Ethereum mining is coming to perhaps an unexpected place: Norton 360, the antivirus software that many readers will know from setting up new computers for their parents (via BleepingComputer). In its press release, Norton claims its brand is a perfect fit: people looking to mine crypto won’t have to dig through the dark, scary parts of the web, where they could possibly find “unvetted code.”
The company also says that it’ll store users’ crypto wallets in the cloud, with its own Norton Wallet. As far as actually using their gains, a Norton spokesperson tells The Verge there will be a button that allows users to “pull money into Coinbase.”
Until now, Norton claims, people who wanted to mine had to disable their security software to do it, which made things harder for them. While that somewhat seems like a problem that could at least in part be caused by Norton 360 itself, Norton does have a point that using software that comes pre-installed on your computer is easier than having to figure out mining for yourself.
But is that really what we want? Putting aside the environmental concerns of thousands of new miners, and the potential unexpected tax implications that BleepingComputer brings up (not that those are things that should be ignored), the idea of having mining software included in a program that comes with people’s computers seems like a slippery slope.
It’s easy to imagine a company, not necessarily Norton, offering cheaper or even free computers, if you just turn your unused computing cycles into a recurring source of profit for the bloatware makers subsidizing your purchase. Think Kindle with Special Offers, except instead of ads you’re taxing your computer’s GPU and sucking back electricity when you’re not using it (or, in the case of really shady manufacturers, when you are). Norton may be opening a door here that’s hard to close.
While Norton specifically calls out Ethereum in its blog post, it told CNN it was considering letting people mine other “reputable crypto currencies” later on. The company’s letting in early adopters on Thursday, and hopes to roll it out to everyone “in the coming weeks.”
As reported by Phoronix, AMD is focusing on expanding its SmartShift ecosystem to support operating systems beyond Windows 10. AMD has released two patches this week that continue adding support of SmartShift’s features to the Linux ecosystem. That’s excellent news for Linux buyers who want to use AMD’s shiny new PowerShift notebooks.
SmartShift was released last year by AMD (with only one laptop, the G5 SE) as a way to further improve notebook performance and efficiency when using AMD CPUs and discrete GPUs together. The technology aims to turn both the CPU and GPU into one cohesive system, allowing both chips to dynamically share power depending on the workload at hand.
At Computex this year AMD showed off its second wave of SmartShift laptops (like the new ROG Strix G15 Advantage) based on the all-new RX 6000M GPUs and Ryzen 5000 mobile CPUs, plus new enhancements for the Smartshift technology. This aggressive push for SmartShift adoption shows us that AMD is really focused on bringing this technology out in full force. And the push to expand adoption to Linux users seems to be part of that, despite the fact that those users make up a part of the notebook segment.
Just a few days ago on May 30th, AMD released a patch to Linux which allowed support for SmartShift when a discrete Radeon GPU was detected in a notebook with SmartShift Support.
Today, another patch was released, further adding support for Smartshift’s features. This patch exposes SmartShift’s power-share info to the user-space via sysfs, meaning Linux can now monitor SmartShift’s behavior and judge to see if the system is working as intended or not.
Another patch was released as well, adding controllability of SmartShift’s power-sharing parameters to Linux, meaning the OS or possibly a user can control how much power goes to the CPU or the discrete GPU.
With all this effort, it seems AMD is preparing to make SmartShift a mainstream technology, with not only Linux support, but also a wide variety of notebook support coming in the not-so-distant future. Some serious questions remain, though, like when we’ll see the tech in more than a handful of laptop models.
And for those AMD-based models to expand, the company will need to assure its partners that it can pump out a substantial and consistent amount of its current-gen CPUs and brand-new mobile GPUs. In the current climate of high demand for desktop graphics cards, chip shortages, and TSMC’s production pushed to its limits, the only thing certain seems to be uncertainty.
We recently noticed that Alienware’s just-announced X15 and X17 thin andvaguely light gaming laptops are conspicuously missing a port — and it’s not because they’re thin-and-light, it turns out. Alienware has just confirmed to The Verge that it has discontinued the Alienware Graphics Amplifier external GPU, and so these laptops won’t need that proprietary port anymore. The company isn’t saying whether it’ll offer a future eGPU, but pointed us to off-the-shelf Thunderbolt ones instead.
The Alienware Graphics Amp was first introduced in 2014 for $299 and designed to be a companion to the company’s midrange Alienware 13, giving it the vast majority of the power of a desktop graphics card plus four extra full-size USB ports when docked. I liked the combo well enough. But over the years, Alienware added the port to practically every laptop (and some of its more compact desktops, like the Alienware X51 mini-tower and Alienware Alpha R2 console-sized PC) it released, including the company’s flagship Area-51M which was designed to have built-in upgrades of its own.
With an included 460W power supply devoted entirely to the GPU, and a price that dipped to $199 and occasionally $150, the Amp managed to stay competitive for quite a while in the fairly niche market of eGPUs, which generally use manufacturer-agnostic Thunderbolt 3 ports instead of proprietary cables (and can often charge your laptop as well).
It’s not clear when Alienware discontinued the Amp. The Wayback Machine shows it was still live as of November 2020, and Dell last updated its support page in April 2021 — without adding compatibility for the latest wave of Nvidia and AMD graphics cards.
The new Alienware M15 R5 and M15 R6 also omit the Graphics Amplifier port. It’ll be interesting to see if this is the end for Alienware’s dreams of upgradable laptops; certainly the Amp lasted a lot longer than the idea of offering new chips for the giant Area-51m laptop.
Alienware is going thinner than ever with its newest gaming laptops. The X-series, comprised of the Alienware x15 and x17, are among the most svelte machines that Dell’s gaming arm has ever produced.
Both the x15 and x17 are available in limited configurations today, with the full range available on June 15. The smaller laptop starts at $1,999.99, while the larger one begins at $2,099.99.
