Encoding video is one of the significant tasks that modern hardware performs. Today, we have some data of AMD and NVIDIA solutions for the problem that shows how good GPU hardware encoders are. Thanks to Chips and Cheese tech media, we have information about AMD's Video Core Next (VCN) encoder found in RDNA2 GPUs and NVIDIA's NVENC (short for NVIDIA Encoder). The site managed to benchmark AMD's Radeon RX 6900 XT and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 GPUs. The AMD card features VCN 3.0, while the NVIDIA Turing card features a 6th generation NVENC design. Team red is represented by the latest work, while there exists a 7th generation of NVENC. C&C tested this because it means all that the reviewer possesses.

The metric used for video encoding was Netflix's Video Multimethod Assessment Fusion (VMAF) metric composed by the media giant. In addition to hardware acceleration, the site also tested software acceleration done by libx264, a software library used for encoding video streams into the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC compression format. The libx264 software acceleration was running on AMD Ryzen 9 3950X. Benchmark runs included streaming, recording, and transcoding in Overwatch and Elder Scrolls Online.Below, you can find benchmarks of streaming, recording, transcoding, and transcoding speed.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the handy graphics sub-system information and diagnostic utility for gamers and PC enthusiasts. Version 2.44.0 adds support for several new GPUs, feature updates to the Resizable BAR detection, and a handful other fixes. To begin with, GPU-Z adds support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, RTX 3080 12 GB, RTX 3070 Ti Mobile, RTX 3050 Ti Mobile, RTX 2060 12 GB, MX550, and a number of other mobile GPUs from NVIDIA. On the AMD front, you get support for Navi 24: Radeon RX 6500 XT, RX 6400, RX 6300M, RX 6500M, PRO W6300M, PRO W6500M, and PRO W660M. Support is also added for Intel "Alder Lake" non-K processors, "Alder Lake" mobile processors, and Xeon processors based on "Rocket Lake."

TechPowerUp GPU-Z can now report the exact base-address register (BAR) size when Resizable BAR is enabled. Find it in the Advanced Panel, under Resizable BAR. Detection of Resizable BAR has been improved. Detection of LHR in certain RTX 3060 cards has been improved to weed out misreporting of LHR. Vendor detection was added for Vastarmor. The internal Screenshot hosting utility now uploads screenshots over HTTPS. The 64-bit Windows Vista name will now include a space character, so "Vista 64" instead of just "Vista64." Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.44.0

GIGABYTE joined the 12 GB GeForce RTX 2060 comeback party with two custom-design graphics card models, the RTX 2060 D6 12G, and the larger RTX 2060 WindForce OC 12G. NVIDIA formally released the RTX 2060 12 GB on December 7. This isn't just an RTX 2060 with double the memory amount (12 GB vs. 6 GB), but also an increase in CUDA cores, to 2,176, up from 1,920 on the original. What sets the RTX 2060 12 GB apart from the RTX 2060 SUPER is that the memory bus is still 192-bit wide, compared to 256-bit on the latter.

The GIGABYTE RTX 2060 12 GB D6 features a more compact (22.4 cm long) WindForce 2X cooling solution that uses a pair of 90 mm fans. This SKU sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 1650 MHz boost. The RTX 2060 12 GB WindForce OC, on the other hand, features a larger 26.5 cm-long board design, with 100 mm fans, and a heavier heatsink. This card packs a mild factory-overclock, running the GPU at 1680 MHz boost. Both cards rely on a single 8-pin PCIe power connector for power. The company didn't reveal pricing.

GALAX today joined other NVIDIA board partners in launching its custom-design GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB graphics card. NVIDIA re-launched the RTX 2060, based on the "Turing" graphics architecture, with double the memory amount and a few more CUDA cores—2,176 vs. 1,920 on the original. This is NVIDIA's response to the Radeon RX 6600. The custom-design board by GALAX, which will also be sold under the KFA2 brand in certain markets, features an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with direct-touch heat-pipes, and a pair of 90 mm fans that stay off when the card is idling. It pulls power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. The card is factory-overclocked with 1695 MHz GPU Boost, compared to 1650 MHz NVIDIA reference, but a software-based 1-click OC mode can bump up the boost clock to 1710 MHz. The memory ticks at 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). The company didn't reveal pricing.

