AMD today announced revenue for the first quarter of 2020 of $1.79 billion, operating income of $177 million, net income of $162 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.14. On a non-GAAP* basis, operating income was $236 million, net income was $222 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.18.

"We executed well in the first quarter, navigating the challenging environment to deliver 40 percent year-over-year revenue growth and significant gross margin expansion driven by our Ryzen and EPYC processors," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "While we expect some uncertainty in the near-term demand environment, our financial foundation is solid and our strong product portfolio positions us well across a diverse set of resilient end markets. We remain focused on strong business execution while ensuring the safety of our employees and supporting our customers, partners and communities. Our strategy and long-term growth plans are unchanged."

Today, The Khronos Group, an open consortium of industry-leading companies creating advanced interoperability standards, publicly releases the OpenCL 3.0 Provisional Specifications. OpenCL 3.0 realigns the OpenCL roadmap to enable developer-requested functionality to be broadly deployed by hardware vendors, and it significantly increases deployment flexibility by empowering conformant OpenCL implementations to focus on functionality relevant to their target markets. OpenCL 3.0 also integrates subgroup functionality into the core specification, ships with a new OpenCL C 3.0 language specification, uses a new unified specification format, and introduces extensions for asynchronous data copies to enable a new class of embedded processors. The provisional OpenCL 3.0 specifications enable the developer community to provide feedback on GitHub before the specifications and conformance tests are finalized.

According to the report of DigiTimes, which talked about TSMC's 5 nm silicon manufacturing node, they have reported that NVIDIA is also going to be a customer for it and they could use it in the near future. And that is very interesting information, knowing that these chips will not go in the next generation of GPUs. Why is that? Because we know that NVIDIA will utilize both TSMC and Samsung for their 7 nm manufacturing nodes for its next-generation Ampere GPUs that will end up in designs like GeForce RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 graphics cards. These designs are not what NVIDIA needs 5 nm for.

Being that NVIDIA already has a product in its pipeline that will satisfy the demand for the high-performance graphics market, maybe they are planning something that will end up being a surprise to everyone. No one knows what it is, however, the speculation (which you should take with a huge grain of salt) would be that NVIDIA is updating its Tegra SoC with the latest node. That Tegra SoC could be used in a range of mobile devices, like the Nintendo Switch, so could NVIDIA be preparing a new chip for Nintendo Switch 2?

AMD is preparing to launch its next-generation of Radeon Instinct GPUs based on the new CDNA architecture designed for enterprise deployments. Thanks to the popular hardware leaker _rogame (@_rogame) we have some information about the configuration of the upcoming Radeon Instinct MI100 "Arcturus" server GPU. Previously, we obtained the BIOS of the Arcturus GPU that showed a configuration of 128 Compute Units (CUs), which resulted in 8,192 of CDNA cores. That configuration had a specific setup of 1334 MHz GPU clock, SoC frequency of 1091 MHz, and memory speed of 1000 MHz. However, there was another GPU test board spotted which featured a bit different specification.

The reported configuration is an Arcturus GPU with 120 CUs, resulting in a CDNA core count of 7,680 cores. These cores are running at frequencies of 878 MHz for the core clock, 750 MHz SoC clock, and a surprising 1200 MHz memory clock. While the SoC and core clocks are lower than the previous report, along with the CU count, the memory clock is up by 200 MHz. It is important to note that this is just a test board/variation of the MI100, and actual frequencies should be different.

Microsoft's flight simulator, an upcoming game designed to bring real-life scenarios of flying an airplane, just got a list of system requirements needed to run a game. To play with Flight Simulator, you would at least need to have a quad-core CPU like AMD Ryzen 3 1200 or Intel Core i5-4460 equipped system, along with 8 GB of RAM. For graphics, you would need a GPU with at least 2 GB of VRAM, where the requirement is either AMD Radeon RX 570 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 GPU. Another interesting observation is the requirement of 150 GB of drive space, meaning that this game will be pretty big. Internet connection needs to be 5 Mbps at minimum, and as you up the resolution and graphics, you would need a faster connection. You can check out the entire table below.

The need for incrementally faster connection comes out of one reason - adaptive streaming. The game looks stunning, and if you wish to play at the highest quality, parts of the game will be rendered in the cloud. Microsoft is using its Azure infrastructure to help and render parts of the game and stream it down to your PC. This ensures that your PC is capable of playing the game and Microsoft is showing how they can tap the power of cloud for uses like this.

