The upcoming flagship Intel Core i9-12900K has recently appeared in a CPU-Z single-thread synthetic benchmark where the processor scored 825 points. This would place the i9-12900K 27% higher than AMD Ryzen 9 5950X with 648 points and 20% faster then the previous generation Core i9-11900K at 682 points. This leak comes after SiSoftware published an early performance overview which showed the i9-12900K only matching the performance of competitors. We have also seen the processor in Cinebench R23 where it bested the 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX HEDT processor. The 12th Generation Intel Core family is expected to be announced later this year alongside the Z690 chipset with the i9-12900K rumored to cost 604.99 USD.

It's not every day that a software company that specializes in benchmarking software decides to compile the performance data of unreleased products found in their online database, but this is what SiSoftware just did for the Intel Core i9-12900K. So far, it's a limited set of tests that have been run on the CPU and what we're looking at here is a set of task specific benchmarks. SiSoftware doesn't provide any system details, so take these numbers for what they are.

The benchmarks consist of three categories, Vector SIMD Native, Cryptographic Native and Financial Analysis Native. Not all tests have been run on the Core i9-12900K and SiSoftware themselves admit that they don't have enough data points to draw any final conclusions. Unlike other supposedly leaked benchmark figures, the Core i9-12900K doesn't look like a clear winner here, as it barely beats the AMD Ryzen 9 5900X in some tests, while it's beaten by it and even the Core i9-11900K in other tests. It should be noted that the Core i9-11900K does use AVX512 where supported which gives it a performance advantage to the other CPUs in some tests. We'll let you make up your own mind here, but one thing is certain, we're going to have to wait for proper reviews before the race is over and a winner is crowned.

Update: As the original article was taken down and there were some useful references in it, you can find a screen grab of it here.

Samsung is by far Samsung's largest foundry customers and this is no secret, but now it seems like the company wants to gain more customers to help pay for the costs of operating a cutting edge foundry. A little over a decade ago, Samsung was part of the Common Platform technology alliance together with GlobalFoundries and IBM, which allowed companies to almost pick either foundry based on a common design kit and common process technologies. It made Samsung an attractive foundry option, but the alliance didn't last.

As we know, Nvidia gave Samsung a try with Ampere and there were a lot of reports of yield issues and what not early on. This seems to have persuaded Nvidia to move back to TSMC for Lovelace and Hopper, which is a big loss for Samsung. However, it seems this was also something of a wakeup call for Samsung, as the company is apparently looking at making some internal changes to its customer structure so it can handle third party customers in a better way.

Tech innovator GELID Solutions unveils the latest high-performance CPU Cooler for AMD and Intel CPU. The BlackFrore is a product of GELID Solutions GAMER product line. The BlackFrore comes with the advanced heatsink that carries 2 power heat pipes and features the Heatpipe Direct Contact (HDC) Technology to provide perfect thermal contact and facilitate heat transfer between CPU and the heat pipes. Additionally, the BlackFrore introduces the High-Class Black Electrophoretic Coating to guarantee top-grade surface finishing of the heatsink, create an exceptional look and feel and improve durability.

An improved 92 mm fan with the Smart PWM (Pulse Width Module) Control and airflow-optimized impeller compliments the heatsink. The newly designed impeller provides efficient airflow distribution over the heatsink and the intelligent PWM Curve technique constantly keeps the fans silent but accelerates speed whenever additional cooling is needed. The high-performance GC-Pro thermal compound and the all-in-one mounting kit for multiple AMD CPU sockets AM2, AM2+, AM3, AM3+, AM4, FM1, FM2 and for Intel CPU LGA 775, 1366, 011, 1155, 1156, 1150, 1151, 1200 sockets are all included too.

We've already covered the Intel Beast Canyon NUC in quite some detail over the past few months and it's finally available to buy, that is if you have more money than sense, as the starting price on Amazon for the barebone version is no less than US$1,769.95. For this, you get an Intel Core i9-11900KB CPU, a 650 W 80+ Gold PSU and of course the chassis itself. We did find it for slightly less elsewhere online, but even at that US$1,599 price point, it seems like a pretty bad deal to us.

