AMD's RDNA 2 architecture provided a significant performance increase for the company and allowed them to re-enter the high-end GPU market. AMD hopes to keep this momentum up with the launch of its RX 7900 XT card featuring the RDNA 3 architecture which will reportedly bring a further performance increase of at least 40% over the RX 6900 XT with internal projections as high as 60% - 80%. The RDNA 3 architecture is expected to feature a chiplet-based design with discrete I/O and compute dies similar to Ryzen processors. AMD has officially said they are targetting a 50% performance/watt increase over RDNA 2 with the new architecture which lends weight to this rumor. The RX 7900 XT is not expected to launch in the foreseeable future so take these rumors with a healthy dose of skepticism but if these performance improvements are anything close to accurate AMD could have a winner with RDNA 3.

AMD's upcoming professional graphics card based on the 7 nm "Navi 21" silicon, the Radeon Pro W6800, will feature 32 GB of GDDR6 memory, according to a new leaked validation on the Userbenchmark database. The card was pictured and detailed in an older article that you can read here. It's likely that AMD achieved 32 GB over the chip's 256-bit wide memory bus using sixteen 16 Gbit memory chips, with two chips piggy-backed per 32-bit path. The picture leak from April also reveals a heatspreader over the reverse side of the otherwise bare PCB that points to the likelihood of memory chips being located there. On the client-segment Radeon RX 6800 XT, 16 GB is achieved using eight 16 Gbit chips, all of which are located on the obverse side. The exact specifications of the Pro W6800 remain unknown, but is expected to be comparable to the RX 6800 series.

AMD has registered the steepest single-quarter growth in server CPU sales in 15 years, for Q1-2021, according to Mercury Research data accessed by Tom's Hardware. "While we don't often discuss average selling prices, we note that this quarter saw unusually strong price moves for AMD -- as AMD shipped fewer low-end parts and more high-end parts, as well as shipping many more server parts, the company's average selling price increased significantly," said Dean McCarron of Mercury Research. Unfortunately, the growth in its EPYC server CPU sales also coincides with a drop in notebook CPU sales. It's also interesting to note here that AMD's Q1-2021 performance with server CPUs also coincides with a 20% drop in revenue for its Data Center Group, the business unit responsible for sales of its Xeon server processors.

A fresh rumor straight from the rumor mill paints AMD's next APU iterations as being updated to the latest and greatest architectures the company has to offer. The rumor comes from ExecutableFix via Twitter, a leaker who has a relatively proven track record on being right regarding upcoming hardware releases. This rumor can lay some credence to others, painting AMD's Ryzen 7000 series as being the first AMD APU-only release since they began their journey with the Zen architecture - it makes sense for the company to integrate their latest architectures in the mobile-geared Rembrandt first, working out some possible interaction quirks that might arise between the two architectures when deployed in the same package.

The leaker further affirms that the Rembrandt APUs will feature up to 12 RDNA2 CUs, which would amount to 768 stream processors on-chip - a marked increase from the current-generation 8 CUs based on the Vega architecture on their Ryzen 4000 mobile series. The leaker also discloses that AMD's Warhol seems to be MIA in recent AMD documentation and planning when it comes to the deployment of Zen3+, and that Rembrandt should be the one to carry that particular architecture refinement through to the 6 nm process. It would seem that AMD's Vega would "finally" see its demise, bringing about some much-needed performance improvements to counter Intel's investments in GPU performance with Xe.

GIGABYTE is joining the new wave of enthusiast-segment custom-design AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics cards that leverage the updated "Navi 21-XTXH" silicon that supports 10% higher clock-speeds. The company is ready with the RX 6900 XT AORUS Xtreme WaterForce WB, its first AMD Radeon graphics card to get its AORUS Xtreme brand-extension (it capped out at AORUS Master for RX 6000 series cards until now). As its name might suggest, the card comes with a factory-fitted full-coverage water-block, and is targeted at those with DIY liquid cooling setups.

