ASUS has registered an unprecedented number of AMD Radeon RX 7000-series mid-range graphics card SKUs with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC)—we were somewhat impressed with PowerColor's new SKU count, as reported on TPU two days ago, but Team ASUS shrugs that off with ease. 64 new models based on Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GPUs have been lodged with the EEC—it should be noted that some of these are unlikely to reach final market form. VideoCardz points out that ASUS has a track record of favoring NVIDIA silicon in terms of offering multiple models across budget, mid level and premium tiers: "ASUS has never released such a large number of cards for a single SKU. Their plans for Radeon models are notably more modest compared to their GeForce RTX 40 counterparts, and some of the listed SKUs are rarely used for AMD GPUs."

ASUS decided to keep things simple with its launch day selection of Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT cards—arriving in TUF Gaming form, with black or white color options. Their latest EEC registration provides an early insight into potential plans for an extensive expansion of Navi 32 GPU-based card models—with additional TUF Gaming options, as well as ROG Strix, Dual, and ProArt SKUs. ASUS has historically adhered to a tradition of picking black shroud designs for its ProArt card series, but the EEC info dump reveals white variants.

We're happy to share that ordering is now available in Taiwan! That includes the in-stock Framework Laptop 13 (13th Gen Intel Core) with Traditional Chinese keyboard, pre-orders for AMD Ryzen 7040 Series and Framework Laptop 16, and the modules in the Framework Marketplace. This is an especially important launch for us because our manufacturing site for laptops, our main warehouse, and about a third of the Framework team itself are all in Taiwan. This also means that shipping is going to be ultra fast for local customers! As always, we're continuing to build out infrastructure to reach more of you across the world. We're in 13 countries now, and actively preparing for more. The best way to let us know where to go next is to register your interest on the country selection page.

Starting production on Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040 Series)
We're also excited to announce that we've started mass production of Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen 7040 Series)! A set of electrical issues we found during validation along with late delivery of firmware from our upstream suppliers required us to delay our original production schedule. We've been sending bi-weekly status updates on this to customers in Batches 1-3 whose orders were at risk of delay. This week, we kicked off SMT (surface mount production of Mainboards) in Taiwan, which feeds into FATP (final assembly, test, and pack out of laptops) in the same factory, after which we'll transfer inventory to our warehouse and start shipments. We've doubled production capacity and moved into a new, larger logistics warehouse since the launch of 13th Gen Intel Core earlier this year, so we're confident we'll be able to move through the pre-order backlog quickly.

We heard murmurings back in early August about a slightly disappointing future for RDNA 4—multiple sources claimed that AMD had dropped development of a Navi 31 successor. Rumored reasons included "a cost justification of developing high-end GPUs to push enough volumes over the product lifecycle," as well as the apparent complexity of chiplet designs making it difficult to climb up the ladder of generational performance improvements.

The "narrowed" RDNA 4 product lineup is said to only encompass Navi 43 and Navi 44 GPUs, with a heavier focus on mid-range offerings. Lately, Bits And Chips has decided to pile on with another theory, likely obtained from their favored inside source: "AMD will sacrifice next Radeon gaming GPUs (RX 8000) output at TSMC in order to pump up FPGA and GPGPU production." The AI hardware market is in a boom phase, and Team Red is keen to catch up with NVIDIA—past reports have suggested that Team Green production priorities have shifted away GeForce RTX 4090 GPUs, in favor of an output uptick of "immensely profitable" H100 AI GPUs. Is AMD simply copying the market leader's homework?

First, an enormous thank you to all of you playing Starfield and your support. We are absolutely blown away by the response and all you love about the game. We're also reading all your great feedback on what you'd like to see improved or added to the game. This is a game we'll be supporting for years and years to come, so please keep all the feedback coming! Even if we don't get to your requests immediately, we'd love to do it in the future, like city maps. Our priority initially is making sure any top blocker bugs or stability issues are addressed, and adding quality-of-life features that many are asking for.

