Alongside ASUS's announcement of its latest ROG Flow X13 13-inch gaming notebook, it has also unveiled an interesting new external graphics dock to go with that notebook. Dubbed the ROG XG Mobile GV301, the external graphics dock is designed to augment the ROG Flow X13's capabilities, turning it into a powerful and lightweight portable gaming rig. And though graphics docks themselves are nothing new, this one stands out due to its portability, with the dock being similar in size to a second laptop.From a high-level perspective, the graphics dock lives up to its name. At its heart, of course, is a high-performance GPU, with ASUS tapping NVIDIA’s new laptop-grade RTX 3070 and 3080 adapters, both of which will be a significant step up from the Flow X13’s built-in GeForce GTX 1650 graphics adapter. Along with this, the dock can power the Flow X13 – thanks to its integrated 280W power supply – and offers several ports including HDMI and DisplayPort, a Gig Ethernet jack, 4 USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and an integrated SD card reader.Notably, like some past efforts to provide graphics docks for thin & light laptops, ASUS is going with a proprietary connection here rather than relying on Thunderbolt. The unnamed connector is split intwo two segments, with one carrying PCIe 3.0 x8 data while the other segment is a USB-C connector for carrying power and USB data. This significantly limits the compatibility of the dock, but it does provide twice as much PCIe bandwidth as Thunderbolt 3 or 4 otherwise would.As previously mentioned, one of ASUS’s design goals for the ROG XG Mobile is portability, so that it can be carried around with the Flow X13 rather than serving as a relatively static dock at home. To that end the dock is 29.6mm thick, with a 208mm x 155mm footprint, making it comparable in size to a second laptop. It also weighs similar (if a bit denser) at a flat 1kg (2.2lbs). Fittingly, ASUS is supplying a sleeve with the Flow X13 to carry both the laptop and XG Mobile, simplifying this process some.

As part of Acer’s CES launch, the company is announcing updates to both the Acer Aspire 5 and Acer Aspire 7, bumping both models to the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 series of processors. The new models are aimed at creativity, without breaking the bank.Acer Aspire 7The 15.6-inch Acer Aspire 7 targets creators who need the extra performance of a dedicated graphics card, and Acer has paired Ryzen 5000 APUs with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1650. The Aspire 7 can be specified with up to 32 GB of DDR4, and a 1 TB PCIe SSD. There will be an extra 2.5-inch drive slot as well, for additional storage.Although not as cutting edge as some other models in Acer’s lineup, the Aspire 7 still features an 81.6% screen to body ratio on the 15.6-inch display, and Acer is calling for accurate color representation thanks to Acer Color Intelligence and Acer ExaColor to adjust gamma and saturation on the fly to avoid clipping and over-saturation.The starting configuration will offer the Ryzen 5 along with 8 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD and the GeForce GTX 1650 for just $749. Availability is March 2021.Acer Aspire 5Also featuring a 15.6-inch FHD display, the Acer Aspire 5 hits an even lower price bracket, pairing the Ryzen 5000 with an optional AMD Radeon RX 640 GPU, up to 24 GB of memory, and up to a 1 TB M.2 SSD.The base configuration is especially price-conscious, with a Ryzen 5 5500U, 1920x1080 60Hz IPS display, 8 GB of RAM, and a 256 GB SSD for just $549.The Acer Aspire 5 is also targeting a March release date.Source: Acer

Planning for the next-generation of processors, ADATA has sent us a render of its first DDR5 module at CES 2021, with supported speeds of up to DDR5-8400.Memory partners and manufacturers during 2020 started to outline their plans for DDR5, including specifications and architecture. This includes announcements from the big three memory giants, including SK Hynix, Samsung, and Micron. ADATA has gone one step further and unveiled a render of what its DDR5 module could potentially look like, with a generic green PCB, with eight memory chips in two banks of four. This is despite the fact that we have already seen DDR5 engineering samples in the wild.

As part of the lead up to CES 2021, Akasa made a couple of interesting announcements related to its lineup of DIY fanless cases and a second family of RGB lighting accessories.We have covered Akasa's Turing fanless cases in detail earlier - starting off as a complete reimagination of a fanless Bean Canyon NUC (delivering excellent results in our review), Akasa also created the Turing FX based on the same design for the Frost Canyon NUC. Now, they have set their sights on one of the popular consumer-focused Ryzen-based mini-PCs in the market - the Asus PN50.The Asus PN50, based on the Ryzen 4000-series mobile APUs (Renoirs with a TDP of 15W), has a physical footprint similar to that of the NUCs (with a ~4in. x ~4in. motherboard). The I/Os are a bit different compared to the NUCs, but Akasa could easily rework that aspect of the Turing design to quickly turn around a chassis capable of operating the PN50 without fans. Given the success that the Akasa Turing had with the Bean Canyon NUCs sporting a processor with a sustained package power consumption of 30W, it is likely that cooling the PN50 board (sporting a processor with a configurable TDP between 10W and 25W) should be a walk in the park. That said, we will reserve our final judgement for a hands-on review.In other news, Akasa is also following up on their VEGAS series of RGB lighting accessories (CPU fans, case fans, and a RGB controller card) with a new SOHO series. This is a new set of addressable RGB (aRGB) products including case fans, LED lighting strips, a CPU cooler, and a controller card.Akasa claims that the SOHO series case fan (SOHO AR) includes a redesigned sickle blade design and rotor technology to improve airflow and cooling efficiency compared to its previous case fans. The controller card ties all these accessories together in order to create a unified RGB solution for gamers looking to jazz up their system appearance. The key to any set of RGB lighting accessories is compatibility with applications from different vendors - Akasa indicates that the SOHO series aRGB controller and accessories are compatible with applications from GIGABYTE, ASUS, Razer, ASRock, and MSI.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!Gallery: Akasa at CES 2021: Turing A50 Chassis for Fanless Ryzen and SOHO Series RGB Lighting Accessories

During CES 2021's all-digital trade show, ASUS has unveiled its updated ROG Zephyrus G14 model for 2021. The new Zephyrus G14 uses AMD's latest 5000 series mobile processor, with its ANiME Matrix LED display built into the lid.The ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 (GA401), according to ASUS, is the world's most powerful 14-inch laptop, with AMD's next-generation Ryzen 5000 mobile processor and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX mobile graphics. It is available with a choice of two 14-inch displays, including a 2K 120 Hz DCIP-3 or 1080p 144 Hz adaptive sync panel. Designed for gamers on the go, it has a thickness of 17.9 mm, with a total weight of 1.6 KG.

News is breaking that Intel has announced that Pat Gelsinger, CEO of VMWare, is to take the role of CEO at Intel from February 15th.Intel today has released a press statement saying that current CEO Bob Swan (who we interviewed only a few days ago!) is to step down in his role, and be succeeded by Pat Gelsinger. Gelsinger, a veteran of the industry, has spent over 40 years at companies such as VMWare, EMC, and spent 30 years previously at Intel, reaching the potisition of Chief Technology Officer. In that role he drove creation of standards such as USB, Wi-Fi, he was the architect of the 80486, and played key roles in 14 generations of Intel Core and Xeon processors. As CEO of VMWare since 2012, Pat has overseen a tripling of annualized revenue to make VMWare a recognized global leader in global infrastructure and cyber security.Rumors of Intel getting a new CEO have never died down, even since Bob Swan officially took the role from Brian Krzanich in January 2019. Through those two years, Swan has seen successive YoY growth in the companies revenue streams, as well as a turnover of high-profile technical personnel, such as Dr. Murthy Renduchintala. The goal has seemingly been to push Intel into more areas for TAM growth, while at the same time push through the fundamental issues surrounding the delays to manufacturing on the 10nm node, which has been delayed for a couple of years at this point, and the 7nm node, to which delays were announced more recently. The missing piece of the puzzle has been having an engineer at the top of Intel's food chain, particularly one well versed in Intel's product portfolio, and for those that wanted this to happen, it appears to be so, from February 15th.Bob Swan will still head the Intel financial call on January 21st, where the company is set to announce how it will approach its future process node strategy, namely 7nm, in light of recent delays. This call should indicate how much Intel is set to invest in its own manufacturing facilities, and how much it may offload to third party foundries during that timeframe. During our interview with Bob Swan, he mentioned that Intel would only work with third party foundries if it could get preferential treatment for the volumes it needed, as well as integration with all related design tools. Swan also stated that licensing a process node technology from someone else for use in Intel's fabs was also an option the company could be considering. No word has been given as to Bob's future, if this is retirement from Intel, or what future role he may play.On the new CEO news, the chairman of the board at Intel, Omar Ishrak, has said,

Today Qualcomm has announced they will be acquiring NUVIA for $1.4bn – acquiring the start-up company consisting of industry veterans which originally were behind the creation of Apple’s high-performance CPU cores. The transaction has important ramifications for Qualcomm’s future in high-performance computing both in mobile, as well as laptop segment, with a possible re-entry into the server market.

