Capcom, the Japanese video game maker, has today announced specification requirements for its upcoming Resident Evil Village PC game, needed to play the game at certain resolutions/graphics presets. Starting with the minimum settings, Capcom is thinking of 1080p 60 FPS gaming. To achieve that you need at least an Intel Core i5-7500 or AMD Ryzen 3 1200 processor paired with 8 GB of RAM. The minimum specification also requires a DirectX 12 capable GPU, with 4 GB of VRAM, just like NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 560. The company notes that using this configuration, framerate may drop below 60 FPS during heavy loads. If you want to use raytracing, which is now also present in the game engine, you must switch to at least NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 or AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT.

The recommended specification of course requires much beefier hardware compared to the minimum specification. If you want to have a steady 1080p 60 FPS experience without frame drops, Capcom recommends an Intel Core i7 8700 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, paired with 16 GB of RAM, and a GPU like an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon RX 5700. However, if you want the raytracing feature you need a better GPU. To achieve a 4K resolution with 60 FPS and raytracing turned on, the GPU needs a bump to at least an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 or AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card. You can check out the game requirements in greater detail below.

HKEPC's retail market scouts discovered that some AMD Ryzen 5 3600 desktop processors are shipping in paperboard boxes meant for the company's Ryzen 3000G series "Picasso" desktop APUs. Depending on factors such as iGPU, or the size of the included cooling solution, AMD uses common box sizes among various processor models. The largest cube-shaped boxes hold SKUs with the largest Wraith Prism RGB coolers, a slightly smaller, through still cube-shaped box is meant for SKUs with the Wraith Spire. Smaller cuboid boxes are meant for SKUs that either have the smaller Wraith Stealth coolers, or completely exclude a cooling solution.

Much of the SKU differentiation comes from a prominent brand extension (3/5/7/9) motif on the front-face, besides the top label that lists out the model name, OPN, serial number, and doubles up as a security seal. Boxes for the company's APUs (processors with integrated graphics), however, have a prominent "processor with AMD Radeon graphics" chrome insert on the front- and top faces. The 3600 shipping in such a box could confuse some buyers, particularly those shopping in brick-and-mortar stores, as they'd expect an iGPU where none exists. It's only the SKU sticker on the top-face that has the cautionary note "discrete graphics required." Other retail boxes (meant for non-APU products) have this note prominently printed on the box.

AMD earlier this week trimmed prices of its retail 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processors in the US, through promotions exclusive to Newegg and Amazon. The company is also including 3-month Xbox Game Pass subscriptions with select models. The discounts see the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X go for $449, $50 lower than its MSRP of $499. The company's fastest 8-core/16-thread part, the Ryzen 7 3800X, is now going for $359, or $40 lower than its $399 MSRP. The popular Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core/16-thread chip is selling for $304, a $25 discount from its $329 MSRP. AMD is applying similar $25 cuts to its 6-core/12-thread parts, with the Ryzen 5 3600X going for $224 compared to its $249 MSRP, and the popular Ryzen 5 3600 priced at $174 compared to its $199 MSRP.

Here are two of the first pictures of Intel's upcoming Core i5-10400 processor, based on the company's 10th generation, 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" silicon. With its 10th generation, Intel is looking to bolster its Core i5 desktop processor series by introducing HyperThreading and increased L3 cache to existing price-points. The i5-10400 is hence a 6-core/12-thread processor with 12 MB of shared L3 cache at its disposal, compared to 9th and 8th generation Core i5 desktop chips being 6-core/6-thread with 9 MB of L3 cache.

The Core i5-10400 succeeds the popular Core i5-9400/F and its equally popular predecessor, the i5-8400. The iGPU-devoid i5-9400F in particular owed its popularity to Intel pricing it $15-20 less than the standard i5-9400. The upcoming i5-10400 is expected to be priced under the $200 mark, with the i5-10400F being similarly discounted. Both chips feature identical CPU specs: 2.90 GHz nominal clock speeds, up to 4.30 GHz maximum Turbo Boost, and 4.00 GHz all-core Turbo Boost. As the chip lacks an unlocked multiplier, its TDP is reportedly rated at 65 W. The chip will compete with AMD's Ryzen 5 3600 for sub-$200 supremacy. The 10th generation Core desktop processor family is built in the new LGA1200 package, and launches alongside the new Intel 400-series chipset, in April.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is announcing new high-capacity, high-performance memory kit specifications based on 32 GB modules across several memory series, including Trident Z Royal DDR4-3200 CL16 256 GB (32 GB x8), Trident Z Royal DDR4-4000 CL18 128 GB (32 GB x4), Trident Z Neo DDR4-3600 CL18 128 GB (32 GB x4), and Trident Z Neo DDR4-3800 C18 64 GB (32 GB x2). Built with the latest high-density 16Gb components, these DDR4 memory kits are the perfect choice for pushing the performance limits of high memory capacity.

With the availability of higher density memory at the consumer level, G.SKILL memory is pushing the performance boundary to DDR4-3200 on current HEDT platforms with up to 8 modules of 32 GB for a total of 256 GB. As shown in the screenshot below, the Trident Z Royal DDR4-3200 CL16 256 GB (32GBx8) is validated on the latest X299-based ASUS ROG Rampage VI Extreme Encore motherboard and the Intel Core i9-9820X processor. Such extremely high-capacity memory kits are the ideal choice for powerful workstations or for systems running multiple virtual machines.

