In addition to the new PC cases and PSUs, ENERMAX also unveiled a couple of new and interesting AIO CPU coolers and fans at the Computex 2024 show, including the LIQTECH XTR AiO which can handle quite a high thermal load, the new AQUACore concept, which is actually a compact CPU cooler that integrates the pump and the radiator into a compact solution, and new Montage Flow fans with magnetic daisy-chaining.

The one that piqued our interest is definitely the LIQTECH XTR AIO liquid CPU cooler series, which can handle some impressive thermal loads. To be available in 240 mm, 280 mm, and 360 mm radiator sizes, the LIQTECH XTR can easily AMD Threadripper and Intel Xeon processors, offering 100 percent coverage and uses a powerful EF1 pump in combination with patented shunt-channel technology. According to Enermax and what we saw at the show, the smaller 240 mm can handle well over 500 W of thermal load, while the 360 mm one goes well over 900 W. The LIQTECH XTR also includes a digital built-in display on the pump/block unit, which shows CPU and GPU temperature, or fan RPM data.

ASRock Rack sells the entire stack of servers a data-center could possibly want, and at Computex 2024, the company showed us their servers meant for AI GPUs. The 6U8M-GENOA2, as its name suggests, is a 6U server based on 2P AMD EPYC 9004 series "Genoa" processors in the SP5 package. You can configure it with even the variants of "Genoa" that come with 3D V-cache, for superior compute performance from the large cache. Each of the two SP5 sockets is wired to 12 DDR5 RDIMM slots, for a total of 24 memory channels. The server supports eight AMD Instinct MI300X or MI325X AI GPUs, which it wires out using Infinity Fabric links and PCIe Gen 5 x16 individually. A 3 kW 80 Plus Titanium PSU keeps the server fed. There are vacant Gen 5 x16 slots left even after connecting the GPUs, so you could give it a DPU-based 40 GbE NIC.

The 6U8X-EGS2 B100 is a 6U AI GPU server modeled along the 6U8M-GENOA2, with a couple of big changes. To begin with, the EPYC "Genoa" chips make way for a 2P Intel Xeon Socket E (LGA4677) CPU setup, for 2P Xeon 5 "Emerald Rapids" processors. Each socket is wired to 16 DDR5 DIMM slots (the processor itself has 8-channel DDR5, but this is a 2 DIMM-per-channel setup). The server integrates an NVIDIA NVSwitch that wires out NVLinks to eight NVIDIA B100 "Blackwell" AI GPUs. The server features eight HHHL PCIe Gen 5 x16, and five FHHL PCIe Gen 5 x16 connectors. There are vacant x16 slots for your DPU/NIC, you can even use an AIC NVIDIA BlueField card. The same 3 kW PSU as the "Genoa" system is also featured here.

At Computex 2024, we went hands-on with the only custom-design AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card to implement the 16-pin 12V-2x6 power connector. We've written quite a bit about this card, but weren't expecting it to be this long. This isn't just the only RX 7900 XTX with a 12V-2x6, but also the only air-cooled RX 7900 XTX that's strictly 2 slots-thick. ASRock made this card for graphics rendering farms, or AI development/inferencing builds, in which a GPU server would have 4-6 of these packed like sardines. The lateral blower helps ensure proper ventilation. The backplate is recessed to ensure better ventilation to the neighboring card.

The card sticks to AMD reference clock speeds of 2270 MHz Game clock, and 20 Gbps (GDDR6-effective) memory speed. ASRock also gave us a technical deep-dive into the card's design. For one, it's confirmed that the power connector is 12V-2x6 (H++) and not 12VHPWR. The cooling solution consists of a large copper vapor-chamber plate that makes contact with the GPU, memory, and VRM; conveying heat to an aluminium channel heatsink, which is ventilated by a high-speed lateral blower. The cooler shroud and backplate are both made of aluminium.

