Acer expanded its Swift family of thin and light laptops with new Intel Core Ultra processors featuring Intel's first neural processing unit (NPU) and integrated AI acceleration capabilities. Now even more performance-minded, capable, and intuitive for content creation, schoolwork, productivity, and play, the new Swift laptops' powerful processing and AI-supported features further the laptop's usability.

"After unveiling our first Intel Core Ultra laptops last month, we're debuting even more products in our Swift line to help a wider range of customers take advantage of premium laptop experiences and AI-supported technology for more exciting and effective PC use," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer. "Plus, these laptops feature impressive updates that help customers do more - and do them even better."

Mini PC designer Geekom is bring three innovative desktops to the 2024 International CES, based on the very latest mobile processors by Intel and AMD. These boxes are hinged on MoDT (mobile on desktop) hardware, meaning that energy efficient mobile processors are crammed into compact desktop cases, and wired out with all the connectivity they can put out. The three mini PC models Geekom is launching includes the IT14 Pro, the A8 Max, and the APro8 Max. The Geekcom IT14 Pro comes in a 0.7-liter chassis (about the size of a NUC), and is powered by an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" processor configured with 6P+8E+2LP cores, or 16-core/22-thread. The desktop relies entirely on the maxed out Arc iGPU with all its 8 Xe cores enabled (128 EU). The NPU is also enabled. The company didn't reveal the memory, storage, or WLAN configuration of this desktop, yet.

The A8 Max is based on a similar 1-liter class chassis, but uses an AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS or Ryzen 9 8940HS "Hawk Point" processor, both of which are 8-core/16-thread "Zen 4," and configured with the full Radeon 780M iGPU available (12 CU or 768 stream processors). The star attraction here is the updated Ryzen AI NPU, which drives up the AI inference performance of these chips to 39 TOPS, compared to 34 TOPS of the Intel "Meteor Lake" chips. The APro8 Max is a based on a physically larger chassis that looks a bit like a game console. It's based on mostly the same hardware as the A8 Max, but with an added Radeon RX 7600M XT discrete GPU, which should give it the ability to offer maxed out AAA gaming at 1080p, or power productivity workloads at 4K UHD. We shoud know more about these three in Vegas next month.

Intel, in a company presentation made to its channel partners, confirmed that it is looking to release its next generation Arc Xe² discrete GPU lineup, codenamed "Battlemage." This would be Intel's second rodeo with high performance gaming graphics since its 2022 return to the segment with the Arc "Alchemist" series. The One Intel presentation slide talks about what to look forward to from the company in the client segment, in the coming year. The slide states that PC processor, workstation processor, and discrete GPU segments will each see upcoming products, which can be seen as a confirmation for a 2024 launch of "Battlemage." Older company slides had illustrated that the launch of "Battlemage" would be timed around that of the company's "Meteor Lake" and "Arrow Lake" client processors. The company is expected to launch "Arrow Lake" sometime in 2024. With "Battlemage," Intel is looking to offer a linear increase in performance, along with new hardware capabilities. The discrete GPUs from this family are expected to be built on a 4 nm-class foundry node by TSMC.

ASUS today announced the all-new Zenbook 14 OLED (UX3405), a premium ultraportable laptop. The sleek Zenbook 14 OLED is the ultimate Intel Evo Edition ultraportable laptop that takes sophistication to a whole new level. Users can seize every moment using the enhanced, extended-life 75 Wh battery, amplify their efficiency with up to the top-tier Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and Intel Arc graphics, and achieve seamless connectivity via all the essential I/O ports—including two Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, HDMI 2.1 (TMDS) and a 3.5 mm audio jack.

An immersive audiovisual experience is provided by the vivid 3K ASUS Lumina OLED 120 Hz touchscreen and powerful new super-linear speakers, and the user-friendly design incorporates convenient face login, an FHD IR camera with a physical shutter for privacy, and a new quiet ASUS ErgoSense keyboard. The new design offers improved sustainability with the extensive use of recycled materials for the laptop and its packaging, and US military-grade durability testing maximizes the device's service life.

