Yesterday, we covered how Ryzen's performance has seen a needed lift-up through an upcoming update to Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation. Performance improvements of up to 30% do wonders in bringing up the 8-core, 16-thread Ryzen 7 1800X's performance up to speed with its svelter gaming enemy, the 4-core, 8-thread i/ 7700K. And through a community update, AMD has now shed some light on the ongoing crusade for adapting an entire ecosystem to its Ryzen line of processors architecture features. Case in point: BIOS updates and game patches,

AMD has recently sent out around a hundred patches, which amount to over 40 thousand lines of code, so as to allow developers to integrate support for its upcoming Vega GPU architecture under Linux. The new code is essential towards baking support for Vega under Linux, considering the many changes this architecture entails over AMD's current-generation Polaris 10 (soon to be rebranded, if sources are correct, to the new RX 500 series.) Also of note is the existence of seven different device IDs for Vega-based products, though this really can't be extrapolated to the amount of SKUs under the Vega banner. For now, that really is just a number.

A wording change in the latest build of the upcoming Creators Update for Windows 10 has users on metered connections worried. In previous Microsoft Insider's builds of the Creators Update, the section of the license agreement pertaining to automatic updates said "updates will be downloaded and installed automatically, except over metered connections (where charges may apply)."

In this latest build, the wording has been changed to a more worrisome version implying updating may still happen for important updates: "We'll automatically download and install updates, except on metered connections (where charges may apply). In that case, we'll automatically download only those updates required to keep Windows running smoothly."

If you are using a modded BIOS on your AMD Polaris card, and try to install AMD's excellent Crimson ReLive drivers, you might be in for a surprise. This is because AMD re-enabled their BIOS signature enforcement with these latest drivers. Basically, if you modded your card's BIOS in search of higher overclocking, more voltage or customized fan settings, the hash in your BIOS is no longer recognized by AMD the driver, since it differs from the factory values.

On detecting such a modded BIOS with an invalid checksum, the Crimson ReLive driver won't load, meaning that the system will run with the VGA fallback driver only, without 3D acceleration and Radeon Settings will not start. However, you can force your modded BIOS to load on Crimson ReLive if you're willing to jump through some hoops.

A ominously named app claims to boost certain apps performance on AMD processors. Called "Intel Compiler Patcher," this app scans your machine for apps developed using Intel C++ compilers, and patches them to work better on non-Intel CPU platforms (namely AMD). The idea (suspicion rather), is that apps developed with Intel C++ compilers give modern AMD CPUs a performance disadvantage. The following is how the developer describes the app works:

The compiler or library can make multiple versions of a piece of code, each optimized for a certain processor and instruction set, for example SSE2, SSE3, etc. The system includes a function that detects which type of CPU it is running on and chooses the optimal code path for that CPU. This is called a CPU dispatcher. However, the Intel CPU dispatcher does not only check which instruction set is supported by the CPU, it also checks the vendor ID string. If the vendor string says "GenuineIntel" then it uses the optimal code path. If the CPU is not from Intel then, in most cases, it will run the slowest possible version of the code, even if the CPU is fully compatible with a better version.

We don't have an AMD machine at hand to put our benches ourselves, and so we invite AMD CPU users from our community to post their results by using this "patcher" at their own risk.DOWNLOAD: Intel Compiler Patcher

With only a few more days until this month's Patch Tuesday Micrsosoft took to the web to announce that it plans to roll out no less than nine updates - two rated 'Critical' and seven rated 'Important'. The upcoming patches address vulnerabilities found in Windows, Office, Microsoft Server Software, SQL Server, .NET, and Internet Explorer.

The August updates are scheduled to be made available this Tuesday, August 12, at 10 AM PDT. For more info check out the advance notification published here.

Microsoft Corp. has just announced its plans for this month's Patch Tuesday and they include the release of six updates - two rated 'Critical', three rated 'Important' and one rated 'Moderate'. The upcoming updates target vulnerabilities found in Windows operating systems, in Internet Explorer and in Microsoft Server Software.

The six patches will be made available this coming Tuesday, July 8, 2014, at about 10:00 am PDT. The bulletin advance notification for this month's releases can be found here.

The first Patch Tuesday of Summer '14 is coming up and it will see Microsoft release seven updates - two bearing a 'Critical' rating and five rated 'Important'. The incoming patches target vulnerabilities found in Windows (Vista, 7, 8/8.1, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2012), Internet Explorer (6 to 11), Office (2007, 2010) and Lync (2010, 2013).

Microsoft's software updates will be made available Tuesday, June 10th at about 10:00 AM PDT. The Advance Notification for this month's patches can be found here.

