Norway's Proshop listed an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 APEX Encore motherboard by mistake, with an eye watering price of 9790 NOK including VAT (~$890). Elite and record-breaking overclocker enthusiasts with deep pockets need only apply—this "Encore" 14th Gen Core-ready refresh of the existing (and recently discontinued) APEX board is expected to coincide with this month's launch of six "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs. The Norwegian listing did not an include any photos of ASUS ROG's ultra-premium board, but Benchlife and a bunch of social media leakers have released imagery into the wild.

On first inspection of leaked specification details, the only major upgrade appears to be WiFi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 connectivity. Gigabyte and MSI are reported to be refreshing their own "next-gen" Z790 boards with these newer standards. We get the usual designation of two DIMM slots for maximum memory performance in this league—really fast DDR5-10000 memory configurations are on the expected support list (Proshop mentioned DDR5-5600). The current APEX has logged speeds of DDR5-11000 MT/s, so the successor and accompaniment of "next-gen" processors could push things further.

Retailers in East Asia have reportedly chosen to go live with marketing imagery depicting Intel's initial batch of 14th Gen Core SKUs—this is roughly two weeks ahead of an official October 17 "Raptor Lake Refresh" product launch. A couple of "official" slides have been forwarded to VideoCardz—the information on display provides a quick overview of basic specifications for Core i9, Core i7 and Core i5 models. The 6 GHz clock and 24 core configuration is believed to be the upcoming flagship Core i9-14900K SKU. The Core i7-14700K would fit the bill of sporting a 5.6 GHz and 20-core setup—leaked marketing info confirms that this new model has been bolstered with an additional four Gracemont E-cores. The Core i5-14600K seems to align with the 5.3 GHz and 14-core spec. A premature publication of information is not all that surprising—a couple of marketing slides breaking embargo is relatively minor when compared to actual working hardware getting demoed during summertime. ITHome reported on Raptor Lake Refresh and Meteor Lake appearing on the showroom floor at July's Bilibili World.

By error, over the weekend Canada Computers published prices of upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh desktop CPUs—a competing national store, PC-Canada, also prematurely leaked placeholder charges midway through September. Analysis of last month's figures revealed a 4% (on average) price hike over equivalent 13th Gen Core predecessors, although that information could be out-of-date by now. The numbers released by Canada Computers (now removed from their searchable database) are alleged to be closer to the final article, since we are nearing Intel's October 16th launch day of higher-end 14th Gen Core SKUs, comprised of K and KF variants.

A VideoCardz reader, Kithana, managed to log all of the gory details prior to Canada Computers removing all traces of embargo-busting data. Their news section has pored over the numbers: "A quick check reveals that new SKUs are expected to see an increase ranging from 0% to 7%. Particularly noteworthy is the fact that the upcoming next-gen Core i5-14600KF is currently listed at the same price point as its predecessor, 13600KF, at $399 CAD. Notably, not present is the Core i9-14900K model on this list."

Gigabyte has reportedly requested that reviewers refrain from revealing too much about newly refreshed motherboards—TPU's Darksaber was invited to take a closer look at "next generation motherboards" in late August, but representatives were cautious to mutter anything too obvious or specific about Intel's oft-leaked Raptor Lake Refresh/14th Gen Core CPU lineup. Fast forward to recent happenings—VideoCardz believes that Gigabyte had prepped a bunch of new motherboard products to showcase in parallel with Team Blue's September Innovation event—many expected to see Raptor Lake Refresh unveiled to a great degree, but an official announcement was instead relegated to a 12-second long livestreamed segment.

The Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturer/distributor has allegedly manoeuvred to avoid breaking its partner's embargoes—VideoCardz stated: "Consequently, Gigabyte had to request reviewers to conceal any details pertaining to the new CPU series on the packaging and motherboards they had received as initially intended." Their report includes various pieces of evidence (screenshots and video captures)—focusing on a slightly rejigged AORUS Z790 Master X motherboard, which seems to sport "Core 14th gen processors" livery.

