MSI Seemingly Confirms Launch Date of Intel Alder Lake CPU Lineup

During its Architecture Day in August, Intel has promised that its 12th generation Alder Lake CPU lineup will launch this year, but fell short of providing a solid date for the event. Well, thanks to MSI, it appears that the date seems to be set for 4 November.

The alleged confirmation date stems from the Taiwanese PC components and laptop maker’s press release, announcing that it would be providing a free upgrade kit for Intel LGA1700 CPUs, along with their Coreliquid CPU coolers. More specifically, consumers will need to fill up a form in order to receive the upgrades but as of this publication, the button that would usually take them to the necessary portal is greyed out and sporting the words “Coming Soon”.

More to the point, the availability date of 4 November initially drew suspicions from Videocardz, whom after reaching out to what it says were reliable sources, was confident that the date is when Intel plans to launch its Alder Lake-S desktop CPU lineup. Further, that date reportedly coincides with the product’s sales and review embargo.

Intel is expected to launch three SKUs under the Alder Lake-S series, including the Core i9-12900K, Core i7-12700K, and Core i5-12600K. As it stands and given how these things usually go, Intel has yet to officially confirm anything, so take this news with a pinch of salt.

Alleged MSI Delta 15 Laptop With AMD Radeon RX 6700M GPU Leaks

Leaked information of an MSI Delta 15 with an AMD Radeon RX 6700M discrete GPU have reportedly made their way on to the internet. The leaks first appeared on the Chinese news site, Zhihu and seems to detail the synthetic performance of the AMD discrete GPU, as well as its expected specifications.

As per Videocardz, the 6700M will be a water-down version of AMD’s Navi 22 GPU, have 2304 Stream Processors, 10 GB GDDR6 running through a 160-bit memory bus, and possibly be available in three TGP variants: 80W, 110W, and 135W. In this instance, the GPU in question seems to be the 110W version. Additionally, the GPU seems to be paired with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX.

Moving on, the Zhihu post also seems to be benching the 6700M-powered Delta 15 against a Razer Blade 14 Ryzen, fitted with an 80W NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 GPU. Overall, the Radeon GPU appears to outperform its Team Green rival by an average of 9%, with the highest gains in performance seen with Hitman 2.

Of course, one important note to bear in mind about the real-world benchmarks is that only a handful of these games are DXR-capable and judging from the framerates, it is likely that these numbers were obtained without the feature turned on. As such, it is unclear how the 6700M will perform with the feature turned on.

As these things usually are, MSI has not released any official statement about the Delta 15, nor has AMD actively confirmed the existence of the Radeon RX 6700M GPU. So, take this news with a grain of salt.

MSI Refreshes Gaming Laptop Series With Intel 11th Gen H-Series CPU Lineup

MSI recently held a “Tech meets Aesthetics” event, where the Taiwanese PC and laptop maker announced that it had refreshed its laptop lineup, both for gaming and its Creator series, with Intel’s new 11th generation Tiger Lake-H series CPUs.

For its gaming lineup, the refresh includes MSI’s currently existing GS, GE, GF, GL, and GP series of laptops. Specifically, both the GS and GE series will have SKUs that accommodate Intel’s top-tier Core i9 CPU, while the top-of-the-line models released in the remaining three series will be fitted with the top-range Core i7 CPU.

With Intel’s latest Tiger Lake H-series CPU now powering MSI’s laptops, consumers who purchase them will gain not only to improved CPU performance, but also access to new features such as PCIe Gen4, Thunderbolt 4, and Wi-Fi 6E.

Then, as now, all of MSI’s Intel 11th generation gaming laptops are paired with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 Series Mobile GPUs. That list includes the recently launched GeForce RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti discrete GPUs that is only available for laptops.

As for their availability, MSI currently has the GE66, GL66, and GL76 available for preorder via its official Lazada store page, with the first batch expected to be available as early as next week. As for the other models, the brand says that they should come  sometime in June, although it did not specify an exact date.

Alleged MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, RTX 3070 Ti SUPRIM Details Leak

Slides with details pertaining to NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti graphics cards have supposedly made their way online. To be precise, the details seem to have come from a set of slides that were clearly made for an official MSI product briefing, with the cards themselves being part of the brand’s SUPRIM series.

