AMD is giving final touches to its Ryzen 7000G series desktop APUs that bring the 4 nm "Phoenix" monolithic processor silicon to the Socket AM5 desktop package. The star attraction with these processors is their large iGPU based on the latest RDNA3 graphics architecture, featuring up to 12 compute units worth 768 stream processors, and full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set support. These processors should be able to provide 720p to 1080p gaming with entry-medium settings, where you take take advantage of FSR for even better performance. At this point we don't know whether the Ryzen AI feature-set will make its way to the desktop platform. "Phoenix" features an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the latest "Zen 4" microarchitecture.

An interesting development here is that not only is AMD bring the "Phoenix" silicon to the desktop platform, but the processor models highlighted in this leak reference the smaller "Phoenix 2" silicon. This chip is physically smaller, features a CPU with two "Zen 4" and four "Zen 4c" cores; and an iGPU that has no more than 4 compute units worth 256 stream processors. The OPN codes of at least three processor models surfaced on the web. These include the Ryzen 5 PRO 7500G (100-000001183-00), the Ryzen 5 7500G (100-00000931-00), and the Ryzen 3 7300G (100-000001187-00). No specs about these chips are known at this point. The PRO 7500G and regular 7500G are expected to feature the full 2+4 core configuration, while the 7300G could probably feature a 2+2 core configuration. If the company does plan a 7600G and 7700G, those would likely be based on "Phoenix" with 6 or 8 regular "Zen 4" cores.

AMD is preparing to launch its first APUs on the Socket AM5 desktop platform, with the Ryzen 7000G series. While the company has standardized integrated graphics with the Ryzen 7000 series, it does not consider the regular Ryzen 7000 series "Raphael" processors as APUs. AMD considers APUs to be processors with overpowered iGPUs that are fit for entry-mainstream PC gaming. As was expected for a while now, for the Ryzen 7000G series, AMD is tapping into its 4 nm "Phoenix" monolithic silicon, the same chip that powers the Ryzen 7040 series mobile processors. Proof of "Phoenix" making its way to desktop surfaced with CPU support lists for the latest AGESA SMUs (system management units) compiled by Reous, with the AGESA ComboAM5PI 1.0.8.0 listing support for "Raphael," as well as "Phoenix." Another piece of evidence was an ASUS B650 motherboard support page that listed a UEFI firmware update encapsulating 1.0.8.0, which references an "upcoming CPU."

Unlike "Raphael" and "Dragon Range," "Phoenix" is a monolithic processor die built on the TSMC 4 nm foundry node. Its CPU is based on the latest "Zen 4" microarchitecture, and features an 8-core/16-thread configuration, with 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. The star attraction here is the iGPU, which is based on the RDNA3 graphics architecture, meets the DirectX 12 Ultimate feature requirements, and is powered by 12 compute units worth 768 stream processors. Unlike "Raphael," the "Phoenix" silicon is known to feature an older PCI-Express Gen 4 root complex, with 24 lanes, so you get a PCI-Express 4.0 x16 PEG slot, one CPU-attached M.2 NVMe slot limited to Gen 4 x4, and a 4-lane chipset bus. "Phoenix" features a dual-channel (4 sub-channel) DDR5 memory controller, with native support for DDR5-5600. A big unknown with the Ryzen 7000G desktop APUs is whether they retain the Ryzen AI feature-set from the Ryzen 7040 series mobile processors.

Andreas Schilling, editor at Hardwareluxx, noticed some interesting looking Intel Meteor Lake-related merchandise very recently—last week's Innovation event served as a proper public unveiling of the next generation mobile processor series, scheduled to launch on December 14. Team Blue showcased their new advanced disaggregated chiplet design during a keynote presentation, but did not provide a comprehensive breakdown of upcoming SKUs and feature sets. A couple of clues were presented in plain sight (see below)—Schilling reckons that some tongue-in-cheek marketing was in effect: "Intel is leaking with its own swag. We know there will be different configurations of the compute, I/O and graphics tiles with Meteor Lake. The GPU will use 8 or 4 Xe cores it seems."

