The "Rocket Lake-S" microarchitecture by Intel sees the company back-port its next-generation "Willow Cove" CPU core to the existing 14 nm++ silicon fabrication process in the form of an 8-core die with a Gen12 Xe iGPU. An engineering sample of one such processor made it to the Futuremark database. Clocked at 3.20 GHz with 4.30 GHz boost frequency, the "Rocket Lake-S" ES was put through 3DMark "Fire Strike" and "Time Spy," with its iGPU in play, instead of a discrete graphics card.

In "Fire Strike," the "Rocket Lake-S" ES scores 18898 points in the physics test, 1895 points in the graphics tests, and an overall score of 1746 points. With "Time Spy," the overall score is 605, with a CPU score of 4963 points, and graphics score of 524. The 11th generation Core "Rocket Lake-S" processor is expected to be compatible with existing Intel 400-series chipset motherboards, and feature a PCI-Express gen 4.0 root complex. Several 400-series chipset motherboards have PCIe gen 4.0 preparation for exactly this. The increased IPC from the "Willow Cove" cores is expected to make the 8-core "Rocket Lake-S" a powerful option for gaming and productivity tasks that don't scale across too many cores.

One of the perks of AMD's Ryzen processor line is unlocked base-clock multiplier across the board, even with its upcoming $99 Ryzen 3 3100 quad-core processor. _rogame unearthed a Futuremark SystemInfo database submission confirming a 4.50 GHz all-core overclock, achieved on an inexpensive ASUS TUF Gaming B450M-Pro motherboard, with 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory. Also, SMT is left untouched, as the processor has all 8 logical processors (threads) enabled. Just to show this isn't a one-off, another FM database submission shows a 4.40 GHz all-core OC on the Ryzen 3 3100, with a similarly inexpensive MSI B450M Bazooka Plus motherboard, and 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3000 memory. The unlocked multiplier appears to add tremendous value to this two-figure chip.

ASUS is giving finishing touches to the launch of a new Zenbook 14 (UX434IQ) model with a combination of a Ryzen 4000 "Renoir" processor and NVIDIA's entry-level GeForce MX350 discrete graphics. Although never pictured and with no confirmation of whether it gets the swanky ScreenPad (a color touchscreen that works like the notebook's trackpad); the combine surfaced in a Futuremark database submission.

The Zenbook 14 (UX434IQ) combines an AMD Ryzen 7 4700U (8-core/8-thread) processor with NVIDIA GeForce MX350 discrete graphics, and more interestingly, 16 GB of LPDDR4x-4266 memory. The "Pascal" based MX350 graphics features 640 CUDA cores, and a 64-bit GDDR5 memory interface holding 2 GB of memory. It's marketed to offer a 2.5x performance uplift against an Intel Gen 9.5 iGPU, but we're not sure if it makes even a 1.5x uplift over the iGPU of the 4700U (448 "Vega" stream processors, 1600 MHz engine clock, plenty of memory bandwidth at its disposal thanks to LPDDR4x). The notebook also packs a decent Samsung PM981 1 TB NVMe SSD.

Intel's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake-S" desktop processor series inches chose to its probable April 2020 launch. Along the way we get this fascinating leak of the company's Core i7-10700K desktop processor, which could become a go-to chip for gamers if its specifications and pricing hold up. Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK revealed what could be a Futuremark SystemInfo screenshot of the i7-10700K which confirms its clock speeds - 3.80 GHz nominal, with an impressive 5.30 GHz Turbo Boost. Intel is probably tapping into the series' increased maximum TDP of 125 W to clock these chips high across the board.

The Core i7-10700K features 8 cores, and HyperThreading enables 16 threads. It also features 16 MB of shared L3 cache. In essence, this chip has the same muscle as the company's current mainstream desktop flagship, the i9-9900K, but demoted to the Core i7 brand extension. This could give it a sub-$400 price, letting it compete with the likes of AMD's Ryzen 7 3800X and possibly even triggering a price-cut on the 3900X. The i7-10700K in APISAK's screenshot is shown running on an ECS Z490H6-A2 motherboard, marking the company's return to premium Intel chipsets. ECS lacks Z390 or Z370 based motherboards in its lineup, and caps out at B360.

