Apple today announced a major update to its 27-inch iMac. By far the most powerful and capable iMac ever, it features faster Intel processors up to 10 cores, double the memory capacity, next-generation AMD graphics, superfast SSDs across the line with four times the storage capacity, a new nano-texture glass option for an even more stunning Retina 5K display, a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, higher fidelity speakers, and studio-quality mics. For the consumer using their iMac all day, every day, to the aspiring creative looking for inspiration, to the serious pro pushing the limits of their creativity, the new 27-inch iMac delivers the ultimate desktop experience that is now better in every way.

"Now more than ever, our customers are relying on the Mac. And many of them need the most powerful and capable iMac we've ever made," said Tom Boger, Apple's senior director of Mac and iPad Product Marketing. "With blazing performance, double the memory, SSDs across the line with quadruple the storage, an even more stunning Retina 5K display, a better camera, higher fidelity speakers, and studio-quality mics, the 27-inch iMac is loaded with new features at the same price. It's the ultimate desktop, to work, create, and communicate."

LG Electronics (LG) today introduced a new 27-inch UltraFineTM 5K Display (model 27MD5KL) which, along with the company's 24-inch UltraFine 4K Display (model 24MD4KL), gives consumers two high-quality monitors that are designed specifically for the latest Apple products.

LG's UltraFine displays deliver amazing image quality when connected to a Mac or iPad Pro. Designed to enhance productivity, the LG UltraFine 5K delivers powerful all-around performance and the latest connectivity options. With Thunderbolt 3 and USB Type-C support, the monitor is an ideal companion for the latest Mac notebooks and desktops, as well as iPad Pro. LG's 5K monitor allows users to configure a versatile Mac workstation with video, audio and data transfer through a single cable. And thanks to 94 watts of power, the UltraFine 5K can also charge any USB-C compliant host such as Mac or iPad.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that it has released version 2.0 of the DisplayPort (DP) audio/video standard. DP 2.0 is the first major update to the DisplayPort standard since March 2016, and provides up to a 3X increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version of DisplayPort (DP 1.4a), as well as new capabilities to address the future performance requirements of traditional displays. These include beyond 8K resolutions, higher refresh rates and high dynamic range (HDR) support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, as well as improved user experience with augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) displays, including support for 4K-and-beyond VR resolutions.

The advantages of DP 2.0 are enjoyed across both the native DP connector as well as the USB Type-C connector, which carries the DP audio/video signal through DisplayPort Alt Mode. DP 2.0 is backward compatible with previous versions of DisplayPort and incorporates all of the key features of DP 1.4a, including support for visually lossless Display Stream Compression (DSC) with Forward Error Correction (FEC), HDR metadata transport, and other advanced features. The increased video bandwidth performance of DP 2.0 carried over the USB-C connector enables simultaneous higher-speed USB data transfer without compromising display performance. DP 2.0 leverages the Thunderbolt 3 physical interface (PHY) layer while maintaining the flexibility of DP protocol in order to boost the data bandwidth and promote convergence across industry-leading IO standards.

Apple today updated its iMac line with up to 8-core Intel 9th-generation processors for the first time and powerful Vega graphics options, delivering dramatic increases in both compute and graphics performance. From consumers to pros alike, users will notice their iMac is faster for everyday tasks all the way up to the most demanding pro workloads. This boost in performance, combined with its gorgeous Retina display, sleek all-in-one design, quiet operation, fast storage and memory, modern connectivity and macOS Mojave, makes iMac the world's best desktop.

"Customers are going to love the huge boost in iMac performance. With up to 8-core processors and powerful Vega graphics, the iMac lineup is stronger than ever," said Tom Boger, Apple's senior director of Mac Product Marketing. "With its stunning Retina display, amazing design, twice the performance, and macOS Mojave that our customers love, iMac is by far the best desktop in the world."

