With AMD "Valhalla" desktop platform mainstreaming PCI-Express gen 4.0, several SSD manufacturers put out their first products that can take advantage of it, this Computex. The drive with the highest on-paper transfer rates has to be the HOF E16 from GALAX, which will also be sold under the Galaxy and KFA2 brands in various markets. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive features an M.2 PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface (backwards-compatible with older PCIe generations), with 64 Gbps of interface bandwidth on tap. The drive comes in capacities of 1 TB, 2 TB, and segment-first 4 TB.

The HOF E16 uses the same heatsink GALAX deployed on the older generation of HOF M.2. A block of aluminium pulls heat from the drive's controller, while a flattened copper heat-pipe spreads heat across. The drive is based on the new Phison E16 controller that's cushioned by an LPDDR4 DRAM chip, and wired to 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory. The drive offers sequential read speeds of up to 4,800 MB/s, and sequential writes of up to 4,000 MB/s. 4K random reads are rated at up to 750,000 IOPS, and 4K random writes up to 700,000 IOPS.

GALAX at COMPUTEX 2019 showcased their latest, 10th anniversary iteration of the world's most powerful consumer graphics card. Their GeForce RTX 2080 Ti HOF 10th Anniversary Edition graphics card features the brand's hallmark all-white design, with an RGB element around the center fan of its triple-fan cooling system that represents a time-scale of this 10th anniversary.

The steampunk elements usually present in GALAX's products are still here, in the radial of the two outside fans. The GeForce RTX 2080 Ti HOF 10th Anniversary Edition comes prepared for water cooling out of the box in a hybrid solution, and drinks power from three 8-pin connectors.

Samsung Electronics Q1-2019 preliminary reads like a horror story to investors, as the company posted its worst drop in operating-profit in over four years. Operating income fell 60 percent in the quarter ending March 2019, to about USD $5.5 billion, beating Bloomberg analysts who had predicted a 56 percent drop. Sluggish sales to IoT major Amazon, smartphone major Apple, and other handset makers, compounded by swelling inventory in the supply chain, has triggered sharp drops in DRAM prices that were offsetting critically low NAND flash prices. Demand for Samsung SoCs (application processors) is also on the decline.

Samsung is betting heavily on the success of its Galaxy S10 family of smartphones to recover from losses faced in the three component markets. Prices of DRAM prices fell 22 percent YoY, and NAND flash continues to slide by roughly that much, at 23 percent. NAND flash prices have been on a continuous decline over the past 3 years. DRAM prices, on the other hand, rallied in that period, and it's only now that it posted its first price-drop since 2016. NAND flash prices are expected to slide further down, as oversupply and failure of newer technologies like QLC taking off, hurt NAND flash manufacturers.

High-end M.2 NVMe SSDs are beginning to come with integrated heatsinks as overheating controllers impact sustained performance. The latest such drive is a new edition of the Hall of Fame (HOF) M.2 PCIe series from Galaxy, which come with a chunky aluminium heatsink, only this one isn't just another hunk of metal. This heatsink uses a flattened copper heat pipe to pull heat from the drive's hot components and spread it evenly along both sides of the aluminium block. The heat pipe makes direct contact with the drive's Phison PS5012-E12 8-channel controller and Toshiba-made 64-layer 3D TLC NAND flash chips.

The heatsink wraps around sideways of the drive and so it may not be a perfect fit for NVMe RAID cards with multiple M.2 slots side-by-side, although for most applications, such as the M.2 slot on the motherboard, the design could click. The drive comes in capacities of 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB. All three models offer sequential read speeds of up to 3400 MB/s. The 1 TB and 2 TB models write at up to 2800 MB/s, while the 512 GB writes at up to 2000 MB/s. 4K random access performance of the 2 TB and 1 TB models are rated at up to 400,000 IOPS reads with up to 600,000 IOPS writes; and up to 400,000 IOPS reads with up to 540,000 IOPS writes for the 512 GB model. The drive is initially being launched in China, and could make its way to western markets under the Galax and KFA2 brands later this year.

