AMD today announced the AMD Alveo MA35D media accelerator featuring two 5 nm, ASIC-based video processing units (VPUs) supporting the AV1 compression standard and purpose-built to power a new era of live interactive streaming services at scale. With over 70% of the global video market being dominated by live content, a new class of low-latency, high-volume interactive streaming applications are emerging such as watch parties, live shopping, online auctions, and social streaming.

The Alveo MA35D media accelerator delivers the high channel density, with up to 32x 1080p60 streams per card, power efficiency and ultra-low-latency performance critical to reducing the skyrocketing infrastructure costs now required for scaling such compute intensive content delivery. Compared to the previous generation Alveo U30 media accelerator, the Alveo MA35D delivers up to 4x higher channel density, 4x max lower latency in 4K and 1.8x greater compression efficiency to achieve the same VMAF score—a common video quality metric.

ASRock, the leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, today announced its first white graphics card, the ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XTX Taichi White 24 GB OC. This graphics card is powered by the high-end AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU and features 24 GB GDDR6 memory, as well as ASRock's latest technologies. With outstanding performance and an exquisite white aesthetic, this graphics card is perfect for hardcore gamers and professional creators looking to build a high-performance, white-themed PC.

The new graphics card is built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture with chiplet technology. AMD RDNA 3 architecture delivers up to 54% more performance-per-watt than AMD RDNA 2, features the world's fastest interconnect linking the graphics and memory system chiplets at up to 5.3 TB/s, and offers up to 96 new unified compute units and second-generation AMD Infinity Cache technology. It also delivers increased AI performance and architected compute units with second-generation ray tracing technology that provides higher ray tracing architectural performance in select titles versus a prior generation AMD graphics card with AMD RDNA 2 architecture.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, and AMD today announced they have signed a multi-year agreement extension to bring multiple generations of high-performance, ultra-low-power AMD Radeon graphics solutions to an expanded portfolio of Samsung Exynos SoCs. Through the licensing extension, Samsung will bring console-level graphics quality and optimized power consumption to more mobile devices, offering an incredibly immersive and long-lasting gaming experience.

"Together with AMD, Samsung has been revolutionizing mobile graphics, including our recent collaboration that brought ray tracing capability to mobile processors for the first time in the industry," said Seogjun Lee, executive vice president of Application Processor (AP) Development at Samsung Electronics. "Drawing on our technological know-how in designing ultra-low-power solutions, we will continue to drive ongoing innovation in the mobile graphics space."

AMD today announced that Jack Huynh has been named senior vice president and general manager of Computing and Graphics following the retirement from AMD of Rick Bergman, currently the executive vice president of Computing and Graphics. Bergman will remain at AMD through the second quarter to ensure a smooth transition. Huynh has been at AMD for more than 24 years and was most recently responsible for leading all aspects of the company's semi-custom business. He will report to AMD Chair and CEO Dr. Lisa Su.

Huynh has served in a variety of leadership roles at AMD, most recently as the senior vice president and general manager for the AMD Semi-Custom business group, leading strategy, business management, and engineering execution for high performance custom solutions. Prior to that, Huynh served as corporate vice president and general manager where he led end to end business execution of mobility solutions for the AMD Client PC business group.

As promised earlier, Naughty Dog has now released its newest but minor patch for the PC version of The Last of Us Part 1, and it is closely followed by NVIDIA's hotfix driver which should fix some of the issues on the GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. As noted by Naughty Dog, this is a minor patch as the one coming on Friday, should be a big one that could fix more issues.

According to the release notes, the newest one improves overall stability, and while we did run into some stability issues during our testing, some of our systems ran the game without any issues. Of course, this depends on the actual system configuration, so any stability fixes will help. The rest of the fixes are meant for UI/UX and various gameplay issues, but it does include additions to the diagnostic support.

A newest leak shows more game benchmarks for the Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU that is scheduled to launch on April 6th. This time around, the results come from, what appears to be MSI's own internal testing results, claiming that optimizations can bring anywhere between 9 and 12 percent higher game performance compared to stock settings.

