You want to play Assassin’s Creed Valhalla in Full HD with low details a 30 fps or in 4K with ultra details? You must have the right hardware to do this! Here are the minimum and recommended requirements communicated by Ubisoft.
by Manolo De Agostini published 16 October 2020 , at 19: 21 in the Videogames channel Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed
The 10 November arrives Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and to allow all fans of the series to enjoy the best the new chapter, Ubisoft has published the requirements system of the PC version , starting from the confi Minimum guration to play in Full HD with low details at least 21 fps up to 4K with ultra details and the same frame rate.
The software house has even released a video (above) in which it illustrates the characteristics of the PC version of the game, including multi-monitor support, various editable settings and more. Let’s see the detailed requirements together:
Note: requires a GPU with DirectX support 12 (Feature Level 12 _ 0)
The request for Windows 10 to 64 bit and the need to have a GPU with DirectX support 12 (Feature Level 12 _ 0), but this last requirement should not represent a problem for many since even old (but still widespread) video cards ensure this support .
Ubisoft does not indicate what it takes to play in 4K at Ultra details and 60 fps, but verisimilme nte an Nvidia GPU such as the RTX 3080 and an AMD GPU of high-end of the new Radeon RX series 6000 (will be presented on 28 October and was anticipated by AMD at the Ryzen event 5000), they should perform the “heavy duty”.
There is never too much of a good horror movie. The independent studio Frictional Games has proved that it can create an atmospheric representative of this genre. After the extremely successful game SOMA, the creators return to their origins, namely to the Amnesia series, the second part of which, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, was made by another developer – The Chinese Room (authors Dear Esther and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture). After seven years of waiting, the third installment, which is not intended to be a direct sequel to the story, will be released next week. Therefore, the manufacturer was ready to share the hardware requirements of the PC version on the Steam platform. By the way, a new, extensive gameplay has been released with a comment from developers, which suggests that the game will try to freeze our blood in our veins.
We got to know the hardware requirements of Amnesia: Rebirth, the third installment of the horror series. Pending fixed on 20 October 2020 of the year, you can get the second part for free on the Epic Games Store.
October games 2020 – FIFA, Watch Dogs, Amnesia, Star Wars
In Amnesia: Rebirth we will play the role of Tasi Trianon, who lost her memory. Together with the heroine, we will try to discover the secrets of her past and explain how she ended up in the Algerian desert. In terms of gameplay, it is still good old Amnesia, which is confirmed by several minutes of gameplay. One thing seems certain – the dense atmosphere will often give you shivers down your spine. What PC will we need to be afraid in the new one in Amnesia? Older equipment is enough. Although the Frictional Games studio did not specify the processor models, it can be safely assumed that there are no newer units in them and, for example, in the case of Ryzen 5 it is rather 1600 than 3600. The list of cards in the recommended configuration also looks strange: GeForce GTX 680 against the Radeon RX 580, and there is also … Intel Xe-HPG (Frictional Games studio ran in the future). Here are the full hardware requirements for Amnesia: Rebirth:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460 or AMD Radeon HD 5750 or Intel HD 630 (OpenGL 4.0)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 or AMD Radeon RX 580 or Intel Xe-HPG (OpenGL 4.3)
Disk
50 GB free space
50 GB of free space
Amnesia : Rebirth – gameplay shows that there is nothing to be afraid of for the game
In the past, you might have won Amnesia games for free, but if you did not get hold of the previous giveaways, it’s before the premiere of the new version y, which was scheduled for 20 October 2020, Epic Games Store released the second installment – Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs (and Costume Quest 2). You can add it to your account free of charge until 20 October until 17: 00 Polish time. Finally, we would like to remind you that Amnesia: Rebirth will debut not only on PC (Steam), but also on the PlayStation 4 console.
The war between console fans and computers is as old as the world. On the one hand, the fans argue that the PC gives more options for entertainment and work, and that repair and modernization are possible on their own. And the supporters of consoles argue that they are right to argue the lower price and simpler operation. What if both worlds could merge? Such a question, as usual, was asked by someone in China. Unique motherboards have recently appeared on the Aliexpress platform. They have a soldered APU chip in the form of AMD A9 – 9820, which probably comes from the Xbox One S console and offers performance similar to the Intel Core i5 processor – 7400, all at a much lower price.
Unique Chinese motherboard with AMD A9 chip – 9820 is available on Aliexpress. Its price is 125 dollars, which is approximately 489 zlotys.
Test Ryzen 5 3600 vs Core i5 – 10400 F on RTX 2060 SUPER and RX 5700 XT
The motherboard in question is available HERE, but its name remains unknown. We are talking about the CEB standard (305 x 267 mm), which is slightly wider than regular ATX (305 x 244 mm) On the brown laminate we find 8-core and 16 – threaded APU AMD A9 – 9820 running at clock 2, 35 GHz, paired with integrated AMD Radeon R7 graphics 350 with 512 shading units and clock rates up to 935 MHz. In addition, you can see a cooled, 6-phase power section, four slots for DDR3 memory, four SATA III connectors, one M.2 one PCI Express x1 slot. The I / O panel, although not shown directly, is two PS / 2, four USB 2.0, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 type A, HDMI, RJ – 45 and three audio connectors.
NZXT H1 Case Test – Xbox Series X better version?
You won’t find an APU chip like AMD A9 on the AMD website – 9820, but Chuwi uses them in his mini PC in the form of Chuwi AeroBox. More importantly, the Chinese manufacturer boasted some time ago that their AeroBoks use a motherboard similar to the one found in the Microsoft Xbox One S console. Thus, you can guess that AMD A9 – 9820 is actually an APU from the console, but probably the worst part of the waffle that did not meet the standards set out in the Microsoft-AMD contract. Thus, the Reds at the end of the life of the old Xbox simply decided to earn on the chips they had, which Chinese producers willingly used.
The seller on Aliexpress claims that the manufacturer of the discussed motherboard is Biostar, and the APU performance of AMD A9 – 9820 is to be comparable to the Intel Core processor i5 – 7400. While the former is quite possible, it is better to approach the latter with a distance. The question, however, is whether the price is actually 125 dollars (about 489 do we get an alternative to the Xbox One S? Theoretically? Yes. Practically? Not completely. The motherboards sold are used (but checked before shipment and in working order), in addition, the consumer needs his own RAM modules, data carrier, power supply and housing. Thus, the motherboard remains only a curiosity for DIY enthusiasts and people who are not afraid of the secondary market and
Intel has finally pulled the veil off of the final specs of its 11th-Generation Tiger Lake processors after slowly trickling out details of the new chips for an entire year. The TIger Lake chips look to slow AMD’s advance with its impressive 7nm Ryzen 4000-series “Renoir” chips that have steadily gained traction over the last several months, but Intel is finally moving on to its 10nm SuperFin process that brings higher clock speeds and a big 20% boost to performance. Intel has also finally shared benchmarks that give us at least some idea of how its chips stack up against the Ryzen competition – Intel claims its quad-core models are faster than AMD’s eight-core Renoir chips, and that its integrated graphics have finally taken the lead.
We recently had the chance to put those claims to the test with a validation platform that Intel provided, giving us a glimpse of what to expect from Tiger Lake in the future. We’ll cover out test results below.