Acer today announced new models of the AI-ready Acer Swift Go 14 (SFG14-72) powered by Intel Core Ultra processors that feature Intel Arc graphics processing unit (GPU) and Intel AI Boost, its new integrated neural processing unit (NPU), to deliver efficient computing performance of AI workloads and immersive experiences on the thin-and-light laptop. Students, professionals, and creators can leverage the Swift Go 14's array of AI features such as Acer PurifiedVoice and Acer PurifiedView for videoconferencing and customization tools on the OLED laptop. Accomplishing tasks and workflows are also made easier on the Swift laptop with Microsoft's Copilot in Windows 11.

"Our new Swift Go 14 goes beyond its stylish design and high-resolution display, delivering the latest suite of collaboration technology to support a wide variety of functions and lifestyles," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, Acer Inc. "The Swift Go 14 is one of the first devices in the market to be outfitted with Intel Core Ultra processors, paving the way to enhance support of generative AI tasks on more Acer devices moving forward."

Intel today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.5074 Beta adds optimization for "Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora," with an up to 8% performance uplift seen at 1080p with Ultra settings, as measured with an Arc A770 GPU. The drivers fix a handful of game-specific issues. Total War: Pharaoh exhibits display corruption upon changing game resolution on certain displays; which has been fixed. Application crashes with the original "Alan Wake" (DirectX 9) has been fixed. A colorful pixed corruption with "Cyberpunk 2077" has been fixed. Flickering pixels during gameplay with 4x MSAA enabled for "Counter Strike 2" has been fixed. A sporadic application crash with "Gostrunner 2" has been fixed. An application crash with "Far Cry 3" has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.5074 Beta

Intel is slowly preparing to launch its next-generation Meteor Lake mobile processor family, dropping the Core i brand name in favor of Core Ultra. Today, we are witnessing some early Geekbench v6 benchmarks with the latest leak of the Core Ultra 7 155H processor, boasting an integrated Arc GPU featuring 8 Xe-Cores—the complete configuration expected in the GPU tile. This tile is also projected to be a part of the more potent Core 9 Ultra 185H CPU. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H processor has been benchmarked in the new ASUS Zenbook 14, which houses a 16-core and 22-thread hybrid CPU configuration capable of boosting up to 4.8 GHz. Paired with 32 GB of memory, the configuration was well equipped to supply CPU and GPU with sufficient memory space.

Perhaps the most interesting information from the submission was the OpenCL score of the GPU. Clocking in at 33948 points in Geekbench v6, the GPU is running over AMD's Radeon 780M GPU found in APU solutions like AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS and Ryzen 9 7940U, which scored 30585 and 27345 points in the same benchmark, respectively. The GPU tile is millimeters away from closing the gap between itself and the desktop Intel Arc A380 discrete GPU, which scored 37105 points for less than a 10% difference. The Xe-LPG GPU version is bringing some interesting performance points for the integrated GPU platform, which means that Intel's Meteor Lake SKUs will bring more performance/watt than ever.

Intel today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4972 beta fixes an issue with "Starfield" posting lower than expected performance with game patch version 1.8.86 on Arc GPUs. The drivers don't include any new performance updates or bug fixes, but Intel has taken the opportunity to identify a few new issues to address in its future driver updates, spanning games such as "Ghostrunner 2," "Total War: Pharaoh," "Dead by Daylight," and Topaz Video AI. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4972 Beta

Intel Graphics has released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, version 101.4953 WHQL. This one comes with a several fixes for Starfield, Alan Wake 2, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and World War Z games. Intel fixed flickering color corruption in the sky during night scenes in Starfield, corruption issues on water and reflective surfaces in Alan Wake 2, lower performance in the Xbox Game Pass version of Halo: The Master Chief Collection, and lower performance in the Epic Games Store version of World War Z.

Intel did not fix all of the issues as Starfield is still having trouble with Dynamic Resolution Scaling, which can be fixed by using the Render Resolution Scale slider. Intel also lists known issues with Ghostrunner 2, Total War: Pharaoh, and Dead by Daylight games, as well as errors with some models for video enhancement in Topaz Video AI.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4953 WHQL

Intel Graphics today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4952 Beta comes with optimization for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III," "The Talos Principle 2," "Robocop: Rogue City," "Star Ocean II R," and "Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name." For "The Talos Principle 2," this means an up to 19% performance improvement when tested at 1440p with an A770. In addition, the drivers introduce several game specific performance improvements for titles that it is already optimized for, as detailed in the changelog below.

