Category: Hardware

MediaTek has just announced new chipsets specifically optimized for Chromebooks. However, it has not neglected its Dimensity line of SoCs for 5G phones, introducing a new variant called the 700. It, like the rest of its siblings, is 7nm, and has 8 cores. Of these, 2 are “big” ARM Cortex-A76s clocked at 2.2GHz, whereas the rest are “LITTLE” A55 cores at up to 2.0GHz. Its GPU is a 950MHz Mali-G57 MC2.

The OEM notes that this complete package supports 5G-CA 2CC, a type of carrier aggregation rated for a throughput layer coverage of over 30% more compared to other solutions, as well as “faster average speeds” and smooth handovers between different 5G connections.

The new 700 also has MediaTek 5G UltraSave, which is rated to save battery while using this latest radio standard. It also supports a number of potentially key specs that consumers may look for in its ideal tier of the smartphone market.

Accordingly, OEMs could make a device with an FHD+ 90Hz display and multiple rear cameras with a 64MP main sensor capable of AI features such as bokeh or beauty mode and advanced low-light capabilities.

A Dimensity 700-powered phone could also be powered by up to 12GB of 2133MHz LP-DDR4X RAM, and have dual SIM slots, both of which support 5G, voice over 5G and dual standby.

The chipset can also support multiple voice assistants, Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5.1. Therefore, MediaTek is confident the Dimensity 700 can bring 5G to the masses in the form of new, probably mid-range phones, soon.

At this point, quite a lot has been revealed about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875. For starters, we know that it is a 5nm chip that will use its predecessor’s 1+3+4 configurations. Its AnTuTu and Master Lu benchmark results are also quite impressive compared to previous-generation hardware. Some leaked specifications now reaffirm what we already knew about the chip.

Digital Chat Station has stumbled upon an engineering sample of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875. Its ARM Cortex-X1 core is clocked at 2.87GHz, something we knew already thanks to the chip’s Master Lu listing. Furthermore, the three Cortex-A78 cores appear to be clocked at 2.42GHz and the remaining Cortex-A55 cores at 1.8GHz. The Cortex-X1’s clock speed is a bit puzzling, as the Snapdragon 865+ could push its Cortex-A77 to 3.1GHz with relative ease.

Details about the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875’s Adreno 660 GPU are scarce, but we know that the ARM Mali-G78 manages to trade blows with it, giving us a rough idea about its performance. The leaker rounds things off by saying that Qualcomm wants to focus on efficiency instead of raw performance with the Snapdragon 875.

It appears that Qualcomm is quite content with the progress it has made with flagship Snapdragon chips. After all, the Snapdragon 875 does offer significant improvements over its predecessor. However, the Exynos 2100 might prove to be a formidable competitor this time around. It’ll be interesting to see how both chips fare against each other once they’re out and about in early 2021. 

@kopite7kimi has offered an insight into NVIDIA’s possible plans for the GA106, its entry-level GPU. Earlier this year, the same leaker alleged that NVIDIA would be using GA106 in the RTX 3050 and RTX 3060, but this has reputedly been changed to the RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060. Videocardz believes that NVIDIA plans to release an RTX 3050 still, but its specifications remain unknown at this stage.

According to @kopite7kimi, the RTX 3050 Ti will have 3,584 CUDA cores, approximately 7% fewer than the 3,840 CUDA cores in the RTX 3060. Videocardz adds that NVIDIA is thought to be using a 192-bit memory controller on the GA106, unlike other RTX 30 series cards. The presence of a 192-bit controller supposedly implies that NVIDIA will pair the RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060 with 6 GB or 12 GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

Videocardz also claims that the RTX 3050 Ti may launch in January or February 2021, with the RTX 3060 arriving at the turn of next year. The website speculates that NVIDIA will not release new GTX x050 cards if it brings the RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti market, too. If those two cards and an RTX 3060 are indeed scheduled for release, then NVIDIA may have up to nine RTX 30 series cards by Q2 2021. Presumably, the RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti and RTX 3060 will be NVIDIA’s budget offerings, considering that the company has priced the RTX 3070 Founders Edition at US$499.

ARM’s new Cortex-A78C core is based on its previously launched A78. However, the company insists that it has diversified the audience for its series (which also consists of the A78E) with this core. It has apparently been optimized for “high performance, heavily threaded workloads”.

Like the A78, this new C variant is compatible with the Mali-G78 GPU. However, it is geared toward different formations in a single DynamiQ arrangement (by which ARM cores are combined with others to form a processor). The A78 can conform to big.LITTLE architectures (or 1+3+4 arrangements, as is likely to be the case in 2021).

