Let's quietly approach the elephant in the room: Intel's pricing structure will hardly stand the onslaught of AMD's Ryzen, which, if early benchmarks are to be believed, has apparently caught Intel with its pants down. Even purely from the leaks that have been following us non-stop in the last several months, it's obvious that AMD managed to outdo itself in the best way possible, managing to develop an architecture which offers up to 52% more performance than their previous one. Intel, which was enjoying the sun-shaded comfort of carrying a virtual, high-performance x86 monopoly, grew stagnant in innovation, ensuring it would stretch its bottom-line by way of minimal R&D investment - just enough to be able to name their improvements as a "new generation" of processors each year.

This in turn has led to an interesting outlook in the high-performance x86 market: customers aren't blind, and they see when a company is stretching its fingers in their pockets. A stagnant performance increase on Intel's customer processors with almost a decade of single-digit increments and paralyzed core-counts to an (admittedly strong) architecture have taken away a lot of customers' goodwill towards Intel. That Intel still has strong brand cognition is a no-brainer, but it doesn't have as much brand credit these days, on account of the low performance gains, and tick-tock falter, than it did in the days of Athlon 64. AMD has the benefit of being the underdog, of coming up with something new, fresh and performant (with headlines claiming it is the latest revival of a sleeping giant)... and those are all points that put pressure on Intel to reignite interest on its products.

Intel today extended the performance capabilities of the Intel Xeon processor E7-8800 v4 product family with the addition of a high-performance SKU in the processor family's Advanced SKU stack. The new SKU delivers the processor family's highest performance to handle the most demanding, mission-critical enterprise workloads. Businesses can use Intel Xeon processor E7-8894 v4-based servers to derive faster insights from the unprecedented amount of data being generated to create new services and improve customer experiences.

The Intel Xeon processor E7-8894 v4 combines high memory capacity and compute performance to deliver quicker results and improved productivity. The processor is targeted at scale-up workloads such as large databases, enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), online transaction processing (OLT) and in-memory analytics. The ability to scale-up allows more resources (more sockets and more memory) to be added to a single node image.

AMD Ryzen processors, which are scheduled to hit the shelves later this month, could be priced competitively, and one can read into their performance looking at their prices (compared to Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 "Kaby Lake" series). US pricing of at least three top-tier 8-core Ryzen models surfaced on ShopBLT. The flagship AMD Ryzen R7-1800X, bearing PIB part number "YD180XBCAEWOF," is priced at USD $490.29. The Ryzen R7-1700X (YD170XBCAEWOF), on the other hand, goes for $381.72. It's interesting to note here that the part numbers end in "WOF," designating "without fan-heatsink."

Lastly, there's the Ryzen R7-1700 (YD1700BBAEBOX), with 65W TDP, which is priced at $316.59. Given that all three parts are priced above the Core i5-7600K, and two of these are significantly pricier than the Core i7-7700K, which goes for $330, one could read into the chips' possible performance numbers. Remember, AMD has been selling 8-core FX "Piledriver" chips consistently cheaper than Intel's quad-core LGA115x Core i7 parts, and that has been significantly changed with Ryzen.

A Spanish-based hardware site has just outed what they claim to be AMD's upcoming R7 Ryzen chips' pricing, and if true, these seem to spell a spectacular amount of value (if performance is at the rumored and expected range, naturally).

As it is, the prices cover only three models of AMD's overall Ryzen line-up, namely, the R7 1800X, the R7 1700X and the non-X, R7 1700 (all 8-core, 16-thread parts). According to the source, these chips will feature base clocks in the order of 4 GHz for the 1800X; 3.8 GHz for the 1700X; and 3.7 GHz for the 1700. Overall european pricing (including taxes) is set at €599.99 for the 1800X; €469.99 for the 1700X; and a "measly" €389.95 for the 1700. As always, you can expect US pricing to be even more competitive; perhaps a $349 pricing for the 1700 chip (which also carries a 65W TDP to boot).

From this, and considering all AMD Ryzen processors will be multiplier-unlocked, we can surmise that the 1700 should be quite a steal at this pricing. And this also bodes well for AMD's upcoming 6-core, 12-thread R5 processors - status-quo upsetting at an affordable price-point, anyone?