Intel has hyped up Meteor Lake's integrated GPU chiplet as having "performance parallelism and throughput, ideal for AI infused in media, 3D applications and the render pipeline." VideoCardz had this to say about the Alchemist-derived setup: "This integration of Xe-LPG architecture is expected to deliver a 2x performance boost compared to the existing Xe-LP architecture found in Raptor Lake. Intel put a lot of emphasis on supporting 10 W gaming with this architecture, potentially opening a new competing front versus AMD RDNA 3 in handheld." The Meteor Lake "swag" hints that at least two different configurations are in the works, with 8 or 4 Xe-Cores (as printed on the two pieces of merch). Intel's Meteor Lake SKU hierarchy could consist of models with varying levels of iGPU potency, since the chiplet design provides a great deal of flexibility.

Intel just released the latest version of Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4824 WHQL adds Game On optimization for "The Crew Motorfest" and "Mortal Kombat 1." Among the issues fixed with this release include flickering or display corruption noticed in Fortnite (DirectX 12), and erratic fan behavior on some Arc Graphics products. For Intel Core processor iGPUs, the drivers address a "Tactics Ogre Reborn" display flickering issue during the dialog sequences.

DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4824 WHQL

The 4 nm "Phoenix 2" monolithic APU silicon powering the lower end of AMD's Ryzen 7040-series mobile processors, could very well be the company's first hybrid core processor, even though the company doesn't advertise it as such. We first caught whiff of "Phoenix 2" back in July, when it was described as being a physically smaller chip than the regular "Phoenix." It was known to have just 6 CPU cores, and a smaller iGPU with 4 RDNA3 compute units; in comparison to the 8 CPU cores and 12 compute units of the "Phoenix" silicon. At the time a lack of 2 CPU cores and 8 CUs were known to be behind the significant reduction in die size from 178 mm² to 137 mm², but it turns out that there's a lot more to "Phoenix 2."

A die shot of "Phoenix 2" emerged on Chinese social media platform QQ, which reveals two distinct kinds of CPU cores. There are six cores in all, but two of them appear larger than the other four. The obvious inference here, is that the larger cores are "Zen 4," and the smaller ones are the compacted "Zen 4c." The "Zen 4c" core has the same core machinery as "Zen 4," albeit it is re-arranged to favor lower area on the die. The trade-off here is that the "Zen 4c" core operates at lower voltages and lower clock-speeds than the regular "Zen 4" cores. At the same clock speeds, both kinds of cores have an identical IPC. The two also have an identical ISA, so any software threads migrating between the cores will not encounter runtime errors. Unlike Intel Thread Director, AMD can use a less sophisticated software-based solution to ensure that the right kind of workload is allocated to the right kind of cores, and prevent undesirable migration between the two kinds of cores. Unlike the hardware-based Thread Director, AMD's solution can be continually updated.

Jon Peddie Research reports the growth of the global PC client-based CPU units market reached 53.6 million units in Q2'23, up 17%, and iGPU shipments increased by 14% to 49 million units. Year over year, iGPUs declined -29%.

Integrated GPUs will have a compound annual growth rate of 2.5% during 2022-2026 and reach an installed base of 4.8 billion units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next five years, the penetration of iGPUs in the PC will grow to reach a level of 98%.

It looks like the monolithic silicon that succeeds "Phoenix," codenamed "Strix Point," will finally introduce an increase in CPU core counts for the thin-and-light and ultraportable mobile platforms. "Strix Point" is codename for the next-generation APU die being developed at AMD, which, according to a leaked MilkyWay@Home benchmark result, comes with a 12-core/24-thread CPU.

The silicon is identified by MilkyWay@Home with the OPN "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000994-03_N," and CPU identification string "AuthenticAMD Family 26 Model 32 Stepping 0 -> B20F00." The "Strix Point" CPU could be the second time AMD has increased CPU core-counts per CCX. From "Zen 3" onward, the company increased the cores per CCX from 4 to 8, allowing a single "Zen 3" CCX on the "Cezanne" monolithic silicon to come with 8 cores. It's highly likely that with "Zen 5," the company is increasing the cores/CCX to 12, and that "Strix Point" has one of these CCXs.

