It may be that time of the year again when AMD starts refreshing its Ryzen processors if Twitter user Patrick Schur’s information if accurate. There is precedent of AMD refreshing its Ryzen processors, nevertheless, we recommend you approach the news with caution.
Unless AMD pulls a rabbit out of its hat, the new Ryzen 5000 (Vermeer) processors will in all likelihood acquire the XT moniker, following the footsteps of the prior Ryzen 3000 XT-series. Everything should remain unchanged under the hood. The processors will continue to come out of TSMC’s 7nm oven and arrive with the same, powerful Zen 3 cores that bring an impressive 19% IPC uplift.
AMD’s last refresh has shown us that the amount of cores, L3 cache and TDP (thermal design power) limits remain intact. Instead, the refreshed Ryzen 5000 chips will likely offer marginal boost clock speed improvements. Once again, the chips will slot into the AM4 socket so existing AMD motherboards should only require a small and simple firmware upgrade to leverage the fresh Ryzen parts.
AMD Ryzen 5000 XT Specifications
Processor
Cores / Threads
Base / Boost Clock Speeds (GHz)
L3 Cache (MB)
TDP (W)
Ryzen 9 5950XT*
16 / 32
3.4 / 5.0
64
105
Ryzen 9 5950X
16 / 32
3.4 / 4.9
64
105
Ryzen 5 5600XT*
6 / 12
3.7 / 4.6
32
65
Ryzen 5 5600X
6 / 12
3.7 / 4.6
32
65
*Specifications are unconfirmed.
Schur referred to the two mysterious Ryzen processors as being the B2 stepping for Vermeer. There are two codenames that are being thrown around. Given the specifications, the 100-000000059-60_50/34_Y is probably the Ryzen 9 5950XT, while the 100-000000065-06_46/37_Y likely alludes to the Ryzen 5 5600XT. Assuming that AMD follows the same path as the previous XT-series, we should see a Ryzen 7 5800XT as well. However, that might not be the case. AMD skipped the Ryzen 9 3950X last time, and it appears that the chipmaker might give the Ryzen 9 5950X the XT treatment this time around. AMD is clearly switching things up.
The Ryzen 9 5950XT may just arrive with a 5 GHz boost clock, 100 MHz higher than the standard Ryzen 9 5950X. The thing is that many Ryzen 9 5950X samples can already reach or surpass the 5 GHz barrier through AMD’s Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) technology. Therefore, we’re unsure how the Ryzen 9 5950XT would fit in the pciture. Furthermore, Schur listed the Ryzen 5 5600XT chip with a 4.6 GHz boost clock, which is the same for the existing Ryzen 5 5600X. These are probably specifications for early engineering samples, though, so don’t take them to heart.
AMD launched its Ryzen 3000 XT-series lineup last year in the month of June. If the chipmaker respects the same time frame, then we could see the Ryzen 5000 XT-series as early as next month. If we’re betting men, the processor launch would possibly be accompanied by the X570S motherboard announcment.
After almost a decade of total market dominance, Intel has spent the past few years on the defensive. AMD’s Ryzen processors continue to show improvement year over year, with the most recent Ryzen 5000 series taking the crown of best gaming processor: Intel’s last bastion of superiority.
Now, with a booming hardware market, Intel is preparing to make up some of that lost ground with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors. Intel is claiming these new 11th Gen CPUs offer double-digit IPC improvements despite remaining on a 14 nm process. The top-end 8-core Intel Core i9-11900K may not be able to compete against its Ryzen 9 5900X AMD rival in heavily multi-threaded scenarios, but the higher clock speeds and alleged IPC improvements could be enough to take back the gaming crown. Along with the new CPUs, there is a new chipset to match, the Intel Z590. Last year’s Z490 chipset motherboards are also compatible with the new 11th Gen Intel Core Processors, but Z590 introduces some key advantages.
First, Z590 offers native PCIe 4.0 support from the CPU, which means the PCIe and M.2 slots powered off the CPU will offer PCIe 4.0 connectivity when an 11th Gen CPU is installed. The PCIe and M.2 slots controlled by the Z590 chipset are still PCI 3.0. While many high-end Z490 motherboards advertised this capability, it was not a standard feature for the platform. In addition to PCIe 4.0 support, Z590 offers USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 from the chipset. The USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 standard offers speeds of up to 20 Gb/s. Finally, Z590 boasts native support for 3200 MHz DDR4 memory. With these upgrades, Intel’s Z series platform has feature parity with AMD’s B550. On paper, Intel is catching up to AMD, but only testing will tell if these new Z590 motherboards are up to the challenge.
The BIOSTAR Z590 Valkyrie features a massive VRM featuring 90 A top of the line power stages. BIOS flashback has also been included, as well as a dual BIOS. Along with the heavy-duty VRM design, the BIOSTAR Z590 Valkyrie features a unique aesthetic of black and gold, 2.5 Gb/s LAN from Realtek, and more. Let’s take a closer look at what the BIOSTAR Z590 Valkyrie has to offer!
2x WIFI antenna ports 1x PS/2 keyboard / mouse port 1x HDMI Port (HDMI2.0) 1x DP Port (DP1.4) 1x USB 3.2 (Gen2x2) Type-C port 5x USB 3.2 (Gen2) ports 2x USB 3.2 (Gen1) ports 1x 2.5 GbE LAN port 5x Audio jack 1x SPDIF Out
Intel is starting to get its legs again. The company, which initially had issues with its 10nm chips, has released its first eight-core, 10nm Tiger Lake-H processors that are ready for gaming and high-end productivity notebooks.
For its 10th gen chips, Intel used a 10nm process (“Ice Lake”) for ultrabooks but used a 14nm chip (“Comet Lake”) for these enthusiast machines. Now, we have time to see what Intel’s 10nm SuperFin chips can do on the high end. Like the U-series Tiger Lake chips, these use Willow Cove execution cores paired with a UHD Graphics 750 engine that’s powered by Intel’s Xe architecture.
It comes at a crucial time. AMD’s
Ryzen 5000 series
(“Cezanne,” on a 7nm process) has proven powerful and, among gamers, popular. During current hardware shortages, some of the
best gaming laptops
have been nearly impossible to find. Intel claims that it has already shipped more than 1 million of its chips to its partners and that it will come in more than eighty different laptop designs.
The 11th Gen H-series processors include Thunderbolt 4 (and
USB 4
) and Resizable Bar support, and are notably Intel’s first eight-core laptop chips that work with PCIe 4.0 SSDs. AMD’s competing Zen 3 mobile chips are still on PCIe 3.0.
