If I were the Microsoft marketing executive pitching a once-in-a-lifetime giveaway of an incredible custom-built Flight Simulator PC, I would do two things:
1) I would probably make it look like a full jet engine, not half an exposed jet engine, to avoid reminding people how airplanes can rarely (but terrifyingly) fail:
2) I would make sure it has the very best parts on the market, both for wow factor and so my one-of-a-kind Flight Simulator PC can hopefully play the notoriously demanding game at max settings someday.
Weirdly, this PC will come with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 (not a 3080 or 3090!), as well as a Core i7-11700K rather than Intel’s new flagship Core i9-11900K. We recently tested that Core i9 with an RTX 3090, and it still wasn’t enough to hit 60fps in Flight Simulator at max settings, though I imagine the Core i7 won’t be far off our results with its very similar specs.
Does this PC still have great specs? Absolutely. Should you question them if you’re the lucky winner of this Microsoft France / Gigabyte Aorus collab? Definitely not. That RTX 3070 is worth upward of $1,200 all by its lonesome. I’m just telling you what I would do.
Oh, and 3) I would absolutely make that giant fan go all the way around and spin, so it can serve as an epic, brag-worthy case fan for the entire PC.
Speaking of epic Microsoft giveaway items, do you remember the Xbox Series X fridge? Not only is Microsoft actually now putting a real Xbox Series X mini-fridge into production, the company’s apparently going to be designing them from scratch. That’s according to Xbox marketing head Aaron Greenberg, who dropped the tidbit in a Clubhouse room yesterday evening where my colleague Taylor Lyles was listening.
AMD has announced that its 7nm Ryzen 5000G series APUs, codename Cezanne, are now shipping to OEMs with availability for the DIY/retail market coming later this year. AMD announced three primary 65W models that span from four Zen 3 cores up to eight cores, accompanied by Vega graphics that span from 6 graphics cores to eight. AMD hasn’t shared pricing for these processors yet — that information will likely come during the retail launch later this year. In either case, we are sure that these new chips will rank on our list of Best CPUs and Best Cheap CPUs.
Compared to intel’s Core i7-10700, AMD claims the chips are 38% faster in content creation, 35% faster in productivity, and are up to 2.17X faster in gaming, which comes courtesy of the built-in Radeon Vega graphics engine. AMD also provided plenty of benchmark comparisons, albeit against Intel’s 10th-gen processors and not the Rocket Lake chips that come with the more potent UHD Graphics 750 engine powered by 32 EUs with the Xe architecture.
As expected, AMD also released three low-power 35W variants with lower base frequencies to fit inside more restricted power/thermal environments and smaller builds. As with all Zen 3 processors, the Ryzen 5000G chips step up to a faster DDR4-3200 interface, which will certainly help the integrated GPU in gaming performance. However, AMD has stuck with the PCIe 3.0 interface found on all of its current-gen APUs.
Given the ongoing graphics card shortages, newly revamped APUs could be a welcome sight for the gaming market. That is if AMD can keep them in stock, of course. In either case, AMD’s willingness to bring these APUs to market is laudable given that its previous-gen Ryzen 4000 series APUs only landed in the OEM/pre-built market.
AMD Ryzen 5000G G-Series Specifications
AMD Ryzen 5000 G-Series 65W Renoir APUs
CPU
Cores/Threads
Frequency (Up to) Boost / Base
Graphics Cores
Graphics Frequency
TDP
Cache
Ryzen 7 5700G
8 / 16
3.8 / 4.6
RX Vega 8
2100 MHz
65W
20 MB
Ryzen 7 4700G
8 / 16
3.6 / 4.4
RX Vega 8
2100 MHz
65W
12 MB
Ryzen 5 5600G
6 / 12
3.9 / 4.4
RX Vega 7
1900 MHz
65W
19 MB
Ryzen 5 4600G
6 / 12
3.7 / 4.2
RX Vega 7
1900 MHz
65W
11 MB
Ryzen 3 5300G
4 / 8
4.0 / 4.2
RX Vega 6
1700 MHz
65W
10 MB
Ryzen 3 4300G
4 / 8
3.8 / 4.0
RX Vega 6
1700 MHz
65W
6 MB
The Ryzen 5000G lineup spans from four to eight cores, with the key addition being the Zen 3 architecture that provides a 19% IPC uplift over the Zen 2 architecture used in the previous-gen Ryzen 4000G models. We also see higher clock rates across the lineup, with peak boost speeds now weighing in at 4.6 GHz for the eight-core 5700G, whereas the previous-gen models topped out at 4.4 GHz. We also see that base clocks have increased by 200 MHz across the 65W chips.
The new architecture also grants higher L3 cache capacities. For instance, the eight-core 16-thread Ryzen 7 5700G now has 20MB of L3 cache compared to its eight-core predecessor that came with 12MB. These are the natural byproducts of the Zen 3 architecture and should benefit general iGPU performance, too.
AMD continues to pair the chips with the Vega graphics architecture, just as it did with the 4000-series APUs, but AMD reworked the architecture for its last go-round — the reworked RX Vega graphics delivered up to ~60% percent more performance per compute unit (CU) than its predecessors, which equated to more graphics performance from fewer CU. We aren’t sure if AMD has made a similar adjustment this time around, but we’ve reached out for more detail. We do know that the graphics units run at the same frequencies for each model.
All of the chips come with a 45W to 65W configurable TDP (cTDP), broadening the range of potential uses for these higher-end Ryzen 5000G APUs. If you need to dip below the 45W range, you would look at the GE Models below.
AMD Ryzen 5000 GE-Series 35W Renoir APUs
CPU
Cores/Threads
Frequency (Up to) Boost / Base
Graphics Cores
Graphics Frequency
TDP
Cache
Ryzen 7 5700GE
8 / 16
3.2 / 4.6
RX Vega 8
2000 MHz
35W
20 MB
Ryzen 7 4700GE
8 / 16
3.1 / 4.3
RX Vega 8
2000 MHz
35W
12 MB
Ryzen 5 5600GE
6 / 12
3.4 / 4.4
RX Vega 7
1900 MHz
35W
19 MB
Ryzen 5 4600GE
6 / 12
3.3 / 4.2
RX Vega 7
1900 MHz
35W
11 MB
Ryzen 3 5300GE
4 / 8
3.6 / 4.2
RX Vega 6
1700 MHz
35W
10 MB
Ryzen 3 4300GE
4 / 8
3.5 / 4.0
RX Vega 6
1700 MHz
35W
6 MB
Here we can see the new 35W models, which aren’t as exciting for regular users but are a boon for HTPC and SFF enthusiasts. As expected, base clocks are lower than the 65W models, but that’s needed to squeeze into the 35W TDP envelope. However, AMD retains the impressive single-threaded boosts, which is impressive.
