AMD's Ryzen 9000HX lineup of "Fire Range" Zen 5 mobile processors is due for release within a vague March to April window, with the upcoming 3D V-Cache-equipped Ryzen 9 9955HX3D SKU touted to become a top choice for manufacturers of ultra high-end gaming laptops. The latest version of CPU-Z is ready (in advance) with support for Team Red's incoming product line; CPUID's patch notes (published on February 8) have revealed previously unannounced models. AMD's official introduction of Ryzen 9000HX series CPUs included an opening salvo of Ryzen 9 9955HX3D (16-core), 9955HX (16-core) and 9850HX (12-core) models.

According to CPU-Z version 2.14, three additional "Fire Range" SKUs are seemingly on the way. Starting off with the Ryzen 9 9950HX3D—a (presumably) slightly less potent 3D V-Cache-sporting model—its nomenclature suggests that it will sit just below the series flagship. The 9950HX model is expected to slot just under the already announced 9955HX chip. The newly revealed 9845HX SKU could become the lowest 12-core offering within AMD's "Fire Range" product stack.

Sapphire Technologies has started teasing new PURE series graphics cards; earlier today a social media post stated that new offerings are: "coming your way." An accompanying image presents two semi-obscured signature white models—press outlets believe that the pair are custom Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 (non-XT) models. Sapphire did not exhibit at CES 2025, but a lonely triple-fan Radeon RX 9070 XT PURE card did make the overseas journey to Las Vegas. At the time, AMD presented a small smattering of RDNA 4 board partner samples at a roundup showcase.

Sapphire started to market its new darker dual-fan PULSE design last month, but a series of leaks have ruined the company's (social media-driven) build-up of product anticipation. We have not witnessed any Sapphire Radeon RX 9070 XT or 9070 (non-XT) PURE stock reaching retail storage locations, but lower-end PULSE models have been distributed—reportedly, at least East of the Mediterranean. Sapphire's CES demonstration sample sported an almost all-white enclosure, a triple-fan cooling solution and dual 8-pin power connectors. The PURE Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 (non-XT) models could feature limited RGB lighting—an "ARGB out" connector was present on the back section of Sapphire's presentation card.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D "Zen 5" processors are due for launch at some point next month, but Team Red's recent-ish introductory presentation did not include any details regarding prices. Given patterns demonstrated by previous generations of Team Red's popular 3D V-Cache-equipped CPUs, we can safely assume that the incoming duo will demand a premium over the already released Ryzen 7 9800X3D SKU (MSRP: $479). Late last week, momomo_us happened upon speculated price points during a sleuthing session involving a comparison shopping website.

The PCPartPicker's price aggregation engine pulled data from two Newegg listings—now scrubbed from existence—that outlined a cost of $699.99 (plus a $12.41 shipping fee) for the 16-core Ryzen 9 9950X3D model, and $599.99 (plus shipping) for the 12-core Ryzen 9 9900X3D. Fortunately, VideoCardz preserved this information over the weekend. PCPartPicker has removed the aforementioned figures from its price history chart system, and Newegg has delisted the offending pages. The leaked price points align closely with MSRPs set for previous-gen (Zen 4) Ryzen 9 7000-series CPUs: $699 for the 7950X3D, and $599 for 7900X3D. The de-listed prices could be based on placeholder information—the Ryzen 7 9800X3D launched last November with a generational premium of $30 (Ryzen 7 7800X3D's original MSRP was $449). AMD has alluded to gaming performance being on a roughly even plane, so the incoming Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D models are not expected to surpass the Ryzen 7 9800X3D as "THE best gaming processor."

The list of potent mini PCs continues to expand, with the Minix NGC-NR6600 being one of the latest additions. The mid-range mini PC should be sufficiently potent for the majority of non-intensive workloads, and should be able to fly through daily workloads without breaking a sweat. The system is already available for purchase on Amazon, starting at $399 for the entry-level variant with 16 GB of memory and a 512 GB SSD. Specs-wise, the Minix mini PC appears to be a well-equipped system that should suffice for most moderately intensive workloads, as long as it is forgiving on the GPU side.