Among the issues fixed with this release include an application crash during gameplay with "Ghostrunner 2," a display corruption noticed with "Total War: Pharaoh" when changing display resolution; a display corruption noticed with "Starfield" with Dynamic Resolution Scaling enabled; an application crash with "Dead by Daylight," and errors noticed with Topaz Video AI when using certain enhancements. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4952 Beta

Intel today launched the Arc A580 "Alchemist" desktop graphics card, with general availability across both the prebuilt and DIY retail channels. The card starts at a price of USD $179.99. The A580 targets the lower-end of the mid-range, and is targeted at AAA gaming at 1080p with medium-thru-high settings. The card fully meets DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-requirements, and is based on the Xe HPG "Alchemist" graphics architecture that powers the current Arc A750 and A770.

The new A580 has a lot in common with the Arc 7-series, as it is based on the same 6 nm ACM-G10 (aka DGX-512) silicon that powers them. Intel carved out this SKU by enabling 24 out of 32 Xe Cores, across 6 out of 8 Render Slices. This results in 384 execution units, or 3,072 unified shaders, 384 XMX AI acceleration cores, 24 Ray Tracing engines, 192 TMUs, and 96 ROPs. Perhaps the best aspect of the A580 is its memory sub-system that's been carried over from the A750—you get 8 GB of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit memory bus, yielding a segment-best 512 GB/s memory bandwidth. Intel claims that the Arc A580 should provide performance highly competitive to the GeForce RTX 3050, but there's more to this, do check out our reviews.

ASRock Arc A580 Challenger OC | Sparkle Arc A580 Orc

Intel today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4887 beta adds support for the new Arc A580 desktop graphics card, which you'll hear more about soon. The drivers also add optimization for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III" (beta), "Total War: Pharaoh," and "Lords of the Fallen." The drivers also offer performance improvements for "Starfield," with up to 117% performance uplifts at 1080p with Ultra settings, and up to 149% uplifts at 1440p with High settings, as measured with an Arc A770.

The drivers also introduce performance uplifts for "Forza Motorsport," with up to 8% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings; and "F1 23," which now yields up to 12% gains at 1440p with Ultra High settings; and up to 136% at 4K with Ultra High settings. With this release, Intel fixed a bug that caused "Minecraft" (DirectX 12) to exhibit color corruption in night scenes with DXR ray tracing enabled.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4887 beta

Intel today released the latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics drivers. Version 101.4885 beta comes with optimization for "Assassin's Creed Mirage," and "Forza Motorsport." Gamers can expect up to 19% performance uplift at 1440p with "Forza Motorsport" at High settings; and up to 27% uplift at 1080p with High+RT for "Resident Evil 4," and up to 12% uplift at 1080p with Ultra settings for "The Last of Us Part 1."

With this release, Intel also introduced a number of fixes. An application crash with EA FC 24 has been fixed. A model/character corruption seen with "Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection" has been fixed. Several instability issues with "Starfield" have been fixed. A display/color corruption with "Dying Light 2: Stay Human" has been fixed. A bug that caused "Fortnite" to crash with Global Illumination set to "epic," has been fixed. An application crash for Adobe After Effects during render operations, has been fixed. A bug that caused some Arc A-series GPUs to display a higher GPU clock value than expected, has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4885 beta

Intel just released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4824 WHQL adds Game On optimization for "The Crew Motorfest" and "Mortal Kombat 1." Among the issues fixed with this release include flickering or display corruption noticed in Fortnite (DirectX 12), and erratic fan behavior on some Arc Graphics products. For Intel Core processor iGPUs, the drivers address a "Tactics Ogre Reborn" display flickering issue during the dialog sequences.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4824 WHQL

Intel Graphics has released yet another beta version of the Intel Arc GPU Graphics drivers, version 101.4676 Beta. The new version brings a couple of fixes for Starfield game, with more fixes coming in the future updates. In general, it improves stability of the game as well as fixes some rendering issues.

The latest Intel Arc GPU Graphics driver is still a beta release and hopefully, Intel will eventually launch the full Game On drivers, as there are still plenty of known issues with the game. On the other hand, as reported by Videocardz.com, Bethesda has noted that the Arc A770 GPU does not actually meet minimum requirements for the game, as these still include the Radeon RX 5700 and GeForce GTX 1070 Ti.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4676 Beta

The Asian Games 2022 athletic event was originally set to take place last September—officials have rescheduled proceedings to later this month (opening September 23, closing October 8). Gunnir has prepared new versions of its existing Arc A770 & A750 Photon OC graphics cards in celebration of e-sports competitions being added to the roster at XIX Asian Games, Hangzhou. The Chinese hardware manufacturer has produced an extensive portfolio of Intel Alchemist-based discrete solutions, so it is not surprising to see slightly revised designs being issued to tie-in with a significant multi-sport tournament.

