MSI's next outing for the X399 platform seems to be the X399 SLI Plus. A downgrade from the company's X399 Gaming Pro Carbon, the X399 SLI Plus keeps all of the required features, and does away with some of the unneeded extras that are ever more creeping towards motherboards.

Specifically, the SLI Plus does away with the metallic RAM reinforcements and lowers the number of reinforced PCIe x16 slots to just two - by a wide margin, the most common configuration for the dwindling SLI or CrossFire crowds. It also sheds one extra PCIe x16 port - the Gaming Pro Carbon features 5 such ports, but the SLI Plus makes do with "only" 4, adding an extra PCIe x1 to the mix. It still features the same 3x M.2 ports, although MSI's M.2 Shield only makes its appearance on one of them, again, contrary to the Gaming Pro Carbon, which uses MSI's M.2 Shield in all three of them. All in all, it seems MSI's X399 SLI Plus motherboard does away with the extra frills, making clever cuts while keeping most of the functionality. Expect this motherboard to come in at a lower price bracket than the Gaming Pro Carbon.

Noctua today presented three high-end heatsinks for the TR4 and SP3 sockets of AMD's latest Ryzen Threadripper (X399) and Epyc platforms. The new TR4-SP3 versions of the award-winning NH-U14S, NH-U12S and NH-U9 coolers are tailored custom models that feature a larger contact surface as well as a SecuFirm2 mounting system for TR4/SP3. Supplied with Noctua's renowned NF-A15, NF-F12 and NF-A9 premium fans, the new coolers combine outstanding cooling performance with exceptional quietness of operation.

"A high-end platform usually calls for high-end cooling solutions and that's precisely the case with AMD's new Epyc and upcoming Ryzen Threadripper ecosystems", explains Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "We have therefore customized our award-winning NH-U14S, NH-U12S and NH-U9 coolers so that users can enjoy the performance and quietness of these proven premium heatsinks on the new AMD platforms."

AMD is reportedly scaling down efforts on its end to support and promote multi-GPU technologies such as CrossFire, and not in favor of open-standards such as DirectX 12 native multi-GPU, either. Speaking to GamersNexus, an AMD representative confirmed that while the new Radeon RX Vega family of graphics cards support CrossFire, the company may not allocate as many resources as it used to with older GPU launches, in promoting or supporting it.

This is keeping up with trends in the industry moving away from multi-GPU configurations, and aligns with NVIDIA's decision to dial-down investment in SLI. This also more or less confirms that AMD won't build a Radeon RX series consumer graphics product based on two "Vega 10" ASICs. At best, one can expect dual-GPU cards for the professional or GPU-compute markets, such as the Radeon Pro or Radeon Instinct brands.

There are two kinds of desktop CPU platforms. The mainstream tier runs from two cores up to eight, and it's great for gaming and general use. Its high-end sibling takes everything up a level with more cores, more memory channels, and more bandwidth for graphics and storage. A considerable upgrade in every regard, this high-end desktop platform appeals to power users, content creators, and prosumers who want to blur the line between desktop and workstation. AMD's Threadripper CPU is the latest addition to the desktop's heavyweight division, and it walks into the ring with an entourage of SocketTR4 motherboards in tow. This guide explains the ASUS and ROG family to help you pick the best X399 motherboard for your high-end desktop or gaming PC.

All of our X399 boards share core DNA that includes one-touch overclocking, refined cooling control, and improved RGB lighting. Yet they each have their own distinct flavor as well. The ROG Zenith Extreme brings Threadripper into the world of premium dream PCs with provisions for custom liquid cooling and 10G networking. With the Strix X399-E Gaming, hardcore gamers can build stylish rigs with power to spare for high-quality streaming. And then there's the Prime X399-A and its well-rounded foundation channeling the professional side of the platform's prodigious power. Which X399 motherboard should you buy for your build? Let's find out.