The list includes a total of eight games, tested at stock, EXPO DDR5-600, EXPO DDR5-6000 + High-Efficiency Mode, and EXPO DDR5-6000 + High-Efficiency Mode + Enhanced Mode Boost 3, showing gains of anywhere between 2 and 4 percent. The two modes are MSI profiles for Precision Boost Overdrive.

When you buy a notebook powered by a Ryzen 7000 series mobile processor, you're either getting a cutting-edge chip powered by the company's latest "Zen 4" CPU cores, or one that has been rebadged from the company's previous-gen Ryzen 6000 "Zen 3+" or even Ryzen 5000 "Zen 3" (DDR4) processor series. The question on the tech buyer's mind will be "how to I spot a Ryzen 7000 series processor-powered notebook that actually gives me "Zen 4" CPU cores?"

AMD attempted to answer this with an exclusive new case badge for Ryzen 7000 series processors with "Zen 4" CPU cores. This new case badge looks not much different from the AMD Expo logo, in that the AMD Ryzen main branding is set against an orange backdrop. This bit is surrounded by a silver-metallic frame, with the 5/7/9 brand extension on its corner, along with "7000 series" marked. This case badge is only to be included with a Ryzen 7040 series "Phoenix" or Ryzen 7045 series "Dragon Range" processor present, and cannot be used with Ryzen 7035 series "Rembrandt Refresh" or Ryzen 7030 series "Barcelo Refresh," or Ryzen 7020 series "Mendocino."

As it turned out that ASUS ROG Ally handheld console is not actually an April Fools' Day prank, more details have started to appear about this Steam Deck competitor, and these first details look pretty promising. According to the Dave2D video, showing the prototype unit in full details, the ASUS ROG Ally will indeed be based on a 4 nm custom AMD APU, featuring Zen 4 CPU and RDNA3 iGPU, so we are most likely looking at a custom AMD Phoenix APU.

The video had a few nice pictures of the pre-production PCB as well as the cooling setup as well as details on the screen, and some performance of the ASUS ROG Ally. The ROG Ally measures at 280 x 133 x 39 mm and weighing 608 grams. This makes it shorter, narrower, thinner, as well as lighter, compared to the Steam Deck. It also comes with 7-inch display, but this time around, it is a 500 nits, 1920x1080 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio, display with a 120 Hz refresh rate and 5 ms response time, which makes it much better compared to the Steam Deck.

Update: LinusTechTips is the second one to get access to ASUS ROG Ally prototype and has provided a bit more details on specifications, performance, and other things about the upcoming handheld console.

AMD today released the latest version of its AMD Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 23.4.1 WHQL comes with optimization for "Meet Your Maker," as well as the additional optimization the company released for "The Last of Us: Part 1" in its recent off-trunk drivers. The company also fixed a handful of issues. Blurry video playback for online video in some web-browsers, with RX 7900 XT, has been fixed. Invisible mouse pointers in Citrix Workspace has been fixed. Performance Metrics Overlay intermittently disappearing when playing fullscreen videos on Steam has been fixed. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.4.1 WHQL

While AMD has yet to officially launch the 7040 Series Phoenix APUs, yet another SKU has been spotted online, the 6-core/12-thread AMD Ryzen 5 7540U. Based on AMD's Zen 4 architecture and featuring RDNA3 iGPU, this SKU will join the recently spotted Ryzen 5 7640U and the Ryzen 7 7840U.

It is not clear how many SKUs will AMD actually have in the Ryzen 7040 U-Series, but so far three SKUs have leaked online. The earlier slide, which mentioned the Ryzen 7040 Series, put it in the thin and light segment with TDP ranging from 15 W to 28 W. Bear in mind that AMD will also have the 7040 series non-U Phoenix APUs that will fit the 35 W - 45 W "thin enthusiast" HS-series segment. There is also the "ultra enthusiast" HX-series segment with the recently launched 7045 Series Dragon Range APUs.