Chinese tech tipster Golden Pig Upgrade has turned its attention to Intel's Meteor Lake processor series—they believe that hardware partners are putting qualification samples (QS) through the ringer. The short Bilibili social media post proposes that these laptop-oriented prototypes sport six high-performance Redwood Cove cores running at 4.80 GHz, eight energy-efficient Crestmont cores, as well as two low-power Crestmont cores. Apparently the unit's TDP can be adjusted—starting at 20 W, and going up to 65 W. Golden Pig Upgrade was also informed about a Core Ultra 9 model capable of hitting 5.0 GHz (or greater) maximum CPU clocks.

The qualification sample's integrated graphics processing unit is reportedly based on the Xe-LPG architecture—some experts reckon that this could offer performance (4.5 FP32 TFLOPS) comparable to Arc A380 or A370M discrete solutions. The sampled iGPU could feature up to 128 execution units (so equivalent to 1024 stream processors, as well as 8 Xe clusters)—insider sources allege that units can boost to a maximum of 2.2 GHz. It will be interesting to observe how this will stack up against AMD's Radeon 780M iGPU—which is theoretically in a similar ballpark (4.3 FP32 TFLOPS).

Intel's software engineers are working on path-traced light simulation and conducting neural graphics research, as documented in a recent company news article, with an ambition to create a more efficient solution for integrated graphics cards. The company's Graphics Research Organization is set to present their path-traced optimizations at SIGGRAPH 2023. Their papers have been showcased at recent EGSR and HPG events. The team is aiming to get iGPUs running path-tracing in real time, by reducing the number of calculations required to simulate light bounces.

The article covers three different techniques, all designed to improve GPU performance: "Across the process of path tracing, the research presented in these papers demonstrates improvements in efficiency in path tracing's main building blocks, namely ray tracing, shading, and sampling. These are important components to make photorealistic rendering with path tracing available on more affordable GPUs, such as Intel Arc GPUs, and a step toward real-time performance on integrated GPUs." Although there is an emphasis on in-house products in the article, Intel's "open source-first mindset" hints that their R&D could be shared with others—NVIDIA and AMD are likely still struggling to make ray tracing practical on their modest graphics card models.

A screenshot from Puget Systems benchmark database reveals a new upcoming desktop processor model by AMD, the Ryzen 5 7500F. The screenshot details the 7500F as a 6-core processor, and the machine features an ASUS ROG Strix X670E-F Gaming motherboard, along with an RTX 4080 graphics card. At this point it's hard to tell what the "F" brand extension means in AMD nomenclature. On Intel, it denotes a lack of integrated graphics.

There are two possible theories on what the 7500F could be. One holds that it's a down-rated "Raphael" MCM with a disabled iGPU; while the other holds that it could be based on the 4 nm Phoenix-2 monolithic silicon. Detailed in an older article, the Phoenix-2 is a 137 mm² monolithic silicon that physically features no more than 6 "Zen 4" CPU cores, and an iGPU with just 4 RDNA 3 compute units, besides I/O that's identical to that of the regular 178 mm² 8-core/12-CU Phoenix silicon. Phoenix-2 on AM5 might just end up with a lower bill of materials than a single-CCD "Raphael" MCM.

Update 06:13 UTC: A Korean retailer has posted the first picture of the Ryzen 5 7500F in the flesh. They claim a street price of around $170-180 (KRW equivalent), and availability slated for July 7.

MediaTek is rumored to have partnered up with NVIDIA in a new joint effort to create graphically powerful mobile chipsets. DigiTimes Asia reports that the two fabless companies are collaborating on a flagship-level smartphone SoC that could arrive in early 2024. MediaTek is hoping that this tech union will help advance its application processors with AI enhancements and greater gaming functionalities. Insider sources also claim that the partnership extends to the development of WOA (Windows on Arm) platform products for notebook applications.