However, up to 8 of its C siblings can be used to create an all-big chipset: no A55s or X1s required. This intriguing concept could (according to ARM) handle the next-gen demands of what it calls “digital immersion”. These applications range from productivity-focused tasks to virtual- or augmented-reality (AR or VR) gaming.

The Cortex-A78C core also supports ARM’s latest security-focused features. They include Pointer Authentication (PAC), which is rated to reduce exploits of the return-orientated programming (ROP) and jump-orientated programming (JOP) by over 60% and 40% respectively. However, and possibly most importantly, it has an L3 cache of 8MB.

Therefore, ARM is adamant that CPUs based this new Cortex-A78C core would be ideal for prosumer- to enterprise-grade portable devices – even laptops, perhaps – or gaming headsets, whereas the A78 is best for smarphone SoCs. However, it does sound like they might also be attractive to OEMs in the mobile gaming space as well. Time will tell where these fresh new CPU cores will end up.

AMD has launched its Ryzen 5 5600X processor along with the rest of its Vermeer-based siblings, although it has yet to become available. However, this has not stopped it from bring very active in preliminary leaks about its performance. It may have demonstrated its superiority over the Intel Core i5-10600K in Cinebench scores today alone (November 2, 2020).

The new APU may not have stopped there, however: it may also have shown potential fans what it can do when overclocked. It normally runs at 3.7GHz with a boost up to 4.6GHz; however, according to a pnael of CPU-Z results posted by @TUM_APISAK, it is capable of reaching 6.1GHz.

This new leak seems accurate in terms of the specs and properties returned via the analytical tool:six cores; a 7nm archiitecture; the AM4 socket and a TDP of 65 watts (W). There is one discrepancy in which its voltage is listed as 0.1V. Then again, this may be a detection fault in the program.

It is not clear how this frequency may have been achieved (presuming it is genuine), although it is nearly certain that it may not have been achieved using AMD’s Wraith Stealth cooler. CPU-Z’s benchmarking facility has also been used on the 5 5600X recently, resulting in a single thread score of 643 and 4814 in multi-thread scores.

Again, this was better than the i5-10600K in the same test. Therefore, it seems that the Ryzen 5 5600X will at least make a solid alternative to this chipset.

Even though ARM unveiled its Cortex-A78 and Cortex-X1 cores earlier this year, we are yet to see them in action. If recent benchmark results are anything to go by, they can pack quite a punch. We’ve only seen them in Exynos and Qualcomm chipsets so far. MediaTek is all set to join that list soon, according to a new leak.

Weibo stalwart Digital Chat Station says MediaTek’s upcoming MT6893 and MT6891 chips will use Cortex-A78 cores, likely on a 5nm or 6nm process node. Judging by the model number, the former is likely MediaTek’s top-of-the-line offering, presumably a sequel to the Dimensity 1000. The tipster rounds things off by saying that the company is expected to release both chips earlier than usual. Considering that the MediaTek Dimensity 1000 was released in November 2019, we can expect the company to unveil the silicon soon.

If the yet-to-be-named MediaTek chip uses the same 4+4 configuration as the Dimensity 1000, we can expect it to perform on par with the Exynos 1080 (four Cortex-A78 cores clocked at 3.0GHz). While its performance will be significantly better than its predecessors, it is unlikely to surpass the Qualcomm Snapdragon 875 or the Exynos 2100. However, the gap will probably be a lot less narrow should MediaTek opt for a 1+3+4 design with a Cortex-X1 at the helm.

Intel has traditionally held the single-core performance crown for many generations. AMD did get close to Intel 9th gen Coffee Lake, but Comet Lake once again showed good leads in single-core and gaming. With Ryzen 5000 Zen 3, Intel may not be in a comfortable position any longer.

User /u/losh11 (@loshan1212) first posted CPU-Z results of the Ryzen 5 5600X on Reddit. The OP had since deleted the post, but the results were shared quickly to other subreddits. CPU-Z screenshots and product packaging of the Ryzen 5 5600X were subsequently reposted by @GawroskiT on Twitter.

In the CPU-Z single-thread benchmark, the Ryzen 5 5600X scored 643 points leading the Core i9-10900K by 10% and the Core i7-10700K by 15%. The Zen 3 processor also seems to be 23.4% faster than a Ryzen 9 3900X in single-core, which shows that AMD is leaving no stone unturned in the quest to extract the maximum possible peak performance from the new architecture.

The Ryzen 5 5600X seems to be no slouch in the multi-core either with the processor amassing 4,814 points — 12% faster than the Core i5-10600KF and 14% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600XT.

This is not the first demonstration of AMD’s new found single-core leads, though. Previously, we saw the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and the Ryzen 5 5600X posting impressive single-core results beating Intel’s flagship Core i9-10900K by a significant margin.

