During CES 2020, way back in January of this year, Razer had shown off a quite interesting concept. Called a modular gaming desktop, the concept has a goal to allow users to just swap-out parts on the fly and have no trouble doing so. Today, the company has officially decided to launch the Tomahawk gaming desktop. Designed for small-form-factor computing, the case of the Tomahawk PC is coming in at just 10L volume, with measurements of 210 mm x 365 mm x 150 mm. The case is an all-black aluminium silhouette with the signature Razer logo and Chroma lighting around the base. That gives it a simple look that can blend in with any environment.

When it comes to the insides, the PC features a power supply of 750 Watts that powers one of Intel's NUC Element boards that is a house for a 45 W Core i9-9980HK Coffee Lake processor with eight cores and 16 threads. When it comes to memory, it has 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of PCIe M.2 NVMe SSD storage, paired with a 2 TB hard drive. Razer offers users to upgrade memory and storage, while the CPU is soldered to the board. You can pre-order the Razer Tomahawk PC at a price starting at $2,399.99, while if you want to equip it with something like NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, you will be paying $3,199.99. If you already have a GPU to install, then you should just order the base.

AMD has launched its RDNA 2 based graphics cards, codenamed Navi 21. These GPUs are set to compete with NVIDIA's Ampere offerings, with the lineup covering the Radeon RX 6800, RX 6800 XT, and RX 6900 XT graphics cards. Until now, we have had reviews of the former two, but not the Radeon RX 6900 XT. That is because the card is coming at a later date, specifically on December 8th, in just a few days. As a reminder, the Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU is a Navi 21 XTX model with 80 Compute Units that give a total of 5120 Stream Processors. The graphics card uses a 256-bit bus that connects the GPU with 128 MB of its Infinity Cache to 16 GB of GDDR6 memory. When it comes to frequencies, it has a base clock of 1825 MHz, with a boost speed of 2250 MHz.

Today, in a GeekBench 5 submission, we get to see the first benchmarks of AMD's top-end Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card. Running an OpenCL test suite, the card was paired with AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X 16C/32T CPU. The card managed to pass the OpenCL test benchmarks with a score of 169779 points. That makes the card 12% faster than RX 6800 XT GPU, but still slower than the competing NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, which scores 177724 points. However, we need to wait for a few more benchmarks to appear to jump to any conclusions, including the TechPowerUp review, which is expected to arrive once NDA lifts. Below, you can compare the score to other GPUs in the GeekBench 5 OpenCL database.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Game Ready drivers. Version 457.51 WHQL adds support for the new GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card which goes on sale today. It also addresses a handful issues. To begin with, a BSOD noticed on machines with "Ampere" GPUs, when waking the machine from sleep, has been fixed. A bug seen with FreeStyle or Ansel launching and closing on "Star Wars: Squadrons" causing the feature to stop working on supported games, has been fixed. A BSOD seen when playing or browsing videos on the Google Chrome web-browser has been fixed. Lastly, display corruption noticed on the Lenovo Y740 notebook when waking up from sleep, has been fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce v457.51 WHQLThe change-log follows.

When NVIDIA announced its contest on Twitter for users to win a GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card, by simply re-tweeting the post tagging a friend, there was something strange in the tweet. The concept art of the RTX 3070 card used in the post was a bit off. Instead of it featuring a regular design and connectors, the RTX 3070 picture used had an 8-pin PCIe power connector to power the card. That leads many to wonder what is going on with NVIDIA's new 12-pin power connector and has the company decided to abandon it so soon. However, we got the first response to those rumors from NVIDIA spokesman for Tom's Hardware. The company has responded that "tweet used concept art only, which is being replaced." So it was a marketing mistake, which NVIDIA is aware of and is fixing, and no, the 12-pin connector is not going away anytime soon it seems.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, today announced AORUS RTX 3090/3080 GAMING BOX, the world's 1st water-cooling external graphics. AORUS RTX 3090/3080 GAMING BOX is equipped with the most powerful NVIDIA Ampere architecture GeForce RTX 3090/3080 graphics card and the latest Thunderbolt 3 high-speed transmission interface and this combination not only brings powerful 3D gaming performance to the Thunderbolt 3-enabled Ultrabook laptop but also upgrades the Ultrabook for real-time raytracing game, 3D animation and deep learning. The AORUS WATERFORCE Cooling System is the only solution that combines performance and comfort, allowing users to enjoy a quiet and comfortable environment while handling heavy work.

