Lately, we’ve informed you that Noctua was preparing changes for the SecuFirm mounting system for next-generation Intel processors (Alder Lake-S). Based on the first clues, we were still guessing what it might be about. Now it’s much clearer, because there are real photos of the accessories of one of the existing liquid coolers, which already has support for the Intel LGA 1700 included in the specifications. Read more “LGA 1700 socket won’t be compatible with current coolers”
We may have overdone it a bit with that intensive zoom. The disproportion between your time spent on inspecting the photo and the number of correct answers was really big. However, we have the winner and the BeQuiet! fan will not stay in our editorial office. Some of you thought it could be the front panel of a PC case, as the grille in front of the fan suggested. But that was a catch, it was something different. Read more “What was in the puzzle photo? Sapphire RX 6900 XT Toxic LE”
Zen 3 has been out for quite some time, but AMD has not yet announced a new high-end Threadripper version. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry anymore: Threadripper with Zen 3 is said to be delayed, but is expected to be released in the summer in 4–5 months. In addition, we also have good news for those interested in Ryzen with integrated graphics. Unlike the 4000 series, desktop APUs with Zen 3 cores are supposed to be commercially available. Read more “Ryzen Threadripper with Zen 3 – release date? August, reportedly”
The Fera series has the best long-term sales among cheap coolers. And it should be noted that quite deservedly so. However, the Polish manufacturer found weak spots in both the heatsink and the fan and significantly modified the design. That is both great and frightening. But this mostly seems correct and a detailed analysis with the internal tests of the new fan also makes a good impression. The shape of the blades and the bearings were changed. Read more “SPC’s new cooler – Fera 5. Many changes, price as for the old model”
Back in 2019, we used to make an HWC puzzle series where we showed you a zoomed in photo of a PC component, and your role was to guess what it was. We will now return to this format, just for once. An unusual piece of hardware landed in our editorial office and we are interested in whether you can identify it from such a weird photo angle. We will send a BeQuiet! Silent Wings 3 PWM fan as a gift to one of you who comes with the correct answer. Read more “Giveaway: What’s in the picture? Win a fan from BeQuiet!”
AMD Ryzen 5000 desktop processors currently lack models with integrated GPU. But this summer, AMD will release an APU codenamed Cezanne, which is monolithic 7nm processor with Zen 3 cores and integrated graphics, based on the same silicon as the mobile Ryzen 5000. We now know the specifications for three models designed for socket AM4: Ryzen 3 5300G, Ryzen 5 5600G and the fastest octa-core Ryzen 7 5700G. Read more “Ryzen 5000 with iGPU? Models and specs revealed”
Nvidia finally introduces PCI Express Resizable BAR, as an alternative to Radeon’s Smart Access Memory that can improve the game performance of all GeForce RTX 3000s by up to several percent. BIOS updates and a new driver that handles ReBAR have been released for all manufacturers’ cards. But Nvidia has also expanded the list of games supporting this feature, which has reached 17 titles. Download links and other information included. Read more “Nvidia introduces Resizable BAR on GeForce: BIOS, driver”
According to a roadmap leak, Intel is preparing another family of 10nm processors after the 12th generation (Alder Lake). It’s called Raptor Lake and it should be released around the end of 2022. We already have the first look at what it should bring – Intel plans to stick to the big.LITTLE architecture, but with performance improvements and changes to L3 cache that should improve performance especially in games. Read more “Intel plans Raptor Lake CPUs with better cache after Alder Lake”
The wait for Intel desktop processors with the new architecture is almost over. The 11th generation Core for desktop was officially released last week and it’s just days to sales and reviews. Intel has now officially announced the complete specifications and especially the prices of all models. The most powerful Core i9-11900K will go for $ 539 or almost € 550, but a 6-core for cheap gaming PCs will go for mere € 160/$ 157. Read more “Intel Rocket Lake processor models, specs and prices revealed”
As of March 15, various size tubes of the new MX-5 thermal paste are in stock on Amazon. Arctic thus managed to start the sale on the day they announced in January, when no specifications were yet known. These are already quite detailed and include commonly unspecified specs of electrical insulation. However, something feels fishy here as the basic information about thermal conductivity is missing for some reason. Read more “Arctic kept his word, the MX-5 is on sale. We know the specs”
In our tests, you will increasingly encounter measurements of the “frequency response” of the sound of PC components. These are useful and rare measurements. As one of our readers has pointed out – for those who can read spectrographs, they are a gem. It’s worse if you don’t understand them. Then they won’t tell you much, and that’s a shame if you also care about the exact “noise” value of computer components, or their sound expression. Read more “Get familiar with measuring the frequency response of sound”
Intel has kept offering desktop processors with Skylake architecture for five and a half years. Ironically it looks like now, two new architectures will follow each other in just nine months, both with a 20% increase in IPC: according to current information, the Rocket Lake processors (11th gen Core) will be released in March 30, but 12th generation Alder Lake and the new LGA 1700 platform are set to go on sale in December. Read more “Release dates of Intel Rocket Lake and 10nm Alder Lake leaked”
There’s an interesting industry built on reusing old hardware in China. For example Xeon E5 CPUs and newly-produced gaming motherboards for them, but recently they started converting mobile Intel BGA processors into socketed CPUs for desktop. Not so old Comet Lake chips with six and eight cores are now being offered this way and you can even use them to upgrade B150/Z170/Z270 series boards, which officially only support quad-cores. Read more “Recycling in China: laptop CPUs turned into LGA 1151 upgrades”
Radeon graphics cards currently have one disadvantage: they do not support Nvidia’s DLSS AI upscaling technology, which significantly increases FPS in exchange for some (hopefully slight) quality loss. AMD announced development of its own alternative when RX 6000 cards lanched, but it was not clear how long it would take. It may come relatively soon, as a big driver update is coming in the spring and “AMDLSS” could be part of it. Read more “Radeon AI upscaling alternative to DLSS coming this spring?”
We are currently waiting for Intel’s new desktop processors (Rocket Lake, later Alder Lake), but it looks like the company is planning much bigger changes for servers. A sample of a Sapphire Rapids server processor and possibly high-end desktop surfaced on the web and it looks very interesting: it is composed of chiplets, some versions should have HBM2 memory inside and a small FPGA has even been found under the IHS. Read more “Intel Sapphire Rapids leaked: huge chiplet CPU with an FPGA”
Latest comments