Today Microsoft confirmed that customers from Windows 7 Extended Security Updates (ESU) program will still get security updates, even when the operating system reaches End-of-Life. On an FAQ page, Microsoft answers that "Windows 7 ESU includes security updates for critical and important issues as defined by Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) for a maximum of three years after January 14, 2020. After January 14, 2020, if your PC is running Windows 7 and you have not purchased Extended Security Updates, the computer will no longer receive security updates."

This confirms Microsoft's intentions to support some customers who are unable to switch to more modern OS versions like Windows 10, presumably customers who can afford to pay for extended security on their machines. More info can be found on Microsoft's website for Security Essentials and FAQ about ESU for Windows 7.

Greenliant is now sampling its NVMe U.2 EnduroSLC Industrial Enterprise EX Series solid state drives (SSDs) to customers that require ultra high endurance primary storage with sustainable low latency and high performance in extreme environments. Designed with Greenliant's EnduroSLC Technology, NVMe U.2 Industrial Enterprise EX Series SSDs provide ultra robust data retention and ultra high system-level lifetime endurance of 30 drive writes per day (DWPD) for 5 years.

"For the highest levels of data integrity, Greenliant's NVMe U.2 Industrial Enterprise SSDs implement on-chip adaptive RAID," said Xuanhui Li, Vice President of Business Development, Datacenter Products, Greenliant. "With Greenliant's NVMe U.2 Industrial Enterprise SSDs, customers can achieve the efficiency and scalability required to meet the demands of write intensive applications in harsh environments."

In the press-deck of its 3rd Generation Ryzen Threadripper 3970X/3960X launch, AMD teased its flagship HEDT part for the TRX40 platform, the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, with a 2020 launch date. It should come as little surprise then, that the core-count gap between the 3970X and the 3990X has an SKU in the middle - the 3980X. This SKU reportedly surfaced in CPU-Z 1.91 code. The 3980X is a 48-core/96-thread monstrosity for when 64 cores are too many, and 32 too few.

Like the 3990X, the 3980X will likely be built with eight "Zen 2" CCDs (chiplets) for optimal IFOP bandwidth utilization and heat-spread. Each CCD will likely be configured with 6 cores (3 per CCX), adding up to 48 cores on the package. Much like the 3990X, clock-speeds of the 3980X remain under the wraps. AMD is expected to launch the two some time in 2020, featuring compatibility with existing AMD TRX40 chipset motherboards. The company could target a sub-$3,000 price-point to make the Xeon W-3175X obsolete both in performance and value.

Ahead of a possible reveal in the sidelines of CES, followed by an early-Q2 2020 product-launch, company slides detailing Intel's 10th generation Core desktop processors in the LGA1200 package, codenamed "Comet Lake-S," leaked to the web courtesy Informatica Cero. They confirm that HyperThreading will play a key role, with Intel enabling it across the lineup. The range-topping Core i9 series will be 10-core/20-thread along with 20 MB of L3 cache. The Core i7 series will be 8-core/16-thread, along with 16 MB L3 cache. The all-important Core i5 series will be 6-core/12-thread, equipped with 12 MB of L3 cache. The Core i3 series will have two sub-tiers: i3-103xx series with 4-core/8-thread and 8 MB L3 cache; and i3-101xx series 4-core/8-thread with 6 MB L3 cache.

The Core i7 and Core i9 "Comet Lake" chips will feature native support for dual-channel DDR4-2933, while the Core i5 and Core i3 will make do with native DDR4-2667 support (memory overclocking possible). Besides core/thread counts, and cache size increases, Intel will dial up clock speeds across the board by as much as 300 MHz per SKU (vs. their 9th gen predecessor), and introduce Turbo Boost Max 3.0, which has been exclusive to its HEDT processors. The introduction of Turbo Boost Max 3.0 could also bring about modern favored-core capability (benefiting Windows 10 1909 and later). The classic Turbo Boost is also available. There's also a mysterious new feature called "Thermal Velocity Boost," with its own set of clock-speeds depending on core/thread load. The chips could also feature Modern Standby C10 power-state support (first to the desktop platform). Intel is said to have also added several new core and memory overclocking features on the K-SKUs.

According to sources at DigiTimes, Intel will announce its advanced cooling solutions for project Athena thin and light laptops, at 2020's CES. Pushing project Athena to be the finest of all laptop options, Intel wants to give users the ability to have their laptops run even cooler than ever with a new thermal solution that will supposedly enable an additional 25-30% of cooling headroom. The new cooling module will combine two ingredients to make up for a powerful cooling solution - vapor chambers and graphite sheets.

Usually, the cooling modules inside laptops are placed between the keyboard and laptop's bottom shell, where they could utilize only a small space, so thermal management became hard. In contrast, Intel's design is combining the vapor chamber with graphite sheets to create a bigger surface for heat dissipation. The vapor chamber will replace all the current modules and connect to graphite sheets placed behind the laptop screen, where a lot of area is available. Connecting the vapor chamber to the graphite sheet is a laptop hinge, where a graphite cooling solution would pass through. This hints at a complete redesign of laptop hinges, so we can expect to see some creative solutions there as well. Additionally, this design will allow manufacturers to make fanless laptops that use lower-power CPU models, and we can expect to see even slimmer laptop designs than ever before.

AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card features the same exact stream processor count as the $350 RX 5700, according to a leaked specs sheet of a an AIB partner's custom-design graphics card. With a stream processor count of 2,304, it's safe to assume that the RX 5600 XT is based on the same 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon as the RX 5700 series. What set the RX 5600 XT apart from the RX 5700, besides lower clock-speeds, is the memory subsystem, which is severely stripped down. The Radeon RX 5600 XT will be equipped with 6 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface. What's more, the memory ticks at 12 Gbps, compared to 14 Gbps on the RX 5700 series.

With these specs, the RX 5600 XT has 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal, same as NVIDIA's GeForce GTX 1660 Ti. In contrast, with 8 GB of 256-bit GDDR6 running at 14 Gbps, the RX 5700 enjoys 448 GB/s. The specs sheet suggests that AMD has also dialed down the engine clock-speeds (GPU clocks) a bit, with up to 1620 MHz boost, up to 1460 MHz gaming, and 1235 MHz base. With these specs, it's highly likely that the RX 5600 XT outperforms the GTX 1660 Ti and gets close to the RTX 2060. It all boils down to pricing. The RX 5500 XT is a decent GTX 1650-series alternative with a lukewarm price thanks to NVIDIA's aggressive product-stack management by getting its partners to lower prices of the GTX 1660 and GTX 1660 Super. It would be interesting to see if AMD can outfox NVIDIA in the sub-$300 market.

Transcend Information Inc. (Transcend ), a leading manufacturer of storage and multimedia products, is proud to present the market-redefining JetFlash 910, a USB flash drive that packs incredible performance and endurance into a compact USB form factor. The flash drive utilizes the latest 3D NAND technology for up to 420 MB/s and 400 MB/s read and write speeds and an excellent endurance level of 3,000 P/E cycles - the equivalent of MLC NAND flash. With capacities up to 256 GB, the JetFlash 910 is ideal for storing a trove of 4K videos and high-resolution images, transferring them in a flash. Housed in lightweight aluminium with a sandblasted finish for extra durability and a sleek look, the JetFlash 910 takes the USB storage experience to a brand new level.

At 10 times the lifespan of a regular TLC flash drive, the JetFlash 910 offers superior and persistent protection of key data, making it great everyday carry for work and life. Having a high endurance rating also makes the JetFlash 910 well-suited for write-intensive applications, such as dashcams or surveillance systems. The aluminium metallic housing makes the USB flash drive less prone to wear, while gracing it with an extra touch of sleekness.

The DARK rises again. Not content to merely shatter records and competition in the consumer market, the EVGA SR-3 DARK merges two extreme performance lines of EVGA motherboards to bring balance to the force with exceptional performance and engineering. Featuring the Intel C622 chipset, hexa-channel memory support, 23 phase power design, 16-layer PCB, dual-10 GbE LAN ports, a waterblock to passively or actively cool the DARK's VRM, and so much more, this board is packed with everything and is still compact enough to fit in a full E-ATX form factor.

With the EVGA SR-3 DARK, you don't need to see its identification to know that the next evolution of the X299 and Z390 DARK motherboards features the latest improvements for performance and enthusiast needs.

This piece of news shouldn't surprise anyone, except for the fact that Intel is apparently signing on a TDP of 125 W for even its K-series unlocked processors for their next-generation Comet Lake-S family. Intel's current Comet Lake 9900K CPU features a TDP of "only" 95 W - when compared to the rumored 125 W of the 10900K), whilst their current top offering, the i9-9900KS, features a 127 W TDP. Remember that Intel's 10900K should feature 10 cores and 20 threads, two extra cores than their current 9900K - this should explain the increased TDP, a mathematical necessity given that Intel can only count on marginal improvements to its 14 nm fabrication process to frequencies and power consumption of its CPUs.

A leaked slide from momomo on Twitter shows, if real, that Intel's future enthusiast-grade CPUs (likely i5-10600K, i7-10700K and i9-10900K) will feature this 125 W TDP, while other launches in that family will make do with the more traditional 65 W TDP (interesting to see that Intel has some 10-core CPUs with 65 W TDP, the same as their current 9900, despite two more cores). A footnote on the leaked slide shows that these K processors can be configured for a 95 W TDP, but this would likely come at a significant cost to operating frequency. Intel seems to be bringing a knife to a gunfight (in terms of core counts and TDP) with AMD's Ryzen 3000 and perhaps Ryzen 4000 CPUs, should those and Intel's future offerings actually coexist in the market.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 4000 series processors will be based on the company's Zen 3 design, which will feature a deeply revised architecture aiming to offer increased performance (surprising no-one). AMD themselves have already said that Zen 3 will offer performance increases in line with the release of new architectures - and we all remember the around 15% increase achieved with the release of Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 series, which surprised even AMD on its performance capabilities. Several sources around the web are quoting an around 17% increase in performance, taking into account increased operating frequencies of Zen 3 (100 to 200 MHz at least for the enterprise solutions, which could pave the way for even higher increases in consumer-geared products) and increased IPC of its core design. The utilization of EUV in the 7 nm process shouldn't have much to do with the increased frequencies of the CPUs, and will mostly be used to reduce the number of masks that are required for production of AMD's Zen 3 CPUs (which in turn will lead to increased yields).

Sources are claiming an increase of up to 50% in Zen 3's Floating Point Units (FPU) compared to Zen 2, while integer operations should make do with a 10-12% increase. Cores should remain stable across the board - and with that increase in performance, I'd say an upper limit of 16 physical and 32 logic cores in a consumer-geared CPU is more than enough. Increased IPCs and frequencies will definitely make AMD an even better proposition for all markets - gaming in particular, where Intel still has a (slightly virtual) hold in consumer's minds.

SK hynix Inc., a global semiconductor maker based in Korea, is set to introduce its newest offering of "Gold P31" and "Platinum P31" PCIe NVMe Solid State Drives (SSDs) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020, which will be held on January 7-10 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The drives are built with SK hynix's 128-layer 4D NAND flash, only six months after the Company announced the mass production of the world's first and highest vertical stack for NAND flash, demonstrating the chipmaker's technological edge.

As a leading manufacturer of memory chips, SK hynix builds and supplies its own DRAM and NAND flash devices, as well as SSD controllers designed and developed in-house. The company has a proven track record as a major supplier to global OEMs including top-tier PC makers, who have trusted and purchased SK hynix's SSDs for nearly a decade now. As a next step, SK hynix is now expanding into the consumer market with its newest drives.

GTA V, made by Rockstar and Take-Two, is possibly the biggest game ever designed, with the massive player base and massive profits fulfilled. Perhaps the most interesting report today is that the game has stayed in the top game sales chart in the United States for the past 74 months. Month after month, gamers have been buying digital copies of the game to a point where it maintained some of the top spots on the charts. Since the game launched in 2013, it got support for two generations of consoles and PC platforms, making it accessible to a huge base of gamers. With constant updates and new content, the game managed to keep players interested and busy with new quests to conquer.

"Recurrent consumer spending on GTA Online grew 23% YoY to a new record, driven by the July release of the Diamond Casino Resort update. This update was GTA Online's biggest content launch ever, delivering record daily, weekly, and monthly active users in July and again in August," CEO of Take-Two Interactive Strauss Zelnick said in November.

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TechPowerUp and Cooler Master, in partnership with ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance, brought you a cracker of an year-end Giveaway, with a full gaming desktop on offer, equipped with stable and reliable components from the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance of co-branded hardware. Our TUF Gaming Alliance system includes an ASUS TUF X470-Plus Gaming motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 TUF Gaming graphics card, 16 GB Apacer Panther Rage RGB TUF Gaming Edition memory, Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 TUF Gaming Edition case, Team Group T-Force Delta S TUF RGB 250 GB SSD, Cooler Master MasterWatt 750 W TUF Gaming Edition power-supply, and a Cooler Master MasterAir MA410M TUF Gaming Edition CPU cooler. The Winner takes all in our Giveaway, and without further ado here they are:

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MSI today unveiled the Optix MAG272QR, a 27-inch fast gaming monitor. Slotted in the company's Arsenal Gaming family, the MAG272QR features a VA panel with WQHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution, 165 Hz refresh-rate, 1 ms (GTG) response-time, AMD FreeSync support, and 95.6% DCI-P3 coverage. Other key panel specs include 10 bpc color (1.07 billion colors), 178°/178° viewing-angles, 300 cd/m² maximum brightness, and dynamic mega-contrast ratio, besides 3000:1 static contrast.

The Optix MAG272QR features a stand that lets you adjust height, 90° rotation to portrait mode, ±75° swivel, and 5-20° tilt. Behind the monitor are RGB LED embellishments that you control with MSI Mystic Light RGB app, and can also configure as mood-light. Display inputs include USB-C (DisplayPort TMDS passthrough), standard DisplayPort 1.2a, and two HDMI 2.0b inputs; all of which support the monitor's full 1440p resolution. Using HDMI 2.0b caps the refresh-rate to 144 Hz. Available now, the Optix MAG272QR is priced at USD $350.

Steam has revealed the games that sold the most on the platform for this year of 2019. While Steam's own numbers don't represent the entirety of the PC market - considering other digital storefronts such as GOG, EPIC Games Store and publisher-exclusive stores like Origin also have a relevant market share - this does let us take a considered peek at the PC gaming landscape. Steam's top sellers also includes top grossing, where games that have store-bound skins or extras are also taken into account).

Steam's Platinum lineup includes all the hallmarks of PC gaming: online experiences such as Warframe, DOTA 2, PUBG, and the Elder Scrolls Online, through strategy experiences such as Civilization VI and Total War: Three Kingdoms. Considering that Destiny 2 also made it in the platform, many gamers actually enjoy that experience - it is unclear if Steam considers every redeem from the Blizzard store into the Steam Store a sale, but if not, it's mighty impressive that a game that released on October 1st.

As we are approaching the year 2020, when Intel is rumored to launch its discrete graphics cards to the hand of consumers around the world, we are gearing up on the number of leaks about the upcoming products. Thanks to Twitter user @KOMACHI_ENSAKA, who found the latest EEC listing, we have new information regarding Intel's upcoming DG1 discrete graphics solution.

In the leaked EEC listing, the DG1 GPU is being presented as a GPU with 96 execution units, meaning that Intel is planning to take on entry-level graphics cards with this GPU. If the graphics unit is following the same design principle of the previous-generation GPUs, then there should be around 8 shading units per one execution unit, totaling 768 shading units for the whole DG1 GPU. If the 12th Gen Xe design inside the DG1 follows a different approach, then we can expect to see a double amount of shading units, meaning 1536 in total.

