Intel has decided to share some more details on its upcoming Arc A750 graphics card, the one and same that appeared briefly in a Gamer Nexus video just the other day. The exact product being previewed is the Intel Arc A750 Limited Edition graphics card, but the company didn't reveal any specifications of the card in the video it posted. What is revealed, is that the card will outperform a NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 card at 1440p in the five titles that Intel provided performance indications and average frame rates for. The five games are F1 2021, Cyberpunk 2077, Control, Borderlands 3 and Fortnite, so in other words, mostly quite demanding games with F1 2021 and Fortnite being the exceptions.

The only game we get any kind of insight into the actual performance of in the video, is Cyberpunk 2077, where Ryan Shrout details the game settings and the actual frame rate. At 2560 x 1440, using high settings, the Arc A750 delivers 60.79 FPS, with a low of 50.54 FPS and a max of 77.92 FPS. Intel claims this is 1.17 times the performance of an EVGA GeForce RTX 3060 XC Gaming 12G graphics card. At least Intel didn't try to pull a fast one, as the company provided average frame rates for all the other games tested as well, not just how many times faster the Intel card was and you can see those results below. The test system consisted of an Intel Core i9-12900K fitted to an ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero board, 32 GB of 4800 MHz DDR5 memory and a Corsair MP600 Pro XT 4 TB NVMe SSD, as well as Windows 11 Pro. According to the video, the Arc graphics cards should launch "this summer" and Intel will be releasing more details between now and the launch.

A Chinese PC components OEM started making desktop graphics cards with NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. Why, you ask? NVIDIA did not feel the need to enable LHR (lite hash-rate) limiters for its Laptop GPUs. This genius contraption also benefits from the lower TDP and aggressive power management of the mobile GPU. What's more, the OEM combined the GPU with 6 GB of memory as per its specification, not having to do 12 GB.

Pairing this with a fairly basic-looking cooling solution, the card is able to sell for as low as $540 a piece when bought in bulk quantities. Based on the same "GA106" silicon as its desktop counterpart, the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU has more CUDA cores—3,840 vs. 3,584, albeit with lower memory amount (which doesn't matter for mining), and tighter clock-speeds. The increased CUDA core count, along with lack of LHR, make this an interesting contraption.

GALAX has added another graphics solution to its lineup in the form of the RTX 3060 Metaltop Mini (FG) Graphics Card. The (FG) bit stands as an interesting warning to cryptocurrency miners; besides the card being shipped with NVIDIA's Lite Hash Rate (LHR) modifications, it actually stands for "For Gamers". That's definitely one way of stopping scalpers and miners from buying up stock... Or is it, really?

The Metaltop Mini would feel right at home in HTPC settings, considering its Mini-ITX form-factor - and is the first GALAX graphics card that features a single fan on cooling duty for an Ampere chip. The Metaltop measures 16.8 cm (length), 11.5 cm (width), and 4 cm (height). Support for 0dB technology still made onto the card despite the single-fan cooling solution - the fan will automatically turn itself off when passive cooling is enough. The card features the same 12 GB GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit bus as other RTX 3060 cards, and there's no factory overclocking or an OC button on the Metaltop - it runs at the stock 1,777 MHz Boost as NVIDIA's reference. I/O is taken care of by the customary 3x DisplayPort, 1x HDMI connectors. A single 8-pin power delivery connector is present. No word on pricing, though availability is scheduled for "soon" via the manufacturer's website.

This should be taken with a fair helping of salt, considering GFXBench 5.0 is mobile device focused benchmark, even though the company behind claims it's a platform independent benchmark. Regardless of that, it looks like the new 32 core GPU in Apple's M1 Max SoC offers some pretty competitive performance, as it manages GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU in said test.

