AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition. Version 20.5.1 beta is released exclusively for Windows 10, and comes with two new feature additions and several fixes. To begin with, version 20.5.1 introduces support for Windows 10 May 2020 Update (2004), including its new WDDM. An update to AMD Link sees a new Xinput emulation driver to improve compatibility with current- and future games. Several issues were fixed, beginning with a crash or hang on hybrid graphics system configurations, especially during a driver installation; a black screen issue on a limited number displays, requiring a reboot to resolve; a "Destiny 2" crash/hang when task-switching; an "Overwatrch" crash or black screen when joining a match; and incorrect clocks reported on performance metrics overlay for RX 5700 series graphics cards.

Also fixed were high memory usage on Instant Replay or Desktop Recording on a machine that's entered sleep; a black screen with the Vulkan test on GeekBench 5; glitching observed in "League of Legends" after a task-switch, Radeon Overlay unintentionally minimizing "Sniper Elite 4" when invoked; lighting corruption in GTA V with Radeon Boost enabled; a texture corruption issue with "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," RDR2 failing to launch in certain hybrid graphics systems; memory OC failing to apply on Radeon VII, and "Star Wars Jedi: The Fallen Order" and "Control" experiencing hangs with Radeon Anti-Lag enabled. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.5.1 beta

MSI confirmed that AMD's "Zen 3" processor support will be added to the company's AMD 400-series chipset motherboards, including the non-MAX SKUs that only have 16 MB EEPROM chips. Marketing Director Eric van Beurden in an MSI Insider video presentation confirmed that with the non-MAX motherboards, "Zen 3" support will be added as AMD planned to go about doing so (i.e. add "Zen 3" support by cutting out support for older processors and slimming down the UEFI setup program down to the GSE Click BIOS program, which may not correspond with your motherboard's original feature-set). On the other hand, the MAX SKUs, with their 32 MB EEPROMs will receive "Zen 3" support painlessly, meaning that the board may retain support for some, if not all, older processor generations, and retain their original feature-rich UEFI setup programs.

AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse Refresh" processors surfaced on the Futuremark online database, as dug up by TUM_APISAK, where someone with access to them allegedly posted some performance numbers. Interestingly, the clock-speeds as read by the Futuremark SystemInfo module appear very different from what were previously reported. The 3800XT is shown featuring a 3.80 GHz nominal clock, boosting up to 4.70 GHz, while the 3900XT has a 3.90 GHz nominal clock, boosting up to the same 4.70 GHz as the 3800XT. APISAK reports that the 3800XT scores 25135 points in the FireStrike physics test.

A WCCFTech report presents screenshots of Cinebench R20 single-thread performance scores of the 3900XT, where it is shown beating the i9-10900K (in a single-threaded test). The 3800XT is within striking distance of the i9-10900K in this test, and beats the i7-10700KF. This single-threaded performance figure suggests that AMD's design focus with "Matisse Refresh" has been to shore up single-threaded and less-parallelized application performance, in other words, gaming performance.

AMD is coming around to launching its entry-level Radeon RX 5300 on the desktop platform, although it remains to be seen if the SKU will be released in the AIB (all-in-board) retail channel, or remains an OEM-exclusive. It surfaced an "AMD 7340:CF" graphics device on the Geekbench database, and was identified as the RX 5300 (non-mobile) by Komachi Ensaka. The OpenCL benchmark component of Geekbench identifies the card as having 24 compute units (1536 stream processors). The mobile RX 5300M has 3 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 96-bit wide memory bus, and the desktop RX 5300 appears to have the same memory configuration. The SKU hence appears to be based on the 7 nm "Navi 14" silicon, the same one that powers the RX 5500 series.

AMD on Tuesday re-released its Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.4.2 graphics drivers as a WHQL-signed driver. The company hasn't released a driver update since April 21 (the same 20.4.2 as a beta). With no new AAA game releases, there probably wasn't much AMD could do. Then again, 20.4.2 beta came with a long list of "known issues" (new issues identified by AMD that needed to be solved), which could have been fixed in the last 35 days or so. The WHQL is identical to the beta. It comes with optimization for Gears Tactics and Predator: Hunting Grounds, and fixes a handful of issues. Grab the Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.4.2 WHQL from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.4.2 WHQL

Apparently, AMD will be taking a slightly confusing step with its new AGESA codes - at least for the B550 platform. A report via Hardwareluxx has AMD rebooting AGESA (the most basic firmware for your motherboard and chipset support that's a requirement for correct CPU and feature support) versions back to version 1.0.0.0, but with a catch. The new AGESA version that's supposed to allow for support for AMD's Zen 3 CPUs will be coded as ComboAM4 v2 1.0.0.0 - instead of the next version in the current AGESA nomenclature, 1.0.0.6. It is still unclear if this change only refers to AMD's B550 or if it will also move on to X570's next AGESA releases.