The water block uses nickel-plated copper as its primary material, with an acrylic top that's further capped off with poly-vinyl film. The top is studded with addressable RGB LEDs that you control with RGB Fusion 2.0 software. As an AORUS Xtreme product, the card is also likely to receive GIGABYTE's innovative coolant leak detection feature. The company didn't reveal clock speeds, but it's likely to be in the same league as other XTXH cards, such as the Toxic Extreme Edition, OC Formula, Liquid Devil Ultimate, etc. There's no word on when this launches.

Aqua Computer today introduced its Kryographics NEXT full-cover waterblocks, which are compatible with RX 6800, RX 6800 XT and RX 6900 XT graphics cards that use AMD's reference layout. The blocks, which are produced in Germany and weigh 880 grams, are available in bare or nickel-plated copper. The GPU and RAM modules are connected via thermal paste, while thermal pads are used for the voltage regulators.

The cover is made of acrylic glass and is surrounded by a black anodized aluminium frame. An integrated strip with 13 addressable LEDs allows the illumination of the block. The accessory includes a suitable connection cable for RGBpx enabled Aqua Computer devices and an adapter plug which also allows the connection to most modern mainboards that feature a port for addressable RGB LEDs.

AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR), the company's elusive rival to the NVIDIA DLSS technology, could be arriving next month (June 2021), according to a Coreteks report. The report claims that the technology is already at an advanced stage of development, in the hands of game developers, and offers certain advantages over DLSS. For starters, it doesn't require training from a generative adversarial network (GAN), and doesn't rely on ground truth data. It is a low-overhead algorithmic upscaler (not unlike the various MadVR upscalers you're used to). It is implemented early in the pipeline. Here's the real kicker—the technology is compatible with NVIDIA GPUs, so studios developing with FSR would be serving both AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce gamers.

AMD has today updated its Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition version 21.5.1 drivers, bringing many features on board as well as fixing a lot of issues that have appeared in the past. Starting with support for the Resident Evil Village PC game, AMD promises to deliver up to 13% better frame rate at 4K maximum settings, while using the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card. The comparison was conducted with a reference to the previous driver, 21.4.1, which didn't allow the card to reach as high FPS as it is now possible with the proper support for the game. Another game that is added to the support list is Metro Exodus PC Enhanced Edition. Some fixes have been implemented, as the incorrect performance metrics that may have incorrectly reported temperatures on Ryzen 5 1600 series processors. For a detailed list of bug fixes, please take a look at the list below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.5.1

Xilinx, Inc. (Nasdaq: XLNX), the leader in adaptive computing, today announced record revenues of $851 million for the fiscal fourth quarter, up 6% over the previous quarter and an increase of 13% year over year. Fiscal 2021 revenues were $3.15 billion, largely flat from the prior fiscal year. GAAP net income for the fiscal fourth quarter was $188 million, or $0.75 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income for the quarter was $204 million, or $0.82 per diluted share. GAAP net income for fiscal year 2021 was $647 million, or $2.62 per diluted share. Non-GAAP net income for fiscal year 2021 was $762 million, or $3.08 per diluted share.

Additional fourth quarter of fiscal year 2021 comparisons are provided in the charts below. "We are pleased with our fourth quarter results as we delivered record revenues and double-digit year-over-year growth in the midst of a challenging supply chain environment," said Victor Peng, Xilinx president and CEO. "Xilinx saw further improvement in demand across a majority of our diversified end markets with key strength in our Wireless, Data Center and Automotive markets, the pillars of our growth strategy. Our teams have executed well and we remain focused on continuing to meet customers' critical needs.

Several benchmark numbers of the upcoming AMD Ryzen 7 5700G and Ryzen 5 5600G desktop processors were fished out by Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK. The 5700G and 5600G are based on the 7 nm "Cezanne" silicon that combines up to 8 "Zen 3" CPU cores across a single CCX, sharing a single 16 MB L3 cache; along with an iGPU based on the "Vega" graphics architecture. Both chips were put through the CPU-Z Bench, where they posted spectacular results.

