The Chinese government introduced restrictions on the export of gallium and germanium (plus their chemical compounds)—both crucial materials in the computer chip manufacturing process—a couple of months ago. Big players within the semiconductor industry shrugged this off as a minor inconvenience, and simply shifted to more expensive sources. Prior to an August 1 implementation of new rulings, according to Reuters, China exported 36.48 metric tons of germanium, and 22.72 tons of gallium (starting January 2023). Customers were in a rush to acquire as much material as possible, before the "cut off" date—so 8.63 tons of germanium and 5.15 tons of gallium got shifted overseas throughout July.

Reuters has kept a watchful eye on the situation since then—its latest report states that "China's exports of germanium and gallium items plunged in August, the first month of the export controls, customs data showed on Wednesday (September 20)." A Ministry of Commerce spokesman, He Yadong, last week revealed that his department will be granting a limited number of export licenses to interested parties, on the condition that these local companies "meet relevant requirements." An undisclosed percentage of submitted applications have already received government approval. Signed paperwork reportedly gives the thumbs up to "dual use" purposes, implying that potential customers are in the military and civilian fields.

TPU staffers had a close-up look at cable-free graphics cards during proceedings at Computex 2023—where ASUS was showing off early examples of graphics cards without an external power connector. This new connection standard is called GC_HPWR. Said proprietary connector has been spotted once again, this time on finalized hardware—ASUS appears to be readying Back To The Future (BTF) edition product lines for launch in China. The first retail graphics card to adopt the GC-HPWR connector, as part of the "Advanced BTF" initiative is a custom design based on NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 GPU. The ASUS GeForce RTX 4070 ATS BTF 12 GB edition card is set for a local release on September 15—there was no mention of a potential launch outside of the PRC, but we did see this "Megalodon" BTF card at Computex.

ASUS is indicating that it will be updating its China market-exclusive white TX series of GeForce cards with the new connector—marketing imagery has appeared online with a "coming soon" message for RTX 4060, 4060 Ti and 4070 models. A TUF series refresh is apparently in the cards—VideoCardz believes that these models will have a better chance of reaching global markets. The TUF Gaming B760M-BTF WIFI Micro-ATX motherboard, with all connectors positioned on the backside of the board is now visible on an ASUS Hidden Connector Design mini-site, sat next to a compatible A21 case. A TUF Gaming Z790 Concept board is teased in the Advanced tier with a matching GT502 Concept case.

According to the latest report from Nikkei, HP, the world's second-largest PC manufacturer after Lenovo, is making strategic shifts in its laptop production bases. In a move that reflects broader trends among tech giants, HP is collaborating with various Electronic Manufacturing Service (EMS) providers to move a significant part of its laptop production out of China to other countries such as Thailand, Mexico, and eventually Vietnam. For 2023 alone, the production outside of China is expected to range from a few million units up to 5 million, a noteworthy figure given HP's total global PC shipments of 55.2 million units. Commercial notebooks are slated for production in Mexico, catering to HP's primary market, North America, with consumer laptops made in Thailand. Additionally, a shift to Vietnam is on the horizon for 2024. Thailand's mature PC supplier ecosystem is anticipated to facilitate a smoother transition for HP.

HP's reconfiguration of manufacturing locations aligns with similar initiatives by other tech giants. Dell, for example, is also reducing its reliance on Chinese-made chips and aims to manufacture at least 20% of its laptops in Vietnam this year. Apple has likewise commenced MacBook production in the same country. Several factors are driving these relocations, with rising manufacturing costs in China, including labor recruitment challenges and increased labor costs, being key among them. Geopolitical tensions between the U.S. and China also weigh in on these decisions, especially since the U.S. is a crucial market for both HP and Dell. Despite the diversification, HP reaffirms its commitment to continue operations in China, particularly in Chongqing, a significant laptop production hub since 2008.

An unreleased NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 SUPER Founders Edition graphics card was last spotted just over a year ago. A fortunate member of the Chinese NGA discussion board provided a close-up shot of a shroud bearing "super." A new leak gives us a full view of the RTX 3090 SUPER FE with prominent branding—KittyYYuko declared: "WTF, I have indeed heard of this leak before" upon posting this discovery to social media.