May's Patch Tuesday is coming up and Microsoft is ready for it with eight new updates, two of which are rated 'Critical' while the rest are rated 'Important'. The patches will address vulnerabilities found in Windows (Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, RT, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2012), Office (2007, 2010, 2013), .NET Framework and Internet Explorer.

The eight patches are set to be released next Tuesday, May 13th, at about 10:00 AM PDT, For a bit more info check out the Advance Notification published here.

This month's Patch Tuesday (the last one for Windows XP and Office 2003) will see Microsoft roll out four fresh security updates, two rated Critical and two rated Important, targeting remote code execution vulnerabilities found in Windows, Office and Internet Explorer. One of the updates is set to resolve a Word bug that was made public last week (on March 24th) and is known to have been exploited in 'limited, targeted attacks directed at Microsoft Word 2010'.

The April patches will be made available next week on April 8th, at about 10:00 a.m. PDT. For a bit more info check out the Advance Notification published here.

This coming Tuesday Redmond-based Microsoft Corp. is planning to make available five fresh security updates - two with a 'Critical' rating and three tagged 'Important'. The incoming parches are set to address bugs found in Windows, Internet Explorer and Silverlight.

One of the Critical updates will fix an Internet Explorer issue that has already been acknowledged and was exploited in a 'limited number of attacks'. Additional information about Tuesday's releases can be found in the Security Bulletin Advance Notification published here.

The last Patch Tuesday of 2013 is closing in fast and, as revealed today, it will see Microsoft deliver no less than eleven updates - five rated 'Critical' and six rated 'Important'. The upcoming patches target vulnerabilities found in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, SharePoint Server, Exchange, Lync, and Developer Tools. One of the critical updates addresses the Microsoft Graphics Component bug acknowledged last month.

The December 2013 MS patches will be rolled out on December 10, at about 10:00 a.m. PST. For a bit more info check out the Microsoft Security Bulletin Advance Notification available here.

November's Patch Tuesday is coming up and it will see Microsoft deliver eight fresh software updates - three rated 'Critical' and five rated 'Important'. These patches will address vulnerabilities found in Windows, Office and Internet Explorer. The updates are set to be released this Tuesday, November 12, at about 10:00 a.m. PST.

For a bit more info on the patches check out the Advance Notification found here.

With this month's Patch Tuesday approaching fast, Microsoft has provided an advanced notification to let the world know what to expect. According to that notification, the Redmond-based company will roll out 14 updates - four rated 'Critical' and ten rated 'Important' - to tackle vulnerabilities found in Windows, Office and Internet Explorer.

The 14 patches are set for release this Tuesday, September 10. For a bit more info check out the security bulletin found here.

This coming Tuesday, on the first day of CES 2013, Microsoft it set to make available a new batch of bug-busting updates. The Redmond-based company will be rolling out seven patches - two rated 'Critical' and five 'Important' - that will address a total of 12 vulnerabilities. These updates target issues found in Windows, Office, .NET Framework, Developer Tools and Server software.

For a bit more info on the upcoming patches see the Advance Notification published here.

This month's Patch Tuesday will see Microsoft roll out seven fresh updates - five rated 'Critical' and two 'Important' - which are set to address 11 vulnerabilities. These upcoming patches target bugs found in Office suites (2003, 2007 and 2010) and Office Web Apps, in Microsoft Exchange Server, and in Windows operating systems (Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, RT, Server 2003, Server 2008 and Server 2012).

A bit more info about the updates can be found in the advanced notification published here.

Although pre-launch drivers of the GeForce GTX 680 let the GPU run in PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel's Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, the release drivers limited the GPU to PCI-Express Gen 2.0 on the platform. The issue carried on with GeForce GTX 670, and other graphics cards with "Kepler" family of GPUs. NVIDIA cited reasons such as the platform not being PCI-Expres Gen 3.0 "certified" although it supports the 8 GT/s mode. The company assured users that it was working on getting its hardware to work on the Sandy Bridge-E HEDT platform in Gen 3.0 mode, and until it's absolutely certain about reliability, it is forcing PCI-Express Gen 2.0 mode.

NVIDIA released a patch that enables PCI-Express Gen 3.0 mode on Intel Sandy Bridge-E HEDT (X79) platforms, which lets graphics cards based on GeForce Kepler GPUs, such as GeForce GTX 680, GTX 670, etc., take advantage of 8 GT/s per lane system interface bandwidth. The mode could come particularly handy for graphics cards that are installed on electrical PCI-Express 3.0 x8 slots, as they could end up with bandwidth comparable to that of PCI-Express 2.0 x16. The patch should be installed along with the latest stable drivers. To enable the patch, run the executable and reboot the system. To undo the patch later, run the same executable with "-revert" argument in Command Prompt. Use only if stability is not absolutely paramount, or if the hardware is not operating in a mission-critical environment.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Kepler PCIe 3.0 mode-enabling patch for Sandy Bridge-E systems

Microsoft has today announced its plans for this month's security bulletin release and they include seven fresh updates (three rated 'Critical' and four 'Important') which are set to resolve no less than 23 vulnerabilities which could lead to remote code execution and information disclosure.

