Ahead of its launch, AMD's mainstream Ryzen 5 2500X quad-core processor made its first appearance in an OEM pre-built desktop, the Acer Nitro N50-100. The 2500X is a 4-core/8-thread part clocked at 3.60 GHz with 4.00 GHz boost, and XFR 2.0 boosting it further. It's expected to be launched alongside the new entry-level Ryzen 3 2300X and the HEDT Ryzen Threadripper 2000 series processors later this year.

Priced at 943.50€, the Acer Nitro N50-100 combines the AMD Ryzen 5 2500X with a Radeon RX 580 4 GB graphics card, and 8 GB of single-channel DDR4 memory. It also features 256 GB of SSD storage, and a 1 TB secondary HDD. Connectivity includes 802.11 b/g/n WLAN, USB 3.1 gen 2, and DVD-RW ODD. Windows 10 Home comes pre-installed. You can customize this desktop with faster socket AM4 processor options, more RAM, and bigger SSDs.

EK Water Blocks, the Slovenia-based premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer is releasing a new AM4 socket based monoblock tailor-made for the MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard. The EK-FB MSI X470 Pro Carbon RGB Monoblock has an integrated 4-pin RGB LED strip and it offers unparallel aesthetics alongside with superior performance! The RGB LED in the monoblock is compatible with MSI Mystic Light Sync, thus offering a full lighting customization experience.

This is a complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for the MSI X470 Gaming Pro Carbon motherboard that supports the second generation of AMD Ryzen and 7th Generation A-series/Athlon processors.

The folks over at Computerbase.de have took it into their hands to study exactly how much of an impact >(if any) would activating HDR on a 4K panel affect performance cross different hardware configurations. Supposedly, HDR shouldn't impose any performance penalty on GPUs that were designed to already consider that output on a hardware level; however, as we know, expectations can sometimes be wrong.

Airports are the latest battleground for AMD and Intel as the two vie to catch the attention of IT managers in the midst of an AI and big-data inflection point that promises to trigger a gold rush for enterprise processors. AMD took to San Jose International Airport with its latest AMD EPYC static ads targeted at IT managers stuck with Intel Xeon for its historic market leadership. AMD EPYC processors offer "more performance, more security, and more value" than Intel Xeon processors, the ads claim, but not before landing a mean punch in the general area of Intel's belt.

AMD appears to have begun testing of its third APU for the socket AM4 platform, codenamed "Picasso." The code-name saw first light some 10 months ago, when it was described as AMD's APU product for 2019. The integrated graphics core of "Picasso" made its way to UserBenchmark database under the device ID "15D8." There are no benchmark results associated with this chip, yet. OIder slides described "Picasso" as being a slightly improved variant of "Raven Ridge," with improvements to out of the box performance and performance/Watt. It's likely that the chip is essentially "Raven Ridge" fabricated on the 12 nm node, with tweaks to the chip's on-die software. 2019 will also see AMD introduce its first chips based on the "Zen 2" architecture.

With Intel frantically working on an 8-core socket LGA1151 processor to convincingly beat the 8-core AMD Ryzen 2000 series processor, AMD could be working on the next cycle of core-count increases for the mainstream-desktop platform. Motherboard maker MSI may have dropped the first hint that AMD is bringing >8 cores to the socket AM4 mainstream-desktop platform by mentioning that its upcoming motherboards based on the AMD B450 chipset support 8-core "and up" CPU in a marketing video.

AMD will get its next opportunity to tinker with key aspects of its CPU micro-architecture with "Zen 2," being built on the 7 nm silicon fabrication process. If it decides to stick with the CCX approach to multi-core processors, the company could increase per-CCX core counts. A 50 percent core-count increase enables 12-core processors, while a 100 percent increase brings 16-cores to the AM4 platform. MSI video confirms that these >8-core processors will have backwards-compatibility with existing 400-series chipsets, even if they launch alongside newer 500-series chipset.The video follows.

