Benchmarking company Futuremark has recently introduced a new benchmark to its VRMark suite, the Cyan Room, which brings the latest in rendering technologies to the VR world. Futuremark expects this test to leverage the latest hardware and software developments in DX12 to better utilize today's GPUs still somewhat untapped power. In something of a plot twist, AMD's Radeon architectures (in the form of Polaris 20-based RX 580 and Vega-based RX Vega 56 and RX Vega 64) trump NVIDIA's equivalent offerings in pure performance numbers.

Testing was performed by pairing a Ryzen 7 1800X CPU with a selection of graphics cards from both AMD and NVIDIA, supported by 16GB of DDR4-2933 system memory, and Windows 10 x64. In a post on Radeon gaming, Scott Wasson said that "The Cyan Room (...) highlights AMD's continued performance leadership on this (VR) front," adding that "the Radeon GPUs we tested have clear leads over their direct competition. What's more, all the Radeon GPUs are meeting the key requirement for today's VR headsets by delivering at least 90 frames per second in this test."

ASUS recently released BIOS updates for its socket AM4 motherboards based on AMD X370 and B350 chipsets, which implement AGESA 1.0.0.7, which as you'll recall, paves the way for implementing support for upcoming processors, based on AMD's Vega-infused "Raven Ridge" APU silicon, and the 12 nm refreshed Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" silicon due for February 2018. ASUS published, and later withdrew the BIOS updates as the media got whiff of them.

The next parts for AMD's mainstream-desktop socket AM4 platform will be Ryzen "Raven Ridge" APUs, which let you finally use the HDMI and DisplayPorts on your motherboards. "Raven Ridge" combines a quad-core "Zen" CPU with a 640-stream processor integrated graphics based on the "Vega" graphics architecture. The "late-2017 or early-2018" time-line for these chips still appears to stand. RedGamingTech suggests that AMD's answer to Intel "Coffee Lake" processors, the 12 nm Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" processors, could be out by as early (or late) as February 2018. These chips could be previewed or teased at the company's events held on the sidelines of the 2018 International CES.

The first product based on Intel's ambitious "Kaby Lake-G" multi-chip module, which combines a quad-core "Kaby Lake-H" die with a graphics die based on AMD "Vega" architecture, will be a NUC (next unit of computing), and likely the spiritual successor to Intel's "Skull Canyon" NUC. The first picture of the motherboard of this NUC was leaked to the web, revealing a board that's only slightly smaller than the mini-ITX form-factor.

The board draws power from an external power brick, and appears to feature two distinct VRM areas for the CPU and GPU components of the "Kaby Lake-G" MCM SoC. The board feature two DDR4 SO-DIMM slots which are populated with dual-channel memory, and an M.2 NVMe slot, holding an SSD. There are two additional SATA 6 Gb/s ports, besides a plethora of other connectivity options.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the graphics subsystem information, monitor, and diagnostic tool for PC enthusiasts and gamers. Version 2.5.0 introduces a slew of new features, support for new graphics cards, under the hood improvements, and bug fixes. To begin with, we've re-done the main tab to show graphics driver date and WHQL status in new fields. A refresh button is added, so you can manually refresh graphics card information, after a driver update for example. The BIOS string for NVIDIA BIOSes are now consistently cased, and driver version name titled "NVIDIA" instead of the retired "ForceWare" brand.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.5.0 adds support for Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, with its new WDDM 2.3 driver model, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1050 Ti Mobile (GP106), Quadro GP100, and Quadro M620; from the AMD stable, support is added for Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Edition, and FirePro M4150; from Intel, support for Intel UHD 600-series "Coffee Lake" graphics was added. Among the new sensors added are Vega SOC Clock, VR SOC and VR Mem. The internal NVFlash module used to extract video BIOS, has been updated. A crash associated with failed BIOS uploads to our database, has been fixed. Grab TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.5.0 from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.5.0The change-log follows.