MSI, the world's leading manufacturer of true gaming hardware, has fitted its Nightblade gaming desktop line with the recently introduced Intel Kaby Lake chipset. Built on the legacy of the first Nightblade gaming desktop series, the Nightblade 3 and Nightblade MI3 come with an updated exterior and interior design. With the updated exterior of the Nightblade 3 and Nightblade MI3, the Nightblade series gets a fresh upgrade for the next generation. Together with Nightblade MIB, the MSI Nightblade series PCs are ready to take any gaming challenge.

On the outside you will find an easy carry-handle situated at the front of the chassis, to make it convenient for gamers to bring their rig anywhere. Upgrading these systems is a piece of cake thanks to removable left, -right, and -topside chassis covers, giving access to its memory, graphics or storage bays. Applied to MSI's full gaming desktop family, MSI VR Link provides an HDMI port on the front side and 'One-Click to VR' software to optimize your VR experience.

Intel today announced availability of its first 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" desktop processors. All the processor SKUs being launched today are quad-core, across the company's Core i7 and Core i5 brand extensions. Leading the pack is the Core i7-7700K, priced at US $339, with a clock speed of 4.20 GHz, and 4.50 GHz Turbo Boost. This chip offers 8 MB of L3 cache, HyperThreading, and an unlocked base-clock multiplier, which enables easy overclocking. Next up, is the Core i7-7700 (non-K). This chip lacks an unlocked base-clock multiplier, and has lower clocks of 3.60 GHz, with 4.20 GHz Turbo, but offers 8 MB cache and HyperThreading. It is priced at $303.

The next chip which could interest PC enthusiasts is the Core i5-7600K. This chip features 3.80 GHz core, and 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost, 6 MB of L3 cache, and an unlocked base-clock multiplier, but like other Core i5 branded quad-core chips, lacks HyperThreading. It's priced at $242. The Core i5-7600 (non-K) lacks unlocked multiplier, and comes with lower clocks of 3.50 GHz core with 4.10 GHz Turbo Boost. It goes for $213. Priced below the $200 mark at $192, is the Core i5-7500, with its 3.40 GHz clock speed, and 3.80 GHz Turbo Boost. The i7-7700K and i5-7600K come with TDP rating of 95W. The non-K SKUs are rated at 65W. Intel also launched energy-efficient "T" Core i7 and Core i5 processors, with their TDP rated at just 35W.

Japanese developer and publisher Capcom has publicized that the PC version of their anticipated Resident Evil 7 game will support up to 4K resolutions and HDR. Naturally HDR will remain dependent on being connected to a compatible TV or panel, whereas high resolution support could provide additional levels of image quality through the use of super sampling on screens that do not support such resolutions natively. It is said that HDR will complement the immersive experience, better enabling the game to deliver overwhelming fear and ultimate horror.

As previously revealed by Capcom, Resident Evil 7 will also support cross saves between the PC and Xbox One versions of the game, however this will only be possible if you purchase it for PC on the Windows Store. Resident Evil 7 is also available on Steam and this version will not support cross saving. Resident Evil 7 will be available for PC on the 25 January, 2017.

With early tests showing minimal CPU core performance gains (IPC) over the current-gen Core "Skylake" processors, Intel is taking a different approach to selling its 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors to DIY PC enthusiasts. The lineup will have a third overclockable "K" processor SKU, besides the top-dog Core i7-7700K and the performance-segment Core i5-7600K. Intel is planning to spice things up for the sub-$200 market with an overclockable dual-core part, the Core i3-7350K.

The Core i3-7350K will be the company's first overclockable Core i3 part. The company had celebrated the 20th anniversary of the Pentium brand with an overclockable Pentium dual-core G3258 processor. The i3-7350K will feature an unlocked base-clock multiplier, letting you easily overclock it. The dual-core chip will feature HyperThreading, enabling 4 logical CPUs for the OS to address. Out of the box, it will come with clocks of 4.00 GHz, and 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost. It will also feature 4 MB of L3 cache. Interestingly, its TDP will be rated at 91W, the same as overclockable quad-core parts. The chip could likely come in a special PIB package that lacks a stock cooling solution. The chip is rumored to be priced at US $177.

