Leo Says Ep. 38 – GTX 1660 Ti, DLSS, 16in MacBook Pro, and USB alphabet spaghetti

Today Leo returns with another episode of Leo Says. As always, our grumpy hero has a lot to discuss, touching first on GTX 1660 Ti and its distinct lack of RTX features. He also mentions DLSS and its limitations as explored by HARDWARE UNBOXED, while there is also news of a new 16in MacBook Pro and an overview of some announcements made at MWC 2019. You can also bet that Leo has a lot to say about the new USB naming conventions, too…

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00:10 Introduction
00:18 Nvidia RTX and GTX – hows its all shaping up?
02:41 Nvidia DLSS getting a pasting from online media including Hardware Unboxed
05:23 Intel 9th Gen CPUs for notebooks due in Q2
08:11 Apple will produce a 16-inch MacBook Pro
09:30 Apple slipped out Radeon Pro Vega without an announcement – Navi Next?
10:20 Gigabyte’s Xeon W3175X motherboard has been named as C621 Aorus Extreme
11:11 MWC was all about 5G and folding phones
14:09 USB 3.2 is coming soon with 5Gbps, 10Gbps and 20Gbps versions.
17:16 USB4 specs announced in a few months time with a 40Gbps connection. USB4 incorporates Thunderbolt 3

Notes for Leo Says 38

Nvidia has launched GTX 1660 Ti, a non-Ray Tracing part that bats at a similar level as GTX 1070. We understand they will launch GTX 1660 and 1650 in March. This is an interesting move as everything Nvidia said about Ray Tracing and RTX counts against GTX 1660 Ti, however the performance, price and low power draw beat AMD Polaris and make GTX 1660 Ti a winner.

Nvidia DLSS has received a pasting, not least from Hardware Unboxed both in terms of the permitted combinations of GPU and resolution, and also in terms of the way it works. In essence DLSS only works when RTX is enabled and it regains the performance you lose by blurring the image. 4K with DLSS has similar performance levels to rendering at 1800p.

Intel 9th Gen CPUs for notebooks due in Q2
Core i9-9980HK 8 cores/16 threads, Turbo to around 4.8GHz
Core i7-9850H 8 cores/8 threads, Turbo to 4.6GHz
Core i5-9400H 4 cores/8 threads, Turbo to 4.3GHz
Very likely these will be 45W parts so the base clocks will be low.

And in other rumours, Apple will produce a 16-inch MacBook Pro
If the screen is edge-to-edge it is possible the chassis will have the same footprint as the current 15-inch model but you would have thought the priority was to add some bulk to the chassis to help cooling.
Radeon Pro Vega graphics will surely be superseded by Navi.

Gigabyte’s Xeon W3175X motherboard has been named as C621 Aorus Extreme

MWC was all about 5G and folding phones
We saw Royole FlexPai at CES 2019
Huawei Mate X looks superb but crazy expensive at US$2300
Samsung Galaxy Fold closes up like a paperback book and is priced at US$2000

USB 3.2 is coming soon with 5Gbps, 10Gbps and 20Gbps versions.
5Gbps is a rebadging of USB 3.0 or USB 3.1 Gen 1 and 10Gbps is a rebadged USB 3.1 Gen 2.
20Gbps is a shotgunned connection that will be named USB 3.2 2×2.
How any of us will know which device will run at what speed is a complete mystery.
We expect to see the first USB 3.2 logos on AMD X570 motherboards at Computex (along with PCI Express 4)

The specification for USB4 will be announced in a few months time with a 40Gbps connection. USB4 incorporates Thunderbolt 3. Intel's Press Release “this …enables other chip makers to build Thunderbolt compatible silicon, royalty-free”

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