Intel has posted an upgrade service page on their website which indicates that Intel will again be offering upgradeable CPUs. This is not totally unheard of since Intel offered a similar service for Pentium G6951 a year ago. Back then, bought you Hyper-Threading and 1MB more L3 cache, and the SKU of the CPU changed to G6952. This time Intel has expanded the lineup and the upgrade service is available for three CPUs: i3-2312M, i3-2102 and Pentium G622. Unfortunately we don't know the price yet but we do know that the upgrade offers higher frequency and possibly increased amount of cache. Here are the CPU before and after the upgrade:
CPU Before Upgrade
CPU After Upgrade
Performance increase
i3-2312M (2.1GHz, 3MB)
i3-2393M (2.5GHz, 4MB)
10-19%
i3-2102 (3.1GHz, 3MB)
i3-2153 (3.6GHz, 3MB)
12-15%
Pentium G622 (2.6GHz, 3MB)
Pentium G693 (3.2GHz, 3MB)
15-23%
The after CPUs have not been released so the specs are just calculations based on the performance gains Intel reported.
Upgrading the CPU is very simple. All you need is the upgrade card. Then download the installer from Intel's site and run it. At some point, you will be asked to insert the code from the upgrade card (no, you can't get this for free).
The need for such upgrade is fairly small though. We don't know the price so it's hard to say can the upgrade be worth it or not, but if the price will end up being like before, it's pretty expensive for 10-23% gains. Pentium G622 costs only ~, meaning that you get 23% performance increase for 77% more money. Not exactly a bargain. i3s cost a bit more but even then, you aren't getting a good performance/price ratio.
The only useful scenario could be with OEM PCs when you may not be able to select a specific CPU and upgrading the CPU can be harder (or even impossible) and may void the warranty. Intel has blocked overclocking in non-K CPUs, so you are stuck with the stock frequency. In some rare occasions where the extra CPU speed is really needed, paying the upgrade price can be worth it. However, what we are looking at are low-end CPUs, so anyone who needs a powerful CPU should look at Intel's i5 and i7 lineups in the first place.
Source: Intel
CHINESE HARDWARE MAKER Hightech Information System (HIS) has announced its upgraded HD6950 graphics card range will be available from 14 April.
Its graphics card lineup consists of three cards and comes with 1GB or 2GB memory options. The range starts with the HD6950 Iceq X, which has a core clock speed of 800Mhz and a 5GHz memory clock speed.
The middle of the three is the HD6950 Iceq X Turbo with a core clock speed of 840Mhz and a memory clock speed of 5.12GHz. The top of the line is the HD6950 Iceq X Turbo X. This card has the fastest clock speeds of 880MHz and 5.2GHz, with HIS claiming it’s “the world’s fastest HD6950″.
The cards feature high definition technology that can display 3D content at HD 1080p, provided you have the appropriate accompanying hardware. This can support 3D gaming, 3D Blu-ray and third party stereo 3D middleware software with its AMD Radeon HD6800 Series GPU.
The AMD Radeon PCI-Express HD6950 range supports DirectX11 and comes with dual DVI ports, a single HDMI port and two mini display ports. The INQUIRER has requested prices for the cards, but to get an idea, the HIS HD6950 is currently available in the UK for around £200. µ
SCURRILOUS RUMOURS that Apple was going to shift back to Nvidia’s graphics chips appear to have come to nothing and Jobs’ Mob will be using AMD’s ATI Radeon graphics in its next Macs.
According to AMD, Apple will use ATI Radeons for its next lines of Apple Imac and Mac Pro tower PCs.
The high-performance AMD ATI Radeon HD 5770 graphics card features 1GB of GDDR5 memory. It seems that AMD pitched the chips as being good for motion graphics, 3D modeling, rendering or animation. The ATI graphics technology will come as standard. There will be an upgrade for Mac fanbois to an ATI Radeon HD 5870 card if they want more power.
HD 5750 graphics will be available in the new 27-inch Imac. HD 5650 graphics will be available in the new 22-inch and 27-inch Imacs. HD 4670 graphics will also be available in the new 22-inch Imac.
Apple and the Green Goblin were best mates until last year when Nvidia started sending out chips that were broken, in a debacle that we called “bumpgate”. That fiasco cost Apple lots of money as it committed to offering unprecedented free replacements for three years if the Nvidia graphics chip went bad.
But these days Apple just offers users a free rubber band if something doesn’t work. µ