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Storage technology explained: Flash vs HDD

The past 12 months saw flash storage nudge into areas from which it had hitherto been absent. In particular, this was because of the availability of denser – and therefore cheaper per-gigabyte (GB) – quad-level cell (QLC) flash storage into array markets and use cases that were once considered nearline.

Alongside this, we saw the price-per-GB of flash drop towards the level of spinning disk hard disk drives (HDDs) then rebound rapidly as memory manufacturers chased profitability. Meanwhile, the keenest of flash storage advocates predicted the demise of the hard drive and the imminent victory of the all-flash datacentre.

In this article, we define enterprise flash storage, look into its QLC and triple-level cell (TLC) variants, the benefits of non-volatile memory express (NVMe) flash, and examine the pros and cons of flash versus HDD in terms of cost, performance, flash in the cloud, and the likelihood (or otherwise) of the all-flash datacentre.

What is enterprise flash storage?

Enterprise flash storage refers to systems that comprise multiple flash drives housed in datacentre rack-mounted array form factor products.

In enterprise flash storage arrays, the capacity of many drives is aggregated, with access to storage media governed by controller hardware.

The controller is compute that powers the intelligence needed to handle input/output (I/O) from hosts to the storage, decision-making over allocation of data to media, but also in flash arrays to carry out maintenance tasks such as wear levelling, garbage collection, and so on.

Enterprise flash storage array capacities run from tens of terabytes (TB) to many petabytes (PB). As with HDD-based arrays, access to storage can be block (for performance-hungry database use cases, for example), file (for general use and unstructured data) or object (for unstructured data also).

What is QLC flash storage?

QLC is the latest generation of flash storage media. QLC stands for quad-level cell. That means that every cell in the flash chip can store four bits of data using 16 states.

That means it can store more data in the same space than TLC flash, which is also widely available. Previously widely available were single-level cell (SLC) flash and multi-level cell (MLC, meaning two states), but these have been largely superseded now.

At the start of 2024, most enterprise storage arrays are built with TLC drives for general-purpose and mission-critical use cases. But QLC has edged into the mainstream and gained traction for unstructured data workloads, in particular with key enterprise storage array makers adding QLC-based products in the past year or so.

As manufacturers increase the number of possible states per cell, storage density increases and the cost of storage per GB decreases. But, as storage density increases in terms of cell capacity, issues can arise that can limit the endurance of flash media.

What is NVMe flash?

Non-volatile memory express (NVMe) is a protocol developed especially for use with flash storage. Prior to NVMe, flash drives used transport protocols that originated during the HDD era, namely Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) and Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS). In fact, these are still in use and arrays that use drives with such connectivity (2.5in and 3.5in form factor) are sold by the big storage suppliers.

But NVMe is at the forefront now for flash drive performance. NVMe’s key innovation was to optimise queues and buffers for use with flash, which improved performance many times over.

As a follow-on, suppliers then developed ways of allowing NVMe connectivity across physically more distant connections across the datacentre. Such NVMe-over-fabrics technologies include the ability to carry NVMe via Ethernet, Infiniband, TCP, RDMA (ie, memory-to-memory connectivity) and more.

What is HDD?

Hard disk drives (HDDs) that rely on magnetic read/write heads and mechanically spinning disks have been around for decades, with flash a competitor that has emerged in the past 10 years or so.

As with flash, HDDs can be aggregated into datacentre rack-mounted array products and the capacity of multiple drives pooled for enterprise users. In fact, HDD-based arrays long preceded enterprise flash arrays and are still widely used.  

What’s the difference in performance between flash and HDD?

When we look at flash versus disk, the key thing that stands out is that flash is fast – many times faster than spinning disk HDD.

Flash drives offer lower latency, with access times down to low milliseconds, or even microseconds, compared with the multiple milliseconds of spinning disk, particularly for reads. That means enterprise flash can also offer vastly more input/output operations per second (IOPS) when aggregated into a storage array.

In throughput terms, flash offers gigabit-per-second (Gbps) rates four or five times quicker than HDD.

Such rapidity has been the key draw for enterprise flash storage and is a result of the lack of moving parts. With spinning platters, HDD is limited by physics in ways that solid-state storage is not.

In terms of capacities, HDD is available in up to around 22TB units. And while some flash drives have been marketed that run to 60-plus terabytes, they generally come in smaller sizes, but part of that is because of cost. 