Intel also recently confirmed that we’ll soon see eight-core Tiger Lake models come to market, though the series will be confined to dual- and quad-core models for some time. We’ve also seen the first sign of Tiger Lake desktop PC systems emerge in the preliminary listings for a new line of ASRock NUCs, but we’ll see those systems in more flavors as other vendors release their products.
Intel’s Tiger Lake brings a dizzying array of improvements over the company’s previous-gen Ice Lake with higher clock speeds, a doubling of graphics performance, the first PCIe 4.0 support for laptops, and support for LPDDR4x memory serving as the headline advances. Intel also unveiled its new Evo platform, which is the second-gen of its Project Athena initiative. After Intel shared the technical details of its architecture, the new 10nm SuperFin process, and even more low-level details, we now have all the info condensed down into this article. Let’s start with the chips, then take a look at some of the first Tiger Lake laptops to hit the market.
Intel 11th-Gen Core Tiger Lake At A Glance
Willow Cove cores – quad-core and dual-core models
Intel Iris Xe LP graphics for 2x faster 1080p gaming
10nm SuperFin process gives up to 20% increase in clock frequency
Support for LPDDR5 – LPDDR4x for first models
Industry first PCIe 4.0 for laptops
New media and display engine
WifI 6 and Thunderbolt 4
Release Date: 50+ designs shipping this holiday season (starts in October)
150+ models in total
New Intel Evo (second-gen Project Athena) options
Price: Varies based on laptop
Intel 11th-Gen Core Tiger Lake UP3 Specifications
Intel announced a total of nine new chips. We have the nitty-gritty specs below, but first we’ll break down the meaning behind the confusing mish-mash of product identifiers.
Intel’s Tiger Lake comes with the Willow Cove processing cores and Xe LP graphics on one larger 10nm SuperFin die, and a separate smaller 14nm PCH (platform controller hub) chipset that handles extra I/O and connectivity duties.
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Intel has two basic packages: The larger package on the left is for the high-performance UP3 models (formerly U-Series) that operate within a 12 to 28W TDP, and the UP4 package (formerly Y-Series) on the right for devices that operate at 7 to 15W. These packages are then integrated onto incredibly small motherboards (second picture in the album) that find their way into the new Tiger Lake laptops and thin-and-lights.
The Tiger Lake chips span the Core i7, i5 and i3 families and come with varying levels of graphics performance. Intel splits its Xe LP graphics up into G7 and G4 families. Tiger Lake models with “G7” at the end of the product name come with either 96 or 80 execution units (EUs), with the full-fledged 90 EU models coming with Intel Iris Xe branding. Chips with “G4” at the end of the product name come with 48 EUs. Naturally, the Iris Xe models with more EUs offer the high end of performance, which we’ll see in the benchmarks shortly.
Intel Tiger Lake UP3 Processors
PROCESSOR
CORES/THREADS
GRAPHICS (EUs)
OPERATING RANGE (W)
BASE CLOCK (GHZ)
SINGLE CORE TURBO FREQ (GHZ)
MAXIMUM ALL CORE FREQ (GHZ)
Cache (MB)
GRAPHICS MAX FREQ (GHZ)
MEMORY
Core i7-1185G7
4C / 8T
96
12 – 28W
3.0
4.8
4.3
12
1.35
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i7-1165G7
4C / 8T
96
12 – 28W
2.8
4.7
4.1
12
1.30
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i5-1135G7
4C / 8T
80
12 – 28W
2.4
4.2
3.8
8
1.30
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i3-1125G4*
4C / 8T
48
12 – 28W
2.0
3.7
3.3
8
1.25
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-3733
Core i3-1115G4
2C / 4T
48
12 – 28W
3.0
4.1
4.1
6
1.25
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-3733
You’ll notice that Intel has discarded its practice of listing a single TDP value. Instead the company now defines a full dynamic range of performance that spans 12 to 28W with the UP3 models. This allows laptop makers to tailor the chips for the thermal capabilities of their products, with high-end models having sufficient cooling to enable full performance, while lower-end models with less-capable cooling can be tuned to a lower TDP setting. The TDP can even change while in use based upon device temperature, power delivery, and orientation. Intel doesn’t require laptop makers to list their TDP ratings, though, so you’ll have to turn to third-party reviews for the full skinny on performance.
The flagship Core i7-1185G7 leads the UP3 lineup. This chip boosts to 4.8 GHz and has a 3.0 GHz base frequency, both of which are a big increase of 700 MHz over the previous-gen model. Intel has also made a big step forward with a 4.2 GHz all-core boost clock that will help chew through demanding productivity apps. To put that in perspective – the maximum single-core boost from AMD’s fastest Ryzen 4000 processor weighs in at 4.2 GHz. Intel can pull that off on all cores at once, which helps explain some of its performance advantages we’ll see in the benchmarks below.
The 1185G7 also comes with the Xe LP graphics engine with the full complement of 96 EUs, so Intel brands it as Iris Xe. The graphics unit runs at 1.35GHz, an increase of 250 MHz over the previous-gen graphics on the Core i7-1068NG7. The chip comes armed with 12MB of L3 cache and supports LPDDR4X-4266.
The Core i3-1115G4 slots in as the low-end model of this line up. This dual-core quad-thread chip comes with a 3.0 GHz base, 4.1 GHz boost, and impressive 4.1 GHz maximum all-core frequency. The chip’s Xe LP graphics engine comes with 48 EUs and boosts to 1.25 GHz, which is pretty agile for a low-end chip. However, these chips step back from LPDDR4x-4266 support to LPDDR4x-3733, which will hamper performance in some tasks. Notably, the Core i5 and i3 models come with 8MB and 6MB of L3 cache, respectively, which is less than the full 12MB found on the Core i7 models.
Intel 11th-Gen Core Tiger Lake UP4 Specifications
Intel Tiger Lake UP4 Processors
PROCESSOR
CORES/THREADS
GRAPHICS (EUs)
OPERATING RANGE (W)
BASE CLOCK (GHZ)
SINGLE CORE TURBO FREQ (GHZ)
MAXIMUM ALL CORE TURBO (GHZ)
Cache (MB)
GRAPHICS MAX FREQ (GHZ)
MEMORY
Core i7-1160G7
4C / 8T
96
7 – 15W
1.2
4.4
3.6
12
1.10
LPDDR4x-4266
Core i5-1130G7
4C / 8T
80
7 – 15W
1.1
4.0
3.4
8
1.10
LPDDR4x-4266
Core i3-1120G4*
4C / 8T
48
7 – 15W
1.1
3.5
3.0
8
1.10
LPDDR4x-4266
Core i3-1110G4
2C / 4T
48
7 – 15W
1.8
3.9
3.9
6
1.10
LPDDR4x-4266
The UP4 models slot into a 7 to 15W performance range for premium ultra-thin devices, including fanless models. Here we have Tiger Lake Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 models, just like with the UP3 family, but with pared back frequencies to enable the lower level of operation.
The Core i7-1160G7 comes with four cores and eight threads paired with Iris Xe graphics that operate at a 1.1GHz boost clock, while the low-end dual-core Core i3-1110G4 comes with a 48 EUs that boost up to 1.1 GHz. All of the UP4 models support LPDDR4x-4266.