DigiTimes believes that NVIDIA is seeking new market scope - outside of its normal staple of gaming and enterprise GPUs - opportunities within the smartphone and notebook market are part of an overall expansion strategy, including the teaming up with MediaTek. Arch rival AMD has been working with Samsung for a number of years on RDNA-based "Xclipse" iGPUs, as featured in several existing and upcoming flagship Exynos mobile chipsets, and Team Green is seemingly interested in doing something similar. MediaTek is keen to expand its processor presence in the notebook world - its current offerings only target the entry-level segment - and the alliance with NVIDIA could result in forthcoming mid-range and high-end WOA platform products.

AMD is reported to be reissuing its old Zen+ (12 nm) tech in order to meet demand for cheaper, lower-end systems in China, according to information released by Board Channels this week. The insider source claims that a new production order has been placed for Ryzen 3000G series APUs (requesting up to 30,000 units) and these processors are likely to be sold as part of hardware bundles with (similar vintage) low-end AM4-based motherboards - for example the B450 and A320 series, these older boards are still popular budget choices in China and readily available. The leak does not mention whether AMD is choosing to issue completely new hardware or if it is simply reproducing its 2019-era SKUs.

AMD released two Ryzen 3000G models back in 2019 - the 3400G and 3200G, both are quad-core Picasso APUs although the latter is lacking in simultaneous multithreading. It is not clear whether the super low budget AMD Athlon 3000G model will be included as part of the alleged 30K unit order. The 3000G series' onboard iGPUs (based on AMD's first generation Vega architecture) are likely preferred by the budget-conscious buyer since a discrete graphics card is not an essential part of builds intended for an office setting or a simple/functional home computer setup.

Intel Graphics employees inadvertently revealed that the company's Xe2 "Battlemage" graphics architecture is being designed for the 4 nm silicon fabrication node, which would give Intel's GPU designers a leap in transistor density and power headroom, given that TSMC 4 nm is an EUV node compared to the current 6 nm DUV node the company builds its Arc "Alchemist" GPUs on. The leak also seems to confirm that its succeeding "Celestial" graphics architecture is being designed for 3 nm. An enthusiast named gamma0burst sifted through public profiles of several Intel employees, and scored these details in their professional profile pages.

We are almost certain that Xe2 "Battlemage" is going to be built on the TSMC 4 nm node, and to a slightly lesser degree, about Xe3 "Celestial" being designed for TSMC's 3 nm N3X node. Intel roadmaps pin the debut of "Battlemage" to a 2023-2024 timeline, although this could also be a reference to the iGPU of the upcoming Core "Meteor Lake" processors that debut in the second half of 2023. Intel is highly likely to deliver "Meteor Lake" within its 2H-2023 timeline, which would mean that the mention of "2024" in the graphics technology roadmap could mean that discrete GPUs based on "Battlemage" only arrive next year.

AMD is late in releasing its Phoenix Zen 4 lineup of mobile APUs - the original April launch has been missed, and laptops bearing Ryzen 7000HS & H-series are expected to arrive at some point this month. Preview hardware has made its way into the hands of testers, and one particular outlet - Golden Pig Upgrade, a content creator on the Chinese Bilibili video site - has performed benchmark tests. He seems to be the first reviewer to get hands-on time with AMD Ryzen 7040 Phoenix APUs, and his findings point to class leading performance results in terms of graphical capabilities - the 7840HS (packing a Radeon 780M RDNA3 iGPU) is compared to the Rembrandt-based 7735H, as well as a pair of Intel Raptor Lake CPUs - the 13700H and 13500H models.

AMD's newest Phoenix APU is the group leader in GPU performance stakes, but the jump up from the last-gen Rembrandt (RDNA2 iGPU) chip is not all that significant. VideoCardz reckons that the Radeon 780M integrated GPU is roughly equivalent to an NVIDIA GeForce MX550 dGPU and not far off from a GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q graphics card (in terms of benchmark performance). According to AMD's internal documentation the RDNA 3 core architecture utilized in Phoenix APUs is referred to as "2.5" so this perhaps explains why the 780M is not doing laps around its older silbing(s).

