The Hot Take: CISC monsters coming from owner of the x86 ISA.
COMPUTEX 2026 Intelâs upcoming Diamond Rapids Xeon will boost core counts to 192, a 50 percent increase over last generation, the x86 giant revealed at Computex in Taipei this week. But while core counts continue to rise, in doing so Intel has managed to cut thread counts by a quarter. Yep, Hyperthreading â Intel's marketing for simultaneous multithreading â is officially dead. Intel first added support for SMT all the way back in 2002. The technology boosted utilization by enabling two threads to harness idle execution units during a single cycle. While SMT doesnât double throughput, for certain applications it can deliver double-digit percentage gains. After slowly abandoning the tech across its consumer product lineup, Intel's Xeons are latest to get the cut. Except, wait! It seems Intel may have seen the error of its ways, and is already reversing course on the decision. Intelâs next next Xeon, codenamed Coral Rapids, will bring SMT back. The jump from 128 to 192 is a big jump for Intel, but still smaller than the AMD is making with its 256-core Venice Epycs. If that werenât enough, it looks like AMD could beat Intel to market by as much as a year. Diamond Rapids is now slated for release sometime in 2027. Echos of Epyc, notes of Monaka In addition to core count, we also got our first look at how Intel will stitch the chip together. It turns out AMD might have been onto something when it started gluing silicon together back in 2017, because Intelâs next round Xeons look more like an Epyc under the hood than ever. We know the chip will be fabbed using Intelâs 18A-P process tech, a refined version of its 2nm-class process tech. Beyond this details get a little fuzzy. From the renders shared in Intelâs press deck, we can see what appear to be two I/O dies serving four vertically stacked compute assemblies assembled using its Foveros packaging tech. This isnât the first time weâve seen something like this from Intel. Intelâs Clearwater Forest, which is finally launching after years of teasing, also used a similar arrangement, with four 24-core compute tiles sitting atop a base die containing the memory controller and L3 cache. Moving the L3 cache to the base die frees up a lot of die area on the compute chiplet. In this case, we're looking at four 48-core compute chiplets. In this respect, Diamond Rapids looks a lot like another CPU weâve looked at recently: Fujitsuâs Monaka. That chip uses an almost identical chip layout, albeit with one I/O die rather than two. While weâre fairly certain Diamond Rapidâs L3 cache will live on the base die, the memory controller could be housed on the four base dies or it could be on the I/O dies, similar to what AMD has done since Rome launched in 2019. If we had to guess, our bet would be on the I/O die, since it would reduce the number of NUMA nodes to one or two as opposed to four. Not a mainstream part Unlike Intelâs last P-core Xeon, codenamed Granite Rapids, donât expect to see Diamond Rapids deployed widely in enterprise virtualization or storage servers. According to Intel, Diamond Rapids is âoptimized for high-demand IaaS, high-perf/thread,â putting it in the same class as its high-performance-computing (HPC)-centric 6900P-series parts. The lack of SMT complicates hypervisor licensing models. Where you once got two threads for the price of one, Diamond Rapids customers will now be getting half as many for their dollar. There are of course ways of getting around this. Oracle rented out its Ampere-based instances, which also lack SMT, in core-pairs rather than on a core-per-core basis, but something like this would presumably require buy-in from the likes of VMware or RedHat. As with past HP- optimized processors, Diamond Rapids will be packing a much beefier memory bus than most folks are going to be looking for. HPC workloads like their memory bandwidth and the next-gen Xeon will have no shortage of it with 16-channels of DDR5. Intel hasnât disclosed what memory speeds the chip will support out of the box. With that said, Clearwater is already at 8000 MT/s on standard RDIMMS, and Granite could hit 8800 MT/s on MRDIMMS â in fact, 9600 MT/s DIMMS wouldnât be an unreasonable assumption. That works out to 1.2 TB/s of bandwidth per socket, which happens to be the same as Nvidiaâs LPDDR5X-packed Vera CPUs. Thatâs not the only thing we're still in the dark about. Power consumption and instruction per clock gains from the chipâs new architecture are details we expect Intel to trickle out. The good news: we wonât have to wait long for the next round of specifications, as Intel will be presenting on Diamond Rapids at Hot Chips in August.
