Just over two weeks ago, NVIDIA officially outlined a vague May launch window for GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile 8 GB dGPU-based partner-produced laptops/notebooks—"starting at $1099." Industry watchdogs reckon that a comprehensive product reveal will happen at Computex 2025. Team Green's mid-April PR article mentioned that models "are coming from every major OEM"—an included promotional image showcased devices built by Acer, ASUS, Dell, GIGABYTE, HP, Lenovo, MSI, and Razer. The ever watchful Olrak29 has unearthed two unannounced COLORFUL devices; listings have appeared within the Geekbench Browser database. A next-gen "P15 Pro" entry—published on April 20—posted an OpenCL score of 109431 (in Geekbench 6.4).

This leak lists a Intel Core i9-13900HX "Raptor Lake" CPU and an "NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Laptop GPU." A more modern specced "iGame M15 Origo"—powered by Team Blue's Core Ultra 9 285HX "Arrow Lake" APU—option was also put through the Geekbench 6.4 wringer; this sample produced an OpenCL score of 102564 (on April 27). As observed by VideoCardz, the lower end "Blackwell" GPU beats its "Ada Lovelace" predecessor—GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile—by roughly 18% in overall OpenCL Geekbench gauntlets. Naturally, Vulkan-based scores would be better indicators of gaming performance. Early evaluators recorded maximum GPU clocks—of 2025 MHz and 2212 MHz (respectively)—on their GeForce RTX 5060 Mobile subjects.

Intel just reported its Q1 revenue results, and there are several interesting highlights from the earnings call. Intel Foundry, long touted for a comeback, is generating most of its revenue from a single customer, and it isn't the latest node. Intel's biggest customer is actually itself, predominantly using the "Intel 7" node (Intel's name for its 10 nm SuperFin process), which underpins the Alder Lake and Raptor Lake consumer CPU generations as well as the Sapphire Rapids Xeon server generation. As Intel ramps up 18A-node production and external clients begin testing their ASIC designs, 18A still isn't the Foundry division's primary revenue driver. Instead, demand for Intel 7 wafers is being fueled by massive orders for Intel's 13th- and 14th-generation Raptor Lake processors.

During the Q1 earnings call, Intel CFO Dave Zinsner noted, "Intel Foundry delivered revenue of $4.7 billion, up 8% sequentially on pull-ins of Intel 7 wafers and increased advanced packaging services." He also commented on the Q1 Foundry operating loss of $2.3 billion, attributing it to "startup costs associated with the ramp of products on Intel 18A." While the 18A node is gradually scaling to volume production for upcoming internal and external products, older nodes continue to fuel the revenue stream. Zinsner further confirmed that "we have a lot of important building blocks in place, including the ramp of Intel 18A in the second half of 2025 to support the launch of our first Panther Lake SKU by year-end, with additional SKUs coming in the first half of 2026."

Intel's latest AI-focused laptop processors, "Lunar Lake" and "Meteor Lake," have encountered slower-than-anticipated uptake, leading device manufacturers to increase orders for the previous-generation "Raptor Lake" chips. As a result, Intel 7 manufacturing lines, originally intended to scale up production of its newest AI-ready CPUs and transition to newer nodes, are now running at full capacity on "Raptor Lake" output, limiting the availability of both the new and legacy models. In its first-quarter 2025 financial report, Intel recorded revenue of $12.7 billion, essentially flat year-over-year, and a net loss of $821 million. The results fell short of the industry's expectations, and the company's stock declined by more than 5% in after-hours trading.

Management attributed the shortfall to cautious buying patterns among OEMs, who seek to manage inventory in light of ongoing US-China tariff discussions, and to consumer hesitancy to pay higher prices for AI-enabled features that are still emerging in mainstream applications. CEO Lip-Bu Tan outlined plans to reduce operating expenses by $500 million and lower capital expenditures by approximately $2 billion to address these challenges in 2025. He also confirmed that workforce reductions are planned for the second quarter, though specific figures were not disclosed. Looking ahead, Intel intends to focus on strengthening its data-center business, where demand for Xeon processors remains robust, and to prepare for the late-2025 introduction of its Panther Lake platform. The company will also continue efforts to encourage software development that leverages on-device AI, aiming to support wider adoption of its AI-capable hardware.

