Windows Blue Preview Realease date News & Rumors

Microsoft continues to reveal details about the update to Windows 8, now known as Windows 8.1 and formerly known as Windows Blue.

The new features for Windows 8.1 will be previewed at the Microsoft Build developer conference in June and the final version will be available as a free downloadable Windows 8 update.

Microsoft also said in early May that there would be a preview version available before full release

RELEASE DATE

Windows 8.1 also known by code name 'BLUE' will be released on june 26 this year. The final Build will be released in the late 2013, while there will also be some new Windows Blue hardware.

In a post on the official Windows blog early in May, Tamy Reller, Microsoft's chief marketing office and chief financial officer, confirmed that the update will be available "later this year", and certainly by Christmas.

Quite how the upcoming preview release will work in practice remains to be seen, but you might not be able to install it straight into an existing Windows 8 install.

If you happen to be one of the small number of users who have a Windows RT device like Surface RT, we're sure you'll be thrilled to know that the Windows 8.1 update will also be coming to your device.

Windows BLUE Feature Set

• There will be some new apps with windows 8.1 update. 
• The Metro apps will have three sizes available.
• Internet explorer ill get a new version i-e IE 11
• Support for new devices
• Support of smart cards, used for both mobile payment systems and for identification purposes
• Able to Boot straight to desktop
• More synchronization between pcs and your user account like start menu and internet explorer tabs
• More personalisation options
• Support for 4k devices.

AMD A4-5000 APU (Kabini) Review and Benchmarks

With four CPU cores and a clock rate of 1.5 GHz (no turbo), the A4-5000 currently represents the second-fastest model from the Kabini series. The whole range starts with two cores and 1.0 GHz (E1-2100) and reaches up to the top model with four cores and 2.0 GHz (A6-5200). The graphics performance also differs: While the A4-5000's Radeon HD 8330 clocks at 500 MHz, the frequencies of other models lie somewhere between 300 and 600 MHz.  However, the construction and number of shaders (2 compute units, 128 GCN) are identical for all the APUs.

Compared to the especially frugal Temash tablet-chip, the Kabini's power consumption is a bit higher. This is partly due to the Kabini's higher clock frequencies, but also partly because it supports faster memory types and additional I/O connectors. The A4-5000 we tested is specified at 15 watts; other models are specified at somewhere between 9 and 25 watts.

Cinebench R11.5
CPU Multi 64Bit
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	1.49 Points∼12%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	1.02 Points∼9%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	1.78 Points∼15%
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba MK5075GSX	1.34 Points∼11%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	0.85 Points∼7%
Samsung Serie 3 355E5C-S02DE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7470M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547575A9E384	0.64 Points∼5%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	1.13 Points∼9%
CPU Single 64Bit
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	0.38 Points∼3%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	0.33 Points∼3%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	0.76 Points∼6%
Toshiba Satellite L830-10F 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba MK5075GSX	0.56 Points∼4%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	0.63 Points∼5%
Samsung Serie 3 355E5C-S02DE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7470M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547575A9E384	0.33 Points∼3%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	0.59 Points∼5%

X264 HD Benchmark 4.0
Pass 1
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	41.49 fps∼24%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	29.13 fps∼17%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	57.07 fps∼33%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	41.9 fps∼24%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	30.66 fps∼18%
Asus U32U-RX042V E-450, Radeon HD 6320, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	16.17 fps∼9%
Pass 2
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	8.74 fps∼16%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	6.04 fps∼11%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	10.35 fps∼19%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	7.5 fps∼14%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	5.73 fps∼10%
Asus U32U-RX042V E-450, Radeon HD 6320, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	2.89 fps∼5%