MSI introduced its first two graphics cards on the necromanced GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB, The new RTX 2060 12 GB SKU formally launched on December 7, and pairs features 2,176 CUDA cores (compared to 1,920 on the original RTX 2060). It uses 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory bus, which is what separates it from the RTX 2060 SUPER. MSI is pairing it with the company's latest iteration of the Ventus 2X dual-fan cooling solution. The RTX 2060 12 GB Ventus sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 1650 MHz boost; while the factory-overclocked Ventus OC runs the GPU at 1710 MHz boost. The memory is untouched on both cards at 14 Gbps. We have no prices at hand for the RTX 2060 12 GB, since NVIDIA didn't put out any SEP. We've seen these cards go for around $550.

As the leading brand in enthusiastic graphics market, Gainward proudly presents the more powerful GeForce RTX 2060 with 12 GB - Gainward GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Ghost Series. Gainward GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Ghost Series are the reinvented graphics cards, accelerated by NVIDIA's revolutionary architecture - NVIDIA Turing GPU. Double the memory size and enhance the CUDA horse-power as tokens, the Gainward GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Series fuses together the real-time ray tracing, artificial intelligence, and programmable shading. You've never enjoyed the games like this before.

Gainward GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Ghost Series comes with dual low noise fan design, providing extremely high thermal performance with very low acoustic level even under heavy-loading gaming environment. With Gainward GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Ghost, gamers will enjoy a more powerful GPU engine and double the frame buffer than the original GeForce RTX 2060 Series. The compact but powerful design allows users to experience a whole new class of performance enhanced with 4K gaming environment.

Palit Microsystems Ltd, the biggest add-in-board partner of NVIDIA, today launched the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB Dual Series graphics cards, accelerated by NVIDIA's revolutionary Turing architecture. The GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB is a premium version of it's predecessor- the RTX 2060 6 GB. Upgraded with doubled memory capacity and intensified CUDA cores, the new 12 GB variant equips you with ample horsepower to take on the latest games that are graphically demanding. You will also have complete access to the game-changing technologies, including NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex, real-time ray tracing and more.

The Palit GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB comes in the classic dual fan design featuring two 90 mm smart fans and optimized thermal solution to enhance the airflow and heat dissipation efficiency. The model offers cool temperature, minimum noise and maximum stability for gamers and creators to enjoy competitive performance.

ZOTAC today joined several other NVIDIA GeForce board partners in launching its RTX 2060 12 GB graphics card. NVIDIA pulled the RTX 2060 out of retirement, gave it a few more CUDA cores, and doubled its memory to re-launch it, as a possible answer to AMD's recent Radeon RX 6600. The "Turing" graphics architecture can still be considered contemporary, as it offers full DirectX 12 Ultimate support. The chip features 2,176 CUDA cores, 34 RT cores, 272 Tensor cores, and a 192-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 12 GB of memory. ZOTAC's board design is a cost-effective fare, with a simple aluminium fin-stack heatsink ventilated by a pair of fans. The card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector. NVIDIA hasn't released an MSRP for the RTX 2060 12 GB, so this card could cost anything.

INNO3D, a leading manufacturer of pioneering high-end multimedia components and innovations today announces the upgraded INNO3D NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 TWIN X2 OC now with 12 GB. Improving performance and power efficiency over previous models of the RTX 2060 family, the INNO3D GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB lets the gamer now enjoy faster, smoother gameplay, supporting the latest DirectX 12 Ultimate that features in both classic and latest game titles. The new GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB brings the incredible performance and power of real-time ray tracing and AI to the latest games—and every gamer.

Founded in 1998 with the vision of developing pioneering computer hardware products on a global scale. Fast forward to the present day, INNO3D is now well-established in the gaming community known for our innovative and daring approach to design and technology. We are Brutal by Nature in everything we do and are 201% committed to you for the best gaming experience in the world.

NVIDIA's surprise launch of the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB graphics card could stir things up in the 1080p mainstream graphics segment. Apparently, there's more to this card than just a doubling in memory amount. Specifications put out by NVIDIA point to the card featuring 2,176 CUDA cores, compared to 1,920 on the original RTX 2060 (6 GB). 2,176 is the same number of CUDA cores that the RTX 2060 SUPER was endowed with. What sets the two cards apart is the memory configuration.