NVIDIA today released its latest GeForce "Game Ready" drivers. The new GeForce 382.33 WHQL drivers come game-ready for the week's big game releases - "Tekken 7," and "Star Trek Bridge Crew." It also addresses bugs such as Windows Store not opening on Windows 10 Creators Update with 3D Vision enabled on TITAN X; stuttering noticed in "Prey" with GTX 1080 Ti, extended monitors not drifting into Sleep in Windows 10 Creators Update with GTX 1070, and GTX 970 SLI machines not being able to toggle SLI unless Norton 360 is disabled or Windows is booted into "Safe Mode." Grab the driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 382.33 Game Ready Drivers

The change-log follows.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 382.05 WHQL drivers. These drivers come "Game Ready" for the week's hottest game launches, beginning with "Prey" (2017). "Prey" is the season's most anticipated first-person survival horror, and releases this Friday (5th May). In addition, the drivers also come with optimization for the indie tank shooter "Battlezone," and the latest "Gears of War 4" multi-GPU update, by including an NVIDIA SLI profile for the game. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 382.05 WHQL

I'll turn the table on its head with this article, and start by its ending: if you are one of those users willing to spend $629 on a motherboard that carries all the bells and whistles and then some, the ROG Maximus IX Extreme is probably the product for you. And the opposite is also true. This is as premium a Z270-chipset motherboard gets, I'd wager. The integrated monoblock - which covers the CPU, VRM, and M.2 slot - was designed in collaboration with Bitspower, and features embedded temperature and flow-rate sensors as well as a built-in leak detector. It joins the usual staple of Z270 features: DDR4 support up to 4,133MHz, dual PCIe 3.0 x16 slots for SLI and CrossFireX, Thunderbolt 3, USB 3.1 Type-A/C, and the aforementioned M.2 socket, which is Intel Optane-ready.

The monoblock, IO cover, logo, and RGB headers feature RGB lighting effects such as breathing, strobing, pulsing, music effect, rainbowy, and... more. The RGB lighting can even be set to change color to reflect CPU temperature and load. Even the 3.5mm audio connectors are LED-illuminated. A sparkly Christmas tree finds itself floating through my mind, for some totally unrelated reason. ASUS' exclusive (well, "exclusive-ish") features make their way to this premium motherboard, such as the pre-mounted I/O shield, strengthened SafeSlot PCI Express slots, SafeDIMM memory slots, and a copper-plated PCB edge. Asus' Extreme Engine Digi+ is composed of NexFET MOSFETs, MicroFine alloy chokes, Digi+ PWM controller, and 10K black metallic capacitors. The Maximus IX Extreme also features 12 fan headers throughout its PCB are, as well as additional temperature and flowrate sensors for anyone who wishes to use two distinct cooling loops.

NVIDIA today released the GeForce 378.92 WHQL drivers. These drivers are game-ready for "Mass Effect: Andromeda," which includes optimization, GeForce Experience optimal settings, and an SLI profile. NVIDIA is recommending SLI configurations as the game engine can take advantage of it. In addition, the drivers are also game-ready for "Rockband VR." Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 378.92 WHQL

Remember that NVIDIA driver update that I mentioned yesterday? NVIDIA has just released into the wild. Version 378.78 of its GeForce driver suite provides the optimal gaming experience for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands and includes DirectX 12 optimizations which provide additional performance increases for a variety of titles. This release also adds official support for the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, and updates the SLI profiles for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, Titanfall 2, and Tom Clancy's The Division. ANSEL support for Ghost Recon Wildlands is also baked into this update, which joins the likes of Dishonored 2, Mirror's Edge Catalyst, Watch Dogs 2, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and The Witness, with Mass Effect: Andromeda support coming in at the game's launch.

Update: According to NVIDIA, average performance gains across all titles stands at around 16%. NVIDIA boasts of a 33% (no, that isn't a typo) on Tomb Raider; 16% on Hitman; Gears of War 4 sees a boost of 10%; Ashes of the Singularity makes do with 9%; and Tom Clancy's The Division will get a 4% increase.

As always, you can get your driver fix right here on TPU. Just follow the download link below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 378.78 Drivers

Only AMD's top-of-the-line X370 chipset will support competing NVIDIA's SLI technology. AMD's next-in-line B350 eschews SLI support but retains CrossFire compatibility, while the low-end A320 chipset will offer no support for any such multi-GPU technologies. While this may seem a move by AMD to purposely gimp NVIDIA products on its platforms, it stands to reason that even enthusiasts tend to stay away from multi-GPU solutions and their associated problems. Besides, AMD will surely avoid any way of giving NVIDIA more funds than the company already has, by way of paying the "SLI Tax" on every chipset it ships. By limiting SLI support to its highest-end chipsets, AMD shaves some expenses from licensing efforts, whilst keeping SLI support to those that are, in truth, more likely to use them: power users, who will certainly spare no expense in springing to a X370-based platform.