MSI, a world leader in gaming hardware, debuts an industry-leading selection of gaming products at CES 2019, including the brand new GS75 Stealth laptop with the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPU and the PS63 Modern Prestige laptop, designed for business executives and content creators. "MSI is devoted to gaming and our new lineup reaffirms our position as an industry leader endorsed by gamers and eSports teams worldwide," said Charles Chiang, MSI's new global CEO. "We are honored to be recognized by the CES awards panel and will continue to push boundaries to achieve extreme performance, superior design, and maximum reliability." MSI will also be debuting exclusive gaming technologies with next-level interactive functions designed for full immersion. Partnering with Ubisoft, MSI will enrich the gaming experience of Assassin's Creed Odyssey with RGB light dancing synced to the game and haptic feedback underneath the palm to generate vibration upon in-game events such as gunshots.

GS75 Stealth: The Game Just Got Real
Experience extreme performance with realistic in-game lighting on the go with this thin & light 4-sided thin bezel gaming laptop. Equipped with the latest Intel Core i7 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 GPU, a 17.3" 144HZ IPS-level display, and an extra-large, highly responsive and accurate touchpad, the GS75 stuns in an impressive aluminum alloy body. Highlighted by an internal passive radiator that delivers earth-shaking audio with booming bass, the GS75 measures only 0.75 inches thick. The GS series breaks the stereotype of bulky and heavy gaming laptops, offering an exceptional and portable gaming experience. MSI will also be unveiling the revamped version of the award-winning GS65, a 15.6" gaming laptop armed with the latest CPU and GPUs while weighing less than 4.19 lbs.

Intel processor integrated graphics will get its first major hardware update in 4 years since Gen 9.5 "Skylake," with the introduction of the Gen11 architecture that debuts with the company's "Ice lake" processors. The company confirmed in an XDC 2018 conference presentation that the iGPU will support DisplayPort 1.4a along with VESA DSC (display stream compression), enabling it to support display resolutions as high as 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) with 120 Hz refresh-rate.

Without DSC, 5K-120 Hz requires 42.4 Gbps of bandwidth (not counting interconnect and protocol overheads), which even DisplayPort with HBR3 cannot provide, as it caps out at 32.4 Gbps. DSC offers "visually lossless" compression of the 5K-120 display stream down to roughly 14 Gbps, which can be comfortably handled by DisplayPort 1.4a. 8K (8192 x 4320 pixels) at 60 Hz also becomes possible. Merely supporting these new high resolutions doesn't imply Gen11 iGPUs can game at those resolutions. Support for them is necessitated by rapid increases in resolutions (pixel densities) and refresh-rates of high-end notebooks and ultra-portable devices.The complete slide-deck follows.

Here are some of the first pictures of the bare printed circuit board (PCB) of NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX 1180 graphics card (dubbed PG180), referred to by the person who originally posted them as "GTX 2080" (it seems the jury is still out on the nomenclature). The PCB looks hot from the press, with its SMT points and vias still exposed. The GT104 GPU traces hint at a package that's about the size of a GP104 or its precessors. It's wired to eight memory chips on three sides, confirming a 256-bit wide memory bus. Display outputs appear flexible, for either 2x DisplayPort + 2x HDMI, or 3x DisplayPort + 1x HDMI configurations.

The VRM setup is surprisingly powerful for a card that's supposed to succeed the ~180W GeForce GTX 1080, which can make do with a single 8-pin PCIe power input. The card draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. There is a purportedly 10-phase VCore side, which in all likelihood is a 5-phase setup with "dumb" phase-doubling; and similarly, a 2-phase memory power (which could again be doubled single-phase). The SLI-HB fingers also make way. There's a new connector that looks like a single SLI finger and an NVLink finger arranged side-by-side. NVIDIA still hasn't given up on multi-GPU. NVLink is a very broad interconnect, in terms of bandwidth. NVIDIA probably needs that for multi-GPU setups to work with not just high resolutions (4K, 5K, or even 8K), but also higher bit-depth, higher refresh-rates, HDR, and other exotic data. The reverse side doesn't have much action other than traces for the VRM controllers, phase doublers, and an unusually large bank of SMT capacitors (the kind seen on AMD PCBs with MCM GPUs).

