficient heat transfer medium, which Intel says will lead to easier overclocking. However, some of the new F-series Coffee Lake Refresh chips will be sticking with the non-soldered solution. Intel says this is because standard F-series chips won’t be overclocked, and thus won’t need the more robust cooling solution. Luckily, the processors model names with a ‘KF’ suffix will include the same STIM as earlier 9th-generation processors. One more thing – an Intel Core i9-9900T leak showed up on Yahoo Auctions. It seems to be a 35W version of the Intel Core i9-9900K with the same amount of cores and threads, but with a severely cut down clock speed. This part hasn’t been announced by Intel, so we would take it with a grain of salt – but this wouldn’t be the first time Intel launched low-power T-series chips for prebuilt computers.
Intel Coffee Lake Refresh featuresOf course, it wouldn’t be a new Intel processor lineup with a new motherboard and chipset platform. Interestingly enough, Intel’s forthcoming Z390 chipset is on the way, and can finally be preordered, after months and months of speculation. This new platform supports t onboard 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and USB 3.1 Gen 2 – both of which are features not found natively supported on the current Z370 chipset. This new chipset now supports up to 40 lanes of PCIe Express 3.0, but is still limited to dual-channel, 2,666MHz memory.
Intel Coffee Lake Refresh performanceWe have finally fully reviewed and tested Intel Core i9-9900K and it is, without a doubt, the fastest consumer processor on the market right now. Intel’s high end chip absolutely dominated everything else in both single core and multi core performance, scoring a ridiculous 33,173 multi-core score in GeekBench 4 – compared to the Ryzen 7 2700X’s 26,011 – it even destroys AMD’s HEDT Threadripper chips in many everyday situations. However, be careful of the inflated price you’re paying for this higher performance. WE haven’t tested either the Intel Core i7-9700K or the i5-9600K yet, but those reviews are on the way. Until then, though, we have some preliminary results from Intel, but take these with a grain of salt. Back at Intel’s reveal event for Coffee Lake Refresh, we were able to test the new processors in gaming specific workloads, where the Intel Core i7-9700K was able to hit 30,339 points in a World of Tanks benchmark – compared to the Intel Core i9-9900K’s 33,108 in the same test at the same event. Meanwhile, the Intel Core i7-9700K was able to hit 30,339 points in that same World of Tanks benchmark – which is impressive given that chip doesn’t feature multithreading. That’s all we got right now. There’s surely a ton of information to come – so, per our usual advice, we encourage you to keep this page bookmarked, as we’ll keep it updated with in-depth coverage of the latest Intel Coffee Lake Refresh news, information and reviews. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| AMD Ryzen release date, news and features: everything you need to know Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:49 PM PDT Now that AMD Ryzen has been out for quite a while, AMD has claimed a bulk of the market after the successful launch of AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation. And, in spite of some weird product launches, like Threadripper chips bundled with liquid cooling solutions – it’s obvious that AMD has delivered on its promise of processors that not only perform better than ever, but are still affordable, too. Unfortunately, even though AMD didn’t get hit by Meltdown and Spectre as hard as Intel did, Team Red wasn’t entirely immune. Israeli security firm, CTS Labs, put out a white paper detailing security vulnerabilities that affected AMD Ryzen processors. Luckily, AMD has released firmware patches that protect its processors against these security exploits. Luckily, we’ve compiled all of our knowledge here so that you can learn all there is to know about – and what is in the future for – AMD’s Zen-based CPUs.
Cut to the chase
AMD Ryzen release dateThe first Ryzen processors were announced on February 22, 2017, and arrived a couple weeks later. The Ryzen 7 series of high-end chips, including, but not limited to, the competitive Ryzen 7 1800X, whose multi-threaded benchmarks put it in line with the Intel Core i7-6900K. In April 2017, AMD introduced Ryzen 5. Among this series is the Ryzen 5 1600X, comparable to the mid-range Intel Core i5-7600K. AMD later introduced its high-end desktop lineup, Ryzen Threadripper in August 2017. Then, in February 2018, AMD released the Ryzen 3 2200G and the Ryzen 5 2400G, which implemented Vega graphics aimed at media center PCs. Moreover, AMD has formally introduced an entry-level Ryzen 3 series consisting of the Ryzen 3 1200 and 1300X. Both of these were launched in July 2018 and are meant to challenge the Intel Core i3-7100 and the Core i3-7300, respectively. Most recently with AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation, AMD has utilized its new 12nm Zen+ architecture that delivers faster speeds than any processor ever made by AMD. Processors like the Ryzen 7 2700X give us a taste of what AMD is going to be delivering on the high-end. We’ve also seen plenty of rumors about Ryzen 3rd Generation, powered by the Zen 2 architecture previewed at CES 2019, which should give us up to 16-core CPUs. This is a big deal if true, but AMD is rumored to reveal AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation processors at Computex 2019, so the wait may almost be over.