At the 2025 Shanghai Auto Show, Intel revealed its next-generation automotive system-on-chip lineup, unveiling two ambitious platforms, "Frisco Lake" and "Grizzly Lake". The company described these new designs as key steps toward fully software-driven vehicles, where much of the intelligence is handled by high-performance processors instead of dedicated hardware circuits. Intel said these chips would support advanced driver assistance and richer multimedia features. Intel's second generation Software Defined Vehicle, or SDV, Frisco Lake, is built on the upcoming "Panther Lake" architecture. The first volumes are expected in the first half of 2026, and TDP options will be among 20-65 W to meet different use cases. Intel says Frisco Lake will deliver ten times more AI performance and sixty-one percent better energy efficiency compared to the current Raptor Lake-based platform.

The new graphics block is based on the third-generation Xe architecture, known as "Celestial", replacing the older Battlemage design. Frisco Lake also supports twelve simultaneous camera inputs and up to two hundred and eighty audio channels. Linux kernel patch analysis also shows Frisco Lake cores are based on Panther Lake, confirming Intel's adaptation of its client CPUs for automotive use. Looking further ahead, Intel shared an early roadmap for its third-generation SDV platform, Grizzly Lake, which should arrive in the first half of 2027. Codenamed Monument Peak, these chips will use "Nova Lake" cores and may offer up to 32 efficiency-optimized cores along with an integrated Xe GPU capable of about seven TeraFLOPS. Additional features include support for six independent displays, twelve camera interfaces, and compliance with automotive safety standards.

MSI IPC, a leading provider of industrial computing solutions, is set to exhibit at Japan IT Week Spring 2025, held from April 23-25 at Tokyo Big Sight, Booth East Hall 3 #21-2. The company will showcase its latest innovations in AI computing, embedded systems, and edge intelligence, designed for smart manufacturing, medical, transportation, and industrial applications.

Explore the Future of Industrial Computing
MSI IPC will host a static demo featuring Intel Twin Lake, Raptor Lake, and Arrow Lake, allowing attendees to experience next-gen performance and AI acceleration. Key platforms include:

• MS-CF20 ATX (W880 chipset)- Built for high-performance workloads with expandability for industrial applications.
• MS-CF23 Mini-ITX (H810 chipset) - Compact yet powerful, ideal for space-sensitive deployments.
• MS-C927 Embedded Box PC (Arrow Lake-U & Meteor Lake-U) - Fanless, wide-temp system for industrial and embedded environments.

The long-promised gaming performance uplift for "Arrow Lake" processors is here, but for now, it is only available in China. Called Intel Performance Optimizations (IPO), this feature aims at system integrators rather than end users and offers a balanced approach between stock settings and full manual overclocking, all while preserving warranty coverage. IPO works by applying optimized profiles that adjust a range of CPU and memory parameters. On the CPU side, it fine‑tunes P‑core and E‑core frequencies, ring‑bus speeds, the UPI interconnect, D2D links between tiles, and both PL1 and PL2 power limits. For RAM, IPO raises transfer rates and tightens timings, pushing modules beyond their factory XMP or EXPO profiles. Early results from Chinese OEM Maxsun show that IPO can boost core clocks by about 200 MHz and elevate DDR5‑8000 kits to DDR5‑8400. In gaming tests provided by Maxsun, this translated to roughly a 10 percent uplift in frame rates, an encouraging figure given Arrow Lake's mild launch performance in gaming.

