Articles by Aaron Klotz

A recent ECC filing from MSI suggests that Nvidia’s upcoming GeForce RTX 4070 could have 12GB of video memory. The company shared the names of several RTX 4070 video cards with the ECC, and all cards feature 12GB capacities. If true, this will make the 4070 a prime candidate for our list of best graphics cards, and be a significant boost over the GPU’s last two predecessors, which were locked at 8GB. This will provide the 4070 with enough VRAM to run the latest AAA at higher-quality textures and higher resolutions simultaneously. For now, take the news with a pinch of salt. Not every product listed in an ECC filing becomes a reality.The ECC report from MSI lists names of eight new RTX 4070 SKUs, including triple fan and dual fan versions of an MSI Ventus variant, plus two other factory-overclocked versions with one associated with each cooler design. Next are two RTX 4070 Gaming Trio variants, consisting of “X” and “non-X” flavors, and finally, two RTX 4070 Suprim models – the company’s flagship brand, again, consisting of “X” and “non-X” flavors. GeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 3X 12GGeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X 12G OCGeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 3X 12G OCGeForce RTX 4070 VENTUS 2X 12GGeForce RTX 4070 GAMING X TRIO 12GGeForce RTX 4070 GAMING TRIO 12GGeForce RTX 4070 SUPRIM X 12GGeForce RTX 4070 SUPRIM 12GMSI’s model names use “12G” to identify and confirm the 4070 GPUs that will use 12GB of memory. For now, take the news with a pinch of salt. The sheer number of 12G cards means that hopefully at least one should make it to consumers. But, ECC filing reports do not guarantee the reported names will be used by the company filling them. It only means the company can use the listed names if desired. As a result, we will have to wait for an official confirmation from Nvidia to see whether or not the 4070 will come in a 12GB version.But, if the RTX 4070 comes with 12GB, it will be an excellent upgrade for the 70-class cards. GPU memory requirements for the latest AAA titles have gone up extensively over the past two years to the point where memory capacities in the double digits are almost required to get maximum settings – with RT working at high resolutions in some of the latest AAA titles.This is especially true of Nvidia’s previous-generation RTX 3070 8GB and RTX 3070 Ti 8GB cards, where the low memory capacity hinders the GPU from performing optimally in these new AAA titles. Daniel Owen demonstrated this issue perfectly in a recent YouTube video, where he tried running Resident Evil 4 at 1440P ultra settings with an RTX 3070 Ti. He found that the game would hard crash anywhere close to the game’s maximum texture settings, forcing him to lower texture quality to an almost unacceptable level.With the performance we expect from an RTX 4070, 8GB would almost certainly be a death sentence for this GPU. So we’re glad Nvidia appears to be settling on a 12GB capacity, just like it did with the RTX 4070 Ti. Current rumors speculate the RTX 4070 will have 29 TFLOPS of GPU compute performance and a 200 – 250W TDP. CUDA core count is expected to be the same as the RTX 3070, but it will have significantly higher clock speeds and the Ada Lovelace GPU architecture to boost performance. The 4070’s expected release date is next month, so we should know official specs by then. […]

With the introduction of the non-K 13th Gen Raptor Lake CPU lineup, Intel started to mix and match Raptor Lake and Alder Lake dies into its latest generation of Intel Core CPUs. However, how much faster Raptor Lake versions might be over Alder Lake counterparts remained a mystery until now. HWCooling.net has acquired Alder and Raptor Lake versions of the i5-13400F CPUs and benchmarked them. It appears the performance gap is almost non-existent, with a 5% performance difference at best between the two versions in real-world, synthetic, and gaming benchmarks.We’ve known for a while that Intel would reuse its Alder Lake CPU architecture with some of its latest 13th Gen non-K Raptor Lake processors to improve yields and reduce waste. In the case of the i5-13400F, Intel accomplished this strategy by re-purposing i9-12900/12900K dies into i5-13400 CPUs by disabling some of the P-cores and the CPU cache.According to HWCooling, the Raptor Lake version goes by stepping B0, while the Alder Lake one is stepping C0. However, the stepping number is