ASUS Turkey has jumped the gun and revealed ASUS' upcoming Zenbook 14 laptop, which in itself might not be a big deal, but the UM3402 as the specific model is known as, will apparently be available with an AMD Ryzen 7 7730U CPU. As AMD has as yet to unveil such a CPU, it appears that ASUS Turkey has gotten ahead of things. A quick search for the Zenbook 14 SKU in question reveals that the current UM3402 model has a Ryzen 5825U processor.

The remaining specs appear identical to the current model, but this is clearly not a typo, as the CPU SKU is mentioned at multiple points on the product page. Based on AMD's CPU model name "decoder", the Ryzen 7 7730U is based on a Zen 3 or a Zen 3+ core that sits in the 15-28 W TDP range. According to Videocardz, it will be using an AMD Vega based GPU. Beyond that, we don't know any specifics about the CPU, but one thing that stands out and may or may not be correct, is that the Zenbook 14 is only listed as supporting two USB 3.2 10 Gbps USB-C ports, rather than USB4, which seems a bit odd. Then again, this is a lower-tier CPU, so it's possible that this is the reason for lack of USB4 support. The fact that ASUS has moved to an IPS based display, from an OLED display on the current UM3402 SKU, also suggests that this might be a cheaper model in ASUS lineup.

Over the past few weeks, the legal dispute between Arm Ltd. and Qualcomm Inc. has been warming up the eyes of the entire tech community. However, as per the latest court filing, Arm could change its licensing strategy and shift its whole business model into a new direction that would benefit the company directly. Currently, the company provides the intellectual property (IP) that chip makers can use and add to designs mixed with other IPs and custom in-house solutions. That is how the world of electronics design (EDA) works and how many companies operate. However, in the Qualcomm-Arm legal battle, Qualcomm's counterclaim has brought new light about Arm's plans for licensing its hardware designs past 2024.

According to Dylan Patel of SemiAnalysis, who examined court documents, Arm will reportedly change terms to use its IP where the use of other IP mixed with Arm IP is prohibited. If a chip maker plans to use Arm CPU IP, they must also use Arm's GPU/NPU/ISP/DSP IPs. This would result in devices that utilize every design the UK-based designer has to offer, and other IP makers will have to exclude their designs from the SoC. By doing this, Arm directly stands against deals like the Samsung-AMD deal, where AMD provides RDNA GPU IP and would force Samsung to use Arm's Mali GPU IP instead. This change should take effect in 2025 when every new license agreement has to comply with new rules.

AMD released the latest version of AMD Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.10.3 beta comes with optimization for "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II" (2022), and support for Radeon Boost with Variable Rate Shading in "Dying Light 2." In addition, it fixes a launch-time game crash with "Elite Dangerous" on Radeon RX 6000-series GPUs; a persistent black screen when updating drivers or resetting graphics settings in Windows 11 version 22H2, and lower than normal performance with "Gotham Knights" on AMD processor-powered machines with GPUs such as the RX 6950 XT. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 22.10.3 beta

AMD released the latest version of the AGESA microcode for Socket AM5 platform. The new version 1.0.0.3 most notably reintroduces a Precision Boost C-state limiter that [accidentally?] got removed with version 1.0.0.2. This limiter prevents the CPU cores from boosting above 5.50 GHz when more than 4 cores are active (i.e. experiencing heavy workload). SkatterBencher demonstrated how this affects performance on Ryzen 7000-series desktop processors.

NopBench, a utility developed by ElmorLabs, lets you figure out the maximum boost frequency obtainable as workload scales across available CPU cores (i.e. starting from 1-thread, to n-thread). NopBench invokes the NOP instruction, and measures the number of NOP instructions can be processed per second. To make the NOP throughput comparable among processors of different microarchitectures, an architecture-specific factor is used, which for "Raphael" is 2.5x. By comparing the NOP throughput of a Ryzen 9 7950X processor tested with AGESA 1.0.0.2 to 1.0.0.3 (ASUS ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme BIOS versions 0611 vs. 0705); SkatterBencher was able to confirm that that the boost limiter is back in place, and limits Precision Boost frequency to 5.50 GHz when the NopBench load exceeds 4 cores.