MSI debuted the Evoke brand of hardware targeted at creators, with its Radeon RX 5700-series Evoke graphics cards. The company is now planning to extend the brand to a range of other products, beginning with notebooks. The company teased the design of what's allegedly the first Evoke branded notebook, which ships with a minimalist and durable design, and hardware tailored for content-creation applications. The company didn't tease its specs, but you can expect anything from Intel's 10th gen "Comet Lake-H" to AMD's Ryzen 4000 "Renoir" processors, and discrete graphics options that include RX 5500M "Navi" or even Max-Q RTX 20-series. Some of the higher trims could even leverage fast NVMe storage. MSI is expected to launch its Evolve notebooks on 7th January, 2020.

Intel's upcoming LGA1200 mainstream desktop socket (aka socket H5), appears to be cooler-compatible with older LGA115x sockets. This would mean any CPU cooler compatible with sockets LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1150, and LGA1151, should be mechanically compatible with LGA1200. You'd still need to ensure the cooler has enough thermal capacity to cool some of the higher TDP SKUs such as the range-topping Core i9-10900K.

Comparative mechanical drawings of LGA1200 and LGA1151 were posted by momomo_us and eUUUK50, which show the LGA1200 package to have the same dimensions as the older socket. A picture of the land-grid of an LGA1200 package also leaked to the web, showing how Intel utilized empty bits of the fiberglass substrate to cram in the additional 49 pins, without changing the size of the contacts. The LGA1200 socket debuts with Intel's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" desktop processors and motherboards based on the company's 400-series chipsets. Intel is expected to launch these processors by Q2-2020.

Montech, a new enthusiast PC Case, Power and Cooling solutions brand based in Taiwan introduces their new Fighter 400 and Fighter 600 line of competitively priced gaming cases. Both mid-tower ATX cases come with tempered glass side panels. The Fighter 400 comes with a pre-installed 120 mm Blue LED rear fan, while the Fighter 600 comes 3 front 1 rear 120 mm Rainbow LED fans.

Aimed at the highly competitive budget gaming case range, both the Fighter 400 and Fighter 600 comes with all the bells and whistles of higher end alternatives. Both cases comes with full Tempered Glass side panels to show off your RGB peripherals, not to mention both cases comes with pre-installed 120 mm LED fans! For the Fighter 400 you get a 120 mm blue LED rear fan and with the Fighter 400 you get a total of 4 120 mm Rainbow LED fans. Designed for maximum airflow and performance, both cases include top and bottom dust filters to keep cooling and also dust in check. Industry standard front USB 3.0/2.0 I/O ports are also present, as well as a shielded PSU compartment, cable management ports, support for 120/240 mm radiators on the Fighter 600 and 120/240/280/360 mm radiators on the Fighter 400.

We at TechPowerUp wish you and your family a Merry Christmas! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts to help us make 2019 a phenomenal year in the tech world, with the introduction of new computing platforms that set the direction in which the industry will grow in the next decade. Our content teams have kept you on the forefront with lightning fast news and in-depth product reviews. As we begin to turn the page in our calendars, we wish you an equally fruitful New Year, and the beginning of a prosperous new decade. Don't forget to tell us what you found under your tree!

ADATA is a company currently selling only memory solutions like SSDs and DRAM, however, the company now wants to try something different in 2020. For starters, ADATA wants to launch more products that will be a part of its Xtreme Performance Gear lineup called XPG shortly. XPG will start offering new products like monitors, laptops, gaming PCs and PC cases with a goal of capturing new market share and try to establish itself as a strong brand of PC gaming products. The new lineup will get revealed with more details at CES 2020, however, we have information of what the new lineup contains.

For starters, XPG will begin with a laptop called Xenia 15, a 15.6-inch gaming laptop with 1080p IPS display and 9th gen Intel core i9 CPU. Next up the chain is a gaming PC called XPG Gaia - 5 liters mini PC with one PCIe slot for a graphics card that's up to 8-inches long. In addition, XPG will showcase a new monitor called Photon equipped with a 27-inch panel that features PixelDisplay's Vivid Color Eye-Safe Display technology which is essentially a technique for blocking out blue light. There is also going to be a new case called XPG Volta, a cylindrical case made out of premium materials such as tempered glass and metal. It is supposed to fit up to E-ATX motherboard and have plenty of room for water-cooling setups. Last but not least, XPG will have two concepts of RGB DDR4 memory modules, with both of them having speeds of up to 4800 MHz and having capacity of up to 32 GB per DIMM.

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Greenliant is now sampling its SATA 2.5" EnduroSLC Industrial Enterprise EX Series solid state drives (SSDs) for primary storage applications that require ultra high endurance under extreme temperature conditions. Designed with Greenliant's EnduroSLC Technology, SATA 2.5" Industrial Enterprise EX Series SSDs provide ultra robust data retention and ultra high system-level lifetime endurance of 30 drive writes per day (DWPD) for 5 years.

"Greenliant has brought its SLC NAND expertise to the enterprise with its new line of EnduroSLC Industrial Enterprise EX Series SSDs," said Xuanhui Li, Vice President of Business Development, Datacenter Products, Greenliant. "With high reliability and outstanding quality of service, Greenliant's industrial enterprise storage products are ideal for mission critical, I/O intensive applications in aerospace, defense, transportation, energy and power, communications and industrial control."

To help with your snow-themed builds on a budget, Deepcool rolled out a [mostly] white variant of its GAMMAXX GTE V2 tower-type CPU cooler. The GTE V2 White features a silvery-white top-plate that caps the aluminium fin-stack heatsink; white caps for the heat-pipes, while fan-frame and impeller, and a white LED illumination for the fan. The aluminium fins retain their typical chrome finish.

The GAMMAXX GTE V2 features a tower-type aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat is conveyed by four 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the CPU at the base. The included 120 mm fan takes in 4-pin PWM input, spins between 500 to 1,650 RPM, pushing up to 64.5 CFM of air, with a maximum noise output of 27.8 dBA. The fan features a hydro bearing. Measuring 129 mm x 77 mm x 157.5 mm (WxDxH), including fan, the cooler weighs 650 g. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4 and LGA115x. Expect the cooler to be priced at a tiny premium over the USD $30 price of the standard model.

Western Digital announced that it has started shipping the industry's highest-capacity HDD samples to enterprise OEMs and hyperscale customers worldwide. The 20 TB Ultrastar DC HC650 SMR HDDs and 18 TB Ultrastar DC HC550 CMR HDDs, first previewed in June 2019, and announced in September 2019, feature its first-ever commercial implementation of energy-assisted magnetic recording technology on a nine-disk platform, enabling customers to more efficiently provision and scale their data center environments with unmatched total cost of ownership.

With zettabyte-scale data growth, the need for higher-capacity data storage across a broad spectrum of applications and workloads can be reliably met only with high Capacity Enterprise HDDs. The industry-leading capacities of Western Digital's Ultrastar 20 TB SMR and 18 TB CMR HelioSeal HDDs enable customers to deploy up to 22 percent fewer racks and reduce their TCO by up to 11 percent, along with the corresponding reductions in power consumption, cooling costs, and data center infrastructure needs when compared with today's 14 TB CMR HDDs.

China announced that it will reduce import tariffs on several U.S. commodities, including certain kinds of technology. This is a sign of easing tensions between the United States and China on its devastating trade-war waged between 2017-19 that wiped billions of Dollars of value from the capital markets and saw increases in prices of goods around the world. The exhaustive list of 859 commodities covers raw materials for a variety of polymers and plastics found in consumer durables, raw materials for energy storage devices, certain kinds of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, photo and video imaging equipment (camera components), LCD and OLED display components. There are hundreds of other commodities from other industries, covering food, industrial automation, and agriculture.

The items on China's updated import tariffs list amounts to some USD $389 billion in annual trade, or about 18 percent of China's annual imports. The cuts in import tariffs are expected to not just benefit U.S. exporters to China, but also stimulate similar import tariff cuts from the U.S. in response. China has an insatiable appetite for camera equipment, and has eased imports of OLED and certain semiconductor manufacturing equipment, which could have a trickle-down effect on the tech industry. Find the complete schedule of goods with updated import tariffs here. We've machine translated relevant pages in the screenshots below.

AMD's upcoming RX 5600 XT will bring about a much needed power increase over the current baseline RX 5500 series, slotting smoothly between it and the mainstream, high-performance RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT. New benchmarks spotted by Videocardz place AMD's upcoming graphics card (which could feature a 6 GB VRAM with higher capacities likely to be offered as well) some 35% ahead of the RX 5500, as well as on the overall performance level of AMD's RX Vega 56. That AMD card debuted at $399 and now has performance 8% to 15% higher than NVIDIA's current GTX 1660 SUPER, exactly where AMD would want the RX 5600 XT's performance to land.

Other details come courtesy of another publication, where Igor Wallosseck over at Igor's Lab says that AMD could be looking at harvesting the Navi 10 dies that power the company's RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 by disabling one of four Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACEs). These four ACEs are found two each on one of Navi's Shader Engines (SEs), and disabling one ACE and subordinate hardware from the full Navi 10's 40 RDNA Units, 2,560 Stream Processors (SPs), 160 texture mapping units (TMUs) and 64 render output units (ROPs) would make up for an RX 5600 XT with 30 RDNA CUs, 1,920 SPs, 120 TMUs, 48 ROPs and expected 3 MB of L2 cache. AMD could be looking to position the AMD RX 5600 XT in the $249 price range, since top tier RX 5500 XT tend to go for $200.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is excited to announce an all-new high-capacity, low-latency DDR4-3200 CL14-18-18-38 memory kit specification based on 32 GB modules across the Trident Z RGB, Trident Z Royal, and Trident Z Neo series. Available in 256 GB (32GBx8), 128 GB (32GBx4), and 64 GB (32GBx2) kit capacities for quad-channel and dual-channel platforms, these new DDR4 memory specifications are built with the latest high-density 16Gb components and provide the perfect mix of extreme performance and high memory capacity.

DDR4-3200 CL14 has always been the ultimate sweet spot for performance since the early days of DDR4 memory, and G.SKILL is now bringing the legendary high-performance efficiency to the latest 32 GB high-capacity DDR4 modules. Designed for the latest HEDT platforms with quad-channel support, the DDR4-3200 CL14-18-18-38 specification with 256 GB (32GBx8) memory kit capacity can be seen validated in the screenshots below with the new Intel Core i9-10900X processor on the ASUS ROG RAMPAGE VI EXTREME ENCORE motherboard and the Intel Core i9-10940X processor on the MSI Creator X299 motherboard.

AeroCool late last week rolled out the Cylon 4F its mainstream tower-type CPU cooler. The Cylon 4F features a black anodized aluminium fin-stack to which heat is conveyed by four 6 mm-thick copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the CPU at the base. A plastic shroud covers the top of the fin-stack, and has an ARGB LED diffuser. This shroud extends into the 120 mm fan, featuring an ARGB element along the bore of the frame. The fan spins between 800 to 1,800 RPM, pushing 26.1 to 52.5 CFM of air, with noise output ranging between 14 to 26 dBA. AeroCool claims the Cylon 4F can handle thermal loads of up to 145 Watts. It measures 126.5 mm x 76 mm x 155 mm (WxDxH). Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Following the previous report about AMD's upcoming "Renoir" APU lineup of processors for notebook and desktop, we have new information about the new processor models and their configurations. Supposed to launch in early 2020, the Renoir lineup is supposed to feature up to 8 cores and 16 threads in high-end models. Dubbed Ryzen 4000 series, the new APU lineup will be available in four configurations determined by its TDP: 15 W and 45 W chips for notebooks, and 35 W and 65 W variants meant for desktop.

According to WCCFTech, AMD will launch high-performance Ryzen 9 4900H and Ryzen 7 4800H APUs soon in the first notebooks. Supposed to be part of the "H" series of mobile APUs, these models will feature high core count, that can reach up to 8 cores, SMT support as well, all within TPD of 45 Watts. A power-optimized Ryzen 7 4800HS has also appeared in the listings as a lower clocked alternative to Ryzen 7 4800H, which is supposed to feature lower TDP as well. All of the former processors appear listed as the base of ASUSes upcoming GA401 and GA502 laptops, featuring 16 GB of RAM, Windows 10, and a 14-inch display. While configurations of the laptop will affect its price, Ryzen 7 4800HS powered model is currently listed at 1904 EUR, featuring 16 GB of RAM and 1 TB of storage, so we now have a ballpark price estimate to speculate upon.

OWC today announced the all-new Accelsior 4M2 ultra high-performance PCIe M.2 NVMe internal SSD that delivers over 6,000 MB/s real-world speeds in capacities up to 8 TB. The Accelsior 4M2 is the fastest SSD ever built by OWC and is the perfect storage solution for large format video editing, VR/AR/MR environments, extreme gaming, compute-intensive applications and other high bandwidth needs.

Whether you have the Mac Pro 2019, a Mac Pro 2012 or 2010, or PC tower, the Accelsior 4M2 delivers the blazing performance, unstoppable reliability and stunning versatility that are the hallmarks of OWC's brand reputation. As a half-length x8/x16 compatible card, this game-changer offers true versatility, so users can install it in full-length PCIe 3.0 or 2.0 slots as well. Even Thunderbolt 3-equipped laptops can experience the performance boosting benefits of Accelsior 4M2 with Plug-and-Play ease using the OWC Mercury Helios 3S PCIe expansion chassis (sold separately). In other words, it's incredibly versatile.

AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7 4700U "Renoir" mobile processor posts an 18 percent performance gain in PCMark 10 over its predecessor, the 3700U, according to benchmark results data compiled by Reddit enthusiast _rogame. The 4700U combines a 4-core/8-thread CPU ticking at 2.00 GHz (base) with up to 4.20 GHz boost, according to the SystemInfo module. It also ends up about 2.8 percent faster than a Core i7-1065G7 "Ice Lake" processor.

The 4700U is rumored to feature AMD's new "Zen 2" CPU cores, an iGPU with up to 13 "Vega" NGCUs (832 stream processors), and leverage the 7 nm silicon fabrication process to boost CPU clock-speeds without affecting the ultraportable platform's typical TDP. 3DMark 11 figures of the iGPU surfaced earlier suggesting competitiveness to Intel's Gen11 graphics. "Renoir" also supports the cutting-edge LPDDR4X memory standard, which could further lower platform power draw, while boosting memory clocks as high as 4266 MHz DDR. Below are comparative "best result" screenshots.

PowerColor is readying a small form-factor friendly custom-design Radeon RX 5700 graphics card, called simply the PowerColor RX 5700 ITX. With a length of 17.5 cm, standard 11 cm height, and strictly 2-slot thickness, the card uses a dense aluminium fin-stack heatsink with four 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU at the base, ventilated by a single 80 mm fan. More interestingly, the card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector (225 W max power input for the connector + PCIe slot).

Unsurprisingly, the PowerColor RX 5700 ITX sticks to AMD-reference clock-speeds of 1465 MHz base, 1625 MHz gaming, and 1725 MHz boost, with the memory ticking at 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). Despite its compact cooling solution, the card does not skimp on idle-fan-off. Display outputs include two DisplayPort 1.4, and one HDMI 2.0. Based on the 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon, the RX 5700 features 2,304 stream processors across 36 RDNA compute units, 144 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory. PowerColor didn't reveal pricing of the card, as it will formally launch it later this month.