AMD Ryzen priceThe Red Team, if you will, has positioned the Ryzen 7 series against Intel’s Core i7 chips, but for far better prices. The Ryzen 7 1800X chip, for instance, is available for $349 (£290, around AU$489). That’s significantly less expensive than Intel’s asking price for its Core i7-6900K. The Ryzen 7 1700X is marketed as AMD’s mid-range chip within this series, priced at $300 (£260, AU$430), while the Ryzen 7 1700 (no “X”) is available for $290 (£260, AU$415). Positioned as the mid-range Ryzen chip altogether, the 6-core Ryzen 5 1600X costs $220 (£200, AU$305), though there are more affordable options, like the $189 (£165, AU$265) Ryzen 5 1600 and the $150 (£136, AU$215) Ryzen 5 1400 in the mix as well. The Threadripper series consists of AMD’s priciest Ryzen chips, the cheapest of which is the $449 (£375, AU$630) AMD Threadripper 1900X. Then there’s a $749 (£689, AU$1,099) Threadripper 1920X and a $899 (£889, AU$1,399) Threadripper 1950X chip. Also found within this series are the Ryzen Threadripper 1900, 1920 and 1950, presumably more wallet-friendly alternatives to the “X” monikered chips of the same name. These processors are expected to ditch the clock-boosting XFR tech in favor of more frugal price tags. As far as the most recently released Ryzen 3 processors go, the baseline Ryzen 3 1200 retails for $109 (£80, AU$140) while the 29% faster Ryzen 3 1300X bears a going rate of $129 (£100, AU$160), making them both cheaper than Intel’s similarly specced options. And, we can’t forget about the recently released Ryzen APUs – the Ryzen 3 2200G MSRPs at a very reasonable $99.98 (about £71, AU$129.99), while the higher-powered, 4K-ready Ryzen 5 2400G is available from $162.89 (about £116, AU$211). Both are great deals, especially if you’re trying to build a media PC.
AMD Ryzen specsRyzen was designed by AMD to perform well at high loads and be compatible with the latest hardware in PC gaming. To that end, the firm had to develop a new chipset for the processors, the X370 and X300, and a new socket, the AM4. Yes, that means you’ll need a new motherboard (and a newer OS than Windows 7) for your Ryzen CPU. Luckily, a pretty handful of AMD Ryzen motherboards are already on the market for this very occasion. These mobos support all the same technologies as the bulk of Intel’s boards including the following:
Now, for the Ryzen processor architecture itself. AMD says that its goals with Ryzen were “maximum data throughput and instruction execution plus high bandwidth, low latency cache-memory support for optimal compute efficiency.” So, take solace in the fact that all Ryzen processors enjoy these same traits:
Essentially, the Ryzen chips are better at hyper-threading across their eight (so far) cores, enabling more actions per clock than before. Plus, we already witnessed an AMD Ryzen chip break a world record in benchmarks – albeit under extreme cooling. High-level capabilities aside, here are the highlights for the upcoming Threadripper chips:
These are the specs for each of the three Ryzen 7 chips:
This is what you can expect from AMD’s Ryzen 5 chips:
Lastly, the elusive Ryzen 3 chips, in the flesh:
According to an AMD launch video for Threadripper, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X put Intel’s top-end Core i9-7900X to shame, with its Cinebench R15 test resulting in a score of 3,000 points. The Core i9-7900X, on the other hand, only scored 2,400 points. That feat, paired with the news that AMD plans on dropping enterprise-focused Ryzen Pro CPUs in the latter half of 2017 and Ryzen Pro Mobile processors in the first chunk of 2018, should be a cause for concern for Intel. Stay tuned to this page for more of the latest AMD Ryzen information as more news emerges about the forthcoming AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPUs. Gabe Carey has also contributed to this article This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Coffee Lake release date, news and features Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:48 PM PDT Fifth time’s the charm. At least that seems to be the case with Intel’s fifth round of processors based on the 14nm manufacturing process. After Intel released the laptop-focused Kaby Lake Refresh chips in August 2017, it finally released the 8th-generation Coffee Lake lineup about a month later, along with a fresh lineup of the best motherboards. What was especially shocking is that even with tough competition, Intel was able to stay competitive, even if it has since lost its lead to AMD. AMD pretty much killed the game with its Ryzen 2nd Generation chips, but Intel, with Coffee Lake, is still massively successful – especially now that Coffee Lake Refresh has arrived. Either way, make sure you stay tuned to TechRadar, as we’ll update this article with any Coffee Lake news that comes our way. Cut to the chase
Intel Coffee Lake release dateOriginally, in February 2017, Intel stated that Coffee Lake would surface in the latter half of the year. Intel reassured us of this claim at Computex 2017 held in Taipei, Taiwan. Later into 2017, the Santa Clara chipmaker came out and teased an August 21 livestream reveal of its 8th-generation processors, which turned out to be a refresh of its 7th-generation processors for Ultrabooks and laptops, called Kaby Lake Refresh. Intel announced Coffee Lake back in September 2017 and was followed by the release date in October. Then, the CPU game settled a bit until April 2018, when Team Blue announced Coffee Lake mobile chips, powering some big-name laptops like the MSI GS65 Stealth. But, Intel has announced 9th-generation Coffee Lake Refresh H-series mobile chips to replace them, promising substantial boosts. There are also some U-series Coffee Lake chips, but those only made it into a few laptops, like the 2018 MacBook Pro, before being succeeded by Whiskey Lake. We also saw Intel’s low-power T-Series desktop chips around the same time – though you’ll more likely find these processor in pre-built PCs rather than on a computer store shelf. Back at Computex 2018, Intel announced the Intel Core i7-8086K, celebrating its 50th anniversary, and is available today. This beast of a chip rocks the same 6-cores and 12-threads as the Intel Core i7 8700K, but they’re clocked significantly higher.