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
AMD Ryzen 5000G Performance Claims
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(Image credit: AMD)
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AMD presented plenty of comparisons to Intel’s Core i7-10700 and the Core i5-10600, but bear in mind that these are Intel’s previous-gen Comet Lake processors. That means these results are not representative of performance with the 11th-gen Rocket Lake chips that come with a significantly upgraded Xe UHD Graphics 750 engine that’s powered by 32 EUs. As per usual, take any vendor-provided benchmarks with the requisite grain of salt. The test notes are at the end of the album.
We’ve already seen listings of the Pro variants for commercial systems, but there are very few details about systems that will come with the consumer Cezanne chips. We expect that several vendors will announce new pre-built systems with the APUs over the coming weeks. We’ll update as we learn more.
Microsoft today announced the next iteration of its Surface laptop, the Surface Laptop 4. It will start at $999 when it goes on sale on April 15. Perhaps its biggest selling point is choice, with options for both 11th Gen Intel Core processors or an 8-core AMD Ryzen (again called the Microsoft Surface Edition).
Both the 13.5-inch and 15-inch version of the Surface Laptop 4 will offer Intel and AMD options. This is a change from the Surface Laptop 3, which offered Intel in the 13.5-incher and
AMD in the 15-incher
(with the exception of business models).
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (13.5-inches)
Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 (15-inches)
CPU
Up to AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Edition R5 4680U (8 cores), Up to Intel Core i7-1185G7
Up to AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Edition R7 4980U ( 8 cores), Up to Intel Core i7-1185G7
Graphics
AMD Radeon RX Graphics or Intel Xe Graphics
AMD Radeon RX Graphics or Intel Xe Graphics
RAM
Up to 16GB (AMD), Up to 32GB (Intel), LPDDR4X 3,733 MHz
Up to 16GB (AMD, DDR4, 2,400 MHz), up to 32GB (Intel, LPDDR4, 3,733 MHz)
Storage
Up to 256GB (AMD), Up to 1TB (Intel)
Up to 512GB (AMD), Up to 1TB (Intel)
Display
13.5-inch PixelSense display, 2256 x 1504, 3:2
15-inch PixelSense display, 2496 x 1664, 3:2
Networking
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0
Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax), Bluetooth 5.0
Starting Price
$999 (AMD), $1,299 (Intel)
$1,299 (AMD), $1,799 (Intel)
The design of the Surface Laptop 4 is largely unchanged, with a 3:2 touchscreen display with 201 pixels per inch, options for Alcantara fabric or a metal deck. There is, however, one new color, ice blue, which debuted on the Surface Laptop Go last year.
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(Image credit: Microsoft)
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(Image credit: Microsoft)
Many of the biggest changes can’t be seen. For the first time, Microsoft is offering a 32GB RAM option on the Surface Laptop (with an Intel Core i7 at 1TB of RAM on both sizes). The company is claiming up to 19 hours of battery life on the smaller device with an AMD Ryzen 5 or 17 hours with a Core i7. On the bigger size, it’s suggesting up to 17.5 hours with an AMD Ryzen 7 and 16.5 hours with Intel Core i7. Microsoft is also claiming a 70% performance increase, though it doesn’t say with which processor.
The new AMD Ryzen Microsoft Surface Edition chips are based on Ryzen 4000 and Zen 2, rather than Ryzen 5000 and Zen 3, which is just rolling onto the market. We understand Microsoft’s chips are somewhat customized, including frequencies similar to the newer chips. But these new processors should, in theory, lead to increased stability and battery life.
While Microsoft is being more flexible on allowing both Intel and AMD options on both size machines, you won’t find them with identical specs when it comes to RAM and storage. The 13.5-inch laptop will offer Ryzen 5 with 8GB or 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, while the Intel 11th Gen Core process range will include a Core i5/8GB RAM/512GB SSD option to start, as well as both Core i5 and Core i7 models with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage and a maxxed out version with a Core i7, 32GB of RAM and 1TB storage drive. The Ryzzen versions only come in platinum, while all but the top-end Intel model also include ice blue, sandstone and black.
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(Image credit: Microsoft)
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(Image credit: Microsoft)
On the 15-inch model, you can get a Ryzen 7 with 8GB of RAM and either 256GB or 512GB of storage, or an R7 with 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD. For intel, You can choose between an Intel Core i7 with either 16GB of memory and 512GB of storage or 32GB of memory and 1TB of storage. These only come in platinum and black.
Commercial models will add more configurations for businesses, including a 13.5-inch model with 512GB of storage and a Ryzen processor. Overall, there are a lot of configurations, so hopefully people are able to find what they want. But there are definitely more options on the Intel side of the Surface fence.
The port situation is largely the same as last year, including USB Type-A, USB Type-C, a headphone jack and the Surface Connect port. Microsoft still isn’t going with Thunderbolt, and will be using USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 on both the Intel and AMD models. The replaceable SSD is back, though Microsoft continues to state that it isn’t user serviceable, and that it should only be removed by authorized technicians.
It’s been a long wait for the Surface Laptop 4. The Surface Laptop 3 was introduced at an event in October 2019 and went on sale that November. Last year, Microsoft revealed the cheaper, smaller Surface Laptop Go but didn’t update the flagship clamshell. We’ll go hands on with the Surface Laptop 4, so let’s hope the wait was worth it.
Microsoft is also revealing a slew of accessories designed for virtual work. They include the $299.99 Surface Headphones 2+ for Business, which is certified for Microsoft Teams with a dongle, shipping this month; Microsoft Modern USB and wireless headsets ($49.99 and $99.99, respectively, releasing in June); the Microsoft Modern USB-C Speaker ($99.99, releasing in June); and the Microsoft Modern webcam, a $69.99 camera with 1080p video, HDR and a 78-degree field of view that will go on sale in June.
Dell’s Inspiron line-up of mid-range casual use case laptops is a bit confusing right now. There’s lots of model numbers, a lot of similar colors, the latest Inspiron 13 is only available as a convertible, and certain current Inspiron 15 models uniquely have a somewhat bulkier and older looking design. To address this issue, Dell announced today that it’s now ditching model numbers and universalizing a single design across the Inspiron laptop family, with one exception — the brand new Inspiron 16 Plus. It’s also giving us a laptop version of the 11th gen Inspiron 13, and a convertible version of the Inspiron 14.
