We have recently received some early gaming benchmarks for the upcoming Intel Core i7-11700K after German retailer MindFactory released the chip early. The creator of CapFrameX has managed to get their hands on one of these processors and has put it to the test comparing it with the Intel Core i9-10900K in some gaming benchmarks. Intel has promised double-digit IPC improvements with the new Rocket Lake generation of processors however if the results from this latest benchmark are representative of the wider picture those improvements might be a bit more modest then Intel claims.

The processors were paired with an RTX 3090 and 32 GB of 3200 MHz memory as this is the new stock maximum speed supported versus 2933 MHz on the Core i9-10900K. The two processors were put to the test in Crysis Remastered, Cyberpunk 2077, and Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, with the i7-11700K coming ahead in all three tests by ~ 2% - 9%. These tests are unverified and might not be fully representative of performance but they give us a good indication of what Intel has to offer with these new 11th generation chips.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Jon Peddie Research, the growth of PC-based Graphics Processor Units (GPU) shipments of all types worldwide reached 20.5 percent in Q4 2020 and 12.4 percent year over year. Overall, the installed base of GPUs will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.7 percent during 2020-2025 to reach a total of 419 million units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next five years, the penetration of discrete GPUs (dGPU) in the PC will grow to reach a level of 21 percent.

As part of its ongoing research on the PC graphics market, Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has released its Market Watch report for the fourth quarter of 2020. Before 2020, the PC market was showing signs of improvement and settling into a new normal. The pandemic has distorted all models and predictions, as has the gold-rush in Ethereum. JPR's Market Watch report confirms that trend for the fourth quarter of 2020, but with cautious guidance for next year.

Intel announced their 'mainstream' 670p PCIe 3.0 QLC SSD family earlier this week with pricing more in line with what you would expect for PCIe 4.0 drives. Intel announced three 670p models with 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, the advertised speeds varied with sequential reads of 3500 MB/s on the 1/2 TB models and 3000 MB/s for the 512 GB variant. Sequential write speeds were quoted as 1600 MB/s for the 512 GB, 2500 MB/s for the 1 TB, and 2700 MB/s for the 2 TB model. The latest QLC memory also brought a write endurance increase of 23% and the SSD's all came with a five-year warranty.

While these drives all offered respectable performance their pricing did not reflect their 'mainstream' target market with the drives priced at 90 USD, 155 USD, and 330 USD for the 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB models respectively. It would appear that retailers are taking it upon themselves to correct this by reducing prices by up to 24% on the new drives. Newegg currently has the drives listed for 69.99 USD, 129.99 USD, and 249.99 USD which represents a price drop of 20 USD for the 512 GB, 25 USD for the 1 TB, and 80 USD for the 2 TB version. These new prices make the 670p series a much more viable PCIe 3.0 SSD however, it is yet to be seen if these are the new official prices or just a discount from an individual retailer.

A federal jury in Texas has ruled that Intel Corporation violated two patents of VLSI Technology and must pay 2.18 billion USD in damages. The damages include 1.5 billion for one patent and 675 million for the other. The patents are related to clock frequency control and minimum memory operating voltage technique and were awarded to Freescale Semiconductor Inc in 2012 and SigmaTel in 2010. Freescale bought SigmaTel gaining control of the two patents before being passed to NXP after the company acquired Freescale in 2015, these patents were then transferred to the newly resurrected VLSI Technology in 2019 with the sole purpose of launching a legal battle against Intel. In a comment to Tom's Hardware the company said "Intel strongly disagrees with today's jury verdict. We intend to appeal and are confident that we will prevail.". This legal battle will likely drag-out for several years as Intel plans to appeal the recent ruling. Intel recorded a net income of 5.9 billion USD in Q4 2020 so this fine is by no means insignificant.