Yes, you've definitely read that right. Iiyama have silently come out with what has to be one of the best price/performance ratio monitors in the high pixel density races. The XB2779QQS is a 27" affair with a 60 Hz IPS panel trucking along in delivering its 5K (5120 x 2880) resolution. The contrast ratio is also a good selling point for the monitor, at 440 cd/m² (we've been seeing one too many 250 cd/m² brightness monitors as of late), and the contrast ratio is rated at 1200:1. For this price, however, the panel remains an 8-bit one, which is still more than enough, as years have shown us. The aspect ratio is the usual 16:9 (which means no fidgeting required with games or other content, as you likely would with most content on a 21:9 screen).

When it comes to connectivity, there are 3x HDMI ports (limited at 3840 x 2160 pixels and 60 Hz), 1x DisplayPort 1.3 (able to display the full resolution and refresh rate) of 5120 x 2880 pixels and 60 Hz. The XB2779QQS is listed at roughly €799 in the EU, which likely means our US readers should be able to snag it for as low as $799. Here's hoping.

At CES 2018 in Las Vegas, LG will introduce upgraded models of its popular monitor lineup with Nano IPS technology that take color reproduction capabilities to a new level. In response to customer feedback, LG added support for HDR600 with even higher dynamic range of peak brightness and new connectivity options with full Thunderbolt 3 compatibility.

LG's new 32-inch UHD 4K monitor (model 32UK950) is the first to offer LG's advanced Nano IPS technology. Nano IPS technology involves the application of nanometer-sized particles to the screen's LED to absorb excess light wavelengths. This greatly enhances the intensity and purity of on-screen colors for a more accurate and life-like viewing experience. This LG monitor can display 98 percent of the DCI-P3 color spectrum, comparable to monitors used to master Hollywood blockbusters. Ideal for media prosumers seeking superb color reproduction with its support for HDR 600 LG 32UK950 users will experience high dynamic range of peak brightness of 600 candela (cd/㎡).

Today, Drobo announced two new special editions for the 5N2 and the 5D3 to bring performance and peace of mind to power users. Power users among creative professionals, SMBs and connected homes require increased speeds, data recovery protection, and extended support for their data-intensive workflows. These special editions are best-in-class complements to Drobo's stellar history of delivering award-winning simple, safe, and smart storage solutions.

All Gold Edition Drobos include a premium DroboCare warranty for five years, replacing the standard two-year coverage for uninterrupted protection on Drobo products. Additionally, the Gold Editions include a 128GB mSATA SSD for up to 30% faster access to frequently used files. The Platinum packages also include one instance of a data recovery service within a five year period. This partnership is an industry first and a direct result of our power users' desire to ensure their data will never be compromised. DriveSavers has the highest recovery rate for mechanical, water and fire damage, file corruption, and more on hard drives and all data storage devices. Drobo has an exclusive partnership with DriveSavers for this level of service, potentially saving customers thousands of dollars in recovery fees.

Apple today gave a sneak peek of iMac Pro, an entirely new workstation-class product line designed for pro users with the most demanding workflows. The all-new iMac Pro, with its gorgeous 27-inch Retina 5K display, up to 18-core Xeon processors and up to 22 Teraflops of graphics computation, is the most powerful Mac ever made. Featuring a stunning new space gray enclosure, iMac Pro packs incredible performance for advanced graphics editing, virtual reality content creation and real-time 3D rendering. iMac Pro is scheduled to ship in December starting at $4,999 (US).

In addition to the new iMac Pro, Apple is working on a completely redesigned, next-generation Mac Pro architected for pro customers who need the highest-end, high-throughput system in a modular design, as well as a new high-end pro display. "We're thrilled to give developers and customers a sneak peek at iMac Pro. This will be our fastest and most powerful Mac ever, which brings workstation-class computing to iMac for the first time," said John Ternus, Apple's vice president of Hardware Engineering. "We reengineered the whole system and designed an entirely new thermal architecture to pack extraordinary performance into the elegant, quiet iMac enclosure our customers love - iMac Pro is a huge step forward and there's never been anything like it."