Both chips post higher single-thread score than the Core i9-10900K "Comet Lake," riding on the back of the high IPC of the "Zen 3" cores, and low latencies from the monolithic "Cezanne" silicon. In the multi-threaded test, the 8-core/16-thread 5700G scored above the Core i9-9900KS (5.00 GHz all-core). An HP OMEN 25L pre-built was put through Geekbench 5, where it was found performing within 90% of the Core i5-11600K. Userbenchmark remarks that the 5600X performs within the league of contemporaries, but falls behind on memory latency. Find the validation pages in the source links below.

TAITRA (Taiwan External Trade and Development Council) announced today that Dr. Lisa Su, President and CEO of AMD, is invited back to deliver a keynote address at COMPUTEX 2021. This digital keynote will be on Tuesday, June 1, at 10:00 AM Taipei time, with the keynote theme "AMD Accelerating - The High-Performance Computing Ecosystem." COMPUTEX displays will be digital this year, with keynotes and forums running on hybrid. "It has been a year unlike others. Technology has gotten us through some of the most challenging times," said James Huang, TAITRA Chairman. "We will continue to transform our exhibition models and practices to meet the evolving needs of our exhibitors, visitors, and media, without losing the most essential element of a trade show - connection."

Dr. Lisa Su is proud to join COMPUTEX once again in 2021. "The past year has shown us the important role high-performance computing plays in our daily lives - from the way we work to the way we learn and play. At this year's COMPUTEX, AMD will share how we accelerate innovation with our ecosystem partners to deliver a leadership product portfolio," said Dr. Lisa Su. At the COMPUTEX | AMD CEO Keynote, Dr. Lisa Su will share the AMD vision for the future of computing, including details of the growing adoption of the AMD high-performance computing and graphics solutions, built for PC enthusiasts and gamers.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, today presented two gaming systems of AMD X570 platform with AORUS MODEL X and AMD B550 platform with mini system AORUS MODEL S, which adopt the top-notch components and materials for extreme performance. Enhanced by the strict verification and leading technology, GIGABYTE provides the PC system of extreme performance with optimized heat dissipation and acoustic control. The system maintains cool and quiet even under the full operation, which balance the high performance and low temperature to keep the system acoustic under 40dB without throttling. Furthermore, the three-year warranty of full system offers an ease and comprehensive service for users.

"When tackling the uplift of PC performance, multi-core, high frequency, and copious storage become a must to the premium PC platform, as well as how to make the best components matrix to provide the optimized performance with reliability turns into more inevitable." indicated by Eddie Lin, Vice President of the GIGABYTE Channel Solutions. "The new AORUS system is well-tempered by multiple verification and tuning of GIGABYTE's R&D team, which provide a perfect match of cool, quiet, and powerful performance with compatibility and three-year whole system warranty.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the maker of various kinds of silicon products, is the manufacturer of AMD's EPYC processors. However, have you ever questioned what CPUs are actually behind TSMC? The answer to that question is quite simple. Today, we have come to know that TSMC is using AMD EPYC processors to power their manufacturing infrastructure and tape out thousands of wafers per month. AMD has published TSMC's case study, which pointed out that the total cost of ownership has been the main challenge of the Taiwanese company. By using AMD EPYC 7702P and 7F72 CPUs, TSMC addresses the need for both reliable and high-performing server infrastructure to power the manufacturing efforts. For research and development purposes, TSMC chose the 7F72 with 24 cores and a high clock speed of 3.2 GHz, which is ideal for the company needs and purposes.

For more details about TSMC's choices and solutions, read the case study here.

Researches from the University of Virginia and University of California San Diego have published their latest case study. The two universities have worked hard to discover a new Spectre vulnerability variant that can pass all of the existing Spectre mitigations and exploit all of the existing processors coming from Intel and AMD. The vulnerability exploits all of the existing x86 processors, and as it is new, there are not implementations of hardware mitigation. The whitepaper called "I see dead μops" takes the implementation of exploiting micro-op caches that could lead to a potential data leak in the processor, which is leading to a Spectre-type exploit.