According to ITHome, the example from last year appeared to be a publicly released variant of "an unpackaged GeForce RTX 3090 Ti," and the latest finding seems to be identical. A seller, tbNick_dn86z, has created an entry for his GeForce RTX 3090 SUPER Founders Edition card with a value of 9999 RMB (~$1370) on Xianyu (Taobao's second hand market)—it is advertised as being "original and not modified, with a pure black casing." When confronted about identifying any apparent differences between the SUPER and officially launched Ti version, tbNick_dn86z confirmed that they are largely the same (minus external branding)—a matching device ID is shared across both variants.

Vastarmor has updated their Alloy graphics card cooling solution with the introduction of customized Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT models—the Chinese manufacturer is keeping things local, so their latest products are unlikely to reach retailers outside of the PRC. This small sticking point has not deterred TPU's GPU database curator—entries have been created for both cards. 4499 RMB (~$612) bags you Vastarmor's Radeon RX 7800 XT Alloy, while their Radeon RX 7700 XT Alloy starts at 3999 RMB (~$545). The two Navi 32 chiplet-based cards appear to share the exact same shroud design and triple-fan setup.

Vastarmor's robust cooling system relies on a 100 + 90 + 100 mm fan array with a somewhat unique visual twist—RGB enthusiasts will be stoked to know that lighting has been integrated into each individual fan. VideoCardz digs the resultant effects: "as the fans spin, gamers will be treated to the mesmerizing sight of what can be described as RGB rings, hopefully nothing too hypnotic." The new Alloy cards arrive with factory set overclocks—providing a rough 5 to 6% climb over AMD's reference figures. Vastarmor has their Radeon RX 7800 XT model configured with 1624/2254/2565 MHz (base/game/boost). The Radeon RX 7700 XT Alloy's spec sheet states 1784/2276/2600 MHz.

Yesterday we pre-announced that we're developing an SD Expansion Card. Normally we don't announce a product until we've fully locked the feature-set, brought up the necessary suppliers and manufacturing environment, completed most of the engineering and a substantial level of testing and validation, and are on a high confidence path to a specific release date at a specific price. This is because development of brand new products requires charting a course into the unknown. We set a target for what the product will be from the start, but as we proceed and learn, we often need to adjust the schedule, scope, and cost, and sometimes even need to outright pause or cancel development. Announcing just before shipping is how most companies operate to reduce churn and public uncertainty, but it means the product development process ends up extremely opaque.

We decided we're going to treat this one product on our roadmap a little differently. A full-size SD Expansion Card is consistently the most requested Expansion Card by the community, which makes it a great one to open up. We're just at the start of the process now, and Hyelim on our Marketing team is creating a new YouTube series to share updates and insights as we go through the New Product Introduction (NPI) process. Take a look at the first video (below) and let us know what you think as we complete (or don't complete) the product.

The Asian Games 2022 athletic event was originally set to take place last September—officials have rescheduled proceedings to later this month (opening September 23, closing October 8). Gunnir has prepared new versions of its existing Arc A770 & A750 Photon OC graphics cards in celebration of e-sports competitions being added to the roster at XIX Asian Games, Hangzhou. The Chinese hardware manufacturer has produced an extensive portfolio of Intel Alchemist-based discrete solutions, so it is not surprising to see slightly revised designs being issued to tie-in with a significant multi-sport tournament.

Gunnir's Photon OC White Edition shroud has been updated with the official Asian Games emblem as well as wavy graphic patterns—their retail packaging shares similar revisions, giving off some very calming vibes. According to product listings on JD.com, the A750 8 GB model currently sells for 1699 RMB (~$232), while the range-topping A770 16 GB variant is available to pre-order at 2399 RMB (~$328). The latest Intel and Gunnir collaboration is not likely to reach Western shores—Team Blue's Chinese operation announced (last month) that it was the official graphics processor supplier for this month's Hangzhou Asian Games. We expect only the most hardcore of GPU collectors to import these curiosities from Joybuy/Jingdong (JD).