It's expected that new motherboards based on AMD's B550 chipset will start landing in June. For now, there's confirmation on at least two motherboards running with this V2 of AGESA: MSI's MAG B550 Tomahawk (ComboAM4 v2 1.0.0.0), and the Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master (ComboAM4v2 1.0.0.1). So if you're looking to use AMD's B550 motherboard (or even X570) with AMD's upcoming Zen 3 CPUs, make sure to read your motherboard manufacturers' release notes for each AGESA version, so that you install the correct one and avoid yourself a potential load of pain with a non-functioning AGESA for your shiny new Zen 3 CPU.

Several future AMD processor codenames across various computing segments surfaced courtesy of an Expreview leak that's largely aligned with information from Komachi Ensaka. It does not account for "Matisse Refresh" that's allegedly coming out in June-July as three gaming-focused Ryzen socket AM4 desktop processors; but roadmap from 2H-2020 going up to 2022 sees many codenames surface. To begin with, the second half of 2020 promises to be as action packed as last year's 7/7 mega launch. Over in the graphics business, the company is expected to debut its DirectX 12 Ultimate-compliant RDNA2 client graphics, and its first CDNA architecture-based compute accelerators. Much of the processor launch cycle is based around the new "Zen 3" microarchitecture.

The server platform debuting in the second half of 2020 is codenamed "Genesis SP3." This will be the final processor architecture for the SP3-class enterprise sockets, as it has DDR4 and PCI-Express gen 4.0 I/O. The EPYC server processor is codenamed "Milan," and combines "Zen 3" chiplets along with an sIOD. EPYC Embedded (FP6 package) processors are codenamed "Grey Hawk."

In the times of growing need for monitors with bigger size, improved connectivity and image quality, display specialist AOC announces the new P2 series monitors for professional users. Covering an extensive range of display sizes from 21.5" (54.7 cm), 23.8" (60.4 cm), 27" (68.6 cm) and ultra-wide 34" (86 cm), AOC acknowledges its users' distinct needs and individual setups. Except for the 34" ultrawide CU34P2A with its curved (1500R) VA panel, all other models are equipped with flat IPS panels. They ensure true-to-life colour reproduction, wide gamut coverage, and wide viewing angles (178/178°) perfectly suited for content creation and editing. Selected models (24P2C and 27P2C) with USB-C port provide an easier display, data and power connection to mobile devices with a single USB-C cable. The KVM switch included in these models allows the user to switch the keyboard and mouse between two PCs (connected via USB-C and USB hub uplink).

AMD released its first Dell G5 15 SE-specific OEM driver update, with a single package providing drivers for the APU (iGPU) and Radeon RX 5600M discrete GPU of the notebook. This would be AMD's first Radeon Software release in over a month, as the AAA game release cycle has cooled down, and AMD has its hands full with several new OEM designs to develop drivers for. The G5 15 SE comes with processor options that include the "Renoir" Ryzen 5 4600H and Ryzen 7 4700H; and Radeon RX 5600M discrete GPU option.DOWNLOAD: AMD Dell G5 15 SE iGPU+dGPU Combo Driver

Linux and Git creator Linus Torvalds revealed that he upgraded to an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3970X processor powered machine after 15 years of upgrading among Intel processors. This is likely his main machine from which he does pioneering work on the future of Linux and his other creations. His May 24 dated "State of the Kernel" blog post reveals that his hardware upgrade was the most exciting piece of news to share among the community.

"In fact, the biggest excitement this week for me was just that I, upgraded my main machine, and for the first time in about 15 years, my desktop isn't Intel-based. No, I didn't switch to ARM yet, but I'm now rocking an AMD Threadripper 3970x. My 'allmodconfig' test builds are now three times faster than they used to be, which doesn't matter so much right now during the calming down period, but I will most definitely notice the upgrade during the next merge window," he stated. What makes this story big is the fact that the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, and a processor with a similar multi-core architecture to AMD's EPYC enterprise processors, is now being used by the creator of the most popular enterprise operating system.