News and specifications about Intel's upcoming Kaby Lake-based desktop CPUs are thin, but a recent leak has made it possible to discern at least some details, due to an Intel product change notification (PCN) document.

A PCN is a document issued by a manufacturer to inform customers about a change to a mass-produced product or its manufacturing process. In this PCN, Intel details a new factory in Vietnam which will work in order to "ensure a continuous supply of the Select Intel Xeon Processor E3-1205, Intel Core i5-7400 Processor, Intel Core i5-7400T Processor, Intel Core i5-7500 Processor, Intel Core i5-7500T Processor, Intel Core i5-7600 Processor, Intel Core i5-7600K Processor, Intel Core i5-7600T Processor, Intel Core i7-7700 Processor, Intel Core i7-7700T Processor and Intel Core i7-7700K Processor products".

Intel today announced the launch of a new generation of Intel Atom processor, the Intel Atom processor E3900 series, designed from the ground up to support the rapid development and the growing complexity of Internet of Things (IoT) businesses. The Intel Atom processor E3900 Series delivers excellent performance and a unique set of features for the edge in segments such as industrial, automotive, video, manufacturing, retail, and more. Intel is also offering an automotive grade processor specifically to address in-vehicle experiences called the Intel Atom processor A3900 series.

Thanks to AMD's incorporation of an ARM-based "AMD Secure Processor" in their upcoming ZEN micro-architecture, the company is poised to offer something competitor Intel's microprocessors yet don't: memory encryption. This processor, and its underlying technologies, could prove to be a stepping-stone for AMD towards regaining lost server market share. Essentially, because in a market ever more steered by cloud computing considerations, it allows for the client's data to be encrypted at every moment of the work chain. Assuming all works as intended, for the first time not even cloud providers, with either hypervisor-level privileges or even physical access to the servers, will be able to carry out any malicious actions against their clients.

One only has to consider the writing on the wall: Morgan Stanley predicts that by 2018, 30% of Microsoft's revenue will stem from its cloud services; Amazon Web Services (AWS) generated $7.88B in revenue on Q4 2015, up 69% over 2014; and worldwide spending on public cloud services by itself will grow from $70B in 2015 to an estimated $141B in 2019. Cloud computing is here to stay, and with security being as important as it is for some businesses, this is an important area of investment for AMD. This "AMD Secure Processor" will work on essentially two fronts: SME (Secure Memory Encryption) and SEV (Secure Encrypted Virtualization), backed by an hardware-based SHA (Secure Hash Algorithm).

AMD is giving away game codes to "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided," with select AMD FX desktop processors. Game-codes will be included with the AMD FX-8370 with Wraith, FX-8370 (standard), FX-8350 with Wraith, FX-8350 Black Edition, FX-8320E, FX-8320, FX-8300, FX-6350 with Wraith, FX-6350, and FX-6300. With the game code to a recently launched AAA game title added, you can imagine just how the value-proposition of parts such as the $99 FX-6300 is enhanced. The giveaway is limited to select retailers, AMD will update us on more participating retailers shortly. Newegg is handling the promotion in the US.

Intel is opening up its silicon manufacturing facilities to fabless chip-makers, beginning with the manufacture of ARM SoCs. The company entered a licensing deal with ARM that allows ARM SoC designers such as Qualcomm, Apple, and Samsung, to manufacture their SoCs at Intel fabs. Intel is among the first fabs with a working 14 nm node, and is on-track for sub-10 nm node development.

Intel had a crack at the market segments typically addressed by ARM SoCs, with its own x86 chips, which failed to see the kind of volumes ARM chipmakers were pushing. The company has now changed tactics to open its fabs up to those ARM SoC makers, letting them manufacture their designs on proven silicon-fabrication tech, in geographically important locations. Intel has its cutting-edge fabs located in Costa Rica and Malaysia.

This week on TechPowerUp News (after a brief sabbatical), we'll talk about Intel's exciting new Core i7-7700K "Kaby Lake" processor, Core i7-6950X and i7-6850X "Broadwell-E" benchmarks, and AMD 8-core "Summit Ridge."