What’s the cost difference between flash and HDD?

In terms of per-GB cost at drive level, flash costs more than spinning disk.

Flash prices spiked significantly in late 2023 and the early months of 2024 as manufacturers throttled back production in an effort to raise prices and achieve profitability.

Solid-state drive (SSD) prices per gigabyte reached an average of $0.095/GB by April 2024, which was a rise of 26.67% since autumn 2023.

But, flash drive prices then fell steadily over the first three quarters of 2024 to an average of $0.085 per gigabyte (GB) in September 2024.

In October 2023, flash had averaged $0.075/GB while HDD averaged $0.05/GB for SAS and $0.035/GB for SATA drives.

Average spinning disk (SAS and SATA) hard drive prices held steady during the six months to September 2024 at $0.039 per gigabyte. That figure was $0.041/GB in early April.

For a customer that planned to deploy 20TB of flash, based on those prices, it would have cost $1,500 in October 2023, $1,900 in April 2024, and $1,700 in September 2024. That compares to the equivalent for spinning disk of $850 in October 2023 and $780 in September 2024.

Will flash kill HDD? How much longer for HDD?

In particular, Pure Storage has declared HDDs will be dead by 2028, with its flash products the chief agent in the cull, and all owing to its ability to aggregate much more flash capacity on its proprietary modules than occurs on commodity flash drives.

With flash module sizes of up to 300TB by 2026 promised by Pure, it contends that spinning disk will be commercially unviable.

Meanwhile, companies such as Panasas, which specialises in storage for unstructured data, point to hyperscaler datacentres’ overwhelming use of spinning disk in ratios up to 90/10 against flash. Panasas argues that there’s still a five-times differential between the lowest-cost flash and HDD, and that for most, something like the hyperscaler solution is optimal.  

When can you use flash and HDD in the cloud?

Enterprise users can also specify flash storage and spinning disk in the cloud. It is more likely in most cases that cloud storage will be specified by performance and cost criteria, in which case the customer may never know what media underlies it.

But it is possible also to specify flash storage in the cloud and the three largest hyperscalers – Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) – have solid-state storage options that mix cost, capacity and performance. 

The hyperscalers all offer flash storage to support compute with service levels based on capacity and IOPS per volume that range from general-purpose to premium levels aimed at specific workloads (eg, SQL, Oracle, SAP Hana) and environments (eg, Windows, Lustre, MacOS).

There are also options aimed at flash for file storage and flash storage from named suppliers, such as Azure’s NetApp Files.

What is the all-flash datacentre?

For about a decade, the idea of the all-flash datacentre has been discussed. The all-flash datacentre replaces HDD and other media such as tape with flash storage.

Driving it is the continued decrease in the cost of flash storage – as with QLC flash – but also the advantages of flash in terms of rapid access. The latter becomes more relevant as customers want to run analytics on bigger subsets of their data.

So, for example, where backups may previously have been held on nearline media such as slower HDDs, advocates of flash for such use cases point to the ability to run artificial intelligence (AI) on large customer datasets and to gain value therefrom.

Also, with backups as an example, the idea of being able to recover quickly from flash media in case of a ransomware attack is another use case touted by all-flash datacentre boosters. 

When will the all-flash datacentre arrive?

While enthusiastic suppliers of flash storage such as Pure talk down the obstacles to the all-flash datacentre, analysts point to the spread of (especially QLC) flash into secondary workloads but not necessarily all use cases, with spinning disk likely to retain its usefulness for some time for some datasets.

Meanwhile, HDD suppliers such as Toshiba say around 85% of all data is still on spinning disk. That fact, it says, is not likely to change rapidly, not least because the flash capacity to replace it doesn’t exist.

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Intel isn’t giving up on desktop graphics cards after Battlemage, as rumor claims 3rd-gen Celestial GPUs are still coming

  • Intel is still planning for 3rd-gen desktop GPUs to follow Battlemage
  • This dismisses other rumors that Intel may not make these desktop cards
  • The truth is likely that Intel hasn’t yet fully made the decision itself

Intel’s Celestial graphics cards for the desktop, which will be the 3rd-gen of Arc GPUs, to follow Battlemage – the next-gen that’s imminent – are still being planned and worked on for the future.