Intel in a statement to Hardwareluxx has confirmed that the release date for the company's next-gen CPU family, codenamed Rocket Lake-S, will indeed see a global launch come March 30th. The 11000 family of CPUs is already being sold on Germany, however, via etailer Mindfactory.de, who apparently jumped the gun on the actual availability of said CPUs. Mindfactory only ships within Germany, meaning that that country is actually the sole current field for Intel's latest-gen CPUs. The etailer says that they have the right to sell the CPUs, and stands by its decision, which likely means that their supplier failed to convey the proper NDAs and launch dates when selling - or so we're led to believe. That's the reason why benchmarks of Intel's 11000-series are already in the wild - even for currently unannounced CPUs, such as the Core i7-11700K.

WCCFTech over the weekend got their hands on the full table for Intel's upcoming Core i9 and Core i7 products (at least those available at launch). Mainstream CPUs on the Core i5 family and below weren't listed, however. It remains to be seen whether the previously speculated March 15th launch date will actually be the official announcement date from Intel, of if something else is afoot for that particular day of March.

Some time ago, Intel has introduced the Performance Tuning Protection Plan (PTPP), which was used as a warranty for any damage that has occurred during overclocking. Customers of PTPP, mainly buyers of Intel Core processors having a "K" tag were able to get a replacement processor whenever they damaged their CPU by overclocking it. When it comes to the pricing of such a service, typical plans were spanning from $19.99 to $29.99, depending on the processor you had. However, there will no longer be such a program, as Intel is discontinuing its PTPP extended overclocking warranty. The company has updated its site to refer to End-Of-Life (EOL) page displaying a quote below.

All of the MSI Z490 motherboards will be supporting PCIe 4.0 with the coming Intel 11th Gen Intel Processors. Through an update to the latest BIOS, MSI Z490 motherboards offer great bandwidth and performance for PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs and graphics cards.

To be PCIe 4.0 compatible, several components on the motherboards are necessary, including PCIe 4.0 ready clock generator, lane switch, redriver, PCIe slots, and M.2 connectors. Thanks to the complete PCIe 4.0 solutions, MSI Z490 motherboards provide the most stable design for PCIe 4.0 and unlock the full performance of PCIe 4.0 devices.

Lenovo announced today its all new portfolio of embedded computers for the edge during the Embedded World 2021 DIGITAL virtual exhibition. Building from the existing edge portfolio from Lenovo, the ThinkEdge devices - the new ThinkEdge SE30 and ThinkEdge SE50 - are small, rugged, and powerful enough to meet the demanding needs of enterprise data processing, security and scalability at the edge.

The new Lenovo ThinkEdge devices are powered by Intel technology and built for the data needs of tomorrow. The embedded edge computers are for customers who need faster processing power, better security, and scalability. With the right data securely on hand for when it matters, businesses can be more efficient, insightful and competitive.

ASUS today rolled out the ThunderboltEX 4, an add-on card designed to give your PC full Thunderbolt 4 connectivity. The only catch here is that you'll need an ASUS motherboard with a Thunderbolt readiness header (which provides timing and other low-level system commands to the card). Also needed is a USB 2.0 header, of which you're likely to have plenty. The card features a PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, and can be installed on any PCIe slot, x4 or larger. A 6-pin PCIe power input is also needed, as Thunderbolt 4 is capable of up to 100 W of power delivery per port, enabling single-cable RAID enclosures and monitors.

The ASUS ThunderboltEX 4 card puts out two Thunderbolt 4 ports in the USB type-C physical format, each with 40 Gbps of bi-directional bandwidth. The card provides DisplayPort passthrough for each port. You connect your graphics card to the ThunderboltEX 4 using the included DisplayPort to mini-DisplayPort cables. The card supports DisplayPort 1.4 passthrough, so you can scale all the way up to 8K resolution on the connected monitors, if your graphics card is game. Under the hood, the card features an Intel JHL8540 "Maple Ridge" Thunderbolt 4 controller. The company didn't reveal pricing.

It appears that Intel's DG2 refers to a number of HPG (High Performance Graphics) products within the same family, with rumors surfacing around a possible total of six different graphics products based on the company's latest high performance graphics architecture - and its debut on the high performance discrete market. It's been confirmed that Intel's DG2 products will not be manufactured in-house, via Intel's 10 nm SuperFin technology, but with recourse to foundry partner TSMC's 6 nm fabrication technology.