At its core, the Minix mini PC in question is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 6600H APU with 6 Zen 3+ cores and 12 threads, which can be paired with up to 64 GB of DDR5-4800 memory, courtesy of dual SO-DIMM slots. The diminutive 5 x 5.12 x 1.97 inch chassis, unsurprisingly, lacks the physical space for the comfort of discrete graphics, and has to settle for the decently capable Radeon 660M with 6 CUs, although it is by no means sufficient for modern AAA gaming. Some lightweight gaming is not our of the question, though. A 512 GB SSD takes care of storage requirements, while a supplementary M.2 slot allows for expansion down the road, up to a whopping 8 TB. The system packs HDMI 2.1 (TMDS, so basically HDMI 2.0), DisplayPort 1.4, USB4, as well as dual 2.5G LAN ports.

At some point this week, HP's North American online store was updated with new high-end EliteBooks that feature AMD Strix Point APUs. Three models appear to support up to 128 GB of LPDDR5X-8533 memory—these curious entries were highlighted by tech enthusiast Hoang Anh Phu (AnhPhuH). The advertised maximum 8533 MT/s transfer rate exceeds Team Red's official reference figure (7500 MT/s) for the EliteBook X G1a's Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 APU. Looking further up in the Team Red "Strix Point" product stack, we spotted their Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 375 spec sheet boasting a maximum LPDDR5x transfer speed of 8000 MT/s. Press outlets have expressed doubt when analyzing three of HP's EliteBook X G1a SKUs. Theories point to product pages containing possible placeholder information, or inaccuracies.

Working with the belief that the specs are legit, AnhPhuH commented: "this is the first laptop featured with 128 GB LPDDR5x-8533 128-bit memory. That would mean it's using four 256 Gb x32 modules(?!). As far as I know, all three major DRAM manufacturers currently only have 128 Gb x32 modules...the EliteBook X G1a uses Strix Point, not Strix Halo, so it only pairs with four x32 modules (two 64-bit channels)." HP's web shop states that the EliteBook X G1a models are due to launch on March 14. We hope that further clarification and concrete specifications appear online closer to release time. Initial pricing starts at $2749 for the lowliest of the three "128 GB LPDDR5X-8533" equipped models. The agonizingly named flagship "HP EliteBook X G1a 14 inch Notebook Next Gen AI PC Wolf Pro Security Edition" offering comes in at an eye-watering $4299.

Intel's data center business has experienced a lot of decline in recent years. Once the go-to choice for data center buildout, nowadays, Xeon processors have reached a 13-year low. According to SemiAnalysis analyst Sravan Kundojjala on X, the once mighty has fallen to a 13-year low number, less than 50% of its CPU sales in the peak observed in 2021. In a chart that is indexed to 2011 CPU volume, the analysis gathered from server volume and 10K fillings shows the decline that Intel has experienced in recent years. Following the 2021 peak, the volume of shipped CPUs has remained in free fall, reaching less than 50% of its once-dominant position. The main cause for this volume contraction is attributed to Intel's competitors gaining massive traction. AMD, with its EPYC CPUs, has been Intel's primary competitor, pushing the boundaries on CPU core count per socket and performance per watt, all at an attractive price point.

During a recent earnings call, Intel's interim c-CEO leadership admitted that Intel is still behind the competition with regard to performance, even with Granite Rapids and Clearwater Forest, which promised to be their advantage in the data center. "So I think it would not be unfathomable that I would put a data center product outside if that meant that I hit the right product, the right market window as well as the right performance for my customers," said Intel co-CEO Michelle Johnston Holthaus, adding that "Intel Foundry will need to earn my business every day, just as I need to earn the business of my customers." This confirms that the company is now dedicated to restoring its product leadership, even if its internal foundry is not doing okay. It will take some time before Intel CPU volume shipments recover, and with AMD executing well in data center, it is becoming a highly intense battle.

