Retailer specific discounts are creating quite the pileup of graphics card options between the $300 to $500 mark. With enough time spent finding the right deal, you could potentially buy a much faster graphics card that you'd planned for, at a given price. Hot on the heels on a recent Best Buy deal that brought the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB down to $344, or within just $15 of the Radeon RX 7600 XT, we're hearing about a couple of Newegg deals that see the Radeon RX 7700 XT down to just $353, or $9 more than the RTX 4060 Ti, and $24 more than an RX 7600 XT.

At $353, the RX 7700 XT changes the game, as it is a firmly 1440p-class GPU, compared to the 1080p-class RTX 4060 Ti and RX 7600 XT. In our testing, the Radeon RX 7700 XT is an incredible 17% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti at 1080p for just $9 more; and 19% faster than it at 1440p. Compared to the RX 7600 XT, the RX 7700 XT is a staggering 39% faster at 1080p, and 44% faster at 1440p. Even with ray tracing enabled, the RX 7700 XT dominates the RTX 4060 Ti. At 1080p with ray tracing enabled, the RTX 4060 Ti averages just 2% faster than the RX 7700 XT, but at 1440p, the RX 7700 XT in fact ends up 14% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti thanks to its much heavier SIMD engine, and 50% higher memory bandwidth. The Newegg deal doesn't even cover a cheap custom design, but the mighty PowerColor RX 7700 XT Hellhound and Fighter.

ZOTAC USA Inc., a leading manufacturer of innovative gaming hardware solutions, is thrilled to announce the market launch of three new MEK HERO pre-built Gaming PCs: the MEK HERO A7647S, A7647STI, and A7748S built using the latest ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER Twin Edge OC, ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Trinity OC White Edition, and ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Trinity Black Edition Graphic Cards. These are teamed up with AMD Ryzen 5 7600 and Ryzen 7 7700X processors, offering stunning 4K graphics for unprecedented gaming performance with AI-accelerated DLSS 3.5 and Real-Time Ray Tracing, bringing gamers an immersive gaming experience. This new series of MEK HERO offers 3 years of warranty coverage, specifically for the included ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series Graphics Card component.

The MEK HERO A7647S, A7647STI, and A7748S Gaming PCs feature 16 GB DDR5 system memory and NVMe M.2 SSD storage, elevating PC gaming and the visual content creation process to new heights. Each MEK HERO Gaming PC undergoes meticulous assembly and hand-testing in the United States, ensuring the highest build quality. Crafted for optimal performance, durability, and an unmatched experience, MEK HERO Gaming PCs with GeForce RTX 40 SUPER Series Graphics Cards are tailored to meet the demands of hardcore gamers and content creators alike.

AMD FSR 3 comes to Starfield in our latest Steam Beta. Those of you playing on Steam can opt into the Beta to see the improvements brought to the game before this update becomes available to all our PC Starfield players. This new feature allows for a combination of upscaling as well as advanced frame generation, boosting your framerate for better performance. While AMD's FSR 3 works for a wide range of video cards, you will want to verify that your system supports it so that you get the best experience. It is also recommended to use FSR 3 with VSync ON and with a VRR monitor for the best experience.

For those participating, you can enable FSR 3 by heading to Display Settings and accessing the Upscaling options. From there you will be able to cycle through the option best suited for your experience. As with any update, we look forward to reading your feedback and seeing you share your experiences. Thank you for your support and see you in Starfield!

Recently, MINISFORUM updated the CPU of V3 to AMD's latest Ryzen7 8840U on its official website. Previously, the preview page for V3 went live on January 3rd. It is understood that MINISFORUM is expected to hold the V3 and Spring New Product Launch Event at the end of March 2024. MINISFORUM V3 is the world's first high-performance AMD AI 3-in-1 tablet, featuring AMD's latest Ryzen7 8840U, built on a 4 nm process, with Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 GPU architecture, 8 cores 16 threads, a base frequency of 3.30 GHz, and a maximum boost frequency of 5.10 GHz, with a TDP of 15-30 W, and a 16 MB L3 cache. It integrates Radeon 780M graphics. V3 also boasts a dual-fan and four-copper-pipe cooling system, achieving 28 W sustained performance release, providing sustained power for AI model training, graphic rendering, video editing, and gaming entertainment.