Intel is planning a major change in its client processor brand extensions with its next-generation mobile processors codenamed "Meteor Lake." The company is working to introduce the new Core Ultra brand extensions, where "Ultra" replaces the "i" in extensions such as i3, i5, i7, and i9 in some processor models. An example of such a brand extension would be the "Core Ultra 5 1003H." Ashes of the Singularity benchmark leaks of the processors surfaced on social media.

The benchmark also detects 128 EU (1,024 unified shaders) for the iGPU powering "Meteor Lake." If true, this iGPU could offer performance that's in the league of an Arc A380 discrete GPU, with some performance lost to the shared memory setup compared to the A380 with its dedicated graphics memory. The iGPU clock speed is detected to be 2.10 GHz, and having 4 MB of L2 cache, the last-level cache local to the Graphics Tile. The detection string for the iGPU as reported by its OpenCL ICD reads "Intel(R) Graphics i gfx-driver-ci-master-13736 DCH RI (1024S 128C SM3.0 2.1GHz, 4MB L2, 12.7GB)."

ASUS's sensational handheld game console, the ROG Ally, will be priced at $699.99 for the model powered by the top AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, according to a leak by SnoopyTech. This top model will feature a 7-inch Full HD screen with 120 Hz refresh-rate, and Dolby Atmos-capable audio. Under the hood, the Ryzen Z1 is based on the 4 nm "Phoenix" silicon, featuring an 8-core/16-thread "Zen 4" CPU, and its full Navi3 iGPU based on the RDNA3 graphics architecture, with 12 CU (768 stream processors). This chip is wired to 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory, and a 512 GB NVMe SSD.

ASUS has a cheaper model of the ROG Ally designed for cloud gaming and casual gaming, powered by the Ryzen Z1 (non-Extreme). The non-Extreme Z1 rocks a 6-core/12-thread "Zen 4" CPU, but a heavily cut down iGPU with just 4 CU (256 stream processors), which are plenty for the intended use-cases. ASUS could price this much lower than the top model, with speculations pointing to $499.

ASUS ROG Ally, the company's handheld game console that started out as an April Fool's joke before being announced as a serious product development and ASUS's answer to the Steam Deck, is a lean-mean gaming machine powered by the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor. Announced earlier today, the Z1 Extreme is a highly power-optimized version of the 4 nm "Phoenix" silicon that packs an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, along with its full-config iGPU based on the latest RDNA3 graphics architecture, with 12 CU (768 stream processors), and an LPDDR5 memory interface.

On the ROG Ally, the Z1 Extreme is configured with a 1.70 GHz CPU clock-speed, along with a 2.10 GHz iGPU engine clock. Multiplayer Italy went hands-on with the ROG Ally, and showed off a gameplay of "DOOM Eternal," where the ROG Ally pumps out 71 FPS, with an SoC power-draw of 25.7 W, and an SoC temperature of just 56°C. ASUS and AMD are expected to give the ROG Ally the full spectrum of software-level optimizations suitable for the device, such as dynamic resolution (Radeon Boost), which should hold frame-rates above 60 FPS at all times.

We've known from a recent report that "Meteor Lake" introduces an L4 cache, and now we are learning that it is codenamed "Adamantine," and serves functions resembling that of a passive interposer. Intel's upcoming "Meteor Lake" microarchitecture will power the company's first disaggregated processor for the client segment.

A disaggregated processor is different from an MCM (such as "Clarkdale"), since finer components that make up the processor that otherwise can't exist on their own packages without extreme latency, are made to share a single package via a high-speed interconnect. This disaggregation is purely for economic reasons, so the company needn't use the latest (and most expensive) foundry node for the entire processor, but ration it to the specific components that benefit the most from it. Unlike AMD client processors that disaggregate the CPU cores and the remaining processor I/O into two kinds of chiplets, Intel "Meteor Lake" will see the breaking up of not just CPU cores (compute tile), but also the iGPU on its own tile, besides the platform I/O on separate tiles still.