FFmpeg, the popular open-source multimedia library for compressed video and audio formats, just introduced a component to libavcodec that integrates AMD Accelerated Media Framework (AMF) SDK. This component is called AMFDEC, and it allows libavcodec to utilize hardware-accelerated decoding features on AMD Radeon RX GPUs and the integrated graphics of AMD Ryzen processors. On machines with compatible hardware, AMFDEC provides libavcodec with hardware acceleration for decoding of H.264, H.265 or HEVC, and AV1. FFmpeg also introduced filters that implement AMD FSR Video Super Resolution. This lets applications that use FFmpeg to take advantage of VSR features on Radeon RX GPUs to provide superior upscaling quality. The filter is labelled "ar_amf." The commit can be accessed here.

FSP, a well-known brand in the power supply and chassis has launched a new series of CPU air coolers. The lineup includes the high-efficiency MP7, powerful NP5, and NE5 models. Optimized for the latest Intel and AMD CPUs, these coolers are compatible with Intel LGA1851 and AMD AM5 sockets. Featuring high-quality designs, they offer superior cooling performance and versatile options to meet various user needs, perfectly blending extreme performance with silent operation for a cooling solution that exceeds expectations.

The MP7, NP5, and NE5 cooler series utilize antigravity heat pipe technology to enhance performance when the motherboard is mounted vertically inside the case, maximizing cooling efficiency. Additionally, the MP7 features a copper base with heat pipe welding, increasing the contact area with the CPU, significantly improving heat dissipation.

Earlier this week, it was reported that AMD is preparing at least online media event to announce and detail its upcoming Radeon RX 9070 series next-generation graphics cards powered by the RDNA 4 graphics architecture. It turns out that both the Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 will be available on March 6, 2025, according to a report by Uniko's Hardware. Reviews of the two cards should go live some time between the late-February media event and this launch date. AMD launching the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 on the same date isn't the only thing the two SKUs share. Both SKUs max out the 4 nm "Navi 48" silicon they're based on, and are differentiated by clock speeds. The two are expected to square off against NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 series.

Priced at the equivalent of $116, the China-exclusive Ryzen 5 7400F is a 6-core/12-thread processor powered by the older "Zen 4" microarchitecture, but which is based on the "Raphael" MCM, giving it a comprehensive PCIe Gen 5 I/O (as opposed to designing such a chip based on the "Phoenix Point" monolithic silicon with its PCIe Gen 4 I/O). The chip benefits from the full 32 MB on-die L3 cache being enabled on the "Zen 4" CCD, besides the full 1 MB per core L2 cache, and that I/O, but misses out on the iGPU. At its price, the 7400F is attracting a segment of value-conscious gamers.

To bring this chip at its price point, AMD had to cut costs somewhere, and Chinese PC enthusiast "Melon Master" soon found out where. On de-lidding (removing IHS) of the Ryzen 5 7400F, it was found that the chip does not use a soldered TIM like the other Ryzen 7000 series "Raphael" processors, instead using more cost-effective thermal paste, as is common in entry-level chips from both AMD and Intel. Harukaze5719 comments that this could be the reason the chip has a fairly noticeable Cinebench R23 performance delta against the Ryzen 5 7500F that's globally available, and has STIM, but is priced at $145. The 7400F and 7500F share the same base frequency of 3.70 GHz, but while the former boosts up to 4.70 GHz, the latter goes all the way up to 5.00 GHz.

German PC hardware retailer MindFactory sold an astonishing 25,625 AMD and Intel CPUs in January 2025. However, an honor falls to AMD this time, as Team Red has managed to capture as much as 92.16% (23,615) of all units sold by this retailer. Not only did it leave Intel with 7.84% (2010) of total units sold, AMD also beat Intel in average selling price, where AMD managed to keep ASP at 320 Euros, while Intel buyers were considering some less expensive CPU SKUs at 290 Euros. This has resulted in AMD's revenue share recording 93.45% at 8,300,674 Euros, while Intel left a smaller mark at 6.55% or 581,959 Euros. The best-selling CPU was AMD's Ryzen 7 9800X3D, sold in 8,390 units in January.