Analyst Kevin Cassidy, responsible for AMD shares rating with Stifel, has revised expected AMD growth in the wake of expected (and already verified) PC market growth. Following the news at the end of last week, AMD shares jumped by 5% on Friday, and increased by another 2% on Monday. This marks an increase of 61.3% YTD (year-to-date.) Looking at this trend, the analyst increased his 12-month price target on the stock to $21 from $17, a nearly 27% upside from Monday close.

As independent third-party experts in the software quality assurance and testing industry for over 20 years, QA Consultants has conducted over 5,000+ mission-critical projects and has extensive testing experience and depth in various industries. Based in Toronto, Ontario, QA Consultants is the largest on-shore software quality assurance company, with a 30,000 sq. ft., industry-grade facility called The Test Factory.

AMD today announced key promotions that extend senior-level focus on company growth. AMD named "Zen" chief architect Mike Clark an AMD corporate fellow; promoted Darren Grasby to senior vice president of global Computing and Graphics sales and AMD president for Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA); and promoted Robert Gama to senior vice president and chief human resources officer.

"We believe the opportunities ahead of us are tremendous as we execute on our long-term strategy and exciting product roadmap," said Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "As leaders, Mike, Darren, and Robert have made significant contributions to our success so far, and these promotions elevate their impact at AMD as we accelerate company growth going forward."

AMD today rolled out the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin. Version 18.7.1 drivers come with optimization for "Earthfall," with up to 28 percent more performance measured on Radeon RX Vega 56 and up to 28 percent more performance to be had on the RX 580 8 GB, at 1440; and up to 27 percent higher performance measured at 1080p, on the RX 560 4 GB.

The drivers also address a number of bugs, including random crash noticed in "Fortnite Season 5," when rendering throwing stars. Flickering noticed on "Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice" has been fixed. The drivers also fix a bug of not all compatible display modes appearing in Windows; slower than expected performance in Corel Draw, and black screen noticed during boot on displays connected via DisplayPort. A bug with memory clocks remaining high (i.e. not spooling down at lower power states), when changing resolutions or refresh-rates, has also been fixed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.7.1

The change-log follows.

GIGABYTE is ready with two Aorus branded motherboards based on the upcoming AMD B450 mid-range socket AM4 chipset. These include the B450 Aorus Pro in the ATX form-factor, and the micro-ATX B450 Aorus M. The B450 Aorus Pro packs many of the features you'd expect from a more expensive board based on the pricier X470 chipset. The board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, conditioning it for the AM4 SoC using a 11-phase VRM with high-current chokes. The AM4 SoC is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, and the board's sole reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The second x16 slot is physically gen 3.0 x4 and shares its lanes with the top M.2-22110 slot; which is wired directly to the AM4 SoC. With an M.2 SSD installed, auto-switching gates the second x16 AIC slot. The third x16 slot is gen 2.0 x4, and wired to the chipset. The second M.2-2280 slot is gen 2.0 x4, too. A single PCIe x1 slot makes for the rest of the expansion.

Both M.2 slots on the B450 Aorus Pro feature heatsinks. Six SATA 6 Gbps ports, from which two come from the AM4 SoC, make for the rest of the storage connectivity. As part of the "gamer-grade" varnishing, this board gets rather high-end onboard audio, including a Realtek ALC1220 (120 dBA SNR) codec with EMI shielding, audio-grade WIMA and Muse capacitors, and ground layer isolation. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 type 2 ports (one each of type-A and type-C); and six USB 3.1 gen 1 (four on the rear panel, two by headers). Display outputs include DVI and HDMI. The sole networking connectivity is a 1 GbE interface. Its controller is unknown. You get RGB LED illumination and headers, and an integrated rear I/O shield.

Sapphire introduced the FS-FP5V, a mini-ITX (147.3 mm x 139.7 mm) SFF motherboard designed for AIO desktops, digital signage boxes, and compact desktops. At the heart of this board is an AMD Ryzen Embedded V1000 series FP5 SoC based on the 14 nm "Raven Ridge" silicon. Since this SoC also integrates a southbridge, the board is practically chipset-less. The Ryzen Embedded V1000 chip is configured with a 4-core/8-thread "Zen" CPU clocked at 2.00 GHz with 3.35 GHz boost, and 4 MB L3 cache. The iGPU is a Radeon Vega 11, which may look overkill, but is required to pull the four DisplayPort 1.4 outputs of this board (handy for digital-signage applications).

