A bug that borks your PC on a new Windows update is a familiar headache for many of us. It’s gotten less frequent in the last few years thanks to Microsoft being a little more proactive, as Windows will now scan your hardware and installed software for potential incompatibilities before it updates, then halt said update if it sees a problem. But with the growing number of issues affecting the Windows 11 24H2 update, we’re seeing a surprising expansion in the breadth of these upgrade blocks. BleepingComputer has an excellent rundown of exactly what hardware and software might keep your system from the update. Incompatibilities include some obvious things, like a few Asus laptops that are known to get blue screen crashes after the update, or integrated webcams and fingerprint sensors that might stop working. But there are some more innocuous mentions, including: Gameloft’s Asphalt 8: Airborne, a free-to-play racing game ported from smartphones and featured on the official Windows store. The Safe Exam Browser, an anti-cheating program required for many university students and industrial training systems. Easy Anti-Cheat, a popular software tool for online multiplayer games. Updates for your game and/or Intel drivers might fix this. Some wallpaper customization tools, which might break after the install. What a weird thing to hold up an allegedly vital update! Intel Smart Sound Technology, which can be fixed with a driver update through Windows Update. Why not just bake that in? The full list is worth a look if you’re eager to get on the latest build of Windows 11 and you’ve encountered issues. And Microsoft is certainly working on getting at least some of these problems addressed without any necessary action from users. But these weird and seemingly random conflicts illustrate that Microsoft’s task of keeping Windows users safe on the latest software isn’t getting any easier. It feels inevitable that we’ll be seeing more of these as Windows, the drivers it requires, and the software we run on it become more and more complex, all built on top of an aging and somewhat creaky operating system. Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Eight bays/slots for HDDs and SSDs Supports SATA and NVMe Runs two HDDs in RAID Affordable for the ilk Cons 10Gbps caps NVMe performance at 1GBps No RAID for the last two HDD bays Our Verdict The D8 Hybrid is a versatile USB storage enclosure that lets you use up to four 3.5/2.5-inch HDDs or SSDs, as well as up to four NVMe SSDs. It’s only 10Gbps, which is easily fast enough for HDDs and SATA SSDs, but limiting for the NVMe SSDs. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: TerraMaster D8 Hybrid HDD/SSD USB enclosure Retailer Price $299.99 View Deal TerraMaster $299.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket With four full-sized 3.5/2.5-inch SATA bays, and four 2280 M.2 slots to accept NVMe SSDs, the D8 Hybrid is an incredibly versatile external storage enclosure capable of housing up to 162TB of storage (30TB HDDs/8TB SSDs). It’s also a good performer within the limits of 10Gbps USB. What are the D8 Hybrid’s features? I already enumerated the available storage bays/slots for you above, but you can also use 2.5-inch SATA SSDs or 2.5-inch HDDs in the 3.5-inch drive bays. SATA SSDs will deliver faster performance individually or combined in RAID 0, but 2.5-inch HDDs lag far behind their larger cousins in both capacity and speed. The D8 Hybrid is a largely black plastic box measuring 8.75-inches deep, by 6.75-inches tall, by 7-inches wide (approximate measurements), encasing a metal frame. The four 3.5-inch drive trays are easy open, but don’t lock. Two screws on the back of the enclosure secure the removable side panel that hides the four M.2 NVMe slots. The D8 Hybrid’s M.2 slots filled with various NVMe SSDs. A minor issue with the M.2 slots is shown above: I was able to screw down an NVMe SSD while it wasn’t completely inserted into the M.2 socket, and then it didn’t appear when the box powered on. Make sure you don’t see any SSD metal edge contacts when you install them. While the D8 Hybrid supports RAID, it applies to only the first two 3.5-inch drive bays. Drives in the six other bay/slots appear as single LUNs (logical units)/drives. Consider the D8 a two-drive RAID box with two extra bays and four M.2 slots. We’re not pooh-poohing the arrangement. It can be very handy under the right circumstances — that being lots of miscellaneous SATA and NVMe storage laying about. The rear of the D8 Hybrid with a Type-C port, power port, RAID mode selector, and RAID reset pinhole button. The back of the D8 Hyrbid is home to the RAID select rotary switch (single, JBOD/concatenated, striped RAID 0, and mirrored RAID 1), a RAID reset pinhole button, a large fan opening, a power jack, and the on/off button. As discussed, USB 3.2 10Gbps is the transport interface, and TerraMaster includes a high-quality Type-C to Type-C cable with the unit. The AC adapter is a 7.5 amp/12-volt type with a detachable wall cord. How much is the TerraMaster D8 Hybrid? The D8 Hybrid was $300 at the time of this writing, or little less than $40 a bay. That’s certainly less than what you’d pay for a 10Gbps dual 3.5-inch RAID enclosure plus six other enclosures. And there is value in consolidating all those drives into one box and onto one connection. Especially given the often parsimonious port allotment on today’s thin and light laptops! In other words, if the D8 Hybrid fits your needs, it’s a pretty good deal. How fast is the D8 Hybrid? The speed that the D8 Hybrid delivers will depend highly upon what type of storage you install. But whatever it is, it will max out at around 1GBps due to the 10Gbps bus. I’m a tad surprised that TerraMaster didn’t go for USB 3.2×2 or USB 4. I’ve been chagrined at other NVMe-enabled products making similar choices recently — the scuttlebutt is that chips for USB 4 are still in short supply. Just to be clear as to the relevant conundrum: NVMe is capable of 3GBps plus when used over Thunderbolt 3/4 or USB 4, and 2GBps over 20Gbps USB 3.2×2. Bus choice aside, the D8 Hybrid performed up to 10Gbps snuff, which is pretty darn fast in the real world. I saw just over 1GBps out of SSDs in the NVMe slots, 570MBps out of SATA SSDs in the 3.5-inch bays, 290MBps from a single 3.5-inch, 24GB WD DC HC580 hard drive, and 580MBps from two of the latter in RAID 0. That is very good on all accounts for USB 10Gbps. While the D8 Hybrid only offers RAID for the first two bays, you can use Windows (or macOS) software RAID to create more complex arrays… Note that instead of highlighting the drive being reviewed in red, this time it’s gray, with the Seagate Game Drive SSD — another 10Gbps product that is a good match for the D8 Hybrid’s NVMe slots — in red to highlight the 10Gbps cap. Why? I didn’t like the other shades of red I came up with. Sue me. The D8 Hybrid actually beat the Seagate Game SSD drive with NVMe. But the Sabrent Rocket 4 I used may be a faster SSD than the one inside the Seagate. Regardless, you know you’re not sacrificing performance for the D8 Hybrid’s versatility. Given the 10Gbps constraint, at any rate. CrystalDiskMark 8 rated the D8 Hybrid as completely up to snuff for a 10Gbps USB enclosure. Longer bars are better. You can basically disregard the HDD numbers in the CrystalDiskMark 8 4K tests. Hard drives simply don’t access data with anywhere near the alacrity of an SSD of any type. You can basically disregard the HDD numbers in the CrystalDiskMark 8 4K tests. Hard drives simply don’t access data with anywhere near the alacrity of an SSD of any type. Longer bars are better. Remember that shorter bars are better in the graph below charting 48GB transfer performance, where the D8 Hybrid did quite well in all phases — for the type of media involved, of course. Remember that shorter bars are better in this graph charting 48GB transfer performance, where the D8 Hybrid did very well. Shorter bars are better. The D8 Hybrid was right on target with the various media types for the 450GB long file write. The D8 Hybrid was right on target with the various media types for the 450GB long file write. Shorter bars are better. Other than wishing it was 20Gbps or 40Gbps technology, I have zero complaints about the D8 Hybrid’s performance. And you can get a lot done with 1GBps transfers. While the D8 Hybrid only offers RAID for the first two bays, you can use Windows (or macOS) software RAID to create more complex arrays or utilize more of the D8 Hybrid’s eight drives in that fashion. I’d only recommend it for redundancy (mirroring, RAID 5) as the 10Gbps USB bus is going to cap performance at 1GBps no matter how you combine the SSDs. Should you buy the D8 Hybrid? If you’re looking to run a pair of hard drives in RAID 0, plus a couple of other HDDs/SATA SSDs, as well as some NVMe SSDs externally, then the TerraMaster D8 Hybrid is a versatile way to combine them all into one physical box. Performance is certainly good enough for most tasks, albeit limiting for NVMe. Put another way, if price, capacity, versatility, and HDD/SSD SATA support are paramount, the D8 Hybrid is a great product — an excellent way to employ miscellaneous drives you may have lying about. But if you’re looking for top-tier performance from your NVMe SSDs, look to something utilizing a faster bus. Read...