At Computex 2024, Colorful has followed the success of their popular COLORFIRE MEOW Series gaming desktops. The company has unleashed two fierce new gaming laptops - the COLORFIRE MEOW R15 and R16. These portable laptops are adorned with designs inspired by Bobi, COLORFIRE's beloved office cat. From paw print patterns to a sleek orange tabby color scheme, the laptops are littered with feline flair. Under the cat-inspired hood, the MEOW laptops pack a serious punch. They are equipped with the latest AMD Ryzen 8000 Series processors tailored for gaming, content creation, and entertainment. AMD Ryzen AI technology provides a boost to artificial intelligence capabilities. Both run on the AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor with eight cores, 16 threads, and a 5.1 GHz maximum boost clock. The Ryzen AI engine delivers up to 39 TOPS for accelerated AI performance. For graphics, the laptops feature up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 GPU with 140 W of power.

The R15 has a 15.6-inch 2560x1440 IPS panel with 100% sRGB color and 165 Hz refresh rate. The R16 goes even bigger with a 16-inch 2560x1600 IPS display, 100% sRGB, and 240 Hz refresh. AMD FreeSync is there as well to ensure a tear-free experience. Colorful has outfitted the laptops with dual turbo fans, a 6-heatpipe solution, and performance control software to tame the heat from the powerful components. When it's time to pounce on the latest games, these MEOW laptops have the fierce cooling to keep their claws out.

TYAN, an industry leader in server platform design and a subsidiary of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation, brings its latest AMD EPYC server platforms to the COMPUTEX 2024, Booth # M1120 in Taipei, Taiwan from June 4 to June 7.

"With the advanced capabilities of 4th Gen AMD EPYC Processors, TYAN's AMD EPYC server platforms deliver optimized performance for modern data centers and large-scale AI/HPC infrastructure, ensuring high energy efficiency and robust security," said Rick Hwang, President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation. "For the group of smaller businesses and dedicated hosters, TYAN offers AMD EPYC 4004 CPU-based servers that provide cost-effective, user-friendly solutions with enterprise-grade reliability, scalability, and security."

MSI, a leading brand in gaming, content creation, and business & productivity laptops, proudly announces the launch of several next-gen AI+ gaming and business productivity laptops featuring the latest Intel and AMD processors at COMPUTEX 2024. These laptops offer more than 100 TOPS of AI computing power and support more than 500 AI models run optimized on Intel Core Ultra processors, making it the most robust platform for AI PC development, with more AI models, frameworks, and runtimes enabled than any other processor vendor. When equipped with a GeForce RTX Laptop GPU, they offer up to 542 TOPS, delivering peak performance and enabling unique AI experiences.

Additionally, MSI unveiled the new Claw 8 AI+ Windows 11 gaming handheld device, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors (codenamed "Lunar Lake") and an 8-inch screen, providing a smoother and broader mobile gaming experience.

During Computex 2024, Alphacool presented its latest case lineup optimized for water cooling, in addition to more water cooling componentry. The Apex Pro Skeleton Carbon Case is a modular enclosure optimized for advanced water cooling setups. It is crafted from real carbon fiber tubes and reinforced with CNC-milled aluminium corners. It can be completely dismantled and reconfigured to suit the user's precise requirements. By utilizing a modular approach, users can change the system layout, optimize airflow, and achieve their unique cooling goals. Previously showcased at Computex 2023, the plan was for two SKU: Alphacool Apex Pro Skeleton Carbon Case and the Alphacool Apex Skeleton aluminium Case, the latter of which does not include a distribution plate or support for a vertical graphics card. The Apex Pro case with a custom distro plate will be available for $899, while the case-only solution will be available for $499.

At its Computex 2024 booth, AMD showed us their latest flagship desktop processor, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X. This 16-core/32-thread beast is powered by the latest "Zen 5" microarchitecture, which promises a 16% IPC uplift over "Zen 4." AMD is also building the CCD (CPU complex dies) on the slightly upgraded 4 nm foundry node. The 9950X boosts up to 5.70 GHz, and AMD claims that it beats the Intel Core i9-14900K by near double-digit percentages in gaming, and significantly in multithreaded productivity. The chip is drop-in compatible with any AMD 600-series chipset motherboard with the latest BIOS. AMD plans to launch this processor in July. Given that Intel today announced that "Arrow Lake" will come out in Q4, the Ryzen 9000 series could enjoy free rein in the market for at 4 months.