However, this is a median score for the GeForce RTX 3080 Laptop GPU and many of the tests that make up GFXBench 5.0 aren't using DirectX, which is one likely reason for Apple's M1 Max GPU beating the Nvidia card. On the other hand, all tests seem to support Metal, which is Apple's 3D API, whereas the Nvidia card has to fall back to using OpenGL which tends to offer lower performance than DirectX in games. In most of the tests we're looking at an average performance advantage of less than 10 percent in favour of Apple, but it's nonetheless impressive considering that Apple hasn't been in the GPU business for very long.

With the 15.6 and 17.3 inch XMG APEX gaming laptops, XMG is positioning a new model series below its own high-end range consisting of the NEO and PRO series. These new laptops combine mobile AMD eight-core processors up to the Ryzen 9 5900HX with NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics cards up to the RTX 3070. The company is simultaneously introducing the XMG FOCUS, a new product series in the entry-level segment. Intel's Core i7-11800H and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti offer decent gaming performance, while good connectivity and memory round off the overall package. All four new models feature an IPS display with 144 Hz.

Until now, the XMG APEX 15 in the older E20 generation represented uncompromising desktop CPU performance, with processors up to the Ryzen 9 3950X in a laptop. Although XMG is already working on a direct successor under a slightly different name, it is unleashing the XMG APEX 15 and APEX 17 of the M21 generation for the time being with the currently fastest eight-core mobile processors from AMD. The laptops are available with an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H as well as with the slightly faster Ryzen 9 5900HX from the 54 watt TDP class, as well as with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or RTX 3060 in the respective maximum TGP configuration (RTX 3070: 125 watts plus 15 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0; RTX 3060: 115 watts plus 15 watts Dynamic Boost 2.0).

Intel have recently launched five NUC X15 Laptop Kits featuring Tiger Lake processors and NVIDIA RTX 30 Series graphics. The Intel NUC laptops are sold direct to system integrators without memory or storage and are not available for direct consumer purchase so availability and pricing are unknown. Intel has two processor options available with the Core i5-11400H and i7-11800H paired with an RTX 3060 or RTX 3070 graphics card. The three display options all feature narrow bezel IPS panels and are available in 144 Hz FHD, 240 Hz FHD, and 165 Hz QHD configurations. The laptops all feature mechanical keyboards with RGB lighting, WiFi 6, Thunderbolt 4, PCIe Gen 4 storage, 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.1, Windows Hello, and a 94 Wh battery.

The shipments of NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti & RTX 3060 graphics cards are expected to fall 50% in September compared with the first 20 days of August according to a user on the Board Channels Forums. The forum post notes that board partners are expecting lower shipments until late September when supply is expected to slightly improve. This rumor has been corroborated by VideoCardz who claims that the reduced deliveries can be attributed to various factories across China being forced to close or reduce capacity due to local COVID outbreaks. We don't know if this shortage will affect only certain board partners or assembly lines and the possible changes to pricing and availability.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, introduces the CVN B560I Gaming Series Mini-ITX motherboards and the compact iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Mini OC graphics cards. The new products are designed to meet the needs of small form factor PC enthusiasts.

The COLORFUL CVN B560I Gaming Series Mini-ITX motherboards come in two models - the CVN B560I Gaming Frozen with a white and silver color and the CVN B560I Gaming Pro with black and silver color. The two models ensure builders can have matching colors in either black or white PC builds. To complement the new Mini-ITX motherboards, COLORFUL also introduces the iGame GeForce RTX 3060 Mini OC graphics card with a compact 182 mm length. With this, COLORFUL enthusiasts can build an all-COLORFUL small form factor gaming PC.

NVIDIA at GDC dropped a major hint at where it wants to take PC gaming post the Arm acquisition. The company is demonstrating its RTX real-time raytracing technology, and the DLSS performance enhancement, on an Arm processor by MediaTek. To the PC, this means NVIDIA is laying the foundations of gaming in the post-x86 world where it holds Arm IP; foundations that were dug up by Apple and its mighty M1 chip, based on Arm CPU technology.