A lot is riding on Tiger Lake H’s success. Intel has already called its 11th generation the “world’s best gaming laptop processors,” and now, with the help of a sample unit, we’ve had a chance to see if those claims ring true.
How We Tested Tiger Lake i9
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Our Tiger Lake-H testing was performed on an Intel-branded sample “white box” system, similar to our early testing of Tiger Lake-U and Ice Lake. This isn’t a review of the Intel Core i9-11980HK processor inside so much as a performance preview of what you can expect from upcoming systems that will be available to buy. Our full reviews will come when we see the i9-11980HK and other 11th Gen CPUs in computers that are on sale.
Intel loaned reviewers these systems with the knowledge that they are pre-production systems that aren’t necessarily representative of final systems, which may have more finished drivers.
Unlike previous Intel sample systems, this one couldn’t toggle between TDPs. Many of Intel’s 11th gen processors will be configurable by the manufacturer, ranging from 35 to 65W (the Core i9-11980HK is a 65W, overclockable processor that peaks at 110W (PL2). In HWInfo, our unit showed a PL1 of 65W and a PL2 of 109W.
We did our testing on the suite we use to test gaming laptops to get an idea of where something specced similar to this sample system might fall. We had a limited amount of time with the system, so we could only run some tests. Some, like battery life, are more important on actual systems that will be on sale than this early sample.
Intel Reference Design for Tiger Lake i9 and Competitors
The Tiger Lake-H i9 reference design came with the following specifications:
2x 512GB Phison SM280512GKBB4S-E162 PCIe Gen 4 SSD
Display
16-inch, 2560 x 1600 (16:10)
Networking
Killer Wi-Fi 6E Ax1675X
Ports
2x Thunderbolt 4, 2x USB Type-A, microSD card reader, 3.5mm headphone jack
Battery
90 WHr
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro
Yes, Intel’s sample system paired its top-end GPU with a mid-range Nvidia GPU. It’s an odd pairing on paper, but one that allows for slim systems. Intel claims that this will enable “thin enthusiast” laptops, which fall in between ultraportable notebooks with its H35 processors and the big, thick machines that include the most intensive graphics cards.
From our reviews database, we chose to compare a number of different laptops depending on the task. For gaming, we broke out the
Acer Predator Triton 300 SE
with a 35W i7-11375H and the Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 with a Ryzen 7 5800H. Both of these also use RTX 3060 GPUs, like the reference system.
For our productivity benchmarks, we also included some other, bigger systems that may have more powerful GPUs to compare against a range of processors, including the Ryzen 9 5900HX in the
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733
; the Intel Core i9-10980HK in the
Alienware m17 R4
; and the 35W Ryzen 9 5980HS in the Asus ROG Flow X13.
Acer Predator Triton 300 SE
Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5
Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733
Alienware m17 R4
Asus ROG Flow X13
CPU
Intel Core i7-11375H
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
Intel Core i9-10980HK
AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS
GPU
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 Max-Q, 75W TGP
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 125W TGP
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080, 130W
Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080
AMD Radeon Graphics (integrated)
RAM
16GB DDR4-3200
16GB DDR4-3200
32GB DDR4-3200
32GB DDR4-2933
32GB LPDDR4x-4266
Storage
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD
2x 1TB M.2 NVMe SSD
512GB Boot, 2TB (2 x 1TB RAID 0) SSD
1TB M.2 2230 NVMe SSD
Display
14-inch, 1920 x 1080, 144 Hz IPS
15.6 inch, 1920 x 1080, 165Hz, IPS
17.3-inch, 1920 x 1080, 360 Hz, IPS
17.3-inch, 1920 x 1080, 360 Hz
13.4-inch, 3840 x 2400, 16:10, 60 Hz, touch
And here’s how the CPUs all stack up on paper:
Cores / Threads
Process Node
Base Frequency
Max Turbo Frequency
TDP
Intel Core i9-11980HK
16-Aug
10nm SuperFin
2.6 GHz
5.0 GHz
45 – 65 W
Intel Core i9-10980HK
16-Aug
14nm
2.4 GHz
5.3 GHz
45 – 65 W
Intel Core i7-11375H
8-Apr
10nm SuperFin
3.3 GHz
5.0 GHz
28 – 35W
AMD Ryzen 7 5800H
16-Aug
7nm FinFET
3.2 GHz
4.4 GHz
35 – 54W
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
16-Aug
7nm FinFET
3.3 GHz
4.6 GHz
35 – 54W
AMD Ryzen 9 5980HS
16-Aug
7nm FinFET
3.0 GHz
4.8 GHz
35W
Productivity Performance of Tiger Lake i9
We started out with our productivity suite to test the Core i9-11980HK to its 10th Gen counterpart, the highest-end Intel H35 processor and a series of AMD Ryzen competitors.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
On Geekbench 5, the Tiger Lake-H system started strong, pushing the highest single-core (1,649) of the bunch and beating the next highest multi-core score by more than 1,000 points (9,254). The next closest was the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX in the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733, which also had 32GB of RAM.
The Core i9-10980HK, the 10th Gen chip from Intel, was in a close third on multi-core, though in single-core other Ryzen laptops surpassed it.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Intel sample system was also the fastest system to complete our Handbrake test, which transcodes a
4K
video to 1080p (with one caveat: we removed laptops with far more powerful GPUs, which could have some effect. If you left in the Ryzen 9 5900HX, it was faster at 6:11 in the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 G733).
It was (unsurprisingly) significantly faster than the 35W Core i7, and also ahead of the Ryzen 7 5800H and 35W Ryzen 9 59080HS.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
The Intel sample system contained a pair of 512GB Phison PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, which the Core i9-11980HK can take advantage of. It was one of the speedier laptops in our test pool, but the Asus ROG Flow X13 was actually a little bit faster in our 25GB file transfer test.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
To check stability over a longer duration, we ran Cinbench R23 for 20 runs. The cooling, which was exceptionally loud during all of the tests (and sometimes while the sample system was doing absolutely nothing) kept it stable.
It started at a high of 11,846.31 while largely settling in the 11,600 range. During the Cinebench stress test, the CPU ran at an average of 3.5 GHz and an average temperature of 85.77 degrees Celsius (186.39 degrees Fahrenheit). While the chart looks largely stable, the monitoring tool HWinfo reported that the CPU was being thermally throttled for the majority of the test. This is the downside of putting a high-wattage processor in a slim system, and also explains the constant fan noise.
Gaming and Graphics Performance of Tiger Lake i9
In this system, Intel paired its top-of-the-line mobile processor with an RTX 3060 Max-Q. It’s a questionable decision for this kind of performance preview, as our first impression didn’t give us the chance to see what happens when this chip is used with a more powerful graphics card that would take full advantage of its capabilities. So our test pool here includes other laptops with an RTX 3060, either full or
Max-Q
.
