MSI, a leading brand in gaming, content creation, and business and productivity laptops, is proud to announce that its gaming handheld, Claw, has achieved a significant boost in gaming performance, with an increase of up to 150% through new BIOS and GPU drivers. Moreover, the updated BIOS and GPU drivers enable the Claw to smoothly play the top 100 popular games on the Steam platform, providing an excellent mobile gaming experience.

The new E1T41IMS.106 BIOS (referred to as 106) and 31.0.101.5445 GPU driver (referred to as 5445) for the MSI Claw have significantly enhanced gaming performance according to internal tests. For instance, the performance of the well-known open-world horror game "7 Days to Die" increased by up to 150%. Other popular games such as "Monster Hunter World" and "Cyberpunk 2077" also saw performance improvements of over 50% with the new BIOS and GPU drivers, providing a smoother gaming experience.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, released the latest beta BIOS with Intel Baseline feature on Z790, B760 series motherboards for enhanced stability, regarding the feedback from Intel that high power consumption settings may cause system instability with 13/14th generation CPUs.⁠

GIGABYTE always prioritizes user experience, focusing on both performance and stability. Additionally, as a close ally of Intel, we promptly introduced the Intel Baseline feature with the latest beta BIOS. When using 13th and 14th generation K-SKU CPUs, the Intel Baseline setting will appear in the "Turbo Power Limits" option under "Advanced CPU Settings". After enabling Intel Baseline, the performance will be expected to be limited due to the power setting adjustments.

In yet another clear sign that we could see some action from AMD on the next-gen desktop processor front this Computex, motherboard maker MSI released its first beta UEFI firmware update that packs an AGESA microcode that reportedly supports the upcoming AMD Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" processors. The "7D74v1D2 beta" firmware update for the MSI MPG B650 Carbon Wi-Fi motherboard encapsulates AGESA ComboPI 1.1.7.0 patch-A, with the description that it supports a "next-gen CPU," a reference to the Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge."

A successor to the Ryzen 7000 Raphael, the Ryzen 9000 Granite Ridge introduces the new "Zen 5" microarchitecture to the desktop platform, with CPU core counts remaining up to 16-core/32-thread. The new microarchitecture is expected to introduce generational increase in IPC, as well as improve performance of certain exotic workloads such as AVX-512. The processors are said to be launching alongside the new AMD 800-series motherboard chipset. If AMD is using Computex as a platform to showcase these processors, it's likely we might see the first of these motherboards as well.

Corsair today announced it is entering the DDR5 Workstation market with the introduction of a range of WS DDR5 RDIMM memory kits. Engineered to offer uncompromising performance and reliability, these ECC RDIMM kits redefine the capabilities of the newest workstations, and are compatible with the latest 4th Gen Intel Xeon and AMD Ryzen Threadripper 7000 processors.

This new range of memory kits boasts capacities of up to 256 GB, setting a new standard for memory-intensive tasks such as high-resolution media editing, 3D rendering, and AI training. Rigorously tested and carefully screened, these modules surpass JEDEC specifications with tighter timings and higher frequencies, ensuring optimal performance for the most demanding workloads.

Select MSI motherboards from the MPG and MEG series that support Intel's Extreme Power Profile, feature a UEFI Firmware setup program option called "P-core Beyond 6 GHz+." This is a set of overclocking presets by MSI, designed to work with select Intel KS-series processors. Apparently the BIOS MSI released to support the upcoming Core i9-14900KS, comes with this option along with several settings that can get two of the eight P-cores to boost to 6.40 GHz—200 MHz higher than Intel's maximum boost frequency for the chip.

The other presets presented by this MSI BIOS option includes five choices—"6.3/5.9 GHz," "6.4/5.9 GHz," "6.2/5.8 GHz," "6.3/5.8 GHz," and the ultimate "6.4/5.8 GHz." Here, the first frequency mentioned in the setting is the maximum that the P-cores will hit using the Thermal Velocity Boost algorithm, for its two best performing cores, provided the cooling is optimal. The second frequency in the setting label is the maximum the P-cores will reach using the Turbo Boost Max 3.0 algorithm. Each of the five presets have been tested by MSI on the i9-14900KS under a cooling setup that permits the processor to achieve the top-rated speed using Thermal Velocity Boost. If the Core i9-13900KS is anything to go by, the i9-14900KS may require you to be ready with the best possible cooling setup to run the processor even at its stock speeds.