AORUS RTX 3090/3080 GAMING BOX is the world's 1st external graphics box with a built-in all-in-one water cooling system. In order to enjoy the best GeForce RTX 3090/3080 computing performance and comfortable environment at the same time, AORUS WATERFORCE is the only solution that can satisfy both demands in a compact size. AORUS provides an all-around cooling solution for all key components of the graphics card. We take care of not only the GPU but also the VRAM and MOSFET to ensure a stable operation and longer life. AORUS WATERFORCE all-in-one cooling system integrates a large copper plate, a 240 mm aluminium radiator and two 120 mm fans. With an optimized pump and water block, it provides the most efficient water flow and cooling performance at a lower noise level.

GeForce NOW is streaming on iOS Safari, in beta, starting today. That means more than 5 million GeForce NOW members can now access the latest experience by launching Safari from iPhone or iPad. GeForce NOW on iOS Safari requires a gamepad — keyboard and mouse-only games aren't available due to hardware limitations. For the best experience, you'll want to use a GeForce NOW Recommended gamepad, like the Razer Kishi.

Alongside the amazing team at Epic Games, we're working to enable a touch-friendly version of Fortnite, which will delay availability of the game. While the GeForce NOW library is best experienced on mobile with a gamepad, touch is how over 100 million Fortnite gamers have built, battled and danced their way to Victory Royale.

AMD's Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card debuted yesterday and in the overall test results, we saw that it runs just a few percent behind NVIDIA's direct competitor - GeForce RTX 3080. However, when it comes to overclocking and world records, the card has just set one. Popular extreme overclocker Alva Jonathan aka "LUCKY_NOOB", has managed to overclock the Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU and set a new world record with the card. Paired with LN2 cooled Ryzen 9 5950X clocked at 5.4 GHz, the graphics card was cooled by... air cooler? Indeed it was. Lucky has managed to clock the RX 6800 XT at 2650 MHz using the reference air cooler. With that system, he managed to score 47932 points in 3DMark FireStrike.

The overclocker has modified 3DMark's tessellation to presumably give the Radeon card more performance, so the score isn't valid on the official 3DMark charts. What gives the overclocker an idea of a world record is the fact that HWBOT actually accepts those numbers, which ranks it higher than the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card that scored 47725 points. Despite the modifications, it is impressive to see AMD's card rank that high, and as more overclockers are getting their hands on these cards, it is a question if we are going to see the 3 GHz barrier broken by a Radeon card.

MSI has registered as many as eight custom models based on the NVIDIA RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards with the EEC. Like always, a product registration with this legal body doesn't automatically mean that all models do enter the market - sometimes these are registered in bulk by companies with models that they are planning on releasing and models that they think they might want to release at one point in time, just so that they only enter the paperwork once. However, these entries by MSI are interesting, particularly, because they mention a new MSI model that's likely reserved for below enthusiast-level graphics cards: there are two Twin Fan models (one OC, one absent of it).

All in all, these are the eight models that MSI registered: GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming X Trio; GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Gaming Trio; GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 3X OC; GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 3X; GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X OC; GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Ventus 2X; GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Fan OC; and the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti Twin Fan. Current information places the RTX 3060 Ti as using the same 392 mm², 17.4 B transistor GA104 chip as the RTX 3070, albeit under the GA104-200 nomenclature; the chip is expected to leverage 4,864 CUDA cores, 152 Tensor Cores, and 38 RT Cores (the RTX 3070 features 5888, 184, and 46 of these respectively). This makes out a 21% difference in number of execution units, which certainly won't make out to a full 21% performance difference. The card is expected to launch on December 2nd.