AMD just officially confirmed that its upcoming Radeon RX 7000 series next-generation graphics card will not use the 12+4 pin ATX 12VHPWR connector across the product stack. Scott Herkelman. SVP and GM of the AMD Radeon product group, confirmed on Twitter that the current RX 6000 series and future GPUs based on the RDNA3 graphics architecture, will not use this power connector. This would mean that even its add-in board (AIB) partners won't find the connector as a qualified part by AMD to opt for. This would mean that Radeon RX 7000 series will stick with 8-pin PCIe power connectors on the card, each drawing up to 150 W of power. For some of the higher-end products with typical board power of over 375 W; this will mean >2 8-pin connectors. AMD is expected to debut RDNA3 on November 3, 2022.

Minisforum has launched a new mini PC UM690 of its Venus Series. The new UM690 featuring AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX, AMD Radeon 680M Integrated Graphics, DDR5 dual-channel memory, PCIe 4.0 SSD, and the most advanced USB4 Type-C port. It is also their first mini PC with AMD 6000 series CPU.

Ryzen 9 6900HX is one of AMD's most powerful Ryzen 6000 processors, features 8 cores and 16 threads, with a maximum turbo clock of 4.90 GHz with a default TDP targeted at 45 W. The integrated GPU, Radeon 680M, based on RDNA2 architecture, has 12 CUs up to 2.4 GHz. Thanks to liquid metal and smart fan in thermal design, UM690 can run at low noise even in full speed. UM690 supports total up to 64 GB dual-channel DDR5-4800 MHz memory, also different types of storage expansions—1×M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 SSD and 1×2.5 inch SATA HDD Slot (SATA 3.0 6.0 Gb/s 7 mm).

AMD is reportedly bringing back the "XTX" brand extension to the main marketing names of its upcoming Radeon RX 7000-series SKUs. The company had, until now, reserved the "XTX" moniker for internal use, to denote SKUs that max out all hardware available on a given silicon. The RX 7000-series introduce the company's next-generation RDNA3 graphics architecture, and will see the company introduce its chiplets packaging design to the client-graphics space. The next-generation "Navi 31" GPU will likely be the first of its kind: while multi-chip module (MCM) GPUs aren't new, this would be the first time that multiple logic chips would sit on a single package for client GPUs. AMD has plenty of experience with MCM GPUs, but those have been single logic chips surrounded by memory stacks. "Navi 31" uses multiple logic chips on a package; which is then wired to conventional discrete GDDR6 memory devices like any other client GPU.

The rumored Radeon RX 7900 XTX is features 12,288 stream processors, likely across two logic tiles that contain the SIMD components. These tiles are [for now] rumored to be built on the TSMC N5 (5 nm EUV) foundry process. The Display CoreNext (DCN), and Video CoreNext (VCN) components, as well as the GDDR6 memory controllers, will be built on separate chiplets that are likely built on TSMC N6 (6 nm). The "Navi 31" has a 384-bit wide memory interface. This is 384-bit and not "2x 192-bit," because the logic tiles don't have memory interfaces of their own, but rely on memory controller tiles shared between the two logic tiles, much in the same as a dual-channel DDR4 memory interface being shared between the two 8-core CPU chiplets on a Ryzen 5950X processor.

AMD is preparing to expand its Ryzen 7000-series "Zen 4" desktop processor series with new SKUs, one of which is the Ryzen 7 7700 (non-X). Given past trends with non-X SKUs for the Ryzen 5000-series, the 7700 is very likely an OEM-only SKU to be featured in pre-built desktops. The inclusion of an iGPU with the Ryzen 7000-series changes things dramatically for AMD, as it makes these processors suitable for even home- and commercial desktops that lack discrete graphics. The Ryzen 7 7700 has the same 8-core/16-thread configuration as the Ryzen 7 7700X, but likely lower clock-speeds, due to the lower power-limits. The chip has a TDP of 65 W, compared to the 105 W of the 7700X; which means its package power tracking (PPT) power limit will be closer to 90 W, than the 140 W of the 7700X. This will also significantly lower the cooling requirements for the processor, and OEMs could use cost-effective air coolers. The exact clock-speeds, though, remain under the wraps.

