AEWIN provides a series of performant Network Appliances and Edge Server powered by single AMD Zen 4c EPYC 8004 processor codenamed Siena. The latest AMD Siena CPU is produced with 5 nm manufacturing technology to have up to 64 cores (extreme density of 2CCX/CCD) and 225 W TDP with lower energy consumption compared to EPYC SP5. Siena SP6 CPU has the best performance per watt and is with the support of rich I/O and CXL 1.1.

SCB-1945 (1U) and SCB-1947A (2U) are two performant Network Appliances supporting 12x DDR5 sockets and 4x/8x PCIe Gen 5 slots for AEWIN self-design NICs with 1G to 100G copper/fiber interfaces (with/without bypass function) or other accelerators and NVMe SSDs. Both models provide the flexibility to change 2x front panel PCIe slots to 1x PCIe x16 slot for installing off-the-shelf add-on card for additional functions required. It can support 400G NIC card installed such as NVIDIA Mellanox PCIe 5.0 NIC.

CaseKing.de has started to sell a gigantic Lamptron ST060 dual-tower CPU air cooler for €299.90 (~$325) with VAT added. Many PC hardware news sites have predicted that this sizable—153 × 152 × 120 mm (W x H x D)—cooling solution is worthy of taking on similarly proportioned competition. CaseKing's listing includes some hype material: "(the ST060) offers extremely high cooling performance thanks to its six heat pipes and two PWM RGB fans. With a 260 W TDP, the cooler is also very quiet and has immense cooling reserves for overclocked CPUs and, despite its size, can be installed even with the mainboard installed." The integrated 6-inch 1920x1080 screen is the ST060's other selling point—DeepCool's (recently TPU reviewed) AK620 dual-tower cooler sports a large-ish top-mounted mini monitor, although its functionality is quite limited. Lamptron states that their new model is prepped for full AIDA64 integration; a license for this software suite is bundled in.

The integrated screen requires connection to USB Type-A and HDMI ports—perhaps a major annoyance—fortunately mini USB to USB and HDMI cables are included in the box. Additionally, software and digital instructions are uploaded onto a bundled USB-A flash drive. The base Lamptron ST060 model is joined by ARGB equipped alternatives—CaseKing has a product page for a black fan version (LAMP-ST060AB, also priced at €299.90), but it is not available to purchase yet. Tom's Hardware believes that a white fan model (LAMP-ST060AW) is also incoming—they documented some basic aesthetic differences: "In addition to the fans being different, the ARGB versions have a silver heatsink as opposed to the black heatsink on the regular version." Lamptron's ST060 air cooler appears to be an Intel socket-centric product, with support for LGA1366, LGA1200, LGA115x, LGA1700, and LGA2011. Team Red enthusiasts will be disappointed about compatibility being limited to AM4. Overclocking.com expressed surprise regarding Lamptron's re-emergence with new products—many assumed that the company was in a dormant state for a long time.

Intel's upcoming high-end desktop (HEDT) processor lineup for enthusiasts and prosumers is around the corner, and today, we managed to see the flagship SKU - the Xeon W9-3595X. Spotted recently on Geekbench benchmarks, this new chip packs a whopping 60 cores and 120 threads, making it Intel's highest core count HEDT offering yet. The Xeon W9-3595X is based on Intel's advanced Sapphire Rapids architecture, built using the Intel 7 process node. It succeeds the previous flagship 56-core W9-3495X, with four additional cores crammed into the new 350 Watt TDP envelope. Clock speeds have taken a slight hit to accommodate the extra cores, with the maximum turbo frequency lowered from 4.8 GHz on the 3495X to 4.6 GHz on the new 3595X.

However, with more cores, the 3595X should still offer a significant multi-threaded performance uplift for heavily parallel workloads. The Xeon W9-3595X will drop into existing LGA-4677 motherboards, like the ASUS PRO WS 790-ACE, after a BIOS update. It features 112 MB of L3 cache, 120 MB of L2 cache (2 MB per core), and continues Intel's push towards higher core counts for enthusiasts, content creators, and workstation users who need maximum multi-threaded horsepower. Pricing and availability details remain unannounced as of now. But with an appearance on public databases, an official launch of the 60-core HEDT juggernaut seems imminent. These new Sapphire Rapids SKUs will likely have extra AI features, like dedicated AI acceleration engines, in the same manner that server-class SKUs do.