A detailed analysis of socket distribution reveals AMD's AM5 platform's overwhelming dominance, securing 18,410 units or 71.84% of total sales. The mature AM4 platform maintains a significant market presence with 5,205 units (20.31%), showing strong continued demand for AMD's previous-generation socket. Intel's LGA 1700, compatible with 12/13/14th generation processors, accounted for 1,745 units (6.81%), while their older platforms showed minimal market penetration. The LGA 1851 socket, supporting Intel's latest Core Ultra 200S processors, managed just 185 units (0.72%), with legacy LGA 1200 and LGA 1151 sockets trailing at 55 (0.21%) and 25 (0.1%) units respectively. AMD's latest platform market performance suggests strong consumer confidence in AM5's upgrade path and performance capabilities. This dramatic market share capture by AMD represents one of the most significant shifts in the desktop CPU market in recent years, particularly notable given the higher average selling prices at which AMD CPUs are now sold.

AMD today announced financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2024. Fourth quarter revenue was a record $7.7 billion, gross margin was 51%, operating income was $871 million, net income was $482 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.29. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was 54%, operating income was a record $2.0 billion, net income was a record $1.8 billion and diluted earnings per share was $1.09.

For the full year 2024, AMD reported record revenue of $25.8 billion, gross margin of 49%, operating income of $1.9 billion, net income of $1.6 billion, and diluted earnings per share of $1.00. On a non-GAAP basis, gross margin was a record 53%, operating income was $6.1 billion, net income was $5.4 billion and diluted earnings per share was $3.31.

AMD is planning a media event to formally launch the Radeon RX 9070 series next-generation graphics cards some time in late-February 2024, VideoCardz reports. The company could simultaneously announce the flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT, its second-best RX 9070, and new stuff on the software side, such as FSR 4, although availability dates of each could vary. Availability of at least the top RX 9070 XT could be expected in March, the report says. Both the RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are being prepared by AMD as performance-segment products, where they probably go up against SKUs from NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5070 series. Given the rather minor performance uplift the RTX 5080 yielded over its previous generation predecessor, the performance segment is in for some competition.

The Radeon RX 9070 XT and RX 9070 are both based on the 4 nm "Navi 48" silicon, which reportedly features 64 compute units for 4,096 stream processors, and a new generation AI accelerator that's both faster and more capable than the one introduced with RDNA 3. There is expected to be a significant uplift in the ray tracing performance, too, reducing the performance cost of enabling ray tracing in games. FSR 4 is expected to leverage the AI acceleration capabilities of RDNA 4 for its super resolution algorithm. Both SKUs are expected to have all 64 CU enabled, but differ in clock speeds. Both are expected to feature 16 GB of older GDDR6 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. As for the media event, we gathered from our post-CES roundtable with AMD that the event will at least be an online presentation.

One of AMD's key announcements at its 2025 International CES keynote was the Ryzen 9000HX line of processors, codenamed "Fire Range." A successor to the 7000HX "Dragon Range," this is essentially a BGA package of the "Granite Ridge" MCM, which combines one or two "Zen 5" CCDs with a client I/O die. The processor lacks an NPU and has a basic iGPU, but is meant for enthusiast segment gaming notebooks and portable workstations, as it's meant to be paired with discrete GPUs, taking advantage of the package's lavish 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes. The Ryzen 9 9955HX3D stands out in the series as the only model with 3D V-Cache, making it possibly the fastest mobile processor for gaming notebooks—faster than even the "Arrow Lake-HX," given how the desktop 9800X3D compares to the Core Ultra 9 285K at gaming.

Notebook OEM Dream Machines put out a press release which specifies that the first notebooks powered by the 9955HX3D will ship either toward the end of March, or early-April 2025. "Fire Range" is known to have scored design wins from several popular notebook OEMs, which means the chips could have a good run at the markets this generation. Notebooks powered by the 9955HX3D and discrete GPU options that include the GeForce RTX 5090 Laptop GPU and the RTX 5070 Ti Laptop GPU, are expected to be priced around €2,530 and €3,860, respectively.