AMD could be giving finishing touches to its new generation of embedded SoCs codenamed "Cato." The chips surfaced on screenshots of UL Benchmarks (Futuremark) SystemInfo, across three models: the RX-8125, the RX-8120, and the A9-9820. For the uninitiated, the RX series embedded processors are part of the company's Ryzen Embedded family. The RX-series are differentiated from the A-series either by microarchitecture, or lack of unlocked multipliers, or other features, such as integrated graphics.

"Cato" is shrouded in mystery. One possible explanation could be AMD manufacturing the existing "Raven Ridge" IP on its refined 12 nm process, and "Zen+" enhancements to its CPUs. SystemInfo reading 8 logical processors could be a case of a 4-core/8-thread CPU configuration with SMT enabled. Another theory pegs this to be a new silicon, based on new IP, and 8 CPU cores. This is less probable since AMD is less stingy with SMT across its product-stack, and is hence less likely to deprive an 8-core silicon of SMT. If the latter theory is true, then this could simply be a case of the SystemInfo module not correctly detecting the prototype chips.

It's a big day for us. Today, we are looking back on 20 years as Futuremark and looking forward to our first day as UL, a name we now share with our parent company. To mark the beginning of this new chapter in our story, I'm happy to announce that we are running a week-long sale on Steam. From now until next Monday, you can save 75% on our 3DMark, VRMark, and PCMark 10 benchmarks. Or save even more when you buy them together in our benchmark bundle.

Futuremark set a date for its re-branding to align with its parent company UL. April 23, 2018 is when Futuremark products and services will be sold under the new branding scheme. Futuremark became part of UL in 2014. UL is an independent, global company with more than 10,000 professionals in 40 countries. UL offers a wide range of testing, inspection, auditing, and certification services and solutions to help customers, purchasers and policymakers manage risk and complexity in modern markets. A set of FAQs associated with the change are answered below.

Futuremark, makers of probably the most recognizable benchmarks out there, have announced they are getting a company rebrand. The announcement has come via a blog post on their site, citing a "new home" for the company. UL, a company that has existed for more than a hundred years and that specializes in testing, inspection, auditing, and certification services and solutions, purchased FutureMark back in 2014, and is now looking to streamline the company's branding to their own.

The move will see FutureMark rebrand itself to "UL Benchmarks" as soon as April 23rd. Everything but the branding - and the hosting websites should remain the same. FutureMark's benchmarks databases will be relocated to benchmarks.UL.com. The company has reaffirmed its commitment in that everything will remain the same, save for the new coat of paint; the mission and intention behind UL Benchmarks will be the same as with FutureMark. I'd say there's something of a missing opportunity here, though; Underwrites Laboratories (the meaning of "UL") seems much better suited for a benchmarking company, whilst also keeping thematical relevance with the parent company's name. But oh well.

DirectX Raytracing (DXR) is a new feature in DirectX 12 that opens the door to a new class of real-time graphics techniques for games. We were thrilled to join Microsoft onstage for the announcement, which we followed with a presentation of our own work in developing practical real-time applications for this exciting new tech.

Accurate real-time reflections with DirectX Raytracing
Rendering accurate reflections in real-time is difficult. There are many challenges and limitations when using the existing methods. For the past few months, we've been exploring ways of combining DirectX Raytracing with existing methods to solve some of these challenges. While much of our presentation went deep into the math for our solution, I would like to show you some examples of our new technique in action.

Futuremark today released 3DMark v2.4.4254 update (includes the "Time Spy" DirectX 12 benchmark). The latest version forces hardware monitoring information to be sent to Futuremark for validation of scores (and not just a general hardware and drivers probe). It also corrects a rare crash noticed when the system returns unexpected values for video memory amounts. The splash-screen has been restored. The installer is now available in Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. Grab the update from the link below.DOWNLOAD: 3DMark v2.4.4254

Intel revealed specifications of its upcoming "Kaby Lake + AMD Vega" multi-chip module, the Core i7-8809G, on its website. A number of these specs were already sniffed out by Futuremark SystemInfo, but the website sheds light on a key feature - dual integrated graphics. The specs sheet confirms that the chip combines a 4-core/8-thread "Kaby Lake" CPU die with an AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH graphics die. The CPU is clocked at 3.10 GHz, and SystemInfo (from the older story) confirmed that its Turbo Boost frequency is up to 3.90 GHz. The L3 cache amount is maxed out a 8 MB. The reference memory clock is set at dual-channel DDR4-2400. What's more, the CPU component features an unlocked base-clock multiplier.

