TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the graphics subsystem information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility PC enthusiasts swear by. Version 2.3.0 adds support for new GPUs, and comes with several under the hood improvements. To begin with, GPU-Z 2.3.0 adds official support for AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56; Radeon Pro WX 7100 and WX 3100; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, GeForce MX150, and Quadro M2200. We've added a new VRM efficiency monitoring feature, and VDDC/VDDCI power readings for AMD "Polaris" based graphics cards. Also addressed are bugs with GPU and memory activity monitoring on Radeon RX 500 series; missing or incorrect information on AMD graphics cards running on 17.7.2 drivers; and a rare crash on machines with AMD CrossFire configurations.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.3.0

The change-log follows.

AMD's RX Vega is more along the lines of an original computing card that was moved over to the consumer segment for gaming workloads than the other way around. Raja Koduri himself has said something along those lines (extrapolating a little more than what he can actually say), and that much can be gleaned with at least a modicum of confidence through AMD's market positioning and overall computing push. In the argument between gamers and miners, Raja Koduri didn't have all that much to say, but for AMD, a sale is a sale, and it would seem that after some tweaking, RX Vega graphics cards can achieve much increased levels of mining efficiency than their Polaris counterparts, further showing how Vega handles compute workloads much better - and more efficiently - than traditional gaming ones.

Processor sales numbers of leading German retailer Mindfactory.de show AMD Ryzen processors to be outselling Intel processors for the first time in over a decade. German and EU DIY PC buyers seem to have developed a taste for AMD Ryzen processors, which is reflecting in Mindfactory's sales figures. Since March 2017, when AMD launched its Ryzen 7 series, AMD processor sales have seen a steady growth from 28% (vs. 72% of Intel), to a stunning 56% by the end of August 2017. Mindfactory's sales is a test case of AMD's growth in the DIY processor market, which forced Intel to rush in its Core X family, and its 8th generation Core processor family, which could be out in Q3-2017.

Ryzen 5 1600 appears to be the most popular AMD choice among Mindfactory's customers, as the 6-core/12-thread processor strikes a price-performance sweet-spot at 198€. The chip is outselling the similarly-priced Core i5-7500 by two times, and the i5-7600K by three times. The 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 1700 is the second most popular AMD Ryzen part, priced at 288€. From the Intel camp, the Core i7-7700K still commands the single biggest chunk of Mindfactory's CPU sales. As expected, the Ryzen 7 1700X outsells the 1800X by five times. Also, the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X is outselling the Core i9-7900X by over three times. Find more interesting data in the beautifully drawn graphs by Redditor "Type-21."

In what is usually described as a tweetstorm, AMD's RTG leader Raja Koduri weighed in on AMD's RX Vega reception and perception from both the public and reviewers. There are some interesting tidbits there; namely, AMD's option of setting the RX vega parts at frequencies and voltages outside the optimal curve for power/performance ratios, in a bid to increase attractiveness towards the performance/$ crowds.

However, it can be said that if AMD had done otherwise, neither gamers nor reviewers would have been impressed with cards that potentially delivered less performance than their NVIDIA counterparts, while consuming more power all the same (even if consuming significantly less wattage). At the rated MSRP (and that's a whole new discussion), this RTG decision was the best one towards increasing attractiveness of RX Vega offerings. However, Raja Koduri does stress Vega's dynamic performance/watt ratios, due to the usage of specially defined power profiles.To our forum-walkers: this piece is marked as an editorial

G.Skill today announced quad-channel kits of its AMD Ryzen-friendly Flare X series, targeted at Ryzen Threadripper HEDT builds. The new 4-module kits come in speeds of DDR4-2133, DDR4-2400, and DDR4-3200; in module densities of 8 GB and 16 GB, making up 32 GB and 64 GB quad-channel kits, respectively; and in color-based variants of black and red. The top-dog DDR4-3200 variant runs at its advertised speeds with timings of 14-14-14-34, and a module voltage of 1.35V. The modules are backed by lifetime warranties; and are typically priced double those of G.Skill's 2-module (dual-channel) Flare X series kits.