not printed on the physical chip, so if you want to identify these chips, you have to check out the S-Spec code, which is SRMBG on the Raptor Lake i5-13400F and SRMBN on the Alder Lake counterpart.Unfortunately, the Raptor Lake version is almost impossible to find in retail circles. HWCooling says that virtually all retail i5-13400Fs are the Alder Lake version, while the Raptor Lake models are found in the OEM market.Performance, Clock Speed, and Power Consumption Tests(Image credit: HWCooling.net)Both flavors of the i5-13400F were tested in several CPU benchmarks, including  Cinebench R23, FLAC, and F1 2020. The chips were neck and neck with each other in nearly all benchmark tests, with a maximum performance delta of 5%. In Cinebench R23, for example, the Raptor Lake i5-13400F scored 16,131 points in the multi-core test, while the Alder Lake version scored 16,038 points — a 0.6% difference in score.F1 2020 saw a bit more variance, with the Raptor Lake chip leading its Alder Lake counterpart by 5%, with an average frame rate of 325.8 frames per second (fps) to the Alder Lake’s 311.4fps. Minimums were more significant, though, with the Raptor Lake version edging out the Alder Lake version by 10%: 258.5fps vs. 234.7fps. However, not all games were this sensitive to the Raptor Lake architecture. Shadow of the Tomb Raider was also tested and showed identical frame rate numbers between the two chips.Both chips demonstrated similar memory and cache performance. AIDA64 showed nearly identical read, write, and latency performance between the two versions. The only exception was the L2 cache performance, where the Raptor Lake chip was 33.3% quicker than the Alder Lake version  — but HWCooling said this was a reporting issue by AIDA64, so these results may not be accurate.The most interesting results were the power consumption numbers. The Raptor Lake i5-13400F was less efficient than the Alder Lake version in most tests, except for the FLAC results. In Cinebench R23, the Raptor Lake part consumed 14% more power, averaging 115W to the Alder Lake’s 95W. However, the efficiency differences were much less severe while gaming: in F1 202, the Raptor Lake version averaged 55W to the Alder Lake’s 52W, which means it was only 5.7% less efficient. Power efficiency results were similar across other games.Interestingly, the FLAC audio recording results did not exhibit the same power consumption behavior. In this test, the Raptor Lake version was 42% more efficient than the Alder Lake version, pulling 18.5W vs. the Alder Lake’s 26.17W.Clock speeds between the two parts were identical. Average core clocks on the P-cores max out at 4.1GHz and 3.3GHz on the E-cores during an all-core workload. During single-core workloads, the P-cores average 4.58GHz and 3.3Ghz on the E-Cores. Intel had to keep clock speeds equal here, or it would be forced to part out the Raptor Lake i5-13400F with a different model name.Thankfully, there are barely any differences between Raptor Lake and Alder Lake versions of the i5-13400F. Both models exhibit nearly identical performance figures even though one version operates on a newer architecture. This boils down to the fact both CPU versions are artificially limited to the same clock speeds, preventing Raptor Lake’s higher clock speed potential from being used (and you can no longer bypass this limit with overclocking). If you’re on the market for an Intel i5-13400F, you can rest assured knowing you won’t be sacrificing any noticeable performance by going with the Alder Lake version. […]

Losing essential data to a hard drive failure can be one of the most frustrating experiences of your life. But, there might be a way to identify if a drive will actually fail or if it will last forever. Secure Data Recovery, according to Blocks and Files, discovered the average failed hard drive lasted around two years and ten months before dying.This number was taken from the average operation time of numerous failed hard drives that the data recovery specialists received from customers. The specialists excluded drives that failed from non-predictable events and only kept drives that failed due to normal read and write operations. The targeted drives were made by six manufacturers, including Western Digital, Hitachi, Seagate, Toshiba, Samsung, and Maxtor.Secure Data Recovery also found that the average expected lifespan of a failed hard drive highly depended on the drive manufacturer. According to a power-on-hour