Amazon is also offering a range of customization options, starting at US$1,839.95, which includes 16 GB of unspecified DDR4 RAM and a 250 GB Samsung 980 SSD. The maxed out configuration, which doesn't come with a dedicated GPU, tops out at US$3,139.95 with 64 GB of RAM and a pair of 2 TB Samsung 980 Pro SSDs. These prices do include Windows 10 Pro pre-installed and configured. Not sure about you, but this looks like a terrible deal to us.

An alleged Intel Core i9-12900K "Alder Lake-S" sample is shown beating the 32-core AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990WX HEDT processor at AMD's favorite benchmark, Cinebench R23, in its multi-threaded (nT) test. At this point it's not known whether the i9-12900K is overclocked, but the CPU-Z instance in the screenshot reads 5.30 GHz, which could very well be the processor's stock Thermal Velocity Boost frequency. The sample scored upward of 30000 points, putting it above the Threadripper 2990WX reference score in Cinebench.

The 2990WX is based on the "Zen+" microarchitecture, and released in 2018, but is a 32-core/64-thread chip that should have ripped through this rendering workload. The i9-12900K, on the other hand, has eight "Golden Cove" performance cores that have HyperThreading, in addition to 8 "Gracemont" efficiency cores that lack HTT. This benchmark was run on Windows 10, which lacks awareness of the Intel Thread Director, a hardware component that optimizes utilization of the two kinds of CPU cores. Windows 11 is known to feature better awareness of hybrid core architectures. The i9-12900K sample is possibly installed on a Gigabyte Z690 AORUS Ultra motherboard, and has 32 GB of DDR5-5200 memory (two modules, logically four 40-bit channels).

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) selected next-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors (code-named "Sapphire Rapids") to power the supercomputers used within NNSA's Life Extension Program for mission-critical efforts in stockpile stewardship. The NNSA's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory awarded a subcontract to Dell Technologies to supply the Intel-powered computing systems that will be deployed at the NNSA's Tri-Labs (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories).

Today's news supports the NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program operated at the NNSA's Tri-Labs. The Commodity Technology Systems contract (CTS-2) awarded today will enable these three national laboratories to build more powerful, energy-efficient computing systems that will focus on performing extensive modeling and simulation capabilities in support of NNSA's stockpile stewardship program.

Intel Senior VP and GM of Graphics Group, Raja Koduri has recently been interviewed by Japanese site ASCII where he revealed some new details about the companies upcoming Arc Alchemist gaming graphics cards. The cards will be manufactured on the TSMC N6 process instead of Intel's 7 node due to limited capacity however he did confirm that future cards could be manufactured directly by Intel. Raja also confirmed that Intel was currently offering reference boards to their partners to develop custom Arc Alchemist cards. This reference board is likely the same one we saw in early leaks from Moore's Law is Dead and the design featured by Intel in their promotional videos. The board partners may use the same cooler design in their cards or create semi-custom solutions.

Raja KoduriPartners and I think there will be a differentiation of ODM, and that will lead to the ultimate customer interest

The complete lineup of Intel's Alder Lake T-Series processors has recently been revealed by FanlessTech showing seven models ranging from the quad-core i3-12100T to the 16-core i9-12900T. These new processors are the low-power desktop variants of the upcoming 12th Generation Alder Lake hybrid family and are primarily designed for use in small form factor and fanless devices. Alder Lake introduces several advancements including PCIe 5.0, and DDR5 support in addition to a new hybrid design with a mix of high-performance and high-efficiency cores.

The 35 W TDP is a significant reduction from the 125 W and 65 W power budgets for the unlocked and normal variants of the processors and has resulted in a reduction in boost clocks. The flagship i9-12900T features eight high-performance and eight high-efficiency cores with a maximum boost-clock of 4.9 GHz paired with 20 MB of L3 cache. We also see that all the i3 and i5 models only feature high-performance cores with only the i7 and i9 getting additional high-efficiency cores. FanlessTech reports that these new processors should be available to purchase in early 2022, the complete lineup can be viewed below.