Intel Coffee Lake priceArguably the most elusive aspect of Coffee Lake leading up to its canonical announcement was pricing. Aside from looking at the processor market AMD Ryzen rewrote, we didn’t have much to base our speculation upon.. Luckily, Intel has revealed a total rundown of the latest 8th-generation Coffee Lake chips since their announcement. And with that reveal, we finally knew that the Santa Clara tech behemoth was going to unleash an entire assortment of processors with a wide range of different prices. Starting with the cheapest Core i3 chips the Coffee Lake series is priced as follows:
Intel Coffee Lake specsLet’s break it down: although all of the 8th-generation Coffee Lake chips are still manufactured on the 14nm node, Intel has proven that there’s still plenty of life in the process yet. Again, starting from the ground up, the Intel Core i3 chips this time boast 4-cores each for the first time in the mainstream CPU space. What’s more, whereas the Intel Core i3-8100 takes advantage of four cores and four threads running at 3.6GHz, the unlocked Core i3-8350K totes the same number of cores and threads, but instead opts for a base frequency of 4GHz. As for the Core i5 range, the plain Intel Core i5-8400 is a now a hexa-core monster, bearing 6-cores and 6-threads. Moreover, its base clock is 2.8GHz, and it operates at 4GHz with Turbo Boost. Meanwhile the Core i5-8600K also squeezes six cores and six threads into the 14nm chip while brandishing base/boost speeds of 3.6GHz and 4.3GHz, respectively. Then you’ve got the Intel Core i7-8700 and i7-8700K. The former is yet another 6-core demon, albeit with double the number of threads as the i5-8600K. Its overclockable analogue, the Intel Core i7-8700K, poses a threat to the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X, sporting 6-cores, 12-threads and base/boost clock speeds of 3.7GHz/4.7GHz. Then, rounding out the Core i7 Coffee Lake CPUs, you have the Intel Core i7 8086K, which a 6-core 12-thread chip, clocked at 4.0GHz with a whopping 5.0GHz boost clock. This makes it the highest-clocked consumer chip Intel has released. Fitting way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the original Intel 8086 processor. And, following the announcement for the anticipated H-Series Coffee Lake Processors, including the Core i9-8950HK, clocked at 2.9GHz with a 4.8GHZ boost clock, we’re going to see some blazing fast laptops powered by these 6-core, 12-thread behemoths. Intel has also announced a new line of low-powered T-series desktop CPUs that should effectively fill out the budget segment of the CPU market. That’s all we know for now. We’ve seen a wide array of 8th-generation Coffee Lake processors, including a few Coffee Lake processors for laptops to mark the end of the series. From here out, we expect Intel will move on with a new series of 9th Generation Coffee Lake Refresh CPUs, and, who knows? Maybe we’ll actually see Coffee Lake-X or Cascade Lake-X chips eventually. There still a ton of news to come. Per our usual advice, we encourage you return to this page periodically for in-depth coverage of the latest Intel Coffee Lake reveals.
Bill Thomas and Joe Osborne have also contributed to this report This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| AMD vs Intel: which chipmaker does processors better? Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:45 PM PDT Although the battle between Coffee Lake Refresh and AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation is still raging on, the war between Ryzen 3rd Generation, Ice Lake and Sunny Cove is about to begin. It’s also time for us to dive into the perennial deathmatch: AMD vs Intel. And, right now AMD is on top, selling twice as many processors. Essentially acting as the brain of your computer, the best processors are behind everything your PC does. This is why it’s so important to find the one for your specific needs – you don’t want to pay for features you don’t need. If you’ve followed the frantic battle of AMD vs Intel as closely as we have over the years, you likely already know that AMD and Intetl have traditionally focused on different segments of the CPU market. Where Intel has focused on higher clock speeds and efficiency, AMD has focused on upping its core counts and boosting multi-threaded performance. Still, there’s room for the coexistence of AMD and Intel – they cater to different audiences, with direct competition in the middle. If you’re not quite sure whether to pledge allegiance to either Team Red or Team Blue, continue on to the next slide for a constantly updated look at the AMD vs Intel clash. Gary Marshall originally contributed to this article For bargain shoppers on the prowl for the next hottest deal, it used to be assumed that AMD’s processors were cheaper, but that was only because the Red Team did its best work at the entry level. Now that Ryzen processors have proven AMD’s worth on the high-end, the tide has ostensibly turned. The $99 (£89, AU$139) AMD Ryzen 3 2200G wipes the floor with Intel’s $64 (about £46, AU$82) Pentium G4560. And, now that the G4560 has been replaced with the newly-announced Intel Pentium G5620 launches for $86 (about £65, AU$120), the entry level desktop market should heat up. Even among mid-range, current-gen chips, Intel is leading the pack by offering 9th-generation Coffee Lake CPUs as low as $122 (about £93, AU$170) for the Core i3-9100T. Still, on the low end, Intel and AMD processors typically retail at about the same price. It’s once you hit that exorbitant $200 (around £142, AU$252) mark where things get trickier. High-end Intel chips now range from 4 up to 18 cores, while AMD chips can now be found with up to 32-cores. And, thanks to some recent price cuts you can find the AMD Ryzen 5 2400G and the Ryzen 3 2200G for $160 (around £129, AU$208) and $105 (around £84, AU$135), respectively. While it was long-rumored that AMD’s Ryzen chips would offer cutting-edge performance at a lower price, benchmarks have demonstrated that Intel is remaining strongly competitive. If you can get your hands on one, the Core i7-9700K is $409 (£499, AU$659), while the still more-capable Ryzen 7 2700X is priced at $329 (about £230, AU$420). And, if you’re looking to get your hands on the new hotness, the Intel Core i9-9900K is available for $579 (£599, AU$859.) For anyone looking to dip their toes into the realm of the HEDT processors, AMD and Intel are very close right now, especially on the heels of the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX CPU, at $1,799 (£1,639, AU$2,679). That might seem like a lot, but compared to the $1,999 (£1,859, AU$2,999) Intel Core i9-9980XE, it’s a downright bargain – especially given that AMD’s offering has nearly double the cores. If you're building