HP introduced its latest gaming hardware and software designed for today's gamers with the powerful OMEN 16 and OMEN 17, bright and customizable OMEN 25i Gaming Monitor, and community gaming with OMEN OASIS Beta feature in OMEN Gaming Hub. The company also debuted Victus by HP, its next-generation mainstream-level gaming PC portfolio, with a 16-inch laptop.

Gaming continues to be an outlet for entertainment and connecting with friends. Two out of three people are spending more time watching videos and gaming than they did prior to the pandemic, with one in four gaming three to four hours more and almost one in five gaming six to ten hours more a week6. HP's next-generation gaming portfolio is designed for both veteran gamers and enthusiast explorers to be entertained, connected, and empowered to progress in their favorite games.

GIGABYTE is readying a new brand-extension for its graphics cards lineup, called EAGLE. It will join the company's existing brand extensions, namely Aorus Gaming and WindForce series. Regulatory filings by GIGABYTE with the Eurasian Economic Commission (EEC) sees the company launching as many as 30 individual SKUs, spanning nearly every current-generation GPU. On the AMD front, we have cards based on the RX 5700 XT, RX 5700, RX 5500 XT, and the yet-unannounced RX 5600 XT, with its 6 GB of memory.

The NVIDIA lineup includes all its GTX 16-series and RTX 20-series SKUs, with the exception of the RTX 2080 Ti. The inclusion of RTX 2070 and RTX 2080, SKUs believed to have been passively retired with the advent of the RTX 2070 Super and RTX 2080 Super, is interesting. It shows that NVIDIA hasn't given up on the two. The RTX 2070's second-coming in particular, was reportedly triggered by supply shortages in the RX 5700 series, giving NVIDIA room to sell something around the $400-450 mark, bang in the middle of the RTX 2060 Super and RTX 2070 Super.

According to a source cited by China's Ithome, AMD has contacted AIB with regards to launch plans for the company's RX 5500, the mainstream graphics cards based on Navi 14. For now, there are still no news on any RX 5500 XT graphics cards from the company - whether or not there is such as SKU being prepared for later launch is still unclear. The launch date of December 12th is in line with previous release expectations, and should be a full launch with multiple AIB partners releasing their solutions.

The RX 5500 has been tested to be acompetitor to NVIDIA's GTX 1660 graphics card, replacing AMD's RX 570, RX 580 and RX 590 graphics cards from the product stack. The Navi 14 chip that the RX 5500 is based on TSMC's 7 nm manufacturing technology, is configured with 22 RDNA compute units (1,408 stream processors), and features a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory bus. VRAM-wise it will be available in either 4 GB or 8 GB of memory running at 14 Gbps data-rate, yielding 224 GB/s of memory bandwidth. GPU clocks are listed as 1670 MHz "Boost," and 1845 MHz "Gaming". Typical board power is rated at 110 W, with a single 8-pin PCIe power input being enough to deliver required power save for some more exotic AIB designs.

German publication Heise.de got its hands on a Radeon RX 5500 (OEM) graphics card and put it through their test bench. The numbers yielded show exactly what caused NVIDIA to refresh its entry-level with the GeForce GTX 1650 Super and the GTX 1660 Super. The RX 5500, in Heise's testing was found matching the previous-generation RX 580, and NVIDIA's current-gen GTX 1660 (non-Super). When compared to factory-overclocked RX 580 NITRO+ and GTX 1660 OC, the RX 5500 yielded similar 3DMark Firestrike performance, with 12,111 points, compared to 12,744 points of the RX 580 NITRO+, and 12,525 points of the GTX 1660 OC.