Alleged full specifications leaked for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB graphics card show extensive reductions beyond merely reducing memory size versus the 8 GB model. If accurate, performance could lag the existing RTX 3050 8 GB SKU by up to 25%, making it weaker competition even for AMD's budget RX 6500 XT. Previous rumors suggested only capacity and bandwidth differences on a partially disabled memory bus between 3050 variants, which would reduce the memory to 6 GB and 96-bit bus, from 8 GB and 128-bit bus.. But leaked specs indicate CUDA core counts, clock speeds, and TDP all see cuts for the upcoming 6 GB version. With 18 SMs and 2304 cores rather than 20 SMs and 2560 cores at lower base and boost frequencies, the impact looks more severe than expected. A 70 W TDP does allow passive cooling but hurts performance versus the 3050 8 GB's 130 W design.

Some napkin math suggests the 3050 6 GB could deliver only 75% of its elder sibling's frame rates, putting it more in line with the entry-level 6500 XT. While having 50% more VRAM helps, dramatic core and clock downgrades counteract that memory advantage. According to rumors, the RTX 3050 6 GB is set to launch in February, bringing lower-end Ampere to even more budget-focused builders. But with specifications seemingly hobbled beyond just capacity, its real-world gaming value remains to be determined. NVIDIA likely intends RTX 3060 6 GB primarily for less demanding esports titles. Given the scale of cutbacks and the modern AAA title's recommended specifications, mainstream AAA gaming performance seems improbable.

In the era of high-tech development and the ever-increasing demand for data processing power, data centers are consuming more energy and generating excess heat. As a global leader in thermal solutions, SUNON is at the forefront, offering a diverse range of cutting-edge liquid cooling solutions tailored to advanced data centers equipped with high-capacity CPU and GPU computing for AI, edge, and cloud servers.

SUNON's liquid cooling design services are ideally suited for modern data centers, generative AI computing, and high-performance computing (HPC) applications. These solutions are meticulously customized to fit the cooling space and server density of each data center. With their compact yet comprehensive design, they guarantee exceptional cooling efficiency and reliability, ultimately contributing to a significant reduction in a client's total cost of ownership (TCO) in the long term. In the pursuit of net-zero emissions standards, SUNON's liquid cooling solutions play a pivotal role in enhancing corporate sustainability. They o ff er a win-win scenario for clients seeking to transition toward greener and more digitalized operations.

The Ryzen 7040 Series processor in Framework Laptop 16 is capable of running at a sustained 45 W TDP (Thermal Design Power) and we put together an excellent thermal solution to ensure it can do that while keeping CPU temperature, touch temperatures, and fan noise to a minimum. That 45 watts of CPU power needs to be efficiently conducted into the vapor chamber, heatpipes, and fins to be carried away through airflow from the fans.

Since neither the CPU die nor the vapor chamber surface are perfectly flat, a thermal interface material is needed to fill in gaps to avoid comparatively insulative air taking up that space. Traditionally, most computers use a thermal grease that has thermally conductive particles suspended in silicone. This works reasonably well, but the silicone itself isn't especially thermally conductive, and the paste can pump out or dry out over time, making it less effective.

AMD today announced the new Ryzen 8040 mobile processor series codenamed "Hawk Point." These chips are shipping to notebook manufacturers now, and the first notebooks powered by these should be available to consumers in Q1-2024. At the heart of this processor is a significantly faster neural processing unit (NPU), designed to accelerate AI applications that will become relevant next year, as Microsoft prepares to launch Windows 12, and software vendors make greater use of generative AI in consumer applications.

The Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" processor is almost identical in design and features to the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix," except for a faster Ryzen AI NPU. While this is based on the same first-generation XDNA architecture, its NPU performance has been increased to 16 TOPS, compared to 10 TOPS of the NPU on the "Phoenix" silicon. AMD is taking a whole-of-silicon approach to AI acceleration, which includes not just the NPU, but also the "Zen 4" CPU cores that support the AVX-512 VNNI instruction set that's relevant to AI; and the iGPU based on the RDNA 3 graphics architecture, with each of its compute unit featuring two AI accelerators, components that make the SIMD cores crunch matrix math. The whole-of-silicon performance figures for "Phoenix" is 33 TOPS; while "Hawk Point" boasts of 39 TOPS. In benchmarks by AMD, "Hawk Point" is shown delivering a 40% improvement in vision models, and Llama 2, over the Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" series.

