A lot is riding for Intel on its 11th Gen Core "Tiger Lake" system-on-chip (SoC), which will launch exclusively on mobile platforms, hoping to dominate the 7 W thru 15 W ultraportable form-factors in 2020, while eventually scaling up to the 25 W thru 45 W H-segment form-factors in 2021, with a variant that is rumored to double core-counts. The chip is built on Intel's new 10 nm SuperFin silicon fabrication node that enables a double digit percentage energy efficiency growth over 10 nm, allowing Intel to significantly dial up clock speeds without impacting the power envelope. The CPU and iGPU make up the two key components of the "Tiger Lake" SoC.

The CPU component on the "Tiger Lake" processors that launch in a few weeks from now features four "Willow Cove" CPU cores. Coupled with HyperThreading, this ends up being a 4-core/8-thread setup, although much of Intel's innovation is in giving these cores significant IPC increases over the "Skylake" core powering "Comet Lake" processors, and compared to the "Sunny Cove" cores powering "Ice Lake" a minor IPC (although major net performance increase from clock speeds). The "Willow Cove" CPU core appears to be a derivative of the "Sunny Cove" core, designed to take advantage of the 10 nm SuperFin node, along with three key innovations.

Acer today announced one of the world's highest refresh-rate monitors in the form of the Predator X25. Joining in the likes of Alienware and ASUS, who have already announced their own 360 Hz in the form of the AW2521H and ROG Swift 360, respectively. The Predator X25's über-high refresh rate will leave players out of any excuses so as to why they weren't able to react in time to a threat.

The 360 Hz refresh rates comes with compromises (resolution is only 1080p), and there will be NVIDIA's G-Sync on-board (but a graphics card and CPU combo that can push those 360 FPS to really make use of this refresh rate... Hmm. That's a tougher deal). Alienware has confirmed their AW2521H monitor uses IPS panel technology, and it would thus seem likely that Acer also makes use of that particular panel technology on the Predator X25. However, we'll have to wait and see. The monitor brings some quality of life technologies, such as ergonomics tilting (25 degrees backward, 5 degrees forward), swivel (30 degrees) and height adjustment (4.7 inches). The monitor also features an RGB lighting on the back of the monitor that can light up according to scenes being rendered or according to music you're playing, there's automatic brightness exposure, and a friendly reminder schedule that pops up a warning for users who have been using the monitor for too long, reminding them to take a little walk. No pricing or release date were available at time of writing.

In the world of competitive gaming, where mere milliseconds can make the difference between victory and defeat, NVIDIA today unveiled new G-SYNC displays with a 360 Hz refresh rate, providing esports enthusiasts and competitive gamers with the fastest gaming displays ever made. At 360 Hz, game frames are displayed once every 2.8 ms—up to 6X faster than traditional gaming displays and TVs.

NVIDIA and ASUS are showcasing the world's first G-SYNC 360Hz display--the ASUS ROG Swift 360--at this week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The display, which will be available later this year, pairs perfectly with GeForce RTX, the world's fastest gaming GPUs, to deliver the absolute best competitive gaming experience.