GDP, a company specializing in the creation of tiny laptops designed for gaming, has just announced the latest addition to its family of tiny notebooks - the GDP Win Max gaming laptop. This model is an 8-inch gaming laptop packing a lot for its size. On the outside, this laptop is equipped with joysticks on both sides, so there is even an option to directly play games using these joysticks instead of the built-in keyboard. The display of the device is an IPS screen that features a 1280×800 resolution, resulting in a 16:10 aspect ratio of the display. What's more important, however, is what is under the hood of the small body.

It is powered by Intel's latest Ice Lake CPU - the Intel Core i5-1035G7. Being a 4 core/ 8 threaded CPU with Gen11 Iris Plus 940 graphics it is accompanied by 16 GB of LPDDR4X RAM and 512 GB SSD. GDP has provided some of the benchmark results of this configuration which you can check out below, however, please take these with a grain of salt. As far as I/O goes, this small laptop is rather well equipped with plenty of ports. There is one Thunderbolt 3 port to connect to external GPU is it is needed. There is one USB Type-C 3.1 Gen2 port and two USB Type-A 3.1 Gen1 ports for the connection of external peripherals. If you wish to connect the laptop to the outside screen, there are options of HDMI, USB Type-C or Thunderbolt 3 ports for connection. A welcome addition to I/O is the inclusion of the RJ45 connector, meaning that if you have access to ethernet you can easily plug it into this laptop.

With an introduction of new iPad Pro tablets, Apple has brought another new silicon to its offerings in the form of A12Z SoC. Following the previous king in tablet space, the A12X SoC, Apple has decided to update its silicon and now there is another, more advanced stepping in form of an A12Z SoC. Thanks to the report from TechInsights, their analysis has shown that the new SoC used in Apple's devices is pretty much the same compared to the A12X SoC of last year, except the GPU used. Namely, the configuration of A12X is translated into the A12Z - there are four Apple Vortex and four Apple Tempest cores for the CPU. There is a 128-bit memory bus designed for LPDDR4X memory, the same as the A12X.

What is different, however, is the GPU cluster configuration. In A12X there was a cluster filled with 7 working and one disabled A12-gen GPU core. In A12Z SoC all of the 8 GPUs present are enabled and working, and they are also of the same A12 generation. The new SoC is even built using the same N7 7 nm manufacturing process from TSMC. While we don't know the silicon stepping revision of the A12Z, there aren't any new features besides the additional GPU core.

Huawei may become the 4th player in the GPU server market if a new report by Korean news outlet The Elec is to be believed. The Elec has received reports from Industry Sources that Huawei is readying to enter the market in 2020, this will put them in direct competition with industry leader NVIDIA along with AMD and newcomer Intel. Huawei Korea will reportedly assign the project to the new Cloud and AI Business Group division, talent scouting has already begun with rumors of current and former NVIDIA staff getting poached.

Huawei is no newcomer to the server market having already launched the Ascend 910 one of the worlds most advanced AI accelerators in August 2019. The Ascend 910 outperforms the Tesla V100 by a factor of two, and is developed on a more advanced 7 nm+ technology compared to the 12 nm Tesla V100. In January 2020 Huawei launched their next server product the Kunpeng 920 a big data CPU along with a new server lineup featuring the chip. Considering Huawei's experience and resources in the server market along with Intel's entrance the GPU server landscape is set to become very competitive.

NVIDIA has recently introduced its GeForce RTX 20-series SUPER mobile graphics cards, with the heap of new features that are present on the new GPU models. According to a report from ComputerBase, NVIDIA has refreshed few of the RTX 20-series mobile GPUs in addition to the previously announced SUPER models. Now there are a few models/variants of these RTX 20-series GPUs. Firstly, there is a standard RTX mobile GPU variant called the "Max-P" version - this represents the RTX 20-series GPUs that were launched initially in January of 2019 and it includes three SKUs like RTX 2060, 2070 and 2080. Secondly, there is a "Max-Q" revision of these graphics cards, meant to bring maximum efficiency. These SKUs are power-limited, so they are a bit slower compared to the regular "Max-P" version, and they have a Total Graphics Power (TGP) between 65 W and 90 W depending on the model.

Next up we have GeForce RTX SUPER 20-series of GPUs that were launched on April 2nd just a few days ago. These GPUs are special because they bring a heap of new features like more CUDA cores, low-power (1.25 V compared to the old 1.35 V) GDDR6 memory, DynamicBoost, and Optimus support. So what are these new, refresh GPUs? On ComputerBase Forums, XMG (laptop maker) representative has revealed that NVIDIA refreshed some of the older RTX 20-series mobile GPU that were already in use.

Steam has just released its hardware survey for March 2020, and it paints an interesting picture on the overall Steam user market. First of all, a disclaimer: Steam's survey's don't refer to the entirety of the systems that are running its digital distribution platform; it hails from only a part of the connected machines which are randomly selected - ideally, in such as way so as for its hardware data to be representative of the overall Steam ecosystem.