Gunnir's Photon OC White Edition shroud has been updated with the official Asian Games emblem as well as wavy graphic patterns—their retail packaging shares similar revisions, giving off some very calming vibes. According to product listings on JD.com, the A750 8 GB model currently sells for 1699 RMB (~$232), while the range-topping A770 16 GB variant is available to pre-order at 2399 RMB (~$328). The latest Intel and Gunnir collaboration is not likely to reach Western shores—Team Blue's Chinese operation announced (last month) that it was the official graphics processor supplier for this month's Hangzhou Asian Games. We expect only the most hardcore of GPU collectors to import these curiosities from Joybuy/Jingdong (JD).

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR), unit shipments in the add-in board (AIB) market increased in Q2'23 from last quarter, while AMD gained market share. Quarter to quarter, graphics AIB shipments increased modestly, by 2.9%; however, shipments decreased by -36% year to year.

Since Q1 2000, over 2.10 billion graphics cards, worth about $476 billion, have been sold. The market shares for the desktop discrete GPU suppliers shifted in the quarter, as AMD's market share increased from last quarter and Nvidia's share increased from last year. Intel, which entered the AIB market in Q3'22 with the Arc A770 and A750, will start to increase market share in 2024.

Intel Graphics has released the latest version of the Intel Arc GPU Graphics drivers, version 101.4672 Beta. Although a bit late to the party, the new drivers brings optimizations for Bethesda's Starfield game, with reduced game load duration, instability and visual artifacts fixes, as well as Game On support for NExT Studios' SYNCED game.

The new 101.4672 Beta drivers do not appear to bring any further improvements or fixes and appear mostly focused on supporting the Starfield game. There are still plenty of issues with Starfield but Intel notes that further fixes are coming in future driver updates.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4672 Beta

Starfield Premium owners now have access to the game in full and are testing their internet download limits with its massive 120 GB file size, but a few hopeful gamers are going to have to wait regardless of how much they paid in advance. Intel Arc GPUs currently cannot play Starfield, with varying symptoms ranging from the game not starting to it taking 30-40 minutes before presenting the player with a jumbled cacophany of texture mayhem. Users report that the executable does launch in the background, and that during the half-hour that it's visible in Task Manager it can consume as much as 30 GB of system memory, before either crashing or finally presenting the game menu. If one does manage to get to anything resembling gameplay, their time is short as the game will crash to desktop within only a few minutes.

Intel stated they were aware of the issues shortly after advanced access began opening up, but hopes of a quick fix are not high. In a post by @IntelGraphics on X they state that they are working to improve the experience by the game's full release date on September 6th, roughly a week away. As one might imagine, many Arc owners were not pleased by this. Starfield is an AMD sponsored game and both Bethesda and Microsoft have received some criticism for this. Accusations that this sponsorship "locked out" developers at Intel's graphics division from working on usable drivers have been thrown around the likes of Reddit and X, but no evidence to support them has so far surfaced. Many will be quick to point out that NVIDIA released a preliminary driver for Starfield as early as August 22nd, so such interference is unlikely.Update: Intel has just released its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4672 Beta, adding support and fixes for Bethesda's Starfied game.

HardwareLuxx's editor, Andreas Schilling, was invited by Intel Tech Tour to attend a recent press event at the company's manufacturing facility and test labs in Malaysia. Invited media representatives were allowed to observe ongoing work on next generation client and data center-oriented products. He posted a short summary of these observations via social media: "I've seen wafers with Emerald Rapids XCC on them, that were being cut. Not a surprise at all, but still...also MTL682_C0, so Meteor Lake with 6 P-Cores, 8 E-Cores and GT2 Graphic Tile tested in a C0 stepping and finally the Failure Lab already saw BMG G10 - Battlemage is real." We have been hearing mixed mutterings about the status of Team Blue's next-gen Arc GPU technology, with more concrete evidence of its existence popping up around mid-August—namely in the shape of two Battlemage interposers, BGA2362-BMG-X2 and BGA2727-BMG-X3, uploaded to Intel's DESIGN-iN Tools website.