Rumors of the unthinkable silicon collaboration between Intel and AMD are true, as Intel announced its first multi-chip module (MCM), which combines a 14 nm Core "Coffee Lake-H" CPU die, with a specialized 14 nm GPU die by AMD, based on the "Vega" architecture. This GPU die has its own HBM2 memory stack over a 1024-bit wide memory bus. Unlike on the AMD "Vega 10" and "Fiji" MCMs, in which a silicon interposer is used to connect the GPU die to the memory stacks, Intel deployed the Embedded Multi-Die Interconnect Bridge (EMIB), a high-density substrate-level wiring. The CPU and GPU dies talk to each other over PCI-Express gen 3.0, wired through the package substrate.

This multi-chip module, with a tiny Z-height, significantly reduces the board footprint of the CPU + discrete graphics implementation, when compared to having separate CPU and GPU packages with the GPU having discrete GDDR memory chips, and enables a new breed of ultra portable notebooks that pack a solid graphics muscle. The MCM should enable devices as thin as 11 mm. The specifications of the CPU and dGPU dies remain under the wraps. The first devices with these MCMs will launch by Q1 2018.A video presentation follows.

AMD released the latest version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition drivers. Version 17.10.3. fixes two major issues that are affecting RX Vega graphics card owners in particular. The problem with The Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus game client crashing or hanging upon launch has been fixed. So does the other issue involving the Destiny 2 client's instability when the user is playing the sixth mission on the single player campaign.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.10.3

BIOSTAR announces the availability of its Radeon RX Vega 64 VAVAT5VM88 graphics card in selected regions. The BIOSTAR RX Vega 64 epitomizes the best in high-end graphics with high resolutions, high frame rates and exceptional power efficiency with the all new Vega architecture. Building the ultimate gaming system with the recently introduced BIOSTAR RACING Z370GT6 motherboard for the new 8th generation Intel Core processors, makes these the perfect compliment.

BIOSTAR RADEON RX VEGA 64 (Air Cooling)
The Vega 64 is one of AMD's newest and most powerful graphics cards today featuring 8GB HBM2, the latest in graphics memory technology, with a 2048-bit memory interface and 4096 stream processors. It delivers smooth extreme gaming performance in the newest DirectX 12 and Vulkan games making it perfect for gaming and also for professional content creation. The Vega 64 also offers some of the highest hash rates in crypto mining, thanks to its powerful yet power efficient usage.

The "Zen" CPU micro-architecture seems to be turning AMD's fortunes as it reported its first black quarter in years. The 14 nm "Zeppelin" or "Summit Ridge" die is at the heart of this change. This 8-core CPU die is implemented on everything from performance mobile packages, to single-die mainstream-desktop socket AM4 under the Ryzen 3, Ryzen 5, and Ryzen 7-series, 2-die high-end desktop (HEDT) multi-chip modules under Ryzen Threadripper, and the 4-die enterprise multi-chip modules under the EPYC brand. The next logical step for AMD with its new "Zen" CPU IP was to fuse it with the "Vega" graphics architecture, and give its APU lineup a much needed overhaul. At the heart of this move is the new 14 nm "Raven Ridge" silicon.

While "Summit Ridge" is the combination of two "Zen" CCX (quad-core CPU complex) units making up an 8-core CPU die that lacks integrated graphics, the "Raven Ridge" silicon combines one "Zen" CCX with an integrated graphics core based on the "Vega" architecture. AMD's new Infinity Fabric interconnect ferries data between the CCX and the iGPU, and not an internal PCIe link. The CCX houses four "Zen" CPU cores with 64 KB of L1I cache, 32 KB of L1D cache, 512 KB of dedicated L2 cache, and 4 MB of L3 cache shared between the four cores.

ASUS may have been among the first to unveil its custom-design Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics cards with the ROG Strix Radeon RX Vega 64 (model: ROG-STRIX-RXVEGA64-O8G-GAMING), but kept its clock-speeds under the wraps. The company updated its product page, revealing the clock speeds. Out of the box, the card is clocked at 1298 MHz core, with 1590 MHz boost, and an untouched 945 MHz memory, against AMD-reference clock speeds of "up to 1546 MHz" GPU clock for the air-cooled RX Vega 64. It still pales in comparison to the RX Vega 64 Liquid Edition SKU, which ticks at 1677 MHz core and 1750 MHz boost. The company is yet to update the product page of its ROG Strix RX Vega 56 O8G.

