Tag: flagship

Intel’s 8th-gen desktop CPUs boost gaming and streaming speeds

Intel has launched its 8th-generation mainstream desktop chips, calling the flagship $359 Core i7-8700K its “best gaming desktop processor ever.” The six-core, 12-thread 3.7GHz chipboosts Gears of War 4 frame rates up to 25 percent compared to 7th-gen desktop chips . It can also do 4K video editing up to 32 percent faster. The best gains are with multitasking, as Intel says gaming, streaming and recording with Player Unknown: Battlegrounds will be 45 percent fast than before. What’s more, it can be overclocked to 4.7 GHz using Intel’s Turbo Boost 2.0, and 5GHz and higher speeds are easily achieved with air or basic liquid cooling. The speed gains are even more impressive if your system is over three years old, but probably won’t push many folks with 7th-gen Intel chips into upgrading. For multimedia, it’s worth noting that Intel has implemented some new 4K tech, which will make for smoother streaming of 10-bit, HDR Ultra HD video now on services services like Netflix and many new 4K TVs. The 8th-gen Core i5 and Core i3 chips in the lineup might be more interesting for consumers. The Core i3 chips start at $117 and have quad-cores and base clock speeds up to 4 GHz, while the Core i5 models, starting at $182, are six-core units. Neither are multi-threaded, but four physical cores and four threads is a lot better than two cores and four threads, which is what the i3 lineup had before. If you have Intel’s 7th-gen Core i7 chip and want to upgrade to get every ounce of gaming or graphics speed, it’s not as simple as a chip swap. The new CPUs will require Intel’s Z370 chipset-based motherboards, so they’re not at all compatible with whatever model you have right now. That chipset has a few advantages over the last gen, like improved power delivery for 6-core chips and better support for DDR4-2666 memory, but nothing dramatic. Some pundits have noted that Intel could have made them compatible with older motherboards, but elected not to . Intel is also touting its Optane storage for gamers, but as we’ve mentioned , this won’t help you much if you already have an SSD, and not at all if you have M.2 PCIe-based storage. The mainstream 8th-gen desktop chips are a bit less interesting than the 8th-gen laptop CPUs, which offered more performance than expected , Meanwhile, Intel recently unveiled the 7th-gen X-series i9 chips, which rocked up to 18 cores , dramatically boosting performance over the top-spec 10-core i7-6950X previous-gen models. The new eighth-gen desktop chips will arrive starting on October 5th, and as mentioned, the flagship Intel Core i7-8700K will cost you $359. Source: Intel

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Intel’s 8th-gen desktop CPUs boost gaming and streaming speeds

HP unveils its insanely upgradeable Z-class workstations

No matter how great your latest PC build is, HP’s new Z Workstation lineup can probably top it. The company’s latest Z8, Z6 and Z4 desktop workstations are its most powerful and ridiculously upgradeable ever, it says. The top-end Z8 features 24 RAM slots and up to 3TB of RAM, dual Xeon CPUs (with up to 56 cores), dual M.2 SSDs and dual NVIDIA Quadro Pro graphics cards. It’s aimed squarely at VFX artists, letting them run 3D simulations, edit 8K video and do Nuke compositing, probably all at the same time. Just to rattle off a few more specs (because there aren’t many machines like this), it offers 10 USB 3.1 Gen 2 Type C ports, dual Gig-E ports, seven full-length, full height PCIe slots (nine total) and optional Thunderbolt 3. All of that is housed in a cleanly laid out, tool-free chassis with a 1, 700 watt power supply and invective ducting. Just buying the Z8 box without much inside will cost you $2, 439, but if you want, say, a pair of the latest Xeon Platinum 8180 chips with 28 cores each and two of NVIDIA’s 24GB P6000 Quadro graphics adapters, those items alone would run you a cool $35, 000. Overall, the new machine boosts the memory, CPU core count, graphics and PCIe bandwidth capacity significantly across the board compared to its previous Z840 flagship model. The HP Z6 Workstation ($1, 919) dials that craziness down a notch, with 384GB of max system memory and fewer slots and ports, but still has the dual Xeon CPU option. The Z4 Workstation ($1, 239), meanwhile, lets you install 256GB of RAM and a single Xeon CPU, limited to Intel’s new W-series . The top end of that right now is the Xeon W2155 with 10 cores and 20 threads, and HP hasn’t said whether it’ll support the flagship 18-core Xeon W that’s coming later in the year. Remember, these prices are for the bare boxes only, not the graphics cards, memory, CPUs and other stuff you’ll need. On the Z4 model, however, the Xeon W 10-core chip is “just” $1, 000, so it should be no problem to build a box for around $3, 000 to $4, 000. HP also unveiled a few new displays, including the 38-inch Z38c curved display that is a bit of an odd duck for HP’s video-oriented Z lineup. Much like LG’s 38UC99 38-inch screen , it has sort-of 4K resolution (3, 840 x 1, 600) 21:9 that can’t actually handle full-resolution UHD video, so seems more suited for gaming. It also lacks other features like 10-bit capability, which is becoming increasingly important for 4K HDR video editing and color correctoin. HP’s Z8 and Z6 Workstations are coming in October, while the Z4 arrives sometime in November. This end-of-year date should help film and VFX houses fit them into their fiscal purchase budgets, because other than the Z4, these aren’t really meant for you or me.

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HP unveils its insanely upgradeable Z-class workstations