AMD appears to like to play coy when it comes to new product announcements, or at least the reveal of upcoming product announcements. Just as with its November 3rd event, the company has put out a miniscule teaser for its November 10th announcement of what the company is simply calling "the unveiling of our next-gen server processors" on Twitter. The event will kick off at 10 am Pacific time and it appears there will be a live stream, as AMD is inviting people to watch the event online. It's highly likely that we're talking about new EPYC parts here, as the event is called "together we advance_data centers".

Intel Core i9-13900K processor has just been launched, and overclockers worldwide got their hand on a few samples to make history. According to the HWBot submission, a Swedish overclocker named "elmor" has pushed Intel's top-end consumer SKU to a fantastic 8.812 GHz. For more than eight years, the record for the single-highest overclocking speed was held by AMD FX-8370, from the now-bygone era of AMD Black Edition processors. The overclocking attempt was performed using liquid nitrogen (LN2) that cools the chip using its −195.8 °C temperature. Pushing core voltage to 1.850 Volts and VCCIN to 2 Volts, multiplier set to x88, and a bus speed of 100.15 MHz. In addition to the Core i9-13900K CPU, elmor used ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 APEX motherboard and 32 GB DDR5 GSKILL memory running at 4808 MT/s.

As a reminder, the FX-8370 CPU was holding the number one sport for eight years with a speed of 8.722 GHz. Beating the FX-8370 by just 90 MHz, it will be interesting to see if any of the upcoming CPU SKUs can match this overclocking record, and we are curious if any contender will come to beat elmor's current record.

AMD over the weekend released the AMD Software Adrenalin drivers. Version 22.10.2 WHQL fixed a host of outstanding issues. To begin with, Radeon Super Resolution failing to trigger after screen resolution or HDR settings change in Nioh 2, has been fixed. V-Sync being set globally to always-off causing system stuttering or driver timeouts during video playback on the RX 6000-series GPUs, has been fixed. A driver timeout noticed during HEVC video encoding on RX 6000-series GPUs has been fixed. Video playback dropped framed issues on Chromium web-browsers with hardware-accelerated video decoding, has been fixed. Chromium-based browsers experiencing video stuttering on extended monitors and mixed refresh rates, has been fixed. Bouncy or wobbly Oculus dashboard menu has been fixed. Inverted colors when previewing the timeline in Vegas Pro has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 22.10.2

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced a new series of ROG Ryuo III AIO coolers, with four models to choose from: the ROG Ryuo III 360 ARGB and the ROG Ryuo III 240 ARGB, both available in black or white editions.

As the first ROG AIO coolers equipped with an 8th generation Asetek pump, the ROG Ryuo III 360 ARGB and ROG Ryuo III 240 ARGB offer exceptional cooling potential, making them ideal partners for the latest high-end chips from Intel and AMD. This pump sports a 3-phase motor capable of higher flow rates than previous generations, all while operating more quietly. The square cold plate is larger than the previous generation, and its size makes it ideal for this year's hot-off-the-press CPUs.

It's hardly a secret that AMD will announce its first RDNA 3 based GPUs on the 3rd of November and the company has now officially announced that that it'll hold a livestream that starts 1:00 pm (13:00) Pacific Daylight Time. The event goes under the name "together we advance_gaming". AMD didn't share much in terms of details about the event, all we know is that "AMD executives will provide details on the new high-performance, energy-efficient AMD RDNA 3 architecture that will deliver new levels of performance, efficiency and functionality to gamers and content creators."

According to the latest TrendForce research, pandemic-induced materials shortages abated in the second half of this year and the supply and delivery of short-term materials has recovered significantly. However, assuming materials supply is secure and demand can be met, the annual growth rate of server shipments in 2023 is estimated to be only 3.7%, which is lower than 5.1% in 2022.