Google Security Research team has just published its latest research on a fundamental flaw in the microcode patch verification system that affects AMD processors from "Zen 1" through "Zen 4" generations. The vulnerability stems from an inadequate hash function implementation in the CPU's signature validation process for microcode updates, enabling attackers with local administrator privileges (ring 0 from outside a VM) to inject malicious microcode patches, potentially compromising AMD SEV-SNP-protected confidential computing workloads and Dynamic Root of Trust Measurement systems. Google disclosed this high-severity issue to AMD on September 25, 2024, leading to AMD's release of an embargoed fix to customers on December 17, 2024, with public disclosure following on February 3, 2025; however, due to the complexity of supply chain dependencies and remediation requirements, comprehensive technical details are being withheld until March 5, 2025, allowing organizations time to implement necessary security measures and re-establish trust in their confidential compute environments.

AMD has released comprehensive mitigation measures through AGESA firmware updates across its entire EPYC server processor lineup, from the first-generation Naples to the latest Genoa-X and Bergamo architectures. The security patch, designated as CVE-2024-56161 with a high severity rating of 7.2, introduces critical microcode updates: Naples B2 processors require uCode version 0x08001278, Rome B0 systems need 0x0830107D, while Milan and Milan-X variants mandate versions 0x0A0011DB and 0x0A001244 respectively. For the latest Genoa-based systems, including Genoa-X and Bergamo/Siena variants, the required microcode versions are 0x0A101154, 0x0A10124F, and 0x0AA00219. These updates implement robust protections across all SEV security features - including SEV, SEV-ES, and SEV-SNP - while introducing new restrictions on microcode hot-loading capabilities to prevent future exploitation attempts.

Report with market evolution powered by AI—The global artificial intelligence (AI) chips market size is estimated to grow by USD 902.6 billion from 2025-2029, according to Technavio. The market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of over 81.2% during the forecast period. Increased focus on developing AI chips for smartphones is driving market growth, with a trend towards convergence of AI and IoT. However, dearth of technically skilled workers for ai chips development poses a challenge. Key market players include Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Baidu Inc., Broadcom Inc., Cerebras, Fujitsu Ltd., Google LLC, Graphcore Ltd., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd., Intel Corp., International Business Machines Corp., MediaTek Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., NVIDIA Corp., NXP Semiconductors NV, Qualcomm Inc., SambaNova Systems Inc., Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., SenseTime Group Inc., Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Ltd., and Tesla Inc.

AMD on Monday released Unreal Engine plugins for FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) 3.1.3 and AMD Anti-Lag 2 through its GPUOpen initiative. Both plugins support the latest Unreal Engine 5.5, and can be picked up by game developers to integrate with their ongoing projects or be released as updates to their released games. FSR 3.1.3 succeeds the FSR 3.1.1 major release that had introduced Anti-Lag 2 support among a dozen other updates. The latest FSR version adds Unreal Engine 5.5 support, besides a minor update to the way FSR handles UseDistortionTexture commands. Meanwhile, the Anti-Lag 2 plugin for Unreal Engine 5.5 is being released as part of the latest v2.0.2 release of the technology. There are no other changes. AMD FSR 3.1.3 plugin for Unreal Engine 5.5 can be accessed here, and the Anti-Lag 2 plugin for UE 5.5 here.

AMD is set to share its fourth-quarter results on Tuesday, Feb. 4 facing opportunities and problems in the fast-changing AI chip market as investors are expected to look closely at AMD's AI strategy. Reuters reports that experts think AMD's revenue will increase by over 22% to $7.53 billion. They expect its data center part to make up more than half of total sales at $4.15 billion. Yet, investors still worry about how AMD stands in the AI race. TD Cowen experts and Omdia believe AMD could sell $10 billion worth of AI chips this year, this is twice what AMD itself thinks it will sell, which is $5 billion. However, the scene is getting more complex with Big Tech firms like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta making their own special chips for AI work. This move to custom chips, along with NVIDIA's strong market position and its popular CUDA software, makes things tough for AMD. The high costs of switching chipmakers also make it hard for AMD to grow its share of the market, however, the ongoing increase in AI spending by tech giants could help balance out these problems. Investors see "customer silicon and NVIDIA as the AI chip market going forward," said Ryuta Makino, analyst at AMD investor Gabelli Funds.

