Intel 13th Gen Non-K CPUs Supposedly Up To 64 Percent Faster Than Previous Generation

Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs and their performance shows how the chipmaker was able to retake the lead from AMD’s current Ryzen 7000 Series, in just one generation. Recently, a new leak seems to suggest that the brand’s non-K desktop CPU lineup is prepared to do the same, only this time, it’s against its predecessor.

The leak in question comes from a Twitter user who goes by the handle chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0), and technically contains the performance metrics of the non-K 13th Gen CPUs. Specifically, they are graphs from Cinebench R23’s single-core and multi-core tests and more to the point, the tests were conducted on a total of five CPUs.

The non-K 13th Gen CPUs on the list are the 13900, 13700, 13600, 13500, and the 13400, which are essentially every CPU under the Core i9, i7, and i5 SKUs. On the multi-core test, the 13th Gen processors clearly have an edge over their 12th Gen Alder predecessors. The 13500, specifically, shows a performance improvement of up to 64% on the test, with the 2nd highest-performing CPU being the 13600.

On the single-core test, the 13th Gen’s 13900 was very clearly the CPU that has the most gains, with a 10% increase in performance over the last generation’s 12th Gen 12900. Overall, the worst-performing CPU on this list is the 12500, but that being said, it is still relatively decent. However, the 13900 of Intel’s 13th Gen Raptor Lake is expected to run 500MHz faster than the 12900 and also has eight more E-Cores than its predecessors. So, it really doesn’t come as a surprise that it would perform significantly better on the multi-core tests too.

As for when we can expect to see all five of these CPUs, Intel is expected to the launch its non-K 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPUs on 3 January, which is also when CES 2023 kicks off in Las Vegas. What makes them all that more appealing is that, while not overclockable, they all have a default TDP of 65W, nearly half of what their K-powered counterparts draw. At the same time, the chipmaker is also expected to announced its new B760 motherboard series.

iPhone 13 Pro Supposedly Costs Slightly More To Build Than iPhone 12 Pro

As it turns out, an iPhone 13 Pro teardown has revealed that customers who bought the latest Apple release might be getting more value than those who bought last year’s iPhone. The higher estimated price is attributed to the more expensive A-series processor, NAND flash memory, display subsystem, and main enclosure.

The cost analysis by computer hardware specialist Techinsights estimates that the 13 Pro costs US$570 (~RM2383) for the base 128GB storage model, US$21.50 (~RM89) more than the US$548.50 (~RM2288) build cost for the 12 Pro.

Some of the components highlighted in the report are the A15 processor, the more compact TrueDepth array, and the display subsystem. The 13 Pro uses an LTPO panel used for the 120Hz ProMotion display, which might have added to the build cost when compared to the regular iPhone 13’s OLED panel.

The analysis also found that the A15 silicon found in the 13 and 13 Pro series might be the same processor. While Apple claims that the five GPU cores on the Pro are different than the four GPUs on the base 13, the tech giant might actually be disabling one of the GPU cores for the lower-end 13, as it did with the A12X chip. Techinsights says that both SoCs contained the same TMMU71 die mark and the exact same die size, which is 22.82% bigger than last year’s A14.

The price jump between the 12 Pro and 13 Pro is not as big of a leap as the one between the iPhone 11 and iPhone 12, which Counterpoint Research says may have costed 21% more due to the addition of 5G and OLED. The estimates are based on standard market rates so they might not be quite accurate given Apple’s supply chain scale.

The iPhone 13 Pro is launching at the same price as its predecessor, at RM4899. In contrast, the hardware researchers estimate that the Samsung S21+ 5G costs US$508 (~RM2124) to build and was launched in Malaysia for RM3999.

Cloud Mining Company Wins Chinese Court Case; Regains More Than 485000 AMD Radeon GPUs

Genesis Mining, An Iceland-based cloud mining outfit, recently won a lawsuit in a Chinese court, against a Chinese hosting provider, Chuangshiji Technology Limited. By decree of China’s Supreme Court, the defendant was ordered to return the Radeon RX 470 8GB GPUs it seized from Genesis Mining and by all, we mean all 485681 units.