While the RTX 2060 maxed out the "TU106" silicon, the RTX 2060 12 GB is likely based on the larger "TU104," in order to achieve its CUDA core count. The RTX 2060 SUPER features 8 GB of memory across a 256-bit wide memory bus, however, the RTX 2060 12 GB uses a narrower 192-bit wide bus, disabling 1/4th of the bus width of the "TU104." The memory data-rate on both SKUs is the same—14 Gbps. The segmentation between the two in the area of GPU clock speeds appears negligible. The original RTX 2060 ticks at 1680 MHz boost, while the new RTX 2060 12 GB does 1650 MHz boost. The typical board power is increased to 185 W compared to 160 W of the original RTX 2060, and 175 W of the RTX 2060 SUPER.

Update 15:32 UTC: NVIDIA has updated their website to remove the "Founders Edition" part from their specs page (3rd screenshot below). We confirmed with NVIDIA that there will be no RTX 2060 12 GB Founders Edition, only custom designs by their various board partners.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 497.09 Game Ready drivers. These introduce launch-day optimization for "Icarus," including support for NVIDIA DLSS, and RTX ray-traced global illumination (RTX-GI). The drivers also add optimization for "Chorus," including DLSS support; and "Halo Infinite." Six new displays receive NVIDIA G-SYNC support. Among the fixes released with these drivers are TDR or system crashes with "DOOM Eternal" and RDR2, a display corruption with ye olde "DOOM 3 BFG Edition," extreme gamma/contrast issues with YouTube on hardware-accelerated web-browsers; NVIDIA Image Scaling resolutions not correctly appearing in-game after a driver update; and incompatibilities between Adaptive Sync and G-SYNC.

A curious addition with these drivers is support for the GeForce RTX 2060 12 GB graphics card. We've been hearing reports of NVIDIA resurrecting the RTX 2060 "Turing" with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory to target the 1080p gaming crowd; and these drivers confirm it. The 12 GB SKU could be achieved by pairing the "TU106" GPU with 12 GB of memory across its 192-bit wide memory interface.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 497.09 WHQL

The on-again, off-again relationship between NVIDIA and its Turing-based RTX 2060 graphics seems to be heading towards a new tipping point. As previously reported, NVIDIA is expected to be preparing another release cycle for its RTX 2060 graphics card - this time, paired with an as puzzling as it is gargantuan (for its shader performance) 12 GB of GDDR6 memory. Gigabyte has given us yet another tip at the card's expected launch by the end of this year or early 2022 by registering four different card models with the EEC (Eurasian Economic Commission). Gigabyte's four registered cards carry the model numbers GV-N2060OC-12GD, GV-N2060D6-12GD, GV-N2060WF2OC-12GD, and GV-N2060WF2-12GD. Do however remember that not all registered graphics cards actually make it to market.

NVIDIA's revival of the RTX 2060 towards the current market conditions speaks in volumes. While NVIDIA is producing as many 8 nm cards as it can with foundry partner Samsung, the current state of the graphics card pricing market leaves no doubts as to how successfully NVIDIA has been able to cope with both the logistics and materials constraints currently experienced by the semiconductor market. The 12 nm manufacturing process certainly has more available capacity than Samsung's 8 nm; at the same time, the RTX 2060's mining capabilities have been overtaken by graphics cards from the Ampere family, meaning that miners most likely will not look at these as viable options for mining, thus improving availability for consumers as well. If the card does keep close to its expected $300 price-point upon release, of course.

NVIDIA has been preparing a new flagship graphics card with their RTX 3090 SUPER featuring a fully unlocked GA102 GPU. The RTX 3090 SUPER will include 10,752 CUDA cores, 336 Tensor cores, and 84 RT cores paired with 24 GB of GDDR6X memory on a 384-bit wide memory bus. These speed improvements are set to increase the cards TDP to 400 W compared to 350 W for the base RTX 3090. We have recently seen a new rumor from @hongxing2020 that claims NVIDIA will be launching the RTX 3090 SUPER, a refreshed RTX 3070 Ti with 16 GB memory, and the RTX 2060 12 GB in January 2022. The RTX 3090 SUPER and RTX 2060 12 GB launches have been expected for some time but this is the first mention we have seen of an RTX 3070 TI 16 GB.