Another wintry - depending on your global position - December, another videogame sale for our hearts' content. This time, it's GOG, part of CD Projekt Red, that's having a Winter sale, and what est way to start a sale than actually waiving all sales of a particular game? That's what's been done here, with a free copy of Grim Fandango Remastered being offered for free. Just click the banner on GOG's website or GOG Galaxy application, and off you go. Yous till have some time, though - the sale is live from today up to December 26th.

Unlike Steam's sales, GOG is still adding new games on sale each day, and they are quoting 900+ games with up to 90% discounts. There are some amazing pieces of software there, and everyone should find something to enjoy themselves with. Besides, it's DRM free, and you're indirectly funding the development of other games - namely Cyberpunk 2077 - from CD Projekt Red by filling their coffers through buying games on sale. How better could this deal be? Hardly better, that's how.

DigiTimes is reporting that graphics cards vendors and AIB (add-in board partners) to both AMD and NVIDIA are increasing their orders for GPUs. Citing sources from the upstream supply chain, the report says that the reason for this is an expected increase in sales due to higher demand for cryptocurrency mining workloads. Most cryptocurrencies are mined on GPUs today, and there are miners that leverage both AMD and NVIDIA's architectures for increased mining performance. Whereas before mining was somewhat of a strictly AMD business, NVIDIA's architectures have also been developed for in most recent cryptocurrency mining efforts, which means that no one manufacturer is the sole source of mining GPUs.

As such, and counting on continued economic support for current cryptocurrency pricing (or even increase), Asustek, Gigabyte Technology, Micro-Star International (MSI), TUL, Colorful and Galaxy Microsystems have increased their orders from respective manufacturing partners. Since graphics cards pricing has stabilized and even decreased somewhat in recent weeks from their selling points just some months ago, this might mean that we'll finally see some graphics card models from both AMD and NVIDIA finally being retailed for their MSRP again. However, demand for mining-efficient GPUs is expected to increase alongside cryptocurrency value, so don't take this increased supply for granted - demand could spike at any moment, and with little warning.

At Computex 2017, Galaxy showcased two of its most premium graphics cards based on NVIDIA's GTX 1080 Ti chip. The GTX 1080 Ti OC Lab Edition features a Hall of Fame branded waterblock of appealing design, even if the colored power cables on the left of the unit do break the pleasing color scheme. The card features 3x 8-pin power connectors, for those of you who like to run wild with your overclocks. From the box, this card features a base 1569 MHz clock and a 1683 MHz Boost.

The second graphics card showcased by the company is the GTX 1080 Ti HOF Limited Edition, which makes use of the same 3x 8-pin power connectors, but sheds the waterblock for a triple-fan cooling solution. Strangely, this card features higher out-of-the-box clocks than the waterblock-equipped version, at 1645 MHz base and 1759 MHz boost. There is a LUMIN X branding on the cooler shroud, which indicates the usage of Galaxy's lighting system. It also features an LCD screen for graphics card status information, like operating temperature and current clocks and voltages.

GALAX today introduced its more affordable custom-design GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card, the EXOC White. The card combines an NVIDIA reference-design PCB with a custom-design cooling solution that's characterized by its milky white shroud and fan impellers, and a white back-plate. Under the shroud is a strong aluminium fin dual-stack heatsink that employs five 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes to distribute heat drawn directly from the GPU die, to two aluminium fin-stacks, which are ventilated by a pair of 90 mm fans, which stay off when the GPU is idling. The cooler also features white LED illumination.

The GALAX GTX 1080 Ti EXOC White ships with factory-overclocked speeds of 1531 MHz core, 1645 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 11 GHz (GDDR5X-effective) memory, against NVIDIA reference speeds of 1480/1582 MHz (core/boost). Galaxy's EU-specific brand, KFA2, also unveiled an identical version of this card under its name. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc. today announced pre-order sales and availability of Samsung Galaxy Book 12 with Windows 10 Pro, a 2-in-1 device that offers highly mobile workforces style, performance and productivity. Galaxy Book will be available for pre-order through select resellers beginning April 21 for $1429, which includes an S Pen and Keyboard Case, as well as Samsung's enterprise solutions, services and support. Device shipments will begin May 23.