AMD today announced new additions to its 2016 Desktop processor family, offering increasingly powerful processor options available for anyone seeking outstanding gameplay and power efficiency for their desktop PC. Setting a new APU Standard, the new AMD A10-7890K is the fastest AMD desktop APU released to date, with 1.0 TFLOPS of theoretical compute performance. This new processor has been paired with the top-of-the-line AMD Wraith Cooler to deliver a high-performance combination, enabling best-in-class online gaming, while offering near silent operation for a premium experience.

Gamers will be able to enjoy playing the most popular online and eSports games right out of the box on high settings with the new AMD A10-7890K APU, which is capable of providing smooth frame rates in some of the most popular online games like League of Legends, DOTA2, and Counter Strike: Global Offensive. AMD APUs combine the power of AMD processors with the performance of discrete Radeon R7 class graphics in one convenient SoC, and support DirectX 12, OpenGL, Vulkan, and FreeSync in addition to Microsoft Xbox One game streaming on Windows 10.

This week on TechPowerUp News, new details emerge of AMD's upcoming "Zen" micro-architecture; Intel "fixes" micro-code of its non-K "Skylake" processors to prevent base-clock (BClk) overclocking.

AMD today launched new thermal solutions, including the flagship AMD Wraith Cooler, as well as the new AMD A10-7860K and new AMD Athlon X4 845 desktop processors. Designed for the consumer who cares about how their desktop PC runs, sounds, and looks, AMD now offers new thermal solutions that generate less than one-tenth the noise of their predecessors -- running at a near-silent 39 decibels, about as quiet as a library.

The new AMD Wraith Cooler combines near-silent operation with unique styling via a sleek fan shroud and LED illumination. Providing superb cooling, the new design delivers 34 percent more airflow and 24 percent more surface area for heat dissipation than its predecessor.

This week on TechPowerUp News: Intel 6th gen. Core "Skylake" processors freeze over under certain kinds of stress; AMD's big price-cut for the super-small Radeon R9 Nano, and the fabled 5.10 GHz Intel Xeon processor.

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

AMD today introduced its most powerful line of AMD PRO A-Series mobile and desktop processors (formerly codenamed "Carrizo PRO" and "Godavari PRO") to deliver exceptional value and performance for today's challenging workloads. The new line of AMD PRO A-Series processors offer enhanced performance, reliability and opportunity to business users and IT decision makers and are designed for the future with Microsoft Windows 10. With its AMD PRO mobile processors, AMD powers some of the first-to-market Windows 10-enabled commercial notebook systems for those looking to upgrade.

"The innovative architecture of new AMD PRO processors delivers compelling performance to stay ahead of the evolving demands of business today," said Jim Anderson, senior vice president and general manager, computing and graphics, AMD. "Going PRO with AMD means unmatched dependability with platform stability, processor longevity and an opportunity for richer system configurations. AMD gives its customers choice and affordability to meet specific business needs, without compromising the ability to manage and maintain a secure, stable, and reliable environment."

Intel expanded its 6th generation Core "Skylake" processor lineup for the desktop, with seven new models. Built in the LGA1151 package, these chips work on motherboards running the company's 100-series chipset. Besides the overclocker-friendly Core i7-6700K and the i5-6600K already launched, the lineup now includes the i7-6700, i5-6600, i5-6500, i5-6400, i3-6320, i3-6300, and the i3-6100. Of these, the Core i7 and Core i5 models are quad-core, while the Core i3 ones are dual-core.

The Core i7-6700 and i5-6600 are not just different from the i7-6700K and i5-6600K in that they lack unlocked BClk multipliers, they also come with lower clock speeds out of the box. The i7-6700 is clocked at 3.40 GHz with 4.00 GHz max Turbo Boost (i7-6700K offers 4.00 GHz with 4.20 GHz Turbo), while the i5-6600 is clocked at 3.30 GHz, with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost (i5-6600K offers 3.50 GHz with 3.90 GHz Turbo). The i7-6700 is priced at US $312, while the i5-6600 goes for $213 (single-unit box price).