Intel's Core i5-14600K CPU was benchmarked mid-September, courtesy of ECSM getting their hands on some engineering samples—these examples were put under strain through Cinebench R23, Cinebench 2024, and CPU-Z suites. The ever reliable Benchleaks has kept track of mid-range Raptor Lake Refresh processor leaks—late last week they pointed to a new entry on Geekbench Browser. PC hardware news outlets have reported that reviewers now possess pre-release silicon, so we should be expecting an increase in leaky activity over the next fortnight—Intel's official embargo will likely be lifted on the 14th Gen Core launch day (October 17). Team Blue's Core i5-14600K has popped up a few times via Geekbench 6.2 results—TestKT's build was running on stock settings, and hit a maximum clock of 5.3 GHz (K and KF variants), with an ASUS Z790 TUF PLUS motherboard accompanied by 32 GB of DDR5-5200 memory, while an anonymous bencher fielded a system sporting a Gigabyte Z790 AORUS Master X mainboard and 48 GB DDR5-7600 RAM. The latter had some overclocking on the go; Geekbench 6.2 stats reported clocks reaching 5.7 GHz on the Core i5-14600K.

TestKT's stock 14600K achieved scores of 2819 in single-threaded, and 16666 multi-threaded. Their 14600KF scored 2779 and 16707 (respectively) on the same ASUS platform. The unnamed Gigabyte system wielder tallied 2861 (SC) and 17974 (MC) on an overclocked 14600K. VideoCardz noted that: "this represents a minor increase in single-core performance and approximately an 8% improvement in multi-threaded performance." They brought in a previously leaked higher-end CPU for comparative purposes: "Since the latter score is using the same (Gigabyte) system as in the Core i7-14700KF Geekbench leak, we can now conclude that Core i7 CPU will be at least 8% and 18% faster respectively than the Core i5 SKU. That's, of course, assuming both scores were using OC settings." We will have to wait until the publication of official reviews to find out whether these figures were produced on finalized silicon.

Intel's forthcoming Core Ultra 7 1002H "Meteor Lake" mobile CPU has been sighted a few times, thanks to samples turning up on the Geekbench Browser database. We are months away from the official launch day—December 14—but multiple models have been leaking out since late summer. Team Blue has used different designations for evaluation and qualification silicon—we can assume that another Ultra 7 165H appearing online (courtesy of Geekbench 6.1 tests) has concreted that nomenclature as the finished/final article. Model codes and hierarchy information were not made available at Intel Innovation 2023 (last week), where Team Blue reps discussed Meteor Lake's AI-crunching capabilities.

Leaked information shows the Core Ultra 7 1002H being nigh identical in terms of specifications (16 cores/22 threads) and engineering platform (MTL-P). Benchmarked results between the engineering sample (1002H) and Core Ultra 7 165H are pretty close—respectively: 2439 versus 2502 (single-core) and 12668 versus 12545 (multi-core). We are seeing a slight improvement in single-threaded performance, but the prototype edges out its newer counterpart by 123 points. Both units were benched on an "Intel Corporation Meteor Lake Client Platform," using balanced power plans in Windows 11 (Pro and Enterprise, respectively).

NVIDIA is reported to be on next year's 3 nm-class order book at TSMC, with the Blackwell GB100 data-center GPU marked down as an important production project. A DigiTimes insider piece proposes that Team Green has signed up for orders in the second half of 2024, giving TSMC some wiggle room to iron out alleged advanced packaging issues—but it is implied that Apple is already ahead in the queue. Inside sources have not spotted an Intel request for TSMC's advanced 3 nm process (still utilizing FinFET). Industry experts reckon that NVIDIA could be granted access to a customized node for its Blackwell product line, given their VIP status and special relationship with the leading Taiwanese foundry.

DigiTimes believes that the Blackwell GB100 (sporting a chiplet design) will be targeting a Q4 2024 launch window, therefore arriving before any competing next-gen technologies: "For NVIDIA, which monopolizes more than 80% of the AI GPU market, the next generation B100 will use TSMC's 3 nm...It will seize AI deployment business opportunities while the iron is hot and suppress AMD, Intel and other challengers." Team Red, MediaTek and Qualcomm could be next in the procession—it is claimed that unspecified next-gen EPYC server chips are due in 3 nm form.

