TechPowerUp released GPU-Z version 0.7.6, the latest version of the popular lightweight graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility. Version 0.7.6 comes with support for new GPUs, including NVIDIA's upcoming Maxwell architecture. It also introduces the ability to tell the vendor of memory chips on your discrete graphics card, and a reliable new BIOS reading method for NVIDIA GPUs.

To begin with, GPU-Z adds support for NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce GTX TITAN Black, GeForce GTX 750 Ti, GTX 750 (non-Ti), both of which are based on NVIDIA's "Maxwell" micro-architecture, GTX 840M, and new GTX 760 "lite" (192-bit). On the AMD front, it adds support for AMD A-Series "Kaveri" iGPUs, Radeon R7 M265, FireStream 9350, HD 8530M, and HD 8650D. A new Intel Iris Pro 5200 variant is supported.

GPU-Z 0.7.6 comes with a revolutionary new feature, the ability to tell the vendor of the memory chips on your graphics card, so you don't have to take your card apart to tell the same. GPU-Z 0.7.6 also integrates NVIDIA NVFlash to reliably read BIOS of NVIDIA GPUs. Voltage monitoring of GeForce GTX 780 Ti is improved.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.6 | TechPowerUp GPU-Z 0.7.6 ASUS ROG Edition

The change-log follows.

AMD's A-Series "Kaveri" APUs perform tangibly better on system with dual-rank memory modules, according to an investigative report by ComputerBase.de. According to the report, the chip yields its best memory bandwidth when both its memory channels are populated with 2-rank DIMMs each. Either that, or four modules with one rank each. The report also found out that Kaveri can take advantage of DDR3-2400 as advertised. There was a 15.2 percent jump in performance between DDR3-1866 and DDR3-2400.

An unreliable way of checking whether a DIMM has two ranks is by looking at whether both sides of its PCB has DRAM chips; a reliable way of doing that, however, is using software such as AIDA64 (Motherboard\SPD tab), which lists out number of ranks, and number of banks per rank; and of course, looking up the specs sheet. The reason visual inspection of a DIMM is not reliable these days is because of the way modern DRAM chips are designed. There are instances of DIMMs with chips on just one side, yet 2 ranks. Find more performance numbers at the source.

AMD today announced the immediate availability of its new 12- and 16-core AMD Opteron 6300 Series server processors, code named "Warsaw." Designed for enterprise workloads, the new AMD Opteron 6300 Series processors feature the "Piledriver" core and are fully socket and software compatible with the existing AMD Opteron 6300 Series. The power efficiency and cost effectiveness of the new products are ideal for the AMD Open 3.0 Open Compute Platform - the industry's most cost effective Open Compute platform.

Driven by customers' requests, the new AMD Opteron 6338P (12 core) and 6370P (16 core) processors are optimized to handle the heavily virtualized workloads found in enterprise environments, including the more complex compute needs of data analysis, xSQL and traditional databases, at optimal performance per-watt, per-dollar.

AMD today announced revenue for the fourth quarter of 2013 of $1.59 billion, operating income of $135 million and net income of $89 million, or $0.12 per share. The company reported non-GAAP operating income of $91 million and non-GAAP net income of $45 million, or $0.06 per share.

For the year ended December 28, 2013, AMD reported revenue of $5.3 billion, operating income of $103 million and a net loss of $83 million, or $0.11 per share.

Look ma, no chipset! The first wave of AMD socket FS1b motherboards, for the company's A-Series "Kabini" APUs were displayed at the 2014 International CES, where they pulled good-eyed visitors that spotted motherboards that have CPU sockets but lack any form of core logic. That's because "Kabini" completely integrates the chipset. It turns out that AMD has decided to brand the socket - so far referred to as FS1b - as socket AM1. The socket is in no way compatible (even pin-compatible, or similarly sized) as AM2, AM3, and AM3+, on which AMD's processors have been sold for the bulk of the last 8-odd years.

With the chipset completely integrated into the APU silicon, the socket is left with pins for the memory, PCI-Express, display, SATA, power, and other legacy I/O interfaces. Among the first "Kabini" APUs that AMD plans to launch are the quad-core A4-5350, with 1.60 GHz clock speed, 2 MB of cache, and 25W TDP; the A4-3850, with slightly lower 1.30 GHz clocks; and E1-2650, with its dual-core 1.45 GHz CPU, 1 MB cache, and 15W TDP.