TrendForce indicates that this growth slowdown is due to three factors. First, once material mismatch issues had eased, buyers began adjusting previously placed purchase order overruns. Thus, ODM orders also decreased but this will not affect the 2022 shipment volume of whole servers for the time being. Second, due to the impact of rising inflation and weakness in the overall economy, corporate capital investment may trend more conservative and IT-related investment will emphasize flexibility, such as the replacement of certain server terminals with cloud services. Third, geopolitical changes will drive the continuing emergence of demand for small-scale data centers and previous construction of hyperscale data centers will slow. The recent ban on military/HPC servers issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce on October 7 has a very low market share in terms of its application category, so the impact on the overall server market is limited at present. However, if the scope of the ban is expanded further in the future, it will herald a more significant slowdown risk for China's server shipment momentum in 2023.

Intel has been busy briefing its customers about its 13th gen Core processors and courtesy of a reader over at Videocardz, we now know a little bit more about Intel's positioning of its Core i9-13900K processor. In the slides, Intel is pitching its upcoming flagship CPU against AMD's current flagship, the Ryzen 9 7950X, which is hardly surprising, since it'll be its main competitor. Intel put the two CPUs through 12 game benchmarks using an unknown graphics card and on average, the Core i9-13900K leads by around 11 percent. As always, take the numbers with a sprinkle of salt, especially as we don't know the system configuration, or even what resolution was used, but we'd hazard a guess that it's 1080p or lower. Intel only allowed for one game win for AMD, with Intel being as much as 22 percent ahead in The Riftbreaker.

Intel also claims to lead in content creation, but this doesn't appear to be quite true, as AMD either comes out on top or ties with Intel in all of the Pugetbench tests. Intel is somewhat ahead in AutoCAD Catalyst and a healthy 16 percent ahead in Autodesk Revit, but as we know, the type of scene being rendered can have a huge impact in these types of tests, as we've seen from both camps. On the plus side, here it appears that content creators shouldn't have to worry too much about which CPU is in their system, as both should be performing exceptionally well. Intel is set to launch its 13th gen Core processors tomorrow, so it won't be long until we'll have some third party benchmarks comparing the two CPUs.

In the run up to the November 3 reveal of the next-generation RDNA3 architecture, and with the 43% faster RTX 4090 mauling away its appeal to the enthusiast crowd, the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT got another round of price-cuts, and can be had for as low as $669. Prices are down on both sides of the big pond, with European retailers listing it for as low as 699€. Although not technically AMD's flagship graphics card, with the RX 6950 XT (starts at $869); the RX 6900 XT is a formidable 4K gaming graphics card with a high performance-per-Dollar at its new price (roughly 35% higher than the RTX 4090). AMD's latest round of official price-cuts happened around mid-September as the company was bracing for the RTX 4090 "Ada."

AMD earlier this week released basic enablement for the GNU Compiler Collections (GCC), which extend "Zen 4" microarchitecture awareness. The "basic enablement patch" for the new Zenver4 target is essentially similar to Zenver3, but with added support for the new AVX-512 instructions, namely AVX512F, AVX512DQ, AVX512IFMA, AVX512CD, AVX512BW, AVX512VL, AVX512BF16, AVX512VBMI, AVX512VBMI2, GFNI, AVX512VNNI, AVX512BITALG, and AVX512VPOPCNTDQ. Besides AVX-512, "Zen 4" is largely identical to its predecessor, architecturally, and so the enablement is rather basic. This should come just in time for software vendors to prepare for next-generation EPYC "Genoa" server processors, or even small/medium businesses building servers with Ryzen 7000-series processors.

AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-core processor exhibits some strange behavior with regards to the max boost frequency spread among its cores. A multi-chip module with two 8-core CCDs (CPU complex dies); we noticed early on in our review that the cores located in CCD-1 boost to a higher frequency than the ones in CCD-2, with differences as high as 300 MHz. CapFrameX noticed that when CCD-2 is disabled on a machine running Windows 11 22H2, the processor actually puts out higher gaming performance, by as much as 10%. This is mainly because the cores in CCD-2, with a lower maximum boost frequency no longer handle processing load from the game; and with CCD-2 disabled, CCD-1 has all of the processor's power budget—up to 230 W—to itself, giving it much higher boost residency across its 8 cores.