At its pre-launch media conference call for the Ryzen Threadripper 1900X, AMD mentioned that the chip has been carved out from the common 4-die EPYC MCM using a "4-0-4-0 diagonal configuration," which led to some confusion as to which cores/dies AMD disabled to carve out the $549 8-core HEDT processor. The company shed some light on this matter, responding to questions from TechPowerUp.

It turns out, that the Threadripper 1900X features an entire CCX (quad-core CPU complex) disabled per active die on the multi-chip module, so the CCX that's enabled has 8 MB of L3 cache; and access to the die's entire uncore resources, such as the dual-channel memory controller, PCIe root complex, etc. With two such active "Zeppelin" dies, the Threadripper 1900X ends up with 8 cores, 16 MB of L3 cache, a quad-channel memory interface, and 64 PCIe lanes.

Building on the global enthusiasm generated by the launch of Ryzen high-end desktop processors and EPYC server processors for the datacenter, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced broad adoption of enterprise solutions featuring AMD Ryzen PRO desktop processors. Designed for business, Ryzen PRO processors bring reliability, security, and performance to address the demands of today's compute-intensive enterprise-focused workloads. Commercially-focused desktop solutions based on these new processors are expected to be available from Dell, HP, and Lenovo in the coming weeks.

"Today's business PC users require more processing power than ever before to run increasingly demanding applications, to ensure they can multi-task without disruption, and to help protect against security threats," said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, Computing and Graphics Group, AMD. "Ryzen PRO is designed to address these needs, and we're proud to collaborate with such a strong set of industry leaders on a robust assortment of AMD-based desktop PCs that showcase the strength and flexibility of the Ryzen PRO platform."

In a response to AMD's current uptake in the consumer, HEDT and server markets with its vertical slice of the Zen architecture, Intel has started rebranding their products and image, changing product names and placement in a bid to increase the "freshness" factor of its offerings. E5 and E7 Xeons are gone, with the introduction of a metallic naming scheme: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum are now Intel's Xeon products, and Xeon-W takes the spot as Intel's workstation-oriented product stack. They do this by being - essentially - a conversion of Intel's Core i9 X299 family of processors towards the professional market with inclusion of professional-geared features. And as is usual with Intel, a new chipset - C422 - is needed in order for these to properly function.

The new Xeon-W product family will still make use of the LGA 2066 socket, bringing with them ECC and vPro support. The Xeon-W CPU family will feature 4 to 18 cores, support up to 512GB of ECC RDIMM/LRDIMM memory, support dual 512-bit FMAs, and peak clocks of 4 GHz base and 4.5 GHz Turbo. All the parts will support 48 PCIe 3.0 lanes from the processor,and CPUs in the Xeon-W stack are rated at 140W TDP: with exception of the quad cores, which come in at at 120W. Xeon-W processors only support Turbo Boost 2.0, instead of their Core i9 counterparts' Turbo 3.0.

When AMD Ryzen Threadripper HEDT platform launched earlier this year, a shortcoming was its lack of NVMe RAID support. While you could build soft-RAID arrays using NVMe drives, you couldn't boot from them. AMD is addressing this, by adding support for NVMe RAID through a software update, scheduled for 25th September. This software update is in the form of both a driver update (including a lightweight F6-install driver), and a motherboard BIOS update, letting AMD X399 chipset motherboards boot from RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 10 arrays made up of up to ten NVMe drives. AMD confirmed that it has no plans to bring NVMe RAID support for the X370 or B350 platforms.

AMD today released the Ryzen Threadripper 1900X eight-core HEDT (high-end desktop) processor. This product is targeted at pro-sumers who could use the quad-channel memory bandwidth and added I/O which the Threadripper HEDT platform brings to the table, but can make do with 8 cores/16 threads, which is why the chip is priced just $50 higher than the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 1800X, at USD $549. The Threadripper 1900X comes with higher clock speeds than the 1800X, with 3.80 GHz nominal clock-speed (compared to 3.60 GHz of the 1800X), 4.00 GHz boost, and XFR adding another 200 MHz to the boost clock, if your cooling is good enough.

