Computer Shopper - UK (2020-04)

ISSUE386|COMPUTER SHOPPER|APRIL2020 15

IT’SEARLYDAYSforIntel’s Xe graphics, so
the potentialfor shaking up the AMD and
Nvidia duopolyhas yettobeseen.
Intel has previously stated Xe will have
three divisions: Xe-LP,Xe-HP and Xe-HPC,
effectively entry-level,enthusiast and
high-performance data centre
GPUs respectively.The firsttwo
linessuggest Intel will produce
graphics cards forlower-end
desktops and laptops,and GPUs
forgaming andvideo-editing PCs.
We canonly speculateatthe
moment,but going by the CES
showcase we’d place adecent
betthatthe Xe-LP linecouldsee Intel produce
graphics chips to workalongside its Tiger Lake
chips in future laptops produced by the usual
suspects of Asus, HP,Dell and Microsoft.
We’d expect to seeanXe-HPgraphics card
aimed at workstation-grade laptops and
desktops, forcarryingout graphicallyintensive
work, and maybe agaming-grade GPUthrown
intothe mix forgood measure.

SOWHAT?

GDPargh

In the 18 months since the General Data

Protection Regulation (GDPR) came into

force across the EU, £100m of data

protection fines have been levied, with

the UK being the third-most reported in

Europe forGDPR breaches

Closing awindow

Microsoftfinally dropped

the curtain on Windows 7

on 14th January,with the

OS no longer eligible for

software and security updates

London calling

London councils lost 1,293 laptops,

mobile phones and tablets over the last

three financial years, according to a

Freedom of Information request

Twitter trip

Twitter apologised after advertisers

were allowed to target neo-nazis,

Islamophobes and other hategroups,

and reiterated that its advertising policy

should prevent such targeting

Refreshtherefresh

OnePlushaspromisedthatits

nextsmartphonewillcomewith

a120Hzrefreshratedisplay,

whichoffersanupgradeonthe

90HzdisplayoftheOnePlus7T

and should encourage other

smartphone makers to make

use of high-refresh ratedisplays

Taking another route

Huawei and TomTom have joined forces

to make aGoogle Maps alternative,

likely in response to Google being forced

to stop offering theChinese company

access to its Android apps and services

as aresult of aUStrade ban

Resetting the Stadia

Google’s Stadia game-streaming service

is being bundled with BT broadband

packages, which could help Stadia gain

more users after its somewhat lacklustre

launch latelastyear

Tomahawk touting

Razer often shows off interesting

hardware at CES, and this year it

showcased the Tomahawk modular PC

platform design to present asmall yet

powerful PC that’s easily upgradable

AMDHASALSOtaken its 7nm Radeon Navi
GPU architecture and worked it intolaptop-
grade graphics cards in the form of the Radeon
RX 5700Mand 5600M, also revealed at CES.
We’ve seenNavigraphics popupinlaptop
form before,but they came exclusively in the
form of the Radeon Pro5300M and 5500M for
the MacBook Pro 16.But now AMD is
extending its latest graphics tech further.
It looksasifthe RadeonRX5700M willbe
competing with Nvidia’s GeForce RTX2070,with
the RX 5600M rivalling theGeForce RTX2060.
As such, when combined with the Radeon
4000-series mobileprocessors,laptopmakers
nowhavethe scopetomake alaptop with both
an AMD processor anddedicated graphics card
thatstand to competewith Intel CPU and
Nvidia graphics cardcombinations.
The Ryzen4000-series CPUs with their
integrated graphics, which usethe slightly older
Vega architecture,could also challenge Intel in
the ultraportable arena, as theylook set to
offer plenty of processor performance with a

solid dose of graphicalgrunt. AMD’s CPUs also

have doublethe coresofAMD’s Ice Lakechips

at the high end,soTeam Redalso has that

advantageinsoftware thatcan tap into

multithreaded processing.

Such chipscould prove to be aheadachefor

Intel’s latest laptop processors,which is likely

to be frustrating forIntel given its IceLake

chips, which debutedatthe endoflast year,

broughtinnot only boosted CPUperformance

but improved graphics acceleration as well.

With better mobile processors andmore

powerful graphics cardstobring to laptops in

2020, AMD looks poised to seriously challenge

the midtohigh-end domination of bothIntel

and Nvidia in laptop chips and graphics.

Even if it doesn’t manage to dethrone either

company,the increased competition Team Red

will bringtobear should force Intel and Nvidia

to pull their metaphorical socksupand come

out with more impressive chips. Andthat’s very

good news forPCfans, especially thoseinthe

market foranew laptop.

SOWHAT?

As developers get their hands on the Xe

DG1, games and appsshould be optimisedfor Xe

graphics and thus more performance extracted

out of them.Thiscould lead to more Xe-based

graphics cards, allowing Xe to challenge AMD’s

Radeon andNvidia’s GeForce GPUs.

In the shortterm, Xe graphics

are likely to pop up in laptops

with the Tiger Lake CPUs in the

second half of 2020. And going

by recentleaks, we can expect

the next-generation NUC

small-form-factor PCs to come

with Xe options, perhaps in the

form of aconsumer-ready DG1,

designed to deliver solid 1080p-level graphics

renderingperformance in asmall package.

Whether Intel’s Xe graphicssimply yield

more impressive graphics performance in slim

laptops ordeliver proper desktop-grade

graphics cardsready to run next-generation

games, the chip maker’s workondiscrete

graphics tech willcertainlybesomething to

watch over the next 12 months or so.