At CES 2021, which switched to a virtual online-only format due to the current Coronavirus pandemic, ADATA has unveiled its latest gaming ultrabook, the XPG Xenia Xe. Based on Intel's Tiger Lake CPU with Xe graphics, the XPG Xenia Xe looks to offer users a portable lifestyle and gaming solution.The new XPG Xenia Xe gaming ultrabook includes a 15.6" 1080p screen, with an IPS touchscreen panel with an 87% screen to body ratio. Available with two different processors, Intel's Tiger Lake Core i7-1165G7, or the i5-1135G7, it also benefits from Intel's latest Xe integrated graphics.Designed for ultra-portability, it measures in at just 11 mm thick, with a total weight of 3.6 lb, making it one of the more lightweight options and has an elegant CNC anodized aluminum chassis. For storage, XPG states that it includes its own 1 TB PCIe Gen 4 M.2 SSD, but XPG doesn't include any information about memory configuration.XPG hasn't revealed details on pricing or when the Xenia Xe gaming ultrabooks will hit retail shelves.Gallery: CES 2021: ADATA Announces XPG Xenia Xe Gaming UltrabookInterested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

Alongside today’s CES-centric announcement of their new GeForce RTX 30 series parts for laptops, NVIDIA also offered an in-depth reveal of their next desktop graphics card, the GeForce RTX 3060. Reflected the continued progression of the Ampere architecture into smaller and cheaper video cards as NVIDIA continues its product stack rollout, the RTX 3060 marks the introduction of Ampere into their popular mainstream-enthusiast 60-series video card tier. Long the backbone of NVIDIA’s desktop sales in North America and elsewhere, the 60-tier cards typically strike a solid balance between price and performance. And with prices set to start at $329, at launch the RTX 3060 will become the cheapest RTX card that NVIDIA has ever offered.

As the cornerstone of their CES 2021 keynote, NVIDIA today has announced their GeForce RTX 30 series graphics adapters for laptops. Based on the same Ampere architecture and the same GPUs as NVIDIA’s existing desktop GeForce cards, the RTX 30 series for laptops will bring Ampere’s features and much of its performance to laptops, just tuned to the sub-150 Watt power requirements that come with a laptop. Laptops will be getting versions of the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060, with the first of these new generation of laptops set to become available later this month, on January 26.

Following the keynote press conference, AMD invited a number of key press partners for some Q&A time with Dr. Lisa Su. On the table, we were told, was any topic relating to AMD. Given that the company launched a number of products just as the previous year ended, and supply issues are tight for end-users, there were opportunities to quiz the CEO on production demand against supply, AMD’s product cadence, and expectations for 2021.

During the new CES 2021 digital event, ASUS lifted the lid on its new updated Zephyrus G15. Designed for gaming, the ROG Zephyrus G15 includes multiple configurations, with a 15.6" screen with either a 1080p 144 Hz IPS or 1440p 165 Hz panel AMD's next-generation Ryzen mobile processor.ASUS has updated ROG Zephyrus G15 with some notable features, including a new 90 Wh battery with a 200 W AC charger. Still, it can be used with its 100 W Type-C charging adapter, which is available separately. ASUS advertises a 10-hour battery life. In terms of size, the ROG Zephrus has a depth of 19.9 mm and weighs just 1.9 KG, which is quite svelte for a gaming notebook.

At the all-digital CES 2021 event, ASUS has unveiled a brand new convertible 14" gaming laptop, the ROG Flow X13. The Flow X13 can harness the power of AMD's Ryzen 9 5980HS mobile processor, with an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card, with a flippable 360°touch screen.The ASUS ROG Flow X13 represents an interesting segue into the gaming capable convertible space. Some of its most notable design aspects revolve around the 13.4" display, which has a 16:10 aspect ratio, with support for both touch and stylus input. The screen is coated with robust Corning Gorilla Glass, supports adaptive sync, and includes Pantone color validation. In terms of specification, the panel will be available with either 1080p 120 Hz or at 4K.One of the biggest features includes its ability to convert into four different configurations on the fly, including a regular laptop, tablet, tent, and stand modes. Looking at the internals, the ROG Flow X13 will support up to and including the Ryzen 9 5980HS mobile processor, with up to and including NVIDIA GTX 1650 graphics. ASUS also states that it will be using AMD's top binned CPUs for this model to ensure the best performance and highest quality silicon.Another claim from ASUS is that the ROG Flow X13's battery can hold out up to 18 hours, with 10 hours of expected battery life during continuous video playback. It comes supplied with its new 100 W USB Type-C PD charger that can charge an empty battery to 60% in around 39 minutes.ASUS hasn't revealed when the ROG Flow X13 will be available to buy and hasn't supplied any pricing information.Gallery: CES 2021: ASUS Unveils New ROG Flow X13 Convertable Gaming NotebookInterested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

Following NVIDIA’s announcement of their new GeForce RTX 30 series mobile GPUs, Razer is among several laptop vendors today announcing new and updated laptops using the new hardware. Overall, the company is updating its Blade 15 and Blade Pro 17 laptop families to use the new GPUs, all the while the company is also making some updates to the other components they use, and even the Blades; chassis themselves.Razer Blade 15 Base ModelWe’ll start off with the 2021 Razer Blade 15, the latest iteration of Razer’s popular 15-inch gaming laptop. As has been the case for a few years now, the Blade 15 is internally divided up into two models, the lower tier “Base Model” and higher tier “Advanced Model”, which in many respects are entirely different laptops. Along with the Advanced Model offering additional features, it also uses its own, typically thinner chassis, largely making it a separate model in its own right.For the base model Blade 15, Razer is sticking with Intel’s 6-core i7-10750H processor as the heart of the machine. Graphics options for the laptop are either a GeForce RTX 3060 6GB or GeForce RTX 3070 8GB as an upgrade option, replacing the RTX 2070 used in the 2020 models. Meanwhile Razer is using DDR4-2933 memory for this laptop, and while 16GB is the only configuration they offer, the SO-DIMMs can be swapped out and the laptop supports up to 64GB of memory.As for display options, Razer is now offering a new 144Hz 1080p panel as the minimum option for the 2021 models. This IPS-type panel offers 100% coverage of the sRGB gamut (something the previous gen did not) and a matte finish. Meanwhile Razer also offers a 165Hz 1440p IPS-type panel which, along with the higher resolution, can also cover 100% of the DCI-P3 spectrum. All of these display options come factory calibrated as well, though it’s worth noting that none of the base model panels come with variable refresh support.For storage, the 2021 base model SKUs all include a 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD. This SSD is replaceable, and like last year’s version, well there’s a second open M.2 slot for adding a second drive altogether. If you need more storage past that, the laptops offer a Thunderbolt 3-enabled USB-C port, along with another USB-C (3.2 Gen 2) port, and a trio of 3.2 Gen 1 USB-A ports.Razer is also once again using one of their Chroma RGB keyboards. This is a single-zone (rather than per-key) affair, though according to Razer, it does use a new layout. This fits into Razer’s 19.9mm thick aluminum chassis, which has been carried over from their 2020 models. So has its 65Whr battery, which although won’t be enough for long gaming sessions away from a power outlet, is more than enough to drive the laptop for productivity tasks for quite some time.Rounding out the package, Razer supports the usual networking standards. Along with Wi-Fi 6 support via an Intel AX201 adapter, the laptop also supports Bluetooth 5.1, and even comes with a Gigabit Ethernet jack for hardwired connections. Surprisingly, Razer also supports HDMI 2.1 out, indicating that even though the laptop is using NVIDIA’s Optimus technology, they’ve still hardwired the HDMI port directly to the NVIDIA GPU.The 2021 Razer Blade 15 Base Model will start at $1699, with pre-orders starting today and will be on-sale/shipping on January 26.Razer Blade 15 Advanced ModelMoving up a level, we have the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model. Which as alluded to earlier, is in several respects a significant step up from the base model in terms of features and performance.The Blade 15 Advanced Model is built around a full 8-core 10 gen Intel processor, specifically the i7-10875H. Razer is pairing this with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3070 and 3080 laptop adapters, with the highest SKU going half a step further and offering a 16GB version of the 3080 rather than the standard 8GB version. This configuration replaces the RTX 2070 Super/2080 Super from the 2020 models.Included memory will depend on the specific laptop SKU; the cheaper models come with 16GB in two DDR4-2933 DIMMs, while the higher-end models come with 32GB of that memory. As with the base model, the machine can be upgraded to hold 64GB altogether.For display options, Razer is offering no less than three different choices here. The base option for the cheapest Blade 15 Advanced SKU is a 240Hz 1440p IPS-type panel, which can cover 95% of the sRGB spectrum. This also happens to be the only panel with G-Sync support among all of Razer’s options, giving this laptop the best chance to comfortably game at 1440p. Alternatively, Razer also offers a 360Hz 1080p panel for the very fastest refresh rates (G-Sync need not apply), or as a high-resolution option the company is once again offering a 4K OLED touch panel, which is capable of covering 100% of the DCI-P3 spectrum and supports HDR as well.All of this is going into a new chassis for the Blade 15 Advanced, which has seen Razer rework the laptop’s aluminum body to make it even thinner – now it’s just 16.99mm thick – while improving its expandability. The new chassis isn’t a remarkable departure from the old one, but it gives Razer claim to shipping the smallest 15-inch RTX gaming laptop, and more importantly, it opens up space for things like a second M.2 slot.Which brings us to storage: the Blade 15 Advanced ships with a 1TB NVMe M.2 drive, and for the first time for the Advanced Model, also includes a second empty M.2 slot for another drive. To accomplish this, Razer has opted to stack the second SSD on top of the first one, owing to the space constraints of the laptop.Fitting for the advanced model, this laptop comes with a per-key LED version of Razer’s Chroma RGB keyboard. And in case you like making faces at your laptop, it also packs in an IR camera for Windows Hello login support.Rounding out the package, for wired connectivity the Advanced Model comes with a Thunderbolt 3-enabled USB-C port, a second USB-C port, and trio of USB-A ports. An HDMI 2.1 port is also present, and while the Advanced Model drops the Gigabit Ethernet port, it picks up an SD card reader instead. Meanwhile wireless support is provided via Intel’s new AX210 adapter, offering Wi-Fi6E as well as Bluetooth 5.2.Finally, this is the only version of the Blade 15 family that supports charging over a USB-C port. To be sure, the entire Blade 15 family comes with a 230W proprietary adapter, so the max 100W offered by USB-C isn’t enough to charge the laptop at its full rate. But it’s more than enough to keep it powered under non-gaming scenarios, or charge the 80Whr battery in a reasonable period of time.The 2021 Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model will start at $2499, with pre-orders starting today for shipment in February.Razer Blade Pro 17Last but not least, Razer is also updating their largest laptop, the Blade Pro 17. This is a slightly more straightforward update than the Blade 15 – there’s no new chassis involved – but it’s getting the same treatment in terms of upgrading the graphics and display options.Built around the same 8-core i7-10875H as the 2020 model, the 2021 model replaces its GeForce RTX 2070/2080 graphics options with the new GeForce RTX 3060/3070/3080 adapters. As with the Blade 15 Advanced, the highest-end SKU gets 16GB of memory to go with its RTX 3080, while all the other SKUs come with 8GB or 6GB of VRAM respectively.Meanwhile, memory and storage options remain virtually unchanged from the past generation. Lower-end SKUs come with 16GB of DDR4-2933 in two DIMMs, and higher-end SKUs come with 32GB. Similarly, storage is split between 512GB M.2 NVMe drives on some SKUs, and 1TB on others. And of course, the Blade Pro 17 features an open M.2 slot for another drive.For display options, Razer is expanding their options on the Blade Pro 17 slightly, including a middle-tier 1440p display option to compliment their existing 1080p and 4K displays. At the lower-end is a 360Hz 1080p 17.3-inch IPS-type display, which can cover 100% of the sRGB spectrum. Above that is the 165Hz 1440p IPS-type display, which again offers 100% sRGB coverage. And finally, Razer will once again offer a 4K IPS-type panel, which unique among the options offers touch screen support as well as 100% Adobe RGB coverage.All of the Blade Pro 17 SKUs will feature a per-key lighting version of Razer’s Chroma RGB keyboard, as well as an IR camera for Windows Hello. All models also feature Intel’s AX210 adapter, offering Wi-Fi6E as well as Bluetooth 5.2.As for ports, the Blade Pro 17 offers a Thunderbolt-3 enabled USB-C port, another USB-C port, three USB-A ports, an HSMI 2.1 port, and a SD card reader. The laptop also surprisingly offers a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port for wired networking, and marking the first time I’ve seen a 2.5GbE port on a laptop.The 2021 Razer Blade Pro 17 will start at $2299, with pre-orders opening up today and orders shipping sometime later in Q1.Gallery: CES 2021: Razer Blade 15 & Blade 17 Pro Press Deck