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

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

The Republic of Gamers (ROG) department at ASUS started to tease its lineup of official Evangelion tie-in products in late July, with a ROG Strix customized NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 card attracting some attention thanks to its very prominent red and black aesthetic. The marketing spiel revealed that: "the EVA Editions of the ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 come equipped with a myriad of performance-enhancing ASUS features, such as Axial-tech fans with reverse rotation and 0 dB technology, an exclusive vapor chamber design, top-shelf power delivery and a sleek metal exoskeleton for maximized rigidity. The expertly engineered fan shroud and right-hand side of the card now sport an EVA-02 color theme, and Asuka art takes over the backplate."

The ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 OC EVA-02 Edition was shown off at last month's Gamescom trade fair in Germany, but PC hardware enthusiasts in China will be getting first dibs on retail units. As reported by ITHome and VideoCardz, units can be pre-ordered via JD.com, with shipments starting tomorrow (September 5). The special edition livery and pack of themed accessories will set you back 17,999 RMB (~$2475) in the region. ASUS ROG has not revealed pricing for Western territories.

ITHome has picked up on interesting retail activity in China, where AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT graphics cards are deeply discounted. This seems to correspond to a possible discontinuation of Team Red's Navi 23 XT GPU—a Board Channel source stated: "AMD factory has stopped production of a certain GPU. At the present time, shipments from all AIB brands have stopped with inventory being cleared. AMD has stopped production for the Radeon RX 6650 XT, and nearly all brands will have their inventory cleared by the end of September." Board partners in China appear to running sales promotions, with cards reduced from an original MSRP of 3099 RMB ($425) down to as low as 1739 RMB (~$240), although these adjusted prices are mostly hovering around the 2000 RMB (~$275) mark.

AMD recently declared that its Radeon RX 7000 desktop lineup is now complete, following the unveiling of mid-range RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT cards at last week's Gamescom trade fair in Cologne, Germany. Their low-to-mid tier Radeon RX 7600 card, based on the Navi 33 XL GPU, is the sole successor to multiple RDNA 2 predecessors (RX 6600, 6600 XT & 6650 XT). AMD and its board partners are likely prioritizing larger scale RDNA 3 production, so the latest batch of GPU industry insider information is not all that surprising. Tom's Hardware points out that: "there is hardly any point for AMD to continue production of Navi 23. The company's RDNA 3-based Navi 33 GPU integrates 13.3 billion transistors, has 2048 SPs, and performs better than its direct predecessor. Meanwhile, it has a smaller die size (204 mm² vs 237 mm²) and is made on TSMC's N6 process technology (as opposed to N7 in the case of Navi 23), so it may well be cheaper to produce."

Liu Qingfeng, the founder and chairman of Chinese AI firm iFlytek (or HKUST Xunfei according to ITHome) shared his opinions of incoming Huawei GPU technology at this year's Yabuli Entrepreneurs Forum. His team has been collaborating with key figures at the multinational technology corporation on a product that he reckons is just as capable as NVIDIA's very mature A100 tensor core accelerator. Liu referred to the model as a "compute GPU" which implies that this is an all-new product—Huawei has kept quiet on the AI hardware front since the 2019 launch of its Ascend 910 AI accelerator, so the iFlytek presentation has hinted about Huawei's ambitions to take on Team Green within the Chinese deep learning and artificial intelligence market sector.

Chinese board partner Maxsun introduced its flagship—Mega Gamer GPU (MGG)—GeForce RTX 40-series lineup earlier this year, debuting with an RTX 4070 Ti card, and then an RTX 4080 MGG OC 16G model. The rather unique looking cooling solution attracted some attention at the time—a traditional set of three 100 mm fans was augmented with two additional 40 mm "Air Burst" units in a flanking position, acting as exhausts as for the finstack. Earlier today Maxsun revealed the range topping RTX 4090 MGG OC 24G model via a video uploaded to their Weibo channel.