February saw community mods bring resizable BAR support to several older platforms; and now we come across a mod that brings it to some older GPUs. The NVStrapsReBAR mod by terminatorul, which is forked out of the ReBarUEFI mod by xCurio, brings resizable BAR support to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series and GTX 16-series GPUs based on the "Turing" graphics architecture. This mod is intended for power users, and can potentially brick your motherboard. NVIDIA officially implemented resizable BAR support since its RTX 30-series "Ampere" GPUs in response to AMD's Radeon RX 6000 RDNA 2 GPUs implementing the tech under the marketing name Smart Access Memory. While AMD would go on to retroactively enable the tech for even the older RX 5000 series RDNA GPUs, NVIDIA didn't do so for "Turing."

NVStrapsReBAR is a motherboard UEFI firmware mod. It modifies the way your system firmware negotiates BAR size with the GPU on boot. There are only two ways to go about modding a platform to enable resizable BAR on an unsupported platform—by modding the motherboard firmware, or the video BIOS. Signature checks by security processors in NVIDIA GPUs make the video BIOS modding route impossible for most users; thankfully motherboard firmware modding isn't as difficult. There is an extensive documentation by the author to go about using this mod. The author has tested the mod to work with "Turing" GPUs, however, it doesn't work with older NVIDIA GPUs, including "Pascal." Resizable BAR enables the CPU (software) to see video memory as a single contiguously addressable block, rather than through 256 MB apertures.

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.

ASUS began rolling out beta UEFI firmware updates for its Socket AM5 motherboards that contain the latest AMD AGESA 1.1.0.1 microcode. If you recall, ASRock had recently released its own firmware updates last month that feature AGESA 1.1.0.0. This would be the first widely released firmware from ASUS to support the upcoming Ryzen 8000G "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2" desktop APUs; and the 4th AGESA release to do so. Version ComboAM5PI 1.1.0.1 contains a newer version of the system management unit (SMU) for "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2," with SMU version 76.75.0, compared to version 76.72.0 with the older ComboAM5PI 1.1.0.0 that ASRock released in November.

The UEFI firmware updates by ASUS containing AGESA ComboAM5PI 1.1.0.1 are only being released for AMD B650/E and X670/E chipset motherboards, and only spanning the company's ROG, ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, and ProArt product lines, we haven't come across one for the Prime series, yet. It's important to reiterate here, that these are beta updates, and those with Ryzen 7000 "Raphael" processors don't stand to benefit from them, as the SMU for "Raphael" hasn't changed since ComboAM5PI 1.0.8.0. Check for the firmware updates in the Support section of the product pages of your motherboard on the ASUS website.

Binarly's research team has discovered a collection of security vulnerabilities known as "LogoFAIL", which affects image parsing components within the UEFI firmware of a wide array of devices. These vulnerabilities are especially concerning because they are embedded within the reference code provided by Independent BIOS Vendors (IBVs), affecting not just a single vendor but a broad spectrum of devices that utilize this code. LogoFAIL is particularly dangerous because it allows attackers to bypass crucial security measures such as Secure Boot and Intel Boot Guard by executing a payload during the device's boot process. This is achieved by storing malicious images on the EFI System Partition or within unsigned sections of firmware updates. This method can compromise system security deeply without altering the runtime integrity of the bootloader or firmware, unlike other threats such as BlackLotus or BootHole.

The potential reach of LogoFAIL vulnerability is rather wide, with millions of consumer and enterprise-grade devices from various vendors, including ones like Intel, Acer, and Lenovo, being vulnerable. The exact list of affected devices is still undetermined, but the prevalence of the IBVs' code across numerous devices suggests that the impact could be widespread, with both Windows and Linux users being affected. Only PCs that don't allow any logotype displayed in the UEFI during the boot process are safe. Apple's Macs are secure as they don't allow any add-on images during boot, and some OEM prebuilt PCs, like the ones from Dell, don't allow images in the UEFI. Some makers like Lenovo, AMI, and Insyde have already published notes about cautiously uploading custom images to the UEFI and providing BIOS updates. Consumers and enterprises must check with their OEMs and IBVs for BIOS microcode updates to patch against this vulnerability.Below, you can see the proof of concept in a YouTube video.