Things get interesting with the way Intel describes its integrated graphics solution. It mentions both the star-attraction, the AMD Radeon RX Vega M GH, and the Intel HD Graphics 630 located on the "Kaby Lake" CPU die. This indicates that Intel could deploy a mixed multi-GPU solution that's transparent to software, balancing graphics loads between the HD 630 and RX Vega M GH, depending on the load and thermal conditions. Speaking of which, Intel has rated the TDP of the MCM at 100W, with a rider stating "target package TDP," since there's no scientifically-correct way of measuring TDP on a multi-chip module. Intel could build performance-segment NUCs with this chip, in addition to selling them to mini-PC manufacturers.

Ahead of its Q1-2018 launch after a CES reveal, Intel's Core i7-8709G multi-chip module (MCM) was picked up by Thai PC enthusiast and tech vlogger "TUM APISAK," revealing some of its first specifications as read by Futuremark SystemInfo, a hardware-detection component common to various Futuremark benchmark suites. The "Kaby Lake-G" MCM combines a quad-core "Kaby Lake" CPU die with an AMD Radeon "Vega M" graphics die that has a dedicated HBM2 memory stack on-package.

Futuremark SystemInfo puts out quite a few specs of the i7-8709G, beginning with its 4-core/8-thread CPU based on the "Kaby Lake" micro-architecture, which is clocked at 3.10 GHz with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost; Radeon RX Vega M (694C:C0) graphics core with 4 GB of HBM2 memory across a 1024-bit memory bus; with its GPU engine running at 1.19 GHz, and memory at 800 MHz (204.8 GB/s memory bandwidth); although the core-config of the iGPU remains a mystery. We recommend you maximize the video below for legible details.

Benchmarking company Futuremark has recently introduced a new benchmark to its VRMark suite, the Cyan Room, which brings the latest in rendering technologies to the VR world. Futuremark expects this test to leverage the latest hardware and software developments in DX12 to better utilize today's GPUs still somewhat untapped power. In something of a plot twist, AMD's Radeon architectures (in the form of Polaris 20-based RX 580 and Vega-based RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64) trump NVIDIA's equivalent offerings in pure performance numbers.

Testing was performed by pairing a Ryzen 7 1800X CPU with a selection of graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA, supported by 16GB of DDR4-2933 system memory, and Windows 10 x64. In a post on Radeon gaming, Scott Wasson said that "The Cyan Room (...) highlights AMD's continued performance leadership on this (VR) front," adding that "the Radeon GPUs we tested have clear leads over their direct competition. What's more, all the Radeon GPUs are meeting the key requirement for today's VR headsets by delivering at least 90 frames per second in this test."

Adding to its staple of benchmarking suites, Futuremark has announced the upcoming release of their latest benchmark, dubbed "Cyan Room". this is a Bioshock-esque benchmark that was made for DX12-powered, VR-enabled workloads, and should let users know just how much processing grunt they have at their disposal. It uses a pure DirectX 12 engine built in-house and optimized for VR, besides featuring "a large, complex environment and many eye-catching effects."

The Cyan Room can be explored at the users' leisure through its "Experience Mode"; it's a benchmarking experience where users can actually change the rendering resolution and other settings to make the scene more or less demanding, on the fly. This should allow users to truly gauge the difference in experience according to achieved performance in the benchmark - the company says "using Experience mode with a VR headset is a great way to see how system performance affects your VR experience." With its massive 5K rendering resolution and spectacular volumetric lighting effects, the company says it sets a high bar for future hardware generations. Cyan Room will be released on November 22 as a free update for VRMark Advanced Edition and VRMark Professional Edition.