Here are the first pictures of an AMD A10-7700K "Kaveri" APU with its integrated heat-spreader (IHS, or 'lid') removed. Put next to its predecessors, "Richland," "Trinity," and "Llano," AMD's new APU silicon is its biggest for the DIY PC market, more so because it's built on the 28 nm silicon fab process, compared to its predecessors being built on 32 nm. The die measures roughly 245 mm², and packs a staggering 2.41 billion transistors.

Under the IHS, AMD is using a thermal paste to transport heat from the die, and not a solder. The chip should be easy to de-lid, if you know what you're doing. Kaveri integrates two "Steamroller" x86-64 CPU modules with two cores each, a total of 4 MB of L2 cache, a massive on-die GPU with 512 stream processors based on the Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture, a dual-channel DDR3 IMC with hUMA and DDR3-2400 native support; and a PCI-Express 3.0 root complex.

MSI once again made breakthroughs in cutting-edge gaming notebooks. MSI has always been developing high performance notebooks. Its latest gaming laptop-GX70 and GX60 Destroyer, offer game enthusiasts the best experiences of both performance and affordability. The MSI GX70 and GX60 Destroyer pack with the latest generation of AMD's extreme mobile graphics card R9-M290X, high performance AMD A10-5750M quad core APU architecture, built-in HD8650G performance-grade DirectX11 for superior video resolution, and the top 3-screen output experience Eyefinity.

With a special packing and a game bundled, the MSI GX70 and GX60 Destroyer come with a limited Battlefield 4 edition. Users can redeem a free Battlefield 4 game! With the A10-5750M processor and R9-M290X display card, the GX70 and GX60 Destroyer runs at 32 more Frames Per Second (FPS) even when at full HD and using Ultra settings in Battlefield 4 gaming, that giving you a smoother game and superior price to performance ratio.

As of today MSI's new R7 260 1GD5 OC is available for everyone desiring an entry into the world of 4K resolution gaming and next-level of integrated audio. Equipped with a large 10cm fan this little powerhouse will remain cool while allowing anywhere from 1 to 6 displays to be connected to the card. This offers excellent flexibility for anyone looking for more versatility whether it's extra horsepower for graphics or to allow higher resolutions to be connected to their PC. Furthermore, like the high end R9 290 and R9 290X, the R7 260 is also equipped with AMD TrueAudio which reduces CPU loads up to 14% compared to rendering sound with the on-board audio chip.

AMD released developer documentation for a new processor it's working on, and the way it's worded describes a chip with 8 modules, working out to 16 cores, on a single piece of silicon, referred to as Family 15h Models 30h - 3fh. This is not to be confused with the company's Opteron 6300-series "Abu Dhabi" chips, which are multi-chip modules of two 8-core dies, in the G34 package.

What's more, unlike the current "Abu Dhabi" and "Seoul" chips, the new silicon features a full-fledged uncore, complete with a PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex that's integrated into the processor die. In what's more proof that it's a single die with 8 modules and not an MCM of two dies with 4 modules each, the document describes the die as featuring four HyperTransport links; letting it pair with four other processors in 4P multi-socket configurations. Such systems would feature a total core count of 64. There's no clarity on which exact micro-architecture the CPU modules are based on. Without doubt, AMD is designing this chip for its Opteron enterprise product stack, but it should also give us a glimmer of hope that AMD could continue to serve up high-performance client CPU, only ones that can't be based on socket AM3+.

Some investors in AMD, who purchased company stock between October 27, 2011 and October 18, 2012, filed a class action lawsuit against AMD, through law firm Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd. The class action alleges that AMD and its officers and directors committed violations of the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934. AMD allegedly misled its investors over how popular its first generation "Llano" desktop APU would get, claiming that there were much greater prospects for the APU than it actually ended up selling.

MSI rolled out the 760GMA-P34FX, a cost-effective socket AM3+ motherboard in the micro-ATX form-factor, designed with out of the box support for AMD FX "Vishera" processors. Based on the dated AMD 760 chipset with SB710 southbridge, the motherboard still offers modern connectivity, such as SATA 6 Gb/s and USB 3.0, but using third-party controllers.

