Intel's upcoming Core "Skylake-U" low-power processors, for ultra-portable notebooks, tablets, convertibles, and fan-less desktops, is where the fruition of Intel's 14 nm process takes shape. These dual-core chips, spanning all five brand extensions - Core i7, Core i5, Core i3, Pentium, and Celeron, offering TDP as low as 7.5W, and no more than 15W. The lineup is kept slim, with no more than 2 SKUs per extension. All three Core extensions feature Intel HD 520 graphics, clocked around 350 MHz, with 1000 to 1050 MHz boost, while the Pentium and Celeron models feature slimmer HD 510 graphics, ticking at 300/900 MHz.

The lineup is led by the Core i7-6600U and i7-6500U. Besides HyperThreading enabling 4 logical CPUs, these two chips feature 4 MB L3 cache, 1050 MHz iGPU boost frequency, and the highest CPU clock-speeds in the series. The Core i5 chips differ from their Core i7 counterparts with sub-3 GHz CPU clock speeds, 3 MB L3 cache, and maximum iGPU boost frequency of 1000 MHz. The Core i3 parts are almost identical to their Core i5 counterparts, except they lack CPU Turbo Boost. The Pentium processors feature very low CPU core speeds, and are almost identical to Core i3, but feature lower 950 MHz iGPU boost frequency, and 2 MB L3 cache. Celeron parts lack HyperThreading. Some of these parts will launch in 2015, others in 2016. Find the exact clock speeds for each SKU in the table below.

Intel announced its first 6th generation Core processors, codenamed "Skylake." Built on Intel's swanky new 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and in the new LGA1151 package, these processors bring DDR4 memory to the mainstream, and offer IPC improvements over the previous-generation Core "Haswell" and "Broadwell" processors. Making its debut at Gamescom, Intel is starting its lineup off with two chips that are predominantly targeted at the DIY gaming PC crowd, the Core i7-6700K and the Core i5-6600K quad-core processors. More models in the series will be launched towards the end of this month. The company also announced the Z170 Express chipset.

The Core i7-6700K features a nominal clock speed of 4.00 GHz, with a Turbo Boost frequency of 4.20 GHz. It features 8 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading. Its integrated Intel HD 530 graphics ticks at 350 MHz, with 1200 MHz Boost. The Core i5-6600K, on the other hand, features clock speeds of 3.50 GHz, with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost. It features 6 MB of L3 cache, and lacks HyperThreading. It features the same integrated graphics solution as its bigger sibling. The TDP of both chips are rated at 91W. Both chips feature integrated memory controllers with support for DDR3L-1600 and DDR4-2133. The Core i7-6700K is priced around $350, and the i5-6600K around $243, in 1000-unit tray quantities. The retail packages of both chips will lack a stock cooling solution. The LGA1151 cooler mount will be identical to that of the outgoing LGA1150, so you shouldn't have any problems using your older cooler.

Intel's upcoming 5th generation Core processors targeted at PC enthusiasts, the Core i7-5775K, and the Core i5-5675K, will be available in the retail channel on June 1st (NA, EMEA), and June 2nd (APAC). The two were available to the OEM channel since earlier this month. This is when you will be able to buy the two at a ground store, or online, in retail (box) packaging. Built in the LGA1150 package, the two will be compatible with existing Intel 9-series chipset motherboards (with BIOS updates).

Based on the swanky new 14 nm "Broadwell" silicon, the i7-5775C and the i5-5675C are quad-core chips. The i7-5775C offers clock speeds of 3.30 GHz, which spools up to 3.70 GHz with Turbo Boost; and will feature HyperThreading, enabling 8 logical CPUs. The i5-5675C offers 3.10 GHz clocks, with 3.60 GHz Turbo Boost frequencies. Both chips will offer 6 MB of L3 cache, Intel Iris Pro 6200 graphics; and TDP as low as 65W. For this reason, and others, the two won't exactly replace the i7-4790K and i5-4690K from the product stack. The two will ship with unlocked base-clock multipliers, letting you overclock them, and could still make for great buys for premium gaming PC builds.