Intel Tiger Lake Pentium Gold and Celeron
Intel Tiger Lake and Celeron
Cores / Threads
Base / Boost (GHz)
TDP
L3 Cache
Memory
Graphics
Graphics EU / Clocks
Pentium Gold 7505
2C / 4T
2.0 / 3.5 GHz
15W
4MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-3733
UHD Graphics – Xe LP
48 / 1.25 GHz
Celeron 6305
2C / 2T
1.8 / –
15W
4MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-3733
UHD Graphics – Xe LP
48 / 1.25 GHz
Celeron 6305E
2C / 2T
1.8 / –
15W
4MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-3733
UHD Graphics – Xe LP
48 / 1.25 GHz
Intel recently stealth-launched its Tiger Lake Pentium Gold and Celeron processors, and they come with the unanticipated addition of AVX2 instructions, the Intel Deep Learning Boost technology (using the AVX512-VNNI instruction), and the Intel Gaussian and Neural Accelerator 2.0, matching the more expensive Tiger Lake models. In the past, Intel has removed support for the aforementioned features in its lesser Pentium Gold and Celeron families, so this marks a big step forward on the performance front. Intel also added Turbo Boost support for the Pentium Gold 7505, a first for the mobile Pentium lineup.
The rest of the features are somewhat expected, though we also see the debut of the power UHD Graphics Xe LP graphics engine with 48 EUs and a 1.25 GHz peak clock rate. The processors support cTDP (Configurable TDP), so OEMs can adjust the clocks up to 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz for the Celeron models, and 3.9 GHz for the Pentium Gold. We also see that Intel dialed back memory support to LPDDR4-3733 from the 4367 MHz we see with the more expensive models, and also stepped back to PCIe 3.0 for the Pentium and Celeron chips.
Intel Tiger Lake Iris Xe Graphics Gaming Performance
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We’ll cover the details of the Xe LP graphics engine below, but for now, let’s see the new Iris Xe integrated graphics in action in our own testing. However, we have to note that these results came in an Intel-provided reference system, so they might not be representative of the full performance we’ll see in laptops that come to market. Be sure to check out our preview for the full breakdown of the test environment.
Meanwhile, these results do give us a taste of the theoretical heights of Tiger Lake’s gaming performance. Here we can see that if you’re willing to compromise greatly on fidelity, you can run many games at 1080p on a laptop with Iris Xe graphics. It won’t be one of the best gaming laptops, we can only expect so much from integrated graphics, after all. Leading-edge AAA games may create some challenges, but the Xe LP engine is plenty powerful when you run it at an unconstrained 28W setting.
The reference system gave us to 1080p at 30 fps in low settings on most tests, but we’ll see have to wait to see what comes with shipping systems. However, we are undoubtedly getting closer to being able to have short 1080p gaming stints, albeit at reduced fidelity, on Ultrabooks.
Intel Tiger Lake Performance in Desktop Applications
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Here we can see the results of our preliminary application testing on the Tiger Lake reference system, but be aware that all of the caveats of the reference system apply.
Intel’s Tiger Lake pulls off pretty impressive performance in lightly-threaded applications, especially when you consider its four core models square up against AMD’s potent eight-core Ryzen 4000-series chips. As expected, though, AMD’s Ryzen takes the lead when we flip over to applications, like HandBrake, that can use its eight cores and 16 threads more effectively.
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We’re also including some of Intel’s projections here, due to the wider range of benchmarks, but be sure to take those with the same grain of salt as any other vendor-provided benchmarks. Intel shared benchmarks of its chips beating the Ryzen 7 4800U in a whole range of applications, including office and productivity/creativity software. As always, we’ll need to wait for more comprehensive third-party benchmarks of shipping laptops to make a final determination.
A lot of Intel’s claimed advantages stem from its big push into AI capabilities as the company works with a slew of software vendors to enable support for its newest capabilities. These new software packages yield massive improvements, up to 5X, in performance due to support for AI-boosting DL Boost instructions that leverage AVX-512 to boost performance.
Leveraging the AVX instruction set for AI workloads could evolve into a significant advantage over AMD’s Ryzen 4000 processors as Intel’s software support broadens. Intel’s chips have long dropped into lower frequencies as densely-packed AVX instructions work their way through the processor, but Intel has reduced the impact with a new SuperMIM capacitor that keeps voltages steady. That allow the processor to remain in higher frequency ranges during heavy AVX workloads.
Intel doesn’t just focus on AI workloads that run on the Willow Cove cores, though. The Gaussian and Neural Accelerator (GNA) returns, but this time with a new 2.0 revision. This SoC-integrated AI accelerator block is used for processing all sorts of low-power voice-based applications, like translation and transcription, using low-power inferencing. Intel claims that this offload engine can reduce CPU utilization by 20% during these types of operations, but at much lower power consumption. This unit can be also be used for impressive noise cancelation capabilities without taxing the Willow Cove cores.
Intel Tiger Lake Battery Life
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We’ll have to wait until Tiger Lake laptops hit our labs for the full rundown on battery life, but Intel claims to have made significant gains in power consumption. It also says that laptops could provide nearly the same amount of performance on battery as when they are plugged into the wall.
Our testing confirmed that performance remains high while on battery, but that will undoubtedly have an impact on battery life. We weren’t allowed to test battery life on the reference system we were given for testing, but stay tuned for more as shipping systems hit our labs.
(Image credit: Intel)
The chart above highlights some Intel’s claims about the performance and efficiency improvements that come from the company’s new focus on providing higher performance while the laptop is under battery power.
As you can see on the right, Intel claims that performance on the Ryzen 4000-series 4800U drops precipitously when you remove the power plug and the laptop operates on battery power alone. In contrast, Intel claims its Tiger Lake chips offer the same amount of performance, even boosting up to the full 50W of power, while on battery power. If that pans out in our testing, that means you’ll still get the full Tiger Lake performance while on battery power, but at the expense of battery life.
Intel Evo – The Second-Gen of Project Athena
Tiger Lake also marks the arrival of Intel’s second generation of Project Athena, but it now comes with Intel Evo branding. The Intel Evo program certifies that a laptop is designed with premium components for the fastest performance, and that the software shipped on the laptops doesn’t hinder performance. Laptops that pass Intel’s criteria earn a custom Intel Evo badge.
Intel has a dizzying number of requirements on both the hardware and software side of the Evo equation, but the goals include battery life projections of nine or more hours for 1080p laptops, eight hours for QHD models, and seven hours for UHD models. Intel also stipulates the system must wake from sleep in less than one second, that performance remains consistent on battery power (as outlined in the previous section), and that the system supports fast charging that gives four hours of battery life on a 30-minute charging session (1080p models).
Intel has an impressive list of the first Evo laptops, with the Acer Swift 5, Asus Zenbook Flip S, Lenovo Yoga 9i and Samsung Galaxy Book Flex 5G being the first models to come to market. Those will be followed by designs from all the usual suspects, like Acer, Asus, Dell, Dynabook, Razer, Samsung, HP, Lenovo, LG and MSI. You can learn more about the program here.
Intel Tiger Lake Laptops
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With over 150 designs eventually coming to market, there will be plenty of Intel Tiger Lake laptops to choose from. However, we do have a list of some of the first devices, which we’ll add to when other notable devices come to market.
Lenovo’s Yoga and IdeaPad 9i series are on the premium side and even have options for lids with a genuine leather covering. The Yoga 9i comes in 14- and 15-inch options that weigh in at up to $1,799 for a fully-equipped 15-inch model. The 14-inch models retail for $1,399 for metal models, and $1,699 for the leather-clad option.