AMD has just recently announced its next-generation Radeon RX 6000 series GPU based on the new RDNA 2 architecture. The architecture is set to compete with NVIDIA Ampere architecture and highest offerings of the competing company. Today, thanks to the well-known leaker TUM_APISAK, we have some Geekbench OpenCL scores. It appears that some user has gotten access to the system with the Radeon RX 6800 and RX 6800 XT GPUs, running Cinebench 4.4 OpenCL tests. In the tests, the system ran on the Intel platform with Core i9-10900K CPU with 16 GB DDR4 RAM running at 3600 MHz. The motherboard used was ASUS top-end ROG Maximus XII Extreme Z490 board.

When it comes to results, the system with RX 6800 GPU scored anywhere from 347137 points to 336367 points in three test runs. For comparison, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 scores about 361042 points, showcasing that the Radeon card is not faster in any of the runs. When it comes to the higher-end Radeon RX 6800 XT GPU, it scored 407387 and 413121 points in two test runs. Comparing that to GeForce RTX 3080 GPU that scores 470743 points, the card is slower compared to the competition. There has been a Ryzen 9 5950X test setup that boosted the performance of Radeon RX 6800 XT card by quite a lot, making it reach 456837 points, making a huge leap over the Intel-based system thanks to the Smart Access Memory (SAM) technology that all-AMD system provides.

According to the unknown manufacturer (AIB) based in Taiwan, NVIDIA is preparing to launch the new GeForce RTX 3000 series "Ampere" graphics card. As reported by the HKEPC website, the Santa Clara-based company is preparing to fill the gap between its top-end GeForce RTX 3090 and a bit slower RTX 3080 graphics card. The new product will be called GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. If you are wondering what the specification of the new graphics card will look like, you are in luck because the source has a few pieces of information. The new product will be based on GA102-250-KD-A1 GPU core, with a PG133-SKU15 PCB design scheme. The GPU will contain the same 10496 CUDA core configuration as the RTX 3090.

The only difference to the RTX 3090 will be a reduced GDDR6X amount of 20 GB. Along with the 20 GB of GDDR6X memory, the RTX 3080 Ti graphics cards will feature a 320-bit bus. The TGP of the card is limited to 320 Watts. The sources are reporting that the card will be launched sometime in January of 2021, and it will come at $999. This puts the price category of the RTX 3080 Ti in the same range as AMD's recently launched Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card, so it will be interesting to see how these two products are competing.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 457.30 WHQL drivers. The drivers come "game ready" (optimized) for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Godfall. The SLI profile for Black Desert has also been updated. The drivers also add G-Sync support for the Acer CP3271U V, Asus XG27AQ, MSI MAG274QR and Xiaomi Mi 245 HF monitors.

Among the bugs fixed with this release are a drop in performance during gameplay for Warzone; a laptop-only error where the internal panel flashes upon resume from sleep mode or from display off; and a bug specific for Ampere, in a G-SYNC, HDR, Dual-head 8K display environment where the display screen goes black. Get the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 457.30 WHQL

A leak from renowned (and usually on-point) leaker Kopite7kimi claims that NVIDIA has finally settled on new graphics cards to combat AMD's RX 6800 threat after all. After the company has been reported (and never confirmed) to be working on double-memory configurations for their RTX 3070 and RTX 3080 graphics cards (with 16 GB GDDR6 and 20 GB GDDR6X, respectively), the company is now reported to have settled for a 20 GB RTX 3080 Ti to face a (apparently; pending independent reviews) resurgent AMD.

