Apple : AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation release date, news, and rumors |
- AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation release date, news, and rumors
- Intel Cannon Lake release date, news, and rumors
- 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
- First Look: Amazon Echo Link and Amp are aiming for the audiophile market
- 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
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| AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation release date, news, and rumors Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:22 PM PDT Now that AMD has revealed its first 7nm Ryzen 3rd Generation processors, what will the future look like for Threadripper 3rd Generation – its next line of HEDT processors? AMD’s new Zen 2 architecture was shown at CES 2019, with promises of dramatically improved performance and efficiency. This is definitely exciting news for anyone looking to upgrade to a new Ryzen chip, but we’re here specifically about Threadripper 3rd Generation. So, make sure you keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll keep it updated with all the latest AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation news and rumors. Cut to the chase
Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation release dateAMD hasn’t come out and announced the release date for the next Threadripper chips, but the last two generations have had pretty consistent release dates, so we have a solid basis for speculation. Both the original Threadripper and Threadripper 2nd Generation launched in August of 2017 and 2018, respectively. We’re fairly sure that AMD is going to follow the same general release schedule this time around, but, obviously we don’t know that for sure. The Zen 2 architecture will launch in mid 2019, likely in Q2 or Q3, in the form of consumer-focused Ryzen chips. Right now, the rumors are pointing to a July release date for the consumer-focused Ryzen 3rd Generation chips. In fact, AMD CEO Lisa Su has hinted that she would “provide new details about the next generation of high-performance AMD platforms and products” at Computex 2019. We’re not sure that includes Threadripper 3rd Generation chips, as AMD’s HEDT chips typically release after the consumer focused chips. However, if Threadripper is a no-show at Computex, you can put your money on an IFA 2019 appearance. We’ll update this article as soon as we hear more substantial rumors about the release date. Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation priceNow, so far ahead of AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation’s launch, we don’t have any official pricing information, but we can look at past generations to get an idea of what AMD’s next HEDT chips will cost. The original lineup of Threadripper topped out with the $999 (£999, AU$1,439) AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, but the second generation introduced surprisingly lower priced replacements. There were also two higher specced – and higher priced – additions. We believe Threadripper 3rd Generation will follow the latter model. The prices of AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation chips are as follows:
AMD could very well surprise us and introduce an even higher-end SKU, but we don’t think that’s likely. Stay tuned, and we’ll update this page as soon as we hear any Threadripper 3rd Generation price information. Image Credit: TechRadar AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation specsWith AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation, we expect to see a huge bump in core counts, efficiency and per-core performance with Threadripper 3rd Generation. If you need a refresher on last year’s Threadripper lineup’s specs they’re as follows:
We’re sure that with the move to 7nm, AMD is going to massively improve specs. But, with Threadripper 3rd Generation, or Castle Peak, rumors are thin on the ground. However, there is plenty of buzz about the AMD Ryzen 3000 series, not to mention the 64-core AMD Epyc server CPU. While we’ve seen speculation that suggests that the AMD Ryzen 9 3850X will have 16-cores and 32-threads with a max clock of 5.1GHz, that hasn’t been confirmed. What we do know officially is Ryzen 3rd Generation will include at least an 8-Core Ryzen processor that matches the Intel Core i9-9900K’s Cinebench score. AMD also showed off the system power in its test, the whole system ran at just 130W during the Cinebench run, compared to the Intel system’s 180W. We don’t know what frequency this chip was running at, but this high performance combined with the high efficiency is promising for whatever Threadripper chips come from Zen 2. What’s more, the chip AMD showed off revealed that 8-core chiplets are smaller than the IO die. What this means for Threadripper is many more cores in the same amount of space. It’s possible that we could see a 64-core Threadripper chip in 2019. It wouldn’t even be the first 64-core processor in AMD’s lineup. Team Red recently showed off its latest Epyc processors, based off its Rome microarchitecture, with up to 64-cores. If AMD is able to bring those high core counts to Castle Peak HEDT processors, we could see AMD absolutely dominate Intel’s Basin Falls Refresh – and potentially the Cascade Lake-X family that’s rumored to follow it. And, if Intel can’t answer with anything but 14nm silicon, AMD might claim the HEDT throne just as it toppled Intel’s mainstream sales.