Samsung seems to be preparing follow ups to its current selection of Portable T7 SSDs—the series debuted back in early 2020, so a couple of successors are more than due. Last week TechRadar started to pick up on various retail listings popping up in Australia, France and the Netherlands. This information was posted online prematurely and by mistake—the involved organizations have since removed entries from their web stores. Samsung's Dutch division has been slow to respond, and its portal for a "MU-PG2T0B" model is still active (at the time of writing). France's Grosbill and P12.fr had listings for two T9 variants (1 TB and 2 TB configurations) sporting the aforementioned product code. Similar details appeared over in Australia, courtesy of the Microboss site. One of the French e-tailer spec sheets mentioned that Samsung's T9 SSD read and write speeds maxed out at 2 GB/s.

TechRadar believes that Samsung will be blowing out current T7 models during November's Black Friday sales week, in anticipation of clearing the way for all things T9. The publication managed to catch some (likely) placeholder prices from its sources, prior to removal: "There's also every chance it could be cheaper at launch than the T7, with PC12.fr retailing the T9 SSD for €236.52 including VAT (roughly $250) and Gosbill Pro retailing the device for just €199 (roughly $215) - though it's unclear if this is inclusive of taxes." There is also speculation regarding the integration of Thunderbolt 4 connectivity, since the older T7 generation relies on the preceding standard.

Andreas Schilling, editor at Hardwareluxx, noticed some interesting looking Intel Meteor Lake-related merchandise very recently—last week's Innovation event served as a proper public unveiling of the next generation mobile processor series, scheduled to launch on December 14. Team Blue showcased their new advanced disaggregated chiplet design during a keynote presentation, but did not provide a comprehensive breakdown of upcoming SKUs and feature sets. A couple of clues were presented in plain sight (see below)—Schilling reckons that some tongue-in-cheek marketing was in effect: "Intel is leaking with its own swag. We know there will be different configurations of the compute, I/O and graphics tiles with Meteor Lake. The GPU will use 8 or 4 Xe cores it seems."

Intel has hyped up Meteor Lake's integrated GPU chiplet as having "performance parallelism and throughput, ideal for AI infused in media, 3D applications and the render pipeline." VideoCardz had this to say about the Alchemist-derived setup: "This integration of Xe-LPG architecture is expected to deliver a 2x performance boost compared to the existing Xe-LP architecture found in Raptor Lake. Intel put a lot of emphasis on supporting 10 W gaming with this architecture, potentially opening a new competing front versus AMD RDNA 3 in handheld." The Meteor Lake "swag" hints that at least two different configurations are in the works, with 8 or 4 Xe-Cores (as printed on the two pieces of merch). Intel's Meteor Lake SKU hierarchy could consist of models with varying levels of iGPU potency, since the chiplet design provides a great deal of flexibility.

YuuKi_AnS has brought renewed attention to an already leaked Intel "Emerald Rapids" processor—the 5th Gen Xeon Platinum 8580 CPU was identified with 60 cores and 120 threads in a previous post, but a follow up has appeared in the form of an engineering prototype (ES2-Q2SP-A0). Yuuki noted: "samples are for reference only, and the actual performance is subject to the official version." Team Blue has revealed a launch date—December 14 2023—for its 5th Gen Xeon Scalable processor lineup, so it is not surprising to see pre-release examples appear online a couple of months beforehand. This particular ES2 SKU (on A0 silicon) fields an all P-Core configuration consisting of Raptor Cove units, with a dual-chiplet design (30 cores per die). There is a significant bump up in cache sizes when compared to the current "Sapphire Rapids" generation—Wccftech outlines these allocations: "Each core comes with 2 MB of L2 cache for up to 120 MB of L2 cache. The whole chip also features 300 MB of L3 cache which combines to offer a total cache pool of 420 MB."