Intel's Core "Skylake" processor lineup, built on the company's swanky new 14 nanometer fab process, drew heads to its rather high 95W TDP for quad-core parts such as the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K, even though their 22 nm predecessors, such as the i7-4770K and the i5-4670K run cooler, at 84W TDP. A new leaked slide explains the higher TDP. Apparently, Intel is going all-out with its integrated graphics implementation on Core "Skylake" chips, including onboard graphics that leverage eDRAM caches. The company is promising as much as 50% higher integrated graphics performance over "Haswell."

Although the chips have high rated TDP, the overall energy efficiency presents a different story. SoCs based on "Skylake" will draw as much as 60% lower power than "Haswell" based ones, translating into 35% longer HD video playback on portable devices running these chips. Intel's graphics performance push is driven by an almost sudden surge in display resolutions, with standards such as 4K (3840 x 2160) entering mainstream, and 5K (5120 x 2880) entering the enthusiast segment. Intel's design goal is to supply the market with a graphics solution that makes the two resolutions functional on desktop and video, if not gaming.

Major pre-built desktop manufacturers began listing products driven by 5th generation Core "Broadwell" processors, which are having a brief stint at the markets before being replaced by 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors in Q3-2015. The 5th Generation Core family is led by two parts, the Core i5-5675C, and the Core i7-5775C, both of which come with unlocked base-clock multipliers, are based on Intel's new 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and built in the LGA1150 package, compatible with existing Intel 9-series chipset based motherboards, with BIOS updates.

The Core i5-5675C and i7-5775C aren't exactly successors of the i5-4690K and i7-4790K. The i7-5775C is placed in a product tier Intel calls "P1+," while the i5-5675C is placed in one called "MS2+." The two aren't exactly in the same plane as P1K (eg: i7-4790K) or MS2K (eg: i5-4690K), respectively, and don't qualify as P1 (eg: i7-4790 non-K) or MS2 (eg: i5-4690 non-K). The two still feature unlocked multipliers. This places them somewhere between P1K/MS2K and P1/MS2. Both the i5-5675C and i7-5775C are quad-core chips, and physically feature just 6 MB of L3 cache. The i7-5775C has access to all 6 MB of it, while the i5-5675K features just 4 MB.

Intel's next major CPU architecture, codenamed "Skylake," could be classified as the company's 6th generation Core processor family. It will succeed the brief stint Core "Broadwell" will have at the market, with no major chips for PC enthusiasts to look forward to. The Core i7-6700K appears to be the flagship product based on the Skylake-D silicon, succeeding the i7-4770K and i7-4790K. The Core i5-6600K will succeed the i5-4670K and i5-4690K.

The i7-6700K is a quad-core chip, with HyperThreading enabling 8 logical CPUs. Its nominal clock will be 4.00 GHz, with a rather shallow 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost frequency. It will feature an 8 MB L3 cache, and an integrated memory controller that supports both DDR4 and DDR3 memory types. This makes Skylake a transition point for the mainstream PC market to gradually upgrade to DDR4. You'll have some motherboards with DDR3 memory slots, some with DDR4 slots, and some with both kinds of slots. The resulting large uncore component, and perhaps a bigger integrated GPU, will result in quad-core Skylake parts having TDP rated as high as 95W, higher than current Haswell quad-core parts, with their 88W TDP.

CRYORIG announces the H5 Ultimate. Based on the acclaimed H5 Universal, CRYORIG has extended the successful Hive Fin base H series line with the CRYORIG H5 Ultimate. The H5 Ultimate features the same award winning features as the original H5 Universal, but with a larger XF140 140mm fan and new jet black heatsink covers. The larger XF140 increases the H5 Ultimate's TDP from 160 to 180watt, putting the proprietary Hive Fin system to work. Together with the acclaimed MultiSeg mounting system, the H5 Ultimate will be the strongest single tower solution CRYORIG has up to date.