Alienware x15 R1
Alienware x17 R1
CPU
Up to Intel Core i9-11900H
Up to Intel Core i9-11980HK
GPU
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (8GB GDDR6), 90W TGP, 1,365 MHz boost clock
Up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (16GB GDDR6), 150W TGP, 1,710 MHz boost clock
Display
15.6-inches, up to 1080p/360 Hz with G-Sync or 1440p/240 Hz with G-Sync
17.3-inches, up to 1080p/ 360 Hz with G-Sync or 1440p/120 Hz
RAM
Up to 32GB DDR4-3200
Up to 64GB DDR4-3466 XMP
Storage
Up to 4TB RAID0
UP to 4TB RAID0
Size
14.16 x 10.92 x 0.63 inches
15.72 x 11.79 x 0.82 inches
Battery
87 WHr
87 WHr
Starting Price
$1,999.99
$2,099.99
At 0.63 inches thick (or 0.64 inches with a 1080, 165Hz display), the x15 is the slimmest gaming laptop that Alienware has ever made, while the 0.82-inch thick x17 is still its most lean in that screen size. Both feature an update to Alienware’s “Legend” design, and the company claims many of the technologies it used to get the laptops this thin are patent-pending and “industry exclusive.”
(Image credit: Alienware)
To get this thin, Alienware needs to nail the cooling. There are several new technologies involved, but the one the company is boasting the most about is its thermal interface material, which it has dubbed Element 31. It’s a proprietary, gallium-silicon liquid metal material. The silicon should protect it from oxidation, meaning that it will last longer. The company is claiming a 25% improvement in overall thermal resistance over previous Alienware laptops. This is the special sauce that it hopes will get the X-series on our list of the best gaming laptops. (Note that Element 31 will only come in configurations with an RTX 3070 or RTX 3080).
(Image credit: Alienware)
The system is cooled by four fans, which Alienware says it optimized based on location. The QWER keys and number keys, popular in esports titles, are all near the front intake fan to keep them cool. (These fans also cool the SSDs). The laptops’ rear fans, for the CPU and GPU, exhaust out the back and intake from the top and bottom. The idea is to have positive pressure, with more cool air entering the laptop than leaving it. The 12-volt fans are designed for lower power and fan speeds, and Alienware claims they shouldn’t be much louder than its existing gaming notebooks.
To control power, you can bias performance toward the CPU or GPU in the BIOS or Alienware Command Center software.
Will any of this majorly affect a benchmark? Probably not, Alienware claims. But it’s promising more stability over long gaming sessions, keeping 11th Gen Core processors (up to a Core i9-11980HK on the x17 and Core i9-11900H on the x15) and up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 (a max of 110W on the x15, and 165W on the x17).
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(Image credit: Alienware)
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(Image credit: Alienware)
Of course, some of the changes are on the outside. The thin chassis has what Alienware is calling “Dark Core,” which is a remarkably fancy term for the simple act of putting black keyboard deck on the x15 and x17’s white magnesium alloy chassis.
The x17 will come with an option for its custom Cherry MX ultra low-profile mechanical switches, which won’t be in the x15. Otherwise, both laptops will come with a new keyboard with 1.5 mm of travel,
N-key rollover
and per-key RGB lighting. Alienware is also bringing back RGB lighting on the touchpad, but that will only show up in models with an RTX 3080 GPU.
Both the 15.6-inch and 17.3-inch displays will come in 1080p options up to 360 Hz or
1440p
options at 240 Hz, with
G-Sync
on the x15 or at 120 Hz on the x17. Other panel options include ComfortView Plus to prevent blue light, Advanced Optimus and the option for infrared cameras to log in with Windows Hello.
At this size, almost all of the ports, with the exception of the power barrel, have been relegated to the back. Alienware has always kept a number of ports back there, so of all the changes, it’s definitely the smallest.
Remember when Elon Musk claimed you’d be able to play The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 on a 10 teraflop gaming rig he’s stuffing into the new Tesla Model S and X? AMD is officially providing the guts — during its Computex 2021 keynote, the chipmaker just revealed that the new Tesla infotainment system consists of an AMD Ryzen processor paired with an AMD RDNA 2 GPU.
“So we actually have an AMD Ryzen APU powering the infotainment system in both cars as well as a discrete RDNA2-based GPU that kicks in when running AAA games, providing up to 10 teraflops of compute power…. we look forward to giving gamers a great platform for AAA gaming,” says AMD CEO Lisa Su.
And if you combine that information with another piece of news AMD revealed today, plus a earlier leak in January, we may now have a passing idea of how powerful that “10 teraflop” infotainment system could theoretically be: likely a little less than Sony’s PS5.
You see, leaker Patrick Schur dug up a Tesla block diagram in January that singled out an AMD Navi 23 GPU specifically for Tesla’s new vehicles, and today AMD announced the new Radeon 6800M, 6700M and 6600M laptop graphics chips — the weakest of which just so happens to use Navi 23, AnandTech reports.
As we learned today, that Radeon 6600M chip comes with 28CUs and 1792 shader units— compared to the 36CUs and an estimated 2304 shader units worth of RDNA 2 GPU in Sony’s PlayStation 5, which also claims to be a 10-teraflop gaming rig. While it’s not quite apples-to-apples, it’s largely the same technology beneath, and a smaller number of cores on the same GPU architecture suggests we should expect slightly less performance from a Tesla compared to Sony’s console. (The higher-end Radeon 6700M / Navi 22 has the same number of CUs as the PS5, for what it’s worth.)
Performance depends on the software platform, though, as we’ve seen with the 10-teraflop PS5 and the 12-teraflop Xbox Series X — and a recent job posting by Tesla suggests game developers may actually be building for Linux if they want to target the new Tesla in-car gaming rigs.
Linux isn’t necessarily a benefit when it comes to gaming performance, though. Google’s Stadia cloud gaming also boasted 10 teraflops of performance from its AMD GPUs, but ports of games from Bungie and Square Enix didn’t look nearly as good as they did on weaker Xbox and PC hardware at the service’s launch.
The most important question is probably still the one I asked back in January, though: Who is going to sit in their $80,000 sports car and play a triple-A video game?
Tesla CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that the Model S Plaid, which includes the new AMD system, will start deliveries on June 10th.
Alienware is keen on giving Razer a run for its money when it comes to making a super-thin gaming laptop. Two of the configurations of Alienware’s new X15 flagship model are actually 15.9mm thick, almost the same as Razer’s just-refreshed 15.8mm-thick Blade 15 Advanced. That’s impressively thin, especially considering that Alienware doesn’t usually try to compete in this realm.
What’s also noteworthy is that, despite its thin build, the X15 looks like it will be a capable machine. Alienware is also announcing a bigger and thicker 17-inch X17 laptop that’s even more powerful. We’ll go into detail on both below.