They bring in some of the competition for comparison: "That's a 2.6x increase in cache versus the existing Sapphire Rapids CPU lineup and while it still doesn't match the 480 MB L3 cache of standard (AMD) Genoa or the 1.5 GB cache pool of Genoa-X, it is a good start for Intel to catch up." Team Blue appears ready to take on AMD on many levels—this week's Innovation Event produced some intriguing announcements including "Sierra Forest vs. Bergamo" and plans to embrace 3D Stacked Cache technology. Yuuki's small batch of screenshots show the Xeon Platinum 8580 CPU's captured clock speeds are far from the finished article—just a touch over 2.0 GHz, so very likely limited to safe margins. An unnamed mainboard utilizing Intel's Eagle Stream platform was logged sporting a dual-socket setup—the test system was running a grand total of 120 cores and 240 threads!

An interesting new feature popped up within MSI's Click BIOS 5 interface recently—chi11eddog uploaded this discovery to social media with a message: "BIOS screenshot from a friend who just got new Z790 Ace Max mobo. 6.3 GHz in the "P-core Beyond 6 GHz+" menu. For 14th Gen?" It is suspected that MSI has already implemented a nice QoL update for a refresh of its top-of-the-line MAX motherboard series. A simplification of the overclocking process for Intel K-series processors is visibly in operation (at a menu level), courtesy of the leaked screenshot, but you are paying through the teeth for this level of treatment. MSI's MEG Z790 ACE E-ATX motherboard, in its current incarnation, has an MSRP of $699.99. Who knows when a trickle-down effect will apply to lower placed mainboard families.

The refreshed board seems to prepped for upper crust "Raptor Lake Refresh" SKUs including the 14th Core i9-14900K and KF variants—according to previous leaks, these potent processors are capable of hitting clocks of 6.0 GHz and a little bit beyond that (as suggested by MSI's P-Core 6 GHz+ option). VideoCardz notes that Team Blue's current-gen Core i9-13900KS CPU: "offers such high clock speeds at a premium price, making it the top desktop SKU from Intel," but the upcoming 14th Gen flagship chips will be the first to hit such impressive clocks—via Thermal Velocity Boost—without inclusion in an elite variant tier: Special Edition KS.

The 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" desktop CPU lineup was not showcased during Intel Innovation's keynote presentation—instead, upcoming Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake generations were put in the spotlight. We will likely have to wait for an official announcement closer to the expected October 17 launch date of K and KF SKUs. The Core i9-14900KF model has emerged once again, thanks to benchmark results hitting the 'net—Passmark's owner, David Wren, declared on social media: "Yet another high-end CPU has made a significant debut on the single-threaded chart today! While it's not available for purchase yet, the Intel 4th Gen i9-14900KF CPU has claimed the top spot on the chart."

The benched Core i9-14900KF scored 4939 points in PassMark's single-thread test, which surpasses equivalent 13th gen heavyweights: Core i9-13900KS—4769 points and Core i9-13900K—4666 points. Intel's iGPU-less flagship desktop processor now sits at the top of Passmark's single-thread rating table. VideoCardz noted: "It's worth mentioning that the i9-13900KS also boasts a 6.0 GHz clock speed, and the 14900KF achieved this score using relatively modest DDR5-5600 memory." Multi-threaded performance is a tad disappointing—this 14900KF sits about level with the 13900K with an extremely narrow 0.6% difference.

Microsoft Gaming's chief, Phil Spencer, has issued a public-facing response to the recent leak of potential upcoming Xbox products (2024 to 2028): "We've seen the conversation around old emails and documents. It is hard to see our team's work shared in this way because so much has changed and there's so much to be excited about right now, and in the future. We will share the real plans when we are ready." The information dump (in part) consisted of presentation material prepared for (internal) April 2022 meetings, so it is possible that the Xbox division has changed direction in the meantime. Spencer was also involved in an August 2020 discussion with Microsoft marketing executives, regarding a possible buyout of Nintendo—according to leaked FTC legal case material. It should be noted that Microsoft has made attempts to acquire Nintendo in the past—but their approaches were "laughed off."

The Verge has managed to obtain an email distributed to Microsoft employees, as sent out by an embattled Spencer—he reiterates his public messaging of "real plans" in the company memo: "I know this is disappointing, even if many of the documents are well over a year old and our plans have evolved...We all put incredible amounts of passion and energy into our work, and this is never how we want that hard work to be shared with the community. That said, there's so much more to be excited about, and when we're ready, we'll share the real plans with our players."