When Japanese tech publication PC Watch got under the hood (lid) of a Core i7-6700K quad-core processor, what they found was an unexpectedly small silicon, that's shorter in proportion to its width, than previous dies from Intel, such as Haswell-D, and Ivy Bridge-D. It's smaller than even the i7-5775C, despite the same 14 nm process, because of its slimmer integrated graphics core with just 24 execution units (compared to 48 on the i7-5775C), and the lack of an external 128 MB SRAM cache for the iGPU.

The substrate Intel is using on the i7-6700K was found to be slimmer than the one on the i7-4770K, at 0.8 mm thick, compared to 1.1 mm on the latter. The thicker IHS (integrated heatspreader) makes up for the thinner substrate, so it shouldn't cause problems with using your older LGA1150 coolers on the new socket. Intel is using a rather viscous silver-based TIM between the die and the IHS. The die is closer to the center of the IHS than its predecessors were. PC Watch swapped out the stock TIM with Prolimatech PK-3 and Cool Laboratory Liquid Pro, and found some impressive drops in temperatures at stock speed (4.00 GHz) and with a mild overclock (4.60 GHz).

Intel announced its first 6th generation Core processors, codenamed "Skylake." Built on Intel's swanky new 14 nanometer silicon fab process, and in the new LGA1151 package, these processors bring DDR4 memory to the mainstream, and offer IPC improvements over the previous-generation Core "Haswell" and "Broadwell" processors. Making its debut at Gamescom, Intel is starting its lineup off with two chips that are predominantly targeted at the DIY gaming PC crowd, the Core i7-6700K and the Core i5-6600K quad-core processors. More models in the series will be launched towards the end of this month. The company also announced the Z170 Express chipset.

The Core i7-6700K features a nominal clock speed of 4.00 GHz, with a Turbo Boost frequency of 4.20 GHz. It features 8 MB of L3 cache, and HyperThreading. Its integrated Intel HD 530 graphics ticks at 350 MHz, with 1200 MHz Boost. The Core i5-6600K, on the other hand, features clock speeds of 3.50 GHz, with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost. It features 6 MB of L3 cache, and lacks HyperThreading. It features the same integrated graphics solution as its bigger sibling. The TDP of both chips are rated at 91W. Both chips feature integrated memory controllers with support for DDR3L-1600 and DDR4-2133. The Core i7-6700K is priced around $350, and the i5-6600K around $243, in 1000-unit tray quantities. The retail packages of both chips will lack a stock cooling solution. The LGA1151 cooler mount will be identical to that of the outgoing LGA1150, so you shouldn't have any problems using your older cooler.

The retail packaging of Intel's 6th generation Core "Skylake" processors in the LGA1151 package, will be surprisingly colorful, and a throwback to the pre-Pentium 4 era, according to spy-shots of the retail boxes of the upcoming Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K. What's even more surprising, is that packages of the i7-6700K and i5-6600K, which feature unlocked base-clock multipliers, making them primed for overclocking, do not include stock cooling solutions. Their retail packages resemble those of Intel's Core i7 HEDT processors. In the box, you'll find just the processor, its case-badge, and basic documentation.

Both the Core i7-6700K and Core i5-6600K feature the same integrated graphics SKU - HD Graphics 530. Both feature integrated memory controllers that support both DDR3L and DDR4 memory types. The Core i5 predictably lacks HyperThreading, and only features 6 MB of L3 cache, while the Core i7 features HyperThreading, and the full 8 MB present on the chip. The "Skylake" silicon will be built on the 14 nm process.

Toshiba's Business Solutions Division (BSD), a division of Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., today announced a new laptop designed to meet the varying needs of small to mid-sized businesses. Designed, engineered and manufactured by Toshiba, the Tecra A50 represents the expansion of Toshiba's SMB lineup. The Tecra A50 is Windows 10-ready and offers the performance of an enterprise-class PC and the essential productivity and security features business users need at an affordable price point.

"Small and mid-sized business need more enterprise-class features and performance than ever before, but for a low total cost of ownership," said Carl Pinto, vice president of marketing and engineering, Toshiba America Information Systems, Inc., Business Solutions Division. "Our line of SMB products not only delivers powerful, secure devices that each meet the varying needs of this segment, but are now Windows 10-ready, enabling businesses and IT departments to take advantage of the new platform as soon as they are ready."