Last week, we brought you reports of AMD inching closer to launch its 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse Refresh" processor lineup to ward off the 10th gen Intel Core "Comet Lake" threat, by giving the "Zen 2" chips possible clock speed-bumps to shore up performance. The lineup included the Ryzen 9 3900XT, the Ryzen 7 3800XT, and the Ryzen 5 3600XT. We now have a first-look at their alleged clock speeds courtesy of an anonymous tipster on ChipHell forums, seconded by HXL @9550pro.

The XT SKUs indeed revolve around 200-300 MHz increments in base- and boost clock speeds as many of our readers predicted in the "Matisse Refresh" article's comments section. The 3900XT comes with 4.10 GHz base clock, and 4.80 GHz max boost clocks, compared to 3.80 GHz base and 4.60 GHz boost clocks of the 3900X. Likewise, the 3800XT notches up to 4.20 GHz base clock (highest in the lineup), and 4.70 GHz max boost, compared to 3.90-4.50 GHz of the 3800X. The 3600XT offers the same 4.70 GHz max boost, a step up from the 4.40 GHz of the 3600X, but has its base clock set at 4.00 GHz, compared to 3.80 GHz on the 3600X. It appears like AMD's design focus is to reduce, if not beat, Intel's gaming performance lead. The 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" tops gaming performance by a mid-high single-digit percentages over AMD's offerings, and AMD could bring them down to low single-digit percentages with the XT family.

AMD's RDNA2 graphics architecture, which sees real-time ray-tracing among other DirectX 12 Ultimate features, could see the company double the amount of stream processors generation-over-generation, according to a specs leak by _rogame. The increase in stream processors would fall in line with AMD's effort to increase performance/Watt by 50%. It may appear like the resulting SKUs finally measure up to the likes of the RTX 2080 Ti, but AMD has GeForce "Ampere" in its competitive calculus, and should the recent specs reveal hold up, the new "Navi 21" could end up being a performance-segment competitor to GeForce graphics cards based on the "GA104" ("TU104" successor), rather than a flagship-killer.

The RDNA2-based "Navi 21" GPU allegedly features 80 RDNA2 compute units amounting to 5,120 stream processors. AMD might tap into a refined 7 nm-class silicon fabrication node by TSMC to build these chips, either N7P or N7+. The die-size could measure up to 505 mm², and AMD could aim for a 50% performance/Watt gain over the "Navi 10." AMD could carve out as many as 10 SKUs out of the "Navi 21," but only three are relevant to the gamers. The SKU with the PCI device ID "0x731F: D1" succeeds the RX 5700 XT. The one bearing "0x731F: D3" succeeds the RX 5700, with a variant name "Navi 21 XL." The "Navi 21 XE" variant has a PCI ID of "0x731F: DF," and succeeds the RX 5600 XT.

Rumors of AMD refreshing its 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processor family are growing louder. On Friday (22/05), reports of the "Matisse Refresh" processor family surfaced, with talk of "Ryzen 7 3850X" and "Ryzen 7 3750X" processors headed for a June 2020 announcement followed by July availability. Turns out AMD has a different naming scheme in mind, targeted at wooing gamers. The company is reportedly bringing its "XT" brand extension over from its Radeon graphics card family over to the Ryzen line.

There are three SKUs AMD is developing, the Ryzen 9 3900XT, the Ryzen 7 3800XT, and the Ryzen 5 3600 XT. All three are likely to retain core counts of the SKUs they are displacing from current price points - with the 3900XT likely being a 12-core/24-thread part; the 3800XT an 8-core/16-thread part, and the 3600XT a 6-core/12-thread part. AMD is likely to give the three a major clock speed increase to shore up gaming performance. It won't surprise us if AMD tinkers with boost algorithms, either. GIGABYTE has already referenced "Matisse Refresh" in its motherboard product roadmaps, which adds plenty of credibilty to this rumor. With "Zen 3" based 4th gen Ryzen processors unlikely to relieve the embattled 3900X, 3800X, and 3600X in the wake of Intel's 10th gen Core "Comet Lake" launch until Q4-2020, it makes sense for AMD to plan a product stack refresh to bolster its competitiveness. AMD is reportedly planning a June 16 product announcement, followed by July 7 availability.