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| Intel Cannon Lake release date, news, and rumors Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:22 PM PDT Remember how Intel was going to release Cannon Lake in 2016? And, then when it got pushed back to 2018? Well, according to Intel’s Q1 financial results we won’t see the long-awaited follow-up to Kaby Lake until 2019 – at least in a consumer-ready state. Exploring Cannon Lake is going to need some background because, well, it gets messy. In the past Intel has followed an easy-to-follow “Tick Tock” release schedule, where each generation would alternate between introducing a new die process and architecture. This is why we all expected Cannon Lake to succeed Skylake way back in 2016. But, because reality can never be simple, Intel repeatedly pushes Cannon Lake back. Since Skylake, Intel has launched Kaby Lake, Coffee Lake and Coffee Lake Refresh: three more refinements of Skylake. We’re not even sure when Intel is going to release Cannon Lake, even if Team Blue is sticking to claims of a 2019 release. This delay in releasing 10nm processors partially explains why AMD is outselling Intel in the consumer CPU space. Intel keeps denying that Cannon Lake has been canceled, even though Sunny Cove will be Intel’s next architecture with Ice Lake appearing in the very release window we previously assumed would belong to Cannon Lake. And, while there has been a Cannon Lake laptop chip, we’re still trying to figure out exactly what Intel is doing. So, be sure to keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll update it with any new Cannon Lake information. Image Credit: TechRadar Cut to the Chase
Release dateWe were supposed to get Cannon Lake twice already. The presumably 9th-generation Intel CPUs were initially supposed to follow Skylake in 2016, then Kaby Lake in 2018. But according to Intel’s Q1 2018 financial report, it’s “currently shipping low-volume 10nm product and now expects 10nm volume production to shift to 2019.” So, we’re probably not getting Cannon Lake in 2018. There was some recent speculation that pointed to Intel just cancelling Cannon Lake, because it wasn’t financially feasible to shift to 10nm. However, Intel came out and defended itself, saying that it was ‘making good progress on 10nm’ and that ‘yields are improving’. So, we just have to see when this smaller manufacturing process makes it to market. But, then we keep getting more and more evidence that Cannon Lake might never see the light of day. Intel just announced its Sunny Cove 10nm microarchitecture, for both server and client processors, for release in late 2019. So, is Sunny Cove just Cannon Lake rebranded? Is Cannon Lake cancelled? Who knows. Either way we’ll have to wait until at least 2019 to see Cannon Lake, or whatever it’s called now, but when in 2019? Well, we don’t know yet, but we did get our hands on a leaked Intel roadmap that shows Coffee Lake Refresh being Intel’s main platform through Q2 2019. But, given Intel’s recent supply issues, we could see the release pushed back to the latter half of 2019 or even 2020. Image Credit: TechRadar PriceIntel probably isn’t going to rock the boat too much here. We expect prices to fall in line with the current lineup of 8th-generation Coffee Lake processors. We’ve taken the liberty of listing some of the prices here.
Unfortunately, we won’t know until Intel actually releases pricing information, but between generations, Intel doesn’t generally shift its pricing all that much. Image Credit: TechRadar SpecsThis is where things are going to get interesting. It’s been a very long time since we’ve seen a die process shrink at Intel, but when Broadwell succeeded Haswell (yeah, it’s been that long), we saw 30% gains in efficiency. This will mean that battery life in the best laptops will surge, and we’ll be able to overclock even harder while keeping temps manageable. Tom’s Hardware has reported that a dual-core Cannon Lake CPU was shipped last year according to a Spectre microcode guidance document, but it’s highly unlikely that consumer units will be the same. Otherwise, AMD would eat them alive for that. We’ll likely see higher core counts, as Intel is going to want to go up against AMD in a major way. This dual-core chip was likely that Intel Core i3 8121U processor that was just listed by Intel. According to the product listing the processor features two-cores and four-threads delivering 2.2GHz of base performance and boost clock of 3.2GHz. It also has a TDP of just 15W and a 4MB cache. And, Anandtech seems to have got its hands on a laptop running that Core i3-8121U for testing – and, well, it’s not the next-generation revolution you were expecting. It beat the Kaby Lake Intel Core i3-8130U in some benchmarks, but many of the tests put the Cannon Lake mobile chip behind in power, while consuming more power. We’ve also seen a leaked document that suggests a new X399 chipset in the works that would support existing Coffee Lake CPUs and possibly Cannon Lake processors as well, suggesting enthusiasts won’t need to upgrade their motherboard to get on the Cannon Lake train. If the newly-announced Intel i7-8086K is any kind of clue as to what we can expect from future Intel products with its 5GHz boost clock, we won’t only see high core counts as a result of the move to a 10nm process, but crazy high clock speeds as well. Ultimately, we won’t know what performance advantages Cannon Lake CPUs will offer until Intel shares some more information about it, but because it’s been pushed back until 2019. It’s likely we won’t hear anything from the tech behemoth until Computex 2019. But, don’t worry if anything changes, we’ll update this page. So, keep your eyes glued to this page. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Whiskey Lake release date, news and rumors Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:19 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 to different microarchitectures for laptops, 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? Well, beyond the 13-inch MacBook Pro 2018, it seems like these chips were skipped 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 new Razer Blade Stealth and Huawei MateBook 13. 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. We even have a hint at what’s coming next: Intel has announced its next-generation 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: 10 Apr 2019 01:18 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. Later this year, we’ll likely get Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation chips, 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 Generation followed Ryzen. We’ll likely see much higher core counts, not to mention 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 Multi-Threading) 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.