The RTX 3080 Ti specs paint a card with the same CUDA core count as the RTX 3090, with 10496 FP32 cores over the same 320-bit memory bus as the RTX 3080. Kopite includes board and SKU numbers (PG133 SKU 15) along a new GPU codename: GA102-250. The performance differentiator against the RTX 3090 stands to be the memory amount, bus, and eventually core clockspeed; memory speed and board TGP are reported to mirror those of the RTX 3080, so some reduced clocks compared to that graphics card are expected. That amount of CUDA cores means NVIDIA is essentially divvying-up the same GA-102 die between its RTX 3090 (good luck finding one in stock) and the reported RTX 3080 Ti (so good luck finding one of those in stock as well, should the time come). It is unclear how pricing would work out for this SKU, but pricing comparable to that of the RX 6900 XT is the more sensible speculation. Take this report with the usual amount of NaCl.

GIGABYTE, the world's leading premium gaming hardware manufacturer, today announced the latest GeForce RTX 30 Series WATERFORCE graphics cards powered by NVIDIA Ampere architecture—AORUS GeForce RTX 3090 XTREME WATERFORCE WB 24G, AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 XTREME WATERFORCE WB 10G, AORUS GeForce RTX 3090 XTREME WATERFORCE 24G, and AORUS GeForce RTX 3080 XTREME WATERFORCE 10G. AORUS is the world's first manufacturer to include the patent-pending "Leak detection" in the WATERFORCE WB open-loop graphics cards. The built-in leak detection circuit covers the entire fitting and water block and can promptly alert users by flashing light at the first sign of leak, so users can deal with the leakage early and prevent any further damage to the system.

AORUS WATERFORCE WB is ideal for those who wish to build open-loop liquid cooling systems. GIGABYTE specializes in thermal cooling solutions, providing optimal channel spacing between the micro fins for enhanced heat transfer from the GPU via stable water flows. The sunk-designed copper micro fins also shorten the heat conduction path from the GPU, so that the heat can be transferred to the water channel area quickly. Moreover, the cover and backplate of the new-gen WATERFORCE WB feature customizable RGB lighting as users can create their own PC styles and bring creativity into the liquid cooling systems.

EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, is proud to announce its latest collaboration with ASUS, the leading graphics card and motherboard manufacturer. The result is three GeForce RTX 30 Series graphics cards with a pre-installed full-cover EK water block. A match made in heaven for enthusiasts, demanding content creators, and gamers. This strategic collaboration between ASUS and EK brings new GPUs that emphasize minimalistic, robust design, DIY convenience, and high performance.

The Precision and Reliability of ASUS Engineering
Going the extra mile, the ASUS EKWB GeForce RTX 3090 and 3080 Series are built using Auto-Extreme technology to solder components to the PCB with extreme precision. All cards feature an aluminum backplate to prevent PCB flex and a single-slot mounting bracket made with 304 stainless steel for better corrosion resistance. Water block mounting is handled by ASUS during the manufacturing process, so each graphics card is ready right out-of-the-box to deliver high performance and reliability to customers.

ASUS has held its Republic of Gamers (ROG) day, and at the event, there was a special graphics card. Spotted there was a GeForce RTX 3090 GPU in the form of ASUS ROG STRIX GUNDAM edition. With an appeal based on a famous anime series GUNDAM, ASUS has decided to launch a new product line made up of a motherboard and a graphics card. The new ASUS GeForce RTX 3090 ROG STRIX GUNDAM Edition features the same specifications as the regular RTX 3090 edition, just with an increased clock speed of 1890 MHz, three 8-pin power connectors, and a maximum power limit of 480 Watts.

The card features a white triple slot body with three fans cooling the heatsink. When it comes to the availability of this card, it is said to be a limited edition only sold to the Asian market. The price tag will carry a premium over the regular ROG STRIX model, with a cost of 16,999 Yuans (~2530 USD). The standard ROG STRIX model comes at a 1799 USD price tag, meaning that you will pay 730 USD more for this limited edition product. The availability is supposedly going to be even worse than with current cards, meaning that only a few people will get their hands on these if the current situation is any reference.More pictures follow.