The Ryzen Threadripper 1900X gives you the full quad-channel DDR4-3200 memory interface, with support for up to 2 TB memory, and ECC support. There's even unofficial RDIMM support. The chip also offers the full 64-lane PCI-Express interface, with the same PCI-Express device configurations as the higher 1920X and 1950X parts. AMD created the 1900X by disabling two cores per CCX in each of the active 8-core dies on the Threadripper MCM. The chip also only features 16 MB of L3 cache, that's 4 MB per active CCX. Its TDP continues to be rated at 180W. AMD put out its internal testing performance numbers for the 1900X.AMD's performance slides follow.

ASUS introduced its first socket AM4 motherboard bearing the durable TUF branding, the TUF B350M-Plus Gaming. Built in the micro-ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors, conditioning it for the AM4 SoC using a 6-phase VRM. The components that make up the VRM are of a very high grade, enough to warrant TUF branding. The AM4 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and the board's single and reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot. The second x16 slot is electrical x4, and wired to the AMD B350 chipset.

Storage connectivity includes one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, and six SATA 6 Gb/s ports, two of which are directly wired to the SoC. Display connectivity includes one each of HDMI, D-Sub, and DVI. USB connectivity includes two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports (both type-A), eight USB 3.0 ports (six on the rear panel, two by headers). Networking is care of a single 1 GbE interface, driven by a Realtek RTL8111H controller. The onboard audio solution combines a 6-channel Realtek ALC887 CODEC (<90 dBA SNR) with audio-grade capacitors and ground-layer isolation. The board features RGB LED headers. Expect this board to feature a sub-$100 price-tag, while being slightly higher than comparable mATX AMD B350 motherboards due to the TUF value-addition.

Acer today announced new additions to its premium Predator gaming line, which include the Predator Orion 9000 series gaming desktops with Windows 10, its most powerful to date; and the Predator X35 monitor leveraging NVIDIA G-SYNC and Acer HDR Ultra technologies for ultra-smooth performance and stunning visuals.

Designed to intimidate enemies and inspire game play, the commanding aesthetics of the Predator Orion 9000 series feature a black-and-silver spacecraft-like exterior with customizable RGB lighting along the sides of the front bezel. A massive side window panel showcases the striking and powerful interior with a design that keeps electromagnetic interference (EMI) levels in check despite the size of the opening. Optional fans with customizable RGB lighting create a virtual light show for an even more arresting appearance. Outfitted with two handles and wheels covered with a carbon fiber pattern, the new rigs can be easily moved from one location to another. Tool-less side panels make component upgrades easy and the push-open top gives users a quick way to switch fans. A front-access headset cradle and cable management help keep the game area tidy.

We've brought to your attention how AMD's Ryzen architecture was encountering a bug that prevented it from successfully performing certain tasks under Linux. The issue, to which Phoronix was the first website to call attention to, was later confirmed by AMD, with a further remark from the chip designer that EPYC and ThreadRipper weren't affected by it.

AMD has now solved the Ryzen issue at a silicon level, and new revisions of the CPUs should be clear of the problems. Phoronix's Michael Larabel has confirmed that the new processor passes the previous insurmountable, crash-prone workloads with flying colors, so all in all, AMD delivered a swift response to the issue. The company is also doing good for itself in that it is open to replacing previous-batch CPUs that are affected by the issue, through a contact to its Customer Care department.

AMD Tuesday agreed to settle in its longstanding class-action lawsuit by investors for making misleading guidance over its first-generation accelerated processing units (APUs), codenamed "Llano." AMD was alleged to have oversold the potential of "Llano" in driving up revenues to the company, causing losses to investors. AMD is reported to have reached an agreement with the class to settle for USD $29.5 million. The settlement is yet to be approved by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who has been hearing the case since 2014, sitting in session for the US District Court in Oakland, California. Under the proposed deal, AMD's insurers foot the bill for the settlement, while it continues to deny any wrongdoing.