Intel and Submer, a company specializing in immersion cooling, are set to unveil a creative immersion cooling system at the OCP Global Summit. This system can efficiently dissipate 1,000 W of power in a single-phase liquid cooling setup designed for deployment in data centers. Unlike traditional water cooling, immersion cooling systems offer higher efficiency and reliability. The solution developed by Submer and Intel is based on a Forced Convection Heat Sink (FCHS) and leverages a heat exchanger for heat transfer with a second liquid. The primary advantage of immersion cooling is its lack of active components on the cooling element, making it possible for immersed systems to operate without them for extended periods.

In this new system, a copper cooler is housed with two fans at one end to enhance liquid flow through the heat sink using forced convection. However, this active cooling component contradicts the traditional passive concept of immersion cooling based on natural convection. In its initial phase, Submer and Intel utilized Xeon processors with an 800 W TDP, with plans to increase that figure to 1,000 W in the next step. This Forced Convection Heat Sink (FCHS) offers the advantages of easy manufacturing and cost-effective usage while effectively dissipating up to 1,000 W of waste heat, making it a compelling option for immersion cooling. There are even possibilities of being 3D printed, according to Submer, and the plan is to achieve cooling of 1kW+ chip. We expect to hear more about the system during the OCP Global Summit, running from October 17 to 19, as currently, we only have a lower-resolution image from Submer's press release.

During its "Xiamen HighFun" event in China, Minisforum announced the latest addition to its compact series of gaming PCs, this time with no official name. The 6-liter system, code-named "Project RPFXI" for Intel and "Project DRFXI" for AMD, will support up to 100 W TDP and utilize the most powerful Ryzen CPU, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. This hybrid mobile/desktop processor combines the desktop-level performance of 16 Zen 4 cores with 144 MB of 3D V-cache, all within a 55 W power limit. Minisforum confirmed the 7945HX3D would be available in the AMD platform version, positioned as a premium model compared to the existing 7945HX system.

Interestingly, the GPU support is literally external, as the potential GPU needs to be attached to the outside part of the case, which is then secured using screws. The case could accommodate the fastest GPUs like NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with a powerful enough power supply. The 6-liter mini PC is expected to launch in late 2023, either in 24-core Intel (HX line) configuration, of 16-core AMD configuration.

A leaked roadmap (that seems to be authored) by Giga Computing provides an interesting peak into the future of next generation enterprise-oriented CPUs and GPUs. TDP details of Intel, AMD and NVIDIA hardware are featured within the presentation slide - and all indications point to a trend of continued power consumption growth. Intel's server CPU lineups, including fourth generation Sapphire Rapids-SP and fifth-gen Emerald Rapids-SP Xeon chips, are projected to hit maximum TGPs of 350 W by mid-2024. Team Blue's sixth gen Granite Rapids is expected to arrive in the latter half of 2024, and Gigabyte's leaked roadmap points to a push into 500 W territories going forward into 2025.

AMD's Zen 5-based Turin server CPUs are expected to ship by the second half of 2024, and power consumption is estimated to hit a maximum of 600 W - representing a 50% increase over the Zen 4-based Genoa family. The 2024 NVIDIA PCIe GPU lineup is likely hitting TDPs of up to 500 W, it is rumored that these enterprise cards will be based on the Blackwell chip architecture - set to succeed current generation H100 "Hopper" PCIe accelerators (featuring 350-450 W TDPs). It is possible that AMD's Instinct-class PCIe accelerator family will become the direct competition, these cards are rated up to 400 W. The AMD Instinct MI250 OAM category has a maximum rating of 560 W. The NVIDIA Grace and Grace Hopper CPU Superchips are said to feature 600 W and 1000 W TDPs (respectively).

A Reddit user has shared their experience of passively cooling an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X, with some modifications to the setup. Using the Streacom DB4 passively cooled case, the user u/AromaticImpress7778 pulled off cooling a processor with 16 cores and 32 threads with a TDP of 170 Watts. Interestingly, the Streacom DB4 case rates CPU support for only 65 Watts, meaning some modifications were in place. To support the high-TDP CPU, the user used two of the one-kilogram copper bars and attached them to the case. Heat is transferred to the two one-kilogram blocks using the case's default plate and an additional 233-gram copper plate for the CPU and motherboard. These big copper blocks are not soldered to the case, but instead, the user puts Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut liquid metal between copper parts and Arctic MX-6 between the case and copper.

