GIGABYTE at CES 2019 took the lid of its ultra-secret AORUS monitor, which we covered earlier in January. It's now confirmed to be built around a 27-inch 1440p IPS panel with the flaunted 10-bit color and 144 Hz refresh rate with FreeSync support (here's hoping NVIDIA's G-Sync will support it as well). It is certified with VESA's DisplayHDR 400 (peak brightness of 400 nits). There's RGB lighting throughout the carcass of the monitor, a 90º swivel, gaming features such as Aim Stabilizer, Black Equalizer and Super Resolution, and the AORUS monitor is expected to roll out around $599.

AMD pulled off a surprise at its CES 2019 keynote address, with the announcement of the Radeon VII client-segment graphics card targeted at gamers. We went hands-on with the card earlier this week. The company revealed a few more technical details of the card in its press-deck for the card. To begin with, the company talks about the immediate dividends of switching from 14 nm to 7 nm, with a reduction in die-size from 495 mm² on the "Vega 10" silicon to 331 mm² on the new "Vega 20" silicon. The company has reworked the die to feature a 4096-bit wide HBM2 memory interface, the "Vega 20" MCM now features four 32 Gbit HBM2 memory stacks, which make up the card's 16 GB of memory. The memory clock has been dialed up to 1000 MHz from 945 MHz on the RX Vega 64, which when coupled with the doubled bus-width, works out to a phenomenal 1 TB/s memory bandwidth.

We know from AMD's late-2018 announcement of the Radeon Instinct MI60 machine-learning accelerator based on the same silicon that "Vega 20" features a total of 64 NGCUs (next-generation compute units). To carve out the Radeon VII, AMD disabled 4 of these, resulting in an NGCU count of 60, which is halfway between the RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64, resulting in a stream-processor count of 3,840. The reduced NGCU count could help AMD harvest the TSMC-built 7 nm GPU die better. AMD is attempting to make up the vast 44 percent performance gap between the RX Vega 64 and the GeForce RTX 2080 with a combination of factors.

PC World managed to get a hold of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, picking his thoughts on AMD's recently announced Radeon VII. Skirting through the usual amicable, politically correct answers, Jensen made his thoughts clear on what the competition is offering to compete with NVIDIA's RTX 2000 series. The answer? Vega VII is an "underwhelming product", because "The performance is lousy and there's nothing new. [There's] no ray tracing, no AI. It's 7nm with HBM memory that barely keeps up with a 2080. And if we turn on DLSS we'll crush it. And if we turn on ray tracing we'll crush it." Not content on dissing the competition's product, Jensen Huang also quipped regarding AMD's presentation and product strategy, saying that "It's a weird launch, maybe they thought of it this morning."

While many have watched or at the very least seen our coverage of AMD's live stream at CES 2019, it just can't compare to seeing the latest graphics card from the company up close and personal. Therefore as soon as we had the opportunity, we took a closer look at the AMD Radeon VII and let us just say the reference card is indeed a bit fancy. The shroud itself is made of metal and has a very similar look and feel to the one used on the Radeon RX Vega 64 liquid cooled reference cards. However, instead of using an AIO for this release AMD instead opted for three uniform fans and a massive heatsink. Not only does this make the card more compatible with small form factor systems, it is also less of a hassle to install. Display outputs consist of 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI. Sadly AMD did not include a VirtualLink port (USB Type-C) like NVIDIA for VR headsets, which is rather odd considering AMD is also part of the VirtualLink consortium.

Power delivery is handled by two 8-pin PCIe power connectors giving the card access to a theoretical limit of 375-watts which is 75-watts more than its 300-watt TDP. Considering the Radeon VII has the same power level as the Vega 64 it offers 25% more performance at the same power level. Compute unit count falls between the Vega 56 and Vega 64 at precisely 60 CUs. That said, a few missing CUs are of no consequence when you consider how close the Vega 56 performed to the Vega 64 once tweaked. As for clock speeds AMD has stated the Radeon VII will have a 1.8 GHz core clock, while the 16 GB of HBM2 will deliver 1 TB/s of memory bandwidth over the 4096-bit memory interface.

At its CES 2019 keynote, AMD unveiled two killer client-segment products, the Radeon VII graphics card, which beats the GeForce RTX 2080; and a sneak preview of the 3rd generation Ryzen socket AM4 processor based on the company's "Zen 2" microarchitecture. As part of the unveil, CEO Lisa Su demonstrated an 8-core/16-thread 3rd generation Ryzen prototype processor in a head-to-head CineBench nT face-off with the Intel Core i9-9900K processor, which has the same core-count. The Ryzen narrowly beat the Intel flagship. Following this, Dr. Su held up a de-lidded sibling of the processor that was tested, revealing not one, but two dies.

