Loongson Launches New Desktop Processors

The Chinese chipmaker Loongson has introduced its latest desktop processors, the 3A6000 series, which feature 4 cores and 8 threads. These processors are based on the company's LoongArch microarchitecture. Loongson aims to compete with Intel's "Willow Cove" and AMD's Zen 3 instruction per clock (IPC) levels with its 3A6000 CPU series. The performance of the 3A6000 series has been previewed, showcasing its capabilities.

The 3A6000 processors, powered by the LA664 cores, are manufactured using a 14/12 nm process. They have clock speeds ranging from 2.0 to 2.5 GHz and a power consumption of up to 50 Watts. The processors come with 256 KB of L2 cache and a total of 16 MB of L3 cache.

ASUS China's "Uncle Tony" was able to obtain one of the new Loongson-powered processors and successfully overclocked it to 2.63 GHz using air cooling. In tests with liquid nitrogen cooling, the processor reached 3.0 GHz, indicating that there is still potential for further overclocking. In its standard configuration, the 3A6000 performs similarly to Intel's Core i3-10100 four-core CPU, which is a notable achievement for Loongson. However, it falls behind Intel's latest offerings that have much higher clock speeds.

The rapid development of Loongson's IP has resulted in a significant increase in performance, matching the instruction per clock (IPC) of modern CPUs. More information about the 3A6000 series SKUs is yet to be revealed, but early benchmarks suggest a significant improvement. Below are CPU benchmarks, including UnixBench and SPEC CPU 2006, as well as images of the overclocked CPU and the ASUS XC-LS3A6M motherboard housing the Loongson 3A600 CPU.