AMD on Monday launched its Ryzen AI 300 line of mobile processors based on the 4 nm "Strix Point" monolithic silicon. This chip was described by AMD as having a maximum CPU core configuration of 12-core/24-thread, which would be a neat 50% increase in core-counts over the previous generation; but there's more to it. Although "Strix Point" implements "Zen 5," not all 12 CPU cores on the silicon are the regular variant of "Zen 5." The chip physically has four "Zen 5" cores, and eight "Zen 5c" compact cores. Nemez (GPUsAreMagic) attempted to annotate the "Strix Point" die based a high-resolution photo by System360Cheese from AMD's Computex keynote; and there are some interesting findings.

The annotation reveals that the four regular "Zen 5" cores, each with a 1 MB dedicated L2 cache, share a 16 MB L3 cache. The eight "Zen 5c" cores, on the other hand, appear to share a smaller 8 MB L3 cache, in what could be a separate CCX. They each have a 1 MB L2 cache, too. The "Zen 5c" cores have the same IPC as the "Zen 5" cores when measured with common INT and FP benchmarks that don't move a lot of data; however, it could lag behind in workloads with a lot of streaming data. What's more, the previous generation "Zen 4c" cores were traditionally limited to lower frequencies than regular "Zen 4" cores, as the physically compacted cores couldn't hold onto higher core voltages. If that's the case with "Zen 5c," then what we're really looking at with "Strix Point" is an interesting hybrid core setup with eight high-IPC efficiency cores.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the latest version of its critically acclaimed Zephyrus G16 gaming laptop, now featuring an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. With a built-in NPU for AI-accelerated tasks and a dedicated NVIDIA GPU, the latest Zephyrus G16 stands ready for any scenario, from gaming to productivity and more—all in an ultra-sleek thin-and-light package.

Zephyrus enters the era of AI computing
We're entering a new era of computing, with artificial intelligence at its center—and ROG is charging ahead with the new Zephyrus G16, now a true AI PC thanks to its AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. With 12 cores, 24 threads, a built-in AMD Ryzen AI XDNA 2 NPU capable of 50 TOPS of AI performance, along with 31 TOPS from the CPU and its integrated Radeon 890M graphics, the new Zephyrus G16 stands ready for enhancing productivity in AI-enabled applications, including powerful Windows Copilot tools.

In addition to the new Zen 5 Ryzen 9000 series desktop CPUs and Ryzen AI 300 series mobile CPUs, as well as the new Ryzen 5000XT series AM4 socket desktop CPUs and updates to the AMD Instinct AI GPU roadmap, AMD rather silently announced the new Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot workstation graphics card at the Computex 2024. While not a completely new product, as it is just a model update of the currently available flagship Radeon PRO W7900 workstation graphics card, it is still a rather important update since AMD managed to squeeze it into a dual-slot design, which gives it support for multi-GPU setups.

As said, the AMD Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot still uses the same Navi 31 GPU with 96 Compute Units (CUs), 96 Ray Accelerators, 192 AI Accelerators, and 6144 Stream Processors, as well as 48 GB of GDDR6 ECC memory on a 384-bit memory interface, giving it maximum memory bandwidth of 864 GB/s. It still needs 2x8-pin PCIe power connectors and has a Total Board Power (TBP) of 295 W. The card still comes with three DisplayPort 2.1 and one Enhanced Mini DisplayPort 1.2 outputs. What makes the new Radeon PRO W7900 Dual Slot special is the fact that AMD managed to get it down to a dual-slot design, even with the same blower-fan cooler. Unfortunately, it is not clear if the fan or its profiles are different, but it does make it suitable to be used in multi-GPU configurations.

At Computex 2024, ASUS unveiled major updates to its popular laptop lineups, designed for the "Copilot+" era of AI computing. The first is the Zenbook S16 is a premium 16-inch laptop series powered by AMD's latest Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processors with dedicated AI acceleration. Remarkably, ASUS has managed to pack this high-performance silicon into an ultra-portable 1.1 cm thin chassis weighing just 1.5 kg. The Zenbook S16 integrates AMD's new NPU capable of a 50 TOPS of AI compute for accelerating AI/ML workloads. The centerpiece is the laptop's stunning 16-inch 3K OLED display made with ASUS Lumina technology. It offers 100% vibrant DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, a blazing-fast 120 Hz refresh rate with 0.2 ms response time, and up to 600 nits brightness. ASUS paired this premium visual experience with a six-speaker audio system for an immersive multimedia experience.

