Intel hasn’t neglected its line of laptops and although their gaming processors usually always stand out for obvious reasons, this time around and knowing that the advantage they have is high over their maximum rival, the U and Y series are perhaps even more attractive. as the H series (for gamers).
And by not focusing only on a goal as marked as that of professional or competitive players, these two series cover a lot more ground and are more useful in broad strokes than the so-called H series.
Why not integrate all the improvements of the Ice Lake architecture into a low power device with amazing performance?
Gaming, streaming and creativity – don’t give up with 10th Gen Intel Core
If there is something really interesting from a CPU perspective, it’s their ability to work in different scenarios. If we look at their architecture, Intel’s advances with Ice Lake in the series U core and Y core 10th generation, they are really great compared to their predecessor.
How could it be otherwise, we must start by talking about one of the great innovations of the sector: 10 nm as a lithographic process. Currently, it is Intel’s most advanced on the table, as it uses the so-called SAQP (Self-Aligned Quad Patterning) for its production, an improvement necessary to achieve a higher density than its competitors, to the point that any processor manufactured in its 10nm is 1.7 times denser in “raw logic” as the same process of its competitors.
So much so that currently these 10 nm are denser than the 7 nm from Samsung and TSMC (106.10 vs 95.30 vs 96.49 MTx / mm2). Why is this important for the user? More density per mm2 allows a greater number of transistors and this affects a better performance of the processors which include it.
Intel gives pretty accurate numbers: its 10nm of these 10th generation processors are up to 60% more efficient and 25% more efficient than its 14nm process. That translates into the real world a step and a half ahead of gaming, streaming, and creativity for any user with one of these processors.
10th Generation Intel Ice Lake Series U and Y, Maximum Power and Energy Savings
Why give up something in the middle of 2020? Intel offers us everything we need as users in an extremely comprehensive range of processors that covers the most basic needs to the highest through two ranges of processors (Ice Lake-U and Ice Lake-Y).
As we can see, we will have 11 processors available to choose from among a large number of devices, ranging from an Ultrabook, to a convertible or even a tablet. In terms of performance and given the disparity in characteristics between the U and Y series, where it is true that sometimes they even share the number of cores, for simple performance we will not find broadly speaking differences beyond the frequencies CPU and GPU:
The first differences will be found in particular in the consumption of each series and processor in particular. The Y series is intended to give us the best power with the lowest power consumption available, making these processors perfect for ultra compact or ultra mobile devices, such as detachable 2-in-1s, digital tablets, tablets and devices such as Chromebooks or similar.
Instead, the U series takes it up a notch and is geared towards high-end tablets and high-performance mobile devices, where we can find ultra-thin laptops, laptops, etc.
Fortunately and unlike other platforms, the thermal and electrical management between the two series is exactly the same, so that the smaller one is not damaged and gains all the advantages of the larger one.
We will have, for example, up to C10 standby state, D3 HD audio or Intel display technology Energy saving to save battery power when possible.
Integrated Iris Plus graphics card, ready to play
Without a doubt, one of the strengths of the 10th generation Intel U and Y series processors is precisely its Intel Iris Plus iGPU, also made in a lithographic process of 10 nm +. Only three processors of the two series are not supported for these new iGPUs: Intel Core i5-1035G1, i3-1005G1 and i3-1000G1, as they will start with a previous generation Iris Plus with 32 EU available.
The other processors are distributed among the 48 EU and 64 EU respectively and according to the chosen model. The differences go further, although it is true that they share almost all the characteristics between the two series:
As we can see, the 10th Gen Ice Lake U series will support PCIe in dGFX with an available x4 bus, which is necessary if as stated we want to support interchangeable or hybrid graphics with other GPUs. .
This expands the range of GPUs that a laptop can use, for example, since we could see GPUs like the NVIDIA MX250 or MX350 with these Iris Plus, completing the gaming section for more demanding gamers and at the same time offering a huge amount of possibilities for manufacturers and users.