MSI bills the Stealth 15M as the ‘thinnest 15-inch laptop,’ but it still comes armed with a 15.6-inch “IPS-level” panel with a 144Hz refresh rate, Thunderbolt 4 support, Killer Wi-Fi AX1650, and options for PCIe 4.0 x4 storage. MSI hasn’t released pricing yet.
MSI also has its new Summit series on offer for professional users. The new models come in several different configurations, which you can see here, but MSI hasn’t shared pricing yet.
Intel Tiger Lake Thunderbolt 4, PCIe 4.0 Interface, WiFi 6
After losing the glory of being the first to PCIe 4.0 on the desktop (AMD holds that distinction), Intel is the first to bring PCIe 4.0 support to laptops. The faster interface enables speedier SSD options that provide more performance and efficiency than their PCIe 3.0 counterparts.
That marks the beginning of a new era for PCIe 4.0 SSDs, and while some may opine that the speedy interface draws more power, that isn’t the full story. While the PCIe 4.0 interface does draw more power than 3.0, it can transfer data at up to twice the speed per lane. That helps reduce the amount of time the interface is active, which allows the chip to drop into lower power states more quickly. Intel added the ability to shut off or dynamically adjust Tiger Lake’s PCIe interface when it isn’t fully active, and the faster interface could be used to employ fewer lanes during some workloads, both of which will allow you to enjoy the speed of PCIe 4.0 SSDs without making huge sacrifices on battery life.
Intel touts its support for integrated Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4, but these aren’t really ‘new’ protocols. In short, with speeds up to 40Gb/s, Thunderbolt 4 maintains the same maximum speed rating as its predecessor (TB3) and doesn’t enable new features. Instead, vendors are required to enable all of the high-end features that used to be optional, like the ability to hit the 40Gb/s data throughput requirements and support two 4K displays or one 8K display. This approach does simplify the confusing branding surrounding Thunderbolt 3, but from a hardware standpoint, the speeds and feeds remain the same.
Intel Tiger Lake Willow Cove Architecture and 10nm SuperFin Process
Intel also made some finer-grained improvements to its microarchitecture, and the resulting Willow Cove cores feature a rebalanced cache hierarchy to improve performance, dual ring bus fabric, SuperMIM capacitors, and new security enhancements, among many other improvements. We’ve covered the low-level details of the Willow Cove architecture here.
Intel pairs the new Willow Cove cores with its 10nm SuperFin process. The process offers much higher clock speeds at any given voltage, and it can also operate at a lower voltage at any given frequency, too. As a result, the chip has a greater dynamic frequency range from the minimum to maximum voltage, which provides better performance at every power level. That equates to faster mid-range performance in thin-and-light devices, not to mention peak performance in high-performance designs. We have the full details of Intel’s 10nm SuperFin technology here.
Intel Tiger Lake Iris Xe LP Graphics Engine
Intel’s Xe LP (Low Power) architecture powers the Tiger Lake chips, but don’t be fooled by the “Low Power” in the Xe graphics branding, though. The Xe LP graphics engine promises up to twice the performance of the previous-gen Gen11, addressing a key sore point in Intel’s lineup compared to AMD’s capable 7nm “Renoir” Ryzen Mobile processors with Vega graphics.
Intel’s Xe LP comes with a significantly revamped architecture that we covered in our Intel Drops XE LP Graphics Specs deep dive. The net-net is that the engine comes with up to 96 execution units (EU) and ‘significant’ performance-per-watt efficiency improvements over the previous Gen11 graphics, which implies twice the performance at lower power compared to Intel’s Ice Lake.
Intel revamped its display engine, too. Tiger Lake supports hardware acceleration for AV1 decode, up to four display pipelines, 8K UHD and Ultra Wide, 12-bit BT2020 color, and 360Hz and Adaptive Sync, among others listed in the album above. Tiger Lake also supports up to six 4K90 sensors (support starts at 4K30) and can process still images up to 42 megapixels, an increase over the prior 27MP limitation with Ice Lake.
Intel Tiger Lake Pricing and Availability
Intel says that over 50 new designs based on Tiger Lake chips will land in time for the holidays, and there will be over 150 models released in total. The first devices arrive in October. Unfortunately we don’t have an official price list for the chips, as they are only delivered to OEMs. That means our only measure is the pricing on the devices that come to market.
For a deeper look at the state of the desktop PC chips, head over to our Intel vs AMD CPU article.
GPU-Z is preparing for the looming GPU launches with update 2.35.0, which adds support for the fast-approaching RX 6000 series GPUs from AMD, also known as Big Navi, and Intel’s DG1 graphics.
The RX 6000 series is AMD’s next generation of GPUs built on the RDNA2 architecture. These new GPUs will go toe-to-toe with Nvidia’s RTX 30 series Ampere GPUs.
AMD teased the graphics cards in its Zen 3 reveal and gave us a brief taste of RDNA2’s performance without revealing which RX 6000 series GPU the company used for the demo. However, results were impressive – the performance figures largely match the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 at a 4K resolution. AMD will share more information at the official reveal on 10/28/2020 at 10am PT.
The update also adds support for DG1 discrete graphics. Intel’s Xe DG1 chip comes mounted in a standard Add-In-Card (AIC) form factor for developers, but it will also come in Tiger Lake-powered laptops as a discrete GPU. Intel has already launched its Tiger Lake processors, but, curiously, the company still hasn’t dished on the expected arrival date for laptops with DG1 graphics. However, we continue to see persistent signs that they are moving closer to market. We expect to hear more from Intel about DG1 around CES or sooner.
Here are the rest of the updates included in GPU-Z’s 2.35.0 update:
Added BIOS saving for NVIDIA Ampere
Fixed memory size reporting on GeForce RTX 3090
Fixed DirectML detection on Windows 10 Insider 20231.1000
Improved fake detection for cards based on NVIDIA GT216 & GT218
Fixed Navi 12 Radeon Pro 5600M detection
On AMD Cape Verde use direct temperature readings if driver temps are broken.
Added support for NVIDIA A100 PCIe
Added support for Intel Comet Lake UHD Graphics (Core i5-10200H)
Added support for AMD Radeon HD 8210E, Barco MXRT-6700
You can go to TechPowerUp’s website here to grab the latest version of GPU-Z.
AMD has officially announced that the Zen 3 architecture will land this year and outlined the new Ryzen 5000 series, setting the stage for a new wave of powerful CPUs based upon a newer version of AMD’s most successful architecture to date. The new Zen 3 microarchitecture will power AMD’s full lineup of next-gen processors, including the Ryzen 5000 “Vermeer” desktop processors that will soon vie for a spot on our list of Best CPUs, the Ryzen 5000 laptop CPUs, and the EPYC Milan data center processors.
The first four new Ryzen 5000 series models come as processors for the desktop PC, and they stretch from the $299 Ryzen 5 5600X up to the $799 Ryzen 9 5950X. We’ve also learned that AMD will throw in a copy of Far Cry 6, at least on a promotional basis, with the shipping processors. The CPUs will be on shelves on November 5th and could represent a big shift in the AMD vs Intel CPU wars. Early pricing listings, which are not placeholders, indicate that the Ryzen 5000 processors will initially sell at retail for slightly higher pricing than AMD’s recommended price points.