German PC OEM Schenker, along with its two brands—XMG targeted at high-performance mobile workstations and gaming notebooks; and Tuxedo, targeting Linux-friendly notebooks; made a splash at the 2024 Computex. We visited their pullout booth. The EVO 14 is a 14-inch class performance notebook powered by choices of Intel Core Ultra 7 155H "Meteor Lake" or AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS "Hawk Point" mobile processors; an innovative new dual-fan cooling solution, with 65 W sustained power delivery, and an 80 Wh battery pack. The 14-inch display features a 16:10 aspect ratio, 400 nits brightness, and 3K resolution. Memory options go all the way up to 96 GB, and I/O includes either USB4 or Thunderbolt 4, depending on the hardware platform. The EVO 15 is almost identical in terms of specs, but with a larger 99.8 Wh battery, and a 15.3-inch 500 nits display, and a full-sized edge-to-edge keyboard.Update 07:03 UTC: We have some pricing and availability details from Schenker.

During Computex 2024, GIGABYTE unveiled its new "AI TOP" series designed to empower users to develop and run AI applications locally on their systems. The AI TOP lineup includes AI-optimized motherboards, graphics cards, and complete system solutions. The flagship motherboard is called TRX50 AI TOP, which boasts support for AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 7000 PRO and a regular series of CPUs. The flagship TRX50 AI TOP motherboard features a special VRM design with beefy heatsinks, four PCIe 5.0 x16 slots for quad-GPU setup, eight-channel DDR5 memory with room for eight DIMMs, and a few M.2 PCIe Gen 5 slots. Next in the AI TOP line is the GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AI TOP edition. Formed as a blower-style cooler, the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER AI TOP is envisioned for tight spaces and parallel installation with other GPUs to accelerate local AI development and inference.

Supposedly, there will be more AI TOP motherboards and GPUs than what is showcased. GIGABYTE may have an AI TOP makeover for Intel's upcoming Z890 AORUS Xtreme, and there could be more GPUs in the future with the blower-style AI TOP design. The goal of AI TOP series is optimization for AI workloads, which require lots of GPUs and lots of memory, like the TRX50 AI TOP motherboard shows.

GIGABYTE in its Computex 2027 booth showcased a huge lineup of next-generation Socket LGA1851 motherboards based on the top Intel Z890 chipset, which are ready for Intel's Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors. GIGABYTE has taped out the motherboard model names, so all mentions of Z890 in this article are based on our assumption that it's the name of the next-gen Intel chipset. These chips are expected to bring generational IPC increases from their "Lion Cove" P-cores, "Skymont" E-cores, a more complete PCIe Gen 5 I/O (including for the CPU-attached NVMe slots), and other innovations. If the socket looks similar to the LGA1700, it's because it's identical in physical dimensions, and you can use your LGA1700 cooler on the LGA1851, but the processors are not inter-compatible. The company also showcased a few AMD Socket AM5 motherboards based on the new AMD X870E chipset.

The first motherboard to catch our eye is the Z890 AORUS Tachyon. This board is geared for record-seeking CPU overclocking. The processor is wired to just two DDR5 memory slots (1 DIMM per channel, the best configuration for memory OC); and the CPU-attached NVMe slots being close to the socket, with a combined heatsink. The only expansion slots are a PCI-Express 5.0 x16, and what could be a Gen 4 x8. There are plenty of overclocker-friendly controls, voltage measurement points, diagnostic LEDs, and status displays, scattered all over the board.

AMD Socket AM4 is now an 8-year-old platform, since its debut back in 2016. AMD objectively went above and beyond for this platform, launching processors powered by the original "Zen," the refreshed "Zen+," the "Zen 2," and the Intel-beating "Zen 3" microarchitecture, including 3D V-cache versions of the "Zen 3" that were competitive even with Intel's 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" processors in gaming. Those on older processors on AM4 are spoiled for choice with upgrades within the platform, without having to change it, with AMD releasing new processor models every year for the past 8 years. The 2024 launches include the Ryzen 5000XT series.