Know what your PC gaming setup needs? After equipping a powerful RTX graphics card, you’re going to need a super-speedy monitor that can show those uber-high frame rates at intended. And wouldn’t you know it, this 24.5-inch Asus ROG Strix gaming monitor that ticks all the boxes is on sale for $229 on Amazon! That’s $70 (or 23 percent) off its original $299 price. So, what makes this monitor stand out? It’s clearly not the size because this isn’t anywhere close to a gigantic screen that takes over your desk. It’s also not a 4K monitor, putting out a 1080p resolution instead. But the selling point here is its 310Hz refresh rate. That’s bonkers fast, blowing past other monitors in this price range that only offer 120Hz, 144Hz, or 180Hz. The super-fast refresh rate ensures smooth and responsive gameplay, no matter what type of games you play. Thanks to the Extreme Low Motion Blur Sync feature, this monitor also has no ghosting or tearing, so you’ll have a great visual experience. It uses Fast IPS technology, mixing in the best of what an IPS panel display has to offer (especially color accuracy and great viewing angles) with an enhanced response time of 1ms for flawless gaming. Snag this Asus monitor for $229 on Amazon while you still can because this deal won’t last forever! Save now on this blazing-fast 310Hz gaming monitorBuy now on Amazon Read...

The majority of U.S. homes have an internet connection, and it’s probably not a stretch to guess that the proportion that also has Wi-Fi is close to 100 percent. Anyone who lives in a populated area and opened the Wi-Fi settings on their mobile phone will have seen how there are many networks competing for space in the ether. Modern routers, especially mesh routers, have thankfully made problems with poor Wi-Fi coverage fairly rare, but there are still many good reasons to review your network. It’s not just about security, but also about getting the most out of your internet connection, minimizing lag in online games and protecting your and your family’s privacy. Why not settle for the operator’s router? Many internet service providers lend a Wi-Fi router to customers, while others offer it as an optional extra for a small fee. Of course, it’s easy to make do with it, and it can be cheaper if it’s included. But it might be a better idea to get a router yourself instead. For one thing, it means you can keep your router and don’t have to redo all the settings if you switch operators. Carrier routers are rarely the most powerful, so you can get faster wireless internet with your own. This is especially true if you have many devices and/or a large house or a home with solid walls that weaken the signal. With mesh systems, you can get as many access points as you need to provide a strong signal throughout your home. Security can also be higher, as over the years there have been relatively frequent security flaws in operators’ routers, which are not always fixed quickly. With so many customers using the same router model, such routers become more tempting prey for hackers. Finally, you can get features that aren’t in your operator’s router but that you could benefit from, like vpn connectivity for the whole network or selected devices, separate networks for smart home gadgets, connection of peripherals like nas devices and printers, and much more. Mesh or traditional router? Before you start looking at the different manufacturers’ router models, you have an important question to consider. Do you want a traditional router plus any Wi-Fi boosters, or should you opt for a modern mesh system? A question that has no obvious answer. Mesh routers often have a cylindrical design.Andres Urena Mesh In a mesh system, two or more Wi-Fi routers or access points are combined into a larger, theoretically more robust network. The device you plug into the wall with Ethernet (or into a modem of some kind) becomes the master device and mediates the connection between all devices on the network and the internet. The routers involved communicate with each other and optimize the network so that all connected phones and other gadgets have the fastest and most stable connection possible. Advantages Easier to get good coverage throughout your home Fewer settings to make Disadvantages Fewer settings that can be made More expensive Usually lower maximum speed Traditional router with multiple antennas.Asus Traditional router A centrally located router covers as much of the home as possible — powerful models with large antennas can easily cover a medium-sized house and even reach out into the garden if it has a clear view. If you need more coverage, you need to get an extender. Advantages Less expensive Can offer significantly more customization options Powerful models have higher maximum speeds Disadvantages Can be difficult to reach all nooks and crannies Slightly more complicated settings To make the choice a little more complicated, some manufacturers have software in their regular routers that makes it possible to build mesh systems with them. Asus, for example, has something called AI Mesh. It takes a little more effort to get up and running than, for example, Google’s Nest Wifi, but offers the same benefit of better coverage and can be cheaper. Further reading: Supercharged home Wi-Fi with mesh networking: What you need to know Foundry How to choose a good model for your needs Once you’ve decided on a mesh or regular router, you’ll be faced with a veritable jungle of different models. Even if you stick to the biggest brands, such as Asus, Netgear, TP-link, and Linksys, there are hundreds of models to choose from. Here are the key aspects to look at: Wi-Fi version Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6e share the same basic technology, but 6e opens up the use of channels in the 6GHz band, where there is typically less interference. Signals in that frequency band are more efficiently blocked by walls, which can also help improve the signal for your own devices that are in the same room. Wi-Fi 7 is the new version of Wi-Fi that has just been released. It brings higher speeds, both in theory and practice, and shorter response