A new patch series for the Linux kernel introduces a 'Swap Table' to improve swap management, resulting in significant performance gains such as up to 20% faster throughput and improved build times, with positive results across various workloads and benchmarks. The overhaul aims to make swap management more efficient, future-proof, and easier to extend, with hopes of upstreaming into the mainline kernel.
Early benchmarks of the new M3 MacBook Air with an 8-core CPU and up to 10-core GPU show roughly 20 percent gain in single-core and 18 percent gain in multi-core performance compared to the M2 chip. The device also boasts upgraded connectivity with support for Wi-Fi 6E and dual external displays, and pre-orders will begin on Friday, March 8 in the United States.
The Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 offers double-digit performance gains compared to the overclocked Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, but at the cost of increased power consumption and reduced efficiency. The increased clock speed of all the Cortex-A720 cores in the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 improves multi-core performance, but also raises power consumption by 28%. Phone makers using this chipset will need to intelligently tune the CPU cluster to avoid performance degradation, and thermal management will be crucial to prevent thermal throttling.
Intel's latest BETA driver, version 31.0.101.4952, offers significant performance improvements in 17 games, with double-digit gains across the board. The driver is optimized for five new games and delivers up to a 750% increase in FPS for Halo: The Master Chief Collection at 1080p resolution with Enhanced settings. These improvements were observed on the Arc A750 GPU and i9-13900K system, often with ray tracing enabled. Intel continues to work on driver optimizations ahead of the Battlemage launch.