That’s the latest word from the grapevine, courtesy of a well-known leaker on X, Bionic Squash.

As you can see, the leaker says that Intel still has plans for discrete GPUs (DGPUs), meaning desktop graphics cards, after the desktop models for Battlemage have been unleashed.

If the current run of rumors is correct, those Battlemage graphics cards could arrive in December, with one model being the B580 – possibly the top-of-the-range GPU – which was recently leaked.

An Intel Arc A770 LE graphics card on a table with a pink desk mat

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Analysis: Some mixed messages from the rumor mill

You might be wondering: why would there be any concerns about Celestial, anyway? Well, in the recent past, there have been some suggestions that Intel might not have another generation of GPUs after Battlemage, or at least not desktop models – and that Celestial could be for integrated graphics only.

Bionic Squash seems pretty confident this isn’t the case, and recent hints appear to back that up. Intel is certainly working on Celestial already, and could even have radical plans for more powerful desktop GPUs in the 3rd generation, going by a recently spotted patent.

That said, Celestial GPUs of the desktop variety still haven’t turned up in leaks – it’s too early for that at this point – and some other recent chatter has suggested that Intel may be waiting to see how successful Battlemage is, before fully committing to discrete Celestial products. However, take that past rumor, and this new one, too, with plenty of caution.

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It’s very likely that the truth is Intel still has decisions to make on this front, but if Bionic Squash is right, the plan for now is to release a 3rd-generation of Arc desktop GPUs.

Via Wccftech

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It’s easier than ever to use SearchGPT on your iPhone

It’s impressive that in only a few months, OpenAI’s ChatGPT became a fundamental part of Apple’s iPhone devices. Whether you have a phone with Apple Intelligence or not, you can take advantage of ChatGPT through its app or by integrating it with Apple’s AI platform.

With the latter, ChatGPT can currently improve Writing Tools technology. Apple explains:

With ChatGPT from OpenAI integrated into Siri and Writing Tools, you get even more expertise when it might be helpful for you — no need to jump between tools. Siri can tap into ChatGPT for certain requests, including questions about photos or documents. And with Compose in Writing Tools, you can create and illustrate original content from scratch.

You control when ChatGPT is used and will be asked before any of your information is shared. Anyone can access ChatGPT for free, without creating an account. ChatGPT subscribers can connect accounts to access paid features within these experiences.

However, if you prefer using OpenAI’s ChatGPT app, the latest update brought an important upgrade. Now, you can set a Shortcut with SearchGPT. For those unaware, OpenAI’s SearchGPT is designed to give you an answer, as it will “quickly and directly respond to your questions with up-to-date information from the web while giving you clear links to relevant sources.” Users will be able to ask follow-up questions as the GPT understands the context of each query.

By using Apple’s Shortcuts app, you could give Siri a command to open SearchGPT or even add it to the Action Button of your iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 16 models.

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So far, SearchGPT is available for OpenAI subscribers with ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Teams services. Still, the company plans to roll out support to free users in the coming months. To access this feature, don’t forget to update your ChatGPT app to the latest version from the App Store.

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UK data centers ready for expansion

A study by data center specialists Onnec has revealed that local authorities in the UK’s 20 largest cities have overwhelmingly approved data center projects, with 89% of applications receiving planning permission over the past five years. Of the 88 applications reviewed, only three were rejected, five were withdrawn, and one remained undecided.

Onnec looked at 44 local councils and their planning applications for the report. The researchers found that data centers are generally approved, which shows local support for digital infrastructure. To provide computing power and data storage for AI deployment makes that support crucial. Only three applications in Sheffield were rejected. Local authorities looked into possible issues around the design and impact of the centers, along with whether they would fit the character of the surroundings or damage the Green Belt.

Data Center Spread

Notably, the British government has made data centers critical national infrastructure to emphasize their report. That said, the report urges a holistic approach to planning and a nationwide approach to achieve the best outcomes. The UK has pledged £6.3 billion in data center investment as part of its work to make the UK a hub for AI. The UK’s Department for Science, Innovation, and Technology (DSIT) is trying to reduce the friction in building data centers. It has looked into rejected projects to see where there is room for improvement.