The AMD 8840U is also paired with a proprietary XDNA AI processor, with NPU computing power up to 16TOPS and processor computing power up to 38TOPS. Based on this, V3 is equipped with a new AMD Ryzen AI, creating an AI Windows triple-in-one tablet PC with the highest security level from Microsoft, supporting Microsoft Real-time Communication, and hardware design supporting Microsoft Copilot, which can be called upon with a single click, providing real-time intelligent suggestions and assistance, helping users easily complete tasks in various scenarios for efficient office work.

AMD's newly announced Ryzen 8000G "Hawk Point" desktop APUs do not support ECC memory, contrary to what the specifications on the AMD website had initially shown, Reddit users found out. The company has since quietly edited its product pages to remove the bit about ECC support. For the overwhelming majority of desktop client use cases, including enthusiast PCs, ECC memory support is irrelevant. That said, the memory controllers of "Phoenix" in Ryzen PRO 7000 mobile processors for commercial notebooks support ECC memory, and so it stands to reason that upcoming Ryzen PRO models for both commercial desktops and notebooks might feature it.

The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and Ryzen 5 8600G are based on the 4 nm "Hawk Point" monolithic silicon, with a more overclocker-friendly set of DDR5 memory controllers than the ones found in the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" processors. Besides support for several high-frequency DDR5 modes, the memory controller technically supports ECC (at least "Phoenix" does, on the Ryzen PRO 7000 mobile processors). The memory controller also supports a maximum of 256 GB of memory, or 64 GB dual-rank memory modules per slot. It also supports 24 GB and 48 GB DIMM densities.

Prices of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card hit new lows, with a Sapphire custom-design card selling for $699 with a coupon discount on Newegg. This puts its price a whole $100 cheaper (12.5% cheaper) than the recently announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER. The most interesting part of the story is that the RX 7900 XT is technically from a segment above. Originally launched at $900, the RX 7900 XT is recommended by AMD for 4K Ultra HD gaming with ray tracing; while the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER is officially recommended by NVIDIA for maxed out gaming with ray tracing at 1440p, although throughout our testing, we found the card to be capable of 4K Ultra HD gaming.

The Radeon RX 7900 XT offers about the same performance as the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, averaging 1% higher than it in our testing, at the 4K Ultra HD resolution. At 1440p, the official stomping ground of the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, the RX 7900 XT comes out 2% faster. These are, of course pure raster 3D workloads. In our testing with ray tracing enabled, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER storms past the RX 7900 XT, posting 23% higher performance at 4K Ultra HD, and 21% higher performance at 1440p.

AMD today announced the launch of AMD Embedded+, a new architectural solution that combines AMD Ryzen Embedded processors with Versal adaptive SoCs onto a single integrated board to deliver scalable and power-efficient solutions that accelerate time-to-market for original design manufacturer (ODM) partners. Validated by AMD, the Embedded+ integrated compute platform helps ODM customers reduce qualification and build times for faster time-to-market without needing to expend additional hardware and R&D resources. ODM integration using Embedded+ architecture enables the use of a common software platform to develop designs with low power, small form factors, and long lifecycles for medical, industrial, and automotive applications.

"In automated systems, sensor data has diminishing value with time and must operate on the freshest information possible to enable the lowest latency, deterministic response," said Chetan Khona, senior director of Industrial, Vision, Healthcare and Sciences Markets, AMD. "In industrial and medical applications, many decisions need to happen in milliseconds. Embedded+ maximizes the value of partner and customer data, with energy efficiency and performant computing that enables them to focus in turn on addressing their customer and market needs."

PowerColor, a leader in innovative graphics card solutions, is proud to announce the launch of its latest marvel in the gaming world: the PowerColor RX 7900 XT Hellhound - Spectral White Edition. Following the overwhelming success of the 7800 XT Spectral White model, this new release brings the same unique design elements to the powerful Radeon 7900 XT series.

Spectral White Edition: A Symphony in White
The RX 7900 XT Hellhound Spectral White Edition is a testament to PowerColor's commitment to exceptional design and engineering. It features an all-white PCB, heatsink, and cooling solution, setting a new benchmark in graphics card aesthetics. This card is not just a performance powerhouse; it's a statement piece for any gaming setup, offering a pristine, unified look that white PC build enthusiasts will adore.