The March 2020 hardware survey shows Intel CPUs gaining traction over AMD's, albeit in a very limited fashion (a 0.24% increase in total number of machines running with GenuineIntel CPUs). Cross referencing this increase with the average clockspeeds of Intel CPUs, though, paints an interesting picture: the higher clockspeeds in the 3.3 to 3.8 GHz range (which can relatively cleanly be associated with the company's higher-performance products), saw a decline in usage (contrary to AMD, which saw the reverse happening).

Acer today announced its new Predator Triton 500 and Acer Nitro 5 gaming notebooks. Alongside significant developments in thermal performance, both devices come with the latest 10th Gen Intel Core processors and newly announced NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER and GTX GPUs.

"In addition to the latest processors and GPUs, we've made exciting across-the-board updates to the Predator Triton 500 and Acer Nitro 5 this year," said James Lin, General Manager, Notebooks, IT Products Business, Acer. "Most importantly we've applied new thermal technology which keeps the devices cool so gamers can enjoy the performance improvements from the latest silicon technology."

MSI has comprehensively evolved! On top of the award-winning GE66 Raider and GS66 Stealth, MSI grandly revealed the complete line-up of six series of gamer-oriented laptops. Only the strong one can survive and evolve! MSI is the only laptop manufacturer that provides a stable supply under the global disruption of the supply chain. Now be the vanguard and evolve to next-generation by choosing the latest MSI gaming laptops equipped with 10th Gen Intel Core i9 processor (Comet Lake H-series) and latest GeForce RTX Super series graphics, newly designed for gamers in style!

The next-gen performance can entertain and satisfy the gamers in all aspects. The revamped MSI laptops can reveal the true computing power of the 10th Gen Intel Core i9 Processor. Featuring up to i9-10980HK processor, the latest Intel chip has a noticeable impact on FPS in demanding games and multitasking. With the latest Intel chip's 50% boot in computing and the Single-Core Turbo boost reaching 5.3 GHz, now gamers can enjoy an unparalleled gaming experience. Furthermore, see real-time Ray Tracing in games with up to the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER, AI-enhanced graphics, which can also provide a faster efficiency than its erstwhile generation.

Leader of global PC brand, GIGABYTE today launched its latest version AORUS series professional gaming notebooks and their AERO notebooks for content creators. Aside from many high-end gaming features, the new generation processors and GPUs have undergone "significant" upgrades. GIGABYTE is the first in the industry to launch ultra-performance notebooks that feature 10th gen Intel Core i9/i7 H series 8-core CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series SUPER GPUs. AORUS partners up with world renowned G2 Esports to launch brand new gaming notebooks tailored to match the requirements of pro gamers, including features like mechanical keyboards, a 240Hz refresh rate display and enhanced cooling technology, redefining the requirements of a professional gaming notebook.

Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, today revealed the next evolution of the Razer Blade 15 gaming laptop, featuring up to an 8-core 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX SUPER GPUs, and a 300Hz display all packed into the signature black aluminium chassis. Complemented with a new keyboard layout, upgraded I/O, and abundant SSD storage, the Blade 15 gives users the power to play their best game, create their best work, and live their best life.

"The new Razer Blade 15 is simply the best laptop we have ever created," said Brad Wildes, Senior Vice President of Razer's Systems Business Unit. "We've added numerous cutting-edge features and user improvements that were requested directly from the community to make the Blade 15 more than just a great laptop for gamers, but a great laptop for everyone."

NVIDIA has enabled its AIB partners to design a to ship a GeForce GTX 1650 GPU with a twist - a GDDR6 DRAM instead of the regular GDDR5 DRAM. And GIGABYTE is the first to update its GPU offerings. Today, GIGABYTE has launched... exactly all the models it had it already offered? Both of the models, like the GIGABYTE GTX 1650 OC and GTX 1650 Windforce OC, are carrying the same name again, just with a newer memory. The only difference is the box it ships in, which you can see below, that shows a GDDR6 marking and the GPU has a bit different cooler shroud. The amount of memory is still static, remaining at 4 GB, while the speed is now bumped to 12 Gbps. Base clocks of the GTX 1650 OC models are unknown, while the boost is 1635 MHz. For GTX 1650 Windforce OC model, base clock is still unknown, while the boost is 1710 MHz.