The new headliner looks to be fitted with the same shroud design as seen on the already released RTX 4080 MGG OC 16G model, which includes a somewhat gimmicky magnetically detachable large top-facing RGB LED panel, dubbed "MGG LED Ambient Kit." Thankfully Maxsun has put the work into creating a robust cooling solution, with a vapor chamber capable of meting out 7000 mm² of heat dissipation. Their GeForce RTX 4090 MGG OC 24G model's TDP has been rated at 450 W TDP, with a factory overclock providing a 2580 MHz boost clock. As reported by VideoCardz, Maxsun seems to be sticking to a Chinese market launch for the moment—the company's international AliExpress store has not been updated with a listing for the range topping Mega Gamer GPU.

Yeston is reported to be returning to an older Sakura cooler design for its forthcoming AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT and 7700 XT custom graphic cards, as well as a new GeForce RTX 4070 model. The Chinese brand continues to distinguish itself from other graphics card manufacturers with bold aesthetics and bright pastel colors, which also extends to its choice of printed circuit boards. The yet-to-be-released Sakura RX 7800 XT & RX 7700 XT models are set to be the first Navi 32 silicon-based cards to sport white PCBs and I/O brackets. The Yeston design team has made adjustments to the original cooling solution's dimensions—the updated Sakura shroud is now longer (by 3.4 cm) and a bit chunkier (refer to their diagram below) with larger cooling fans attached—VideoCardz posits that the "diameter increased from 83 mm to 91 mm."

Yeston has not published full details about specs, pricing or regional availability for their latest RDNA 3 cards—it has been quite difficult to procure their very unique looking cards outside of the company's home base of China, although Newegg has reportedly managed to sell price-inflated stock of older models in North America. We expect to see more information disclosed by Yeston closer to AMD's officially mandated launch date of September 6 for the much needed mid-range Radeon RX 7000-series entries.

China has sharply increased imports of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in recent months, customs data reveals. The country's purchases of chip production tools surged to record highs of nearly $5 billion in June and July, a 70% increase versus the same period last year, which amounted to $2.9 billion. The spike comes right before export restrictions on advanced chipmaking equipment are implemented by the U.S. and its allies. The moves aim to slow China's technological advancement, but Chinese chipmakers are stockpiling to avoid disruptions. Much of the equipment comes from the Netherlands and Japan, which have imposed licensing requirements on certain tool exports. While it's unclear how many are affected, the rush suggests China wants to expand production capacity and buffer against supply chain issues.

Chinese firms like SMIC and YMTC rely heavily on U.S., Dutch, and Japanese suppliers for cutting-edge manufacturing equipment. They are utilizing imported tools to boost the output of mature chips not subject to controls, particularly for electric vehicles, renewable energy, and industrial applications. Significantly, imports from the Netherlands doubled as lithography machines were delivered to Chinese foundries. Purchases from Japan also rose as companies procured etching tools and wafer coaters after 2020 U.S. restrictions. Newly established foundries backed by local governments contributed as Beijing pushed chip production expansions. Despite export control challenges, China aims to keep advancing its semiconductor capabilities. The import spike highlights intensified efforts to build self-sufficiency using older technology not covered by current limits.

During its "Xiamen HighFun" event in China, Minisforum announced the latest addition to its compact series of gaming PCs, this time with no official name. The 6-liter system, code-named "Project RPFXI" for Intel and "Project DRFXI" for AMD, will support up to 100 W TDP and utilize the most powerful Ryzen CPU, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D. This hybrid mobile/desktop processor combines the desktop-level performance of 16 Zen 4 cores with 144 MB of 3D V-cache, all within a 55 W power limit. Minisforum confirmed the 7945HX3D would be available in the AMD platform version, positioned as a premium model compared to the existing 7945HX system.

Interestingly, the GPU support is literally external, as the potential GPU needs to be attached to the outside part of the case, which is then secured using screws. The case could accommodate the fastest GPUs like NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with a powerful enough power supply. The 6-liter mini PC is expected to launch in late 2023, either in 24-core Intel (HX line) configuration, of 16-core AMD configuration.