It seems that DG2 is currently slated for launch based on three different chip configurations: the first is the DG2 512EU, which will power the highest-performance, 4096 shading unit, 8 GB / 16 GB GDDR6 and 192-bit bus graphics card. Another chip is the DG12 384EU, estimated to come in at ~190 mm², available in three different shading unit configurations: 3072 shading units, with an accompanying 6/12 GB of GDDR6 memory and 192-bit bus; 2048 shading units, which reduces allotted memory to 4/8 GB configurations and a 128-bit memory bus; and finally, the further cut-down 1536 shading unit configuration, with a maximum of 4 GB of GDDR6 memory over the same 128-bit bus. The final (current) chip in the DG2 family is the DG2 128EU, with both 128EU and 96EU configurations (1024 and 768 shading units, respectively) carrying 4 GB VRAM over a pretty tight 64-bit bus. We'll see if these leaks actually materialize into final Intel products, and if these design choices are the possible best, considering Intel's technology, so as to assail the two-player party that is the discrete, high performance graphics market.

The upcoming Intel Core i7-11700K "Rocket Lake-S" desktop processor showed up on European Retailer Mindfactory.de as a pre-order, listed at 469€ (including VAT). This is a huge step up from the retailer's current selling price of the i7-10700K "Comet Lake-S" of 317.50€, although roughly in line with its launch price. The i7-11700K is an 8-core/16-thread processor, which steps up performance over the previous-gen using the updated "Cypress Cove" CPU cores that come with increased IPC. The processor features a maximum Turbo Boost Max 3.0 frequency of 5.00 GHz, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The chip is differentiated from the top-dog Core i9-11900K only by frequency, with the flagship chip featuring max boost frequency of 5.10 GHz, along with the Thermal Velocity Boost feature. The Core i7-11700K comes in a simple paperboard box that lacks an included cooling solution.

In 2011, computers were clogged with too many input/output (I/O) ports. There were USB ports for data; Ethernet ports for internet; and DisplayPort, HDMI and VGA ports for video. Despite being large enough to accommodate multiple ports, the computers still couldn't keep up with users' needs.

The solution? Intel launched Thunderbolt technology, which consolidated data, video and power on a single, small connector. Thunderbolt allowed users to move data quickly and confidently among connected smart devices - like PCs, docks, monitors, solid state drives, external hard drives and cameras - using that single connector. At the time, Thunderbolt boasted the ability to transfer a full-length, high-definition movie in less than 30 seconds and back up a full year of continuous MP3 music playback in just over 10 minutes.

Cincoze, a professional manufacturer of embedded systems, has announced its new flagship GPU edge computing system, the GP-3000. Its crowning feature is an exclusive GPU Expansion Box that provides expansion for up to two high-end GPU graphics cards and creating a high-performance industrial-grade GPU computer. Brandon Chien, General Manager of Cincoze, stated that "We already know AI will drive innovation and expansion for industrial applications. The GP-3000 is Cincoze's answer for intensive image processing and complex calculations, such as deep machine learning, autonomous driving, automated visual inspection, and mobile monitoring. As our latest flagship model, the GP-3000 multiplies edge computing efficiency, amplifies productivity and reliability, and accelerates AIoT automation."

The GP-3000's extreme computing power starts with an 8th or 9th generation Intel Xeon or Core i3/i5/i7 (Coffee Lake and Coffee Lake-R) CPU, Intel C246 chipset, and supports two sets of DDR4-2666 ECC/non-ECC SO-DIMM up to 64 GB and can support up to two 250 W high-end GPU graphics cards. With a total system power consumption of 720 W, it's easy to meet and exceed high-efficiency application requirements. A precision heat dissipation and cooling design quickly wick away heat, keeping the focus squarely on the breathtaking performance of the GP-3000.

Intel "Alder Lake" is the first processor generation coming from the company to feature the hybrid big.LITTLE type core arrangement and we are wondering how the configurations look like and just how powerful the next-generation processors are going to be. Today, a Geekbench submission has appeared that gave us a little more information about one out of twelve Alder Lake-S configurations. This time, we are getting an 8-core, 16-threaded design with all big cores and no smaller cores present. Such design with no little cores in place is exclusive to the Alder Lake-S desktop platform, and will not come to the Alder Lake-P processors designed for mobile platforms.