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The Hot Take: I'm interested in the Surface with this chip to get a decent GPU on an ARM setup and play with ARM Windows more personally. Only professionally worked with it and that was only an inch deep.
Computex 2026 and GTC Taipei will go down in history as the moment NVIDIA used to officially announce its entrance into the PC market. During his keynote at the Taipei Music Center, CEO Jensen Huang announced the RTX Spark â formerly codenamed N1 and N1X â which will power an array of premium laptops and small form factor systems coming this
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The Hot Take: Will have to see what the final products show us.
The N1X reportedly comes in two SKUs: a top-end 20-core option with 6,144 CUDA cores matching the desktop RTX 5070, and a cut-down 18-core option with 5,120 CUDA cores. The standard N1 also has two configs, one with a 12-core CPU and 2,560 CUDA cores and a 10-core model with 2,048 CUDA cores.
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The Hot Take: Domestic manufacturing is key.
Samsung's multi-billion dollar advanced chipmaking factory located in Taylor, Texas, is ready to start mass production of chips for clients.
The company has confirmed that everything is ready and that mass production of advanced chips for customers will begin next year.
2nm process advancement is underway as well
Margaret Han, Vice President of Samsung's foundry division in the US, said during the Samsung Advanced Foundry Ecosystem Forum held at the company's US headquarters yesterday that âWe are ready.â She added that âCustomers will begin production at the Taylor fab starting next year.â
Samsung began construction on this factory back in 2022. Its total investment in the project is expected to exceed $17 billion. The company had previously said during the first quarter earnings call this year that the fab was âunder construction.â It was stated that the goal was to begin operation within the year.
Tesla is among the customers who will have their chips produced at this factory. The carmaker already has a $16.5 billion deal with Samsung for the production of its AI5 and AI6 self-driving chips. Samsung will produce 2nm chips at the facility.
To further improve its technological edge at the US factory, Samsung will start building out the second-generation enhancement of its 2nm process in the near future. This process advancement has been tuned finely for AI workloads, potentially delivering a performance improvement of up to 30%.
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The Hot Take: Finally CUDIMMs catching on?
G.Skill demos the capabilities of its DDR5 memory by pushing the Trident Z5 CK "CUDIMM" kit to 9200 MT/s at just 1.1V. G.SKILL Showcases DDR5-9200 1.1V 16GBx2 High-Speed CU-DIMM Memory Kit on MSI Z890 GODLIKE Motherboard Press Release: G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd, the worldâs leading brand of performance overclock memory, is showcasing an ultra-high-speed DDR5 CU-DIMM 32GB (16GBx2) memory kit operating at an impressive DDR5-9200 CL74-74-74-148 speed with only 1.1V DRAM voltage, validated on the flagship MSI MEG Z890 GODLIKE motherboard platform. Exceptional DDR5 speed at Ultra-Low Voltage As memory performance continues to advance, balancing high frequency and operation voltage has become increasingly important. Demonstrating [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/g-skill-pushes-trident-z5-ck-cudimm-ddr5-memory-to-9200-mtps-at-just-1-1v/
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By ckasprzak | TkOut | May 29, 2026 |
Hardware
The Hot Take: Definitely want to give this puppy a try, though I'm leaning towards the higher end unit.
Fosi Audio officially launches its first externally focused audio solution with a stronger emphasis on e-sports and gaming, the C3. According to the press release available, the compact USB-C sound card is scheduled to be available from 28 May 2026 and is aimed primarily at players who want not just any louder sound in shooters, [âŚ]
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The Hot Take: OH look at that, suddenly we're getting more performance out of windows. Like they were handy capping it or something to push lets say something like mid-range hardware of the ARM variety....