Genesis Mining’s legal woes began in 2018, when it took Chuangshiji Technology Limited to court, over multiple monetary issues with the latter. The lawsuit, which stretched over a span of several years, was filed in 2019, after the defendant began withholding said RX 470 GPUs, presumably purchased by Genesis Mining. The Genesis lawsuit specifically demanded that Chuangjishi hand over more than 560000 GPUs, along with 60000 ASIC miners after the company terminated its agreement with the company.

Naturally, things didn’t go according to plan for Genesis; Chuangjishi refused to comply and instead, began selling its ill-gotten gains, all without Genesis’ consent.

Sadly, Genesis’ victory in the Chinese court is a Pyrrhic one; while the Icelandic cloud-based mining company may have won back its nearly half a million RX 470 GPUs, China’s recent crackdown on cryptominers and their farms means that the company will have to consider two alternatives: shift its operations out of China and into a country where cryptomining isn’t banned or find new homes for them, the latter being an arduous task, given the age of the RX 470 and its GPU core.

That said, selling them to actual gamers might actually net Genesis a tidy profit, especially given the ongoing chip and GPU shortage that is happening around the world.

Corsair Gives A Taste Of DDR5 RAM Running At 6400MHz; Has Nearly Double The Bandwidth Than DDR4

As the DDR4 memory standard begins to enter its sundown years, many of us are patiently awaiting the arrival of the next-generation DDR5 standard. And while there have been reports about the upcoming memory modules being made by Chinese brands, it appears Corsair has beaten them to the punch by giving the world a glimpse of the memory’s performance.

According to Corsair’s official blog post, its DDR5 memory modules were tested while running at considerably higher frequencies of 6400MHz. In addition to the higher speeds, its module also had a maximum bandwidth output of 51GB/s. For comparison’s sake, that’s nearly double the bandwidth output of your average DDR4 memory module, running at 3200MHz.

In addition to achieving nearly double the bandwidth, Corsair says that its DDR5 can achieve that while consuming less power at 1.1V. Further, and unlike DDR4, it is possible for the future memory standard to ship out with as much as 128GB in a single stick, versus 32GB for DDR4.

As to when we can expect DDR5, the answer is more or less the same as before; while there is no definitive launch date, the word is that we could see the new memory standard launch at the end of this year, at its earliest. Moreover, rumours are also suggesting that it could make its appearance alongside Intel’s own 12th generation Alder Lake-S desktop CPU lineup, which is also expected to make its debut within the same timeline.

Corsair Gives A Taste Of DDR5 RAM Running At 6400MHz; Has Nearly Double The Bandwidth Than DDR4

As the DDR4 memory standard begins to enter its sundown years, many of us are patiently awaiting the arrival of the next-generation DDR5 standard. And while there have been reports about the upcoming memory modules being made by Chinese brands, it appears Corsair has beaten them to the punch by giving the world a glimpse of the memory’s performance.

According to Corsair’s official blog post, its DDR5 memory modules were tested while running at considerably higher frequencies of 6400MHz. In addition to the higher speeds, its module also had a maximum bandwidth output of 51GB/s. For comparison’s sake, that’s nearly double the bandwidth output of your average DDR4 memory module, running at 3200MHz.

In addition to achieving nearly double the bandwidth, Corsair says that its DDR5 can achieve that while consuming less power at 1.1V. Further, and unlike DDR4, it is possible for the future memory standard to ship out with as much as 128GB in a single stick, versus 32GB for DDR4.

As to when we can expect DDR5, the answer is more or less the same as before; while there is no definitive launch date, the word is that we could see the new memory standard launch at the end of this year, at its earliest. Moreover, rumours are also suggesting that it could make its appearance alongside Intel’s own 12th generation Alder Lake-S desktop CPU lineup, which is also expected to make its debut within the same timeline.

Foxconn’s iPhone 12 Production In India More Than Halved By COVID Outbreak

A Foxconn factory in India saw its iPhone 12 production drop by over 50% due to a COVID-19 outbreak there which forced infected workers to leave their posts, according to a Reuters report citing sources.