Drawing power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 4-pin CPU power connectors, the 760GMA-P34FX offers two DDR3 DIMM slots, supporting up to 16 GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory. A PCI-Express 2.0 x16, a PCI-Express 2.0 x1, and a legacy PCI slot make up its expansion area. Storage connectivity includes six SATA 3 Gb/s ports (from the SB710 southbridge), and two SATA 6 Gb/s ports (from an ASMedia ASM1061 controller). Display connectivity includes one each of DVI and D-Sub. The board offers four USB 3.0 ports, two on the rear panel, two by headers. 6-channel HD audio, and gigabit Ethernet make for the rest of the connectivity. Expect this one to be light on your wallet. Really light.

AMD announced its 2014 A-Series APU for the desktop platform, code-named "Kaveri," after the southern-Indian river. Built in the new FM2+ package, the APUs run only on socket FM2+ motherboards based on the AMD A88X, A78, and A55 chipsets; while the socket itself can seat older FM2 APU families, "Trinity" and "Richland." In many ways, the socket transition is similar to that of socket AM3+. "Kaveri" sees AMD integrate two of its newest CPU and GPU micro-architectures, "Steamroller" for CPU, and Graphics CoreNext 2.0 for the GPU. "Kaveri" is also built on newer generation 28 nm silicon fab process.

"Steamroller" is an evolution of the same modular CPU core design as its predecessors, "Piledriver" and "Bulldozer." AMD promises a 10 percent improvement in performance clock-by-clock, per core, which falls in line with AMD's normal scheme of annual incremental performance updates on its CPU micro-architectures. A "Steamroller" module is a combination of two 64-bit x86 cores, which feature dedicated and shared components. "Kaveri" has two such modules, and so physically, it features a quad-core CPU.

At its CES press-meet, AMD detailed the upcoming versions of Catalyst Software Suite, which will be unified to include graphics and system drivers for both discrete AMD Radeon GPUs, and integrated AMD A-Series APUs; and AMD core-logic (chipsets). The biggest takeaway from the presentation, by AMD's Terry "CatalystMaker" Makedon, is that the company will release the first Mantle and TrueAudio runtime environments with the upcoming Catalyst 14.1 Beta, due for later this month. Mantle is AMD's ambitious attempt at a 3D graphics API to rival Direct3D and OpenGL, that's optimized for its Graphics CoreNext micro-architecture; while TrueAudio is a positional audio DSP that promises to make games and movies sound more realistic.

Mantle promises "great" performance improvements in Battlefield 4, the only AAA game that we know of, to make use of the API. Mantle support was expected to be added to the game as an update around this time, but DICE' plans fell off the track with publisher EA coming down hard on the studio for shipping a game that's riddled with bugs. DICE will most likely have to fix most of its bugs for the retail DirectX 11.1 game, before EA allows it to toy with updates that add support for new and experimental APIs, let alone expansion packs. In related news, Catalyst 14.1 Beta will introduce additions to its frame-pacing fix, that will soon support Ultra HD displays, and Eyefinity setups on non-XDMA (pre R9 290 series) GPUs.

At CES, various display makers exhibited their gaming-grade monitors featuring NVIDIA G-Sync, a display fluidity technology that's an evolution of V-sync, which we've seen with our own eyes to make a tangible difference. AMD, at the back-room of its CES booth, demoed what various sources are calling "FreeSync," a competitive technology to G-Sync, but one that doesn't require specialized hardware, or licenses to the display makers. AMD didn't give out too many details into the finer-workings of FreeSync, but here's what we make of it.

FreeSync taps into a lesser known feature that AMD Radeon GPUs have had for the past three generations (i.e. since Radeon HD 5000 series), called dynamic refresh rates. The feature allows GPUs to spool down refresh rates to save power, without entailing a display re-initialization (the flicker that happens when a digital display is sent a signal with a new resolution and refresh rate), on supported displays. Dynamic refresh is reportedly also a proposed addition to VESA specifications, and some (if not most) display makers have implemented it. On displays that do, AMD Catalyst drivers already run dynamic refresh rates. For display makers, supporting the technology won't require buying licenses, or integrating specialized hardware into the displays.

There are very few instances where one product category can leap frog over to another and make a profound impact. Today, iBUYPOWER, together with Valve, is making one such leap. Introducing the iBUYPOWER SBX Steam machine, an ultra-simplified system designed to do one thing: entertain. Melding together the simplicity of a traditional game console, but harnessing power usually available to only high-end desktop PCs, iBUYPOWER is able to usher in both performance and content unheard of in the living room space.