On most of the benchmarks we ran, this thin and light notebook performed almost identically to what you would expect from Intel’s 35-watt Tiger Lake H processors that were launched earlier this year. That is, at
1080p
. We also ran the tests at the laptop’s native 2560 x 1600 resolution.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
On Shadow of the Tomb Raider (highest settings), the Intel sample system ran the benchmark at 62 frames per second, within one frame of the Acer Predator Trion 300 SE with H35. The Alienware m15 Ryzen Edition R5 with a full RTX 3060 Max-Q won out at 73 fps.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
We saw a very similar pattern on Grand Theft Auto V (very high settings). Intel’s system matched the Acer but fell behind the Alienware. On both Shadow of the Tomb Raider and GTAV, the Intel system was still playable above 30 fps at 2560 x 1600 on the same settings.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Tiger Lake-H finally had its moment on Far Cry New Dawn (ultra settings), running at 91 fps, beating out both the Predator (73 fps) and AMD-based Alienware (79 fps) at 1080p. At native resolution, the sample system was still over 60 fps.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
But on Red Dead Redemption 2 and Borderlands 3, we were back to the same old tale, coming extremely close to the H35 laptop. On RDR 2‘s medium settings, it ran at 48 fps at 1080p and 33 fps at 2560 x 1440.
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
On Borderlands 3‘s “badass” quality settings, the game ran at 56 fps at 1080p, falling about 10 frames behind the Alienware. Intel’s sample system ran the game at 37 fps at 2560 x 1600.
Lastly, we ran the Metro Exodus gauntlet that we run in our laptop review. We have laptops play through the benchmark 15 times on the RTX preset (1920 x 1080) to simulate a half-hour of gaming. Intel’s CPU ran at an average of 3.38 GHz with an average temperature of 64.71 degrees Celsius (148.48 degrees Fahrenheit). There was some throttling, but not as often as during the Cinebench R23 stress test. The GPU ran at an average of 1,188.23 MHz and 64.21 degrees Celsius (147.58 degrees Fahrenheit).
Cooling Tiger Lake i9
(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)
Unlike with some previous early Intel samples, we were allowed to crack this one open to show it to you.
The laptop has three fans, while even most gaming laptops stick to two larger ones. That may explain the decibels. But what’s also fascinating is that the motherboard in the reference platform has been placed effectively upside down. This means that we can’t see the full cooler, including the heat pipes. That would require far more disassembly.
There are still serviceable parts, but they are connected to the edge of the board. Notably, there’s only one 512GB SSD that’s easily accessible. The other one must be on the other side of the motherboard.
Impressions of Tiger Lake i9
As always, it’s extremely difficult to get a complete picture of how high-end, Tiger Lake-H chips will run in laptops that OEMs will start selling today. Our testing was done under extremely limited time, and only used one new 11th Gen H-series chip.
To complicate things, this reference design is meant to represent a new “thin enthusiast” sector for Intel, which meant we couldn’t see how the Core i9-11980HK will perform at its best, in a thicker laptop with more elaborate cooling. Of course, every laptop is unique, so the processors may perform slightly differently based on size, cooling and other factors. We hope to be able to see a bigger, flagship gaming system with this processor for a fuller idea soon.
In productivity testing, our early benchmarks show a leap for Intel and its 10nm SuperFin process, especially in multi-core workloads. But AMD’s best, the Ryzen 9 5900HX still puts up a fight in some areas.
In gaming, we’ll really have to wait. What we now expect from finalized thin systems is that they won’t run games much differently from H35 variants unless those titles really hit the CPU hard.
As usual, the best way to truly tell is when we start testing laptops with a Tiger Lake-H that you can actually buy. As those hit our labs, we’ll see a wider variety of laptop designs and the full range of 11th Gen H-series processors.
Minisforum is known for its ultra-compact form-factor (UCFF), highly integrated PCs primarily designed for offices or living rooms. Apparently, the company does not want to stop there. This week, it introduced a rather extraordinary product for itself. Not only is the Minisforum GameMini an attempt at cracking our best gaming PCs list, but it’s also an open-case gaming PC aimed at enthusiasts.
The Minisforum GamiMini appears to be quite a powerful rig. It uses Gigabyte’s Aorus B550I Pro AX motherboard carrying an AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (6 CPU cores,12 threads, clock speed of 3.70 GHz – 4.60 GHz, 32MB of L3 cache, 65W). The board also packs 32GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 RAM and a 1TB Kingston KC2500 M.2 SSD. The system is also equipped with an AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card sitting on the opposite side to the motherboard. The PC is powered by SilverStone’s SX650-G power supply, so it can be upgraded fairly easily.
Since the GamiMini is an open system, Minisforum doesn’t have to worry too much about cooling the Ryzen 5 5600X, a 65W CPU that can pretty hot, or the rather power-hungry Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card that’s rated for up to 230W TGP. Both components use rather modest air coolers.
As far as connectivity is concerned, Minisforum’s GameMini has everything that we come to expect from a Mini-ITX PC these days. The Aorus B550I Pro AX motherboard has a Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 module, a GbE port and multiple USB connectors.
Minisforum traditionally funds development of its PCs using a crowdfunding platform, so it hasn’t yet discussed pricing of its GameMini or a final release date.
A Twitter user has shared the first photographs of the AMD 4700S Desktop Kit. The 4700S processors are widely thought to be defective chips that didn’t make their way into the Xbox Series X, but AMD has declined to comment on that aspect.
AMD doesn’t officially list the 4700S on its website, so the processor’s specifications are unknown to the public. However, a couple of convincing benchmarks and retailer listings helped us put the pieces together. Based on the Zen 2 microarchitecture, the AMD 4700S wields eight cores and 16 threads with a 8MB L3 cache. We’ve spotted the 4700S operating with a 3.6 GHz base clock and a boost clock that peaks at 4 GHz. The octa-core chip is paired with 16GB of what appears to be GDDR6 memory.
According to a retailer’s listing, the AMD 4700S is slower than the Ryzen 7 4750G (Renoir) in both single-and multi-threaded performance. Although the 4700S loses to the Core i7-9700 in single-threaded performance as well, the AMD chip delivers higher multi-threaded performance.
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The AMD 4700S Desktop Kit resides on a tiny, green motherboard, although we’re uncertain if it conforms to the standard mini-ITX form factor. It draws power from a standard 24-pin connector and 8-pin EPS connector. The motherboard doesn’t offer memory slots of any kind, which seems to confirm our suspicion about the usage of soldered GDDR6 memory chips. It features a custom heatsink and a small cooling fan. Given the size of the heatsink’s backplate, the GDDR6 memory chips may be located at the backside of the motherboard.
