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55 AMD B550 Chipset Motherboard Model Names Revealed

Model names of 55 motherboards based on the AMD B550 chipset were leaked to the web by momomo_us. In an unexpected surprise, it turns out that ASRock will have the largest lineup of motherboards, with 15 models. ASRock's lineup will be led by a premium Taichi model (already pictured), but will also include a Phantom Gaming Velocita model, besides Extreme4 and Steel Legend. MSI has the second largest lineup, with 14 models. There's a surprise here.

We earlier thought the MPG B550 Gaming Carbon will lead MSI's lineup, but it turns out that there will be a MEG B550 Unify model at the top. The rest of the lineup includes MPG Gaming Edge, MAG Tomahawk, MAG Mortar, and MAG Bazooka. GIGABYTE has the third largest lineup, with 12 models. The series is led by an AORUS Master model. There are several other AORUS Gaming SKUs based on this chipset - PRO, Elite, and their Mini-ITX variants. ASUS plans to bring 11 SKUs to the table, including four ROG Strix series boards that include Strix-E, Strix-F, and the Mini-ITX Strix-I. There are also three TUF Gaming SKUs, while the rest of the lineup is made up of the vanilla Prime series. Biostar has two models, and so does SOYO. AMD is expected to launch its B550 chipset in mid-June.

Adobe Premiere Pro to Get More GPU Acceleration and Optimization

Adobe is releasing an important feature update to Premiere Pro later this week, which promises to introduce significant improvements to video encoding performance by better leveraging GPU acceleration. The new version 14.2 of Premiere Pro will leverage NVENC to boost encoding by over 5 times compared to CPU. The suite leveraged shaders to accelerate video effects and improving export times, but until now hadn't leveraged NVIDIA's hardware encoder. For machines with GeForce and Quadro GPUs, this means improved export times on H.264, H.265, and HEVC codecs. Without getting into specifics, Adobe mentioned that Premiere Pro will tap into video hardware acceleration capabilities of AMD Radeon GPUs, too.

Update 07:55 UTC: Adobe posted release notes of the latest version 14.2 of Premiere Pro. The list of system requirements needed for hardware-accelerated H.264 and HEVC encoding appears vague beyond pointing out that you need a compatible graphics solution. The list of compatible GPUs includes a wide selection of NVIDIA GPUs covering both its professional Quadro and consumer GeForce brands. On the AMD front, however, only the professional Radeon Pro SKUs are listed, and no consumer Radeon RX series SKUs.

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS Master Waltzes Around Chipset Limitations to Provide Three Gen 4 M.2 Slots

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS Master is the company's most premium socket AM4 motherboard based on the upcoming AMD B550 chipset. We described this board in some detail in our older article covering an assortment of top B550 motherboards from manufacturers, but missed a key bit. At the time we assumed that the PCI-Express lane switches located below the board's main PCI-Express slot merely split its x16 connection from the AM4 SoC down to two x8 connections to share between two slots, given that AMD allows multi-GPU (including SLI) with the B550. Apparently, the lane switches are there for a different, more fascinating reason.

A BenchLife.info report points to the possibility of all three M.2 slots on this motherboard having PCI-Express gen 4.0 wiring - something that shouldn't normally be possible, since all downstream PCIe lanes put out by the B550 are gen 3.0. The way we see it, the topmost M.2 slot has a direct PCI-Express 4.0 x4 connection from the AM4 socket (as it normally should). The second- and third slots, however, pull their wiring from a series of lane switches that split the main x16 PEG slot to gen 4.0 x8/x4/x4. It's possible that one of the two x16 (electrical x4) slots has a further lane sharing arrangement with one of the two M.2 slots.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700G "Renoir" Desktop Processor Pictured

Here is the first picture of the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G, the company's upcoming socket AM4 APU based on the 7 nm "Renoir" silicon, courtesy of VideoCardz. The picture reveals a standard-looking socket AM4 chip with commercial name and OPN markings (100-000000146), matching the Igor's Lab OPN code leak from earlier this week. The Ryzen 7 4700G offers an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, and an integrated graphics solution that combines the SIMD machinery of the "Vega" graphics architecture, with the updated display- and media engines of "Navi." The iGPU is configured with 8 CUs (512 stream processors), which on the 4700G has an impressive maximum engine boost clock of 2.10 GHz, according to the Igor's Lab story.