A comprehensive leak of documents—from a FTC versus Microsoft case—has exposed short and long-term plans in the world of Xbox. It seems that a relatively mild refresh of current generation Xbox Series X and S is lined up for the second half of 2024, but presentation material (dated April 2022) also reaches far into the future with strategies for next-gen gaming hardware. The bigwigs at Xbox were projecting a "full convergence" of their proprietary "xCloud" gaming platform and physical console hardware to deliver "cloud hybrid games" for 2028—schemes and priorities could have shifted in the interim, given various legal challenges and takeover bids.

One of the slides points to Microsoft getting the technical nitty-gritty sorted by CY2023—with two main options presented for consideration: a licensed ARM 64 design or a "Zen 6-based" AMD 64 processor. The next-gen Xbox's GPU aspect could incorporate a Navi 5 design (RDNA 5)—weighing up either a co-operation with AMD, or an IP license of said graphics architecture. VideoCardz theorizes that: "the latter option seems more likely if the ARM 64 chip is chosen over the Zen 6 APU." A key goal in this area seems to be an implementation of "Next-Gen DirectX Ray tracing" and "ML-based Super Resolutions" features. A Neural Processing Unit (NPU) is marked as a key provision for the 2028 console—granting some nice-to-have perks including: latency compensation, frame rate interpolation and various enrichments of the user experience.

Inside sources have claimed that Bungie is working on a third project—codename: Gummy Bears—alongside Destiny 2 (their bread and butter IP) and the still mysterious Marathon reboot. Several media outlets keep close tabs on activity at the Sony Interactive Entertainment-owned studio—"Gummy Bears" is believed to be a "light-hearted" and "colorful" alternative to the other multiplayer experiences in Bungie's stable. Paul Tassi (writing for Forbes) believes that Bungie's "Matter" concept is synonymous with "Gummy Bears"—past job adverts have outlined a "team-based action game" that takes: "inspiration from fighting games, platformers, MOBAs, life sims, and frog-type games, wrapped up in a lighthearted, comedic world."

TheGamePost has chosen to follow up on their previously leaked summertime information with another major claim—multiple sources have alleged that Epic's Unreal Engine forms the technical foundation of "Gummy Bears," a team-based combat title with isometric gameplay. Switching to an outside toolset would be quite an unusual move for Bungie—the veteran development house has relied on its (extremely mature) Tiger Engine for more than a decade. One insider placed emphasis on the new IP being built in Unreal Engine 5 for current-gen platforms. PlayStation-specialist site Insider Gaming has contacted Sony for comment on the situation, and conducted a quick investigation: "As far as the accuracy of this report, Insider Game has yet to verify it with its independent sources. However, a quick look at Bungie's career page shows a job listing for an "Unannounced Project" where the required skills include the ability to code in C++. This is the programming language used for Unreal Engine."

A hefty information dump—originating from documents relating to a Microsoft vs. FTC legal case—has revealed plans (dated April 2022) for an upcoming refresh of current generation Xbox Series X and S consoles. Microsoft Gaming's head honcho, Phil Spencer, dismissed the need for a mid-gen refresh of the more powerful model—his summertime 2023 declaration came after the rumor mill coughed up speculative details of Sony working on a more potent PlayStation 5. The leaked roadmap and slides points to a refreshed Xbox Series X console lined up for launch in October 2024. The new cylindrical design is codenamed "Brooklin" and features an all-digital entertainment scheme—internal upgrades include a 2 TB SSD, plus support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. An "improved sustainability story" suggests that the refresh will consume less power.

A 6 nm die shrink of the current Xbox Series X "Scarlett" APU with Zen 2/RDNA2 setup is reportedly in the cards. It seems that Microsoft is not preparing something that could compete with a theoretical "PlayStation 5 Pro." The leaked roadmap states that Brooklin's projected MSRP is $499—so no price hike over the original. The refreshed Xbox Series S—codenamed "Ellewood"—retains the existing Series S aesthetic, along with its entry-level $299 price tag. Microsoft's roadmap has it launching earlier than "Brooklin"—August 2024. Internal storage is set at 1 TB, and an updated southbridge grants support for Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. A low-power standby mode is said to consume only 20% of the current gen model's sleepy intake. The 2022 roadmap also mentions a refreshed "Sebile" Xbox controller, with the aim to get it launched by May 2024, so several months before the projected arrival of revised X and S consoles.