The Chinese source who published the first images of the Intel LGA1700 socket and Z690 chipset has now revealed some new information regarding the upcoming Alder Lake, Sapphire Rapids-X, and Raptor Lake products. The rumor claims that Intel will launch the W790 Workstation HEDT chipset in Q3 2022 alongside the 13th Generation Sapphire Rapids-X desktop series. This would be the first new HEDT launch from Intel in over 3 years with the previous 10th Gen Cascade Lake processors launching back in April 2019.

The rumor also states that Intel will launch the 13th Generation Raptor Lake desktop processors at the same time as their Sapphire Rapids-X HEDT lineup. There is also a note about Intel releasing the entire 600-series motherboard lineup in 2021 which is contrary to previous rumors which stated that Intel would only make the Z690 chipset available this year. This would be followed by a complete launch of all 12 Generation Alder Lake desktop processors and not just the overclockable K-series. This is the first time we have heard these rumors so while they come from a semi-reliable leaker we would recommend taking them with a healthy dose of skepticism.

With the 15.6 and 17.3 inch XMG APEX gaming laptops, XMG is positioning a new model series below its own high-end range consisting of the NEO and PRO series. These new laptops combine mobile AMD eight-core processors up to the Ryzen 9 5900HX with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards up to the RTX 3070. The company is simultaneously introducing the XMG FOCUS, a new product series in the entry-level segment. Intel's Core i7-11800H and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti offer decent gaming performance, while good connectivity and memory round off the overall package. All four new models feature an IPS display with 144 Hz.

Until now, the XMG APEX 15 in the older E20 generation represented uncompromising desktop CPU performance, with processors up to the Ryzen 9 3950X in a laptop. Although XMG is already working on a direct successor under a slightly different name, it is unleashing the XMG APEX 15 and APEX 17 of the M21 generation for the time being with the currently fastest eight-core mobile processors from AMD. The laptops are available with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H as well as with the slightly faster Ryzen 9 5900HX from the 54 watt TDP class, as well as with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or RTX 3060 in the respective maximum TGP configuration (RTX 3070: 125 watts plus 15 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0; RTX 3060: 115 watts plus 15 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0).

Intel has been working on a technology that will improve the lives of all users that have an Intel-based processor in their system. According to the recent round of patches for the Linux kernel, Intel's engineers have been working on a feature called Intel Seamless Update, which promises to bring updating of system firmware without a need to reboot. First of all, it is important to note that firmware upgrades have been stuck at requiring reboot in order to apply patches. This has caused many systems to be down and to slow down the infrastructure by a wide margin, as these updates can last up to several minutes, where the system is rebooting and can not be used.

Intel has presented an idea of creating a technology that will update system firmware, such as UEFI, in the run time. That means that the system will be able to apply firmware patches, without ever needing a reboot, minimizing downtime. This is especially valuable for customers with very high service level agreements (SLAs) around downtime, meaning that almost 100% uptime (not possible to be 100% generally speaking) is required for these systems. An example of this would be medical server infrastructure, which has to constantly be available for access. Using this technology, systems such as these could update their firmware and be online non-stop, without maybe ever needing to reboot. The said feature is supposed to arrive in time for the launch alongside Intel "Sapphire Rapids" Xeon processors.

US electronics retailer Provantage allegedly leaked the retail pricing of the upcoming Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake-S" desktop processors. The list confirms that the company will only be debuting the unlocked "K" and "KF" SKUs in 2021, with locked 65 W SKUs joining in only in 2022. Pricing was put out for both boxed, as well are tray (per-piece) prices. The lineup begins with the Core i5-12600KF boxed processor at $261.77, a 6+4 core (P+E), 16-thread processor with 20 MB of L3 cache, and 4.90 GHz maximum boost frequency for the P cores. As a "KF" SKU, it lacks an iGPU. The i5-12600K, which has the same specs and an iGPU on top, is priced at $295.49.