Today at CES, Acer is announcing some refreshes of their gaming lineup as well as a brand-new compact gaming notebook. Acer has been a close partner with AMD over the last several years, and they are one of the first to announce new devices based on the Ryzen 5000 laptop APU, as well as updates to their Intel fleet thanks to the launch of the new Tiger Lake H-Series. Finally, thanks to the launch of NVIDIA’s RTX 3000 series for notebooks, graphics are getting a refresh across the board.Predator Triton 300 SEFirst up is the all-new Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, with the SE standing for Special Edition. This is Acer’s first gaming laptop to offer a 14-inch display, fitting it under the Triton 500 and Triton 700 in their lineup. The SE is also Acer’s first laptop to feature a sandblasted and anodized aluminum exterior, devoid of the typical gaming accoutrements such as large logos and flashy colors. The Predator Triton 300 SE is a sleeper with very subdued styling, but still packing a punch.Powering the latest in the Triton series of thin and light gaming laptops is the just announced Intel H35 Tiger Lake processors, with up to the Core i7 with 5.0 GHz on the latest 10 nm node from Intel. Acer offers up to 24 GB of RAM, with 8 GB soldered in and one free SODIMM for upgradable memory. For graphics, Acer has turned to the latest and greatest NVIDIA RTX 3060 which should be plenty to power the 14-inch 1920x1080 144 Hz IPS display. On storage, Acer will offer up to 1 TB of PCIe 3.0 NVMe.The new Predator Triton 300 SE is also one of the first laptops on the market to support NVIDIA’s Advanced Optimus, which means the display can offer variable refresh rates while still allowing the integrated GPU to be used for battery-sensitive workloads. Previously Acer supported a multiplexer on the Triton lineup, but users had to reboot to switch from Optimus to G-SYNC, so moving to Advanced Optimus is a big win for usability.Despite the powerful internals, the Predator Triton 300 SE is not much larger than a typical 14-inch notebook, at just 0.7 inches thick and weighing just 3.75 lbs. Coupled with the subdued styling, and Acer is hoping to see a wider audience interested in their new design.As far as cooling, which is always a challenge in a thin and light gaming system, Acer has moved to their fifth generation Aeroblade 3D fans, featuring thinner fan blades at just 0.8 mm, and 89 blades per fan, but to keep noise in check they have implemented a ring design to reduce turbulence. This is coupled with distinct heat zones, with foam insulation between them to keep the heat moving in the direction desired and out of the laptop. Acer’s Predator Sense software has a specific quiet setting as well to let the laptop be used in a productivity environment.Rounding out the new laptop is Wi-Fi 6 based on the Killer (owned by Intel) NIC, and the Killer software is integrated into Acer’s Predator Sense suite. There is a Thunderbolt 4 port as well, and Acer has added a fingerprint reader into the glass trackpad.The new Acer Predator Triton 300 SE will be available in March starting at $1399.99 USD.Predator Helios 300Getting a mild refresh is the Predator Helios 300, which is moving up to the latest NVIDIA GPUs, all the way to RTX 3080. Otherwise this 15.6-inch gaming notebook remains relatively unchanged, and still features the 10th Gen Intel Core H-Series processors, and a 144 Hz IPS 1920x1080 display.The Acer Predator Helios 300 will be available in February, starting at $1249.99 USD.Nitro 5We’ve reviewed several of the Acer Nitro 5 models, and the latest featured the AMD Ryzen 4000 series “Renoir” processors. Although definitely in the budget space, the Nitro 5 delivered excellent performance for the money, and should be on the short list for anyone looking for a budget gaming laptop. At CES today, Acer is announcing a refresh of the Nitro 5 to now include the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 series APUs as well as Intel Tiger Lake based models.The Nitro 5 lineup is also expanding, and Acer has seen strong demand for more powerful versions of their least-expensive gaming system. The Nitro 5 will be available in both 15.6 and 17.3-inch sizes, and both will offer a base 1920x1080 60 Hz display, with 144 hz and 360 Hz available, and there will also be a 2560x1440 144Hz offering.On the graphics side, Acer is sticking with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 at the low end, but massively bumping the high end of the Nitro lineup all the way to the RTX 3080. On the CPU front, Ryzen 5 5600H will be the low end, with some Intel Tiger Lake in the middle, and the Ryzen 9 5900HX at the top.Despite the powerful internals, Acer claims a 10-hour battery life on the 15.6-inch model, and a 9-hour battery life on the 17.3-inch.The price range for the Nitro 5 is very wide too, with the base system featuring a Ryzen 5 5600H, 8 GB of RAM in single channel but with a free SODIMM slot, 256 GB SSD, and a GeForce GTX 1650 for $749, but the top of the range Nitro 5 will come in at a staggering $2299. Acer is hoping to capture interest in the crowd who cherish performance over a more expensive design, and it has worked well for them with Nitro 5 so far.The refreshed Acer Nitro 5 will be available in some regions beginning in March.Source: Acer