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| Intel Coffee Lake-X release date, news and rumors Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:17 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. Back when AMD launched Threadripper, Intel responded with Skylake X, which outpowered Threadripper, but only barely. Fast forward to 2018, and AMD released the Threadripper 2990 WX, a 32-core, 64-thread behemoth. And, later in December 2018,Intel responded with the Basin Falls Refresh. But, what about Coffee Lake-X? Well, according to speculation, Coffee Lake-X did actually exist at one point, only to be scrapped by Intel, according to speculation from the Motley Fool. And, now that speculation that the next HEDT platform will indeed by Cascade Lake-X, we’re not sure if Coffee Lake X will ever exist. So, 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: 10 Apr 2019 01:16 PM PDT AMD changed the world when its first generation Ryzen processors hit the market. And, now that Ryzen 2nd Generation processors have been out for about a year, Team Red is absolutely dominating the market, more than doubling Intel’s sales, according to a German retailer. But, it gets better: Ryzen 3rd Generation processors will bring the 7nm Zen 2 process to mainstream chips for the first time with profound improvements. 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. 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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| First Look: Amazon Echo Link and Amp are aiming for the audiophile market Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:15 PM PDT Echos are for people who want to set kitchen timers and listen to music through tiny speakers, right? Until Amazon's September event, that's how many music fans would have described Amazon's line-up of Alexa-powered Echo speakers. That's now all changed with Amazon's introduction of a clutch of hi-fi components – the Echo Input and Echo Sub, but more importantly, Echo Link and Echo Link Amp – that together have the potential to take Alexa to every speaker, amplifier, hifi and TV in every room in a house. Did Amazon just make a play for the entry-level audiophile market – and take a huge swipe at Sonos along the way? You bet your soundbar it did. [Update: The Amazon Echo Link Amp is now available to purchase on Amazon, and both the Echo Link Amp and the Echo Link are available now in the UK, Germany, Japan, India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.] Echo Input is a Google Chromecast Audio-beater. Amazon Echo Input bridges the technology gapAlthough Amazon did unveil new versions of its Echo Dot and Echo Plus both with upgraded speakers, true audiophiles will rightly ignore them as being about convenience-over-quality. That's not the case with the Echo Input, a speaker-less dongle that lets you add Alexa to an existing speaker for a paltry $34.99/£34.99. This tiny, black or white Google Chromecast Audio-like device attaches to any hi-fi equipped with a 3.5 mm jack, but also wirelessly to Bluetooth speakers, essentially bringing all the features of the Echo Dot to any speaker in a home. "Amazon's Echo Input adds far-field Alexa experiences to existing connected devices such as Bluetooth speakers, your old home stereo or even your big-screen TV with an input jack," explains Werner Goertz at analyst firm Gartner. It's got four microphones, but crucially the Echo Input allows any speaker to be added to a multi-room music set-up. However, the announcement of the Echo Input – currently only available via invitation – proved a mere aperitif for audiophiles. Echo Link Amp is a 60W, 2-channel amplifier. Sans Sub, the Amp and Link are audiophile-readySince poor bass response has so far kept the Echo family of devices firmly away from the attentions of those after excellent sound quality, it's no surprise to see Amazon announce Echo Sub. This subwoofer, available in October, has a six-inch woofer and 100W power. It's for pairing with Echo or Echo Plus, and available either separately or with two Echo devices to create a quick 2.1 streaming system. Clever as that seems, however, a 2.1 setup that uses Echos is only going to suit a small room or living area. The serious audiophile gear comes with the arrival or the Echo Link ($199.99, again only in the U.S. for now) and the Echo Link Amp ($299.99). Both support for multi-room music through Alexa, but also bring simple voice control of volume for an otherwise firmly analogue setup that presently includes only a record player. Echo Link Amp is a well-equipped piece of equipment. In marked contrast to most of the Echo family so far, these are serious and well-equipped pieces of equipment. For example, the Echo Link (available later this year in the U.S.) for connecting to an existing amplifier has ins and outs for optical, coaxial and analogue audio, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, and a subwoofer line out. There's also an Ethernet port and a volume knob. The Echo Link Amp (available in early 2019) for connecting to passive loudspeakers adds a built-in 60W, 2-channel amplifier with left/right speaker terminals. Naturally, voice can be used to select music, change the volume, or configure multi-room options on the Echo Link and Echo Link Amp using the Alexa app or another Echo device. Critically for audiophiles, the latter contains a high-res 24-bit DAC, so expect it to access to Tidal's lossless audio music streaming service. Is Amazon stealing Sonos' thunder?Amazon's decision to go for the audiophile market is a direct attack on a market – multi-room music – that's currently dominated by Sonos (whose Sonos Amp is out in December). However, it's also an effort to get into a market ahead of its other rivals. “The focus on audio products and accessories with the Echo Sub, Echo Link and Echo Link Amp will help Amazon deliver higher-end audio experiences in the face of competition from Apple’s HomePod, Sonos products and even Google with the Home Max," says Geoff Blaber, Vice President Research, Americas at CCS Insight. “It's notable that Amazon is not just relying on pre-integration in new products, but enabling existing home appliances and devices through connectors and adapters in an effort to drive utility and usage.” Can Amazon challenge Sonos? Absolutely it can, and its offering of good value, modular multi-room music with voice-control baked-in will prove irresistible for some. If Echo Dot is the entry-level, then this is the next logical step up. Echo