NVIDIA's latest RTX 40 series graphics cards feature impressive new technologies like DLSS 3 that can significantly enhance performance and image quality in games. However, owners of older 20 and 30 series NVIDIA GeForce RTX cards cannot officially benefit from these cutting-edge advances. DLSS 3's Frame Generation feature, in particular, requires dedicated hardware only found in NVIDIA's brand new Ada Lovelace architecture. But the ingenious modding community has stepped in with a creative workaround solution where NVIDIA has refused to enable frame generation functionality on older generation hardware. A new third-party modification can unofficially activate both upscaling (FSR, DLAA, DLSS or XeSS) and AMD Fluid Motion Frames on older NVIDIA cards equipped with Tensor Cores. Replacing two key DLL files and a small edit to the Windows registry enables the "DLSS 3" option to be activated in games running on older hardware.

In testing conducted by Digital Foundry, this modification delivered up to a 75% FPS boost - on par with the performance uplift official DLSS 3 provides on RTX 40 series cards. Games like Cyberpunk 2077, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and A Plague Tale: Requiem were used to benchmark performance. However, there can be minor visual flaws, including incorrect UI interpolation or random frame time fluctuations. Ironically, while the FSR 3 tech itself originates from AMD, the mod currently only works on NVIDIA cards. So, while not officially supported, the resourcefulness of the modding community has remarkably managed to bring cutting-edge frame generation to more NVIDIA owners - until AMD RDNA 3 cards can utilize it as well. This shows the incredible potential of community-driven software modification and innovation.

The Manjaro Linux team exhibited Orange Pi Neo gaming handhelds at the annual FOSDEM event this past weekend. Attendees were welcomed to play around with early examples at the KDE booth in Brussels, Belgium—Orange Pi expressed its ambition (last year) to expand its single-board operation into the flourishing handheld gaming PC market. According to past reports, the Neo was teased throughout 2023—so it was not surprising to witness working prototypes in the hands of open-source enthusiasts in recent days. Orange Pi has selected AMD's Ryzen 7 7840U "Phoenix" APU—a laptop/notebook processor that is emerging as the de facto choice for many handheld gaming systems. The most globally available mainstream Windows 11 options—ASUS ROG Ally and Lenovo Legion Go—sport Ryzen Z1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme SoCs, that are eerily similar in design to the popular Ryzen 7 7840U chip.

Orange Pi and Manjaro are targeting a late 2024 launch (according to Android Pimp)—this could place the Neo alongside potential next-generation devices with upgraded internals. Neo's unique selling point seems to be a slimmer (than normal) profile—the "ultra slim and small" handheld's dimensions are 259 mm x107 mm x 19.9 mm, coupled with a 7-inch FHD+ LCD screen (1920 x 1200, WUXGA, 16:10, 500 nits peak Brightness, 120 Hz Refresh Rate). A proper D-pad design and "YXBA" button layout indicate that a retro gaming-oriented playerbase is being targeted, although twin hall-effect sticks and linear triggers bring things firmly into the 2020s tech-wise.

In 2024, the tech industry remains steadfastly focused on AI, with the continued rollout of advanced AI chips leading to significant enhancements in processing speeds. TrendForce posits that this advancement is set to drive growth in both DRAM and NAND Flash across various AI applications, including smartphones, servers, and notebooks. The server sector is expected to see the most significant growth, with content per box for server DRAM projected to rise by 17.3% annually, while enterprise SSDs are forecast to increase by 13.2%. The market penetration rate for AI smartphones and AI PCs is expected to experience noticeable growth in 2025 and is anticipated to further drive the average content per box upward.

Looking first at smartphones, despite chipmakers focusing on improving processing performance, the absence of new AI functionalities has somewhat constrained the impact of AI. Memory prices plummeted in 2023 due to oversupply, making lower-priced options attractive and leading to a 17.5% increase in average DRAM capacity and a 19.2% increase in NAND Flash capacity per smartphone. However, with no new applications expected in 2024, the growth rate in content per box for both DRAM and NAND Flash in smartphones is set to slow down, estimated at 14.1% and 9.3%, respectively.