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Intel's latest talent acquisition from rival AMD, as it builds a GPU product lineup, is Masooma Bhaiwala. "After 15+ amazing years at AMD, I have decided to take on a different opportunity... It was a truly fun ride, with an incredible team, during which we built some truly cool chips," she wrote in a LinkedIn post. According to her profile, Bhaiwala takes the role of Vice President, discrete GPU SoCs, and works under Intel's Graphics and Throughput Computing Hardware Engineering group headed by Raja Koduri.

Koduri's team has been a glassdoor for former AMD executives and tech-leads. While it has hired engineering talent such as Balaji Kanigicherla, Kalyan Thumaty and Joseph Facca; it has simultaneously lost client-graphics marketing talent, with the likes of Chris Hook, Heather Lennon, and Jon Carvill waltzing out of the company in less than a year of their association. Besides Koduri's Intel's most priced tech talent acquisition is Jim Keller, who is working on a future high-IPC CPU core design for the company. While working for AMD, Keller's "Zen" microarchitecture coupled with CEO Lisa Su's leadership have scripted one of the biggest turnarounds in Silicon Valley.

The Annual Steam Winter Sale is on now thru January 2, 2020 at 10 am Pacific. In addition to finding massive savings on thousands of titles, gamers may earn Festivity Tokens when they shop on Steam and/or when they complete Holiday Quests. Earned Festivity Tokens may be spent in the Holiday Market, where players will find The Steam Winter Sale Coupon, new Chat Stickers, new Chat Room Effects, and more. The initial Holiday Quests are on now, with new Quests being added throughout the sale.

You may have heard that Microsoft will end support for Windows 7 on January 14, 2020. Benchmarks also have a natural lifespan that ends when they no longer provide meaningful results on modern hardware. When old benchmarks are used with new hardware, the results can be skewed or limited in ways that reduce their accuracy and relevance.

Today, we're announcing that, from January 14, 2020, we will no longer offer updates or support for 3DMark 11, PCMark 7, Powermark, 3DMark Cloud Gate, and 3DMark Ice Storm benchmarks. These benchmarks, all of which were released between 2011 and 2013, no longer provide useful, comparable results with modern hardware. In every case, there is a newer and more relevant benchmark test that you should use instead.

GIGABYTE is readying a new brand-extension for its graphics cards lineup, called EAGLE. It will join the company's existing brand extensions, namely Aorus Gaming and WindForce series. Regulatory filings by GIGABYTE with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) sees the company launching as many as 30 individual SKUs, spanning nearly every current-generation GPU. On the AMD front, we have cards based on the RX 5700 XT, RX 5700, RX 5500 XT, and the yet-unannounced RX 5600 XT, with its 6 GB of memory.

The NVIDIA lineup includes all its GTX 16-series and RTX 20-series SKUs, with the exception of the RTX 2080 Ti. The inclusion of RTX 2070 and RTX 2080, SKUs believed to have been passively retired with the advent of the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super, is interesting. It shows that NVIDIA hasn't given up on the two. The RTX 2070's second-coming in particular, was reportedly triggered by supply shortages in the RX 5700 series, giving NVIDIA room to sell something around the $400-450 mark, bang in the middle of the RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super.

ID-COOLING today announced SE-234-ARGB CPU air cooler, featuring Addressable RGB Lighting on both the heatsink top cover and fan, 4 direct-touch copper heatpipes, 120 mm PWM fan and newly designed metal-mecha mounting system. This cooler is designed to cool those processors with a TDP under 200 W. With a dimension of 126x88x154mm, this cooler is basically compatible with all regular ATX cases. The whole heatsink body has a black coating for stealthy looking.

Both the top cover and fan has addressable RGB lighting. Their ARGB cables are connected into one header, which can then be connected to motherboard 5 V 3-pin ARGB header from ASUS Aura, MSI Mystic Lighting, Gigabyte RGB Fusion and AsRock Polychrome Sync. For non ARGB motherboard users, there's an internal cable controller for multiple RGB lighting effect.

LG Electronics' new generation of Ultra monitors to be unveiled at CES 2020 is designed to dramatically improve the user experience with superior design and cutting-edge performance. A leading innovator in the premium monitor segment, LG's 2020 UltraFine, UltraGear and UltraWide models have been honored as CES Innovation Award winners.

The 2020 CES Innovation Award-winning 32-inch UltraFine "Ergo" 4K UHD monitor (model 32UN880) is an innovative ergonomic solution that delivers differentiated value. The unique LG Ergo concept brings together the three key elements of image fidelity, ergonomic design and USB-C One Cable solution for a monitor that delivers unbeatable performance, user comfort and a cleaner desk setup at home or at the office. The UltraFine 4K UHD Display Ergo inherits the stunning picture quality the UltraFine series is renowned for and more than meets the needs of most professionals thanks to its ability to produce high resolution images with excellent detail, color reproduction and color accuracy.

Broadcom has today started shipping its latest Tomahawk 4 chip for network switches, used by all hyperscale cloud providers like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. The Tomahawk 4 is a processor built using a 7 nm manufacturing node from TSMC. Featuring over 31 billion transistors, the chip is one of the largest ever Broadcom built. It is an improvement to the Tomahawk 3, which achieved 12.8Tbps. This new chip is having two times the bandwidth available, resulting in 25.6 Tbps speeds while still achieving the form of a single die.

To achieve the massive throughput of 25.6 Tbps, Broadcom put 512 PAM4 SerDes blocks running at 50 Gbps on a single monolithic design. Capable of supporting 64 ports of 400GbE or 256 ports of 100GbE, the Tomahawk 4 is said to bring costs of operations down by 75% due to the less required power and hardware to operate 25.6 Tbps switch, where in the past it was required to run multiple switches to achieve such throughput. Additionally, to control all the telemetry processing and run the switch firmware, four Arm CPUs running at 1 GHz are embedded in die to help out.

Baidu, a leading Chinese-language Internet search provider, and Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that Baidu's first cloud-to-edge AI accelerator, Baidu KUNLUN, has completed its development and will be mass-produced early next year. Baidu KUNLUN chip is built on the company's advanced XPU, a home-grown neural processor architecture for cloud, edge, and AI, as well as Samsung's 14-nanometer (nm) process technology with its I-Cube (Interposer-Cube) package solution.

The chip offers 512 gigabytes per second (GBps) memory bandwidth and supplies up to 260 Tera operations per second (TOPS) at 150 watts. In addition, the new chip allows Ernie, a pre-training model for natural language processing, to infer three times faster than the conventional GPU/FPGA-accelerating model. Leveraging the chip's limit-pushing computing power and power efficiency, Baidu can effectively support a wide variety of functions including large-scale AI workloads, such as search ranking, speech recognition, image processing, natural language processing, autonomous driving, and deep learning platforms like PaddlePaddle.

The release of H510 World of Warcraft Alliance and Horde Mid-Tower Cases for the fifth entrant of NZXT's limited edition CRFT series. Declare your allegiance in World of Warcraft as you battle for Azeroth's future with two special-edition NZXT H510 mid-tower cases. Each case is specially designed to show your pride for your favorite faction while keeping the signature look and functionality of NZXT's award-winning H Series. The H510 Alliance and H510 Horde cases are themed in each faction's colors with their respective logo proudly emblazoned on the front panel of the case. Whether you are for the Horde or the Alliance, this is the perfect case for your next Mythic raid or PvP Arena match.

EK, the European premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing the eagerly awaited AMD AM4 socket based monoblock belonging to the Quantum Line of products, the EK-Quantum Momentum Aorus X570 Elite D-RGB. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite motherboards. The addressable D-RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with RGB Fusion 2.0 Sync RGB control and offering a full lighting customization experience for every single diode at any given time.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Ryzen AMD processors and the monoblock is compatible with the AM4 socketed Gigabyte X570 Aorus Elite motherboard.

AMD today posted the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition. Version 19.12.3 ships with a "focus on stability improvements," according to Terry Makedon, who heads the company's software strategy and user-experience. The company addressed close to two dozen issues related to the first Adrenalin 2020 Edition release (version 19.12.2). To begin with game and boost clocks incorrectly reporting for RX 5500 XT has been fixed. A bug with the installing failing to detect AMD graphics hardware when a certain WiFi adapter is enabled in the system has been fixed. A "Rocket League" application crash when task-switching has been fixed. The Radeon Overlay shortcut appearing in fullscreen 3D apps even after disabling Overlay, has been fixed.

A bug with streaming, where audio from custom scenes continues to play after recording has stopped, is fixed. The volume of the installer's splash screen audio has been reduced. Bugs with tessellation-related settings in Radeon Software have been fixed. ReLive missing or not being available for installation on some machines with Hyper-V enabled, has been fixed. Also fixed are buges related to newly added game profiles failing to enable. Performing an auto-update from Adrenalin 2019 (19.12.1 and older) to Adrenalin 2020 fails with an error code, which has been fixed now. Radeon Chill experience with "gaming mice" has been fixed. Stuttering observed when switching between borderless to fullscreen display modes in some games with Overlay enabled, has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.12.3

TechPowerUp is partnering with Cooler Master and ASUS to bring our readers from the United States and Canada, a chance to receive a full set of components put together in a gaming desktop. The TUF Gaming brand was originally created by ASUS and represents aspiration and value for gamers putting together a stable and reliable rig on a budget. Our build set also includes components from AMD, Team Group, and Apacer.

One lucky winner takes all: ASUS TUF X470-Plus Gaming motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 TUF Gaming graphics card, 16 GB Apacer Panther Rage RGB TUF Gaming Edition memory, Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 TUF Gaming Edition case, Team Group T-Force Delta S TUF RGB 250 GB SSD, Cooler Master MasterWatt 750 W TUF Gaming Edition power-supply, and a Cooler Master MasterAir MA410M TUF Gaming Edition CPU cooler. The winner gets a fully assembled, ready to go system with one each of these components. Open from today, the Giveaway ends on December 25. All you have to do is fill up a short form to help us get back to you if you've won. Good Luck!

For details and to participate, visit this page.

Shortly before Christmas, the German company Aqua Computer introduces a new 8-channel controller for PWM fans. The control with the name OCTO impresses with an enormous range of functions and this on a surface smaller than a credit card.

In addition to the core function of a fan controller, the device also offers two channels for digitally controllable LEDs and can control up to 180 LEDs with many effects. In addition to Aqua Computer's own RGBpx LED products, the OCTO can also be connected to LEDs from many third party manufacturers via optionally available adapters.

ASUS today rolled out the TUF Gaming VG279QM, a 27-inch monitor with blazing fast refresh-rates. While its Full HD (1920 x 1080 pixels) resolution is nothing to write home about, the 280 Hz refresh-rate is sure to get noticed by e-Sports gamers. Besides these, you get 1 ms response time (GTG), 178°/178° viewing angles; DisplayHDR 400 certification, and support for ELMB-sync and NVIDIA G-Sync. ELMB-sync allows simultaneous variable refresh-rate and blur reduction. The best part is that the monitor uses an IPS panel rather than TN-film. It takes input from DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI ports. The company didn't reveal pricing.

TechPowerUp and DIYPC earlier this month brought our readers from the US a chance to win a sweet DIYPC S2-BK-RGB case. With a tempered glass side panel, RGB LED embellishments, and room for 37 cm long graphics cards, this mid-tower has all the essentials to build a formidable gaming rig taking advantage of reinvigorated competition in the CPU and GPU markets. The results are in, and we have our winners:

• Michael from California
• Brent from North Dakota

Congratulations, Michael and Brent! You each receive a DIYPC S2-BK-RGB case! TechPowerUp and DIYPC will return with more such interesting giveaways.

Kioxia Corporation today announced the development of the world's first three-dimensional (3D) semicircular split-gate flash memory cell structure "Twin BiCS FLASH" using specially designed semicircular Floating Gate (FG) cells. Twin BiCS FLASH achieves superior program slope and a larger program/erase window at a much smaller cell size compared to conventional circular Charge Trap (CT) cells. These attributes make this new cell design a promising candidate to surpass four bits per cell (QLC) for significantly higher memory density and fewer stacking layers. This technology was announced at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM) held in San Francisco, CA on December 11th.

3D flash memory technology has achieved high bit density with low cost per bit by increasing the number of cell stacked layers as well as by implementing multilayer stack deposition and high aspect ratio etching. In recent years, as the number of cell layers exceeds 100, managing the trade-offs among etch profile control, size uniformity and productivity is becoming increasingly challenging. To overcome this problem, Kioxia developed a new semicircular cell design by splitting the gate electrode in the conventional circular cell to reduce cell size compared to the conventional circular cell, enabling higher-density memory at a lower number of cell layers.

NVIDIA today introduced NVIDIA DRIVE AGX Orin, a highly advanced software-defined platform for autonomous vehicles and robots. The platform is powered by a new system-on-a-chip (SoC) called Orin, which consists of 17 billion transistors and is the result of four years of R&D investment. The Orin SoC integrates NVIDIA's next-generation GPU architecture and Arm Hercules CPU cores, as well as new deep learning and computer vision accelerators that, in aggregate, deliver 200 trillion operations per second—nearly 7x the performance of NVIDIA's previous generation Xavier SoC.

Orin is designed to handle the large number of applications and deep neural networks that run simultaneously in autonomous vehicles and robots, while achieving systematic safety standards such as ISO 26262 ASIL-D. Built as a software-defined platform, DRIVE AGX Orin is developed to enable architecturally compatible platforms that scale from a Level 2 to full self-driving Level 5 vehicle, enabling OEMs to develop large-scale and complex families of software products. Since both Orin and Xavier are programmable through open CUDA and TensorRT APIs and libraries, developers can leverage their investments across multiple product generations.

AMD's upcoming "Renoir" silicon will be the company's most important, as it will sit at the heart of not just desktops, but also notebooks and ultraportables. A brilliant report by _rogame on Reddit compiles the chip's many iGPU variants along with iGPU device-IDs, and slots them in various platform variants. Renoir will target four key market segments characterized by TDP: 15 W ultraportables, 45 W mainstream notebooks, 65 W mainstream desktops, and 35 W low-power desktops.

As for the iGPU itself, "Renoir" was last reported as being a processor that combines "Zen 2" CPU cores with an iGPU that has SIMD machinery from the "Vega" architecture, but with updated display- and multimedia-engines from "Navi." According to _rogame, Renoir's iGPU will have up to 13 NGCUs, which work out to 832 stream processors. AMD internally marks the iGPU as RV B##, where RV refers to "Radeon Vega," and B## referring to the iGPU variant. The commercial name of the iGPU will be different. B12 is the highest variant, with 12-13 CUs, B10 has 10-11 CUs, B8 has 8-9 CUs, B6 has 6 CUs, and B4 has 3-4 CUs. The B12 configuration will be exclusive to the mobile parts. The desktop parts cap out at B10. Renoir is expected to dominate AMD's processor launch cycle through the first half of 2020.

ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories today announces the launch of the XPG Hunter DDR4 memory module. Geared toward PC enthusiasts and gamers, the XPG Hunter delivers all the benefits of DDR4 with remarkable performance and efficiency. It supports XMP 2.0 for easy overclocking and offers great stability, making it ideal for performance seekers - gaming to competitive benchmarking. It comes in U-DIMM and SO-DIMM variants to meet the needs of desktop and notebook users alike.

The XPG Hunter modules are made with high-quality chips selected through a strict filtering process. They are equipped with the finest PCBs and pass rigid reliability and compatibility tests to ensure longevity and rugged durability, which are vital for overclocking, gaming, and extreme benchmarking. The modules deliver high-speed performance of up to 3200 MHz and comes with capacities of 4 GB, 8 GB, 16 GB, or 32 GB to meet the needs of diverse users and budgets.