Modern x86 processors break down complex instructions into smaller RISC-like units called micro-ops, in the frontend, where it makes the design of the backend part much simpler. The micro-ops are stored in the micro-ops cache. The paper is describing micro-op cache-based timing channel exploits in three primary settings: "a) across code regions within the same thread, but operating at different privilege levels, (b) across different co-located threads running simultaneously on different SMT contexts (logical cores) within the same physical core, and (c) two transient execution attack variants that leverage the micro-op cache to leak transiently accessed secrets, bypassing several existing hardware and software-based mitigations, including Intel's recommended LFENCE."

The current supply of graphics cards has been very tight all over the world. Starting with the launch of the latest Radeon RX 6000 series of GPUs based on RDNA 2 architecture, AMD has found itself in big trouble when it comes to supply of the silicon, compared to the demand that exists for these new GPUs. We have discussed that many times in the past and saw that it represents a problem spanning everyone involved in getting the silicon chips to the hands of consumers. On Tuesday, April 27th, AMD held its Q1 2021 earnings call and webcast, where the company executives talked about the company's future, underlying problems, and ways of addressing them.

Among many topics covered in the call, AMD's President and CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, has talked about the GPU supply. According to Dr. Su, the company is ramping the production of its Radeon graphics cards, adding that the mobile Radeon GPU lineup is lurking. Here is a full quote from the earnings call.

Dr. Lisa Su—AMD Q1 2021 Earning CallAnd we're well-positioned for further growth as we have tripled our commercial notebook design wins with the largest OEMs this year. In graphics, revenue increased by a strong double-digit percentage year over year and sequentially, led by channel sales growth as revenue from our high-end Radeon 6000 GPUs more than doubled from the prior quarter. We introduced our Radeon 6700 XT desktop GPU with leadership 1440p gaming performance in March and are on track for the first notebooks featuring our leading-edge mobile RDNA 2 architecture to launch later this quarter. We expect Radeon 6000 Series GPU sales to grow significantly over the coming quarters as we ramp production.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is releasing a Full Nickel version of the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Crosshair VIII Hero monoblock. This monoblock is engineered specifically for the ROG Crosshair VIII Hero and ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboards and features a full-metal design that possesses unrivaled durability and a premium finish. This complete all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) liquid cooling solution for Ryzen AMD processors is compatible with the X570-based ROG Crosshair VIII Hero and Dark Hero motherboards.

The monoblock is equipped with the latest-generation EK cooling engine, used in the Quantum Line to ensure the best possible CPU cooling while not reducing the flow to other components. This water block directly cools AM4 socket type CPU as well as the voltage regulation (MOSFET) module. Liquid flows directly over all critical areas, providing enthusiasts with a great solution for high and stable overclocks. Like every EK monoblock, the EK-Quantum Momentum ROG Crosshair VIII Hero D-RGB also features a high flow design and can be easily used with weaker water pumps or lower pump speed settings as well.

Alphacool today presents the Eiswolf 2 AIO solution (Reference design with backplate) for AMD Radeon RX 6800/6800XT/6900 and NVIDIA RTX 3080/3090 graphics cards. As with all of our AIO models, we only use copper radiators, however, for the first time, the Alphacool 360 mm NexXxoS ST30 all-copper radiator will be used in one of our GPU "all-in-one" solutions. For the fans, we now install the new Alphacool Aurora Rise 120 mm fan. The fan impresses with a max. statistical pressure of 3.17 mm/H2O and offers a max. air flow of 119.8m3/h, at a speed range of 0-2500rpm which can be controlled via PWM.

The decision to use the larger radiator in conjunction with our new fans provides a significant increase in cooling performance. The AIO is completed with the Eisblock Aurora water cooler, which actively cools all relevant components such as graphics memory and voltage converters in addition to the GPU chip. All components used (radiator, fan, cooler, DC-LT 2 pump) including connectors and hoses are part of the Alphacool custom cooling range and are therefore available separately. This means that we're not just offering a simple AIO solution here, but a real custom water cooling system (pre-assembled & pre-filled). Only the pump housing for the DC-LT 2 pump is a custom design and not available separately. Today we present only the Reference designs. In the near future, more solutions for graphics cards in custom design from various manufacturers will be available.More pictures follow.