Remember previous reports that Gigabyte wouldn't be launching a custom version for AMD's RX Vega graphics cards? Always remember that facts can change, and what is true today could see itself being rendered a myth by lunchtime tomorrow. Case in point: previous reports pegged Gigabyte as skipping custom versions of AMD's RX Vega GPUs, due to both availability and manufacturing issues. However, as Videocardz reports (with pictures!), that may no longer be the case.

Apparently, Gigabyte has received a new batch of AMD RX Vega GPUs just in time for the mid-October expected release window of RX Vega custom cards, and are already at work on a Gaming OC custom version of the graphics card with a dual fan configuration (likely a revised WindForce 2X cooler). The card is expected to feature an output configuration of 3x HDMI + 3x DisplayPort, and in Videocardz image comparison, occupies slightly more space in our usual three dimensions than the AMD reference design (as expected).

AMD's Zen-based Ryzen and Threadripper have been said by the company as representing the "worst case scenario" of performance for their architecture. This is based on the fact that there are clear areas for improvement that AMD's engineers were keenly aware of even at the moment of Zen's tapping-out; inadvertently, some features or improvements were left on the chopping block due to time and budget constraints. As unfortunate as this is - who wouldn't love to have even more performance on their AMD processors - this also means AMD has a clear starting point in terms of improving performance of their Zen micro-architecture.

Spanish website Informatica Cero have gotten their hands on what they say is an exclusive, real piece of information from inside AMD, which shows the company's CPU roadmap until 2019, bringing some new details with it. On the desktop side, there's mention of AMD's "Pinacle Ridge" as succeeding the current Zen-based "Summit Ridge" Ryzen CPUs in 2018. These leverage the same Summit Ridge architecture, but with a performance uplift; this plays well into those reports of 12 nm being used to manufacture the second-generation Ryzen: it's an AMD tick, so to say. As such, the performance uplift likely comes from increased frequencies at the same power envelope, due to 12 nm's denser manufacturing design.

Yes, this is the third post today about AMD introducing multi GPU support for RX Vega with their Crimson ReLive 17.9.2 beta drivers but it had to be made. First up, the caveats- we were only able to test the driver on a CrossFire setup involving one RX Vega 64 and one RX Vega 56 GPU so results with two of the same may differ. Secondly, these are beta drivers so there is a level of lenience here I am willing to afford to AMD. That said, the driver which came with its own announcement and internal results had to show something good and this means showing good scaling across multiple games.

The driver allows CrossFire to be enabled with a mix of the two Vega 10 SKUs, and we set about testing a few games from our GPU benchmark suite using the same testing methodology as always. Tests were done at 4K to minimize a CPU bottleneck of any kind, and the games tested include some of the most popular games today including some that AMD themselves used in the announcement. However, after a few hours of testing, we can simply not recommend using the driver for CrossFire- at least for a mixed setup as we did. More on this after the break.

First AMD announced they were releasing it, but now they actually have. Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition 17.9.2 drivers brings with it CrossFire support for two RX Vega 64 or 56. AMD claims to have over 80% scaling with two RX Vega 64 cards in CrossFire in a few games as we saw before, and now they get to also support multi-GPU game profiles in addition to single GPU ones. In that regards, we have a multi-GPU profile included here for Project Cars 2 which drops in a few hours on Steam.

