Denuvo's impact on gaming performance has been spoken of immensely - as always has been the case for any and all DRM solution that finds its way into games. However, evidence always seemed to be somewhat anecdotal on whether or not Denuvo really impacted performance - for a while, the inability to test games with Denuvo implemented and officially removed (which, unsurprisingly, isn't the same as it being cracked) was a grand stopgap to any sort of serious testing.

Now, courtesy of Overlord's YouTube channel, we can see whether or not Denuvo impacts performance. In a total of seven games tested on a platform with an Intel Core i7 2600K stock CPU (for adequate testing of whether Denuvo really impacts more the CPU than any other system component) paired with a stock clocked 1080 ti. You really should take a look at the video; it's a short, informative one, but the gist of is this: Some games revealed performance improvements with Denuvo being removed: Mass Effect: Andromeda saw a huge boost from an average of 57 FPS all the way to 64 FPS due to the removal of the DRM solution; and Mad Max saw a more meager 54 to 60 FPS increase. The other games (which included Hitman, Abzu, and others, didn't see any performance difference.

Basemark launched today Basemark GPU, a new graphics performance evaluation tool for systems with Vulkan 1.0, OpenGL 4.5 or OpenGL ES 3.1 graphics APIs. This tool enables the industry to objectively and reliably quantify and compare graphics performance of next generation mobile, automotive and desktop processors.

"We have poured all of our soul and expertise in making this product. The work started two and half years ago and this massive project has culminated in today's launch of a true state-of-the-art product," said Arto Ruotsalainen, CEO of Basemark. "We believe Basemark GPU will become an essential tool for anyone tasked to evaluate graphics performance in systems ranging from smart phones, smart TVs and cars to PCs."

First benchmarks and CPU-Z screenshots of AMD's upcoming Ryzen Threadripper 32-core monster have surfaced, courtesy of HKEPC. The on-time-for-launch (as AMD puts it) 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" processor has apparently been christened "Threadripper 2990X", which does make sense - should AMD be thinking of keeping the 2920X moniker for 12 cores and 1950X for 16-cores, then it follows a 20-core 2960X, a 24-core 2970X, a 28-core 2980X, and the aforementioned 32-core 2990X. whether AMD would want to offer such a tiered lineup of HEDT processors, however, is another matter entirely, and certainly open for discussion - too much of a good thing can actually happen, at least where ASP of the Threadripper portfolio is concerned.

On the CPU-Z screenshot, the 2990X is running at 3.4 GHz base with up to 4.0 GHz XFR, and carries a 250 W TDP - a believable and very impressive achievement, testament to the 12 nm process and the low leakage it apparently produces. The chip was then overclocked up to 4.2 GHz on all cores, which caused for some thermal throttling, since performance was lower than when the chip was clocked at just 4 GHz on all cores. Gains on this particular piece of silicon were reserved up to 4.12 GHz - the jump to 4.2 GHz must have required another bump in voltage that led to the aforementioned throttling. At 4.12 GHz, the chip scored 6,399 points in Cinebench - a remarkable achievement.

Futuremark, makers of probably the most recognizable benchmarks out there, have announced they are getting a company rebrand. The announcement has come via a blog post on their site, citing a "new home" for the company. UL, a company that has existed for more than a hundred years and that specializes in testing, inspection, auditing, and certification services and solutions, purchased FutureMark back in 2014, and is now looking to streamline the company's branding to their own.

The move will see FutureMark rebrand itself to "UL Benchmarks" as soon as April 23rd. Everything but the branding - and the hosting websites should remain the same. FutureMark's benchmarks databases will be relocated to benchmarks.UL.com. The company has reaffirmed its commitment in that everything will remain the same, save for the new coat of paint; the mission and intention behind UL Benchmarks will be the same as with FutureMark. I'd say there's something of a missing opportunity here, though; Underwrites Laboratories (the meaning of "UL") seems much better suited for a benchmarking company, whilst also keeping thematical relevance with the parent company's name. But oh well.

Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition will be released on March 6, but hardcore fans can pre-order the game now through Steam, Origin, or the Microsoft Store. The $49.99 price tag remains the same independent of the place of purchase. However, the preorder bonus differs hugely. Consumers who pre-order through Steam will receive the "FFXV Fashion Collection" which contains a collection of four t-shirts with different buffs for Noctis to wear. The buffs include strength enhancement, HP recovery rate acceleration, critical hit rate boost, and maximum HP increase. Microsoft Store preorders, on the other hand, come with a "FFXV Powerup pack" that provides players with a sleek Dodanuki sword which reduces enemy defense with each slash, 10 phoenix downs, and 10 elixirs. Origin seems to draw the short straw this time around. The Origin preorder bonus is the "FFXV Decal Selection" comprised of different decals to modify the cosmetics of the Regalia car.

Square Enix has graciously released a benchmark application to help future Final Fantasy XV Windows Edition players configure the game to get the best performance out of their systems. The zip file weighs around 3.37 GB and is available for download right here at TechPowerUp, or, if you don't like our servers for some unfathomable reason... from the developer's website. The benchmark only runs on 64-bit versions of Windows and requires Microsoft .NET Framework 4.6 to be present on the system. Users also need to have a graphics card that supports DirectX 11 and a monitor with a minimum resolution of 1280 x 720. Unfortunately, NVIDIA SLI and AMD Crossfire configurations are not supported at this time. The application lets users choose between the Lite, Standard, and High quality presets and resolutions from 1280 x 720, 1920 x 1080 to 3840 x 2160. The entire run takes around 6 minutes and 30 seconds. The score and performance evaluation are provided at the end of the run.

The Meltdown and Spectre vulnerabilities have been making many headlines lately. So far, security researchers have identified three variants. Variant 1 (CVE-2017-5753) and Variant 2 (CVE-2017-5715) are Spectre, while Variant 3 (CVE-2017-5754) is Meltdown. According to their security bulletin, NVIDIA has no reason to believe that their display driver is affected by Variant 3. In order to strengthen security against Variant 1 and 2, the company released their GeForce 390.65 driver earlier today, so NVIDIA graphics card owners can sleep better at night.

Experience tells us that some software patches come with performance hits, whether we like it or not. We were more than eager to find out if this was the case with NVIDIA's latest GeForce 390.65 driver. Therefore, we took to the task of benchmarking this revision against the previous GeForce 388.71 driver in 21 different games at the 1080p, 1440p, and 4K resolutions. We even threw in an Ethereum mining test for good measure. Our test system is powered by an Intel Core i7-8700K processor overclocked to 4.8 GHz, paired with G.Skill Trident-Z 3866 MHz 16 GB memory on an ASUS Maximus X Hero motherboard. We're running the latest BIOS, which includes fixes for Spectre, and Windows 10 64-bit with Fall Creators Update, fully updated, which includes the KB4056891 Meltdown Fix.

NVIDIA pulled a rabbit out of its proverbial hat late last week, with the surprise announcement of the gaming-worthy Volta-based Titan V graphics card. The Titan V is another one in a flurry of Titan cards from NVIDIA as of late, and while the healthiness of NVIDIA's nomenclature scheme can be put to the sword, the Titan V's performance really can't.

In the Unigine Superposition benchmark, the $3000 Titan V managed to deliver 5,222 points in the 8K Optimized preset, and 9,431 points on the 1080p Extreme preset. Compare that to an extremely overclocked GTX 1080 Ti running at 2,581 MHz under liquid nitrogen, which hit 8,642 points in the 1080p Extreme preset, and the raw power of NVIDIA's Volta hardware is easily identified. An average 126 FPS is also delivered by the Titan V in the Unigine Heaven benchmark, at 1440p as well. Under gaming workloads, the Titan V is reported to achieve from between 26% and 87% improvements in raw performance, which isn't too shabby, now is it?