"The CRYORIG H5 Ultimate is the natural evolution of the H5 Universal. It follows our strategy of offering two different styles of products for our models. The Universal line focuses on the best compatibility on the market, and the Ultimate line which is about pure performance. The PC DIY Modding and Overclocking crowd is a smart bunch of people who know what they need and want. We at CRYORIG believe that giving extra options and choices ultimately allows for users to find and chose what they need, instead of having the brands choose for them. Choice of customization is key," said Alex W. Co-Founder of CRYORIG.

AMD's next-generation GPU family, which it plans to launch some time in 2016, codenamed "Arctic Islands," will see the company skip the 20 nanometer silicon fab process from 28 nm, and jump straight to 14 nm FinFET. Whether the company will stick with TSMC, which is seeing crippling hurdles to implement its 20 nm node for GPU vendors; or hire a new fab, remains to be seen. Intel and Samsung are currently the only fabs with 14 nm nodes that have attained production capacity. Intel is manufacturing its Core "Broadwell" CPUs, while Samsung is manufacturing its Exynos 7 (refresh) SoCs. Intel's joint-venture with Micron Technology, IMFlash, is manufacturing NAND flash chips on 14 nm.

Named after islands in the Arctic circle, and a possible hint at the low TDP of the chips, benefiting from 14 nm, "Arctic Islands" will be led by "Greenland," a large GPU that will implement the company's most advanced stream processor design, and implement HBM2 memory, which offers 57% higher memory bandwidth at just 48% the power consumption of GDDR5. Korean memory manufacturer SK Hynix is ready with its HBM2 chip designs.

Intel topped off its value dual-core processor lineup with a new energy-efficient part, the Core i3-4170T. One of the last chips to be based on the 22 nm "Haswell" silicon, this chip offers two cores with HyperThreading enabling four logical CPUs, 3.20 GHz clock speeds, 3 MB, and a TDP of just 35W (standard i3-41xx series feature 54W TDP). The i3-4170T is priced roughly on par with the current series-leading chip, the i3-4160. A little later this month, Intel will unveil the i3-4170, which will be the fastest part in the series, featuring 3.70 GHz clock speeds.

NVIDIA's GeForce GTX TITAN-X, unveiled last week at GDC 2015, is shaping up to be a beast, on paper. According to an architecture block-diagram of the GM200 silicon leaked to the web, the GTX TITAN-X appears to be maxing out all available components on the 28 nm GM200 silicon, on which it is based. While maintaining the same essential component hierarchy as the GM204, the GM200 (and the GTX TITAN-X) features six graphics processing clusters, holding a total of 3,072 CUDA cores, based on the "Maxwell" architecture.

With "Maxwell" GPUs, TMU count is derived as CUDA core count / 16, giving us a count of 192 TMUs. Other specs include 96 ROPs, and a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 12 GB of memory, using 24x 4 Gb memory chips. The core is reportedly clocked at 1002 MHz, with a GPU Boost frequency of 1089 MHz. The memory is clocked at 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective), yielding a memory bandwidth of 336 GB/s. NVIDIA will use a lossless texture-compression technology to improve bandwidth utilization. The chip's TDP is rated at 250W. The card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.2, one HDMI 2.0, and one dual-link DVI.

GIGABYTE rolled out a pair of GeForce GTX 960 graphics cards with 4 GB of onboard memory, the N960WF2OC-4GD (WindForce 2X), and the N960G1 GAMING-4GD (G1.Gaming). The N960WF2OC-4GD features a compact twin-fan WindForce 2X cooling solution, and offers a minor factory-overclock of 1241 MHz core with 1304 MHz GPU Boost (compared to reference speeds of 1216/1279 MHz.) The N960G1 GAMING-4GD, on the other hand, features the company's top of the line WindForce 3X cooling solution, which takes advantage of its meaty heatsink to keep the fans off until a temperature threshold is reached, with the 120W TDP GPU. This card serves up 1266 MHz core, and 1304 MHz GPU Boost. Both cards feature 4 GB of GDDR5 memory, across a 128-bit wide memory bus, clocked at 7.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective).