Stepping out of its supposed 'exclusivity deal' with Lenovo, who had the first rights to Threadripper Pro in the ThinkStation P620, motherboard vendors have started showing off some of its WRX80 motherboard models designed for AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors. Some of the benefits of the new platform over standard Threadripper include eight-channel memory and up to 128 x PCIe 4.0 lanes, which is double that of the non-Pro variants. While this sounds like EPYC, it sits between the two with only 2 TB DRAM support. It's time to showcase what we know, including three new models based on the WRX80 chipset.The AMD WRX80 chipset benefits from eight-channel memory for increased bandwidth when compared to quad-channel Threadrippers and dual-channel Ryzen configurations, with capacity for up to 2 TB when used with DDR4 LRDIMM memory. It also includes support for both ECC and non-ECC memory at DDR4-3200. The biggest jump in regards to specification compared to regular TR is in its PCIe support, with up to 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes available, which in turn increases the amount of PCIe slot real estate vendors can use.Patrick Kennedy from ServeTheHome has affectionately called this platform 'WEPYC', as in 'Workstation EPYC', as it is more like an EPYC than it is a Threadripper.Supermicro M12SWA-TFThe Supermicro M12SWA-TF is dominated by its transposed sWRX8 socket (LGA 4094) and includes eight horizontal memory slots, with support for up to 1 TB of DDR4-3200. The Supermicro has support for AMD Ryzen Threadripper Pro processors up to 64 cores, including the entry-level 16 core variant. It is using an all-black PCB, with a cooling fan attached to the heatsink, with HEDT chipsets having a tendency to run quite warm. This will be even more apparent with PCIe 4.0 lanes over passively cooled options that use PCIe 3.0.It is E-ATX in size, which is fully utilized with an impressive six full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots. This includes support for two triple-slot or three dual-slot graphics cards, which will depend on the configuration a user opts for. For storage, the M12SWA-TF includes four SATA ports and four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots that include support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. Supermicro has also incorporated two PCIe 4.0 U.2 slots, with support for just RAID 0 and 1 arrays. The M12SWA-TF also uses an ASpeed's 7th generation AST2600 BMC controller with one D-sub video output on the rear for physical IPMI access. (Ian: Oooh, AST2600 is new, isn't it?)The board also includes support for up to five USB 3.2 G2 ports, with four Type-A and one Type-C, and five USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports including a mixture of support on the rear panel and through internal headers. There's also two USB 2.0 ports available, with ten 4-pin fan headers, including two for CPU fans and eight for chassis fans. Supermicro is using Realtek's new and unannounced ALC4050 HD audio codec, with a secondary ALC1220 codec. Networking support includes two RJ45 ports, including one powered by an Aquantia AQC113C 10 GbE controller, with an Intel I120-AT Gigabit controller also allowing for IPMI access.ASUS WRX80 Pro WS Sage SE WIFIAnother model expected for AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro is the ASUS WRX80 Pro Sage SE WIFI. While we don't have any technical information and specifications from ASUS itself, we do have an image of it that VideoCardz reported on. There's a lot to go on from just the image, and it looks as though ASUS will fully utilize all of the PCIe 4.0 lanes from Threadripper Pro.The ASUS WRX80 Pro WS Sage SE WIFI is using seven full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, with eight memory slots in two banks of four flanking the transposed LGA 4094 socket. The design includes an all-black PCB, with contrasting black heatsinks for the chipset, M.2 slots, and power delivery. The memory will operate at 1PDC, with eight slots likely to offer similar memory support to Supermicro's M12SWA-TF model, although we will find out more when ASUS officially unveils it.We do know that the WRX80 Pro will include Wi-Fi capabilities, most likely using one of Intel's Wi-Fi 6 interfaces. From the design, it looks like it will include eight SATA, three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2, and two PCIe 4.0 x4 U.2 ports for storage, but hopefully, ASUS will shed more light on the official specifications soon.GIGABYTE WRX80 SU8Based upon a leak from VideoCardz, GIGABYTE is also joining the fray with its WRX80 SU8 model. As it stands, we don't have official specifications or any details from GIGABYTE itself, it looks to be using a large PCB, likely EEB form factor from what we can see. Like the other WRX80 models, the GIGABYTE includes eight memory slots for eight-channel memory, with ECC and non-ECC types supported. The slots are split into two pairs of four and are horizontally aligned which surrounds the transposed LGA 4094 socket.The GIGABYTE WRX80 SU8 includes seven full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slots, with a large chipset heatsink on the right-hand side. While it's difficult to determine a lot of the storage specifications from the image we have from VideoCardz, we can see it may include three to four Ethernet ports on the rear panel.OverallIn speaking with one of the vendors, their main market is going to be system integrators - people who build and sell workstations. I contacted a high-end system integrator and confirmed that they are building a TR Pro machine, although it is very much still a work in process. The vendor, when asked about on-shelf availability, said that they don't particularly plan on doing a full retail packaging, but should AMD push the TR Pro CPUs into the consumer channel, they will prepare the appropriate boxing. In that light, as it stands, it looks like it will depend on AMD to decide if they want to enable the regular consumer retail channel.At this time, we don't have any information on pricing or when the aforementioned WRX80 models for AMD's Ryzen Threadripper Pro will be launched.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

Since the announcement of AMD’s Zen 3 core microarchitecture, we’ve been expecting three series of products to be announced: desktop Ryzen, mobile Ryzen, and enterprise EPYC. So far the desktop parts are now launched and at retail (if you can find them), and the mobile Ryzen processors are part of AMD’s CES disclosures this week for retail in February. That only leaves Zen 3-based EPYC, which AMD has decided to preview as part of its CES keynote presentation today.As far as the design of Zen 3 EPYC ‘Milan’ processors go, we are expecting an almost seemless transition from the previous Zen 2 EPYC ‘Rome’ ecosystem, with pin-compatible processors offering up to 64 cores and with 128 PCIe 4.0 lanes. For performance, if the desktop processors are anything to go by, we should expect to see +19% IPC gains as well. The question remains as to frequencies and efficiency, and when the time comes for AMD to announce the product stack, we will see where the solution lies relative to the competition – should AMD have a significant competitive advantage, no doubt prices will rise in line as well. The previous generation EPYC 7742 had a ‘list price’ of $6950 for comparison.In today’s keynote presentation, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su showcased weather prediction simulation code known as WRF, with two of the new 32-core Milan processors up against Intel’s popular 28-core Xeon Gold 6258R (we’ve reviewed these). The demo showcased simulating a 6 hour weather pattern over the continental US, to which dual socket Milan was 46% faster than Intel. This was computed based on the final frame cut-away from the simulation in the keynote, which showed that where Intel was 56% complete, AMD was 82% complete.

The recent launches of high-end graphics cards from both sides of the aisle has left a number of questions on the table about what will be offered for those of us unwilling or unable to either find $400+ for the latest generation (or more due to low stock pressure). Both AMD and NVIDIA have focused, naturally, on the high-end of the market as that is where a good chunk of the revenue is, however we are waiting for both companies to filter the latest technology into something a little more mainstream. Neither company had said anything about their plans here, until AMD’s keynote at CES today.The company looks set to bring to market RDNA 2 solutions for mid-range desktop discrete graphics cards models in the first half of 2021 (H1 2021). Based on the images showcased during AMD’s presentation, compared to the current RDNA 2 solutions, these cards appear to be less bulky, along with versions that only need a single fan.These are almost certainly built on new silicon – rather than the Navi 21 GPUs used in their 6800 series cards, perhaps something like Navi 23, with cut down compute units and/or memory support. There are also questions as to the state of AMD’s Infinity Cache on these lower models, whether it still exists or is reduced, and then how that all ties into performance, power, efficiency, and then ultimately cost. All RDNA 2 hardware supports DX12 Ultimate, and all that entails.AMD is keeping tight lipped at this time, however AMD did mentioned that mobile graphics solutions will also be coming to market in the first half of the year.

It has been a year since AMD launched its previous generation Ryzen Mobile processors. At the time, the update from Zen to Zen 2, as well as moving to TSMC’s 7nm manufacturing process, gave the company the biggest boost in its notebook performance and battery life in AMD’s history. It’s difficult to reinvent the wheel again, but AMD is hoping that its new Ryzen 5000 Mobile processors build on the momentum that started last year. The new processor line-up has 13 new models, targeting the traditional U-series and H-series markets, as well as a couple of new areas AMD is looking to expand into.

Kicking off in a few minutes is NVIDIA's keynote for CES 2021. Dubbed “GeForce RTX: Game On”, the keynote is going to be presented by Jeff Fisher, NVIDIA’s Senior VP for GeForce.NVIDIA has not given us any concrete messages about what to expect from today's hour-long keynote, but based on some of their teasers in the last few days, it looks like we're in store for the launch of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30 series laptop parts, which typically follow NVIDIA's desktop parts by a few months. Despite its scaled-down size, CES this year has been a big event for laptop news, so new laptop GPUs would fit right in for today's news.Join us at 9am PT (17:00 UTC) for our full live blog coverage of NVIDIA's latest GeForce event!

