Intel Zeros in on At-home Workers with New Processor Families
Intel targets gamers, content creators, and workplace professionals with its new families of processors. What benefits do these processors bring to the table?
Making that move to remote work has put technology to the test. With so many people working from home, many companies are realizing many of the setbacks and are working to repair this gap. One company that is focusing on the needs of at-home workers is Intel.
Previously teased at CES, Intel finally launchs its 11th Gen Core™ processors with promising upgrades that enable users to achieve a plethora of tasks simultaneously at faster speeds.
An exploded view of Intel's 11th Gen processors. Image used courtesy of Intel
This article explores these latest Intel upgrades and compares them with Intel’s major competitors.
Introducing the Newest Intel Processors
In addition to its 11th Gen Intel Core H-Series laptop processors, Intel also released the S-Series desktop processors, H-Series laptop processors, and the vPro processors, along with a Hardware Shield, which promises higher security.
Each new set of processors claims to benefit various users, from "gaming, content creators, and business professionals."
With this audience as a focus, what benefits are these processors providing towards that end?
What About the Benefits?
These new processors come with a variety of interesting specs that could provide many benefits to Intel's targeted audience.
One is by incorporating Intel's Turbo Boost Max 3.0, these processors can deliver up to 5 GHz Turbo frequencies enabling high power and performance ranges. Intel has also successfully incorporated desktop capabilities into laptops.
For example, the 11th Gen Intel Core H-Series processors feature up to 8 cores and 16 threads with a 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes microprocessor architecture offering ultra-fast graphics and storage capabilities known for desktops in laptops.
The processors are also integrated with Wi-Fi 6/6E (Gig+) and Thunderbolt 4 for high-speed wired and wireless connectivity.
A table showing Wi-Fi 5 and Wi-Fi 6/6E specifications. Image used courtesy of Siemon
It offers superb connectivity speed latency and reliability for distinct Wi-Fi gaming in addition to up to 3000 Mb/s transfer speed for wired connections.
Adding to these benefits, Intel is also adding security with its Hardware Shield, which has a growing need with more people working from home.
Intel’s Hardware Shield: Overview
The hardware shield, built with the Intel vPro platform, promises advanced hardware and software security capabilities for seamless computing. Intel claims that this shield delivers the most comprehensive, globally best hardware-based security for businesses. It comes in three categories of security technologies, including:
- OS security
- Application and data protection
- Advanced threat protection
Security features include Intel BIOS guard, Boot guard, firmware update/recovery, trust technology, runtime BIOS resilience technology, system resources defense, trusted execution technology, and system security report. They work together to provide a dependable execution environment, whilst protecting the system’s memory during booting.
By using hardware-accelerated virtualization, encryption, and memory protection, this category of security technologies safeguards software solutions by eliminating various classes of attacks.
Some attacks are hard to detect depending on a range of factors. These added security technologies help to detect them in addition to reducing false positives.
To fully see the updates to this new generation of processors, it may be beneficial to break down the differences from the 10th generation.
Overview of 11th vs 10th Gen
Compared to its predecessor, 10th Gen Core processors, the 11th Gen Intel Core processors offer some improvements that differentiate them.
Some key enhancements include:
- Novel core and graphics architectures that tremendously upgrade gaming, business, and everyday capabilities.
- State-of-the-art Intel Iris Xe graphics with about 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes GPUs offering up to 4K HDR/ Dolby Vision video streaming and 1080p gaming capabilities; a first for modern-day computing.
- Enhanced AI-based performance allows the completion of several tasks faster; this is essential for business productivity.
- Achieves faster wireless connectivity with the Intel Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 6 solutions, which are the most extensive Wi-Fi upgrades in 20 years. It also features Thunderbolt 4 technology that supports super-fast and more reliable wired connectivity.
- An innovative overclocking feature that allows users to push its CPU capabilities to newer limits.
By looking back at the 10th generation, it is clear to see the updates Intel has incorporated into these new families of processors. One final way of reviewing these processors is by looking at competitors.
How Does Intel Compete?
To compare Intel’s latest processors with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 H-Series, its major competitor, an exploration of the features of two specific processors: the Intel Core i9-11900K and Ryzen 9 5900X desktop processors could be useful.
Image of AMD’s Ryzen Processor Chip. Image used courtesy of AMD
The Ryzen 9 5900X processor features include a 12/24 core/thread count, base clock of 3.7 GHz, 4.8 GHz maximum boost clock, 105 W TDP, recommended price of $549, and a 64 MB cache size.
However, the Intel Core i9-11900K features include an 8/16 core/thread count, base clock of 3.5 GHz, 5.3 GHz maximum boost clock, 125 W TDP, the Intel Xe graphics, recommended price of $539, and a 16 MB cache size.
The Ryzen 9 5900X processor has the following benefits over the Intel Core i9-11900K:
- Higher core/thread count ensuring greater speeds
- Lesser power consumption and heat generation
- Higher cache size needed by designers
Compared to Intel’s Core i9-11900K, Ryzen’s processor has the following drawbacks:
- Higher pricing
- Lower maximum boost clock capability
- No integrated graphics
- Preferable Option for Designers
Though each processor has its benefits and setbacks, a designer should opt for the 11th Gen Intel Core processors because of their great strides in integrated graphics processors if the application requires designing or graphics.
Adding Perspective
Modern-day microprocessor architecture transistor count has increased from thousands to billions, requiring more power and generating more heat. The latest Intel processors are no different.
In addition to some of the mentioned benefits, the real challenge is handling power consumption and heat generation. If the 11th Gen Intel Core processors’ can rise to this challenge, then the capabilities could be limitless.
Interested in new processors coming out recently? Catch up by reading the articles down below.
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