Microsoft recently released Windows 11 KB5089573 (Build 26200.8524) optional update, and buried inside the lengthy release notes is a major performance upgrade. While the company simply calls it a â[General Performance]â improvement, we know this is the highly anticipated CPU boost feature internally codenamed âLow Latency Profile.â
According to the official changelog released on May 26, 2026, Microsoft notes: â[General Performance] This update accelerates app launch and core shell experiences such as Start menu, Search, and Action Center.â
We already reported that Windows 11 Low Latency Mode is rolling out in June 2026 with the mandatory security update. But as we said, the CPU boost feature will be available in the optional May update as well, so if youâre eager enough to enable it, go to Settings > Windows Update > Advanced options > Optional updates and just select the update to install it.
However, due to Microsoftâs Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) strategy, the new performance boost may not be activated straightaway even after you install the Windows 11 KB5089573 optional update. Your PC has definitely downloaded the underlying code, but Microsoft often keeps the activation switch turned off for a subset of users to monitor stability.
Fortunately, you do not have to wait for Microsoft to flip the switch remotely. You can manually force the feature on right now using a popular third-party utility called ViveTool.
Note: The Low Latency Profile currently only makes OS flyouts, such as the Start menu, Notification Center, right-click menu, and other areas, load faster. It does not allow your apps to launch faster. That change will roll out in the next update.
How to enable Low Latency Profile in Windows 11
Before you proceed, you need to be sure you have already installed the May optional update.
To verify if the May 2026 optional update is installed, open Settings > System > About, and check the build number. If itâs Build 26200.8524 / 26100.8524 or newer, youâre eligible for Low Latency Profile improvements. Also, the Low Latency Profile does not require any special hardware, but itâs more impactful on budget/low-end PCs.
Now, follow these steps to activate Windows 11âs CPU boost feature:
Get ViveTool by going to the official ViveTool GitHub repository and downloading the latest .zip release.
Extract the contents to a convenient folder. For ease of use, I created a folder called ViveTool directly on my C drive and extracted the files there.
Click the Start menu, type âcmdâ, right-click on Command Prompt, and select Run as administrator.
Type cd C:\ViveTool and press Enter.
Type the following command to activate the feature and press Enter:
vivetool /enable /id:58989092
Restart your PC to apply the changes.
Note: The command uses /enable to turn the feature on. If you ever want to revert the changes, you can repeat the process using /disable instead. This only works for now, and once the feature officially becomes default on your device, you wonât be able to turn it off.
Ideally, we shouldnât have to enable features manually. Since Microsoft already has a vibrant Insider community, all testing should occur earlier, and deployment should begin now. Many users have complained that they still havenât received features rolled out in the April 2026 updates. And since Low Latency Profile is, by definition, just a CPU boost, it should have already arrived by now.
How do you verify if the Low Latency Profile is working?
Windows 11 does not include a toggle to enable or disable the Low Latency Profile. Instead, the feature is enabled by default on all PCs once it rolls out with the May 2026 Update, or if you enable it using the bypass method mentioned above.
As a result, the only way to verify that itâs working is by comparing performance before and after the feature is enabled. Check if the Start menu, Action Center, and Search load faster than before.
We canât rule out a placebo either, so you can also try checking CPU usage before and after Low Latency Profile is enabled:
No CPU boost before Low Latency Profile is enabled:
https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Low-Latency-Profile-CPU-boost-feature-is-disabled.mp4
On the top right side of the screen recording, you can see that the CPU has not reached peak utilization while opening the Start menu or Action Center. I have checked it multiple times to be sure.
After enabling Low Latency Profile using the bypass method given above, I opened the Start menu and Action Center:
CPU utilization peaks while opening the Start menu after Low Latency Profile is enabled:
https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CPU-jumps-to-100-while-opening-Start-menu-after-enabling-Low-Latency-Profile.mp4
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As you can see on the top right side, CPU utilization jumps to 100% in the P cores on my Intel Core i5 13420H, and then falls to normal levels in a second or two, which essentially confirms the presence of Low Latency Profile.
CPU reaches 100% while opening the Action Center after Low Latency Profile is enabled:
https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/CPU-Boost-while-using-Action-centre-after-enabling-Low-Latency-Profile.mp4
Here, too, you can see that the CPU utilization reaches 100% while opening the Action Center and then falls to normal levels almost immediately.
I have done these tests several times, and after seeing the CPU boost for the Start menu and Action Center only after enabling the feature, it is clear that my system has Low Latency Profile enabled.