A trio of allegedly official presentation slides appeared on X yesterday, posted by Underfox3—the leaker stopped short of revealing the origin of this material. They simply commented: "AMD Threadripper Pro is coming...🔥." The next generation HEDT processor family is expected to arrive in the fall, and the opening slide pretty much confirms this launch window (starting September 22—autumnal equinox). There has been a noticeable uptick in Zen 4 "Storm Peak" 7000-series pre-release units appearing online lately—so the timing seems plausible. Text segments do not mention the 7000-series in specifics, but an IHS render visible on the second slide looks somewhat similar—in shape—to a grey market-listed Threadripper Pro 7985WX. VideoCardz has compiled various leaked SKUs into a chart (see below).

A very general claim is made on the second slide—boasting a 20% performance increase over their Threadripper Pro 5000 series—but detailed information (prowess in single or multi-core tests) or in-depth benchmark results are not included. VideoCardz surmises from an interpretation of the third slide—noting: "support for 96 cores, marking a 50% boost over the TR PRO 5000 series. This suggests that the 20% improvement likely pertains to the single-core Zen 4 boost." The final slide also shows said 96-core Threadripper Pro processor tipped against Intel's Xeon W9-3495X CPU (a 56-core Sapphire Rapids candidate)—the former is said to produce 75% more renders per day. Per frame completion time is 657 second versus 1125 seconds (respectively).

Activity on the next-gen Ryzen Threadripper front has ramped up over the past week—we previously witnessed a fairly comprehensive spec leak of Pro 7995WX and 7975WX processors last week, thanks to Dell Precision Tower workstations getting tested out in SiSoftware's Sandra suite. Pre-release "Zen 4" HEDT hardware seems to be out in the wild—YuuKi_AnS has posted a photo of an allegedly SP6 socket-ready AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7985WX CPU.

This sample is apparently for up for sale on an unspecified online marketplace, advertised as having a TDP rating of 350 W. An AMD OPN core code reads: "100-00000454," although the photographed unit lacks any external "Threadripper" branding. The seller describes the for-sale processor as possessing "minor signs of use" as evidenced by scuffs and marks, but it is said to be fully functional and no repairs are required to get it in operational mode. The screen grab does not include any details about pricing or location.

An Intel Core i5-14600K processor has been benchmarked roughly a month before its expected rollout at retail—previous leaks have this particular model placed as the most wallet friendly offering within a range of 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs. A total of six SKUs, with K and KF variants, are anticipated to launch on October 17. An official unveiling of new processor product lineups is scheduled for tomorrow at Team Blue's Innovation event. China's ECSM has managed to acquire an engineering sample (ES) of the aforementioned i5-14600K model, and put it through the proverbial ringer in Cinebench R23, Cinebench 2024, and CPU-Z. The brief report did not disclose any details regarding exact testbench conditions, so some of the results could be less than reliable/accurate.

ECSM's screenshot from CPU-Z re-confirms the Core i5-14600K's already leaked specs—six high-performance Raptor Cove cores running at a 3.50 GHz base clock, going up to 5.30 GHz (a 200 MHz gain over its predecessor: Core i5-13600K). Eight efficiency-oriented Gracemont cores running up to 4.0 GHz—100 MHz more than on the predecessor. The Core i5-14600K and i5-13600K share the same designations of 24 MB L3 cache and 125 W PBP—the leaked engineering sample was shown to have a core voltage of 1.2 V. The previous gen CPU operates on 1.14 V. ECSM noted that CPU package power consumption reached 160 W, and: "currently, the burn-in voltage is still quite out of control, especially for the two 8P models, both of which are at 1.4 V+. However, there is still a lot of room for manual voltage reduction."

