Intel Computex Press Briefing - Devil's Canyon, 4K and PC Growth

Intel Desktop Press Briefing Computex 2014

The veils are finally coming off Intel's next batch of CPUs and with Computex likely to reveal all manner of weird and wonderful PC-related tech, the CPU giant has released yet more details on both Haswell refresh and Devil's Canyon. Most we already knew but there's some interesting information on the outlook for desktop PCs and the angle Intel is taking towards several key areas, namely 4K, small formfactor PCs, gaming and of course overclocking.

PC Growth

First up are some heart-warming figures for the PC industry that Intel was keen to highlight. The humble desktop is finally seeming some sale growth with volumes increasing 16 per cent year-to-year to March 2014 while small form factor desktops saw a 51 per cent year on year increase now accounting for 18 percent of the desktop unit sales - these aren't just your average mini-ITX system, though.


Everything from NUCs to other embedded systems are included but it's an interesting hike nonetheless. It was also keen to point out that all-in-one systems featuring its Baytrail-D system-on-chip were now much cheaper than just a year ago, with prices now down to sub $399 levels for desktop all-in-ones and $599 for portables. The mini PC market is also booming with the likes of the NUC, Apple Mac Mini and various Chromeboxes seeing a near 300 per cent boost to the number of mini PC designs since 2012.

As we've seen with our own Intel NUC reviews, they're certainly much more attractive with a Core i3 or Core i5-based CPU and Intel is citing the fact that these systems are scalable up to Core i7, plus integrated WiFi and low power draw are appealing to those that need a PC to take up as little space as possible and don't need traditional desktop performance. PC gaming is important for Intel here too, though, with PC gaming hardware revenue expected to grow from $20bn in 2013 to 25bn by 2016, with similar growth in gaming software by 2015.

4K

Intel views 4K as an important stepping stone into ushering in a new era for PCs and has been collaborating with Samsung to offer more affordable panels. These are exactly what we're seeing landing on etailers shelves at the moment with most 60Hz 28in models retailing for as little as £499 - a huge drop compared to just a few months ago.


Clearly it has its crosshairs on the all-in-one segment here as well as PC gamers but with little else to boost the demand for new systems other than the migration to Windows 7 or Windows 8 from XP, 4K could be the silver bullet. With Windows 8.1's improved 4K scaling and 4K already being supported on TVs, cameras and the latest cellphones in terms of image and video capture, 2014 is going to be a big year for 4K.

Head over the page to see all the juicy information on the new CPUs