Based on the socket LGA1700, the processor was spotted running all of its eight cores at 2.99 GHz frequency. Please note that this is only an engineering sample and the clock speeds of the final product should be higher. It was paired with the latest DDR5 memory and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPU. The OpenCL score this CPU ran has shown that it has provided the GPU with more than enough performance. Typically, the RTX 2080 GPU scores about 106101 points in Geekbench OpenCL tests. Paired with the Alder Lake-S CPU, the GPU has managed to score as much as 108068 points, showing the power of the new generation of cores. While there is still a lot of mystery surrounding the Alder Lake-S series, we have come to know that the big cores used are supposed to be very powerful.

Intel claims that its upcoming 11th Gen Core "Rocket Lake-S" desktop processors offer up to 11% higher storage performance than competing AMD Ryzen 5000 processors, when using the CPU-attached M.2 NVMe slot. A performance slide released by Intel's Ryan Shrout shows a Samsung 980 PRO 1 TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD performance on a machine powered by a Core i9-11900K processor, compared to one powered by an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X. PCMark 10 Quick System Drive Benchmark is used to evaluate storage performance on both machines. On both machines a separate drive is used as the OS/boot drive, and the Samsung 980 PRO is used as a test drive, free from any OS role.

The backup page for the slide provides details of the system configurations used for both machines. What it doesn't mention, however, is whether on the AMD machine, the 980 PRO was installed on the CPU-attached M.2 NVMe slot, or one that's attached to the AMD X570 chipset. Unlike the Intel Z590, the AMD X570 puts out downstream PCI-Express 4.0, which motherboard designers can use to put out additional NVMe Gen 4 slots. On the Intel Z590 motherboard, the M.2 NVMe Gen 4 slot the drive was tested on is guaranteed to be the CPU-attached one, as the Z590 PCH puts out PCIe Gen 3 downstream lanes. A PCI-Express 4.0 x4 link is used as chipset bus on the AMD X570, offering comparable bandwidth to the DMI 3.0 x8 (PCI-Express 3.0 x8) employed on the Intel Z590. A drive capable of attaining 7 GB/s sequential transfers should be in a sub-optimal situation on a chipset-attached M.2 slot. It would be nice if Intel clears this up in an update to its backup.

Update 02:51 UTC: In response to a specific question on Twitter, on whether the drives were tested on CPU-attached M.2 slots on both platforms, Ryan Shrout stated that a PCI-Express AIC riser card was used on both platforms to ensure that the drives are CPU-attached. 11% is a significant storage performance uplift on offer.

Intel and Google Cloud today announced a collaboration to develop telco cloud reference architectures and integrated solutions for communication service providers to accelerate 5G deployment across multiple network and edge locations.

"Communications service providers can adopt cloud-native technologies to harness the potential of 5G both as a connectivity solution and as a business services platform to deliver applications to the network edge," said Shailesh Shukla, vice president and general manager of networking at Google Cloud. "Expanding on our work with the telecommunications industry, we are excited to work with Intel to help customers plan, test and deploy the technology and infrastructure needed to accelerate the delivery of cloud-native 5G for consumer and enterprise use cases."

Odd Tech Reviews published a performance review of an Intel Core i7-11700 (non-K) "employee beta sample." This review comes on the heels of a Lab501.ro review of an unlocked i7-11700K engineering sample; and yet springs a different set of results in relation to the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X. The i7-11700 is shown having a slight edge over the 5800X in both the single- and multi-threaded tests of the CPU-Z Bench, where it's shown posting a 3.59% higher single-threaded score.

The Ryzen 7 5800X retakes the lead over the Core i7-11700 sample in Cinebench R15 and R20, posting higher scores in both the single- and multi-threaded tests. The 5800X also maintains lead with 7-Zip. Blender sees the i7-11700 once again run past the 5800X, but the AMD chip claws back with V-Ray and Handbrake video-encoding tests. There's a pitched battle between the 5800X and the i7-11700 with gaming, with each chip having an upper hand over the other, depending on the test. Find all these results and more in the Odd Tech Reviews presentation.