DeepCool today released the GAMMAXX GT ARGB, a refresh of the GAMMAXX GT RGB CPU cooler from 2017. The new GT ARGB, as its name suggests, implements modern addressable-RGB lighting with a 3-pin ARGB connection. The fan takes in 4-pin PWM to spin. DeepCool also used the opportunity to change the design of the top-plate of the fin-stack. It now comes in matte-black, with an illuminated DeepCool company logo. The included 120 mm fan is also updated (besides the ARGB illumination). It now spins at speeds of up to 1,650 RPM (the original's fan spun at up to 1,500 RPM), although the max airflow rating is reduced to 64.5 CFM (compared to 70 CFM of the original).

The GAMMAXX GT ARGB is a conventional tower-type CPU cooler featuring an aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat is conveyed by four 6 mm-thick copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the CPU at the base. An included 120 mm fan ventilates the fin-stack. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. Measuring 129 mm x 77 mm x 157.5 mm (WxDxH), the cooler weighs 676 g (including fan). The company didn't reveal pricing.

FEMFX is a multithreaded CPU library for deformable material physics, using the Finite Element Method (FEM). Solid objects are represented as a mesh of tetrahedral elements, and each element has material parameters that control stiffness, how volume changes with deformation, and stress limits where fracture or plastic (permanent) deformation occur. The model supports a wide range of materials and interactions between materials. We intend for these features to complement rather than replace traditional rigid body physics. The system is designed with the following considerations:

Intel Corporation today announced that it has acquired Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable deep learning accelerators for the data center for approximately $2 billion. The combination strengthens Intel's artificial intelligence (AI) portfolio and accelerates its efforts in the nascent, fast-growing AI silicon market, which Intel expects to be greater than $25 billion by 2024 (1).

"This acquisition advances our AI strategy, which is to provide customers with solutions to fit every performance need - from the intelligent edge to the data center," said Navin Shenoy, executive vice president and general manager of the Data Platforms Group at Intel. "More specifically, Habana turbo-charges our AI offerings for the data center with a high-performance training processor family and a standards-based programming environment to address evolving AI workloads."

Intel's AI strategy is grounded in the belief that harnessing the power of AI to improve business outcomes requires a broad mix of technology - hardware and software - and full ecosystem support. Today, Intel AI solutions are helping customers turn data into business value and driving meaningful revenue for the company. In 2019, Intel expects to generate over $3.5 billion in AI-driven revenue, up more than 20 percent year-over-year. Together, Intel and Habana can accelerate the delivery of best-in-class AI products for the data center, addressing customers' evolving needs.

CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gaming peripherals and enthusiast components, is pleased to announce that it has agreed to acquire high-performance controller pioneer SCUF Gaming "SCUF " and its extensive patent portfolio. The transaction is expected to complete by the end of December 2019. Since launching in 2011, SCUF has recognized that one size does not fit all and set a new standard for performance controllers for use with Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. SCUF radically changed the way controllers are used by redesigning the layout of a controller to increase hand use and improve performance, matching the evolving complexities of competitive games.

In comparison to generic game controllers, SCUF controllers are modular by feature and design, built to specification to shorten hand movements and gain a measurable performance advantage, making it easier for players to tailor the controller to their individual preferences. SCUF controllers feature a vast range of configurable components, including a patented paddle control system, removable back paddles, a quick-access remapping switch, customizable thumbsticks, hair trigger, trigger stops and extenders, choice of D-pads, and an interchangeable magnetic faceplate.

Cooler Master updated the MasterLiquid ML360P premium AIO liquid CPU cooler with a new Silver Edition variant that sees a silver-gray color-scheme dominate the radiator, tubing sleeves, and the pump-block. Rather than including three 120 mm fans, Cooler Master packs a 3x 120 mm compound-fan. ARGB LED illumination dominate the three fans and subtle lighting accents on the pump-block. You can use a single 3-pin ARGB connection to control lighting of the entire cooler, or use the included LED controller that lets you customize color, and cycle between lighting presets.

Each of the three 120 mm fan subunit spins at speeds of up to 1,800 RPM, pushing up to 45 CFM of air, with noise output ranging between 8 to 30 dBA. The cold-plate is made of copper, and the radiator aluminium. The MasterLiquid ML360P supports nearly all modern CPU socket types, including AM4, LGA115x, LGA2066, TR4, and sTRX4. For Threadripper sockets, you need to use the round AIO retention module AMD includes in the box of all retail Threadripper processors. The company didn't reveal pricing.

SilverStone unveiled its Essential Series ET700 (model: SST-ET700MG), a 700-Watt power supply that offers a high cost/performance ratio, competing with the likes of the Antec HCG Gold, Cooler Master MWE Gold, etc. The PSU offers 80 Plus Gold efficiency, fully modular cabling, with flat ribbon cables. You get some HEDT-friendly features such as two 8-pin EPS connectors (one of which splits to 4+4 pin), besides staples such as four 6+2 pin PCIe power connectors, eight SATA power, three Molex, a Berg, and of course the 24-pin ATX.

Under the hood, the ET700 features a single +12V rail design, and most common electrical protections, such as over/under-voltage, overload, overheat, and short-circuit protection. A 135 mm fan is used to keep the unit cool, which whispers at 18 dBA (minimum) up to 60% load, and only ramps up beyond that. Designed by SilverStone with complete control over components selection, the ET700 is fabricated by CWT. US availability of the ET700 is slated for late-January or early-February, 2020. When released, it will cost USD $130, and 100€ across the pond.

Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS), the global leading motherboard, Mini-PC, Notebooks, mobile device, IoT, IoV, and smart solutions provider, is proud to announce the participation of the "2020 CES'' at Booth No. : 40842, Sands Expo, Level 2, Hall A-D, Las Vegas from January 7 to 10. We will introduce our latest technology and smart application equipment to provide complete solutions for edge computing, digital signage, IoT, IoV, modern classroom and so on. Versatile Utilization out from Multi-functional Sorts of PCs

ECS is going to kick off CES with much fanfare, firstly announcing the new LIVA Mini PCs and All-in-One PCs adopted in all kinds of situations with our continuous innovation to fulfill the needs of being used in various categories like entertainment, offices, schools, banks, transportation etc. In addition, ECS's aggressive endeavor on the collaboration and exploration with our partners blossoms this year, and we also keep discovering more potential. A series of successful applications springs up in the scenarios of information KIOSK, retail store, vending machine, hospitality, smart home, public security and children's safety system.

Today Intel's CPU based on yet unannounced architecture got revealed in the SiSoft benchmark database. Featuring six cores and twelve threads running at 3 GHz, it appears like a regular 14 nm CPU that's already available, however, when digging through the details, many things are revealed. The newly submitted CPU has a different L2 cache configuration from previous CPU offerings, with this chip featuring 1.25 MB of L2 cache per core, it is unlike anything else Intel currently offers. Ice Lake mobile chips feature 512 KB, while the highest amount of L2 cache is currently present on i9-10980XE, which features 1 MB of L2.

It is unknown where this CPU fits in the whole 14/10 nm lineup, as we don't know if this is an iteration of 10 nm Tiger Lake or the rumored 14 nm Rocket Lake CPU. All we know is that this CPU features new architecture compared to Skylake iterations that are currently being used, judging by L2 cache bump, which usually happens on new architectures. The platform used for benchmarking this CPU was SuperMicro X12DAi-N SMC X12 dual-socket motherboard, which featured two of these new CPUs for a total of 12 cores and 24 threads.

AMD today announced that it has joined the Blockchain Game Alliance (BGA) and forged partnerships with leading technology providers to help promote the development and proliferation of new blockchain-powered gaming platforms.

The Blockchain Game Alliance is committed to driving awareness and adoption of blockchain technologies within the game industry, providing an open forum for individuals and companies to share knowledge and collaborate, create common standards, establish best practices, and network. As the first major hardware manufacturer to join the BGA, AMD plans to enable alliance members with efficient and high-performance computing technologies for next-generation blockchain-based gaming platforms that could potentially transform the way games are created, published, purchased and played.

BitFenix today announced an accessory for your graphics cards' safety, whilst adding some bling to your build. The Alchemy 3.0 ARGB GPU Bracket is little more than a support for your graphics card which installs in your PC case and provides physical support to prevent sagging and other problems that may arise from deploying a graphics card with a high-performance, heavyweight custom cooling solution (it literally supports graphics cards with weights going up to 7.5 Kg and 80-120 cm long).

The Alchemy 3.0 ARGB GPU Bracket features ARGB lighting which users can control and customize to their liking, and the 18 available mounting holes ensure maximum compatibility regardless of your graphics card. It also comes with three different extension holders, sizing up at 45 mm, 80 mm and 120 mm. The GPU bracket will take up three free PCI slots on your build, though, so keep that in mind if you're planning on using this.

AOC has revealed two new additions to their monitor lineup, which seemingly tick most - if not all - of the right boxes. The only thing that differs in both the CU34G2 and CU34G2X is their maximum refresh rates: the CU34G2 can go up to 100 Hz, while the CU34G2X can refresh at up to 144 Hz. The rest of the specs are virtually the same: a 34" VA panel with 3440 x 1440 resolution, 21:9 aspect ratio, 1 ms response times, 300 nits maximum brightness, 1500R curvature, and support for FreeSync.

In terms of color space, the CU34G2 wins out, covering 124% of the sRGB space and 92% of AdobeRGB, while the CU34G2X tightens the color space a smidge with 119% sRGB and 88% of AdobeRGB. I/O wise, both feature 1x DisplayPort 1.2 and 2x HDMI (only the CU34G2 uses HDMI 2.0, though). Both monitors also offer a quad USB 3.0 Hub and 1x Headphone out. The monitors will launch come January 2020 at attractive price points: $450 for the 100 Hz CU34G2 and $550 for the 144 Hz CU34G2X,

As the world's most popular GAMING graphics card vendor, MSI is proud to introduce its full line up of graphics cards based on the new AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT series with remarkable performance. Furnished with the new AMD RDNA gaming architecture - Efficiently energetic, RDNA architecture was designed to deliver incredible performance, scalability and power efficiency. Built on the 7 nm FinFET process and delivering higher performance-per-watt compared to the previous architecture, the Radeon RX 5500 XT Series will be available as GAMING and MECH.

he leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, ASRock, launches the Radeon RX 5500 XT Phantom Gaming D 8G OC graphics card - as the latest member of the ASRock Phantom Gaming series graphics card product line, equipped with AMD 's 2nd generation 7nm Radeon RX 5500 XT GPU, 8 GB 128-bit GDDR6 video memory, and support PCI Express 4.0 bus standard, as well as the new dual fan design with Phantom Gaming appearance, brilliant Polychrome SYNC lighting effect synchronization, and the stylish metal backplane. The advanced specifications and rich functions bring gamers an outstanding 1080p gaming experience.

Hardware-accelerated ray tracing and variable-rate shading will be the design focal points for AMD's next-generation RDNA2 graphics architecture. Microsoft's reveal of its Xbox Series X console attributed both features to AMD's "next generation RDNA" architecture (which logically happens to be RDNA2). The Xbox Series X uses a semi-custom SoC that features CPU cores based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture and a GPU based on RDNA2. It's highly likely that the SoC could be fabricated on TSMC's 7 nm EUV node, as the RDNA2 graphics architecture is optimized for that. This would mean an optical shrink of "Zen 2" to 7 nm EUV. Besides the SoC that powers Xbox Series X, AMD is expected to leverage 7 nm EUV for its RDNA2 discrete GPUs and CPU chiplets based on its "Zen 3" microarchitecture in 2020.

Variable-rate shading (VRS) is an API-level feature that lets GPUs conserve resources by shading certain areas of a scene at a lower rate than the other, without perceptible difference to the viewer. Microsoft developed two tiers of VRS for its DirectX 12 API, tier-1 is currently supported by NVIDIA "Turing" and Intel Gen11 architectures, while tier-2 is supported by "Turing." The current RDNA architecture doesn't support either tiers. Hardware-accelerated ray-tracing is the cornerstone of NVIDIA's "Turing" RTX 20-series graphics cards, and AMD is catching up to it. Microsoft already standardized it on the software-side with the DXR (DirectX Raytracing) API. A combination of VRS and dynamic render-resolution will be crucial for next-gen consoles to achieve playability at 4K, and to even boast of being 8K-capable.

As we head closer to Xmas, the Holiday spirit grows and so do shipping times, but not for digital goods! URCDKeys says that's never too late to stuff your virtual stockings with genuine, globally-valid software. With discounts as deep as 90% we can hardly argue with them. It's a great opportunity to upgrade all the computers in your family to Windows 10, as Microsoft prepares to pull the plug on Windows 7 support from January. Office 2016 Professional Plus is another great addition to your PCs, as it's the most wholesome personal-productivity suite. Grab them both from the links below.

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ADATA Technology, a leading manufacturer of high-performance DRAM modules, NAND Flash products, and mobile accessories is pleased to announce that ADATA and XPG DDR4 memory modules are compatible with latest 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen and Ryzen Threadripper HEDT (High-end Desktop) platforms. Whether for creators that demand high-capacity modules or gamers and overclockers seeking high-performance modules, ADATA and XPG offer memory products that meet their specific needs.

ADATA and XPG have always strove to ensure high compatibility of their memory modules through the use of high-quality, rigorously tested IC chips and PCB boards. With the recent launch of AMD's most powerful desktop processors- Ryzen 9 3950X processor with X570 platform and AMD HEDT Ryzen Threadripper 3960X/3970X processor with TRX40 platform, ADATA's and XPG's commitment to high compatibility remains a key consideration, in addition to robust performance and sufficient capacity.

LG Electronics' newest gram laptop computer series - the LG gram 17 (model 17Z90N), LG gram 15 (model 15Z90N), LG gram 14 (model 14Z90N) and 14-inch LG gram 2-in-1 (model 14T90N) - is designed to set a new standard for portable computing and will satisfy the needs of the most demanding users. The 2020 lineup of LG gram laptops stick to the company's winning formula - lightweight, compact, long battery life - while adding even more performance.

At the heart of the new series is the 10th Generation Intel Core processor with Iris Plus graphics and up to 24 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory. With double the graphics processing power of last year's models, content creators will love having the speed and power to edit 4K video on-the-go and users will marvel at how smooth games can be with Iris Plus built-in.

Logitech introduced the first webcam designed specifically for the new Apple Pro Display XDR, available today. With a contemporary design and seamless mounting experience, the Logitech 4K Pro Magnetic Webcam offers high-quality video to communicate, collaborate and record right from your desk with the new Pro Display XDR.

Delivering crystal-clear 4K Ultra HD video with crisp resolution, color and detail, the Logitech 4K Pro Magnetic Webcam is perfect for Mac users who use Pro Display XDR. The webcam's secure magnetic mount makes set up effortless and holds your webcam firmly in place, even when it is tilted up and down. Featuring RightLight 3 with HDR technology, the lighting on the webcam automatically adjusts so you look great regardless if you are low light or direct sunlight situations. The Logitech Camera Settings app also allows you to customize and adjust brightness, color intensity, contrast and more, so you always look your best on camera.

Microsoft announces the Xbox Series X console. For eighteen years and three console generations, the Xbox community has shown us the power both games and fun can have on all of us. As we enter a new generation of gaming, we see a future where you're instantly absorbed in your games - where worlds are even more lifelike, immersive, responsive and surprising - and where you are at the center of your gaming experience. With the new Xbox Series X, we will realize that vision.