Ubisoft has today updated the PC system requirements for its Watch Dogs: Legion game. Set to release on October 29th this year, we are just a few weeks away from its release. With the arrival of NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3000 series Ampere graphics cards, Ubisoft has decided to update the official PC system requirements with RTX-on capabilities. The inclusion of raytracing in the game requires a faster CPU, as well as an RTX-capable GPU. At 1080p resolution, you need at least an RTX 2060 GPU to play with high settings, and raytracing turned to the medium, including DLSS. Going up to 1440p, Ubisoft recommends gamers to use at least an RTX 3070 GPU for very high preset, raytracing on high, and DLSS set to quality. If you want to max everything out and play with the highest settings at 4K resolution, you will need an RTX 3080 GPU.

The supply of NVIDIA's newly announced GeForce RTX Ampere lineup has been quite controversial since the beginning. Demand for the new GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 GPUs has been rather high and NVIDIA experienced big "demand issues" as the CEO Jensen Huang says. The company didn't expect such high demand and thus hasn't stocked up the chips for that many orders. NVIDIA's AIBs have also seen this problem with GPU demand, as it is too high in ratio to supply. As more chips are manufactured, we can expect this problem only to settle down over time. Today, we got an interesting piece of information regarding the availability of Founders Edition (FE) GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 cards. NVIDIA has posted on the forums stating the following:

Suroosh@NVIDIAWe have heard your feedback regarding the NVIDIA online store and are working to improve the experience.

In the meantime, we will be selling our GeForce RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 Founders Edition through other partners. In the US, you can shop for Founders Edition at Best Buy - GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3090. In Europe, we continue to review Founders Edition fulfillment options.

Founders Edition units are limited, and more will be available in the coming weeks alongside an increasing supply of boards from our global board partners.

When NVIDIA introduced its Ampere consumer graphics cards, they launched three models - the GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090 GPUs. Both the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 have seen the light of the day as they are now available for purchase, however, one card has remained. The GeForce RTX 3070 launch was originally planned for October 15th launch, but it has officially been postponed by NVIDIA. According to the company, the reason behind this sort of delay in the launch is the high demand expected. Production of the cards is ramping up quickly and the company is quickly stocking up the cards. Likely, NVIDIA AIBs are taking their time to stock up on cards, as the mid-range is usually in very high demand.

As a reminder, the GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card features 5888 CUDA cores running at a base frequency of 1.5 GHz and boost frequency of 1.73 GHz. Unlike the higher-end Ampere cards, the RTX 3070 uses older GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The GPU features a TDP of 220 W and will be offered in a range of variants by AIBs. You will be able to purchase the GPU on October 29th for the price of $499.

GPU Folders make up a huge fraction of the number-crunching power of Folding@home, enabling us to help projects like the COVID Moonshot open science drug discovery project evaluate thousands of molecules per week in their quest to produce a new low-cost patent-free therapy for COVID-19. The COVID Moonshot (@covid_moonshot) is using the number-crunching power of Folding@home to evaluate thousands of molecules per week, synthesizing hundreds of these molecules in their quest to develop a patent-free drug for COVID-19 that could be taken as a simple 2x/day pill.

As of today, your folding GPUs just got a big powerup! Thanks to NVIDIA engineers, our Folding@home GPU cores—based on the open source OpenMM toolkit—are now CUDA-enabled, allowing you to run GPU projects significantly faster. Typical GPUs will see 15-30% speedups on most Folding@home projects, drastically increasing both science throughput and points per day (PPD) these GPUs will generate.Editor's Note:TechPowerUp features a strong community surrounding the Folding @ Home project. Remember to fold aggregated to the TPU team, if you so wish: we're currently 44# in the world, but have plans for complete world domination. You just have to input 50711 as your team ID. This is a way to donate efforts to cure various diseases affecting humanity that's at the reach of a few computer clicks - and the associated power cost with these computations.

