Alleged Intel Core i9-13900KS Performance Leaks

It seems that a new detail about Intel’s upcoming 13th Gen Core i9-13900KS has leaked. The source of the leak also happens to chi11leddog (@g0ld3nm4ng0), the very same source that leaked details about Intel’s non-K Raptor Lake CPUs a week ago.

To quickly recap, the 13900KS was announced earlier in September during Intel’s Technology Tour 2022. Like the 12900KS, the CPU is poised to be this generation’s highest-tier and fastest performing SKU, with speeds of up to 6GHz out of the box across not one, but two P-Cores. To be fair, it didn’t actually make that claim during its presentation, but as we said, if the chipmaker wishes to make this a trend, then who are we to stop them.

Other specifications of the 13900KS include a 24-cores, 32-threads configuration, comprising eight P-Cores and 16 E-Cores. It is also expected to have an increased TDP of 150W, up from the standard 125W that the current 13900K has.

Getting back to the leak, the leaked performance of the 13900KS seems to be from the same Cinebench R23 benchmark as chi11leddog produced with their previous leak and just as before, it details the CPU’s single-core and multi-core performance. Based on the graphs, the 13900KS obtained a single-core score of 2366 and multi-core score of 40998. By comparison to their 13900K’s performance of 2243 and 39689, that’s about a 5% performance improvement but it should be pointed out that in our review, our scores were actually on par with the yet-to-be-released CPU of the same test.

That being said, Chi11eddog’s results aren’t an official confirmation and as such, it would be wise to apply some level of skepticism. As the 13900KS is expected to have a single-core ( or dual-core) configuration running at 6GHz, the results might actually end up being higher than what is being shown here. As it stands, Intel did say that its overclocking team has managed to push it to run at 8GHz on all cores, but that’s with liquid nitrogen (LN2).

As for when we can expect to see the 13900KS, the latest rumour seems to point to a possible 12 January launch, which is about a week after CES 2023.

Alleged Intel Core i5-12400 Performance Benchmarks Leaks

To date, we’ve seen Intel’s upcoming 12th generation Core i9-12900K smile for the camera, as well as its supposed performance metrics leak, yet we’ve barely seen or heard anything from the lineup’s lower-tier Core i5 CPUs. That is, until today.

Details of Intel’s alleged Core i5-12400 CPU were recently leaked to the Chinese social media platform, Bilibili. The details, which come in the form of CPU-Z, AIDA64, and Cinebench benchmarks, give us an idea of what the CPU is capable of. For the uninitiated, the Core i5-12400 is a 6-core, mid-range CPU that is comprised entirely of Intel’s Golden Cove Performance Cores (P-Cores), with no Efficient Cores (E-Cores) in sight.

Specs-wise, the CPU-Z screenshot shows that the 12400 has an all-core boost of 4GHz, with a single-core boost of 4.6GHz. Additionally, the TDP is rated at just 65W, although the AIDA64 benchmark shows the CPU package pulling in slightly more than that at 78.5W, while its temperature seemed to be a manageable 60°C.

As for scores, the Cinebench R20 benchmark shows that the 12400 scored 4784 points on the multi-core test and 659 points on the single-core test. In comparison, that puts the CPU squarely against AMD’s own Ryzen 5 5600X.

Intel first announced the existence of its 12th generation Alder Lake CPU lineup back in August, with the official launch expected to kick off on 27 October, during the Intel Innovation live stream event. At the time of writing, there’s also no official pricing for the Core i5-12400, but considering that its predecessor, the 11th generation Core i5-11400 retailed at RM799, many are hoping that Intel will maintain the price for the new mid-range CPU, if it wants to maintain that competitive edge against its direct rival.

AMD Ryzen Processors Facing Performance Issues On Windows 11

Windows 11 has finally been released to the public not too long ago. However, if you happen to own a PC running on an AMD Ryzen processor, it is advisable that you hold off from upgrading to the new platform for a while longer. The company has recently acknowledged issues that are affecting its chips when running the new operating system, with dips of up to 15 percent  in performance during certain instances.

According to AMD’s support page, both the company and Microsoft have found two main issues which, thankfully, are software-based rather than hardware related. This means that the problems can be remedied with a future update for Windows 11, so AMD Ryzen owners can still breathe a sigh of relief.

It turns out that Windows 11 may cause the L3 cache latency to triple, which causes a drop of three to five percent in performance when running most affected applications. This is more apparent when running games, especially those – as AMD puts it – that are “commonly used for eSports” – with performance seen to dip down around 10 to 15 percent.

The second is AMD’s “preferred core” technology, which Windows 11 is also reported to be having issues with. For the uninitiated, the tech shifts threads over to the fastest core on a processor in order to boost frequencies. AMD says that those on Ryzen CPUs with more than eight cores above 65W TDP will encounter performance drops on the new operating system, especially with CPU-reliant tasks.