Adding to its staple of benchmarking suites, Futuremark has announced the upcoming release of their latest benchmark, dubbed "Cyan Room". this is a Bioshock-esque benchmark that was made for DX12-powered, VR-enabled workloads, and should let users know just how much processing grunt they have at their disposal. It uses a pure DirectX 12 engine built in-house and optimized for VR, besides featuring "a large, complex environment and many eye-catching effects."

The Cyan Room can be explored at the users' leisure through its "Experience Mode"; it's a benchmarking experience where users can actually change the rendering resolution and other settings to make the scene more or less demanding, on the fly. This should allow users to truly gauge the difference in experience according to achieved performance in the benchmark - the company says "using Experience mode with a VR headset is a great way to see how system performance affects your VR experience." With its massive 5K rendering resolution and spectacular volumetric lighting effects, the company says it sets a high bar for future hardware generations. Cyan Room will be released on November 22 as a free update for VRMark Advanced Edition and VRMark Professional Edition.

Futuremark, the developer of the world's most widely used benchmarking software, today announced a new partnership with Newegg, the leading tech-focused e-retailer in North America. The partnership sees Newegg complement its comprehensive selection of PC components and complete systems with Futuremark's popular 3DMark, VRMark and PCMark 10 benchmarks. It's a winning combination: everything you need to build and benchmark a new PC in one place.

Newegg has long been the preferred destination for tech-savvy PC users when buying or building a new PC or upgrading individual components. Futuremark benchmark tests have helped millions of people test, compare and understand PC performance. Now for the first time, PC enthusiasts can buy Futuremark benchmarks from the same place they buy their components and accessories.

Following today's surprise announcement of an Intel-AMD collaboration (of which NVIDIA seems to be the only company left in a somewhat more fragile position), there have already been a number of benchmark leaks for the new Intel + AMD devices. While Intel's original announcement was cryptic enough - to be expected, given the nature of the product and the ETA before its arrival to market - some details are already pouring out into the world wide web.

The new Intel products are expected to carry the "Kaby Lake G" codename, where the G goes hand in hand with the much increased graphics power of these solutions compared to other less exotic ones - meaning, not packing AMD Radeon graphics. For now, the known product names point to one Intel Core i7-8705G and Intel Core i7-8809G. Board names for these are 694E:C0 and 694C:C0, respectively.

NVIDIA's GeForce 10 series, codenamed Pascal, has been in the market since May of 2016. NVIDIA released both the GTX 1080 and the GTX 1070 using TSMC's new manufacturing 16nm FinFet technology. When they debuted, the GTX 1070 became a popular choice among gamers initially because it was the more budget friendly option between the two. Earlier this year, NVIDIA released the GTX 1080 Ti primarily aimed at the higher-end enthusiast crowd.

We have reported about the soon-to-be launched GTX 1070 Ti before, and we also saw a render of the Gigabyte offering yesterday. Adding to the fervor today, benchmark results for the GTX 1070 Ti emerged for 3DMark Fire Strike Extreme and Time Spy on the web. Although rumored to not overclock well, the GTX 1070 Ti paints a pretty picture for those looking to upgrade their gaming rigs. According to these early leaks, the GTX 1070 Ti bests AMD's Radeon RX Vega 56 in the Time Spy benchmark in both Turbo and Balanced modes for the latter, while trading blows in Fire Strike Extreme in balanced mode and losing to it in Turbo mode. Keep in mind, these are early leaks and more are sure to come as we inch closer to its release.

Futuremark today released the latest update to the 3DMark graphics benchmark suite. Version 2.4.3819, released to the public today, introduces the new "Time Spy Extreme" benchmark for machines running Windows 10 and DirectX 12 compatible graphics cards. With a rendering resolution of 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels), the new benchmark applies enough stress to put today's 4K UHD gaming PCs through their paces. You don't require a 4K monitor to run the test, however, your graphics card must feature at least 4 GB of video memory.