At debut, some Arrow Lake SKUs trailed their "Raptor Lake" predecessors because the chiplet‑based memory controller introduced extra latency and ring‑bus clocks ran slower. Supply‑chain constraints and tariffs have limited IPO's rollout to China so far, where pre‑built systems from vendors like Maxsun are shipping with the feature enabled. Warranty handling stays with the OEM, so users can enjoy the extra headroom without risking hardware support. Behind the scenes, Intel has been issuing firmware and microcode patches since December, most recently microcode 0x114 paired with CSME firmware 19.0.0.1854v2.2, to improve Arrow Lake's efficiency. IPO represents the next step in that effort and could become a model for global "opt‑in" BIOS presets if the pilot proves successful. For now, China is serving as the testing ground for Intel's latest attempt to squeeze more performance out of Arrow Lake. We have to wait and see if Western markets follow soon.

Mini PCs that prioritize performance over anything else are far from hard to find. Most such systems opt for high-end laptop chips instead of desktop ones, which is to be expected considering that there is quite a lot of overlap in terms of thermal expectations between the two segments - in other words, both have to deal with limited thermal headroom. The newly launched K10 mini PC from the well-known brand GMKtec is no exception, and packs the Intel Core i9-13900HK CPU paired with up to 96 GB of memory. Pricing details are under wraps as of this writing, and the system is available for pre-order in China. A global release in not in sight, although GMKtec does like to bring many of its products to the global market.

The 14-core, 20-thread Core i9-13900HK CPU may be over two years old at this point, but is far from a slouch. With performance that is almost neck-and-neck with the Core Ultra 9 185H, the high-end Raptor Lake-H is more than sufficient for the vast majority of intensive workloads that one might throw its way. Dual SODIMM slots are present, which can accommodate up to 96 GB of DDR5-5200 memory, Moreover, the K10 sports a whopping three M.2 2280 slots, which allows the system to pack up to 12 TB of solid-state storage. A pretty decent cooling system is also present, the performance of which, however, can only be established once independent reviews arrive.

Earlier today, three of Intel's South Korean authorized distributors announced the introduction of Raptor Lake-R-based "Value Pack Genuine" buying options—Danawa's news section stated that the involved companies are: PC Direct, Coit, and Intec & Company. The newly revealed "reasonably priced" packages will contain 14th Generation Core i5-14600KF or i5-14400F processors. A photo preview (see below) showcases very plain blue retail boxes (with no logo), adorned with information-carrying stickers. The freshly unveiled "Value Pack (genuine product)" designs are region exclusive (for the moment); seemingly slotting somewhere in-between Intel's traditional "Boxed" retail and barebones "Tray" processor offerings.

According to the Danawa report, one of the local distributors stated: "this is a very meaningful moment as it is the first time that an official Intel value pack has been released in Korea. We are pleased to offer a more reasonable price while maintaining the same warranty period and standards as existing genuine products. We hope that this release will allow more consumers to upgrade their PCs without burden." Western news sites have highlighted the Core i5 14600KF Value Pack's cheapest available price point (identified via the Danawa comparison engine); KRW 284,540 (~$199 USD). The traditional "Boxed" retail equivalent goes for KRW 295,700 (~$207 USD), while the barebones "Tray" (OEM-oriented) package is priced at KRW 261,200 (~$183 USD). Tom's Hardware checked out the new offering's Batch # and Serial # codes: "on Intel's warranty information page, (it) said that the ATPO (Batch #) we listed indicated that it was a tray processor...We'd like to believe the numbers on the image were just placeholders that belong to a tray processor, or that Intel RMAs in South Korea are all handled by its distributors." Danawa's news piece repeatedly claims that the two new options offer lower pricing compared to "existing genuine box products," but come with the "same genuine warranty" terms.

The ASUS NUC 13 Pro lineup of mini PCs has been around for a while, and has now been updated with new Raptor Lake-H CPU options. There do not appear to be any other improvements or changes to the systems, with the product continuing to be available in "tall" and "slim" variants. As one might expect, the tall variant has room for a 2.5-inch drive, while the slim variant relies solely on M.2 storage. Both the systems can be equipped with up to 64 GB of DDR4-3200 memory courtesy of dual SO-DIMM slots, and storage requirements are taken care of by an M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0x4, as well as an M.2 2242 PCIe 3.0x1 slot.