The 8-core/16-thread CPU of the Ryzen 7 4700G has a nominal clock speed of 3.60 GHz, and a maximum boost frequency of 4.45 GHz, with several Precision Boost power-states in both directions of the nominal clock. The CPU features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache (4 MB per CCX). The iGPU engine clock goes all the way up to 2.10 GHz, which could help it overcome some of the CU deficit vs. "Picasso," which has 11 CUs (704 stream processors), but clocked only up to 1.40 GHz. Since the Ryzen 5 3400G has an unlocked multiplier, it stands to reason that even the 4700G could. If the platform I/O of "Renoir" in its mobile avatar is anything to go by, then the 4700G could feature a limited PCI-Express x8 lane setup for its PEG port. AMD is rating the TDP of the 4700G at 65 W.

Hot Chips 2020 Program Announced

Today the Hot Chips program committee officially announced the August conference line-up, posted to hotchips.org. For this first-ever live-streamed Hot Chips Symposium, the program is better than ever!

In a session on deep learning training for data centers, we have a mix of talks from the internet giant Google showcasing their TPUv2 and TPUv3, and a talk from startup Cerebras on their 2nd gen wafer-scale AI solution, as well as ETH Zurich's 4096-core RISC-V based AI chip. And in deep learning inference, we have talks from several of China's biggest AI infrastructure companies: Baidu, Alibaba, and SenseTime. We also have some new startups that will showcase their interesting solutions—LightMatter talking about its optical computing solution, and TensTorrent giving a first-look at its new architecture for AI.
Hot Chips

NVIDIA DGX-A100 Systems Feature AMD EPYC "Rome" Processors

NVIDIA is leveraging the 128-lane PCI-Express gen 4.0 root complex of AMD 2nd generation EPYC "Rome" enterprise processors in building its DGX-A100 super scalar compute systems that leverage the new A100 "Ampere" compute processors. Each DGX-A100 block is endowed with two AMD EPYC 7742 64-core/128-thread processors in a 2P setup totaling 128-cores/256-threads, clocked up to 3.40 GHz boost.

This 2P EPYC "Rome" processor setup is configured to feed PCIe gen 4.0 connectivity to eight NVIDIA A100 GPUs, and 8-port Mellanox ConnectX 200 Gbps InfiniBand NIC. Six NVSwitches provide NVLink connectivity complementing PCI-Express gen 4.0 from the AMD sIODs. The storage and memory subsystem is equally jaw-dropping: 1 TB of hexadeca-channel (16-channel) DDR4 memory, two 1.92 TB NVMe gen 4.0 SSDs, and 15 TB of U.2 NVMe drives (4x 3.84 TB units). The GPU memory of the eight A100 units add up to 320 GB (that's 8x 40 GB, 6144-bit HBM2E). When you power it up, you're greeted with the Ubuntu Linux splash screen. All this can be yours for USD $199,000.

OPNs for At Least Twelve Desktop AMD "Renoir" APUs Decoded

Igor's Lab discovered that AMD may be working on as many as twelve desktop Ryzen G "Renoir" processors with integrated graphics. These include six SKUs each covering the 65 W and 35 W TDP categories, and include two each of 8-core/16-thread, 6-core/12-thread, and 4-core/8-thread SKUs per TDP category. All twelve chips feature increased power limits from their mobile siblings, and a reference memory frequency of DDR4-3200. The parts also feature iGPU maximum engine clock boost frequency as high as 2.10 GHz, to overcome the compute unit deficit "Renoir" has against its predecessor, "Picasso/Raven Ridge," with their up to 11 CUs.

The series appears to be led by an 8-core/16-thread SKU with CPU boost frequency as high as 4.45 GHz, iGPU engine clock as high as 2.10 GHz, and various power-state clock speeds detailed in the table below. The 6-core/12-thread part boosts up to 4.30 GHz, with iGPU engine clock up to 1.90 GHz. The 4-core/8-thread part boosts up to 4.10 GHz, with up to 1.70 GHz iGPU engine clocks. The 35 W TDP parts have, on average, 200-300 MHz lower max CPU core boost- and nominal clock speeds, but more aggressive power-management as defined in the various P-states. Half of these OPNs point to chips with identical clock speeds and core configurations. These are probably differentiated from each other with some of them being Ryzen PRO SKUs.