Like the typical mini-ITX motherboards on the market, the AMD 4700S Desktop Kit provides a single PCIe 3.0 x16 expansion slot for you to add a discrete graphics card. We suspect that AMD added the slot because the iGPU inside the 4700S is either disabled or defective.
There are a total of eight USB ports on the AMD 4700S Desktop Kit. The black ones are obviously USB 2.0 and the red ones are likely USB 3.0, although we don’t know the exact specification of the latter. The motherboard also provides three 3.5mm audio connectors and one Ethernet port.
We’ve seen the AMD 4700S Desktop Kit selling for around $317.38 at a Finnish retailer. Unfortunately, we’ve been unable to find the kit in the U.S. market to verify its pricing. And since AMD’s keeping a tight lip around the 4700S, we’ll just have to wait until the next clue pops up.
If you’re wondering why every company under the sun has released new gaming laptops today, it’s because Intel has announced its newest flagship mobile processors. They’re the newest members of its 11th Gen “Tiger Lake H” series. Asus and Intel have announced the new Zephyrus M16, which will pair the chips with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 3000 GPUs (up to a 3070).
What’s exciting about the M16 is that it has a QHD, 165Hz display with a 16:10 aspect ratio. 16:10 is highly unusual to see in gaming laptops; it’s more commonly found in business and productivity machines due to the extra vertical space it provides. Asus hopes the new look will help the Zephyrus line reach content creators and other customers seeking a device that can work as well as game.
“It takes gaming laptops to an audience that wouldn’t have gone to a gaming laptop,” says Sascha Krohn, Asus ROG’s director of PC and laptop technical marketing.
The slim-bezeled M16 has been around two years in the making. “It’s really tricky to do a laptop with super slim bezels, because you have to design the laptop around that screen,” Krohn said. The M16 has a 94 percent screen-to-body ratio, meaning it has smaller bezels in relation to its size than the Dell XPS 15 and almost any other consumer laptop on the market. The Razer Blade 15, for comparison, has just above an 80 percent screen-to-body ratio.
Asus’ G-series (including the renowned Zephyrus G14 and Zephyrus G15) will remain the more “mainstream” Zephyrus options going forward. The M16 is more expensive, and the Intel chip enables features that enthusiasts and content creators may value more, including Thunderbolt and Intel’s Quick Sync as well as the 16:10 display.
Image: Asus
Intel worked closely with Asus to equip the M16 with a number of modern features, including Dolby Atmos audio with Intel’s Smart Sound Technology Driver and MS Hybrid Mode. Mainly, the company believes its CPUs will provide enough power to take advantage of the 165Hz QHD display, a feat that only really became possible this year.
“We’re really ensuring that we continue to deliver the gaming performance that we had in 10th-Gen, where we outgamed the competition earlier this year, and focused on making sure that your IPC gains and our single-threaded performance is at the level that we expect it,” says Kim Algstam, Intel’s interim GM of premium and gaming notebooks.
Algstam also claims the new Tiger Lake chips will be better at multithreaded workloads and will outpace the competition (read: AMD) on battery life, which is an important consideration for the M16’s target audience. “We’ve spent incredible time making sure that the performance tuning and battery life tuning is up to expectations,” Algstam says. “Customers want to do more than just game. They want to work, they want to do more personal tasks when they’re out and about, and that happens on battery.”
AMD has set a high bar in that regard. The Ryzen-powered Zephyrus G15 and Zephyrus G14 were two of the longest-lasting gaming laptops I’ve ever reviewed. Many comparable 10th Gen Intel systems have lasted significantly less time in our testing.
The elephant in the room is Alder Lake, Intel’s next generation of hybrid chips, which are slated for release in the second half of this year. The company called the new line “a significant breakthrough in x86 architecture” at a preview in January. Should enthusiasts wait for that? Algstam didn’t address Alder Lake directly but did give a clear verdict. “I would definitely not wait,” he says. “I would buy today.”
Asus has not yet announced pricing or a release date for the Zephyrus M16.
Intel has added five consumer processors and five commercial processors to its 11th Gen Core H-series generation (codenamed “Tiger Lake-H”). Both groups include three eight-core chips and two six-core chips. All of the parts are 35W, save the flagship Core i9-11980HK, which is clocked at 65W. You’ll see them in over 30 upcoming ultraportables (laptops 20mm or thinner) and over 80 workstations.
The company (unsurprisingly) says the new chips will provide significant performance improvements over their predecessors from the 10th Gen “Comet Lake” series. It claims they’ll provide a 19 percent “gen-on-gen multithreaded performance improvement.”
On the gaming front, Intel says the Core i9-11980HK will deliver significantly better frame rates than its Comet Lake predecessor on titles including Hitman 3, Far Cry New Dawn, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. The company also took aim at its competitors. It claims the 11980HK also beats the rival AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX on these titles and that its Core i5-11400H (meant for thin and light laptops) will outperform the Ryzen 9 5900HS on some and come close to matching its performance on others.
Intel did not make battery life claims in its presentation. That’s a bit concerning because recent AMD-powered laptops have been excellent in that department for the past two years.
In terms of more nitty-gritty specs, the chips will support up to 44 platform PCIe lanes, Thunderbolt 4 with up to 40Gbps bandwidth, discrete Intel Killer Wi-Fi 6E (Gig+), Optane H20, overclocking with Intel’s Speed Optimizer (on some SKUs), 20 PCIe Gen 4 lanes with RST-bootable RAID0, and turbo boost up to 5.0Ghz with Intel’s Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0.
The commercial chips will support Intel’s vPro platform, which includes a number of business-specific security features and management tools, including Intel’s Hardware Shield (which includes a new threat-detection technology that Intel says is “the industry’s first and only silicon-enabled AI threat detection”), Total Memory Encryption, and Active Management Technology. Intel says its Core i9-11950H will be up to 29 percent faster than its predecessor in product development, 12 percent faster in financial services work, and 29 percent faster in media and entertainment.
Many eyes are on these new chips, as AMD’s Ryzen 5000 mobile series took the laptop market by storm when it was announced earlier this year. Its eight-core chips have shown significant performance gains over previous generations, particularly in multi-core workloads and efficiency. Meanwhile, Apple’s Arm-based M1 chip has put up startlingly good performance numbers while maintaining incredible battery life.
