ARMING AN ALTERNATE FUTURE
ARM has been threatening to take the fight to Intel and AMD for years, and at the end of 2019, we finally saw this take serious shape in the form of the Microsoft Surface Pro X. While not the first time we’ve seen a Qualcommpowered solution running Windows, the fact that it came from Microsoft means this probably isn’t just a flash in the pan.
The Surface Pro X uses a newly developed processor, the SQ1, that Microsoft codeveloped with Qualcomm. This ARM-based chip has an impressively low power draw of just 7W, yet offers three times the performance per watt of the Surface Pro 6. The problem is, 64-bit apps don’t currently work with this chip unless they’ve been recompiled for it; 32-bit apps should work, but apps that call on other services, some of which may have 64-bit dependencies, can undermine this. Most apps and games have not been ported across, though, and you’ll find that there are a lot of things that don’t currently run. Dropping $1,700 or more on a machine that doesn’t run your favorite app can be a problem, but it’s early days, and Microsoft will hopefully be able to iron out the problems. This shift to ARM is something that we expect to see more of going forward. While this initial effort from Microsoft is somewhat faltering, it does show an intention to take ownership of the core of its machines – something Apple has been doing with its iPads for some time, with its latest Bionic A12X knocking up comparable numbers to mid-range chips. There is still an expectation that Apple will shift over to a chip of its own creation in its Mac range, too.
One thing we don’t know at this point is when we’ll see something new on the integrated graphics front. We’ve been impressed by Intel’s Iris Plus graphics subsystem, as seen in its mobile Ice Lake chips, but this won’t make it to Comet Lake. Intel has tended to push serious gamers toward discrete graphics solutions on the desktop, but there are plenty of uses where integrated is all that’s needed. Now we have a fairly established GPU-less set of chips from Intel (chips with the F suffix), it may be that it charges a premium for Iris Plus.
It’s worth bearing in mind that while AMD may be winning all the plaudits for general computer work, Intel is still the go-to manufacturer when it comes to pure gaming – there may not be much of a lead, but a few frames’ difference here is all that hardened gamers need to warrant their preference. Will this still be the case with Comet Lake? Probably, especially if Intel can keep pushing up the operating frequencies.
APU ANNOUNCEMENTS
Before Intel gets its Comet Lake game going, AMD is expected to show off its Ryzen 4000 Renoir APUs. These are designed for laptops, an area where AMD has traditionally struggled, and where Intel still holds court. Ryzen 4000 APUs are based on the Zen 2 cores, as opposed to the Zen+ used by Ryzen 3000 APUs, which
means they’ll have support for PCIe 4.0, as well as improved memory support, and better overall performance.
What about the graphics core? We’ve been eagerly awaiting the Navi architecture to make its debut in APUs, but it looks as though we’re going to have to keep holding our breath on this front, because these new chips are expected to use Vega still. AMD is, of course, producing the chips that will power Microsoft and Sony’s next-gen consoles, and they are both expected to employ second-gen Navi cores, so it may be some time before such chips appear in a PC-friendly guise.
What about Zen 3? Dr. Lisa Su, AMD CEO and president, had some good news on this front in a recent interview with VentureBeat: “We’re well underway with Zen 3 as a follow-on, as well, for 2020.” Understood to use Extreme UltraViolet Lithography to improve transistor density and reduce power consumption, the process, which AMD is referring to as 7nm+, produces an improvement to IPC over Zen 2 of 15 percent on average.
Unlike Intel, AMD is sticking to its existing platform for Zen 3, with its AM4 socket remaining compatible for these new chips. AMD isn’t expected to make any changes on this front until Zen 4 drops, some time in 2021.