It's hard to call the Ryzen 5000XT a "series," since there are only two SKUs—the Ryzen 9 5900XT, and the Ryzen 7 5800XT. Neither of the two feature 3D V-cache, but push clock speeds up. The Ryzen 9 5900XT is a 16-core/32-thread part, and is not meant to be confused with the 5900X, which is a 12-core/24-thread part. The 16-core 5900XT comes with a maximum boost frequency of 4.80 GHz, which is 100 MHz less than that of the 5950X. It has the same 105 W TDP, and a significantly lower $360 price. The Ryzen 7 5800XT, on the other hand, is an 8-core/16-thread chip with 4.80 GHz maximum boost frequency, compared to the 4.70 GHz of the 5800X, and the same 105 W TDP. It's priced around $260. Both chips include an AMD Wraith Prism RGB cooler that's capable of handling 140 W TDP processors. The Ryzen 9 5900XT is claimed by AMD to offer similar gaming performance to the Intel Core i7-13700K; while the 5800XT is claimed to play games competitively to the Intel Core i5-13600KF. Both chips should be available sometime in July, 2024.

AMD today announced its much awaited Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors. Built in the Socket AM5 package, and drop-in compatible with all current AM5 motherboards with a BIOS update, the processors are based on the new "Zen 5" CPU microarchitecture. The operational part of the processor, the CPU complex dies (CCDs), are built on the 4 nm process, wired to a 6 nm I/O die. AMD didn't get down into the nuts and bolts of the microarchitecture, but briefly mentioned an impressive 16% IPC increase over "Zen 4." Coupled with the fact that the first wave of processors lack 3D V-cache and can sustain higher boost frequencies and TDP, processors in the series should beat the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in gaming performance, which also means that AMD has beaten the 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" processor series by a significant margin.

The 16% IPC increase over "Zen 4" is backed by branch prediction improvements, wider pipelines and vectors, and deeper window sizes across the core design, for more parallelism. The core also features doubling in instruction bandwidth for front-end instructions, FPU to L1, and L1 to L2 data bandwidth, and a redesigned FPU to double AI performance and AVX512 throughput. The company hasn't put out a block design for "Zen 5," and we'll learn more about it in the run-up to the market availability of these chips some time in July 2024.

AMD today launched its Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors, codenamed "Strix Point." These chips implement a combination of the AMD "Zen 5" microarchitecture for the CPU cores, the XDNA 2 architecture for its powerful new NPU, and the RDNA 3+ graphics architecture for its 33% faster iGPU. The new "Zen 5" microarchitecture provides a 16% generational IPC uplift over "Zen 4" on the backs of several front-end enhancements, wider execution pipelines, more intra core bandwidth, and a revamped FPU that doubles performance of AI and AVX-512 workloads. AMD didn't go in-depth with the microarchitecture, but the broad points of "Zen 5" are detailed in our article for the Ryzen 9000 "Granite Ridge" desktop processors. Not only is AMD using these faster "Zen 5" CPU cores, but also increased the CPU core count by 50%, for a maximum of 12-core/24-thread.

The "Strix Point" monolithic silicon is built on the 4 nm foundry node, and packs a CPU core complex (CCX) with 12 CPU cores, four of these are "Zen 5," which can achieve the highest possible boost frequencies, the other eight are "Zen 5c" cores that feature an identical IPC and the full ISA, including support for SMT; but don't boost as high as the "Zen 5" cores. AMD is claiming a productivity performance increase ranging between 4% and 73% for its top model based in the series, when compared to Intel's Core Ultra 9 185H "Meteor Lake" processor. The iGPU sees its compute unit (CU) count go all the way up to 16 from 12 in the previous generation, and this yields a claimed 33% increase in iGPU gaming performance compared to the integrated Arc graphics of the Core Ultra 9 185H. Lastly, the XDNA 2 NPU sees more that triple the AI inference performance to 50 AI TOPS, compared to the 16 TOPS of the Ryzen 8040 "Hawk Point" processor, and 12 TOPS of Core Ultra "Meteor Lake." This makes the processor meet Microsoft's Copilot+ AI PC requirements.