chart it created, there is almost a 50% difference in power-on time between the best and worst-performing brands.Toshiba performed the best, with an average of 34,799 power-on hours recorded between 151 bad drives. Conversely, Hitatchi – a WD sub-brand, was far worse, with an average recorded lifespan of 18,632 hours accumulated from 211 bad drives.Results from the four other drive manufacturers sit in between Toshiba and Hitachi, with Western Digital coming out with 25,676 power on hours on average from 936 disks. Seagate amassed 32,298 hours from 559 drives. Samsung accumulated 19,224 hours based on 123 drives, and Maxtor registered 29,771 hours based on 27 drives.(Image credit: Secure Data Recovery)Secure Data Recovery also recorded the number of bad sectors on each drive. Again, Hitachi was by far the worst-performing manufacturer, with 3,348 bad sectors across the same 211 drives. But the best-performing drives in this category come from Maxtor, with just 228 bad sectors found. Thankfully, the rest of the six manufacturers were not as bad as Hitachi, with Toshiba turning up with 1,884 bad sectors in total, Samsung with 529, Seagate with 2,671, and Western Digital with 628.Despite the significant variance in power-on hours and sector errors between drive manufacturers, we can’t take these results at face value. The results would be far more accurate if Secure Data Recover had an even distribution of failed drives from all six manufacturers.As a result, lower disk counts of Hitachi, Toshiba, Samsung, and especially Maxtor have to be taken with a grain of salt. Seagate and Western Digital, on the other hand, have the most recorded drives, so their numbers will be the most accurate. But overall, it does seem like Hitachi and Seagate are the most unreliable manufacturers of them all. If you have a hard drive from any of these six manufacturers, the average life expectancy is just under three years if your drive has a propensity for failure. However, if the drive doesn’t die during that period, there’s a good chance it will remain healthy for years and years to come. If you want to know more about HDD reliability, check out our previous coverage from Backblaze. […]

Nvidia has issued a press release (opens in new tab) ahead of next week’s Game Developers Conference (GDC), announcing that DLSS 3 support will expand to several new games and applications for developers. A few featured highlights include DLSS 3 integration into Unreal Engine with the upcoming 5.2 updates and integration with Nvidia’s Streamline cross-IHV solution — more on this later.The announced DLSS 3 game support list includes several current and upcoming titles, featuring Forza Horizon 5, Redfall, and Diablo 4. Integration with Forza Horizon 5 will come as an update on March 28th, while integration with Redfall and Diablo 4 will arrive later this year when the games launch.Redfall is an upcoming open-world co-op first-person shooter title from the developers Arkane Austin, focused on anti-vampire gameplay. The game will launch on May 2nd. Diablo 4 hardly needs an introduction, as Blizzard’s latest title in the Diablo series of RPG games. It adds several new gameplay elements, including class optimizations and full character customization. For more details, check out our sister site PC Gamer’s analysis of the game right now. Diablo 4 will officially launch on June 6th.Additional PC games announcing support at GDC will include Deceive Inc., Gripper, Smalland: Survive the Wilds, and THE FINALS.Unreal Engine 5 City Sample Demo (Image credit: Epic – Unreal Engine)As mentioned above, Unreal Engine 5.2 will make its debut at GDC with DLSS 3 support. That will come in the form of an Unreal Engine 5.2 plug-in that will reduce the integration time of DLSS 3 into Unreal Engine 5 games. This could make DLSS 3 as easy as downloading the plug-in and turning it on, just like a Chrome add-on, though most games with DLSS or other forms of upscaling seem to benefit from fine tuning.DLSS 3 will also make its debut with Nvidia Streamline, (opens in new tab) an open-source, cross-vendor framework that simplifies integration of upscaling technologies with games and applications. Basically, this application serves as a “plugin” of sorts that can work with an assortment of different game engines and APIs. Streamline sits between the render API (DX11/12/Vulkan etc) and the game engine itself, and theoretically makes it easy to inject technologies like DLSS, FSR, and XeSS into the rendering pipeline. In practice, it’s mostly useful for DLSS integration right now.DLSS support has grown massively since its inception, with over 270 games and applications now supporting the AI-based upscaling technology. DLSS 3 alone is already available on 28 games and is being adopted substantially quicker than DLSS 2 according to Nvidia. With Nvidia Streamline, Unreal 5.2 engine plugins, and a continued heavy marketing push by Nvidia, you can expect DLSS 3 adoption to expand at an even faster rate. Now we just need some mainstream desktop GPUs that can support it (coming soon, we’d wager). […]