The Ryzen Embedded V1000 is wired to two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots, supporting up to 32 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2933 memory. Storage connectivity includes an M.2-2280 slot with PCI-Express 3.0 x4 wiring, an M.2 E-key slot with x1 wiring for WLAN cards; and a SATA 6 Gbps port. Networking options include two 1 GbE interfaces. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 gen 1 ports at the rear-panel, and two USB 3.1 gen 1 ports (direct ports) at the front side of the board, one each of type-A and type-C. Stereo HD audio makes for the rest of it. The board draws power from either 2-pin DC (external) or 4-pin ATX.

BenQ, leading global innovator of displays, today announced its latest milestone in visual technology, earning VESA DisplayHDR 400 and AMD FreeSync 2 certifications for the EX3203R entertainment monitor. Featuring dazzling HDR performance with stunning gaming capabilities, the curved 32" display delivers immersive viewing and gaming experiences protected by BenQ Brightness Intelligence Plus (B.I. +) eye-care technology.

"EX3203R ingeniously blends HDR image quality together with B.I. +, guaranteeing dark details remain crystal clear even in dim environments while softening bright images," said Conway Lee, President of BenQ Corporation. "With FreeSync 2 for ultimate gameplay, EX3203R provides endless personal entertainment in absolute health and comfort safeguarded by BenQ Eye Care."

Today, AMD and Ubisoft have raised the bar for fluid, vivid HDR gaming thanks to a new patch from Ubisoft bringing FreeSync 2 HDR support to Far Cry 5. Radeon gamers with supporting FreeSync 2 HDR monitors can select the option for FreeSync 2 while fighting to save Hope Country. FreeSync 2 HDR brings the content displayed on compatible monitors one step closer to the artistic vision of the developer by targeting the display's brightness, contrast and color gamut capabilities directly.

To take advantage of FreeSync 2 HDR technology, gamers must choose a FreeSync 2 HDR-branded monitor, which ensures at least twice the perceivable color gamut and dynamic range than an SDR display.

It's been interesting to see how the industry's giants try and find ways to rejuvenate themselves with blood from other companies - and there's got to be no better feeling than taking someone from under a competitor's mantle. It's the old two kills with one stone adage, really: one reinforces one's position by hampering a competitors'. But until now, it seemed most high-profile movements between AMD and Intel were a game of squash, with Intel claiming AMD's chief graphics division experts such as Raja Koduri and Chris Hook.

Now, AMD has seemingly turned the game into a sort of tennis encounter, having successfully headhunted Intel's Martin Ashton, formerly "Vice President, Core and Visual Computing Group, Chief Engineer, VTT and Director of Hardware and Co-Director of Architecture, VPG at Intel." Martin Ashton, as the extensive position descriptor somewhat cloudily states, was an important piece of Intel's overall graphics strategy - though arguably not as important as the players Intel snagged from AMD. Still, Martin Ashton has long-standing roots on the graphics landscape, particularly at Imagination Technologies; and AMD's David Wang seems to think he's a great fit for the team - and AMD's vision. He's now part of AMD as Corporate Vice President.Martin Ashton, left, and David Wang, right

Chinese chipmaker Hygon began mass-producing its first x86 processors codenamed "Dhyana" based on AMD's "Zen" micro-architecture. The processor is the fruition of a deal AMD entered with a Chinese state-owned company back in mid-2016. As part of this deal, a company called Haiguang Microelectronics Company (HMC), in which AMD has a 51 percent stake, would license the "Zen" architecture to another company called Hygon (Chengdu Haiguang Integrated Circuit Design Co.), in which AMD owns a 30 percent stake. Hygon would then design "Dhyana," and a third entity (likely TSMC or some other Chinese foundry), would contract-manufacture the chip.

Such legal gymnastics is necessary to ensure AMD makes good on the $293 million it will take from the Chinese firms to license "Zen," while not breaching the x86 architecture cross-licensing agreement it signed with Intel, the core x86 IP owner. Chinese firms are going through all this trouble to build "Dhyana" instead of simply placing a large order of EPYC processors not just because they want more control over the supply and pricing of these chips, but probably also to ensure that China can keep an eye on all the on-die software that makes the processor tick, and weed out any backdoors to foreign governments (*cough*NSA*cough*).