“Data centers are critical for driving AI growth, and with the race for AI supremacy in full swing, the UK has recognized that to get ahead, the right infrastructure must be in place,” Matt Salter, Data Centre Director at Onnec. “Data centers can become the new oil for regions and cities, but only if they are planned holistically – this means considering every aspect of the data center instead of focusing solely on factors such as power and cooling. For example, thinking about the importance of cabling in providing the bandwidth needed to get the most from data center hardware.

London is the largest data center market in Europe, but the report suggests trying to up the availability of data centers elsewhere in the country. Relying solely on London means there is limited power availability along with problems around sustainability. Spreading data centers to other regions would also mean spreading the benefits to the people there. That means improved job opportunities not only for the data centers but for anywhere that the digital skills required for data centers are useful.

“Failing to take a holistic approach will result in sites that aren’t fit for purpose, don’t deliver on the UK’s needs, and degrade over time – poor planning could mean a new data center can feel five years old after the first year of operation, and in need of an expensive retrofit,” Salter said. “The UK risks losing ground in the race for AI supremacy if data centers aren’t built to last.”

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UK consumers losing more than ever to holiday scams

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Action Fraud have launched their annual appeal to consumers to pay more attention to fraud, after publishing figures that reveal rising losses to online scammers during the festive shopping season, which kicks off in earnest over the next fortnight heading into Black Friday.

Despite giving similar warnings last, and every, year, Brits lost over £11.5m to cyber criminals during November and December of 2023 – a jump of about £1m – with clothing, technology products and cars among the most prominent items targeted. Victims lost an average of £695 each, and those aged 30 to 39 submitted the largest number of reports, closely followed by 40 to 49 year-olds.

According to the statistics, about 43% of reported incidents involved a social media platform, and 19% an online marketplace.

The NCSC is today launching a national campaign to encourage people to take the bare minimum of steps to protect themselves, such as turning on multi-factor authentication (MFA) to protect their online accounts.

“As we head into the holiday shopping season, people are understandably eager to find the best deals online,” said NCSC CEO Richard Horne. “Unfortunately, this is also prime time for cyber criminals, who exploit bargain hunters with increasingly sophisticated scams – sometimes crafted using AI – making them harder to detect. To stay protected, I strongly recommend following our online shopping guidance, including setting up two-step verification and creating memorable-but-secure passwords using three random words.”

Recently appointed Home Office minister for fraud Lord Hanson added: “We know that more needs to be done to tackle online fraud. Our message to anyone shopping online as we approach Black Friday is simple: if you come across anything that doesn’t feel right – stop what you’re doing, break contact, and do not click any links.

“This government is committed to defeating this scourge, and we will continue our work with industry and other partners to better protect the public from this appalling crime,” he said.

NCSC guidance

Besides implementing simple technical measures, online shoppers are also being encouraged to be on the lookout for standard-yet-effective cyber criminal tactics. For example, some fraudsters often try to create a false sense of urgency using limited-time offers, or promoting apparently scarce or exclusive items.

In all instances, the best course of action is to shop sceptically – always keeping in mind the old adage that if something seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is. If something doesn’t seem quite right, the best course of action is to stop, break off contact, do not click on any links that have already been sent, and research the company or seller through trusted review sites.

Consumers can find out more about this year’s campaign at the Stop! Think Fraud microsite.

Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at consumer protection organisation Which?, said she was in favour of the NCSC and government doing more to raise awareness of fraud and scams, but urged them to go further, saying it was not right that the onus always falls on consumers to protect themselves.

“Tackling fraud must be made a national priority, and the government should lead a more coordinated approach by encouraging sectors to share data and stop scams spreading,” she said. 

“New duties, equivalent to the obligations being introduced for banks and online platforms, should be placed on telecom providers, online advertising providers and domain registrars to ensure they verify the legitimacy of users.”

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Denmark’s AI-powered welfare system fuels mass surveillance

Artificial intelligence (AI) tools used by the Danish welfare authority violate individual privacy, risk discrimination and breach the European Union’s (EU) AI Act’s regulations on social scoring systems, according to analysis from Amnesty International.

Udbetaling Danmark (UDK, or Payout Denmark) – established in 2012 to centralise the payment of various welfare benefits across five municipalities – uses AI-powered algorithms to flag individuals who are considered at the highest risk of committing social benefits fraud for further investigation. These were developed in partnership with ATP, Denmark’s largest pensions processing company, and various private multinational corporations.

