There was news that (some) boards for Alder Lake using B660 chipset won’t support PCI Express 5.0. But it looks that may not be an actual limitation of that chipset, but rather something that will depend on pricing of each particular model. It turns out that even some Z690 boards will be like this. Gigabyte has a first such board, and it seems that these models might be the key to building an Alder Lake PC relatively cheaply. Read more “Z690 Alder Lake boards can lack PCIe 5.0 too, for cost reasons”
Category: News
Zero RPM illuminated Arctic fans are now also available in 140 mm
Arctic released the P12 fans with (A)RGB first in a more widespread 120 mm format. Now, however, the range is also expanding to include 140 mm models, which should achieve higher airflow compared to the smaller variants. The Swiss manufacturer claims that the rotor is also well suited for operation on liquid cooler radiators. In addition, the P12 PWM PST (A-)RGB fans are also characterised by a passive mode. Read more “Zero RPM illuminated Arctic fans are now also available in 140 mm”
Future of memory tech: Samsung on DDR6, GDDR7 and GDDR6+
DDR5 memory modules for PCs have arrived on the market only recently so their replacement should be many years away (the span between the introduction of DDR4 and DDR5 has been more than seven years). But Samsung, as one of the main memory modules producers, has now announced more distant plans for the successors of the DDR5 memory (DDR6), but also new graphic memory, to replace GDDR6 and GDDR6X at the Tech Day 2021 conference. Read more “Future of memory tech: Samsung on DDR6, GDDR7 and GDDR6+”
First OptiNAND-based WD HDDs go on sale. 20 TB without SMR
HDD capacities have been rising slowly lately and new larger HDDs often take very long to ship after being announced. But it looks like we are finally getting somewhere: the first 20 TB capacity HDDs (without SMR) are coming, from Western Digital. They’re actually coming to the market with general availability. What’s more, they are interesting because they are the first drives with the recently introduced OptiNAND technology. Read more “First OptiNAND-based WD HDDs go on sale. 20 TB without SMR”
Nvidia launches improved DLSS and FSR competitor Image Scaling
It’s been a little over a year since Nvidia announced the 2.0 generation of their FPS-increasing AI upscaling DLSS, with significantly better quality thanks to temporal reconstruction and stabilization. Now it has been refined into DLSS 2.3, which brings a new AI for better quality, but at the same time Nvidia also introduces a purely spatial upscaler, which is actually a competitor or alternative for the similar AMD FSR technology. Read more “Nvidia launches improved DLSS and FSR competitor Image Scaling”
News from Noctua: A cooling enhancing tunel and NH-L9i-17xx
Wind tunnels in the case above the cooler have formerly been rather common, but have gradually disappeared over time, however this does not mean that they are useless. Noctua now introduces such a tunnel. It is installed on the cooler and should increase its effectivity. This can be of benefit to small coolers on big CPUs. Simultaneously with this tunnel the 37mm high top-flow NH-L9i-17xx, which aims to take on the Alder Lake processors. Read more “News from Noctua: A cooling enhancing tunel and NH-L9i-17xx”
13th Generation Raptor Lake/Core CPUs to maintain DDR4 support
The new Z690 platform, with a LGA 1700 socket and Alder Lake CPU just launched by Intel is the first one to use DDR5 memory. Optionally the CPUs can still be used with DDR4 memory modules. You might feel like buying a DDR4 mainboard could be a mistake blocking the path to a later CPU upgrade. But we have good news for you – Alder Lake is not the last CPU with DDR4 support, such mainboards will also support upcoming CPUs. Read more “13th Generation Raptor Lake/Core CPUs to maintain DDR4 support”
Top DDR5 speeds? Currently at 6666, with 7000 MHz soon to follow
Last week saw the reviews and launch of Alder Lake CPU and LGA 1700 mainboards. A big new feature of this platform is DDR5 memory allowing for a higher bandwidth, albeit potentially suffering from higher initial prices. Following the premiere of Alder Lake, we took a look at what’s the fastest available memory modules you can get. It looks like memory modules running on 7000MHz for PCs could be here sooner than later. Read more “Top DDR5 speeds? Currently at 6666, with 7000 MHz soon to follow”