Intel is playing catch-up here, and the Tiger Lake-H chips we’ve gotten to try so far haven’t been astonishing. The lightweight Vaio Z, powered by the quad-core Core i7-11375H, yielded great results on single-core benchmarks but couldn’t hold a candle to Apple’s M1 Macbook Pro in multi-core tasks. On the gaming front, we’ve also tested MSI’s Stealth 15M and Acer’s Predator Triton 300 SE (both powered by the 11375H as well). The Stealth didn’t quite achieve the frame rates we’d expect from a laptop of its price (and couldn’t take full advantage of its QHD screen), and the Predator had disappointing battery life.
I’ll have more to say about these new CPUs when I’ve gotten to test them for myself — hopefully sooner rather than later.
Intel introduced its long-awaited eight-core Tiger Lake-H H35 chips for laptops today, vying for a spot on our best gaming laptop list and marking Intel’s first shipping eight-core 10nm chips for the consumer market. These new 11th-generation chips, which Intel touts as the ‘World’s best gaming laptop processors,’ come as the company faces unprecedented challenges in the laptop market — not only is it contending with AMD’s increasingly popular 7nm Ryzen “Renoir” chips, but perhaps more importantly, Intel is also now playing defense against Apple’s innovative new Arm-based M1 that powers its new MacBooks.
The halo eight-core 16-thread Core i9-11980HK peaks at 5.0 GHz on two cores, fully supports overclocking, and despite its official 65W TDP, can consume up to 110W under heavy load. Additionally, Intel has also added limited overclocking support in the form of a speed optimizer and unlocked memory settings for three of the ‘standard’ eight-core models.
As with Intel’s lower-power Tiger Lake chips, the eight-core models come fabbed on the company’s 10nm SuperFin process and feature Willow Cove execution cores paired with the UHD Graphics 750 engine with the Xe Architecture. These chips will most often be paired with a discrete graphics solution, from Nvidia or AMD. We have coverage of a broad selection of new systems, including from Alienware, Lenovo, MSI, Dell, Acer, HP, and Razer.
All told, Intel claims that the combination of the new CPU microarchitecture and process node offers up to 19% higher IPC, which naturally results in higher performance potential in both gaming and applications. That comes with a bit of a caveat, though — while Intel’s previous-gen eight-core 14nm laptop chips topped out at 5.3 GHz, Tiger Lake-H maxes out at 5.0 GHz. Intel says the higher IPC throws the balance towards even higher performance regardless of 10nm’s lower clock speed.
The new Tiger Lake-H models arrive in the wake of Intel’s quad-core H35 models that operate at 35W for a new ‘Ultraportable’ laptop segment that caters to gamers on the go. However, Intel isn’t using H45 branding for its eight-core Tiger Lake chips, largely because it isn’t marking down 45W on the spec sheet. We’ll cover what that confusing bit of information means below. The key takeaway is that these chips can operate anywhere from 35W to 65W. As usual, Intel’s partners aren’t required to (and don’t) specify the actual power consumption on the laptop or packaging.
Aside from the addition of more cores, a new system agent (more on that shortly), and more confusing branding, the eight-core Tiger Lake-H chips come with a well-known feature set that includes the same amenities, like PCIe 4.0, Thunderbolt 4, and support for Resizable Bar, as their quad-core Tiger Lake predecessors. These chips also mark the debut of the first eight-core laptop lineup that supports PCIe 4.0, as AMD’s competing platforms remain on the PCIe 3.0 connection. Intel also announced five new vPro H-series models with the same specifications as the consumer models but with features designed for the professional market.
Intel says the new Tiger Lake-H chips will come to market in 80 new designs (15 of these are for the vPro equivalents), with the leading devices available for preorder on May 11 and shipping on May 17. Surprisingly, Intel says that it has shipped over 1 million eight-core Tiger Lake chips to its partners before the first devices have even shipped to customers, showing that the company fully intends to leverage its production heft while its competitors, like AMD, continue to grapple with shortages. Intel also plans to keep its current fleet of 10th-Gen Comet Lake processors on the market for the foreseeable future to address the lower rungs of the market, so its 14nm chips will still ship in volume.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Specifications
Processor Number
Base / Boost
Cores / Threads
L3 Cache
Memory
Core i9-11980HK
2.6 / 5.0
8 / 16
24 MB
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX
3.3 / 4.6
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266
Core i9-10980HK
2.4 / 5.3
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-2933
Core i7-11375H Special Edition (H35)
3.3 / 5.0
4 / 8
12 MB
DDR4-3200, LPDDR4x-4266
Core i9-11900H
2.5 / 4.9
8 / 16
24 MB
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Core i7-10875H
2.3 / 5.1
8 / 16
16 MB
DDR4-2933
Core i7-11800H
2.3 / 4.6
8 / 16
24M
DDR4-2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Core i5-11400H
2.7 / 4.5
6 / 12
12 MB
2933 (Gear 1) / DDR4-3200 (Gear 2)
Ryzen 9 5900HS
3.0 / 4.6
8 / 16
4 MB
DDR4-3200 / LPDDR4x-4266
Core i5-10400H
2.6 / 4.6
4 / 8
8 MB
DDR4-2933
Intel’s eight-core Tiger Lake-H takes plenty of steps forward — it’s the only eight-core laptop platform with PCIe 4.0 connectivity and hardware support for AVX-512, but it also takes steps back in a few areas.
Although Intel just released 40-core 10nm Ice Lake server chips, we’ve never seen the 10nm process ship with more than four cores for the consumer market, largely due to poor yields and 10nm’s inability to match the high clock rates of Intel’s mature 14nm chips. We expected the 10nm SuperFin process to change that paradigm, but as we see in the chart above, the flagship Core i9-11980HK tops out at 5.0 GHz on two cores, just like the quad-core Tiger Lake i7-11375H Special Edition. Intel uses its Turbo Boost 3.0, which targets threads at the fastest cores, to hit the 5.0 GHz threshold.
However, both chips pale in comparison to the previous-gen 14nm Core i9-10980HK that delivers a beastly 5.3 GHz on two cores courtesy of the Thermal Velocity Boost (TVB) tech that allows the chip to boost higher if it is under a certain temperature threshold. Curiously, Intel doesn’t offer TVB on the new Tiger Lake processors.
Intel says that it tuned 10nm Tiger Lake’s frequency for the best spot on the voltage/frequency curve to maximize both performance and battery life, but it’s obvious that process maturity also weighs in here. Intel offsets Tiger Lake’s incrementally lower clock speeds with the higher IPC borne of the Willow Cove microarchitecture that delivers up to 12% higher IPC in single-threaded and 19% higher IPC in multi-threaded applications. After those advances, Intel says the Tiger Lake chips end up faster than their prior-gen counterparts. Not to mention AMD’s competing Renoir processors.
Intel’s Core i9-11980HK peaks at 110W (PL2) and is a fully overclockable chip — you can adjust the core, graphics, and memory frequency at will. We’ll cover the power consumption, base clock, and TDP confusion in the following section.