The report details how UDK’s fraud control algorithms breach the human rights of social security benefits recipients, including their rights to privacy, equality and social security. It also concludes that the system creates a barrier to accessing social benefits for certain marginalised groups, including people with disabilities, low-income individuals and migrants.

“This mass surveillance has created a social benefits system that risks targeting, rather than supporting, the very people it was meant to protect,” said Hellen Mukiri-Smith, Amnesty International’s researcher on artificial intelligence and human rights.

“The way the Danish automated welfare system operates is eroding individual privacy and undermining human dignity. By deploying fraud control algorithms and traditional surveillance methods to identify social benefits fraud, the authorities are enabling and expanding digitised mass surveillance.”

Amnesty argues that UDK’s fraud detection system likely falls under the “social scoring” ban under the EU’s AI Act, which came into force on 1 August 2024.

The act defines AI social scoring systems as those that “evaluate or classify” individuals or groups based on social behaviour or personal traits, causing “detrimental or unfavourable treatment” of those people.

Mukiri-Smith said: “The information that Amnesty International has collected and analysed suggests that the system used by the UDK and ATP functions as a social scoring system under the new EU Artificial Intelligence law – and should therefore be banned.”

UDK and ATP provided Amnesty with redacted documentation on the design of certain algorithmic systems, and allegedly rejected Amnesty’s requests for a collaborative audit, refusing to provide full access to the code and data used in their algorithms.

The Danish authority also rejected Amnesty’s assessment that its fraud detection system likely falls under the AI Act’s social scoring ban, but did not offer an explanation for this reasoning.

In response to this, Amnesty has called on the European Commission to issue clear guidelines on which AI practices constitute a social scoring system in its AI Act guidance. The organisation has also requested that the Danish authorities stop using the system until it can be confirmed that it does not fall under this ban.

Mukiri-Smith added: “The Danish authorities must urgently implement a clear and legally binding ban on the use of data related to ‘foreign affiliation’ or proxy data in risk scoring for fraud control purposes. They must also ensure robust transparency and adequate oversight in the development and deployment of fraud control algorithms.”

Computer Weekly contacted UDK about the claims made by Amnesty International but received no response by the time of publication.

Violation of privacy

Alongside ATP, UDK uses a system of up to 60 algorithms to identify fraudulent social benefit applications and flag individuals for further investigation by Danish authorities.

To power these models, Danish authorities have enacted laws enabling the extensive collection and merging of personal data from public databases of millions of Danish residents. This includes information on residency status, citizenship, and other data that can also serve as proxies for a person’s race, ethnicity or sexual orientation.

Mukiri-Smith added: “This expansive surveillance machine is used to document and build a panoramic view of a person’s life that is often disconnected from reality. It tracks and monitors where a social benefit claimant lives, works, their travel history, health records, and even their ties to foreign countries.”

Individuals interviewed by Amnesty described the psychological impact of being subjected to surveillance by fraud investigators and case workers. Describing the feeling of being investigated for benefits fraud, Stig Langvad of Dansk Handicap Foundation told Amnesty that it is like “sitting at the end of a gun”.

UDK stated that its collection and merging of personal data to detect social benefits fraud is “legally grounded”.

Exacerbation of structural marginalisation

The report also reveals that the benefits fraud control system developed by UDK and ATP is built on inherently discriminatory structures in Denmark’s legal and social systems, which categorises people and communities based on difference.

According to the report, Danish law already creates a “hostile environment for migrants and people who have been granted refugee status”, with residency requirements for those seeking to claim benefits that disproportionately affect people from non-Western countries, with many refugees in Denmark, including Syria, Afghanistan and Lebanon.

The Really Single fraud control algorithm predicts a person’s family or relationship status to assess risk of benefit fraud in pensions and childcare schemes. One of the parameters employed by the algorithm includes “unusual” or “atypical” living patterns or family arrangements, but contains no clarity on what constitutes such situations, leaving room for dangerously arbitrary decision-making.

Mukiri-Smith added: “People in non-traditional living arrangements – such as those with disabilities who are married but live apart due to their disabilities; older people in relationships who live apart; or those living in a multi-generational household, a common arrangement in migrant communities – are all at risk of being targeted by the Really Single algorithm for further investigation into social benefits fraud.”