Sub works with Echo and Echo Plus. Are we ready for hi-fi Alexa?There is one big question: does your average hi-fi enthusiast care about voice control? Or multi-room? I'm not convinced they do … yet. I wouldn't be surprised if the Echo Link and Echo Link Amp remain niche products and have a limited shelf-life. But a lot will depend on sales of the Echo Input, which will introduce – for a low price – the concept of voice control to many music fans. Amazon probably know that already; this is largely about ‘Alexa everywhere’. "Amazon's announcements are sharp reminders to Apple and Google that Alexa has a significant lead that it is working meticulously to maximize," says Blaber. "The Echo is now just one of many control points as rivals are still boarding the smart speaker bandwagon." So this is about extending its dominance in smart speakers, sure, but it's mostly about one thing: Amazon wants to get Alexa everywhere as soon as possible so it becomes the default way of controlling … well, everything. Including your kitchen and your car. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Intel Basin Falls Refresh release date, price and features Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:15 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. And, in many 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 turns the clock speeds up and includes some enhanced features. These new HEDT processors largely follow in the footsteps of Coffee Lake Refresh, another CPU lineup announced at the same event. However, perhaps the most important question in regards to this new Basin Falls Refresh, especially in this heightened age of Intel vs AMD – is whether or not these new chips provide a better value than the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2nd Generation chips. And, the answer, after reviewing the Core i9-9980XE, is “most of the time.” 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: 10 Apr 2019 01:14 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’ve 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 processors, likely at Computex 2019, we doubt we’ll ever see it. Plus, AMD is hard at work on Zen 2, the architecture behind AMD Ryzen 3rd Generation. And, according to the latest internet rumors, we could see core counts rising up to 16 and clock speeds up to 5.0GHz. If any of this is true, the desktop processor landscape is going to be extremely compelling when these next-gen chips release 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. 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: 10 Apr 2019 01:14 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, these are just the highlights, 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. Right now there are only three core Coffee Lake Refresh processors – the Core i9-9900K, Core i7-9700K and Core i5-9600K. However, at CES 2019, Intel announced several F-series processors that are virtually identical to their non-F counterparts, but don’t include integrated graphics. And, these chips pull integrated graphics without lowering prices. 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, while only three Coffee Lake Refresh processors have been revealed, we’re sure there’s more to come in the near future.
This initial 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. Intel might be pushing these core counts even higher, too. 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: 10 Apr 2019 01:13 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 Spectre and Meltdown as hard as Intel, it wasn’t immune: an Israeli security firm, CTS labs released a white paper detailing security vulnerabilities that affected AMD Ryzen processors. Fortunately, 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 of the batch of Ryzen processors were announced on February 22, 2017 and arrived on March 2. The Ryzen 7 series of top-end chips, which includes, but isn’t limited to, the seriously 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 AMD has ever made. 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: 10 Apr 2019 01:12 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 may have knocked it out of the park with its Ryzen 2nd Generation chips, but Intel, with its Coffee Lake processors, is still incredibly popular – especially now that Coffee Lake Refresh has arrived. Either way, keep this page bookmarked, and we’ll update it with any Coffee Lake news that comes across our desks. 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. At the same time, Intel announced Coffee Lake U-series chips, but they only made it into a few laptops, namely the 2018 13-inch MacBook Pro. 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 |
| Nvidia vs AMD: which should be your next graphics card? Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:12 PM PDT If you ask a console gamer, they’ll go on at length about the perennial rivalry between the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro, and which you should choose to play Fortnite on. However, PC gamers have a similar feud: Nvidia vs AMD. And, even if you’ve never heard about it before, the sheer amount of competition and innovation that’s resulted from this battle is nothing short of amazing. Still, if you’re not willing to pledge loyalty to one of these tech behemoths, it can be hard to decide what the best graphics card for your needs is. Don’t worry though, we here at TechRadar have decided to sit down and figure out once and for all the true winner in the battle of Nvidia vs AMD. (Spoiler: it never ends). These days, the Nvidia vs AMD battle is in an awkward position. Almost two years after the release of the Nvidia GTX 10 series, it released the Turing architecture with the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, RTX 2070 and RTX 2060, which is leading the pack in sales. All of these GPUs are much more expensive than their predecessors. However, the GTX 1660 Ti bucks the trend a bit. Hopefully the GTX 1650 is even more accessible. And, while AMD launched Vega back in 2017 and AMD Navi is off in the distance, AMD’s new Radeon VII directly competes with the RTX 2080. But, that doesn’t mean it’s forgotten about the budget market – AMD keeps releasing new Polaris cards, like the Radeon RX 590, aimed at the budget-focused 1080p segment. No matter how you slice it, neither Nvidia or AMD graphics cards all over the place, so that’s why we crafted this guide – to dive in and figure out how they differ. From their exclusive features to their price-to-performance ratio, even down to their drivers, and you can’t forget all those pesky exclusive features, either. There are graphics card choices for days PriceAnyone who browses Reddit or comment sections on tech websites will tell you that AMD is widely known for its affordability, and Nvidia for its high-end performance and high prices. But, are they actually right? Well, kind of. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti is listed at $1,199 (£1,099, AU$1,899), which is almost twice the price of the last-generation GTX 1080 Ti. This price bump continues down the line, with the RTX 2080 at $799 (£749, AU$1,199) and the RTX 2070 at $599 (£569, AU$899). During the reveal keynote, Nvidia claimed that they would start at lower prices, for instance, the 2080 Ti should be starting at $999 (about £760, AU$1,385) – but we haven’t seen any cards offered at these prices. Right now, the most affordable Nvidia Turing card is the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, which starts at $279 (£259, AU$469). Luckily, Nvidia Turing finally got an affordable graphics card. As for AMD, you can find a Radeon RX 500 card for a pittance in comparison. But, AMD is competing with Nvidia again at the high-end with the AMD Radeon VII, which will set you back $699 (£799, AU$1,169), for performance that is almost equivalent to the RTX 2080 in most cases. However, because it’s compatible with Mac – something no Nvidia card can claim – it has a leg up for professionals. At the end of the day, the better price is going to depend on where you’re lucky enough to find a discount. Image Credit: Nvidia PerformanceWhen you’re trying to build a PC that’s more powerful than your arch-enemy’s, buying a graphics card isn’t a matter of price but performance. Packing the best performance for the lowest cost is arguably the most pertinent factor in driving GPU sales. Right now the RTX 2080 Ti completely blows away every other consumer-grade graphics card with 11GB of GDDR6 memory and high-end Tensor and RT cores that will enable AI-controlled super sampling and real-time ray tracing. AMD right now doesn’t have anything in the same ballpark – but does that even matter? AMD has always been known for being the clear value champions, whereas Nvidia usually has more powerful hardware. But, at CES 2019, AMD revealed the Radeon VII. And, now that we’ve got our hands on it for testing, we can say that it’s on equal footing with the RTX 2080 – at least until you turn DirectX 12 on. However, with its 16GB of HBM2 memory, the AMD Radeon VII will shine for any aspiring creatives out there. The lowest end current-generation graphics card in the RTX lineup is the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060, with performance that outmatches the AMD Vega 56 at the same price point. And, while the prices for these two GPUs are mostly comparable, AMD is currently dominating the budget-to-mid-range product stack with cards like the AMD Radeon RX 580. However, Nvidia just launched the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, which directly competes with the AMD Radeon RX 580 in both price and performance. In fact, with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660, Nvidia is coming for AMD’s mid-range market, providing a GPU that’s more affordable while still being able to handle most AAA games at max settings when playing in 1080p. And, we’ve seen GTX 1650 leaks, along with its retail boxes, which suggests that Nvidia is about to release another budget darling that may put the Radeon RX 570 in its place. At the end of the day, AMD and Nvidia are occupying completely different sides of the marketplace right now, so the best choice is going to rely on what games you’re trying to play and at what resolution. If you’re trying to play games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey at 4K, you’re going to want to go with Nvidia. But, if you just want to play Overwatch at 1080p with a high refresh rate – go with AMD. However, that Radeon VII is looking promising for 4K performance, too – especially with that 16GB of HBM2 memory. Image Credit: AMD Software, drivers and featuresOne key draw to using Nvidia hardware over AMD is the Green Team’s GeForce Experience software. Because it delivers driver updates and optimizes games in addition to letting you broadcast gameplay and capture screenshots as well as videos directly from its easy-to-use interface, Nvidia GeForce Experience is posited as the one PC gaming application to rule them all. Meanwhile, AMD’s newly announced Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition aims to overtake Nvidia’s solution. The latest update is stacked features including automatic overclocking (that doesn’t need tensor cores) and stream games to your mobile device. AMD’s latest GPU software will even let you stream VR games to your phone or standalone VR headsets. So, you can leverage the power of your AMD graphics card to play the best VR games without slowdown. Radeon Software’s underlying benefit, of course, is also more consistent updates driver updates to account for every major game release. As of December 2016, you could already livestream via Radeon Crimson ReLive, but now you can really customize your broadcast with a Xplit/OBS-style program from AMD and multi-channel audio control. Image Credit: Nvidia Still, GeForce Experience has the game optimization features we’re all crazy for. So when you don’t know what settings are best for your computer in The Witcher 3, Nvidia takes care of the heavy lifting for you. AMD users can download and install Raptr’s Gaming Evolved tool to optimize their gaming experience. However, the add-on is less than ideal considering its biggest rival’s audience can accomplish nearly everything from within GeForce Experience. That includes using Nvidia Ansel to take way cool in-game photos at resolutions exceeding 63K (16 times that of which a 4K monitor can display). Nvidia also has a leg up when it comes to streaming games whether it’s to another gaming PC with at least a Maxwell-based GPU, as well as the company’s self-made tablets and set-top box. Not to mention, Nvidia also has a cloud-based gaming service call GeForce Now available to Windows 10 and MacOS users. And, of course you can’t talk about Nvidia in 2019 without mentioning ray tracing. When Team Green announced its Turing line of graphics card, it made huge claims about revolutionizing gaming with real-time ray traced lighting, shadows and reflections. Games with these features have