Intel has also now added support for limited overclocking on the Core i7-11800H, i9-11900H, and the i9-11950. The memory settings on these three chips are fully unlocked, although with a few caveats we’ll list below, so you can overclock the memory at will. Intel also added support for its auto-tuning Speed Optimizer software. When enabled, this software boosts performance in multi-threaded work, but single-core frequencies are unimpacted.
Intel also made some compromises on the memory front, too. First, the memory controllers no longer support LPDDR4X. Instead, they top out at DDR4-3200, and that’s actually not the case for most of the 11th-Gen lineup, at least if you want the chip to run in the fastest configuration.
The eight-core Tiger Lake die comes with the System Agent Geyersville just like the Rocket Lake desktop chips. That means the company has brought Gear 1 and Gear 2 memory modes to laptops. The optimal setting is called ‘Gear 1’ and it signifies that the memory controller and memory operate at the same frequency (1:1), thus providing the lowest latency and best performance in lightly-threaded work, like gaming. All of the Tiger Lake chips reach up to DDR4-2933 in this mode.
Tiger Lake-H does officially support DDR4-3200, but only with the ‘Gear 2’ setting that allows the memory to operate at twice the frequency of the memory controller (2:1), resulting in higher data transfer rates. This can benefit some threaded workloads but also results in higher latency that can lead to reduced performance in some applications — particularly gaming. We have yet to see a situation where Gear 2 makes much sense for enthusiasts/gamers.
Intel also dialed back the UHD Graphics engine with Xe Architecture for the eight-core H-Series models to 32 execution units (EU), which makes sense given that this class of chip will often be paired with discrete graphics from either AMD or Nvidia. And possibly Intel’s own fledgling DG1, though we have yet to see any configurations yet. For comparison, the quad-core H35 Core i9 and i7 models come equipped with 96 EUs, while the Core i5 variant comes with 80 EUs.
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This is Not The Tiger Lake H45 You’re Looking for – More TDP Confusion
As per usual with Intel’s recent laptop chip launches, there’s a bit of branding confusion. The company’s highest-end eight-core laptop chips previously came with an “H45” moniker to denote that these chips have a recommended 45W TDP. But you won’t find that designation with Intel’s new H-Series chips, this even though the quad-core 35W laptop chips that Intel introduced at CES this year come with the H35 designation. In fact, Intel also won’t list a specific TDP on the spec sheet for the eight-core Tiger Lake-H chips. Instead, it will label the H-series models as ’35W to 65W’ for the official TDP.
That’s problematic because Intel measures its TDP at the base frequency, so a lack of a clear TDP rating means there’s no concrete base frequency specification. We know that the PL2, or power consumed during boost, tops out at 110W, but due to the TDP wonkiness, there’s no official PL1 rating (base clock).
That’s because Intel, like AMD, gives OEMs the flexibility to configure the TDP (cTDP) to higher or lower ranges to accommodate the specific power delivery, thermal dissipation, and battery life accommodations of their respective designs. For instance, Intel’s previous-gen 45W parts have a cTDP range that spans from 35W to 65W.
This practice provides OEMs with wide latitude for customization, which is a positive. After all, we all want thinner and faster devices. However, Intel doesn’t compel manufacturers to clearly label their products with the actual TDP they use for the processor, or even list it in the product specifications. That can be very misleading — there’s a 30W delta between the lowest- and highest-performance configurations of the same chip with no clear method of telling what you’re purchasing at the checkout lane. There really is no way to know which Intel is inside.
Intel measures its TDP rating at the chip’s base clock (PL1), so the Tiger Lake-H chips will have varying base clocks that reflect their individual TDP… that isn’t defined. Intel’s spec table shows base clocks at both 45W and 35W, but be aware that this can be a sliding scale. For instance, you might purchase a 40W laptop that lands in the middle range.
As per usual, Intel’s branding practice leaves a lot to be desired. Eliminating the H45 branding and going with merely the ‘H-Series’ for the 35W to 65W eight cores simply adds more confusion because the quad-core H35 chips are also H-Series chips, and there’s no clear way to delineate the two families other than specifying the core count.
Intel is arguably taking the correct path here: It is better to specify that the chips can come in any range of TDPs rather than publish blatantly misleading numbers. However, the only true fix for the misleading mess created by configurable TDPs is to require OEMs to list the power rating directly on the device, or at least on the spec sheet.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Die
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(Image credit: Intel – Tiger Lake-H Die)
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(Image credit: Tiger Lake-U (@Locuza_ via Twitter))
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(Image credit: Intel – Comet Lake-H Die)
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(Image credit: Intel)
The eight-core H-series chip package comes with a 10nm die paired with a 14nm PCH. The first slide in the above album shows the Tiger Lake die (more deep-dive info here) that Intel says measures 190mm2, which is much larger than the estimated 146.1mm2 die found on the quad-core models (second image). We also included a die shot of the eight-core Comet Lake-H chip (third image).
We’ll have to wait for a proper die annotation of the Tiger Lake-H chip, but we do know that it features a vastly cut-down UHD Graphics 750 engine compared to the quad-core Tiger Lake models (32 vs 96 EUs) and a much larger L3 cache (24 vs 16MB).
The Tiger Lake die supports 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, with 16 lanes exposed for graphics, though those can also be carved into 2×8, 1×8, or 2×4 connections to accommodate more PCIe 4.0 additives, like additional M.2 SSDs. Speaking of which, the chip also supports a direct x4 PCIe 4.0 connection for a single M.2 SSD.
Intel touts that you can RAID several M.2 SSDs together through its Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) and use them to boot the machine. This feature has been present on prior-gen laptop platforms, but Tiger Lake-H marks the debut for this feature with a PCIe 4.0 connection on a laptop.
The PCH provides all of the basic connectivity features (last slide). The Tiger Lake die and PCH communicate over a DMI x8 bus, and the chipset supports an additional 24 PCIe 3.0 lanes that can be carved up for additional features. For more fine-grained details of the Tiger Lake architecture, head to our Intel’s Tiger Lake Roars to Life: Willow Cove Cores, Xe Graphics, Support for LPDDR5, and Intel’s Path Forward: 10nm SuperFin Technology, Advanced Packaging Roadmap articles for more details.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Gaming Benchmarks
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Intel provided the benchmarks above to show the gen-on-gen performance improvements in gaming, and the performance improvement relative to competing AMD processors. As always, approach vendor-provided benchmarks with caution, as they typically paint the vendors’ devices in the best light possible. We’ve included detailed test notes at the end of the article, and Intel says it will provide comparative data against Apple M1 systems soon.