Along the sidelines of GDC 2015, Intel offered a few details on how the year could look for its desktop processor lineup. The company is preparing to launch socketed Core "Broadwell" processors in mid-2015 (late Q2 or early Q3), likely in the sidelines of Computex 2015. Broadwell is an optical shrink of "Haswell" to the new 14-nanometer silicon fab process, with a minor feature-set update, much in the same way as "Ivy Bridge" was an optical shrink of "Sandy Bridge" to the 22 nm process.

The socketed Core "Broadwell" chips could come in the LGA1150 package, running on existing 8-series and 9-series chipset motherboards, with BIOS updates. The optical shrink seems to be working wonders for the silicon. Quad-core chips based on "Broadwell" could come with TDP rated as low as 65W (and we're not talking about the energy-efficient "S" or "T" brand extensions here). Some dual-core variants in the series may even be based on the smaller Core M "Broadwell" silicon, which physically features just 2 cores (and isn't a bigger quad-core silicon with two cores disabled in what's a colossal waste of rare-earth metals on a production scale). Some of those dual-core parts could come with TDP rated as low as 28W.

Intel is beginning to put out the first details of its next high-end desktop (HEDT) processors, internally. Codenamed "Broadwell-E," the company's next Core i7 HEDT chips will be built in the existing LGA2011v3 package, and will be compatible with existing motherboards based on Intel's X99 Express chipset (with BIOS updates). Much like "Ivy Bridge-E" was to "Sandy Bridge-E," these chips will introduce only incremental updates, and nothing major, in terms of architecture.

To begin with, Core i7 "Broadwell-E" will be built in the 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and will feature 6 to 8 cores based on the "Broadwell" micro-architecture. These cores will be cushioned with up to 20 MB of L3 cache. The chip is pin-compatible to "Haswell-E," and so its I/O will be identical, featuring a quad-channel DDR4 integrated memory controller. One difference is that Intel may can the 28-lane PCIe approach with the entry-level part; or at least it doesn't find mention on the slide. If it's true, all parts based on this silicon, will feature 40-lane PCIe interfaces. The TDP of these chips will be rated at 140W. Intel is expected to launch the Core i7 "Broadwell-E" in 2016.

Eurocom is launching the thin and light, M5 Pro with a choice NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M and 970M graphics, 32 GB DDR3-1600 memory, 4 TB storage, a stunning 4k (3840x2160) 15.6" display and an Intel Core i7 4710HQ processor. If there was ever a laptop that could blur the lines between ultraportable and gaming it would be the EUROCOM M5 Pro, powerful enough to run current and future games at ultra with the weight, dimensions and battery life of an ultraportable.

The EUROCOM M5 Pro is Eurocom's newest innovative creation. A lightweight 2.6kg laptop with superb performance. It is powered by the next generation of world's most powerful NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M and 970M graphics and features a beautiful 4K, 3840-by-2160 pixels display. The EUROCOM M5 Pro is extremely thin and mobile while still offering a stunning 4TB of storage with four physical drives with a combination of traditional SSD/HDD as well as new, innovative M.2 slots. Sleek, slim, super high performance, the M5 is another "little monster" from Eurocom that will blow everybody away, while gaming or doing your corporate bidding.

AMD made three additions to its FX-8300 series eight-core socket AM3+ processors, along with adjustments to the series' overall pricing. The company launched a new performance-segment part, the FX-8370, along with two energy-efficient eight-core chips, the FX-8370E, and the FX-8320E. The FX-8370 features the same 4.00 GHz nominal clock speed as the FX-8350, but a tiny bit higher TurboCore frequency of 4.30 GHz, compared to the latter's 4.20 GHz. This chip is priced at US $199.