Have you ever wondered how a laptop with a desktop CPU that has 16 cores and 32 threads would look like on a laptop? Well, today is your lucky day as XMG, a German laptop maker, has decided to launch a laptop that has AMD's latest and greatest desktop CPU - the Ryzen 3950X 16C/32T monster. The 3950X CPU, while featuring a regular TDP of 105 W, has been configured to 65 W in Eco Mode, and it runs anywhere from 2.6 to 4.2 GHz. The CPU also isn't soldered to the motherboard and there is a full AM4 socket, that is capable of housing any 3000 series desktop CPU.

Besides a powerful CPU, there are options for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or RTX 2070 graphics cards, which drive a 15.6-inch Full HD 144 Hz IPS panel equipped with anti-glare technology. The GPUs are a "Max-P incarnation" as XMG calls it, which presumably means that they are designed for maximum performance i.e. possibly higher boost speeds. Additionally, you can configure the laptop with up to 64 GB of DDR4 2666 MHz RAM. This configuration, containing Ryzen 9 3950X, RTX 2070, 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB NVM, costs around 2631 EUR. For more configuration options, you can check out this website. Availability is supposed to be in 6-8 weeks.

Intel and NVIDIA are preparing to refresh their hardware offering meant for laptop devices, and they are planning to do it on April 2nd. According to the Chinese website ITHome, Intel is going to launch its 10th generation Comet Lake-H CPUs for mobile devices, on April 2nd. The new models are going to bring improved frequency and core count, with top-end models reaching up to 8 cores with 16 threads. NVIDIA, on the other hand, will also update its mobile offerings with the arrival of Turing SUPER mobile cards. So far, we only had a choice of regular Turing series, however, there is soon going to be a SUPER variant of the existing cards.

Being that these cards are also expected to arrive on April 2nd, laptop manufacturers will integrate new products and showcase their solutions on that date. The availability of these devices, based on new Intel Comet Lake-H CPUs and NVIDIA Turing SUPER GPUs, is expected to follow soon after, precisely on April 15th. Additionally, it is notable that laptop manufacturer Mechrevo will hold an online press conference where they will showcase their "Z3" gaming laptop based on new technologies.

This one here is another shot in the arm when it comes to faith in humanity. Folding@Home, the distributed computing project where users can donate their spare CPU and GPU cycles for a given cause, has hit an absolute bonkers milestone. According to Greg Bowman, Director of Folding@home, the network has reached a peak compute power amounting to some 470 petaFLOPS - more than double that of the world's current supercomputing record holder, the Summit supercomputer, which dishes out 200 peak petaFLOPS. Folding@Home's 470 Petaflops means users donating their spare cycles are delivering more computing power than that which is available in the world's top 7 supercomputers combined.

After some slight service outages where users weren't getting any work units due to the increased number of donors over the last few days, the computing service now seems to be running at full steam ahead. Remember that you can select the causes for which you are donating your computing power: whether cancer, Alzheimer's, Huntington, or Parkinson's disease, as well as some other non-selectable projects.

Intel's upcoming Rocket Lake-S desktop platform is expected to arrive sometime later this year, however, we didn't have any concrete details on what will it bring. Thanks to the exclusive information obtained by VideoCardz'es sources at Intel, there are some more details regarding the RKL-S platform. To start, the RKL-S platform is based on a 500-series chipset. This is an iteration of the upcoming 400-series chipset, and it features many platform improvements. The 500-series chipset based motherboards will supposedly have an LGA 1200 socket, which is an improvement in pin count compared to LGA 1151 socket found on 300 series chipset.

The main improvement is the CPU core itself, which is supposedly a 14 nm adaptation of Tiger Lake-U based on Willow Cove core. This design is representing a backport of IP to an older manufacturing node, which results in bigger die space due to larger node used. When it comes to the platform improvements, it will support the long-awaited PCIe 4.0 connection already present on competing platforms from AMD. It will enable much faster SSD speeds as there are already PCIe 4.0 NVMe devices that run at 7 GB/s speeds. With RKL-S, there will be 20 PCIe 4.0 lanes present, where four would go to the NVMe SSD and 16 would go to the PCIe slots from GPUs. Another interesting feature of the RKL-S is the addition of Xe graphics found on the CPU die, meant as iGPU. Supposedly based on Gen12 graphics, it will bring support for HDMI 2.0b and DisplayPort 1.4a connectors.

AMD today announced in the form of a blog post that its upcoming graphics cards based on RDNA 2 architecture will feature support for Microsoft's latest DirectX 12 Ultimate API. "With this architecture powering both the next generation of AMD Radeon graphics cards and the forthcoming Xbox Series X gaming console, we've been working very closely with Microsoft to help move gaming graphics to a new level of photorealism and smoothness thanks to the four key DirectX 12 Ultimate graphics features -- DirectX Raytracing (DXR), Variable Rate Shading (VRS), Mesh Shaders, and Sampler Feedback." - said AMD in the blog.