Time Spy Extreme also comes with a new CPU benchmark that is up to 3 times more taxing than the older CPU tests. It can take advantage of practically any number of CPU cores you can throw at it, and benefits from the the AVX2 instruction-set. "Time Spy Extreme," isn't available on the free version of 3DMark. You will require at least 3DMark Advanced, with a license purchased after July 14, 2016, to get it as a free upgrade. The update also improves the API overhead tests.DOWNLOAD: Futuremark 3DMark v2.4.3819

The change-log follows.

Futuremark is giving final touches to its top-tier GPU benchmark, 3DMark "TimeSpy Extreme." This benchmark tests your graphics hardware's performance at the 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160 pixels) resolution, with the latest DirectX 12 API. You will need a graphics card with at least 4 GB of video memory to run the test. The benchmark will put not just the fastest graphics cards through their paces, but is also designed to take advantage of today's multi-core processors.

3DMark "TimeSpy" Extreme can take advantage of processors with 8 or more CPU cores, and will benefit from the processors supporting the AVX2 instruction-set. Futuremark claims that the CPU tests of "TimeSpy" Extreme will be 3 times more demanding. The company also mentions that it developed the new benchmark while taking inputs from AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel. The benchmark is expected to launch on the 11th of October as an update.

A user on Coolenjoy has apparently gotten his hands on Intel's upcoming i9-7980XE silicon, putting it through its paces on Cinebench and a number of other benchmarks. The 18-core, 36-thread Core i9-7980XE is set to be Intel's most advanced HEDT processor of all time by a wide margin - both in number of cores and pricing. It seems that even in the face of a competitive AMD, that puts value towards core counts with its $999 Threadripper 1950X 16-core, 32-thread CPU, Intel still sees it fit to charge an arm, a leg, and both of your kidneys for a 2-core advantage. Intel's XE processors have become more synonymous of eXtremely Expensive and less about being eXtreme Edition over the years, and the i9-7980XE, with its $1999 price-tag, does nothing to alleviate the issue. This is a halo product, though - the most advanced HEDT processor in the world. And with it being as niche a product as it is, it actually makes some kind of sense for it to be so expensive - an immoral, "where has the world gone" kind of sense, but still, some measure of it.

Ahead of their launch later this quarter, SiSoft SANDRA benchmarks of Intel 8th generation Core i7-8700K and Core i5-8400 six-core processors surfaced in benchmark databases, which were promptly compared to their predecessors by HotHardware. The results put to the test Intel's claims of "over 40 percent more performance" compared to the 7th generation Core processors, which the company made in its 8th Generation Core Launch Event presentation. A bulk of these performance increases are attributed to the increasing core-count over generation, which directly yields higher multi-threaded performance; while a small but significant portion of it is attributed to increases in single-threaded performance. Since the "Coffee Lake" micro-architecture is essentially a refresh of the "Skylake" architecture, single-threaded performance increases could be attributed to higher clock speeds.

The Core i7-8700K is the top-dog of the 8th generation Core mainstream-desktop processor family. This six-core chip was compared to the product it succeeds in Intel's MSDT product-stack, the quad-core Core i7-7700K. There is a 45 percent increase in performance, in the "processor arithmetic" test; and a 47 percent increase in the "processor multimedia" test. These two test-suites are multi-threaded, and hence benefit from the two added cores, which in turn add four additional logical CPUs, thanks to HyperThreading. "Processor cryptography" sees a 12 percent increase. The single-precision and double-precision "Scientific Analysis" tests, which again are multi-threaded, see 26 percent and 32 percent performance gains over the i7-7700K, respectively.

LinusTechTips has received an Alienware Area 51, the boutique system which Alienware has developed through its exclusive partnership with AMD for the 16-core, 32-thread Threadripper CPUs.