(Image credit: Dell)
The design Dell’s opted for is already available on certain Inspiron 14 and 15 models, and seems to take cues from the more premium XPS line. It’s got thin bezels around its screen, plus a lid that lifts that keyboard up at a slight angle when you open the laptop. It comes across as significantly more modern than the design you’ll see on lower model numbers for the current set of Inspiron 15s, which have a much thicker bezel and don’t lift the keyboard up when you open them.
Inspiron 13
Inspiron 14
Inspiron 14 2-in-1
Inspiron 15
Inspiron 16 Plus
CPU
Up to 11th Gen Intel Core i7
Up to Intel 11th Gen Intel Core i7 or Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5700U
Up to Intel 11th Gen Intel Core i7 or Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5700U
Up to Intel 11th Gen Intel Core i7 or Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5700U
11th Gen Intel Core H-Series
GPU
Intel Iris Xe
Intel Iris Xe or Intel UHD or Integrated Radeon Graphics or Nvidia GeForce MX450
Intel Iris Xe or Intel UHD or Integrated Radeon Graphics or Nvidia GeForce MX450
Intel Iris Xe or Intel UHD or Integrated Radeon Graphics or Nvidia GeForce MX450
Nvidia GeForce GTX or RTX
Memory
Up to 16GB LPDDR4x-4267
Up to 32GB DDR4-3200
Up to 16GB DDR4-3200
Up to 32GB DDR4-3200
Up to 32GB DDR4-3200
Storage
Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Up to 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Up to 2x 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Up to 2TB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
Display
13.3 inch, Up to 2560 x 1600, VA
14.0 inch, 1920 x 1080, VA
14.0 inch, 1920 x 1080, VA
15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080, Touch optional, VA
16.0 inch, 3072 x 1920, LED
Starting Price
$599
$549
$729
$549
$949
NA Release Date
April 12th (retailers), August 3rd (Direct from Dell)
May 4th
May 4th
May 4th
June 3rd
Also, there are now laptop options available for all sizes, from 13 inch to 16 inch. The Inspiron 13 7000 2-in-1 is now unfortunately gone, with the non-convertible Inspiron 13 laptop replacing it. However, there will now be a new Inspiron 14 2-in-1 convertible alongside the new Inspiron 14 laptop.
(Image credit: Dell)
There’s also new color options across the whole Inspiron line, including silver, pink, blue and green. Certain colors will be limited to specific regions, models and processor types (Intel and AMD will have separate color options for the Inspiron 14 2-in-1), but that’s still a wider selection than the silver and black we’ve seen so far.
(Image credit: Dell)
Of note here is the new Inspiron 16 Plus, which is the first 16-inch Inspiron. This laptop has a unique design that doesn’t lift the keyboard up, but still has thin bezels. That’s probably due to the laptop’s size and power, as it packs 11th Gen Intel H-Series processors plus either GTX or RTX graphics.
(Image credit: Dell)
For the rest of the Inspirons, except for the Inspiron 13, you’ll have access to 11th Gen Intel processors ranging from Core i3 to Core i7 as well as AMD Ryzen processors ranging from the 5300U to the 5700U. The Inspiron 13 only has Intel processors, also ranging from the Core i3 to the Core i7. All of these models use either integrated graphics or the modest Nvidia GeForce MX450 discrete GPU.
The Inspiron 13 will also uniquely feature a 3:2 aspect ratio (with two different resolution options), while the Inspiron 16 Plus will have a 16:10 aspect ratio. All other models will rely on a traditional 1920 x 1080 screen, although the Inspiron 14 2-in-1 will have a touch screen, as will certain configurations of the Inspiron 15.
Dell has unveiled a new XPS 13 option with an OLED touchscreen that is available for purchase today. The feature will cost an extra $300 over FHD models. (Note: This isn’t a brand-new XPS. It’s just an OLED version of the 9310 that came out last year.)
XPS 13 models start at $999.99 and range as high as $2,199.99, though you can often find them discounted. They can be equipped with up to an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 2TB of PCIe SSD storage.
Image: Dell
The Dell XPS 13 is consistently one of the best 13-inch laptops you can buy. It’s currently number six on our best laptop list, and I had very few complaints in my most recent review of the device. It has an excellent, spacious 16:10 display; a solid keyboard and touchpad; great battery life; a compact chassis; and some of the best performance you can find in a 13-inch model.
Image: Dell
You can currently configure the XPS 13 with a 3840 x 2400 touch display, a 1920 x 1200 touch display, or a regular 1920 x 1200 non-touch panel. The new OLED touch model will have 3456 x 2160 resolution (3.5K). Dell says it will reach 400 nits of brightness and will cover 100 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut.
Here’s what Dell calls the “Inspiron Family”Image: Dell
Dell also announced a number of new additions to its lower-priced Inspiron line. These include an Inspiron 14 2-in-1 that will support both Intel 11th-Gen and AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile processors, and Inspiron 16 Plus workstation with a 3K 16:10 display. The Inpsiron 14 2-in-1 will be available in North America on May 4th starting at $729; the Inspiron 16 Plus hits shelves on June 3rd starting at $949.99.
Microsoft is refreshing its Surface lineup with the Surface Laptop 4 today, which now offers the choice between AMD or Intel processors across both the 13.5- and 15-inch models. Both sizes will ship with Intel’s latest 11th Gen processors or AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series processors. Microsoft is shipping its Surface Laptop 4 on April 15th in the US, Canada, and Japan, starting at $999 for the AMD model and $1,299 for the Intel version — a $300 price gap between the pair.
The difference in pricing likely comes down to the fact that Microsoft isn’t using AMD’s latest 5000 series CPUs here. Instead, Microsoft is using AMD’s Zen 2-based chips for its AMD Ryzen Surface Edition processors. Despite this, performance between the Intel and AMD versions could be rather similar, but we’ll have to wait for full reviews to judge how Microsoft’s choices have landed.
The Surface Laptop 4 color options.Image: Microsoft
These processor improvements allow Microsoft to promise up to 70 percent more performance over the Surface Laptop 3, and some (on paper) battery life gains. Microsoft is promising up to 19 hours of battery life on the 13.5-inch AMD model and up to 17.5 hours on the 15-inch version. The Intel-powered 13.5-inch Surface Laptop 4 is rated up to 17 hours of battery life, while the larger 15-inch model hits 16.5 hours. Both of the Intel versions will also ship with Intel’s latest Iris Xe graphics, which means games like Overwatch will be playable at 1080p ultra.
The Surface Laptop 4 also maintains the same design of the Surface Laptop 3 that shipped in 2019. You’ll be able to pick between the classic platinum Surface style and a new ice blue color on the 13.5-inch models, both of which are Alcantara fabric. Matte black and sandstone are also available in metal options for the 13.5-inch models, while the 15-inch versions are strictly platinum and matte black in metal and no Alcantara fabric.