AMD is planning to immediately update its product stack to counter the Intel 10th gen Core "Comet Lake-S" desktop processor family. Codenamed "Matisse Refresh," the processor will use existing IP, based on the 7 nm "Zen 2" microarchitecture, but could improve in areas such as clock-speeds. As it now stands, the Ryzen 9 3900X appears unfazed by the i9-10900K and i7-10700K at its new $410 price, however, competitiveness of the 3800X and 3700X could buckle under pressure from the i7-10700 series (K, KF, non-K, and F), as well as the Core i5-10600 series. To this effect, we're hearing rumors of a "Ryzen 7 3750X" and "Ryzen 7 3850X" seeing the light of the day soon, with an early-June announcement, and early-July market availability. References to the 3750X date back to October 2019.

Rumors of "Matisse Refresh" gained traction when WCCFTech editor Hassan Mujtaba tweeted a slide from a GIGABYTE AMD B550 motherboard series pre-launch presentation, which references GIGABYTE's own interpretation of AMD's roadmap. It lists out every CPU microarchitecture for the AM4 platform, and right next to "Matisse" is "& Refresh," confirming that "Matisse Refresh" is real. A microarchitecture "refresh" needn't even involve any physical changes to the processor design, core-counts, or architecture, and can sometimes even indicate something as simple as a second major wave of SKUs that replace existing SKUs in the market, leading to their phase-out (eg: Intel "Haswell Refresh" retaining the 4th gen Core model numbering). The slide also adds weight to the theory that desktop "Renoir," like its mobile counterpart, lacks PCIe gen 4.0. The slide also talks about AMD introducing the entry-level A520 desktop chipset in August, which will support PCIe gen 4 when paired with a capable processor.

MSI, the world-leading motherboard brand, continues to be dedicated to the AMD AM4 platform with the launch of the new B550 motherboards. Since AMD launched Ryzen Desktop Processors with AM4 platform, MSI has been occupied the market with our AM4 motherboards. For the B450 platform, MSI undoubtedly is in the market leadership with our iconic TOMAHAWK and MORTAR motherboards. This year, together with the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen processors and readiness of PCIe Gen 4 technology, MSI offers a complete B550 motherboard lineup from MPG, MAG to PRO series with advanced technology and MSI exclusive features to satisfy all types of gamers and users' need.

"We are seeing increasing user demands for flexible systems that perform well in a multitude of tasks from gaming to content creation more than ever before," said Chris Kilburn, corporate vice president and general manager, client component business unit, AMD. "AMD is excited to bring the power of 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors and cutting edge PCIe 4.0 support to the mainstream users with our latest AMD B550 chipset. With an extensive platform lineup from our partners at MSI, AMD is confident these new B550 platforms will provide flexibility and power never seen before on a mainstream platform."

ASUS today announced new motherboards featuring the latest AMD B550 chipset that bring the potential of PCI Express 4.0 to mainstream builds everywhere. AMD B550 motherboards enable 20 general-purpose PCIe 4.0 lanes from 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors. The primary PCIe slot on all new ASUS B550 boards offers 16 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, and 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen parts feature as many as four USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports running at up to 10 Gbps direct from the CPU itself.

ASUS also has exciting features to enhance its B550 motherboards like WiFi 6, 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, robust power delivery, increased DRAM speed and BIOS Flashback. The B550 chip itself gets an upgrade to PCIe 3.0 for its built-in lanes. These upgrades make B550 a tantalizing platform for mainstream builders throughout the world.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, announced the launch of the newest B550 AORUS motherboards primed to unleash the potential of 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors. The all new B550 AORUS motherboards kick off the PCIe 4.0 era with extensive feature sets, and equip up to Direct 16 phases of digital power design with advanced thermal solutions that provide the processors and chipset more stable power supplement. Select GIGABYTE B550 AORUS motherboards feature a native USB 3.2 Gen2 interface, feature-rich I/O with a pre-installed I/O shield, the latest wireless connection, and Ultra Durable technology, set to deliver an unmatched user experience. "

We are seeing increasing user demands for flexible systems that perform well in a multitude of tasks from gaming to content creation more than ever before," said Chris Kilburn, corporate vice president and general manager, client component business unit, AMD. "AMD is excited to bring the power of 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors and cutting edge PCIe 4.0 support to the mainstream users with our latest AMD B550 chipsets. With overwhelming platform support from our partners at Gigabyte, AMD is confident these new B550 platforms will provide flexibility and power never seen before on a mainstream platform."

Leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, proudly announces its latest range of motherboards featuring the new AMD B550 chipset, supporting AMD Ryzen desktop processors. "ASRock AMD B550 motherboard series brings exciting and innovating features such as PCIe 4.0 to the mainstream, ASRock offers a comprehensive range of motherboards from entry to premium, including the Taichi, PG Velocita, Extreme, Steel Legend and Pro4 series, leading features and excitement into the market." says Chris Lee, general manager of ASRock motherboard business unit.

"We are seeing increasing user demands for flexible systems that perform well in a multitude of tasks from gaming to content creation more than ever before," said Chris Kilburn, corporate vice president and general manager, client component business unit, AMD. "AMD is excited to bring the power of 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen desktop processors and cutting edge PCIe 4.0 support to the mainstream users with our latest AMD B550 chipset. With a wide range of form factors, power delivery options, and designs from our partners at ASRock, AMD is confident these new B550 platforms will provide flexibility and power never seen before on a mainstream platform."

Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Cooling, Gaming Gear, and Enthusiast Memory solutions, proudly announced our high clock rate memory, the TOUGHRAM RGB DDR4 4600 MHz 16 GB Memory (2x8GB), which comes in both black and white versions. Besides the previous TOUGHRAM RGB 4000 MHz and TOUGHRAM RGB 4400 MHz Memory, we have now reached a new level, the TOUGHRAM line with a new higher clock rate of 4600 MHz in 16 GB (2x8GB) to ensure that we meet the users' needs. To provide high and stable gaming performance, all ICs are tightly-screened and coated with a ten-layer PCB.

Uniquely designed TT premium heat spreader with ten high lumens individual addressable LEDs not only dispatches heat faster but can allow users to show off 16.8 million colors with countless lighting combinations. Furthermore, users can use NeonMaker to customize and control the lighting effects, or even synchronized TOUGHRAM RGB DDR4 4600 MHz Memory with the TT RGB Plus software to maximize the control of RGB effects. TOUGHRAM RGB DDR4 4600 MHz Memory is also compatible with Intel Z490 and AMD X570 chipsets and supports Intel's XMP 2.0. If you're looking for high-quality, high functioning stable memory, choose TOUGHRAM RGB DDR4 4600 MHz.

AMD's next-generation RDNA2 architecture based Radeon RX series client-segment graphics cards will launch in September 2020, according to a DigiTimes report citing industry sources. This would make September a mighty busy month for hardware launches, as the company is also expected to debut its 4th generation Ryzen "Vermeer" (and possibly "Renoir) desktop processors in the AM4 package. NVIDIA is expected to debut its GeForce "Ampere" client-segment graphics cards around the same time. Although not in the same computing segment, Intel could also debut its 11th generation Core "Tiger Lake" mobile processors.

RDNA2 is an important launch for AMD as it's the company's first graphics architecture that meets the DirectX 12 Ultimate logo requirements, which include real-time ray-tracing capability leveraging DXR, variable rate shading, mesh shaders, and sampler feedback. AMD and NVIDIA will be debuting their graphics cards close to the release of CD Projekt's "Cyberpunk 2077," which is emerging as the year's most hotly anticipated game.

Slightly ahead of its launch, ASUS flashed a banner of its AMD B550 chipset motherboard lineup, revealing two other boards than the premium ROG Strix B550-E Gaming AMD unveiled in its platform unveil. These include an unnamed micro-ATX board slotted in the TUF Gaming series, and a entry-level Prime B550M-A micro-ATX board. The Prime board has our attention as its spartan layout could indicate that there will indeed be socket AM4 boards based on the B550 starting at $100, as AMD promised. The B550 has a distinct advantage over the B450 in the form of PCI-Express gen 4.0 for the main PEG and at least one M.2 NVMe slots; and an easier upgrade path toward 4th gen Ryzen "Vermeer" and "Renoir," than AMD's 400-series chipsets have.

AMD's 4th generation Ryzen "Renoir" desktop APUs, based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, could lack PCI-Express gen 4.0, hints the product page of an upcoming AMD B550 chipset motherboard by BIOSTAR. AMD already declared that the B550 lacks support for "Picasso," which means the "Ryzen with Radeon Vega Graphics" processors referenced in the BIOSTAR product page have to be "Renoir." On the mobile platform, Ryzen 4000H and 4000U series processors do lack PCIe gen 4.0, but it was expected that AMD will enable gen 4.0 for the desktop socket AM4 platform.

