ASUS today announced Mini PC PN41, an ultra-compact computer that delivers powerful performance for a diverse range of scenarios, from digital signage to small and home-office and beyond. Featuring the latest 11th Gen Intel Pentium Silver or Celeron mobile processor with Intel UHD Graphics, plus support for high-speed 2933 MHz DDR4 memory, Mini PC PN41 is ready to deliver effective multitask computing, yet its diminutive size takes up minimal space on a desk—so it's ready to fit in just about anywhere.

Mini PC PN41 is powered by the latest 11th Gen Intel Pentium Silver or Celeron mobile processor. Compared with traditional same-tier mobile processors, these latest-generation CPUs deliver an overall performance improvement of up to 32%, enabling smoother everyday computing experiences. Class-leading visual performance is also a feature of Mini PC PN41, with its integrated Intel UHD Graphics achieving an impressive 120% in 3D Mark Fire Strike—an increase of over 90%, compared to the previous-generation model.

Razer, the maker of various gaming peripherals and gaming PCs/Laptops, has been a long-time user of Intel CPUs in their laptops devices. However, that might be changing just about now. According to some findings by @_rogame, there was a 3D Mark benchmark run that featured AMD Ryzen 5000 series "Cezanne" mobile processors. What is more interesting is the system it was running in. Called Razer PI411, this system is officially Razer's first AMD-powered laptop. While we don't have many details about it, we have some basic system configuration details. For starters, the laptop carries AMD's top-tier Ryzen 9 5900HX overclockable mobile processor. Carrying a configured TDP of 45 Watts (the maximum is 54 W), the system is likely not equipped with sufficient cooling for overclocking.

When it comes to the rest of the laptop, it features NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 512 GB of storage. Being that this laptop was codenamed PI411, it could indicate a 14-inch model. However, we still don't know if it is ever going to hit consumer shelves. Being that Razer never carried an AMD CPU option, this could just be an engineering sample that the company was experimenting with, so we have to wait to find out more.

With NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30-series lineup of GPUs, laptop manufacturers are offered a wide variety of GPU SKUs that internally differ simply by having different Total Graphics Power (TGP), which in turn results in different clock speeds and thus different performance. ASUS uses NVIDIA's variant of GeForce RTX 3080 mobile GPU inside the company's ROG Zephyrus Duo (GX551QS) with a TGP of 115 Watts, and Dynamic Boost technology that can ramp up the card to 130 Watts. However, this doesn't represent the maximum for RTX 3080 mobile graphics card. The maximum TGP for RTX 3080 mobile goes up to 150 Watts, which is a big improvement that lets the GPU reach higher frequencies and more performance.

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you manually applied vBIOS that allows the card to use more power? Well, Baidu forum users are reporting a successful experiment of transforming their 115 W RTX 3080 to 150 W TGP card. Using GPU vBIOS from MSI Leopard G76, which features a 150 W power limit, and applying it to the ROG's Zephyrus Duo power-limited RTX 3080 cards is giving results. Users have successfully used this vBIOS to squeeze out more performance from their laptops. As seen on the 3D Mark Time Spy rank list, the entries are now dominated solely by modified laptops. Performance improvement is, of course, present and it reaches up to a 20% increase.

[Update, September 29, 2020: We now have a good first look at the card courtesy the man himself. It confirms what we already knew, with a 360 mm AIO cooler and a flip-up OLED screen paired to the flagship offering from EVGA this generation.]

It's only been moments after the RTX 3090's release, but professional overclockers are already unleashing the power available on NVIDIA's GA-102 chip by resorting to exotic cooling techniques. Renowned overclocker Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido, who works in close proximity with NVIDIA AIB EVGA, tamed the RTX 3090's temperature by resorting to liquid nitrogen. This, alongside tweaks to Vcore (1069 mV) allowed the card to reach a startling 2.58 GHz core clock (a staggering 52.2% increase over NVIDIA's base clock), and 10.750 MHz (21.5 Gbps) memory clocks on the GDDR6X subsystem, which in itself is a 10.3% increase over reference clocks.

The 16.673 3D Mark Port Royal score was achieved with a fully custom design made by EVGA with Vince Lucidos' input. This über 3090 ultimately delivered a performance increase of around 30% more than the stock RTX 3090 would be able to, which isn't a bad equilibrium between the core and memory clock increases. Some might say this is the performance delta one would expect between the 3090 and the 3080 (an overall 40% performance increase, considering the 3090 is already an average of 10% faster than the 3080 at stock clocks).

AMD Ryzen 4000 series of desktop APUs are set to be released next month as a quiet launch. What we expected to see is a launch covering only a few models ranging from Ryzen 3 to Ryzen 7 level, meaning that there would be configurations equipped with anything from 4C/8T to 8C/16T. In the beginning thanks to all the leaks we expected to see six models (listed in the table below), however thanks to discovery, we could be looking at even more SKUs of the Renoir family of APUs. Mentioned in the table are some new entries to both consumer and pro-grade users which means AMD will probably do a launch of both editions, possibly on the same day. We are not sure if that is the case, however, it is just a speculation.