The system was tested using a proprietary Dell/Alienware motherboard, as well as 32 GB (4x 8 GB) of 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM. Graphics were handled by a Founders Edition GTX 1080 Ti, and storage was etched on a SanDisk A400 256 GB NVME drive (Up to 2050/700 MB/s Sequential Read/Write). The nature of the benchmarked systems, with their myriad of hardware parts, means that the benchmarks are not 100% representative of CPU performance deltas between the tested processors; however, they do put out some interesting numbers. The other HEDT system to be tested was an Intel-based X299 system with a stock Intel Core i9-7900X (10 cores, 20 threads) on an ASUS Prime X299 Deluxe, 4x 8 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 memory, the same GTX 1080 Ti Founders Edition, and a 512 GB Samsung 950 Pro NVME SSD.

TweakTown has put forth an article wherein they claim to have received info from industry insiders regarding the upcoming Vega 56's performance. Remember that Vega 56 is the slightly cut-down version of the flagship Vega 64, counting with 56 next-generation compute units (NGCUs) instead of Vega 64's, well, 64. This means that while the Vega 64 has the full complement of 4,096 Stream processors, 256 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 2048-bit wide 8 GB HBM2 memory pool offering 484 GB/s of bandwidth, Vega 56 makes do with 3,548 Stream processors,192 TMUs, 64 ROPs, the same 8 GB of HBM2 memory and a slightly lower memory bandwidth at 410 GB/s.

The Vega 56 has been announced to retail for about $399, or $499 with one of AMD's new (famous or infamous, depends on your mileage) Radeon Packs. The RX Vega 56 card was running on a system configured with an Intel Core i7-7700K @ 4.2GHz, 16 GB of DDR4-3000 MHz RAM, and Windows 10 at 2560 x 1440 resolution.

Intel is preparing to tackle AMD's first Ryzen Threadripper parts with two Core "Skylake-X" HEDT socket LGA2066 processor launches in quick succession, over Q3-2017. The first one to come out will be the 12-core/24-thread Core i9-7920X; which will be closely followed by the 16-core/32-thread Core i9-7960X. The company will ultimately end 2017 with the 18-core/36-thread Core i9-7980XE. The i9-7920X, detailed in our older article, could either command a $200 premium over the $999 10-core/20-thread i9-7900X; or displace it to a slightly lower price-point (say, $800). The i9-7960X, however, could retain a premium price-point owing to performance leadership over the Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, if early benchmarks are to be believed.

The Core i9-7960X is endowed with 16 cores, HyperThreading enabling 32 threads, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 22 MB of shared L3 cache. It features the chip's full 44-lane PCI-Express gen 3.0 root complex, and a quad-channel DDR4 memory interface. The chip is expected to be clocked even lower than its 12-core sibling, with a nominal clock of a mere 2.50 GHz, and a yet unknown max Turbo Boost frequency. Put through Geekbench 4.1.0, the chip scored 33,672 points in the multi-threaded test, which is higher than the 27,000-ish scores we've been hearing of for the Threadripper 1950X; but a single-thread score of 5,238, which pales in comparison to that of the i7-7740X, due to the lower clock speeds, and a slightly older micro-architecture.

You probably took a long, hard read at our article covering a single-minded user's experience of his new Vega Frontier Edition. Now, courtesy of PCPer, and charitable soul Ekin at Linus Tech Tips, we have some more performance benchmarks of AMD's latest (non gaming specific) graphics card.

Starting with 2560x1440, let's begin with the good news: in what seems to be the best performance scenario we've seen until now, the Vega Frontier Edition stands extremely close to NVIDIA's GTX 1080 Ti video card in Fallout 4. It trails it for about 10 FPS most of the test, and even surpasses it at some points. These numbers should be taken with a grain of salt regarding the RX Vega consumer cards: performance on those models will probably be higher than the Frontier Edition's results. And for the sake of AMD, they better be, because in all other tests, the Frontier Edition somewhat disappoints. It's beaten by NVIDIA's GTX 1070 in Grand Theft Auto V, mirrors its performance in The Witcher 3, and delivers slightly higher performance than the GTX 1070 on Hitman and Dirt Rally (albeit lower than the GTX 1080.)

Futuremark today announced Testdriver, a benchmark automation software targeted at PC hardware reviewers, system analysts, and quality-control departments of computer hardware manufacturers. The software doesn't have any benchmarks of its own, but lets you script and automate your own selection of benchmarks, and helps with test data aggregation and presentation.