To cool the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X and MSI B650I board, accompanied by HDPlex GaN 250 W and 64 GB of memory, the system did well enough for a passive build. After running the system at full load, the CPU reached 95 degrees Celsius for CCD1 and 95 degrees Celsius for CCD2. The external panels of the Streacom DB4 case were getting 50C to 60C of heat. Additionally, the user noted that the usage of this system will be more relaxed, as it will not run under full load for a prolonged period. Regarding the system's total weight, the entire build weighs around 13 KG, with 4.4 KG of that being only copper. The case weighs 7.5 KG, and the other parts weigh about one kilogram.

Amid the push for technology independence, Chinese companies are pushing out more products to satisfy the need for the rapidly soaring demand for domestic data processing silicon. Today, we have information that Chinese Loongson has launched a 3D5000 CPU with as many as 32 cores. Utilizing chiplet technology, the 3D5000 represents a combination of two 16-core 3C5000 processors based on LA464 cores, based on LoongArch ISA that follows the combination of RISC and MIPS ISA design principles. The new chip features 64 MB of L3 cache, supports eight-channel DDR4-3200 ECC memory achieving 50 GB/s, and has five HyperTransport (HT) 3.0 interfaces. The TDP configuration of the chip is officially 300 Watts; however, normal operation is usually at around 150 Watts, with LA464 cores running at 2 GHz.

Scaling of the new chip goes beyond the chiplet, and pours over into system, as 3D5000 supports 2P and 4P configurations, where a single motherboard can become a system of up to 128 cores. To connect them, Loongson uses a 7A2000 bridge chip that is reportedly 400% faster than the previous solution, although we have no information about the last chip bridge. Based on the LGA-4129 package, the chip size is 75.4x58.5×6.5 mm. Regarding performance, Loongson compares it to the average Arm chip that goes into smartphones and claims that its designs are up to four times faster. In SPEC2006, performance reaches 425 points, while maintaining a single TeraFLOP at dual-precision 64-bit format. On the other hand, the processor was built for security, as the chip has a custom hardware-baked security to prevent Spectre and Meltdown, has an on-package Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and has a secret China-made security algorithm with an embedded custom security module that does encryption and decryption at 5 Gbps.

Not entirely unexpected, Intel has started to discontinue its 11th Gen Core processors, also known as Tiger Lake. In a product change notification (PCN) the company has listed no less than five mobile and four desktop parts that the company will stop letting its customers order from the end of June this year, with the last shipment taking place at the end of January 2024.

The discontinued range covers everything from Core i3 to Core i9 models and the full range of discontinued models can be found in the screenshot below. It should be noted that the desktop parts are the B SKU parts that were for example found in Intel's NUC 11 Extreme and are 65 W TDP parts. Most of the mobile parts are still available in products being sold, albeit, most of those products being older SKUs that have been replaced by 12th and 13th Gen Core processors by now. None of the products in the PCN were available directly to end consumers to purchase as far as TPU is aware.

Thanks to the attribution of Puget Systems, we have a preview of Intel's latest Xeon W-3400 and Xeon W-2400 workstation processors based on Sapphire Rapids core technology. Delivering up to 56 cores and 112 threads, these CPUs are paired with up to eight TeraBytes of eight-channel DDR5-4800 memory. For expansion, they offer up to 112 PCIe 5.0 lanes come with up to 350 Watt TDP; some models are unlocked for overclocking. This interesting HEDT family for workstation usage comes at a premium with an MSRP of $5,889 for the top-end SKU, and motherboard prices are also on the pricey side. However, all of this should come as no surprise given the expected performance professionals expect from these chips. Puget Systems has published test results that include: Photoshop, After Effects, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Unreal Engine, Cinebench R23.2, Blender, and V-Ray. Note that Puget Systems said that: "While this post has been an interesting preview of the new Xeon processors, there is still a TON of testing we want to do. The optimizations Intel is working on is of course at the top, but there are several other topics we are highly interested in." So we expect better numbers in the future.Below, you can see the comparison with AMD's competing Threadripper Pro HEDT SKUs, along with power usage using different Windows OS power profiles:

Inspur Information, a leading IT infrastructure solutions provider, announced that its G7 server platform fully supports 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable Processors. The 16 servers making up the brand-new lineup are industry-leading in terms of performance, openness, intelligent operation & maintenance, and sustainability. Compared with the previous generation of Intel-based products, these servers have 61% higher performance and up to 30% higher computing performance per unit of power consumption. The server platform is designed to be deployed in general-purpose computing, critical computing, AI, and other application scenarios.