Xbox Series X will be our fastest, most powerful console ever and set a new bar for performance, speed and compatibility, allowing you to bring your gaming legacy, thousands of games from three generations and more forward with you. Its industrial design enables us to deliver four times the processing power of Xbox One X in the most quiet and efficient way, something that is critically important in delivering truly immersive gameplay. We also designed Xbox Series X to support both vertical and horizontal orientation. It's bold and unique, very much like our fans around the world and the team of collaborators and innovators who built it.

TUL Corporation, parent of the leading and innovative AMD Graphics Card Manufacturing brand, PowerColor, announces their latest cards in their lineup, PowerColor Red Dragon RX 5500 XT 8 GB and PowerColor RX 5500 XT 4 GB. Powered by the the newest and most advanced 7 nm RDNA architecture with GDDR6 VRAM, the RX 5500 series features performance delivery optimized for better visuals such as volumetric lighting, motion blurring effects, depth of field, and multi-level cache hierarchy for reduced latency and a highly responsive gaming experience.

PowerColor's newest RX 5500 XT series is a perfect match for 1080p gaming, reaching 60 FPS on AAA gaming titles on high graphics settings, and over 90 FPS on the leading e-sports titles. AMD's newest lineup of features on their Radeon Graphics Drivers enhances the experience further with settings such as Radeon Image Sharpening and FidelityFX for maximum performance and insane immersive gaming experiences as well Radeon Anti-Lag for highly responsive gaming.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer based in Europe, is releasing a new Quantum Line of genuine D5 pump based combo units. These units are a revolution and an upgrade of the market-proven design used in the old EK-XRES Revo generation of pump-res combos since the new units have twice as much ports. EK-Quantum products come with sophisticated 5 V addressable D-RGB LEDs which can be controlled through your motherboard RGB control software or the upcoming EK-Connect controller unit.

The most popular cylindrical pump-res combo on the market is redesigned, upgraded and is better in every way. The top is now featuring three G1/4" ports, one of which has a pre-installed nickel-plated brass internal tube which helps to prevent the splashing of the coolant inside the reservoir if the top is to be used as an inlet. This reduces the chances of air being sucked in by the pump and foaming of the coolant as well. Any of these ports can also use used for filling the system or adding additional upcoming accessories (thermal probes, LEDs, etc.)

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Cooling, Gaming Gear, and Enthusiast Memory solutions, is thrilled to announce that the S500 Tempered Glass Mid Tower Chassis now comes in a white version- the S500 Tempered Glass Snow Edition Mid Tower Chassis- is now available for pre-order. Embeded with the main idea of being sleek, simple, and elegant, the S500 TG Snow shows sophistication and simplicity and is all built with a modern steel construction. The S500 TG Snow's immaculate snow white panels make it easy for users to build their own winter themed liquid cooling gaming system.

The chassis is manufactured with one tempered glass side panel, two preinstalled standard fans, 140 mm at the front and 120 mm at the rear to enable outstanding ventilation. Through Thermaltake's exclusive TT RGB PLUS software, users can select different light modes and colors to create the perfect holiday atmosphere. The S500 TG Snow incorporates a full modular design, vertical radiator & GPU mount, patented rotational PCI-E slots, and the support for 200 mm fans. The new S500 TG Tempered Glass Snow Edition Mid Tower Chassis is a great fit for PC builders who are looking for a modern and stylish chassis.

AMD today re-released Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition with the same version number, 19.12.2 WHQL. The drivers add support for the Radeon RX 5500 XT retail desktop graphics card launched today. The rest of its feature-set is identical to that of the 19.12.2 drivers, which debut with a new installer, 20 new or improved features, and the all-encompassing new Radeon Software app. We are awaiting a change-log from AMD to see if anything else has changed (think fixes to glaring bugs from the original driver's release), and will update this post accordingly.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 19.12.2 (December 12 release)

AMD today announced the Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card for the DIY (retail) channel, launched exclusively through its add-in board partners. Based on the 7 nm "Navi 14" silicon, the RX 5500 XT has the same exact core-configuration as the RX 5500 launched in October to OEMs. This means only 22 out of the 24 RDNA compute units are enabled, and the XT doesn't max the silicon out. These work out to 1,408 stream processors. Other vital specs include 88 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. The RX 5500 XT will still end up faster than the RX 5500 OEM card from last month, since it has a higher engine "game clocks" of 1717 MHz, while the RX 5500 OEM ships with roughly 1670 MHz game clocks. Engine boost clocks for the RX 5500 XT are rated at up to 1845 MHz.

The Radeon RX 5500 XT comes in two variants based on memory size, 4 GB and 8 GB. Both variants use 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips across the chip's 128-bit wide memory bus. The 4 GB variant uses four commonly available 8 Gbit chips, while the 8 GB variant typically uses high-density 16 Gbit memory chips. AMD is pricing the Radeon RX 5500 XT at USD $169.99 for the 4 GB variant, and $199.99 for the 8 GB variant. It competes with a spectrum of NVIDIA cards including the GeForce GTX 1650 and GTX 1650 Super.

Read the TechPowerUp Reviews of the Sapphire Radeon RX 5500 XT 4 GB Pulse OC and MSI Radeon RX 5500 XT 8 GB Gaming XThe complete AMD slide deck follows.

Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of PC components and peripherals, offering performance at a reasonable price. Sharkoon now introduces two new midi ATX towers: the RGB LIT 100 and RGB LIT 200. These are two strikingly impressive PC cases, which features a tempered glass front and side panel, an addressable RGB fan in the back plus an LED strip at the bottom of the glass side panel. The front of the RGB LIT 100 catches the eye with its circuit-board pattern and the RGB LIT 200 with its pattern of jagged waves. In addition, both cases provide enough space for fans, powerful hardware and up to six SSDs.

Both RGB LIT cases benefit from an impressive RGB lighting in the front, which can be flexibly programmed and synchronized with other compatible lighting elements. The front panel itself is made of tempered glass. With the LIT 100, this has a reflective circuit board pattern, while the LIT 200 has a reflective design of jagged waves. Inside the front, there are LED strips that emit an individualized lighting over the entire pattern.

AMD's Radeon RX 5600-series could see the company take on the top-end of NVIDIA's GeForce 16-series, such as the GTX 1660 Super and the GTX 1660 Ti. A report from earlier this month pegged a December 2019 product announcement for the RX 5600-series and subsequent availability in the weeks following. Regulatory filings by AMD AIB (add-in board) partners with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) shed more light on the product differentiation within the RX 5600 series. The filings reveal that the RX 5600 and RX 5600 XT feature 6 GB and 8 GB sub-variants.

The regulatory filing by ASUS references products across its ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, and Dual lines of graphics cards. As mentioned in the older report, we expect AMD to carve the RX 5600 series out of the larger "Navi 10" silicon, by disabling many more RDNA compute units than the RX 5700, and narrowing the GDDR6 memory bus to 192-bit for the 6 GB variants. AMD has an opportunity to harvest "Navi 10" chips down to stream processor counts such as 1,792 (28 CUs) or 2,048 (32 CUs). It also has the opportunity to use cost-effective 12 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips.

Today, Intel announced the Intel RealSense lidar camera L515, the world's smallest and most power-efficient, high-resolution lidar that captures millions of depth points per second. Designed with proprietary technology that creates entirely new ways to incorporate lidar into smart devices to perceive the world in 3D, the L515 provides high-quality performance and millimeter accuracy to products that require vision capabilities.

"Intel RealSense technology is used to develop products that enrich people's lives by enabling machines and devices to perceive the world in 3D. With the L515 depth camera, we are excited to bring high-resolution lidar performance to markets previously inaccessible to this technology."
-Sagi BenMoshe, corporate vice president, Intel RealSense Group

EK, the European premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a new Intel X299 socket based monoblock belonging to the Quantum Line of products, the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II D-RGB. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II motherboard from ASUS. The addressable D-RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with ASUS Aura Sync RGB control and offering a full lighting customization experience for every single diode at any given time.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Intel Socket 2066 Core X-Series Processors and the monoblock is covering the entire VRM section of the ROG Strix X299-E Gaming II motherboard.

Western Digital unveiled the WD Blue SN550 line of M.2 NVMe SSDs. A successor to the WD Blue SN500, the SN550 is updated with a new controller that utilizes PCI-Express 3.0 x4 (compared to just x2 on the SN500). Designed in-house by WD and SanDisk, the controller is based on the same architecture as the one that drives the WD Black SN750, but is DRAM-less, and has fewer flash channels. Speaking of which, WD deployed 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash, and wants the drive to compete in pricing with QLC NAND-based drives such as the Crucial P1. The 250 GB variant is priced at USD $54, the 500 GB variant $65, and the 1 TB variant $99.

All three variants take advantage of the increased PCIe bandwidth to offer sequential read speeds of up to 2,400 MB/s (the SN500 capped out at 1,700 MB/s). Write speeds vary, with the 250 GB variant offering up to 950 MB/s, the 500 GB variant up to 1,750 MB/s, and the 1 TB variant up to 1,950 MB/s. Endurance figures (TBW) of the three variants are rated at 150 TB for the 250 GB variant, 300 TB for the 500 GB variant, and 600 TB for the 1 TB variant. An interesting design choice with these drives is pushing the NAND flash chip and the controller as far apart on the PCB as possible, for less concentration of heat. All three models are backed by 5-year warranties.

TEAMGROUP releases T-FORCE Coolant Kit CK5 and T-FORCE ARGB LED Uniform Strip which are specially designed for CARDEA LIQUID Water Cooling SSD and building an eye-catching PC of your own. T-FORCE Coolant Kit CK5 has five colors available at once upon release, so users can change the theme and style of the PC freely. T-FORCE ARGB LED Uniform Strip uses 2020 LED bead which is more refined than 5050 ones on the market. With addressable ARGB LED, the creativity can be limitless.

During the IEDM event hosted by the IEEE organization, ASML's CEO, Martin van den Brink, took the stage to elaborate more on ASML's vision of the future of semiconductors. When talking about the future of semiconductors, Mr. Brink started talking about Intel and their vision for the future. Intel's slides were showing many things including backporting of IP to older processes and plan to go back to "tick-tock" two-year cadence to restore the previous confidence in Intel's manufacturing capabilities.

Perhaps one of the most interesting notes about the presentation is the fact that Intel is working hard to realize its plans of bringing back a two-year cadence of "tick-tock" process realization. That means that in the future, presumably after 10 nm debut problems are solved, Intel wants to do the old process and optimization tactics. A slide (shown below) titled "In Moore We Trust" is speaking a lot about Intel's future plans, showing few things in particular: Intel's upcoming 10 nm++ and 10 nm+++ nodes, and the possibility of backporting.

A group of cybersecurity researchers have discovered a new security vulnerability affecting Intel processors, which they've craftily named "Plundervolt," a portmanteau of the words "plunder" and "undervolt." Chronicled under CVE-2019-11157, it was first reported to Intel in June 2019 under its security bug-bounty programme, so it could secretly develop a mitigation. With the 6-month NDA lapsing, the researchers released their findings to the public. Plundervolt is described by researchers as a way to compromise SGX (software guard extensions) protected memory by undervolting the processor when executing protected computations, to a level where SGX memory-encryption no longer protects data. The researchers have also published proof-of-concept code.

Plundervolt is different from "Rowhammer," in that it flips bits inside the processor, before they're written to the memory, so SGX doesn't protect them. Rowhammer doesn't work with SGX-protected memory. Plundervolt requires root privileges as software that let you tweak vCore require ring-0 access. You don't need direct physical access to the target machine, as tweaking software can also be remotely run. Intel put out security advisory SA-00298 and is working with motherboard vendors and OEMs to release BIOS updates that pack a new microcode with a mitigation against this vulnerability. The research paper can be read here.

A 3DMark results database entry confirmed that the 10th generation Core i5 desktop processor will indeed feature HyperThreading (HTT). Based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake" silicon, the next-gen Core i5 processor will be 6-core/12-thread. Besides HTT, the processors will feature higher clock-speeds than their 9th generation counterparts. In the 3DMark validation, a Core i5-10600 processor is referenced, featuring 6 cores and 12 logical processors. The chip has a nominal clock-speed of 3.30 GHz in its name string (a 200 MHz increment over the i5-9600), although its Turbo Boost frequency hasn't been detected properly by SystemInfo.

It's possible that the maximum Turbo Boost will be a similar 100-200 MHz gain over the 4.60 GHz of the i5-9600. It remains to be seen what L3 cache amount Intel gives these chips. The 6-core/12-thread Core i7-8700 has 12 MB, or an additional 512 KB L3 slice per core, to cope with the HTT overhead, although there have been exceptions to this rule in the company's mobile processor lineup. Intel is expected to debut its 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" processor series alongside the Z490 Express chipset in April 2020.

Sapphire's upcoming take on AMD's RX 5500 XT graphics card has been spotted up for preorder on Amazon (availability set for December 12th), and it's a special one. Besides the usual Nitro+ edition, Sapphire will also be launching a fully customized RX 5500 XT Nitro+ Special Edition. Besides addressable ARGB fans, the card features what can be called a very interesting, reduced PCB design, with the shroud and backplate artificially adding length to the graphics cards so as to increase space for the dual fan cooling solution.

Images of MSI's upcoming interpretations of AMD's Navi 14-based RX 5500 XT graphics cards have leaked, which place them in the company's GAMING and MECH series of graphics cards. MSI's RX 5500 XT MECH features a gunmetal gray and black color scheme, without any of the red bangs and whistles that are usually associated with gaming graphics cards. It's a more understated design, even though there is added detail to the cooler shroud. The GAMING series, like usually, ships with gray/black and red accents, and has a more subdued shroud material design.

Based on AMD's Navi 14, the MSI MECH and GAMING RX 5500 XT will feature 1408 stream processors. In the case of the GAMING graphics card, AMD reference clocks of 1845 MHz will see an increase to 1905 MHz, with GDDR6 memory clocks untouched at 14 Gbps. MSI will be readying 4 GB VRAM SKUs in time as well, though you should expect only 8 GB models to be available come launch day. Both cards feature the usual I/O connectors of at 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, announces a new addition to its M700 series of NVMe M.2 SSDs with the high capacity 1 TB. Complying with the NVMe 1.3 standard and using PCIe Gen3 x4, gamers and content creators get up to 3 times performance increase from traditional SATA III drives, a clear advantage for improved productivity and uninterrupted gameplay. With its lightweight, small form factor, and high storage capacity, the M700 1 TB might just be the only drive you will need to build the ultimate budget-friendly system.Update Jan 14th: Our review of the SSD can be found here.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Software. Version 441.66 WHQL is game-ready for "MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries" and "Detroit: Become Human." The drivers also fix an application crash with DaVinci Resolve when playing back timeline using Blackmagic RAW CODEC media; a stutter noticed after a few laps with "Forza Motorsport 7," a frame-rate drop noticed in "Fallout 76" with G-Sync enabled, an incorrect video memory size reported in NVIDIA Control Panel with GTX 1060 6 GB, and lack of a 5.1-ch or 7.1-ch surround sound option with GTX 1080 Ti. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 441.66 WHQLThe change-log follows.

AMD today unveiled AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition, the next generation of its software suite for AMD Radeon graphics, providing gamers, creators and enthusiasts with a unique set of features and capabilities that deliver unparalleled visual fidelity and phenomenal gaming experiences. Featuring a fully redesigned gaming application, AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition puts powerful capabilities at gamers' fingertips. It includes the new Radeon Boost feature, bringing enhanced performance and fluidity to fast-motion gameplay, new Integer Display Scaling technology that rejuvenates old games for modern displays, as well as significant enhancements to the acclaimed AMD Link mobile application, to Radeon Image Sharpening, Radeon Anti-Lag, and much more.