The Surface Laptop 4 in ice blue.Image: Microsoft
Microsoft hasn’t really updated the rest of the Surface Laptop 4, though. There’s a single USB-C port, one USB-A port, a headphone jack, and Microsoft’s Surface Connect port for charging. There’s still no Thunderbolt support, and the M.2 NVMe SSD is still removable from a slot at the rear of the device.
As a result of the choice between AMD or Intel, the Surface Laptop 4 lineup is pretty complicated this time around. The 13.5-inch base model at $999 is the AMD Ryzen 5 4680U, with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. The Intel base model is the 11th Gen Core i5 1135G7, with 8GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. There will also be a variety of Intel models all the way up to the $2,299 version with a Core i7 processor, 32GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. A second AMD model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage will ship around eight weeks after launch for $1,199.
Over on the 15-inch side, there are more AMD options starting with the $1,299 AMD Ryzen 7 4980U model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. You can configure this up to 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage for $1,699. The Intel 15-inch models start at $1,799 for the Core i7 1185G7 with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage, or there’s the option for 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage for $2,399.
Intel’s marketing snafus are the gifts that keep on giving. iThinkDifferent reported Wednesday that the company has started advertising “the world’s best processor,” by which it means the Core i7-1185G7, in “a thin and light laptop.” The only problem is that the ad features a MacBook Pro, which doesn’t come with an 11th Gen Core processor.
(Image credit: ChromiumMoon / Intel / Reddit)
Reddit user “ChromiumMoon” shared a picture of the ad in question to the /r/Mac subreddit on Wednesday. Other commentators were quick to point out that the photo also shows an iPhone next to the MacBook Pro, and that the person using the laptop is wearing Beats headphones, so the entire image is filled with Apple products. It is in fact a Getty Images stock photo that also features a Magic Mouse in the uncropped version.
It is unlikely that Apple will be releasing a MacBook Pro with the Core i7-1185G7 in it, because the 13-inch MacBook Pro was one of the first Macs to switch over to Apple’s custom silicon when the M1 chip debuted in November 2020.
It’s not impossible — Apple still offers the MacBook Pro 16″ with Intel processors, and if the company doesn’t have a chip with support for more than just two Thunderbolt 4 ports ready, it could use an 11th Gen Core processor while it works on the M1’s successor.
Two people who regularly predict Apple’s plans, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman, have both said the company is looking to release a redesigned MacBook Pro lineup this year. Gurman specifically described them as “Apple’s first high-end laptops to move away from Intel Corp. components.”
So someone at Intel simply grabbed a stock image, slapped the promotional text over it, and sent it off to appear in the company’s marketing without realizing the laptop in the image had nothing to do with their product.
Normally that kind of mistake would hardly be worth mentioning. But it takes on a new light given that Intel has recently used some less-than-honest benchmarks to criticize the M1, extolled the virtues of PCs on social media, and hired Justin Long to go from saying “I’m a Mac” to saying “I’m a Justin” in a series of promotional videos.
Alienware is releasing its first laptop with an AMD CPU since 2007. Its parent company, Dell, today announced the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5, alongside a lower-end Dell G15 Ryzen Edition and a Dell G15 refresh with Intel chips.
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 will use AMD’s Ryzen 5000 H-series chips paired with Nvidia GeForce RTX 30-series GPUs. Like the Asus ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE, it will go up to a Ryzen 9 5900HX, which might give it enough power for consideration on our list of the best gaming laptops (we’ll have to review it first, of course).
The last Alienware laptop to pair with an AMD CPU and an Nvidia GPU was the Aurora mALX, last seen in 2007. That line went up to 19 inches and featured an AMD Turion 64 ML-44 and two Nvidia GeForce Go 7900 GTX cards in SLI.
The new m15 Ryzen Edition R5 will also be the first 15-inch Alienware laptop going to DDR4 memory at 3,200 MHz, and that memory will be user-replaceable.
Specs
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
Dell G15 Ryzen Edition
Dell G15
CPU
Up to AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
Up to Intel Core i7-10870H
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
RAM
Up to 32GB DDR4-3200MHz, user-replaceable
Up to 32GB DDR4-3200
Up to 16GB DDR4-2933
Storage
Up to 4TB (2x 2TB PCIe M.2 SSD)
Up to 2TB (PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD)
Up to 2TB (PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD)
Display
15.6-inches: FHD at 165 Hz, QHD at 260 Hz or FHD at 360 Hz
15.6 inches: FHD at 120 Hz or 165 Hz
15.6 inches: FHD at 120 Hz or 165 Hz
Release Date
April 20 (United States), April 7 (China), May 4 (Global)
May 4 (Global), April 30 (China)
April 13 (Global), March 5 (China)
Starting Price
$2,229.99
$899.99
$899.99
The m15 Ryzen Edition will come only in the black “dark side of the moon paint job,” as Dell put it, and feature a new two-toned finish, marking the first real change to Alienware’s “Legend” design language. Inside, the laptop uses what Alienware refers to as “Silky-Smooth High-Endurance” paint, which it claims reduces stains and feels like a more premium product.
Alienware’s AMD machine will also benefit from the option of the Cherry MX keyboard it introduced recently on the m15 R4. Additionally, the m15 Ryzen Editionfeatures Alienware’s proprietary cooling, dubbed “Cryo-Tech.”
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(Image credit: Dell)
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(Image credit: Dell)
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(Image credit: Dell)
There are three display options on the new Alienware: A 1080p (1920 x 1080), 360 Hz display for eSports aficionados, a 1440p (2560 x 1440) 240 Hz panel and a 1080p screen at 165 Hz.
The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 will start at $2,299.99 and go on sale first in China on April 7, in the U.S. on April 20 and with a global release on May 4.
New Dell G15 Gaming Laptops
The two new Dell G15 models use the redesigned chassis that the company
introduced in China in March
, with more aggressive angles and some new colors. The Dell G15 Ryzen Edition model will go up to an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060, while the Intel version will go up to a 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10870H (the Ryzen version uses the faster RAM, while the Intel version does not).
Both G15s will offer 15.6-inch displays with 1920 x 1080 resolution at either 120 Hz or 165 Hz.
(Image credit: Dell)
The two Dell G15 laptops will start at $899.99, with the Intel version launching globally on April 13 and the AMD option hitting on May 4.