Inspur Information's brand-new G7 platform was designed with green technology, open-source solutions, security, and intelligence as priorities. It is an industry-leading example of system design, energy efficiency, and operation & maintenance management. G7 servers support diversified computing, with the most comprehensive product lineup in the industry. With a focus on green energy, this product line supports cold plate and immersion cooling schemes, and has unique cooling designs such as T-shaped radiator and advance heat detection with intelligent regulation, which all work together to reduce energy consumption by up to 30%. The new series also supports cloud operation and maintenance for intelligent fault diagnosis with an accuracy rate up to 95%.

Intel today launched its 13th Generation Core "Raptor Lake" mobile processor family. Mobile (notebook) processors make the bulk of Intel's client processor sales, and so the company is targeting a variety of form-factors and markets. The series begins with the 13th Gen Core HX line of enthusiast-segment processors for gamers, on-site creators, and mobile workstations. These processors come with core-counts of up to 8P+16E, making them the first 24-core mobile processors. The chips are classified as having 55 W TDP, with maximum turbo power values set as high as 155 W.

The 13th Gen Core HX family includes three 8P+16E processor models, led by the Core i9-13980HX, a unique 8P+12E model leading the Core i7 pack, the i7-13700HX; some 8P+8E models, followed by 6P+8E and 6P+4E models making up the Core i5 lineup. All parts have 55 W base power, and 157 W max turbo power, at least three of these get the full vPro Enterprise feature-set.

A few months ago, AMD has launched its highly anticipated Ryzen 7000 series of processors based on Zen 4 architecture. However, the company only launched the "X" SKUs (example being 7900X) for now, while the remaining ones are awaiting a launch date. Today, we have information from VideoCardz that confirm AMD's new launch on January 10th, when team red plans to update its remaining processor family with Ryzen 7000 series non-X SKUs. There will be three initial models to choose from Ryzen 9 7900 (12C/24T), Ryzen 7 7700 (8C/16T), and Ryzen 5 7600 (6C/12T). These SKUs follow the traditional Zen 4 path; however, the only distinction from their "X" counterparts is the reduced TDP to 65 Watts, down from up to 170 Watt TDP in some of those models.

A leaked slide from AMD's product presentation regarding these SKUs is a comparison between AMD's own Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 9 7900, where the Zen 4 variant successfully beat the older SKU by a significant percentage. Pricing and further details are listed on the slides below.

Ahead of their market debut early January, we got confirmation of the specifications of the three upcoming AMD Ryzen 7000 series non-X processor SKUs. There will indeed only be three new SKUs, the 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 7600, the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 7700, and the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 7900; and no 16-core part. All three SKUs have their TDP rated at 65 W, which means that their PIB (processor in box) retail packages will include a stock cooling solution. The 7600 comes with a Wraith Stealth cooler that's capable of handling thermal loads of 65 W TDP processors at stock speeds; while the 7700 and 7900 will include a feature-packed Wraith Prism RGB cooler that's designed for 140 W TDP processors. Since Socket AM5 has cooler compatibility with AM4, AMD could simply be reusing the same coolers it packed with past-generation Ryzen processors.

The Ryzen 5 7600 comes with an MSRP of USD $229, clock speeds of up to 5.10 GHz boost, and targets the likes of the Intel Core i5-13600 or i5-12600. The $329 MSRP Ryzen 7 7700 ticks at speeds of up to 5.30 GHz boost, and is designed to compete with the Core i7-13700 or i7-12700. The Ryzen 9 7900 has an interesting price tag of $429 (MSRP), ticks at speeds of up to 5.40 GHz boost, and purportedly competes against the Core i9-13900 (non-K) and i9-12900. The three chips should be drop-in compatible with Socket AM5 motherboards being sold right now, likely with no need for a BIOS update. Although launch of these three SKUs in January is certain, the company might use the 2023 International CES keynote address by its CEO Dr Lisa Su to either tease or announce the Ryzen 7000X3D processors featuring 3D Vertical Cache memory, which is known to boost gaming performance.