As of now, some details remain unclear in the overall feature-set and compatibility differences between AMD's upcoming AM4 chipsets, but it would seem that only AMD's X370 chipset manages to leverage the full 20 PCIe lanes (18x if you run 2x SATA connections) delivered by AMD's Ryzen CPUs. This would look like a way for AMD to impose a "motherboard tax" on users, by limiting the number of PCIe lanes available on lower-end motherboards, and thus urging them to take the next step to their own X370. Apparently, PCIe lanes are not a differentiating factor between AMD chipsets (with X370, B350 and A320 all offering 4 native lanes), only their ability to access (or not) Ryzen's own 20.

Not much time until all of this is adequately cleared up, though.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, professional manufacturer of graphics cards and motherboards, is proud to announce its latest motherboard for enthusiasts and gamers featuring the latest Intel Z270 chipset to support LGA1151 processors including the newly announced 7th generation Core processors from Intel with their new iGame Z270 Gamer. Customization motherboard. This latest products joins the family of iGame enthusiast and performance series of motherboards and graphics cards which focuses on not just the needs of gamers for a faster and robust system but serves as a canvas to promote their creativity and idea with great customization options.

The STRIX series of motherboards for ASUS are characterized by their multi-color (RGB) LED flair over practical mid-segment motherboards. These boards come with headers that simplify RGB LED case lighting using the ASUS Aura software. The company is ready with four such boards, the STRIX Z270H-Gaming and STRIX Z270E-Gaming in the ATX form-factor; the STRIX Z270G-Gaming in the micro-ATX form-factor; and the STRIX Z270I-Gaming, in the mini-ITX form-factor. The Z270H-Gaming is the lighter of the two ATX boards in terms of features, although you still get a 6-phase VRM, two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots with SLI support, two M.2 slots, 8-channel gaming-grade audio, and two USB 3.1 ports. The PCH heatsink has a groovy RGB LED ornament. The Z270E-Gaming leads the series, with a 10-phase VRM, 802.11ac WLAN, reinforced PCIe x16 slots, and RGB LED elements located in a large I/O area shroud that extends into the VRM heatsinks.

The Z270G-Gaming is the micro-ATX offering from this lineup. It has more features than the Z270H-Gaming, but fewer slots than the Z270E-Gaming. You get the same 10-phase VRM, and connectivity that includes gaming-grade audio, USB 3.1 ports, two M.2 slots, but no I/O shroud, and the RGB LED element is located in the PCH heatsink. The Z270I-Gaming is brimming with features, including concealed M.2 slot, a reinforced PCIe slot, 8-channel HD audio, 802.11ac WLAN, four SATA 6 Gb/s ports. RGB LED lighting is care of an LED strip located in the reverse side of the PCB, along the right edge of the PCB.

Want SLI to work right on your GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, or TITAN X Pascal without having to spend $50 on a fancy SLI bridge with an LED light-show you don't need? Look no further than the "no-frills" NVIDIA SLI HB bridge by ASUS. The bridge is just a fiberglass PCB with SLI slots where you'd want them, and simple ASUS ROG branding printed on the PCB, nothing too fancy. The bridge comes with 60 mm or 2-slot spacing (1 slot between two dual-slot thick graphics cards). The bridge will be sold separately for a fraction of the price of the company's LED-lit bridges; as well as being part of some of the company's upcoming motherboards' accessory packages.

On their Facebook page, MSI have given a little tease regarding their upcoming next generation Intel Z270 boards. Details are scarce at the moment, but these motherboards are to be marketed under MSI's PRO series, with the Z270 SLI Plus featuring a clean, high-contrast black and white color scheme, while the Z270 SLI opts for an almost totally black design.

The Z270 SLI Plus is the higher-end product of the two. It sports a 10-Phase PWM circuitry, cooled with the aid of two heatsinks in the ATX form-factor. As usual, it has four DIMM slots which leverage MSI's DDR4 Boost feature, and support for XMP profiles. All of these four DIMM slots are protected by metal shielding, and expansion slots include three PCIe 3.0 x16 (x16/x8/x8 electrical), three PCIe 3.0 x1 and two Turbo M.2 NVMe slots. Storage options include 6 SATA III ports and a dual USB 3.0 front panel header. It also features MSI's latest Audio Boost panel for premium audio quality, with what they call a "Mystic Light" RGB solution, and the I/O panel is covered by a black and white shroud.