AMD says Zen 3 features a grounds-up rethinking of the architecture that finally allows it to take the 1080p gaming performance lead from Intel. Paired with a 19% boost to instructions per cycle (IPC) throughput and peak boost speeds of up to 4.9 GHz, AMD may just have the magic 7nm bullet that finally upsets Intel from its position at the top of our gaming performance benchmarks. In fact, given what we’ve seen so far, it looks like AMD could soon enjoy a dominating position in the desktop PC market unlike anything we’ve seen since the Athlon 64 days.
Here’s the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series processors that AMD has announced thus far, but we expect more to come to market soon:
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series CPUs
Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series Processors
RCP (MSRP)
Cores/Threads
Base/Boost Freq.
TDP
L3 Cache
Ryzen 9 5950X
$799
16 / 32
3.4 / 4.9 GHz
105W
64MB (2×32)
Ryzen 9 5900X
$549
12 / 24
3.7 / 4.8 GHz
105W
64MB (2×32)
Ryzen 7 5800X
$449
8 / 16
3.8 / 4.7 GHz
105W
32MB (2×16)
Ryzen 5 5600X
$299
6 / 12
3.7 / 4.6 GHz
65W
32MB (2×16)
AMD’s Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series begins with the impressive 16-core 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X that will retail for $799. This chip boosts up to 4.9 GHz, has 64MB of unified L3 cache, and a 105W TDP rating. AMD says this chip is faster than Intel’s 10-core Core i9-10900K in pretty much everything, which isn’t surprising — Intel has no equivalent for the mainstream desktop.
The $549 Ryzen 9 5900X slots in as the more mainstream contender, at least by AMD’s definition of ‘mainstream,’ with 12 cores and 24 threads that boost up to 4.8 GHz. AMD says this chip beats the Core i9-10900K by even more impressive margins in gaming. Further down the stack, we find the 8C/16T Ryzen 7 5800X for $449 and the 6C/12T Ryzen 5 5600X for $299.
Intel is stuck with its Comet Lake CPUs for five long months to try to fend off the Ryzen 5000 series until Rocket Lake arrives in Q1 2021, which doesn’t bode well.
As odd as it sounds, Intel may have one hidden advantage — pricing. AMD now positions the Ryzen 5000 series as the premium brand and says it has the benchmarks to prove it. As a result, AMD has pushed pricing up by $50 across the stack compared to its Ryzen XT models. However, the XT family doesn’t really represent AMD’s best value; its own Ryzen 3000 series, which comes at much lower price points, holds that crown.
As a result, Intel’s Comet Lake CPUs now have comparatively lower price points than AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series. However, AMD says it still maintains the performance-per-dollar lead. We won’t know the full story until the processors land in our labs, but that obviously won’t be long — AMD says the full roster of Ryzen 5000 CPUs will be available at retail on November 5.
If one thing is for certain, the Zen microarchitecture has completely redefined our expectations for mainstream desktop processors, and it’s rational to expect more of the same with Zen 3. Let’s cover what we know about Zen 3 so far.
AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series At A Glance
1080p gaming performance leadership
Ryzen 9, 7, and 5 models
CPUs from 6C/12T up to 16C/32T
Same optimized 7nm process as Ryzen XT models
Zen 3 microarchitecture delivers 19% IPC improvement
24% gen-on-gen power efficiency improvement — 2.8X better than 10900K
Higher peak frequencies for most models — 4.9 GHz on Ryzen 9 5950X
Lower base frequency for all models, offset by increased IPC
L3 cache now unified in a single 32MB cluster per eight-core chiplet (CCD)
Higher pricing across the stack (~$50)
No bundled cooler with Ryzen 9 and Ryzen 7 models
Drop-in compatible with the AM4 socket
No new chipset/motherboards launched
Current-gen 500-series motherboards work now (caveats below)
Beta support for 400-series motherboards begins in January 2021
All Zen 3 desktop, mobile, and APU CPUs will carry Ryzen 5000 branding
Same 142W maximum power for AM4 socket as previous-gen
Same 12nm GlobalFoundries I/O Die (IOD)
AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series Specifications
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Processor Competition
Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series Processors
RCP (MSRP)
Cores/Threads
Base/Boost Freq.
TDP
L3 Cache
Ryzen 9 5950X
$799
16 / 32
3.4 / 4.9
105W
64MB (2×32)
Core i9-10980XE
$815 (retail)
18 / 36
3.0 / 4.8
165W
24.75MB
Ryzen 9 3950X
$749
16 / 32
3.5 / 4.7
105W
64MB (4×16)
Ryzen 9 5900X
$549
12 / 24
3.7 / 4.8
105W
64MB (2×32)
Core i9-10900K / F
$488 – $472
10 / 20
3.7 / 5.3
125W
20MB
Ryzen 9 3900XT
$499
12 / 24
3.9 / 4.7
105W
64MB (4×16)
Ryzen 7 5800X
$449
8 / 16
3.8 / 4.7
105W
32MB (2×16)
Core i9-10850K
$453
10 / 20
3.6 / 5.2
95W
20MB
Core i7-10700K / F
$374 – $349
8 / 16
3.8 / 5.1
125W
16MB
Ryzen 7 3800XT
$399
8 / 16
3.9 / 4.7
105W
32MB (2×16)
Ryzen 5 5600X
$299
6 / 12
3.7 / 4.6
65W
32MB (2×16)
Core i5-10600K / F
$262 – $237
6 / 12
4.1 / 4.8
125W
12MB
Ryzen 5 3600XT
$249
6 / 12
3.8 / 4.5
95W
32MB (2×16)
Here we can see the full Ryzen 5000 series product stack, and how the new CPUs stack up against Intel’s Comet Lake. The first big thing you’ll notice are the increased Precision Boost clock rates, which now stretch up to 4.9 GHz. However, we also see a broad trend of lower base frequencies for the Ryzen 5000 series compared to the previous-gen processors, but that isn’t too surprising considering the much higher performance-per-watt that we’ll outline below.
AMD obviously leans on its improved IPC rather than raw clock speeds, thus boosting its power efficiency and reducing heat generation. The Ryzen 5 5600X is the best example of that — despite only a slight reduction to the base frequency, the chip drops to a 65W TDP compared to its predecessor’s 95W.
What’s not as impressive? AMD has continued with the precedent it set with its Ryzen XT series: Bundled coolers no longer come with processors with a TDP higher than 65W. That means the Ryzen 5 5600X will be the only Ryzen 5000 chip that comes with a cooler in the box. AMD said it decided to skip bundled coolers in higher-TDP models largely because it believes most enthusiasts looking for high-performance CPUs use custom cooling anyway. AMD also still specs a 280mm (or greater) AIO liquid cooler for the Ryzen 9 and 7 CPUs, which significantly adds to the overall platform costs.
AMD continues to only guarantee its boost frequencies on a single core, and all-core boosts will vary based on the cooling solution, power delivery, and motherboard BIOS. The Ryzen 5000 series CPUs still expose the same 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0 to the user (another four are dedicated to the chipset), and stick with DDR4-3200 memory. We’re told that memory overclocking capabilities remain the same as we see with the Ryzen XT models, so AMD hasn’t changed its guidance on that front.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 Performance Benchmarks and Comparisons
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X Gaming and Application Performance Benchmarks
Before we get into the benchmarks, be aware that AMD provided them. Like all benchmarks provided by any company, they could be (and probably are) heavily skewed toward games and applications that favor the company’s products.