We are live from Computex 2024 in Taipei, where AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su takes center-stage to announce what's next from the world of AMD. The company is expected to announce its new "Zen 5" CPU architecture powering new processors across form-factors. In particular, the company is expected to announce processors for the new AI PC Copilot+ standard announced recently by Microsoft. Several more announcements are expected from the world of datacenters and AI GPU acceleration.01:26 UTC: Setting the tone of things to come is this graphic flashing on the screens. Given the colors, we expect AI announcements both in the enterprise and client segments, but beginning with the enterprise side of it.01:38 UTC: And we're up, with a TAITRA introduction of AMD.

Giga Computing, a subsidiary of GIGABYTE and an industry leader in AI servers and green computing, today announced its participation in COMPUTEX and unveiling of solutions tackling complex AI workloads at scale, as well as advanced cooling infrastructure that will lead to greater energy efficiency. Additionally, to support innovations in accelerated computing and generative AI, GIGABYTE will have NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems available in Q1 2025. Discussions around GIGABYTE products will be held in booth #K0116 in Hall 1 at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center. As an NVIDIA-Certified System provider, GIGABYTE servers also support NVIDIA NIM inference microservices, part of the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform.

Redefining AI Servers and Future Data Centers
All new and upcoming CPU and accelerated computing technologies are being showcased at the GIGABYTE booth alongside GIGA POD, a rack-scale AI solution by GIGABYTE. The flexibility of GIGA POD is demonstrated with the latest solutions such as the NVIDIA HGX B100, NVIDIA HGX H200, NVIDIA GH200 Grace Hopper Superchip, and other OAM baseboard GPU systems. As a turnkey solution, GIGA POD is designed to support baseboard accelerators at scale with switches, networking, compute nodes, and more, including support for NVIDIA Spectrum -X to deliver powerful networking capabilities for generative AI infrastructures.

ASUS today announced the ROG Ally X, its ambitious new handheld game console that's a step up from the ROG Ally that the company launched last year. The ROG Ally X is powered by the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor as the ROG Ally, but with 50% more unified memory—now up to 24 GB of LPDDR5X-7500, which runs at an 18% higher speed than the 16 GB LPDDR5-6400 of the original. The designers also implemented an M.2-2280 NVMe SSD slot, which opens the console up to the widest possible selection of NVMe SSDs. The console includes a 1 TB drive, which is double that of the 500 GB that the ROG Ally comes with. The company has also significantly upgraded the thermal solution of the console with a larger fan, and better thermal venting, which offers 6°C lower gaming temperatures.

Perhaps the biggest feature upgrade is the battery, which is 80 Wh, a 100% increase from the 40 Wh of the original ROG Ally. This may not be a linear 100% increase in battery life from the ROG Ally (due to the various hardware upgrades), but should still pose significant improvements to it. Other hardware updates include USB4, which includes DisplayPort passthrough from the iGPU; besides a separate USB 3.2 Gen 2 type-C. The console supports USB-PD with 140 W fast-charging, and is paired with a first-party GaN-based 140 W fast-charger. Dimensions are similar to those of the ROG Ally, except for 4 mm added thickness, and 70 g added weight (608 g vs. 678 g). Available from July, the ROG Ally X is priced at $799, and includes a 3-month Xbox Game Pass. We went hands on with the console at ASUS's pre-Computex event. Stay tuned for several more announcements form the company in the coming days.

AMD has announced a new bug bounty program with prizes for individuals and public researchers. The company is partnering with the cloud security provider Intigriti on this new "bugs hunting campaign", this time, they have a better reward system with up to $30,000 in cash up for grab, while more people can take part. Bug bounties are not new in the industry, with modern hardware, bugs and issues have increased, this being a good way for companies to find vulnerabilities without spending too much on detection.

Individuals look for bugs, and then send a report to the company describing the bug and its impacts, AMD then gives prizes to the hunters based on factors like bug severity. It will be at least interesting to see what happens with AMD's new bug bounty program since public researchers can now take part.