Reportedly, Microsoft and AMD have worked closely to enable this feature set and provide the best possible support for RDNA 2 based hardware, meaning that future GPUs and consoles are getting the best possible integration of the new API standard.

NVIDIA graphics cards, starting from the current generation GeForce RTX "Turing" lineup, will support the upcoming DirectX 12 Ultimate API. Thanks to a slide obtained by our friends over at VideoCardz, we have some information about the upcoming iteration of the DirectX 12 API made by Microsoft. In the new API revision, called "DirectX 12 Ultimate", it looks like there are some enhancements made to the standard DirectX 12 API. From the leaked slide we can see the improvements coming in the form of a few additions.

The GeForce RTX lineup will support the updated version of API with features such as ray tracing, variable-rate shading, mesh shader, and sampler feedback. While we do not know why Microsoft decided to call this the "Ultimate" version, it is possibly used to convey clearer information about which features are supported by the hardware. In the leaked slide there is a mention of consoles as well, so it is coming to that platform as well.

A report via DigiTimes paints a bleak image on shipments for motherboards and GPUs. According to the publication, citing sources close to motherboard makers, the initial impact of the outbreak severely affected production - and the entire supply chain ecosystem needed to ferry these across the world. Alongside reduced demand in China (reported to be down 50% YoY and unlikely to pick up until July at the earliest) and other countries, the stage is set for a record low in some of our most favored hardware pieces.

Market observers had expected a seasonal increase in demand entering Q3 2020 which may never come to fruition, as DigiTimes also mentions AMD, Intel and NVIDIA as being unlikely to achieve their target sales for this time period. The reduced demand could see prices come down on components and various hardware pieces, should it linger for longer than the fabrication bottlenecks factories are currently facing. Some publications are pointing towards this drop in demand as a reason for NVIDIA to delay their expected GTC announcements, which the company's CEO, Jensen Huang, has already come out saying "Could wait".

NVIDIA was supposed to launch its next-generation "Ampere" lineup of server-class GPUs at this year's GTC event. However, NVIDIA's president and CEO, Jensen Huang, shared the news that NVIDIA will now be showcasing the important GTC news it has prepared, but instead will only provide online materials from developers and researchers from all over the world. In the blog update, Mr. Huang said the following: "We have exciting products and news to share with you. But this isn't the right time. We're going to hold off on sharing our GTC news for now. That way, our employees, partners, the media and analysts who follow us, and our customers around the world can focus on staying safe and reducing the spread of the virus."

"We will still stream tons of great content from researchers and developers who have prepared great talks. This is a time to focus on our family, our friends, our community. Our employees are working from home. Many hourly workers will not need to work but they'll all be fully paid. Stay safe everyone. We will get through this together.", he added. While we won't get any new GPUs judging by this announcement, we can expect to see them once this situation is resolved.

EK Water Blocks, the premium computer liquid cooling gear manufacturer, is introducing a new variant of the extended compatibility high-performance water block specially designed for reference design based NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. The EK-Quantum Vector Direct RTX RE Ti D-RGB.

EK-Quantum Vector Direct RTX RE Ti D-RGB
EK-Quantum Vector Direct RTX RE Ti D-RGB water block is the version of EK-Quantum Vector water block from which the terminal is removed for added compatibility with space-constrained cases. Instead, the fittings are screwed directly into the top, allowing for a narrower enclosure. This water block uses the signature EK single-slot slim look and covers the entire PCB length. This sophisticated cooling solution will transform your powerful NVIDIA graphics card into a minimalistic, elegant piece of hardware with addressable D-RGB LED lighting.

NVIDIA today announced that, in light of the spread of the coronavirus, it is deferring plans to deliver a webcast keynote as part of the digital version of its GPU Technology Conference later this month. The company will, instead, issue on Tuesday, March 24, news announcements that had been scheduled to be shared in the keynote. This will be followed by an investor call with NVIDIA founder and Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, which will be accessible to other listeners. The call will begin at 8am Pacific time and will be accessible at investor.nvidia.com.

NVIDIA had initially planned to host its 11th annual GTC on March 22-26 at the San Jose Convention Center, with an anticipated audience of 10,000. Amid the worsening coronavirus situation, the company said earlier this month that it was shifting much of the conference to its digital platform. The company believes that continuing public health uncertainties would challenge its ability to produce and deliver a digital keynote. Other components of GTC Digital will still take place, including live webinars, recorded talks and panels, research posters, trainings, and Connect with Experts sessions available starting Wednesday, March 25. More details will be provided in the coming days.