"We see tremendous growth and potential for 2-in-1s in the enterprise, particularly in vertical markets like sales, finance, healthcare and retail industries where users move frequently between collaboration and productivity mode," said Kevin Gilroy, executive vice president of enterprise mobility at Samsung Electronics America. "Galaxy Book helps Windows 10 Pro users make an impression with a stylish and flexible device that's backed by the power, security and reliability of our Galaxy foundation."

GALAX whitewashed its GeForce GTX 1060 6GB EXOC graphics card with its "White Edition" variant. The Galaxy subsidiary, which shares much of its product design with sister-brand KFA2, gave the card the distinctive milky-white color-scheme Galaxy brands are famous for, except it didn't go the whole way. The white color-scheme is limited to the cooler shroud, fan impellers, and the full-length back-plate. The underlying PCB, however, remains black.

The GALAX GTX 1060 6 GB EXOC White Edition serves up factory-overclocked speeds of 1556 MHz core, 1771 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 8 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory, against NVIDIA reference speeds of 1506/1709 MHz. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector. An aluminium fin-stack heatsink featuring 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, and a pair of 90 mm fans, keeps the card cool. GALAX didn't reveal pricing or availability.

Samsung Electronics America, Inc., today announced availability of the Galaxy TabPro S, a two-in-one device created specifically for on-the-go consumers and mobile professionals. The powerful, sleek TabPro S - which runs Windows 10, and features an Intel Core m3 processor - will be available beginning March 18 starting at $899.99 with a full-size ergonomic keyboard with trackpad.

"Today's consumers and professionals are dynamic and highly mobile, and they demand tablets and laptops to use at the office, at home, or on the go, such as the TabPro S," said Gary Riding, senior vice president, product marketing at Samsung Electronics America. "Through our longstanding strategic partnerships with Intel and Microsoft, our products deliver power and functionality - all in a beautifully designed device."

KFA2, Galaxy's EU wing, announced the GeForce GTX 970 EXOC Sniper Edition graphics card. EXOC is KFA2 equivalent for Galaxy's "Hall of Fame" edition moniker, denoting the company's highest factory-overclock tier. The card features a custom-design 27 cm long PCB, with a 2-slot thick air cooler that makes use of a dense aluminum fin-stack, to which heat drawn directly from the GPU die is fed by 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes; ventilated by a pair of 90 mm spinners that stay off when idling.

The GTX 970 EXOC Sniper Edition comes with factory-overclocked speeds of 1178 MHz core, with 1329 MHz max GPU Boost frequency, and an untouched 7012 MHz (GDDR5-effective) memory, against reference speeds of 1050 MHz core and 1178 MHz GPU Boost. KFA2 plans to sell the card at 349€ (including all taxes), when it hits the shelves later this month.

Galaxy is done whitewashing the GeForce GTX 980 Ti, with the development of its HOF (hall of fame) LCE graphics card. The card features an all-white custom PCB, with a 16-phase VRM that draws power from three 8-pin PCIe power connectors, which interestingly, are located along the back of the card, rather than the top of it. The star attraction here is a full-coverage water block designed by Bitspower. The block features an opaque white top, and a white metal back-plate. This card will be sold through Galaxy's various sub-brands (such as Galax and KFA2), when it hits the shelves later this month. The company did not disclose clock speeds or pricing.

PRC-based Colorful, which started out as (and continues to be) a vendor of wacky, over-the-top GeForce GTX graphics cards, has surpassed industry stalwarts MSI, ASUS and Gigabyte, in terms of graphics cards shipped worldwide this year, according to industry numbers published by DigiTimes. The report notes that Colorful could become the second largest graphics card maker in terms of shipments by the end of the year, next only to Palit (the current leader in terms of shipments).