a gaming PC, truthfully you should be using a discrete graphics card, or GPU (graphics processing unit), rather than relying on a CPU’s integrated graphics to run games as demanding as Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Still, it’s possible to run less graphically intense games on an integrated GPU if your processor has one. In this area, AMD is the clear winner, thanks to the release of the Ryzen 5 2400G that packs powerful discrete Vega graphics that outperforms Intel’s onboard graphic technology by leaps and bounds. Yet, as we mentioned before, Intel has officially started shipping its high-end H-series mobile CPU chips with AMD graphics on board. In turn, this means that hardier laptops powered by Intel can now be thinner and their accompanying silicon footprints will be over 50% smaller, according to Intel client computing group vice president Christopher Walker. All of this is accomplished using Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology, along with a newly contrived framework that enables power sharing between Intel’s first-party processors and third-party graphics chips with dedicated graphics memory. Even so, it’s too early to tell whether this is a better solution than the purebred AMD notebooks slated for the end of this year. Intel might be aiming to shake things up though as it has announced that it’s planning on releasing a GPU aimed at gamers by 2020. And, if we could see Intel putting some of that effort into improving integrated graphics. Still, if all you're looking to do is play League of Legends at modest settings or relive your childhood with a hard drive full of emulators (it's okay, we won't tell), the latest Intel Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake or AMD A-Series APU processors for desktops will likely fare just as well as any forthcoming portable graphics solution. On the high-end, especially in cases where you don’t need to worry about on-board graphics, Intel’s processors are typically on top – its Core i9-9900K handily beats out the workstation-class Ryzen Threadripper 2970WX for less than half the price. AMD typically provides better multi-threading performance, as a result of higher core and thread counts. Ryzen CPUs also offer more PCIe lanes, which come in handy if you want multiple NVMe SSDs alongside SLI and CrossFire multi-GPU performance. While there is no clear winner in the graphics department, survey says AMD is the better option for integrated graphics, while hardcore gamers who don’t mind shelling out the extra cash for a GPU will find that Intel is better for gaming alone – although with Ryzen 2nd Generation AMD is closing that gap. Meanwhile, AMD is superior for carrying out numerous tasks at once. If you're building a gaming PC, truthfully you should be using a discrete graphics card, or GPU (graphics processing unit), rather than relying on a CPU’s integrated graphics to run games as demanding as Middle Earth: Shadow of War. Still, it’s possible to run less graphically intense games on an integrated GPU if your processor has one. In this area, AMD is the clear winner, thanks to the release of the Ryzen 5 2400G that packs powerful discrete Vega graphics that outperforms Intel’s onboard graphic technology by leaps and bounds. AMD has also launched an updated driver for its mobile Ryzen chips, which leads to up to 20% better performance in games like CS:GO and Fortnite. Yet, as we mentioned before, Intel has officially started shipping its high-end H-series mobile CPU chips with AMD graphics on board. In turn, this means that hardier laptops powered by Intel can now be thinner and their accompanying silicon footprints will be over 50% smaller, according to Intel client computing group vice president Christopher Walker. All of this is accomplished using Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB) technology, along with a newly contrived framework that enables power sharing between Intel’s first-party processors and third-party graphics chips with dedicated graphics memory. Even so, it’s too early to tell whether this is a better solution than the purebred AMD notebooks. Still, if all you're looking to do is play League of Legends at modest settings or relive your childhood with a hard drive full of emulators (it's okay, we won't tell), the latest Intel Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake or AMD A-Series APU processors for desktops will likely fare just as well as any forthcoming portable graphics solution. On the high end, such as in cases where you'll be pairing your CPU with a powerful AMD or Nvidia GPU, Intel’s processors are typically better for gaming due to their higher base and boost clock speeds. At the same time, though, AMD provides better CPUs for multi-tasking as a result of their higher core and thread counts. While there is no clear winner in the graphics department, survey says AMD is the better option for integrated graphics, especially on mobile with its Ryzen chips for laptops.However, Intel is working on improving its own integrated graphics in 2019, with its Gen11 graphics – we’ll have to see how well they work when they actually ship. But, early leaked benchmarks make Intel’s next generation of integrated graphics look appealing, indeed. Hardcore gamers who don’t mind shelling out the extra cash for a GPU will find that Intel is better for gaming alone. Meanwhile, AMD is superior for carrying out numerous tasks at once. When you buy a new computer or even just a CPU by itself, it's typically locked at a specific clock speed as indicated on the box. Some processors ship unlocked, allowing for higher clock speeds than recommended by the manufacturer, giving users more control over how they use their components (though, it does require you know how to overclock). AMD is normally more generous than Intel in this regard. With an AMD system, you can expect overclocking capabilities from even the $129 (£84, AU$145) Ryzen 3 2200G. Meanwhile, you can only overclock an Intel processor if it's graced with the “K” series stamp of approval. Then again, the cheapest of these is the $173 (about £130, AU$240) Intel Core i3-9350K. Both companies will void your warranty if you brick your processor as the result of overclocking, though, so it’s important to watch out for that. Excessive amounts of heat can be generated if you’re not careful, thereby neutralizing the CPU as a result. With that in mind, you’ll be missing out on a few hundred stock megahertz if you skip out on one of the K models. Intel’s more extravagant K-stamped chips are pretty impressive, too. The i9-9900K, for instance, is capable of maintaining a whopping 5.0GHz turbo frequency in comparison to the 4.3GHz boost frequency of the Ryzen 7 2700X. If you’ve access to liquid nitrogen