As per earlier reports, the slides seem to confirm that the RTX 3080 Ti’s 12GB GDDR6X memory, while the RTX 3070 Ti (possibly) has 8GB GDDR6X. Because these cards are a part of MSI’s premium, high-end SUPRIM series, both SKUs are kitted out with the brand’s Tri Frozr 2S cooling technology, along with its TORX 4.0 fan design. In addition, the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti are also fitted with metal backplates, the latter utilising a flow-through design.

This isn’t the first time MSI’s RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM has made an appearance. More than a week ago, we reported that the card was being sold openly in Dubai. Way ahead of its supposed end of May announcement date.

Sadly, however, the list doesn’t provide any specifications detail about both cards meaning that we’re still pretty much in the dark about the number of CUDA cores, ROPs and TMUs, as well as what sort of boost clocks each card can achieve. Guess we’ll have to wait until the end of this month to find out more.

Alleged MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X Being Sold Openly In Dubai

As rumours about the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti continues to pour out from NVIDIA’s rusty pipes, it appears that the card has already gone on sale in the UAE and at an eye-watering price of US$3500 (~RM14437).

The RTX 3080 TI in question is an AiB partner card from MSI, namely the SUPRIM X model. Evidence of the card’s existence was first posted on Reddit, but has since been removed. Like all MSI SUPRIM X models, this card sport a triple-fan cooling configuration with plenty of RGB accents to make your room look and feel like an EDM party.

To be fair, this isn’t the first time that an “image” of an alleged RTX 3080 Ti has made its way online, but these are the clearest and most glaring images of an actual card, to date. Another thing to note is that, while the lucky individuals in Dubai managed to purchase the card, it is unlikely that they will be able to make full use of it.

The reason we say that is because, as per NVIDIA’s protocol, the card in question still needs the official drivers to run. These drivers are only released on the official launch date of the card and in the case of the RTX 3080 Ti, recent reports point at a 2 June window.

2021 MSI Gaming Laptops Now Available For Pre-Order In Malaysia: Price Starts At RM 5,129

Now that NVIDIA has officially launched the GeForce RTX 30 Series line-up for laptops a few weeks ago, you can expect manufacturers to release new products powered by the equally new graphics chip to market all over the world including Malaysia. We have reported some of them recently and you can also now add MSI to the list.

MSI Malaysia has recently begun taking pre-orders for the first batch of 2021 MSI gaming laptops which consisted of four models. One of them is the 2021 GS66 Stealth which can be obtained in two variations.

Powered by Intel Core i9-10980HK and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080, the first option carries a 4K panel inside its 15.6-inch display alongside 32GB dual-channel RAM, 2TB NVMe SSD, and a hefty RM 17,999 price tag. On another hand, the second option is equipped with a Full HD 300Hz panel, Intel Core i7-10870H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics, 16GB RAM, 2TB SSD and a much lower asking price of RM 10,999.

The 2021 GE66 Raider is also part of MSI’s first wave of gaming laptops for the new year. Also powered by Intel Core i7-10870H, this particular model carries a 15.6-inch Full HD 300Hz display, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Max-Q, 16GB RAM, and 2TB SSD.

For gamers that prefer a larger screen, there is the 2021 GE76 Raider which is equipped with 17.3-inch Full HD display although the refresh rate is slightly lower at 240Hz. Still featuring the Intel Core i7-10870H processor, MSI has chosen to provide it with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070, 8GB dual-channel RAM, and 1TB SSD instead but this decision does make it priced much lower at RM 9,999 as opposed to the 2021 GE66 Raider that costs RM 14,999.

If you feel that the pricing for all of these laptops is on the higher part of the spectrum, there is 2021 GF65 Thin though which is being offered at RM 5,129. For that price, you are looking at a 15.6-inch laptop with Full HD 144Hz display, Intel Core i7-10750H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, 8GB RAM, and 512GB SSD.

MSI Malaysia has noted that all these laptops are expected to arrive in Malaysia this coming February. Gamers can pre-order them via the brand’s dedicated online store as well as its Lazada and Shopee stores or MSI dealers nationwide but if you require further information especially on their complete specs, do visit MSI Malaysia’s official website right here.

MSI Launches New GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat Gaming Laptop With NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series Mobile GPU

MSI officially announced its new GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat gaming laptop earlier today. The laptop was one of several new models announced by the Taiwanese-brand today, but it stands to reason that it is the model MSI has every intention of parading around.