Intel's upcoming flagship desktop processor, the Core i9-11900K, is expected to feature a fancy retail package, much like the original Core i9-9900K. VideoCardz just tweeted a teaser shot of what looks like an acrylic retail package of the chip, with its prominent i9 branding, in Intel's favorite shade of blue. Unlike the i9-10900K, which has a mostly paperboard box with a large acrylic window, the i9-11900K package appears to be entirely made of hard plastic, and an unknown geometric shape. We'll know a lot more as we creep toward the mid-March launch of these chips.

Update 10:18 UTC: Here it is, the i9-11900K retail package in all its glory. It's mostly a cuboid, but with numerous trapezoid shapes. The i9-11900KF, however, gets a basic paperboard box sans cooler, while the "locked" i9-11900 has a slightly larger paperboard box that has a boxed cooler.

In the latest round of rumors, we have today received some really interesting news regarding Intel's upcoming lineup of desktop processors. Thanks to HKEPC media, we have information about the launch date of Intel's Rocket Lake-S processor lineup and Alder Lake-S details. Starting with Rocket Lake, Intel did not unveil the exact availability date on these processors. However, thanks to HKEPC, we have information that Rocket Lake is landing in our hands on March 15th. With 500 series chipsets already launched, consumers are now waiting for the processors to arrive as well, so they can pair their new PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs with the latest processor generation.

When it comes to the next generation Alder Lake-S design, Intel is reported to use its enhanced 10 nm SuperFin process for the manufacturing of these processors. This would mean that the node is more efficient than the regular 10 nm SuperFin present on Tiger Lake processors, and some improvements like better frequencies are expected. Alder Lake is expected to make use of big.LITTLE core configuration, with small cores being Gracemont designs, and the big cores being Golden Cove designs. The magic of Golden Cove is expected to result in 20% IPC improvement over Willow Cove, which exists today in Tiger Lake designs. Paired with PCIe 5.0 and DDR5 technology, Alder Lake is looking like a compelling upgrade that is arriving in December of this year. Pictured below is the LGA1700 engineering sample of Alder Lake-S processor.

When AMD announced its Ryzen 5000 series of processors based on the new Zen 3 architecture, the performance of these processors was the best on the market. Even in our own testing, we have found that AMD's Zen 3 core is the highest performing core on the market, even beating Intel's latest and greatest, the 10th generation of Core processors. However, Intel has been doing some silent work and the company has developed a new core to be used in the 11th generation "Rocket Lake" platform. Codenamed Cypress Cove, the design is representing a backport of the 10 nm Sunny Cove design, supposed to bring around 19% IPC improvement across the board.

If you were wondering if that was enough to catch up with AMD's Zen 3 IPC performance, look no further because we have Geekbench 5 performance results of Intel's 35 Watt Core i9-11900T processor. Having a base frequency of only 1.51 GHz, the CPU is capable of boosting one or two cores to the very high speed of 4.9 GHz, giving us a good example of the single-threaded performance we can expect from this CPU. In GB5 tests, the Core i9-11900T has managed to score 1717 points in the single-threaded test and 8349 points in multi-threaded results. Comparing that to something like AMD Ryzen 5800X, which scores 1674 points in single-threaded results, Rocket Lake's Cypress Cove core has managed to be 2.5% faster than Zen 3. However, in multi-threaded results, the AMD chip is unmatched as the low TDP of the Intel processor is stopping it from reaching full performance.

Today marks Intel's official CEO transition as Pat Gelsinger becomes the company's eighth chief executive officer in its history. Gelsinger is an accomplished CEO and industry veteran with more than four decades of technology and leadership experience - including 30 years at Intel, where he began his career.

Gelsinger shared his thoughts on returning to lead the company, saying:
"As the incoming CEO, I am just really thrilled that we have the opportunity to take this great icon of a company, this company that has been crucial to every aspect of technology, and have it be that leader again into the future. Because I believe that Intel has a treasure trove of technologists, of technology, and ultimately its core DNA is being that technology leader for the future. I'm just thrilled as a technologist, as a geek at heart, to be able to be in that leadership role to help bring the passions, the history, the opportunity of this great company forward as never before. Our best days are in front of us."