cooling, you may even be able to reach upwards of 6.1GHz using Intel’s monstrous, 18-core i9-7980XE. In the end, the biggest problem with AMD’s desktop processors is the lack of compatibility with other components. Specifically, motherboard (mobo) and cooler options are limited as a result of the differing sockets between AMD and Intel chips. While a lot of CPU coolers demand that you special order an AM4 bracket to be used with Ryzen, only a handful of the best motherboards are compatible with the AM4 chipset. In that regard, Intel parts are slightly more commonplace and are often accompanied by lower starting costs, too, as a result of the wide variety of kit to choose from. That said, AMD's chips make a little more sense from a hardware design perspective. With an AMD motherboard, rather than having metal connector pins on the CPU socket, you'll notice those pins are instead on the underside of the CPU itself. In turn, the mobo is less likely to malfunction due to its own faulty pins. When it comes to availability in 2019, it gets complicated. While both Coffee Lake Refresh and AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation processors are widely available, Intel is going through supply shortages. In fact, financial analysts have downgraded Intel’s stock in the face of both 14nm shortages and Cannon Lake’s constant delays, according to a report from CNBC. And, thanks to this mass confusion and increased prices from Team Blue, AMD has stolen the sales crown. Still, you can pick up processors from both companies today, though Intel chips like the Intel Core i9-9900K might have some increased pricing. AMD APUs like the AMD Ryzen 3 2200G are still great options for anyone on a budget, though. Future speculationIt really shouldn’t come as a surprise that AMD had a great year in 2017 with its Ryzen processors – especially the high-end Threadripper processors. And, now that the Ryzen 2nd Generation CPUs have been released, AMD is claiming more and more of Intel’s market share, up to 50% at the time of writing. And, if AMD keeps putting out processors as good as the Ryzen 5 2600X and the Ryzen 7 2700X, we think this trend will only continue. As for Intel, it continues to struggle with 10nm production, which has seen its Cannon Lake processors pushed back again and again. We’re not sure when Cannon Lake is going to come out at all as Intel recently announced its 10nm Sunny Cove architecture, which will be behind whatever Ice Lake, Lakefield and a host of other chips we hope Intel will launch in 2019. The first of these appears to be Ice Lake, rather than Cannon Lake. Ice Lake will be behind the next generation of Ultrabooks, and will feature built-in Thunderbolt 3, WiFi and Gen11 graphics. Intel is making some promising claims for Ice Lake, like that it will be able to search for images twice as fast as Whiskey Lake. As with all Intel’s on-stage demonstrations, take that with a grain of salt though. We’ve also finally seen some evidence of Intel’s graphics cards beyond some vague gesturing. At GDC 2019, Intel showed off renders, giving us a tease of what its first graphics card would look like. Little short graphics cards with a single fan in a blower configuration. It’ll be interesting to see if they can compete with AMD’s higher-end GPUs. AMD, on the other hand, has announced its Zen 2 microarchitecture, which will be behind the AMD Ryzen 3000 series chips. And, while we don’t know any specifics beyond the nameless 8-core processor it showed off at CES 2019, word on the street is that it’ll appear at Computex 2019. As for what these chips will be capable of, we’ve seen a 12-core, 24-thread chip show up in a leaked UserBenchmark result. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Best soundbars for TV shows, movies and music in 2019 Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:36 PM PDT There are many reasons why it's worth upgrading your entertainment set-up at home with a top-of-the-range new soundbar. Particularly if you own on of the latest 4K TV screens, it can be really worth investing in a device that'll deliver the top quality sound to match. Even the best Samsung TV can use help from a new soundbar. TV displays are getting slimmer and slimmer by the day. Although this means they're more likely to fit in awkward spaces and cause anyone who's visiting your home to gasp in amazement, it does mean their built-in speakers tend to be lacking. That's why the obvious answer is an all-singing, all-dancing speaker system. If you're one of those people who admires the slim aesthetic of your new TV over everything else, then a good soundbar is your best option. The best soundbars won't stick out next to your shiny new slim screen like a normal stereo system would – the they are built to be just as aesthetically pleasing as they are aurally pleasing. The majority of soundbars on this list are made to sit in front of your screen, but they can also be wall-mounted above or to the side of it as well - giving you ultimate choice as to how your home entertainment set-up looks. Not only are they slim and powerful, soundbars are also a good solution for smaller homes and rooms with little space that wouldn't be able to squeeze a 7.1 channel speaker system in. Despite most only featuring front-facing speakers, many soundbars are able to confidently project sound in a way that makes it seems as though there's booming audio coming from most directions. The problem with soundbars these days is there are lots to choose from. If you don't find the right one for you, you can end up with a soundbar that doesn't fit with your home theater setup – or barely sounds better than your TV's built-in speakers. Read on below for the best soundbars available to buy in 2019, whether you're after Dolby Atmos support, multi-room audio, sleek design, or any variety of other advanced features alongside your soundbar's premium audio experience.
What's the best soundbar for around $200/£200?We can't stress this enough: when it comes to soundbars, there’s a lot of choice. Despite being called soundbars, they tend to come in different shapes and sizes. They also range in price from under £100/$100 to over £1,000/$1,500 (see: Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier). The cheaper the model you go for, the more basic the connections are likely to be. Whereas more expensive ones add superior HDMI inputs (including 4K/HDR passthrough), wireless audio streaming (e.g. Bluetooth and AirPlay), better power, more refined speaker drivers, and decoding of Blu-ray sound formats. Of course a full surround setup is the premium solution to bad-sounding TVs, but if you're short on space (as well as budget) then a soundbar offers a good compromise. So what is the best soundbar for around £200/$200?