Changwang has released an interesting looking Mobile on Desktop (MoDT) Mini-ITX motherboard in China—as spotted by HXL—for AMD Ryzen 7000 series mobile processors. The manufacturer has chosen to forego with a short plus catchy model name—Changwang's product page lays out the basic facts within the board's title. This a 170 x 170 mm compact form factor board that is NAS and storage oriented—with an AMD FP8 socket that accommodates Zen 3+ "Rembrandt" and Zen 4 "Phoenix" processors. At present, the only available options to purchase are Ryzen 7 7840HS configurations (with or without an air cooler). The specification sheet lists other processor options, including the recently launched "Hawk Point" Ryzen 7 8845HS model, as well as Ryzen 9 7940HS, Ryzen 7 7735HS (Zen 3+ Rembrandt), and Ryzen 5 7640HS.

You are limited to SODIMM (up to 5600 MT/s with the 7840HS config), due to Changwang choosing a mobile processor platform for a compact desktop motherboard that offers little in terms of upgradability. As pointed out by Tom's Hardware: "These motherboards with integrated Ryzen 7000 "Phoenix" processors might have been pretty killer a few months ago, but just days ago, AMD launched its Ryzen 8000G series APUs for the desktop, which use the same Phoenix chip that the Ryzen 7040HS chips use. Ryzen 8000G chips are a little faster, more customizable, and can be installed and upgraded like regular desktop chips, which are all significant points against Changwang's motherboard...However, when it comes to price, Changwang has the advantage. With a cost of 2888 RMB or about $400, the Ryzen 7 7840HS-equipped board looks pretty decent. A Ryzen 7 8700G retails for $329, and the cheapest AM5 Mini-ITX boards cost $130 at minimum (and come with the A620 chipset)." The Changwang board also offers an unprecedented number of interface options—its unique selling points include support for nine SATA drives, four 2.5 Gbit NICs, Thunderbolt 4, USB 4, PCIe Gen 4x4, etc.

AMD is readying the new 800-series motherboard chipset to launch alongside its next-generation Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" desktop processors that implement the "Zen 5" microarchitecture. The chipset family will be led by the AMD X870E, a successor to the current X670E. Since AMD isn't changing the CPU socket, and this is very much the same Socket AM5, the 800-series chipset will support not just "Granite Ridge" at launch, but also the Ryzen 7000 series "Raphael," and Ryzen 8000 series "Hawk Point." Moore's Law is Dead goes into the details of what sets the X870E apart from the current X670E, and it all has to do with USB4.

Apparently, motherboard manufacturers will be mandated to include 40 Gbps USB4 connectivity with AMD X870E, which essentially makes the chipset a 3-chip solution—two Promontory 21 bridge chips, and a discrete ASMedia ASM4242 USB4 host controller; although it's possible that AMD's QVL will allow other brands of USB4 controllers as they become available. The Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" are chiplet based processors just like the Ryzen 7000 "Raphael," and while the 4 nm "Zen 5" CCDs are new, the 6 nm client I/O die (cIOD) is largely carried over from "Raphael," with a few updates to its memory controller. DDR5-6400 will be the new AMD-recommended "sweetspot" speed; although AMD might get its motherboard vendors to support DDR5-8000 EXPO profiles with an FCLK of 2400 MHz, and a divider.

AMD's December 2023 launch of new Instinct series accelerators has generated a lot of tech news buzz and excitement within the financial world, but not many folks are privy to Team Red's MSRP for the CDNA 3.0 powered MI300X and MI300A models. A Citi report has pulled back the curtain, albeit with "projected" figures—an inside source claims that Microsoft has purchased the Instinct MI300X 192 GB model for ~$10,000 a piece. North American enterprise customers appear to have taken delivery of the latest MI300 products around mid-January time—inevitably, top secret information has leaked out to news investigators. SeekingAlpha's article (based on Citi's findings) alleges that the Microsoft data center division is AMD's top buyer of MI300X hardware—GPT-4 is reportedly up and running on these brand new accelerators.