Intel is reportedly giving finishing touches to the Core i9-10900KS Special Edition desktop processor. The SKU was leaked to the web in an "eligible products list" as part of a "Crysis Remastered" game bundle campaign. This would be the third in a string of special edition processor models from Intel, after the Core i7-8086K, and the Core i9-9900KS. The i9-10900KS could be a 10-core/20-thread processor based on the "Comet Lake-S" silicon, but with higher clock-speeds than the i9-10900K, possibly even a high all-core boost frequency. The timing of this launch is curious, as we're just 6-7 weeks from market availability of the 11th Gen Core "Rocket Lake-S" launch.

In related news, Intel is refreshing the bottom end of its 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake" lineup with the company's latest corporate identity and packaging. This is probably being done to cater to entry-level 400-series chipsets such as the H410 and B460, which will not support "Rocket Lake" processors. A Malaysian tech publication posted a picture of a refreshed Core i3-10105F 4-core/8-thread processor retail package. In all likelihood, the refreshed 10th Gen chips are speed-bumps.

Intel announced their 11th Generation Tiger Lake-H processors for high-end gaming laptops at CES 2021. The three models announced are now shipping in slim gaming machines and target the AMD Ryzen 5000H series processors. The Intel models compete favorably in single-core performance but only feature four cores and eight threads while the Ryzen 5000H series processors include up to 8 cores and 16 threads giving them the clear advantage in multi-core performance.

Intel is planning to close this performance gap with the launch of three new 45 W 8 core 11th Generation H-series processors in Q2 2021 with a possible announcement at Computex. The three models include the unlocked Core i9-11980HK, Core i9-11900H, and the Core i7-11800H along with the Core i5-11400H with six cores. These new processors will compete directly with the Ryzen 9 5980HX, Ryzen 9 5900H, and Ryzen 7 5800H with the Core i9-11980HK likely to feature a boost clock of 5 GHz on multiple cores.

LG Electronics USA announced pricing and availability of the full line of 2021 LG gram laptops at LG-authorized dealers nationwide. Led by the CES 2021 Innovation Award-winning 17-inch LG gram 17, the 2021 line features stylish new designs and productivity-boosting 16:10 aspect ratio screens ideal for both productivity and entertainment.

The diverse lineup includes five exciting new models: LG gram 17 (model 17Z90P), LG gram 16 (model 16Z90P), LG gram 14 (model 14Z90P), LG gram 2-in-1 16 (model 16T90P) and LG gram 2-in-1 14 (model 14T90P) all with 16:10 aspect ratio screens designed around maximizing work efficiency. Offering more screen real estate than the 16:9 displays found on most laptops, the latest LG grams are able to show more information at any one time. The keyboard and touchpad have also been enlarged for extended comfort and efficiency without compromising the portability of these compact devices. The 2021 LG gram lineup also features an expanded range of color options including white, black, silver and green outer shells.

Intel has apparently begun discounting its desktop CPUs, perhaps in a bid to try and maintain market share earning momentum the company garnered in the last few months. As AMD struggles to keep up with consumer demand for its latest Ryzen 5000 series, Intel looks to be capitalizing on its vertical integration (as well as the fact that Intel owns its own fabs and fabricates in a more than mature 14 nm process). A interesting move by the blue giant, who has generally opted out of a price reduction strategy - a move that might make Intel look on the back foot, and as an alternative budget brand, to the incommensurately smaller AMD.

Various retailers have been carrying Intel inventory with much reduced prices over their official MSRP. Amazon, for example, is offering the Intel Core i7-10700K for $344, down from its average pricing of $383. In the same retailer, the iGPU-less i7-10700F processor is down from $315 one month ago to just $229. Odds are that this is an Intel decision because if one considers the amount of demand on PC products and components due to COVID-19, it's very likely that consumers who can't get an AMD 5000-series CPU will still choose to purchase hardware - even if it has to be from Intel. So retailers eschewing part of their profits at a time like this seems slightly off-character.