Colorful has been clocking an average of 500,000 graphics cards shipped per month, and is projected to have shipped over 5 million cards in 2015. The company has currently outsold ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, and ZOTAC, all of which are multinationals. Colorful has developed a strong brand-image in the Greater China region, particularly in the mainland. With a brand portfolio that includes Galaxy, Gainward, Point of View, and its own namesake, Palit is the biggest graphics card manufacturer by volume. Colorful's motherboard business is accelerating at a similar rate, and the report notes that the company could become "a very big threat" to ASUS and Gigabyte.

KFA2 announced an all-white variant of its GeForce GTX 960 EXOC graphics card. White makes up the cooler shroud and fans, but it doesn't carry on to the PCB - something KFA2 and its parent Galaxy built a reputation around. Luckily, it features an all-white back-plate, and so its PCB (which is thankfully black and not electric-blue), should provide an interesting contrast, peeking out of the vents on the back-plate.

Looks aside, the GTX 960 EXOC White Edition is a very capable card, offering a factory OC of 1279 MHz core, 1367 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 7.00 GHz memory, against reference speeds of 1127/1187 MHz. It draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, and conditions it using a 6-phase VRM. The aluminium fin-stack heatsink uses 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes, which make direct contact with the GPU. Display outputs include two DVI, and one each of DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.0. The card is priced at 209.90€, including taxes.

Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich today announced a series of mobile platforms including the company's new low-cost system-on-chip (SoC) for phones, phablets and tablets, a global LTE solution, innovative personal computing experiences, and a range of customers for mobile device and network infrastructure offerings. With technologies that span silicon, software and security, Krzanich said Intel was one of the few companies able to deliver solutions end-to-end, for devices, the network and the cloud.

The announcements include the Intel Atom x3 processor series, Intel's first integrated communications SoC solution for the growing value and entry device markets, and the five-mode Intel XMM 7360 LTE Advanced solution, designed for performance and worldwide coverage. In addition, Krzanich highlighted joint efforts with Alcatel-Lucent, Ericsson and Huawei to address the demand for new telecommunications, cloud and data center services, improve network efficiencies, and accelerate the industry's move toward a software-defined infrastructure.

Biostar made a comeback to graphics cards after a long sabbatical, with a new GeForce GTX 750 Ti based graphics card, the GTX 750 Ti Gaming OC. Based on a custom-design that we guess could be originally designed by either Onda or Galaxy, the card features a custom-design dual-fan cooling solution, which consists of a solid aluminium heatsink, which is ventilated by a pair of 80 mm spinners. The card offers factory overclocked speeds of 1059 MHz core, 1137 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 5.40 GHz memory, compared to reference speeds of 1020/1085 MHz. Display outputs include two dual-link DVI, and a mini-HDMI. The card features 2 GB of GDDR5 memory, across its 128-bit wide memory interface. Based on the 28 nm GM107 silicon, the GTX 750 Ti features 640 CUDA cores based on the "Maxwell" architecture.

Galax (Galaxy for the EMEA region), launched its GeForce GTX 970 Black Edition graphics card. Built with a new 19 cm long PCB, the card looks more compact than the one Galax debuted its GTX 970 lineup with. The card features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, which uses a couple of 80 mm spinners. On offer, are factory-overclocked speeds of 1126 MHz core, 1266 MHz GPU Boost, and an untouched 7.00 GHz memory. Available now, the card is being sold at 319.90€ (incl. VAT).

Galaxy launched its single-slot GeForce GTX 750 Ti Razor graphics card in Europe, under the Galax and phasing-out KFA2 brands. This the second such single-slot GTX 750 Ti cards, after ELSA launched one such card, in certain APAC markets. Galaxy's card uses a typical nickel-plated copper channel heatsink, which draws heat from a copper plate, which makes contact with the GPU, memory and VRM. The card relies entirely on the PCI-Express 3.0 x16 bus for its power. Display outputs include one each of D-Sub, dual-link DVI, and HDMI. The card ships with clock speeds of 1020 MHz core, 1080 MHz GPU Boost, and 5.40 GHz (GDDR5-effective) memory. Available now, the card is priced at 139.90€, including taxes.