Alongside the Alienware M15 R5 Ryzen Edition, Dell is also launching a more affordable 15-inch Dell G15 Ryzen Edition gaming laptop. It’s for people who still want to experience AMD’s fast Ryzen 5000 H-series processors, along with an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics chip, but for less. If the M15 R5’s $2,229.99 starting price is too high, the G15’s $899.99 entry-level configuration might be a more reasonable price point for you to jump in.
The G15’s speckled design might look familiar to you. That’s because Dell actually launched the Intel-based version of this model already, but in China first. This new Ryzen-based laptop is landing first in China as well, on April 30th, followed by a May 4th release elsewhere around the globe.
The starting configuration of the G15 Ryzen Edition will be fairly barebones in terms of RAM and storage, shipping with 8GB of 3,200MHz DDR4 RAM, and 256GB of NVMe M.2 capacity. It packs plenty of power otherwise for a $900 laptop, with a Ryzen 5 5600H hexa-core processor and an Nvidia RTX 3060 with 6GB of VRAM. In case you want something more powerful, the CPU be tweaked up to the Ryzen 7 5800H octa-core CPU, RAM can be added (either through Dell or by opening the laptop yourself), and you can configure it with up to 2TB of solid-state storage. The more powerful processor can also come with a bigger six-cell 86Wh battery, though you’ll get a three-cell 56Wh pack at the $900 mark.
At launch, the G15 can also be configured with a 120Hz refresh rate FHD panel at a fairly standard 250 nits of brightness, or a brighter 300-nit screen with a faster 165Hz refresh rate. Dell says a 360Hz refresh rate screen will be available later in the spring. Dell says the new G15 has adopted an “Alienware-inspired” thermal design to keep it running efficiently, and it certainly looks the part. It’ll come in at least two speckled colors at launch, a green and a grey. Later this year, an all-black model will be available.
The G15 takes some cues from Alienware’s M15 series of much pricier gaming laptops.
This laptop ships by default with non-backlit, spill-resistant keyboard, but there are some upgrades you can make here. The first step up adds orange backlighting beneath the entire keyboard and emphasizes WASD. If orange doesn’t do it for you, there’s a four-zone RGB backlit keyboard that you can customize for a more colorful presentation.
If the Ryzen Edition G15 is anything like last year’s G5 15 SE in terms of performance, I’m excited to test it out. Assuming that it does, even the lower-end model should be reasonably powerful for people trying to stretch their dollar as far as possible.
If you really want the Intel version, Dell says a variant of it will launch in the US on April 13th for $799.99, but it’ll feature a last-gen 10th Gen Intel processor. Dell included this bit of information practically as a footnote, to give you an idea of how much emphasis it’s putting behind Ryzen this time around. The starting model features a Core i5-10200H quad-core CPU with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650 graphics chip. Upgrading can net you the vastly more powerful Core i7-10870H octa-core CPU with the RTX 3060, and you can get Thunderbolt ports. Dell didn’t share the price for the high-end Intel model.
A pair of Microsoft support pages have appeared for the unannounced Surface Laptop 4, suggesting a launch may be imminent. One is a placeholder for an AMD version of the laptop, while the other is for an Intel model. Both were spotted by WalkingCat, an often reliable source of gadget leaks, who speculates that we might see them launched at a Surface event as soon as next week.
The Microsoft support page doesn’t give many more details on the laptop, but a report from WinFuture last month fills in the details. The AMD processors used will reportedly be from its 4000 mobile series, and will include the Ryzen 5 4680U and the Ryzen 7 4980U. That’s a step up from the 3000-series chips used in 2019’s Surface Laptop 3, but anyone hoping to see AMD’s brand new Ryzen 5000 mobile processors here might be disappointed.
On the Intel side, WinFuture notes we should see 11th-gen chips like the Core 15-1145G7 and the Core i7-1185G7.
The support page lists drivers for the unannounced laptop.Screenshot: Microsoft.com
Otherwise, the specs and form-factor of the Surface Laptop 4 are reportedly broadly in line with previous models. There’ll apparently be 13.5- and 15-inch models available, with a maximum of 32GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Their screens should maintain that excellent 3:2 aspect ratio.
Microsoft is yet to make any official announcements about when its new laptops could be launched, but considering the support pages are already live a release can’t be far away.
for the PC version on Steam. The sequel follows the saga of Ethan Winters, this time with some apparently very large vampire ladies. Based on what we’ve seen, you’ll benefit from having one of the
best graphics cards
along with something from our list of the
best CPUs for gaming
when the game arrives on May 7.
The eighth entry in the series (VIII from Village), this will be the first Resident Evil to feature ray tracing technology. The developers have tapped AMD to help with the ray tracing implementation, however, so it’s not clear whether it will run on Nvidia’s RTX cards at launch, or if it will require a patch — and it’s unlikely to get DLSS support, though it could make for a stunning showcase for AMD’s FidelityFX Super Resolution if AMD can pull some strings.
We’ve got about a month to wait before the official launch. In the meantime, here are the official system requirements.
Minimum System Requirements for Resident Evil Village
Capcom notes that in either case, the game targets 1080p at 60 fps, though the framerate “might drop in graphics-intensive scenes.” While the minimum requirements specify using the “Prioritize Performance” setting, it’s not clear what settings are used for the recommended system.
The Resident Evil Village minimum system requirements are also for running the game without ray tracing, with a minimum requirement of an RTX 2060 (and likely future AMD GPUs like Navi 23), and a recommendation of at least an RTX 2070 or RX 6700 XT if you want to enable ray tracing. There’s no mention of installation size yet, so we’ll have to wait and see just how much of our SSD the game wants to soak up.
The CPU specs are pretty tame, and it’s very likely you can use lower spec processors. For example, the Ryzen 3 1200 is the absolute bottom of the entire Ryzen family stack, with a 4-core/4-thread configuration running at up to 3.4GHz. The Core i5-7500 also has a 4-core/4-thread configuration, but runs at up to 3.8GHz, and it’s generally higher in IPC than first generation Ryzen.
You should be able to run the game on even older/slower CPUs, though perhaps not at 60 fps. The recommended settings are a decent step up in performance potential, moving to 6-core/12-thread CPUs for both AMD and Intel, which are fairly comparable processors.
The graphics card will almost certainly play a bigger role in performance than the CPU, and while the baseline GTX 1050 Ti and RX 560 4GB are relatively attainable (the game apparently requires, maybe, 4GB or more VRAM), we wouldn’t be surprised if that’s with some form of dynamic resolution scaling enabled. Crank up the settings and the GTX 1070 and RX 5700 are still pretty modest cards, though the AMD card is significantly faster — not that you can find either in stock at acceptable prices these days, as we show in our
GPU pricing index
. But if you want to run the full-fat version of Resident Evil Village, with all the DXR bells and whistles at 1440p or 4K, you’re almost certainly going to need something far more potent.