Let’s start with the X15, which will cost $1,999 for the base model, available starting today. Packed into that entry model is Intel’s 11th Gen Core i7-11800H processor (eight cores and a boost clock speed of up to 4.6GHz), 16GB of RAM clocked at 3,200MHz (but not user-upgradeable due to size constraints), 256GB of fast NVMe storage (which is user-upgradeable, with two slots that support either M.2 2230 or 2280-sized SSDs), and Nvidia’s RTX 3060 graphics chip (90W maximum graphics power, and a base clock speed of 1,050MHz and boost clock of 1,402MHz). A 15.6-inch FHD display with a 165Hz refresh rate, 3ms response time, and up to 300 nits of brightness with 100-percent sRGB color gamut support comes standard.
The X17 sits to the left of the X15 in this image.
Alienware hasn’t shared pricing for spec increases, but you can load the X15 with up to an Intel Core i9-11900H processor, a 2TB NVMe M.2 SSD (with a maximum 4TB of dual storage supported via RAID 0), and 32GB of RAM. To top it off, you can put in an RTX 3080 graphics card (the 8GB version, with 110W maximum graphics power, a base clock speed of 930MHz and a boost clock speed of 1,365MHz). The display can be upgraded to a 400-nit QHD G-Sync panel with a 240Hz refresh rate, 2ms response time, and 99-percent coverage of the DCI-P3 color gamut. The X15 has a 87Wh battery and includes a 240W “small form factor” adapter. At its lowest weight, the X15 comes in at five pounds, but it goes up to 5.2 pounds depending on the specs.
All of the X15’s ports, aside from a headphone jack and power input, are located on its back. There’s a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, one USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port, one Thunderbolt 4 port, a microSD card slot, and an HDMI 2.1 port that will allow the X15 to output a 4K signal at up to 120Hz.
If you’re all about getting a 17.3-inch screen, the X17 starts at $2,099 and has similar starting specs. It has a thicker chassis than the X15 at 20.9mm, and it’s heavier, starting at 6.65 pounds. But that extra heft apparently allows for more graphical and processing power, if you’re willing to pay for it. For example, its RTX 3060 card has a higher maximum graphics power of 130W. This pattern is seen for more pricey GPU upgrades, too, especially the RTX 3080 (16GB) that can sail with 165W of max graphics power at a boost clock speed of 1,710MHz. In the processor department, you can go up to an Intel Core i9-11900HK. Additionally, you can spec this one with up to 64GB of XMP RAM clocked at 3,466MHz.
As for the screen, there’s an upgrade option to get a 300-nit FHD G-Sync panel with a 360Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, but you can go all the way up to a 500-nit 4K display with a 120Hz refresh rate and 4ms response time. Like the X15, the X17 has an 87Wh battery, but whether you get a 240W or 330W power supply will depend on the configuration that you buy.
The X17 has all of the same ports as the X15, along with one extra USB-A port, a Mini DisplayPort jack, and a 2.5G ethernet port (the X15 includes a USB-C to ethernet adapter).
The X15 on top is almost as thin as Razer’s new Blade 15 Advanced. The X17 beneath it is considerably thicker and heavier.
Generally speaking, thinner laptops struggle with heat management. But Alienware’s Quad Fan claims to move a lot of air, and in X15 and X17 models that have the RTX 3070 or 3080 chips, it touts a new “Element 31 thermal interface material” that apparently provides a boost in the thermal resistance of its internals compared to previous Alienware laptops. We’ll have to see how this fares when we try out a review unit. I’m curious how loud they might get in order to stay cool.
If you’re an Alienware enthusiast, be aware that the company’s mainstay graphics amplifier port is missing. We asked Alienware about this, and it provided this statement to The Verge:
Today’s latest flagship desktop graphics cards achieve graphical power beyond what the Alienware Graphics Amplifiers (as well as other external graphics amplifiers) can successfully port back through PCI (and Thunderbolt) connections. For Alienware customers who are already purchasing high-end graphics configurations, the performance improvements from our Alienware Graphics Amplifier would be limited. While improvements would be noticeable, in many cases it wouldn’t be enough to justify purchasing an external amplifier and flagship graphics card. So instead, we are using that additional space to offer extra ports and thermal headroom which provides a better experience for all gamers purchasing this product.
This is what the rear of the X15 looks like. The X17 has one extra USB-A port, a Mini DisplayPort, and an ethernet jack.
Wrapping up this boatload of specs, the X15 and X17 each have a 720p Windows Hello webcam, and configurations with the RTX 3080 have an illuminated trackpad that can be customized within Alienware’s pre-installed software. These laptops come standard with Alienware’s X-Series keyboard that has per-key lighting, n-key rollover, anti-ghosting, and 1.5mm of key travel. In the X17, you have the option to upgrade to Alienware’s Cherry MX ultra low-profile mechanical switches, which have a longer 1.8mm key travel.
Lastly, both laptops are available in the “Lunar Light” colorway, which is white on the outside shell and black on the inside.
AMD introduced its new Radeon RX 6000M-series laptop graphics at Computex, during a keynote by AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su. The new mobile graphics lineup is made up of the top-end AMD Radeon RX 6800M, a mid-range RX 6700M and the entry level RX 6600M. For now at least, the GPUs are being paired in systems from laptop vendors with AMD’s Ryzen processors for what the company calls “AMD Advantage.”
These are the first laptop GPUs from AMD that use its RDNA 2 architecture, with Infinity Cache for higher memory bandwidth, low power consumption (AMD claims near 0 watts at idle) and high frequencies even when the system is running at low power. The company is claiming up to 1.5 times performance over last-gen RDNA graphics and up to 43% lower power consumption.
AMD Radeon RX 6800M
AMD Radeon RX 6700M
AMD Radeon RX 6600M
Compute Units
40
36
28
Game Clock
2,300 MHz
2,300 MHz
2,177
Memory
12GB GDDR6
10GB GDDR6
8GB GDDR6
Infinity Cache
96MB
80MB
32MB
AMD Smart Access Memory
Yes
Yes
Yes
AMD Smart Shift
Yes
Yes
Yes
Power Targets
145W and above
Up to 135W
Up to 100W
Resolution Targets
1440p
1440p/1080p
1080p
The most powerful of the new bunch is the AMD Radeon RX 6800M, which will be available starting June 1 in the Asus ROG Strix G15 Advantage Edition. It has 40 compute units and ray accelerators, along with a 2,300 MHz game clock, 12GB of GDDR6 memory and a 96MB cache. It will also be compatible with AMD SmartShift and Smart Access Memory.