AMI is pleased to announce that it has become one of the first Independent Firmware Vendors (IFV) to receive the Arm SystemReady SR v2.4 with Security Interface Extension (SIE) v1.2 certificate for the NVIDIA GH200 P4352 Reference Platform with AMI's Aptio V System Firmware solution. This marks another noteworthy achievement for AMI's solutions as they continue to enable Arm SystemReady SR certificates on NVIDIA GH200-based platforms. "The certification allows them to bet on a wide range of software applications, infrastructure solutions, firmware, and even entire operating systems with drivers that may have never been run before on our latest silicon before with the confidence that it "just works," says Ian Finder, Principal Product Lead, Grace at NVIDIA.

As the leading UEFI and BMC firmware provider for the Arm and x86 ecosystem, AMI recognizes the significance of the Arm SystemReady certification program, ensuring that Arm-based systems and solutions "just work" out of the box with standard operating systems, hypervisors, and software. AMI is focused on delivering interoperable, scalable, and secure foundational firmware solutions to the Arm ecosystem to reduce development and maintenance costs while enhancing reliability and hardware support.

ASRock began rolling out UEFI firmware updates for its Socket AM5 motherboards that encapsulate AMD AGESA 1.1.0.0 ComboAM5PI microcode. This would be the second release of AGESA to support AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000G "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2" desktop APUs that the company reportedly plans to launch later this year. The AGESA 1.1.0.0 microcode comes with the SMU version 76.72.0 for "Phoenix" and "Phoenix 2," and continues with version 84.79.223 for "Raphael" and "Raphael-X" processors.

Unlike several past generations of Ryzen branded desktop APUs that only had 2-3 processor models in the retail channel, AMD is reportedly planning a slightly bigger lineup of APUs for the Socket AM5 platform, consisting of Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, and possibly Ryzen 7 processor models, and their Ryzen PRO variants. The Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 models are expected to be based on the "Phoenix 2" silicon that has a combination of two "Zen 4" and four "Zen 4c" CPU cores and an iGPU with 4 compute units; while it is rumored that at least one Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 7 processor model will be built on "Phoenix," which has up to eight "Zen 4" cores, and a large iGPU with up to 12 compute units. So far we haven't seen reports of AMD bringing Ryzen AI to the desktop platform.

AMD today launched its first client processors that feature the compact "Zen 4c" CPU cores, with the Ryzen 5 7545U and Ryzen 3 7440U mobile processors for thin-and-light notebooks. The "Zen 4c" CPU core is a compacted version of the "Zen 4" core without the subtraction of any hardware components, but rather a high density arrangement of them on the 4 nm silicon. A "Zen 4c" core is around 35% smaller in area on the die than a regular "Zen 4" core. Since none of its components is removed, the core features an identical IPC (single thread performance) to "Zen 4," as well as an identical ISA (instruction set). "Zen 4c" also supports SMT or 2 threads per core. The trade-off here is that "Zen 4c" cores are generally clocked lower than "Zen 4" cores, as they can operate at lower core voltages. This doesn't, however, make the "Zen 4c" comparable to an E-core by Intel's definition, these cores are still part of the same CPU clock speed band as the "Zen 4" cores, at least in the processors that's being launched today.

The Ryzen 5 7545U and Ryzen 3 7440U mobile processors formally debut the new 4 nm "Phoenix 2" monolithic silicon. This chip is AMD's first hybrid processor, in that it has a mixture of two regular "Zen 4" cores, and four compact "Zen 4c" cores. The six cores share an impressive 16 MB of L3 cache. All six cores feature 1 MB of dedicated L2 cache. There is no complex hardware-based scheduler involved, but a software based solution that's deployed by AMD's Chipset Software, which tells the Windows scheduler to see the "Zen 4" cores as UEFI CPPC "preferred cores," and prioritize traffic to them, as they can hold on to higher boost frequency bins. The "Phoenix 2" silicon inherits much of the on-die power-management feature-set from the "Phoenix" and "Rembrandt" chips, and so are capable of a high degree of power savings with underutilized CPU cores and iGPU compute units.