Our detailed write-up, including performance testing on Navi, Vega and Polaris can be found here.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 19.12.2 WHQL"With each Radeon Software release, we laser-focus on bringing innovative features gamers demand, significant performance improvements, and the ultimate in software stability and reliability," said Andrej Zdravkovic, corporate vice president of software development at AMD. "AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition takes gaming on Radeon graphics to the next level with breathtaking visual quality, faster performance, and a host of unique, must-have features that dramatically improve the overall user experience."

Intel is expected to finally refresh its mainstream desktop platform with the introduction of the 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" processors, in Q2-2020. This sees the introduction of the new LGA1200 socket and Intel 400-series chipsets, led by the Z490 Express at the top. Platform maps of these PCI-Express gen 3.0 based chipsets make them look largely similar to current 300-series platform, with a few changes. For starters, Intel introducing its biggest ACPI change since C6/C7 power states that debuted with "Haswell;" with the introduction of C10 and S0ix Modern Standby power-states, which give your PC an iPad-like availability while sipping minimal power. This idea is slightly different from Smart Connect, in that your web-connected apps and processor work at an extremely low-power (fanless) state, rather than waking your machine up from time to time for the apps to refresh. 400-series chipset motherboards will also feature updated networking interfaces, such as support for 2.5 GbE wired LAN with an Intel i225-series PHY, 802.11ax WiFi 6 WLAN, etc.

HyperThreading will play a big role in making Intel's processor lineup competitive with AMD's given that the underlying microarchitecture offers an identical core design to "Skylake" circa 2015. The entry-level Core i3 chips will be 4-core/8-thread, Core i5 6-core/12-thread, Core i7 8-core/16-thread; and leading the pack will be the Core i9-10900K, a 10-core/20-thread processor. According to a WCCFTech report, this processor will debut in April 2020, which means at CES 2020 in January, we'll get to see some of the first socket LGA1200 motherboards, some even based on the Z490. The platform also mentions an interesting specification: "enhanced core and memory overclocking." This could be the secret ingredient that makes the i9-10900K competitive with the likes of the Ryzen 9 3900X. The LGA1200 platform could be forwards-compatible with "Rocket Lake," which could herald IPC increases on the platform by implementing "Willow Cove" CPU cores.

Players of Minecraft on PlayStation 4 rejoice! Minecraft is now getting an update on the PS4 platform that enables all PlayStation users to gain access to cross-play features, so they are now able to play with millions of other players on Xbox, PC, Switch, iOS, Android, and even Samsung Gear VR platform. In the so-called "Bedrock Edition" update that arrives today, Microsoft will push new features to Minecraft and connect millions of players.

In the words of Microsoft's game studio boss Helen Chiang: "One of Minecraft's core missions is to connect players across devices and provide the best experience regardless of platform. We continue to fulfill that mission here today by welcoming PS4 players to Minecraft on Bedrock and growing our cross-platform multiplayer community".

ASUS today rolled out the Pro WS X299 SAGE II, a redesign and refresh of its WS X299 SAGE series quasi-workstation motherboards, designed for those who want to use Intel's 10th generation Core XE "Cascade Lake-X" HEDT processors in a workstation-like environment (CEB form-factor) and can make do without ECC memory. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and two 8-pin EPS power connectors, along with an optional 6-pin PCIe power input to stabilize add-on card power delivery. An 8-phase VRM conditions power for the socket LGA2066 processor. The board employs PLX PEX8747 bridge chips to convert two x16 PCIe gen 3.0 links from the LGA2066 processor to four PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots with full bandwidth, or seven slots with x16/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8/x8 wiring.

Storage options on the ASUS Pro WS X299 SAGE II include three U.2 ports, two M.2 slots (one right below the PCH heatsink, and the other vertical); and eight SATA 6 Gbps ports. Network connectivity includes two 2.5 GbE interfaces driven by a pair of Intel i225-LM controllers. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports driven by an ASMedia controller (from which one is type-C), a second such controller driving an internal port, and eight USB 3.2 gen 1 ports from the X299 PCH. A high-grade onboard audio solution featuring Realtek S1220A HDA codec, headphones amp, ground-layer isolation, and audio-grade capacitors, make for the rest of this board. The company didn't reveal pricing.

In a confirmation that a future NVIDIA graphics architecture will be codenamed "Hopper," the company has trademarked the term with the US-PTO. The trademark application was filed as recently as December 4, and closely follows that of "Aerial," another trademark, which is an SDK for a GPU-accelerated 5G vRANs (virtual radio-access networks). Named after eminent computing scientist Grace Hopper, the new graphics architecture by NVIDIA reportedly sees one of the first GPU die MCMs (package with multiple GPU dies). It reportedly succeeds "Ampere," NVIDIA's next graphics architecture.

Centaur Technology today revealed in-depth information about its new processor-design technology for integrating high-performance x86 CPUs with a specialized co-processor optimized for artificial intelligence (AI) acceleration. On its website, Centaur provides a new independent report from The Linley Group, the industry's leading authority on microprocessor technology and publishers of Microprocessor Report. The Linley Group reviewed Centaur's detailed design documents and interviewed Centaur's CPU and AI architects to support the analysis of both Centaur's newest x86 microarchitecture and the AI co-processor design.

"Centaur is galloping back into the x86 market with an innovative processor design that combines eight high-performance CPUs with a custom deep-learning accelerator (DLA). The company is the first to announce a server-processor design that integrates a DLA. The new accelerator, called Ncore, delivers better neural-network performance than even the most powerful Xeon, but without the high cost of an external GPU card," stated Linley Gwennap, Editor-in-Chief, Microprocessor Report.The report can be accessed here (PDF).

2K Games has confirmed that a new Bioshock game is under development. 2K set up a whole new studio, "Cloud Chamber", that will helm development on this (can I say much beloved?) franchise "for the next several years". Cloud Chamber will set up quarters in both San Francisco and Montreal. Kelley Gilmore, who has been attached to Firaxis Studios and worked in other 2K franchises such as XCOM and Sid Meier's Civilization, has been appointed Cloud Chamber's Studio Head.

The new Cloud Chamber studio opens its doors with "a deeply experienced group of game makers, including many responsible for BioShock's principal creation, advancement and longstanding notoriety." No other details were available at time of writing. While it's obviously too soon to scream happily from the top of your lungs (and it usually always is until you've actually finished the game), this is definitely a positive sign for the franchise and all those who value it.

"Nothing Really Ends" is the title of a song from dEUS, a Belgian "art-rock" band. And it would seem this applies all too well to the world of technology too. Intel has issued a Product Change Notification (PCN) which has changed the previously dead and buried, Haswell-era, 22 nm Pentium G3420 from its "Discontinued" status back to a worded "canceling this Product Discontinuance completely per new roadmap decision and enabling the product long term once again." Which means the Pentium G3420 will have a new lease of life, and will be available to customers until May 2020, with final shipments on December of the same year.

This is clearly an attempt from Intel to increase part availability for OEMs and system manufacturers, who have already been quoted as considering AMD due to both increases in performance and efficiency in their processors, as well as constrained supply from Intel, with giant Dell already having pointed the finger at Intel as a cause for their lower than expected revenue.

EK Water Blocks, the leading premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing EK-Quantum Vector Strix RX 5700 +XT D-RGB water blocks that are compatible with ROG Strix version of AMD Radeon RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT graphics cards. The new Quantum water blocks feature addressable D-RGB 5V LEDs for even more visual customizations.

EK-Quantum Vector Strix RX 5700 +XT D-RGB
With this full cover water block, cooling is directed at the GPU, 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, and VRM (voltage regulation module) as liquid is channeled directly over these critical areas. These newly developed Vector water blocks feature a redesigned cooling engine that has a larger footprint compared to the previous generation of EK Full Cover water blocks. This results in a larger surface area for heat transfer which increases the thermal performance of these water blocks.

DIYPC partners with TechPowerUp to give our readers from the US a chance to bring home a DIYPC S2-BK-RGB Black PC case. This ATX mid-tower case covers all the essentials to build a contemporary game PC build, including a RGB LED embellishments across the front panel, tempered glass side panel, room for graphics cards up to 37 cm in length, and dust-filters for the intakes and top fan vents. We're giving two of these cases away. To drop your hat in the ring, all you need to do is fill up a short form that helps us get back to you if you've won. Entries close December 16th.

For more information and to participate, visit this page.

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Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of PC components and peripherals, offering performance at a reasonable price. Sharkoon now introduces the Mobile DAC and the Mobile DAC PD. These are two audio converters that are compatible with the most popular Android-based mobile devices. Both devices deliver a high-resolution audio amplification of sound output for headsets and headphones which have a TRRS connection, and, in addition, they provide quality voice transmission thanks to an integrated microphone input. Therefore, podcasters and streamers will also benefit from the Mobile DACs.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the handy standalone graphics subsystem information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility no enthusiast can leave home without. Version 2.28.0 adds support for the new AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT and Radeon Pro W5700. Support is also added for an upcoming new version of AMD Radeon Software drivers. Detection of 4 GB video memory amount on certain "Navi" graphics cards has been improved. Also improved are detection for AMD RX 470D, RX 560 Mobile, and Picasso and Raven Ridge iGPUs. Clock speeds and DirectX version support reading on some very old ATI graphics cards has also been fixed. Grab it from the link below.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.28.0

The change-log follows.

Intel marketing is at it again, making sweeping performance claims about its embattled 9th generation Core processors against AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen. In a recent press conference in China, the company was shown claiming that its mid-tier 6-core/6-thread Core i5-9600KF is a "better" processor than AMD's 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 3800X. This claim is hard to defend with gaming, when even the "slower" 3700X is seen performing within 1% of the i5-9600K (identical CPU specs to the i5-9600KF) at gaming, and 22 percent faster at CPU tests, beating the i9-9900K in quite a few multi-threaded tests.

The marketing slide makes four key claims: 1. that Intel processors are faster in "real-world" use-cases (gaming, home/office, light content-creation), ; 2. that with boost-frequencies reaching 4.60 GHz, the higher IPC of these chips benefit gaming; 3. that the K-series chips easily overclock to 5.00 GHz yielding even more performance; and 4. that Intel processors have "smooth and stable drivers" compared to AMD. As if that wasn't bad enough, the slide claims that the 4-core/4-thread Core i3-9350KF is "better" than the 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 3600X, and the entry-level i3-9100F being better than the 6-core/6-thread Ryzen 5 3500. This incident closely follows its September gaffe that sought to sourgrape AMD's HEDT creator performance leadership by discrediting its lead in certain applications by claiming they don't reflect "real world usage." Making Intel's test relevance claims comically wrong was the fact that it used app usage data gathered exclusively from notebooks.

ChangXin Memory Technologies, a Chinese startup founded in 2016 that was formerly known as "Innotron Memory", now claims that it has become China's first and only domestic DRAM supplier. Following the announcement that it started production of domestic DRAM chips, ChangXin is now reportedly shipping its first DRAM wafers. With an output of around 20000 wafers per month, the company is currently building LPDDR4, DDR4 8Gbit chips using the "10-nanometer class" node, which is supposed to be 18 or 19 nm size in reality.

The company expects to double its wafer output to 40000 wafers per month sometime around Q2 of 2020 when additional expansion facilities will start production. ChangXin plans to soon open two more manufacturing facilities to start manufacturing even more wafers, in addition to its Fab 1. So far ChangXin has laid-out plans to start manufacturing DRAM technology based on stack capacitor, which is different from the usual trench capacitor technology few companies are pursuing.

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Cooling, Gaming Gear and Enthusiast Memory solutions, today announced the release of the Thermaltake TOUGHRAM Z-ONE RGB DDR4 Memory Kit 3,200 MHz, which is supported by Intel and AMD platforms. Featuring 10-layer PCB construction for enhanced performance and stability, the TOUGHRAM Z-ONE RGB is equipped with high-performance components including tightly-selected memory chips, 2oz copper inner layer for enhanced electrical conduction, and 10μ gold fingers for high resistance ensuring ultimate gaming performance.

Furthermore, the TOUGHRAM Z-ONE RGB memory can be controlled by our software to monitor the real-time temperatures, frequency and performance and create stunning lighting effects with over 25 lighting modes. Users can also sync with TT RGB PLUS to maximize unique settings for their RGB color theme. Synchronize TT RGB PLUS, TT AI Voice Control, Razer Chroma, and Amazon Alexa RGB with TOUGHRAM Z-ONE RGB, users can build their own ecosystem with 10 super-bright addressable LEDs for stunning 16.8M RGB illumination. The TOUGHRAM Z-ONE RGB also support motherboards that have 5 V addressable RGB headers - ASUS Aura Sync, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, MSI Mystic Light Sync and ASRock Polychrome.

AMD's "Zen 4" CPU microarchitecture is on track for a 2021 launch as its principal foundry partner, TSMC, is optimistic about early yields of its 5 nm silicon fabrication node. TSMC supports the 5 nm product roadmaps of not just AMD, but also Apple and HiSilicon. "Zen 4" is particularly important for AMD, as it will release its next enterprise platform, codenamed "Genoa," along with the new SP5 socket. The new socket will present AMD with the opportunity to significantly change the processor's I/O, such as support for a new memory standard, a new PCIe generation, more memory channels, more PCIe lanes, etc. As early as 2019, the foundry is seeing yields of over 50 percent for the 5 nm node (possibly risk production designed to test the node), which is very encouraging for its customers.

AMD's roadmap for 2020 sees the introduction of "Zen 3" on the 7 nm EUV process (dubbed 7 nm+). AMD recently commented that the performance uplift of "Zen 3" versus "Zen 2" will be "right in line with what you would expect from an entirely new architecture." The 7 nm EUV node provides a significant 20 percent increase in transistor-density compared to the current 7 nm DUV node "Zen 2" chiplets and the company's "Navi" family of GPUs are built on. "Zen 3" could see the company do away with the CCX (quad-core CPU complex), and make chiplets monolithic blocks of CPU cores without sub-divisions. For the client-segment, 5 is a recurring number in 2021. It will see the introduction of the 5th generation Ryzen processors (5000-series), built on the 5 nm process, supporting DDR5 memory, PCI-Express gen 5, and the new AM5 client-segment CPU socket.

Here are some of the first pictures of the Frost Spirit by Thermalright, the company's next flagship air CPU cooler. Featuring a dual fin-stack design, the Frost Spirit features dense fin-stacks, in which the fins bunch up toward the center, creating turbulence and increasing heat-dissipation to the medium (air-flow). The fin-stack gets slimmer toward the base, adding clearance for your motherboard's memory and CPU VRM areas. Four 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes pull heat from the mirror-finish nickel-plated copper base, spreading it across the fin-stacks. Both stacks are capped off by metal top-plates. Up to three 140 mm fans can be mounted. The heatsink weighs 1 kg on its own (without fans). Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. It could see a product launch soon.

Akasa are proud to announce partnership with Razer, a leading global gamer's lifestyle brand, for its flagship and award-winning lighting technology: Razer Chroma.

Enabling Akasa's array of addressable RGB products to sync with Razer Chroma brings the full-spectrum of vivid RGB to your build. Taking full advantage of the Razer Chroma software platform and Akasa's addressable RGB devices such as the new Vegas TLY cooling fan and Dual M.2 PCIe SSD adapter with RGB LED light and heatsink, gamers can truly immerse themselves in popular games. Syncing individually addressable LED nodes adds RGB vibrancy and ambience to gamer's systems and surroundings for epic gaming experiences.