In terms of CPU options, the NUC 13 Pro mini PC lineup will now be available with the Core i5-13420H, and the Core i7-13620H. Both are 45-watt units, although the i7 variant sports two additional 'Golden Cove' performance cores allowing for a ~35% increase in multicore performance. The i7 also sports a substantially faster iGPU with 64 EUs (vs 48), although the Intel UHD iGPUs found in the Raptor Lake-H chips were never that powerful to begin with. The port selection has remained the same, boasting dual Thunderbolt 4, dual HDMI 2.1, triple USB 3.2 Gen 2, single USB 2.0, audio jack, and a 2.5G Ethernet port. Prices start at $455 for the NUC 13 Pro slim barebones variant with the Core i7-13620H according to B&H Photo Video's listing, and increase based on the chosen configuration.

While Intel is busy with its new Core Ultra 200S series of "Arrow Lake-S" processors for desktops, the start of 2025 is brining some interesting news for the last-generation Intel Core i9-14900KF CPU. The "Raptor Lake" CPU, without a working iGPU has officially broken overclocking world record and reached further into the 10 GHz dream. Achieved by an overclocker named "Wytiwx", the new world record is now sitting in at 9121.61 MHz, beating the previous 9117.75 MHz record held by "Elmor" by 3.8 MHz. This officially breaks Elmor's rule which started in 2022 and currently holds second, third, fourth, and fifth place in the leaderboard. We are curious if the new overclocker will maintain his lead, or if someone new will try to come out on top. Interestingly, for the new world record, Wytiwx used ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z790 APEX motherboard with CPU cooled by LN2. The run was validated on Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, which is an interesting choice for overclockers as previous records have also been set using Windows 7.

Shuttle is expanding its range of Mini-PCs with the XPC Barebone DH770 from the "XPC slim" family. The 1.3-liter PC offers powerful hardware, extensive connection options and flexible customization options for a wide range of professional applications. With support for 12th, 13th and 14th generation Intel Core processors (LGA1700) and modern DDR5 technology, the DH770 is the ideal solution for applications that require high computing power and reliability.

Outstanding performance and flexibility
The Shuttle XPC Barebone DH770 is based on the Intel H770 chipset and is compatible with the latest Intel Core processors up to the Raptor Lake-S Refresh series. With support for up to 96 GB DDR5 RAM and storage options via M.2 PCIe Gen 4 and SATA, the mini PC offers impressive performance in a compact format. Thanks to the option of operating up to four independent 4K displays simultaneously, the DH770 is ideal for demanding graphical applications, digital signage and control systems.

Intel has released the latest version of its Arc GPU Graphics Drivers, Version 101.6449 WHQL. The latest drivers are actually the launch driver for Intel Core Processor N-Series and Series 2, codename Twin Lake, Raptor Lake-H Refresh, Raptor Lake-U Refresh. In addition to updated support for new CPUs, the latest driver also fixes some issues on Intel Arc B-series graphics cards, as well as Intel Core Ultra Series 1 and Series 2 CPUs with Intel Arc GPUs. There are still plenty of unresolved issues on Intel Arc B- and A-series GPUs, but hopefully, Intel will fix these in the next drivers release.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.6449 WHQL

"Twin Lake" is codename for a line of low-power x86-64 processors by Intel, which succeed the Core i3 N-series and N200 series "Alder Lake-N" processors. These non-socketed (BGA) chips power a wide range of devices from entry level notebooks and mini PCs to consumer NAS servers, and other embedded applications. The chips feature only E-cores. While "Alder Lake-N" used "Gracemont" cores, "Twin Lake" uses the swanky new "Skymont" cores, which serve as E-cores in "Lunar Lake" and "Arrow Lake" hybrid processors. "Skymont" cores feature massive IPC and clock-speed gains over "Gracemont," of nearly 50%, which pulls up their performance levels to match the "Golden Cove" and "Raptor Cove" P-cores of "Alder Lake" and "Raptor Lake," although these cores can't boost up to 5.00 GHz. We got the first name-drop of "Twin Lake" way back in May 2024. Jaykihn leaked what the processor lineup could look like.