Now, take that title with the customary grain of salt, and remember: most mobile configurations aren't directly comparable due to different components, speed of the memory subsystem, and so on. Putting that salt aside, though, one thing remains: Intel beats AMD in the latest purported 3DMark benchmarks - and on the red team's home-field, so to speak: graphics performance. A benchmark posted by renowned leaker and benchmark scavenger rogame on twitter has turned up an Intel Tiger Lake-U (i7-1165G7) scoring 11879 (99.68%) in the Physics and 6912 (112.92%) in the Graphics score compared to AMD's R7 4800U 11917 Physics score and 6121 Graphics score.

For context, this pits a 4-core, 8-thread Intel Willow Cove design paired with Gen12 Xe graphics tech (2.8 GHz base, 4.4 GHz boost) against 8 of AMD's Zen 2 cores and Vega graphics. Also for context, it's expected that Intel's i7-1165G7 runs with a 28 W TDP, compared to AMD's R7 4800U 15 W envelope. Also of note is that 3D Mark isn't exactly the poster-child for CPU parallelization performance, as the benchmark scales up rather poorly as more cores are added. Perhaps more interesting as a comparison, these scores from Intel's Tiger Lake are comparable to the company's current i5-10300H (4C/8T 2.5 GHz base 4.5 GHz boost), which scores 10817 on the Physics side (making the i7-1165G7 9.8% faster with a 200 MHz slower base clock, 100 MHz higher boost & 17 W less TDP (28 W for the Tier Lake and 45 W for the i5-10300H).

Renowned leaker APISAK has digged up benchmarks for AMD's upcoming Ryzen 4700G, 4400G and 4200G Renoir APUs in 3D Mark. These are actually for the PRO versions of the APUs, but these tend to be directly comparable with AMD's non-PRO offerings, so we can look at them to get an idea of where AMD's 4000G series' performance lies. AMD's 4000G will be increasing core-counts almost across the board - the midrange 4400G now sports 6 cores and 12 threads, which is more than the previous generation Ryzen 5 3400G offered (4 cores / 8 threads), while the top-of-the-line 4700G doubles the 3400G's core-cpount to 8 physical and 16 logical threads.

This increase in CPU cores, of course, has implied a reduction in the area of the chip that's dedicated to the integrated Vega graphics GPU - compute units have been reduced from the 3400G's 11 down to 8 compute units on the Ryzen 7 4700G and 7 compute units on the 4400G - while the 4200G now makes do with just 6 Vega compute units. Clocks have been severely increased across the board to compensate the CU reduction, though - the aim is to achieve similar GPU performance using a smaller amount of semiconductor real-estate.

New details have surfaced on Intel's next-generation NUC systems - built with the intention to carry the highest performance density per available chassis capacity in the computer market (the aim is a 1.35 L case). We already knew Intel's Panther Canyon NUC would bring about their Tiger Lake-U designs would be carrying the company's Tiger Lake-U CPUs, which should combine next-generation "Willow Cove" CPU cores with an iGPU based on Intel's new Xe graphics architecture. A new piece of data here, as has been reported, is that Intel is also working on an enthusiast-class NUC under the "Phantom Canyon" moniker, which should bring about increased graphics performance.

Even if Intel's graphics architecture is a mindblowing performance improvement over their current graphics technologies, there's only so much an integrated graphics solution can do. Now, we seemingly have confirmation, via a 3D Max Benchmark, that Intel's Panther Canyon will be paired with an NVIDIA GeForce 1660 Ti graphics card (scoring 5,355 points). The 3D Mark TimeSpy test system uses a TigerLake-U engineering sample clocked at 2.3 GHz base and 4.4 GHz boost, alongside an 80 W NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti (Notebook) and 8 GB of RAM.

We have been hearing a lot about Intel's Rocket Lake lineup of processors. They are supposed to be a backport of Willow Cove 10 nm core, adapted to work on a 14 nm process for better yielding. Meant to launch sometime around late 2020 or the beginning of 2021, Rocket Lake is designed to work on the now existing LGA1200 socket motherboards, which were launched just a few days ago along with Intel Comet Lake CPUs. Rocket Lake is there to supply the desktop segment and satisfy user demand, in light of lacking 10 nm offers for desktop users. The 10 nm node is going to present only on mobile/laptop and server solutions before it comes to the desktop.

In the latest report on 3D Mark, the hardware leaker TUM APISAK has found a Rocket Lake CPU running the benchmark and we get to see first specifications of the Rocket Lake-S platform. The benchmark ran on 6 core model with 12 threads, that had a base clock of 3,5 GHz. The CPU managed to boost up to 4,09 GHz, however, we are sure that these are not final clocks and the actual product should have even higher frequencies. Paired with Gen12 Xe graphics, the Rocket Lake platform could offer a very nice alternative to AMD offerings if the backport of Willow Cove goes well. Even though it is still using a 14 nm node, performance would be good. The only things that would be sacrificed (from backporting) are die space and efficiency/heat.