AMD has revealed more Ryzen 7 7800X3D gaming benchmarks ahead of the official launch scheduled for April 6th. AMD has previously shared some results comparing this 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7000X3D series SKU with Intel's Core i9-13900K or the predecessor, the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, showing up to 24 and 30 percent performance increase.

Now, a new slide has been leaked online, which is a part of AMD's Ryzen 7 7800X3D review guide, comparing it once again with the Intel Core i9-13900K, but going head to head in several more games. At 1080p resolution and high settings, the Ryzen 7 7800X3D is anywhere from 2 to 31 percent faster, but there are several games where the Core i9-13900K is also faster, such as CS:GO.

AMD and JEDEC are collaborating to create a new industry standard for DDR5 memory called MRDIMMs (multi-ranked buffered DIMMs). The constant need for bandwidth in server systems provides trouble that can not easily be solved. Adding more memory is difficult, as motherboards can only get so big. Incorporating on-package memory solutions like HBM is expensive and can only scale to a specific memory capacity. However, engineers of JEDEC, with the help of AMD, have come to make a new standard that will try and solve this challenge using the new MRDIMM technology. The concept of MRDIMM is, on paper, straightforward. It combines two DDR5 DIMMs on a single module to effectively double the bandwidth. Specifically, if you take two DDR5 DIMMs running at 4,400 MT/s and connect them to create a single DIMM, you get 8,800 MT/s speeds on a single module. To efficiently use it, a special data mux or buffer will effectively take two Double Data Rate (DDR) DIMMs and convert them into Quad Data Rate (QDR) DIMMs.

The design also allows simultaneous access to both ranks of memory, thanks to the added mux. First-generation MRDIMMs can produce speeds of up to 8,800 MT/s, while the second and third generations modules can go to 12,800 MT/s and 17,600 MT/s, respectively. We expect third-generation MRDIMMs after 2030, so the project is still far away. Additionally, Intel has a similar solution called Multiplexer Combined Ranks DIMM (MCRDIMM) which uses a similar approach. However, Intel's technology is expected to see the light of the day as early as 2024/2025 and beyond the generation of servers, with Granite Rapids likely representing a contender for this technology. SK Hynix already makes MCRDIMMs, and you can see the demonstration of the approach below.

For whatever reason, all of the AMD A620 chipset based motherboards that were announced on Friday, are not showing off the capabilities of the chipset and are in fact making it look worse than it is. AMD has no doubt limited the A620 platform, with some limitations that seem arbitrary, but the motherboards makers clearly haven't helped, as they've made the platform look very unattractive, when in fact it could be entirely acceptable, for a budget build. As you can see from AMD's feature matrix below, the company has removed a fair share of features compared to the B650 chipset, but for example, two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports can be implemented. Despite this, only Biostar and Gigabyte have implemented one such port each, with ASUS, ASRock and MSI implementing zero.

Yes, the platform is limited to 65 W CPUs—assuming you want your CPUs boost behaviour to work as intended—which is likely to cause some issues, as it might not be clear to potential buyers that are looking for a cheap motherboard for their system and it's something AMD and its board partners need to communicate a lot better. However, the A620 platform has enough PCIe lanes for two M.2 drives and enough left for all the peripheral connectivity and some PCIe slots, yet most of the boards appear to shun a second M.2 slot for no apparent reason beyond the cost of the physical interface. It looks as if AMD's board partners have decided to try and cut back as much as they can in terms of features that we've ended up with boards that no sensible person should be buying, as the boards are barely fit for purpose. Time will tell if we'll see some better boards down the road, but it would appear that AMD's board partner would rather sell its potential customers a more expensive B650 board, based on the weak line-up of boards that launched on Friday.

Biostar also announced a single AMD A620 chipset based motherboard today in the shape of the A620MP-E Pro, which is yet another microATX based board. Here we're looking at four DDR5 DIMM slots, a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot, two PCIe 4.0 x1 slots, one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, a single PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe slot and even a E Key M.2 slot for WiFi cards, which is actually something of a step up from the competition. Internal connectivity consists of four SATA 6 Gbps ports, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C header and one USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A header.