The leakers claim that businesses further down the (AI and HPC) food chain are having to shell out $15,000 per MI300X unit, but this is a bargain when compared to NVIDIA's closest competing package—the venerable H100 SXM5 80 GB professional card. Team Green, similarly, does not reveal its enterprise pricing to the wider public—Tom's Hardware has kept tabs on H100 insider info and market leaks: "over the recent quarters, we have seen NVIDIA's H100 80 GB HBM2E add-in-card available for $30,000, $40,000, and even much more at eBay. Meanwhile, the more powerful H100 80 GB SXM with 80 GB of HBM3 memory tends to cost more than an H100 80 GB AIB." Citi's projection has Team Green charging up to four times more for its H100 product, when compared to Team Red MI300X pricing. NVIDIA's dominant AI GPU market position could be challenged by cheaper yet still very performant alternatives—additionally chip shortages have caused Jensen & Co. to step outside their comfort zone. Tom's Hardware reached out to AMD for comment on the Citi pricing claims—a company representative declined this invitation.

QNAP Systems, Inc., a leading computing, networking, and storage solution innovator, today introduced the TS-h3077AFU, a highly reliable 30-bay SATA 6 Gb/s all-flash SSD NAS with a ZFS-based operating system, cutting-edge AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series processors and integrated AMD Radeon Graphics. With up to 1.6M/1.2M iSCSI 4K random read/write IOPS, DDR5 RAM, built-in dual-port 10/2.5 GbE, upgradability to 100 GbE, PCIe Gen 4 expandability, and scalability to petabyte-scale storage, the TS-h3077AFU meets uncompromising performance demands in 4K/8K video workflows, storage centers, and virtualization. The QuTS hero operating system also features ZFS data reduction and SSD optimization, ensuring the utmost performance, lifespan, and efficiency from all-flash investments.

"The TS-h3077AFU redefines the landscape of storage solutions, offering not just capacity but also efficiency and performance for the most demanding business environments. Its capabilities in graphics processing, connectivity, and reliability, provided by the powerful AMD Ryzen Embedded 7000 Series Processor, position it as a game-changer in the industry," said Meiji Chang, General Manager of QNAP.

Raytheon, an RTX business, has been awarded a $20 million contract through the Strategic and Spectrum Missions Advanced Resilient Trusted Systems (S2MARTS) consortium to develop a next-generation multi-chip package for use in ground, maritime and airborne sensors. Under the contract, Raytheon will package state-of-the-art commercial devices from industry partners like AMD to create a compact microelectronics package that will convert radio frequency energy to digital information with more bandwidth and higher data rates. The integration will result in new system capabilities designed with higher performance, lower power consumption and reduced weight.

"By teaming with commercial industry, we can incorporate cutting-edge technology into Department of Defense applications on a much faster timescale," said Colin Whelan, president of Advanced Technology at Raytheon. "Together, we will deliver the first multi-chip package that features the latest in interconnect ability - which will provide new system capabilities to our warfighters."

Tianbo has prepared a very an intriguing Cyberpunk 2077-themed Mini PC for the Chinese gaming hardware market—the JD.com listing (as reported by VideoCardz) showcases black and white enclosures with a sci-fi aesthetic and plenty of RGB lighting courtesy of the slimline internal cooling solution's illuminated 9 cm fan. It is not immediately clear whether CD Projekt and R. Talsorian Games have jointly approved the GOD88 Mini PC's prominent usage of their Cyberpunk title/logo/font. The specification sheet and accompanying imagery place emphasis on the Cyber GOD88's APU of choice: an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS mobile processor—this sits at second place within Team Red's recently launched 8040 "Hawk Point" series, their Ryzen 9 8945HS chip takes principal position here.

The GOD88's Ryzen 7 8845HS APU is no slouch when compared to the Ryzen 9 sibling—it runs the same 8-core/16-thread configuration, with a 5.1 GHz max boost (only trailing behind by 100 MHz). The spec sheet mentions a configurable TDP of 35 - 54 W. Tianbo's Mini PC is sold as a barebones system, according to the JD.com product page—customers are expected to plug in their own choice of RAM and storage. Dual-channel DDR5-5600 memory is supported, while the cramped interior can accommodate a single full-sized M.2 2280 PCIe 4×4 SSD. The Tianbo GOD88 "High Performance" Cyberpunk Mini PC will be open to pre-orders (via JD.com) on February 5—barebones pricing is set at 2688 RMB (~$378.50).