The seven patches will be releases this coming Tuesday, May 8th, at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT).

Microsoft has today announced that next week, on this month's 'Patch Tuesday' it will be releasing 6 security bulletins - four rated 'Critical' and two 'Important' - that will tackle 11 vulnerabilities. The issues set to be resolved affect Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Forefront UAG, and .NET Framework, and could lead to remote code execution and information disclosure.

The six patches are scheduled to go live on April 10 at 10 a.m. PDT (5 p.m. GMT). As always, Microsoft recommends that users update as quickly as possible.

Another Patch Tuesday is closing in fast and it's going to bring us six fresh updates from Microsoft. According to the Redmond-based company, the incoming patches - one rated 'Critical', four 'Important' and one 'Moderate', will resolve seven vulnerabilities that could lead to remote code execution or denial of service attacks.

The list of software targeted by Tuesday's patches includes Microsoft Windows, Visual Studio, and Expression Design. The updates will become available on March 13 at about 10:00 am PDT (5:00 pm GMT).

February's Patch Tuesday is closing in fast and, according to Microsoft, it's going to see the arrival of no less than nine updates - four rated 'Critical' and nine 'Important', that will crush 21 vulnerabilities.

The incoming patches tackle bugs that could lead to remote code execution and privilege elevation. As (almost) always, Microsoft didn't go into specifics but it did say the vulnerabilities affect Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, and .NET/Silverlight. All the updates will be made available on Valentine's Day (February 14th) at about 10 am PST (6 pm GMT).

Very quietly Microsoft has released two new patches available for the Bulldozer platform. According to the AMD blog these patches seem to offer little more then a 10% boost but the do improve over all performance. This is what Adam Kozak a product marketing manager at AMD had to say,

"Some of you may remember that AMD FX processors use a unique dual-core module architecture codenamed "Bulldozer", which current versions of Windows 7 were not specifically architected to utilize. In essence, for those with an AMD FX-8150 Processor, for example, Windows 7 sees the eight available cores and randomly assigns threads to them.

In initial testing of the upcoming Windows 8 operating system, we've seen performance improvements of up to 10% in some applications, when compared to Windows 7. This is because the system correctly recognizes the AMD FX processor architecture and cores. Thanks to close collaboration between Microsoft and AMD, Microsoft recently completed back-porting some of the Windows 8 scheduler code for AMD FX processors into a hotfix for Windows 7."

To the surprise of many, last week, Microsoft rolled out a patch (KB2592546) for Windows that it claimed would improve performance of systems running AMD processors based on the "Bulldozer" architecture. The patch works by making the OS aware of the way Bulldozer cores are structured, so it could effectively make use of the parallelism at its disposal. Sadly, a couple of days later, it pulled that patch. Meanwhile, SweClockers got enough time to do a "before and after" performance test of the AMD FX-8150 processor, using this patch.

The results of SweClockers' tests are tabled below. "tidigare" is before, "nytt" is after, and "skillnad" is change. The reviewer put the chip through a wide range of tests, including synthetic CPU-intensive tests (both single and multi-threaded), and real-world gaming performance tests. The results are less than impressive. Perhaps, that's why the patch was redacted.

Tomorrow, Tuesday aka December 13th Microsoft is set to let loose no less than 14 updates which are supposed to resolve 20 vulnerabilities affecting products like Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Publisher, and Windows Media Player.

Three out of the 14 patches are rated 'Critical' and target bugs that could lead to remote code execution, while the other 11 are rated 'Important' and are set to plug in holes that can result in remote code execution and (unwanted) privilege elevation. As always, Microsoft isn't giving out specifics on the vulnerabilities that will be patched so we'll have to wait for tomorrow to get the full scoop. And to update of course.

EVGA made public its 25th release of the EVGA SLI Enhancement (version 02.25.10), a software patch that adds SLI profiles to NVIDIA's GeForce display drivers. SLI profiles are application-specific bits of software that optimise it to make use of multiple NVIDIA GPUs. The new release is based on NVIDIA GeForce 196.21 driver, and adds SLI optimisations for the following games:

• Supreme Commander 2 Demo
• Aliens vs. Predator, in all DirectX Modes
• Mass Effect 2
• Zombie Driver

Registered EVGA users (registration is free) can get the SLI Enhancement patch from here.