The rear I/O is home to DisplayPort 1.4, an HDMI port, two USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 port, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps ports, a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet jack powered by Realtek, three audio jacks, WiFi antenna connectors and a BIOS update button. Sadly the audio side is once again utilising the old Realtek ALC897 codec. Biostar has kitted out the VRM's with a heatsink, even though it's a very minimal heatsink. Overall Biostar has done a much more impressive job than MSI here, despite being considered a more budget oriented brand.

Unlike its competitors, MSI has only revealed a single AMD A620 chipset based motherboard today and it's extra underwhelming, even though none of the boards are exactly what we'd call appealing. The Pro A620M-E only sports a pair of DDR5 DIMM slots and it has a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot and a single PCIe 3.0 x1 slot, as well as a single PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 NVMe slot. Internal connectivity is equally sparse, with a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps header and four SATA 6 Gbps ports.

Around the back you'll find an HDMI 2.1 port, a VGA port, two PS/2 ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 5 Gbps ports, two USB 2.0 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet jack and three audio jacks behind the ancient Realtek ALC897 audio codec. MSI appears to have gone for potentially slightly better power regulation than its competitors, but it's hard to tell from just looking at the board, but you don't get a VRM heatsink here. The chipset heatsink also looks like something from 20 years ago, but hopefully the AMD A620 chipset doesn't run too hot. This should hopefully be a very affordable board, but judging by ASUS' pricing for its A620, it might not be under $100.

It appears that the microATX form factor is the way to go when it comes to AMD A620 chipset based motherboards and ASUS has no less than three new models, although one is technically with or without WiFi. The new models are the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus, the TUF Gaming A620M-Plus WiFi and the Prime A620M-A. All three boards sport six layer PCBs with what appears to be fairly basic power regulation, although ASUS doesn't mention how many phases either model has on its product pages. All boards feature a single PCIe 4.0 x16 slot and two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots, as well as two M.2 NVMe slots that support PCIe 4.0 x4 based drives. All models also have four DDR5 DIMM slots, four SATA 6 Gbps ports and front panel connectors for a 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port and two 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports.

Around the back is where things differ a bit, as the TUF boards have two DisplayPort 1.4 and one HDMI port, as well as two 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, a PS/2 port and a 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port courtesy of a Realtek chip, as well a BIOS FlashBack button. The Prime board on the other hand replaces one DisplayPort output with a VGA connector for some reason and gets to make do with Gigabit Ethernet. The connectivity options aren't what we'd call impressive, but appears to be par for course compared to ASUS' competitors' products. Pricing appear to be in the range of €139-169.

Leading global motherboard manufacturer ASRock proudly announces its new series of AMD A620 motherboards. The latest AMD A620 platform aims at a more budget-friendly market while still offering a wide variety of features, such as DDR5 memory support, multiple M.2 slots for NVMe storage devices, and WiFi 6E for daily tasks as well as gaming.

To maximize the affordability of the AMD A620 platform, ASRock offers four models, including both 4 and 2 DIMMs motherboard layout options. If 4 DDR5 memory is a must for your next build, the A620M Pro RS will definitely be the number one choice. It offers a luxurious amount of USBs including Type-C for both front and rear panels, 3 M.2 Key-M onboard and 2 of which support PCIe Gen 4 x4 to give multiple storage options. With a 6-layer PCB and Dr.MOS for Vcore design, A620M Pro RS can fully support the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 Series Processors. A620M Pro RS also comes with a WiFi 6E variant the A620M Pro RS WiFi, an all-rounder choice for wireless environments.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions today unveiled the latest AMD A620 series motherboards with optimal memory performance and all-round features. With the perfect support of the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors, GIGABYTE A620 motherboards deliver the most competitive AM5 platform for users to enjoy performance flexibly and affordably.

