Latest news with #RaptorLake
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel's lackluster Arrow Lake appears to have a refresh inbound — Arrow Lake Refresh appears in reference document
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If we are to believe a leaked manual for an upcoming Intel W880 motherboard, the Intel Arrow Lake-S processor will seemingly have a refresh successor. Popular hardware leaker momomo_us shared an image of the purported motherboard reference document with the CPU labeled Arrow Lake S/Arrow Lake S Refresh. Previous rumors point to another generation of the Arrow Lake architecture, focusing only on high-end K and KF chips. So, it would make sense for motherboards designed for high-end workstations to take advantage of this refresh. Unfortunately, we do not see any other information on the document, so we will have to wait and see if manufacturers of more mainstream consumer and enthusiast motherboards will release new models for this alleged Arrow Lake update. The Intel Core Ultra 200S series arrived on the scene in October 2024, around two months after the company released its disastrous financial report. Team Blue sorely needed a win to help it get back on course—unfortunately, the Arrow Lake wasn't it, as sales for its latest processor stagnated just a week after its launch. After half a year on the market, the company still struggles to sell its AI chips, with many customers preferring the older Raptor Lake CPUs. One reason behind this could be the chip's lack of gaming prowess. It has consistently trailed behind AMD's outstanding offerings, especially the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, and was even outperformed by Intel's own last-generation chips. And even though the Arrow Lake processors boast an NPU and offer higher AI processing power, most buyers don't care about that. This, combined with the higher prices, meant that there was low demand for these CPUs. If the Arrow Lake-S Refresh chips are indeed arriving, Intel must address the gaming performance issues. Otherwise, buyers would shun them and instead flock towards options that deliver more FPS and do not bottleneck other components. Despite all the negativity in the gaming space for the Arrow Lake-S chips, Intel has made some interesting innovations in the processor. It has improved power consumption and efficiency, reducing its cooling requirements. It's also a productivity powerhouse, with the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K beating most of its competitors in Cinebench. This was the first Intel desktop CPU to use a chiplet-based design, so it's bound to have first-generation hiccups. Hopefully, the company can fix some of the concerns with the refresh, allowing us to get the most out of the Arrow Lake architecture. Follow Tom's Hardware on Google News to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Your Intel CPU Cooler Will Probably Work on Nova Lake
Intel's next-generation Nova Lake desktop processors may use similar socket dimensions as existing Raptor Lake and Arrow Lake CPU sockets, suggesting that coolers should be compatible between generations. This comes despite the new socket, termed LGA 1954, sporting more pins than older LGA 1700 and 1851 standards. AMD's Ryzen CPUs aside, it's been traditional that CPU sockets tend to only last a couple of years or generations, which means anyone upgrading will need a new motherboard. Often, with additional pins on the new design, it required a new physical configuration, too, which meant coolers from the last generation didn't always fit without some kind of additional kit or bracket. But Intel may be looking to continue the bucking of that trend with its new Nova Lake CPUs. Intel made the surprise move to maintain cooler compatibility between its LGA 1700 socket (12th, 13th, 14th Generation CPUs) and LGA 1851 socket (Core Ultra 200). And now the rumors are that it'll do the same with the next-generation socket: LGA 1954. A new motherboard will still be required for the new generation of CPUs, as the LGA 1954 socket will sport over 100 more pins than the older 1851 design. But the specific dimensions of the CPU—45mm x 37.5mm—will remain the same, according to Twitter leaker Ruby_Rapids, allowing for potential cooler compatibility—assuming Intel doesn't change the mounting pin placement for the new socket. It's not yet clear what the additional pins will be used for, but rumors suggest that Nova Lake will be a dramatic revolution of Intel's CPU designs. The flagship chip of its generation will reportedly be the first consumer CPU to break 50 cores, offering 16 Coyote Cove Performance cores and 32 Arctic Wolf efficiency cores, as per Wccftech. It will even have an additional four low-power efficiency cores, giving it potentially unprecedented multitasking capabilities with excellent idle efficiency. Much of its real-world performance could stem from what process node it ends up on, though. Intel may use its own 14A process node, but there's also talk of some of the chip's tiles being based on TSMC's 2nm process. As exciting as all this is, though, it's still a long way off. With a suggested 2026 launch date, Intel will likely remain firmly behind AMD on the gaming front for some time to come. It has yet to provide an adequate answer for the sterling gaming performance of AMD's X3D CPUs.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Yahoo
Intel Core Ultra 200 CPUs May Bottleneck Gen 5 SSDs
It seems that Intel Core Ultra 200S CPUs have a design issue that can cause some latency when using Gen 5 SSDs. The SSD Review noticed that it wasn't getting anywhere near 14GB/s when plugging SSDs into the M.2 slots of Intel Z890-based motherboards. After significant testing and checking in with Intel, The SSD Review narrowed the suspect list to the CPU—when the SSD is plugged into the M.2 slot. The latency is dramatic: 12GB/s sequential read speeds have been the norm for the SSD reviewer with Core Ultra 200S CPUs in the test bench. Random write speeds are apparently lower than expected, too. Kudos go to Intel for responding to The SSD Review. It pointed out that the die-to-die path on its CPU is a little longer for Gen 5 memory than for other PCIe lanes. 'Intel can confirm that the PCIe Lanes 21 to 24 Gen5 root port on Intel Core Ultra 200S series processors may exhibit increased latencies compared to the PCIe Lanes 1 to 16 Gen5 root ports, owing to a longer die-to-die data path,' Intel noted to The SSD Review. 'However, any variations are contingent upon the specific workload and the capabilities of the PCIe endpoint device.' Credit: Intel As Tom's Hardware notes, Raptor Lake doesn't appear to suffer the same problem. The SSD Review tested the issue with Micron Pro and Samsung 9100 Pro SSDs on its test bench with Arrow Lake and Raptor Lake setups. The different CPU/motherboard combos highlighted the problem: The Raptor Lake setup logged 14.3GB/s, while the Arrow Lake setup landed at 12.3GB/s. That's not what you want to see from newer, more advanced hardware. That's an annoying problem, for sure, but you can circumvent it by picking up a PCIe add-in card instead of an M.2 card. The SSD Review had no problem getting full speeds from the PCIe 5.0 lane. And, although we're generally loathe to take the 'grin and bear it' approach, it may be the easiest path for you if you already have Gen 5 memory in an M.2 slot on an Intel Z890 board. After all, as The SSD Review points out, even at 12GB/s, the setup provides much faster speeds than a rig with Gen 4 speeds. If you have been using your PC without complaint until now, there's really no need to make a change.
