7 Exciting Announcements At Computex 2021: New Intel U-series CPUs, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, MSI laptops

Computex 2021 kicked off with a slew of announcements from some of the computer world’s top brands, including Intel, AMD, Nvidia and MSI among so many others. Despite the show going entirely virtual this year, there was no shortage of reveals, ranging from processors, graphics, cards, laptops and desktops.

Credit: Computex

Here are some of the exciting announcements at the event.

1. Intel’s new U-Series mobile CPUs

Credit: Intel

During its keynote presentation, Intel unveiled the Core i7-1195G7 and the Core i5-1155G7, two of its new 11th Gen U-Series CPUs. The former is the first U-Series chip capable of reaching up to 5.0GHz clock speeds while the latter is the most powerful Core i5 chip yet. Both will feature four core and eight-thread configurations with a TDP between 12W to 28W and ships with Iris Xe integrated graphics.

The company announced that the Core i7-1195G7 will have a 2.9Ghz base clock speed, which can be overclocked using the company’s Turbo Boost Max 3.0 tech to reach 5.0GHz. Meanwhile, the Core i5-1155G7 will have a base clock speed of 2.5GHz with a maximum clock speed of 4.5GHz.

There’s no word yet on what exact laptop models will sport these chips or when they will be available.

2. AMD’s 3D chiplet technology

Credit: AMD

AMD showcased the new 3D chiplet technology that it developed in collaboration with TSMC. In essence, 3D chiplet technology is a new process in which CPU components are stacked vertically, letting the chipmaker increase the amount of L3 cache on its Zen 3 CPUs. The company claims it can triple the available L3 cache on a 16-core processor, which tops at 64MB, to a whopping 192MB. This can reportedly improve the performance of applications, especially games, by up to 25%.

AMD said that it’s on track to start production of chips using this technology by the end of the year.

3. New markets for AMD’s RDNA 2 gaming architecture

Credit: Tesla

AMD also announced that it has found new applications for its RDNA 2 gaming architecture, the same architecture powering gaming PCs, the PS5 and Xbox Series X. The first of which is in bringing AAA gaming to the infotainment system of the Tesla Model S and Model X. By powering it with AMD Ryzen Embedded APU and an AMD RDNA 2 architecture-based GPU, Tesla owners can now enjoy a 10 teraflop gaming rig inside their cars.

The other application is in bringing ray tracing and variable rate shading capabilities to flagship mobile devices. For this, AMD is helping Samsung incorporate its RDNA 2 architecture-based GPU into its next generation of Exynos chipsets.

4. AMD’s new chips

Credit: AMD

Last but definitely not the least for AMD is, of course, the reveal of new chips. First off, the company announced its new Radeon RX 6000M series of mobile GPUs that promises to bring “incredible visual fidelity” and immersive experiences in laptop gaming. What’s more, it will take advantage of the RDNA 2 gaming architecture to boost performance by up to 1.5x higher than the original RDNA architecture.

AMD also unveiled the Ryzen 5000G series of APUs along with the Ryzen PRO 5000 series of desktop CPUs. For enterprises, the company announced the 3rd gen of EPYC processors.

5. Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti

Credit: Nvidia

As for Nvidia, the company launched more powerful versions of its RTX 30 series cards, namely the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3070 Ti. The 3080 Ti is faster than the RTX 3080, especially in 4K, and boasts 10,240 CUDA cores, up from 8,704. While there are no exact numbers yet, it’s said to sit in the middle of the RTX 3080 and the premium RTX 3090, when it comes to performance. Alongside it is the RTX 3070 Ti, which is, of course, a beefier version of the RTX 3070. It features 6,144 CUDA cores, above the 5,888 of the original.

The RTX 3080 Ti comes on 3 June 2021 while the RTX 3070 Ti releases on 10 June 2021, priced at US$1,199 and US$599 respectively.

Nvidia also announced that a handful of games will start supporting RTX features. Rainbow Six: Siege and Red Dead Redemption 2, for example, will receive a performance boost via Nvidia DLSS. Doom Eternal will see the same improvements along with ray tracing support.

6. MSI’s new laptops and earbuds

Credit: MSI

MSI announced a number of laptops from its different lines at the trade show. For content creation-focused laptops, there’s the Creator Z16, which features a 16:10 QHD+ display with thin bezels. It houses a mobile version of Nvidia’s RTX 3060 and an 11th Gen Intel CPU. The Creator M16 and Creator M17 were also announced alongside it.

For gaming laptops, the company unveiled the GE76 and 66 Raider, which is powered by an RTX 3080 with a TGP (total graphics power) of up to 165W.

On top of all this, MSI also announced its very first pair of wireless earbuds, the IMMERSE GH62. The earbuds look to bring low-latency responsiveness, clear voice recording and accurate audio reproduction for use in gaming.

7. HP’s EliteDesk 805 G8 and ProDesk 405 G8 Series of Desktops

Credit: HP

HP unveiled two new desktop series geared towards enterprise use at the trade show: the EliteDesk 805 G8 and HP ProDesk 405 G8. These two desktop series run Windows 10 Pro and ship with AMD Ryzen Pro 5000 processors.

Both series also come in two sizes, a mini-PC and a small form factor PC. The main difference between the two is that the mini-PC is built to be mounted behind a monitor while its bigger sibling, the small form factor PC, provides more expansion options with 2 bays, 2 half-height slots, 3 M.2 slots and 11 USB ports.

These new desktops are set to release in August this year.

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Written by Kyle Chua