Today during the Exynos 2100 launch event, Samsung's Dr. Inyup Kang, VP and GM of the System LSI division, confirmed that their partnership with AMD on integrating a next-generation RDNA based GPU will be coming to fruition with the next generation flagship Exynos design.The two companies had originally announced in June of 2019 that Samsung would be licensing and integrating AMD’s RDNA GPU architecture in an extensive collaborative agreement. We had written extensively about the deal and our views on it, and had originally projected a 2022 release date for the first silicon.Today’s confirmation from Samsung looks to be confirmation that the design-in has been successful, and the next flagship SoC following the Exynos 2100 will be featuring the new GPU. A safe bet for the timing of such a design would be end of 2021 with devices likely in the first few months of 2022 – targeting the Galaxy S22 generation of phones.Related Reading:

Today, Samsung LSI took the virtual stage to announce the new Exynos 2100 flagship SoC. The new SoC promises some very large technical upgrades – the aforementioned new Cortex-X1 performance CPU, a very large GPU performance boost, but also very large gains in things like AI performance, a re-integrated leading 5G modem, camera support for up to 200MP sensors, AV1 video decoding, all on a new 5nm process node.

A year ago at CES 2020, ADATA previewed three upcoming PCIe 4.0 consumer SSDs planned for release in 2020. As with many things last year, that didn't go exactly as planned, but two of those drives have now hit the market—albeit with different model names than ADATA was using a year ago. The XPG GAMMIX S70 has now taken over as ADATA's top of the line consumer SSD, and it is starting to hit the (virtual) shelves just in time for CES 2021.Last fall, ADATA launched the XPG GAMMIX S50 Lite as one of the first PCIe 4.0 SSDs targeting mainstream consumer usage. It uses Silicon Motion's 4-channel SM2267 controller, so it isn't aiming for the performance crown that most PCIe 4.0 models are vying for. The XPG GAMMIX S70 was also announced last fall, but only recently hit the market. It was listed on ADATA's own online store before the end of the year, but didn't hit any third-party retailers until it showed up on Newegg last week.The GAMMIX S70 is particularly interesting because it marks the debut of a new competitor for high-end consumer SSD controllers. Innogrit was founded by storage industry veterans including a bunch of former Marvell employees. They came out of stealth mode at Flash Memory Summit 2019 with a full roadmap of client and enterprise NVMe SSD controllers, and at CES 2020 it appeared that their IG5236 "Rainier" controller had scored several design wins. The GAMMIX S70 is the first we're aware of to actually ship.ADATA XPG GAMMIX S70 SpecificationsCapacity1 TB2 TBForm FactorM.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4ControllerInnogrit IG5236 "Rainier"Sequential Read (MB/s)7400Sequential Write (MB/s)55006400Random Read IOPS (4kB)350k650kRandom Write IOPS (4kB)720k740kWarranty5 yearsWrite Endurance740 TB1480 TBCurrent Retail Prices$199.99 (20¢/GB)$399.99 (20¢/GB)The GAMMIX S70 displaces the Phison E16-based GAMMIX S50 as ADATA's flagship consumer SSD and goes up against other second-wave PCIe gen4 SSD like the Samsung 980 PRO, WD Black SN850 and Phison E18-based drives like the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus.The Newegg listings for the GAMMIX S70 are at ADATA's introductory MSRP of $199.99 for the 1TB model and $399.99 for the 2TB, the same price points as the Sabrent Rocket 4 Plus and slightly cheaper than the Samsung 980 PRO or WD Black SN850. Our initial testing of the 2TB S70 has showed promising performance, but ADATA gave us a heads-up that there's a firmware update on the way so we're holding off on drawing conclusions for the moment.With the Phison E18 and Innogrit Rainier controllers now shipping, and the in-house designs from Samsung and Western Digital, we're waiting on only Silicon Motion's SM2264 controller to round out this second wave of PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD controllers. A year ago, ADATA had planned to make use of the SM2264 in the third PCIe 4.0 SSD they previewed, but there's no sign of it or any other SM2264 products being ready yet.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

For the second year in a row, AMD has an official CES Keynote. A year on from the launch of Ryzen 4000 Mobile series processors, and after a recent hit with Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 as well as RX 6000 GPUs, we're going to see what AMD has in store for us at the show this year. We're still waiting on the other Zen 3-based hardware, as well as more details about GPUs.

A major issue faced by owners of notebooks and compact SFF PCs such as the NUCs is the paucity of USB ports or even the absence of often-needed functionality like SD /microSD card slots and RJ-45 ports. Multi-function USB hubs come to the rescue here (at the cost of physical system footprint). One of the well-reviewed low-cost offerings in this market segment is Plugable's 2020 USB-C 7-in-1 Hub. This offering allowed MFDP (multi-functional Display Port) USB-C ports in a host system to support a micro-SDXC, full-sized SDXC, HDMI 1.4 (4Kp30) display output, and three USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports in a small rectangular unit. While capable of being bus-powered, the hub also includes a USB charging pass-through port, allowing for up to 87W of power delivery to the host system.Plugable's 2020 USBC-7IN1 Multi-function HubAt CES 2021, Plugable is updating the hub with new internals and I/Os. Thanks to the inclusion of a Parade PS186 DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.0 protocol converter, the HDMI 1.4 (4Kp30) port is now replaced by a HDMI 2.0 (4Kp60) port, enabling extended compatibility with DisplayPort 1.4 hosts that are becoming more common now. One of the USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports is also being replaced by a RJ-45 Gigabit LAN port using a Realtek RTL8153 USB to GbE controller. The other ports and features (including the 87W pass-through charging port to which the host notebook's original charger can connect - enabled by a VIA Technologies VL103 PD controller) are retained. The USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports are enabled by the VIA Technologies VL817 hub chip, and the card readers have a Genesys Logic GL3224 chip behind them.Plugable's New 2021 USBC-7IN1E Multi-function HubThe new 2021 Plugable USBC-7IN1E multi-function USB-C hub is now available for $30 (after applying a $5 off coupon on the MSRP of $35).Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

Today at CES, Lenovo is announcing updates to some of their most popular laptops in the ThinkPad X1 series. Lenovo is refreshing not just with the standard new CPUs, but also is following the industry trend of taller aspect ratio displays. The newest model to the lineup is the ThinkPad X1 Titanium Yoga, featuring a 3:2 aspect, and the ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 9 and ThinkPad X1 Yoga Gen 6 are both getting 16:10 displays. Finally, there is a new ThinkPad X12 Detachable 12.3-inch convertible tablet.Lenovo ThinkPad X1 LineupThinkPad X1 Titanium YogaThinkPad X1 CarbonThinkPad X1 YogaThinkPad X12 DetachableCPU11th Gen Intel Core

Despite only having a 30 minute press event at this year’s annual CES trade show, Intel had a lot to discuss about its plans through the next 12 months. The company touched upon five key processor architectures and product segments that will dictate where a lot of its FY2021 will come from. This is essentially a yearly roadmap set of announcements, without actually giving us the roadmap.We’ve had a lot of Intel news today, which we separated out into separate news posts for ease of use. This is a handy quick-use guide to click through to any of our analysis.

Intel has a very complex year ahead. On the back of what should be strong revenue year for 2020 as well as a widened scope of markets in which it participates, the key fundamentals at Intel such as manufacturing give those that follow the company care for concern. Throughout its existence, Intel’s key market leadership feature has been its manufacturing excellence, so now in 2021, after several high-profile manufacturing delays, what does Intel need to accomplish this year in order to get back on track? I was joined by several other journalists at a rare roundtable with Intel CEO Bob Swan, to ask about Intel’s future.

Among Intel’s CES 2021 announcements this afternoon, the chip giant is using the annual show to launch their updated vPro platform for their latest-generation “Tiger Lake” Core processors. vPro is Intel’s advanced security and manageability technologies for business use, and it is one of the company’s major differentiating features for corporate environments, particularly tightly-managed enterprise installations. Essentially the business-focused offshoot of the Core lineup, Intel typically rolls out an updated vPro platform few months after a new generation of Core CPUs is released, and once again Intel is right on schedule with today’s release.