The Core i7-12700KF and i7-12700K are 8+4 core (P+E), 20-thread chips with 25 MB of cache, and 5.00 GHz boost frequency. The two are differentiated by iGPU. The i7-12700KF is priced at $395.61, and the i7-12700K at $422.17. Leading the pack, are the Core i9-12900K and i9-12900KF, which max out the silicon, with 8+8 (P+E) core, 24-thread, and 30 MB of cache. These boost up to 5.20 GHz, but we've heard rumors of the Thermal Velocity Boost feature driving frequencies beyond this. The i9-12900KF is priced at $578.13, while the i9-12900K goes for $604.99. Tray pricing of these chips is more or less similar, with price difference being under $5. The boxed SKUs don't include a cooler, so from a bill-of-materials standpoint, this price difference only accounts for the paperboard box. Intel is expected to formally launch these chips in late-October (which is probably when reviews go live), with retail availability in mid-November.

Without question, MSI is not only the market leader in the gaming hardware industry but also the pioneer in the Content Creation & Business market with a range of innovative technologies. As the world tends to be unpredictable, MSI keeps on developing products with stylish, stable, and have the best performance for all kinds of users. Today, MSI launched the brand new Content Creation Products: the Creator P50 with another new flagship monitor Summit MS321UP, both designed for creators, business professionals, and multi-taskers.

Creator P50 is sleek, slim, but packs a ton of power and is the dream desktop for creators, multi-taskers, and business professionals. MSI Creator P50 was inspired by the wireframe modeling and construction lines made by creators. The polygonal cutting pattern on this small 4.72 liters chassis not only symbolizes the unlimited imagination and extension of creativity, but also reflects a creator's growth, transformation, and refinement. It won't steal away the brilliance of the environment but blends in quietly with a low-key and elegant design. The P50 is a professional, clean, and stylish creativity center.

Thermaltake released its highest-capacity dual-channel (2-module) DDR4 memory kit, the ToughRAM XG RGB R016R432GX2-3600C18A. This kit uses modules that are a swansong of DDR4 in terms of capacity—32 GB x 2. The 32 GB module is dual-rank, and only compatible with some of the later generations of Intel Core and AMD Ryzen processors that feature memory controllers with support for up to 128 GB of memory in total. On its part, Thermaltake claims that the modules were only tested to be compatible with Intel 10th Gen and 11th Gen Core; and AMD Ryzen 2000 series and above. In terms of performance, the ToughRAM XG RGB R016R432GX2-3600C18 packs an Intel XMP 2.0 profile for DDR4-3600 with 18-22-22-42 + CR2T timings, and 1.35 V module voltage. The module is aesthetically identical to the ToughRAM XG RGB series the company debuted in March 2021.

The first indication of what to expect in terms of early DDR5 memory performance on Intel's Alder Lake platform has leaked, courtesy of a Chinese forum and Twitter. It's not the first time we've seen DDR5 performance figures, but this time the CPU is clocked at much higher speeds compared to the figures leaked by Longsys back in March.

Although the memory is still running at 6400 MHz, performance is up significantly with read speeds of over 90 GB/s. As we're most likely still looking at an ES sample and an early UEFI build, there should be room for improvement here. The leaked performance numbers appear to be from a Dell system of unknown model.

Today, we got ahold of the first picture showing Intel's upcoming Z690 chipset, the highest-end chipset offering for the Alder Lake lineup of processors. From previous leaks, we have concluded that Intel has enabled the Z690 chipset to be a very powerful offering. Featuring support for running either DDR4 or DDR5 memory, the Z690 chipset will allow motherboard AIBs to offer motherboards with both the new and current DDR standards, easing the transition to the new DDR5 memory. As far as PCIe connectivity, this high-end chipset produces 12 PCIe Gen5 lanes, along with 16 PCIe Gen3 lanes. This is, of course, just an addition to the 16 PCIe Gen5 lanes that the Alder Lake processor provides, enabling a wide portfolio of PCIe lanes for connecting SSDs and graphics cards.