Alder Lake and DDR5: XMP 3.0, Dynamic Memory Boost and more
Intel has unveiled the Alder Lake CPUs last week, and we covered the SKUs, features and specs here. There’s more further news, Intel has revealed a number of interesting details about the DDR5 memory support. There’s new generation of auto overclocking via XMP profiles coming, XMP 3.0, which has been significantly modified for DDR5 memory. And particularly the Dynamic memory Boost is a breakthrough feature for high-performance RAM. Read more “Alder Lake and DDR5: XMP 3.0, Dynamic Memory Boost and more”
Alder Lake testing toolkit: the MEG Z690 Unify and DDR5 memory
We already have one of the Alder Lake processors in our editorial office and this time we’ll be quick – we’ll publish the full tests at the earliest possible date, November 4. Until then, we have to keep quiet about the features of Intel’s new processors. But we can already give you a little teaser with a preview of the platform we’re testing on. In the article you will also find a thermal image of the VRM of the MSI MEG Z690 Unify motherboard. Read more “Alder Lake testing toolkit: the MEG Z690 Unify and DDR5 memory”
Hynix already has HBM3. Clocks up to 6.4GHz with huge bandwidth
GDDR7 is still far in the future (though Nvidia got ahead with their own Micron-made GDDR6X). But high-performance GPUs could get another new memory technology in the near future: HBM3 chips. Hynix has now announced that it has developed the first generation of this memory, which could lift graphics bandwidth by almost an order of magnitude. A single HBM3 chip (package) has a bandwidth higher than the entire RTX 3080. Read more “Hynix already has HBM3. Clocks up to 6.4GHz with huge bandwidth”
Extreme TDPs for GPUs? Nvidia Hopper is allegedly above 1000W
It seems that after the power consumption increase brought by Nvidia’s latest GPU (GeForce RTX 3000) was not the last time we’ll see this happening. We had news of 450W GeForce cards and even 550W future SKUs coming, but the crowning jewel will be the high-performance server GPU codenamed Hopper. Nvidia is supposedly planning a four-digit consumption exceeding 1000 W, requiring a completely new power supply solution. Read more “Extreme TDPs for GPUs? Nvidia Hopper is allegedly above 1000W”
AMD AM5 socket to be backwards compatible with AM4 coolers
It has been five years since the “Ryzen” brand was created. On this auspicious occasion, the gentlemen from AMD sat down at a table in front of the camera and it wasn’t all about retrospect. On the contrary, it also came out of the conversation that users will be able to install AM4 compatible coolers on future processors in the AM5 socket. No modifications to the mounting system will be required. It already contains everything needed. Read more “AMD AM5 socket to be backwards compatible with AM4 coolers”
Samsung will start 2nm chip production 3 years after 3nm node
Samsung’s semiconductor production has been a center of negative news lately. Apart form delays, Samsung processes are believed to be inferior to TSMC node-for-node. But despite this Samsung is still the number two in leading edge process nodes out of the Foundry producers. Now the company has announced 2nm node, which should go into production in four years, two to three years after the volume ramp of the 3nm technology. Read more “Samsung will start 2nm chip production 3 years after 3nm node”
Test numbers leaked, Core i5-12400 to beat Ryzen 5 5600X
The release of Intel Alder Lake processors is fast approaching and with it, performance test leaks are starting to appear. We’ve already had one such leak (Ci9-12900K), but this one is more interesting. Firstly, because it contains more results, but mainly because it reports on the Core i5-12400. That is the successor to the Core i5-11400(F), which is a processor that offers a much more favorable price/performance ratio for gaming PCs than the competition. Read more “Test numbers leaked, Core i5-12400 to beat Ryzen 5 5600X”







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