ASUS has now begun selling their high-end ROG GT51 desktop. The system comes equipped with a factory-overclocked Intel Core i7 -6700K (@ 4.6 GHz) processor, The system comes equipped with two ASUS GeForce GTX 1080 graphics cards running in SLI mode, 64 GB of DDR4-2800 memory (4×16 GB), two Samsung SM951 512 GB M.2 SSDs operating in RAID 0 mode and with a 1 TB HDD (7200 RPM). The system is configurable, with the end user being able to opt for faster memory, up to five 3.5"/2.5" HDDs or SSDs, different M.2 drives and so on. The fully configured ROG GT51 system costs $4999 and marks ASUS' entry on the market of high-performance desktop PCs.

Inno3D unveiled the iChill SLI-HB bridge. Available with 3-slot width (1-slot gap between two 2-slot thick graphics cards), or 60 mm gap between the SLI fingers, the bridge is characterized by a slick CNC-milled aluminium top cover with diamond-cut edges, and an airflow guide that minimizes the bridge's obstruction to intake/exhaust to the top graphics card. There's no fancy LED insert, but you get a rich metal-finish company badges. The bridge is compatible with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080, GTX 1070, and TITAN X Pascal. The company didn't reveal pricing.

MSI unveiled the X99A-SLI motherboard. This is not to be confused with the X99A-SLI PLUS the company launched in its first wave of socket LGA2011v3 motherboards, in 2015. The new board features a few modern connectivity features, such as 32 Gb/s M.2 slots, a U.2 connector, and USB 3.1 with type-C. The board also comes with support for Core i7 "Broadwell-E" processors, out of the box. Built in the standard ATX form-factor, the board draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, and uses an 8-phase VRM to condition it for the CPU.

Expansion slots include three PCI-Express 3.0 x16, and two PCIe 2.0 x1. Storage connectivity includes one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot, a 32 Gb/s U.2 port, one 10 Gb/s SATA-Express connector, and a total of twelve SATA 6 Gb/s ports. Among the USB connectivity are two 10 Gb/s USB 3.1 ports, from which one is type-C, and eight other USB 3.0 ports (four on the rear panel, four by headers). 8-channel HD audio, and an Intel controller-driven gigabit Ethernet connection make for the rest of it. This could be one of MSI's more affordable socket LGA2011v3 boards.

Here's one of the first pictures of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition (reference) PCB. The PCB is about 2/3rds the length of the actual card, and despite that, it's pretty barren. Power is drawn from a 6-pin PCIe power connector, however, this connector isn't on the PCB, but is on a receptacle towards the end of the cooler. NVIDIA designed this in response to complaints that on cards with PCB shorter than the cooler, the power connector would be in the middle of the card. It would also block the illuminated GeForce GTX logo along the top.

The 6-pin PCIe power receptacle connects to the card at big solder points. This approach has one downside. If you want to change the cooler (to, say, an aftermarket air cooler), you will have to deal with that ugly cabling. The card uses a simple 3+1 phase VRM to power the GPU, with its TDP rated at just 120W. The GP106 GPU is neighbored by six 8 Gbps GDDR5 memory chips populating its 192-bit memory bus. There's no SLI support. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, and one each of HDMI 2.0b and DVI.

NVIDIA today announced its third desktop consumer graphics card based on the "Pascal" architecture, the GeForce GTX 1060. NVIDIA aims to strike a price-performance sweetspot, by pricing this card aggressively at US $249 (MSRP), with its reference "Founders Edition" variant priced at $299. To make sure two of these cards at $500 don't cannibalize the $599-699 GTX 1080, NVIDIA didn't even give this card 2-way SLI support. Retail availability of the cards will commence from 19th July, 2016. NVIDIA claims that the GTX 1060 performs on-par with the GeForce GTX 980 from the previous generation.

The GeForce GTX 1060 is based on the new 16 nm "GP106" silicon, the company's third ASIC based on this architecture after GP100 and GP104. It features 1,280 CUDA cores spread across ten streaming multiprocessors, 80 TMUs, 48 ROPs, and a 192-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface, holding 6 GB of memory. The card draws power from a single 6-pin PCIe power connector, as the GPU's TDP is rated at just 120W. The core is clocked up to 1.70 GHz, and the memory at 8 Gbps, at which it belts out 192 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Display outputs include three DisplayPorts 1.4, one HDMI 2.0b, and a DVI.