Enhanced by GIGABYTE exclusive layout design and BIOS setting, the A620 lineup can achieve optimal memory performance of DDR5 EXPO/XMP overclocking up to DDR5-6400, which exerts the utmost value and performance of the AM5 platform. Boasted with comprehensive features, GIGABYTE A620 motherboards can best fit users' needs and budget, and become the best choice for users who plans on stepping up to the latest AM5 platform.Meanwhile, GIGABYTE's A620 motherboards boast the innovative PCIe EZ-Latch technology to simplify the upgrade of graphics cards, and to avoid accidental damage to the surrounding components. By GIGABYTE exclusive Q-Flash Plus feature, users can update the BIOS without installing any processor, memory, or even graphics card, making it possible for users to easily enjoy the benefits brought about by the new BIOS code and processors. Further with GIGABYTE GCC software platform, GIGABYTE delivers the competitive A620 platform with user-friendly features and multiple form factor options which covers Micro ATX to Mini ITX.

Here's the first picture of the GIGABYTE A620M Gaming X, a product the company is targeting at the entry-level gaming PC crowd. The Socket AM5 Micro-ATX motherboard is based on the AMD A620 chipset, which lacks CPU overclocking, and limits both PEG and M.2 PCIe to Gen 4. The board draws power from a 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors; and uses an 8+2 phase VRM to condition power for the processor. You get four DDR5 DIMM slots, and expansion slots that include a PCI-Express 4.0 x16, and a PCI-Express 3.0 x1.

Storage connectivity on the GIGABYTE A620M Gaming X includes an M.2 slot with PCI-Express 4.0 x4 wiring from the processor, and four SATA 6 Gbps ports from the A620 FCH. The M.2 slot gets an included M.2-2280 heatsink. Display outputs include HDMI and DisplayPort. Networking is care of a 1 GbE wired Ethernet backed by a Realtek controller; and a basic 6-channel HD audio solution consisting of a Realtek ALC887 CODEC, electrical isolation, and audio-grade capacitors. You get two 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports, one of which is type-C. Four 5 Gbps USB 3.1 ports (two type-A on the rear panel, two via headers); and a handful USB 2.0 ports, make for the rest of it. The board's empty traces suggest that GIGABYTE has the option to create a variant that includes WiFi.

In no mood to cede its market-share growth to Intel, AMD has reportedly decided to accelerate the development of its next-generation "Zen 5" microarchitecture for debut within 2023. In its mid-2022 presentations, AMD had publicly given "Zen 5" a 2024 release date. This is part of a reading-in-between the lines for a recent GIGABYTE press release announcing server platforms powered by relatively low-cost Ryzen desktop processors. The specific sentence from that release reads "The next generation of AMD Ryzen desktop processors that will come out later this year will also be supported on this AM5 platform, so customers who purchase these servers today have the opportunity to upgrade to the Ryzen 7000 series successor."

While the GIGABYTE press release speaks of a next-generation Ryzen desktop processor, it stands to reason that it is referencing an early release of "Zen 5," and since AMD shares the CPU complex dies (CCDs) between its Ryzen client and EPYC server processors, the company is looking at a two-pronged upgrade to its processor lineup, with its next-generation EPYC "Turin" processor competing with Xeon Scalable "Emerald Rapids," and Ryzen "Granite Ridge" desktop processors taking on Intel's Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" and "Meteor Lake-S" desktop processors. It is rumored that "Zen 5" is being designed for the TSMC 3 nm node, and could see an increase in CPU core count per CCD, up from the present 8. TSMC 3 nm node goes into commercial mass-production in the first half of 2023 as the TSMC N3 node, with a refined N3E node slated for the second half of the year.

A PCB drawing of a possible AMD A620 chipset Micro-ATX motherboard by MSI has surfaced. The drawing looks like that of a product designed to be priced well under the $100-mark. The Socket AM5 motherboard draws power from a 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS power connectors. A simple 8-phase VRM with LFPAK discrete MOSFETs condition power for the processor, which is wired to two DDR5 DIMM slots, an M.2 NVMe slot (possibly limited to Gen 4 bandwidth, if not Gen 3); and a PCI-Express x16 with Gen 3 bandwidth, if not Gen 4. The only other expansion slot is a PCI-Express 3.0 x1. There are four SATA ports on offer, Display connectivity appears to include HDMI and D-Sub. 6-channel HD audio and a 1 GbE wired network connection make for the rest of it. AMD is expected to begin rolling out cost-effective motherboard based on the A620 later this week.