Intel has officially pulled back the curtain on its 14th Gen Core CPUs, giving gamers, creators, enthusiasts, and everyday users a new tier of processors that elevate everything they do. We've already teased several of our Z790 motherboards purpose-built for the latest Intel Core CPUs, but now we're ready to share all the details. In total, we're releasing seven new Z790 motherboards for your consideration as you hunt for the best motherboard for your 14th Gen Intel CPU. Our cutting-edge ROG Maximus motherboard family is expanding with the ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero, the ROG Maximus Z790 Apex Encore, and the ROG Maximus Z790 Formula. For gamers everywhere, we're expanding our ROG Strix lineup with three new models, and fans of our TUF Gaming series will be pleased to see the TUF Gaming Z790-Pro WiFi make its debut. These new motherboards join our existing Z790 and Z690 motherboards, which also support Intel's latest and greatest chips through a simple firmware update.

There's a lot to go over with the new additions to our Z790 motherboard family: they mark the debut of our first WiFi 7 motherboards, for one, and we're increasing the number of models with onboard PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots. They offer our latest game-changing innovations like DIMM Flex, and they make the process of building a PC easier than ever with their DIY-friendly features.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, announced today that its AMD AM5 platform with X670, B650 and A620 motherboards now support 24 GB and 48 GB DDR5 memory modules after a BIOS update. This update increases the maximum RAM support up to 192 GB across four DIMMs, and up to 96 GB across two DIMMs from the previous maximums of 128 GB and 64 GB, respectively.

By enabling support for non-binary memory on both AMD EXPO and Intel XMP platforms, GIGABYTE motherboards now offer an effortless boost in memory capacity and system performance. This translates to improved multitasking and productivity for gamers and other users with demanding RAM needs. If you want to experience the benefits of this upgrade, get your GIGABYTE motherboard today.

MSI has been in close contact with the AMD and has referred to their official technical guidance to provide users with a safer and more optimized hardware environment. To achieve this goal, MSI will release a new list of BIOS updates specifically for the AMD Ryzen 7000 series CPU.

According to AMD's design specifications, the Ryzen 7000X3D series CPU does not fully support overclocking or overvoltage adjustments, including CPU ratio and CPU Vcore voltage. However, AMD EXPO technology can be used to optimize memory performance by appropriately increasing the CPU SoC voltage to ensure system stability when operating at higher memory frequencies.

The recent escalating AMD Ryzen 7000X3D Series CPU issue has come to our attention, ASRock treats this type of incident seriously and would like to offer the most updated BIOS across our entire range of AM5 motherboards. ASRock has released new BIOS as well as A-Tuning utility for following AM5 chipset motherboards which limit CPU voltage on certain power rails. We encourage users to update to the new BIOS with the appropriate voltage settings urgently to ensure system stability and durability.

Apart from bringing rock-solid hardware products to PC users, ASRock is also keen on working with AMD and integrating the most up to date technologies into its products. If you're unsure about the risk of using old BIOS version, please seek professional support from ASRock customer service.

AMD late Tuesday released its first media statement on the controversy surrounding Ryzen 7000X3D series processors burning-out as a result of voltage-assisted overclocking. We've covered this in detail, in our older article. The AMD statement reads that the company is aware of the issue, is investigating it, and in the meantime, is getting motherboard- and ODM vendors to ensure that their device firmware/BIOS operate Ryzen 7000X3D processors within the correct voltage tolerances. The statement also called for affected users to reach out to AMD Support.

AMD Statement"We are aware of a limited number of reports online claiming that excess voltage while overclocking may have damaged the motherboard socket and pin pads. We are actively investigating the situation and are working with our ODM partners to ensure voltages applied to Ryzen 7000X3D CPUs via motherboard BIOS settings are within product specifications. Anyone whose CPU may have been impacted by this issue should contact AMD customer support."