A report via PCGamesN points to some... interesting performance positioning when it comes to NVIDIA and AMD offerings. Battlefield V is being developed by DICE in collaboration with NVIDIA, but it seems there's some sand in the gears of performance improvements as of now. I say this because according to the report, AMD's RX 580 8 GB graphics card (the only red GPU to be tested) bests NVIDIA's GTX 1060 6GB... by quite a considerable margin at that.

The performance difference across both 1080p and 1440p scenarios (with Ultra settings) ranges in the 30% mark, and as has been usually the case, AMD's offerings are bettering NVIDIA's when a change of render - to DX12 - is made - AMD's cards teeter between consistency or worsening performance under DX 12, but NVIDIA's GTX 1060 consistently delivers worse performance levels. Perhaps we're witnessing some bits of AMD's old collaboration efforts with DICE? Still, It's too early to cry wolf right now - performance will only likely improve between now and the October 19th release date.

Late May 2018, TechPowerUp started a front-page poll asking people which processor they use. 37 days and 16,140 responses later, we have a general idea of where the desktop processor market stands among our readers (predominantly PC gamers and enthusiasts). The top-two responses to our survey were 4th generation Core "Haswell," followed by the preceding two generations ("Ivy Bridge" and "Sandy Bridge"). This speaks volumes as to the hole Intel dug itself into, due to lack of competition from AMD. Processors that are 4-7 years old still run today's gaming PCs, and don't bottleneck today's games, as long as graphics cards keep getting faster (where there has been relatively more competition than the CPU market).

Despite being newer, fewer respondents use 6th generation "Skylake" and 7th generation "Kaby Lake" processors than older generations, because those on something like 4th generation "Haswell" or even "Ivy Bridge," don't see the value in upgrading. But then something changed in 2017 - AMD became competitive again, and forced an increase in CPU core counts across the segment. AMD's Ryzen processor family, including both its 1st and 2nd generations, are better received in the market than Intel's competing 8th generation "Coffee Lake" and 7th generation "Kaby Lake." The data stands to validate the "Ryzen effect," the idea that the introduction of Ryzen disrupted Intel's near-monopoly, increased core-counts, and brought innovation back to the segment.

ASRock rolled out its first Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards under its Phantom Gaming series. These cards stick to AMD reference board design, and aren't much to talk about. The ASRock RX Vega 56 Phantom Gaming X sticks to reference clock speeds of 1156-1471 MHz core and 800 MHz memory; while the RX Vega 64 ticks at 1247-1546 MHz core, and 945 MHz memory. Both cards draw power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors; display outputs include three DisplayPorts and an HDMI. The cards could be launched at close-to-stock prices owing to a slump in demand from crypto-currency miners.Many Thanks to ne6togadno for the tip.

It seems that the marketing money is flowing once again at AMD - certainly buoyed by the company's mainstream, enthusiast and professional success with its Ryzen, Threadripper and Epyc series of processors. The event, being organized between AMD and Ferrari, has been confirmed by multiple sources, according to Videocardz, and should be focused on AMD's upcoming Threadripper 2000 series. Being one of Ferrari's sponsors for its Formula 1 team, the company is likely taking advantage of that fact to ease into such a high profile partnership - as well it should. The event is expected to take place in the last week of July - maybe time for a Threadripper 2000 an announcement with a spin on AMD's solutions being employed for simulations, providing the crunching power that is behind every F1?

Intel's strategy against AMD's unexpected doubling in core-counts of its Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors has been that of a headless chicken in a room painted Vantablack. It announced a 28-core processor that would require you to buy a new motherboard; and is frantically working on a 22-core processor for the existing LGA2066 platform. It's looking like AMD isn't in a mood to walk into Intel's core-count trap, and could hit Intel where it hurts the most - pricing. The top-dog 32-core part has already reared its head on German web-stores, seeking a little over 1,500€, just 500€ more than the price its previous-generation 16-core flagship, the Threadripper 1950X launched at. At 1,500€-ish, AMD could end up disrupting Intel's entire >10-core lineup that's priced between $1199 to $1999, currently occupied by 12-core, 14-core, 16-core, and 18-core SKUs.