Full size images: RE Village RT On / RE Village RT OffAMD showed a preview of the game running with and without ray tracing during its
Where Gaming Begins, Episode 3
presentation in early March. The pertinent section of the video starts at the 9:43 mark, though we’ve snipped the comparison images above for reference. The improved lighting and reflections are clearly visible in the RT enabled version, but critically we don’t know how well the game runs with RT enabled.
We’re looking forward to testing Resident Evil Village on a variety of GPUs and CPUs next month when it launches on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation. Based on what we’ve seen from other RT-enabled games promoted by AMD (e.g. Dirt 5), we expect frame rates will take a significant hit.
But like we said, this may also be the debut title for FidelityFX Super Resolution, and if so, that’s certainly something we’re eager to test. What we’d really like to see is a game that supports both FidelityFX Super Resolution and DLSS, just so we could do some apples-to-apples comparisons, but it may be a while before such a game appears.
(Pocket-lint) – The Asus TUF Dash F15 is another of the company’s ultra-thin gaming laptops, which sports some serious specs in a compact, lightweight and portable frame.
Available in two colours with a small mix of specs options and some nifty design accents, the TUF Dash F15 is interesting enough on paper, but is it worth a buy? We’ve been gaming and working with it for a couple of weeks to find out.
A compact frame that packs power
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 GPU, 8GB GDDR6 RAM
Up to Intel Core i7-11370H processor
Up to 32GB DDR4 3200Mhz RAM
Up to 1TB M.2 NVMe
In classic Asus fashion, the TUF Dash F15 features some nifty tech packed into a compact frame. That chassis has been put through the usual military standard durability tests, which in reality results in a solid frame that feels robust and well built. It doesn’t bend or flex easily during use and yet is light enough to carry around with you, or position on your lap when gaming.
Outwardly the TUF Dash F15 is also easy on the eyes. It’s available in two different colours – Moonlight White or Eclipse Gray – with understated accents on the shell and an equally subtle backlit keyboard.
Super-narrow bezels also ensure maximum screen real-estate and “minimal distraction” – though this does come at the expense of a webcam (ugh!).
Hidden within that frame is some powerful tech with options that include some of the best from Nvidia and Intel. This means the TUF Dash F15 is a capable gaming machine that can take advantage of ray tracing and DLSS, while also maximising performance with Dynamic Boost and keeping things running quietly with Whisper Mode.
Pocket-lint
Naturally, the specs of this gaming laptop mean you can push the visuals up to maximum, but still get frame rates high enough to make the most of the 240hz screen. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 is more than capable of driving this 15.6-inch display at Full HD resolution and delivering smooth gameplay experiences with satisfying visuals.
With this spec, you can also manage streaming to Twitch and the like if you want, while the addition of a RJ45 connection means you’ll have a solid connection when doing so.
How to start streaming your gaming: All the gear you need
The keyboard on this laptop is fairly basic compared to other Asus laptops we’ve tested though. At least in terms of RGB lighting anyway. There are very basic settings here, with just a few effects and no per-key illumination. It does, however, have some nicely accented WASD keys which help those stand out.
Pro grade gaming screen options
15.6-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) anti-glare IPS display
Adaptive-sync panel – up to 240Hz refresh rate
Colour gamut: 100% sRGB, 75.35% Adobe
Benchmarks: Timespy, Timespy Extreme, Port Royal, Firestrike Ultra, Firestrike Extreme, PC Mark
Despite only being 15.6-inches, the panel on this gaming laptop gives the impression of something larger. The thin bezels mean the screen stands out nicely and didn’t lead us to feel like we were straining to see our targets in Rainbow Six Siege or struggling fighting skeletons in Valheim.
The viewing angles on this screen are also satisfying, as are the colours. The Adaptive-Sync tech means the panel is also synchronised nicely with the GPU which results in ultra-smooth gaming visuals.
As with other Asus gaming laptops, the TUF Dash F15 lets you use Armoury Crate to tweak the visuals. There are various settings that adjust the colours of the screen to suit your mood or need. This includes settings for Vivid, Cinema, RTS, FPS, and Eye Care. You can tweak what you’re seeing to maximise the look and feel of a game or eliminate eye-taxing blue light if you’re simply using the laptop for work.
Armoury Crate also lets you do things like monitor system performance, frequencies and temperatures, and switch between the various performance modes to increase power or reduce fan noise.
Performance-wise, the TUF Dash F15 does a good job. It wasn’t quite as impressive as the ROG Strix G15 we tested recently but still manages some decent frame-rates.
Where that laptop managed 64fps on Assassin’s Creed Odyessy, this TUF Dash F15 averaged 50fps. Similarly, the G15 pushed 200fps in Rainbow Six Siege while the TUF Dash F15 got around the 150fps mark. Still, those aren’t performance levels to be sniffed at on the maximum settings – but shows that the slender frame has an impact overall.
Convenient connectivity?
1x Thunderbolt 4 (USB 4, supports DisplayPort)
3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.0b
1x 3.5mm jack, noise-cancelling mic
1x RJ45 LAN port
Wi-Fi 6(802.11ax)
Bluetooth 5.1
Continuing a trend of usefulness, the TUF Dash F15 sports a decent number of ports and connectivity options. For those serious gamers looking to stream or game with a solid connection, there’s an Ethernet port, but the machine is also Wi-Fi 6 capable – which means a solid and satisfying connection whatever you’re doing.
There’s also no shortage of USB ports. Though we will note Asus has chosen to place two of them on the right-hand side, which is a pain when you’re trying to use a dedicated gaming mouse rather than the lacklustre trackpad for your gaming sessions.
Yes, we didn’t get on with the trackpad on this laptop. It’s finicky and frustrating and the fact that two out of the three USB Type-A ports are on the right means you need a decent amount of desk space to comfortably game and not have wires get in the way – unless you have a wireless mouse.
That’s not the only connection niggle either. Once again, if you want to use DisplayPort to output to an external monitor you’ll need to buy an adapter as it’s only available via USB-C. There’s no standard DisplayPort or Mini DisplayPort connection – which is a pain if you’re planning on gaming in VR.
As with other recent thin and light gaming laptops from Asus, there’s also the distinct lack of a webcam. This is an odd choice in our mind considering how many Teams, Skype and Zoom video calls we’ve all been having in the last year. If you’re purely using it for gaming though, then it’s not a bother – as you’ll want a better accessory separate anyway.