This confirms that AMD is taking the heterogeneous multi-chip module approach to building its 3rd generation Ryzen processors, much like its 2nd generation EPYC processors that were unveiled late last year. The MCM of the processor Dr. Su held up had two chips, the smaller chip is an 8-core CPU chiplet built on the 7 nm process, that appears to have the same die-size as the 8-core chiplets that make up the 64-core 2nd gen EPYC MCMs, the larger die is an I/O controller logic built on the 14 nm process. This die controls the memory, PCIe, and SoC connectivity of the package. We noticed something curious about the way the two dies are arranged on the package substrate.

Acer today unveiled two new Windows 10 gaming notebooks, the Predator Triton 900, a 17-inch performance notebook featuring a slim design and convertible 4K display - and the Predator Triton 500 - a 15-inch all-metal gaming powerhouse measuring just 17.9 mm (0.70 inches) thin. Both gaming notebooks combine new, functional designs with powerful internals that rival gaming desktops.

"We are pushing the envelope on what a gaming notebook can be with designs that offer more uses while still packing in the computing power," said Jerry Hou, General Manager, Consumer Notebooks, IT Products Business at Acer. "The Predator Triton 900's one-of-a-kind flipping screen allows for multiple gaming scenarios and better ergonomics, while the Triton 500 offers superb gaming performance in a slimmer, all-metal body for gamers on the go."

Making its debut at CES 2019, the all-new ROG Zephyrus S GX701 takes hardcore gaming to the next level with the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs with Max-Q design and 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processor plus the GX701 doubles down on the display. It expands the 144Hz refresh rate screen to 17 inches, frames it with super-narrow bezels and adds NVIDIA G-SYNC and Optimus technology for the best gaming experience. The panel is Pantone Validated for serious content creation work before playing the latest blockbuster games.

Even with these upgrades and a much larger screen, the ROG Zephyrus S GX701 maintains an impressively slender profile and surprisingly compact footprint. It's more immersive, powerful, and versatile than any Zephyrus before without sacrificing the portability that defines the family.

Razer , the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, announced today a new range of the Razer Blade 15 Advanced Model gaming laptops. This update to the award-winning Razer Blade 15 is centered around increased graphics performance with the inclusion of new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 20-series GPUs, delivering a whole new way to experience gaming on-the-go.

All models are powered by the latest 8th Gen Intel Core i7-8750H 6 core processor, and feature 16GB of dual-channel system memory with up to 512 GB of fast SSD storage, in addition to a new Windows Hello-capable IR camera for easy and secure login via facial recognition. The Base Model of the Razer Blade 15 will remain available to gamers seeking additional storage capacity and connectivity, featuring the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with Max-Q design and a CNC-milled compact aluminum chassis, from $1,599.

NVIDIA today announced GeForce RTX 20-series mobile GPUs coming to as many as 40 new notebook models with hundreds of sub-variants. 17 of these 40 are Max-Q certified. Max-Q is an NVIDIA initiative in aggressive power and thermal management that strives to bring desktop-like gaming performance to a thin notebook. CEO Jen-Hsun held up a GIGABYTE-branded Aero notebook with RTX 2080 Mobile GPU, which is faster than a desktop powered by a GTX 1080, and 6K RED video editing. Also shown is a Max-Q notebook based on the RTX 2060 Mobile, which is faster than a desktop GTX 1070.

The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), the body behind CES, handed out CES 2019 Innovation Awards, with NVIDIA bagging one for its GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards. CEA considered the RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070 for this award, and remarked the company's RTX technology to be "revolutionary," and that the "Turing" architecture it's based on brings real-time raytracing and artificial intelligence hardware-acceleration to the consumer space, augmenting programmable shading that's dominated consumer graphics for close to two decades now.

EVGA today released four new all-in-one (AIO) liquid VGA coolers for its GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards, under its Hybrid Kit branding. The Hybrid Kit "400-HC-1184-B1" is meant for RTX 2080 and RTX 2070 XC, XC2, and Founders Edition variants. The "400-HC-1384-B1" is designed for RTX 2080 Ti Founders Editon and EVGA's XC and XC2 renditions of the RTX 2080 Ti. Both these models are priced at USD $169.99. The "400-HC-1284-B1" is designed for FTW3 series cards based on the RTX 2070 and RTX 2080; while the "400-HC-1484-B1" is meant for the RTX 2080 Ti FTW3. Both these FTW3 variants are priced at $179.99.