The lack of gen 4.0 support has implications for "Renoir." For starters, the APU, like its predecessors, spares only 8 PCIe lanes toward PEG (PCI-Express discrete graphics, or the main x16 slot you typically use for graphics cards). If these lanes are gen 3.0, then even the newer graphics cards, such as AMD's "Navi" RX 5700 XT, or next-gen GeForce "Ampere," would have to make do with a PCI-Express 3.0 x8 interface, despite being gen 4.0 x16-capable. We will test just how much of a bottleneck this poses, when the next-gen graphics cards come out.

AMD marshaled its retailer ecosystem to cut the pricing of its 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X processor down to USD $410. At this price, the 3900X is poised to threaten both the 10-core/20-thread Core i9-10900K and the 8-core/16-thread Core i7-10700K. Although bearing a $489 MSRP, the i9-10900K is seen going for upwards of $510. The i7-10700K, on the other hand, is being priced around the $410 mark. The iGPU-devoid i9-10900KF is expected to be around $20 cheaper, which should put its retail pricing around $480, while the i7-10700KF could go for around $380.

Pricing of both chips are along expected lines, as retail pre-tax prices typically end up 5% above the 1,000-unit tray pricing Intel announces for its processors. The Hardware Unboxed review of the i9-10900K shows it taking a roughly 7% lead in gaming performance over the 3900X (averaged), while falling 12% behind in multi-threaded compute performance. The i7-10700K is expected to be slightly faster than the i9-9900K. Adding value to the AMD chip is the fact that it includes a cooling solution in the retail package, which Intel doesn't, for the i9-10900K/KF and the i7-10700K/KF. A February 2020 report postulated that AMD has significant headroom to cut prices of its 3rd generation Ryzen processors to maintain competitiveness against Intel, until they are relieved by the "Zen 3" based 4th gen Ryzen "Vermeer" processors in September 2020.

The bulk of AMD's 4th generation Ryzen desktop processors will comprise of "Vermeer," a high core-count socket AM4 processor and successor to the current-generation "Matisse." These chips combine up to two "Zen 3" CCDs with a cIOD (client I/O controller die). While the maximum core count of each chiplet isn't known, they will implement the "Zen 3" microarchitecture, which reportedly does away with CCX to get all cores on the CCD to share a single large L3 cache, this is expected to bring about improved inter-core latencies. AMD's generational IPC uplifting efforts could also include improving bandwidth between the various on-die components (something we saw signs of in the "Zen 2" based "Renoir"). The company is also expected to leverage a newer 7 nm-class silicon fabrication node at TSMC (either N7P or N7+), to increase clock speeds - or so we thought.

An Igor's Lab report points to the possibility of AMD gunning for efficiency, by letting the IPC gains handle the bulk of Vermeer's competitiveness against Intel's offerings, not clock-speeds. The report decodes OPNs (ordering part numbers) of two upcoming Vermeer parts, one 8-core and the other 16-core. While the 8-core part has some generational clock speed increases (by around 200 MHz on the base clock), the 16-core part has lower max boost clock speeds than the 3950X. Then again, the OPNs reference A0 revision, which could mean that these are engineering samples that will help AMD's ecosystem partners to build their products around these processors (think motherboard- or memory vendors), and that the retail product could come with higher clock speeds after all. We'll find out in September, when AMD is expected to debut its 4th generation Ryzen desktop processor family, around the same time NVIDIA launches GeForce "Ampere."

AMD backpedaled on dropping support for its future "Zen 3" processors on AMD 400-series chipset motherboards. The company will work with its motherboard partners in integrating "Zen 3" processor support on certain beta versions of motherboard BIOSes. AMD also detailed how it plans to go about it. The said BIOS will be a one-way ticket to using "Zen 3" processors while losing support for all older microarchitectures.

The way it works is the motherboard manufacturer will integrate the Zen 3-only AGESA with a firmware that can squeeze into a 16 MB ROM. They may also choose to conserve ROM space in areas such as the UEFI setup program, which may not correspond with the motherboard's original feature-set. This is essentially similar to how MSI integrated "Zen 2" support on some of its older motherboards with 16 MB ROMs, by slimming down its UEFI setup program.