Best Soundbars 2019: TechRadar's top picks
Image credit: Samsung Not content with dominating the TV world, Samsung now seems to have its sights set on becoming the number one brand for home entertainment audio, too. All this effort has already delivered outstanding results in the shape of both the HW-K850 and, especially, HW-K950 Dolby Atmos soundbars, as well as a range of ground-breaking multi-room wireless speakers. But, above everything stands the South Korean manufacturer's HW-MS650. No other one-body soundbar has combined so much raw power with so much clarity, scale and, especially, bass, or excelled so consistently with both films and music. It’s the sort of performance that only genuine audio innovation can deliver - and with that in mind, it’s well worth its $450/£599 price tag. Read the full review: Samsung HW-MS650 Soundbar
Image credit: Sony The Sony HT-ST5000 is the priciest soundbar you’ll find here, but for the money you’ll get an exceptional piece of equipment that offers support for Dolby’s spatial Atmos tech – on top of dealing exceptionally well with more conventional surround sound. The build quality and design of the soundbar is exceptional, and its general audio performance impresses with its clarity and spatial presentation. Still, the lofty price tag might turn some users off, and most people will get everything they need from less expensive units like the Samsung HW-MS650 above. But, if you want to have the best high-end soundbar around, the HT-ST5000 is the best soundbar you can buy today. Read the full review: Sony HT-ST5000
Image credit: Q Acoustics The Q Acoustics M4 soundbar doesn’t immediately set pulses racing with its slightly prosaic looks, ‘mere’ 2.1-channel sound and lack of any HDMI support. However, you only have to hear what the M4 can do with both music and movies for your doubts about it to evaporate almost instantly. In fact, it sounds so good that it starts to make the idea of trying to deliver more channels from an affordable soundbar look a bit silly. In fact, though, it sounds so much better than pretty much any rival soundbar in the same price bracket that it’s actually ridiculously good value - especially if you care about music as much as you care about movies. Read the full review: Q Acoustics M4 Soundbar
Image credit: Samsung The Samsung HW-N950 is something special. It's the latest flagship soundbar from the company, but the first to benefit from Samsung’s acquisition of Harman Kardon – a partnership that's already paying dividends. The HW-N950 is a whole-hearted upgrade on our previous award-winner, Samsung's HW-K950 – which long held the #6 spot on this list. Most importantly, the N950 now supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, compared to the K950 which was disappointingly limited to the former. With that in mind, the Samsung HW-N950 is simply one of the best soundbars that we have heard to date – and one of the only soundbars that really delivers a 7.1.4-channel immersive audio experience. The use of wireless rear speakers and a subwoofer, make the N950 easy to install and setup and allow the N950 to deliver object-based audio as the content creators intended, without resorting to psychoacoustic trickery. Read the full review: Samsung HW-N950
Image credit: Philips The Philips Fidelio B5 is an impressive bit of kit, and it's the perfect soundbar for someone who appreciates good cinema sound but has no interest in tearing up their living room to install a 5.1 surround sound system to use only every now and then. The B5 enables you to pick and choose your movie moments, and do it on a whim. And it creates a pretty decent surround sound experience too, using both Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS Digital Surround decoding. The combination of convenience and good audio – the raison d'etre of the soundbar – with its transformative surround sound capabilities makes the Fidelio B5 a great option for the movie fan who can't face all the aggravation of a proper 5.1 installation. Read the full review: Philips Fidelio B5
Image credit: Sonos The Sonos Playbar is a non-HDMI device that uses optical to hook up to a TV. Used simply on its own it delivers a massive sonic boost to your TV listening, but operating it does require using a smartphone or tablet app. The benefit is that it can seamlessly segue in to a Sonos wireless system, and can even act as the front three speakers in a 5.1 setup with two Play:1s acting as rears. Unfortunately although it's optical-only setup will be great for most, it does exclude owners of TVs that lack this connector, which has pushed it a little further down this list. Read the full review: Sonos Playbar
Image credit: Sonos The Sonos Beam is a fantastic soundbar for its price, one that takes full advantage of the Sonos ecosystem and is a joy to use (and set up, if your television has HDMI ARC). Its smaller form factor means it’s a device that will sit comfortably next to a 32-inch TV but it’s got enough of a footprint to not be dwarfed by a much bigger set. The Sonos Beam doesn’t offer earth-shattering bass and the lack of Dolby Atmos support will irk some, but at this price point it'd be more of a surprise if it had been included. The voice control may be Alexa-only for now, but it works well and if you have adopted some of Amazon’s TV toys, it really is worth experimenting with. Read the full review: Sonos Beam
Image credit: Denon With its nine drivers are arranged in trios for left, center and right channels and a virtual surround mode to create the illusion of having more speakers around the room, the HEOS Bar is pretty much whatever you want it to be. Blessed with such a balanced soundscape, the HEOS Bar proved immediately adept with music, and has a consistently warm yet refined sound quality that's all its own. The fact that it lacks the opportunity to tweak the audio settings is not as important as we had feared. Music sounds superb, especially lossless tunes, from which HEOS Bar drags out a lot of detail. However, we did notice on a couple of occasions that the first half-a-second was cut-off songs. Read the full review: Denon HEOS Bar
Image credit: Focal Focal, most known for its excellent sounding speakers (and the recently released Focal Listen headphones), is late to the soundbar space, but its Focal Dimension was worth the wait. The Dimension soundbar is simply gorgeous, with its piano black accents and aluminum unibody construction. At $1,399 (£799, AU$1,699) it's not exactly cheap, but you're paying for excellent build quality, sound and design. Read the full review: Focal Dimension
Image credit: Bose Boasting high-end design, Bose's slim soundbar looks superb, and sounds above average. At 97.9cm wide, it’s best partnered with larger screen sizes (50-inch+) and priced at £599/$700/AU$999, it offers great sound. There are caveats regarding usability and price, but overall it warrants a cautious two thumbs up. It's also worth mentioning that, as this isn’t a 2.1 package, there’s no subwoofer supplied – although Bose will sell you a wireless Acoustimas sub and the ST300 can be partnered with the brand’s Virtually Invisible (i.e. small at 10cm) 300 surround speakers. The system is also compatible with the Bose SoundTouch wireless multiroom system which includes smaller Bluetooth speakers. Read the full review: Bose SoundTouch 300
Image credit: Polk If $300 is your budget cap for a smart sound bar, then we highly recommend the Polk Audio Command Bar for any small or medium-sized living room. As you might be able to tell based on the soundbar’s design, the Command Bar comes with Alexa built right into it making it unquestionably smart. It’s also relatively inexpensive too, coming in at $250 (£249, AU$649), and it comes with a subwoofer. It has defined and powerful low end, some cool smart features, and looks pretty good, too.