This first update is a small hotfix targeted at the few top issues were are seeing. After that, expect a regular interval of updates that have top community requested features including:

• Brightness and Contrast controls
• HDR Calibration Menu
• FOV Slider
• Nvidia DLSS Support (PC)
• 32:9 Ultrawide Monitor Support (PC)
• Eat button for food!

To help consumers get the most out of their handheld gaming PC experience, WD_BLACK from Western Digital is introducing a new premium, high-performance M.2 2230 solution architected for today's handheld PC gamer. Building upon the WD_BLACK legacy of performance storage for all kinds of competitive gamers, the company is introducing the WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD. According to a recent Gartner report, the handheld gaming console market is expected to reach 14.8M by 2027. As the mobile gaming market continues to grow and more AAA titles are released, new and innovative storage solutions are being released and developed to ensure mobile gamers are able to make the most of their on-the-go gaming experience.

"With game sizes continually becoming larger, it's easy for handheld game consoles to fill up over time with new games and regular updates," said Eric Spanneut, vice president of client SSDs for Western Digital. "The new WD_BLACK SN770M NVMe SSD boosts available storage up to 2TB2 and is specifically designed to handle the peak performance of demanding games for handheld gaming PCs."

DEEPX, a leading AI semiconductor technology company makes significant advancements towards creating an expansive Edge AI ecosystem by introducing innovative Edge AI Development Kits that transcend the limitations of GPUs. The company, known for its pioneering work in artificial intelligence semiconductors for Edge devices, is gearing up to participate in the AI Hardware & Edge AI Summit in Silicon Valley, set to run from September 12th to 14th.

At this prestigious event, DEEPX's CEO Lokwon Kim will share the stage with luminaries like Professor Andrew Ng of Landing AI and Tenstorrent CEO Jim Keller. More than 100 major tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm, will converge to discuss the latest trends and insights in AI hardware and edge AI.

The 4 nm "Phoenix 2" monolithic APU silicon powering the lower end of AMD's Ryzen 7040-series mobile processors, could very well be the company's first hybrid core processor, even though the company doesn't advertise it as such. We first caught whiff of "Phoenix 2" back in July, when it was described as being a physically smaller chip than the regular "Phoenix." It was known to have just 6 CPU cores, and a smaller iGPU with 4 RDNA3 compute units; in comparison to the 8 CPU cores and 12 compute units of the "Phoenix" silicon. At the time a lack of 2 CPU cores and 8 CUs were known to be behind the significant reduction in die size from 178 mm² to 137 mm², but it turns out that there's a lot more to "Phoenix 2."

A die shot of "Phoenix 2" emerged on Chinese social media platform QQ, which reveals two distinct kinds of CPU cores. There are six cores in all, but two of them appear larger than the other four. The obvious inference here, is that the larger cores are "Zen 4," and the smaller ones are the compacted "Zen 4c." The "Zen 4c" core has the same core machinery as "Zen 4," albeit it is re-arranged to favor lower area on the die. The trade-off here is that the "Zen 4c" core operates at lower voltages and lower clock-speeds than the regular "Zen 4" cores. At the same clock speeds, both kinds of cores have an identical IPC. The two also have an identical ISA, so any software threads migrating between the cores will not encounter runtime errors. Unlike Intel Thread Director, AMD can use a less sophisticated software-based solution to ensure that the right kind of workload is allocated to the right kind of cores, and prevent undesirable migration between the two kinds of cores. Unlike the hardware-based Thread Director, AMD's solution can be continually updated.

Hardware leaker, YuuKi_AnS, has briefly turned their attention away from all things Team Blue—their latest leak points to upcoming server-grade processors chez AMD. A Zen 6 core-based 9006 EPYC CPU series, codenamed "Venice," is expected to arrive within two to three years along with an all-new SP7 socket—this information seems to have been sourced from an unnamed server manufacturer's product roadmap. A partial view of said slide also reveals forthcoming equipment powered by Intel "Falcon Shore" and NVIDIA "Blackwell" GPU technologies.