According to the well-known hardware leaker @momomo_us, HP is preparing the launch of its next-generation Omen 17 gaming laptops. And with a new generation of chips coming to consumers, HP accidentally made some information about laptop SKUs public. Four models are listed, and they represent a combination of Intel's 13th-generation Raptor Lake mobile processors with NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace RTX 40 series graphics cards for the mobile/laptop sector. The four SKUs are: CM2007NQ/CM2005NQ with Core i7-13700HX & RTX 4060 8 GB; CM2001NQ with Core i7-13700HX & RTX 4070 8 GB; CK2007NQ/CK2004NQ with Core i7-13700HX & RTX 4080 12 GB; CK2001NQ with Core i7-13700HX & RTX 4090 16 GB.

The most exciting find here is the appearance of the xx90 series in the mobile/laptop form factor, which has not been the case before. The GeForce RTX 4090 laptop edition is supposedly equipped with 16 GB of VRAM, and the GPU SKU should be a cut-down version of AD102 GPU adjusted for power and clock constraints so it can run within a reasonable TDP. With NVIDIA seemingly giving its clients an RTX 4090 SKU option, we have to wait and see what the CUDA core counts are and how clocks scale in a more restricted laptop environment.

Based on details from a PCWorld livestream following AMD's launch of the Radeon RX 7000-series, it was revealed that AMD has designed the Navi 31 GPU to be able to scale as high as 3 GHz. In other words, it appears that AMD has power limited its cards, at least for the SKUs that the company has announced so far. This could be for many reasons, but most likely to try to find a balance between power and performance. The details of the 3 GHz scaling did however not come from AMD directly, but rather from Jarred Walton over at Tom's Hardware. That said, the information was apparently shared with the media by AMD at the event.

In the livestream, it was also confirmed that partner cards will be able to overclock, so expect to see some factory overclocked cards, with higher power draw. This could be why, in part, that ASUS went with a much larger cooler on its TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900-series cards. As ASUS didn't reveal any clock speeds or TDPs of its two cards, we don't really know what to expect, but we'd be surprised if these cards weren't factory overclocked to some degree when they launch in December.

In December of 2021, we covered the appearance of Russia's home-grown Baikal-S processor, which has 48 cores based on Arm Cortex-A75 cores. Today, thanks to the famous chip photographer Fritzchens Fritz, we have the first die shows that show us exactly how Baikal-S SoC is structured internally and what it is made up of. Manufactured on TSMC's 16 nm process, the Baikal-S BE-S1000 design features 48 Arm Cortex-A75 cores running at a 2.0 GHz base and a 2.5 GHz boost frequency. With a TDP of 120 Watts, the design seems efficient, and the Russian company promises performance comparable to Intel Skylake Xeons or Zen1-based AMD EPYC processors. It also uses a home-grown RISC-V core for management and controlling secure boot sequences.

Below, you can see the die shots taken by Fritzchens Fritz and annotated details by Twitter user Locuza that marked the entire SoC. Besides the core clusters, we see that a slum of cache connects everything, with six 72-bit DDR4-3200 PHYs and memory controllers surrounding everything. This model features a pretty good selection of I/O for a server CPU, as there are five PCIe 4.0 x16 (4x4) interfaces, with three supporting CCIX 1.0. You can check out more pictures below and see the annotations for yourself.

During its GTC 2022 session, NVIDIA introduced its new generation of gaming graphics cards based on the novel Ada Lovelace architecture. Dubbed NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series, it brings various updates like more CUDA cores, a new DLSS 3 version, 4th generation Tensor cores, 3rd generation Ray Tracing cores, and much more, which you can read about here. However, today, we also got a new Ada Lovelace card intended for the data center. Called the L40, NVIDIA updated its previous Ampere-based A40 design. While the NVIDIA website provides sparse, the new L40 GPU uses 48 GB GDDR6 memory with ECC error correction. Using NVLink, you can get 96GBs of VRAM. Paired with an unknown SKU, we assume that it uses AD102 with adjusted frequencies to lower the TDP and allow for passive cooling.