AMD may not spare Intel's sub-$1000 Core X lineup, either. Prices of first-generation Ryzen Threadripper processors are seeing a dramatic drop, with the flagship Threadripper 1950X being priced under 650€. Prices of the 12-core Threadripper 1920X have slipped to just under 550€. The Core i9-7900X, meanwhile, continues to command a touch over 880€. The drop in prices of first-gen Threadrippers is likely retailers trying to clear out inventories to make room for 2nd generation Threadrippers. It could also be a prelude to AMD announcing more affordable 12-core and 16-core Threadrippers based on the 2nd generation "Zen+" architecture.

It's becoming clear that AMD is naming its 32-core flagship HEDT processor Ryzen Threadripper 2990X. The chip was even listed on a German online retailer for a little over 1,500€, which if it turns out to be true, could spell doom and gloom for Intel's Core X HEDT processor lineup, as it could demolish the price-performance equations of every Intel SKU priced 1,000€ and above.

Thai PC enthusiast Tum Apisak scored a screenshot of this chip lurking around on 3DMark database. The screenshot hints at the possible clock speeds of the 2990X, with a rather healthy nominal clocks of 3.00 GHz, with boost frequencies of 3.80 GHz. XFR 2.0 could automatically overclock the chip even beyond the boost frequency, if your cooling is up to the task. The screenshot also reveals that this database submission was made by someone testing the processor, as a prototype motherboard codenamed "Whitehaven OPS rev B CF4" is listed. AMD is expected to launch its 2nd generation Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors, based on the 12 nm "Zen+" architecture, some time in Q3-2018.

GIGABYTE continues our active development of new AMD EPYC platforms with the release of the 2U 4 Node H261-Z60, the first AMD EPYC variant of our Density Optimized Server Series. The H261-Z60 combines 4 individual hot pluggable sliding node trays into a 2U server box. The node trays slide in and out easily from the rear of the unit.

EPYC Performance
Each node supports dual AMD EPYC 7000 series processors, with up to 32 cores, 64 threads and 8 channels of memory per CPU. Therefore, each node can feature up to 64 cores and 128 threads of compute power. Memory wise, each socket utilizes EPYC's 8 channels of memory with 1 x DIMM per channel / 8 x DIMMS per socket, for a total capacity of 16 x DIMMS per node (over 2TB of memory supported per each node ).

AMD earlier this month announced that it is simply renaming its new FreeSync 2 standard as FreeSync 2 HDR, since it already incorporates hardware HDR, even though HDR is but one among many new features introduced with FreeSync 2. This caused some controversy as some FreeSync 2-certified monitors, which could now be plastered with FreeSync 2 HDR stickers, barely meet VESA's DisplayHDR 400 standards. AMD released a detailed statement to TechPowerUp, in which it clarified that FreeSync 2 HDR in no way lowers the bar for HDR, and that its certification program is both separate from and predates VESA DisplayHDR standards.

Essentially, AMD claims that all FreeSync 2 HDR-certified displays exceed DisplayHDR 400 requirements, but not all meet the DisplayHDR 600 minimums. In such cases, monitor manufacturers may stick both DisplayHDR 400 and AMD FreeSync 2 HDR logos in their specs-sheets or the product itself, but that doesn't mean that their monitors can only put out 400 nits brightness. The statement follows.

With Moore's Law being pronounced as within its death throes, historic monolithic die designs are becoming increasingly expensive to manufacture. It's no secret that both AMD and NVIDIA have been exploring an MCM (Multi-Chip-Module) approach towards diverting from monolithic die designs over to a much more manageable, "chiplet" design. Essentially, AMD has achieved this in different ways with its Zen line of CPUs (two CPU modules of four cores each linked via the company's Infinity Fabric interconnect), and their own R9 and Vega graphics cards, which take another approach in packaging memory and the graphics processing die in the same silicon base - an interposer.