Snapdragon 8 Gen 4: Beyond the Benchmarks - Efficiency and Manufacturing

Qualcomm's upcoming flagship mobile processor, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, is generating a lot of buzz. Here's a glimpse into what we know so far about its rumored specs, focusing on CPU and GPU performance.

CPU: Targeting the Top Spot

Leaks suggest the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 will sport a "tri-cluster" CPU design. This means it will have three tiers of cores, each optimized for different tasks:

• High-Performance Cores: Two next-generation Cortex-X5 cores clocked at a staggering 4GHz, potentially exceeding the performance of Apple's A17 Bionic.
• Mid-Range Cores: Rumored to be 6 Cortex-A730 cores running at 2.8GHz, offering a balance between power and efficiency.
• Efficiency Cores: Likely for background tasks, these cores aim to conserve battery life.

This configuration, if true, could position the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 as a CPU powerhouse, especially for demanding applications and multitasking.

GPU: Graphics Powerhouse on the Horizon?

The rumors surrounding the GPU are equally exciting. The Adreno 830 GPU is expected to be a significant leap forward, particularly for gamers. Early talks suggest it might outperform Apple's M2 in benchmarks and enable smooth gameplay on titles like Genshin Impact at native 1080p resolution.

However, it's important to note that these are speculations. Benchmarks and real-world testing will paint a clearer picture of the GPU's capabilities.

The Takeaway: Promising Potential

With a potentially top-tier CPU and a powerful GPU on the horizon, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 appears poised to be a serious contender in the high-end mobile chip market. Official details are expected around October 1, 2024, so stay tuned for confirmation and further insights on this exciting chip.

Conclusion: A Well-Rounded Package

The Snapdragon 8 Gen 4 appears to be shaping up as a well-rounded mobile processor, targeting not just raw power but also efficiency and AI capabilities. With the official announcement expected in October 2024, the next few months will be crucial in revealing the true potential of this chip and its impact on the future of smartphones.

Intel Core i7 and i7-3930K 3960X-C2 stepping available in Asia

As already announced in December (you can read  the step C2 Intel prepares for LGA 2011 processors SandyBridge-E ) Intel is preparing to launch the revision C2 of the CPU Sandy Bridge-E . Currently, these processors are available only for the Japanese market, and they are models of Core i7 i7-3960X and 3930K , the new revision is to correct the bug of the function VT-d (Intel Virtualization Technology for Directed I / O).

The new Intel Core i7 i7-3960X and 3930K   can be identified by checking the letters S-Spec (5-character string that identifies precisely stepping CPU) printed on 'His of the processor . In this case, the CPU can be identified by the acronym C2 SR0KF for the Core i7-3960X and SR0KY  for the Core i7-3930K .

The prices for the Japanese market have been established at 83970 yen equivalent to U.S. $ 1095 for the Core i7-3960X, while the model i7-3930K is priced at 48980 yen, the exchange rate U.S. $ 639.

Sandy Bridge Intel Core i7-E 3820: Here are the first reviews

The site AnandTech.com has published an interesting article on the new Intel Core i7 3820SandyBridge-E , a CPU that unlike the high-end models and i7 i7-3960X-3930K has 4 cores with HT architecture and frequency based of 3.6 GHz As many readers know, the i7-3820 is not unlocked for overclocking, but with the new x79 motherboards can increase the frequency. The staff at Anandtech was able to get it safely to over 4.6 GHz

The article explains the different characteristics of the CPU compared to the unlocked models, offering different benchmarks and a video. Recall that the Core i7 3820 will cost about $ 285, for more info at this link .

Intel introduced the latest powerful processor Xeon E5

Intel chose the SC11 conference as a platform for pre-release of a new generation of chips Xeon E5, which are designed for workstations and servers. Immediately after the presentation of the processor chips led the top ten running on supercomputers (according to Top 500), ahead of its competitors in performance more than doubled. In addition, the chip will be the first of a series of Xeon, equipped with a standard serial bus support for PCI Express 3.0, which doubles the throughput compared to the previous version (also PCI Express 3.0 has a high bandwidth when connecting to the Internet, and clusters of computers to local peripherals such as video cards).