times. It’s not yet built into many computers, phones, and other gadgets, but it’s the technology of the future. Number of bands Routers are often marketed as “dual band” or “triple band.” This refers to the number of radios they have, and therefore the maximum capacity of all connected devices combined. For mesh routers, one of the bands is usually used for communication between the routers involved. Software and updates Older models may be cheap, but they carry the risk that the manufacturer will stop releasing security updates before you want to retire the router. The software in a router needs to be kept constantly updated, making it somewhat safer to choose one of the big, tried-and-tested manufacturers. Another aspect of the software is how much customization the router offers and what extra features it has. For example, if you want to be able to connect a TV or media player via VPN to view content from other countries, you may benefit from a router with a built-in VPN function. Key settings No matter which router or mesh router you get — or if you settle for the one from your operator — there are a handful of settings you should change right away. The way you connect to the router’s admin interface varies slightly from manufacturer to manufacturer. Instructions can be found in the user manual or an accompanying quick guide. Enabling https is even more important.Foundry Enable https Before you do anything else, I highly recommend enabling https connectivity to your router settings. This will prevent others on the local network from intercepting the router’s password by collecting all network traffic. Admin login Change the password to the router settings. On some routers you are forced to do this when you first connect, on others it is optional but something you should definitely do. If possible, I also recommend changing your username. If you have to set a new password before you can enable https, you can change the password again after you have done so for extra peace of mind. Foundry Wi-Fi name and password Once you’ve secured your router’s settings, it’s time to secure the wireless network. The router usually has a semi-random network name (SSID) that I recommend changing. Choose something fun that you can easily recognize, but be aware that others can mimic and choose the same name. A good Wi-Fi password is long but easy to type in — for example, four randomly chosen words. No one is happy about having to type p&g_Kx%qU6s%qq$ewc-= by hand, but “wire underpaid rich banner” is no problem. When choosing the Wi-Fi solution, you also get to choose the security model. Best today is WPA3, or just WPA2 if not available. WPA3 is more secure, but so far too many devices do not support it. Further reading: 5 ways to check Wi-Fi signal strength on Windows PCs Channels If you don’t know better, I suggest you choose “auto” on most of the settings in the router, at least until you have learned more or have tested the network and want to see if you can optimize it a bit. This applies to channel selection and channel width, for example. Internet connection If you get internet via fiber, the router will probably fix the connection automatically, but some operators require a login using the PPOE protocol. You should then have received the name and password from the operator, and can check the instructions from your router’s manufacturer. Switch off WPS, UPNP and NAT-PNP Look for settings for these technologies and switch them off. WPS is inherently insecure and UPNP and NAT-PNP open up your network in a way that can lead to intrusions unless both you and your gadgets do the right thing. Enable automatic updates and you won’t miss any important security fixes.Foundry Enable automatic updates If your router has a feature to install firmware updates automatically, you should enable it. Sure, there’s a minimal risk of the manufacturer releasing a bad update that crashes the router, but in return, you won’t have to log into the router periodically to avoid missing important security fixes. Connect by cable where possible Wi-Fi is handy and nowadays really fast, but the vast majority of routers still have a number of connectors for wired networking with Ethernet. High-end models today don’t settle for Gigabit Ethernet, but sometimes have 2.5 Gigabit or even faster. And the fact is that wired is usually faster than wireless. This is true even with newer Wi-Fi standards that theoretically have higher speeds. For example, Wi-Fi 6/6e has a theoretical ceiling of 9.6Gbit/s, but no real networks are that fast. Moreover, the figure applies to all connected devices combined, and traffic in both directions must be taken into account, whereas Ethernet is so-called full duplex with the same speed in each direction. Stephen Phillips More realistic is to get 0.5Gbit/s on a connected device with Wi-Fi 6, at some distance and with multiple devices connected. With Wi-Fi 6e or 7, the network can use the 6GHz band, where there is usually much less interference. This leads to higher speeds in practice, but even with the fastest routers it is difficult to reach more than 1,500Mbps. In addition to consistently high speeds, cable provides lower latency and almost no risk of occasional slowness, which can still happen with wireless. Connecting devices that have an Ethernet connector — and to which you can run a cable without creating a tangle of wires in your home — gives them a stable connection, but that’s not all. Your wirelessly connected devices will also benefit, as they will have less competition for radio waves. For example, if your router happens to be close to your TV, you can connect your TV, any media players, games consoles, and other wired devices on the same shelf. If you use smart home gadgets, it’s also a good idea to connect hubs like Ikea’s Dirigera by cable. If you don’t have enough ports, you can get a switch. Position your router correctly for a better Wi-Fi signal Wireless networks are delicate affairs whose range and speed are hugely affected by small changes, both to the settings and the positioning of the router. Radio waves are weakened by walls, and the more solid the