Making this unequivocal, was MediaTek. "RTX is the most groundbreaking technology to come to PC gaming in the last two decades," said PC Tseng, general manager of MediaTek's Intelligent Multimedia Business Unit."MediaTek and NVIDIA are laying the foundation for a new category of Arm-based high-performance PCs." The Taiwan-based Arm SoC major has developed a new Arm-based PC processor called Kompanio 1200, which it hopes will power PC platforms much like the Apple M1 or the Qualcomm Compute Platforms.

MSI's iconic Hydrogen series of graphics cards are making a comeback. According to the latest Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) listings, we have information about the latest addition to MSI's lineup of graphics cards. For starters, MSI has filled EEC reports about its upcoming GeForce RTX 3060 LHR variants, which feature an updated GA106-302 GPU. The new cards will carry the LHR name as a part of the official product name, to be easily separated from non-LHR variants, so buyers know exactly what model they are getting.

Additionally, MSI is seemingly making a comeback of its Hydrogen series. Hydrogen lineup used to be popular with GeForce GTX 580 Hydrogen card, which delivered awesome overclocking performance enabled by a water block strapped onto the card. If MSI brings the series back, it will come in the form of the GeForce RTX 3090 Hydrogen model, which could represent the highest-end RTX 3090 design from the company. It remains to be seen what MSI does with it, and if we are getting it at all, so we have to wait for more information.

The Chinese government imposed harsh restrictions on cryptocurrency transactions last month which forced many mining farms to relocate or shut down and sell their equipment. This mass exodus has helped drive graphics card pricing downwards and according to recent reports, the price for RTX 3060 cards has hit a low of 270 USD (1760 yuan). These prices appear to be limited and only available for large purchases in China however as more farms are forced to sell we may see some cards listed for individual or international sale. Gaming laptops with RTX 3060 graphics cards that were purchased for mining farms are also entering the market for ~1000 USD. While the RTX 3060 cards currently represent the best value mining operations are selling a wide variety of NVIDIA and AMD graphics cards. These prices have been falling steadily over the last week so we wouldn't be surprised if they continue to drop.

The German media outlet, 3D Center, has today published an updated report for July, measuring graphics card pricing in Germany and Austria, showing some pretty interesting results. The report is only measuring the pricing index of these two countries and their retailers, so it does not apply to other regions. An interesting discovery is that GPU prices have now hit the lowest point since February of this year when the sharp price incline started. At the time of reporting, GPU prices are exaggerated by around 53% over the MSRP listed prices. Not only did the prices drop, but the supply of GPUs like AMD Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti became much better, as consumers can get their hands on these now.

When looking at the graph below, note that MSRP is listed as 100%, and the percentage shown is the increase over that MSRP. When it comes to complete price reduction to the MSRP, 3D Center expects it to happen in 3-4 weeks possibly. If current data is to be believed, MSRP is slowly decreasing and supply is increasing rapidly. For more details and per-card pricing situation, head over to 3D Center website here. Here is an important statement from 3D Center about the current situation:

3D Center (translated from German)Of course, this means that current street prices for graphics cards are (mostly) still exaggerated - and above all that this is the worst possible time to buy a graphics card. Because the (now clearly verifiable) tendency points to clearly lower graphics card prices in the next few weeks, with a similar pace, street prices at list price level could be in sight in 3-4 weeks. It is possible that there will be a certain braking effect in the downward price movement beforehand - but at least the way up to that point should definitely be taken with you. Apparently the delivery quantities are currently sufficient, maybe the need is a bit lower because of the summer times (and no longer available on the part of the crypto miners)so that retailers receive more cards than they sell. Since the retailers usually bought their cards from the distributors at an exaggerated price, the big game is now about who can get rid of the expensive stock goods in time to make a profit at all in the face of constantly falling sales prices.