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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 compared the ROG Strix G15 with the RX 6800M and a Ryzen 9 5900HX to a 2019 MSI Raider GE63 with a 9th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and an RTX 2070, claiming up to 1.4 times more frames per second at 1440p max settings in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, 1.5 times the performance in Dirt 5 and 1.7x more frames while playing Resident Evil: Village.
In closer comparisons, to an RTX 3070 (8GB) and RTX 3080 (8GB), AMD claimed its flagship GPU was typically the top performer – within a frame or so – in several of those games, as well as Borderlands 3 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, though it’s unclear which settings and resolutions were used for these tests.
Unlike Nvidia, AMD isn’t aiming for 4K gaming. The most powerful of the cards, the RX 6800M, aims for a power target of 145W and above and is designed for 1440p.
(Image credit: AMD)
The middle-tier AMD Radeon RX 6700M is designed for 1440p or 1080p gaming, depending on the title. It has 36 compute units with a 2,300 MHz game clock, 10GB of GDDR6 RAM and an 80MB infinity cache, as well as the same support for SmartShift and SAM. AMD says these will ship in laptops “soon.’ It also said that the GPU will allow for 100 fps gaming at 1440p and high settings in “popular games,” though didn’t specify which games it was referring to.
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(Image credit: AMD)
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The RX 6600M sits at the bottom of the stack for gaming at 1080p. AMD compared it to an RTX 3060 (6GB) on 1080p max settings, and found that it led in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Borderlands 3 and Dirt 5. It was five frames behind in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War in AMD’s tests, and there was a one-frame difference playing Cyberpunk 2077. Like the RX 6800M, the 6600M will start shipping on June 1.
(Image credit: AMD)
AMD Advantage Laptops
AMD is now referring to laptops with both AMD processors and graphics as offering the “AMD Advantage.” The company says these designs should offer great performance because of power sharing between the CPU and GPU.
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
AMD says its technologies can achieve up to 11% better performance in Borderlands 3, 10% in Wolfenstein Young Blood, 7% in Cyberpunk 2077 and 6% in Godfall.
(Image credit: AMD)
Additionally, the company says AMD Advantage laptops will only have “premium” displays — either IPS or OLED, but no VA or TN panels. They should hit or surpass 300 nits of brightness, hit 144 Hz or higher and use AMD FreeSync.
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(Image credit: AMD)
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(Image credit: AMD)
Each laptop should come with a PCIe NVMe Gen 3 SSD, keep the WASD keys below 40 degrees Celsius while gaming and allow for ten hours of video on battery. (AMD tested this with local video, not streaming.)
(Image credit: AMD)
The first of these laptops is the Asus ROG Strix G15, with up to a Ryzen 9 5900HX and Radeon RX 6800M, a 15-inch display (either FHD at 300 Hz or WQHD at 165 Hz) with FreeSync Premium, liquid metal for cooling both the CPU and GPU along with a vapor chamber. It will launch in mid-June.
(Image credit: AMD)
The HP Omen 16 will also come with a 165 Hz display with up ao a Ryzen 9 5900Hx and AMD Radeon RX 6600M for 1080p gaming. It will launch sune on JD.com, then become available worldwide.
(Image credit: AMD)
In June, we should see more releases from HP, Asus, MSI and Lenovo.
AMD has announced its long-awaited Radeon RX 6000M series of mobile GPUs, featuring its RDNA 2 architecture.
Today’s release consists of three chips: the RX 6800M (configurable at 145W and above), the RX 6700M (up to 135W), and the RX 6600M (up to 100W). AMD says the flagship 6800M delivers the fastest AMD graphics for laptops yet; it claims the 6800M will run modern AAA games at frame rates that are comparable to or better than those of Nvidia’s mobile RTX 3080. It’s also purported to outperform Nvidia’s chip while gaming on battery.
AMD says the RX 6700M will deliver up to 100fps “in popular games” at 1440p resolution. The 6600M is better for “epic 1080p gaming.” Keep an eye out for independent reviews of these chips in the coming weeks for better idea of the performance you can expect from each one.
The 6000M series will be available starting on June 1st.
Radeon RX 6000M series
GPU
Power target
Compute units / ray accelerators
Game clock (MHz)
Memory (GDDR6)
Infinity cache
GPU
Power target
Compute units / ray accelerators
Game clock (MHz)
Memory (GDDR6)
Infinity cache
Radeon RX 6800M
145W and above
40
2300
12GB
96MB
Radeon RX 6700M
Up to 135W
36
2300
10GB
80MB
Radeon RX 6600M
Up to 100W
28
2177
8GB
32MB
AMD also announced AMD Advantage, a new “design framework initiative” meant to encourage OEMs to include certain features on their AMD-powered systems, and to indicate to consumers which Ryzen- and Radeon-powered laptops AMD thinks are the best. It appears to be a similar idea to Intel’s Evo program, but it’s just for gaming laptops, and the standards look much more stringent. It AMD Advantage laptops are expected to include the following:
AMD Ryzen 5000 mobile processors, Radeon 6000 graphics and Radeon software
Support for AMD’s Smart Acess Memory and Smart Shift technology
A display that reaches at least 300 nits of brightness, covers either 100 percent of the sRGB gamut or 72 percent of the NTSC gamut, has at least a 144Hz refresh rate and low latency, and supports AMD Freesync
At least one NVME PCIE Express Gen 3 SSD
The ability to maintain a surface temperature under 40 degrees Celsius on the WASD keys
Over 10 hours of video playback on battery
It’s unclear how many laptops will actually meet all of these standards. Forty degrees Celsius is close to as hot as keyboards commonly get in the center. But there aren’t too many gaming rigs that reliably break 10 hours of video playback on battery, and plenty of the best gaming laptops out there max out below 300 nits of brightness. That said, all kinds of Intel Evo-certified laptops also don’t meet all the Evo requirements in my testing — units and methodologies can vary.
The first AMD Advantage laptop to be announced is Asus’ new ROG Strix G15. This can be configured with up to a Ryzen 9 5900Hx, a Radeon RX 6800M, and a 15-inch WQHD 165Hz display with 3ms response time. The G15 will be available at Best Buy in June.