One source told Reuters that over 100 Foxconn employees in Tamil Nadu – the state where the factory is located – have tested positive for the coronavirus, and that the firm has banned entry to the factory until late May.

“Employees are only allowed to leave but not to enter the facility since yesterday,” the source said. “Only a small part of output is being kept.”

The affected factory produces iPhones specifically for India – the second largest smartphone market in the world after China. Earlier in March, it was reported that Foxconn would shift some of its iPhone 12 production out of China and to India.

The move was thought to be based on rising labour costs (in China) as well as escalating tensions between the US and China. India has also tempted major smartphone manufacturers with attractive subsidies.

Since March, however, the COVID-19 situation has grown exponentially worse in India – by some estimates, new cases are exceeding 350,000 per day, with deaths in the thousands. A full statewide lockdown has been imposed in the state of Tamil Nadu, where the factory is, since Monday.

Opensignal: Malaysia’s Mobile Data Consumption Is Way Higher Than Other SEA Countries

The impact of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on data consumption in Malaysia has been well-documented by various parties including the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission MCMC) itself. However, a new report from Opensignal has shown that the demand for mobile data in our country is generally much higher than in other Southeast Asian countries.

Using data that was gathered from January 2020 to March 2021, Malaysia mobile data consumption has steadily increased from February 2020 before hitting the first peak in April 2020 which coincides with the early part of MCO 1.0. The demand then drops before it steadily picked up again from July 2020 onwards and reached the second peak in February 2021.

While Opensignal didn’t provide the exact amount of data consumption for each month, the network analytical company pointed out that the April 2020 mobile data consumption in Malaysia is 30.7% higher than in January. Additionally, the difference between consumption in January 2019 and January 2021 is around 35.2%.

With an average consumption rate of 26.4GB per user in January 2021, it is apparently the highest in Southeast Asia:

Opensignal has noted in its report that the massive surge of mobile data consumption showed that telcos in Malaysia faced a greater challenge as compared to their counterparts in other SEA countries.

Similarly, this may explain why some local telcos such as Celcom and Maxis have recently experienced noticeable declines in terms of speed. On another hand, the analytical firm was also quick to point out that JENDELA may help things become better.

Malaysia less vaccine % than india and indon, GGWP

 

https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations

Personal Data Of More Than 11 Million Malaysian Facebook Users Leaked Online

Personal data that belonged to more than 500 million Facebook users have been leaked online through a popular data marketplace forum that has previously listed databases from a Malaysian payment platform, e-commerce merchant, and the national electoral roll up for sale.

Over 11 million Malaysian Facebook users are said to be part of this leak which was first highlighted by Alon Gal, who is the Co-Founder and CTO of Israelian cybersecurity company, Hudson Rock. He pointed out that the leaked database contains not only users’ Facebook ID but also their phone number, full name, birthday, account creation date, relationship status, and bio.

It also contains their current and past location while some accounts also have their e-mails present in the leaked database.  A sample of the data has since been verified as legit by Business Insider who has matched them with phone numbers and e-mail addresses of known users.

This is not the first time that this particular Facebook database has leaked online though. Alon has actually highlighted it back in January but at that time, it was being presented through a Telegram bot and one has to pay for credits in order to obtain information from the leaked database.

Now, the data is generally being made available for free (if you were active enough in the marketplace forum) which means that the barrier is significantly lower than before. However, the Director of Strategic Response Communications for Facebook, Liz Bourgeois has tweeted out that the data came from an old security issue that the company had fixed back in 2019.

That being said, many of the details within the leaked database can’t really be considered “old” though. Hence, they seemed rather ripe and ready to be exploited by crude marketers, scammers, and hackers.

Now, the data is generally being made available for free (if you were active enough in the marketplace forum) which means that the barrier is significantly lower than before. However, the Director of Strategic Response Communications for Facebook, Liz Bourgeois has tweeted out that the data came from an old security issue that the company had fixed back in 2019.

That being said, many of the details within the leaked database can’t really be considered “old” though. Hence, they seemed rather ripe and ready to be exploited by crude marketers, scammers, and hackers.