been out for a while now, and while they certainly look great, these effects drain performance, even from cards designed for them. However, it won’t just be Nvidia for long. Word on the street is that AMD Navi GPUs will have the specs to support ray tracing. Soon, AMD users won’t have to live any more of their lives without ray tracing. Image Credit: Nvidia ExclusivityIt was once rumored that AMD and Nvidia were enacting shady tactics, “paying off” game developers to show preferential treatment towards one or the other. Were this the case, it would certainly explain why certain games run better using GeForce graphics than Radeon and vice versa. Fortunately, besides new technologies like ray tracing and deep learning super-sampling in the new Nvidia Turing cards, we don’t see these concerns from PC gamers as much anymore – but they still exist. Following its Capsaicin & Cream livestream event at GDC 2017, we spoke with AMD its to discuss its strategy in contending with Nvidia. The news that the company would partner with Bethesda Softworks to optimize its games for Radeon, Ryzen or both was worrying to say the least. And it still is. At the time, the potential for games operating more smoothly on AMD systems meant that Nvidia could fight back by partnering with an equally large publisher. Although the latter maneuver hasn’t happened yet, early Wolfenstein II performance comparisons, such as this one from TechEpiphany on YouTube have exhibited better performance and lower temps coming from the AMD Radeon RX 64 when pitted against Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1080. We’re not saying there’s a bias towards AMD in Bethesda’s technical design decisions, however we aren’t ready to take off our tin foil hats quite yet either. Of course, Bethesda is hardly the only company to show favoritism to either team red or green. If you ever see an AMD or Nvidia splash screen ahead of the title page when you start a game, you can bet it will run better with that company’s hardware. So, which is better? NeitherThere’s so much to love, and in some instances “dis-love,” about both Nvidia and AMD graphics. In the end, both of these companies rely on competition with each other to thrive. Suffice to say, the Nvidia vs AMD debate requires that you understand there’s a reason Radeon and GeForce GPUs are so similar in performance right now. Each company is doing its best to keep up with the mindshare of the other, and that’s good for us. They’re basically fighting for our money, learning from each other’s mistakes and legislating marked improvements along the way. It’s up to you who wins the fiery contest of Nvidia vs AMD, although we will say this: Nvidia is unmatched in the 4K market right now. If it helps any, the RTX 2080 Ti is probably your best bet if you want your PC to keep up with your Ultra HD display – as long as you can afford it. If you’re on a budget, though, Nvidia and AMD graphics cards will be about the same, at least until lower-end Turing cards make their way to the public.
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| AMD vs Intel: which chipmaker does processors better? Posted: 10 Apr 2019 01:10 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 been following the frantic war of Intel vs AMD as closely as we have over the years, you probably already know that AMD and Intel have traditionally focused on different segments of the CPU market. Where Intel has focused on higher clock speeds and efficiency with low core counts, 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. Now Intel reigns supreme in the budget CPU space, with its $64 (about £46, AU$82) MSRP Pentium G4560 offering far better performance than AMD’s $110 (about £80, AU$140) MSRP A12-9800. Even among mid-range, current-gen chips, Intel is leading the pack by offering 8th-generation Coffee Lake CPUs as low as $117 (about £83, AU$152) for the Core i3-8100T. Much of this is due to the Advanced Micro Device company’s reluctance to move beyond simply iterating on its antiquated Bulldozer architecture and onto adopting the current-generation ‘Zen’ standard it’s already introduced with pricier CPUs. 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 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 (£1,649, AU$2,729) Intel Core i9-7980XE, 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. 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 (about £110, AU$172) Ryzen 3 1300X. 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 $180 (£160, AU$240) Intel Core i3-8350K. 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 the latter half of 2018, it gets complicated. While both Coffee Lake and AMD Ryzen 2nd Generation processors are widely available, Intel is going through supply shortages, and AMD is starting to catch up to Team Blue’s titanic market share. 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. AMD really has a chance to steal the crown here. Still, you can pick up processors from both companies today, though Intel chips like the Intel Core i7-8700K 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 |
| How to watch the 2019 Masters: live stream the golf for free and from anywhere Posted: 10 Apr 2019 12:45 PM PDT The waiting is very nearly over - the first major tournament of the 2019 golf season just around the (Amen) corner and, as ever, it's the Masters Tournament from the Augusta National in Georgia. It's looking very hard to predict indeed. But what we can tell you with confidence is how to get a US Masters live stream from absolutely anywhere you are in the world. Patrick Reed is the defending champion having last year won his first Masters tournament after making a three-foot long, par-saving putt on the final hole to win by just one stroke from countryman Rickie Fowler. Rory McIlroy's rich vein of form has understandably made him most bookmakers' favorite - the Masters is the one major that has so far eluded the 29-year old. Dustin Johnson, Justin Rose and 2018's stand-out player Brooks Koepka will also be hoping to challenge. Canadian Corey Conners is now a dark horse after taking home the Valero Texas Open last weekend. And then there's four-time winner Tiger Woods... Below, you'll find our quick and easy guide for how to watch a 2019 Masters live stream online from anywhere in the world. It's extremely easy to do, even if you are away from your home country when it's on and want to tune in to your preferred coverage - it's even FREE in some countries and available to watch free from commercials.