Everyone's favorite PC hardware tipster, momomo_us, has spotted a bunch of interesting SKUs registrations—the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) portal is normally a good source of pre-release information. ASUS appears to have submitted (on January 30) a wide range of AMD and Intel chipsetted mainboards with the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Russia. The presence of Pro WS X690E-SAGE SE and Pro WS X690E-SAGE SE WIFI models attracted the most attention—fellow tipster HXL/@9550pro proposed that AMD's incoming X690 tech could be an X670 offshoot. They made reference to an AORUS BIOS screenshot showing a "common options" setting for AM4 generation X570 and X590 chipsets. The latter was a workstation solution that never reached finalized retail form.

Team Red has not officially announced the X690 chipset, so we know little else beyond this week's SKU filings. ASUS has produced a number of Pro Workstation Series for AMD platforms—the most recent examples being very fancy WRX90 and TRX50 motherboards for the mighty "Storm Peak" Threadripper 7000 processor family. VideoCardz reminds us that ASUS has not updated its Ryzen and Ryzen PRO "consumer and business" mainboard product range since the X570 days, so it is encouraging to see some potential new AM5 options on the horizon. On occasion, EEC SKU registrations do not lead to finalized retail products, so plans are subject to change.

It seems that AMD and its board partners are continuing to rollout new custom graphics cards based on the formerly China market exclusive Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB GPU—PowerColor unleashed its fiendish flagship Red Devil model as one of last September's launch options. Their Chinese website has been updated with another Navi 31 XL entry—Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC. This design sits below the Red Devil in the company's graphics card product and pricing hierarchy; providing excellent cooling performance with fewer frills. The latest custom RX 7900 GRE card borrows PowerColor's existing demonic dog design from the mid-tier Hellhound RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT models. The Hellhound enclosure deployed on Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT GPUs is a much chunkier affair.

The PowerColor Hellhound Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC has also popped up on a couple of UK and mainland Europe price comparison engines (published 2024-01-30), so it possible that a very limited release could occur across a small smattering of countries and retail channels—Proshop Denmark seems to be the first place with cards in stock, pricing is €629.90 (~$682) at the time of writing. The Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) GPU sits in an awkward spot between the fancier Navi 31 options, and Navi 32 siblings—AMD and its AIB partners have reduced MSRPs in Europe, possibly in reaction to the recent launch of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40 SUPER series. We are not sure if this initiative has boosted the RX 7900 GRE's popularity in this region, since very few outlets actually offer the (XFX-produced) reference model or Sapphire's Pulse custom design.

Skin temperature-aware power management (STAPM), is a 2014 feature introduced by AMD for its mobile processors that gets the on-die power management logic to take into account not just the processor's own temperatures (measured via on-chip thermal diodes); but also the physical surface temperature of the laptop itself, by reading off temperature probes mounted on the laptop chassis. This ensures that laptops don't get uncomfortably hot for the user, and the processor could do its bit to bring temperatures down. Every desktop APU released by AMD since 2014 has been a case of mobile processor silicon being adapted for the desktop platform by simply disabling certain I/O interfaces and features irrelevant to desktops, such as battery management GPIO, LPDDR memory interfaces, image processing, sensor suite, etc. One such feature is STAPM.

Gamers Nexus discovered that when creating the Ryzen 8000G desktop APUs, AMD forgot to properly disable STAPM, and this has been impacting the processor's CPU and iGPU boosting behavior under heavy load, where temperature-triggered clock speed throttling is engaged undesirably. AMD confirmed the Gamers Nexus discovery, and stated that it can be fixed through a motherboard UEFI firmware (BIOS) update; and that it will work with its desktop motherboard partners to get these out. The highest performance delta observed by GN between an 8000G processor with STAPM and one with its STAPM disabled (probably using an AMD CBS setting); is 16%; and so those with 8000G processors may want to look out for firmware updates from their motherboard vendors.

MAINGEAR, the leader in premium-quality, high-performance gaming PCs, announces its 2024 preconfigured MG-1 gaming PCs, featuring the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-Series SUPER GPUs. Designed to redefine the gaming experience, these newly announced pre-configured systems, starting at $1,199, offer enhanced performance, diverse options, more memory, larger SSD capacities, and can be had with Windows 11 Pro.