After years of continued innovation in PCIe's bandwidth, we've hit somewhat of a snag in recent times; after all, the PCIe 3.0 specification has been doing the rounds on our motherboards ever since 2010. PCI-SIG, the 750-member strong organization that's in charge of designing the specifications for the PCIe bus, attribute part of this delay to industry stagnation: PCIe 3.0 has simply been more than enough, bandwidth-wise, for many generations of hardware now. Only recently, with innovations in storage mediums and innovative memory solutions, such as NVMe SSDs and Intel's Optane, are we starting to hit the ceiling on what PCIe 3.0 offers. Add to that the increased workload and bandwidth requirements of the AI field, and the industry now seems to be eager for an upgrade, with some IP vendors even having put out PCIe 4.0-supporting controllers and PHYs into their next-generation products already - although at the incomplete 0.9 revision.

UPDATE 1, 1PM UTC: The first cards have started trickling in, with Vega 56 being available on Overclockers UK for £379 ($490), and MindFactory.de for €409 (~$490, max. 2 units limit per customer on MindFactory). Note the £379 on Overclockers UK is being listed as a "Launch Only" price, so I think we can all agree on where this is headed.

UPDATE 2, 1:11 PM UTC: Stock on MindFactory.de is gone. Last information on "More than 5" sold. 4 in stock at Overclockers UK at 13:15 PM UTC. 1 in stock at 13:16 PM UTC. If you want one of these, pull the trigger; pricing will be £470 ($608) for one of these with two "free games". All gone from Overclockers UK at £379, 13:25 PM.

UPDATE 3, 1:28 PM UTC: Well, if stock existed, it was gone so fast I couldn't even press F5 in time. Stock on Newegg at $399 is gone.

August 28th marks the date when AMD's RX Vega 56 graphics card will enter retail sales (1 PM UTC). Whether or not that will happen at AMD's MSRP of $399 remains to be seen, but we are cautiously pessimistic on that front, considering what has been happening with its big brother, RX Vega 64, since its introduction to the market. Industry sources point towards a continued limited supply of Vega 64 graphics cards at least until October; and since the Vega 56 graphics card makes use of the same GPU, HBM2 memory stacks, and packaging process for its interposer, chances are it will see the same problems as its more expensive brethren.

Expect this space to be updated as soon as these cards hit retail, with the current pricing and stock availability (or unavailability, if that ends up being the case). Considering all of the above and the fact that Vega 56 is the most interesting model in the Vega family, if you want one of these at the retail $399, and paraphrasing an esteemed gaming character, you "gotta go fast".

AMD's third Ryzen Threadripper series HEDT processor SKU, the Threadripper 1900X, started selling in India, ahead of its 31st August scheduled availability. Listed on the country's leading online PC hardware store PrimeABGB, the Threadripper 1900X is priced at INR 45,699. While this price roughly converts to USD $715, which is way above the $549 MSRP announced by AMD, it's important to note that in India the retailer margins and taxes on PC hardware tend to be very high. The same retailer, considered by PC enthusiasts in India as having some of the lowest prices, lists the Threadripper 1920X at INR 65,488 ($1,024), and the Threadripper 1950X at INR 82,008 ($1,283).

The PrimeABGB listing also indicates that the 8-core/16-thread Threadripper 1900X features 16 MB of L3 cache, as opposed to 32 MB on the 1920X and 1950X. This could mean that AMD is configuring the two "Summit Ridge" dies on the 1900X in a 2+2+2+2 CCX configuration, with 4 MB of L3 cache per CCX, just like on the Ryzen 5 1400. The chip still features a quad-channel DDR4 memory interface, and 64-lane PCIe. It is priced between the $390 6-core/12-thread Core i7-7800X and $590 i7-7820X.