An Apple "iPhone16,1" was put through the Geekbench 6.2 gauntlet earlier this week—according to database info this pre-retail sample was running a build of iOS 17.0 (currently in preview) and its logic board goes under the "D83AP" moniker. It is interesting to see a unit hitting the test phase only a day after the unveiling of Apple's iPhone 15 Pro and Max models—the freshly benched candidate seems to house an A17 Pro system-on-chip. The American tech giant has set lofty goals for said flagship SoC, since it is "the industry's first 3-nanometer chip. Continuing Apple's leadership in smartphone silicon, A17 Pro brings improvements to the entire chip, including the biggest GPU redesign in Apple's history. The new CPU is up to 10 percent faster with microarchitectural and design improvements, and the Neural Engine is now up to 2x faster."

Tech news sites have pored over the leaked unit's Geekbench 6.2 scores—its A17 Pro chipset (TSMC N3) surpasses the previous generation A16 Bionic (TSMC N4) by 10% in single-core stakes. Apple revealed this performance uplift during this week's iPhone "Wonderlust" event, so the result is not at all surprising. The multi-score improvement is a mere ~3%, suggesting that only minor tweaks have been made to the underlying microarchitecture. The A17 Pro beats Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 in both categories—2914 vs. 2050 (SC) and 7199 vs. 5405 (MC) respectively. Spring time leaks indicated that the "A17 Bionic" was able to keep up with high-end Intel and AMD desktop CPUs in terms of single-core performance—the latest Geekbench 6.2 entry semi-confirms those claims. The A17 Pro's single-threaded performance is within 10% of Intel Core i9-13900K and Ryzen 9 7950X processors. Naturally, Apple's plucky mobile chip cannot put up a fight in the multi-core arena, additionally Tom's Hardware notes another catch: "A17 Pro operates at 3.75 GHz, according to the benchmark, whereas its mighty competitors work at about 5.80 GHz and 6.0 GHz, respectively."

PC-Canada's online store has been updated with several pages of Intel 14th Gen Core/Raptor Lake Refresh processors—this is yet another example of an embargo busting mistake. Telemart Ukraine revealed a small total of six SKUs around late August, but pricing was not included on their placeholder product pages back then. Our friends in Canada have removed all relevant retail information from public view, but momomo_us and a handful of hardware news sites have preserved these details. We get another look at previously leaked model names in K and KF guises, with some "initial" pricing—subject to change by Team Blue decree—starting at $415.99 CAD for the Core i5-14600KF, and topping out with the Core i9-14900K at $833.99 CAD.

Analysis of these "early" prices reveals a slightly smaller than expected hike over charges for the previous generation. VideoCardz has eyeballed the numbers: "A quick comparison with the current pricing of the 13th Gen Core series reveals that these initial prices are surprisingly not as high as one might have anticipated, with an average increase of only 4% or a range of 2% to 7%." Check out their diagram below. The Raptor Lake Refresh K and KF-series desktop lineup is expected to launch on October 17 (according to previous leaks)—Intel's upcoming Innovation Event kicks off next week, where an official unveiling is set to take place.

Microsoft has scheduled a special product announcement event for next week—Germany's WinFuture has likely spoiled all mystery ahead of time by revealing two next generation Surface devices. It was already speculated that Microsoft would exhibit a bunch of new portable Windows PCs at the upcoming September 21 New York City-based shindig, but this week's leak treats us to photos and initial specifications for the Laptop Studio 2 and Laptop Go 3. The former retains its predecessor's 14.4-inch 3:2 format display, with a 2400×1600 resolution and 120 Hz refresh rate. Under-the-hood improvements for the Surface Laptop Studio 2 include a jump up to 13th Gen Intel Core Raptor Lake CPUs (from 11th Gen Tiger Lake)—WinFuture reckons that two options are lined up: Core i7-13700H and and Core i7-13800H. The Surface Laptop Studio 2's discrete graphics solution is speculated to be a mobile NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 GPU.

A base model could rely on an iGPU based on Intel Iris Xe graphics architecture. 64 GB of LPDDR5X memory is believed to exist with some configurations, which is a nice upgrade (albeit probably a very pricey option) over the previous generation's 16 or 32 GB RAM offerings. The leaked photos indicate that a Micro-SD slot and USB Type-A connector are new additions for 2023's model. The WinFuture article presents some prices—€2249 (~$2400) for the basic iGPU model, mid-tier with RTX 4050: €2729 (~$2915), and €3199 (~$3415) for an almost top flight model sporting 32 GB RAM and RTX 4060. The Surface Laptop Go 3, meanwhile, looks a little less exciting—it is said to get a CPU bump up to Intel Core i5-1135G and Core i5-1235U processors. Otherwise it looks largely similar to its previous-gen sibling. The leak did not include images of a reported Surface Go 4, but WinFuture expects it to be presented next week, powered by an Intel N200 SoC.