Cougar has revealed a very unique gaming desk called the Mars Pro 150. This gaming desk has all the goodies you’d expect from a ‘gaming desk,’ like a carbon-fiber finish and dual-sided RGB lighting. It’s also a powerhouse for streaming or professional use with several USB-C ports that you can use for connecting displays, along with support for multiple monitor mounts.
The desk measures 60 x 29.5 x 30 inches, so it’s not the biggest desk you can buy. However, it should be perfectly adequate for people who don’t use their desks for anything except their computer gear.
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(Image credit: Cougar)
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(Image credit: Cougar)
Among the coolest features of this desk is its three-mode height adjustment — you can position the desk at 29.5, 31.5, or 33.5 inches high. Don’t expect to use this desk as a standing desk with such low height adjustments, though. However, it’s perfect for adjusting your desk height to accommodate your office or gaming chair.
(Image credit: Cougar)
The desk also comes with a good array of front I/O connectivity, with dual USB 3.0 Type-A ports, a headphone and microphone jack, and a Type-C port that works as a monitor port. This monitor extension is aimed towards laptop users, allowing you to plug your laptop’s Type-C port directly into the desk instead of the monitor.
Unfortunately we don’t know when Cougar will release the new desk, or pricing. Given the Cougar Pro Mars 150’s expansive features, we don’t expect it to be cheap.
THX’s debut product is nicely made and well-featured, but it lets itself down in the sound department
For
Neat, versatile design
MQA support
Adds power, clarity and cleanliness
Against
Sonically basic
Outclassed by cheaper rivals
Next time you’re in a cinema, take a moment to appreciate THX. After all, the US firm will be in some way to thank for the audio presentation you’re experiencing.
THX was born out of George Lucas’s disappointment at the quality of audio systems in theatres showing his Star Wars movies. Members of his Lucasfilm team, including sound engineer Tomlinson Holman, were tasked with developing a certification program for audio standards, and the first film to meet those specifications was the 1983 release of Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi.
Almost 20 years after becoming a separate company, THX is celebrating another milestone, with its first crack at the consumer electronics market in the THX Onyx, a DAC/headphone amplifier. The company’s Achromatic Audio Amplifier (THX AAA) technology sits at the heart of the THX Onyx, a compact, portable device designed to enhance the sound between your source device and wired headphones.
Features
(Image credit: THX)
The THX Onyx is one of the most discreet portable DACs we’ve seen. It has a thin metal body, longer and narrower than the average USB stick, at the end of a short, thick USB-C cable.
THX Onyx tech specs
(Image credit: THX)
3.5mm output Yes
USB-C output Yes
USB-A adapter Yes
With that connection, and the USB-A adapter supplied in the box, the Onyx works with any Windows 10 PC, Mac or Android device via either of those output sockets. iPhone and iPads require the slim Apple Lightning to USB Camera Adapter (not supplied), although it’s worth noting that, in this case, your headphones’ in-line remote functionality won’t work.
Neither method requires specific drivers or installation – simply stick it into your chosen device, select it as your device’s sound output (if necessary) and plug your wired headphones into the 3.5mm socket at the other end of the DAC.
THX says the Onyx produces a power output comparable to that of entry-level desktop headphone amps, or five times more powerful than similar USB DACs. The claim is that its feed-back and feed-forward error correction method reduces distortion and noise levels up to 40dB lower than conventional power amps.
This amplification design works alongside an ESS ES9281PRO DAC chip, which can handle files up to 32-bit/384kHz PCM and DSD128, as well as a Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) renderer for fully decoding and playing back MQA hard files and (MQA-encoded) Tidal Masters in their native quality – handy for Tidal HiFi subscribers who can access hi-res tracks in the Tidal catalogue.
Build
(Image credit: THX)
The Onyx’s metal casework doesn’t just house the amplifier, DAC chip and MQA renderer: it also has LED lights that indicate the file type and size being played. Blue denotes 44.1kHz or 48kHz PCM files and yellow signifies sample rates above that, while red and pink shine respectively when DSD and MQA signals are played. It’s a neat function, providing reassurance for those with hi-res music collections, and adding some visual interest to the design.
Apart from the LED lights and THX logo, the Onyx is as smart and discreet as the category demands, with both the casing and rubber cable feeling sturdy. THX has magnetised part of the casing and cable so that they can clasp together. It can be a balancing act when connected to the bottom of a phone, but a helpful method of cable management on a laptop or computer.
Sound
(Image credit: THX)
Whatever way you arrange the Onyx, it delivers sound much more powerfully than your source device – it’s cleaner and clearer, too. We use a range of earbuds and over-ear headphones, from reference models to more price-appropriate pairs, and various source devices, including Android phones and Apple MacBooks. Compared with the sound coming straight from the devices’ outputs, the THX amplifies the music, making it much bigger, more direct and more involving to listen to. A noisy and compressed sound, this is not.
There’s a hefty dose of clarity and degree of polish to the presentation that wasn’t there before as the THX certainly improves on the typically paltry output of such portable or desktop devices. However, we have concerns about its inability to enhance the source’s sound in every aspect – and as well as other similarly priced portable DACs can.
The five-star Audioquest DragonFly Red (£169, $200, AU$280) – the class-leading portable DAC at this price – provides a much wider window into a song, bringing musical details and instrumental textures to the surface that the THX overlooks.
The THX is second best when it comes to communicating the dynamics and timing, and therefore the rhythm and musicality of a track. Even the five-star Astell & Kern AK USB-C Dual DAC Cable and Audioquest DragonFly Black v1.5, both around half the Onyx’s price, fare better on these fronts.
We play Destroyer’s Savage Night At The Opera and, while the Onyx delivers Dan Bejar’s vocals with clarity and solidity, the DragonFly Red gets under his deadpan delivery more convincingly, while revealing more insight into, and tighter interplay between, the starry haze instrumentation. It’s a more mature presentation that makes the Onyx sound rather crude. And it’s this lack of transparency that makes its laudable efforts to support hi-res formats and MQA seem pretty futile.
Verdict
The THX Onyx has a logical design to serve a logical purpose, but the sonic execution lets down what is an otherwise well-considered product. It clears the first hurdle in amplifying device sound and bringing more clarity and cleanliness, but fails the all-important second by not delivering the level of detail or rhythmic quality required at this price. Suffice to say, you can do better.
Intel briefly demoed an Alder Lake laptop at Computex 2021 and confirmed that the company already has mobile versions of its new hybrid chips shipping to its customers and partners. Ultimately the demo was little more than Intel showing the laptop playing back a video, but it is an important milestone because it confirms that the mobile Alder Lake variants are deep in the development process.