Intel is planning to update its desktop processor product-stack in the second half of 2023 with the Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" series. A VideoCardz report suggests that these chips could remain a part of the 13th Gen Core series, and Intel will not carve the 14th Gen Core out of them. This would be similar to how Intel dealt with delays in the commissioning of its 14 nm node by releasing the "Haswell Refresh" and "Devil's Canyon" processors within the 4th Gen Core family. Intel tried something different with "Coffee Lake Refresh," by branding it inside the 9th Gen Core series, instead of keeping it within the 8th Gen Core. This was done because Intel updated the CPU core-counts of its Core i7 SKUs, and introduced the new Core i9 brand extension for the mainstream-desktop segment.

If 4th Gen Core "Haswell Refresh" is anything to go by, Intel could use updated xx50 processor model numbers for "Raptor Lake Refresh" processors. An example of such a naming scheme would be the Core i9-13950K, which succeeds the i9-13900K (the i9-13900KS is a limited edition / limited-release SKU). At this point we don't know what exactly constitutes this Refresh, other than the high likelihood of clock-speed increases across the board. It's possible that Intel may innovate in the areas of die-thinning, die-binning, and process-level power improvements that open up room for these higher clock-speeds (which is what Intel did with 10th Gen "Comet Lake"). These processors could be built in the existing Socket LGA1700 package, and be compatible with existing Intel 600-series and 700-series chipset motherboards, requiring a UEFI firmware update.

The 12-core/24-thread AMD Ryzen 9 7845HX "Dragon Range" mobile processors for enthusiast-segment notebooks, are capable of performance that matches the desktop Ryzen 9 7900X, with an easy 130 W power limit enabled along with Precision Boost Overdrive 2 (PBO2), with the "Enhanced" performance mode set on certain ASUS ROG laptops. The 7845HX is capable of drawing up to 110 W of power in its stock settings, which sees it offer a single-threaded boost frequency of 5.25 GHz, and 4.70 GHz all-core, and around 25000 points in Cinebench R23 multi-threaded. The Enhanced mode, which can be set via software on ASUS ROG laptops, raises the power limits, which makes the 7845HX draw up to 130 W of power, hitting temperatures of up to 93 °C, vastly improving boost frequency residency.

The 7845HX is "unlocked," and the UEFI setup program of ASUS ROG laptops offer several manual overclocking controls on par with the desktop platform. Manual overclocking along with PBO2, Curve Optimizer, and Maximum Boost Technology, yields up to 5.45 GHz single-threaded boost, and 5.10 GHz multi-threaded boost, yielding a 14 percent improvement over the stock frequency Cinebench R23 score, hitting 28542 points, which is on-par with that of a desktop Ryzen 9 7900X—a processor with 170 W TDP and 230 W PPT.

Over the past month, memory manufacturers started releasing DDR5 memory modules of 24 GB and 48 GB densities, which make up 48 GB (2x 24 GB), 96 GB (2x 48 GB or 4x 24 GB) and even 192 GB (4x 48 GB) capacities. There's only one catch—these modules only work with 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" and 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors, as their memory controllers support a maximum of 192 GB of memory, and 24/48/96 GB DIMM densities. MEGAsizeGPU decided to find out what happens when one of these kits is installed on an AMD Ryzen 7000 "Zen 4" platform.

A Corsair Vengeance DDR5-5600 48 GB (2x 24 GB) memory kit was installed on a machine consisting of an AMD Ryzen 5 7600X processor, and an ASUS ROG Strix B650E-E Gaming motherboard (BIOS version 1222). It turns out that the machine POSTs, and is able to start the UEFI setup program. Here, the program is able to display the correct 48 GB memory amount, and the memory density of each of the two modules. The trouble is, Windows would not boot, and does not go past the Boot Manager. It halts with an error message that indicates a hardware problem.

Phoenix Technologies, a leading independent firmware supplier for PCs and computing devices, has launched FirmGuard, a cyber security product to address firmware vulnerability. Firmware is the software that connects a device's microchips to the operating system.