As reported a couple of months ago, older insider info has AMD using "Weisshorn" as an in-house moniker for Zen 6 "Morpheus" architecture, destined for Venice CPUs—alleged to form part of a 2025/2026 EPYC lineup. YuuKi_AnS proposes that these will utilize either 12-channel or 16-channel DDR5 memory configurations—thus providing plenty of bandwidth across hundreds of Zen cores. Altogether very handy for cloud, enterprise, and HPC workloads—industry experts reckon that 384-core counts are feasible on single packages. Naturally, a Team Red timeline dictates that Zen 5 "Nirvana" is due before Zen 6 "Morpheus," so EPYC 9005 "Turin(-X)" and 8005 "Turin-Dense" lineups are (allegedly) up for a 2024-ish launch window on SP5 (LGA-6096) and SP6 (LGA 4094) socket types.

ADATA Technology Co., Ltd., the world's leading memory brand, announced a theme of "Dazzling Tomorrow" for its annual creator event " You Are a Rising Star," held from today until October 13th. Use creative techniques such as graphic design, 3D rendering, and video to weave your own moving story. Share your pieces publically on Instagram and you will have an opportunity to win excellent prizes valued at more than USD$5,700.

With the generational change of processors and chipsets, DDR5 memory entering the mainstream, the rapid rise of Gen 4 SSDs and a migration to the Gen 5 era, coupled with the rise of generative AI tools, creator software and hardware must also improve in leaps and bounds. ADATA's online creator contest officially enters its fourth year and continues to provide a platform for talent in the fields of "graphic design," "video creation," "animation," and "photography" to unleash their creativity. This year, we continue our commitment to the spirit of "Build to Create" to produce better solutions for content creators, including major international award winning high-end and comprehensive products such as the LEGEND 970 Gen 5 SSD, ACE series memory module, SE920 USB4 external SSD, and other devices to inspire creativity.

PB Tech New Zealand has lowered the price of a Galax GeForce RTX 4070 1 CLICK OC X2 12 GB graphics card to stay competitive with the initial batch of freshly released AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT cards. This particular custom NVIDIA model is not quite as fancy as its triple fan sibling that sits in TPU's database, but the promotional price of NZ$999 (~$588 USD) could be enough to tempt customers away from Team Red's new mid-range offerings—starting with Sapphire's reference model at NZ$998.99. For NZ$1018.99 (~$600 USD) you reach the first tier of custom design RX 7800 XT models—ASRock's AMD Challenger 16 GB OC, PowerColor's Hellhound edition and a Sapphire Pulse Gaming 16 GB card.

VideoCardz notes that e-tailers outside of New Zealand have not been observed lowering prices of GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards, although a smattering of shops in North America have adjusted their charges for GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB in reaction to the arrival of competing AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT models. We hope to see that market trend apply to the GeForce RTX 4070 series as well—a sole case isolated to the southwestern Pacific territory (where launch prices tend to be greater than elsewhere) is not enough.

AMD and Bethesda's Starfield Game Bundle promotion kicked off back in mid-July, with a wide range of current and previous generation hardware qualifying for the campaign. It was very apparent, at the time, that Team Red had bolstered the list of GPUs with plenty of mid-range RX 6000-series (RDNA 2) models—in absence of heavily rumored successors. AMD's Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards were finally introduced at Gamescom 2023, and reached retail outlets yesterday. Post-unveiling it was revealed that all Radeon RX 7000-series desktop cards would be eligible for the Starfield campaign, but the new Navi 32-based models were not mentioned in specifics.

AMD has—very recently—quietly updated its Reward and Gaming campaign pages with revised information—Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GPUs are now present on the list of qualifying products, alongside the addition of an oddball semi-sibling—Radeon RX 7900 Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE). These graphics cards sit in an upper tier that grants customers a digital download copy of Starfield Premium Edition.

SAPPHIRE Technology announces the latest SAPPHIRE PURE AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT graphics cards, built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture offering superb performance designed for gamers and creators. These cards are encased in a stunning white shroud with delicate design accents, built with durable components and engineered with effective cooling solutions for a dynamic gaming experience.