The card was put through two other game tests at 1080p, "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," and "Far Cry 5." In SoTR, the RX 5500 put out 59 fps, which was slightly behind the 65 fps of the RX 580 NITRO+, and 69 fps of the GTX 1660 OC. In "Far Cry 5," it scored 72 fps, which again is within reach of the 75 fps of the RX 580 NITRO+, and 85 fps of the GTX 1660 OC. It's important to once again note that the RX 580 and GTX 1660 in this comparison are factory-overclocked cards, while the RX 5500 is ticking a stock speeds. Heise also did some power testing, and found the RX 5500 to have a lower idle power-draw than the GTX 1660 OC, at 7 W compared to 10 W of the NVIDIA card; and 12 W of the RX 580 NITRO+. Gaming power-draw is also similar to the GTX 1660, with the RX 5500 pulling 133 W compared to 128 W of the GTX 1660. This short test shows that the RX 5500 is in the same league as the RX 580 and GTX 1660, and explains how NVIDIA had to make its recent product-stack changes.

Marketing material of AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 5500 mid-range graphics cards leaked to the web, providing insights to the product's positioning in AMD's stack. The October 2019 dated document lists out the card's specification, performance relative to a competing NVIDIA product, and a provides a general guidance on what experience to expect form it. To begin with, the RX 5500 desktop graphics card is based on the 7 nm "Navi 14" silicon, and is configured with 22 RDNA compute units, amounting to 1,408 stream processors. The chip features a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory bus, which is paired with either 4 GB or 8 GB of memory running at 14 Gbps data-rate, yielding 224 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Its GPU clocks are listed as 1670 MHz "gaming," and 1845 MHz boost. The company didn't mention nominal clocks. The typical board power is rated at 110 W, and a single 8-pin PCIe power input is deployed on the reference-design board.

The second slide is where things get very interesting. AMD tabled its product stack, and the RX 570, RX 580, and RX 590 are missing, even as the RX 560 isn't. This is probably a sign of AMD phasing out the Polaris-based 1080p cards in the very near future, and replacing them with the RX 5500, and possibly a better endowed "RX 5500 XT," if rumors of the "Navi 14" featuring more CUs are to be believed. What is surprising about this whole presentation though is that only the "RX 5500" is listed, with the "XT" nowhere in sight. Let's hope the XT version gets released further down the road. In the product stack, the RX 5500 is interestingly still being compared to the GeForce GTX 1650, with no mention of the GTX 1660. This document was probably made when the GTX 1660 Super hadn't launched. A different slide provides some guidance on what kind of experiences to expect from the various cards, rated N/A, good, better, or excellent. According to it, the RX 5500 should provide "excellent" AAA gaming at 1080p, fairly smooth gaming at high settings (graded "better"), "excellent" e-Sports gaming, and "better" 1440p gaming. The card is also "excellent" at all non-gaming graphics, such as watching 4K video, photo/video creator work, game streaming at any resolution, and general desktop use.

A collaborative effort by several Redditors discovered that AMD could carve as many as five Radeon RX 5000-series SKUs based on its upcoming 7 nm "Navi 14" GPU. They poured through thousands of lines of code in AMD's open-source GPU driver files. Among these are two mobile GPUs, and three desktop. The "Navi 14" silicon allegedly features up to 24 RDNA compute units making up 1,536 stream processors; and possibly a 128-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. The highest trim based on this silicon is the "Navi 14 XTX" variant, which goes by the commercial name Radeon RX 5500 XT. While it remains to be seen if it maxes out all 24 CUs present on the silicon, it certainly has the highest engine gaming clocks at 1717 MHz.

Next up is the Radeon RX 5500 ("Navi 14 XT"). This SKU is popularized in AMD's October 2019 product announcements. It is known to feature 22 compute units working out to 1,408 stream processors, and up to 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across the chip's 128-bit wide memory interface. Its gaming clocks are rated at 1670 MHz. The other popularized SKU is the Radeon RX 5500M ("Navi 14 XTM"). With the same core-config as the RX 5500, this SKU has slightly lesser clock-speeds contributing to a more aggressive power-management. Its gaming clocks are rated at 1448 MHz. It turns out that AMD is interested in carving out a whole different segment of GPUs based on "Navi 14," the Radeon RX 5300 series.