The "Twin Lake" silicon features two "Skymont" E-core clusters sharing an L3 cache. At this point, the sizes of the shared L2 caches of the E-core clusters, and the size of the shared L3 cache are not known. On "Alder Lake-N," each "Gracemont" cluster features 2 MB of L2 cache, and the two clusters share a 6 MB L3 cache. The silicon also features an iGPU based on what is very likely the Xe-LPG graphics architecture, with four Xe cores worth 32 execution units (EU). The series is led by the Intel N355. This chip maxes out the "Twin Lake" silicon, enabling both "Skymont" clusters, for an 8-core/8-thread CPU configuration. The CPU comes with a base frequency of 3.00 GHz, and boosts up to 3.90 GHz. The chip comes with a configurable TDP of 9 W and 15 W. It comes with a maxed out iGPU, with all 32 EU being enabled, and a graphics frequency of 1.35 GHz.

Intel and AMD are both widely expected to hit the market with new high-performance mobile chips at CES 2025. We expect Team Blue to lift the curtains on its Core Ultra 200H and 200HX lineup, whereas Team Red will strike back with its Strix Halo products, a few of which were leaked recently with promising performance. However, that's not all that we expect from the x86 behemoths, as both are poised to introduce mid-range and budget offerings as well.

Interestingly, it appears that Intel has already pulled back the veil on its Raptor Lake-H Refresh-based Core 200H lineup, which has been revealed as the Core Processor series. The lineup consists of mostly rebadged Raptor Lake-H chips, with some confusing choices. The products, based on the Intel 7 node, are as follows.

Intel is significantly expanding its desktop Core Ultra 200 "Arrow Lake-S" lineup with new 65 W models along the sidelines of the 2025 International CES, but more importantly, it is bringing the "Arrow Lake" microarchitecture to the mobile space. The company is planning to launch at least 22 processor models this January, but not all of them are based on "Arrow Lake." Tom's Hardware reports that the lineup broadly revolves around the "Core 2-series" processor model numbering.

The Core Ultra 200H series consists of H-segment (conventional thickness notebook) processors in the 28 W to 45 W class, and are based on the "Arrow Lake-H" silicon. The Core Ultra 200HX series targets premium gaming notebooks and portable workstations, and consists of 55 W to 65 W class processors, including CPU overclocking capabilities on certain models. Things get interesting with the Core Ultra 200U series. These chips are based on the "Meteor Lake Refresh" silicon—an older microarchitecture—targeting the 7 W to 28 W segments for ultraportables. Lastly, there's the Core H 200 and Core U 200 series (no "Ultra" in the branding), which are based on the older "Raptor Lake" monolithic silicon, targeting mainstream notebooks.

Dynabook has introduced the Protégé X30W powered by up to an Intel Core Ultra 7 165H processor. At first glance, that hardly seems impressive, but a closer look at the device reveals that the laptop weighs a feather-light 989 grams, or roughly 2.2 lbs. The device is also a convertible, which means that the hinge allows for 360° rotation, effectively converting the laptop into a tablet.

Apart from its lightweight design, there is little else about the laptop that is worth noting. The highest-end variant sports a Core Ultra 7 165H, which is a plenty-powerful chip, featuring 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores for a total of 14 cores and 22 threads, since the Crestmont cores do not support Hyper-Threading. An 8-core Arc iGPU handles the graphics, and delivers decent performance that nearly matches the RTX 2050 Mobile in certain cases. The system features up to 32 GB of DDR5-5200 memory, and up to a 2 TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.