(Eligible list with products and technologies below)

ASRock is ready with the first Radeon RX gaming graphics card to feature a modern 12V-2x6 power connector, replacing the up to three 8-pin PCIe power connectors it took, to power a Radeon RX 7900 series graphics card. The ASRock RX 7900 series WS graphics cards are also the first 2-slot RX 7900 series graphics cards. They target workstations and GPU rendering farms that stack multiple graphics cards into 4U or 5U rackmount cases, with no spacing between 2-slot graphics cards. ASRock is designing cards based on both the RX 7900 XT, and the flagship RX 7900 XTX.

The ASRock RX 7900 series WS graphics cards appear long and no more than 2 slots thick. To achieve these dimensions, a lateral-flow cooling solution is used, which combines a dense aluminium or copper channel heatsink with a lateral blower. Remember we said these cards are meant for workstations or rendering farms? So the noise output will be deafening, at least up to datacenter standards. The most striking aspect of these cards of course is their 12+4 pin ATX 12V-2x6 power input, which is capable of drawing 600 W of continuous power from a single cable. It's located at the card's tail-end, where it would have been an engineering challenge to put three 8-pin connectors.

AMD is debuting its Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" desktop processors powered by the "Zen 5" microarchitecture later this year. These chips are compatible with existing AMD 600-series chipset motherboards with a simple UEFI firmware update, but the company is also taking the opportunity to launch the AMD 800-series chipset family alongside these chips. The lineup will be led by the AMD X870E, followed by the X870. These two chipsets should launch immediately alongside the new processors, but will later be joined by the AMD B850 and B840. There's no entry-level chipset planned, the AMD A620 will continue to hold the fort for AMD here. There is an interesting new mix of product differentiation, according to a leaked GIGABYTE slide scored by VideoCardz.

If you recall, the X670E and X670 were differentiated by a lack of Gen 5 PCI-Express x16 PEG slots on the X670, which instead was limited to Gen 4 on the PEG slot. The X670 still had Gen 5 NVMe slots attached to the CPU, and had practically the same I/O features as the X670E, including the same counts of downstream PCIe Gen 4 general purpose lanes. Both the X670E and X670 are 2-chip solutions, in that the second chip is a connected to the general purpose PCIe lanes of the first chip, which in turn is connected to the processor. Things are going to change with the 800-series. The top-spec X870E will be a 2-chip solution, with PCIe Gen 4 general purpose lane counts resembling the X670E; but the X870 is a single-chip solution that more closely resembles the B650E in I/O. The X870 (non-E) now gives you Gen 5 PCI-Express x16 PEG, just like the X870E and the B650E, and at least one Gen 5 x4 NVMe slot attached to the CPU, but has fewer downstream Gen 4 general purpose PCIe lanes than the X670. Both the X870E and X870 assure USB4 connectivity, and support CPU overclocking. Things get very interesting in the mid-range.

Although it has been rumoured for a little while now that AMD might be launching Ryzen 5000XT CPUs, that rumour just got some added fuel to the fire courtesy of @CodeCommando_ on X/Twitter. The leaker provided a somewhat pixelated screenshot of two new AM4 CPUs, namely the Ryzen 9 5900XT and the Ryzen 7 5800XT. This is one less CPU compared to the Ryzen 3000XT series that AMD launched in 2020 and it looks like the benefits on offer are similar as well. Both chips are 105 Watt parts and have a maximum boost speed of 4.8 GHz, but this is where the similarities end. The Ryzen 9 5900XT has a rather odd SKU name, as it has the same max boost clock as the Ryzen 9 5900X, but the same core and cache count as the Ryzen 5950X.

The Ryzen 7 5800XT on the other hand is a pretty straightforward 100 MHz higher clock speed SKU over the Ryzen 7 5800X, which makes one wonder why AMD even bothered. According to VideoCardz, we're looking at a US$359 MSRP for the Ryzen 9 5900XT, with the Ryzen 7 5800XT coming in at US$249, making both a potentially interesting enough upgrade option for someone that is still using an older AM4 CPU. The pricing and CPU details are said to have been revealed at a pre-Computex media briefing, so it's highly likely that the information is correct. Both chips are said to hit retail in July.