AMD's 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processors were rumored to open to pre-orders today, so you could have your swanky new CPU upgrade in place by 7/7. It turns out, that's not the case. AMD in a statement to TechPowerUp, confirmed that there won't be any pre-orders opened by retailers today (1st July), and there is no information of any such pre-orders date. Customers will likely have to wait until the 7th to pick their PIB form their friendly neighbourhood PC hardware store, or order one online. The statement from AMD in German language translates as follows:

We haven't announced any pre-order plans - global launch is on 7/7.

AMD is launching five new processor SKUs this July, including the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X, the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 3800X and 3700X, and the 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 3600X and 3600. Prices over previous-generation products remain flat wherever applicable. The 3700X is being launched at the same $329.99 MSRP as the 2700X, the 3600X at a slightly higher $249.99 compared to the $239.99 the 2600X launched at; and the 3600 aims to be the sub-$200 king at the same $199.99 price as the 2600. The 3800X is being launched as a premium 8-core option at $399.99, and the 3900X can be yours for $499.99. We expect most online retailers to mark these prices up by 5-10 percent as they normally do.

In more evidence of AMD having finally achieved or exceeded IPC parity with Intel, a mid-range Ryzen 5 3600 processor beats Intel's current mainstream-desktop flagship processor, the Core i9-9900KF, at the PassMark - CPU Mark single-thread benchmark. The official performance chart for PassMark shows the Ryzen 5 3600 leading the pack, with 2,981 points, a score which is 1.77 percent higher than that of the Core i9-9900KF on the same chart. It also beats the Core i9-9900K by 2.86 percent. Interestingly, the chart does not mention whether the Ryzen 5 3600 is running at its stock frequency of 3.60 GHz with 4.20 GHz boost, or whether it's overclocked. The i9-9900KF boosts to 5.00 GHz. For a single-threaded benchmark, it's generally assumed that the maximum boost multiplier is engaged on both chips. The score can't be dismissed due to this uncertainty, either, because AMD achieving a 1-2 percent IPC uplift over "Skylake" (fine, "Coffee Lake,") isn't impossible given the leaps the company made in the past three years.

El Chapuzas Informático has posted an early review of the AMD Ryzen 5 3600 which was tested on a Gigabyte Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi motherboard, G.Skill FlareX DDR4 @ 3200 MHz and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti FE graphics card. Looking at the data presented, it becomes clear the performance on offer if real looks to be quite impressive. The site compared AMD's latest offering to the Intel Core i9-9900K and the AMD Ryzen 7 2700X with the Ryzen 5 3600 typically slotting in between the two and in some cases beating both. This is interesting to note as the Ryzen 7 2700X offers similar clock speeds to the Ryzen 5 3600 but the former has a 2C/4T advantage. Even so, the newer AMD CPU tends to outpace the Zen+ based Ryzen 7 2700X in multiple tests. In Cinebench R15, for example, the Ryzen 5 3600 had the lead in single-core performance while multi-core was held by the Ryzen 7 2700X. Cinebench R20 roughly mimics these results as well.

While memory latency was quite high 80.5 ns, it didn't seem to impact performance to any serious degree. In fact, in wPrime 2.10 32M running on a single core showed the Ryzen 5 3600 coming in just behind the Intel Core i9-9900K while being faster than the previous generation Intel Core i7-8700K, i7-8600K, and AMD Ryzen 7 2700X and 1700X. That said, the previous generation Ryzen processors were far slower here were as the Intel chips were still competitive. In the multi-core test, the Ryzen 7 2700X took a slight lead while the Ryzen 7 1700X was a bit slower than the Ryzen 5 3600. One interesting quirk of note was the lack of write speed on the memory with the Ryzen 5 3600 only hitting 25.6 GB/s which is quite a drop from the 47 GB/s seen on the Ryzen 7 1700X and Ryzen 7 2700X. However this could be due to the X470 motherboard being used or maybe an issue with sub timings on the memory, something that will need to be verified in future reviews.

AMD at its 2019 Computex keynote unveiled its Ryzen 3000 series desktop processors with the more glamorous Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 9 SKUs while glossing over its more high-volume Ryzen 5 3000 series. It turns out that AMD will launch even these chips on the 7th of July. The Ryzen 5 lineup includes the 3600X and 3600. Both these chips are 6-core/12-thread, and AMD is taking the fight to Intel's 9th generation Core i5 series by not touching the core-count and instead focusing on higher IPC and clock-speeds than Intel's offerings.

The Ryzen 5 3600X ticks at 3.80 GHz, with a boost frequency of 4.40 GHz, which is among the highest in the lineup. Its TDP is rated at 95W. The Ryzen 5 3600 is the 'cooler' offering of the two, with 3.60 GHz nominal and 4.20 GHz boost clocks, and 65W TDP. You get the same 512 KB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache, as the 8-core Ryzen 7 series offerings. AMD is expected to price the two along expected lines, with the 3600X going for roughly USD $239, and the 3600 at $199.