Benchleaks on Twitter (opens in new tab) shared Geekbench 5 benchmark (opens in new tab) results of a mysterious low-power Ryzen 7000 mobile Phoenix CPU (“Mayan-PHX” in this case) that was never announced during AMD’s press event at CES 2023. The new chip is called the Ryzen 5 7640U, featuring AMD’s bleeding edge Zen 4 architecture and an RDNA3 760M graphics engine. The chip will reportedly come with six cores, twelve threads, and a 4.9GHz boost clock if Geekbench 5’s spec sheet is true.The new chip brought home a score of 1,869 points in the single-core benchmark, and a result of 8,853 points in the multi-core test. Compared to the chip’s predecessor, the Ryzen 5 6600U, the Ryzen 5 7640U is 33% faster in the single-core benchmark and 50% faster in the multi-core benchmark.For reference, we took the first page of Ryzen 5 6600U results and averaged them out to a single score. This netted us a result of 1,404 points in single-core and 5,916 in multi-core. This helps track how the chip is performing overall, and factors in different notebook chassis where the chip might be operating in different power envelopes. However, keep in mind that Geekbench 5 scores aren’t a highly accurate way to measure real-world CPU performance.(Image credit: Geekbench)AMD’s Ryzen 5 7640U is the first U-series part we’ve seen so far that features AMD’s Phoenix design language. Ironically, though the 7640U model name was used to represent AMD’s new nomenclature for its Ryzen mobile processors going forward, it was never announced as an actual SKU — it was only an example. Or so we thought.AMD’s Phoenix CPU design is the most-bleeding edge design in the Ryzen 7000 brand right now. The architecture includes AMD’s Zen 4 architecture that operates on TSMC’s 4nm manufacturing node, the smallest lithography brought to Ryzen so far. It’s also the only design to incorporate AMD’s new Radeon 700M series of RDNA 3 architecture integrated graphics units, which provide a healthy upgrade over the previous generation RDNA 2 solutions. On top of this, Phoenix is also the only Ryzen 7000 design today that includes optional support for AMD’s Ryzen AI engine.The only chips AMD has announced in the Ryzen 7040 class so far are its HS SKUs, including the Ryzen 9 7940HS, Ryzen 7 7840HS, and Ryzen 5 7640HS. These all feature TDPs of 35–45W. AMD’s Ryzen 5 7640U meanwhile looks like it will be one of the first Zen 4 Phoenix-class chips to feature a TDP of 28W or less, due to the “U” series nomenclature.If Geekbench 5’s numbers resemble any real-world performance figures, this chip will be a substantial upgrade over its Ryzen 5 6600U predecessor. AMD’s Phoenix-class of CPUs, among other mobile designs such as Rembrandt-R, Barcelo-R, and Mendocino, are slated to arrive this year, so we should see the 7640U-equipped notebooks very soon.[GB5 CPU] Unknown CPUCPU: AMD Ryzen 5 7640U w/ Radeon 760M Graphics (6C 12T)Min/Max/Avg: 4710/4890/4868 MHzCPUID: A70F41 (AuthenticAMD)Scores, vs AMD 5800XSingle: 1869, +8.2%Multi: 8853, -17.6%https://t.co/J9HNlwiPjjMarch 13, 2023See more […]

According to a recent Sabrent newsletter (opens in new tab), the company is developing a new “Rocket X5” PCIe Gen 5 SSD that has the potential to reach speeds of 14 GBps. This drive is currently in the prototyping stage, and Sabrent is determined to hit the 14 GBps transfer speed target for the finalized product if possible. If the X5 can attain that lofty mark, it will outperform all of the best SSDs on the market today.The Rocket X5 is in the development phase right now, with Sabrent saying the name and label could change before release and the transfer rate. Effectively, Sabrent is trying to push performance as high as current SSD technology allows without other factors getting in the way.Currently, prototype versions of the Rocket X5 are already hitting read speeds in excess of 12 GBps, exceeding the speeds offered by the first PCIe Gen 5 SSDs to hit the market. So it appears Sabrent is making good progress on achieving its 14 GBps goal, at least for now.