In addition, both series share a large number of multimedia options, in case we want to see our device’s screen on a high-end TV or monitor, as well as if we want to edit the video or audio of faster way as if we were a professional. Editing.
The comparison of performance in integrated graphics led to a very big performance increase for the Ice Lake-U generation, since it manages to overcome a Ryzen 7 3700U with a Radeon Vega 10 and of course the new AMD Ryzen 4000 with iGPU Vega 8
This guarantees us the best gaming performance for a processor with a built-in iGPU, so we will enjoy smoother gameplay thanks to a better FPS rate on the screen.
The best connectivity to work, create and enjoy
One of the best and most interesting points of the tenth generation of Intel Core processors in Ice Lake is precisely the connectivity. Surely we’ve had laptops where the Wi-Fi didn’t reach, where transferring files from a USB stick to the hard drive was an ordeal, or where we needed a cable to connect everything.
It’s over thanks to the latest solutions for Intel processors and their platforms, where for example we will have Wi-Fi 6, a substantial improvement over previous versions that will allow us a much higher speed, which is necessary in the times when we are on the move where we have live conferences, we watch hours and hours of YouTube, Twitch and more. ‘other platforms.
With Intel Wi-Fi 6, the speed of traditional wired networks is equated to wireless, offering both wired frequencies of 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz, but with a speed increase that will oscillate between 600 and 9608 Mb / s.
This is a 40% improvement over the previous generation, and it also does so by ensuring up to 75% less latency in games and multitasking, so we won’t need a cable anymore. network to avoid worsening the ping in our games, because The connection will not be cut or the videos will remain loading and we will have to wait. Now everything is immediate with the 10th generation Intel processors thanks to the prioritization of the traffic of OFDMA
As if that weren’t enough, it improves network security through WPA3 and laptop battery thanks to Target wake-up time (TWT), so that we are completely safe with our Wi-Fi keys and routers against attacks from the outskirts of our home or our workplace, where we will maximize the battery life to have more time to use the device with Wi-Fi 6.
In addition, these 10th Generation Intel Core processors support DisplayPort 1.4b, something that many people are not aware of when choosing a laptop, but which is certainly interesting if we intend to send images or videos to a projector or TV with 4K resolution or UWHD.
For example, we can play our favorite game by plugging a laptop with an Intel Core Ice Lake processor into a TV and do so at 4K resolution with 60Hz refresh rate using DSC and DisplayPort 1.4b, or watch a YouTube video, pictures of vacations taken with the mobile at this resolution and much more.
A very clear example of the possibilities that Intel offers us compared to the competition is the laptop HP Laptop 14s-dq1019ns, a team that we analyzed and where we were surprised by what the small Intel Core i3-1005G1 is able to do with just two cores and 4 threads.
The future is now with this 10th generation of Intel Core processors and it’s really going to be very complicated given that Intel’s rivals can dethrone it from its chair as the undisputed king of gaming, connectivity and autonomy. .
Evolution comes with Tiger Lake and the 11th generation
The new generation of Intel Core processors have undergone substantial changes in function and form. First, Intel updated its lithographic process to bring the new 3rd generation 10nm ++ to life, succeeding the Ice Lake architecture.
Additionally, there is a noticeable improvement like switching Cores from Sunny Cove to Willow Cove, which brings a series of improvements that should boost performance:
The first major change in this core architecture is a redesign of the caches, and in particular there is talk of an increase in the cache size by 50%, where now the configuration goes from 2MB to 3MB per core.
The L2 cache is also changed to ensure higher performance, so it is now 2.5 times higher from 512KB to 1.25MB per core. If that’s not enough, Intel is also updating its GPU with the new Intel Iris already in Gen 12 LP, which means including 1.5 times more UE per iGPU from 64 to 96.
These new graphics cards finally support HDMI 2.1 with all the improvements that this implies and we have also moved from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 4.0, an increase in the available bandwidth of 100%.
With all this, Tiger Lake offers two different input variants, all focused on laptops, namely Tiger Lake-U and Tiger Lake-H, the first for low power devices and the second focused on performance of gaming laptops.
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