The Exascale supercomputer arms race is making everyone invest their resources into trying to achieve the number one spot. Some countries, like China, actively participate in the race with little proof of their work, leaving the high-performance computing (HPC) community wondering about Chinese efforts on exascale systems. Today, we have some information regarding the next-generation Sunway system, which is supposed to be China's first exascale supercomputer. Replacing the Sunway TaihuLight, the next-generation Sunway will reportedly boast over 40 million cores in its system. The information comes from an upcoming presentation for Supercomputing 2023 show in Denver, happening from November 12 to November 17.

The presentation talks about 5 ExaFLOPS in the HPL-MxP benchmark with linear scalability on the 40-million-core Sunway supercomputer. The HPL-MxP benchmark is a mixed precision HPC benchmark made to test the system's capability in regular HPC workloads that require 64-bit precision and AI workloads that require 32-bit precision. Supposedly, the next-generation Sunway system can output 5 ExaFLOPS with linear scaling on its 40-million-core system. What are those cores? We are not sure. The last-generation Sunway TaihuLight used SW26010 manycore 64-bit RISC processors based on the Sunway architecture, each with 260 cores. There were 40,960 SW26010 CPUs in the system for a total of 10,649,600 cores, which means that the next-generation Sunway system is more than four times more powerful from a core-count perspective. We expect some uArch and semiconductor node improvements as well.

Recently, Chinese customs at Gongbei Port, which connects Macau and Zhuhai, made a significant interception: 780 Intel processors that smugglers were attempting to sneak in. Smugglers in China are known for their innovative tactics to bypass customs. There are many ways that these smugglers try to avoid paying customs, and that is strapping these goods on themselves. In this latest incident, the smugglers chose a seemingly clever approach by stashing the processors within a cross-border bus's engine. But passing through metal detectors with such a hefty amount of metal is risky, and even creative disguises can't shield processors from keen-eyed detectors.

After examining its digital imagery, the Gongbei Port customs officials grew suspicious of the bus. A detailed engine inspection unveiled the smuggled goods: 780 Intel processors, cleverly hidden. The estimated value of the seized items is over one million yuan, approximately $137,341. Although the exact models of the confiscated chips are not entirely clear, they appear to be from the 12th Generation Alder Lake or 13th Generation Raptor Lake series. China's vast grey market for computer components is both a boon and a bane. While CPUs, GPUs, and SSDs are available at tempting prices, these deals often lack the manufacturer's warranty. So, while the initial savings might seem appealing, the absence of warranty poses risks that could offset those initial benefits in the long run.

The escalating challenges in acquiring high-performance x86 servers have prompted Chinese data center companies to accelerate the shift to Arm-based system-on-chips (SoCs). Investment banking firm Bernstein reports that approximately 40% of all Arm-powered servers globally are currently being used in China. While most servers operate on x86 processors from AMD and Intel, there's a growing preference for Arm-based SoCs, especially in the Chinese market. Several global tech giants, including AWS, Ampere, Google, Fujitsu, Microsoft, and Nvidia, have already adopted or developed Arm-powered SoCs. However, Arm-based SoCs are increasingly favorable for Chinese firms, given the difficulty in consistently sourcing Intel's Xeon or AMD's EPYC. Chinese companies like Alibaba, Huawei, and Phytium are pioneering the development of these Arm-based SoCs for client and data center processors.

However, the US government's restrictions present some challenges. Both Huawei and Phytium, blacklisted by the US, cannot access TSMC's cutting-edge process technologies, limiting their ability to produce competitive processors. Although Alibaba's T-Head can leverage TSMC's latest innovations, it can't license Arm's high-performance computing Neoverse V-series CPU cores due to various export control rules. Despite these challenges, many chip designers are considering alternatives such as RISC-V, an unrestricted, rapidly evolving open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) suitable for designing highly customized general-purpose cores for specific workloads. Still, with the backing of influential firms like AWS, Google, Nvidia, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Samsung, the Armv8 and Armv9 instruction set architectures continue to hold an edge over RISC-V. These companies' support ensures that the software ecosystem remains compatible with their CPUs, which will likely continue to drive the adoption of Arm in the data center space.

Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of innovative visual processing solutions, today announced the official launch of its new IRX gaming experience brand. As a brand targeted at smartphone users, IRX is grounded on Pixelworks' mobile visual processing solutions and coupled with in-depth game tuning services. This combination leverages Pixelworks' expertise to achieve ultra-smooth gaming experience and the highest picture quality for different types of games on mobile devices. In addition, it exercises effective control of power consumption, latency and other performance variables to ensure stable and long-lasting gaming with optimal visual performance, providing end users with unparalleled mobile gaming experiences.

The IRX gaming experience is enabled by a portfolio of technology advantages and product application experiences based on the Company's innovative distributed rendering architecture. More specifically, Pixelworks' ultra-low latency MotionEngine technology, low power super-resolution technology, AI Always-on HDR and other technologies bring optimized rendering capabilities to smartphones that exceed what can be achieved by a traditional chipset. Together with Pixelworks' profound tuning experience for different games on various mobile devices the result is a meaningfully enriched visual experience for smartphone users, which is the core foundation for the IRX gaming experience.

PowerColor has today revealed the Red Devil Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB graphics card, which appears to look like a slimmer version of its existing siblings—the more powerful Red Devil RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX. We have experienced a steady flow of news relating to AMD's new Golden Rabbit Edition GPU—with benchmark results released by review outlets in China, as well as a closer look at an unshrouded example. It was previously reported that Team Red would not be producing a reference model—VideoCardz now believes that XFX will be announcing itself as the primary manufacturing partner for said card.

Sapphire's custom equivalent was leaked earlier this week—a NITRO+ Lite-esque shroud design was unboxed and photographed ahead of today's official reveal. At the time of writing Sapphire has not published a product page for its brand new RX 7900 GRE model, but retail units are available to buy from their official store on JD.com. This NITRO+ variant is going for 5499 RMB (~$769), roughly $27 on top of AMD's official MSRP. PowerColor has not announced any pricing for the Red Devil RX 7900 GRE, but it has the same clock speeds—2050 MHz (game) & 2395 MHz (boost)—as the NITRO+. VideoCardz stated that these factory produced settings: "likely represent the highest configuration suggested by AMD."

AMD's China exclusive Radeon RX 7900 GRE has been put through its paces by Expreview and the US$740 equivalent card should in short not carry the 7900-series moniker. In most of the tests, the card performs like a Raden RX 6950 XT or worse, with it being beaten by the Radeon RX 6800 XT in 3D Mark Fire Strike, even if it's only by the tiniest amount. Expreview has done a fairly limited comparison, mainly pitching the Radeon RX 7900 GRE against the Radeon RX 7900 XT and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070, where it loses by a mile towards AMD's higher-end GPU, which by no means was unexpected as this is a lower tier product.

However, when it comes the GeForce RTX 4070, AMD struggles to keep up at 1080p, where NVIDIA takes home the win in games like The Last of US Part 1 and Diablo 4. In games like F1 22 and Assassin's Creed Hall of Valor, AMD is only ahead by a mere percentage point or less. Once ray tracing is enabled, AMD only wins in F1 22 and it's by less than one percent again and Far Cry 6, where AMD is almost three percent faster. Moving up in resolution, the Radeon RX 7900 GRE ends up being a clear winner, most likely partially due to having 16 GB of VRAM and at 1440p the GeForce RTX 4070 also falls behind in most of the ray traced game tests, if only just in most of them. At 4K the NVIDIA card can no longer keep up, but the Radeon RX 7900 GRE isn't really a 4K champion either, dropping under 60 FPS in more resource heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part 1. Considering the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti only costs around US$50 more, it seems like it would be the better choice, despite having less VRAM. AMD appears to have pulled an NVIDIA with this card, which at least performance wise, seems to belong in the Radeon RX 7800 segment. The benchmark figures also suggests that the actual Radeon RX 7800 cards won't be worth the wait, unless AMD prices them very competitively.

Update 11:45 UTC: [Editor's note: The official MSRP from AMD appears to be US$649 for this card, which is more reasonable, but the performance still places this in in a category lower than the model name suggests.]