Futuremark today rolled out a minor update to PCMark 10. Version 1.0.1403 does not affect comparability to benchmark scores from previous versions of PCMark 10. It includes an updated SystemInfo to version 5.3.629 with support for newer hardware, and three bug fixes. To begin with, a bug that prevents the Web-browsing video workload test from starting in some cases, was addressed. A bug that prevented the Web-browsing test series to start on some machines with proxy-server configuration, has been fixed. Data-logging for App Start-up, Spreadsheets, Writing, and Web Browsing workloads, has been improved. Grab the update from the link below.DOWNLOAD: Futuremark PCMark 10 v1.0.1403

Futuremark, the developer of the world's most widely used benchmarking software, today announced a new partnership with Newegg, the leading tech-focused e-retailer in North America. The partnership sees Newegg complement its comprehensive selection of PC components and complete systems with Futuremark's popular 3DMark, VRMark and PCMark 10 benchmarks. It's a winning combination: everything you need to build and benchmark a new PC in one place.

Newegg has long been the preferred destination for tech-savvy PC users when buying or building a new PC or upgrading individual components. Futuremark benchmark tests have helped millions of people test, compare and understand PC performance. Now for the first time, PC enthusiasts can buy Futuremark benchmarks from the same place they buy their components and accessories.

Futuremark today released the latest update to the 3DMark graphics benchmark suite. Version 2.4.3819, released to the public today, introduces the new "Time Spy Extreme" benchmark for machines running Windows 10 and DirectX 12 compatible graphics cards. With a rendering resolution of 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels), the new benchmark applies enough stress to put today's 4K UHD gaming PCs through their paces. You don't require a 4K monitor to run the test, however, your graphics card must feature at least 4 GB of video memory.

Time Spy Extreme also comes with a new CPU benchmark that is up to 3 times more taxing than the older CPU tests. It can take advantage of practically any number of CPU cores you can throw at it, and benefits from the the AVX2 instruction-set. "Time Spy Extreme," isn't available on the free version of 3DMark. You will require at least 3DMark Advanced, with a license purchased after July 14, 2016, to get it as a free upgrade. The update also improves the API overhead tests.DOWNLOAD: Futuremark 3DMark v2.4.3819

The change-log follows.

Futuremark is giving final touches to its top-tier GPU benchmark, 3DMark "TimeSpy Extreme." This benchmark tests your graphics hardware's performance at the 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution, with the latest DirectX 12 API. You will need a graphics card with at least 4 GB of video memory to run the test. The benchmark will put not just the fastest graphics cards through their paces, but is also designed to take advantage of today's multi-core processors.

3DMark "TimeSpy" Extreme can take advantage of processors with 8 or more CPU cores, and will benefit from the processors supporting the AVX2 instruction-set. Futuremark claims that the CPU tests of "TimeSpy" Extreme will be 3 times more demanding. The company also mentions that it developed the new benchmark while taking inputs from AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel. The benchmark is expected to launch on the 11th of October as an update.

Futuremark, a UL company, has made available today the much-awaited update to their PCMark 8 benchmark suite. PCMark benchmarks measure complete system performance using tests based on real-world apps and activities. In PCMark 10, these tests include everyday tasks such as browsing websites, video chats, written documents and spreadsheets, photo and video editing, 3D modelling and simulations, and for the first time a full gaming benchmark.

PCMark 8 catered more to the day-to-day working professional than the ever-growing PC gaming market, and their own 3DMark program thus more popular in usage among enthusiasts - including here on TechPowerUp. With PCMark 10, Futuremark has added 3DMark Firestrike as part of the PCMark 10 Extended benchmark. Currently missing from the suite however is a dedicated storage and battery test which Futuremark clarified is "being worked upon", and which will be released as an update shortly.

Futuremark today announced Testdriver, a benchmark automation software targeted at PC hardware reviewers, system analysts, and quality-control departments of computer hardware manufacturers. The software doesn't have any benchmarks of its own, but lets you script and automate your own selection of benchmarks, and helps with test data aggregation and presentation.