Videocardz, citing their own sources in the industry, claims that NVIDIA is readying a resurrection of sorts for the popular RTX 2060 graphics card. One of the hallmarks of the raytracing era, the Turing-based RTX 2060 routinely stands as the second most popular graphics card on Steam's hardware survey. Considering the still-ongoing semiconductor shortages and overreaching demand stretching logistics and supply lines thin, NVIDIA would thus be looking at a slight specs bump (double the GDDR6 memory to 12 GB) as a marketing point for the revised RTX 2060. This would also add to the company's ability to deliver mainstream-performance graphics cards in a high enough volume that enables the company to keep reaping benefits from the current Ampere line-up's higher ASP (Average Selling Price) across the board.

Videocardz' sources claim the revised RTX 2060 will be making use of the PG116 board, recycling it from the original GTX 1660 Ti design it was born unto. Apparently, NVIDIA has already warned board partners that the final design and specifications might be ready at years' end, with a potential re-release for January 2021. While the increase to a 12 GB memory footprint on an RTX 2060 graphics card is debatable, NVIDIA has to have some marketing flair to add to such a release. Remember that the RTX 2060 was already given a second lease of life earlier this year as a stopgap solution towards getting more gaming-capable graphics cards on the market; NVIDIA had allegedly moved its RTX 2060 manufacturing allocation back to Ampere, but now it seems that we'll witness a doubling-down on the RTX 2060. Now we just have to wait for the secondary market pricing to come down from its current $500 average... For a $349 MSRP, 2019 graphics card.

NVIDIA is reported to be cutting down on production of its highly popular RTX 2060 graphics card, in a bid to increase production of the RTX 30-series graphics cards that still elude most consumers looking to get one on their gaming rig. The decision may be motivated by increased margins on RTX 30-series products, as well as by the continuing component shortage in the industry, with even GDDR6 becoming a limiting factor to production capability.

While one might consider this a strange move at face value (Turing is manufactured on TSMC's 12 nm node, whilst Ampere is manufactured on Samsung's 8 nm), the fact of the matter is that there are a multitude of components required for GPUs besides the graphics processing silicon proper; and NVIDIA essentially sells ready-to-produce kits to AICs (Add-in-Card Partners) which already include all the required components, circuitry, and GPU slice to put together. And since supply on most components and even simple logic is currently strained, every component in an RTX 2060-allocated kit could be eating into final production capacity for the RTX 30-series graphics cards - hence the decision to curb the attempt to satiate pent-up demand with a last-generation graphics card and instead focusing on current-gen hardware.

Blizzard, a popular game developer, has today implemented NVIDIA's latest technology for latency reduction into its first-person shooter—Overwatch. Called NVIDIA Reflex, the technology aims to reduce system latency by combining the NVIDIA GPUs with G-SYNC monitors, and specially certified peripherals, all of which can be found on the company website. NVIDIA Reflex dynamically reduces system latency by combining both GPU and game optimizations, which game developers implement, and the gamer is left with a much more responsive system that can edge out a competitive advantage. Today, we get to see just how much the new technology helps in the latest Overwatch update that brings NVIDIA's Reflex with it.

Blizzard has tested three NVIDIA GPUs: GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 2060 SUPER, and GTX 1660 SUPER. All three GPUs cover three different segments, so they are a good sign of what you can expect from your system. Starting from the GeForce GTX 1660 Super, the system latency, which was measured in milliseconds, was cut by over 50%. The middle-end RTX 2060 SUPER GPU experienced a similar gain, while the RTX 3080 was seen with the smallest gain, however, it did achieve the lowest latency out of all GPUs tested. You can check out the results for yourself below.

Benchmark performance for NVIDIA's yet-unreleased RTX 3060 graphics card have already started doing the rounds - even if it's one of the currently less-representative benchmarks for actual GPU performance, Ashes of the Singularity. Videocardz has gone through the trouble of collating benchmark results from the same user that uploaded the results for this RTX 3060 graphics card, hence the 19% performance differential in favor of the RTX 3060 results compared to the same users' RTX 2060 and RTX 2070 results.