AMD has also fixed an issue with the installer as well as Hearts of Iron IV, but those looking for a solution to the flickering issues in games including Overwatch will still have to wait unfortunately. There is a list of known issues provided at well, which you can take a look at after the break. As always, you can download the installer right here via the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.9.2 Beta

MSI's "custom" take on AMD's RX Vega graphics card has made an appearance in front of the camera. Dubbed Air Boost edition, this is really a glorified, MSI-branded reference edition Vega, with the same blower-type cooler that AMD seems to have used since forever. It keeps to MSI's Gaming X color scheme (and AMD's own at that) with black and red colors, and breathes custom innovation in the increased breathing space on the I/O port's second slot, since all 3x DisplayPort and 1x HDMI connectors have been moved to the first slot. As recent reports peg AMD's AIB's custom cards as coming only towards the second half of October, it seems that for now, this is the most "custom" edition of a Vega graphics card we're going to get.

AMD announced today they are bringing multi-GPU support for RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 with their upcoming Radeon Crimson ReLive Edition 17.9.2 drivers. This CrossFire support is for two GPUs only, so it appears AMD is going on the same path as NVIDIA in not having official support for three or more GPUs, which by itself is a point of discussion. Note that these drivers are not out yet, and this announcement serves to alert the user base to what is coming up.

AMD also provided a (low resolution, we are working on a suitable replacement) internal result chart comparing gaming performance with average FPS as the metric, for two RX Vega 64 cards relative to one. We see very impressive scaling in some games such as Far Cry Primal, Metro Last Night Redux, Sniper Elite 4, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt a performance increase of more than 80 percent compared to the single GPU performance. As usual, take these numbers as an indication of how things go since we do not have more details available on the testing methodology at this point either. Lastly, no word yet on what else has changed with these drivers but hopefully AMD have addressed the ongoing bugs with Overwatch at the very least.

Not to be held back by silicon fabrication process limitations like in the past, AMD will build its second-generation Ryzen CPUs and Radeon Vega GPUs on the new 12 nanometer LP (low power) FinFET process by GlobalFoundries. From the looks of it, "2nd generation Ryzen" doesn't seem to be the same as "Zen2" (a micro-architectural advancement due to be built on the 7 nm process), and is more likely an optical shrink of existing 14 nm IP to the 12 nm process, giving AMD the headroom to increase yields, and clock speeds across the board. The 12 nm switch allows AMD to roll out a new "generation" of Ryzen processors as early as the first half of 2018.

The "Vega 10" silicon could be another key piece of AMD IP on the receiving end of an optical shrink to 12 nm, which will give AMD much needed power savings, letting it increase clock speeds, and probably implement faster standards of HBM2 memory, such as 2.00 GT/s. AMD will likely label this shrunk down silicon "Vega 20." There's also the possibility of AMD building a bigger new GPUs altogether. In 2019, the company will give its CPU and GPU lineups major micro-architectural upgrades, and the switch to the 7 nm node. The new "Zen2" micro-architecture with IPC increases and new ISA instruction-sets, will be launched on the CPU side, and the new "Navi" graphics architecture will take center-stage.

Still reeling under supply issues and overpricing, AMD's Radeon RX Vega line of graphics cards may finally be available in custom-design products from the company's AIB (add-in board) partners by mid-October, according to a Hardware.fr report. ASUS was the first to announce custom-design RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56 graphics cards under its ROG Strix series, back in August. The cards were, however, nowhere to be found in the markets.

AIB partners will begin announcing their custom-design RX Vega series products in the coming weeks, with retail availability slated for mid-October. Radeon RX Vega 64 is currently available in three AMD-reference design SKUs, the standard reference-design, the premium "silver" air-cooled reference-design, which features a brushed aluminium cooler shroud and LED ornaments; and a more premium AIO liquid-cooled variant with higher clocks. The RX Vega 56 is available in vanilla standard reference-design.

A Geekbench page has just surfaced for AMD's upcoming Raven Ridge APUs, which bring both Vega graphics and Ryzen CPU cores to AMD's old "the future is Fusion" mantra. The APU in question is being tagged as AMD's Raven Ridge-based Ryzen 5 2500U, which leverages 4 Zen cores and 8 threads (via SMT) running at 2.0 GHz with AMD's Vega graphics.