SAPPHIRE Technology announces the newest addition to the RDNA 2 family with the SAPPHIRE NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Special Edition. With increased performance and an innovative spin on the award winning Tri-X Cooling Technology, this model is a powerhouse product for the ultra-aficionado 4K gamer. Designed with the classic NITRO+ minimalist aesthetic, additional fresh customizable RGB on the peripherals, and striking ARGB fans, the NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Special Edition is sure to be a photogenic part to complete the theme of any PC.

Overclocked straight out of the box to hit every frame, the NITRO+ AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT Special Edition leads with 5120 stream processors and boasts a maximized Boost Clock of up to 2365 MHz and a Game Clock of up to 2135 MHz. It comes decked with 80 ray accelerators and 80 compute units to facilitate raytracing. The latest 16 GB of GDDR6 high-speed memory is clocked at 16 Gbps Effective with 128 MB of Infinity Cache, which dramatically reduces latency and power consumption, delivering higher overall gaming performance than traditional architectural designs.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced revenue for the first quarter of 2021 of $3.45 billion, operating income of $662 million, net income of $555 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.45. On a non-GAAP* basis, operating income was $762 million, net income was $642 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.52.

"Our business continued to accelerate in the first quarter driven by the best product portfolio in our history, strong execution and robust market demand," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "We had outstanding year-over-year revenue growth across all of our businesses and data center revenue more than doubled. Our increased full-year guidance highlights the strong growth we expect across our business based on increasing adoption of our high-performance computing products and expanding customer relationships."

AMD launched the 7 nm Zen 3 microarchitecture which powers Ryzen 5000 processors in late 2020, we expect AMD to follow this up with a Zen 3+ on 6 nm later this year and a 5 nm Zen 4 in 2022. We are now beginning to receive the first rumors about the 3 nm Zen 5 architecture which is expected to launch in 2024 in Ryzen 8000 series products. The architecture is reportedly known as "Strix Point" and will be manufactured on TSMC's 3 nm node with a big.LITTLE core design similar to the upcoming Intel Alder Lake and the Apple M1. The Strix Point lineup will consist exclusively of APUs and could feature up to 8 high-performance and 4 low-performance cores which would be less than what Intel plans to offer with Alder Lake. AMD has allegedly already set graphics performance targets for the processors and that they will bring significant changes to the memory subsystem but with rumors for a product 3 years away from launch take them with a healthy dose of skepticism.

The AMD 4700S is a new processor being advertised by Chinese manufactures as a complete ITX compatible solution. The processor is soldered to a custom "Cardinal" motherboard produced by AMD which lacks memory slots and instead features 16 GB of GDDR6 memory located around the processor. These specifications seem to closely reflect those of the Xbox Series X APU. The 4700S is an 8-core 16-thread 7 nm Zen 2 CPU with 12 MB cache and a boost clock of 4.0 GHz which is actually higher than that of the Xbox Series X/S at 3.8 GHz and 3.6 GHz respectively. This higher boost clock is likely due to the exclusion of an integrated GPU which increases the power available for the processor.

The seller also provided benchmarks for the processor in various Cinebench configurations where it outperformed the Intel Core i7-9700 and performed just below the AMD Ryzen 7 4750G. The processor paired with an RX 550 GPU also outperformed the Intel Core i7-9750H paired with an RTX 2060 and 32 GB memory in Cinebench and x264/x265 video encoding. The seller has a picture of the Xbox Series X APU in their advertising material for the new processor lending weight to the theory that these are reused processors which failed qualification.