While it is always advisable to wait for final reviews before coming to conclusions, these initial scores do indicate that AMD may have a definite winner on their hands with Zen 3 that does not compromise either in single-core or multi-core workloads.

Several benchmark results of the upcoming RX 6800 may have leaked in the last few days, but AMD has published some gaming benchmark results for its trio of Radeon RX 6000 series cards. The company showcased the performance of the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT at its launch event last week, but these new benchmark results offer more granular comparisons between the RX 6000 series and recent NVIDIA cards.

Naturally, AMD benchmarked its new cards in a powerful test bench. According to the company, it used the following system configuration to achieve the benchmark results shown below:

CPU – AMD Ryzen 9 5900X

RAM – 16 GB DDR4-3200 (presumably dual-channel)

Motherboard – X570 reference platform

BIOS – RQ21082B – Smart Access Memory enabled

Radeon drivers – 20.45-201013n

GeForce drivers – 456.71

OS – Windows 10 Pro x64 19041.508

AMD has not mentioned anything about Rage mode, so we presume that the company did not enable it for these benchmarks. Currently, AMD has published results for ten games at 1440p and 4K – all at the highest possible graphics presets. In short, these early results suggest that AMD has closed the gap between RDNA 1 and Turing cards, although we should stress that AMD has probably chosen games that perform particularly well on its new architecture.

Nonetheless, the data provided by AMD points to the RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT outperforming the RTX 3090 at 1440p, which the RX 6900 XT maintains at 4K. The RX 6800 XT drops back behind the RTX 3090 at 4K though but remains a few percent ahead of the RTX 3080 at this resolution, on average. Meanwhile, the RX 6800 strikes a middle ground between the performance of the RTX 3080 and RTX 2080 Ti at both resolutions. The RX 6800 also performs better, relatively, at 1440p than it does at 4K, like the RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT.

All this should come as good news to PC gamers. Not only does the RX 6000 look powerful, but AMD is much closer to NVIDIA than it has been for many years.

According to tipster @patrickschur_, a custom ASUS ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT part can boost as high as 2.5 GHz when running 3DMark 11. Interestingly, the engineering sample Schur talked about seemed to spend a lot of time at high clock speeds. In an update to his original post, Schur claimed that the ROG STRIX Radeon RX 6800 XT was running at clock speeds higher than 2.3 GHz 85 percent of the time. 

These figures, coming just days before the Big Navi announcement, reinforce the possibility of the RX 6800 XT matching or getting close to the Ampere GeForce RTX 3080. Unconfirmed reports indicate that the RX 6800 XT isn’t AMD biggest Big Navi part, with a higher-end RX 6900 XT expected to match or even beat the GeForce RTX 3090 in raster workloads. 

The AIB RX 6800 XT clock speeds hint at AMD’s approach to Big Navi. Rather than going “wide and low” like Ampere, Big Navi could leverage fewer functional cores running at a far high clock speed, thanks to the TSMC’s 7nm process. With occasional boost clocks appearing to touch 2.5 GHz, it’ll be interesting to see whether or not 2.5 GHz game clocks are possible with a bit of overclocking on Big Navi. We should learn during AMD’s event on October 28th. 

We are just over a week away from the announcement of the Radeon RX 6000 series, but some interesting details about the upcoming cards have been shared online. Shared by @_rogame and @patrickshur_, the information is reputed to be the clock speeds of AMD’s ‘Big Navi’ graphics cards. According to @_rogame, AMD will release four variants of the Navi 21 GPU, called Navi 21 XL, XLE, XT and XTX.

As the screenshots below indicate, the XT variants are thought to be AMD’s more premium offerings, with the XL and XLE being the company’s two entry-level Navi 21 cards. Apparently, reference cards will offer lower clock speeds than AIB custom ones, which is not much of a surprise. Navi 21 XL and XT will reputedly exceed 2.1 GHz though, with the XT variants apparently being capable of reaching 2.4 GHz.

@patrickschur_ and @_rogame believe that 2.4 GHz represents the peak game clock for the Navi 21 XT, which would be a huge increase over the game clock of the RX 5700 XT. Additionally, @patrickshur_ believes that the Navi 21 XT will manage this with a 255 W TGP (total graphics power) and will be paired with 16 GB of GDDR6 VRAM.

@_rogame speculates that AMD will brand the Navi 21 XT as the RX 6800 XT, while the Navi 21 will be the RX 6800. Both may have 72 Compute Units (CUs), with 80 CUs reserved for the RX 6900 XT, which will use the Navi 21 XTX GPU. Presumably, the Navi 21 XLE would be the RX 6900 based on those names, but we shall find out definitively on October 28 at AMD’s launch event.