wall, the worse the signal on the other side. If you have a traditional router, you’ll get the best signal if you place it as close to the center of your home as possible, and preferably not next to a wall. But don’t run a lot of Ethernet cable without testing first. Of course, if it works well anywhere near the socket, you can leave the router there. Smart home gadgets can mess up The default setting on most routers is to combine the two frequency bands into a common network with the same SSID, allowing the router and connected devices to choose which band based on signal strength. Some smart home devices only support 2.4GHz. Further reading: The paranoid’s guide to securing your smart home Therefore, if you have problems with some gadgets not wanting to connect or disconnecting from time to time, try splitting the network into two separate ones, one for 2.4GHz and one for 5GHz. Create a guest network that your guests can use.Foundry Use guest networks if your router supports them If you don’t want to give away your Wi-Fi password left and right, you can take advantage of a feature found in many routers, namely the ability to add a separate guest network. The guest network has its own name and password, and on many routers it is set so that devices on the guest network cannot communicate with other devices on the local network, either on the guest network or the regular one. This means that your visitors can access the internet, but not, for example, your smart home gadgets or printers. Read...

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Intel’s latest Arrow Lake processor for desktop PCs fuses its “Meteor Lake” and “Lunar Lake” architectures together, carrying over Meteor Lake’s NPU and Lunar Lake’s abandonment of hyperthreading. Yes, hyperthreading has been banned from Intel’s desktop chips, based on a similar rationale for excluding the feature from Lunar Lake. Arrow Lake, also known as its Core Ultra 200S processor lineup, is Intel’s first “disaggregated” desktop processor, built on tiles, meaning each part of the chip is individually fabricated on a different process. In a twist, Intel unveiled a deep dive into the architecture of Lunar Lake and the models, prices, and performance of the Core Ultra 200S processor. A key omission? Hyperthreading, which also was not part of Intel’s Lunar Lake mobile processor. The story of Arrow Lake is a simple one: More performance and yet substantially less power than the 14th-generation Core chips. And to get there, Intel executives said they applied the same thinking to both Lunar Lake and its next-gen desktop counterpart: Make its cores as efficient as possible, both for power and for space. Update: Intel’s Arrow Lake processors have now launched. How did the efficiency and performance claims stack up? Find out in Core Ultra 9 285K tested: 10 must-know facts about Intel’s radically new CPUs. Gordon Mah Ung also dived deeper into the 285K’s performance in productivity workloads in the deep-dive video below: What is hyperthreading? Hyperthreading (also known as simultaneous multi-threading) is a fairly simple concept: While each processor core is designed to execute one instruction thread, hyperthreading creates a second “virtual” processor inside the single processor core. With hyperthreading, the idea is that the individual processor core is always executing instructions on at least one of the two cores, keeping it in operation the whole time. The last thing enthusiasts want is a CPU core sitting idle when it could be performing useful work. Intel The problem is that the second core is a virtual core, and not a “true” second physical core. That can lead to some contention of resources and additional overhead, enough that the question of whether to leave hyperthreading on or off while gaming has been a source of debate for years. Intel, meanwhile, has gone back and forth on the feature: Some of Intel’s 9th-, 10th-, and 11th-gen Core processors have excluded hyperthreading, such as the Core i7-9700K, and Intel’s Atom chips never used it. Most of Intel’s Core chips do, however. AMD has pretty consistently used hyperthreading, however, and still does. The question has always been: Does hyperthreading deliver a performance increase that surpasses the toll it takes in terms of system latency, the controller die cost, and the power hyperthreading consumes? In Lunar Lake, the answer was “no,” and that has carried over to Intel’s latest desktop chips, too. In part, that’s because Arrow Lake cribs heavily from Lunar Lake, with the same Lion Cove performance cores and the same Skymont efficiency cores that appear in Lunar Lake. Robert Hallock, a vice president and general manager of client AI and technical marketing for Intel, said that Intel basically comes out ahead in terms of power and performance by not using hyperthreading. Arrow Lake includes both desktop and mobile processors, and Hallock was being asked about the desktop implementation of hyperthreading. But it sounds like Hallock’s response applies to both desktop and mobile chips. “It’s a combination of a couple things, actually,” Hallock told reporters. “First, we knew that we can actually save the wattage for hyperthreading by not including it on the product, and you see that we’re still coming out net ahead by roughly 15, 20 percent in [multicore performance] without it. So we’re able to bump up efficiency and still hit our goals in overall compute performance. “The other thing that I would say is, you know, these are the same designs as leveraged from Lunar Lake,” Hallock added. “We took those cores, those designs, and were able to immediately integrate them because of [Intel’s] Foveros [technology]. So that’s the kind of one-two punch that influenced our decision: speed to market and maximizing performance per watt.” Will hyperthreading ever return? It’s possible it could. But it would have to justify itself in terms of performance, power, and die space, and it appears right now that it isn’t making the cut. Editor’s note: This article originally published on October 10, but was updated to include links to Core Ultra 200S review materials. Read...