TrueCrypt
AES Mean 100MB
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	0.929 GB/s∼18%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	0.674 GB/s∼13%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	0.177 GB/s∼3%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	0.126 GB/s∼2%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	0.512 GB/s∼10%
Sony Vaio SVE-1111M1E/P E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Western Digital WD5000BPVT-55HXZT3	0.0891 GB/s∼2%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	0.1 GB/s∼2%
Twofish Mean 100MB
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	0.165 GB/s∼19%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	0.109 GB/s∼13%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	0.16 GB/s∼18%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	0.111 GB/s∼13%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	0.101 GB/s∼12%
Sony Vaio SVE-1111M1E/P E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Western Digital WD5000BPVT-55HXZT3	0.0734 GB/s∼8%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	0.0827 GB/s∼10%
Serpent Mean 100MB
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	0.103 GB/s∼6%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	0.064 GB/s∼4%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	0.094 GB/s∼6%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	0.063 GB/s∼4%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	0.058 GB/s∼3%
Sony Vaio SVE-1111M1E/P E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Western Digital WD5000BPVT-55HXZT3	0.0502 GB/s∼3%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	0.0462 GB/s∼3%

WinRAR
Result
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	1078 ∼21%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	785 ∼15%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	1889 ∼37%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	1535 ∼30%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	865 ∼17%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	486 ∼9%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	1107 ∼22%

3DMark 06 - CPU
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	1992 ∼24%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	1409 ∼17%
Asus VivoBook S300CA 3217U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	2229 ∼26%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	1726 ∼20%
Samsung 535U4C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7550M, Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 HTS547550A9E384	1372 ∼16%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	1061 ∼13%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	1487 ∼18%

GPU BENCHMARKS

3DMark (2013)
1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Score
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	23754 Points∼19%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	18211 Points∼14%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB 3227U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	28088 Points∼22%
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA 2540M, HD Graphics 3000, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU	26905 Points∼21%
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX 1000M, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075	20208 Points∼16%
1280x720 Ice Storm Standard Graphics
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	25774 Points∼9%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	21788 Points∼8%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB 3227U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	31435 Points∼11%
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA 2540M, HD Graphics 3000, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU	26222 Points∼9%
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX 1000M, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075	23520 Points∼8%
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Score
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	2143 Points∼11%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	1560 Points∼8%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB 3227U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	3100 Points∼16%
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA 2540M, HD Graphics 3000, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU	2484 Points∼13%
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX 1000M, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075	1875 Points∼10%
1280x720 Cloud Gate Standard Graphics
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	2465 Points∼5%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	1914 Points∼4%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB 3227U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	3848 Points∼8%
HP EliteBook 2760p-LG682EA 2540M, HD Graphics 3000, Samsung MZ7PC128HBFU	2428 Points∼5%
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX 1000M, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075	2222 Points∼5%
1920x1080 Fire Strike Standard Score
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	338 Points∼4%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	241 Points∼3%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB 3227U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	455 Points∼6%
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX 1000M, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075	251 Points∼3%
1920x1080 Fire Strike Standard Graphics
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	353 Points∼5%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	260 Points∼4%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E130 NZUAXMB 3227U, HD Graphics 4000, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	494 Points∼7%
Toshiba Satellite C850-1LX 1000M, HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge), TOSHIBA MQ01ABD075	279 Points∼4%

3DMark Vantage
1280x1024 P Result no PhysX
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	1824 Points∼5%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	1272 Points∼3%
Toshiba Satellite U940-100 3217U, HD Graphics 4000,	2604 Points∼7%
Samsung 535U3C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	2410 Points∼7%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	1331 Points∼4%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	1071 Points∼3%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	789 Points∼2%
1280x1024 P GPU no PhysX
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	1526 Points∼4%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	1075 Points∼3%
Toshiba Satellite U940-100 3217U, HD Graphics 4000,	2194 Points∼6%
Samsung 535U3C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	2322 Points∼6%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	1076 Points∼3%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	923 Points∼3%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	626 Points∼2%

3DMark 06
1280x1024 Standard AA:0x AF:0x
AMD Kabini Reference A4-5000, , Toshiba MQ01ABD032	3361 Points∼11%
Acer Aspire V5-122P-61454G50NSS A6-1450, Radeon HD 8250, Western Digital Scorpio Blue WD5000LPVX	2366 Points∼8%
Toshiba Satellite U940-100 3217U, HD Graphics 4000,	4424 Points∼15%
Samsung 535U3C A6-4455M, Radeon HD 7500G, Hitachi Travelstar Z5K500 HTS545050A7E380	4903 Points∼17%
Toshiba Portégé Z830-10N 2367M, HD Graphics 3000, Toshiba THNSNB128GMCJ	3261 Points∼11%
Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E135 NZV5YGE E2-1800, Radeon HD 7340, Hitachi Travelstar Z7K500 HTS725050A7E630	2470 Points∼8%
Acer Aspire One 756 NU.SH0EG.007 987, HD Graphics 2000, Seagate Momentus Thin ST320LT020-9YG142	2288 Points∼8%