ZOTAC in China released a special edition of its GeForce RTX 3060 (lite hashrate) graphics cards, targeting gaming i-cafes. These include the X-Gaming GOC H-Box. The card features a dual-slot cooling solution, with a cooler that's longer than the PCB itself, with much of the airflow from its third fan venting through the card. The card features various gaming clan co-branding options, which are essentially stickers on top of the cooler shroud and backplate. The card comes with a tiny factory-overclock of 1792 MHz, compared to 1770 MHz reference. It draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The card will likely only be available in the Greater China region.

NVIDIA is reportedly increasing the production of their GeForce RTX 3060 (LHR) graphics card with a focus on supplying internet cafes. The increased supply of the second revision mining restricted LHR card is expected in July. NVIDIA has allowed board partners to begin taking deposits from Internet Cafes in China for new orders with an expected shipping date of July 10th. This latest news will help to improve the graphics card pricing situation which has already started to improve thanks to increased supply and reduced cryptocurrency value.

An HP Omen 16 gaming notebook powered by AMD Radeon RX 6600M graphics, was compared with those based on the GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU, and the RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU. The RX 6600M was found to post significantly better performance/Watt (total graphics power/TGP) than the RTX 3050 Ti Laptop GPU, and go on to perform in the same league as the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. The RX 6600M trades blows with the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU across a wide variety of games at 1080p, although the NVIDIA chip has an upper hand with 1440p. The RTX 3060 Laptop GPU also owns raytracing performance. The crypto-currency mining hash-rate of the RX 6600M is significantly lower than the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU. These numbers show that for for mainstream gaming notebooks with 1080p 60 Hz displays, the RX 6600M provides a formidable alternative to the RTX 3060 Laptop GPU.More numbers follow.

The EUROCOM Sky Z7 R2 has unmatched levels of upgradeability through the Mobile Supercomputer's modular slots, allowing the safe removal and replacement of important hardware components such as the laptop's CPU, GPU, Memory, Storage, LCD, and more. Having slots or sockets allows the Sky Z7 R2 to customized, upgraded and modified with compatible parts- giving this Eurocom Mobile Supercomputer the ability to run the most demanding applications and perform high level tasks for a very long time. As newer and improved technologies emerge within the same chipset, the EUROCOM Sky Z7 R2's hardware components such as the CPU, GPU, RAM, storage, LCD, to name a few, can all be upgraded and replaced relatively easy in order to acquire more power as desired. Having modular components greatly increases the laptop's lifespan for many years and prevents the cycle of having to buy new laptops every few years, which can be the case with most laptops that have non-upgradeable components.

Eurocom's Sky Z7 R2 is one of the few laptops that utilizes modular GPU technology based on the MXM 3.1 version 2.0 socket technology. This means the Mobile Supercomputer's high performance GPU can be replaced at any time as long as it is compatible in the chipset, allowing the EUROCOM Sky Z7 R2 to perform at an extremely high level throughout the duration of its long lifespan. This Mobile Supercomputer can be configured up to the GeForce RTX 3080 which delivers twice the performance as its previous generation counterpart (GeForce RTX 2080). The EUROCOM Sky Z7 R2 offers seamless and stutter-free 4K gaming at 60 FPS, as well as 8K video editing, rendering and gaming.

Expreview have tested one of the latest RTX 3060 graphics cards of the LHR (Lite Hash Rate) nature, so as to discern exactly how cryptomining limited these LHR cards are in practice - and whether or not there are performance differences for non-mining related workloads such as gaming. The results are satisfying: the new RTX 3060 Lite Hash Rate puts out around 21 MH/s at 119 W - and it does so from the beginning of the workload, which didn't happen prior, when NVIDIA's solution was a poorly implemented driver check instead of a new device ID (it started at 40 MH/s and then decreased until it hit the LHR ceiling). The RTX 3060 also didn't show any performance difference compared to previous, non-LHR cards in gaming benchmarks, which might put some prospective buyers at ease.