Supply chain issues make AMD's position more difficult as TSMC is boosting its advanced packaging ability to fix bottlenecks, while NVIDIA's production increase of its new "Blackwell" AI chips might restrict AMD's access to manufacturing resources. Yet, AMD's business has some good news, its personal computer unit should grow by almost 33% to $1.94 billion catching up to Intel.

AMD's upcoming Instinct MI400 accelerator series, scheduled for 2026 introduction, is set to incorporate a new Multimedia IO Die (MID) architecture alongside significant compute density improvements. According to recent patches discovered in AMD-GFX mailing lists, the accelerator will feature a dual Active Interposer Die (AID) design, with each AID housing four Accelerated Compute Dies (XCDs)—doubling the XCD count per AID compared to the current MI300 series. Introducing dedicated Multimedia IO Dies is a new entry in AMD's accelerator design philosophy. Documentation reveals support for up to two MIDs, with each likely paired to an AID, suggesting a more specialized approach to multimedia processing and interface management.

Specifications from the Register Remapping Table (RRMT) implementation indicate sophisticated die-to-die communication pathways, with support for local and remote transactions across XCDs, AIDs, and the new MIDs. The system enables granular control over eight potential XCD configurations (XCD0 through XCD7), suggesting that AMD can scale compute up and down with SKUs. While AMD has yet to release detailed specifications for the MI400 series, separating multimedia functions into dedicated dies could optimize performance and power efficiency. As the 2026 launch window approaches, AMD will spend the remaining time refining the software stack and ROCm support for its next-generation accelerator based on UDNA architecture. Since designing an accelerator is a year-long effort from the physical implementation standpoint, we expect the Instinct MI400 design to be finalized by now. All left is silicon bring-up, software optimization, and mass production, likely at TSMC's facilities.

There is hardly a scarcity of mini PCs available on the market. These pocket-friendly computers have an ever-expanding fan base, and now it appears that brands are pulling all sorts of tricks to make their offerings stand out from the rest. Chaatrey is a well-known player in the mini PC segment, and has announced the AMD-powered AN3P mini PC. The product does have quite an interesting feature, which we will get to later.

At its core, the AN3P mini PC is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 7735HS APU with eight Zen 3+ cores and sixteen threads. Despite having already blown out two birthday candles, the Ryzen 7 7735HS continues to be quite a performant chip in 2025, trading blows with the Intel Core 5 120U in synthetic benchmarks. In terms of memory and storage, the AN3P can be equipped with up to 32 GB of memory, and up to 1 TB of solid-state storage. Both the memory and storage are user-accessible and can be upgraded down the road, which surely is a must-have for many people.

A new Steam Deck mod is here, and the performance improvements that it brings to the table appear to be quite promising, thanks to the magic of frame generation. The gaming handheld is not exactly the most performant in terms of raw GPU performance, so technologies such as AMD's FSR 3 undoubtedly improve the gaming experience on the Deck by quite a substantial degree. Dubbed Decky Framegen, the plugin utilizes AMD FSR 3 to generate frames without having to go about rendering them, thereby increasing FPS quite a lot.

As of right now, this plugin allows gamers to employ frame generation in unsupported games such as Final Fantasy XVI, Witcher 3, Hogwarts Legacy, and a few others. Deck Wizard's detailed video reveals that the plugin does quite a good job, allowing for playable framerates in several titles. However, the games which are unable to manage 30 FPS are unlikely to benefit much, owing to the issues surrounding input lag. Moreover, a few graphical glitches here and there are also to be expected, which is something that many purists might not entirely be willing to deal with. Considering that Valve recently shot rumors of an AMD Ryzen Z2-powered Steam Deck 2 being in the works, there is no denying that those holding out for hardware improvements, still have a fair amount of waiting to do.