Also, AMD tested all processors (both the Ryzen 5000 series and Intel models) with DDR4-3600 memory. For reference, DDR4-3200 is the stock configuration for the AMD processors, and DDR4-2933 is stock for the Core i9-10900K. AMD also used a Noctua NH-D15s, a high-end air cooler, for all tested platforms (which is fine), and an Nvidia GeForce 2080 Ti. (It probably couldn’t buy a GeForce RTX 3080 or GeForce RTX 3090 either.)
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
What does the 16-core 32-thread Ryzen 9 5950X and its eye watering $799 price tag get you? The first slide pits AMD’s 5950X against the previous-gen Ryzen 9 3950X and shows 20%+ performance gains in the tested games, though the deltas do vary.
AMD also says the Ryzen 9 5950X scores 640 points in the single-threaded Cinebench R20 benchmark, which is much higher than the Core i9-1900K’s 544 points. The content creation benchmarks show the 5950X with solid gains in lightly-threaded apps, like CAD, Adobe Premier, and compilation.
However, performance gains in the heavily-threaded V-Ray application are a bit less pronounced. AMD says the Ryzen 5000 series processors still have to adhere to the 142W power limit of the AM4 socket, which reduces performance gains in heavily-threaded applications.
On the brighter side, AMD says those performance gains come at the same level of power consumption, which means the CPUs are more power-efficient. It will also be interesting to see how that looks when we lift the power limits in our own tests.
The second slide shows the 5950X against the Intel Core i9-10900K in several games and applications. The benchmarks show what is basically a dead heat with the 10900K, but the Ryzen 9 5900X is actually the faster gaming chip, so you’ll see bigger deltas over the Core i9-10900K in the benchmarks below.
Of course, with the RTX 2080 Ti, it could be the main bottleneck even at 1080p ultra. We joked about AMD not having RTX 3080 or RTX 3090 testing results, but in all seriousness, anyone upgrading to Zen 3 for gaming purposes is likely eyeing Nvidia’s Ampere or AMD’s Big Navi as well. That’s something we’ll be testing once we have hardware in our labs.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X Gaming and Application Performance Benchmarks
(Image credit: AMD)
Here’s a quick look at the improvement in AMD’s favorite single-threaded benchmark, Cinebench R20. AMD like this test because it is extremely favorable to its Zen CPU microarchitecture.
The Ryzen 9 5950X scored 631 points, while the Core i9-10900K weighed in at 544 points. That works out to an outstanding 16% advantage for the Ryzen 9 5900X, but bear in mind this occurs in a single benchmark, so take it with a grain of salt.
We scored 535 points with the 10900K in the same test, albeit obviously with a different test platform and conditions. AMD didn’t show the Ryzen 9 5900X’s multi-threaded CineBench score, but measured the Core i9-10900K at 6,354 points. That’s close enough to call a tie with our own measurement of 6,356 points.
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
AMD bills the Ryzen 9 5900X as the fastest gaming CPU on the market, which it says it measured from the average fps from 40 PC games at 1920×1080 at maxed-out settings.
Here we see a spate of AMD’s 1080p performance benchmarks with the Ryzen 9 5900X up against the Ryzen 9 3900XT. Overall, the 5900X provides a 26% average fps performance improvement, which is pretty stellar for an in-socket upgrade. Notably, the processor notches higher gains in some titles — to the tune of 50% in League of Legends and 46% in CS:GO. Other titles, like Battlefield V and Total War, see low single-digit gains.
The second slide pits the Ryzen 9 5900X against the Core i9-10900K in a selection of games at 1080p with high fidelity settings. AMD recorded a slight loss in Total War, and some single-digit performance increases in a few titles. However, League of Legends and CS:GO, both of which are older titles, received significantly higher fps measurements.
We’ll obviously have to see these titles tested on our own test systems, and Intel could gain a bit more performance from overclocking. The jury is still out on Ryzen 5000’s overclockability, but the CPUs use the same process as the existing Ryzen XT models, so we don’t expect much headroom.
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X Gaming and Application Performance Benchmarks
(Image credit: AMD)
AMD didn’t share dedicated benchmarks for the Ryzen 7 5800X and Ryzen 5 5600X — the higher-end models are obviously in the spotlight for today’s announcements. However, the company did share performance-per-dollar slides, which you can see above for the Ryzen 7 5800X. We’ll add more benchmarks as we learn more.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X Gaming and Application Performance Benchmarks
(Image credit: AMD)
Here we can see AMD’s performance-per-dollar projections for the Ryzen 5 5600X. Given that this and the Ryzen 7 5800X are single-chiplet designs, we expect them to be incredibly competitive in gaming at the lower price ranges.
AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series Motherboards
(Image credit: AMD)
AMD didn’t launch a new chipset with the Ryzen 5000 series; instead, the CPUs drop right into existing 500-series chipsets, like X570, B550 and A520 models. These boards require an AGESA 1.0.8.0 (or newer) BIOS to boot a Zen 3 processor, but AMD has been shipping silently shipping supporting BIOSes since summer. As a result, every 500-series motherboard on the market should have a downloadable BIOS available.
While the early BIOS revisions ensure the processors will work on the most basic level, you’ll have to update to an AGESA 1.1.0.0 (or better) BIOS for the best performance. These revisions will be available for all 500-series motherboards by the November 5th Ryzen 5000 series launch date. However, many motherboard vendors are already distributing newer BIOS revisions with enhanced functionality.
AMD originally announced it wouldn’t provide Zen 3 support for 400-series motherboards, but due to concerns from the enthusiast community, the company reversed course. Now AMD will also provide support for 400-series chipsets, but the BIOS updates are under development, and the first beta BIOSes will be available in January of 2021.
However, a series of important restrictions apply to 400-series upgraders, which you can read more about here, but here’s the short version:
AMD will add support for select B450 and X470 motherboards, but that comes at the cost of backward compatibility with some older Ryzen processors. Additionally, the upgrade path is only one way: You won’t be able to flash the BIOS back to earlier versions that support all chips, which could be a hindrance if you try to sell your motherboard later. AMD also says the updates will only be given to verified owners of Zen 3 processors, but we’re currently unsure of the mechanics of the verification process. Finally, support for future Zen 4 processors will not be enabled for 400-series motherboards.
Note: You lose support for PCIe 4.0 on 400-series boards, but most gamers will not, and should not, care — PCIe 4.0 makes no meaningful performance difference in gaming.
AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Series Pricing and Availability
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
The Ryzen 5000 series will come to market on November 5th, 2020. We expect to learn more information, like performance benchmarks, for the Ryzen 7 and 5 models in the interim. We also expect to eventually hear about Threadripper 5000 products with the Zen 3 architecture, but we aren’t sure when AMD will bring the new design to its ultra-powerful high end desktop lineup.
The Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processors do come with a recommended $50 markup across the product stack. AMD’s suggested pricing often has little to do with what we see at retail; you can expect the CPUs to eventually retail for far lower than MSRP.
The change comes as AMD positions itself as a premium chip supplier as opposed to its long history as the value alternative. The continued absence of bundled coolers also serves to drive up the platform cost – in most cases, you’ll need to invest at least $40 to find a cooler that’s as capable as AMD’s stock coolers. The company specs a 280mm AIO cooler (or equivalent air cooler) for the processors, so plan accordingly.
That’s led to plenty of complaints, and Intel’s Comet Lake lineup actually has lower pricing in critical price bands. We do have to take performance into account, though, and we have yet to do our own testing. That means the jury is out on the price-to-performance ratio for the Ryzen 5000 series.
