12th Gen Intel Core HX mobile CPUs launch with promise of huge boost for rendering ntel has announced its 12th Gen ‘Alder Lake’ Intel Core HX processors, designed for highperformance mobile workstations, including new 16-inch models coming out of Dell, Lenovo (ThinkPad P16) and HP (ZBook Fury G9). The new mobile processors use the same silicon as the ‘Alder Lake’ desktop chips that launched last year. They have all the hallmarks of Intel Xeon – including ECC memory, top-end performance, and large memory capacity – without the name. It would appear the HX-Series marks the end of the Intel Xeon W brand on mobile. Intel HX processors follow on from the 12th Gen Intel Core H processors announced earlier this year. They feature the same hybrid architecture that delivers a mix of Performance cores (P-cores) and Efficient cores (E-cores) for background processes. The main difference between the two processor families is the number of cores on offer. The top-end HX-Series CPU, the Intel Core i9-12950HX, has 8 P-cores and 8 E-cores, for a total of 24 threads, while the top-end H-Series CPU, the Intel Core i9-12900H, maxes out at 6 P-cores and 8 E-cores, for a total of 20 threads. This should give the HX Series a
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significant advantage in multi-threaded applications, especially ray trace rendering. And because of its ‘E-Cores’, an even bigger advantage over ‘Tiger Lake’ 11th Gen Intel Core mobile and Intel Xeon W processors. In fact, when rendering in blender, Intel quotes the Core i9-12900HX to have an 81% performance lead over the Core i9-11980HK. The HX-Series also features a higher Thermal Design Power (TDP) than the H-Series (55 watts compared to 45 watts) and a higher Max turbo power (157 watts
compared to 115 watts) so performance could be further elevated in laptops with particularly good thermal management. There are some other architectural differences. They are the first Intel mobile CPUs to support the PCIe Gen 5 interface and include up to 128 GB of DDR5/ LPDDR5 memory (compared to 64 GB), and up to four M.2 NVMe SSDs. Intel also offers 12th Gen Intel Core P-series processors with a TDP of 28W for thin and light mobile workstations. ■ www.intel.com/processors
Intel Arc graphics launch in laptops. Workstations to follow ntel has launched its Intel Arc graphics family for laptops, the first in a series of discrete ‘high-performance’ GPUs that will extend to desktops and workstations later this year. This is a significant move for Intel as it looks to boost its graphics capabilities and compete more strongly against AMD and Nvidia, who offer a wide range of powerful discrete GPUs. Prior to this launch, Intel’s GPUs were mostly integrated with its CPUs and only really targeted entry-level users. Arc is focused on consumers, specifically gamers and ‘creators’, a broad term that often refers to those who generate video or 3D content. At its launch, Intel spoke about Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve, and has previously
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referenced Blender (rendering with Cycles) and Autodesk 3ds max. However, there was no mention of CAD or BIM software. Historically, Intel has focused on directly supporting only the most popular CAD and BIM software. However, Intel graphics driver support for these applications appears to have slipped over the years. Certification of Intel integrated GPUs with the latest CAD products from Autodesk, Solidworks, Siemens and others, are few and far between. However, with a new focus on discrete GPUs, this could change and it will be interesting to see how much attention Intel gives the CAD sector moving forward.
The products The new Intel Arc A-Series GPUs are built on Intel’s Xe High Performance
Graphics microarchitecture, or Xe HPG for short. They offer support for DirectX 12 Ultimate, hardware accelerated ray tracing and Xe Super Sampling (X e SS), which uses AI to denoise and upscale images and video. There are three tiers of products: Arc 3, Arc 5 and Arc 7. Arc 3 is available now in two product offerings: the A350M for ultra-thin laptops and the A370M for more performance in thin-and-light laptops. The more powerful Arc 5 and Arc 7 graphics products will follow this summer. In gaming benchmarks, Intel shows the A370M to offer up to around double the performance of its Iris Xe integrated graphics. Intel did not share any data comparing its new GPUs with those from AMD and Nvidia. ■ www.intel.com/arc
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24/05/2022 16:32