As part of this week’s announcements, Intel has confirmed to AnandTech that it has started production its next generation server processors, known as Ice Lake 3 Generation Xeon Scalable. This news is somewhat at odds with remarks made by the CEO Bob Swan – it doesn’t fit into the timeline of how Intel’s processor production usually works, and the discrepency appears to go beyond simple terminology.When a company like Intel creates a new generation of server processor, either using a new microarchitecture or process node (or both), iterations and revisions of that server processor are made as the design is tweaked and optimized. Throughout the process, Intel’s largest customers, notably the hyperscalers in today’s environment, get early access to this beta hardware. Part of the agreement to access is helping Intel debug and tune the design, as well as placing a big, hefty order. Throughout this process, the customer will use the beta hardware to tune their own software platforms, and in some instances, move the product into deployment-level infrastructure. Note that as the product gets nearer launch, these key customers will have thousands upon thousands of ‘engineering samples’ in various states of performance and usability. The line at which the customer gets shipped ‘full retail’ units rather that beta hardware is blurred, especially as these customers will often keep hold of the engineering samples that work as expected.So not only is there this overlap, but also the key customers that help Intel in this regard get the first production-ready units. More often than not, Intel will hold back any formal public announcement of the product until the quota from the key customers is met, after which Intel can finally sell it to the wider masses, known as 'general availability'. This lead time can vary to as much as six months, during which time those big customers are getting the latest and greatest chips from Intel while the rest of the world doesn’t know the new hardware is ready.Because of this staggared rollout, there's a fine line (if not a fine mess) in the exact wording that is used for saying that Intel's server chips have been released, especially when comparing ‘announcements’ to ‘launches’ to ‘shipping for revenue’ to ‘general availability’ or ‘ramping production’ (scaling up manufacturing to build more).In our interview with CEO Bob Swan, also posted today, he stated that the Ice Lake Xeon Scalable product has been launched in 2020. This is news to us, as there was no formal announcement. However what he might be talking about is that it ‘launched’ to those key customers. In that sense, the product is shipping for revenue. However, in the same instance, he also said that Ice Lake Xeon Scalable was ramping up production in Intel’s 10nm facilities. This would suggest that while Intel has been producing the hardware for a while, it is only now at a point where it feels comfortable adding more volume to meet expected demand.However, in the official press release from Intel today, the company says that it is ‘starting production’ of Ice Lake Xeon Scalable, with ‘volume ramp taking place during Q1 2021’. This would seem to suggest that Intel is only just starting production of a finished version of the hardware, and that the product ramp is still to come later in the quarter.So either Ice Lake Xeon is launched, or it isn’t. It’s either in production, or it’s starting to ramp, or it is ramping, or production will be ramped as we move through Q1. Whatever Intel is trying to say here, your guess is as good as mine. I know some of my critics might call me out for not accepting what is being said at face value, or claim that what Intel is saying is clear. It’s a bit wishy-washy, and some of it is contradictory. I think we would all hope that Intel would be precise in describing its next generation of revenue generating data-center product.With Intel’s end-of-year financial disclosures in a couple of weeks, we might get more insight into Intel’s Ice Lake Xeon Scalable status, along with a more public launch somewhere along the line, and discussions about Intel’s plans for its manufacturing beyond 10nm. If Ice Lake is indeed 'launched' in FY2020, that would mean Intel met a FY2020 target, which is likely to be important to investors.Related Reading

Historically, both main x86 processor manufacturers have developed their mainstream mobile processors for a power target of 15 W, which in turn have been sold as their U-series chips. Above this sits the 45 W mobile processors with more cores and higher clock speeds, known as the H-series. For as much as the U-series models have been pushed up in power for more performance, to 25 W or 28 W, the H-series has sometimes pushed down to 35 W, meaning that the two never quite met in the middle. Today Intel is changing that with its first U-series processor for the 35 W mark, and with it a new processor lineup called ‘H35’.Because this is the U-series moving up to 35 W, I’m surprised Intel called it H35, rather than U35, which would be more accurate. What Intel has done is taken its existing 11 Gen Core Tiger Lake processor, with four Willow Cove cores and Iris X graphics, and pushed it beyond the usual 15 W or upper 25 W power level, into the 35 W market. One of the key marketing strategies of Intel is that its processor cores are highly scalable, from mobile to server, so pushing this shouldn’t seem too much of a stretch – we already know that the 15 W model will consume 50 W or more for a brief turbo period. The question on raising the sustained power level is usually one of longevity, as well as binning and pricing.To that end, Intel’s new H35 series will feature three variants.Intel Tiger LakeAnandTechCores

Ever since the launch of Intel’s 11 Gen Core mobile processors, known as Tiger Lake, back in September, the chips' limited core counts have not gone unnoticed. At a time where its competition is leveraging 8 cores in the same space, Intel seems limited to only 4 in the same 15-28 W power window. At the time, Intel stated that the base Tiger Lake design was aimed to be scalable, and that double sized variants were in the works. Today Intel has confirmed that those double-sized parts will be coming in Q1, in the form of Tiger Lake-H.Back at Intel’s Architecture Day 2020, lead architect Boyd Philips stated that even though the standard Tiger Lake UP3 design contained four cores and 12 MB of L3 cache, designs with double the L3 cache were in the works. This was instantly interpreted that double core-count versions of Tiger Lake were in the works, given that in the last generation the higher-powered mobile processor line-up had been left to older 14nm processors to fill the gap, and that Intel normally launches products for both 15 W and 45 W at the same time. We had been expecting a fast follow on, with a launch sometime later in Q3'20, but it would appear that Intel has pushed this out to Q1'21. Intel says that these processors will start production and ship in Q1, which likely means that the actual products will come to market in Q2.Intel has confirmed that these parts will offer up to eight cores and sixteen threads, with a highlight being that the top variants will enable 5.0 GHz turbo frequencies on multiple cores. These processors will also have 20 lanes of PCIe 4.0, which will allow for a full PCIe 4.0 x16 link to a discrete graphics card and a single PCIe 4.0 x4 storage drive at the same time, while also having a separate link for the chipset and IO. We expect these processors to also support PCIe Resizable BAR. And, like their current quad core counterparts, these processors will also have Thunderbolt 4 native support, as well as Wi-Fi 6/6E support through an associated RF module.Intel traditionally has a number of overclockable H-series processors, known as HK, however the company has not explicitly stated if any overclocking SKU will make it to market. Typically these H-Series processors target the 45 W market, with a 35 W step-down option. Intel is also announcing today that it has moved its U-series processors, typically 15 W, up into that 35 W market as well (known as H35). We will start to see some overlap between the two, with higher frequency quad-core U-series processors up against eight-core H-series parts.We wait to see exactly what specifications Intel will target with the new hardware. More detail to come.Related Reading

One of the more interesting elements in Intel’s 2020 set of disclosures was its 10nm Tremont Atom core. Initially used in the low power Lakefield product, this core design is super interesting due to its dual decoder design, which no other x86 core does. It has been over a year since the launch of Lakefield, and we’ve been hoping for a friendlier platform on which to test these new cores, along with some extra frequency to see the design stretch its legs. That platform is launching today, with Intel’s 11 Gen Core Pentium Silver and Celeron Processors.The new 11 Gen Core Pentium Silver and Celeron processors are aimed initially at the education market, and Chromebooks, but will slowly expand into Linux and Windows variants over time. Intel detailed that the laptop market was priority over the mini-PC market, however other form factors are free to be developed. These new processors will follow the same schema as Atom-based Pentium and Celeron processors in the past, with quad-core and dual-core variants on offer. Intel has detailed six processors in total, three each at the 10W and 6W levels.Intel Jasper LakeAnandTechCores

Spending five generations on the same base microarchitecture is a long time. Progress and excitement can be sustained through optimizing a process node, adding cores, and extracting every drop of frequency, but at some point the base design becomes the bottleneck and it is time to move on. Intel’s enthusiast desktop market has been waiting for an update for a couple of generations, and while the new 11 Gen Core Rocket Lake doesn’t migrate off of the 14nm process node, we are at least getting a new microarchitecture that stands to deliver (according to Intel) a 19% IPC improvement. Promising a Q1 launch, Intel lifted the lid a little on its next consumer flagship, the Core i9-11900K.

One of our first events of the annual CES trade show this year is Intel's press conference on its consumer product lines. Heading up the event with be Intel's Gregory Bryant, GM of Intel's Client Computing Group. We're expecting to hear updates about all the things planned for 2021, which is set to be a pivotal year for the company. With Rocket Lake supposedly around the corner, as well as larger versions of Tiger Lake, it will be interesting to hear what Intel is ready to talk about.Come back at 1pm Pacific Time (4pm Eastern, 9pm UTC, 10pm CET) and follow along with the AnandTech Live Blog.

Today Qualcomm is announcing the release of their new 2 generation ultrasonic fingerprint sensor. Back in 2019, the company had released its first-generation sensor, most notable for being used in Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and S20 series of devices, offering an alternative and very different technology compared to the competition’s optical based fingerprint sensor solutions.