To state the obvious and much like last year’s GE66 Raider “Dragonshield” Edition, the GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat follows a theme surrounding the mythical creature. This time around, MSI says that the pattern design that is visible on the back of its 17.3-inch panel is inspired by the Mesopotamian dragon goddess, primarily because she supposedly represents “supreme power”.

Of course, the bigger draw and more important news that follows the launch of the GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat is that, along with other models in the GE series, the laptop is equipped with NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 30 mobile series GPUs. Specifically, the GE76 Raider can be fitted with either an RTX 3070 or RTX 3080. That means the laptop also gains access to new NVIDIA-based technologies, including access to WhisperMode 2.0, Dynamic Boost 2.0, and its Resizable BAR technology, among others.

As for the rest of the hardware, the GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat’s CPU still uses the same 10th generation Core i9-10980HK CPU as its predecessor, the GE66 Raider. Additionally, it can ship out with up to 64GB DDR4-3200 RAM, and its display resolution is split into three options: a 4K60Hz panel, Full HD with 300Hz refresh rate, or Full HD with 240Hz refresh rate. Oh, and the laptop will also support Wi-Fi 6E.

At the time of writing, MSI did not specify local availability or pricing for the GE76 Raider Dragon Edition Tiamat.

MSI Accidentally Reveals Intel 11th Generation CPU Availability; Supposedly Landing March 2021

It’s already confirmed that Intel’s 11th Generation Rocket Lake-S CPUs are inbound this year, yet the chipmaker is still being coy about a proper release date. On that note, and thanks to a slip up by MSI, we could be looking at a potential March release for the CPU lineup.

MSI’s loose lips revelation of was made after a Korea-based Twitter user by the name of 포시포시 (@harukaze5719), discovered a post, made via the official MSI-CS Innovation Customer Center. The post itself is a reaffirmation that Intel’s current 400 Series chipset – H410, B460, and Z490 – will support the brand’s upcoming 11th Generation CPUs, with Z490 boards being the first to receive the critical update for it.

More to the point, the post also follows up its reply with the launch period for Rocket Lake-S, which is the end of March, and that it will update all 400 series mainboards before the launch of the CPU lineup. Unsurprisingly, MSI later updated that reply, removing any specific mention for the launch date of Rocket Lake-S.

Rocket Lake-S’ potential launch window notwithstanding, it’s safe to say we know what to expect from the CPU lineup: the CPU lineup will use the current LGA1200 socket, is based on the near ancient 14nm process node, backported from its new Cypress Cove CPU architecture. More importantly, it will be the first Intel desktop CPU to support PCIe 4.0.

Of course, PCIe 4.0 support isn’t the only thing that has changed for Rocket Lake-S. The CPU lineup will be integrated with Intel’s new Xe graphics core, and its top-tier Core i9-11900K will reportedly have two CPU cores less than its predecessor, the Core i9-10900K. Last but not least, the new CPU lineup will also be launching new 500 series motherboards, despite the backwards compatibility with currently existing 400 series motherboards.

In spite of MSI’s slip up, one point that is certain is that we’ll certainly be hearing more from Intel about Rocket Lake-S during CES 2021, which is just around the corner.

MSI Loses US$337000 Worth Of GeForce RTX 3090s To Robbers In China

 

If you’re someone who put in an order for a GeForce RTX 3090 from MSI, you’re probably going to have to wait for a while longer. While it’s bad enough that there’s an overwhelming demand and critical shortage of the card, the matter is now exacerbated by the fact that a group has robbed cargo boxes filled with RTX 3090s. Directly from the MSI China factory.

According to the Taiwanese PC and laptop brand, the robbers had reportedly stolen 40 cargo boxes worth of RTX 3090 graphics cards, with a total worth amounting to approximately US$336500 (~RM1.37 million), directly from its manufacturing plant in China. MSI has already notified the local authorities about the matter, but in an effort to expedite the retrieval process, it has also posted a reward of 100,000 Yuan (~RM62230) to anyone who has useful information regarding the stolen RTX 3090s.

It is very likely that the robbery was an inside job, a point that MSI is leaning strong towards, especially since it says its security measures in and around the factory are pretty stringent, but clearly not airtight. To that end, the company says that it is willing to offer clemency to the ones that come forward and help locate the stolen graphics cards.

To reiterate, NVIDIA and its AiB partners are currently facing a gut-busting demand for the GeForce RTX 30 series and cards like the RTX 3090 are exceedingly rare because of that. On that sad point, it would make sense that the thieves would target the card, as they can then proceed to sell them off at prices far greater than its official market rate.