The RTX 3060 was tested in the 1080p Crazy benchmark preset. It then scored a total of 6600 points and 67.8 average framerate in the first test; the second test, which might've been run with increased power or clocks, achieved 6800 points and 69.8 FPS on average. The first test's score (so, prior to any eventual overclocking) puts the RTX 3060's results 19% above those of the RTX 2060 (which scored 5,650 points) and even achieving a 7% performance advantage over the RTX 2070's 6,166 points.

We are just a few weeks away from the launch of NVIDIA's latest GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards based on the new Ampere architecture, and there is already some news regarding the lineup position and its possible distortion. According to multiple sources over at Overclocking.com, NVIDIA is set to re-introduce its previous generation GeForce RTX 2060 and RTX 2060 SUPER graphics cards to the market. Once again. The source claims that NVIDIA is already pushing the stock over to its board partners and system integrators to use the last-generation product. So far, it is not clear why the company is doing this and we can only speculate on it.

The source also claims that the pricing structure of the old cards will be 300 EUR for RTX 2060 and 400 EUR for RTX 2060 SUPER in Europe. The latter pricing models directly competes with the supposed 399 EUR price tag of the upcoming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti model, which is based on the newer Ampere uArch instead of the last-gen Turing cards. The possibility for such a move is a possible scarce of GA106/GA104 silicon needed for the new cards, and the company could be aiming to try and satisfy the market with left-over stock from the previous generation cards.

According to kopite7kimi, a famous leaker of information about NVIDIA graphics cards, we have some pieces of data about NVIDIA's plans to bring back its SUPER series of graphics cards. The SUPER graphics cards have first appeared in the GeForce RTX 2000 series "Turing" GPUs with GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER and RTX 2070 SUPER designs, after which RTX 2060 followed. Thanks to the source, we have information that NVIDIA plans to give its newest "Ampere" 3000 series of GeForce RTX GPUs a SUPER overhaul. Specifically, the company allegedly plans to introduce GeForce RTX 3070 SUPER and RTX 3080 SUPER SKUs to its offerings.

While there is no concrete information about the possible specifications of these cards, we can speculate that just like the previous SUPER upgrade, new cards would receive an upgrade in CUDA core count, and possibly a memory improvement. The last time a SUPER upgrade happened, NVIDIA just added more cores to the GPU and overclocked the GDDR6 memory and thus increased the memory bandwidth. We have to wait and see how the company plans to position these alleged cards and if we get them at all, so take this information with a grain of salt.This is only a mock-up image and is not representing a real product.

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 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (mobile) and the RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics solutions may look identical but they're not. That didn't matter for Intel marketing, which used them to show Intel's 10th Gen Core processors to be "18-23 percent" faster at gaming than AMD's Ryzen 4000 "Renoir," according to a fascinating discovery by _rogame. In a real-world gaming performance slide that's part of an Intel Partner Connect presentation, Intel compared two notebooks, one with a 45-Watt Core i7-10750H processor, and the other with a 35-Watt AMD Ryzen 9 4900HS.

The Ryzen-powered notebook is equipped with an RTX 2060 Max-Q, and is a 22 mm-thick 14-incher, while the Intel-powered notebook uses an RTX 2060 (mobile), and is a 27 mm-thick 15.6-inch notebook that's firmly in the H-segment (mainstream notebook). The RTX 2060 Max-Q has much tighter boost frequencies of 1185 MHz than the RTX 2060 (mobile), with its 1560 MHz boost. Power management is a lot tighter on the Max-Q SKU, too, with 65 W power limits against 90 W on the RTX 2060 (mobile). Intel Partner Connect is a platform for the company to interact with some of its biggest distributors and retailers.

Raijintek today unveiled the MORPHEUS 8057, a large graphics card air-cooler. The cooler consists of a gargantuan aluminium fin-stack heatsink that's ventilated by a pair of 120 mm fans (not included). The heatsink features a large mirror-finish copper base, from which six 6 mm thick heat pipes emerge in either direction of the base (Raijintek for some reason counts this as 12 heat pipes), conveying heat to a large fin-stack with 112 aluminium fins that have ceramic coating.

The MORPHEUS 8057 heatsink measures 254 mm x 100 mm x 44 mm (WxDxH), weighing 515 g. Among the secondary heatsinks included are 12 heatsinks of various sizes for memory and VRM components; thermal pads, retention clips, and some thermal paste. Among the graphics cards supported are AMD "Navi 10" based graphics cards (RX 5700 series and RX 5600 series); and NVIDIA RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080/SUPER, RTX 2070/SUPER, and RTX 2060/SUPER. The company didn't reveal pricing.