Schilling elaborated further in his full report: "In the Failure Analysis Lab, we came across a tray that evidently contained chips from the next Arc generation - at least, there were already corresponding chips in the analysis, which were clearly labeled as BMG G10." This chip looks to be lined up to succeed the current Alchemist ACM-G10 GPU, as seen on Intel Arc A750 and A770 discrete graphics cards. A leaked product roadmap shows Intel targeting a Battlemage launch around Q2 - Q3 2024, with the aforementioned G10 having a TDP rating of <225 W, as well as another variant—G21—rated for a maximum power consumption of 150 W.

Sparkle has announced the Titan OC graphics card, becoming the company's flagship Intel Arc A770 16 GB graphics card. It stands out with its 16 GB onboard memory, factory-overclocked GPU and memory, and an advanced cooling system for additional overclocking potential. After Sparkle's re-entry into the graphics card market, it unveiled a series of Intel Arc-based products. The Arc A770 Titan, in particular, showcases the company's technological advancements. The Sparkle Intel Arc A770 Titan OC Edition features Intel's ACM-G10 GPU with a base clock of 2300 MHz, which is a significant increase from Intel's stock 2100 MHz, and boasts a 16 GB memory with a 17.5 GT/s data transfer rate.

The card has two eight-pin auxiliary PCIe power connectors, yielding a 650-watt PSU requirement, and an expansive triple-fan cooling system for optimal performance even under heavy loads. A unique feature is the ThermalSync thermal sensor atop the cooler, which adjusts the LED light bar's color based on temperature, making it easier for users to monitor. When Intel discontinued its Limited Edition Arc A770 16 GB graphics card, there was a gap in the market for a high-performance graphics card to rival offerings from ASRock and Acer. Sparkle hasn't revealed the pricing for its Intel Arc A770 Titan OC Edition GPU.

Intel Graphics today released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4669 beta comes with Game On (day zero) optimization for "Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon." With the new drivers in place, the Arc A750 can provide average frame-rates of up to 92 FPS at 1080p with Ultra settings; and up to 82 FPS at 1440p with High settings. Among the issues fixed with this release include an application crash for "Shadow of the Tomb Raider" in DirectX 11 mode, in the game menu. Also, it turns out that Arc A380 reporting a base frequency of 2150 MHz compared to 2000 MHz reference with the previous 101.4644 drivers, was a bug. Intel fixed it with this release.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4669 Beta

Intel Graphics figured out a unique way to step up performance of its entry-level Arc A380 graphics cards. While other companies prevent BIOS updates and generally discourage overclocking; Intel has given the A380 a free vendor overclock. With the latest Arc GPU Graphics drivers 101.4644 WHQL, Intel has increased the base frequency of the GPU. The driver installer includes a firmware update besides the driver. The A380 has a reference base clock of 2000 MHz, which boosts up to 2050 MHz. With the latest 101.4644 drivers (the new firmware), the base frequency has been increased to 2150 MHz. It's not much, but hey, who doesn't want a free 7.5% overclock to go with their recent 19% performance increase in DirectX 11 games, and over 40% increase in DirectX 9 ones?

Intel today released the latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4644 WHQL comes with Game On (day-zero) optimization for "Madden NFL 24," and "Wayfinder." Among the issues fixed with this release include an application crash noticed with "Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection" when launching the game; a system hang noticed when waking up your desktop from sleep, needing you to cycle power; and an application crash observed with Blender 3.6 during render operations, when hardware ray tracing is enabled. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4644 WHQL

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the global leading motherboard, mini PC, notebook, mobile device, and smart solution provider, will attend Europe's largest and the most iconic consumer electronics trade show, IFA Berlin 2023, to exhibit a series of new laptops for education and business.

Optimize Cloud-Based Learning & Teaching: A New Series of Education Chromebooks Can Fulfill Teachers' and Students' Different Needs
After the world enters the post-pandemic era, there are enormous changes in both teaching and learning modes. Meanwhile, digital trend is arising. To meet various requirements from education fields, ECS launches the brand new SG20, SE40, and EP20 education PC series. These thin and ultraportable laptops feature rugged chassis certified by MIL-STD-810H tests. Equipped with Chrome OS, their battery life can last up to 10 hours. Besides, they support 4G LTE and Wi-Fi 6, which is ideal for remote learning.