Dell Updates its G3 and G5 Gaming Notebook Lines

Besides Alienware, Dell maintains a gaming notebook line under its main brand, with the G3 and G5, both endowed with 15.6-inch displays. The G5 15 SE is AMD-powered, featuring 15.6-inch Full HD 144 Hz displays, processor options that include the Ryzen 9 4900H, Ryzen 7 4800H, and Ryzen 5 4600H. This is the first notebook from Dell to feature the Radeon RX 5600M graphics based on "Navi 10." This notebook's Intel+NVIDIA alter-ego is the G15-5500, which comes with processor options that include the i5-10300H and i7-10750H; and various NVIDIA GeForce GPU options ranging from the GTX 1650 Ti to the RTX 2070 Super Max-Q. Memory options range between 8 GB to 32 GB; and storage between 128 GB to 1 TB NVMe SSD.

The G3 is Dell's entry-level gaming-grade notebook line. It offers 15.6-inch displays with Full HD resolutions, ranging between 60 Hz to 144 Hz, processor options that include the i5-10300H and i7-10750H, and graphics options ranging between the GTX 1650 and RTX 2060 (mobile). Memory options are either 8 GB single-channel or 16 GB dual-channel, both DDR4-2933. Dell has upped the game, doing away with HDD based storage options. The G3 starts with a 128 GB NVMe SSD, with capacities ranging up to 1 TB, and option for a second NVMe drive. Networking options include Killer 802.11ax and 1 GbE.

AMD Announces Radeon Pro VII Graphics Card, Brings Back Multi-GPU Bridge

AMD today announced its Radeon Pro VII professional graphics card targeting 3D artists, engineering professionals, broadcast media professionals, and HPC researchers. The card is based on AMD's "Vega 20" multi-chip module that incorporates a 7 nm (TSMC N7) GPU die, along with a 4096-bit wide HBM2 memory interface, and four memory stacks adding up to 16 GB of video memory. The GPU die is configured with 3,840 stream processors across 60 compute units, 240 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The card is built in a workstation-optimized add-on card form-factor (rear-facing power connectors and lateral-blower cooling solution).

What separates the Radeon Pro VII from last year's Radeon VII is full double precision floating point support, which is 1:2 FP32 throughput compared to the Radeon VII, which is locked to 1:4 FP32. Specifically, the Radeon Pro VII offers 6.55 TFLOPs double-precision floating point performance (vs. 3.36 TFLOPs on the Radeon VII). Another major difference is the physical Infinity Fabric bridge interface, which lets you pair up to two of these cards in a multi-GPU setup to double the memory capacity, to 32 GB. Each GPU has two Infinity Fabric links, running at 1333 MHz, with a per-direction bandwidth of 42 GB/s. This brings the total bidirectional bandwidth to a whopping 168 GB/s—more than twice the PCIe 4.0 x16 limit of 64 GB/s.

AMD Partners with Robot Cache Game Re-selling Platform

Are you ready for a revolutionary way to buy, play, and sell games? Powered by AMD, Robot Cache is the world's first videogame marketplace to buy PC games, resell them when you're done and mine to earn free ones—and it's entering open beta with a special sale May 12 to June 12.

AMD Radeon graphics cards and Ryzen processors users will be able to get free games fast with a special advantage: a 5% perma boost until 12/31/2020! Check out the details here. As an additional bonus, you'll get a copy of TRAPPED if you sign up for a Robot Cache account during the sale between May 12 to June 12.

VIPER GAMING Launches New 64GB Kits of High-Performance VIPER 4 BLACKOUT DRAM

VIPER GAMING by PATRIOT, a trademarked brand of PATRIOT and a global leader in performance memory, solid-state drives, and flash storage solutions, today is proud to announce the launch of their 32 GB memory module kits as part of the VIPER 4 BLACKOUT DDR4 PERFORMANCE MEMORY, offering gamers and video content creators the ability to equip their systems with more memory and further extending the potential performance. The VIPER 4 BLACKOUT series modules have long been an excellent choice for enthusiastic builders who are looking for high-speed memory with headroom for performance tweaking and overclocking.

The series was created to be performance-oriented,and with outstanding compatibility across the latest Intel and AMD platforms, the VIPER 4 BLACKOUT series 64 GB kit are available in speeds from 3000 MHz up to 3600 MHz and built from strictly tested memory chips and components on a 10-layer PCB. Each of the 32 GB modules is wrapped by a military-grade aluminium heatspreader with an advanced pin array to maximize efficiency and thermal performance."The VIPER 4 BLACKOUT DRAM is an award-winning series and has been highly recommended by mainstream PC hardware media last year.Influencefrompositive customer feedback from our 16 GB kits encouraged us to expand the VIPER 4 BLACKOUT series to include a much larger 64 GB kit," said Roger Shinmoto, the Vice President of VIPER GAMING by PATRIOT.
Viper 4 Blackout Series DDR4 Viper 4 Blackout Series DDR4 Viper 4 Blackout Series DDR4

Graphics Cards Shipments to Pick Up in 2H-2020: Cooling Solution Maker Power Logic

Power Logic, a graphics card cooling solution OEM, in an interview with Taiwan tech industry observer DigiTimes, commented that it expects graphics card shipments to rise in the second half of 2020, on the backs of new product announcements from both NVIDIA and AMD, as well as HPC accelerators from the likes of Intel and NVIDIA. NVIDIA is expected to launch its "Ampere" based GeForce RTX 30-series graphics cards, while AMD is preparing to launch its Radeon RX 6000-series "Navi 2#" graphics cards based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. Power Logic has apparently commenced prototyping certain cooling solutions, and is expected to begin mass-production at its Jiangxi-based plant towards the end of Q2-2020; so it could begin shipping coolers to graphics card manufacturers in the following quarters.

TSMC 5 nm Customers Listed, Intel Rumored to be One of Them

TSMC is working hard to bring a new 5 nm (N5 and N5+) despite all the hiccups the company may have had due to the COVID-19 pandemic happening. However, it seems like nothing can stop TSMC, and plenty of companies have already reserved some capacity for their chips. With mass production supposed to start in Q3 of this year, 5 nm node should become one of the major nodes over time for TSMC, with predictions that it will account for 10% of all capacity for 2020. Thanks to the report of ChinaTimes, we have a list of new clients for the TSMC 5 nm node, with some very interesting names like Intel appearing on the list.

Apple and Huawei/HiSilicon will be the biggest customers for the node this year with A14 and Kirin 1000 chips being made for N5 node, with Apple ordering the A15 chips and Huawei readying the Kirin 1100 5G chip for the next generation N5+. From there, AMD will join the 5 nm party for Zen 4 processors and RDNA 3 graphics cards. NVIDIA has also reserved some capacity for its Hopper architecture, which is expected to be a consumer-oriented option, unlike Ampere. And perhaps the most interesting entry to the list is Intel Xe graphics cards. The list shows that Intel might use the N5 process form TSMC so it can ensure the best possible performance for its future cards, in case it has some issues manufacturing its own nodes, just like it did with 10 nm.
TSMC 5 nm customers

AMD Adds Four New Graphics Technologies to Its FidelityFX Software Stack via GPUOpen

AMD today via its newly released GPUOpen website has announced that it is adding four new graphics technologies to its FidelityFX software stack. Before you ask, no; there is no included Ray Tracing graphics libraries among these four new technologies. However, considering the use-case for these is to give developers an almost plug-in flexibility on various graphics technologies they would otherwise have to find other ways to integrate in their rendering pass, added layers to GPUOpen are always a welcome sight. And rest assured that "classic" shading techniques will still be widely used even in the advent of top to bottom raytracing capabilities on graphics hardware - which likely won't happen in the next GPU hardware generation anyway.

Added technologies to the previously-released Contrast Adaptive Sharpening are libraries for SSSR (Stochastic Screen Space Reflections) for better reflections without the usage of raytracing; CACAO (Combined Adaptive Compute Ambient Occlusion) for added depth to shadows and object quality; LPM (Luminance Preserving Mapper) for eased application of an HDR rendering pipeline with correct values, preventing overblown details; and SPD (Single Pass Downsampler) which will allow developers to seamlessly downsample required assets (think something along the lines of Variable Rate Shading) to achieve FPS targets. The GPUOpen is an effort from AMD to create an open graphics library that will allow developers to easily integrate AMD-optimized technologies to their graphics workflow.

Curious-looking AMD Ryzen 7 Extreme Edition with 4.30 GHz Boost Hits the Radar

Hot on the heels of the Ryzen 7 4700G desktop APU reveal, a curious-looking processor reared its head on the Futuremark Database, named "AMD Ryzen 7 Extreme Edition," as unearthed by Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK, who mentions that the chip is "Renoir" based, and likely a mobile part owing to its rather low nominal clock speed of 1.80 GHz, which can boost all the way up to 4.30 GHz. The chip has all 8 cores and 16 threads enabled.

Coming back to its clock speeds, the "Extreme Edition" appears to be a 100 MHz speed bump over the Ryzen 7 4800U, a 15-Watt part with 4.20 GHz max boost. The 45-Watt Ryzen 7 4800H has the same 4.20 GHz boost clock, but much higher 2.90 GHz nominal clocks. It hence stands to reason that this is a 15 W segment part, topping the 4800U, targeting ultraportables. Interestingly, a 15-Watt Renoir with these clock speeds was recently reported as the "Ryzen 9 4900U." We'll hear more in the coming weeks.

DRAM Calculator for Ryzen v1.7.2 Released

Yuri "1usmus" Bubliy over the weekend released the latest version of DRAM Calculator for Ryzen, the definitive tool for overclocking and optimizing memory on your AMD Ryzen-powered PC. The tool lets you calculate the best possible memory-related settings specific to your machine. Version 1.7.1 introduces several new changes. For starters, it now has updated presets for three of the most popular DDR4 DRAM die types obtained from hundreds of hours of re-testing various brands of memory modules on the latest version of AMD AGESA. These affect everything from procODT to VDDG settings, and the introduction of CL15t, which stabilizes problems encounted in finding timings with CL14t.

The R-XMP button (which attempts to translate your DIMM's XMP to AMD-compatible settings), and "Calculate EXTREME" buttons have been removed, and in their place, the "Calculate FAST" button has been optimized for the best possible stable settings; and "Calculate SAFE" for reasonably fast yet safe settings. DRAM Calculator for Ryzen now has DIMM PCB revision awareness. Several popular memory vendors have multiplie revisions of PCBs for the same DIMMs (and same DRAM chips, which can affect tuning headroom). This provides an additional layer of accuracy in calculating timings. In addition, there are several UI changes, such as a "compare timings" button with added functionality. Preliminary support is also added for future "Zen 3" based processors. Grab the tool from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: DRAM Calculator for Ryzen v1.7.2 by 1usmus
The change-log follows.

Update 09:07 UTC: The DRAM Calculator for Ryzen has just been updated to v1.7.2. Detailed below.

AMD Ryzen 7 4700G is "Renoir" Desktop AM4 Processor: 8-core/16-thread with "Vega" iGPU

It was only a matter of time before AMD brought its 7 nm "Renoir" APU silicon onto the desktop platform. The first such chip just hit the radar as the Ryzen 7 4700G. This would be the first desktop Ryzen APU graded as Ryzen 7, thanks to its CPU core count. The 4700G features an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture. The iGPU is a hybrid between "Vega" and "Navi."

The "Renoir" iGPU features the SIMD components of "Vega," but with the display- and multimedia-engines of "Navi." The iGPU apparently maxes out on 8 NGCUs on "Renoir," amounting to 512 stream processors. Increased iGPU engine clocks attempt to make up the CU deficit compared to the previous-generation "Picasso" (8 vs. 11). The CPU features 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 8 MB of shared L3 cache (4 MB per CCX). An AoTS run in which the processor is paired with a Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card surfaced on social media. Bringing "Renoir" to the desktop platform at prices competitive with Intel's 10th generation Core i3 thru Core i7 will be critical for AMD, as it nullifies a key advantage Intel has - integrated graphics, so the processors could make it to the vast majority of non-gaming builds with high CPU performance demand.

Update May 10th: A possible UserBenchmark submission of this processor, where it carries the engineering sample number "100-000000149-40_40/30_Y" surfaced. It's shown having clock speeds of 3.00 GHz base and 4.00 GHz boost. We know this is a desktop platform looking at its ASRock B550 Taichi motherboard and Micron-supplied standard DIMM.

AMD Ryzen 3 3100 Pushed to 5.92 GHz Under LN2 Cooling

The Ryzen 3 3100 is turning out to be a fun little toy for enthusiasts. PC enthusiast TSAIK succeeded in overclocking it to 5923 MHz under extreme cooling. The chip was fed 1.45 Volts, and put under liquid nitrogen cooling, to achieve the feat. An MSI MAG X570 Tomahawk motherboard and a single stick of 8 GB memory underclocked to DDR4-1600 made the rest of the critical hardware. The feat is the second highest OC record for a "Zen 2" powered processor, next only to TSAIK's own speed record with the flagship Ryzen 9 3950X, which was pushed to 6041 MHz. Find the HWBot submission for the Ryzen 3 3100 speed record here.