Phoenix Technologies is the first UEFI (Unified Extensible Firmware Interface) vendor to offer an enterprise cyber security product. FirmGuard is a cloud-based service, which has been initially targeted at managed service providers (MSPs). It will also be offered to large enterprise and government organizations.

ASUS today announced availability of a BIOS update for its X670 and X670E motherboards that enables full compatibility with the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 Series X3D CPUs featuring AMD 3D V-Cache technology.

The proven gaming performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D CPU made it a long-standing favorite for PC builders. ASUS motherboards gave those builders high-performance, feature-rich options for assembling a potent gaming machine built around one of these chips. Now, AMD is upping its game with two new Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs with AMD 3D V-Cache technology: the Ryzen 9 7950X3D and the Ryzen 9 7900X3D. Combining a 3D vertical cache and all the advantages of the cutting-edge X670 platform, these chips are poised to seize the gaming performance crown.

ASUS began rolling out Beta UEFI firmware updates for its Socket AM5 motherboards encapsulating AGESA 1.0.0.5 patch-C microcode. This exposes several new options to end-users through the UEFI Setup Program, which gives them greater control over the way the processor prioritizes workload among the two CCDs (CPU complex dies) on 12-core and 16-core Ryzen 7000 series processors, including the upcoming 7000X3D processors.

While AMD is working to release Chipset Software updates that include "3D V-cache Optimization driver" components that introduce OS-level awareness of the asymmetric implementation of 3D V-cache on the 7900X3D and 7950X3D where only one of the two CCDs has the additional cache; these firmware-level options give users control on prioritizing one CCD over the other for workload. The firmware-level optimization is OS-agnostic, so pretty much any OS should benefit from 3D V-cache the way it was intended (where less parallelized workloads such as games are prioritized on the CCD with the 3D V-cache.

The UEFI Secure Boot feature is designed to prevent malicious code from executing during the system boot process, and has been a cybersecurity staple since the late-2000s, when software support was introduced with Windows 8. Dawid Potocki, a New Zealand-based IT student and cybersecurity researcher, discovered that as many as 300 motherboard models by MSI have a faulty Secure Boot implementation with certain versions of their UEFI firmware, which allows just about any boot image to load. This is, however, localized to only certain UEFI firmware versions, that are released as beta versions.

Potocki stumbled upon this when he found that his PRO Z790-A WiFi motherboard failed to verify the cryptographic signature boot-time binaries at the time of system boot. "I have found that my firmware was… accepting every OS image I gave it, no matter if it was trusted or not." He then began examining other motherboard models, and discovered close to 300 MSI motherboard models with a broken Secure Boot implementation. He clarified that MSI laptops aren't affected, and only their desktop motherboards are. Potocki says that affected MSI motherboards have an "always execute" policy set for Secure Boot, which makes the mechanism worthless, and theorized a possible reason. "I suspect this is because they probably knew that Microsoft wouldn't approve of it and/or that they get less tickets about Secure Boot causing issues for their users."

The Fractal Design Ridge SFF tower-type case won critical praise including from us, for its unique design, well-planned interiors, and room for even triple-slot graphics cards with a little adjustments. The case relies on a PCIe riser cable to maintain its SFF form, since the graphics card has to be oriented vertically. The riser included with the case meets PCI-Express 4.0 standards, but end-users started experiencing problems running their latest-generation PCIe Gen 4 graphics cards with this case, with the problem being localized to the riser cable. Fractal investigated this issue, and confirmed the issue.

Apparently, the PCIe riser included with the Fractal Ridge, while rated for PCIe Gen 4, has a design flaw that affects signal integrity. The riser is found to be only stable with PCIe Gen 3 or lower. The company is recommending a workaround for end-users while it works on a solution: to confine PCIe to Gen 3 mode using the motherboard's UEFI setup program (BIOS setup program), in which you can restrict the x16 PEG slot to Gen 3 mode. "We are developing a solution to enable full PCIe 4.0 compatibility, but until that is ready, we will update our listings to reflect that only PCIe 3.0 compatibility is guaranteed," the company said in a statement.