Intel has significantly changed its latest 0x112 microcode update, removing users' ability to bypass the Digital Linear Voltage Regulator (DLVR) through standard BIOS settings on "Arrow Lake" processors. DLVR, a technology designed to provide precise voltage control for individual performance cores and efficiency core clusters, offers great benefits during gaming sessions and light workloads. According to overclocker der8auer's analysis, DLVR can effectively manage power consumption during gaming, with power losses of around 20 W at typical gaming loads. However, these losses can shoot up to approximately 88 W under full CPU utilization. Previously, users could disable DLVR through a BIOS setting called "Power Gate" mode, which is particularly useful for intensive workloads where power losses might impact performance. With the new microcode update, this option has been removed from standard BIOS settings. It is also worth pointing out that DLVR is in its second iteration inside Arrow Lake CPUs, after the initial debut in "Raptor Lake," which had DLVR fused off.

Intel explained to Hardwareluxx that this change was implemented to "prevent accidental misuse of DLVR bypass," restricting its use to extreme overclocking scenarios involving sub-ambient cooling methods like liquid nitrogen. The update has already been rolled out through BIOS updates on some Z890 chipset motherboards, with ASRock and MSI being among the first manufacturers to implement the new microcode. While DLVR bypass may still be accessible through specialized LN2 profiles on high-end motherboards, the average enthusiast user loses direct control over this feature. This development mainly affects early Arrow Lake adopters, as not all motherboards include extreme overclocking profiles. While Intel's move appears to prevent potential issues, we must remember that power settings are something that users should only change with plenty of consideration. Removing this power gate mod is Intel prevention for Raptor Lake-like situations where these chips had an issue with Vmin shift.

According to the market research firm Mercury Research, the desktop CPU market has witnessed a remarkable transformation, with AMD seizing a substantial 28.7% market share in Q3 of 2024—a giant leap since the launch of the original Zen architecture in 2017. This 5.7 percentage point surge from the previous quarter is a testament to the company's continuous innovation against the long-standing industry leader, Intel. Their year-over-year growth of nearly ten percentage points, fueled by the success of their Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series processors, starkly contrasts Intel's Raptor Lake processors, which encountered technical hurdles like stability issues. AMD's revenue share soared by 8.5 percentage points, indicating robust performance in premium processor segments. Intel, witnessing a decline in its desktop market share to 71.3%, attributes this shift to inventory adjustments rather than competitive pressure and still holds the majority.

AMD's success story extends beyond desktops, with the company claiming 22.3% of the laptop processor market and 24.2% of the server segment. A significant milestone was reached as AMD's data center division generated $3.549 billion in quarterly revenue, a new record for a company not even present in the data center in any considerable quantity just a decade ago. Stemming from strong EPYC processor sales to hyperscalers and cloud providers, along with Instinct MI300X for AI applications, AMD's acceleration of data center deployments is massive. Despite these shifts, Intel continues to hold its dominant position in client computing, with 76.1% of the overall PC market, held by its strong corporate relationships and extensive manufacturing infrastructure. OEM partners like Dell, HP, Lenovo, and others rely heavily on Intel for their CPU choice, equipping institutions like schools, universities, and government agencies.

As a quick follow-up to last week's "Arrow Lake-S" de-lidding by Madness727, we now have a line-up of a de-lidded Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake-S" processor placed next to a Core i9-14900K "Raptor Lake-S," and the Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake-S." The tile-based "Arrow Lake-S" is visibly larger than the two, despite being made on more advanced foundry nodes. Both the 8P+16E "Raptor Lake-S" and 8P+8E "Alder Lake-S" chips are built on the Intel 7 node (10 nm Enhanced SuperFin). The "Raptor Lake-S" monolithic chip comes with a die-area of 257 mm². The "Alder Lake-S" is physically smaller, at 215 mm². What sets the two apart isn't just the two additional E-core clusters on "Raptor Lake-S," but also larger caches—2 MB of L2 per P-core, increased form 1.25 MB/core, and 4 MB per E-core cluster, increased from 2 MB/cluster.