EIZO announced the release of the 23.8-inch FlexScan EV2460 and 22.5-inch FlexScan EV2360 - two LCD monitors with a frameless design for business environments such as trading rooms, back offices, and control rooms. They feature environmental-friendly specifications to aid companies in achieving their sustainable development goals, which are becoming more recognized worldwide.

The FlexScan EV2460 is the successor model to the FlexScan EV2450 and uses a 23.8-inch LCD panel with 1920 x 1080 native resolution. The FlexScan EV2360 uses a 22.5-inch LCD panel - the smallest amongst EIZO's frameless models. The small-footprint EV2360 has a width of 499 mm and a large native resolution of 1920 x 1200. Both monitors implement LED-backlit IPS (in-plane switching) panel technology with 178° wide viewing angles.

Creative Technology today announced the release of Sound Blaster G3, a portable gaming USB DAC Amp that marks the latest addition to the Sound Blaster revolution ignited 30 years ago. Designed and built with game console users in mind, Sound Blaster G3 is the first Sound Blaster that works directly on PS4 and Nintendo Switch via a driverless plug-and-play format, and is also compatible with PC and Mac. Palm-sized and weighing in at a mere 32 grams, it boasts a great balance of the fabled Sound Blaster audio signature, on-the-go customization and other nifty gaming features at an attractive price tag.

VideoCardz has spotted custom editions of AMD's upcoming RX 5500 XT graphics cards from AIB partners. The models, from ASRock and Gigabyte, showcase the respective companies' custom cooling solutions for the new batch of midrange graphics cards based on the Navi 14 silicon. ASRock, for one, is pictured with a Challenger graphics card which will join the company's top of the line Phantom Gaming brand. The Challenger D 8G OC (which will also be available in 4 GB VRAM) features a dual-slot, dual-fan cooler with a black shroud and yellow accents, and comes factory-overclocked to 1737 MHz. I/O is taken care of by 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI connectors.

With Windows 7 running out of official support from Microsoft this January, it's a good idea to upgrade all the PCs and notebooks in your family to your preferred edition of Windows 10. It's an even better idea to let URCDKeys help you do that. With genuine, globally-valid licenses of Windows 10, Office, games, and system software on sale year-round, and the security of PayPal to protect your payment instruments, why not take the painless and inexpensive path to genuine software? Windows 10 Pro is recommended for power-users and PC enthusiasts. With a TechPowerUp-exclusive discount, you can have it for USD $12.49. Windows 10 Home is perfect for home desktops and notebooks, and can be yours for $12.13.

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TSMC is delivering record results day after day, with a 5 nm manufacturing process starting High Volume Manufacturing (HVM) in Q2 next year, 7 nm process getting plenty of orders and the fact that TSMC just became the biggest company publicly trading in Asia. Continuing with the goal to match or even beat the famous Moore's Law, TSMC is already planning for future 3 nm node manufacturing, promised to start HVM as soon as 2022 arrives, according to JK Wang, TSMC's senior vice president of fab operations. Delivering 3 nm a whole year before originally planned in 2023, TSMC is working hard, with fab construction work doing quite well, judging by all the news that the company is releasing recently.

We can hope to see the first wave of products built using 3 nm manufacturing process sometime around end of year 2022, when the holiday season arrives. Usual customers like Apple and HiSilicon will surely utilize the new node and deliver their smartphones with 3 nm processors inside as soon as the process is ready for HVM.

TechPowerUp and Seagate brought you the IronWolf Black Friday Giveaway, throwing three of Seagate's finest pieces of consumer storage up for grabs. The IronWolf series from Seagate represent durable internal HDDs and SSDs for NAS, DAS, NVR, and other high-uptime client applications. Among the prizes are the 14 TB IronWolf internal SATA HDD, and 480 GB IronWolf 110 high-endurance SSD. Without further ado, the winners:

• Neil from The Philippines, wins a 14 TB IronWolf SATA HDD and 480 GB IronWolf 110 SATA SSD (one of each)
• Lisa from Virginia, USA, wins a 480 GB IronWolf 110 SATA SSD

A huge Congratulations to you two! TechPowerUp and Seagate will return with more such interesting Giveaways!

Update Dec 17th: Unfortunately Lisa never responded to us to claim her prize, so we randomly picked another lucky winner: Frank from Washington, US.

Cougar today launched the Conquer 2, a premium ATX full-tower chassis it unveiled at Computex 2019. It features a "chassis within chassis" design, in which an inner SECC steel chassis holds all your components and slides into the outer chassis that has the case's industrial design that combines aluminium and tempered glass panels. Massive ARGB LED diffusers dominate the front portion. The inner chassis has a horizontally-partitioned layout. The upper compartment has the motherboard tray with room for CEB, ATX, and smaller motherboard form-factors. You get room for graphics cards up to 40 cm in length. There are 10 expansion slots in all, from which two are vertical.

The bottom compartment houses the PSU bay with up to 22 cm headroom; and two 3.5-inch drives. Two additional 2.5-inch drives can be mounted behind the motherboard tray. Cooling options include two 120 mm front intakes that can hold onto a 240 mm radiator, and three 120 mm top exhausts, which can hold a 360 mm radiator. Measuring 368 mm x 631 mm x 744 mm (WxHxD), the case weighs about 18 kg. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, announces a broad Qualcomm Snapdragon Compute platform portfolio with long battery life, cellular connectivity, and AI accelerated performance to enable fanless, thin and light designs for modern computing. Built with mobility in mind, the portfolio accommodates the evolving needs of mobile consumers. The Snapdragon 7c and 8c now join the previously announced Snapdragon 8cx, delivering lightning fast cellular connectivity to premium, mainstream, and entry-level notebook PCs. The portfolio is available in various price points allowing partners to design always on, always connected PCs for a wide array of consumers. In addition, the Snapdragon 8cx enterprise compute platform brings connected security software and secured-core PC support for modern enterprises looking to bring mobility to their workers.

Patriot Memory, under its Viper Gaming brand announced the VPR100 RGB line of M.2 NVMe SSDs. Built in the M.2-2280 form-factor, the drive features a wide heatspreader with RGB LED embellishments. You can play with the lighting not just with the Viper RGB app, but also popular lighting software such as ASUS Aura Sync RGB, MSI MysticLight, GIGABYTE RGB Fusion, etc. The drive takes advantage of the PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface with NVMe 1.3 protocol. Patriot is kind and brave enough to disclose that enabling RGB LED sync lighting can decrease read/write speeds by up to 20-30 percent. Leaving them unsynchronized (following a preset) leaves drive performance untouched.

Available in 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, the VPR100 RGB combines a Phison E12-series controller with 3D TLC NAND flash memory, cushioned by a DRAM cache. All four capacity variants offer sequential read speeds of up to 3,300 MB/s, but write speeds vary. The 256 GB model offers up to 1,000 MB/s, the 512 GB model up to 2,100 MB/s, and the 1 TB and 2 TB models up to 2,900 MB/s. Endurance figures (TBW) for the four models are 380 TB, 800 TB, 1,600 TB, and 3,115 TB, respectively. Backed by 5-year warranties, the 256 GB, 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB variants of the VPR100 RGB are priced at 74.90€, 119.90€, 189.90€, and 379.90€, respectively (including VAT), in the EU. Across the big pond, they're priced at USD $94.99, $134.99, $229.99, and $399.99, respectively.

UL Benchmarks today announced an update to 3DMark, with the expansion of the Variable-Rate Shading (VRS) feature-test with support for VRS Tier-2. A component of DirectX 12, VRS Tier 1 is supported by NVIDIA "Turing" and Intel Gen11 graphics architectures (Ice Lake's iGPU). VRS Tier-2 is currently supported only by NVIDIA "Turing" GPUs. VRS Tier-2 adds a few performance enhancements such as lower levels of shading for areas of the scene with low contrast to their surroundings (think areas under shadow), yielding performance gains. The 3DMark VRS test runs in two passes, pass-1 runs with VRS-off to provide a point of reference; and pass-2 with VRS-on, to test performance gained. The 3DMark update with VRS Tier-2 test will apply for the Advanced and Professional editions.

DOWNLOAD: 3DMark v2.11.6846

Store pages of AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT surfaced on Chinese retailer JD.com, confirming that AMD will launch the "XT" variant of the SKU very soon (by 12th December, according to these listings). While the product pages don't list out specifications, they confirm a wide launch through AMD add-in-board (AIB) partners covering non-reference designs, and include 8 GB variants. The 8 GB variant starts at roughly RMB ¥1,499 including taxes, which converts to roughly USD $212. You reserve your card by paying ¥100 ($14) upfront. Among the listings are two cards from Sapphire, one from Yeston, and one from XFX. The product pages confirm three dates: pre-orders starting today (5th December) in which you pay the ¥100 deposit and drop your hat in, order confirmation and shipping on 12th December upon payment of the balance, and earliest delivery by 15th December, depending on where you live in China.

Today TEAMGROUP's gaming brand T-FORCE announces the release of the world's first mirror design T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB Gaming Memory, leading the industry with full mirror reflection, light penetration and ARGB three major core technologies. Up to DDR4 4800MHZ of frequency offers a smooth user experience. The mirror design enhances the detail of the texture and it has an incomparable dominance in both visual beauty and gaming performance.

With creative thinking, T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB Gaming Memory is the first in the industry to feature full-screen light guiding technology. After researching optical principles and characteristics of light, special designed LED lighting method and Addressable RGB LED (Addressable RGB: A single LED capable of emitting colours independently and controlling speed) are used to allow players to change the RGB lighting freely. The product's full mirror screen is a combination of special spluttering process and full-screen light guiding technology, which is capable of directly penetrating and reflecting surrounding products. The optical beauty of gaming memory can be re-interpreted innovatively. The highest frequency of T-FORCE XTREEM ARGB is up to DDR4 4800 MHz. Its IC chips are selected through a rigorous testing process. Each of them is tested for complete compatibility and stability. This gaming memory with a magic mirror is specially designed for gamers and PC DIY enthusiasts.

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, introduced the Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 5G Mobile Platform, which combines the world's most advanced 5G Modem-RF System with the world's most advanced mobile platform designed to deliver the unmatched connectivity and performance required for the next generation of flagship devices.

The platform's best-in-class Qualcomm Snapdragon X55 5G Modem-RF System provides peak speeds of up to 7.5 Gbps, surpassing most wired connections and transforming the mobile experience. The leading 5th generation Qualcomm AI Engine and new Qualcomm Sensing Hub provides more intelligence and personalization than ever before. Snapdragon 865 includes the blazing fast Qualcomm Spectra 480 Image Signal Processor (ISP), which brings new features to mobile photography and videography thanks to gigapixel speeds - up to 2 gigapixels per second. Gamers can use Snapdragon to compete at the highest levels with an array of brand-new Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite Gaming features for desktop-quality gaming and ultra-realistic graphics. Our next generation Qualcomm Kryo 585 CPU delivers up to 25% performance improvement, and the new Qualcomm Adreno 650 GPU offers up to 25% overall performance boost compared to the previous generations, ensuring superior processing power for the next generation of flagship devices. The Snapdragon 865 empowers you to game, capture, cross-task and connect like never before.

EK Water Blocks, the Europe-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a 140 mm D-RGB version of its EK-Vardar fan - the EK-Vardar EVO 140ER D-RGB. Besides the new and advanced addressable lighting diodes, the new fan also incorporates the Extended Range (ER) of the PWM operation feature and the special Start-Stop function which brings a true 0 dB experience for the absolutely silent operation. Not only will you be able to enjoy a totally silent PC, but this feature is also very useful for preventing radiator dust buildup if your PC is idling for prolonged periods of time, and it also extends the lifespan of the fan itself.

The EK-Vardar RGB is a high-static pressure computer cooling fan, designed and built primarily for high-performance computer liquid cooling systems. The Vardar family of cooling fans carries the notorious name of a type of the cold northwesterly wind blowing from the mountains down to the valleys of Macedonia. They feature a black square frame that does not allow for the air to escape and ensuring optimal airflow through the radiator.

That news title should come as a surprise to no one, and extends to most other PC makers who are affected by Intel's inability to keep up with demand on its 14 nm (+++++?) node. News of Intel's factories being outputting less than the entire professional and consumer markets are required has already been covered multiple times and in multiple ways. Sand steps Intel has taken to mitigate this issue whilst trying to solve its 10 nm execution woes range from moving chipset production up from its 14 nm nodes to 22 nm to free capacity, increase production capacity over the already installed one, and even outsource some of its silicon manufacturing to other players in the industry. However, these measures won't actually take effect in the availability equation in a heartbeat, and of course PC makers such as Dell, who has already revised its revenue forecast and placed the blame on Intel, are looking to alternatives.

MMD, brand license partner for Philips monitors, announces the launch of the Philips Moda 276C8 LCD monitor with USB-C. CrystalClear QHD 2560 x 1440 pixel resolution brings every image to life, while IPS panel technology offers wide viewing angles and high color accuracy.

This 75Hz 27" Quad HD monitor is equipped with and IPS panel. Built with virtually no surrounding frame, its edgeless Zero Bezel look is not only aesthetically attractive but offers the advantage of a more expansive picture and a larger workspace while facilitating seamless tiling for multi-monitor setups. The monitor is also incredibly slim, measuring a mere 6.1 mm and presenting an attractive contemporary appearance that complements all manner of work and living spaces. The monitor's thin, stylish panel and geometric stand design earned it a 2018 Red Dot Design Award, which recognizes the best in design and business.

Intel is currently performing negotiations to acquire Israeli AI chip startup, Habana Labs, according to a person who spoke to Calcalist anonymously. If the deal realizes, Intel will pay between one and two billion USD, making it Intel's second-largest acquisition of an Israeli company. When asked about the potential deal, the Intel spokesperson has stated that the company will not respond to rumors surrounding it, while Habana Labs has yet to respond to a request for comment made by Calcalist.

Founded in 2016 by Israeli entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz, who founded Galileo Technologies and Annapurna Labs, Habana Labs develops processors for training and inference of Machine Learning models. This acquisition would allow Intel to compete better in the AI processor market and get new customers which were previously exclusive to Habana Labs.

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced on Tuesday that they relinquished control of Alphabet, Google's parent holding company, to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The two will remain employees of Alphabet and sit on its board of directors, but will no longer hold the positions of CEO or President. Brin was Alphabet's President, and Page its CEO. Pichai will now be CEO of not just Google, but also Alphabet. This gives him executive control over Alphabet's other subsidiaries, such as CaptalG, Google Fiber, Loon, Waymo, and DeepMind.

"Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet's investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we're passionate about!," the duo said in their blog post announcing the change. Google reorganized itself as Alphabet in 2015 with Eric Schmidt as executive chairman, making its core business, Google Inc., a subsidiary of a holding company named Alphabet, and its other non-web businesses being spread across as its other subsidiaries. Following Schmidt's 2017 exit, Brin and Page took direct charge.

HIS today announced two new graphics cards to their lineup, and these are colorful ones (no pun intended). The Pink and Blue Army graphics cards the company is announcing today are based on AMD's RX 5700 XT graphics card, powered by Navi, and will be available in both colors in both OC and non-OC versions (these non-OC versions still carry higher clocks than AMD's reference ones, though).