AMD's recently released Radeon Software Adrenalin 21.4.1 WHQL drivers lower non-gaming power consumption, our testing finds. AMD did not mention these reductions in the changelog of its new driver release. We did a round of testing, comparing the previous 21.3.2 drivers, with 21.4.1, using Radeon RX 6000 series SKUs, namely the RX 6700 XT, RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT. Our results show significant power-consumption improvements in certain non-gaming scenarios, such as system idle and media playback.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT shows no idle power draw reduction; but the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT posted big drops in idle power consumption, at 1440p, going down from 25 W to 5 W (down by about 72%). There are no changes with multi-monitor. Media playback power draw sees up to 30% lower power consumption for the RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT. This is a huge improvement for builders of media PC systems, as not only power is affected, but heat and noise, too.

When governments need a hardware upgrade, they will usually take the route of exploring options with security in mind. However, if you happen to have some engineering talent to employ on a new project, why wouldn't you just build a custom motherboard for your own purposes. Today, GS Group Holding and Philax, have announced that they are starting the manufacturing of Russia's first motherboard based on a B450 chipset from AMD. Looking at the motherboard, which you can see below, you might find it very similar to those of ASRock. And that is because Philax has a licensing agreement with ASRock to use the design of the B450M Pro4 motherboard, with the addition of a TPM module which is often used by government agencies, to produce this board.

Producing around 40,000 pieces, these motherboards are expected to handle anything from 4000 series to 5000 series of AMD processors. As far as the specifications go, the board is coming in a standard Micro-ATX form factor. It is equipped with four DDR4 memory slots that can take a memory with up to 3200 MHz speed. There are two PCIe 3.0 x16 slots and one PCIe 2.0 x1 slot, which are of course limited by CPU choice. The motherboard enables four SATA III and two M.2 ports for storage expansion. When it comes to I/O, the board features HDMI, D-Sub, DVI-D, four USB 3.1 Gen1, two USB 2.0, one USB Type-C, and one USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A port. GS Group Holding and Philax also have a partnership that goes beyond just motherboards. They also plan to produce about 50,000 custom monitors for government purposes as well.

Recently, Apple has updated its macOS operating system to support the next generation of GPUs for Mac devices, coming from AMD. The upcoming RDNA 2 GPU lineup in Macs will bring all the enhancements AMD made to the architecture, and pack it inside Apple's signature designs. Today, we have received information that Apple could refresh its Mac Pro lineup with AMD's Radeon Pro GPU based on RDNA 2 architecture. On Geekbench 5, there was a test run that was conducted on Apple Mac Pro "7.1" revision, that features not only Intel Cascade Lake-X processor but AMD's unreleased Radeon Pro W6900X graphics card designed for professional users.

While we don't know much about the exact specifications, we know that it features a Navi 21 GPU SKU. Judging by the naming scheme, the Radeon Pro W6900X is representing an Apple-exclusive GPU variant designed only for Mac Pro devices. A Chiphell leak has given us a sneak peek at the alleged card look, which you can see below. When it comes to performance, the Geekbench result measures Metal API performance and the Radeon Pro W6900X has managed to score 171448 points, which is even higher than the Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU, which tops out at 164294 points. Of course, this is representing a professional SKU, so there could be some tuning present as well.

EK, the leading computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is launching a new water block, tailor-made for AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors. The Magnitude sTRX4 is the most complex Threadripper CPU water block on the market to date. Our latest addition to the EK Quantum product line has no intention of succeeding or replacing its Velocity sTR4 counterparts, as the Magnitude water block is a rather sophisticated alternative optimized specifically for Zen 2 based AMD Threadripper CPUs.

EK-Quantum Magnitude sTRX4
The block will be available in the same four finishes as regular Magnitude blocks: Copper + Acetal, Nickel + Acetal (D-RGB), Nickel + Plexi (D-RGB), and Full Nickel. However, to distinguish the two acetal models, Copper + Acetal versions will feature an exclusive red frame by default. The award-winning, signature design truly sets the Magnitude apart, with every piece being CNC-milled from a solid piece of material. The three-dimensional aluminum mounting frame perfectly blends in with the asymmetrical shape of the Threadripper CPU socket while making the screws a seamless part of the water block. Strong edges and chamfers root this futuristic design firmly into the EK Quantum line. Magnitude proudly bears its prestigious iF Design Award.