Image credit: Credit You know, it just didn't feel fair comparing the Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier to other soundbars on this list. It'd be like comparing jet-skis to yachts. That being said, if you have the deep pockets to afford it, the Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier is in a different league of soundbars. It features 17 speakers set in an 11.2.4-channel or 15.2-channel configuration that can put out well over 110 dB of sound and supports Dolby Atmos right out of the box. Is $4,000 too much to spend on a soundbar - even one as genuinely awesome as the Creative X-Fi Sonic Carrier? Probably. But is a few grand worth spending to turn your basement or garage into a club / near-cinema-quality home theater? Yeah. It is.
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| ASUS wasn't the only company hit by ShadowHammer Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:06 PM PDT As it turns out, ASUS was not the only company targeted by supply chain attacks during the ShadowHammer hacking operation uncovered by Kaspersky Lab and we're now learning that at least six other organizations have been infiltrated by hackers. The Taiwanese hardware maker's supply chain was compromised by trojanizing its ASUS live software updater which was eventually downloaded and installed on tens of thousands of customer computers according to experts' estimations. However, ASUS wasn't the only company which had its IT infrastructure infiltrated during Operation ShadowHammer since Kaspersky's researchers were able to find a number of other similar malware samples that were also signed with legitimate certificates.
The cybersecurity firm discovered that the ASUS samples and the newly discovered ones were both using very similar algorithms to calculate API function hashes. Additionally the IPHLPAPI.dll was used within all of the malware samples. ShadowHammer victimsBesides ASUS, three Asian gaming companies (Electronics Extreme, Innovative Extremist and Zepetto) also fell victim to Operation ShadowHammer and Kaspersky also discovered that another video game company, a conglomerate holding company and a pharmaceutical company in South Korea were targets as well. The researchers did not name the three new victims as they are still in the process of alerting them regarding the supply chain attacks they suffered. The attackers that targeted the three Asian gaming companies were able to drop a malicious payload designed to collect system information and download additional payloads from its command-and-control (C&C) server. Once installed on a user's system, the trojanized games first check to see if traffic and processor monitoring tools are running or if the system language is set to either Simplified Chinese or Russian. If any of these checks come back as true, the backdoor is programmed to stop execution automatically. Kaspersky provided more details on the nature of Operation ShadowHammer in a blog post, saying: “We believe this to be the result of a sophisticated supply chain attack, which matches or even surpasses the ShadowPad and the CCleaner incidents in complexity and techniques. The reason that it stayed undetected for so long is partly the fact that the trojanized software was signed with legitimate certificates (e.g. “ASUSTeK Computer Inc.”).” If you have an ASUS computer, it is highly recommended that you download and update to the latest version of the ASUS Live Update Utility to prevent falling victim to any further attacks. Via BleepingComputer
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| Next Nvidia Shield Tablet could be a 2-in-1 Posted: 24 Apr 2019 12:02 PM PDT Nvidia might be working on an updated Nvidia Shield Tablet - and it may be a 2-in-1 device able to switch into laptop and desktop modes, according to code XDA Developers found in the latest build of the Shield Experience software. That software powers Nvidia’s Shield TV set-top boxes, and the newest version indicates an as-yet unseen feature called “NvDtExp,” which XDA Developers theorizes is Nvidia Desktop Experience. It first appeared in Shield Experience builds back in December 2018, and has only just been noticed. Given that the company hasn’t updated the software for any of its now-discontinued tablets in a year (if not more), and that other code references a product code-named “Mystique,” the publication inferred that “Mystique” is a new tablet in development - one built to harness this feature. The feature seems to switch between three different UI modes: Dynamic, Tablet and Desktop. While XDA Developers couldn’t explore the Desktop Experience and switch between the modes - its code allegedly checks whether the device used is a “Mystique” - they did see mention of start menu visibility and ‘mouse hover control’ for desktop UI, suggesting a more traditional windowed look while in ‘Desktop’ mode. ‘Dynamic’ may logically be a hybrid between ‘Tablet’ and ‘Desktop’ UI layouts. The code also suggested that “Mystique” would auto-switch to ‘Desktop’ if a keyboard was plugged in. A new product...or a bygone idea“Mystique” would be Nvidia’s first new device other than its Shield set-top boxes since the company discontinued its Shield portable, tablet and Tegra Note 7. While XDA admits that the product hints in the Shield TV builds may be outdated, it does provide some clues: source code from last year suggests “Mystique” has a 13.5-inch (3,000x2,000) LCD display. This is pretty large for a tablet (the largest iPad is 12.9 inches), which leads XDA to believe it’s more likely a 2-in-1 device. Further, while the original Shield Tablet used Nvidia’s Tegra X1 chip, which also powers the Nintendo Switch, the “Mystique” might use the more advanced Tegra X2 - or, as more recent code implies, the Tegra Xaviar processor that Nvidia is developing for autonomous vehicles and AI computing. Whether it’s actually in development - well, we’ll have to wait and see. Nvidia declined to comment to XDA on “Mystique” or the Desktop Experience code, instead opting for a boilerplate statement. The publication reprinted a statement they’d received after uncovering code referring to a possible new remote and gamepad for the Shield TV back in March. It read: “It's fairly standard practice for various concept codenames to appear in codebases. Those references remain even when it becomes unlikely that the concept ever goes into production. We can't comment on which codenames refer to product concepts that are active vs which ones are inactive, as it can be fluid. However, I can confirm that none of the codenames below refer to products that have launched publicly."
