Month: August 2022

Intel announced Intel Arc, a new brand of graphics technology that looks to compete with the likes of Nvidia and AMD on its own website in 2021, showcasing a video teasing what to expect from the first graphics card in the series at launch in 2022.

The company held true to its word, with the reveal of the first Intel Arc graphics cards in late March 2022. Though desktop cards are in the works, Intel’s first graphics cards are focusing on laptops, bringing gaming prowess to ultrabooks.

The question is, what should we expect from the tech giant? Is the Intel Arc range a competitor to the hugely popular Nvidia RTX 30 Series and AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series? We round up all the latest Intel Arc GPU news right here.

When was the first Intel Arc graphics card released?
Intel initially confirmed that the first of many Intel Arc graphics cards, codenamed Alchemist, was set for release sometime during Q1 2022, which runs from January until March 2022.

However, just days after the CES 2022 announcement, Intel removed all mentions of a Q1 2022 release from its Intel Arc page on its website, suggesting that the release could potentially slip later into the year.

Intel then officially lifted the lid on Intel Arc at an event on 30 March, focusing on Arc A-series mobile GPUs, and more specifically, the affordable Arc 3 series.

Intel confirmed that laptops featuring the new A350M and A370M graphics cards will be available for pre-order today, with more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 mobile graphics cards set for release in the “early summer”.

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AMD introduced the Ryzen 5000 Series for laptops back in January 2021, but now they’re coming to Chromebooks. The Ryzen 5000 C-Series is designed for high-end Chrome OS devices, despite Google’s software usually being associated with low-cost laptops.

There are a four new chips that manufacturers can pick between: Ryzen 7 5825C, Ryzen 5 5625C, and Ryzen 3 5425C and Ryzen 3 5125C. Core counts range from two to eight and clock speeds from 3.0GHz to 4.5GHz, but several specs are consistent across the lineup.

The underlying Zen 3 architecture, which debuted with the Ryzen 5000 desktop CPUs back in 2020, is one common factor. All four CPUs use a 7nm manufacturing process, despite the Ryzen 6000 Series having shifted to 6nm. You also get the older Radeon Vega integrated graphics, rather than the latest RDNA 2.

This table shows how they compare:

AMD chose not to release Ryzen 4000 CPUs for Chromebooks, meaning the previous generation are now two years old. As you might expect, AMD is advertising big performance gains compared to 2020’s Ryzen 3000 C-Series. According to internal benchmarking, the top-spec Ryzen 7 5825C is up to 67% faster than the Ryzen 3 7300C for web browsing and up to 107% faster for multitasking.

As usual, the Ryzen 5000 C-Series chips aren’t available to buy as standalone components. Instead, they’ll be integrated into Chromebooks from a range of companies, with two devices already announced.

Acer Chromebook Spin 514
At the same time as the Ryzen 5000 C-Series announcement, we got our first look at the Chromebooks they’ll power.

Acer’s Chromebook Spin 514 is the company’s mid-range convertible. The new CPUs combine with 8GB of RAM here, while you also get a 128GB SSD. This helps power a 14in Full HD LCD display, which offers touch support in addition to the 360-degree hinge.

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As the two big hitters in laptop processor space, Intel and AMD regularly trade blows.

The former released its 11th-gen ‘Rocket Lake’ desktop chips on the first day of CES 2021, but AMD soon responded with laptop processors of its own at the event.

The Ryzen 5000 series was the big news from AMD in January 2021, but it’s still releasing new CPUs more than a year later. Here’s everything you need to know.

When were Ryzen 5000 laptop chips released?
The Ryzen 5000 series chips were officially unveiled at AMD’s CES 2021 press conference on 12 January, as was confirmed a month earlier.

Devices powered by the CPUs were released throughout 2021, but AMD has since released a successor in the Ryzen 6000 Series.

The company still had time for one more release in 2022, though. The Ryzen 5000 C-Series retain the same core features as the regular CPUs, but they’re for high-end Chromebooks instead.

How much will Ryzen 5000 Series laptops cost?
The Ryzen 5000 series won’t be available to buy as standalone chips, as they’re designed to provide an integrated solution for thin and light laptops and convertibles.

How much you’ll pay for one of these devices will depend on individual manufacturers, but also which tier of processor it’s using. Here’s a rough guide to the level of performance each offers:

Ryzen 3 – basic browsing, streaming and content creation
Ryzen 5 – solid for productivity and entertainment
Ryzen 7 – high-end performance, including demanding tasks
Ryzen 9 – elite performance across gaming and content creation
You can often pick up a Ryzen 3 laptop for as little as £200, while a Ryzen 9 device can cost upwards of £2000. We’d expect these four tiers to go head-to-head with Intel’s equivalents (i3, i5, i7, i9) once again.

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Intel is still the leading CPU manufacturer worldwide, but the competition in 2022 is fiercer than ever.

The rapid recent rise of AMD is reflected in the excellent Ryzen 6000 Series, while Apple has successfully moved away from Intel and embraced its own silicon.

After an underwhelming lineup of Rocket Lake desktop CPUs last year, Intel was under pressure to respond. The company has done just that, with the shift to a new hybrid delivering significant improvements.

The first Alder Lake CPUs were released towards the end of 2021, but in the last few months we’ve really seen Intel show its hand. Dozens of chips are now available for desktops and built into laptops, but new processors continue to be announced. Here’s everything you need to know about Intel’s 12th-gen CPUs.

When were Intel Alder Lake CPUs released?
Intel confirmed the Alder Lake name and some key specs back in January 2021 at CES, but we had to wait until 27 October for any CPUs to actually be announced.

That was the Alder Lake-S series for desktops, but loads more processors were announced at CES 2022 on 4 January. A total of 22 new desktop CPUs were added to the lineup, alongside mobile chips split into three key categories: H-Series (enthusiast), P-Series (thin and light laptops) and U-Series (more affordable devices).

Many have already made their way into 2022 laptops, but Intel’s not done there. A new high-end HX Series was announced on 10 May, with new mobile workstations powered by them expected in the coming months.

During the announcement, Intel teased that even more CPUs could be released prior to 13 th -gen Raptor Lake arriving later this year.

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After Fortnite developer Epic Games took on the behemoth that is Apple by trying to circumvent its in-app purchase system back in 2020, the hugely popular game was booted off the App Store – much to the dismay of mobile gamers around the world.

An epic court case ensued, pun intended, and after months of courtroom chatter, Apple largely came out the winner. It meant that Apple was under no obligation to allow Fornite to return to the App Store, and it didn’t.

While many assumed that was the end of it, Nvidia and Epic Games had other plans in store, and today is the day that Fortnite officially returns to the iPhone and iPad.

Well, maybe not officially, as you can’t go to the App Store and download the app.

Instead, you can play Fortnite using Nvidia’s cloud-based game streaming service, GeForce Now, which is accessible via the Safari browser on all iPhones and iPads.

There are premium subscriptions available, but there’s also a free tier that allows you to play a variety of your favourite PC games free of charge for up to an hour at a time, so there’s no need to pay for access.

You’d be right to point out that Fortnite has been available on GeForce Now – and competing apps like Xbox Cloud Gaming – for some time. What makes this different, however, is that it’s a mobile-optimised version of the game complete with full touchscreen controls, just like it used to be.

Essentially, today’s release brings Fortnite as close to the native iOS experience as iPhone and iPad players will likely ever get. It’s just as responsive too, thanks to a combination of Nvidia’s impressive low-latency cloud tech, direct collaboration with Epic Games and, of course, a thorough beta testing period that saw over 500,000 participants join in the fun.

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