Testdriver comes with out of the box readiness for Futuremark's popular benchmark suites, such as the 3DMark family, the PCMark family, and VRMark, but also lets you add third-party benchmarks. The company offers email-support to customers in integrating benchmarks with the app. Given that the software is designed for diverse customer groups, Futuremark will be selling it through its parent company UL, and is taking orders over email by quoting a price specific to the customer's application of the software.

The PC Mark benchmarking software is one of the mainstays of system benchmarking. Although it isn't as attractive to enthusiasts and gamers due to the lack of such visually impressive showcases like Time Spy, it stands as a more complete suite for users looking to thoroughly examine their systems' performance. And it now offers a more complete package even for gamers and enthusiasts, since it does include a graphical, game-like benchmark in FireStrike.

Based on real-world apps and activities, the tests in PC Mark 10 work with some included third-party programs as part of the benchmark suite to reflect common tasks performed in the modern workplace. Futuremark is releasing three versions of PCMark 10, the Basic, Advanced, and Professional Editions, with different tiers of features for each. The Basic version will be free of charge (available to download on June 22nd), while the Advanced version will retail for $29.99 (and will be available on Steam.) You can read our review of PCMark's latest iteration right here, courtesy of our own VSG.

It seems that Intel's accelerated released schedule for its upcoming HEDT platform is starting to slowly bear fruits, with many details leaking through the cracks almost non-stop during the last few days (and before you ask, yes, I did have more links to show you.)

These should be two of the top performing processors in Intel's line-up, and the i9 7900X (10-core) and 7920X (12-core) have been tested on integer and floating point calculations. The 10-core i9-7900X (3.1 GHz base frequency, no Turbo listed)) scores 107 points in single-core benchmarks, and 1467 points in the multi-core test. The 12-core, 2.9 GHz base frequency 7920X, however, scores a head-scratchingly-higher 130 points in the same single-threaded benchmark, despite carrying the same architecture at... hmm... lower clocks. Maybe this processor's Turbo is working as expected, up to 3.25 GHz (average), and that's the factor for the higher single-core performance?

We've already covered how NVIDIA is looking to take a slice of the IGP-replacement discrete GPU market after AMD brought it back to life with the RX 550 (of which you can see some examples here). Considering how the last NVIDIA entry into this market was the GT 730, it's safe to say a refresh is past due.

The most recent information points towards a chip sporting 512 CUDA cores and a 30W TDP - absent of any auxiliary power connectors. Pricing should be close to the RX 550's, though the performance difference between both parts is still up in the air - though an average 12 FPS in Ashes of the Singularity on 1080p is nothing to write home about, even if that is expectable given the GPU's price/performance bracket. The GT 1030 is currently expected to make landing on the second week of May.

Some photos, screenshots and benchmarks of what appears to be an XFX RX 580 graphics card are doing the rounds, courtesy of overclocker Lau Kin Lam, who shared them (alongside a three-hour log video) on his Facebook page. Apparently, this is a special, China-only edition of the card, which is a shame, considering the great-looking waterblock that is smiling for the camera. The fact that this card is using a reference board with one 8-pin power connector may prove relevant to its overclocking efforts (and those of other, non-reference boards that we've seen carry both the 8-pin and an extra 6-pin power connector.

(Re)member that dazzling-looking Superposition benchmark from Unigine - the one that was supposed to have arrived late 2016? The one that apparently wasn't good enough for Steam? Well it has been released, and you can now gobble up all of those realistic graphics for yourself and your GPU of choice. Some standout features include the ability to scale rendering resolution all the way up to 8K, so... Go on ahead, click that link below, make your graphics cards scream, and elbow one another for the top result. I will be with you in a little while. Go on after the break for some more features and a little teaser on what the benchmark is all about.Download Link: Unigine Superposition Benchmark 1.0Can I just say I love me some Nicola Tesla on the walls?