NVIDIA is calling this their Omniverse GPU, as it is a part of the push to separate its GPUs used for graphics and AI/HPC models. The "L" model in the current product stack is used to accelerate graphics, with display ports installed on the GPU, while the "H" models (H100) are there to accelerate HPC/AI installments where visual elements are a secondary task. This is a further separation of the entire GPU market, where the HPC/AI SKUs get their own architecture, and GPUs for graphics processing are built on a new architecture as well. You can see the specifications provided by NVIDIA below.

AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" processors can hit up to 95 °C at stock settings, with cooling most appropriate to the TDP level. This is because the PPT (package power tracking) limits for the 170 W TDP processors is as high as 230 W, and for the 105 W TDP models, it's 130 W. After reaching this temperature threshold, the processor begins to downclock itself to lower temperatures. Harukaze5719 discovered that higher than needed core voltages could be at play, and manually undervolting the processors could free up significant thermal headroom, letting the processors hold on to higher boost multipliers better.

Intel has today unveiled another addition to its discrete Arc Alchemist graphics card lineup, with a slight preference to the professional consumer market. Intel has prepared three models for creators and entry pro-vis solutions, called Intel Arc Pro graphics cards. All GPUs are AV1 accelerated, have ray tracing support, and are designed to handle AI acceleration inside applications like Adobe Premiere Pro. At the start, we have a small A30M mobile GPU aimed at laptop designs. It has a 3.5 TeraFLOP FP32 capability inside a configurable 35-50 Watt TDP envelope, has eight ray tracing cores, and 4 GB of GDDR6 memory. Its display output connectors depend on OEM's laptop design.

Next, we have the Arc A40 Pro discrete single-slot GPU. Having 3.5 TeraFLOPs of FP32 single-precision performance, it has eight ray tracing cores and 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. The listed maximum TDP for this model is 50 Watts. It has four mini-DP ports for video output, and it can drive two monitors at 8K 60 Hz, one at 5K 240 Hz, two at 5K 120 Hz, or four at 4K 60 Hz refresh rate. Its bigger brother, the Arc A50 Pro, is a dual-slot design with 4.8 TeraFLOPs of single-precision FP32 computing, has eight ray tracing cores, and 6 GB of GDDR6 memory as well. It has the same video output capability as the Arc A40 Pro, with a beefier cooling setup to handle the 75 Watt TDP. All software developed using the OneAPI toolkit can be accelerated using these GPUs. Intel is working with the industry to adapt professional software for Arc Pro graphics.

It's pretty clear that we're getting very close to the launch of AMD's AM5 platform and the Ryzen 7000-series CPUs, with spec details and even pricing brackets tipping up online. Wccftech has posted what the publication believes will be the lineup we can expect to launch in just over a month's time, if rumours are to be believed. The base model is said to be the Ryzen 5 7600X, which the site claims will have a base clock of 4.7 GHz and a boost clock of 5.3 GHz. There's no change in processor core or thread count compared to the current Ryzen 5 5600X, but the L2 cache appears to have doubled, for a total of 38 MB of cache. This is followed by the Ryzen 7 7700X, which starts out a tad slower with a base clock of 4.5 GHz, but it has a slightly higher boost clock of 5.4 GHz. Likewise here, the core and thread count remains unchanged, while the L2 cache also gets a bump here for a total of 40 MB cache. Both these models are said to have a 105 W TDP.

The Ryzen 9 7900X is said to have a 4.7 GHz base clock and a 5.6 GHz boost clock, so a 200 MHz jump up from the Ryzen 7 7700X. This CPU has a total of 76 MB of cache. Finally the Ryzen 9 7950X is said to have the same base clock of 4.5 GHz as the Ryzen 7 7700X, but it has the highest boost clock of all the expected models at 5.7 GHz, while having a total of 80 MB cache. These two SKUs are both said to have a 170 W TDP. Price wise, from top to bottom, we might be looking at somewhere around US$700, US$600, US$300 and US$200, so it seems like AMD has adjusted its pricing downwards by around $100 on the low-end, with the Ryzen 7 part fitting the same price bracket as the Ryzen 7 5700X. The Ryzen 9 7900X seems to have had its price adjusted upwards slightly, while the Ryzen 9 7950X seems to be expected to be priced lower than its predecessors. Take these things with the right helping of scepticism for now, as things can still change before the launch.