(Image credit: Sabrent)All PCIe Gen 5 SSD manufacturers right now are shipping products with either 10 GBps or 12 GBps transfer speeds. For those of you unaware, 14 GBps to 15 GBps is the spec limit for PCIe Gen 5 x4, and is what makes this transfer rate so incentivizing for manufacturers to hit.The issue is related to production issues surrounding higher speed 2400MTps 3D NAND flash, which is required to hit these higher transfer speeds. Currently, none of the three 3D NAND manufacturers that make 2400MTps chips, including Micron, SK Hynix and YMTC, have been able to deliver large volumes of these chips to the market.Technically, Micron does not have this issue. It is well ahead of SK Hynix and YMTC in both maturity and mass production, but the company has been dealing with chip yield shortages bottlenecking production. These issues should have been resolved already at the time of this writing, according to Tom’s Hardware sources, but this has not been confirmed. For more details, check out our previous coverage here.As a result, it appears there is no guarantee the Rocket X5 will hit 14 GBps whenever it launches. The drive’s final characteristics will depend on Sabrent’s production strategy and whether or not it wants to wait for high-speed 2400MTps NAND flash or skip it entirely and launch the drive with slower specifications. […]

For fans of the popular O11 Dynamic XL, EKWB has a treat for you. The company has announced a new distro plate bundle that includes a 7′ inch IPS screen designed to operate inside the case. The combo is currently available for pre-order for a hefty price of $629.99.EKWB uses a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution IPS display that mounts directly to the bottom of the Quantum Reflection distro block. Once installed, the display sits at the bottom front of the O11 Dynamic XL’s case, sandwiched between the front tempered glass side panel and the Quantum Reflection distro plate.The monitor will act as a secondary monitor with an HDMI 2.0 cable that needs to be routed to the display connections of your integrated GPU or discrete graphics card. EKWB says the monitor also comes with a USB Type-A connection that we suspect is for power.(Image credit: EKWB)The display gives users an extra level of customization to their custom loop O11 Dynamic build. The display can be used to display anything you want, including displaying component temperatures, fluid temperatures, or GIFs and photos. Since the display already acts as a secondary monitor, you could also use the monitor in that role.Besides the display – and its installation hardware, the pump and distro plate itself are identical to the standard Quantum Reflection version. The distro plate features a reservoir volume of 787ml and features six push-in ports with female G1/4″ thread adapters. Moving the coolant inside the distro block is a D5 PWM pump, featuring a maximum flow rate of 1500 liters per hour and a max rated power consumption of 23W. With this combination, EKWB says Quantum Reflection can cool up to three 360mm radiators in total.For aesthetics, EKWB uses see-through acrylic material on the top portion of the distro plate, along with 27 addressable RGBs installed down the entire length of the unit. When in use, the RGB lights have a completely diffused effect as light bounces off the fluid inside the reservoir.Again, EKWB’s Quantum Reflection bundle with the screen is now available for pre-order for $629.99. Estimated arrival date is April 7th, if you order one today (March 9th). […]

An Intel graphics hardware engineer by the name of has revealed the codename of a new Intel integrated graphics unit and CPU architecture, known as Panther Lake, in his job description on LinkedIn. The engineer has since pulled the information, but Tom’s Hardware viewed and screenshotted the blurb while it was live.Nothing is known about this mysterious architecture, but we know the iGP will run on a version of Intel’s Xe3 Celestial GPU architecture. According to the LinkedIn profile Panther Lake and its associated iGP are set to be announced during Intel Architecture Day 22. If true, we should know some official architectural and power specifications by then.Based on the details given, Panther Lake and its associated integrated graphics processor will be produced several years down the road after Meteor Lake, Arrow Lake, and Lunar Lake are released. Lunar Lake – Intel’s furthest CPU architecture of the three, is set to arrive sometime in 2024. So Panther Lake will probably arrive somewhere around 2024 or 2025.