AMD (NASDAQ:AMD) today announced revenue for the third quarter of 2019 of $1.80 billion, operating income of $186 million, net income of $120 million and diluted earnings per share of $0.11. On a non-GAAP(*) basis, operating income was $240 million, net income was $219 million and diluted earnings per share was $0.18.

"Our first full quarter of 7 nm Ryzen, Radeon and EPYC processor sales drove our highest quarterly revenue since 2005, our highest quarterly gross margin since 2012 and a significant increase in net income year-over-year," said Dr. Lisa Su, AMD president and CEO. "I am extremely pleased with our progress as we have the strongest product portfolio in our history, significant customer momentum and a leadership product roadmap for 2020 and beyond."

It turns out that the GeForce GTX 1660 Super will be joined by another "Super" SKU by NVIDIA, the GeForce GTX 1650 Super, according to a VideoCardz report. Slated for a November 22 launch, the GTX 1650 Super appears to be NVIDIA's response to the Radeon RX 5500, which is being extensively compared to the current GTX 1650 in AMD's marketing material. While the core-configuration of the GTX 1650 Super is unknown, NVIDIA is giving it 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface, with a data-rate of 12 Gbps, working out to 192 GB/s of memory bandwidth. In comparison, the GTX 1650 uses 8 Gbps GDDR5 and achieves 128 GB/s memory bandwidth.

It remains to be seen just how much the improved memory subsystem helps the GTX 1650 Super catch up to the RX 5500, given that a maxed out TU117 silicon only has 128 more CUDA cores on offer, and AMD is claiming a 37% performance lead over the current GTX 1650 for its RX 5500. One possible way it can create the GTX 1650 Super is by tapping into the larger "TU116" silicon with 1/3rd of its memory interface disabled, and fewer CUDA cores than the GTX 1660. We'll know more in the run up to November 22.

AMD late Thursday released the Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.1 WHQL. These drivers are identical to the Adrenalin 19.10.1 Beta drivers released earlier this month, with the only difference being WHQL certification. AMD is picking up the pace with WHQL releases of Radeon Software, as more OEMs are implementing Radeon RX 5700-series and upcoming RX 5500-series GPUs, and prefer WHQL-signed drivers. The 19.10.1 drivers introduce support for AMD's new Radeon RX 5500 series graphics cards based on its new 7 nm "Navi 11" silicon, along with fixes for "Borderlands 3" running in DirectX 12 mode, optimization for "GRID," and fixes certain display problems with high refresh-rate settings.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.10.1 WHQLChange-log for 19.10.1 follows.

These could very well be the first pictures of a custom-design Radeon RX 5500 graphics card. Pictures of the purported XFX Radeon RX 5500 THICC II made it to the web courtesy VideoCardz. It's very likely that this is the RX 5500 looking at its power-connectivity, which includes just a single 8-pin PCIe input. An RX 5700-series product would at least feature an 8+6-pin input design. The display I/O is also peculiar, with not one but two dual-link DVI-D connectors (no analog pins on either), and one each of DisplayPort and HDMI. The card has the same design language as its THICC series siblings from the RX 5700-series.

The cooling solution uses two shrouds (the front shroud and the back-plate) that meet in the middle in symmetry. Two fans ventilate an aluminium fin-stack heatsink that features two or three 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes. The cooler is longer than the card itself. Based on the 7 nm "Navi 11" silicon, the Radeon RX 5500 features 22 RDNA compute units working out to 1,408 stream processors, boost frequencies of up to 1848 MHz, and up to 8 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface.

Today we released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility. Version 2.26.0 adds support for new GPUs, introduces new features, and fixes problems with existing ones. To begin with, support is added for AMD Radeon RX 5500 and RX 5500M, TU104-based NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (non-Super), and Quadro P520. Fake detection has been added for various "Kepler" based GTX 10-series knockoffs.