(Image credit: Intel)
It’s well known that Intel’s 12th-Gen Alder Lake will bring the company’s hybrid architecture, which combines a mix of larger high-performance Golden Cove cores paired with smaller high-efficiency Gracement cores, to desktop x86 PCs for the first time. However, Intel is going all-in: Intel will reunify its desktop and mobile lines with Alder Lake, bringing its new 10nm architecture and leading-edge connectivity options, like PCIe 5.0 and DDR5, to laptops.
We’ve already pieced together plenty of information about Alder Lake, which you can read here. Here’s the brief rundown:
Qualification and production in the second half of 2021
Hybrid x86 design with a mix of big and small cores (Golden Cove/Gracemont)
Up to 16 cores
10nm Enhanced SuperFin process
LGA1700 socket requires new motherboards
PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 support rumored
Five variants: -S for desktop PCs, -P for mobile, -M for low-power devices, -L Atom replacement, -N educational (probably Chromebooks)
Gen12 Xe integrated graphics
New hardware-guided operating system scheduler tuned for high performance
Intel hasn’t released the official specifications of the Alder Lake processors, but a recent update to the SiSoft Sandra benchmark software, along with listings to the open-source Coreboot (a lightweight motherboard firmware option), have given us plenty of clues to work with.
The Coreboot listing outlines various combinations of the big and little cores in different chip models, with some models even using only the larger cores (possibly for high-performance gaming models). The information suggests four configurations with -S, -P, -N, and -M designators, and an -L variant has also emerged:
Alder Lake-S: Desktop PCs (Both LGA and BGA models)
Alder Lake-P: High-performance notebooks
Alder Lake-M: Low-power devices
Alder Lake-L: Listed as “Small Core” Processors (Atom)
Alder Lake-N: Educational and consumer client (Chromebook-class devices)
Naturally, Intel didn’t divulge which flavor of the mobile processor it unveiled today, but it appears there will be four different flavors of the mobile devices to choose from. Intel divulged that Alder Lake laptops will come later this year, so we won’t have to wait long for further details.
Intel kicked off Computex 2021 by adding two new flagship 11th-Gen Tiger Lake U-series chips to its stable, including a new Core i7 model that’s the first laptop chip for the thin-and-light segment that boasts a 5.0 GHz boost speed. As you would expect, Intel also provided plenty of benchmarks to show off its latest silicon.
Intel also teased its upcoming Beast Canyon NUCs that are the first to accept full-size graphics cards, making them more akin to a small form factor PC than a NUC. These new machines will come with Tiger Lake processors. Additionally, the company shared a few details around its 5G Solution 5000, its new 5G silicon for Always Connected PCs that it developed in partnership with MediaTek and Fibocom. Let’s jump right in.
Intel 11th-Gen Tiger Lake U-Series Core i7-1195G7 and i5-1155G7
Intel’s two new U-series Tiger Lake chips, the Core i7-1195G7 and Core i5-1155G7, slot in as the new flagships for the Core i7 and Core i5 families. These two processors are UP3 models, meaning they operate in the 12-28W TDP range. These two new chips come with all the standard features of the Tiger Lake family, like the 10nm SuperFin process, Willow Cove cores, the Iris Xe graphics engine, and support for LPDDR4x-4266, PCIe 4.0, Thunderbolt 4 and Wi-Fi 6/6E.
Intel expects the full breadth of its Tiger Lake portfolio to span 250 designs by the holidays from the usual suspects, like Lenovo MSI, Acer and ASUS, with 60 of those designs with the new 1195G7 and 1155G7 chips.
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 i7-1195G7
4C / 8T
96
12 -28W
2.9
5.0
4.6
12
1.40
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
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 i5-1155G7
4C / 8T
80
12 – 28W
2.5
4.5
4.3
8
1.35
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i5-1145G7
4C / 8T
80
12 – 28W
2.6
4.4
4.0
8
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
The four-core eight-thread Core i7-1195G7 brings the Tiger Lake UP3 chips up to a 5.0 GHz single-core boost, which Intel says is a first for the thin-and-light segment. Intel has also increased the maximum all-core boost rate up to 4.6 GHz, a 300 MHz improvement.
Intel points to additional tuning for the 10nm SuperFin process and tweaked platform design as driving the higher boost clock rates. Notably, the 1195G7’s base frequency declines by 100 MHz to 2.9 GHz, likely to keep the chip within the 12 to 28W threshold. As with the other G7 models, the chip comes with the Iris Xe graphics engine with 96 EUs, but those units operate at 1.4 GHz, a slight boost over the 1165G7’s 1.35 GHz.
The 1195G7’s 5.0 GHz boost clock rate also comes courtesy of Intel’s Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0. This boosting tech works in tandem with the operating system scheduler to target the fastest core on the chip (‘favored core’) with single-threaded workloads, thus allowing most single-threaded work to operate 200 MHz faster than we see with the 1185G7. Notably, the new 1195G7 is the only Tiger Lake UP3 model to support this technology.
Surprisingly, Intel says the 1195G7 will ship in higher volumes than the lower-spec’d Core i7-1185G7. That runs counter to our normal expectations that faster processors fall higher on the binning distribution curve — faster chips are typically harder to produce and thus ship in lower volumes. The 1195G7’s obviously more forgiving binning could be the result of a combination of the lower base frequency, which loosens binning requirements, and the addition of Turbo Boost Max 3.0, which only requires a single physical core to hit the rated boost speed. Typically all cores are required to hit the boost clock speed, which makes binning more challenging.
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
The four-core eight-thread Core i5-1155G7 sees more modest improvements over its predecessor, with boost clocks jumping an additional 100 MHz to 4.5 GHz, and all-core clock rates improving by 300 MHz to 4.3 GHz. We also see the same 100 MHz decline in base clocks that we see with the 1195G7. This chip comes with the Iris Xe graphics engine with 80 EUs that operate at 1.35 GHz.
Intel’s Tiger Lake Core i7-1195G7 Gaming Benchmarks
Intel shared its own gaming benchmarks for the Core i7-1195G7, but as with all vendor-provided benchmarks, you should view them with skepticism. Intel didn’t share benchmarks for the new Core i5 model.