[Update, September 29, 2020: We now have a good first look at the card courtesy the man himself. It confirms what we already knew, with a 360 mm AIO cooler and a flip-up OLED screen paired to the flagship offering from EVGA this generation.]

It's only been moments after the RTX 3090's release, but professional overclockers are already unleashing the power available on NVIDIA's GA-102 chip by resorting to exotic cooling techniques. Renowned overclocker Vince "K|NGP|N" Lucido, who works in close proximity with NVIDIA AIB EVGA, tamed the RTX 3090's temperature by resorting to liquid nitrogen. This, alongside tweaks to Vcore (1069 mV) allowed the card to reach a startling 2.58 GHz core clock (a staggering 52.2% increase over NVIDIA's base clock), and 10.750 MHz (21.5 Gbps) memory clocks on the GDDR6X subsystem, which in itself is a 10.3% increase over reference clocks.

The 16.673 3D Mark Port Royal score was achieved with a fully custom design made by EVGA with Vince Lucidos' input. This über 3090 ultimately delivered a performance increase of around 30% more than the stock RTX 3090 would be able to, which isn't a bad equilibrium between the core and memory clock increases. Some might say this is the performance delta one would expect between the 3090 and the 3080 (an overall 40% performance increase, considering the 3090 is already an average of 10% faster than the 3080 at stock clocks).

NVIDIA has today released the latest iteration of its Game Ready driver with the version number 456.55. Marked as a WHQL release, the driver is supposedly going to bring new advancements to the stability of the latest GeForce RTX 3000 series Ampere graphics cards. While the release notes don't officially mention anything on how it improves, it is already confirmed by a few Redditors that the new driver removes crashed experienced with the past version 456.38. In the latest revision, the support has been added for NVIDIA Reflex in Call of Duty: Warzone and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, as well as support for Star Wars: Squadrons game. Below is the link to the driver download page redirecting to NVIDIA's site, and in no time the TechPowerUp download page will be updated as well.DOWNLOAD:NVIDIA GeForce 456.55 WHQL Game Ready Drivers

The change-log follows:

MonsterLabo, a maker of fanless PC cases, today announced its latest creation - The Beast. Featuring a design made from glass and 6 mm thick aluminium, the ATX case is resembling a design we usually could see only from the folks like InWin. The whole chassis is actually made up of two 3 KG aluminium heatsinks that feature ten 6 mm copper heat pipes each. All of this is used for heat dissipation and the case can accommodate up to 400 W of TDP in passive mode. When two 140 mm fans, running at 500 rpm, are added the case can cool more than 500 W of TDP. The Beast measures at 450 mm (L) x 380 mm (W) x 210 mm (H), making it for one large and heavy case. It supports graphics cards up to 290 mm in PCB length and is fully capable of supporting the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series "Ampere" graphics cards. Pre-orders for The Beast are starting onOctober 9th, with an unknown pricing. You can expect it to be a high premium over 349 EUR price of The First case. Pre-orders will be shipping in Q1 2021.

When NVIDIA announced its next-generation GeForce RTX 3080 and 3090 Ampere GPUs, it specified that the memory found in the new GPUs will be Micron's GDDR6X variant with 19 Gbps speed. However, being that there are faster GDDR6X modules already available in a 21 Gbps variant, everyone was left wondering why NVIDIA didn't just use the faster memory from Micron. That is exactly what Igor's Lab, a technology website, has been wondering as well. They have decided to conduct testing with an infrared camera that measures the heat produced. To check out the full testing setup and how they tested everything, you can go here and read it, including watching the video embedded.