With this release we fixed an application crash during BIOS extraction on nearly all NVIDIA GPUs. Another crash that appears when the application is launched on machines with AMD "Navi" GPUs without drivers installed. The ASUS ROG skin has been fixed to properly show the "Close" button in the bottom. We also improved the memory junction temperature tooltip on AMD "Navi" to denote that the hottest chip's junction temperature is being reported, and not an average across all chips. Last version's AMD Navi fan-stop fix has been reverted since AMD fixed the issue since their 19.9.1 drivers. PCIe and CrossFire state detection has been fixed for AMD "Navi" and "Vega 20" based graphics cards. Grab it from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.26.0The change-log follows.

AMD today released a newest update to its Radeon Adrenalin driver. Dubbed version 19.10.1, the new release brings many new bug fixes and improvements to the table. For starters it will enable support for the newly released Radeon RX 5500 an 5500M desktop and mobile graphics cards, so now the buyers of these cards will have a driver from day one to start their experience smoothly. Additionally, support for the upcoming game "GRID", set to release on October 11th, is also included with this driver release.

Download the Adrenalin 19.10.1 Driver here.The change-log follows.

Today, AMD announced the Radeon RX 5500 series graphics products, harnessing groundbreaking RDNA gaming architecture to deliver the ultimate in high-performance, high-fidelity 1080p gaming. The AMD Radeon RX 5500 series includes the Radeon RX 5500 graphics card that will be available in desktop PCs from leading manufacturers and graphics cards from board partners, as well as the Radeon RX 5500M GPU for notebook PCs. Top system providers worldwide are embracing the new products, with HP and Lenovo planning to offer Radeon RX 5500 graphics cards in their high performance desktop gaming PCs beginning this November, and Acer planning to offer systems with the cards beginning this December. In addition, later this month MSI is expected to launch the world's first gaming notebook powered by AMD Ryzen processors and Radeon RX 5500M GPUs.

"Based on feedback and insights from global gaming communities, gamers rank graphics as the most critical component for speed and performance," said Johnson Jia, senior vice president and general manager, Consumer Business of Intelligent Devices Group, Lenovo. "That's why the Lenovo Legion T730 and T530 gaming towers and the IdeaCentre T540 Gaming desktop pack in AMD's latest Radeon RX graphics - satisfying players' need for high-fidelity visuals and lightning-fast frame-rates to fully immerse into their gameplay." "MSI Alpha 15 is a new chapter for us, and we're excited to partner with AMD to combine the latest 7 nm technology found in the Radeon RX 5500M GPU and MSI's gaming DNA for our gamers," said Charles Chiang, CEO of MSI.

It turns out that the Radeon RX 5500 is arriving a lot sooner than expected, with VideoCardz reporting an October 7th product launch for the card. It's also being reported that the SKU will launch as the Radeon RX 5500 XT, with board partner GIGABYTE being ready with half a dozen custom-design cards, all of which with 8 GB of memory. In a separate report, VideoCardz also confirmed that the RX 5500 series will be based on the latest "Navi" family of GPUs that use the company's latest RDNA architecture, and will be built on the 7 nm silicon fabrication process. What's more, the RX 5500 will reportedly use 8 GB of modern GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory bus. A WCCFTech report predicts the RX 5500 (XT) will feature 22 RDNA compute units, which works out to 1,408 stream processors.

With these specs, we can see where AMD is going with the RX 5500 (XT). The company wants a viable successor to the Radeon RX 580 or even the RX 590, which it can sell around the $200-250 price-range, competing with a spectrum of NVIDIA GPUs, including the GeForce GTX 1650 and the GTX 1660. The card would target 1080p AAA gaming with high-thru-ultra settings, and 1080p eSports gaming at high refresh-rates. NVIDIA is already preparing a response to the RX 5500 in the form of the GTX 1650 Super and the GTX 1660 Super, which come with beefed up specs.