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
Intel put its Core i7-1195G7 up against the AMD Ryzen 7 5800U, but the chart lists an important caveat here — Intel’s system operates between 28 and 35W during these benchmarks, while AMD’s system runs at 15 to 25W. Intel conducted these tests on the integrated graphics for both chips, so we’re looking at Iris Xe with 96 EUs versus AMD’s Vega architecture with eight CUs.
Naturally, Intel’s higher power consumption leads to higher performance, thus giving the company the lead across a broad spate of triple-A 1080p games. However, this extra performance comes at the cost of higher power consumption and thus more heat generation. Intel also tested using its Reference Validation Platform with unknown cooling capabilities (we assume they are virtually unlimited) while testing the Ryzen 7 5800U in the HP Probook 455.
Intel also provided benchmarks with DirectX 12 Ultimate’s new Sampler Feedback feature. This new DX12 feature reduces memory usage while boosting performance, but it requires GPU hardware-based support in tandem with specific game engine optimizations. That means this new feature will not be widely available in leading triple-A titles for quite some time.
Intel was keen to point out that its Xe graphics architecture supports the feature, whereas AMD’s Vega graphics engine does not. ULMark has a new 3DMark Sampler Feedback benchmark under development, and Intel used the test release candidate to show that Iris Xe graphics offers up to 2.34X the performance of AMD’s Vega graphics with the feature enabled.
Intel’s Tiger Lake Core i7-1195G7 Application Benchmarks
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
Here we can see Intel’s benchmarks for applications, too, but the same rules apply — we’ll need to see these benchmarks in our own test suite before we’re ready to claim any victors. Again, you’ll notice that Intel’s system operates at a much higher 28 to 35W power range on a validation platform while AMD’s system sips 15 to 25W in the HP Probook 455 G8.
As we’ve noticed lately, Intel now restricts its application benchmarks to features that it alone supports at the hardware level. That includes AVX-512 based benchmarks that leverage the company’s DL Boost suite that has extremely limited software support.
Intel’s benchmarks paint convincing wins across the board. However, be aware that the AI-accelerated workloads on the right side of the chart aren’t indicative of what you’ll see with the majority of productivity software. At least not yet. For now, unless you use these specific pieces of software very frequently in these specific tasks, these benchmarks aren’t very representative of the overall performance deltas you can expect in most software.
In contrast, the Intel QSV benchmarks do have some value. Intel’s Quick Sync Video is broadly supported, and the Iris Xe graphics engine supports hardware-accelerated 10-bit video encoding. That’s a feature that Intel rightly points out also isn’t supported with MX-series GPUs, either.
Intel’s support for hardware-accelerated 10-bit encoding does yield impressive results, at least in its benchmarks, showing a drastic ~8X reduction in a Handbrake 4K 10-bit HEVC to 1080P HEVC transcode. Again, bear in mind that this is with the Intel chip running at a much higher power level. Intel also shared a chart highlighting its broad support for various encoding/decoding options that AMD doesn’t support.
Intel Beast Canyon NUC
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(Image credit: Intel)
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(Image credit: Intel)
Intel briefly showed off its upcoming Beast Canyon NUC that will sport 65W H-Series Tiger Lake processors and be the first NUC to support full-length graphics cards (up to 12 inches long).
The eight-litre Beast Canyon certainly looks more like a small form factor system than what we would expect from the traditional definition of a NUC, and as you would expect, it comes bearing the Intel skull logo. Intel’s Chief Performance Strategist Ryan Shrout divulged that the system will come with an internal power supply. Given the size of the unit, that means there will likely be power restrictions for the GPU. We also know the system uses standard air cooling.
Intel is certainly finding plenty of new uses for its Tiger Lake silicon. The company recently listed new 10nm Tiger Lake chips for desktop PCs, including a 65W Core i9-11900KB and Core i7-11700KB, and told us that these chips would debut in small form factor enthusiast systems. Given that Intel specifically lists the H-series processors for Beast Canyon, it doesn’t appear these chips will come in the latest NUC. We’ll learn more about Beast Canyon as it works its way to release later this year.
Intel sold its modem business to Apple back in 2019, leaving a gap in its Always Connected PC (ACPC) initiative. In the interim, Intel has worked with MediaTek to design and certify new 5G modems with carriers around the world. The M.2 modules are ultimately produced by Fibocom. The resulting Intel 5G Solution 5000 is a 5G M.2 device that delivers up to five times the speed of the company’s Gigabit LTE solutions. The solution is compatible with both Tiger and Alder Lake platforms.
Intel claims that it leads the ACPC space with three out of four ACPCs shipping with LTE (more than five million units thus far). Intel’s 5G Solution 5000 is designed to extend that to the 5G arena with six designs from three OEMs (Acer, ASUS and HP) coming to market in 2021. The company says it will ramp to more than 30 designs next year.
Intel says that while it will not be the first to come to market with a 5G PC solution, it will be the first to deliver them in volume, but we’ll have to see how that plays out in the face of continued supply disruptions due to the pandemic.
Intel made a splash earlier in May with the launch of its first 11th Gen Tiger Lake H-series processors for more powerful laptops, but at Computex 2021, the company is also announcing a pair of new U-series chips — one of which marks the first 5.0GHz clock speed for the company’s U-series lineup of lower voltage chips.
Specifically, Intel is announcing the Core i7-1195G7 — its new top of the line chip in the U-series range — and the Core i5-1155G7, which takes the crown of Intel’s most powerful Core i5-level chip, too.
Like the original 11th Gen U-series chips, the new chips operate in the 12W to 28W range. Both new chips are four core / eight thread configurations, and feature Intel’s Iris Xe integrated graphics (the Core i7-1195G7 comes with 96 EUs, while the Core i5-1155G7 has 80 EUs.)
The Core i7-1195G7 features a base clock speed of 2.9GHz, but cranks up to a 5.0GHz maximum single core speed using Intel’s Turbo Boost Max 3.0 technology. The Core i5-1155G7, on the other hand, has a base clock speed of 2.5GHz and a boosted speed of 4.5GHz. Getting to 5GHz out of the box is a fairly recent development for laptop CPUs, period: Intel’s first laptop processor to cross the 5GHz mark arrived in 2019.
Along with the new processors, Intel has also announced its latest 5G modem solution for laptops — a new M.2 card that device makers will be able to incorporate into their designs, called the Intel 5G Solution 5000. (While Intel famously sold off its smartphone 5G division to Apple, Intel has continued its efforts in other areas of the next-generation connectivity standard.)