Testdriver comes with out of the box readiness for Futuremark's popular benchmark suites, such as the 3DMark family, the PCMark family, and VRMark, but also lets you add third-party benchmarks. The company offers email-support to customers in integrating benchmarks with the app. Given that the software is designed for diverse customer groups, Futuremark will be selling it through its parent company UL, and is taking orders over email by quoting a price specific to the customer's application of the software.

The PC Mark benchmarking software is one of the mainstays of system benchmarking. Although it isn't as attractive to enthusiasts and gamers due to the lack of such visually impressive showcases like Time Spy, it stands as a more complete suite for users looking to thoroughly examine their systems' performance. And it now offers a more complete package even for gamers and enthusiasts, since it does include a graphical, game-like benchmark in FireStrike.

Based on real-world apps and activities, the tests in PC Mark 10 work with some included third-party programs as part of the benchmark suite to reflect common tasks performed in the modern workplace. Futuremark is releasing three versions of PCMark 10, the Basic, Advanced, and Professional Editions, with different tiers of features for each. The Basic version will be free of charge (available to download on June 22nd), while the Advanced version will retail for $29.99 (and will be available on Steam.) You can read our review of PCMark's latest iteration right here, courtesy of our own VSG.

Futuremark today released an update to 3DMark benchmark suite. Version 2.3.3682 resolves a critical bug in the API overhead test, which causes the test to fail on some machines, towards the end of the DirectX 12 API test. The API overhead benchmark tests the amount of API draw-calls your machine can handle, over popular 3D graphics APIs, including DirectX 11 (single-threaded and multi-threaded), DirectX 12, and Vulkan. The rest of the feature-set is consistent with the older version 2.3.3663, in which the company introduced a brand new Vulkan API overhead test, replacing the Mantle API test. Grab the update from the link below.DOWNLOAD: Futuremark 3DMark + Time Spy v2.3.3682

Futuremark today announced that it is pulling the plug on its decade-old benchmark suites, 3DMark Vantage and PCMark Vantage. Official support for the two products will end on the 11th of April, 2017. This would entail the two being removed from the Downloads section of Futuremark, a stoppage in software updates, and the all-important benchmark result validation service. The two will be relegated to the "legacy benchmarks" section, and will be available as free downloads. Incidentally, April 11 also happens to be the day Microsoft stops support for Windows Vista.

Futuremark has just released a major update to its 3DMark benchmarking suite, adding Vulkan support while simultaneously axing its cousin, Mantle. This means that the API Overhead test now uses a Vulkan path instead of its previous Mantle one, which is sure to lead several enthusiasts into a frenzy of benchmarking under the Khronos's API (which has just recently been announced will offer support for multi-GPU in Windows 10, 8.x, 7, and Linux operating systems.)

Check some of the new features, improvements and fixes on the new version right after the break. You can download this piece of software right here on TPU - just follow the link below.Download: Futuremark 3DMark + TimeSpy v2.3.3663

A number of sites have been reporting on some leaked (as in, captured from Futuremark's database) scores on AMD's upcoming CPUs. Now, some benchmarks seem to have surfaced regarding not only the company's 8-core, 16-thread monsters, but also towards its sweet-spot 6-core, 12-thread CPUs and its more mundane 4-core offerings.

Taking into account some metrics (which you should, naturally, take with some grains of salt), and comparing Intel's and AMD's Ryzen offerings on 3DMark's Fire Strike Physics scores, we can see that a $389 Ryzen 7 1700X (8 cores, 16 threads) at its base clock of 3.4 GHz manages to surpass Intel's competing (in thread count alone, since it retails for $1089) 6900K running at its base 3.2 GHz frequency - with the Ryzen processor scoring 17,878 points versus the 6900K's 17,100. Doing some fast and hard maths, this would mean that if the R7 1700X was to be clocked at the same speed as the 6900K, it would still be faster, clock for clock (though not by much, admittedly). We don't know whether Turbo was disabled or not on these tests, for either AMD's or Intel's processor, so we have to consider that. However, if Turbo were enabled, that would mean that the R7 1700X's clockspeed would only be 100 MHz higher than the 6900K's (3.8 GHz max, vs 3.7 GHz max on the Intel CPU).