The FX-8370E, on the other hand, features the same maximum TurboCore frequency of 4.30, but its nominal clock speed is much lower, at 3.30 GHz. Not all cores run at TurboCore frequency simultaneously. The FX-8320E features a maximum TurboCore frequency of 4.00 GHz, same as that of the FX-8320, but a lower nominal clock speed, of 3.20 GHz. Both these two parts feature rated TDP of 95W, compared to 125W of the other parts in the series.

Intel made its newest Core i7 high-end desktop (HEDT) platform official with the launch of three new socket LGA2011 processors based on the swanky new 22 nm "Ivy Bridge-E" silicon. The launch includes the top-end Core i7-4960X Extreme Edition, priced at $990, followed by the Core i7-4930K at $555, and Core i7-4820K at $310. Expect a 10 percent markup across the board for these prices. Of these, the i7-4960X and i7-4930K are six-core parts, while the i7-4820K is quad-core.

The Core i7-4960X features a CPU clock speed of 3.60 GHz, with up to 4.00 GHz Turbo Boost frequency, 15 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading, which enables 12 logical CPUs for the OS to deal with. The i7-4930K clocks in at 3.40 GHz, with up to 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost, 12 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading. The i7-4820K, at its price point, can be extremely inviting for people with their minds set on a Core i7-4770K. It features 3.70 GHz clocks with up to 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost, 10 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading, enabling 8 logical CPUs. All three parts feature quad-channel DDR3 integrated memory controller with native support for DDR3-1866, 48-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complexes, and 130W rated TDPs.

AMD reportedly updated its consumer products roadmap for 2014 thru 2015 to account for changes in the industry. The company is expected to unveil its next-generation "Volcanic Islands" GPU family by late-September, 2013. In the first quarter of 2014, the company is expected to unveil its 4th generation entry-level APUs, codenamed "Kabini." Built in ST3 socket for notebooks, and FS1B for desktops, this product family will include dual- and quad-core parts, with TDPs under 25W. Among the quad-core parts are the A4-5350 and A4-5150, and among the dual-core ones is the E1-2650.

"Kabini" will enter mass-production in February 2014, and will be formally announced in the following month. Kabini's early-2014 launch, delayed from late-2013, will have a cascading effect on its successor's launch. "Beema," its successor, will now launch in either late-2014, or early-2015. "Beema" will be based on the same socket types as "Kabini," but will incorporate more HSA technologies.

AMD's energy-efficient socket FM2 desktop APU, the A10-6700T, is expected to go on sale later this week. Its selling point is the 45W TDP, with no reduction in core-count, or other components. Based on the 32 nm "Richland" silicon, the A10-6700T features four "Piledriver" x86-64 cores clocked at 2.50 GHz, with TurboCore frequency of 3.50 GHz, and 4 MB of total L2 cache. It features a Radeon HD 8650D graphics core with 384 stream processors, and untouched clock speeds of 760 MHz core, and 844 MHz boost. The chip also features a dual-channel DDR3-2133 MHz integrated memory controller, and a PCI-Express gen 2.0 root complex. The A10-6700T is expected to be priced around $150.

Intel is going in for the kill. The company has lowered the lowest SDP (Scenario Design Point, different from TDP) rating of Haswell based microprocessors from 6W to just 4.5W. The difference might not look like it's much (just 1.5W), but it is quite significant. While 6W wouldn't allow OEMs to use the processor in compact form factors like tablets, 4.5W will allow the same OEMs to go for fanless, passive-cooled Haswell powered tablets. Intel will ship very limited quantities of 4.5W SDP Haswell SKUs.

Of course, this opens up the possibility of these new Haswell chips to end up being used in Microsoft's next-generation Surface Windows 8 Pro tablet. If Intel manages to squeeze in an underclocked HD5000 GPU, there'll be nothing like it. Intel hasn't released any information regarding the exact specifications of the SKUs, pricing, or shipping dates.