Thanks to high quality die-shots of the "Arrow Lake-S" by Madness727, we have our first die-area estimations by A Hollow Knight on Twitter. The LGA1851 fiberglass substrate has the same dimensions as the LGA1700 substrate. This is to ensure the socket retains cooler compatibility. Using geometrical measurements, the base tile of the "Arrow Lake-S" is estimated to be 300.9 mm² in area. The base-tile is a more suitable guideline for "die-area," since Intel uses filler tiles to ensure gaps in the arrangement of logic tiles are filled, and the chip aligns with the base-tile below. The base tile, built on an Intel 22 nm foundry node, serves like a silicon interposer, facilitating high-density microscopic wiring between the various logic tiles stacked on top, and an interface to the fiberglass substrate below.

MSI is thrilled to introduce the MS-CF17, a powerful 3.5" Single Board Computer (SBC) tailored for a wide range of industrial applications. Powered by Intel 13th Gen Raptor Lake-P processors, the MS-CF17 is ideal for use in industrial automation, edge computing, digital signage, and transportation systems. The MS-CF17 is designed to excel in harsh environments, offering fanless operation and a wide temperature range (-40°C to 70°C). This makes it perfect for settings where reliability and performance are crucial, such as in factory automation or outdoor digital signage installations. The board supports up to 32 GB of DDR5 memory and features built-in Intel Iris Xe graphics engine, making it suitable for graphics-intensive tasks like advanced imaging systems and AI-driven analytics.

Connectivity options are abundant, with four 2.5G LAN ports, four HDMI ports supporting quadruple independent displays, M.2 M key PCIe Gen 4 for storage and M.2 B/E key slots for expansions, allowing for seamless integration into complex systems. This flexibility makes the MS-CF17 a go-to solution for applications requiring high-speed data processing, multi-display setups, and real-time analytics. Additionally, the onboard TPM 2.0 provides enhanced security, crucial for applications where data protection is paramount.

Intel 13th Gen and 14th Gen Core processor models based on the 8P+16E "Raptor Lake" silicon are prone to an infamous bug that caused their performance and stability to irreversibly degrade over time due to excessive voltage. This was isolated to a faulty microcode. Intel responded to this by extending the warranty of affected processor models, and releasing a slew of CPU microcode updates encapsulated into motherboard UEFI firmware updates, through PC OEMs and motherboard vendors, with the latest such microcode update being 0x12B. There's good news—Intel extensively tested affected processor models and confirmed that the 0x12B microcode fixes this issue. It is crucial that you update your motherboard BIOS (UEFI firmware) to the latest version, which contains this microcode.

The Verge recently interviewed Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford on this topic, who stated that the company had identified four scenarios causing processors to irreversibly degrade, and had recommended mitigations to stable processors before the degradation set in, with the latest microcode update fixing all outstanding scenarios. If a processor is unstable (i.e. degradation has set in), the firmware update is of no use, and you should just get the processor replaced under warranty. Intel extended the warranty to cover even the very first purchases of affected processor models. "Yes, we're confirming this is the cause and that it is fixed," Intel spokesperson Thomas Hannaford tells The Verge.

Back in August, Intel started shipping its 0x129 microcode update for 13/14th generation "Raptor Lake" and "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. This update fixed incorrect voltage requests to the processor that are causing elevated operating voltage. Intel's analysis showed that the root cause of stability problems is voltage levels that are too high during the operation of the processors. These increases in voltage cause degradation that increases the minimum voltage required for stable operation. Intel calls this "Vmin." Today, the company discovered the root cause of this instability issue and informed users that a new microcode patch is underway. As explained by Intel, the Vmin Shift instability problem stems from a clock tree circuit in the IA core. When exposed to high voltage and temperature conditions, this circuit is vulnerable to reliability degradation. Intel's research has shown that these factors can cause a shift in the duty cycle of the clocks, resulting in system instability.