Gitte Nielsen, the chairperson of the social and labour market policy committee at Dansk Handicap Foundation, described the feeling of being constantly scrutinised and reassessed: “It is eating you up. A lot of our members … have depression because of this interrogation.”

UDK and ATP additionally use inputs related to “foreign affiliation” in their algorithmic models. For example, the Model Abroad algorithm identifies groups of beneficiaries deemed to have “medium and high-strength ties” to non-EEA countries and prioritises these groups for further investigation.

Amnesty’s research found that algorithms such as these discriminate against people based on factors such as national origin and migration status.

In a response to Amnesty, UDK stated that the use of “citizenship” as a parameter in their algorithms does not constitute processing of sensitive personal information.

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OpenAI’s AI-powered video maker Sora appears to have leaked

Update: We added a statement from OpenAI at the end of the article.

OpenAI’s upcoming AI-powered video maker, Sora, appears to have leaked. At least, this is what X account @legit_rumors posted. According to them, HuggingFace found OpenAI Sora’s access through Discord channels and shared some of the use cases of this AI video maker tool online.

While OpenAI hasn’t given Sora a proper release date, some people have had access to this tool for a while. According to the company, Sora is an “AI model that can create realistic and imaginative scenes from text instructions. Sora can generate videos up to a minute long while maintaining visual quality and adherence to the user’s prompt.”

However, only a few visual artists, designers, and filmmakers have access to this tool, which allows the company to “gain feedback on how to advance the model to be most helpful for creative professionals.”

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That being said, it seems hackers have leaked OpenAI’s Sora as a protest. Those people believe they’re being lured into “art washing.” They write: “Hundreds of artists provide unpaid labor through bug testing, feedback, and experimental work for the program for a $150B valued company. While hundreds contribute for free, a select few will be chosen through a competition to have their Sora-created films screened – offering minimal compensation which pales in comparison to the substantial PR and marketing value OpenAI receives.” This is why, they say they are “releasing this tool to give everyone an opportunity to experiment with what ~300 artists were offered; a free and unlimited access to this tool.”

They continue: “We are not against the use of AI technology as a tool for the arts (if we were, we probably wouldn’t have been invited to this program). What we don’t agree with is how this artist program has been rolled out and how the tool is shaping up ahead of a possible public release. We are sharing this with the world in the hopes that OpenAI becomes more open, more artist-friendly, and supports the arts beyond PR stunts.”

These are some of the examples of what OpenAI’s Sora can do at the moment:

The platform has been offering the ability to use Sora through the HuggingFace website, but it doesn’t seem to be working anymore. In a statement sent to BGR, OpenAI said:

Sora is still in research preview, and we’re working to balance creativity with robust safety measures for broader use. Hundreds of artists in our alpha have shaped Sora’s development, helping prioritize new features and safeguards. Participation is voluntary, with no obligation to provide feedback or use the tool. We’ve been excited to offer these artists free access and will continue supporting them through grants, events, and other programs. We believe AI can be a powerful creative tool and are committed to making Sora both useful and safe.

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RTX 5070 Ti leak suggests Nvidia has a powerful GPU up its sleeve that uses the same chip as the RTX 5080

  • Nvidia RTX 5070 Ti has joined the roster of leaked Blackwell GPUs
  • It will purportedly use the GB203 chip that’s in the RTX 5080
  • Obviously it would be a cut-down GB203, possibly with 8,960 CUDA cores

Nvidia’s next-gen GPUs are supposedly arriving at CES 2025, and we’ve just caught a fresh rumor about a new model – a purported RTX 5070 Ti.

So far, the rumor mill has been sharing details about the RTX 5090, 5080, and 5070, so the 5070 Ti is a fresh leak, coming from one of the more regular providers of GPU-related rumors on X, Kopite7kimi.

In this case, Kopite7kimi hasn’t posted any details on X, but instead shared some info directly with VideoCardz.

We’re told that the RTX 5070 Ti is going to have 8,960 CUDA cores, which would mean 70 SMs (Streaming Multiprocessors), and indicates that the graphics card will use a cut-down take on the GB203 chip from Blackwell.

That’s the same chip as the RTX 5080 is rumored to run with (with the GB202 being the flagship GPU for the RTX 5090 alone).