These coolers earn their "Hybrid" name in being a combination of liquid and air cooling. An AIO pump-block pulls heat from the GPU, while a heatsink ventilated by a 100 mm fan suspended along a shroud cools the VRM areas of the graphics cards. A base-plate covers the memory areas, and transfers heat to the AIO block. A 120 mm radiator along with a 120 mm PWM fluid-bearing fan dissipate heat drawn from the GPU and memory. The shroud covering it all is studded with addressable RGB LEDs that plug into the aRGB header of the PCB.

Building upon the already popular EVGA GeForce RTX 20-Series cards and customizable Trim Kits, EVGA now offers a limited-edition Carbon Fiber Shroud and Carbon Trim Kit as the next step to make your EVGA graphics card stand out. Made with 100% real Carbon Fiber, EVGA is kicking off its latest RTX Accessories by giving away some Carbon Fiber Shrouds and Carbon Trim Kits to EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 and 2080 FTW3 purchasers. For a limited time, you can enter for a chance to win either a Limited Edition Carbon Shroud or Carbon Trim Kit for your EVGA GeForce RTX 2080Ti FTW3 or RTX 2080 FTW3 graphics card.

EA-DICE and NVIDIA earned a lot of bad press last month, when performance numbers for "Battlefield V" with DirectX Raytracing (DXR) were finally out. Gamers were disappointed to see that DXR inflicts heavy performance penalties, with 4K UHD gameplay becoming out of bounds even for the $1,200 GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and acceptable frame-rates only available on 1080p resolution. DICE has since been tirelessly working to rework its real-time raytracing implementation so performance is improved. Tomorrow (4th December), the studio will release a patch to "Battlefield V," a day ahead of its new Tides of War: Overture and new War Story slated for December 5th. This patch could be a game-changer for GeForce RTX users.

NVIDIA has been closely working with EA-DICE on this new patch, which NVIDIA claims improves the game's frame-rates with DXR enabled by "up to 50 percent." The patch enables RTX 2080 Ti users to smoothly play "Battlefield V" with DXR at 1440p resolution, with frame-rates over 60 fps, and DXR Reflections set to "Ultra." RTX 2080 (non-Ti) users should be able to play the game at 1440p with over 60 fps, if the DXR Reflections toggle is set at "Medium." RTX 2070 users can play the game at 1080p, with over 60 fps, and the toggle set to "Medium." NVIDIA states that it is continuing to work with DICE to improve DXR performance even further, which will take the shape of future game patches and driver updates.A video presentation by NVIDIA follows.

ELSA, who've been taking longer and longer to release their own-branded interpretations of NVIDIA's graphics cards, have now decided to partner with INNO3D to deliver their own branded graphics cards under the Turing microarchitecture. Under the "powered by INNO3D" branding, ELSA is announcing RTX 2070 and RTX 2080 graphics cards.

ZADAK is thrilled to announce the whole new custom water cooling system, SHIELD II Water Cooled PC. Starting in 2015 ZADAK first dipped our toes into custom computers that were built for modding competition displays. In late 2017 ZADAK decided to mass produce our first fully water-cooled PC known as MOAB I. MOAB I managed to push boundaries within the industry and get us excited to start work on the successor MOAB II Water Cooled PC. These two smallest custom water-cooled PCs gained attention from enthusiasts around the world along with ZADAK's other products.

ASUS announced the Gaming Station GS50, which its product managers refer to as a "gaming station," so someone at big oil can blow steam off on Battlefield after a long day's work exploring shale (at least that's a use-case we can imagine). The GS50 is powered by an Intel Xeon W-2155 processor, which is a 10-core/20-thread chip clocked at 3.30 GHz to 4.50 GHz (turbo), packing 13.75 MB of L3 cache. This processor is essentially a Core i9-7900X with Xeon-exclusive features such as up to 512 GB ECC memory support, MPX, TXT, Boot Guard, etc. ASUS is offering RDIMM memory options all the way up to 512 GB.

Adding to its "gaming" credentials is NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics. Quadro RTX series is not even provided as an option. For storage, you get a 512 GB M.2-2280 SATA 6 Gbps SSD, and a 3 TB HDD for recovery and cold storage. Among the storage expansion options are additional M.2-NVMe slots, five more SATA ports, and a U.2 port. Networking includes two 1 GbE interfaces pulled by two Intel "server class" Ethernet controllers. A 700W 80 Plus Gold-certified PSU powers the machine. ASUS didn't reveal pricing.