Designed in Los Angeles, iBUYPOWER labored to create a highly tuned and optimized system that would deliver a sustainable 60 frames-per second gaming experience at true high-definition resolutions. Powered by multi-core processors in both AMD and Intel flavors and paired with the latest in graphics technology from AMD, customers will be able to jump a full generation ahead of the latest game consoles.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a new milestone in their collaboration with BlueStacks, a joint solution that brings the complete Google Android OS experience to Microsoft Windows-based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops. Optimizations for the fourth generation AMD APU in BlueStacks provide a complete, Android user interface and extensive support for Android apps for entertainment and productivity.

"Windows and Android are both mature operating systems, each satisfying the needs of millions of users," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Product Management, at AMD. "Users whose devices and preferences span the two ecosystems no longer have to face device-specific restrictions on the benefits of one ecosystem or the other because AMD and BlueStacks have created a seamless user experience between the operating systems. Now users have access to all the apps -- games, communications and content consumption -- they love on their Android mobile devices right at their fingertips, while getting important productivity tasks or high-end PC gaming accomplished on their Windows PC."

2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) -- As technology leaders from around the globe arrive in Las Vegas for the 2014 International CES, AMD (NYSE: AMD) delivers a technology showcase like no other. Inside the AMD exhibit, show attendees will enjoy an array of innovations powered by the latest AMD APU and graphics technologies, from stunning graphics on 4K displays, gaming on a variety of devices including tablets and the latest game consoles, to new consumer-friendly PCs supporting both Microsoft Windows and Google Android applications. The star of the show is the ground-breaking "Surround House 2: Monsters in the Orchestra," a 360-degree surround-computing demonstration that leverages the immense computing capabilities of AMD technologies to create an immersive, first-of-its-kind audiovisual and interactive experience.

"We live in an exciting new world where computing is everywhere and transforming our daily lives," said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Global Business Units. "AMD is at the heart of the innovations, driving a vision of 'Surround Computing' to provide the most visually compelling, immersive experiences in gaming, the next-generation of PCs, and the cloud. We are truly re-defining modern computing with our customers and ecosystem partners here at CES."

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced today that DockPort will be added as an official extension to the existing DisplayPort standard. DockPort is an emerging technology that enables high-speed USB 3.0 data over the existing DisplayPort connector. Originally developed by AMD, Texas Instruments, and other VESA member companies, the DockPort extension will allow notebooks, tablets and other small form factor computers to aggregate the display, data and power interfaces into a single convenient connector.

Computers and other smart devices require high-speed I/O ports to share high-resolution video with external displays, high-bandwidth data with external storage and other peripherals, and power for battery charging. As notebooks and tablets become thinner and more portable, consumers want to combine these three common interfaces into a single port on their mobile device. With a single DisplayPort connection using the new DockPort extension and enhanced power capabilities under development, consumers will be able to attach their computers or tablets to a docking station and have instant, hassle-free access to a wide array of external resources.

Price wars between GPU makers are something to look forward to each year, as that's typically when you get the best bang for your buck. Such an optimal time to buy new graphics cards usually comes when both AMD and NVIDIA have launched a new graphics card lineup, each. AMD tends to launch its lineup first, followed by NVIDIA, which then begins a cycle of proactive and reactive price-cuts between the two, which churns up the $300 price-performance sweet-spot so well, that a purchase from that segment usually sets your PC up for the following three years. 2013-14 saw a major disruption to this cycle, Litecoin mining. Litecoin miners will hurt more than help brand AMD Radeon, here's why.

PowerColor may have been the first AMD add-in board vendor to launch a custom-design Radeon R9 290X graphics card with its R9 290X LCS, which is basically an AMD reference PCB with a factory-fitted EKWB FC-R9-290X water-block; but its air-cooled non-reference cards have been nowhere in sight, until now. PowerColor posted these pictures of the Radeon R9 290X PCS+, its premium factory-overclocked and air-cooled graphics card based on AMD's flagship GPU. The company's Radeon R9 290 (non-X) PCS+ is expected to look identical.

Pictures reveal the card's PCB to be largely based on AMD's reference design, perhaps with variations on the choice of components. PowerColor has a knack of splurging on expensive, high-quality components on its PCBs (think International Rectifier and Coilworks VRM components, Samsung and SK Hynix memory chips, etc.), and we expect a similar treatment for the R9 290X PCS+. The two-slot cooling solution featured on this card is making its debut with it. It features a network of aluminium fin stacks to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes, and which are ventilated by a trio of 80 mm fans. PowerColor didn't reveal clock speeds, launch date, or pricing.