AMD is wading into even deeper waters across Intel's markets with the announcement of new Mini-PCs powered by the company's AMD Ryzen embedded V1000 and R1000 processors. Mini PCs, powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 and R1000 processors. Multiple partners such as ASRock Industrial, EEPD, OnLogic and Simply NUC have already designed their own takes on Mini-PCs (comparable to Intel's NUC, Next unit of Computing) as a way to give businesses a way to have a small form factor box for different computing needs. These aim to offer a high-performance CPU/GPU processor with expansive peripheral support, in-depth security features and a planned 10-year processor availability.

Until now, AMD's Ryzen Embedded product line had mostly scored one design win here and there, powering handheld consoles such as the Smach Z and such other low power, relatively high-performance environments. When AMD announced the R1000 SoC back in April, it already announced that partners would be bringing their own takes on the underlying silicon, and today is the announcement of that effort.

Global industrial and IoT computer hardware manufacturer, OnLogic, has teamed up with AMD to release a line of small form factor industrial computers powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded processors. Both the ultra-compact fanless ML100G-40, and actively-cooled MC510-40 are available for pre-order now and limited quantities are expected to begin shipping to customers in December.

Global industrial and IoT computer hardware manufacturer, OnLogic, has teamed up with AMD to release a line of small form factor industrial computers powered by AMD Ryzen Embedded processors. Both the ultra-compact fanless ML100G-40, and actively-cooled MC510-40 are available for pre-order now and limited quantities are expected to begin shipping to customers in December.

Toshiba announces the DT02-V Series of Surveillance HDDs, its new series created for digital video recorder (DVR) and network video recorder (NVR) platforms. The new series utilizes the latest magnetic recording technologies to achieve high areal density, helping to improve reliability compared to the prior MD04ABA-V Series. With up to 6 TB capacity, the new DT02-V Series supports a maximum of 32 high-resolution camera streams and is suitable for use in leading surveillance DVR and NVR platforms with as many as eight drive bays.

"Our latest surveillance HDD family, the DT02-V Series, delivers up to 6 TB of storage capacity, and is designed for use with leading surveillance DVR and NVR platforms," says Shuji Takaoka, General Manager of Storage Products Sales & Marketing Division at Toshiba Electronic Devices & Storage Corporation. "It also provides a variety of capacity options while improving reliability for high resolution surveillance video streams."

Halo: Reach for PC is going live today, as per confirmations from game developer 343 Industries. The game is supposed to go live tonight at 10 AM PST / 1 PM EST when it will be released on PC and Xbox One. The PC port is going to be available for purchase on three platforms: Game Pass, Steam, and the Windows Store. The PC port currently contains some bugs, however, 343 Industries is working to iron them out before the game launches. Features like uncapped FPS will be mostly unstable during the launch period and might cause the game to crash, so it's better to turn it off for now. Latency issues could also be present in the beginning but 343i is working hard to remove it before the game drops tonight. For all Steam users, you can pre-purchase the game here.

AMD X570 chipset is the industry's first PC platform core-logic to support PCI-Express gen 4.0, but has proven to be expensive and hot. Its 600-series chipset successor will be third-party sourced much like its 400-series predecessor, according to a MyDrivers report citing sources in the motherboard industry. AMD is reportedly sourcing its 500-series mid-range chipset, the B550, from ASMedia. The B550 uses PCI-Express 3.0 x4 as its chipset bus, and puts out eight PCIe gen 3.0 downstream general purpose lanes, however, B550 motherboards could still feature PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slots from the socket AM4 SoC (provided a 3rd gen Ryzen processor is installed), and at least one of the M.2 NVMe slots on B550 motherboards could have PCI-Express 4.0 x4, since they're wired to the SoC instead of the chipset.

The MyDrivers report predicts that the successor to X570, the supposed "X670," could be sourced from a third-party firm, much like the B550, and implement PCI-Express gen 4.0, not just as chipset-bus, but also putting out PCI-Express gen 4.0 general purpose lanes. A possible design goal of the X670 could be to implement PCIe gen 4.0 switching fabric without running too hot, resulting in a cooler chipset than can make do with fanless cooling solutions, much like the X470. AMD will continue to make "chipsets" in the form of I/O controller dies for use in its MCM processors, although the relatively low-margin motherboard chipset business could be axed.

Amazon Web Services, a part of Amazon that is in charge of all things cloud, has announced plans to release 32 core CPU based on Arm Neoverse N1 microarchitecture that is designed to handle a diverse workload that today's cloud infrastructure needs. This new CPU should be the second iteration of AWS'es custom CPU based on the Arm architecture. First-generation AWS CPU was a processor called Graviton, which Amazon offered on-demand in the cloud.

The still-unnamed second-gen CPU will utilize a 7 nm manufacturing process if the Neoverce N1 core at its base is to be believed. Additionally, everything from the Neoverse line should translate to this next-gen CPU as well, meaning that there will be features like high frequency and high single-threaded performance, cache coherency, and interconnect fabric designed to connect special-purpose accelerators to the CPU complex. For reference, Arm's design of Neoverce N1 has a TDP of 105 W for the whole SoC and its packs 64 cores running at 3.1 GHz, delivering amazing power efficiency and high core count.

AMD is expected to bolster its mid-thru-performance segments of graphics cards with a few new product announcements in December. To begin with, the Radeon RX 5500 XT, which maxes out the 24 RDNA compute units on the "Navi 14" silicon, could see an early-December announcement, possibly ahead of the mid-December release of the RX 5500 to the AIB (add-in board) retail channel. Next up, is the new RX 5600 series, which enables AMD to capture $200-$300 price-points, competing with the likes of the GeForce GTX 1660 Super and GTX 1660 Ti.

There's no word on how what silicon the RX 5600 series is based on, but VideoCardz reports that the series topping RX 5600 XT has 6 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface. We expect that the RX 5600-series will carved out of the "Navi 10" silicon by disabling many RDNA compute units and narrowing its memory bus. Given that the RX 5500 XT has 1,536 stream processors and the RX 5700 has 2,304, AMD's wiggle room is somewhere between the two, with stream processor counts of 2,048 or 1,920 being plausible for the RX 5600 XT, and 1,792 for the RX 5600, if it exists. Availability of the RX 5600 series is slated for January 2020.Image Courtesy: PCGamesN

Imagination Technologies announces the tenth generation of its PowerVR graphics architecture, the IMG A-Series. The fastest GPU IP ever released, IMG A-Series evolves the PowerVR GPU architecture to fulfil the graphics and compute needs of the full spectrum of next-generation devices. Designed to be "The GPU of Everything" IMG A-Series is the ultimate solution for multiple markets, from automotive, AIoT, and computing through to DTV/STB/OTT, mobile and server.

The IMG A-Series' multi-dimensional approach to performance scalability ranges from 1 pixel per clock (PPC) parts for the entry-level market right up to 2 TFLOP cores for performance devices, and beyond that to multi-core solutions for cloud applications. Dr. Ron Black, CEO, Imagination Technologies, says: "IMG A-Series is our most important GPU launch since we delivered the first mobile PowerVR GPU 15 years ago and the best GPU IP for mobile ever made. It offers the best performance over sustained time periods and at low power budgets across all markets. It really is the GPU of everything."

SilverStone today rolled out the FARA B1, an ATX mid-tower chassis that covers the essentials for a contemporary gaming PC build. Its design involves a mostly matte-black front facade, with large front intakes through a "star-crossed" grille, and a tinted tempered glass side panel. The SilverStone logo along the front panel illuminates. Inside, you get a horizontally partitioned layout. The upper compartment has room for ATX (or smaller) motherboard form-factors; graphics cards up to 32.5 cm in length, and CPU coolers up to 16.5 cm in height.

The bottom compartment of the SilverStone FARA B1 has the PSU bay, and a single 3.5-inch drive tray, which can also hold 2.5-inch drives. On top of this tiny drive cage is a 2.5-inch mount. There are two additional 2.5-inch mounts behind the motherboard tray. Ventilation includes 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm front intakes; 2x 140 mm or 2x 120 mm top exhausts with a detachable dust filter, and a 120 mm rear exhaust. You can mount a radiator as big as 280 mm x 140 mm along the front panel, and one as big as 240 mm x 120 mm along the top exhaust. Front panel connectivity includes two USB 3.x type-A ports, a USB 2.0/1.1 type-A port, and a 3.5 mm combo headset jack. The case measures 207 mm (W) x 446 mm (H) x 401 mm (D). The company didn't reveal pricing.

AMD Monday released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin. Version 19.12.1 beta adds support for the new Radeon RX 5300M graphics. It also fixes a major issue with Radeon RX 5700-series graphics cards stuttering at 1080p with low game settings. A crash-to-desktop noticed on machines with RX 5700-series graphics playing "The Outer Worlds" has also been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.12.1

The change-log follows.

Intel Corporation today announced it has completed the sale of the majority of its smartphone modem business to Apple. This transaction, valued at $1 billion, was announced on July 25, 2019. As previously disclosed, this transaction enables Intel to focus on developing technology for 5G networks while retaining the option to develop modems for non-smartphone applications, such as PCs, internet of things devices and autonomous vehicles.

The "Willow Cove" CPU core design succeeds "Sunny Cove," Intel's first truly new CPU core design in close to 5 years. "Sunny Cove" is implemented in the 10 nm "Ice Lake" microarchitecture, and "Willow Cove" cores are expected to debut with the 10 nm+ "Tiger Lake." It turns out that Intel is working to adapt "Willow Cove" CPU cores onto a 14 nm microarchitecture, and "Rocket Lake" could be it.

Twitter user @chiakokhua, a retired VLSI engineer with high hit-rate on CPU microarchitecture news, made sense of technical documents to point out that "Rocket Lake" is essentially a 14 nm adaptation of "Tiger Lake," but with the iGPU shrunk significantly, to make room for the larger CPU cores. The Gen12 iGPU on "Rocket Lake-S" will feature just 32 execution units (EUs), whilst on "Tiger Lake," it has three times the muscle, with 96 EUs. "Rocket Lake" also replaces "Tiger Lake's" FIVR (fully-integrated voltage regulation) with a conventional SVID VRM architecture.

ID-COOLING today announced SE-224-XT Basic CPU air cooler, featuring 4 direct-touch copper heatpipe, 120 mm PWM fan and newly designed mounting mechanism. This cooler is designed to cool those processors with a TDP under 180 W. With a dimension of 120x73x154mm, this cooler is basically compatible with all regular ATX cases.

The included standard 120x120x25mm fan has 8 pcs rubber dampeners on all corners of both sides, running at 700 to 1800rpm with PWM support while pushing 76.16CFM air at maximum speed, noise level measured 15.2 to 32.5 dB(A). An extra fan clip set is included for a push-pull configuration. The bundled thermal grease is named ID-TG25, which has a thermal conductivity of 10.5 W/m-K.

An independent study conducted by the European Hardware Association (EHA) has revealed that AMD now ranks higher than Intel in the CPU space. While we have seen this as recently as last week, where we reported on top sellers across some Amazon webstores in Europe, with AMD scoring most of the top sellers in both Germany and the UK, this is the first time a comprehensive study has put some verifiable, science-generated numbers for us to see.

According to the EHA, 60% of the European PC enthusiasts (in a sample of 10,000 respondents) showed a strong sentiment towards AMD as their favored manufacturer of CPUs, and would choose any sort of system with an AMD CPU over an Intel one (including APU, AMD + Radeon graphics cards and AMD + NVIDIA graphics cards). This is a far cry from the same time around last year, where AMD only held 40% of a similar sample's preferred buying intention, and up from the 50% shown in the same study, carried out in 2H2019. The same survey also shows a slightly increased preference for AMD's graphics cards, with the 1H2019 showing 19% preference compared to 23% in this latest study.

Korean PC cooling major Zalman released the CNPS20X and CNPS17X air coolers with RGB LED embellishments. The CNPS or computer noise prevention system line of CPU coolers from Zalman consist of the most outlandish and off-beat heatsink designs, and it's no different with the CNPS20X and CNPS17X. The CNPS17X has a solo fin-stack heatsink with one included fan, while the CNPS20X is a dual fin-stack heatsink with two included fans. Both coolers feature a small quantity of pure copper fins in addition to aluminium fins. The copper fins are positioned toward the center of the stack.

Both coolers include an RGB LED-embellished variant of the ZM-SF140, a 140 mm fan with split-blade impellers designed to increase air-flow. The fans spin between 800 to 1,500 RPM, pushing up to 63 CFM of air, with noise output ranging between 16.5 dBA to 28 dBA. An X-shaped form along the fan-frame holds clear acrylic diffusers for the RGB LEDs. The heights of both coolers are capped at 16 cm, which should make them kosher for most contemporary mid-towers cases. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA115x, and LGA2066. The CNPS17X is rated for thermal loads of up to 200 W, while the CNPS20X is claimed by its makers to be fit for 300 W. Available in the EU, the CNPS17X is priced at 60€, while the CNPS20X goes for 80€.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited, also known as TSMC shortly became Asia's biggest and the most valuable company with a market cap of over 8.02 trillion New Taiwan Dollars, which roughly translates to 262.75 billion US Dollars. Becoming the biggest Asian company, TSMC's market capitalization has now surpassed Samsung for the first time in the history of company existence.

The underlying reasons for becoming a company that TSMC is today, are plenty. Firstly, they are providing customers with the flexibility of choosing any manufacturing node, whatever it is the latest 7 nm or the older ones like 180 nm. They have a choice whatever they want to use something older and less expensive or something newer for high-performance and lower power. Additionally, TSMC is re-investing a big part of its profits into research and development efforts to stay competitive and deliver only the best technology to its customers, on time.

The EK Velocity sTR4 series water blocks that are specifically designed for HEDT AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors are compatible with all newly released AMD TRX40 based motherboards equipped with socket sTRX4 which supports Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Series Processors.

With the release of 32 core count HEDT computer processors and potential for even more cores, the requirement for the top of the line cooling has never been bigger. The sTR4 Lineup of EK-Velocity water blocks, designed for the sTR4 socket, is perfectly compatible with the newly released AMD TRX40 motherboards that are using the sTRX4 socket. The only difference between the sTR4 and sTRX40 sockets is the pin layout, thus it has no effect on the cooling performance or the mounting itself.

GIGABYTE today unveiled the C200 Glass ATX mid-tower case (model: GB-C200G). The case is characterized by a tempered glass panel dominating much of the front panel, besides a full-size left-side glass panel. A vertical RGB LED embellishment runs along the front-panel. The front panel intakes are along the sides of the front panel, and feature coarse filters. A finer detachable dust-filter covers the top exhaust. Inside, the C200 Glass features a conventional horizontally partitioned layout.

The top compartment of the C200 Glass has room for ATX (or smaller) motherboard form-factors, graphics cards up to 33 cm in length, and CPU coolers up to 16.5 cm in height. The bottom compartment has room for PSUs up to 17 cm in length, and two 3.5-inch drive trays, which can each hold smaller 2.5-inch drives. There are two additional 2.5-inch mounts along the motherboard tray, in the upper compartment. Ventilation includes 3x 120 mm or 2x 140 mm front intakes, 2x 120 mm top exhausts, and a 120 mm rear exhaust that has a factory-fitted fan. You can mount a 360 mm or 280 mm radiator in the front, a 240 mm radiator along the top, and a 120 mm radiator at the rear. Front-panel connectivity includes two USB 3.x type-A ports, HDA jacks, and a button to cycle through lighting presets for the LED diffuser. Measuring 514 mm x 277 mm x 523 mm (HxWxD), the C200 Glass dry-weighs 7.24 kg. The company didn't reveal pricing.