There are four scenarios that can cause Vmin Shift: increased motherboard power delivery, eTVB microcode algorithm running at higher performance operating states even at higher temperatures, microcode SVID algorithm requesting higher voltages at higher frequencies and longer durations, and finally microcode and BIOS requesting elevated core voltages. For motherboard power settings, mitigation is switching back to default settings. For the eTVB issue, the fix is a 0x125 microcode update. The 0x129 patch fixes the SVID algorithm, and the fourth condition, where microcode and BIOS request elevated core voltage, is fixed by the upcoming 0x12B microcode update. Intel is reportedly working with OEMs to start rolling out the 0x12B update with no apparent performance degradation. While the timeframe for shipping this update is unknown, we expect to see it soon. Additionally, Intel once again confirmed that the upcoming "Arrow Lake" CPUs don't have these issues.

Intel's 13th and 14th generation processors, codenamed "Raptor Lake" and "Raptor Lake Refresh," have been notoriously riddled with stability issues over the past few months, up until Intel shipped the 0x129 microcode update on August 10 to fix these issues. However, the upcoming Intel Core Ultra 200 "Arrow Lake" and 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors will not have these issues as the company confirmed that an all-new design is used, even for the segment of power regulation. The official company note states: "Intel confirms that its next generation of processors, codenamed Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake, are not affected by the Vmin Shift Instability issue due to the new architectures powering both product families. Intel will ensure future product families are protected against the Vmin Shift Instability issue as well."

Originally, Intel's analysis for 13th—and 14th-generation processors indicated that stability issues stemmed from excessive voltage during processor operation. These voltage increases led to degradation, raising the minimum voltage necessary for stable performance, which Intel refers to as "Vmin shift." Given that the design phase of new architectures lasts for years, Intel has surely anticipated that the old power delivery could yield problems, and the upcoming CPU generations are now exempt from these issues, bringing stability once again to Intel's platforms. When these new products launch, all eyes will be on the platform's performance, but with a massive interest in stability testing from enthusiasts.

We are excited to announce the launch of the MS-CF10 Mini-ITX motherboard, designed to deliver exceptional performance and versatility for a wide range of applications. Powered by the latest 14th/13th/12th Gen Intel Raptor Lake-S Refresh/Raptor Lake-S/Alder Lake-S series processors, including Core i9/i7/i5/i3, Pentium, and Celeron processors, the MS-CF10 is engineered to meet the demands of high-performance computing solutions.

Key Features:

• Advanced Processor Support: The MS-CF10 supports Intel 14th/13th/12th Gen Raptor Lake-S Refresh/Raptor Lake-S/Alder Lake-S series processors with R680E/Q670E/H610E chipsets, ensuring top-tier performance and efficiency.
• High-Speed Memory: Equipped with 2x DDR5 5200 MT/s ECC/non-ECC SODIMM slots, the motherboard supports up to 64 GB of memory, providing robust data handling capabilities.
• Multiple Display Outputs: Featuring quadruple independent displays with 2x DP, HDMI 2.0, and LVDS/eDP, the MS-CF10 is ideal for applications requiring multiple high-resolution screens.

TechPowerUp has released version 2.60.0 of GPU-Z, a popular graphics sub-system information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility. This latest update brings significant enhancements, including full support for the Arm64 architecture and Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite GPUs. The release also adds support for AMD Zen 5 CPU temperature monitoring and a wide range of new GPUs from NVIDIA, AMD, and Intel. Notable additions include the NVIDIA 4070 Ti Super (AD102), RTX 4070 (AD103), RTX 4060 Ti (AD104), RTX 4060 (AD106), as well as AMD Zen 5 (Strix Point and Granite Ridge), and Intel Raptor Lake U SKUs and Meteor Lake Intel Arc Graphics.

In addition to expanded hardware support, GPU-Z 2.60.0 addresses several important issues. The update fixes NVIDIA driver version reporting for some pre-2015 versions, resolves an installer problem that prevented closing running instances of GPU-Z, and corrects the "0 MHz" memory clock display on certain AMD RDNA GPUs without overclocking support. Other improvements include a small handle leak fix, added support for the Monster Notebook subvendor ID, and compatibility with new VMWare virtual GPU IDs. The installer now requires Windows 7 or newer, with appropriate messaging for unsupported systems. Users can download the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z from the official TechPowerUp website to access these new features and improvements.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.60.0