According to Geekbench, the Ryzen APU scores 3,561 points in the single-core score, and 9,421 points in the multi-core score. Compared to AMD's A12-9800, which also leverages 4 cores (albeit being limited to 4 threads) running at almost double the frequency of this Ryzen 5 2500U (3.8 GHz vs the Ryzen's 2 GHz), that's 36% better single-core performance and 48% better multi-core performance. These results are really fantastic, and just show how much AMD has managed to improve their CPU (and in this case, APU) design over their Bulldozer-based iterations.

AMD's RX Vega supply has seen exceedingly limited quantities available since launch. This has been due to a number of reasons, though the two foremost that have been reported are: increased demand from cryptocurrency miners, who are looking towards maximizing their single node hashrate density through Vega's promising mining capabilities; and yield issues with AMD's Vega 10 HBM2 packaging partner, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering (ASE). It's expected that chip yield for Vega 10 is also lower per se, due to it having a 484 mm² die, which is more prone to defects than a smaller one, thus reducing the amount of fully-enabled GPUs.

AMD's production partner, GlobalFoundries, has historically been at the center of considerations on AMD's yield problems. That GlobalFoundries is seemingly doing a good job with Ryzen may not be much to say: those chips have incredibly small die sizes (192 mm²) for their number of cores. It seems that Global Foundries only hits problems with increased die sizes and complexity (which is, unfortunately for AMD, where it matters most).

When TechPowerUp released GPU-Z v2.3.0 earlier this week, AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 users who had flashed their graphics cards with the video BIOS of the higher RX Vega 64, discovered that their stream processor count had shot up from 3,584 to higher counts under 4,096. Some of these users felt it more or less explained the performance jump experienced after the BIOS flash. Some users even saw wrong stream processor-counts of their untouched RX Vega 56 reference-design cards. TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.3.0 incorrectly reports the stream processor count of flashed RX Vega 56 graphics cards, and some RX Vega 56 graphics cards out of the box; due to some under-the-hood bug in the way it reads the registers of AMD's new GPUs. We are working on an update to GPU-Z, which will fix this bug.

As we explained in our older article, flashing your RX Vega 56 with the BIOS of RX Vega 64 does not unlock stream processors, and the performance jump can be explained with the increased clock speeds. RX Vega 64 BIOS runs your RX Vega 56 reference-design graphics card at the higher reference clock speeds of 1247 MHz core, 1546 MHz boost, and 945 MHz memory; compared to the 1156/1471/800 MHz reference clocks of the RX Vega 56. This significant increase in clock speed is sufficient to explain the increased performance. Since the TMU count is tied to the number of GCN compute units visible to GPU-Z, the TMU count of certain RX Vega 56 cards is being incorrectly displayed. The upcoming update of GPU-Z addresses this as well.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the graphics subsystem information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility PC enthusiasts swear by. Version 2.3.0 adds support for new GPUs, and comes with several under the hood improvements. To begin with, GPU-Z 2.3.0 adds official support for AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 and RX Vega 56; Radeon Pro WX 7100 and WX 3100; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Mobile, GeForce MX150, and Quadro M2200. We've added a new VRM efficiency monitoring feature, and VDDC/VDDCI power readings for AMD "Polaris" based graphics cards. Also addressed are bugs with GPU and memory activity monitoring on Radeon RX 500 series; missing or incorrect information on AMD graphics cards running on 17.7.2 drivers; and a rare crash on machines with AMD CrossFire configurations.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.3.0

The change-log follows.

AMD's RX Vega is more along the lines of an original computing card that was moved over to the consumer segment for gaming workloads than the other way around. Raja Koduri himself has said something along those lines (extrapolating a little more than what he can actually say), and that much can be gleaned with at least a modicum of confidence through AMD's market positioning and overall computing push. In the argument between gamers and miners, Raja Koduri didn't have all that much to say, but for AMD, a sale is a sale, and it would seem that after some tweaking, RX Vega graphics cards can achieve much increased levels of mining efficiency than their Polaris counterparts, further showing how Vega handles compute workloads much better - and more efficiently - than traditional gaming ones.