Kopite7kimi also claims power usage will be pitched at 300W for the RTX 5070 Ti, but it isn’t clear what metric the mentioned figure might be (TGP or TDP). At any rate, this is only speculation, so season it liberally.

There’s no info provided about clock speeds at this point, or the crucial video memory loadout. The RTX 5070 has been rumored to run with 12GB of VRAM in the past, worryingly, but other gossip has suggested that a higher-tier variant – like a 5070 Ti or Super – could run with more (to the tune of 18GB).

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The power connector for an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card

(Image credit: Future / John Loeffler)

Analysis: The ever-swirling rumors around Blackwell

It’s certainly interesting to see the RTX 5070 Ti popping up in leaks now.

It remains unclear if, as per original rumors, Nvidia might just launch a pair of Blackwell GPUs at CES 2025, the RTX 5090 and 5080 – or whether Team Green might just squeeze in another model, such as the RTX 5070, as is already rumored. Or perhaps this RTX 5070 Ti is a possibility? We doubt it, on balance, and Kopite7kimi couldn’t be drawn to comment on that speculation (VideoCardz did pose the question).

If the core count mentioned is correct, it’d be a 16% uplift on the RTX 4070 Ti (as was before Nvidia discontinued that model). Previous leaks around the RTX 5070 have suggested its core count could be relatively low – a 6,400 CUDA core count has been mentioned in the past, for example – and so that looks a bit shakier in light of this latest leak.

It’d be a pretty hefty jump from the 5070 to 5070 Ti if that was the case, a more pronounced leap than with their predecessor graphics cards – although that could be Nvidia’s plan. Either that, or the previous RTX 5070 speculation is off the mark.

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Nvidia RTX 5090 and 5080 GPUs again rumored for CES – but suggestion the RTX 5080 could be positioned as a ‘professional’ GPU might worry PC gamers

  • More rumors are lining up behind a CES 2025 launch for RTX 5090 and 5080
  • However, Nvidia might just pitch both GPUs at the ‘professional’ market
  • That could indicate the RTX 5090 and 5080 will end up seriously pricey

It’s looking more and more likely that Nvidia’s RTX 5090 and 5080 graphics cards are indeed being revealed at CES 2025, as previous chatter has indicated – plus we’ve heard some more worrying hints on pricing, sadly.

Much of the latest next-gen Blackwell speculation over the weekend comes from Moore’s Law is Dead (MLID), and the info here should be regarded with some skepticism, naturally.

MLID’s latest YouTube video has word from two sources at Nvidia’s retail partners who both claim that the unveiling of the RTX 5090 and 5080 is set to happen at CES 2025.

The first source MLID has heard from notes that their firm is currently talking to Nvidia about initial shipment numbers of these graphics cards, and that the on-sale date of the RTX 5090 and 5080 is a matter of weeks after the reveal – so likely late January.

On top of that, VideoCardz noticed that a leaker on X, MegaSizeGPU, has aired details of the GB202 chip (the GPU in the RTX 5090), which will supposedly be 20% bigger than the AD102 in the RTX 4090.

Furthermore, a second leaker on X, Hongxing2020, has shared a purported image of the PCIe 5.0 interface for the Blackwell flagship, and these pieces of spillage are likely from sample 5090 cards that have been sent out – which underlines that the next-gen GPU could be imminent.

Back to MLID’s video (which you can view below), and interestingly, the second source cited also mentions the RTX 5070 is going to be revealed in January – possibly teased at CES 2025, and then getting a proper announcement later in the month, by the sound of things.

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Nvidia RTX 5090 & 5080 CES Leak | Intel Battlemage G31 Delay | AMD RDNA 4 Release Date – YouTube Nvidia RTX 5090 & 5080 CES Leak | Intel Battlemage G31 Delay | AMD RDNA 4 Release Date - YouTube Watch On

That third Blackwell GPU will go on sale shortly after January, MLID says, so we could reasonably guess it will be in February (and this isn’t the first time the RTX 5070 has been rumored to be inbound for the near future).

This second source also mentions pricing, and the more positive piece of news here is that on the topic of the RTX 5090, it seems this GPU will be priced at the lower end of the range that was previously leaked.

If you recall, that rumored range was $1,999 to $2,499 in the US (and proportional to that elsewhere, as ever), so it seems that two grand is what Nvidia is now mulling. That is, of course, still 25% pricier than the MSRP of the RTX 4090, and therefore a major hike, so it’s hardly great news – and there’s a gloomier note to follow.