AMD's Chinese office has announced that company representatives will be present at this year's ChinaJoy event—their Weibo social media account confirmed that: "from July 28th to July 31st, 2023, in Hall E6 of Shanghai New International Expo Center, super hardcore and mega cool AMD hardware will be on the scene, bringing you a fast and fun gaming experience. We are looking forward to meeting you!" ITHome thinks that the timing of this announcement points to a possible official unveiling of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) on the showroom floor.

The publication has cited a tip provided by the one and only momomo_us—the Chinese market exclusive Golden Rabbit Edition will be released tomorrow, which lines up with ChinaJoy 2023's kick off time. Recent leaks have revealed that the 84 Compute Units + 16 GB configured graphics card is a new SKU, sitting below the RX 7900 XT in Team Red's Radeon RDNA 3 hierarchy. It seems to be "built on the mysterious Navi 31 + Navi 32 hybrid GPU." Additionally, ITHome reports that AMD has partnered up with ASUS, and will be exhibiting ROG Moba 7 Plus series laptops (sporting Ryzen Dragon Range APUs) at the Shanghai event.

We witnessed an exciting concept during the Computex 2023 show in late May. ASUS has developed a GPU without an external power connector called GC_HPWR. Unlike current solutions, this connection type doesn't require additional cables. Using the GC_HPWR means that power is being supplied directly from the motherboard and that these special-edition GPUs also require special-edition motherboards. Thanks to the latest information from the Bilibili content creator Eixa Studio, attending Bilibili World 2023 exhibition in Shanghai, China, we have information that ASUS is preparing mass production of these zero-cable GPU solutions. Scheduled to enter mass production in Fall, ASUS plans to deliver these GPUs and accompanying motherboards before the year ends.

Additionally, it is worth noting that the motherboard lineup is called Back To Future (BTF), and the first GPU showcased was the GeForce RTX 4070 Megalodon. The PSU connectors are placed on the back side of the BTF board, while the CG_HPWR connector sits right next to the PCIe x16 expansion slot and looks like a PCIe x1 connector. You can see images of both products below.

According to a short article released by ITHome, Machenike, a popular Chinese PC hardware company displayed several interesting Intel CPU-based systems at the Bilibili World exhibition (in Shanghai). The manufacturer confirmed (to the reporter) that their next generation hardware will be hitting the market within the next three months, which coincides with the rumored launch of Intel 14th Gen Core Raptor Lake-Refresh desktop K-series SKUs.

Exhibited material implied that Machenike's upcoming PCs—arriving in the form of a "LIGHT-05" desktop tower, mini models and laptops—could be among the first batch of systems to support PCIe Gen 5 storage (as standard). Potential buyers could be attracted to next-gen machines offering access to faster NVMe SSD, on top of rumored higher core counts provided by the Raptor Lake Refresh. ITHome believes that a number of the mini-PCs at Machenike's booth were already running on Raptor Lake Refresh or (Core rebrand) Meteor Lake processors.

Techland CEO Pawel Marchewka stated earlier today: "Dear Gamers, I want to share some really exciting news that will mark the start of a new chapter of Techland's history. Techland has been a huge part of my life for more than 30 years now and it is something I truly cherish. Techland is our games, the amazing team behind them, and you, the people playing these games. You're the reason why we're making them. Whenever I think about the future of Techland, I want the best for our games, the team, and you. And while I am very proud of our achievements as an independent studio over all these years, I believe the best is yet to come.

We dream of turning Dying Light into the ultimate zombie game experience for players worldwide, providing you with multiple astonishing adventures and pushing the boundaries of solo and online modes to a totally new level. Our open world action-RPG in a fantasy setting is already shaping up to become something truly special, and the goal here is to make sure it will live up to the expectations for our first new IP in almost a decade. Can we make these dreams come true? Yes, we can. But what we realized is that the best, boldest dreams can only be achieved while working side-by-side with like-minded friends and strong partners, who share the same vision, passion, and have the willingness to back it up with their knowledge, experience, and capabilities.