During CES 2021, Dynabook has unveiled its Satellite Pro series of laptops. A blast from the past, the new Satellite Pro C50 includes a professional design with a 15.6-inch screen with a thin bezel and is aimed more at professionals and SMEs.The Dynabook Satellite Pro C50 has a dark blue frame, which is basic yet elegant, with a coating of Ionpure antimicrobial designed to limit bacterial growth. It includes a large full-size keyboard including a numeric keypad, with an integrated HD webcam along the top of the bezel. It has a large 5.2 x 3.4-inch trackpad and has support for Windows Precision Touchpad.Some of the more technical specifications include an Intel 10th generation mobile processor, DDR4 memory, with a solid-state drive for storage. It includes a USB 3.2 Type-C port with charging support, an HDMI video output, with Gigabit and Wi-Fi 5 network connectivity. It weighs around 1.76 KG, with a slim 19.7 mm profile.In terms of pricing, the Dynabook Satellite Pro C50 starts at just $499.Gallery: CES 2021: Dynabook Unveils Satellite Pro C50Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

With a varied selection of announcements for CES 2021's new virtual format, ADATA has unveiled a new external solid-state drive with integrated RGB LEDs. The ADATA SE900G looks to redefine portable storage for all the RGB junkies that also require fast SSD performance, with support for up to USB transfers speeds up to 20Gbps via USB 3.2 G2x2.The SE900G uses a back shell constructed from metal, which ADATA claims is durable and designed to look premium. On the front is a criss-cross design with an integrated RGB light plate, making it easy to spot with its soft textured neon glare.Looking to offer users the fastest possible performance from an external drive, ADATA has equipped the SE900G with a USB 3.2 G2x2 interface, which is backward compatible with older USB Type-C connections, albeit with lower bandwidth and ultimately lower speeds. ADATA is also claiming peak read and write speeds of up to 2000 MB/s, which is at the high-end of USB 3.2 G2x2's specification. The USB 3.2 G2x2 interface is capable of up to 20 Gbps, which uses two lanes of 10 Gbps at once to deliver its throughput.Gallery: CES 2021: ADATA SE900G External SSD, With RGBADATA hasn't revealed any details about storage capacities or pricing at this time.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

It's not often that the range becomes the brand, but in the case of Dynabook, which used to be an affordable range of laptops, has announced a couple of new models for 2021. The new Dynabook Satellite Pro C40 is powered by Intel's 10th generation processors, with a 14" screen and an integrated HD webcam.The Dynabook Satellite Pro C40 includes a dark blue chassis, with a thickness of just 18.9 mm and a weight of 1.55 KG. Some of the main features include a full-sized keyboard, an internal HD webcam, with a dual array microphone. It is powered by an Intel 10th generation processor, with a 14 inch 1080p non-glare screen, with a USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port that supports charging, external displays, and data transfer. Networking capabilities include a Gigabit Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 5, with support for Bluetooth connectivity.Prices for the Dynabook Satellite Pro C40 will start at $499.Gallery: CES 2021: Dynabook Announces New Satellite C40 Pro LaptopInterested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

Netgear has a bunch of new product announcements at CES 2021, and the most interesting of the lot is the RAXE500 - their first Wi-Fi 6E router with support for 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz bands. The key here is the availability of the wide-open 6 GHz band - while the move to 6 GHz doesn't deliver any extra bandwidth, the absence of interference (and additional free channels) in that band results in more stable throughput in practical scenarios.The availability of client chipsets - the AX210 from Intel that is already shipping in some systems, as well as the Broadcom BCM4389 for mobile devices - means that we should see fairly rapid adoption and consumer benefits from Wi-Fi 6E compared to the long road that we had with Wi-Fi 6. Netgear shared some test results of 5GHz and 6GHz connections in a RF chamber and open air scenario to bring out the benefits of 6GHz channels.Coming to the hardware itself, the RAXE500 follows the same industrial design of the other Nighthawk AX routers from Netgear. On the rear, we have two sets of LAN port pairs capable of link aggregation (one of them is capable of acting as a WAN port). There is also a 2.5Gbps LAN port, and two USB 3.0 Type-A ports. Internally, the WiSoC is a quad-core 1.8 GHz processor, and the radio chains are 4x4 each on the 2.4 GHz (at 40 MHz for 1.2 Gbps), 5 GHz (at 160 MHz for 4.8 Gbps), and 6 GHz (at 160 MHz for 4.8 Gbps) - allowing Netgear to claim up to 10.8 Gbps of theoretical throughput.The additional radios for the 6 GHz band take the MSRP of the RAXE500 up to what the first AX12 (RAX200) was introduced at - $599. Netgear stated that the router should be available in the market by February 2021.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!Gallery: Netgear Introduces RAXE500 - An AX11000-Class Wi-Fi 6E Tri-Band Router

The XPG 'The Future Of Gaming' event at the all-digital CES 2021 trade show has given us an insight into what to expect from ADATA's gaming division. One of its announcements includes an update to its RGB-enabled Levante series of AIO CPU coolers. The new XPG Levante Pro includes a 2.1" LCD color display on the pump and is equipped with a 360 mm radiator.The XPG Levante Pro is based on its previous Levante ARB 360 mm AIO cooler, with a couple of notable upgrades. It is now equipped with a 2.1 " LCD screen built into the pump cap, which users can customize to display images or text and display vital system information such as temperatures and voltages.

Western Digital markets portable SSDs under different brands, catering to different market segments. The flagships in each brand make use of of very similar platforms - a M.2 NVMe SSD behind an appropriate bridge chip. The industrial design varies from brand to brand to appeal better to the target market. The WD My Passport and SanDisk Extreme Portable SSDs are USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) SSDs using an ASMedia ASM2362 bridge chip and a WD SN550E PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD. The WD_BLACK P50 and SanDisk Extreme PRO Portable SSDs are USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20Gbps) SSDs using an ASMedia 2364 bridge chip with a SN750E and a SN730E PCIe 3.0 x4 NVMe SSD respectively.Under the WD branding, the My Passport SSD with its hardware encryption capabilities targets the average consumer who wants to back up work files, user-generated multimedia, and personal files securely. The SanDisk Extreme and Extreme PRO targets professional users creating content on-the-go outside a standard office environment with its IP55 rating and two different speed levels - 1GBps-class for the Extreme and 2GBps-class for the Extreme PRO. The WD_BLACK P50 is meant for gamers who need fast and high capacity storage for their games and do not mind paying a premium for a stylish device fulfilling those requirements.Currently, all four families mentioned above top out at 2TB. Today, Western Digital is announcing 4TB versions in all four, with market availability slated before the end of February. Internally, the four portable SSDs are all moving to a double-sided SN750-class NVMe drive. This means the same BiCS4 3D TLC NAND flash along with an in-house SSD controller. 256-bit hardware AES support is built-in, and enabled on all but the WD_BLACK P50 drive.In terms of pricing, the 4TB versions of the 10Gbps-class SanDisk Extreme and WD My Passport SSD are coming out with a MSRP of $700 and $680, while the 20Gbps-class SanDisk Extreme PRO and WD_BLACK P50 for the same capacity are priced at $750. The premium is not only for the bridge chip with better performance, but the premium industrial design with liberal aluminum usage also. Interestingly, the 4TB internal drive is priced at $800 on WD's site.The physical dimensions of all the 4TB versions are similar to the lower-capacity ones in each family except for the WD My Passport SSD. The move to a double-sided NVMe drive forces the 4TB version of the My Passport SSD to become 0.8mm thicker (9mm to 9.8mm). The drive's sleek nature was noted in our review of the 1TB version, and this thickness increase is a small price to pay for the increased capacity.At price points of $680 - $750, it is evident that these are premium portable SSDs. 4TB of high-performance flash storage in a compact bus-powered enclosure was pretty much unimaginable even 5 years ago, and as the technology makes its way into the market, the premium is only expected. Professionals may not balk at such price points, as they realize the benefits of such drives for their use-cases and be willing to treat them as business expenses. To note, these are not the first such 4TB drives in the market - In fact, Sabrent's Rocket XTRM-Q is available in capacities up to 8TB, and works with optimal performance in both Thunderbolt 3 (22Gbps) and USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) modes. The 4TB XTRM-Q is priced at $700, and the new 4TB portable SSDs from Western Digital straddle that price point. However, Western Digital's value proposition is in the use of mature and proven 3D TLC flash in the drive (compared to the QLC NAND used in the Rocket XTRM-Q). The Sabrent offering does have Thunderbolt 3 performance up its sleeve. But, this 3D TLC offering at very similar price points should help push the pricing of high-capacity QLC-based drives further down. And, that is definitely good news for consumers.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

At this year’s virtual CES 2021, Ambarella is launching its new flagship vision SoC – the CV5. Dubbed as a 8K AI vision processor, the new SoC addresses Ambarella’s more traditional core market which includes sports cameras, drones, and the increasing important automotive business of the company. If you’ve had a GoPro or a DJI drone in the past decade, the changes are high these devices were powered by an Ambarella SoC – although many of these companies nowadays also rely on in-house silicon.The new CV5 is a major leap for the company as it represents the most powerful iteration of the company’s in-house ISP, featuring capabilities such as 8K60 video recording or four independent 4K video streams, includes new powerful AI capabilities, new CPU cores, and promises very low power consumption through it’s new 5nm manufacturing node.