What better way to market the graphics processing prowess of your processor than bundling one of the most GPU-intensive games of the season with it? AMD is reportedly planning "Battlefield 4 Edition" packages of its A10 "Kaveri" APUs, which at slightly higher premiums than normal PIB packages, would give you Origin keys to Battlefield 4, much like a similar scheme with AMD's Radeon R9 290 series.

Such Battlefield 4 SKUs could involve at least two APU models, the A10-7850K, and A10-7700K. The two may meet the minimum system requirements of the game at resolutions of up to HD+ (1600 x 900 pixels). Speaking of A10-7850K, Japanese publication "Hermitage Akihabara" snapped a handful pictures and screenshots of the the chip. The first one below reveals the APU package, the following reveal the CPU-Z and GPU-Z screenshots, trailed by a quick run of Cinebench R15. AMD is expected to launch its "Kaveri" line of socket FM2+ APUs on January 13-14 globally.

Gigabyte joined the growing list of AMD Radeon add-in board partners to launch Radeon R9 270X graphics cards with double the standard memory amount. The GV-R927XOC-4GD, available in a standard edition and one with a Battlefield 4 Origin key, features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, clocked at 5.60 GHz, at which the GPU has 179 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal. The card features a long, non-reference design PCB, and the company's new generation WindForce 3X cooler, which together give the card a high-end look when installed. 4 GB of memory makes the R9 270X meet the recommended system requirements of Battlefield 4.

The factory-overclocked card offers 1050 MHz base GPU clock, and 1100 MHz PowerTune Boost frequency. The card draws power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include a pair of dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. Based on the 28 nm "Curacao" silicon, the Radeon R9 270X features 1,280 GCN2 stream processors, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It features a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Its API support includes DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle. Gigabyte didn't reveal pricing of the two.

AMD is rolling out two new Radeon SKUs to bolster its lineup below the $179.99 price-point held by the Radeon R9 270. The names of these SKUs might confuse the heck out of you, the TechPowerUp reader, and our hearts go out to the target buyers of these products, but bear with us - Radeon R9 255 and Radeon R9 260. Not to be confused with similar-sounding Radeon R7 250 and Radeon R7 260, the two SKUs are positioned in the Radeon R9 series, and could offer either higher performance levels than what the R7 260X manages, or it could also be a sly marketing move by AMD to make the lower-mainstream part of its lineup look more appealing to buyers of pre-built mainstream desktops that are "gaming ready."

There are two pieces of evidence to support the existence of the two. First, AMD updated its website to show R9 255 and R9 260 in the Radeon R9 section of its OEM products page. Second, on close inspection of the driver information (.inf) file of Catalyst 13.12 WHQL, we sniffed out three curious looking device IDs, which point at products going by those names. Selling an SKU named "Radeon R9 260" could work well for AMD's "Never Settle for anything less than AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics" marketing campaign.

AMD announced dual AMD FirePro professional graphics solutions (GPUs) deliver unprecedented levels of performance for the new Mac Pro. The AMD FirePro D300, D500 and D700 professional GPUs offer exceptional compute power and reliability for creativity and productivity in a wide range of applications. With industry-adopted OpenCL (Open Computing Language) support, Mac Pro users have the ability to seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video and simultaneously render effects in the background, and still have enough performance to power up to three high-resolution 4K displays.

These new AMD FirePro GPUs are built on the strength of AMD's award-winning Graphics Core Next GPU design -- an architecture conceived from the ground up to intelligently manage rendering and compute workloads. The combination of AMD FirePro GPUs and OpenCL -- strongly supported by both Apple and AMD -- is designed to deliver massive compute and graphics performance in one compact solution.

XFX rolled out its first non-reference design Radeon R9 290 series graphics cards, the Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation (model: R9-290X-EDFD), and the R9 290 Double Dissipation (model: R9-290A-EDFD). The two are based on a common board design, with a non-reference design PCB by the company, and its tall, dual-slot Double Dissipation cooling solution that's featured on the company's Radeon R9 280X DD graphics card. The cooler uses a dense aluminium fin stack to which head drawn from the GPU is fed by copper heat pipes, and dissipated by a pair of 80 mm fans. As an added bonus, the "XFX" logo on the cooler shroud lights up. Both cards stick to AMD reference clock speeds. That's 1000 MHz core and 5.00 GHz memory for the R9 290X, and 947 MHz core and 5.00 GHz memory for the R9 290. The two are offered at prices identical to reference-design cards, or a tiny premium in some markets.