Computex 2021 will combine a hybrid on-site and online event. The show will begin Tuesday, June 1, and end Saturday, June 5, with keynotes from Nvidia, AMD, Intel and ARM to be presented before the official start of the event.
We’re expecting big announcements from the top players in the field in what is likely to be the biggest computing event of the year. Before the event officially starts, here’s what we expect to see at Computex 2021.
What to expect from Nvidia at Computex 2021
At Computex, all eyes are on Nvidia. Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of GeForce, and Manuvir Das, head of enterprise computing, will deliver the keynote address at 10 p.m. PT on Monday, May 31, right before Computex officially starts. The event is titled “The Transformational Power of Accelerated Computing, from Gaming to the Enterprise Data Center,” which tells you exactly what will be on the agenda.
Das will lead the corporate portion of the keynote, and we don’t expect to see any major announcements. Just a few months ago at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia talked about a lot of things, including the Grace supercomputer and the RTX A5000 for creative professionals. Nvidia says it’s about “democratizing A.I. to make A.I. capabilities available to more businesses.”
This sounds like the Nvidia A.I. Enterprise software package. This software package is currently in an early access period, and when it is fully released, it should help small businesses and industries take advantage of A.I. The software can run on Nvidia-certified off-the-shelf servers and supports the available VMware vSphere. In addition to talking about the software package, we expect Nvidia to talk about the BlueField-3 chip for data centers, as well as the upcoming RTX Studio notebooks.
Fisher will lead the gaming portion. The talk “will discuss how Nvidia is addressing the explosive growth of the global gaming market,” which could mean several things. Nvidia will touch on the recently announced Lite Hash Rate GPUs and how they will combat GPU demand. But the big news is likely to be the RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti.
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Rumors about these updated GPUs have been around for months. We’ve seen pallets of the cards on their way to the U.S., retailer announcements confirming pricing details, and even pictures of the new GPU core that will be used in these cards.
We expect Nvidia to release both cards. According to the latest reports, reviews of the RTX 3080 Ti and 3070 Ti will appear on June 2 and June 9, respectively. The release date will be either the day of the review or the day after, and the announcement will take place during the keynote.
What to expect from AMD at Computex 2021
AMD CEO Lisa Su will give a keynote address right before Nvidia, Monday, May 31, at 7 p.m. PT. The keynote will be titled “AMD Accelerating – The High-Performance Computing Ecosystem” and will focus on AMD’s achievements in “high-performance computing and graphics solutions.” Thus, AMD plans to talk about what AMD does (understandably).
Su could talk about what AMD is doing in the data center, but we don’t have any information about that right now. However, we do have rumors about the RX 6600 and 6600 XT. These two new graphics cards have not yet been announced by AMD. Leaks over the past few weeks have revealed the case size and detailed specs of the cards. They will sit below the flagship AMD RX 6800 XT GPU, focused on 1080p gaming in budget builds.
According to recent reports, these cards will be based on the Navi 23 GPU, which is used in the upcoming, but not yet announced, RX 6000M series of mobile graphics cards. Nothing is certain, but we will be shocked if AMD doesn’t show the RX 6000M chips at Computex. HP just announced an Omen 16 laptop with “RDNA 2-based graphics,” which is such a thin veil that it may not be there.
We don’t expect much in the way of processors. AMD has already released the Ryzen 5000G APU, and while Ryzen 6000 processors are on the way, we don’t expect AMD to officially announce them this far. Instead of a specific product line, AMD will likely talk about Zen 4, with vague statements about what it can do in 2022.
However, we may see some mobile announcements. A leaked roadmap shows that AMD has several product lines for mobile machines, the most important of which is the Rembrandt. The Rembrandt “H” and “U” processors, based on the Zen 3-plus architecture, are on the way, so AMD may start launching the product during its show.
What to expect from Intel at Computex 2021
Intel will deliver a virtual keynote address at 7 p.m. PT on Sunday, May 30. The Innovation Unleashed keynote address will be delivered by Executive Vice President Michelle Johnston Holthaus, Corporate Vice President of Client Computing Sales Steve Long and Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Xeon and Memory Group Lisa Spelman. The keynote address will offer “a firsthand look at how new CEO Pat Gelsinger’s strategies … are ushering in a new era of innovation at Intel.” This new era has to do with 10nm.
In data centers, Intel will likely focus on Sapphire Rapids, the next generation of the Xeon Scalable platform built on the 10nm architecture. As for desktops, Intel will talk more about the upcoming Alder Lake-S. Intel unveiled these chips at CES 2021, and they are expected to arrive later this year.
We can also get a glimpse of Intel‘s upcoming dedicated graphics card. Intel’s game developer relations specialist said in early May that the DG2 graphics card is “just around the corner.” This card will apparently compete with the best solutions from AMD and Nvidia, and was originally expected to arrive in 2022. It may come sooner than expected, and Intel may use Computex to show it off.
What to expect from ARM at Computex 2021
ARM CEO Simon Segars will give a keynote address at 11 p.m. PT on Sunday, May 30. The talk, titled “Sparking the World’s Post-Pandemic Recovery,” will focus on the pandemic semiconductor shortage.
The press release announcing the talk focuses on the ARMv9 architecture, which was released in March. Segars will talk about how ARM is using this new architecture to address complex issues such as climate change and cybersecurity, as well as to meet the high demand for computing technology in various business sectors.
Rene Haas, president of the IP Products Group, will speak at 12:01 p.m. Pacific Time on Wednesday, June 2. This talk will be more focused on A.I. and may complement Nvidia’s presentations about A.I. throughout the event. We do not expect any new product announcements from either presentation.
