Author: Jan Olšan

Intel Z690 chipset for Alder Lake detailed: Gear 4 and other news

Motherboards, News | | Jan Olšan

Alder Lake, a new and significantly improved CPU generation by Intel will be released in a few months (reportedly on 19th of November). The CPUs will be released together with new motherboards using the Z690 chipset and the new LGA 1700 socket. A document leak now shares insight into the features and innovations of this platform. For example we learn that Alder Lake’s memory controller will also use Gear 2 and now even Gear 4. Read more “Intel Z690 chipset for Alder Lake detailed: Gear 4 and other news” »

OptiNAND: WD adds flash memory to HDDs, but not in the SSHD way

HDDs, News, Technology | | Jan Olšan

Lately (actually for several years now) we’ve seldom had news about hard disks. An opportunity to write about a new innovation in this area has come now though. Western Digital has introduced OptiNAND technology, which improves the performance of mechanical drives by integrating NAND Flash memory – but not in the way of SSHDs, which only used it for caching. OptiNAND serves other purposes, and it could be much more useful. Read more “OptiNAND: WD adds flash memory to HDDs, but not in the SSHD way” »

Radeon RX 6600 leaked: still 8 GB, release in a month?

Graphics, News | | Jan Olšan

Last month, the cheapest Radeon graphics card with the RDNA 2 architecture, the RX 6600 XT was released with the Navi 23 GPU. But an even cheaper model could be joining it very soon: the vanilla Radeon RX 6600. Official images of the Eagle Edition graphics card have surfaced on the web, which means that presumably, the release date is getting closer. The leak also confirmed that the cards will still have 8 GB of memory. Read more “Radeon RX 6600 leaked: still 8 GB, release in a month?” »

Gracemont, the (not so) little Alder Lake core (µarch analysis)

Analysis, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Intel has revealed the Alder Lake CPU architecture, or actually two architectures this time. The CPUs are hybrid and besides the main „big“ ones, there are „little“ cores called Gracemont. These are not just for marketing or for low-power idle tasks like in mobile ARM SoCs, however. Gracemont should significantly add to the overall performance, the architecture is actually surprisingly beefy. Our analysis will show you more. Read more “Gracemont, the (not so) little Alder Lake core (µarch analysis)” »

MS allows Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, with caveats

Computers, News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Since June, hardware requirements of Windows 11 have been a hot topic—the necessity of having TPM 2.0 and the supported CPU list that leaves out some PCs mere three years old. Fortunately, it looks like the hopes that Microsoft will get more pragmatic about this have come true and the company will allow the new OS to be run on older PCs that do not make the cut officially. But it is going to take an extra bit of work. Read more “MS allows Windows 11 on unsupported hardware, with caveats” »

Intel Alder Lake/Golden Cove CPU core unveiled (µarch analysis)

Analysis, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Intel’s Alder Lake CPUs are poised to be the biggest hardware event this year. Intel has unveiled the core architecture of these CPUs and we have analysed the details and new improvements inside. There’s promise of huge performance and one of the biggest architectural leaps in x86 processors, for the first time with six parallel decoders and further IPC increases, showing Intel taking the same path as Apple’s highly effective cores. Read more “Intel Alder Lake/Golden Cove CPU core unveiled (µarch analysis)” »

Intel Arrow Lake processors – high performance iGPU with 320 EU

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Last week we’ve covered a leaked Intel processor roadmap showing Arrow Lake, Lunar Lake and Nova Lake processors that are to arrive after Alder Lake, Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake. We said to take it with a grain of salt, as that was the first time the Arrow and Nova codenames have shown up. But shorty after, more information on Arrow Lake has come up that could prove its existence. Looks like the mobile will pack a very fast iGPU. Read more “Intel Arrow Lake processors – high performance iGPU with 320 EU” »

Alder Lake may have a higher power draw. PSU recommendations

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Intel will release new Alder Lake desktop processors in three months—with a powerful new architecture and hybrid big.LITTLE approach for the first time. These CPUs, finally manufactured on 7nm process (originally 10nm Enhanced SuperFin), should have significantly better energy efficiency. But it looks thir power needs will go up despite this. Intel is increasing the currents required from PSUs, which could mean higher power draws. Read more “Alder Lake may have a higher power draw. PSU recommendations” »

Intel AVX-512 tested in x265: how to enable it and does it help?