Yahoo
11-05-2025
- Yahoo
A year later and over six months since the last patch, Intel is STILL releasing updates to fix instability problems with its 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. A couple of weeks ago I reported the surprising news that Intel's elderly and bug-infested 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs are still selling in numbers. Now it turns out Intel is also still working at completely fixing all the problems those chips have had since launch. The results are a new microcode update which comes over six months since the last patch was released in September. To say this story has been running on and on is an acute understatement. Back in September, we moaned that, "one might have thought all the Intel stability issue malarkey was behind us," what with previous patches in June and August last year which aimed to solve the problems having been and gone. But here we are in May 2025 and Intel has yet another patch for the well publicised stability issues that plagued 13th and 14th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs. The new microcode fix—dubbed 0x12F and not to be confused with the 0x125, 0x129 and 0x12B patches that came before it—"further improves system conditions that can potentially contribute to Vmin Shift Instability on Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop-powered systems." Intel is at pains to point out that this new microcode does not imply a change in its analysis of the actual cause of the problems. "The release of the 0x12F microcode does not alter the root cause determination for the Intel Core 13th and 14th Gen desktop processor Vmin Shift Instability issue," Intel says. You can read Intel's detailed explanation here. But the short version is that multiple factors were causing the chips to run excess voltage and power levels. Exactly what changes Intel has made with the latest patch aren't clear. It's frankly pretty remarkable that Intel is still releasing patches for this bug, well over year after the problem first emerged. On the one hand, it's reassuring that Intel is still putting resources into older products, but on the other, you really might have thought it would have fixed the problem with earlier patches. Indeed, the fact that Intel is still working away at the problem implies that there may never be a "total fix" for Raptor Lake's woes. On a somewhat tangential note, almost as surprising as the idea that Intel is still chipping away at these processors is the revelation that it does serious internal testing at a resolution of 1,280 by 1,024 pixels. In the release notes for this latest patch, Intel details that resolution for its Cinebench R23.200, Speedometer 3, WebXPRT4 (v3.73), and Crossmark testing. If I remember correctly, the last time I used that res. was around 2004, when a 19-inch flat panel was the latest thing and many PC gamers might still be using 1,280 by 1,024 on a CRT. But here's Intel, right at the bleeding edge in 2025, doing testing at 1,280 by 1,024. Interesting, eh? Best CPU for gaming: Top chips from Intel and gaming motherboard: The right graphics card: Your perfect pixel-pusher SSD for gaming: Get into the game first.
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Intel's AI PC chips aren't selling well — instead, old Raptor Lake chips boom
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Credit: Intel Times are already tough for Intel, but now it turns out its new, heavily-promoted AI PC chips aren't selling as well as expected, thus creating a shortage of production capacity for its older chips. The news comes as the CEO announced looming layoffs and a poor financial report sent the company's stock tumbling. Intel says its customers are buying less expensive previous-generation Raptor Lake chips instead of the new, and significantly more expensive, AI PC models like the Lunar Lake and Meteor Lake chips for laptops. During the earnings call, Intel announced that it currently faces a shortage of production capacity for its 'Intel 7' process node, and the company expects this shortage to "persist for the foreseeable future." That's an unexpected shortage to have, as Intel's current-gen chips use newer process nodes from TSMC instead of Intel's older 'Intel 7' node. Intel is a master at production capacity planning, so its disclosure points to an unexpected surge in sales of the older 'Intel 7' products. Intel explained that the shortage of its 7nm production capacity is due to an unexpected surge in demand for its "N-1 and N-2" products, a reference to its two prior-generation chip families. This trend is occurring in both the consumer and data center markets. "What we're really seeing is much greater demand from our customers for n-1 and n-2 products so that they can continue to deliver system price points that consumers are really demanding," explained Intel's Michelle Johnston Holthaus. "As we've all talked about, the macroeconomic concerns and tariffs have everybody kind of hedging their bets and what they need to have from an inventory perspective. And Raptor Lake is a great part. Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake are great as well, but come with a much higher cost structure, not only for us, but at the system ASP price points for our OEMs as well." Bernstein Research's Stacy Rasgon pressed Holtahaus about the implications for the company's upcoming Panther Lake chips, which are set to launch at the end of the year, especially given that the looming tariff disruptions have not yet occurred. Holthaus said the Panther Lake launch remains on track and the company expects continued success in the commercial market, which she said typically precedes broader consumer adoption. Notably, she did not directly address the company's expected next-gen AI PC adoption for consumer laptops. Regardless, the company also continues its expansive work to promote and cultivate a growing developer ecosystem to unleash the power of its AI wares.