The new modem is a collaboration between Intel, Mediatek (which is handling the modem firmware) and Fibocom (which is actually manufacturing the modules), and will offer sub-6GHz 5G support and integrated eSIM technology. Intel says that Acer, Asus, and HP will all be offering laptops combing Intel’s Tiger Lake chips and new 5G Solution 5000 cards later this year.
Respected Linux patch detective Coelacanth’s Dream has penned a new blog post decoding the latest Intel patches, giving us some insight into unreleased information about the upcoming Alder Lake-P laptop processors. The information indicates some of Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs could have a configurable TDP as high as 115W, making Alder Lake the most power-hungry Intel chips ever produced for the laptop market.
The post reveals three core configurations for Alder Lake-P, consisting of a 2+8+2, 4+8+2, and a 6+8+2 configuration. This is a result of Alder Lake using bigger and smaller cores in its architecture, meaning ‘big’ high-performance cores, and ‘small’ Atom cores for better efficiency. The first number belongs to the bigger (performance) cores, while the second number is the smaller (power saver) cores. The last number is the integrated graphics.
Each core configuration scales with higher TDPs; the chip with two high-performance cores operates at a max of 55W for the PL2 turbo rating. The quad-core operates at up to 64W, and the hexacore operates at a peak of up to 115W.
(Image credit: Coelacanth’s Dream)
While this number may sound insane for a notebook, even for some of the largest notebooks on the market, TDP is a very different animal than it used to be. Intel allows OEMs to adjust the TDPs of its chips significantly, so the CPU is geared more toward the notebook’s design, rather than static TDPs which were once popular.
Intel has also introduced two levels of Turbo Boost behavior to help optimize efficiency in both notebook and desktop form factors. These levels are known as PL1 and PL2 states. PL2 is the most aggressive turbo clock available and is designed to go way beyond the CPU’s base power consumption for a short amount of time. This is why Intel’s mobile chips in general have seen higher TDP numbers over the past few years, making them look more power-hungry than they actually are.
Even for notebooks that are equipped with a high core count Alder Lake chip that boosts up to 115W, it’s doubtful it will boost that high for any long duration of time. And don’t expect many notebooks to be configured with that high of a TDP.
(Pocket-lint) – Acer is entering the fast lane with its Swift line, by introducing the discreet looking Swift X – but it packs a punch, as it includes discrete graphics in the form of Nvidia’s RTX 3050 or 3050Ti under the hood.
It’s not the first time we’ve seen Acer step towards a more graphically powerful Swift laptop – the Swift 3X dabbled in that area with Intel Iris Xe graphics – but the Swift X really looks to step things up a notch. So does it all add up?
Design & Display
14-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) IPS LCD panel
300 nits brightness, 100% sRGB gamut
Aluminium chassis: Blue, Gold, Pink colours
Integrated fingerprint scanner
Weight: 1.4kgs (3lbs)
Thickness: 17.9mm
It’s worth noting that the Acer Swift X isn’t a crazy-expensive laptop, with the entry model starting at under four figures (it’s £899 in the UK, due for July launch). That’s important to consider when weighing up the overall aesthetics and build of this laptop.
Pocket-lint
Visually speaking we think the Swift X has got the X factor – especially with the soft blue finish of the aluminium lid, as you can see in our pictures – with some nice flourishes ensuring it looks the part.
But in terms of actual build, it’s fairly typical of what we’ve often said about the Swift series: there are some details that lack the same veracity. The screen bezel, for example, has a plasticky look and feel to it.
So you’re not getting full-on rigid metal build throughout, as you would in, say, a MacBook Air. But the Acer is less money. And it’s much, much more powerful. Which establishes its whole point really.
Pocket-lint
There’s plenty of other features, too, including a Windows Hello camera for face unlock, or you can use the integrated fingerprint scanner for that instead. The scanner’s position is a little out on its own, but at least it doesn’t use up any of the trackpad space.
Typing is comfortable, there’s backlighting, while the trackpad is well coated for finger gliding motion. No qualms here.
As for the screen, it’s a 14-inch panel, which in 2021 is the current go-to scale that many makers – and, indeed, customers – are reaching out to buy. It’s a good balance of scale and portability – given the whole laptop is under 18mm thick with that discrete GPU inside is impressive – without going to especially high-end levels in terms of specification.
Pocket-lint
The resolution, at Full HD, is ample and should help assist battery life to push that bit further too. Brightness is cited at 300 nits, which is hardly going to rock your world, but should be enough to counter reflections whether inside or outside.
But the real reason to consider the Swift X is the power within. This is a discreet looking creators laptop, really, that you could use for work, design, gaming – all manner of things.
Pocket-lint
Under the hood there’s AMD’s Ryzen 5000 processor paired with Nvidia’s RTX 3050 GPU at the entry point. For under four-figures that’s decent. The step-up model brings AMD Ryzen 7000 and Nvidia RTX 3050Ti into play, pushing the price over the four-figure mark (£1199 in the UK), but still being a very reasonable purchase all considered.
Because there’s a discrete GPU under the hood, cooling is necessary, with rear fan vents tucked away enough as to not be overtly prominent, yet still functional enough to kick in when needed. There’s a whole fan and copper pipe thermal cooling system to aid keeping everything in check too.
Best laptop 2021: Top general and premium notebooks for working from home and more
By Dan Grabham
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In terms of ports the Swift X has quite a number – including USB-A, USB-C and even HDMI out – but it’s here where this laptop is a little lacking. We’re surprised there’s just the one USB-C port, for example, and there’s no nod to Thunderbolt speeds from what we can see either.
Pocket-lint
Connectivity wise there’s Wi-Fi 6 for decent speeds while on a network, but don’t anticipate a mobile 5G option within this range. It’s more about desk surfing than it is connected on-the-go use.
First Impressions
The Swift X helps Acer’s middle-range laptops enter the fast lane thanks to discrete graphics being on board. The entry-level model bags Nvidia RTX 3050 for under a four-figure asking price.
It’s a shame there’s not more ports (or more diverse ones) – it’s just the one USB-C here – and some aspects of the build, such as the plastic screen bezel, could be a little better. But, elsewhere, the colourful lid options and aluminium frame ensure an overall quality.
So if you’re looking for a portable yet discreet-looking laptop with big power but without a big price tag, the Acer Swift X ought to have plenty to offer.
Writing by Mike Lowe.
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