Micro_Mart_-_January_7_2016_

Component

Watch

A

lthoughit’s January 2016 for you,we’re currently
wrappingup this issueofMicroMartjust before
Christmas.Althoughwe usuallyuse Component
Watch to bringyou the best dealswe can find,it’s
safe to say that a columnthree weeksout of datewould
probablybe of very littleuse whenit comesto strikingwhilethe
discountiron is hot.
That’s why, for this weekonly, we’re usingComponentWatch
to takea lookat someof the hardware you can lookforward to
beingreleasedin 2016.

1.Broadwell-E
Intel’s continueddominanceof the
desktopCPU marketmeansit can
basicallydo whateverit wants...
And it’s fair to say that it’ll be doing
exactlythat in 2016.A leaked
roadmapfor the year suggeststhat
comeQ2 2016you’llbe able to pick
up the Broadwell-ECore i7-6950X,
whichis a 10-core monsterof a
CPU that supports20-thread Hyper-
Threadingand has 25MBof cache.
It seemsunlikelymostpeoplewill
be in the marketfor a beastof CPU
like that today, or at any timein the
immediatefuture, but it’s a fun lookat howdesktopcomputing
mightbe a few generationsdownthe line.

2.OculusRift
It’s beena whilenow
sincethe OculusRift
burstontothe scene
withits $2m-raising
Kickstartercampaign.
Yet, in that time,rather
thanthe talesof woe and
underperformancesome
suspectwouldcomein
its wake,everyonewho’s triedthe ground-breakingVR techhas
comeawayfilledwithpraise.In 2016the consumermodelwill
finallygo on sale,apparentlyshippingin Q1 2016– we’dguess
March. If it is goingto hit that target,it will comewitha retail
pricearound$300,and we’dguessthe UK pricewill be closeto
that in poundsthanksto the vagariesthat usuallyafflict overseas
pricing.Regardlessof price,though,you can be sure it’s going
to be one of 2016’s biggestgamingstories.

3.NvidiaPascalGPUs

Comingat somepointin

2016 (probablynot before

the middleof the year)the

1000-seriesNvidiaPascal

line of GPUswill replacethe

900-seriesMaxwellGPUs

releasedin September2014.

Features includingfull support

for DirectX 12.0 and OpenGL

4.5, four memorystacks,a

16nmprocessGPU,supportfor the NVLinkhigh-speedbus (offering

bandwidthof between80 & 200 GB/s and unifiedmemory, so the

CPU and GPU can both accessthe graphicscard’s memorydirectly. It’s

already beingtestedinternally and looksto be a hugeleap forward, so

if you’re thinkingof droppinga lot on a card it mightbe worthwaiting

just a few more months...

4.RadeonArcticIslands

In similarterritory, 2016

shouldalso see the launch

of the new RadeonRx 400

seriescards, whichwill have a

14nmmanufacturingprocess,

compatibilitywith HDMI2.0a

and DisplayPort1.3, and full

supportfor DirectX 12.1,

OpenCL2.1 and OpenGL4.5. They aren’t enteringproductionfor a

shortwhileyet, but as soonas they do they shouldcometo market

fairly quickly. Again,we’dexpectto see the first examplesaroundthe

middleof the year.

5.AMDZenCPU

Finally, 2016couldbe the

year that AMD’s desktopchip

fightbackhappens.Rumoured

sinceas far back as May,

and currentlypeggedfor the

back half of 2016,the x86

Zen CPUsare supposedto

feature a completelynew high-

performancecore, simultaneousmultithreading(a technologysimilar

to Hyper-Threading),low-latencycacheand new energyefficient

FinFETdesign.They’llrun on a new AM4platformand supportDDR4,

puttingthemin direct competitionwith Intel’s latestchips.It’s beena

long time coming,but if AMDcan pull it off the desktopchip market

mightfinallyget interestingagain.Fingerscrossed.

Component Watch

What to look for in 2016

We’re settingour‘Watch’forward a littlethisweek...