How to live stream Masters golf for FREEYour initial go-to option for streaming this year's Masters in the US is an absolute gimme. Simply head to Masters.com, hit the 'Watch' tab and away you go. As well as having all the live action from all four days of play - with a spotlight on featured holes and groups - it also includes footage from the practise range and as many highlights and interviews as you can handle. You'll find that the Masters.com live stream is geo-blocked if you try and access it from outside the country. That's where using a VPN (as explained below) comes in handy, so you can watch it as if you were back in the US. If it's all the bells and whistles of broadcast-quality coverage you need and you're in the US, the alternative is to watch the coverage on ESPN, CBS or a host of cord-cutting options. More on which below. UK and Australian audiences may not have access to that Masters.com stream, but at least you too have some free-to-air coverage to enjoy. The concluding two rounds are on the UK's BBC - which also means no pesky ad breaks - while in Australia the Nine Network has it all live and for free. How to get a Masters live stream from outside your countryTry to live stream Masters golf away from your home country and you'll quickly find that your domestic coverage is geo-blocked. It's frustrating, but not unsurpassable. How to watch a Masters live stream in the USESPN and CBS have the share of the spoils in the US, with the former taking the first two rounds (and par three contest) and CBS with rounds three and four. Note that you will need a US IP address in order to access the above stations or otherwise you won't be able to access the content from abroad - if you want to do so, you'll have to follow our VPN guidelines above and log in with a VPN, choosing a US server location. They aren't you're only option though, with all of the top US-based TV streaming services all providing an alternative. Each one offers a free trial to get you started and has masses of other content and channels for you to enjoy if you subscribe:
How to watch the 2019 US Masters: live stream options in the UKIf you're in the UK and want to revel in the glory of the Masters over the pond, then Sky Sports Golf is unsurprisingly the place to go - with the BBC joining the action for the last two rounds for completely commercial-free coverage. But if you don't want to bother yourself with a Sky Sports subscription, there is another way. Don't have Sky and don't fancy subscribing just for the golf? Well Now TV may well be a decent fit for you. It costs £14.99 for a week's worth of access. And pretty much every streaming device you can think of has a Now app. If it's Saturday or Sunday that you want to watch the Masters online, then we'd recommend heading over to stream it on TVPlayer.com, which has all the Freeview channels (including BBC One) in one place and a robust, legal stream to watch on. TVPlayer will also allow you to record the BBC Masters coverage and watch it later - you'll need to sign up for a paid account, but the good news there is that the site offers a 14-day free trial so no payments required. Out of the UK this weekend? Then follow our instructions above to get a VPN and tune into your preferred coverage as if you were back in Blighty. How watch the 2019 US Masters in Australia for FREE!Great news, Australia. 2019's first major golf tournament is playing on free-to-air television with the Nine Network's Gem channel showing the action. Your other options is to sign up for the fast-emerging Kayo Sports streaming service, which features no lock-in contracts and gives you access to over 50 other sports including the F1, NRL, FA Cup football, NBA playoffs...the list goes on! Not only that, but Kayo is boasting three bonus cameras for every round of the golf, providing more ways to watch - so well worth checking out if you're a golf obsessive that wants the best possible Masters live stream coverage. Kayo Sports Basic Package costs $25 per month and allows users to stream across two devices simultaneously. Alternatively, the service also offers a Kayo Sports Premium Package, which provides three concurrent streams for $35 per month. And don't forget that if you're out of Australia this weekend and are still desperate to tune in to one of the above methods of watching the golf, you'll need a VPN to magically transfer your IP address back to a server in Australia. How to watch the 2019 Masters: live stream in CanadaThis posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| T-Mobile relaunches its laughably expensive IPTV service Posted: 10 Apr 2019 12:37 PM PDT T-Mobile has announced that it's relaunching its Layer3 IPTV service later this week in eight US cities including Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington DC metro areas, as well as Longmont, Colorado. The service, which will go by the new name TVision, isn’t quite the same as a full-on streaming service – you’ll still need a box from T-Mobile to use it – but it could be a more manageable step for folks looking to cut the cord.
Of course, you'll have to pay for that manageability, as the service will more or less cost just as much as a regular cable bill: $90 per month for new customers, plus $10 extra per screen per month. That monthly fee will get you around 150 channels per month, but you'll still have to pay additional fees for premium channels like HBO and Showtime. That said, there are some edges TVision has over Netflix and others, according to T-Mobile. The company won't change your pricing at any point in the entire length of your contract and TVision combines streaming services into the same TV interface. TVision is also compatible with Google Home and Amazon Alexa devices, too. A cable bill by any other nameIn T-Mobile's defense, the company is trying to give consumers a better deal than they get with the deceptive practices of the cable industry – or, as T-Mobile calls it "the Cableopoly" – and the carrier has plans to roll out its long-promised streaming service sometime later this year. The problem is that TVision is both relatively restricted (you need to go through T-Mobile hardware to access it) and wildly more expensive than services like Sling TV, PlayStation Vue and YouTube TV, that range in price from $25 to $45 per month. Those services might not offer all the channels that T-Mobile plans on offering, and they require you to own a streaming stick or a smart TV to watch them on your TV, but they still seem like significantly better values than TVision. While it doesn't look like a great deal for cord cutters on paper, we'll reserve judgment until TVision releases on April 14.
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| New source affirms Apple's plan to split iTunes on Mac into four apps Posted: 10 Apr 2019 12:08 PM PDT Last week, we reported on a hint that Apple may be breaking up iTunes, and now that possibility is looking even more likely. The first hint came from developer Steve Troughton-Smith, and now those claims have been confirmed by another source, Guilherme Rambo for 9to5Mac. Rambo confirmed that Apple would be making some changes in macOS to split some of the functionality of iTunes into distinct apps. These alterations would likely come in macOS 10.15. A sensible break-upFor years, iTunes has been growing to encompass more and more functionality, with podcasts, videos, apps, and management of iPhones, iPads and iPods handled within the program. This has seen the software bloat, and it's further hindered by it's old-fashioned style.