A new PURE experience
Kick off the AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT graphics card experience with the brand-new, white shrouded, sleek SAPPHIRE PURE lineup! The SAPPHIRE PURE AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT graphics card headlines with 60 Compute Units and 3840 stream processors with a Boost Clock of up to 2475 MHz and a Game Clock of up to 2169 MHz. It also offers 16 GB of high-speed GDDR6 memory clocked at 19.5 Gbps with 64 MB of second generation AMD Infinity Cache technology. The SAPPHIRE PURE AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT graphics card features a GPU with 54 Compute Units and 3456 stream processors, a Boost Clock of up to 2584 MHz and a Game Clock of up to 2226 MHz. Enjoy breakthrough performance on the SAPPHIRE PURE AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT with 12 GB of GDDR6 high-speed memory clocked at up to 18 Gbps with 48 MB of Infinity Cache technology. The graphics card has support for up to 4 output ports including 2x HDMI 2.1 and 2x DisplayPort 2.1 ports with DSC outputs to support the latest monitors on the market.

TSMC is having a tough time getting its Phoenix, Arizona facility up to fully functional standards—large-scale production at Fab 21 has been delayed into 2025 (as announced back in July). Cited factors include workforce-related issues and sluggish installation of state-of-the-art manufacturing equipment. These setbacks are not too disconcerting in the eyes of leadership at AMD—today CEO Dr. Lisa Su declared that her firm will be one of the first in line to contract with TSMC's Fab 21, thanks to long established bonds: "I think we have gotten extremely good at managing supply chain, so I would say that is one of our core strengths. TSMC has been a phenomenal partner for us in terms of advanced technology, both on the silicon side as well as the packaging side, and we very much value that relationship." Su and NVIDIA chief Jensen Huang were key figures present at the Arizona facility's December 2022 opening ceremony.

AMD's top brass is in attendance at this year's Goldman Sachs Communacopia and Technology Conference, alongside arch rival Intel. The latter has already dropped their own revelation for the day. Su commented on North American chip manufacturing circumstances: "When you when you think about the geopolitical situation, geographic diversity is important to us...So, the Arizona factory is very important to us. We are going to be one of the early users, we are putting our first tape outs in shortly with the idea of being a significant user of Arizona. I think we will continue to look at the geographic diversity as an important piece of it." AMD has been fabless since 2009, and relies heavily on TSMC's tried and true Taiwan-based plants to produce CPU, GPU, DPU and FPGA products—it will be interesting to observe how things pan out when some of this output gets shifted over to a fledgling facility positioned out there in the Sonoran desert.

AMD has released the latest version of the Adrenalin software, the version 23.9.1 WHQL. The new AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 23.9.1 WHQL adds support for Radeon RX 7700 and RX 7800 series graphics cards which will be available as of today, as well as adds support for AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, Radeon Boost, and AMD HYPR-RX features.

The AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+ initially supports 12 games, including Apex Legends, Overwatch 2, Dying Light 2, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 4, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Fortnite, Last of Us: Part 1, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, Resident Evil 3, and Borderlands 3, with more promised in the coming months. It also adds support for AMD HYPER-X, a one click solution which combines AMD Radeon Anti-Lag+, Boost, and Radeon Super Resolution to achieve improved performance and latency reduction.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.9.1 WHQL for AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and RX 7800 XT
DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.9.1

GIGABYTE, the world's leading computer brand, announced the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GAMING OC graphics cards hit the market today. Based on AMD's Navi 32 chip using the RDNA 3 architecture, the RX 7800 XT GAMING OC excels in demanding 1440p gaming backed by substantial VRAM and computing power. Meanwhile, the RX 7700 XT GAMING OC emerges as an attractive mid-range option, also promising exceptional performance at 1440p.