Micron chips like GDDR5, GDDR5X, and GDDR6 are rated for the maximum junction temperature (TJ Max) of 100 degrees Celsius. It is recommended that these chips should run anywhere from 0C to 95C for the best results. However, when it comes to the new GDDR6X modules found in the new graphics cards, they are not yet any official specifications available to the public. Igor's Lab estimates that they can reach 120C before they become damaged, meaning that TJ Max should be 110C or 105C. When measuring the temperature of GDDR6X modules, Igor found out that the hottest chip ran at 104C, meaning that the chips are running pretty close to the TJ Max they are (supposedly) specified. It is NVIDIA's PCB design decisions that are leading up to this, as the hottest chips are running next to voltage regulators, which can get pretty hot on their own.

CORSAIR announces more new products each year than most companies, and this often means that marketing resources get devoted to the high-ticket items more often than not. Their custom watercooling line, the Hydro X Series, is not always one of them and so we end up seeing quiet updates without a press release or even a direct note from their representatives to the media. With the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3000-series cards coming in three different categories as far as custom watercooling goes (reference, Founders Edition, AIC-variants), we took the weekend to briefly check what the usual custom watercooling suspects were up to. A page on the CORSAIR website confirms, among other things, that Hydro X GPU blocks are on the way for at least the reference PCB, if not more.

More interestingly, we noted that the Hydro XC7 and XC9 CPU blocks had been updated in more ways than one. We have detailed reviews of both (XC7, XC9) for those who want to see, and our review of the iCUE Nexus also showed a rebranding in the making for the company. The updated CPU blocks carry the new wordmark design for the logo on all 5 SKUs and, more importantly, change the mounting mechanism to allow for a captive system with new thumb screws that should make installation even easier on all Intel and AMD CPU sockets. This should bring with it increased compatibility with crowded m-ITX motherboards as well, and we see it reflected in the additional 719 motherboards in the compatibility list relative to before. Finally, a motherboard ARGB LED adapter is now included in the packaging, so you can use the integrated lighting with motherboard LED headers and control software, should you not want to pony extra for CORSAIR's ecosystem. Pricing for the Hydro XC7 is now $5 higher and the same as the XC9, which is confusing given it uses fewer fins on the cold plate and, the launch versions at least, employed a plastic trim compared to the metal on the XC9. We have contacted the company for clarification on this, and will update the post as we receive more information.

[Update, September 16: CORSAIR has a new photo for their example GPU block that looks suspiciously like it is meant for the FE RTX 3000-series cards. Note also the revised I/O port terminal which should help address some concerns people had about the previous design.]

Chip binning is a process of sorting out the manufactured silicon by quality. That means that each chip that comes from the silicon wafer is tested and sorted by different features. For example, a chip is tested for how much voltage it takes for operation, how cool it runs, and of course how it overclocks. By putting their chips through various testing, manufacturers often create binning tiers, where they can differentiate good and bad chips, so they know where to send, and if they should send the chips. The biggest and most complex approach for sending chips is for graphics cards. As there are different AIBs, manufacturers like NVIDIA and AMD need to send them chips of various qualities to incorporate in their products. It is a rather time-consuming and complex process to find out the bin type and the tier of chips, however today we are getting some information from Igor's Lab.

According to their sources, it is said that NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX Ampere lineup features three binning tiers. There is "Bin 0" which represents an okay chip that can perform as intended, "Bin 1" chips which are good processors, and "Bin 2" processors which represent the best quality chips with the highest performance characteristics. These "Bin 2" dies run cooler compared to the rest and achieve higher overclocking speed. In reality, the binning represents coordination between the chip designer (NVIDIA in this case) and the manufacturer (Samsung with its 8N 8 nm process). It is said that from the complete pilot run of Ampere chips, Samsung ends up with 30% of the "Bin 0" dies, 60% of "Bin 1" dies, and only 10% of "Bin 2" dies. The production period was quite short and these numbers are good for Samsung, as they probably didn't have much time to work on it, so we can expect these numbers to improve.