An intriguing entry has appeared on the Geekbench Browser site, the information was uploaded with a timestamp from this morning (11:07 am on April 20 to be specific) pointing to a mobile ASUS device that was tested in GeekBench 5. The archived info dump reveals that the subject matter of the benchmark was the ASUS ROG Ally handheld gaming console, which has received a lot of attention in recent weeks - with it being touted as a very serious alternative to Valve's Steam Deck, a handheld gaming PC that is quite popular with enthusiasts. The ROG Ally will need to offer a potent hardware package if it stands to compete directly with the Steam Deck, and the latest information confirms that this new contender is very promising in that department. Geekbench 5 awarded an impressive OpenCL score of 35498 to the RC71L variant of the ROG Ally, an RC71X-assigned model is known to exist but details of its exact nature have not been revealed. This particular ROG Alloy unit was running Windows 11 Home (64-bit) under the operating system's performance power plan.

The new entry on Geekbench Browser shows that the Ally is packing an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, which appears to be a customized version of the Ryzen 7 7840U APU mobile platform chipset - previous rumors have indicated that the latter would be in the driving seat. Both Phoenix range SoCs share the basic 8 cores and 16 thread makeup, but the Z1 Extreme is capable of boosting up to 5.062 GHz from a base frequency of 3.30 GHz. AMD's Radeon 780M iGPU (RDNA 3) is expected to deal with the Ally's graphical aspect, but the benchmark info dump only provides scant details about the GPU (codenamed "gfx1103") - most notably the presence of six computer units, an 800 MHz max frequency, and access to 8.20 GB of video memory. Number crunching boffins have calculated that the Ally could field 768 FP32 cores, courtesy of the dual issue SIMD design inherent to RDNA 3.

Intel Graphics formally retired the Gen 9 graphics architecture that powered iGPUs found in the company's 6th Gen Core processors. The company continues support for the Gen 9.5 architecture that powers 7th thru 10th Gen processors. With up to 24 EU (execution units), the iGPU provided basic display that met Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10 WHQL logo requirements, and supported Direct3D DDI up to API level 11_0. This "retirement" means that Intel Graphics will no longer provide regular driver updates, but relegate support for a much lower update cadence that only ticks when there are critical security or stability issues to fix. The last regular driver for these iGPUs is version 31.0.101.2115.

A new benchmark of the AMD Radeon 780M RDNA3-based iGPU has now been spotted in Geekbench, showing it to be on par with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650. The benchmark was done on the announced AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS CPU, which is a part of AMD's 4 nm Ryzen 7040 "Phoenix" lineup. The CPU in question is an 8-core/16-thread SKU with 40 MB of cache. It works at 3.8 GHz base and 5.1 GHz boost clocks and has a TDP of 35 W to 45 W. The same CPU comes with Radeon 780M RDNA3 iGPU with 12 Compute Units (CUs), for a total of 768 Stream Processors, and works at 2700 MHz.

The Geekbench OpenCL benchmark was fired up on a Chinese laptop with 32 GB of RAM and running on the Windows balanced power plan, where it scored a decent 36,757 points. This score puts it somewhere around the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 and AMD Radeon RX 480 discrete graphics cards. This is an impressive result considering that this is a mid-SKU in the announced Ryzen 7040 series. Of course, we still do not know the specified TDP for this laptop, or what memory was used, so results might be slightly different. Since these laptops are yet to appear in retail, AMD is probably still tweaking the drivers, so we expect these numbers could be even higher for the full release.

It's almost cherry-blossom season in Japan, and MINISFORUM released a special edition mini PC to mark it. The UM773 SE has a pastel pink body color along with a cherry-blossom print. Under the hood, it rocks an AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS processor (6 nm, Zen 3+, "Rembrandt Refresh" silicon), with an 8-core/16-thread CPU, and a 12-CU RDNA2 iGPU (Radeon 680M). You get two DDR5 SO-DIMM slots to drop in your own memory, and an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD slot with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring, to use your own SSD, and a 2.5-inch drive bay with SATA 6 Gbps.