Both RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT GAMING OC models are equipped with GIGABYTE's acclaimed WINDFORCE cooling system, engineered to ensure peak performance even during extended gaming sessions. This innovative cooling solution features a triple-fan design with Alternating Spinning technology, composite copper heat pipes, Screen Cooling, and an array of exclusive features. These components work in tandem to facilitate efficient heat dissipation, enabling the cards to maintain optimal operating temperatures while keeping noise levels at a minimum.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, proudly unveils the BIOSTAR AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT graphics cards, built with extreme performance and visual fidelity for that next-level gaming experience. Meticulously designed to cater to the diverse needs of modern-day gamers and content creators, the AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT graphics cards represent the pinnacle of graphics processing technology. Built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture, these graphics cards offer immersive visuals that redefine gaming realism and cinematic content rendering.

The BIOSTAR AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT graphics card offers an impressive 12 GB GDDR6 memory, which operates on a 192-bit bus with a memory clock speed of up to 18 Gbps. For enthusiasts keen on exploring its capabilities, its engine clocks stand at 2171 MHz (Game), and peak at a roaring 2544 MHz (Boost). Meanwhile, the BIOSTAR Radeon RX 7800 XT graphics card has a robust 16 GB GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus and a blazingly fast 19.5 Gbps memory clock speed, geared for superior gaming performance. With game clocks reaching 2124 MHz during gameplay, and peaking at 2430 MHz with boost, gaming enthusiasts from casual to pro-level can confidently dive into their favorite AAA titles and enjoy them at the highest potential.

ASRock, the leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, today launched the new Phantom Gaming, Steel Legend and Challenger series graphics cards based on AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT GPUs. The new ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT Series graphics cards are built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture, featuring 60 and 54 redesigned compute units, respectively, and second-generation AMD Infinity Cache technology. They also feature the AMD Radiance Display Engine, full AV1 encoding and are optimized for high-performance 1440p gaming, streaming and content creation applications. The ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Series graphics cards also provide the horsepower to step into 4K gaming.

The new ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT Series graphics cards are equipped with high-speed 16 GB and 12 GB GDDR6 memory at 19.5 Gbps and 18 Gbps, respectively, and are pre-overclocked to deliver higher levels of performance. The AMD Radiance Display Engine provides 12 bit-per-channel color for up to 68 billion colors for incredible color accuracy. In addition, ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT Series graphics cards support various ASRock exclusive features, including the Striped Ring/Axial Fan, Air Deflecting Fin, Ultra-fit Heatpipe, Metal Backplate, and Polychrome SYNC technology to provide cooling efficiency, solid construction, and fancy ARGB lighting effects. With these exclusive features, ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT Series graphics cards are ideal choices for 4K/2K gamers and creators.

You can check out our review of the ASRock Radeon RX 7800 XT Phantom Gaming graphics card.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Jon Peddie Research (JPR), unit shipments in the add-in board (AIB) market increased in Q2'23 from last quarter, while AMD gained market share. Quarter to quarter, graphics AIB shipments increased modestly, by 2.9%; however, shipments decreased by -36% year to year.

Since Q1 2000, over 2.10 billion graphics cards, worth about $476 billion, have been sold. The market shares for the desktop discrete GPU suppliers shifted in the quarter, as AMD's market share increased from last quarter and Nvidia's share increased from last year. Intel, which entered the AIB market in Q3'22 with the Arc A770 and A750, will start to increase market share in 2024.

Argentina's HD Tecnología site has obtained and published AMD's official data outlining the performance prowess of the soon-to-be released Radeon RX 7800 XT & RX 7700 XT GPUs, when stacked up against their closest rivals—NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB and RTX 4070 12 GB. Team Red could have "cherry-picked" some of this information, and presented resultant performance charts during the grand unveiling of their mid-range RDNA 3 cards at last month's Gamescom press event. HD Tecnología claims that the fuzzy batch of screengrabs were obtained from an official review guide, they chose to not share pages containing precise details of system specifications. An embargo imposed on media outlets is set to be lifted tomorrow, which coincides with the launch of AMD's Navi 32-based contenders.