Intel is preparing to launch its next-generation Tiger Lake-U lineup of CPUs based on the new Willow Cove core that is supposed to bring big IPC gains and plenty of new features. Being a part of the 11th generation of Core CPUs, these processors are expected to arrive sometime in the second half of 2020, built on Intel's 10 nm+ manufacturing process. Thanks to a popular hardware leaker @_rogame, we have found another Tiger Lake-U in the 3D Mark benchmark database. Unlike the last time when we saw Intel's Core i7-1185G7 being run on the 3D Mark tests, we now have test results of its brother - the Core i7-1165G7.

From the 3D Mark report, we can see some details like CPU's base frequency, which is 2.8 GHz in this case. This is just 200 MHz lower compared to the previous Core i7-1185G7 CPU that leaked. The platform used to test the new Core i7-1165G7 CPU was running Windows 10 and had 16 GB of DDR4 SODIMM memory. The new 3D Mark results are already looking promising. From the previous leak of Core i7-1185G7, we saw that Tiger Lake CPU which managed to score 2922 in the CPU test, 1296 in GPU test, and an overall score of 1414. However, this new Core i7-1165G7 CPU is a bit different. In the graphic test, it scores 1150 points, while the CPU test shows an impressive 4750 points. This Core i7-1165G7 result is much higher compared to the more powerful Core i7-1185G7 CPU, which is a bit strange. It could be attributed to a faster memory, but so far we don't know. However, the overall score of the i7-1165G7 is a bit lower compared to i7 1185G7, scoring 1297 points.

Benchmarks of AMD's upcoming Radeon VII graphics card have surfaced, courtesy of the one and only, graphics card info and results leaker extraordinaire Tum Apisak. In these scores, and looking purely at the graphics portion of the benchmarks, AMD's solution really does seem to bring the fight to NVIDIA's RTX 2080 - no small feat, considering that it's mostly a shrunk-down version of AMD's previous-gen Vega with overcharged memory and core clocks.

The Radeon VII scores, according to Tum Apisak (take it with a grain of salt), 27400 on the FireStrike test; 13400 on the FIreStrike Extreme bench; 6800 on the FireStrike Ultra test; and finally, 8700 points on Time Spy. Consulting 3D Mark's database, it seems that factory-overclocked RTX 2080 graphics cards usually score around 27000 points on the FIreStrike base and 6400 points on the FireStrike Ultra tests, which means that at least in this synthetic scenario, AMD's graphics card ekes out a win.

Benchmark scores for 3D Mark's Time Spy have surface, and are purported to represent the performance level of an unidentified "Generic VGA" - which is being identified as AMD's new 12 nm Polaris revision. The RX 590 product name makes almost as much sense as it doesn't, though; for one, there's no real reason to release another entire RX 600 series, unless AMD is giving the 12 nm treatment to the entire lineup (which likely wouldn't happen, due to the investment in fabrication process redesign and node capacity required for such). As such, the RX 590 moniker makes sense if AMD is only looking to increase its competitiveness in the sub-$300 space as a stop-gap until they finally have a new graphics architecture up their shader sleeves.

After we've covered news of UL's (previously known as 3D Mark) move to include a raytracing benchmark mode on Time Spy, the company has contacted us and other members of the press to clarify their message and intentions. As it stands, the company will not be updating their Time Spy testing suite with Raytracing technologies. Part of the reason is that this would need an immense rewrite of the benchmark itself, which would be counterproductive - and this leads to the rest of the reason why it's not so: such a significant change would invalidate previous results that didn't have the Raytracing mode activated.

As such, UL has elected to develop a totally new benchmark, built from the ground up to use Microsoft's DirectX Raytracing (DXR). This new benchmark will be added to the 3D Mark app as an update. The new test will produce its own benchmarking scores, very much like Fire Strike and Time Spy did, and will provide users with yet another ladder to climb on their way to the top of the benchmarking scene. Other details are scarce - which makes sense. But the test should still be available on or around the time of NVIDIA's 20-series launch, come September 20th.

(Update: UL has come forward to clarify the way they're integrating Raytracing into their benchmarking suite. You can read the follow-up article here.)

UL (who acquired and is in the process of changing 3D Mark's image to that of its own) has revealed that the new, raytracing-supporting version of their Time Spy high performance and high quality benchmark will be arriving by the end of September.

The new version of the benchmark will be released around the launch of Microsoft's next version of its Windows 10 Operating System, codenamed Redstone 5, and thus will fall in some time after NVIDIA's RTX 20-series launch on September 20th. Here's hoping it will be available in time for comparative reviews on NVIDIA's new family of products, and that some light can be shed on the new series' framerates delivery, and not just their GigaRays/sec capabilities.