Also leaked was the said RTX 3080 Ti mining score. Since this card is only coming out now, a way to differentiate it from existing stock is unneeded. But even if the RTX 3080 Ti doesn't carry the LHR suffix as does the RTX 3060 and eventually the 3070 and 3080 upon their re-release to the wild, it does pack in the same mining performance limiter. And the card was tested to deliver some 58 MH/s at a 199 W board power. One should be cautious about expecting swift prices back on the market, as miners shift their focus towards the RTX cards already in the second-hand market or the new CMP cards; one can only be hopeful that the actual gaming market is already well-furnished with cards enough that scalpers aren't able to contend with the (ideal?) overflow of stock on LHR cards.

HP introduced its latest gaming hardware and software designed for today's gamers with the powerful OMEN 16 and OMEN 17, bright and customizable OMEN 25i Gaming Monitor, and community gaming with OMEN OASIS Beta feature in OMEN Gaming Hub. The company also debuted Victus by HP, its next-generation mainstream-level gaming PC portfolio, with a 16-inch laptop.

Gaming continues to be an outlet for entertainment and connecting with friends. Two out of three people are spending more time watching videos and gaming than they did prior to the pandemic, with one in four gaming three to four hours more and almost one in five gaming six to ten hours more a week6. HP's next-generation gaming portfolio is designed for both veteran gamers and enthusiast explorers to be entertained, connected, and empowered to progress in their favorite games.

XMG introduces an additional configuration variant to the high-end NEO range of gaming laptops with Intel's new Tiger Lake H45 processors. The eight-core CPUs from the 11th Core generation not only offer higher performance compared to their predecessors, but also boast the advantages of a completely updated platform. These includes support for PCI Express 4.0 and Thunderbolt 4 - features that the AMD version of the XMG NEO cannot offer. In addition, the models utilising the new Intel processor also benefit from a slight performance increase on the graphics card side. The GPU in the XMG NEO 15 and NEO 17 (M21) now operates with a TGP of up to 165 instead of 150 watts.

NVIDIA today released their latest GeForce drivers, which keep your GPU of choice ticking with the least amount of problems possible - in theory. Version 466.47 WHQL of the GeForce drivers are Game Ready for Days Gone, one of the latest PlayStation exclusives to make the jump towards your gaming PC. The release notes also indicate that this particular driver is the base one for correct operation for GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 TI graphics cards with LHR (low-hash-rate), which ship starting late May, 2021. Read on after the break for the full list of fixed and known issues, and as always, follow the link below to download these drivers straight from our TPU host.Download: NVIDIA GeForce 466.47 WHQL Drivers

Gigabyte has listed a range of five graphics cards in the RTX 3060 family sporting a new revision. Rev 2.0 of previously-released Gigabyte graphics cards include the RTX 3060 Gaming OC 12G, RTX 3060 EAGLE 12G, RTX 3060 EAGLE OC 12G, RTX 360 VISION OC 12G, and RTX 3060 ELITE OC. The new graphics cards are part of NVIDIA's second-wave attempt at curbing cryptocurrency mining on their RTX graphics cards by integration of a driver check that enables these graphics cards to actually function (meaning that only drivers which incorporate the mining limiter will enable these graphics cards to work).

It seems that manufacturers will be differentiating their pre and post-limiter graphics cards with a suffix that isn't normalized (GALAX uses LHR for Lite/Low Hash Rate), and Gigabyte here is seen using a simple Rev 2.0. It remains to be seen whether or not any packaging differences will make clear exactly which revision of a graphics card we're getting, but NVIDIA themselves apparently would prefer for that particular distinction to not be clear, so as to discourage any would-be miners from purchasing any graphics cards from the channels that aren't specifically mining-oriented (read, NVIDIA's CMP [Cryptocurrency Mining Processor] accelerators).