AMD reportedly scaled down production of its Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors in response to bleak demand across the PC hardware industry. Wccftech claims to have read an internal company document calling for reduced supply to the channel as market response to the Ryzen 7000-series is weak. This comes hot on the heels of AMD revising its Q3-2022 forecast, trimming its guidance by a $1 billion drop in revenue, citing weak demand in the PC market. However, we are seeing no deviation from the launch pricing for Ryzen 7000-series SKUs or compatible Socket AM5 motherboards. The platform went on sale from late September, on the same day that Intel announced its competing 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors. The new Intel chips are expected to start selling from a little later this month.

Unlike 13th Gen Core processors, Ryzen 7000 series processors appear to be a victim of the platform—notwithstanding the high pricing of the processors, which start at $299 for the 6-core 7600X, buyers lack access to affordable motherboards, and have to contend with expensive DDR5 memory. Pricing of cheaper LGA1700 motherboards based on entry-level H610 and B660 chipsets with cost-effective DDR4 memory support have added depth to consumer choice, besides Intel's 12th Gen range starting from under $150.

ASUS today announced the new Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) enhancement, an exclusive temperature control feature for its range of X670 and B650 motherboards designed for AMD Ryzen 7000 series processors.

These latest CPUs push the limits of performance farther than ever before. They dynamically take advantage of available thermal headroom to give users higher clock speeds. This means that users might see higher CPU temperatures than they are used to in a new AMD Ryzen-powered machine. To put users in control, ASUS is rolling out a BIOS update for its X670 and B650 motherboards with new options for its PBO enhancement feature that makes it easy to balance thermals and performance. With just a few clicks, users will be able to dramatically reduce CPU temperatures—and maybe even increase performance and reduce fan noise in the process.

In December of 2021, we covered the appearance of Russia's home-grown Baikal-S processor, which has 48 cores based on Arm Cortex-A75 cores. Today, thanks to the famous chip photographer Fritzchens Fritz, we have the first die shows that show us exactly how Baikal-S SoC is structured internally and what it is made up of. Manufactured on TSMC's 16 nm process, the Baikal-S BE-S1000 design features 48 Arm Cortex-A75 cores running at a 2.0 GHz base and a 2.5 GHz boost frequency. With a TDP of 120 Watts, the design seems efficient, and the Russian company promises performance comparable to Intel Skylake Xeons or Zen1-based AMD EPYC processors. It also uses a home-grown RISC-V core for management and controlling secure boot sequences.

Below, you can see the die shots taken by Fritzchens Fritz and annotated details by Twitter user Locuza that marked the entire SoC. Besides the core clusters, we see that a slum of cache connects everything, with six 72-bit DDR4-3200 PHYs and memory controllers surrounding everything. This model features a pretty good selection of I/O for a server CPU, as there are five PCIe 4.0 x16 (4x4) interfaces, with three supporting CCIX 1.0. You can check out more pictures below and see the annotations for yourself.

Leading global motherboard manufacturer, ASRock, is proud to announce its new lineup, LiveMixer. There are Z790 LiveMixer and B650 LiveMixer for Intel's and AMD's new platform separately, which are produced in partnership with content creators that need motherboards with superb reliability, cutting-edge performance and an extended connectivity mix for the many auxiliary devices required for streaming. LiveMixer is the incarnation of valiance. It sets us free from the concrete jungle with its colorful graffiti. The stylish pattern represents the courage and bravery we possess to speak up for ourselves and try new things enriching life.

"We've studied the need of live streaming for a long time, and here comes our first LiveMixer that helps streamers to stream in great quality with its well VRM design, additional PCIe slots and twenty-plus USB ports." Says Chris Lee, Vice President of ASRock Motherboard & Gaming Monitor Business Unit. With a maximum of 23 USB ports to connect external devices, users will never run short. Hook up every peripheral, whether it's mice, keyboards, microphones, headsets, multiple cameras, fill-lights, macropads, and much more. Equipped with dual PCI-Express 4x slots & Thunderbolt header, The LiveMixer allows users to connect a graphics card, a high-speed capture card and a Thunderbolt add-in card at the same time.

Today AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced its collaboration with the Energy Sciences Network (ESnet) on the launch of ESnet6, the newest generation of the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) high-performance network dedicated to science. AMD worked closely with ESnet since 2018 to integrate powerful adaptive computing for the smart and programmable network nodes of ESnet6. ESnet6's extreme scale packet monitoring system uses AMD Alveo U280 FPGA-based network-attached accelerator cards at the core network switching nodes. This will enable high-touch packet processing and help improve the accuracy of network monitoring and management to enhance performance. The programmable hardware allows for new capabilities to be added for continuous innovation in the network.