Already an industry leader renowned for integrating cutting-edge technology into its premium, high-resolution monitors, LG Electronics (LG) is pushing the industry to the next level with plans to introduce a HDR-compatible 32-inch UHD 4K monitor at the 2017 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next month.

The availability of HDR content continues to expand, covering a wide range of fields from movie to games. The enhanced picture quality offered by HDR technology is instantly recognizable to even the most casual user and manufacturers are already pushing this promising technology to its fullest potential. With professional-grade picture quality and exceptionally vibrant colors, HDR compatible monitors will appeal to creative professionals, gamers, and anyone else that takes image quality seriously.

High-dynamic range or HDR is all the rage these days as the next big thing in display output, now that hardware has time to catch up with ever-increasing display resolutions such as 4K ultra HD, 5K, and the various ultra-wide formats. Hardware-accelerated HDR is getting a push from both AMD and NVIDIA in this round of GPUs. While games with HDR date back to Half Life 2, hardware-accelerated formats that minimize work for game developers, in which the hardware makes sense of an image and adjusts its output range, is new and requires substantial compute power. It also requires additional interface bandwidth between the GPU and the display, since GPUs sometimes rely on wider color palettes such as 10 bpc (1.07 billion colors) to generate HDR images. AMD Radeon GPUs are facing difficulties in this area.

German tech publication Heise.de discovered that AMD Radeon GPUs render HDR games (games that take advantage of new-generation hardware HDR, such as "Shadow Warrior 2") at a reduced color depth of 8 bits per cell (16.7 million colors), or 32-bit; if your display (eg: 4K HDR-ready TV) is connected over HDMI 2.0 and not DisplayPort 1.2 (and above). The desired 10 bits per cell (1.07 billion colors) palette is available only when your HDR display runs over DisplayPort. This could be a problem, since most HDR-ready displays these days are TVs. Heise.de observes that AMD GPUs reduce output sampling from the desired Full YCrBr 4: 4: 4 color scanning to 4: 2: 2 or 4: 2: 0 (color-sub-sampling / chroma sub-sampling), when the display is connected over HDMI 2.0. The publication also suspects that the limitation is prevalent on all AMD "Polaris" GPUs, including the ones that drive game consoles such as the PS4 Pro.

LG Electronics (LG) is introducing two new displays designed specifically to integrate seamlessly with the newest MacBook and MacBook Pro models. The new UltraFine 27-inch 5K display and its 21.5-inch 4K display from LG are ideal for creating an expanded work space in the home or office and the perfect complement for MacBook and MacBook Pro users who desire expansive, high-quality resolution at all times.

Designed and optimized for the new MacBook Pro with Thunderbolt 3 running macOS 10.12 and later, the stunning 27-inch UltraFine 5K display appeals to a range of creatives, including video and photography professionals. With a breathtaking resolution of 5120 x 2880 and 218 pixels per inch (ppi), the color reproduction capabilities of the UltraFine 5K display allow it to cover 99 percent of the P3 color space. What's more, the monitor's advanced IPS display technology minimizes color shift and color loss from any viewing angle, ensuring that users see the original content as it was meant to be seen.

Here some of the first pictures of an NVIDIA add-in card (AIC) partner branded SLI-HB (high-bandwidth) bridge. This kind of bridge is recommended for use with GeForce "Pascal" graphics cards, at high resolutions, such as 4K @ 60 Hz with HDR, 4K @ 120 Hz, 5K, and above. Pictured here is a 2-way SLI HB bridge with 2U spacing (1-slot gap between the two cards). The bridge appears to have a red LED of its own, lighting up the MSI Gaming dragon logo. At this point it's not clear whether the bridge comes included with the cards, or if it needs to be purchased separately. The cards being bridged in these pictures are the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming Z, a notch above the GTX 1080 Gaming X the company debuted its custom GTX 1080 lineup with.

AMD is readying a slew of feature-set additions to its Radeon GPUs, in 2016, targeted at display technology. To begin with, AMD is redesigning FreeSync, its adaptive-sync technology, to work over HDMI. The tech currently requires DisplayPort 1.2a. For this to work, the display should support FreeSync over HDMI on its end, as well. It's not as if every current HDMI display gets adaptive sync. AMD posted a partial list of upcoming displays that support FreeSync over HDMI. With this, AMD is pushing for a new generation of notebooks and convertibles that feature FreeSync displays.