AMD’s Zen 3 pricing in the market will be largely predicated upon how it performs relative to Intel’s CPUs. Given the big performance gains we expect with the Zen 3 generation, it’s possible the numbers could work out in favor of Intel’s competing processors.
If Zen 3 lives up to its billing, it looks like AMD’s only constraint will be production capacity at TSMC. AMD will likely sell every Ryzen 5000 series chip it punches out, at least until Rocket Lake arrives – and we still don’t know if Intel’s new 14nm design can keep pace with AMD’s 7nm CPUs. AMD’s ecosystem of 500- and 400-series motherboard partners have plenty of relatively affordable options, so we don’t foresee any problems with motherboard supply.
On that front, AMD will undoubtedly meet with stiff demand for the Ryzen 5000 series CPUs at launch, and the company says it is working with retailers to avoid the plague of purchasing bots that exacerbated Nvidia’s now-infamous Ampere launch. And AMD hasn’t been free of shortages at launch either, with the Ryzen 9 3950X being relatively difficult to purchase for the first couple of months after it launched.
Should I Buy a Ryzen 5000 Series Zen 3 CPU?
The jury is still out on just how AMD’s Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series CPUs will perform in the real world: We won’t know until the silicon lands in our labs, but you can bet that will be soon given the November 5th 2020 launch date.
The performance does look promising; AMD has made plenty of alterations that should boost performance significantly. Here’s what we know about the Zen 3 microarchitecture:
AMD Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 Serious Microarchitecture
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
AMD shared many new details about the Zen 3 microarchitecture, but the company says it will share even more information in a future briefing, so we’ll have a lot more information for our forthcoming Ryzen 5000 reviews.
AMD embarked on what it describes as a ground-up redesign of the Zen 2 microarchitecture to deliver the gains we would normally see with an entirely new design. In fact, the company’s ~19% increase in IPC represents its largest single-generation increase in the ‘post-Zen’ era (Zen+, Zen 2). We certainly haven’t seen an increase of this magnitude for desktop CPUs from Team Blue in the recent past, either — the initial Skylake architecture achieved a similar boost, but everything since has been nearly static.
AMD calculates its 19% IPC number from the geometric mean of 25 workloads measured with two eight-core processors locked at 4.0 GHz. The impressive IPC gains required a ‘front-to-back’ series of modifications to the design, including (but not limited to) the cache subsystem, front end, branch predictor, execution engine, and load/store elements, all with a focus on boosting single-threaded performance while wringing out better instruction level parallelism (ILP). The result is improved performance across the board in both single- and multi-threaded integer and floating point workloads. However, the 142W power limit imposed by the AM4 socket does restrict the scope of performance gains in heavily-threaded workloads, though there are some advances there, too.
AMD says it uses the same enhanced version of TSMC’s 7nm process node that it used for the Ryzen XT series, but still hasn’t provided specifics. AMD’s ‘special recipe’ for 7nm is largely kept confidential, but the firm specified that it doesn’t use TSMC’s 7nm+ (an EUV node). That means that AMD uses the standard N7 from Zen 2 with improved design rules, or that the CPUs use the N7P node.
AMD’s end goal is to have undisputed best-in-class performance across the full spectrum of applications, and gaming performance was a particular focus, which brings us to the changed cache hierarchy.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
As with the Zen 2 processors, Zen 3 uses the same 12nm I/O die (IOD) paired with either one or two chiplets in an MCM (Multi-Chip Module) arrangement. In the image above, we can see the large I/O die and the two smaller eight-core chiplets.
AMD chose to stick with this basic design for its Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 processors. And just like we see with the previous-gen Zen 2 CPUs, processors with six or eight cores come with one chiplet, while CPUs with 12 or 16 cores come with two chiplets.
(Image credit: AMD)
While the overall package design is the same three-chiplet design, AMD made drastic changes to the internals of the two eight-core chiplets. In the Zen 2 architecture (left), each Zen compute chiplet (CCD) contained two four-core clusters (CCXes) with access to an isolated 16MB slice of L3 cache. So, while the entire chiplet contained 32MB of cache, not all cores had access to all of the cache in the chiplet.
To access an adjacent slice of L3 cache, a core had to communicate with the other quad-core cluster by issuing a request that traversed the Infinity Fabric to the I/O die. The I/O die then routed the request to the second quad-core cluster, even though it was contained within the same chiplet. To fulfill the request, the data had to travel back over the fabric to the I/O die, and then back into the quad-core cluster that issued the request.
On the right side of the slide, we can see that the chiplet now contains one large unified 32MB slice of L3 cache, and all eight cores within the chiplet have full access to the shared cache. This improves not only core-to-cache latency, but also core-to-core latency within the chiplet.
While all eight cores can access the L3 cache within a single compute chiplet, in a dual-chiplet Zen 3 chip, there will be times that the cores will have to communicate with the other chiplet and its L3 cache. In those cases, the compute chiplet’s requests will still have to traverse the Infinity Fabric via signals routed through the I/O die, which incurs latency.
Still, because an entire layer of external communication between the two four-core clusters inside each chiplet has been removed, the Infinity Fabric will naturally have far less traffic. This results in less contention on the fabric, thus simplifying scheduling and routing, and it could also increase the amount of available bandwidth for this type of traffic. All of these factors will result in faster transfers (i.e., lower latency) communication between the two eight-core chiplets, and it possibly removes some of the overhead on the I/O die, too. We imagine there could also be other advantages, particularly for main memory latency, but we’ll wait for more details. We do know that the default fabric speeds haven’t changed, though.
All of this is important because games rely heavily on the memory subsystem, both on-die cache and main memory (DDR4). A larger pool of cache resources keeps more data closer to the cores, thus requiring fewer high-latency accesses to the main memory. Additionally, lower cache latency can reduce the amount of time a core communicates with the L3 cache. This new design will tremendously benefit latency-sensitive applications, like games — particularly if they have a dominant thread that accesses cache heavily (which is common).
Naturally, power efficiency will improve as a function of reduced traffic on the Infinity Fabric, but that’s probably a small fraction of the performance-per-watt gains AMD has extracted from the architecture. Increased IPC and other SoC-level optimizations obviously factor in here. Still, the net result is that AMD managed to stay within the same TDP thermal and electrical ranges as the Ryzen 3000 series CPUs while delivering more performance.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Zen 3 Power Consumption and Efficiency
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
AMD says it has not increased power consumption by a single watt — the maximum power draw for the AM4 socket still stands at 142W — which naturally will lead to impressive efficiency gains. AMD’s chart above uses the first-gen Ryzen 7 1800X as a comparison point, and here we see a 2X improvement by moving to the 7nm Zen 2 architecture. That isn’t too surprising considering the move from the older 14nm process to 7nm with that generation of processors.
The more important reduction comes from extracting more efficiency from the ‘same’ 7nm node, which is far more difficult and requires a combination of both better design methodologies and architectural improvements. As a result of these factors, AMD says it wrung out another 24% gen-on-gen efficiency improvement with the Ryzen 9 5900X over the Zen 2-powered Ryzen 9 3900XT. That’s impressive. Intel’s most recent Comet Lake CPUs had to increase power draw quite a bit and still had far lower performance improvements.
What does that mean to you? Faster, cooler, and quieter performance for your PC compared to AMD’s previous processors – and those models already posed a stiff challenge to Intel’s Comet Lake.