IMDA, Singapore's rating board, has evaluated a new version of Horizon Forbidden West—a website entry for an upcoming "Complete Edition" on the PlayStation 5 platform was uncovered late last week. This information was removed at a later date since, but several media outlets have preserved crucial details. Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition is M18 rated in that part of the world, thanks to gory content and sexual themes. IMDA's extended classification blurb implies that the base campaign as well as this year's Burning Shores DLC will be bundled together in a new package.

Dealabs leaker billbil-kun believes that a PC version is lined up for "imminent" release on Steam and the Epic Games Store—they cannot confirm an exact launch date, but it could arrive within a month based on potentially accurate data leaks. Sony tends to keep its flagship titles exclusive to PlayStation systems for 18 months—the base Horizon Forbidden West game arrived on PlayStation 4 and 5 last February...so the timing is about right for a converted edition to arrive PC-side. A State of Play presentation is scheduled for later today—billbil-kun recommends that folks check it out, given recent insights posted by Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb.

A pair of Dell Precision workstations have been tested in SiSoftware's Sandra benchmark suite—database entries for the 7875 Tower (Dell 00RP38) and 7875 Tower (Dell 00RP38) reveal specifications of next generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro CPUs. The 32 core 7975WX model was outed a couple of weeks ago, but the Sandra benchmark database has been updated with additional scores. Its newly leaked sibling is getting a lot of attention—the recently benchmarked 7995WX sample appears to possess 96 Zen 4 cores, and 192 threads (via SMT) with a 5.14 GHz maximum single-core boost clock. Tom's Hardware is intrigued by benchmark data showing that the CPU has: "a 3.2 GHz all-core turbo frequency."

There are 12 CCDs onboard, with a combined total of 384 MB of L3 cache (each CCD has access to 32 MB of L3)—therefore Wccftech believes that "this chip is based on the Genoa SP5 die and will adopt the top 8-channel and SP5 socket platform. The chip also features 96 MB of L2 cache and the top clock speed was reported at 5.14 GHz." The repeat benched Ryzen Threadripper Pro 7975WX CPU is slightly less exciting—with 32 Zen 4 cores, 64 threads, 128 MB of L3 cache, and 32 MB of L2 cache. According to older information, this model is believed to have a TDP rating of 350 W and apparent clock speeds peaking at 4.0 GHz—Wccftech reckons that this frequency reflects an all-core boost. They have produced a bunch of comparative performance charts and further analysis—well worth checking out.

OneRaichu has conducted a series of Geekbench 6.2 tests on an Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU, very likely a preview sample—his results have arrived for public viewing in the form of three new database entries. The hardware enthusiast (and sometimes leaker) is expected to produce a full review of said flagship Raptor Lake Refresh processor. His evaluation arrives roughly a week after leaked Intel Core i9-14900K processors appearing online, via benchmark results produced in Geekbench 6.1 and CPU-Z. The KF variant is missing an integrated GPU, while its K sibling is likely endowed with a bog standard Intel UHD Graphics 700-series iGPU.

The database entries reveal single-core scores starting at 3322 and going up to 3347 points. Multi-core scores span from 22895 through to 23051 points. A Geekbench 5 result is thrown in for good measure, with achievements of 2412 points in single-core, and 26972 points in multi-core performance. OneRaichu's test build utilized an ASRock Z790 Taichi motherboard and 32 GB of DDR5-7000 memory, his OS of choice appears to be Microsoft Windows 11 (non-Pro) 64-bit. VideoCardz has crunched the numbers: "preliminary benchmarks suggest that the Core i9-14900KF outperforms the i9-13900K by approximately 5-6% in multi-threaded tests and a minimum 12% improvement in single-core performance."