Three factors are responsible for fact that the A4-5000's 3D performance is clearly superior to that of the A6-1450. First: At 600 MHz, the Radeon HD 8330 clocks exactly 20 percent faster than the Radeon HD 8250. Second: Thanks to the APU's DDR3L-1600 memory, the GPU has more memory bandwidth at its command (A6-1450: DDR3L-1066). And third: The higher CPU performance allows the graphics unit to function less constrained.

Ultimately that's still not enough for the GPU to attain to the level of Intel's HD Graphics 4000, but at least it beats the HD Graphics 3000 and HD Graphics (Ivy Bridge) in most cases. For a very inexpensive and frugal entry-level solution, that's certainly not a bad result.

Unfortunately, for the time being we can't share the results from the popular 3DMark 11 benchmark with you. The driver pre-installed by AMD, which is only a few weeks old, seems to be suffering from a few bugs and caused this benchmark to crash repeatedly. But our estimated score for the device in the performance preset is somewhere between 550 to 600 points.

GPU Performance (Games)

	low	med.	high	ultra
Battlefield 3 (2011)	15	9.8	8		fps
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (2011)	18.5	13.3	9.1		fps
Anno 2070 (2011)	37.7	16.6	10.4		fps
Diablo III (2012)	35.4	22.4	19.2		fps
Dirt Showdown (2012)	27.7	20.7	16.2		fps
Sleeping Dogs (2012)	26.3	19.4	7.4		fps
Counter-Strike: GO (2012)	41.5	37.2	26.8		fps
Dishonored (2012)	23.5	18.6	16.7		fps
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 (2012)	28.5	19.1	8.7		fps
Hitman: Absolution (2012)	14.8	11.9	5.7		fps
Crysis 3 (2013)	13.9	8.3	5.1		fps
Tomb Raider (2013)	27	13.7	9.5		fps
BioShock Infinite (2013)	26	13.3	11.1		fps

Power Consumption

Idle: (Measurements on Windows 8 Desktop)

• Energy-saving mode, minimum brightness, WLAN off: 5.1 watts
• Balanced, maximum brightness, WLAN off: 9.5 watts
• High-performance, maximum brightness, WLAN on: 10.5 watts

Load: (Measurements with high-performance, maximum brightness and WLAN on)

• Cinebench R11.5 Single (1.5 GHz CPU): 13.7 watts
• Cinebench R11.5 Multi (1.5 GHz CPU): 17.0 watts
• Prime95 large FFTs (1.5 GHz CPU): 20.5 watts
• FurMark (1.5 GHz CPU): 20.7 watts
• Prime95 + FurMark (1.5 GHz CPU): 26.6 watts
• 3DMark 06: 19.9 watts

VERDICT

Small differences, big effect: The A4-5000 APU's somewhat higher clock frequencies (CPU, GPU and memory) compared to the A6-1450 really pay off, especially when the unit is running games; at least the increase in speed makes some less demanding titles from the last few years playable. But in everyday application scenarios as well, the A4-5000 APU works noticeably "livelier". Anyone who generally just surfs the internet, works on a few office documents or watches videos will hardly need more performance than the APU has to offer.

Compared with the competing Intel CPUs, the A4-5000's graphics unit particularly stands out, as it almost attains to the level of the HD 4000 Ivy Bridge processor. Unfortunately, the A4-5000 is only threatening to older ULV models like the Core i3-2367M when running well-parallelized software; the performance of its single cores falls far behind many other models. We hope coming models with an additional CPU turbo will follow.

Even so, the A4-5000 represents a very interesting option for inexpensive subnotebooks with a long battery life. And there's a lot more reason for that than just the fancy "Quad-Core" sticker.