Here are some of the first pictures of an AIC partner branded NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card, the Galaxy GTX 970 GC. Spotted across Chinese PC enthusiast forums and social networks, the latest set of leaks cover not just pictures of what the GTX 970 looks like, but also what's under its hood. To begin with, Galaxy's card appears to be built for the high-end market segment. A meaty twin-fan aluminium fin-stack heatsink, coupled by a spacey backplate cover a signature Galaxy blue PCB, holding NVIDIA's new GTX 970 GPU, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory. The card appears to feature a high-grade VRM that draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors.

Even as we rejoice the fact that NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 750 Ti is one of its first mid-range GPUs in recent times that can be passively cooled; there are those AIBs that are taking advantage of its low TDP in another way - milking the most performance out of it, using overclocking. The Galaxy GeForce GTX 750 Ti Hall of Fame (HOF) is one such card. It gives the otherwise sub-75W GPU a monstrous triple-fan cooler; and a strong VRM; to support some high (yet undisclosed) out of the box clock speeds. The cooler features a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat is fed by a couple of copper heat pipes; and ventilated by a trio of 80 mm fans. Under it, is Galaxy's signature white PCB. Galaxy may market this card in the Greater China region, while its European brand, KFA2, could sell a handful units in the old continent.

EK Water Blocks, Ljubljana based premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is proud to announce the close cooperation with GALAXY, top tier NVIDIA authorized partner. The first fruit of collaboration is the GALAXY GeForce GTX 780 Ti V20 Hall Of Fame (HOF), the company's first liquid cooled graphics card on the market.

"The GALAXY GeForce GTX 780 Ti HOF V20 is a monster in terms of performance and overclock ability. We wanted a water cooling solution that allows the card to perform at its best even without extreme cooling such as LN2" said Edward Chow, GALAXY Product and Marketing Manager. "EK, with it's expertise on water cooling design, provides exactly what we want".

Here's the fruition of Galaxy's collaboration with DarbeeVision, the GTX 750 Ti Darbee Edition graphics card. DarbeeVision video enhancement technology requires specialized hardware to post-process display output from the GPU, and so Galaxy designed a daughterboard to sit on top of the PCB, wired to the GPU's TMDS links. Output form this board has to be wired to your monitor. It's surprising to note that even with the extra hardware, the card doesn't need additional power inputs, and relies on the PCI-Express 3.0 x16 bus interface. Aside from the DarbeeVision hardware, the card features a GeForce GTX 750 Ti GPU with 2 GB of GDDR5 memory. Galaxy also showed us their GTX 750 Ti Razor single-slot card.

Galaxy unveiled its Captain line of mSATA and M.2 SSDs. Both the Captain-mSATA and the Captain-MAC (M.2) are based on a JMicron-made controller, with Intel-made MLC NAND flash. Both the Captain-mSATA and Captain-MAC come in capacities of up to 256 GB, offering sequential speeds of up to 520 MB/s reads, with up to 275 MB/s writes. Their 4K random read performance is rated at 72,000 IOPS, and 4K random writes at 70,000 IOPS. It's important to note here, that the Captain-MAC may feature an NGFF interface, but runs on a SATA 6 Gb/s link layer. It's one of the many examples of M.2 SSDs that have crept into the industry, with such an interface.

Galaxy entered the high-end system memory market with its Hall of Fame (HOF) system memory module. Pictured below, the module features a black PCB, but silvery white heatsink, with ceramic surface. The heatsink also features shiny white LEDs. The underlying PCB features high-tolerance electricals to support your overclock. The module doesn't come with XMP profiles of its own, but Galaxy guarantees that you can run it at 3000 MHz (DDR), at the appropriate timings and voltages. The module is likely available in densities of 4 GB and 8 GB, and will be sold in dual-channel kits.