DigiTimes is reporting, through "sources from the upstream supply chain", that AMD's current shortage of RX Vega cards to distribute to the retail market will continue at least until October. The tech reporting site says that sources are pointing towards the package integration of HBM2 memory (from SK Hynix or Samsung Electronics) and the Vega GPU (manufactured on Global Foundries' 14 nm FinFet) as being at fault here, due to low yield rates for this packaging effort. However, some other sources point towards the issue being with the packaging process itself, done by Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE) through use of SiP technology. Whichever one of these cases may be, it seems the problem lies with AMD's choice to use HBM2 on their Vega graphics architecture.

As a footnote to its story, DigiTimes is also reporting that according to industry sources, NVIDIA has, in light of RX Vega's performance, decided to postpone the launch of Volta-based GPUs towards the first quarter of 2018.

This is the latest report from Jon Peddie Research on the GPUs used in PCs. It is reporting on the results of Q2'17 GPU shipments world-wide. Overall GPU shipments increased 7.2% from last quarter, AMD increased 8% Nvidia increased 10% and Intel, increased 6%. Year-to-year total GPU shipments increased 6.4%, desktop graphics increased 5%, notebooks increased 7%.

Up to now, the GPU and PC market had been showing a return to what has been normal seasonality. That pattern is typically flat to down in Q1, a significant drop in Q2 as OEMs and the channel deplete inventory before the summer months. A restocking with the latest products in Q3 in anticipation of the holiday season, and mild increase to flat change in Q4. All, of that subject to an overall decline in the PC market since the great recession of '07 and the influx of tablets and smartphones. However, this year, Q2 dGPU shipments were completely out of sync, and remarkably high, as shown in the following chart.

AMD, presenting at a HotChips talk, packed with VLSI gurus, defended its decision to make AMD EPYC enterprise processors in the socket SP3r2 package a multi-chip module (MCM) of four 8-core "Summit Ridge" dies, rather than building a monolithic 32-core die. For starters, it stressed on the benefits of a single kind of silicon, which it can use across its performance-desktop, high-end desktop, and enterprise product-stacks; which translates into higher yields. "Summit Ridge" is the only CPU silicon based on the "Zen" micro-architecture, with the company giving finishing touches to the second silicon, codenamed "Raven Ridge," which will power mobile and desktop APUs. AMD has to pick the best-performing dies out of a common bin. The top 5% dies go into powering the company's Ryzen Threadripper HEDT processors, and a higher percentile go into making EPYC.

The relatively smaller 8-core common die has an inherently higher yield than a larger chip due to the rule of inverse-exponential reduction in yield with increasing die-size. This, coupled with the R&D costs that would have gone into developing the hypothetical monolithic 32-core "Zen" based silicon, works out to a significant cost saving for the company. A 4-die/32-core MCM is 0.59X the cost of a hypothetical monolithic 32-core die, according to the company, which is a cost-saving that enables the company to aggressively price its products. The slide AMD used in its presentation also confirms that each 8-core "Summit Ridge" die features four external Infinity Fabric links, besides the one that connects the two CCX units with each other. On a 4-die EPYC MCM, three out of four of those external IF links wire out to the neighboring dies, and one link per die probably wires out to a neighboring socket on 2P machines.

The Radeon RX Vega series launch has been particularly disappointing for gamers and PC enthusiasts because their otherwise interesting price-performance ratios at $499 for the RX Vega 64 and $399 for the RX Vega 56, were quickly stripped away by dwindling stock and sky-rocketing prices, with the RX Vega 64 even going above $1k in some places. We are not even sure if the miners are to blame or whether supplier-level pricing has been adjusted after the launch to a higher price point that makes AMD's promised pricing impossible to achieve.