Outriders Will Brand Cheaters Rather Than Ban; Restrict Matchmaking

Cheating is always a problem for online games, and especially on PC. Outriders devs at People Can Fly have an interesting solution to this problem. And surprisingly, it does not involve banning.

In a dev update posted on Steam, the dev team details its policy on cheating and hacking after the expected Day 1 patch notes. In it, the Outriders devs say that anyone identified to be a cheater will be branded as one. The brand will appear discreetly in the cheater’s HUD like a watermark. This will allow clips or screenshots they upload to be easily identifiable. Matchmaking will also be limited, so identified cheaters will only be able to play with other cheaters.

Once the full game is released on 1 April, the branding will also be permanent across the account. If a cheater got caught during the demo but wants to start the game clean, then they’ll have to wipe all their characters and items across the account.

While limited matchmaking is a common punishment for cheaters, the Outriders approach of branding sounds novel. And it may work for the kind of cheaters who do so in the name of clout chasing. And since there’s no PvP, there’s little other incentive to cheat, other than some convoluted PvE method of griefing your teammates.

Epic Games Launcher Reportedly Drains 20 Percent More Battery Than Steam On Laptops

Game launchers are notorious for causing systems to consume more power and if you’re on a laptop, leaving those programs to operate in the background while not connected to a power source clearly means that its battery is going to run out of juice a lot faster. With the Epic Games launcher, it’s actually even worse.

A study by PC World found that running the Epic Games Store (EGS) launcher in the background of a Microsoft Surface Pro 7+ equipped with an Intel 11th generation Ice Lake CPU consumed up to 20% more battery power than when the Steam launcher was active. Moreover, the site found that running just the Steam launcher alone in the background made little to no impact on the battery life of the Surface Pro 7+.

Statistically, the laptop’s battery lasted a total of 587 minutes with Steam active, while running it with the EGS launcher reduced that time to 482 minutes.

It’s a similar story with a Ryzen-based Surface Laptop 3, in which PC World noted that a clear run with the Steam launcher active depleted its battery in 472 minutes, while another run with the EGS launcher depleted it faster by 434 minutes; that’s approximately an 8% difference.

This marks the second time that Epic Games’ launcher has come under the spotlight. Back at the end of 2020, the digital distribution store gained attention when it was discovered that just running the app in the background was causing AMD Ryzen CPUs to run 20°C higher than average.

It was discovered that the surge in temperature was being caused by the launcher sending data to a server belonging to Epic Games. Then, as now, the only solution to the issue was to simply disable or shut down the launcher.

Reuters Report Suggests Bitcoin May Cause More Harm Than Good For Environment

By now, you would have already heard of Elon Musk’s US$1.5 billion (~RM6.11 billion) investment into Bitcoin and how he intends to make it possible for consumers to buy cars from his company, Tesla with the cryptocurrency. As eco-friendly as the man’s action may seem, some people believe that his actions could have the opposite reaction to the global environment.

As explained in a Reuters article, one of the biggest problems with mining for Bitcoin – or any cryptocurrency, for that matter – is the amount of carbon dioxide created by the mining farms that solve and execute the calculations provided by the blockchain, and getting paid for it.

According to data provided by the University of Cambridge and the International Energy Agency, cryptomining is expected to generate nearly 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. To put it in another way, the energy consumed by all current mining farms to-date, nearly matches the energy consumption of The Netherlands back in 2019.

That is not to say that there are no environmentally conscious miners in the world. SJ Oh, a former Bitcoin trader and environmentalist, co-founded Pow-re, a company that is reported to run “green” bitcoin mining operations with hydropower. All in sub-zero temperatures, situated within Canada’s subarctic region.

We also shouldn’t be so quick to dismiss Musk’s and Tesla’s endeavours to go green. Despite the fears of an environmental whiplash, the man recently offered US$100 million (~RM404 million) for inventions that could effectively reduce carbon dioxide emission, both from the atmosphere and oceans. Moreover, there’s also the possibility that the man could, in some form or another, develop a sustainable method of mining Bitcoin in the future.