In order to customize AMD Alveo U280 2x100Gb/s accelerators as network interface cards (NIC) for ESnet6, the OpenNIC overlay - developed by AMD - was used to provide standard network-interface and host-attachment hardware, allowing novel and experimental networking functions to be implemented easily on the Alveo card. OpenNIC has since been open-sourced after being successfully used and evolved by ESnet, as well as various leading academic research groups. Also important for rapid innovation by non-hardware experts was the use of the AMD VitisNetP4 development tools for compiling the P4 packet processing language to FPGA hardware.

AMD Alveo U280 cards, using OpenNIC and VitisNetP4, are being deployed on every node of the ESnet6 network. The high-touch approach based on FPGA-accelerated processing allows every packet in the ESnet6 network to be monitored at extremely high transfer rates to enable deep insights into the behavior of the network, as well as helping to rapidly detect and correct problems and hot spots in the network. The Alveo U280 card with OpenNIC platform also supplies the adaptability to allow the continuous roll-out of new capabilities to the end user community as needs evolve over the lifetime of ESnet6.

With the arrival of AMD's Ryzen 7000 series desktop processors based on the new Zen 4 architecture, the world's leading computer brand, GIGABYTE today announces its B650E and B650 motherboards ready to power these next-gen CPUs. Sporting the new AM5 socket, the AORUS B650E and B650 gaming motherboards are equipped with a direct digital power design and a full-covered cooling module to keep the circuitry cool. These AORUS motherboards come with PCIe 5.0 connectivity and support for DDR5 memory, which are AMD EXPO and Intel XMP capable of up to DDR5-6600 and beyond. The AORUS gaming motherboards are also equipped with the DIY-friendly PCIe and M.2 device fast installation and removal design, making future upgrades quick and easy.

Power delivery and thermal design have always been the top factors when it comes to CPU performance. To meet the needs of gamers looking for powerful yet stable system performance, the AORUS B650E and B650 gaming motherboards are designed with a maximum 16+2+2-phase twin digital power, covered by a massive heatsink that has four times more surface than the previous generation to ensure the smoothest power delivery even under loads. Other thermal designs, such as 8 mm mega-heatpipes and dedicated heatsinks on key components, greatly improves the system's stability and overall performance. With the friendly design of PCIe and M.2 EZ-Latch features on the AORUS B650 gaming motherboards, GIGABYTE makes components swapping a whole lot easier.

When AMD announced that the company would deliver the world's fastest supercomputer, Frontier, the company also took a massive task to provide a machine capable of producing one ExaFLOP of total sustained ability to perform computing tasks. While the system is finally up and running, making a machine of that size run properly is challenging. In the world of High-Performance Computing, getting the hardware is only a portion of running the HPC center. In an interview with InsideHPC, Justin Whitt, program director for the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF), provided insight into what it is like to run the world's fastest supercomputer and what kinds of issues it is facing.

The Frontier system is powered by AMD EPYC 7A53s "Trento" 64-core 2.0 GHz CPUs and Instinct MI250X GPUs. Interconnecting everything is the HPE (Cray) Slingshot 64-port switch, which is responsible for sending data in and out of compute blades. The recent interview points out a rather interesting finding: exactly AMD Instinct MI250X GPUs and Slingshot interconnect cause hardware troubles for the Frontier. "It's mostly issues of scale coupled with the breadth of applications, so the issues we're encountering mostly relate to running very, very large jobs using the entire system … and getting all the hardware to work in concert to do that," says Justin Whitt. In addition to the limits of scale "The issues span lots of different categories, the GPUs are just one. A lot of challenges are focused around those, but that's not the majority of the challenges that we're seeing," he said. "It's a pretty good spread among common culprits of parts failures that have been a big part of it. I don't think that at this point that we have a lot of concern over the AMD products. We're dealing with a lot of the early-life kind of things we've seen with other machines that we've deployed, so it's nothing too out of the ordinary."