As expected, Intel shows that the Core i9-11980HK provides solid generational leads over the prior-gen Core i9-10980HK, with the deltas spanning from 15% to 21% in favor of the newer chip.
Then there are the comparisons to the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX, with Intel claiming leads in titles like War Thunder, Total War: Three Kingdoms, and Hitman 3, along with every other hand-picked title in the chart.
Intel tested the 11980HK in an undisclosed OEM pre-production system with an RTX 3080 set at a 155W threshold, while the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX resided in a Lenovo Legion R9000K with an RTX 3080 dialed in at 165W. Given that we don’t know anything about the OEM system used for Intel’s benchmarks, like cooling capabilities, and that the company didn’t list the TDP for either chip, take these benchmarks with a shovelful of salt.
Intel also provided benchmarks with the Core i5-11400H against the Ryzen 9 5900HS, again claiming that its eight-core chips for thin-and-lights offer the best performance. However, here we can see that the Intel chip loses in three of the four benchmarks, but Intel touts that its “Intel Sample System” is a mere 16.5mm thick, while the 5900HS rides in an ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 that measures 18mm thick at the front and 20mm thick at the rear.
Intel’s message here is that it can provide comparable gaming performance in thinner systems, but there’s not enough information, like battery life or other considerations, to make any real type of decision off this data.
Intel Tiger Lake-H Application Benchmarks
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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. Also, be sure to read the test configs in the slides below for more details.
Intel’s 11th-Gen Tiger Lake brings support for AVX-512 and the DL Boost deep learning suite, so Intel hand-picks benchmarks that leverage those features. As such, the previous-gen Comet Lake-H comparable is hopelessly hamstrung in the Video Creation Workflow and Photo Processing benchmarks.
We can say much the same about the comparison benchmarks with the Ryzen 9 5900HX. As a result of Intel’s insistence on using AI-enhanced benchmarks, these benchmarks are largely useless for real-world comparisons: The overwhelming majority of software doesn’t leverage either AI or AVX-512, and it will be several years before we see broad uptake.
As noted, Intel says the new Tiger Lake-H chips will come to market in 80 new designs (15 of these are for the vPro equivalents), with the leading devices available for preorder on May 11 and shipping on May 17. As you can imagine, we’ll also have reviews coming soon. Stay tuned.
Home/Component/APU/AMD Ryzen “Rembrandt” APUs to come with Zen 3+ cores and RDNA 2 graphics
João Silva 3 hours ago APU
Recently, AMD’s upcoming ‘Rembrandt’ 6000 series APUs were expected to ship with Zen 3 CPU cores. As it turns out, this particular line of APUs may go a step further and jump straight to Zen 3+ cores instead.
According to ‘ExecutableFix‘, AMD’s next-gen APUs will combine Zen 3+ CPU cores with AMD’s RDNA 2 graphics architecture. For the integrated GPU, we can reportedly expect 12 Compute Units, which works out to 768 Stream Processors, which should be capable for 1080p gaming.
Other specifications of the Ryzen ‘Rembrandt’ 6000 mobile APUs include support for LPDDR5 and DDR5 memory, PCIe 4.0, and CVML (Computer Vision and Machine Learning?). According to the majority of the rumours about the Ryzen 6000 mobile series, Rembrandt APUs should be based on TSMC’s 6nm process node.
The Rembrandt APUs are set to succeed the recently released Cezanne APUs in 2022.
KitGuru says: If the Ryzen ‘Rembrandt’ APUs are released with RDNA 2 graphics, it should mark the end of Vega, which is still used in AMD’s APUs today. Would you like to see new APUs finally make the jump to RDNA graphics architecture?
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João Silva 3 hours ago Featured Tech News, Graphics, Software & Gaming
During the Nvidia RTX 30 series announcement in September 2020, Nvidia showcased the ray-tracing capabilities of its newly announced graphics cards using the Marbles at Night demo. Now, the demanding demo is freely available for all to test out first hand.
Marbles at Night is a physics-based, playable demo that uses the RTX 30 series’ ray-tracing capabilities to render a photo-realistic scene. The demo also uses DLSS to optimise performance and visual sharpness.
When Nvidia showed the Marbles at Night demo running for the first time, the system was equipped with an RTX 3090. To give you an idea of how demanding this demo is, this GPU is capable of running it at 1440p and 30 frames per second.
The minimum system requirements are as follows:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit.
CPU: 4-core Intel Core or 4-core AMD Ryzen
GPU: Any RTX GPU with 6GB of VRAM
RAM: 16GB
Video driver: 456.71 (Windows) or 455.28 (Linux)
As for the recommended system requirements, they are:
OS: Windows 10 64-bit.
CPU: 8-core Intel Core or 8-core AMD Ryzen
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 or Quadro RTX 5000
RAM: 32GB
Video driver: 456.71 (Windows) or 455.28 (Linux)
For those interested in testing the demo, you can download the demo through Nvidia’s Omniverse Launcher, which is currently in open beta. Once you download and install the app, you can download the demo and try it out.
KitGuru says: Are any of you going to test out Nvidia’s Marbles at Night demo? If you do, let us know how it runs on your system.
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Matthew Wilson 5 hours ago Featured Tech News, Memory
HyperX has been making headlines recently, having broken the world record for DDR4 memory overclocking twice in the span of one month. Now, HyperX is releasing its fastest memory modules to date, with speeds of up to 5300MHz.
This week, HyperX has launched its first DDR4-5333 memory modules, breaking the 5GHz barrier with CL13 to CL20 timings depending on capacity.
Speaking of capacity, HyperX Predator 5333MHz memory modules will be available in kits of from 16GB (2x8GB modules) all the way up to 256GB (8x32GB modules).
These memory kits are Intel XMP certified, but will also work with AMD Ryzen systems. Each memory stick is factory tested and backed by a lifetime warranty. Considering the speeds on offer here, prices are equally high, with kits starting at $870 and reaching as high as $1,245 for a full 256GB kit.
KitGuru Says: With DDR5 on the way in the next year, it seems like an odd time to upgrade to 5GHz memory. Still, the fact that this is available to consumers, rather than being limited to specific professional systems, is impressive.
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SilverStone Milo 10 is a tiny PC case that supports a Mini-ITX motherboard – and when we say ‘tiny’ what we really mean is ‘less than four litres in capacity.’ You won’t be shocked to learn that Milo 10 does not support a graphics card and requires the use of an external power brick, but despite that you have a number of options and it is surprisingly versatile.