(Image credit: Intel)Based on this timeline, we guess Panther Lake (as a CPU architecture) will probably utilize Intel’s 20A manufacturing process that is set to arrive in the second half of 2024. 20A is a major milestone for Intel and is the first node to enter the angstrom era, where the physical features of a chip can no longer be accurately measured in nanometers. Instead, the chips will be measured in angstroms – or one ten-billionth of a meter.This does not mean that the individual transistors are guaranteed to be below a single nanometer in size, just that the physical features can no longer be measured on the nanometer scale. Alongside this new breakthrough, 20A will feature a brand new transistor architecture called RibbonFET – a successor to EUV, and a new transistor wiring technology called the PowerVia interconnect.Intel doesn’t specify performance or wattage gains, but it’s safe to assume that 20A will feature an enormous performance advantage over Alder Lake and Raptor Lake. For reference, Intel 4 – which will be used on Meteor Lake promises a 20% performance per watt gain, over Alder/Raptor Lake. While Intel 3 – will provide an 18% performance per watt improvement over Intel 4.If this same trend follows, Intel 20A will probably be at least another 15% more efficient than Intel 3, making Panther Lake possibly 50% more efficient than Alder Lake or Raptor Lake.Panther Lake iGPSimilar to the CPU side of the equation, we know basically nothing about Intel’s Celestial GPU architecture. Celestial will be Intel’s 3rd generation GPU following Arc Alchemist and Battlemage, operating under the Xe3 nomenclature.However, one fact that is made clear by the LinkedIn description is that Celestial will not only be used in discrete GPUs but will also be used in Intel’s integrated graphics solutions. This isn’t surprising, considering Intel does this today with its current GPU architectures, but it’s good to know that Intel is confident enough in its new discrete GPU architectures to continue using them in its integrated graphics solutions as well. […]

Microsoft is introducing a new upscaling feature to its Edge browser called Video Super  Resolution – or VSR. This feature is a direct competitor to Nvidia’s RTX Super Resolution and relies on similar machine-learning technology to upscale lower-resolution video to a higher resolution. The feature is currently available to Edge users running the Canary channel insider build of the browser.Microsoft’s implementation is designed specifically to reduce the amount of internet bandwidth required to stream videos to your PC, and is limited to just 720P videos or lower. Microsoft is using an AI upscaler to do the work, focusing on removing blocky compression artefacts to improve image quality. VSR’s limitation to sub-HD resolutions (for now?) targets customers with bad internet connectors and older videos recorded before 1080P and 4K became the norm. This could be the first step in creating an upscaler that works with higher resolution videos.VSR is a complete contrast to Nvidia’s RTX Super Resolution, which does not have any resolution limitations from what we can tell. If you wanted to, you could upscale a 360P YouTube video to 4K. Microsoft’s resolution limitation could be a limitation related to testing purposes, or it could be a limitation of the AI upscaler in general. But either way, Nvidia’s solution does have a lot more flexibility.If you have access to VSR, all you need to do is enter the command edge://flags/#edge-video-super-resolution, to enable the feature. All video formats should work, with the exception of movies and videos protected with DRM.Contrary to RTX Super Resolution, VSR does work with both Nvidia and AMD GPUs; with the requirements being an RTX 20 series GPU or newer, or a Radeon RX 5700 series GPU or newer. We suspect more GPUs will be supported down the line, but this will depend on how GPU-intensive Microsoft’s AI upscaler will be to run.Mobile versions of these GPUs are supported as well, but there is a massive caveat; you need to manually force Microsoft Edge to run on the laptop’s discrete GPU, and plug-in AC power at the same time. […]