The test system was running games within a DirectX 12 environment, possibly at maximum settings—general hardware specs included an non-specific AMD Ryzen 7000-series CPU coupled with DDR5 memory on unidentified AM5 motherboard. VideoCardz's abbreviated analysis of the numbers stated: "In summary, without ray tracing, the Radeon RX 7800 XT outperforms the GeForce RTX 4070 by almost 7% on average, while with ray tracing enabled, it maintains a slight 0.5% lead. Conversely, the RX 7700 XT exhibits 16% higher performance over the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB. However, the presence of ray tracing can tip the scales slightly in NVIDIA's favor, resulting in an 8.5% lead over the AMD GPU."

EXP Review reported on Sapphire selling a new special edition Radeon RX 7600 8 GB graphics card on China's JD.com online store—the custom design sports a very loud orange shroud replete with cat, dog, crocodile, sloth and rabbit graphics. It appears to be a slight reworking of Sapphire's Pulse RX 7600 OC 8 GB card, albeit with a fancy paint job that looks to celebrate the upcoming launch (September 20) of "Party Animals," a physics-based brawler/party game.

The Party Animals edition card is retailing for 2199 RMB (~$301), which is 200 RMB (~$27) more expensive than the standard Pulse/Platinum version—with identical base, game and boost clock speeds. A digital copy of the game is bundled with each purchase, as well as an exclusive in-game "Rocket" skin for the Nemo dog character. Sapphire's colorful Radeon graphics card is currently not in stock—we are not certain whether this lack of availability is down to popularity or a supply shortage, since it is difficult to ascertain information from the JD.com listing. EXP Review acknowledges that Sapphire launched this special edition product with little fanfare in China, so it remains to be seen whether any examples will reach Western outlets.

AMD's Zen 4 high-end desktop (HEDT) family could be closing in on a launch window—AsRock's European office has registered a number of motherboards with the EEC, and KOMACHI_ENSAKA spotted a model sporting a TRX50 chipset sitting in the middle of mainstream gaming Lightning and Riptide offerings. The "TRX50 WS" seems to be the first sighting of an AMD Threadripper 7000 "Storm Peak" series workstation board. TRX50 is presumably the logical successor to Team Red's existing TRX40 platform—the latter supports third generation (Zen 3) Ryzen Threadripper 5000 "Chagall" processors. AMD has not publicly published any details regarding next-gen Threadripper and Threadripper Pro product lineups, but several leaks have pointed to the new HEDT platform arriving within the second half of 2023.

A mid-August Geekbench database entry outed the AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7995WX—this 96 core/192 thread CPU scored 2095 points in single-core tests, and 81408 multi-core points—these results have it positioned as one of the fastest processors submitted to Geekbench. The test system was running Geekbench v5.5 for Linux (Ubuntu 22.04 LTS). It is speculated that four (or more) models could be released with differing core counts: 16, 32, 64 and 96—please refer to the VideoCardz authored chart (below). Past rumors have SP5 and SP6 socket types linked to the "Storm Peak" family, with the introduction of DDR5 memory standard to Threadripper.

Maxon, developers of professional software solutions for editors, filmmakers, motion designers, visual effects artists and creators of all types, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated release of Cinebench 2024. This latest iteration of the industry-standard benchmarking software, which has been a cornerstone in computer performance evaluation for two decades, sets a new standard for performance evaluation, embracing cutting-edge technology to provide artists, designers, and creators with a more accurate and relevant representation of their hardware capabilities.

Redshift Rendering Engine Integration
Cinebench 2024 ushers in a new era by embracing the power of Redshift, Cinema 4D's default rendering engine. Unlike its predecessors, which utilized Cinema 4D's standard renderer, Cinebench 2024 utilizes the same render algorithms across both CPU and GPU implementations. This leap to the Redshift engine ensures that performance testing aligns seamlessly with the demands of modern creative workflows, delivering accurate and consistent results.