Square Enix has just updated their Final Fantasy XV Benchmark to version 1.2, adding support for NVIDIA's DLSS (Deep Learning Super-Sampling) technology. The new release will still allow users to test any graphics card(s) they have just as it did before. That said, owners of NVIDIA's RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti get the benefit of having access to DLSS for improved image quality and performance. NVIDIA claims that performance will improve by up to 38% with DLSS alone. In order to verify that we ran a few tests of our own to find out.

Preliminary testing was done using Corsair's Vengeance 5180 Gaming PC, which is equipped with an Intel i7-8700, 16 GB 2666 MHz DDR4 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080. At 3840x2160 with the highest possible settings, DLSS offered a 36% increase in performance. This is very close to NVIDIA's specified increase and within the expected margin of error. When compared to the older GTX 1080 Ti which was paired with a stock Intel i7-8700K, and 32 GB of 3466 MHz memory we see the GeForce RTX 2080 and GTX 1080 Ti offer roughly the same level of performance. Therefore DLSS really is the difference maker here allowing for better performance and image quality. It should also be noted both systems used the same NVIDIA 416.94 WHQL drivers.

Thermaltake today introduced the Pacific V-RTX 2080 and Pacific V-RTX 2080 Ti full-coverage water blocks for ASUS ROG Strix series graphics cards based on the GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti, respectively. These blocks are tailor-made for ASUS' custom-design PCBs for these cards, with heat-drawing bumps at just the right places, over memory and VRM MOSFETs. The blocks combine a nickel-plated copper primary material with a clear-acrylic top that has a stainless steel plate along the edge of the channel. A brushed metal finish back-plate also comes included. The top is studded with addressable RGB LEDs that can be controlled via ASUS Aura Sync RGB software. Both blocks come with mounts for standard G 1/4" fittings. The company didn't reveal pricing.

NVIDIA today released GeForce 416.81 WHQL drivers. These drivers provide optimization for "Battlefield V," which appears to be available to Origin Access users. In addition, the drivers significantly reduce Idle and Multi-monitor power-consumption of GeForce RTX 20-series graphics cards. It also corrects G-Sync issues with "Turing" GPUs. Stuttering noticed on the RTX 2080 Ti when playing back HEVC videos is also fixed. A number of game-specific fixes related to "ARK Survival," "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," "Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," "Monster Hunter World," and "Far Cry 5" were also fixed. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 416.81 WHQL

The change-log follows.

Today, NVIDIA released their GeForce 416.81 drivers, which among others, contains the following changelog entry: "[Turing GPU]: Multi-monitor idle power draw is very high. [2400161]". Back at launch in September, Turing was plagued with very high non-gaming power consumption, in both single-monitor and multi-monitor idle.

The company was quick to fix single-monitor power consumption, which we tested promptly. Unfortunately, at the time, multi-monitor power draw wasn't improved and people were starting to get worried that there might be some kind of unfixable issue present on Turing that would prevent NVIDIA from fixing multi-monitor power draw.

Multiple sources confirmed to GamersNexus that the GTX 1080 Ti is starting to be really difficult to find. Supplies are decreasing and the reason seems to be clear: NVIDIA could have stopped the production of those graphics cards. This has had an immediate effect on these cards' prices, which in the last few days have increased everywhere in the world. The performance differences with the new GeForce RTX 2080 are not that important if you don't need the RT part of the equation -we could confirm this on our own review-, but the price of these new graphics card have made considering a 1080 Ti a viable option for many users that are looking to upgrade their systems.

Prices for the RTX 2080 start at $769 at Newegg for example, while the cheapest GTX 1080 Ti costs $850 there. The story is the same at Amazon, where we can find the cheapest RTX 2080 at $799,99 versus the $878.12 for a used model of the GTX 1080 Ti. The high-end model of the Pascal series competes directly with the RTX 2080 and was cheaper not long ago, but that's not the story now. With prices climbing, some are claiming the same will happen to the GTX 1080, GTX 1070 or GTX 1070 Ti in the next few weeks. Reports of RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti inexplicably dying on users could also be fueling consumer-fear, as well as a [temporary] erosion in the value proposition of the RTX 20-series itself, as Microsoft pulled Windows 10 1809 Update, leaving fewer people with DirectX Ray-tracing, the software foundation for RTX.

As a follow up to last week's all-in-one liquid cooling based product, GIGABYTE today released the Aorus Xtreme GeForce RTX 2080 Ti and RTX 2080 WaterForceWB. These cards are targeted at enthusiasts with DIY liquid cooling setups, and come with a factory-fitted full-coverage water block, instead of the AIO cooler. The block's primary material is nickel-plated copper with mirror finish, while its top is mainly acrylic, with opaque embellishments, a part of which is an addressable RGB LED diffuser that takes input from a standarized aRGB header. The opaque portion of the top also features a glowing Aorus logo.