Extra tests, Guides, Processors | | Jan Olšan

The 11th generation Intel Core processors (Rocket Lake) are the first mainstream desktop parts supporting AVX-512 instruction set, previously only available in Xeons or the X299 platform. One area where AVX-512 promises better performance is multimedia. We looked at one use: encoding HEVC video via x265. It’s little known, but x265 does not actually use AVX-512 by default. We’ll show you how to turn it on and what are the effects. Read more “Intel AVX-512 tested in x265: how to enable it and does it help?” »

Specs of Intel Alder Lake 125W ‘K’ processors leak: clock rate, PL2

News, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Last week we’ve had reports of the big.LITTLE Intel Alder Lake processors reaching surprising performance: with just 8 “big” cores out of the total 16, they are said to surpass the 32-threaded Zen 3 in Cinebench R20. Now we the specs of all three 125W unlocked models, with clocks and power draw in boost, aka PL2. Looks like 10nm process will finally lower the power consumption compared to the 14nm CPUs—but not by much. Read more “Specs of Intel Alder Lake 125W ‘K’ processors leak: clock rate, PL2” »

Graphics card prices fall sharply, now lowest since February

Graphics, News | | Jan Olšan

Last month we had tentative reports of possibly improving  situation in graphics card market, which is afflicted by shortages and high prices this year—largely due to the return of cryptocurrency bubble and the resulting Ethereum mining obsession. The crisis seems to really be on its way out. Prices continue to fall, in Germany they’re already at lowest levels since February. And their decline is pretty fast too. Read more “Graphics card prices fall sharply, now lowest since February” »

„Windows 11 requires TPM“. Don’t panic, just do this in BIOS

Guides, Motherboards, Processors | | Jan Olšan

Microsoft has unveiled Windows 11. In addition to new features and improvements, it also has higher HW requirements than Windows 10. It’s not performance that’s needed, but rather special features that not every PC may have. W11 requires TPM 2.0 (or Trusted Platform Module), which many people are now looking for. But there’s no need to get nervous, because in fact you probably already have it, just need to enable it. How to do it? Read more “„Windows 11 requires TPM“. Don’t panic, just do this in BIOS” »

Leak shows performance of 1024 and 3584 shader Intel Xe GPUs

Graphics, News | | Jan Olšan

Data on the performance of two of Intel’s gaming graphics cards with the DG2/Xe HPG architecture have been leaked: cheaper cards could compete with the GeForce GTX 1650 to GTX 1650 Super, mainstream cards with 448 EU are expected to be just behind the RTX 3070. Which means that a full-fat version with 512 EU could be even faster. Intel thus could have a chance to take hold in a large parts of the gaming graphics market. Read more “Leak shows performance of 1024 and 3584 shader Intel Xe GPUs” »

AMD GPUs will be chiplet, confirmed for 5nm Aldebaran

Graphics, News | | Jan Olšan

After Ryzen and Threadripper chiplet CPUs, AMD’s GPUs are apparently next to take this approach using several smaller chips to replace a single bigger one. AMD staff have now confirmed that the next generation of compute GPUs, likely coming next year (possibly as the first 5nm GPUs), will consist of at least two chiplets. Chiplets have not yet been confirmed in gaming graphics cards, but they could appear in the new RDNA 3 architecture. Read more “AMD GPUs will be chiplet, confirmed for 5nm Aldebaran” »

TSMC keeps rocking. 4nm process to be ready a quarter earlier

News, Technology | | Jan Olšan

When release dates get rescheduled in computer industry, it’s usually to later. Obstacles in development happen and it is not always possible to meet the plans, so delays are common. But there’s a good news of this sort now, for a change. TSMC actually managed to push the development of ab upcoming future process noe forward. The company has now announced that the production of 4nm chips will start earlier than originally planned. Read more “TSMC keeps rocking. 4nm process to be ready a quarter earlier” »

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