As you may already know, the new generation of Intel processors represents a turning point in the industry, since it will be the first heterogeneous-core platform for the desktop, but also because it will be the first to use the new generation of DDR5 RAM. , two reasons why all eyes are on the performance numbers.
The power limit of new Intel processors for laptops
The new leaked data extends the information on the power limit with the fourth level, which is precisely the most interesting because it is the one that describes the maximum power. The fix lists the power of four different Intel Alder Lake processor configurations:
- Lake Aulne-P (2 + 8 + 2)
- Lac Aulne-P (4 + 8 + 2)
- Lake Alder-P (6 + 8 + 2)
- Lake Aulne-M (2 + 8 + 2)
Each of these numbers describes respectively high performance cores (large), high efficiency cores (small) and graphics cores, which in this case are already known to have the Intel GT2 iGPU
The data was collected and compared to the Tiger Lake series, which is supposed to replace the 12th generation Intel Core. However, it should be remembered that the Alder Lake laptop series will be divided into three segments (M, P and S) which in turn will divide into six power groups. The data that appeared on Corebook appears to include an Alder Lake-M U9 (9W) and an Alder Lake-P U15 (15W); According to the leaks, they are supposed to represent ultra-thin designs for general-purpose laptops, exactly what Chromebooks are supposed to be, and therefore have such a low peak power.
the Power limit 4 o PL4 evaluates the power limit of the pack that the mains adapter and the battery must not exceed for more than 10 ms. This is the highest power the processor can achieve, and should not be confused with limits PL1 and PL2 used the vast majority of the time. Overall, we see similar PL1 and PL2 power levels as the Tiger Lake-U series, but with slightly higher peak values.
Since the Tiger Lake-U series will be replaced by these next-gen series, it is difficult to make a direct comparison although it seems clear that the M-series should only be offered for ultra-laptop designs. thin, maybe even with passive cooling, while the Q series yes, it will require active cooling.
Alder Lake and RAM performance: DDR5 vs DDR4
Rumor has it that the next generation of processors 12th generation alder lake Intel will support both DDR4 and DDR5 RAM, and yet a recent leak showed that performance could be affected. An Alder Lake processor sample would have 16 cores and 24 threads, which we have already seen. Considering the fact that this new generation is heterogeneous and that it has “big” and “small” hearts but that only the big ones have Hyperthreading, the chip should have 8 cores. Golden Cove and 8 Gracemont.
Today’s news marks the second appearance of a chip of this generation, also with 16 cores and also in UserBenchmark, but in this case using DDR4 memory. This sample apparently has a base frequency of only 1.8 GHz and a Boost frequency of 3.65 GHz, so it seems clear that we are looking at an engineering sample again. This is relevant because obviously the faster chip should have better memory performance, but in any case we have to take these numbers for what they are.
Kingston DDR4-3200 2×8 GB | Micron DDR5-4800 2×8 GB | |
---|---|---|
Multicore playback | 41.5 | 33.6 |
Multicore writing | 37.0 | 30.8 |
Multi-Core Mixed | 28.8 | 30.2 |
Single-core reading | 15.4 | 15.4 |
Single-core writing | 30.2 | 31.4 |
A single mixed core | 22.1 | 22.4 |
Latency | 136 | 86.7 |
DDR5 platform consists of two memory modules Micron DDR5 at 4,800 MHz 8GB each, while the DDR4 platform used a pair of Kingston’s 3200MHz HyperX Fury modules, also 8GB per module. The point is that DDR4 memory outperformed DDR5 in these tests by almost 24% in read tests and 20% in write tests, so it is obvious that something is wrong with these results where DDR5 only outperforms current DDR4 in the latency test.
We repeat that “something is wrong” here and this is because the tests were done with engineering samples of the processors that do not even remotely have the actual operating values that commercial products will have, but in any case there are the preliminary results.