Networking connectivity on the MINISFORUM UM773 SE include 2.5 GbE, WiFi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.2. USB connectivity includes USB4, for a type-C port that supports DisplayPort passthrough from the iGPU. There are a couple of 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C ports, a couple of such type-A ports, and a couple of USB 2.0 type-A. A couple of HDMI ports, and HD audio make for the rest of it. The box measures 127 mm x 128 mm x 47 mm (WxDxH). The UM773 SE is sold either as a barebones that lacks memory and SSDs; or as prebuilts with 1x 16 GB, 2x 8 GB, and 2x 16 GB memory; each with a 512 GB NVMe SSD.

Update Mar 10th: MINISFORUM confirmed the US price of the UM773 SE to be $429 for the barebones, $579 for the prebuilt with 16 GB memory and 512 GB SSD, $639 for the one with 32 GB memory and 512 GB SSD, and $679 for the top model with 32 GB memory and 1 TB SSD storage.

AMD's entry-level Ryzen 3 4300G APU, which was being sold in the OEM/SI channels, is sneaking its way into the retail PIB space, with Japanese retailers listing it as a retail part. Until now, you could only get the 4300G as part of a pre-built, or as part of a retail "bundle," where they would simply pull one of these chips out of a tray, install it on an entry-level A520 or A320 chipset motherboard, and sell along with a stick of memory. The 4300G is commanding a roughly $100 (equivalent) price, which could make sense for entry-level mom-and-pop PCs.

The Ryzen 3 4300G is based on the 7 nm "Renoir" silicon, and is a Socket AM4 processor with integrated graphics. The processor has one of its two CCXs disabled, leaving you with a 4-core/8-thread CPU based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, that has 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 4 MB of L3 cache shared among the four cores. The processor also features a dual-channel DDR4 memory interface, a PCI-Express Gen 3 interface, and an iGPU based on the Radeon "Vega" graphics architecture. It has a TDP of 65 W.

Intel Graphics has introduced feature rivaling NVIDIA VSR (virtual super resolution) for Chromium-based web-browsers such as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge, which enhances the quality of streaming video, both from lower resolutions to higher; as well as improving the quality at native resolution. This was discovered in the change-log of a Chrome build, which talks about the introduction of a "-features=IntelVpSuperResolution" command-line argument to start Chrome with, to enable the feature.

Apparently, the Intel VSR feature works on Intel iGPUs dating back to the 11th Gen Core ("Tiger Lake" and "Rocket Lake,") based on the Xe-LP graphics architecture. The feature should come particularly handy when trying to upscale online video from lower resolutions (such as SD 360p/480p or HD 720p), up to Full HD (1080p) or higher. It's reported that VSR is enabled by default on Chrome/Edge 110, and doesn't require that command-line argument. To use it, you will need Intel iGPU graphics drivers version 27.20.100.8681 or later.

According to SkatterBench, a website known for incredible overclocking attempts, we get to see AMD's Ryzen 7000 series integrated GPU get up to 42% performance improvement from overclocking. Specifically, the SKU used in the attempt was the Ryzen 9 7900 non-X model with 12 cores and 24 threads, clocked at 3.7 GHz base frequency and 5.4 GHz boost speed. The SKU contains a basic AMD GPU integrated into the package; however, not meant for any serious gaming tasks. Nonetheless, it is interesting to see what a two-core RDNA2 GPU clocked at 2.2 GHz managed to achieve once overclocked. The memory clock of the GPU is set to 2.4 GHz at stock.

Running at the base voltage of 0.997 volts under Furmark workload, the iGPU consumes around 38.5 Watts. However, the overclocking attempt pushed the voltage to 1.395 Volts, resulting in a 3.1 GHz iGPU frequency. The GPU Memory clock is now set to 3200 MHz, and the GPU+SOC power is 60.689 Watts, almost double compared to the stock settings. The overclocker used a GFX curve optimizer with various system tweaks to achieve these numbers. While the OC attempt was successful, the most significant performance improvement was a 42% increase, with some game titles averaging less. Below, the blue bar indicates stock, while the green bar indicates OC'd performance. You can check out the YouTube video as well to see more details.