Apple already announced it was working on a standalone Apple TV app for Mac, and Rambo has suggested there will be standalone apps for Apple Music, Apple Podcasts and Apple Books coming as well. He claims the podcast and music apps will be made using Apple's Marzipan technology, which allows for the easy translation of apps from the mobile iPad environment to the macOS environment. The Apple Books app may also see a redesign in macOS 10.15. This split of iTunes makes sense, as it will give users clearer sources for their content: music from Apple Music, TV and movies from Apple TV, podcasts from Apple Podcasts, etc. What remains unclear is the fate of iTunes once much of the content it is currently the home to is moved elsewhere. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Google will let you use your Android phone to verify logins Posted: 10 Apr 2019 11:49 AM PDT Protecting your Google account from phishing just got a whole lot easier with the announcement that any Android smartphone running Android 7 or higher can now be used as a physical security key for two-factor authentication (2FA). The tech giant already provides a number of 2FA methods including Google Prompt but physical security keys have been proven by its own teams to be the most effective method of combating phishing. Up until now, you could use Google's own Titan Security Key or those made by Yubico to secure your account but this requires you to bring an additional physical device with you at all times.
Now with the announcement that you can use your Android smartphone as a security key, users will be able to securely access their Google accounts on Windows, Mac or Chrome OS using the device they already have on their person at all times. Using your Android smartphone as a security keyTo get started using your Android device as a security key, first you'll need to connect your smartphone to your computer using Bluetooth. Next you need to sign into your Google Account on the device and open your Google security settings on your computer. From there you need to select the option to add a security key and choose your smartphone from the list of devices. Pixel 3 owners will be able to use the volume down button to activate their security key since Google has stored FIDO credentials inside the device's Titan M chip. On the other Android smartphones, you'll simply have to sign in and tap a button to activate your security key. Currently the service is only available on Android devices and at this time it can only be used to login to Google services such as Gmail, G Suite and Google Cloud. However, since the service uses the same protocols that a physical security key does, other companies could soon add support for it to their own services extending its functionality beyond Google. Via The Verge
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| Dropbox now lets you create Google Docs, Sheets and more Posted: 10 Apr 2019 10:48 AM PDT Working with the web-based files across multiple online tools is about to get a whole lot easier for Dropbox users as the company announced at Google Cloud Next '19 that it is bringing direct support for Google Docs, Sheets and Slides to its platform. The new feature is now available in open beta for Dropbox Business customers and users can opt-in by visiting the company's signup page. After signing in to both Google and Dropbox, users will be able to create and store Docs, Sheets and Slides files in any Dropbox folder right alongside their other files.
Additionally, you'll be able to search for Docs, Sheets and Slides files from within Dropbox as well as create new files directly from its website or within its apps for Windows and Mac. Users will even be able to open Word, Excel or PowerPoint files from Dropbox in Google's apps and save them back to the service in their original format. Automatic accessSharing and real-time co-editing are at the very heart of Google's web-based productivity apps and Dropbox is bringing this same functionality to its service. When a user adds a Docs, Sheets or Slides file to a Dropbox folder, other users who have access to that folder will automatically be granted access without the need to leave Dropbox. You can also share files on a one-off basis without adding them to a shared folder. The new feature will allow Dropbox users to manage access to files by granting recipients the ability to edit or view their documents. These permissions can be set to team-only or to anyone in case your sharing files with users outside of your Dropbox Business team. Users will also be notified to comments made in Docs, Sheets and Slides files through Dropbox notifications so that they can stay up up to date without having to check multiple places.
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| Google Cloud launches new Anthos open platform Posted: 10 Apr 2019 09:46 AM PDT Google Cloud has announced a new open platform called Anthos that aims to deliver on the promise of write once, run anywhere by allowing businesses to run their applications on existing on-prem hardware investments or in the public cloud. Anthos is based on the Cloud Service Platform that the company announced last year and now its hybrid functionality will be available on both the Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and in your data center with GKE On-Prem. The new open platform will even allow businesses to manage workloads running on third-party clouds such as Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure, giving organizations the freedom to deploy, run and manage applications on the cloud of their choice.
Anthos also makes things easier for administrators and developers because it doesn't' require them to learn different environments and APIs. Image Credit: Google Anthos MigrateGoogle Cloud also announced that Anthos Migrate is now in beta and the new service will make it easier for organizations to modernize their infrastructure by auto-migrating virtual machines (VMs) from on-premises, or other clouds, directly into containers in GKE. The service will free up the workloads of IT teams who will no longer be responsible for managing infrastructure tasks like VM maintenance and OS patching. Google is working closely with its ecosystem partners to support businesses with existing software and infrastructure investments that want to take advantage of the cloud. Anthos is launching with over 30 hardware, software and system integration partners who are ready to help customers leverage the power of the new platform from day one. Partners such as VMware, Dell EMC, HPE, Intel and Lenovo have also committed to delivering Anthos on their own hyperconverged infrastructure for their customers. This means that that customers can choose hardware based on their storage, memory and performance needs. Google has not yet released information on Anthos' pricing but the company does say that potential customers can reach out to their Google Cloud account team to discuss the details further.
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