The Ryzen 5000 series Zen 3 CPUs arrive at retail on November 5th, 2020. We’ll update as we learn more.
Elitegroup Computer Systems, known to most of us as ECS, was formed in 1987. From their humble beginnings, they have become an industry-leading OEM that manufactures a large number of products for themselves and other vendors. ECS currently offers mini-PCs, laptops, motherboards, tablets, and other IoT devices under their various brands and has expanded into many markets. Even if you have never directly bought an ECS-branded product, it is still highly likely that you have used or owned one they manufactured. With each passing year, ECS continues to grow, offering a larger and more diverse portfolio of consumer products.
In today’s review, I take a look at the ECS LIVA Z3 Plus. Compared to previous releases, ECS has bumped the specification up, leaving the older Pentium Silver series behind in favor of mobile CPUs, including the Intel Comet Lake-U Core i7-10710U SoC, i7-10510U SoC, i5-10210U SoC, and i3-10110U SoC. Our review sample comes equipped with the i5-10210U. Overall, it remains extremely compact and retains the ability to be mounted to a monitor or television with its VESA mount. Thanks to its HDMI 2.0 port, it is capable of 4K @ 60 Hz. While the company has moved away from eMMC in favor of an M.2 SSD, it sadly still stubbornly continues to offer only 4 GB of single-channel memory. So without further ado, let’s take a closer look at what ECS is offering with the latest generation of its LIVA Z mini-PCs.
128 GB SATA M.2 SSD (Supports both M.2 SATA & PCIE NVMe drives)
Optical Drive:
None
Audio:
Kaby Lake HDMI Realtek ALC256 High Definition Audio Controller
Connectivity:
1x HDMI 2.0 1x Mini DisplayPort 1x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-C Port 3x USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A Ports 2x USB 2.0 Ports 1x Audio Combo Jack 4x Digital Mic (Support A4PC) 1x Realtek RTL8168/8111 Gigabit LAN 1x Intel I219-LM Gigabit LAN
Communications:
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2×2 802.11ax Bluetooth 5.1 1x Intel I219-LM Gigabit LAN 1x Realtek Gigabit LAN RTL8168/8111
While we love building PCs (especially the best PC builds), sometimes it’s more convenient or even cheaper to buy a prebuilt desktop. The good news is that, as we get closer to the holiday season and retailers try to clear out inventory, we’re seeing some incredible sales on gaming PCs.
On any given day, you may to see gaming PC deals on a variety of systems, ranging from budget rigs with GTX 1660 cards for less than $700 to RTX-enabled systems for far less than $1,500 or even models that are on par with the best gaming PCs.
That’s why we’re collecting the best deals on gaming PCs below. If you’re more interested in building your own PC or upgrading what you have, see our lists of best tech deals overall, best monitor deals or best SSD deals.
ABS Gladiator Gaming PC (Core i7, RTX 2070 Super): was $1,599 now $1,099.
The ABS Gladiator is a good all-around setup that has the bonus of coming with a wired Gamdias mouse and keyboard combo as well as a copy of Marvel’s Avengers. It has an Intel Core i7-9700K, an RTX 2070 Super GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD.View Deal
Alienware R11 w/ RTX 3080, 16GB, 1TB + 512GB: was $2429, now $2381 @Dell
The sleek Aurora R11 uses liquid cooling to keep itself operating at tip-top efficiency. This configuration comes with an overclockable Core i7-10700KF CPU, 16GB of dual-channel HyperX Fury RAM and dual SSDs.View Deal
ABS Master Gaming PC (AMD Ryzen 5, RTX 2060): was $1,199 now $899 @ NeweggNewegg’s popular ABS Challenger deal might be sold out now, but if you’re willing to go a step up, you can still get the ABS Master deal. This comes with an AMD Ryzen 5-3600 processor, an RTX 2060 GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD all inside a transparent RGB-laden case.View Deal
Corsair One i145 Compact (Core i7, RTX 2080 Super) : was $2,899 now $2,399 @ Best Buy
This Mini-ITX small form computer still packs a decent amount of power for its frame, coming with an Intel Core i7-9700K processor, GeForce RTX 2080 Super GPU, 32GB of RAM and 2TB HDD. It’s also got RGB built directly into its case.View Deal
CLX SET (Ryzen 9, RTX 2070 Super): was $1,999 now $1,840 @ Best Buy
The CLX SET Gaming desktop is an 18.5 x 18.3 x 8.3 inch desktop with a transparent side panel and RGB components. Its black and red color scheme fits its Ryzen 9-3900X CPU, which it backs up with an RTX 2070 Super GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 240GB SSD and a 2TB HDD.View Deal
Corsair One (Core i9, RTX 2080 Ti): was $3,499 now $3,199 @Best Buy
The Corsair One is a 15 x 7.9 x 6.8 inch desktop that has built-in RGB on its case and features some of the most powerful specs of the last gen of hardware. That means an Intel Core i9-9900K CPU, an RTX 2080 Ti GPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 2TB HDD.View Deal
ABS Challenger Gaming PC (Core i5, GTX 1660 Super): was $999 now $899 @Newegg
This budget PC bundle gives you enough power to stay competitive in the current gaming landscape plus a keyboard and a mouse. With it, you’ll get a case with a transparent side panel, plenty of RGB, an Intel Core i5-10400 CPU, a GTX 1660 Super GPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD and a wired Gamdias keyboard/mouse combo. View Deal
Lenovo Legion 5i (Core i7, GTX 1660 Super): was $1,249 now $999 @Lenovo
Here’s a desktop with a…unique case. The shark-finned Lenovo Legion 5i comes with a 10th gen Intel Core i7-10700 processor with vPro, a GTX 1660 Super GPU, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD. Snag it for $999 with coupon code SEMISALE2020.View Deal
Lenovo Legion 5i (Core i5, RX 5500): was $999, now $799 @ Lenovo
If you want a shark-fin case but don’t need shark-level power, Lenovo currently has a decent Intel/AMD hybrid tower up for $799 with coupon code SEMISALE2020. This gaming pc comes with an Intel Core i5-10400F CPU, a Radeon 5500 GPU, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD.View Deal
HP Pavilion Gaming Desktop (AMD Ryzen 5 3500, RX 550): was $719, now $619 @HP
What if you want an inexpensive gaming desktop? HP’s all-AMD HP Pavilion has you covered. It’s got an AMD Ryzen 5 3500 CPU, a Radeon RX 550 GPU, 8GB of RAM and a 1TB HDD. You can also customize it at checkout. View Deal
HP Omen 30L (AMD Ryzen 9 3900, RX 5700XT): was $1,579 now $1,379 @HP
If you’re looking for a good high-end AMD desktop, HP’s sleek new Omen is a good start. It’s got a case with plenty of lighting and RGB plus a transparent side to show it off, and both an AMD CPU and GPU. You’ll get a Ryzen 9 3900 processor (w/RGB cooling), an RX 5700 GPU, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. Plus, you can customize it further.View Deal
iBuyPower Element (Core i7, GTX 1660): was $1,099, now $949 @ Best Buy
This iBuyPower Element Gaming Desktop deal is a good choice for anyone who doesn’t want to buy separate accessories. You’ll get an iBuyPower wired keyboard and mouse combo, plus a PC with an Intel Core i7-9700F, a GTX 1660, 16GB of RAM, a 2TB HDD and a 240GB SSD.View Deal
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