Microsoft mentioned General Performance improvements to only the Start menu, Action Center, and Windows Search, so as of now, there is no speed boost while opening inbox apps or third-party apps.
Hands-on: UI smoothness over raw speed (for now)
I previously tested Low Latency Profile in a highly constrained environment, and the CPU Boost feature worked well enough that I felt it could make budget PCs usable. It was a dual-core virtual machine limited to 4GB of RAM. But even then, some actions felt surprisingly responsive because the OS was no longer waiting for the CPU to slowly ramp up to the required speeds.
Before enabling Low Latency Profile CPU boost:
https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Before-Low-Latency-Profile-in-Windows-11.mp4
Yes, you have to be eagle-eyed enough to see the micro-strutters and occasional jitters. But itâs safe to say that most people have first-hand experience with the stuttery Start menu!
But now, after running before-and-after screen recordings on a regular, full-powered daily-driver PC with this new May optional update, the results are slightly different, but I like it.
After enabling Low Latency Profile CPU boost:
https://www.windowslatest.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/After-Low-Latency-Profile-in-Windows-11.mp4
The changes may look minute in the screen-recording, but it is definitely noticeable in the real world.
Opening the Start menu is less choppy than before. The Action Center glides onto the screen smoothly, and the notorious rendering delay when bringing up the right-click context menu looks to be significantly reduced. As the official release notes specifically highlight âcore shell experiences,â it appears the Low Latency Profile is currently prioritizing OS fluidity over speeding up inbox or third-party app launches.
Either way, since my regular PC wasnât slow in the first place, it now feels more premium because of the extra smoothness. Also, I didnât notice any heating or battery drain during my testing.
The needless controversy behind Windows 11âs CPU boost
When news of this CPU-spiking feature first broke, several users on social media heavily criticized Microsoft, claiming that artificially boosting the processor was a âlazy fixâ to cover up poorly optimized code.
Microsoft Copilot reaches 97% CPU
However, Microsoft stepped in to clarify the engineering behind it, and we agree. Scott Hanselman defended the technology by explaining the concept of âRace to Sleep.â By instantly spiking the CPU to its maximum frequency for a brief 1 to 3 seconds during a UI interaction, the processor completes the heavy lifting in a fraction of the time, allowing it to return to its low-power idle state much faster.
Hanselman pointed out that Apple uses similar hardware-level scheduling tricks on macOS to make the operating system feel buttery smooth.
Because of this initial public backlash, it makes sense that Microsoft chose to quietly label the feature as âGeneral Performanceâ in the changelog rather than explicitly announcing the âLow Latency Profileâ by its internal codename or sharing specific speed improvement metrics.
Whatâs next for Windows 11 performance improvements?
Windows 11 desktop still hasnât quite reached the flawless 120fps smoothness of modern-day smartphones. This update is a massive step in the right direction. And most importantly, this CPU boost is just one half of a much larger strategy.
As Microsoft commits to native UI for Windows 11, the company is replacing heavy web frameworks with lightweight native code, including in the Start menu. So, when you combine native optimizations with the immediate power delivery of Low Latency Profile, pretty soon, Windows 11 will feel as fast and premium as we expect.
The post Microsoftâs Windows 11 CPU boost is rolling out, and hereâs how to enable it right now appeared first on Windows Latest
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The Hot Take: Was wondering why it was saying I didn't have Nvidia Control Panel! LOL
The interface lived for nearly two decades and served us well, but now it's time to switch to the latest NVIDIA App. NVIDIA Announces the Official Retirement of Control Panel, One of the Most Popular Tools for NVIDIA GPU-Based Systems The popular NVIDIA GPU tool, NVIDIA Control Panel, launched in February 2026. It has been just over two decades since the tool went live and has remained the most used utility on NVIDIA GPU-based systems. From offering simple settings to change refresh rate, resolution, and multiple-display setups to manage 3D settings, the Control Panel remained one of the easiest to [âŚ]Read full article at https://wccftech.com/nvidia-control-panel-is-officially-dead-after-two-decades/
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