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| Smaller, cheaper Nintendo Switch might surface during E3 2019 Posted: 24 Apr 2019 11:47 AM PDT For months we’ve heard rumors about a smaller, cheaper Nintendo Switch that could come out sometime in 2019. Now, thanks to a new report, we have a potential launch date for the console: June 2019. The report comes to us from Bloomberg who spoke to two people familiar with Nintendo’s plans, both of whom not only corroborate the existence of the console, but claim that it’s coming soon.
What the sources from Bloomberg couldn’t nail down is the exact price - although they say it’s cheaper than the current $299/£279 model - nor its exact specs, saying that the lite version of the console would be smaller and may lack the dock. They didn’t provide any other specific information. What the sources could say with confidence is that the smaller Switch will be out sometime in June… which, admittedly, would line up nicely with E3 2019 and the company's most-watched Nintendo Direct event. If Nintendo plans on announcing a new console, that'd be a good place and time to do it, especially since it sounds like we may not see either the PS5 or Xbox Two at the show. Bad news for the Nintendo Switch 'Pro'Of course, the report isn't all good news: the sources claim that earlier rumors about a more powerful Nintendo Switch console are incorrect - according to them, there's no console in development that's significantly different in power. Where the confusion likely came from is the a slightly modified version of the hardware - what the sources say is a 'modest upgrade' - that seems likely to replace the current model on the market. It's unlikely that this modest upgrade would provide a substantial difference for gamers chomping at the bit for higher frame rates and resolutions. But it could help make the console more VR-friendly. As for other E3 2019 announcements, we're hoping to hear more about Pokemon Sword and Shield, Luigi's Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing on Switch, but for now all we can do is wait.
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| EU to create major biometric database Posted: 24 Apr 2019 11:11 AM PDT Last week the European Parliament voted to create a biometric-tracking, searchable database of EU and non-EU citizens by interconnecting a series of border-control, migration and law enforcement systems. The new database will be called the Common Identity Repository (CIR) and it is expected to unify records on over 350m people. CIR is designed to aggregate a user's identity records (name, DOB, passport numbers, etc) and biometrics (fingerprints and facial scans) in one place with this data available to all border and law enforcement authorities.
The new database will help simplify the jobs of EU border and law enforcement officers who will soon be able to search a unified system at a much faster rate as opposed to searching through separate databases individually. Common Identity RepositoryEU officials explained what systems would make up CIR in a statement last week, saying: "The systems covered by the new rules would include the Schengen Information System, Eurodac, the Visa Information System (VIS) and three new systems: the European Criminal Records System for Third Country Nationals (ECRIS-TCN), the Entry/Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS)." CIR was approved by the European Parliament recently in two separate votes. The CIR rules for borders and visa checks were adopted by 511 to 123 while the CIR legislation for police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration was approved 510to 130. While the new database has raised security concerns, both the European Parliament and the European Council have promised “proper safeguards” to protect consumers' right to privacy and to regulate officers' ability to access data. Once it's completed, CIR will be the third largest people-tracking database in the world right behind the Chinese government's system and India's Aadhar system. Via ZDNet
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| Samsung reveals hundred-billion dollar push on logic chips Posted: 24 Apr 2019 10:19 AM PDT In an effort to reduce its reliance on the volatile memory chip market, Samsung has announced its plans to invest $116bn in non-memory chips through 2030 as the Korean hardware giant aims to develop chips for self-driving cars and AI-enabled devices. The plan is part of the company's ambition to challenge its larger rivals, Taiwan's TSMC and San Diego-based Qualcomm, in the mobile processor chip business as the memory chip business has finally subsided after years of an unprecedented boom. Semiconductor makers around the world are currently racing to create powerful ships to support a wide range of new technologies including 5G, connected cars and artificial intelligence (AI).
Up until now, Samsung has expanded its chip business mostly through organic investment but the company said that its $116bn in spending will be split in half with $64bn for domestic R&D and $52bn for production infrastructure. Logic chip pushSamsung revealed its ambitions for the future in a statement, saying: “The investment plan is expected to help the company to reach its goal of becoming the world leader in not only memory semiconductors but also logic chips by 2030.” While the company does not disclose its investment in the semiconductor business, more than half of its total capital expenditure usually goes to memory chips according to analysts familiar with the matter. Last year, Samsung spent $25bn in capital expenditure and four-fifths of its investment budget went to the semiconductor division which generated 96 percent of the operation's profit through sales of its memory chips. The company also highlighted the fact that its investment into non-memory chips will create 15,000 jobs. Via Reuters This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
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