• Intel is absolutely definitely positively not cancelling its Arc graphics cards before they're even properly launched says Intel.  (WCCFTech)
  
  "Graphics cards are core to our business and always have been," said an unnamed Intel employee speaking from an undisclosed location.  "Just like Optane."
  
  There's been some weirdness all along with Intel denying it ever had plans for a high-end card in the first generation, and chips apparently sitting in a warehouse for months waiting for drivers to be vaguely workable.  As this blog noted, Intel cited performance numbers for a total of five games.
  
  
  
• AMD cards meanwhile are now almost twice as fast with the latest driver update - in Minecraft.  (Hot Hardware)
  
  Yes, it's just one game, and it's not all that graphics intensive, but if it's the only game you play and you play it on an older AMD graphics card like the RX 580 - which I do - this is welcome.
  
  The update provides a small boost for recent games, but a much bigger one for some older titles.  On a Radeon 6800 XT, the 2011 game RAGE now achieves an average of 120 fps - at 8k.
  
  

Tech News

• If you were expecting to receive your Steam Deck early in 2023, Valve has news: Shipping dates have been moved to late 2022.  (Liliputing)
  
  Yes, that's two items of good news in one day.  No, I don't know what's going on either.
  
  
  
• If you were looking for a small but capable Android phone the Asus Zenfone 9 might be it.  (Liliputing)
  
  It has a 5.9" screen, but it's almost all screen so it's almost exactly the same size as Google's 5" Pixel 2 from five years ago.
  
  
  
• AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7600X beats Intel's 12900K by 22% on one obviously broken benchmark.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  The number might be real, because apart from the general design improvements and increased clock speeds, Zen 4 has twice as much L2 cache as Zen 3.  Looking at just one benchmark you might find that it suddenly fits in cache and runs dramatically faster.
  
  Realistically, the 7600X could have about the same single-threaded performance as the 12900K, and probably a little less.  It will be much cheaper and use a fraction of the power, though; it's not intended at all to compete with Intel's high end chips.
  
  
  
• Micron has announced plans to expand its US-based memory manufacturing.  (Tom's Hardware)
  
  I question the timing.  Well, no, I don't; they said quite openly that this is because of the CHIPS handout passed yesterday.
  
  
  
• In another gift to AMD Intel is planning to raise prices by up to 20% across the board.  (WCCFTech)
  
  "Up to" being the operative term, they probably have a hundred people doing nothing but modelling how much they can get away with.  Intel knows that AMD can't supply the entire market, but on the other hand customers can just choose to wait, particularly with a RECESSION going on right now.
  
  
  
• Gaming in a cold climate: Intel's fastest, hottest, most expensive desktop CPU mostly loses to AMD's much cheaper 5800X3D.  (AnandTech)
  
  The 12900KS peaks at 270W where the 5800X3D uses just 112W, so unless you also need to keep your igloo toasty warm, AMD is the better bet.
  
  On productivity tasks the 8+8 core 12900KS does handily beat the 8 core 5800X3D, but there you'd probably look to the 5950X on the AMD side - which is also much cheaper than the 12900KS, and also uses much less power, peaking at 142W.

Posted by: Rick C at Sunday, July 31 2022 03:26 AM (BMUHC)

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