Namely, a claim that some of the marketing materials Nvidia has provided on the subject of talking to customers notes that retailers should be telling would-be buyers that anything above the RTX 5070 Ti is “really for professionals” – so that’s effectively a hint that the RTX 5080 could be pricey, too. Why, exactly? Let’s dive into that next.

Analysis: GeForce is for gaming – right?

What Nvidia appears to be doing here – take all of this with plentiful seasoning, and this bit of speculation, even more so – is preparing retailers for the reality that the top Blackwell models, the RTX 5090 and 5080, are going to be seriously expensive.

So, when PC gamers come into the shop and see the price tags on those GPUs, staff are primed to basically justify those asking prices on the basis that these are really graphics cards for professional use. In other words, gamers don’t need that much horsepower and should be looking at the RTX 5070 (or its variants) or indeed lower (eventually, when the range is filled out).

Now, you could certainly argue this is true of the RTX 4090 already, but it seems like Nvidia is shifting up a gear in this respect, and including the RTX 5080 in that ‘pro’ bracket – possibly due to a weighty price tag of perhaps $1,200 in the US, or maybe even more, up towards $1,400, or so MLID has theorized in the past.

However, if this is true, it feels a bit odd to have not just the flagship, but the top two tiers of the GeForce range of Blackwell GPUs as models angled towards ‘professionals’ – remember, this is a gaming brand. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves here really, and we need to see if this pricing pans out.

On that point, we should note that in the past, we have heard more positive predictions about pricing not being a ‘significant’ hike for the RTX 5090 – which we’d read as maybe more like a $200 rise – but MLID is very much doubling down on his previous forecast here.

Whatever happens with pricing – and Nvidia may still be judging online reaction to these leaks at this point – it seems that with the weight of rumors now, the RTX 5090 and 5080 are likely imminent (and we might well see Blackwell laptop GPUs at CES 2025, too).

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Is Intel about to turn Arrow Lake CPUs around? Leak suggests ‘big changes’ are coming for Core Ultra 200 chips

  • A leaker claims some major tweaks are close at hand for Arrow Lake
  • We don’t know their nature beyond being ‘voltage-frequency’ related
  • This could be the start of some big performance boosts for Arrow Lake

Intel’s tweaks, which are incoming to help boost the performance of its recently released Arrow Lake (Core Ultra 200S) processors – that rather disappointed upon their arrival – could be about to land.

Or at least we might be about to witness the start of Intel fixing up these desktop CPUs. We’re told by expert overclocker Skatterbench (who’s affiliated with Asus, and regularly sets world records using the firm’s motherboards) on X that Intel has some big changes coming in its next microcode update for Arrow Lake chips (add seasoning, as ever).

These pertain to the ‘VF behavior’ which means voltage-frequency, and as VideoCardz, which noticed this, pointed out, the overclocker likely already has access to the beta update.

Hopefully, it won’t be long before whatever tweaks and improvements are being introduced here come to all Core Ultra 200 CPU owners (though there will be a beta BIOS deployed by motherboard makers first, no doubt, before the full release).

The socket interface of the Intel Core Ultra processor

(Image credit: Intel)

Analysis: A new chapter for Arrow Lake?

So, the crux of the matter here is whether these changes are about delivering better performance for the Core Ultra 200S family, or perhaps more about fixing overclocking (as Skatterbench indicates later in that thread on X). Meaning these (rumored) tweaks could be more about, say, shoring up stability (especially for overclocking), rather than juicing up Arrow Lake CPUs with performance improvements.

The expectation is that this has something to do with Robert Hallock’s (VP of marketing at Intel) previous observation that Arrow Lake’s disappointing performance (particularly with gaming) was due to multiple issues in Windows and the BIOS, and an accompanying promise that fixes are inbound for those problems.

Is this upcoming microcode patch the start of those fixes? Quite possibly, but we’d temper our expectations, as it sounds like Intel has a lot of work to do on this front. Remember, we were also promised a full audit of all the issues in play with Arrow Lake’s missteps, so it seems like a thorny tangle of gremlins in the works, and we’re betting this is going to be a multi-step cure (for “multifactor issues” as Hallock called them).

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