AMD is finally coming around to launching the Radeon RX 5600M and RX 5700M based on its 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon. The company has, until now, only shipped mobile GPUs using the smaller "Navi 14" chip. A scoop by Komachi Ensaka points to an upcoming notebook combining a Ryzen 4000-H processor an "Navi-10M" GPU. With the right combination of clock speeds and memory configuration, the RX 5600M could offer performance rivaling (or beating) the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (mobile), and possibly on par with the RTX 2060 (mobile). The RX 5700M could compete with the upcoming RTX 2060 Super (mobile) and RTX 2070 (mobile). The RX 5600M could be a particularly important solution, as its desktop compatriot is designed for higher refresh-rate 1080p gaming. Much of the gaming notebook scene still revolves around 1080p, with innovations in the areas of refresh rates.

AMD gave both the RX 5600M and RX 5700M identical GPU core configurations to their desktop variants. The RX 5600M has 2,304 stream processors, 144 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 192-bit GDDR6 memory interface holding 6 GB of memory; while the RX 5700M tops it with 256-bit wide memory bus and 8 GB of memory. Both the RX 5700M and RX 5600M are configured with 12 Gbps memory frequency. The RX 5600M ticks at 1190 MHz (game), and 1265 MHz (boost), while the RX 5700M does 1620 MHz (game) and 1720 MHz (boost). Coming back to Komachi's leak about the Renoir + Navi 10M notebook, we predict a working implementation of AMD SmartShift technology. The company even made marketing graphics of this.

MSI expanded its lineup of gaming desktops to be refreshed with 10th generation Intel Core processors, with the high-end MEG Infinite X 10th, MAG Infinite S, and MAG Infinite 10th. The company had, earlier this week, announced the refreshed Codex R and MEG Trident X with the new chips. The new MEG Infinite X features Intel's new flagship Core i9-10900K 10-core processor, paired with an Intel Z490 chipset motherboard, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Super graphics, and empty memory- and storage- options. You add your own memory - up to 128 GB of dual-channel DDR4-2933 across four DIMM slots; and your own storage - two M.2-2280 NVMe PCIe slots, two 2.5-inch SATA, and one 3.5-inch SATA drive bays. The MAG Infinite S and MAG Infinite 10th share the same chassis, but use Core i7-10700 8-core processors, and GeForce RTX 2060 graphics. The company didn't reveal pricing.

AMD's timely announcement of the Ryzen 3 "Matisse" processor series could stir things up in the entry-level as Intel kitted its 10th generation Core i3 processors as 4-core/8-thread. Last week, a head-to-head Cinebench comparison between the i3-10300 and 3300X ensued, and today we have a 3DMark Firestrike and Time Spy comparison between their smaller siblings, the i3-10100 and the 3100, courtesy of Thai PC enthusiast TUM_APISAK. The two were benchmarked on Time Spy and Fire Strike on otherwise constant hardware: an RTX 2060 graphics card, 16 GB of memory, and a 1 TB Samsung 970 EVO SSD.

With Fire Strike, the 3100-powered machine leads in overall 3DMark score (by 0.31%), CPU-dependent Physics score (by 13.7%), and the Physics test. The i3-10100 is ahead by 1.4% in the Graphics score thanks to a 1.6% lead in graphics test 1, and 1.4% lead in graphics test 2. Over to the more advanced Time Spy test, which uses the DirectX 12 API that better leverages multi-core CPUs, we see the Ryzen 3 3100 post a 0.63% higher overall score, 1.5% higher CPU score; while the i3-10100 powered machines post within 1% higher graphics score. These numbers may suggest that the i3-10100 and the 3100 are within striking distance of each other and that either is a good pick for gamers, until you look at pricing. Intel's official pricing for the i3-10100 is $122 (per chip in 1,000-unit tray), whereas AMD lists the SEP price of the Ryzen 3 3100 at $99 (the Intel chip is at least 22% pricier), giving AMD a vast price-performance advantage that's hard to ignore, more so when you take into account value additions such as an unlocked multiplier and PCIe gen 4.0.