Below, you can see the Z690 chipset image (热心市民描边怪 image), compared to the Z590 (AnandTech image) chipset, where there is a clear difference in size. The new Z690 chipset seems quite a lot bigger, and that is really not a surprise given the new technology stack that it brings.

With its new Socket LGA1700 heralding the first change in the physical dimensions of the processor's integrated heatspreader (IHS), Intel will introduce the first major redesign of its boxed retail stock cooling solution in over a decade. The Socket H-series (LGA115x/LGA1200) stock fan-heatsink has undergone several minor redesigns over the years, with regards to heatsink mass, the presence or absence of a copper core, the spiral or radial orientation of the aluminium heatsink forks (which affect surface-area and mass); although with what we're seeing in leaked Intel slides, the company's next stock coolers could look significantly different.

The Intel Laminar L-series fan-heatsinks come in three distinct variants based on the TDP of the processor they're bundled with. The Laminar RH1 (H equals "high") could be bundled exclusively with Core i9 SKUs that have 65 W TDP on the box, but have PL2 values well above 200 W. The Laminar RM1 (M equals "mainstream" or "medium"), will be bundled with Core i7, Core i5, and Core i3 SKUs that have the same 65 W TDP, but slightly lower PL2 (or at least a trade-off for higher noise). The Laminar RS1 (S equals "small"), targets entry-level Pentium and Celeron chips.

Intel has recently been promoting their upcoming Arc Alchemist (DG2) gaming graphics cards that are set to launch early next year possibly at CES 2022. We have recently seen a slide allegedly from Intel which states that the company will only be releasing products to compete in the upper mid-range segment and below. The slide details two DGPU GPUs where the SOC1 would have a TDP of 175 W - 225 W spawning SKUs to compete with the RTX 3070, 3060 Ti, RX 6700 XT, and 6600 XT while a cheaper SOC2 would have a TDP of 75 W and compete with the RTX 1650 Super. The SOC1 GPU would target the 300 to 499 USD price segment while the SOC2 would focus on the budget 100 - 200 USD market which AMD and NVIDIA have effectively abandoned with their latest architectures.

BIOSTAR today introduced the TZ590-BTC DUO, a feature-packed motherboard for crypto-currency mining setups, based on the Intel Z590 chipset, and supporting 10th- and 11th Gen Core processors in the LGA1200 package. The board puts out a total of eight PCI-Express 3.0 x1 slots, all from the Z590 PCH, besides a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot wired to the CPU, and four M.2-2280 slots. One of these is PCI-Express 4.0 x4 and wired to the CPU, while the others are Gen 3, and from the PCH. With M.2 to PCIe adapters already in the wild, you can install up to 12 graphics cards on this board. Connectivity options on this board include some legacy ports, including D-Sub for video from the iGPU, besides HDMI; and a PS/2 keyboard port. There is also an unusually high number of SATA ports, at 10 of them, besides the four M.2 NVMe. So you can also farm Chia at scale while you mine. BIOSTAR didn't reveal pricing.

Intel and AMD released the first Radeon Software drivers for the exotic Radeon Vega M graphics found in Intel NUC8i7HNK and NUC8i7HVK, in over 16 months. The Intel Download Center just added version 21.10.03.11 of Radeon Software for the graphics solution, dated 09/09/2021. The previous drivers dated all the way back to February 2020, and were based on Adrenalin 20.2.

The drivers are based on a release candidate of Adrenalin 21.10, which is 21.10RC1, but does not include the security updates AMD could be bundling with the upcoming 21.10 drivers (October 2021). "Radeon RX Vega M Graphics Driver version 21.10.03.11, which is based on 21.10RC1, does not include the latest functional and security updates. An update is targeted to be released in March of 2022 and will include additional functional and security updates. Customers should update to the latest version as it becomes available," says Intel in the release notes of the drivers. The drivers do include optimization for the latest games, including "Metro Exodus" (DX12), and "Resident Evil Village," besides adding support for Microsoft PlayReady AV1 decode.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Vega M drivers for Intel NUC8i7HNK and NUC8i7HVK from Intel

Microsoft released a fairly detailed run-down of the under-the-hood changes it made to Windows 11 over its predecessor. The operating system is optimized for a zero-trust work environment. This explains making a hardware TPM 2.0 device a minimum system requirement. The company may even penalize PCs running unsupported hardware with no access to security updates. The company also described fine-grained application performance prioritization, which automatically prevents "trivial" apps from taking up too many system resources.