Next up, AMD is implementing high dynamic range (HDR) display support on next-generation Radeon GPUs. Current Radeon GPUs already support 10-bit (30-bit color or 1.07 billion colors, compared to 16.7 million colors on 32-bit); on desktop, Direct3D, and OpenGL apps. HDR will make images look more life-like. AMD claims that 1080p HDR content will look better than 4K SDR (standard dynamic range) content. AMD will also work with game developers to get HDR content on upcoming games.

Intel's tick-tock product development cycle is disturbed. The cadence of launching a new CPU microarchitecture on a given silicon fab process, miniaturizing it to a smaller fab process, and then launching an even newer micro-architecture on that process; is about to change with the company's 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processor. When launched, it would be the third microarchitecture built on the company's 14 nm process, besides "Skylake" (current new architecture) and "Broadwell" (miniaturization of "Haswell" to 14 nm.) Some of the very first documents related to Kaby Lake began to move about, making news along the way. The architecture is scheduled to launch along with its companion 200-series chipset some time in 2016.

To begin with, Core "Kaby Lake" will continue to be built on the LGA1151 package, and will likely be backwards compatible with existing 100-series chipset motherboards with a firmware update. From what we get to understand from leaked material, it will not be a vastly newer architecture than Skylake, at least not of the kind Skylake was to Broadwell. There are still CPU performance enhancements on offer, an "enhanced full-range BClk overclocking," which could mean improved overclocking on chips with upwards-locked multipliers (although we won't get our hopes too high and call it a return of the BClk overclocking era). A bulk of the R&D will fall into improving the integrated graphics, to support multiple 5K displays, 10-bit HVEC and VP9 hardware-acceleration; platform-integrated Thunderbolt 3, and platform interface support for Intel Optane (3D XPoint memory).

AMD is planning a major driver update for its Radeon GPUs this November, under its Catalyst Omega moniker. These WHQL-signed drivers, which made their debut in 2014, are expected to come with massive performance optimizations across the board, and in a large selection of new and existing games. It will also present AMD with the opportunity to introduce new software features to their drivers, bringing about value-addition to existing machines running Radeon GPUs.

The 2014 release of Catalyst Omega, besides offering significant performance updates, also introduced major new features such as 4K Virtual Super Resolution (VSR), TressFX 3.0, 5K display support, and various image quality improvements. The new drivers are expected to have an equally exhaustive list of new features, performance- and stability updates, that level the features and performance playing field between AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce GPUs. Below is the feature-set of the 2014 release.

In this episode of TechPowerUp News, NVIDIA's driver update distribution change, and how it could affect you; Apple's new 5K 27-inch and 4K 21-inch iMacs; and dat a...I mean ASUS ROG G752 gaming notebook.

Other World Computing (OWC), a leading zero emissions Mac and PC technology company, announced today that it has expanded its MaxRAM memory upgrade options for the newest Apple iMac 27" with Retina 5K display (Late 2015 iMac) to the maximum capacity of 64GB, twice the capacity of the factory-available options of up to 32GB.

After being the first vendor to provide aftermarket memory options for the new 27" iMac, OWC now offers the OWC MaxRAM Certified Upgrade kit of 64GB. This option provides buyers of the new iMac with greater choice, performance, savings and flexibility in their memory configuration choices.

Apple is readying a new generation of iMac desktops, which it plans to launch in Q3-2015, likely at its September press event. The new Macs are expected to come with faster processors (likely Intel "Skylake,") faster DDR4 memory, and an increase in display resolutions across the board, including a 21.5-inch model with 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution, besides its 27-inch 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) model. The display panels in these macs will feature a new LED phosphor material called KSF (K2SiF6:Mn), which improves color saturation. The displays will offer 30-bit (10 bpc) color depth, with the ability to produce 1.07 billion colors.

ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solution products, unveils its newest visual display technology solutions at CES 2015 in Las Vegas, at the Encore Hotel, January 6-9, 2015. The company's line-up of new products to be showcased at CES will include Ultra HD 4K monitors, newly redesigned and price-competitive digital projectors, comprehensive VDI endpoint solutions and commercial-grade digital signage. With the company's strong display product heritage, ViewSonic continues to lead the visual display industry with innovations such as touchscreen, interactivity, curved, and 5K displays as well as wireless connectivity, cloud and virtual-based technologies that meet today's demanding environments.

"At the 2015 Consumer Electronics Show, we'll introduce new commercial-grade solutions that demonstrate our strength and leadership in the professional and consumer display market," said Al Giazzon, vice president of marketing at ViewSonic Americas. "With new products like our new brighter and smarter LightStream projectors and feature-rich 4K monitors, our product lines continue to deliver the highest level of commercial-grade quality to meet the challenges of any computing environment."

HP today expanded its portfolio of computer monitors with an interactive virtual reality display, 4K and 5K ultra high-definition displays and curved displays for consumers and professionals. Designed to immerse users into a variety of digital experiences, the new products include:

• HP Zvr Virtual Reality Display: Rotate, manipulate and navigate 3D images from the 23.6-inch diagonal interactive display. The HP Zvr will change how users think, work, and create with virtual-holographic 3D images.
• HP Z27s and HP Z24s 4K Displays and the HP Z27q 5K Display: Ultra high-definition (UHD) solutions aimed to increase productivity by expanding the visual workspace and connecting to more devices.
• HP Z34c, HP ENVY 34c, HP EliteDisplay S270c and HP Pavilion 27c Curved Displays: An immersive personal experience that will enhance visual perception and audio experiences.

Dell plans to launch the first consumer 5K monitor some time in December 2014, priced at just under $2,000 a pop. This comes in the wake of Apple launching the first consumer product with a 5K display, its latest iMac Retina all-in-one desktop. Dell's UltraSharp UP2715K is a 27-inch display with 5K (5120 x 2880 pixels) native resolution, which lends it a staggering 218 ppi of pixel density. Compare that to the 157 ppi of 28-inch Ultra HD monitors. 5K is four times as many pixels as WQHD.

The UltraSharp UP2715K features a 10-bit IPS panel, with 99 percent Adobe RGB and 100 percent sRGB palette coverage, and a 12-bit LUT. It offers viewing angles of 178°/178°, 8 ms response time, 350 cd/m² maximum brightness, and 1000:1 static contrast-ratio, with dynamic mega-contrast. The display needs two DisplayPort connections for sufficient bandwidth, to beam those many pixels at 60 Hz. There's also a mini-DisplayPort, but using that would either cap resolution at 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz, or drop refresh-rate at the native resolution.

Riding on the success of its GM204 silicon, it looks like NVIDIA won't wait for the 20 nm silicon fab process to build its next big GPU, which powers its enthusiast-segment graphics cards. The GM200 silicon will be built on the existing 28 nm silicon fab process. Among other SKUs, NVIDIA's next GeForce GTX TITAN product, the GTX TITAN II, could be based on this chip. A curious-looking data entry was submitted from an anonymous source to SiSoft's hardware database, which gives away some rather glaring details of the GM200.

To begin with, the GM200 will be built on the existing 28 nm node, and will feature a die-area of 551 mm². The chip will be based on the "Maxwell" architecture, and feature 3,072 CUDA cores, cushioned by a 3 MB L3 cache. The chip will likely feature a 384-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, with lossless texture compression algorithms, which work to step up memory bandwidth. The standard memory amount is a staggering 12 GB, double that of the first-generation GTX TITAN. Given how AMD recently gave 8 GB variants of its Radeon R9 290X a coordinated launch, GPU vendors could be seeing a utility in giving their products such massive amounts of video memory, to cope with resolutions such as 4K Ultra HD, and perhaps even 5K 16xHD. The chip features reasonably high clock speeds, with the core running at 1100 MHz, and a staggering 1390 MHz GPU Boost. The memory, however, is clocked at 6.00 GHz.