Watch the video via our VIMEO Channel (Below) or over on YouTube at 2160p HERE
Main features
Super small at only 2.7 litres or 3.6 litres depending on configuration
Includes interchangeable top covers for altering case size to accommodate various components
Includes VESA mounting plate for integration with monitors
Supports standard sized Mini-ITX motherboard
Supports slim optical drive with interchangeable bezel
Specification:
Motherboard support: Mini-ITX.
CPU cooler support: Between 29mm and 63mm depending on configuration of storage and top cover.
Expansion slots: None.
Included fans: None
Fan mounts: 1x 120mm/140mm in top cover.
Radiator mounts: None.
Optical drive bay: Slimline laptop ODD.
Internal drive bays: 1x 3.5-inch/2x 2.5-inch.
Front I/O: 2x USB 3.0 ports
Dimensions: 453mm H x 227mm D x 196mm W x 63mm H with standard top cover or 84mm H with Elevated cover.
We faced a dilemma during our build as we have a reasonable selection of Mini-ITX motherboards and a huge pile of CPUs, but finding an APU that is sub-65W nearly defeated us. In essence you can take AMD off the table and are forced to turn to Intel.
When you are working with relatively small items such as the SilverStone Milo 10 the regular form is use a banana for scale, however Leo was determined to get his hands in the picture to better illustrate the tiny size of this case.
This is probably the first (and last) time we will skip thermal testing during a case review as your choice of APU and cooler will make a huge difference to the results, along with the types of workload you perform. If you install an Intel Core i3-10300 and merely update spreadsheets or watch videos on YouTube, you will barely stress the CPU. We felt bad running 3D Mark Fire Strike for the video and simply did not have the heart to run Blender.
Closing Thoughts
Building a PC inside the SilverStone Milo 10 can be a fiddly process, although it gets easier with repetition, and you will find the situation improves if you choose your components wisely.
You will have noted our single biggest gripe with the SilverStone Milo 10 is its reliance on an APU with a relatively low power draw as that is a complete change in direction for us folk at KitGuru. The obvious choices for us would be an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G or Ryzen 7 5700G, however they are not on sale to the public and are exclusively in the hands of system integrators.
For that reason we doubt many home enthusiasts will line up to buy the Milo 10 case and its matching SilverStone AD120-DC DC board and external AC adapter combo kit, unless they have amazingly specific requirements that centre around the tiny form factor of this case.
On the other hand we can easily imagine system integrators using the SilverStone Milo 10 to deliver low powered PCs to offices, hotels and shops where space is at a premium.
While we are all in favour of small form factor PCs, they typically weigh in at 10-20 litres in volume and allow you a fair degree of latitude with your choice of hardware. By contrast the sub-4 litre Milo 10 is a more challenging proposition that is best suited to a customer who is simply unable to compromise in their pursuit of a tiny PC.
You can buy the SilverStone Milo 10 for £44.99 HERE.
Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.
Pros:
Pricing for the case is cheap, but you also have to factor in the DC power converter.
Supports a range of storage up to 3.5-inch HDD.
Supports a 120mm/140mm fan in the top cover.
Cons:
Requires an APU to provide graphics.
Limited to 65W TDP.
Requires an ITX motherboard which is limiting and probably expensive too.
KitGuru says: SilverStone Milo 10 requires the careful selection of an APU, motherboard, cooler and storage.
Ayaneo announced Sunday that 2,000 units of its handheld gaming device would soon reach Indiegogo backers with a surprise inside: The new AMD RZ608 Wi-Fi 6E module that, before yesterday’s announcement, hadn’t even been revealed to the public.
“The RZ608 announced today has never been revealed on the Internet,” Ayaneo CEO Arthur Zhang said in the announcement, “so many of you don’t believe it.” But he assured Indiegogo backers that his company’s “cooperation with AMD allows us to be the first to get the latest CPU and technical support among handheld consoles.”
For anyone unfamiliar with Ayaneo: The device is essentially a Nintendo Switch based on the AMD Ryzen 5 4500U APU, commonly known as Renoir, paired with a proprietary cooling solution that’s supposed to enable improved performance. It debuted on Indiegogo in March with a variety of configurations starting at $789.
Now it seems that Ayaneo will rely on AMD for more than just the Renoir APU. Zhang said in the announcement that the AMD RZ608 module offers support for Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.2, and their predecessors. (Not everyone has a Wi-Fi 6E router, of course, especially since the global chip shortage has limited router supplies.)
Zhang also shared a screenshot of the AMD RZ608’s specs:
(Image credit: AYANEO)
The Wi-Fi Alliance said Wi-Fi 6E brings the “higher performance, lower latency, and faster data rates” offered by Wi-Fi 6 into the 6GHz band. This is supposed to “enable high-bandwidth applications that require faster data throughput, as well as lower latency connectivity that is specifically well suited for next generation uses.”
Zhang said yesterday that Bluetooth 5.2 is supposed to offer “faster connection speed, lower latency, faster transmission speed, longer distance, lower power consumption, and better user experience compared to Bluetooth 5.0.” More information about the spec can be found in this overview from Bluetooth SIG.
Ayaneo users will likely appreciate both improvements. There just seems to be one point of contention: AnandTech reported that the AMD RZ608 is “actually a rebranded MediaTek MT7921K module with an AMD logo on it.” The performance should be the same, naturally, but the hype surrounding the module won’t be.
Not that AMD rebranding MediaTek parts should necessarily come as a surprise. The companies reportedly started working together in September 2020 with plans to develop Wi-Fi 6 networking parts and, sometime in the future, 5G modems. It seems the AMD RZ608 could be the first product of that relationship to reach the public.
Matthew Wilson 25 mins ago Featured Announcement, Graphics
AMD’s flagship RDNA 2 GPUs have been out for a while now, which means it is time to start looking ahead to the next generation. AMD is currently working on its RDNA 3 GPU architecture, and according to early leaks, we can expect at least a 40% performance improvement.
A new video from Moore’s Law is Dead goes over the latest leaks for the flagship RDNA 3 GPU, currently referred to as the RX 7900 XT. With AMD’s new architecture improvements, the next flagship is expected to deliver at least 40 percent more performance compared to the current generation, although internally, AMD is hoping to reach even higher. It will not offer three times the performance of the RX 6900 XT though, which is something a few leaks have suggested.
As we know, AMD has officially stated that it is aiming for a 50 percent performance per watt improvement with RDNA 3. The new GPU architecture is expected to feature a chiplet-based design too, similar to Ryzen processors, which will open the door for greater scalability with future architecture iterations.
Of course, RDNA 3 is still many months away and won’t be launching until next year, so the design won’t be finalised yet and plans could change.
KitGuru Says: Given the current GPU shortage, are you planning on waiting for next-gen GPUs like RDNA 3 before upgrading?
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