UL Benchmarks today released an update to 3DMark that adds a Feature Test for AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 2 (FSR 2), the company's popular upscaling-based performance enhancement. This was long overdue, as 3DMark has had a Feature Test for DLSS for years now; and as of October 2022, it even got one for Intel XeSS. The new FSR 2 Feature Test uses a scene from the Speed Way DirectX 12 Ultimate benchmark, where it compares fine details of a vehicle and a technic droid between native resolution with TAA and FSR 2, and highlights the performance uplift. To use the feature test, you'll need any GPU that supports DirectX 12 and FSR 2 (that covers AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel Arc). For owners of 3DMark who purchased it before October 12, 2022, they'll need to purchase the Speed Way upgrade to unlock the AMD FSR feature test.

Although NAND suppliers have continued to roll back production, there is still an oversupply of NAND Flash as demand for products such as servers, smartphones, and notebooks is still too weak. Therefore, TrendForce predicts that the ASP of NAND Flash will continue to fall in 2Q23, though that decline may shrink to 5~10%. The key to supply and demand returning to a market equilibrium lies in whether NAND suppliers can cut back on production even more. TrendForce believes if demand remains stable, then the ASP of NAND Flash will have an opportunity to rebound in 4Q23; if demand is weaker than expected, then ASP will take longer to recover.

Client SSD: Currently, PC OEM's have managed to liquidate most of their component inventory, and are now gearing up in preparation for mid-year sales events. Suppliers are cutting prices to clear out their inventories of PCIe Gen 3 SSDs, which are gradually being phased out. Meanwhile, prices of PCIe Gen 4 SSDs continue to face downward pressure due to a slow intake of new customer orders. The continuous decline of QLC products in 1Q23 has also dragged down the prices of TLC products, and there is relatively little room for prices to keep falling in 2Q23. While it still remains unclear whether or not demand will recover, TrendForce projects that the prices of PC client SSDs will drop 5~10% in 2Q23.

Today at the Amplify Partner Conference, HP Inc. announced new products and solutions to usher in the next era of hybrid work for everyone with a comprehensive set of computing solutions for hybrid flexibility. With only 22 percent of workers describing themselves as 'thriving' in hybrid work, it's clear companies are still figuring out how to make hybrid work. "Most companies want to move past the 'forced return' to the office era of hybrid work," said Alex Cho, President of Personal Systems, HP Inc. "The challenge is, they're not sure how to. We believe the future is hybrid flexibility, which delivers the best of the home and the office to workers everywhere."

According to HP's Future of Work study, 80 percent of workers want to be in the office some of the time, but many companies continue to struggle to get workers back in the office. HP research suggests that the most significant barrier to a return to office is a sub-optimal technology experience. In fact, 89 percent say technology is the most important factor driving return to office decisions. Similarly, of those who report thriving in hybrid work, 90 percent believe that access to the right technology and tools leads to a positive work experience. To accelerate employees' return to work, the right technology is required for optimal work setups, enabling success for companies and their employees.

Creating, consuming and collaborating in a hybrid world just got easier with Lenovo's latest generation of Windows 11 Yoga laptops that deliver impressive performance, incredible versatility, and easy mobility in a sleek and portable design:

"We know that digital content creators continue to embrace the hybrid lifestyle to create anytime, anywhere, from making videos to designing graphics on the move," says Jun Ouyang, Lenovo's vice president and general manager of the Consumer Business Segment, Intelligent Devices Group. "Lenovo's latest new premium Yoga Pro laptops are made for creators. Combining performance and portability, including an impressive new Mini-LED PureSight Pro display and an upgraded keyboard, creators will revel in the exceptional user experience to create whenever inspiration strikes."