Best webcam: Top cameras for video calling
The TUF Dash F15 has speakers that are capable enough to overpower its cooling fans and a two-way noise cancellation mic setup which means you can be heard if you’re using the built-in mic to chat to friends. It’s still worth investing in a decent gaming headset if you really want to get lost in the games – as on max settings the fans are far from quiet and you will eventually get fed up with the white noise whirr from them.
Battery life
76WHr li-ion battery
200W AC charger
One area the TUF Dash F15 impresses is battery life. We could get through most of the day working and browsing and we also managed hours and hours of Netflix watching before the machine ran out of juice. In a gaming specific laptop away from the plug that’s an unusual accomplishment.
The best Chromebook 2021: Our pick of the top Chrome OS laptops for school, college and more
By Dan Grabham
·
Pocket-lint
We did note a performance hit when playing on battery alone – and that was a more significant one than we encountered with the Strix G15. But then if you want to make the most of the display you’ll be using it plugged in for gaming anyway.
But for general day-to-day use, this laptop won’t disappoint and you certainly won’t find yourself running for the plug every five minutes.
Verdict
All told, the Asus TUF Dash F15 manages to live up to expectations. It’s a decent performer with some nice specification options – at a price tag that isn’t going to make you cry.
With the right games you’ll get some seriously impressive frame rates to make the most of the fast-refresh screen. When maxing out those games this laptop doesn’t get too hot or loud either, all while lasting for a decent innings on battery alone.
What more could you want? Well, there are other options that can squeeze out yet more performance – but it’ll depend on just how much more you’re willing or able to spend for that performance bump.
Also consider
Pocket-lint
Asus ROG Strix G15
squirrel_widget_4304199
A more premium device with a heftier price tag to match, but it’s really a magnificent gaming laptop. There’s more RGB for a start, better performance overall, and a lot more style.
Read our review
Pocket-lint
Razer Blade 15 Advanced
squirrel_widget_2693967
If understated externals are your thing, then this Razer might be another alternative. Again, it’s another powerhouse, but this laptop is a pleaser in multiple areas – apart from the massive price, but of course.
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I’ve read plenty about what it’s like to use, hold, and type on an LG Gram before, but that didn’t take away from the impressive first impression it made when I used the new Gram 17 for the first time — especially this larger model. The Gram 17 has a grandiose 17-inch display, yet it’s only three pounds, which is light enough for me to carry around one-handed. Its keyboard is a joy to type on with a surprising amount of tactility and travel in the keys, and the battery life outlasts a whole day of work, even much of a second one, too. It’s a quiet laptop, and even under pressure, its fans weren’t loud enough for me to hear once.
The Gram communicates its biggest selling points — lightness and longevity — so effectively that it outshines some persisting minor problems. Those include a keyboard layout that can be difficult to adjust to. For instance, the num lock is too easy to press accidentally, being right next to backspace, and the only function key is located too far away from the most essential function row buttons, making it a stretch to adjust the volume one-handed. Lastly, the large trackpad isn’t always good at palm rejection. These are important things for any laptop to get right, let alone one that has a bunch of extra real estate that should be used to avoid flaws like these.
This new model for 2021 is mostly a spec update, not a design overhaul compared to the 2020 version. But it’s a good update, at that. Inside of LG’s sole $1,799 Gram 17 configuration (it’s been available for $1,699 since late March), there’s now an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 quad-core processor that promises — and actually delivers — better performance and longer battery life than the 2020 model my colleague Monica Chin reviewed. Additionally, this model’s faster 4,266MHz LPDDR4X RAM, of which it has 16GB, likely plays a role in that speed boost. It’s not a drastically different computer to use than before, but it can hold its own more reliably this time around.
While running my usual collection of around 10 tabs in Microsoft Edge for work, with Slack and Spotify running in tandem, performance didn’t stutter at all. This is the bare minimum of competency tests for laptops, so for something more demanding, I exported a five-minute, 33-second test file from our Verge video team through Adobe Premiere Pro. Last year’s model took 30 minutes to do this, but this one gets it done in around 11 minutes. That doesn’t hold a candle to laptops that put more of an emphasis on power usually at the expense of heft, but it’s enough of an improvement to make the Gram 17’s price a little easier to justify. Razer’s Book 13 with the same processor fared just about a minute faster with this test, but the Gram is on par with the latest Dell XPS 13 and Asus ZenBook 14.
The battery is also mystifyingly good — and better than before. With that same batch of apps I mentioned earlier, the Gram 17 lasted an entire workday and well into the next, around 12 or so hours later. If you’re looking for a laptop that can go a full day of work without its charger, whether you have video calls or not, this is one for your shortlist. It features the same 80Wh battery as last year’s model, which is still impressive considering the Gram 17’s lightweight profile.
Also similar to the 2020 version is its USB-C charging. LG now includes a 65W USB-C power adapter instead of the 48W charger that shipped with the previous model. It can more quickly recharge with the included brick (which is no bigger than a compact power bank), but it still takes a few hours to refill it completely.
That sums up the biggest changes to this year’s Gram 17. There are a few smaller tweaks I liked, too. The arrangement of ports has been shifted around in a more logical layout. On the left side, there’s a Thunderbolt 4 port (it can be used for charging, data, or connecting to a display), one USB-C 4.0 Gen 3 port, a headphone combo jack, and an HDMI port. Over on the right is where you’ll find two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports next to a microSD card slot and a Kensington lock.
If you’re shopping around for 17-inch laptops, you’ll be hard-pressed to find anything lighter than the Gram. It’s 2.98 pounds, which is just a little heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air. The Dell XPS 17 is one of LG’s main competitors in this space, yet its baseline model weighs over a pound and a half more. If you get an XPS 17 model like the one we reviewed in July 2020, it’ll weigh almost as much as two Gram 17s at 5.53 pounds. That added weight does bring more power and a dedicated GPU in the Dell, but if you just want a big, portable screen for productivity, the Gram is more than capable.
As my colleague Monica Chin mentioned in her review of the 2020 LG Gram 17, this laptop isn’t a looker. It still doesn’t stack up next to the high-end design of the XPS 17, which features an aluminum chassis. The Gram has a tough magnesium alloy-clad body, but it looks and feels plasticky. That said, there’s technically nothing flawed about its design, and it seems better than most black aluminum laptops I’ve tried at resisting fingerprints. Some people might actually prefer that its design doesn’t stick out much, even when its backlit keyboard is on.