GALAX today debuted a new line of GeForce RTX 3060 and RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards that come with NVIDIA's latest hash-rate limiter that make the cards unsuitable for crypto-currency mining. The cards look identical to the SKUs already launched by the company based on these GPUs, but are based on revised LHR (low hash-rate) versions of "GA104" or "GA106" ASICs that feature the hash-rate limiter. The oldest (launch) drivers for the RTX 3060 or RTX 3060 Ti won't work with these cards, you'll need the latest driver on the NVIDIA website. Today's announcements come in the wake of last week's introduction of the RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 LHR graphics cards by GALAX.

Colorful have recently announced the limited edition GeForce RTX 3060 Colorful iGame Bilibili E-Sports OC graphics card with a double-sided fan layout similar to reference RTX 3080/3090 cards. The design of the card is unique in that it borrows the general layout from the RTX 3080/3090 but features a traditional short PCB. The card comes factory overclocked with a boost clock of 1822 MHz and an increased TDP of 187 W delivered through a single 8-pin connector. The card will only be available to purchase for a limited time from April 30 to May 4 through the Chinese social media platform Bilibili of which the card is based on. The limited-edition card will also be offered to Chinese users of the Bilibili site via a lottery promotion which ends on May 4th.

Update May 12th: Colorful has confirmed that they will be releasing the card in the US with an RRP of 839 USD.

Remember that story regarding NVIDIA relaunching a new RTX 3060 SKU that actually does limit the hash rate for Ethereum mining workloads? Well, not only has it been cemented, but it also has been expanded. Reports are coming in that all but confirm that NVIDIA is on its way to provide its partners with updated silicon that should put mining performance of their RTX 30-series cards into a less palatable price-performance territory for would-be miners. That, in turn, should bring them closer to NVIDIA's CMP (Crypto Mining Processor) cards instead - and as wanted by both the company and consumers.

According to the sources, the new graphics cards will be indistinguishable from those that are still in transit or in stock (all two of them worldwide, of course). NVIDIA is internally describing the revised silicon as "Lite Hash Rate", and that is the message they communicate with AIBs. Apparently, the new "Lite Hash Rate" graphics cards will range throughout the entirety of NVIDIA's already-released RTX 30-series portfolio, from the ill-fated RTX 3060 up to the RTX 3080 Ti - the only absent graphics card is the RTX 3090, apparently, which could mean that NVIDIA is confident enough on that graphics card's cost being too high to be attractive to miners - especially when you consider how much more they are going for above the MSRP that was half-heartedly slapped on it. The new chips carry an update to their SKU identification - the GA102-200 chip that powers the RTX 3080 is being revised to GA102-202, as will all other chips made "lite" in this way. Expect the new cards to start hitting retail come June.

Some time ago, NVIDIA introduced its GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with GA106-300 Ampere GPU SKU. The GPU was the first to feature NVIDIA's latest additions like Resizable BAR and crypto mining algorithm limiter that limited the performance of the card while mining. However, despite NVIDIA's intention to keep the card out of the hands of crypto miners, there has been a lot of flaws in the plan. A lot of people discovered that the card still managed to turn in profits with the limiter enables. Later, NVIDIA accidentally released a driver that actually removes the limiter and enables the GPU to mine at full capacity, making the company's efforts useless.

Today we have new information that NVIDIA will launch an updated GeForce RTX 3060 GPU SKU that features a different ID, in the quest to limit card's mining performance. According to HKEPC, NVIDIA is producing updated GeForce RTX 3060 GKU SKUs with GA106-302 ID that should launch sometime in May, which are supposed to replace the GA106-300 SKUs now present. The software and the drivers will use the new ID to identify new SKUs and limit the performance of the card at mining tasks such as Ethereum mining. That way, it ensures that no driver version or bypass can trick the software to enable the card to use its full mining power and it shall render it unprofitable. Additionally, kopite7kimi, a known hardware leaker, claims that NVIDIA is also preparing updated GPU SKU IDs for GA104 and GA102 GPUs, with GA102-302/202 and GA104-302/202 variants supposedly coming.