NVIDIA released its latest version of GeForce drivers. Version 368.69 WHQL comes game-ready for "DiRT Rally VR," one of the first AAA titles to make VR a key gameplay and experience component. The drivers also add SLI profiles for "Armored Warfare," "iRacing Motorsport Simulator," "Lost Ark," and "Tiger Knight." Interestingly, it does not include GeForce Experience 3.0 (new UI, mandatory login); and instead bundles version 2.11 of the app. Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 368.69 WHQL for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 64-bit | Windows 8/7/Vista 32-bit

Microsoft is sparing no efforts in promoting DirectX 12 native multi-GPU as the go-to multi-GPU solution for game developers, obsoleting proprietary technologies like SLI and CrossFire. The company recently announced that it is making it easier for game developers to code their games to take advantage of multiple GPUs without as much coding as they do now. This involves the use of a new hardware abstraction layer that simplifies the process of pooling multiple GPUs in a system, which will let developers bypass the Explicit Multi-Adapter (EMA) mode of graphics cards.

This is the first major step by Microsoft since its announcement that DirectX 12, in theory, supports true Mixed Multi-Adapter configurations. The company stated that it will release the new abstraction layer as part of a comprehensive framework into the company's GitHub repository with two sample projects, one which takes advantage of the new multi-GPU tech, and one without. Exposed to this code, game developers' learning curve will be significantly reduced, and they will have a template on how to implement multi-GPU in their DirectX 12 projects with minimal effort. With this, Microsoft is supporting game developers in implementing API native multi-GPU, even as GPU manufacturers stated that while their GPUs will support EMA, the onus will be on game-developers to keep their games optimized.

EVGA has once again amped up the SLI bridge with the EVGA PRO SLI BRIDGE HB. These new, completely redesigned SLI bridges come with new features and improved performance. Included is an RGBW color switcher that allows you to choose Red, Green, Blue or White color. Also, with the new High Bandwidth technology on NVIDIA GTX 10 series cards, you get double the available transfer bandwidth compared to previous generation cards.

In a move that's set to not go down well with gamers looking for 4K 60 Hz gameplay with eye-candy maxed out; NVIDIA has changed the way it approaches 3-way and 4-way SLI support for the GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070. While out of the box, you can enable 2-way SLI using either an SLI HB bridge (recommended for certain high resolutions), or even a classic 2-way SLI bridge; 3-way and 4-way SLI support will be restricted to a select few non-gaming apps.

At the launch of the GTX 1080, NVIDIA told the press that it will officially not support 3-way and 4-way SLI for GeForce "Pascal" GPUs, however, it will provide a recourse for enthusiasts, by setting up an "SLI enthusiast key" webpage, from which enthusiasts can obtain a software key that unlocks 3-way and 4-way SLI support using classic bridges. NVIDIA would have merely optimized its drivers up to 2-way SLI, and the odd lucky gamer would be able to take advantage of 3-4 GPUs if a game developer got generous. That's no more to be.

EVGA unveiled a trio of SLI HB (high-bandwidth) bridges to go with its GeForce 10-series graphics cards. Available in 1U (no gap between two 2-slot graphics cards), 2U (1-slot gap between two 2-slot graphics cards), and 3U (2-slot gap between two 2-slot graphics cards), the bridges feature a prominent EVGA glowing logo, with switch-selectable multi-color LED illumination. SLI HB bridges are needed by GeForce 10-series graphics cards for "the best performance" in 4K @ 60 Hz HDR, 4K @ 120 Hz, and 5K, according to NVIDIA.

Here's the first picture of a custom-design SLI HB (high-bandwidth) bridge by GALAX. With NVIDIA recommending a new kind of SLI bridge for NVIDIA "Pascal" GPUs to give you the smoothest possible display at high-resolutions, NVIDIA partners have taken it upon themselves to launch SLI HB bridges (which you purchase separately, of course). Following last night's MSI Gaming SLI HB reveal, we have the GALAX Hall of Fame SLI HB bridge in our hands. There's not much to the bridge besides a white PCB, two SLI contact slots with metal reinforcements, and a white LED lighting up a GALAX HOF logo on the bridge's shroud. The bridge has a 2U spacing (allowing for 1-slot gap between two dual-slot graphics cards).