Something minor that I wish LG offered with this model is the option for a matte display. It’s rare for ultrabooks to have them, but I find it hard to stay focused on what’s happening on the screen when I can see a reflection of all my apartment’s happenings staring back at me. Wherever you use this laptop, glare could be a big problem, like it can be with a TV. This doesn’t take away from the Gram 17’s display being sharp and vivid. It’s a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS non-touch panel from the company’s own display division, and it makes everything look excellent with 99 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. If a touchscreen is important to you, LG’s Gram 2-in-1 laptops feature them. LG was one of the first Windows laptop makers to move to a 16:10 aspect ratio, and the Gram 17 has one, too. It gives you a little more vertical real estate to work with on the screen compared to 16:9 displays. It’s most beneficial for productivity (you see more info at once, so less scrolling is necessary), but you’ll have black letterboxing for most full-screen videos you watch.
The Gram is short on bloatware, which I love to see. It ships with Amazon’s Alexa built-in, though it requires activation before you can use the service. A few other preinstalled apps include McAfee LiveScan and a suite of creator tools from CyberLink. Compared to some other laptops I’ve used recently, like Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE, the Gram doesn’t shove pop-up notifications in your face seemingly every time you use it.
There are few 17-inch laptops to choose from and even fewer models that are as lightweight as this one. This year’s LG Gram 17 is unique in the sense that it’s more powerful than ever, but it doesn’t give up its portability. Oddly enough, the only competition it faces at the moment comes from within LG. The 16-inch Gram is lighter and less expensive, yet it features the same design, screen size, port selection, battery capacity, and specs (aside from having significantly less storage) for $1,399. You can find one that has the same 1TB storage as the Gram 17 for $1,599. If the Gram 17’s $1,799 price is too expensive, at least you have an alternative that’ll likely deliver the same great results.
But if the price isn’t an issue and you want a surprisingly portable and powerful laptop with an oversized screen, the Gram 17 is in a class of its own.
Today saw new test results being published for an as-yet-unannounced Intel CPU, and the results are low enough compared to what’s already on the market to make us wonder what Team Blue’s plan is here.
Puget Systems, a well-known maker of PCs and workstations that also publishes benchmark results for exotic hardware in real-world applications, has revealed some early test results of Intel’s unannounced Core i7-1195G7 processor. The CPU might be Intel’s ‘off-roadmap’ semi-custom offering available to select clients, or a member of its yet-to-be-unveiled Tiger Lake Refresh family.
The 11th Gen Core i7-1195G7 processor is a quad-core CPU based on the Willow Cove architecture that is equipped with Intel’s Xe-LP GPU with 80 or 96 execution units. The chip has the same capabilities as all the other Core i7-11x5Gx ‘Tiger Lake’ products with an up to 28W TDP, but since it sits above the current flagship (the model i7-1185G7), it likely has higher base and boost clock frequencies.
Puget Systems tested a PC based on the Intel Core i7-1195G7 clocked at 2.90 GHz, which is a bit of an odd frequency as the current flagship Core i7-1185G7 has higher a TDP-up frequency of 3.0 GHz. Therefore, it is not really surprising that the i7-1195G7-powered system nicked a slightly lower score (859 overall, 94 active, 77.8 passive) than Puget’s i7-1185G7-based PC (868 overall, 93.4 active, 80.2 passive) in PugetBench for Lightroom Classic 0.92, Lightroom Classic 10.2. Both systems were equipped with 16GB of LPDDR4X-4266 memory.
At this point, we don’t know whether Intel’s planning a full-blown Tiger Lake Refresh lineup with higher clocks and some additional features, or just plans to fill some gaps in the Tiger Lake family it has today. Last year, Intel planned to release versions of its Tiger Lake processors with LPDDR5 support, which would be beneficial for integrated graphics. But cutting clock speeds on such CPUs would be a strange choice.
From a manufacturing perspective, Intel can probably launch speedier versions of its TGL CPUs. Like other chipmakers, Intel performs continuous process improvements (CPI) through the means of statistical process control (SPC) to increase yields and reduce performance variations. With tens of millions of Tiger Lake processors sold, Intel has gathered enough information on how it can improve yields and reduce performance variability, which opens doors to frequency boosts. Furthermore, Intel has quite a few model numbers left unused in the 11th Gen lineup, so introducing new parts might be just what the company planned originally.
Since the Core i7-1195G7 has not yet been launched, Intel has declined comment about this part, even though it clearly exists in the labs of at least some PC makers.
For some very awkward reason, Intel has not posted a version of its Xe-LP graphics driver for its Rocket Lake processors on its website. The drivers are also not available from Intel’s motherboard partners, which causes quite some confusion as this essentially renders the new Rocket Lake’s Intel UHD Graphics featuring the Xe-LP architecture useless. However, there is a workaround for those who need it.
Intel’s main angle with its Rocket Lake processors for desktops is gaming, which is why it praises its Core i9-11900K and Core i7-11700K CPUs with a 125W TDP. Such systems rarely use integrated graphics, so enthusiasts do not really care about the availability of Xe-LP drivers for their chips. But the Rocket Lake family also includes multiple 65W and 35W processors that are designed for mainstream or low-power machines that use integrated GPUs.
For some reason, there are no drivers for Rocket Lake’s Intel UHD Graphics integrated GPU based on the Xe-LP architecture on Intel’s website, as noticed by AdoredTV. Intel’s motherboard partners do offer different versions of Intel’s Graphics Driver (which adds to the confusion) released in 2021, but none of them officially supports Rocket Lake’s integrated graphics, according to VideoCardz.
The absence of the Xe-LP drivers for Rocket Lake processors from official websites is hardly a big problem as there is an easy workaround for the problem. Instead of using an automatic driver installation wizard that comes in an .exe format, you can download a .zip file with the same driver (version 27.20.100.9316 at press time), then install it using Windows 10’s Update Driver feature with a Have Disk option, then hand pick the Intel Iris Xe Graphics.
Since Rocket Lake’s integrated GPU is based on the same architecture as Tiger Lake’s GPU, the graphics core will work just as it should. This option will work with experienced DIYers, but it might be tricky for an average user.
Unlike do-it-yourselfers, OEMs and PC makers will not use a workaround as the latest official driver has never been validated for the Rocket Lake family. Fortunately, at least some OEMs have access to ‘official’ Rocket Lake graphics drivers.
“We have drivers flowing to OEMs for a while now,” said Lisa Pierce, Intel vice president and director of graphics software engineering, in a Twitter post on April 2. “The delay was in a public posting with our unified graphics driver flow and we will work it post ASAP.”
She did not elaborate on when exactly the driver will be posted to Intel.com and whether it needs to pass WHQL validation before that. Meanwhile, on April 1 Pierce said that Rocket Lake drivers were several weeks away.
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