The underlying PCB of the RTX 2080 Ti WaterForce WB packs a 16+3 phase VRM that draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors, 1770 MHz GPU Boost frequency, and a memory overclock of 14140 MHz (vs. 14000 MHz). The RTX 2080 WaterForce WB features the same PCB as its AIO-equipped twin, with a 12+2 phase VRM, 1890 MHz GPU Boost, and 14140 MHz memory OC. While the block itself is around 1-slot thick, a second row of display connectors makes the card 2-slot. Among these connectors are three each of DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b, and VirtualLink.

The GeForce RTX 2080 Turbo from ASUS is supposed to be a "baseline" RTX 2080 product, which the company can sell at $699, or closest to it. These boards were found to feature the TU104-400A-A1 variant of the TU104 silicon, which NVIDIA allows its add-in card (AIC) partners to ship factory-overclocked speeds with. At this point it's not known if all ASUS RTX 2080 Turbo cards feature the "A" variant TU104 chips, or if it's a lottery. Given that the ASUS RTX 2080 Turbo's PCB is largely based on NVIDIA's reference design, PC Games Hardware (PCGH) has been able to successfully flash the card's BIOS with that of the RTX 2080 Founders Edition cards based on the reference PCB, which have power-limits increased to the tune of 307 W, which facilitates not just higher GPU Boost frequencies, but also better sustainability of elevated boost clock states.

With its "Turing" family of GPUs, NVIDIA created ASIC variants along the lines of chips that board partners are allowed to factory-overclock, and those that they aren't. You can read all about that in our older article. Normally, the TU104-400-A1 silicon is intended for baseline cards such as the ASUS RTX 2080 Turbo, whereas the TU104-400A-A1 goes into factory-overclocked products such as ASUS RTX 2080 ROG Strix. The discovery of TU104-400A-A1 on the ASUS RTX 2080 Turbo makes it the cheapest option for enthusiasts wanting to flash it with BIOS of other reference-PCB based cards that have TU104-400A-A1 chips to increase power limits, and then simply pairing the card with custom liquid cooling, to manually overclock further, thanks to the increased power limits. We're not sure you can flash Founders Edition BIOS on cards that have reference-design PCBs but non-A ASICs.

Gigabyte is now readying a new hybrid cooled graphics card, based on NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2080. Dubbed the Aorus Xtreme WaterForce (GV-N2080AORUSX W-8GC). It uses an all-in-one liquid cooler based design that makes use of a 240 mm radiator. The copper baseplate is quite large and receives heat from the cards VRM via a copper heat pipe, thus cooling all major components. The fans are of course RGB LED-equipped, which goes with the illuminated translucent wing on the shroud. Overall it is an attractive card if you have the extra space for its cooling solution.

This model isn't just a standard offering with a fancy cooler, Gigabyte has equipped it with a sizable overclock, pushing the card to 1890 MHz the same core clocks as the Aorus Xtreme air and the waterblock equipped WaterForce WB. Memory speeds see a speed bump as well of 140 MHz which pushes the overall memory clock speed up to 14140 MHz. The board design is also based on the Aorus Xtreme and Aorus Xtreme Waterforce WB cards and comes with a 12+2 phase design and dual 8-pin power connectors. Display connectivity is also the same as the other models and includes; 3x DisplayPort, 3x HDMI, and a single USB TypeC.

While GALAX has introduced numerous solid graphics cards over the years, their product names are a bit of a mouthful, or in some cases just odd. The latest example being their EX OC "White Gamer" line, which, let's face it, is a tad off-putting to say the least. Of course we know that GALAX aren't racist, but you have to wonder how something like this happens. It probably comes down to marketing focusing too much on buzzwords, forgetting the context of said words in the process. In my humble opinion you can trace it back to the fact every company has to stick "Gaming" in every product name or on every box. In this case you would think the fact the product is a graphics card for gaming would be enough to get the point across.

It all started with MSI in 2013, when NVIDIA Kepler was all the rage. They released the "MSI GTX 780 Gaming", which was an amazing product, better than what most other graphics cards vendors had to offer. Competitors were surprised by the success of MSI's new cards and instead of searching into the reasons for their own products failures, their conclusion was that it must be the "Gaming" name, that drove the sales, so suddenly everybody started to fluff up their product names.