Apps running in the foreground also automatically get a higher app priority. This is particularly useful when your CPU is bogged down with a heavy workload, and you're trying to open a new app. The OS automatically rations resources to ensure the app you just launched is prioritized, making the experience snappy. This technology carries forward even to the Edge web-browser, where the tab that's active has more priority, and tabs that haven't been accessed in a while are put to "sleep" (i.e. their memory is completely paged, and they're given least system resources). Microsoft calls this "Sleeping Tabs." Microsoft claims that the feature can reduce memory savings by around 30%, which could be handy for your foreground tasks. With the feature enabled, the OS (or Edge) handle prioritization automatically.

Intel today released the Xeon E-2300 series enterprise processors for entry level servers, based on the 14 nm "Rocket Lake-E" silicon. These are slightly different from the Xeon W-1300 series processors targeting workstations. The E-2300 has a more server-relevant feature-set, and is designed for high uptime. You get ECC memory support, as well as vPro, SGX, and MPX (memory encryption). You still get only client-relevant AVX-512 instructions found in 11th Gen Core processors, as well as DLBoost AI acceleration.

The "Rocket Lake-E" silicon comes with up to 8 "Cypress Cove" CPU cores, each with 512 KB of dedicated L2 cache, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor features a 2-channel DDR4 memory interface that supports up to 128 GB of DDR4-3200 memory. It puts out 20 PCI-Express 4.0 lanes that can be segmented in a number of ways; as well as the Intel C250 series chipset puts out 24 PCI-Express 3.0 lanes. Chips in this series come with TDP of up to 95 W.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger predicts that chips and semiconductors will make up as much of the car's bill-of-materials (BOM) as the engine (or main propulsion) itself. This change will happen as early as in 2030, said Gelsinger, speaking at a keynote address, at the IAA Mobility 2021 show in Munich. Gelsinger's prediction is backed by internal research conducted by Roland Berger, and McKinsey.

As of 2019, chips barely made 4% of a vehicle's BOM, confining mainly to the ECU and an optional infotainment system. By 2030, electronics will take over a more complex set of roles, including full automation, and AI that can drive anywhere. A fully automated vehicle, or AV, will be next big thing in personal transport. Gelsinger predicts a $115 billion TAM (total addressable market) size for automobile semiconductors by the end of the decade.

Following the secret message in MSI's latest launch event- MSIology: Tech Meets Aesthetic, the premium laptop brand dropped a bombshell to the community by announcing its collaboration with Hiroshi Fujiwara, the world famous streetwear brand directed by the godfather of street fashion. Redefining the definition of aesthetics, MSI launched the Creator Z16 Hiroshi Fujiwara Limited Edition, which is at the same time the world's first and only laptop that the highly praised Hiroshi Fujiwara has ever worked with, symbolizing a major breakthrough and bringing the premium user experience to the next level.

Hiroshi Fujiwara, the icon of street fashion. Concentrating on collaborating merely with leading brands in diverse fields, including Maserati, LOUIS VUITTON, NIKE, TAG Heuer, Jordan, CYBERPUNK «2077», KAWS, Playboys, BVLGARI, Beats and many more. Hiroshi Fujiwara views co-branding as the core of its communicative approach to the audience and injects elements of street culture and subculture successfully in different types of products, making it the icon of trending fashion. As the world's only laptop recognized by Hiroshi Fujiwara, the MSI Creator Z16 Hiroshi Fujiwara limited edition presents the beauty of perfect melding, through the "Black on Black" concept that blends the sharp black double lightning logo and the Stellar Black aluminium body of the laptop.