It turns out that retailers might not be the ones making a quick buck at this madness. Leaked invoices show that distributors (entities that supply inventory to retailers) have inflated prices even at their level. A San Jose-based distributor, Ma Laboratories Inc., is quoting USD $675 per unit of a reference-design (not Limited Edition), Radeon RX Vega 64 SKU to a computer store. The $499 price AMD launched the RX Vega 64 at, is supposed to be the end-user price (minus government taxes). The retailer we're in touch with confirmed that they were offered no volume pricing discount due to low stock at the distributor itself. A distributor should ideally sell the product to a retailer at a much lesser price than $499, so the retailer can make their margin. The higher up the supply-chain, the more control AMD gets. The company is in a better position to rein in on distributors than retailers. If distributors are inflating prices with apparent impunity, it wouldn't surprise us if this goes even higher up.

It looks like AMD took lessons from the Quake Champions beta offer drama, in which Radeon Software 17.4.4, by default, planted a link to a game beta sign-up on your desktop, and was seen by users as ad-ware. AMD later hot-fixed the driver without this offer, and expressed regret. The new Radeon 17.8.1 WHQL drivers include the option to install Bethesda Launcher, the DRM client of Bethesda akin to Steam and Origin, which lets you buy and play games from the studio. The default option of the driver installer sets this as "off." The only way you'll even come across it is if you choose "custom install" and check the "Bethesda Launcher" option. The only way you'll now learn about offers hidden inside AMD driver updates is if you look for them in the "custom install" list, or if AMD advertises them in its driver change-log (which it didn't, for these drivers).

AMD is preparing to extend its tradition of giving away games with its hardware; to productivity apps. In a bid to boost sales of pre-built desktops and notebooks that feature AMD processors and/or graphics cards, the company is giving away Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions, besides games by Square Enix.

The new "AMD4U" offer by the company, which is limited to certain products sold through participating retailers, gives you up to three games by Square Enix, and/or a 2-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription, or a 3-month subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan. The combinations of what you get is decided by what product you buy. Something like a high-end gaming notebook, which features both a Ryzen processor, and Radeon RX 500-series graphics, should give you both games and CC subscription, while value desktops should feature any one of them. Find details in the source link below.

Adding to Alienware's staple of custom-built PCs and their exclusivity deal with AMD to sell pre-built machines with Ryzen Threadripper 16-core CPUs, the company has just announced that their Area 51 desktop solution will now also be available with Intel's latest X299 HEDT platform. Intel Core X-series processors can be configured with a Core i7-7800X, i7-7820X, or i9-7900X processor, and liquid cooling comes standard with the system for these high-performance CPUs. Alienware even ships the Area 51 with an unlocked BIOS so that users can still tap all of the potential inside their new gaming rig.

Kingston's HyperX 2933 MHz memory comes standard (up to 64 GB in 4x 16 GB configuration), and the graphics processing can be configured with either AMD (RX 560, 570, and 580) or NVIDIA cards (GTX 1050 Ti, GTX 1060 (6GB), GTX 1070, GTX 1080 or GTX 1080 Ti.) The absence of AMD's Vega graphics cards should come as a surprise for red-team fans. There are also dual and triple-GPU configurations available, though with the slow, choking death of multi-GPU support, that might not be the best inroad for a high performance computer. A 2 TB HDD takes care of storage, and SSD goodness can come in 256, 512 GB, or 1 TB in the M.2 form-factor. There's Intel Optane support (in 16 GB or 32 GB), and the power supply can range from an 850 W unit up to a 1500 W one. There is a total of 8x USB 3.0 ports (2x front, 6x rear) and 2x USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (1x Type-A, 1x Type-C). Dual gigabit LAN is provided by a Qualcomm Killer E2500 NIC, while wireless connectivity is available in the form of Killer 1535 or Dell 1820 802.11ac WiFi.

AMD released the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.8.1 WHQL drivers. These are the first WHQL-signed drivers to support Radeon RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56, besides all other Graphics CoreNext based Radeon GPUs. It features optimization for "Quake Champions: Early Access" and "Agents of Mayhem." The drivers also fix stability issues with "Grand Theft Auto V," "Forza Horizon 3," and "Tekken 7." The drivers also iron out issues noted with Enhanced Sync, where online video playback is choppy. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.8.1 WHQL

The change-log follows.