Although the chips are already used to create a supercomputer, but, as stated by Intel, referring to the time required for the establishment of small workstations and servers, widespread Xeon E5 will be received in the first half of 2012. Also at the conference was represented by trial version of the processor Knights Corner, which may have more than 50 cores and provide record levels - more than one teraflop. Intel said that the finished version of the chip will be produced on 22 nm technology. While we do not know where to begin deliveries of Knights Corner, however, judging by the use of 22nm technology, large-scale output can be assigned to the year 2012.

So far, on a Mac Pro from Apple, as well as on workstations based on Xeon (which are mainly used in the corporate sector and in professional fields that require large computing power), in some cases used chips that did not get updated in 2010. Partly because of this kind of "stupor" from Intel, there were rumors about the production end Mac Pro and switch Apple on home PCs, such as the iMac .

Processor AMD FX-8150 sets a new record with acceleration up to 8584.8 MHz

It seems, Bulldozer CPU family in general and AMD FX-8150 in particular may soon become a favorite tool, extreme overclockers. Just a few days ago we wrote about the record of this chip overclocked to 8461.51 MHz, effected by the skill of a famous overclocker Andre Young (Andre Yang). However, this well-known enthusiast in all probability, decided not to stop there and made ​​even more impressive result, processor AMD FX-8150 to 8584.8 MHz frequency.

At the same time Andre Young used the same configuration of upper stand as the last time, and for cooling the same way used liquid nitrogen. However, overclockers had to further improve the level of supply voltage on the CPU, which reached, at this time, the turn of 2.076 volts. Largely due to such a high rate of vCore achieved frequency 279.9 MHz bus, which, combined with the value of the multiplier 31X and allowed to achieve the specified outstanding achievement. Recall that in the system in both cases was part of the motherboard ASUS Crosshair V Formula, 2 GB DDR3 modules from Corsair and video card NVIDIA GeForce GTX 580.

SandyBridge Intel i7-E 3960: 36% faster than all i7 990X

Intel released some preliminary data of the new processors SandyBridge-E and in particular the Core i7 3960 . The news is nothing short of excellent as according to some preliminary benchmarks the new CPU would be faster than the "old" i7 990X up to 36%.

The Core i7 processor is a 3960 6-Core 3.3 GHz frequency (instead of the 990X runs at 3.47 GHz) and 15 MB of cache, according to the new first data SandyBridge-990X is posted on the 13% Cinebench, 12% in Pov Ray 3.7, 15% in ProShow Gold 4.5 and up to 36% in Physics 3Dmark 11. Let our readers take due consideration.

AMD FX Bulldozer: official debut on October 12 in Europe

It 's official, the date for the debut CPU AMD FX is fixed, in Europe, October 12 at 18.00, AMD should launch three different versions of the CPU, FX 8xx0 8-core, 6-core FX 6100 and FX 4100 to 4 cores. The FX 8150 is a processor with 8 cores clocked at 3.6 GHz (4.2 GHz Turbo mode) and features 16 MB cache, the second "classified" AMD is the FX 8120, eight cores at 3.1 GHz (4.0 GHz in Turbo). Finally, the FX 8100 with a frequency of 2.8 GHz with a maximum clock of 3.7 GHz and 16 MB cache.

The AMD FX 6100 but has six cores at 3.3 GHz (3.9 GHz Turbo) and 14 MB cache, there will be a faster version called AMD FX 6120 which has the same TDP of 95 W, but come on the market first quarter of 2012. Finally, we would have the 'FX 4170, Quad-Core clocked at 4.2 GHz with 12 MB cache and TDP of 125W.

We just have to wait only a few days to see the actual performance.