Everybody wants an OLED monitor, including yours truly. Now that the display tech is ubiquitous on phones, it’s getting far more common in TVs, laptops, and tablets, too. But OLED tech has some obvious drawbacks, none more so than its high price. TCL says its newest manufacturing process will help alleviate some OLED pain points, including price, brightness, and power draw. During the Omdia Korea Display Conference last week, TCL’s Chief of the Technology Planning Center expounded on the company’s new “inkjet-printed” OLED display tech. As reported by FlatPanelsHD.com, this manufacturing process can create display panels with a 50 percent reduction in light loss from internal reflections, lower energy usage, and a much longer lifespan — and all of that comes with a 20 percent reduction in manufacturing cost. TCL showed off prototype versions of these new panels at the conference, including a conventional 8K OLED television, a 14-inch laptop screen, and a 31-inch “dome-shaped OLED” with 4K resolution. Company representatives said that it would be ready to begin limited production with this new technique by the end of this year, targeting “medium-sized OLED displays” for new products in 2025. (That means OLED laptop panels and monitors.) While the presentation was certainly optimistic and self-serving, TCL isn’t just blowing smoke. The inkjet printing technique, as opposed to the older evaporative stencil manufacturing system, has been in the news for the last year or so. The printing system is already used to deposit the encapsulation layer in most OLEDs right now, but expanding it into the emitters and other stack materials is the potential game changer, according to OLED-info.com. That’s great news if you’re hoping for more competition in the OLED space. While it’s currently pretty easy to find OLED monitors, the panels are still only coming from a small collection of manufacturers, chiefly LG and Samsung. That’s why so many of those monitors seem to have nearly identical specs — they’re using a lot of the same panels from the same places. With TCL targeting the market via new tech, it’ll give manufacturers more options at lower prices. That should result in more choices for consumers, including cheaper monitor options. I’d expect that a lot of companies like Dell, Asus, and Corsair are eyeing their options for new OLED laptop panels and monitors in 2025, so it’s entirely possible that we’ll see these panels in a lot of new products reaching consumers in the latter half of next year. Read...

Intel’s new desktop CPUs are radically different than the Intel CPUs you’re used to. Today marks the launch of Arrow Lake, the company’s latest architecture for desktop processors, formally sold as the Core Ultra 200S Series. According to Intel’s claims, this batch of Core chips is faster and far more power efficient than last-gen Raptor Lake CPUs, while still beating out the competition. However, Arrow Lake isn’t notable just for what it does, but also for what it is. As the first set of desktop x86 processors shipped but not fabricated by Intel, TSMC’s involvement in their production is but one new standout aspect. Intel has reworked its chip design, too—and the overhaul comes with some quirks, as we discovered during our testing. For a deeper dive into productivity benchmarks, check out Gordon’s video review of the Core Ultra 9 285K below. Here, let’s dig into the top ten things you should know about Intel’s Core Ultra 200S CPUs, after extensive testing of the flagship Core Ultra 9 285K. New names for a new era Alex Estevez / Foundry Last year, Intel retooled its naming system for Core processors, bidding farewell to the “i” designator before 3, 5, 7, and 9, and dropping the reference to the generation. It also squeezed in the word “Ultra” for CPUs containing Arc graphics and a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for AI-based tasks, as well as reset the numbering system to start in the hundreds. This change first rolled out to laptops with Meteor Lake CPUs in late 2023. Arrow Lake’s release is the first time we’re seeing the new names on desktop—a big shift after a decade-plus of the old style of names. Intel also opted to begin Arrow Lake’s numbering in the 200 range, despite being the first on desktop—likely so that laptop and desktop architectures from the same year match. (Lunar Lake, which just began shipping in laptops in September 2024, labels its processors with numbers in the 200 range as well.) Intel These are the five CPUs in the new Core Ultra 200S series, which includes two variants without integrated graphics, as denoted by the “F” designator (that convention is still the same as before): Intel Core Ultra 9 285K: 24 cores (8 P-cores, 16 E-cores, 5.7GHz max); 4 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $589 Intel Core Ultra 9 265K: 20 cores (8 P-cores, 12 E-cores, 