Cloudflare has announced the deployment of its 12th generation servers, powered by AMD EPYC 9684X Genoa-X processors, delivering improved performance and efficiency across its infrastructure.

The new processor has 96 cores, 192 threads, and a massive 1152MB of L3 cache – three times that of AMD’s standard Genoa processors.

The consensus during the launch of a new PC hardware component is that it is faster or more powerful compared to the outgoing model or competition. But that may not be the case with Intel’s latest Arrow Lake-S CPUs. The first crop of Intel’s Core Ultra 200S desktop processors was officially unveiled yesterday and features five new SKUs led by the Core Ultra 9 285K.

By itself, the latest flagship is a very capable chip, but Intel says it is (in most cases) on par with last-gen’s Core i9-14900K. The catch here is that the entire Arrow Lake-S lineup consumes less power, thus generating less heat. That is great news for general consumers and enthusiasts who are particularly worried about high electricity costs and thermal management.

But based on what we know so far, how does it fare against AMD’s best CPU, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D? Let’s dig deeper.

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Pricing and availability

The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D based on the Zen 4 architecture was launched in April 2023 and was announced as a successor to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. This chip is currently one of the best CPU options for gamers until AMD decides to launch 3D V-cache variants of the Ryzen 9000 series.

Intel’s Core Ultra 9 285K processor is the top-of-the-line desktop CPU offering under the newly launched Arrow Lake-S series. The new chip will go on sale with the entire Core Ultra 200S lineup starting October 24, 2024.

The Ryzen 7 7800X3D was originally launched at an MSRP of $450, but you can get it for about $430 at stores like Best Buy and Micro Center. The new Core Ultra 9 285K is a lot more expensive and will retail at $589.

Specifications

Performance

The new Arrow Lake-S is also the first desktop class of CPUs from Intel that comes with a built-in neural processing unit (NPU), meaning it can handle AI tasks more efficiently. There’s also native support for faster DDR5 memory, the latest connectivity options, and a new Thread Director.

We haven’t put the new Core Ultra 9 285K on the test bench yet, nor has Intel shared any substantial performance numbers. But judging by the claims, if the Core Ultra 9 285K is indeed as powerful as the Core i9-14900K, then it is safe to assume that Intel’s latest flagship is going to be faster than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in both single-core and multi-core performance.

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Gaming is where we expect to see the complete opposite results. The Ryzen 7 7800X3D, thanks to its impressive 3D V-Cache, will likely continue to lead in almost every single gaming title compared to the Core Ultra 9 285K. In fact, the 7800X3D offers similar gaming performance as the more expensive Ryzen 9 7950X3D.

An uphill battle

Millions of people in Florida are currently going through the Hurricane Milton crisis. To help the affected people, T-Mobile deployed its emergency response teams to secure reliable communication services a couple of days ago. Now, the other major telecom operators including AT&T and Verizon are stepping in by offering free calling, text, and data services to those impacted by Hurricane Milton in Florida.

AT&T and Verizon are waiving off charges for those impacted by Hurricane Milton in Florida

AT&T and Verizon, both have announced they will offer free services to help those impacted by Hurricane Milton. Verizon, the leading telco in the US, will waive charges for calling, texting, and data usage for subscribers in 33 Florida counties. The company will offer free services to postpaid and Verizon Small Business consumers who are most affected by the storm. The brand will waive charges for its services from October 9th through October 23rd for qualified subscribers living in many Florida counties.

Notably, Verizon consumers who do qualify don’t have to do anything to get their domestic calling, texting, and data services waived. Furthermore, if your billing cycle has already closed, then the charges will be automatically credited back as overages. Also, Verizon consumers with an iPhone 14 or higher model can use Emergency SOS via Satellite. However, their iPhones need to be on the latest iOS 18 version.

AT&T will not charge for its services for four weeks to ensure continued connectivity

Coming to AT&T, it is also offering free data, calling, and texting services to the victims of Hurricane Milton. Notably, the telecom operator will waive charges for its services for four weeks, until November 7th, 2024. The brand’s both prepaid and postpaid consumers in specific ZIP codes are being helped during the Hurricane Milton crisis.

The brand noted that its subscribers may continue to receive usage alerts during the aforementioned period. However, their accounts will reflect the credits and/or waived data, voice, and text charges.

Pokémon developer Game Freak has confirmed it suffered a breach as troves of internal materials pertaining to the franchise — from source codes to early and, in some cases, scrapped character designs — hit social media this weekend. In a published on Thursday (translated from Japanese), the company said it discovered its servers were hacked in August and that sensitive employee information had been leaked. It did not address the Pokémon leaks, though the bulk of this content appears to have been published online after the statement was released.

Leaked documents and images flooded and X after began dumping it all on Saturday afternoon. The “Teraleak” files, as some fans are calling it, allegedly include source codes for past games such as Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, codenames for the Switch 2 and the upcoming Gen 10 Pokémon games — “Ounce” and “Gaia,” respectively — references to an in-development Pokémon MMO, and internal discussions from design meetings. There are also details on the purported unreleased Detective Pikachu sequel and other planned Pokémon movies, as well as a new anime series.

The scope of the leak is enormous, exposing tons of beta character designs and concept art in addition to the source codes. Neither Nintendo nor The Pokemon Company has publicly acknowledged the leak yet. Engadget has reached out for comment. Game Freak said in its statement that it’s strengthening its security and apologized to those affected by the breach, noting that the unauthorized third-party accessed the personal information of over 2,600 current and former workers.

Tesla made sure its Optimus robots were a big part of its extravagant, in-person Cybercab reveal last week. The robots mingled with the crowd, served drinks to and played games with guests, and danced inside a gazebo. Seemingly most surprisingly, they could even talk. But it was mostly just a show.

It’s obvious when you watch the videos from the event, of course. If Optimus really was a fully autonomous machine that could immediately react to verbal and visual cues while talking, one-on-one, to human beings in a dimly lit crowd, that would be mind-blowing.

Attendee Robert Scoble posted that he’d learned humans were “remote assisting” the robots, later clarifying that an engineer had told him the robots used AI to walk, spotted Electrek. Morgan Stanley analyst Adam Jonas wrote that the robots “relied on tele-ops (human intervention)” in a note, the outlet reports.

There are obvious tells to back those claims up, like the fact that the robots all have different voices or that their responses were immediate, with gesticulation to match.

It doesn’t feel like Tesla was going out of its way to make anyone think the Optimus machines were acting on their own. In another video that Jalopnik pointed to, an Optimus’ voice jokingly told Scoble that “it might be some” when he asked it how much it was controlled by AI.

Another robot — or the human voicing it — told an attendee in a stilted impression of a synthetic voice, “Today, I am assisted by a human,” adding that it’s not fully autonomous. (The voice stumbled on the word “autonomous.”)

Musk first announced Tesla’s humanoid robot by bringing what was very clearly a person in a robot suit on stage, so it’s no surprise that the Optimuses (Optimi? Optimodes?) at last week’s event were hyperbolic in their presentation. And people who went didn’t seem to feel upset or betrayed by that. But if you were hoping to have any sense of how far along Tesla truly is in its humanoid robotics work, the “We, Robot” event wasn’t the place to look.