As the 2025 International CES was drawing to a close, we hung around a little longer in Las Vegas to catch some important one-on-one interviews with industry leaders. We were invited by AMD to interview David McAfee Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the Client Channel Business. His position in the company gives him a hawk's eye view on everything that matters to you—from Ryzen desktop CPUs to Ryzen AI processors, the disruptive new Ryzen AI MAX chips, and the all important Radeon RX 9000 series powered by RDNA 4. AMD's CES 2025 announcements event had some notable misses, such as the lack of updates on the Radeon RX 9000 series, or even the Ryzen Z2 line of processors for gaming handhelds. We began by asking McAfee how this year's CES event was distinct from previous ones, often led by CEO Lisa Su and covering a wide range of product families.The interview follows.

Mid-week, a member of Valve's Linux graphics driver team updated the Mesa 25.0 documentation with an insightful note—in which, Samuel Pitoiset (lead developer of the RADV open-source driver) shared an early observation regarding AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 generation. The software engineer and his colleagues are busy getting everything finalized prior to an impending Mesa 25.0 feature freeze. Wednesday's patch notes reveal the outlook for "GFX12 on RADV"—Pitoiset seemed satisfied about "initial support expectations—he reckoned that it: "should be good enough, but it's missing two features (cooperative matrix and video decode/encode), compared to GFX11 (RDNA 3) because lack of time. DCC is still under active development, but it might be possible to finish it during the RC period."

According to Phoronix's expert opinion, the two missing features are not complete "show-stoppers" for potential buyers of first wave RDNA 4 GPUs. The site's editor-in-chief—Michael Larabel—posits that the "vast majority of those wanting to buy the Radeon RX 9070 graphics cards (when they launch in March)" will not be discouraged by the inceptive absence of RADV Vulkan Video and VK_KHR_cooperative_matrix. He added some post-publication clarification regarding the RADV patch notes: "this is only about Vulkan Video, not VA-API video acceleration... It seems some readers are taking this to mean VA-API support for the new VCN block isn't ready for RDNA 4. It's just the RADV Vulkan Video support that isn't complete." Mesa 25.0 is expected to reach a stable release stage by the end of February—just ahead of Team Red's next-gen desktop GPU launch. Late last week, an AMD official divulged that their team would be: "taking a little extra time to optimize the software stack for maximum performance" on Radeon RX 9070 XT and Radeon RX 9070 (non-XT) graphics cards.

Intel Corporation today reported fourth-quarter and full-year 2024 financial results. "The fourth quarter was a positive step forward as we delivered revenue, gross margin and EPS above our guidance," said Michelle Johnston Holthaus, interim co-CEO of Intel and CEO of Intel Products. "Our renewed focus on strengthening and simplifying our product portfolio, combined with continued progress on our process roadmap, is positioning us to better serve the needs of our customers. Dave and I are taking actions to enhance our competitive position and create shareholder value."

"The cost reduction plan we announced last year to improve the trajectory of the company is having an impact," said David Zinsner, interim co-CEO and chief financial officer of Intel. "We are fostering a culture of efficiency across the business while driving toward greater returns on our invested capital and improved profitability. Our Q1 outlook reflects seasonal weakness magnified by macro uncertainties, further inventory digestion and competitive dynamics. We will remain highly focused on execution to build on our progress and unlock value."

MAINGEAR, the leader in premium-quality, high-performance gaming PCs, today unveiled a variety of custom-configurable "50 Series" gaming desktops, featuring NVIDIA's newly revealed GeForce RTX 5080 and RTX 5090 GPUs. Available across seven gaming chassis options—MG-1, North, shroud, shroud Signature Edition, Rush, Force, and Zero, as well as all Workstations—these systems can be custom configured with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series GPUs and the latest CPU options from AMD and Intel to set a new benchmark for desktop gaming performance and customization.

Building on the excitement from CES 2025, MAINGEAR's "50 Series" also introduces non-APEX configurations of the hot new Rush and Force desktops, featuring 360 mm and 420 mm AIO coolers respectively, instead of open loop liquid cooling. Additionally, customers can order Rush desktops with custom chassis artwork for unparalleled personalization - as seen at CES. Available custom designs include Machina, Night Drive and Good Fortune.