5.5GHz max); 4 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $394 Intel Core Ultra 9 265KF: 20 cores (8 P-cores, 12 E-cores, 5.5GHz max); 0 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $379 Intel Core Ultra 9 245K: 14 cores (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, 5.2GHz max); 4 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $309 Intel Core Ultra 9 245KF: 14 cores (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores, 5.2GHz max); 0 GPU cores, 13 TOPS NPU, $294 Hyperthreading is dead (again) Intel introduced the masses to hyperthreading, its technology that allows a CPU core to run two threads (that is, set of instructions) simultaneously, rather than the default of just one per physical core. But in more recent years, the company has flirted with killing it off. For Arrow Lake, the feature’s gone overboard once again. As Intel explained recently, it dropped hyperthreading as part of efforts to improve power and space efficiency in Arrow Lake—that is, how much power a chip uses, and what can be fit into each processor’s package. So the core counts you see for Core Ultra 200S processors are what you get—no additional threads. That said, the number of Lion Cove performance cores (aka P-cores), and Skymont efficiency cores (aka E-cores) packed into Arrow Lake aren’t stingy. The top Core Ultra 9 285K chip still boasts 24 cores overall, with 8 P-cores and 16 E-cores. Performance gains for content creators Arrow Lake’s performance will be a touchy subject among chip enthusiasts, who’ve become accustomed to huge gains over the last couple of years. But that was possible due to high power ceilings—recent flagship processors essentially came overclocked as the default. In contrast, a key attribute of the Core Ultra 200S lineup is power efficiency, which Intel emphasizes as a selling point. With this change, Arrow Lake provides creatives improved performance, but the gains aren’t spectacular enough to compel most Core i9-14900K owners to upgrade just yet. Across our rendering and encoding benchmarks, the Core Ultra 9 285K consistently pulled ahead of last generation’s 14900K flagship, with improvements ranging between 2 to 21 percent depending on the task. It also mostly edged ahead of the Ryzen 9 9950X. The one exception: It trailed slightly behind both older CPUs in DaVinci Resolve. But gaming is less of a win Gamers love to see new CPUs crush the existing competition—and for those in that crowd, the Core Ultra 9 285K may seem disappointing. It’s a chip that trails behind the 14900K and 9950X in some games, holds about equal with them in others, and edges them out in yet others. In our small selection of gaming benchmarks, the 285K generally held even with the 14900K, but often trailed by a double-digit margin behind AMD’s Ryzen 9 9950X. In Cyberpunk 2077, the 9950X kept a cushy 18 percent lead over the 285K, with similar performance in F1 2023 and Rainbow Six Siege. The 285K only held its own in 3DMark’s Steel Nomad, a synthetic gaming benchmark that simulates a more system-intensive game at 4K resolution. Even when paired with faster, more performant CU-DIMM memory (instead of DDR5), gaming performance doesn’t dramatically improve—in F1 2023, we saw a rise to 410 frames per second, or about a 7 percent increase. That narrows the gap between the 285K and 9950X, but the latter still comes out on top. By no means is the 285K a bad chip for gaming—but it won’t blow anyone’s socks off. So while Intel has been open about Arrow Lake’s gaming performance, the internet pitchforks will likely be out in force. Power efficiency is improved, but… As for the reason that Arrow Lake’s smaller performance gains—Intel claims its new chips match 14th-gen Raptor Lake-R’s performance at half the power, but you may not see quite such a dramatic improvement. Compared to the 14900K, our tests showed a 17 percent decrease in power consumption during our Handbrake AV1 benchmark (a difference of 65 watts). Similarly, during Cinebench 2024’s single-core benchmark, energy use dropped by about 16 percent (a difference of 22 watts). At idle, the 285K’s power draw actually increased slightly, nudging up about 3 percent (about 2.5 watts). These three benchmarks cover the general spectrum of usual PC behavior. The 285K fares better against AMD’s best, with a 4 percent decrease in power consumption in Handbrake, an almost 25 percent decrease in Cinebench 2024, and a roughly 28 percent decrease at idle compared to the 9950X. Overall, Intel’s improvements give it an edge if you’re worried about heat or your power bill. But the story doesn’t end there. Turns out, when you dig into power draw, these new chips reveal an unexpected peculiarity. …Windows optimizations may be a work in progress Desktop users don’t often pay much mind to Windows power settings—they’re less relevant when you’re plugged into