In what is usually described as a tweetstorm, AMD's RTG leader Raja Koduri weighed in on AMD's RX Vega reception and perception from both the public and reviewers. There are some interesting tidbits there; namely, AMD's option of setting the RX vega parts at frequencies and voltages outside the optimal curve for power/performance ratios, in a bid to increase attractiveness towards the performance/$ crowds.

However, it can be said that if AMD had done otherwise, neither gamers nor reviewers would have been impressed with cards that potentially delivered less performance than their NVIDIA counterparts, while consuming more power all the same (even if consuming significantly less wattage). At the rated MSRP (and that's a whole new discussion), this RTG decision was the best one towards increasing attractiveness of RX Vega offerings. However, Raja Koduri does stress Vega's dynamic performance/watt ratios, due to the usage of specially defined power profiles.To our forum-walkers: this piece is marked as an editorial

A ChipHell forum user has done what probably others have already done in relative obscurity: trying (and succeeding) to flash a Vega 64 BIOS onto a Vega 56 graphics card. The result? Well, apparently the shaders won't unlock (at least not according to our very own GPU-Z), but interestingly, performance improves all the same. The lesser amount of shaders on the Vega 56 silicon (3585 Shaders / 224 TMUs / 64 ROPs compared to Vega 64's 4096 / 256 / 64 apparently doesn't hinder performance that much. It appears that the improved clockspeeds of Vega 56 after the BIOS flash do more than enough to offset performance loss from the lesser amount of compute resources available, bumping RX Vega's clock speeds of 1471 MHz core boost clock and 800 MHz HBM2 memory up to Vega 64's 1545 MHz core boost clock and 945 MHz HBM2 clock.

This means that Vega 56 can effectively become a Vega 64 in performance (at least where 3D Mark Fire Strike is concerned), which isn't unheard of in the relationship between AMD's top tier and second-best graphics cards. Now naturally, some Vega 56 samples may even be further overclocked than Vega 64's stock clocks, which means that there is the potential for Vega 56 to have even better performance than Vega 64. The BIOS swap should allow Vega 56 to access higher power states than its stock BIOS allows, which is one of the reasons it can unlock higher core and memory clocks than an overclocked, original BIOS Vega 56 would. However, the fact that a Vega 56 at Vega 64 clocks and a Vega 64 deliver around the same score in benchmarks definitely does raise questions on how well the extra computing resources of Vega 64 are being put to use.

UPDATE 1, 1PM UTC: The first cards have started trickling in, with Vega 56 being available on Overclockers UK for £379 ($490), and MindFactory.de for €409 (~$490, max. 2 units limit per customer on MindFactory). Note the £379 on Overclockers UK is being listed as a "Launch Only" price, so I think we can all agree on where this is headed.

UPDATE 2, 1:11 PM UTC: Stock on MindFactory.de is gone. Last information on "More than 5" sold. 4 in stock at Overclockers UK at 13:15 PM UTC. 1 in stock at 13:16 PM UTC. If you want one of these, pull the trigger; pricing will be £470 ($608) for one of these with two "free games". All gone from Overclockers UK at £379, 13:25 PM.

UPDATE 3, 1:28 PM UTC: Well, if stock existed, it was gone so fast I couldn't even press F5 in time. Stock on Newegg at $399 is gone.

August 28th marks the date when AMD's RX Vega 56 graphics card will enter retail sales (1 PM UTC). Whether or not that will happen at AMD's MSRP of $399 remains to be seen, but we are cautiously pessimistic on that front, considering what has been happening with its big brother, RX Vega 64, since its introduction to the market. Industry sources point towards a continued limited supply of Vega 64 graphics cards at least until October; and since the Vega 56 graphics card makes use of the same GPU, HBM2 memory stacks, and packaging process for its interposer, chances are it will see the same problems as its more expensive brethren.

Expect this space to be updated as soon as these cards hit retail, with the current pricing and stock availability (or unavailability, if that ends up being the case). Considering all of the above and the fact that Vega 56 is the most interesting model in the Vega family, if you want one of these at the retail $399, and paraphrasing an esteemed gaming character, you "gotta go fast".