Today at CES, HP is announcing some updates to their Elite Dragonfly series, which are targeted at business users who need portability. Improving on the original Whiskey Lake based model is the new convertible HP Elite Dragonfly G2, powered by the latest Intel Tiger Lake platform with vPro, and the HP Elite Dragonfly MAX, built to be the ultimate for collaboration and conferencing.HP Elite DragonflyG2MAXCPUIntel 11th Gen Tiger Lake

One of the best value laptops in HP’s lineup is their ENVY series. Featuring premium materials, the ENVY lineup brings a lot of the best of HP, without the higher price tag of some of their higher end lineups such as the Spectre series. For 2021, HP has refreshed the ENVY 14 with the latest internals, but also added a 16:10 display.HP ENVY LaptopENVY 14CPUCore i5-1135G7

Thermaltake has announced a new compact chassis based on its monolithic sized Tower 900 chassis. The new Tower 100 includes support for mini-ITX form factor motherboards, with ample cooling capabilities and support for larger graphics cards such as the NVIDIA RTX 3080.The Thermaltake Tower 100 includes filtered ventilation from top to bottom, with 4 mm thick tempered glass side panels which are intended to combine style with performance. It includes an angled top-mounted I/O panel which includes support for USB 3.2 G2 Type-C, with dual USB 3.0 Type-A and front panel audio inputs.According to Thermaltake, these chassis are designed for optimal airflow, and include two 120 mm 1000 RPM cooling fans, with one preinstalled in the top, and another in the bottom. It has support for additional fans including one 120/140 mm in the top, one 120/140 mm in above the PSU cover, and one 120/140 mm in the rear. Users can also install a 120 mm AIO CPU cooler in the top, with maximum clearance for a CPU cooler standing at 190 mm. It also includes capabilities to install graphics cards with a maximum length of up to 330 mm, which is fine for cards such as the NVIDIA RTX 3080, but a little short for the top-spec RTX 3090.The Thermaltake Tower 100 will be available in two colors, black, and a subtle Snow Edition. Thermaltake states that the Tower 100 mini-ITX chassis will include a 3-year limited warranty, with a release in the US and Canada expected in late January.Gallery: Thermaltake Tower 100 Snow Edition GalleryGallery: Thermaltake Tower 100 Black Edition GalleryInterested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

It's not April Fools Day, but ADATA XPG has lifted the lid on one of its latest gaming products for CES 2021. XPG Gaming Gum is designed to give gamers a boost with chewable caffeine. XPG first teased this on its official Twitter page back in March 2020.The new XPG MANA Gaming gum includes caffeine and a vitamin called Lutein, which is reportedly beneficial for eye health. It remains to be seen if chewing gaming gum can be a proper substitute for proper eye health, with plenty of options available on the market, including eyewear with blue light filters. It is recommended that gamers and those who regularly use a PC often take breaks, as prolonged exposure to screens can cause dryness of the eye.With a lot of emphasis on energy products in the gaming market reliant on caffeine, it is recommended that users moderate the use of stimulants. The XPG Gaming Gum we are told has a minty fresh flavor. XPG isn't the first to unveil gaming gum, with Razer announcing its Respawn range of gaming consumables last year. Perhaps Duke Nukem might be the ideal customer as he tends to run out of gum a lot.There's currently no word on pricing or availability.Interested in more of the latest industry news? Check out our CES 2021 trade show landing page!

This year at CES, Thermaltake is unveiling three new air coolers, the Toughair 110, 310, and 510. Each model is aimed at a different CPU segment and looks to offer an affordable and supports most of the popular desktop chipsets, including Intel's LGA1150 and AMD's AM4 socket.The Thermaltake Toughair series includes three different models, each with different levels of cooling capability. The smallest of the trio is the Toughair 110, which includes a horizontal low-profile single fan design for chassis with space restrictions and is capable of cooling CPUs with a TDP of up to 140 W.

Gaming monitors have tended to prefer lower resolutions and higher refresh rates, but catering to the wide variety of users in the market, Acer has also been developing monitors for gamers who want higher resolutions with those same high refresh rates. Set to be released under their Nitro and Predator families, for CES 2021 the company is promoting a mix of new and previously-announced (i.e. delayed) monitors, which will provide both high resolutions and the faster refresh rates that make gaming monitors so smooth. Plus, the pricing looks solid.Acer Nitro XV282K KV – UHD and FreeSync with HDMI 2.1First unveiled back in September in China, Acer is bringing its first HDMI 2.1 monitor, the Acer Nitro XV282K KV, over to North America. Although a handful of a name, it is clearly targeted at the latest generation of consoles, specifically the Xbox Series X, as this UHD display features both VESA Variable Refresh (FreeSync) and HDMI 2.1, making it a perfect choice for those looking to pair the console with a high-refresh rate UHD display.The 28-inch panel offers 3840x2160 resolution, and up to 144 Hz refresh rate with AMD FreeSync support. Acer claims 1 ms response time as well. This IPS display also offers 90% of the P3 color gamut, and Acer claims 100,000,000:1 contrast. The display is rated for HDR 400, and it comes with an included HDMI 2.1 cable for easy connection.The Acer Nitro XV282K KV will be available in the US in May, starting at $899.99 USD.Acer Predator XB273U NX – QHD and G-SYNCSecond up is a totally new monitor from Acer, the 27-inch Acer Predator XB273U NX. The 2560x1440 display features Acer's Agile-Splendor IPS panel, and can achieve an impressive 275 Hz refresh when overclocked.It also supports HDR, and up to 95% of the P3 gamut. Acer claims 0.5 ms response time in gray to gray transitions, and coupled with the high refresh rate, should make for a very smooth experience. This display offers NVIDIA G-SYNC variable refresh rate. It also features the new NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer, which measures the time between a mouse click and the pixel actually changing, and is a feature aimed at the pro-gamer crowd for gameplay analysis.The Acer Predator XB273U NX will be available in May starting at $1099.99 USD.Acer Predator XB323QK NV – UHD and G-SYNCFinally, Acer is also offering an update on their 31.5-inch behemoth G-Sync monitor, the Acer Predator XB323QK NV. This monitor was first announced back in June of 2020 with a September ship date, but it has since been pushed out to May of this year.Aimed at the high-end of the market, the Acer Predator XB323QK NV offers a high-refresh UHD display with 3840x2160 resolution and a 144 Hz refresh rate. Sporting DisplayHDR 400 certification, the monitor can produce 90% of the P3 gamut.Like the other monitors being promoted today, the Acer Predator XB323QK NV will also available in May. Pricing will start at $1199.99 USD.Source: Acer

Always one of the biggest set of announcements for CES is from Lenovo, with updates to a lot of their lineup being announced every January, as well as some very interesting new products being shown off most years. As we head into CES week, Lenovo is teasing us with some updates to their IdeaPad lineup, including a new 5G model. As tends to be the case, we don’t always have the full spec sheets for these announcements yet, but let’s dig in and see what Lenovo is planning for the start of 2021.IdeaPad 5G5G is still a buzzword, but it is nice to see the technology coming to laptops as well. Lenovo’s new IdeaPad 5G is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8cx processor, and is coupled to the X55 modem to provide sub-6 GHz 5G capabilities for speedier networking in supported locations. Interestingly, the new laptop offers the fastest cellular connectivity, but only has Wi-Fi 5 support when you do connect to an access point. The 14-inch laptop offers a 1920x1080 16:9 display which can hit 300 nits in the sRGB gamut. RAM is up to 8 GB of LPDDR4X, and storage offerings will be up to 512 GB of PCIe SSD.The IdeaPad, thanks to the 8cx platform, is able to go fanless, which is one of the benefits of the low-powered Arm platform. Another benefit is battery life, with Lenovo claiming up to 20 hours of video playback from just 51 Wh capacity is a strong showing, and the USB-C charging offers Rapid Charge Express. Lenovo hasn’t fixed a price yet, other than to say it will vary by market, and that it will not be released in North America at this time.IdeaPad 5 Pro and 5i ProBack in the x86 world, Lenovo is releasing two new IdeaPad models powered by AMD Ryzen in the 5 Pro, and 11th Gen Intel Core in the 5i Pro. These new laptops have moved to a 16:10 aspect ratio, and will be available in both a 14-inch and 16-inch model. We have seen a lot of laptops make the jump to taller displays in the last year or two, and it is very nice to see Lenovo offer several models with the 16:10 ratio.Lenovo is utilizing the IR sensor for time-of-flight, instead of just for Windows Hello login, which is a nice touch. The laptop will sense when you get up and walk away, and automatically pause video, as an example. Lenovo is also adding Amazon Alexa Show Mode, which lets you use your PC as an Alexa device when you want to.The displays are not only 16:10 aspect, but the 14-inch model offers a 90 Hz refresh rate and 400 nits of brightness. The 16-inch offers 120 Hz and 350 nits, which is nice to see in a non-gaming laptop. Both the Intel and AMD models will also offer an NVIDIA MX450 graphics card as a bump over integrated graphics.The 14-inch model will offer a 56.5 Wh battery, while the larger 16-inch model jumps to a very impressive 75 Wh unit, and all of them feature Rapid Charge Express for quicker charging over USB-C.On the Intel model, Tiger Lake is paired with up to 16 GB of DDR4 RAM and up to 1 TB of PCIe storage, and the 16-inch model features a Thunderbolt 4 port. Those opting for the next-generation AMD Ryzen H model lose access to the Thunderbolt 4, but the 16-inch IdeaPad 5 Pro can be outfitted with 32 GB of DDR4, rather than the 16 GB max in the smaller model.Lenovo has also added a larger trackpad, and updated the keyboard with new keys and backlighting.These devices, other than the 16-inch AMD powered model, will not initially be in the US market, but availability for all models will be in March, with prices as follows: