AMD's Zen 3 architecture will power the next generation Ryzen 4000 desktop chips and the 3rd Gen EPYC lineup which are both expected to launch later this year. Adored TV has received some leaked information detailing the technical specifications of the Zen 3 architecture. The majority of the leaked information confirmed existing rumors such as the 8 core CCX, higher clocks and lower power draw.

However the leak suggests IPC improvements will be less than the expected 20% hinted at by AMD and may end up being closer to 10 - 15%. The leak also claims that L3 cache will remain at 32 MB however it will no longer be split due to the single CCX. While this may be disappointing for some, remember to take the claims with a grain of salt as with any rumor.

AMD and NVIDIA are the latest computing giants to join the HPC COVID-19 Consortium, they join the likes of Google, Amazon, Microsoft along with the US Federal Government and Academic Institutions in support of COVID-19 research. This announcement brings the combined power of the cluster to 402 petaflops which trails behind the community driven Folding@Home project which holds the record at 1,500 petaflops but is still more powerful than any one supercomputer.

Researchers can apply to the HPC COVID-19 Consortium for compute resources in the fight against COVID-19.

ORIGIN PC announced the availability of the all-new EON15-X gaming laptop and NS-15 workstation laptop, both powered by AMD Ryzen desktop processors with up to 12 cores and 24 threads. With a new chassis now 20% thinner and lighter compared to the previous generation, the EON15-X delivers on power and mobility.

Take advantage of 12 cores from the AMD Ryzen 9 3900 desktop processor inside the EON15-X and NS-15 laptops, perfect for multitasking such as gaming, streaming, content creation, and productivity. Enjoy desktop-level graphics and gameplay by adding an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card with Max-Q design. Run multiple apps at once with support for up to 32 GB of DDR4 RAM. Utilize a 15.6" 144Hz 1080p narrow bezel display for smoother gameplay and PC use. Compared to previous generation hardware, the all-new EON15-X and NS-15 laptops are 20% lighter and thinner, coming in at 5.9 pounds and 1.28 inches thin.

AMD today updated its Product Change Advisory with notes that its StoreMI software won't be available for download anymore. "AMD has decided to end-of-life the current version of the StoreMI technology, and effective March 31, 2020, AMD will no longer make this technology available for download on AMD.com. End users who download the current version of the StoreMI technology prior to March 31, 2020 may continue to use it thereafter (i.e. it will not be deactivated) but AMD will no longer provide any technical or end user support. Instead, AMD will focus its internal development resources on a replacement solution with a rearchitected feature set and a planned release window of 2Q20." - says the AMD Product Change Advisory website.

AMD's StoreMI technology offered users an option to combine up to 256 GB of SSD memory with a slower HDD, to provide "SSD like speeds with HDD like capacity", and it was supported from the second generation Ryzen processors until the current third generation, Ryzen 3000 series CPUs. Given that AMD is working on a replacement solution that is coming out in Q2, we expect that the new solution will be a better and more usable one, so we will report on it as soon as there is more information.

MATLAB received an update that no longer cripples users of AMD processors. Back in November 2019, there was quite some controversy when it emerged that MATLAB, a popular computing platform popular with engineering firms, universities, and research institutes, wasn't working optimally with AMD processors. Specifically, the suite's Intel MKL (math kernel library) component was designed such that if it didn't recognize the "GenuineIntel" CPUID string, it would disable fast AVX2 code-paths and fall back to SSE. This would inflict anywhere between 20-300 percent performance penalties on "AuthenticAMD" processors.

Reddit user Nedflanders1976 developed a tweak back in November, which spoofs MKL into thinking AMD processors are "GenuineIntel," enabling it to leverage modern instruction sets such as SSE4, AVX, and AVX2. AMD processors have been supporting SSE4 and AVX since its 2011 FX-series, and AVX2 since 2017 Ryzen. With the latest R2020a version, MATLAB automatically enables AVX2 execution on AMD processors that support the instruction set. A quick set of tests by ExtremeTech confirms that the update does indeed leverage the faster code-path by default, with Ryzen Threadripper 3960X and 3970X gaining over 200% performance and beating the Core i9-10980XE (something that needed the Nedflanders1976 tweak earlier).

Have you ever wondered how a laptop with a desktop CPU that has 16 cores and 32 threads would look like on a laptop? Well, today is your lucky day as XMG, a German laptop maker, has decided to launch a laptop that has AMD's latest and greatest desktop CPU - the Ryzen 3950X 16C/32T monster. The 3950X CPU, while featuring a regular TDP of 105 W, has been configured to 65 W in Eco Mode, and it runs anywhere from 2.6 to 4.2 GHz. The CPU also isn't soldered to the motherboard and there is a full AM4 socket, that is capable of housing any 3000 series desktop CPU.

Besides a powerful CPU, there are options for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or RTX 2070 graphics cards, which drive a 15.6-inch Full HD 144 Hz IPS panel equipped with anti-glare technology. The GPUs are a "Max-P incarnation" as XMG calls it, which presumably means that they are designed for maximum performance i.e. possibly higher boost speeds. Additionally, you can configure the laptop with up to 64 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM. This configuration, containing Ryzen 9 3950X, RTX 2070, 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB NVM, costs around 2631 EUR. For more configuration options, you can check out this website. Availability is supposed to be in 6-8 weeks.

Reviews of AMD's flagship mobile processor, the Ryzen 9 4900HS went live today, and the verdict is clear. Intel has lost both performance and battery-efficiency leadership over its most lucrative computing segment: mobile client computing. In a Hardware Unboxed review comparing the 4900H to Intel's current Core i9 flagship, the i9-9880H, the AMD chip at its stock 45 W TDP beats the Intel one even with the Intel chip configured to 90 W cTDP.

The 4900HS posts 11.9% higher CineBench R20 score (both chips are 8-core/16-thread) when the Intel chip is bolstered with 90 W cTDP, and a whopping 33% faster when the i9-9980H is at its stock settings, and 54% faster when its capped at 35 W cTDP. It also ends up over 150% faster than AMD's last fastest mobile processor, the 12 nm "Picasso" based Ryzen 7 3750H. The story repeats with CineBench R15 (4900H being 34% faster than stock i9-9880H), 18% faster at Handbrake HEVC, 25% faster at Blender "Classroom," and 35% faster at 7-Zip benchmark. The AMD chip lags behind by 12% in the less-parallelized Photoshop. On creativity apps that do scale with cores, such as Premiere "Warp Stabilizer 4K," the 4900HS is 12.6% faster. Gaming performance remains an even split between the two chips. Find several more interesting test results and commentary in the Hardware Unboxed presentation here. Intel has already announced a response to the 4900HS in the form of the i9-10980HK.

AMD today disclosed that in December 2019, it was contacted by a person in possession of test files related to development of future graphics products, some of which were posted online and later taken down. This person has additional files that were never posted online, but the company maintains the data breach won't affect the competitiveness or security of its upcoming graphics processors. The company said that it is working closely with law enforcement as part of a criminal investigation into the incident.

The statement by AMD follows:

At AMD, data security and the protection of our intellectual property are a priority. In December 2019, we were contacted by someone who claimed to have test files related to a subset of our current and future graphics products, some of which were recently posted online, but have since been taken down. While we are aware the perpetrator has additional files that have not been made public, we believe the stolen graphics IP is not core to the competitiveness or security of our graphics products. We are not aware of the perpetrator possessing any other AMD IP. We are working closely with law enforcement officials and other experts as a part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

TEAMGROUP today announces that T-FORCE VULCAN Z and DARK Z gaming memory will be the first to release the large capacity, 32 GB single stick memory. There are DDR4 2666 and DDR4 3000 two different frequency of memory modules available to offer desktop PC a complete selection of expansions. It can provide the powerful computer equipment with high storage speed and multitasking capabilities that creators need for video content creation and editing. It can also perfectly support all AMD and Intel's consumer platforms.

The invincible T-FORCE gaming series is your top choice in 2020 when it comes to large capacity upgrades. T-FORCE VULCAN Z and DARK Z, which are praised by the media around the world, will be the first to release the large capacity, 32 GB single stick memory. VULCAN Z launches DDR4-2666 MHz and DDR4-3000 MHz, two different frequencies of single channel kit and dual channel kit (32 GB X2). And DARK Z will mainly provide a DDR4-3000 MHz dual channel kit (32 GB X2). Consumers can choose a suitable specification based on their personal usage. Not only can process large files easily, but it can also upgrade capacity and handle multiple data computing at the same time. This can increase the applications of desktop computers.

Bitspower unveiled the Summit ELX line of CPU water blocks optimized for 3rd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors. The block's coolant channel is designed keeping in mind the layout of the "Castle Peak" MCM, such that coolant flows over even the CCDs farthest away from the center, which has the I/O controller die. This design should particularly benefit users of the Threadripper 3990X, which has eight CCDs. The block supports both sTRX4 and older TR4 sockets.

The primary material is nickel-plated copper, with a mirror finish at the base. There are three variants based on the type of top. The first one called "DRGB," (BP-CPUELXTRX40-DRGB), features a clear acrylic top with embedded addressable-RGB LEDs that plug into a standard 3-pin ARGB header. The second variant is called "Metal" (BP-CPUELXTRX40-MT), and features a metal alloy top with a chrome finish. The third variant, called "POM," (BP-CPUELXTRX40-POM), features a matte-black POM acetal top. The Summit ELX supports standard G 1/4" fittings, and measures 115 mm x 75 mm x 18 mm (LxWxH). The DRGB variant is priced at NTD 2,800, the Metal variant NTD 3,255, and the POM variant NTD 2,635.

AMD today announced in the form of a blog post that its upcoming graphics cards based on RDNA 2 architecture will feature support for Microsoft's latest DirectX 12 Ultimate API. "With this architecture powering both the next generation of AMD Radeon graphics cards and the forthcoming Xbox Series X gaming console, we've been working very closely with Microsoft to help move gaming graphics to a new level of photorealism and smoothness thanks to the four key DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics features -- DirectX Raytracing (DXR), Variable Rate Shading (VRS), Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback." - said AMD in the blog.

Reportedly, Microsoft and AMD have worked closely to enable this feature set and provide the best possible support for RDNA 2 based hardware, meaning that future GPUs and consoles are getting the best possible integration of the new API standard.

Microsoft Thursday released the DirectX 12 Ultimate logo. This is not a new API with any new features, but rather a differentiator for graphics cards and game consoles that support four key modern features of DirectX 12. This helps consumers recognize the newer and upcoming GPUs, and tell them apart from some older DirectX 12 capable GPUs that were released in the mid-2010s. For a GPU to be eligible for the DirectX 12 Ultimate logo, it must feature hardware acceleration for ray-tracing with the DXR API; must support Mesh Shaders, Variable Rate Shading (VRS), and Sampler Feedback (all of the four). The upcoming Xbox Series X console features this logo by default. Microsoft made it absolutely clear that the DirectX 12 Ultimate logo isn't meant as a compatibility barrier, and that these games will work on older hardware, too.

As it stands, the "Navi"-based Radeon RX 5000 series are "obsolete", just like some Turing cards from the GeForce GTX 16-series. At this time, the only shipping product which features the logo is NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 20-series and the TITAN RTX, as they support all the above features.

AMD released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition drivers just in time for Asia and ANZ regions to begin "razing hell" with DOOM Eternal. Version 20.3.1 adds day-one optimization for DOOM Eternal, including an up to 5 percent performance improvement with "Ultra Nightmare" graphics settings. Optimization is also added for "Half Life: Alyx" and the Vulkan API mode of "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint." The drivers also add a few Vulkan extensions: VK_EXT_post_depth_coverage (only supported on RDNA or later graphics architectures); VK_KHR_shader_non_semantic_info, VK_EXT_texel_buffer_alignment, and VK_EXT_pipeline_creation_cache_control. Grab the drivers from the link below and raze hell!

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 20.3.1 BetaThe change log follows.

BIOSTAR, a leading brand of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today announces the A68N-2100K SoC motherboard that comes with an in-built AMD E1-6010 Processor. Throughout many decades, BIOSTAR has been revered as one of the best manufacturers of robust, highly reliable motherboards with a wide array of models on both Intel and AMD platforms to choose from and a plethora of supplementary components catering to many user preferences globally.

Modern technology meets sleek, refined form factor as BIOSTAR's A68N-2100K SoC Mini-ITX motherboard is unveiled to the world with an inbuilt AMD E1-6010 Processor and support for AMD Radeon R2 Graphics.

AMD earlier this week trimmed prices of its retail 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processors in the US, through promotions exclusive to Newegg and Amazon. The company is also including 3-month Xbox Game Pass subscriptions with select models. The discounts see the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X go for $449, $50 lower than its MSRP of $499. The company's fastest 8-core/16-thread part, the Ryzen 7 3800X, is now going for $359, or $40 lower than its $399 MSRP. The popular Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core/16-thread chip is selling for $304, a $25 discount from its $329 MSRP. AMD is applying similar $25 cuts to its 6-core/12-thread parts, with the Ryzen 5 3600X going for $224 compared to its $249 MSRP, and the popular Ryzen 5 3600 priced at $174 compared to its $199 MSRP.

Sony in a YouTube stream keynote by PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny, detailed the upcoming entertainment system's hardware. There are three key areas where the company has invested heavily in driving forward the platform by "balancing revolutionary and evolutionary" technologies. A key design focus with PlayStation 5 is storage. Cerny elaborated on how past generations of the PlayStation guided game developers' art direction as the low bandwidths and latencies of optical discs and HDDs posed crippling latencies arising out of mechanical seeks, resulting in infinitesimally lower data transfer rates than what the media is capable of in best case scenario (seeking a block of data from its outermost sectors). SSD was the #1 most requested hardware feature by game developers during the development of PS5, and Sony responded with something special.

Each PlayStation 5 ships with a PCI-Express 4.0 x4 SSD with a flash controller that has been designed in-house by Sony. The controller features 12 flash channels, and is capable of at least 5.5 GB/s transfer speeds. When you factor in the exponential gains in access time, Sony expects the SSD to provide a 100x boost in effective storage sub-system performance, resulting in practically no load times.

A report via DigiTimes paints a bleak image on shipments for motherboards and GPUs. According to the publication, citing sources close to motherboard makers, the initial impact of the outbreak severely affected production - and the entire supply chain ecosystem needed to ferry these across the world. Alongside reduced demand in China (reported to be down 50% YoY and unlikely to pick up until July at the earliest) and other countries, the stage is set for a record low in some of our most favored hardware pieces.

Market observers had expected a seasonal increase in demand entering Q3 2020 which may never come to fruition, as DigiTimes also mentions AMD, Intel and NVIDIA as being unlikely to achieve their target sales for this time period. The reduced demand could see prices come down on components and various hardware pieces, should it linger for longer than the fabrication bottlenecks factories are currently facing. Some publications are pointing towards this drop in demand as a reason for NVIDIA to delay their expected GTC announcements, which the company's CEO, Jensen Huang, has already come out saying "Could wait".

Today, The Khronos Group, an open consortium of industry-leading companies creating advanced interoperability standards, announces the ratification and public release of the Vulkan Ray Tracing provisional extensions, creating the industry's first open, cross-vendor, cross-platform standard for ray tracing acceleration. Primarily focused on meeting desktop market demand for both real-time and offline rendering, the release of Vulkan Ray Tracing as provisional extensions enables the developer community to provide feedback before the specifications are finalized. Comments and feedback will be collected through the Vulkan GitHub Issues Tracker and Khronos Developer Slack. Developers are also encouraged to share comments with their preferred hardware vendors. The specifications are available today on the Vulkan Registry.

Ray tracing is a rendering technique that realistically simulates how light rays intersect and interact with scene geometry, materials, and light sources to generate photorealistic imagery. It is widely used for film and other production rendering and is beginning to be practical for real-time applications and games. Vulkan Ray Tracing seamlessly integrates a coherent ray tracing framework into the Vulkan API, enabling a flexible merging of rasterization and ray tracing acceleration. Vulkan Ray Tracing is designed to be hardware agnostic and so can be accelerated on both existing GPU compute and dedicated ray tracing cores if available.

Here is the first die visualization of AMD's new "Renoir" processor. Having made its debut with Ryzen 4000 series mobile processors, "Renoir" succeeds a decade-long legacy of AMD APUs that combine CPUs with powerful iGPUs. AMD designed "Renoir" on TSMC's 7 nm silicon fabrication process. The die measures 156 mm², and has a transistor-count of 9.8 billion. The die shot reveals distinct areas that look like the processor's 8 CPU cores, a cluster of GPU compute units, the integrated memory controllers, southbridge, and PHYs for the chip's various I/O.

"Renoir" features 8 CPU cores based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture, divided into two 4-core CCXs (CPU complexes). Unlike on 8-core chiplets meant for "Matisse" or "Rome" MCMs, the "Renoir" CCX only features 4 MB of shared L3 cache, probably because latencies to the memory controller are low enough. The L2 cache per core is unchanged at 512 KB. The "total cache" (L2 + L3 on silicon) adds up to 12 MB. The iGPU of "Renoir" is a hybrid between "Vega" and "Navi." The SIMD components are carried over from "Vega," while the display- and multimedia engines are from "Navi." The iGPU features 8 NGCUs that add up to 512 stream processors. Infinity Fabric covers much of the die area, connecting the various components on the die. AMD introduced a new dual-channel integrated memory controller that supports LPDDR4x at up to 4233 MHz, and standard DDR4 up to 3200 MHz.

Microsoft just put out of the complete hardware specs-sheet of its next-generation Xbox Series X entertainment system. The list of hardware can go toe to toe with any modern gaming desktop, and even at its production scale, we're not sure if Microsoft can break-even at around $500, possibly counting on game and DLC sales to recover some of the costs and turn a profit. To begin with the semi-custom SoC at the heart of the beast, Microsoft partnered with AMD to deploy its current-generation "Zen 2" x86-64 CPU cores. Microsoft confirmed that the SoC will be built on the 7 nm "enhanced" process (very likely TSMC N7P). Its die-size is 360.45 mm².

The chip packs 8 "Zen 2" cores, with SMT enabling 16 logical processors, a humongous step up from the 8-core "Jaguar enhanced" CPU driving the Xbox One X. CPU clock speeds are somewhat vague. It points to 3.80 GHz nominal and 3.66 GHz with SMT enabled. Perhaps the console can toggle SMT somehow (possibly depending on whether a game requests it). There's no word on the CPU's cache sizes.

Microsoft's upcoming Xbox Series X entertainment system is shaping up to be a technological monstrosity. Xbox group head at Microsoft, Phil Spencer, last revealed a picture of its semi-custom SoC back in January, by setting it as his Twitter display picture. Over the following weeks, many more technical details, such as the chip's 12 TFLOP/s combined compute power, would be let out. Spencer updated his display picture revealing a segment of the Xbox Series X mainboard with the SoC and memory chips surrounding it. The picture reveals the large SoC package in the center, surrounded on three sides by ten memory chips, possibly GDDR6, each with its own wiring to the SoC. This indicates that the SoC features a 320-bit wide memory interface.

As for the memory density, there's no way to tell. It could be 10 GB if those are 8 Gbit memory chips, or 20 GB if those are 16 Gbit. It boils down to which device the Xbox Series X the company wants to succeed. The Xbox One S features 8 GB of DDR3, while the spruced up Xbox One X features 12 GB of GDDR5. If the new Xbox Series X succeeds the latter, then it could very well feature 20 GB, more so given Microsoft's lofty design goals (4K UHD gaming with real-time ray-tracing). Microsoft leverages hUMA to use a common memory pool for both the CPU and GPU. Designed in collaboration with AMD on a TSMC 7 nm-class node (likely the N7P), the SoC features "Zen 2" CPU cores, and a GPU based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture.

ASUS today unveiled its top-spec ROG Strix GA35 series gaming desktop, the GA35-G35DX. This pre-built desktop comes with some serious hardware specs geared toward AAA gaming at 4K UHD resolution and future-proofing for many years. Under the hood is a potent combination of an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X 16-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics, an ROG Strix X570 motherboard, and 64 GB of DDR4-3200 memory. Storage includes a 1 TB PCI-Express 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe SSD, and a 2 TB SATA HDD. 802.11ac WLAN with Bluetooth 5.1, 1 GbE Ethernet, and SupremeFX integrated audio make for the rest of it.

ASUS is using a 240 mm AIO liquid CPU cooler for the Ryzen 9 3950X, while the graphics card retains ASUS's custom-cooling solution for the ROG Strix A11G variant of the RTX 2080 Ti. The ASUS in-house design case features several RGB embellishments which, along the with AIO and graphics card, can be controlled using the Aura Sync tab in Armory Crate. The case features a plastic handle along the top. The front hides a panel that reveals two 2.5-inch hot-swap drive bays with SATA 6 Gbps back-planes. Front-panel connectivity includes two USB 3.1 type-C, two USB 3.1 type-A, and HDA jacks. A 700 W 80 Plus PSU powers it. The desktop ships with Windows 10 Pro pre-installed. The company didn't reveal pricing.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. Version 2.30.0 introduces several new feature- and stability updates, and adds support for new GPUs. To begin with, support is added for AMD Radeon RX 590 GME, Radeon Pro W5500, Pro V7350x2, FirePro 2260, and Instinct MI25 MxGPU; Intel UHD (Core i5-10210Y), and a rare GeForce GTS 450 Rev 2. TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.30.0 introduces support for reporting hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows 10 20H1 in the Advanced tab. The tab now also has the ability to show WDDM 2.7, Shader Model 6.6, DirectX Mesh Shaders, and DXR tier 1.1. A workaround for the DirectML detection on Windows 10 19041 built has been added. Graphics driver registry path is now displayed in the General section of the Advanced tab.

In the Sensors tab, the NVIDIA VDDC sensor has been renamed to "GPU voltage," and AMD's "GPU only power draw" sensor to "GPU chip-only power draw" to clarify that the sensor only measures the power draw of the GPU package and not the whole graphics card. AMD "Renoir" based processors and their iGPUs now show up as 7 nm. Windows Basic Display driver now no longer reports its status as WHQL or Beta. A crash during DirectX 12 detection has been fixed.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.30.0

The change-log follows.

Stock markets around the world are experiencing a spectacular crash riding on COVID-19 investor fears, wiping out trillions of Dollars in investor wealth worldwide. Prominent indices around the world report some of the highest intra-day falls since the 2008 financial crisis. Tech stocks are hardly immune, with AMD reporting a 14.64% fall in share price settling down at 39.01 (it was over 48 right after the company's 2020 Financial Analyst Day just last week). NVIDIA is another big loser at the markets, with a 12.24% fall and 216.31 share price. Intel is right behind, with a 11.85% fall down to 45.54, and Micron Technology down 11.23% at 38.81.

BIOSTAR has been a manufacturer of robust and highly reliable motherboards for many years and has a wide range of models on both Intel and AMD platforms to choose from and a plethora of supplementary components catering to many user preferences.

Designed in the Mini-ITX form factor, the new BIOSTAR A10N-9630E motherboard is built with form and functionality to rival everything else in the market. With an inbuilt AMD A10-9630P quad-core processor and support for AMD Radeon R5 graphics, the BIOSTAR A10N-9630E is sleek, reliable and affordable suited for consumers who like to run basic tasks such as browsing the web, sending emails and running office applications and is perfect for many industrial applications because its ultra-small Mini-ITX form factor suited for small builds that save office space creating a neat, tidy workspace. The A10N-9630E motherboard is also designed for edge computing with better performance and low power consumption.