a wall all the time. At least, that’s the case normally. However, being a curious bunch, we checked the 285K’s power consumption on different Windows 11 power plans. And oddly, the 285K’s performance dropped on the Balanced and Power Saver plans. In our Cinebench 2024 single-core test, the 285K slowed down notably while completing its task, stretching out to 30 minutes on the Balanced plan. In contrast, the 14900K and 9950X finished with more usual times—meaning we could start those chips’ benchmarks later than the 285K (15 minutes into the 285K’s run) and still see them complete the task faster. The resulting score showed a 55 percent decrease in performance compared to the 14900K and 9950X on the same Balanced power plan. The difference was even higher on the Power Saver plan, with a 67 percent drop.  Meanwhile, on High Performance settings, the 285K actually outperformed its predecessor by about 5 percent, and the 9950X by about 2 percent. This outcome is all the more puzzling, given that our power draw measurements showed little energy savings across the various power plans. Does this mean Intel’s new chip could be nerfed by your power settings? For the moment, likely yes, especially since the Balanced power plan is the Windows default. Time will tell if this behavior can and will be fixed via better Windows optimization. Intel revamped its processor design Intel Growing pains with a new chip design aren’t too surprising—Arrow Lake is considerably different compared to 14th-gen Raptor Lake-R. Until now, Intel released monolithic processors for desktop; everything related to the CPU existed on a single die. But starting with Arrow Lake, Intel has switched to a chiplet design, a move that rival AMD made years ago. Intel calls Arrow Lake a “disaggregated” processor, in which separate chiplets (“tiles”) for different functions are linked together as a single package. If you pull off the lid of an Arrow Lake processor, you’ll find compute, GPU, SOC, and I/O tiles, along with a “filler” and “base” tile for stability. Intel’s Foveros technology connects them all together. Each of these chiplets are fabricated (produced) on different processes—you can read more details about them in our initial overview of Arrow Lake. For chip nerds, this change in approach represents a huge shift for Intel, which had previously championed a single die as better performing. For most home users, however, what matters more is how Intel had to juggle the layout of the package. You’ll need a new motherboard Intel Arrow Lake requires a new socket—LGA 1851—and accordingly, that means it won’t be compatible with existing LGA 1700 boards.  The first chipset to be announced is the Z890, which supports up to 192GB of DDR5-6400 memory (up to 48GB per DIMM). You can use more common SO-DIMMs, but the newer CU-DIMM memory modules work as well. Intel says that if you enable XMP for faster RAM speeds, DDR5-8000 will be the ideal.  For connectivity, Intel’s 800 series chipsets offer up to 24 PCI-e 4.0 lanes, as well as 10 USB 3.2, 14 USB 2.0, and 8 SATA 3.0 connections. Combined with an Arrow Lake CPU, you’ll get up to 48 PCIe lanes, with 20 of them PCIe 5.0. Thunderbolt 4 and Thunderbolt 5 integration are also features, as are technologies like Thunderbolt Share (which lets you share screens, peripherals, storage, and files with another PC), Intel Killer Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and 2.5Gbps ethernet (depending on configuration). DDR5 RAM & existing coolers still work IDG While you can pair Arrow Lake with CU-DIMM memory, it doesn’t mean you must. DDR5 RAM will still work with a Core Ultra 200S processor, and as we’ve seen above, you’re not losing that much of a performance boost. In fact, with general availability for CU-DIMM memory not slated to heat up until early next year, if you buy into Arrow Lake now, your option really will be only DDR5 memory. As for coolers—if you already have a cooler compatible with 13th or 14th generation processors, they should still work with Arrow Lake. However, Intel says you’ll likely new mounting hardware to achieve the correct pressure for optimal cooling. No upgrades to AI capabilities on desktop Intel If you were hoping that the launch of Arrow Lake meant desktop access to generative AI and the divisive Recall feature in Windows 11, prepare yourself for disappointment. These new processors incorporate an older NPU into the package, which only provides 13 TOPS of computational performance, well below the minimum of 40 TOPS Microsoft requires to unlock Windows 11’s Copilot+ AI features. Why? Decisions were made to keep gamers happy—as they’re one of the primary groups of buyers for desktop chips. You can read more about Intel’s approach in our rundown of Arrow Lake’s AI capabilities, but know that systems with these chips will still likely be marketed as AI PCs. Read...