AMD is assuring users that a software fix for both issues are currently under development, and are expected to be released sometime later in October. Suffice to say, it’s best to stick with Windows 10 until the solutions are made available if you’re running a Ryzen-equipped system.

New NBMiner Update Reportedly Enables Better Mining Performance For LHR-limited NVIDIA Cards

NBMiner, a software used for cryptomining, recently released a new tool that is supposedly capable of enabling as much as 70% of the original mining performance of a Lite Hash Rate (LHR) version of an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics card.

As some of you know, NVIDIA’s relationship with cryptominers has always been delicate; the group has undeniably been one of the GPU maker’s biggest contributor to GPU sales, hoarding every GPU they can get their hands on, while leaving consumers and actual, bonafide gamers that really just want to game, empty-handed.

Make no mistake, NVIDIA has tried its darndest – bless them – to alleviate the GPU shortage in recent times, first by creating mining-specific GPUs, followed by current release of LHR-based GPUs. In regards to the latter, the company did have a couple of hiccups with the execution of the limiter, the most prominent being the dummy plug bypass employed by miners with their RTX 3060 cards.

To be clear, the NBMiner tool doesn’t “unlock” the performance of the LHR cards. What it does do is allow the miner to make adjustments to the value that is used, to determine the GPU’s maximum unlockable hashrate. In this case, the developer of the tool recommends that miners use 68% specifically, therefore enabling the LHR GPU to mine Ethereum at 68%. And not at NVIDIA’s 50% limited hashrate.

At this point, it is hard to say if NBMIner’s tool will entice miners to pick up LHR cards, considering that it still isn’t the full 100% hashrate efficiency of the card. But, as pointed out by Videocardz, 68% is still a lot better than 50%.

Qualcomm Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 Offers Slight Performance Upgrade Over Its Predecessor

Qualcomm has unwrapped the new Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 processor which is designed for Windows and Chrome OS systems. The new system-on-chip (SoC) is the successor to the original Snapdragon 7c that was announced at the end of 2019.

However, the new SoC still carries plenty of features from the original Snapdragon 7c. In fact, the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 is not exactly an all-new release but is deemed more as a generational update or in other words, a refresh.

Based on their specs sheet, the only noticeable difference that we can easily spot between these two processors is the fact that the Kyro 468 octa-core CPU within the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 is slightly faster at up to 2.55GHz. As a comparison, the original Snapdragon 7c which features a similar CPU maxed out at 2.4GHz which means we are looking at around six per cent of improvements in terms of CPU performance.

Among the features that were carried over from the original Snapdragon 7c includes Spectra 255 ISP with 14-bit image signal processing, Hexagon 692 DSP, and 5th Gen Qualcomm AI Engine. Also equipped with Snapdragon X15 LTE modem, the Gen 2 release continues to support LPDDR4x-2133 RAM as well as Aqstic and aptX HD codecs.

Despite not carrying significant upgrades, Qualcomm claims that the new SoC is still able to overcome other chips from competitors such as Intel and MediaTek:

The role of the Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 remains the same as per its predecessor which is to serve the entry-level market. Qualcomm is also pitching the SoC to the education sector as well as for machines that are meant for first-line workers and lightweight users.

In terms of availability, you can expect products powered by Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 to appear in the market in the next few months. However, only time will tell if there are any OEMs committed enough to release such products in our market, although it is possible that Qualcomm’s partner in Ipoh, SNS Network may have some plans for the new SoC.

Illegear Adds Selenite X Into Its GeForce RTX 30 Series High Performance Laptop Lineup

After unveiling five gaming laptops with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics back in January, local high-performance PC outfit Illegear has since added another model into the lineup. It comes in the form of Selenite X which is an all-new model for 2021 according to the company.

Equipped with a 17.3-inch WQHD IPS display that also has a refresh rate of 165Hz, the new Selenite X can be obtained with either Intel Core i7-10875H or AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX. Interesting enough, customers’ choice of CPU will also affect their graphics option as well.

Those who prefer the Intel CPU can choose between RTX 3060 and RTX 3070 while the Ryzen-based variant is equipped with GeForce RTX 3080 as standard. Positioned as a high-performance laptop that can cater to both gaming and professional environment, the Selenite X can be fitted with up to two 2TB PCIe NVMe M.2 solid state drives.

The 2.42kg laptop is also equipped with a 63Whr battery and RGB backlit keyboard. Price-wise, the variant with Core i7 CPU and RTX 3060 GPU starts at RM 7299 while its RTX 3070’s twin has a starting price of RM 8,398.

As for the Ryzen 9 and RTX 3080 combo, it can be obtained from RM 12,198 onwards. To learn more about the new Selenite X high-performance laptop, check out Illegear’s official website right here.