AMD has published the source code for AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) technology, the backbone of AMD EPYC processor-based confidential computing virtual machines (VMs) available from cloud service providers including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Compute Infrastructure (OCI). This release from AMD will drive greater transparency for the security industry and provide customers the opportunity to thoroughly review the technology behind confidential computing VMs powered by AMD EPYC processors.

"As a leader in confidential computing, we are committed to a relentless pursuit of innovation and creating modern security features that complement our ecosystem partners' most advanced cloud offerings," said Mark Papermaster, executive vice president and chief technology officer, AMD. "By sharing the underpinnings of our SEV technology, we are delivering transparency for confidential computing and demonstrating our dedication to open source. Involving the open-source community will further strengthen this critical technology for our partners and customers who expect nothing less than the utmost protection for their most valuable asset - their data."

Arm's impending IPO, valued between $60 billion and $70 billion, has reportedly garnered substantial backing from industry giants such as Apple, NVIDIA, Intel, and Samsung, as per sources cited in a Bloomberg report. This much-anticipated public offering serves as a litmus test for investor interest in new chip-related stocks and could reshape the tech industry landscape. While the information remains unofficial, it underscores the significant support Arm has received from major licensees, including Apple, AMD, Cadence, Intel, Google, NVIDIA, Samsung, and Synopsys, with each potentially contributing between $25 million and $100 million, a testament to their confidence in Arm's future prospects. Originally, SoftBank aimed to raise $8 billion to $10 billion through the IPO, but a strategic shift to retain a larger Arm stake revised the target to $5 billion to $7 billion.

This IPO's success holds paramount importance for SoftBank and its CEO, Masayoshi Son, particularly following the Vision Fund's substantial $30 billion loss in the previous fiscal year. Masayoshi Son is reportedly committed to maintaining significant control over Arm, planning to release no more than 10% of the company's shares during this initial phase, aligning with SoftBank's recent acquisition of the Vision Fund's Arm stake and reinforcing their belief in Arm's long-term potential. Arm has enlisted renowned global financial institutions such as Barclays, Goldman Sachs Group, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Mizuho Financial Group to prepare for the IPO, highlighting the widespread interest in the offering and the anticipated benefits for these financial institutions.

PerformanceDatabases has uncovered details relating to an alleged engineering sample of AMD's Ryzen 8000 "Strix Point" APU—likely insider sourced CPU-Z screengrabs from early last month revealed that the upcoming Zen 5-based laptop chip (in their words): "is built on a 4 nm Process and features the Big.Little CPU architecture with 4 Performance Cores and 8 Efficiency Cores. Both the P and E-Cores support hyper-threading. On the P-Core and E-Core, the L1 Data cache is 48 KB, while the L1 instruction cache is 32 KB. Each P Core boasts 1 MB of cache, and with E-Cores, it looks like there are 4 in a group, sharing 1 MB of L2 Cache. This setup is quite similar to Intel's design. Keep in mind, it's still in the engineering sample (ES) stage, so there's more to come. We'll keep you posted on any further updates!"

Another "AMD Strix - Internal GPU" example emerged late last week, this time in the form of a leaked HWInfo64 screen grab with some information completely covered up—the visible parts seems to point to this "Strix Point" APU featuring a core configuration as seen in the earlier leak, along with 1024 unified shaders. We can presume that the sampled Zen 5-based mobile APU possessing 16 RDNA 3.5 compute units (16 × 64 = 1024). Other details include a 45 W TDP rating, and the socket type being FP8 (as utilized by current Ryzen 7040U and 7040H(S) mobile SoCs). The 512 MB GDDR6 memory configuration is very likely an error—according to HWInfo64, the tested system was fitted with 32 GB of LPDDR5 memory. "Strix Point" looks to be the logical successor (in 2024) to AMD's current "Phoenix" lineup of mobile processors, as featured in gaming handhelds and laptops. PC hardware enthusiasts are expressing excitement about the upcoming APU series wielding impressive iGPU performance, with the potential to rival modern discrete mobile solutions.