"Refreshing the MG-1 Series to feature the latest gaming hardware and components represents our ongoing commitment to delivering cutting-edge gaming experiences. With the latest Intel & AMD processors, NVIDIA GPUs, including the new SUPERs, and a broader range of options in the MG-1, MAINGEAR continues to set the standard for gaming excellence." - Wallace Santos, CEO of MAINGEAR.

AMD today announced revenue for the fourth quarter of 2023 of $6.2 billion, gross margin of 47%, operating income of $342 million, net income of $667 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.41. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was 51%, operating income was $1.4 billion, net income was $1.2 billion and diluted earnings per share was $0.77. For the full year 2023, the company reported revenue of $22.7 billion, gross margin of 46%, operating income of $401 million, net income of $854 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.53. On a non-GAAP(*) basis, gross margin was 50%, operating income was $4.9 billion, net income was $4.3 billion and diluted earnings per share was $2.65.

"We finished 2023 strong, with sequential and year-over-year revenue and earnings growth driven by record quarterly AMD Instinct GPU and EPYC CPU sales and higher AMD Ryzen processor sales," said AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su. "Demand for our high-performance data center product portfolio continues to accelerate, positioning us well to deliver strong annual growth in what is an incredibly exciting time as AI re-shapes virtually every part of the computing market."

Lenovo (HKSE: 992) (ADR: LNVGY) has today announced that the General Purpose Partition of the MareNostrum 5, a new pre-exascale supercomputer running on Lenovo's HPC infrastructure, has been classified as the top x86 general-purpose cluster on the recently published TOP500 list of the most powerful supercomputers globally.

Officially inaugurated at Barcelona Supercomputing Center on December 21st, MareNostrum 5 has been built for the European High Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU). The pre-exascale supercomputer will bolster the EU's mission to provide Europe with the most advanced supercomputing technology and accelerate the capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) research, enabling new scientific advances that will help solve global challenges. It aims to empower a wide range of complex HPC-specific applications, from climate research and engineering to material science and earth sciences, adeptly handling tasks that extend beyond the capabilities of cloud computing.

According to a recent MyDrivers news piece, graphics card models based on AMD's China-exclusive Radeon RX 6750 GRE GPU are "selling like hotcakes" in the region. Team Red's Radeon RX 6750 GRE was released last October, and made available in two memory configurations: 10 GB with a recommended starting price of 2219 RMB (~$312), and 12 GB going for 2379 RMB (~$335). Industry experts were surprised to hear about the mid-range Navi 22 (RDNA 2) GRE card becoming a popular choice in mainstream and budget-conscious gaming circles—as of early January, AMD has taken the unusual step of delaying its Radeon RX 7600 XT launch in China.

Chinese hardware news outlets are reporting that the 12 GB variant is selling for as low as 2239 RMB (~$315) at select retail sites—customers are reported to be snapping these cards up due to an irresistible "price-to-performance ratio," despite onboard technology being almost three years old. AMD is reported to be implementing a "strict" price control policy to prevent unbalanced supply conditions—Wccftech suggests that adjustment "instructions" have been sent out to AIB partners. The MyDrivers article points out that the policy adjustments will take time to stabilize Radeon RX 6750 GRE prices—the aforementioned 2239 RMB shop offers were still live late last week (report is dated January 26).

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today, announces that its AMD AM4 series motherboards are now compatible with the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 series processors.With the official unveiling of the Ryzen 8000 Series desktop processors, AMD has further enhanced its Ryzen 5000 Series, first released in 2020, by introducing four new processors. These additions include the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, Ryzen 7 5700, Ryzen 5 5600GT, and Ryzen 5 5500GT, all built on AMD's efficient Zen 3 architecture. This expansion of the Ryzen 5000 Series offers users a broader range of options, from high-end to mainstream, demonstrating AMD's dedication to diversifying its CPU offerings.

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D and Ryzen 7 5700 processors are equipped with advanced technologies like AMD StoreMI, which enhances storage performance by combining SSDs and HDDs into a more efficient, single-tiered storage system. Additionally, they support AMD Ryzen VR-Ready Premium technology, offering greater immersion in virtual reality, even on older hardware. This combination of StoreMI and VR-Ready Premium technology ensures these processors deliver high storage efficiency and an enhanced VR experience, making them suitable for a wide range of demanding applications.