Lenovo Announces ThinkPad Laptops Powered by AMD Ryzen PRO 4000

Today, Lenovo announced the new ThinkPad E14 and E15 with up to AMD Ryzen 7 4700U processors with Radeon Graphics bringing an improved design, higher performance and enhanced productivity features for SMB customers. Also, selected ThinkPad T, X and L series powered by AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 Series Mobile Processors announced in February are coming very soon. Delivering smarter IT innovations for better user experiences, the latest ThinkPad models meet today's increasing remote working needs.

Engineered for effortless productivity virtually anywhere, the new ThinkPad E14 and E15 offers a smart choice for SMB decision makers. An updated design with an improved screen to body ratio of 85%, the E series also offers the security and durability needed in a changing world. Innovative security features are provided on ThinkPad E series for the first time, including a touch fingerprint reader and an optional IR camera with Glance by Mirametrix technology. The touch fingerprint reader integrated into the power button offers one touch power and logon. The software-enabled Glance feature responds to users' presence, automatically locking the laptop when the user steps away, and also offers a Snap Window and Smart Pointer function for multi display setups.

AMD Announces Ryzen PRO 4000 Series Mobile Processors

Today, AMD announced global availability of the world's first x86 7 nm commercial notebook processors, the AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 Series Mobile family, delivering the most cores and threads in an ultrathin business notebook. These new processors are fully optimized for remote work capabilities and designed to take business computing to the next level with multi-threading performance for modern productivity. Robust enterprise designs from HP and Lenovo powered by AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 Series Mobile Processors are expected to be available worldwide starting in the first half of 2020, with anywhere-anytime productivity, multiple layers of security features, seamless manageability and reliable longevity.

"With the launch of AMD Ryzen PRO 4000 Series Mobile Processors, AMD once again defines the new standard for PC experiences - from high-end desktop computing to ultrathin and gaming notebooks, and now the modern business notebook," said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, client business unit, AMD. "Built on the ground-breaking "Zen 2" architecture and 7 nm process technology, the AMD Ryzen for Business portfolio delivers advanced performance, reliable security features, impressive battery life and advanced manageability to significantly elevate the capabilities of the ultrathin notebook in any work environment."

AMD B550 Chipset Detailed, It's Ready for Zen 3, Older AM4 Motherboards not Compatible

In their briefing leading up to today's Ryzen 3 3100 and 3300X review embargo, AMD disclosed that its upcoming "Zen 3" 4th generation Ryzen desktop processors will only support AMD 500-series (or later) chipsets. The next-gen processors will not work with older 400-series or 300-series chipsets. This comes as a blow to those who bought premium X470 motherboards hoping for latest CPU compatibility running into 2020. At this time only B550 is available, but we expect more news on enthusiast chipsets as the Zen 3 launch date comes closer. AMD B550 is a fascinating new mid-range chipset by AMD. Launching today as a successor to the popular B450 chipset, B550 is a low-power silicon with roughly the same 5-7 W TDP as the older 400-series chipset. Although AMD won't confirm it, it's likely that the chipset is sourced from ASMedia. It brings a lot to the table that could draw buyers away from B450, but it also takes some away.

The AMD B550 currently only supports 3rd generation Ryzen "Matisse" processors. Ryzen 3000 "Picasso" APU are not supported. What's more, older Ryzen 2000 "Pinnacle Ridge," "Raven Ridge," and first gen Ryzen 1000 "Summit Ridge" aren't supported, either. The Athlon 200 and 3000 "Zen" based chips miss out, too. AMD argues that it ran into ROM size limitations when trying to cram AGESA microcode for all the older processors. We find that hard to believe because B450 motherboards with the latest ComboAM4 AGESA support 2nd gen and 3rd gen processors, including APUs and Athlon SKUs based on the two. On the bright side, AMD assured us (within its marketing slides for the B550), that the chipset will support upcoming processors based on the "Zen 3" microarchitecture. The company also came up with a new motherboard packaging label that clarifies that the processors won't work with the 3400G and 3200G.
AMD B550 chipset highlights AMD B550 processor support AMD B550 vs B450

Assortment of Five AMD B550 Premium Motherboards Pictured

Here are the first pictures of an assortment of five premium AMD B550 chipset motherboards by five different manufacturers. With PCI-Express gen 4.0 (where it matters), CPU+memory overclocking, and multi-GPU being enabled for the B550, and more importantly, the chipset not needing any fan-heatsink, the B550 could be an important chipset for AMD in the battle to come against the 10th generation Core processor and Intel B460 chipset.

We begin with the MSI MPG B550 Gaming Pro Carbon WiFi, the company's most premium B550 offering, picking up the mantle from the immensely successful B450-based predecessor. The MSI board offers a single PCI-Express 4.0 x16 slot, that's reinforced, one M.2 PCIe gen 4.0 x4 slot, a second M.2 slot that's gen 3.0 x4; and a number of x1 slots. The board uses a 14-phase CPU VRM to support CPU overclocking. Connectivity includes 802.11ax WLAN, 1 GbE wired networking, a premium ALC1220-based AudioBoost solution, and heatsinks over both M.2 slots. As a Carbon, it features plenty of RGB LED embellishments.
MSI MPG B550 Gaming Pro Carbon WiFi ASUS ROG Strix B550-E Gaming Gigabyte B550 Aorus Master ASRock B550 Taichi BIOSTAR Racing B550 GTQ

Five AMD A520 Chipset Motherboards Listed by ASUS

ASUS has apparently begun listing motherboards on the as-of-yet-unreleased, as-of-yet-undetailed AMD A520 chipset. Lower in the chipset rung than AMD's X570 and B550 chipsets, the A520 is expected to not offer any dedicated PCIe 4.0 lanes by itself - at most, motherboards will support the same 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes offered by AMD's CPUs, with the rest I/O being PCIe 3.0-based in order to further cut platform and chipset costs.

All of the A520 chipset motherboards listed by ASUS seem to be in the mATX form-factor - which again makes sense, as having the most basic chipset in order to cut costs and then using the same PCB real-estate as more expensive chipset solutions doesn't seem like a wise choice. The listed motherboards are the
PRIME A520M-A; PRIME A520M-E; PRIME A520M-K; TUF GAMING A520M-A; and TUF GAMING A520M-PLUS. As you can see, these motherboards are set in the ASUS TUF and Prime product lines - there's no mention of any Strix-branded products.

AMD Coming Around to Launching the Radeon RX 5600M and RX 5700M?

AMD is finally coming around to launching the Radeon RX 5600M and RX 5700M based on its 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon. The company has, until now, only shipped mobile GPUs using the smaller "Navi 14" chip. A scoop by Komachi Ensaka points to an upcoming notebook combining a Ryzen 4000-H processor an "Navi-10M" GPU. With the right combination of clock speeds and memory configuration, the RX 5600M could offer performance rivaling (or beating) the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (mobile), and possibly on par with the RTX 2060 (mobile). The RX 5700M could compete with the upcoming RTX 2060 Super (mobile) and RTX 2070 (mobile). The RX 5600M could be a particularly important solution, as its desktop compatriot is designed for higher refresh-rate 1080p gaming. Much of the gaming notebook scene still revolves around 1080p, with innovations in the areas of refresh rates.

AMD gave both the RX 5600M and RX 5700M identical GPU core configurations to their desktop variants. The RX 5600M has 2,304 stream processors, 144 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 192-bit GDDR6 memory interface holding 6 GB of memory; while the RX 5700M tops it with 256-bit wide memory bus and 8 GB of memory. Both the RX 5700M and RX 5600M are configured with 12 Gbps memory frequency. The RX 5600M ticks at 1190 MHz (game), and 1265 MHz (boost), while the RX 5700M does 1620 MHz (game) and 1720 MHz (boost). Coming back to Komachi's leak about the Renoir + Navi 10M notebook, we predict a working implementation of AMD SmartShift technology. The company even made marketing graphics of this.

MAINGEAR Launches Ultra High-End "MAINGEAR Pro WS" Workstation PC

MAINGEAR, an award-winning PC system integrator of custom gaming desktops, notebooks, and workstations, today launched the MAINGEAR Pro WS, a highly-versatile workstation designed to meet the needs of professional creatives and content producers, pairing best-in-class hardware configurations with MAINGEAR's lifetime customer support to deliver maximum performance and mission-critical reliability. The MAINGEAR Pro WS is available now in customizable and pre-configured systems for several leading creative applications, including "Recommended By Luxion (Makers of KeyShot)" MAINGEAR Pro WS configurations for 3D rendering.
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