URCDKeys is a new online store for heavily discounted non-gaming software licenses, based in California, USA. The site is debuting its non-gaming software section with two massively discounted products that will help PC enthusiasts significantly cut costs of new PC builds. Windows 10 Pro is a more preferred variant of Windows 10 among enthusiasts, as it features significantly more management features over the Home variant. URCDKeys is selling globally-valid OEM licenses of Windows 10 Pro (license that is non-transferrable between systems), at USD $14.79, a massive 90% discount from market prices.

AMD today made available the latest version of their Radeon software drivers, Adrenalin Edition 18.11.2, for supported graphics solutions. This brings with it support for the hotly anticipated Battlefield V game title, as well as some fixes to issues that users have been awaiting. Driver software notifications no longer list erroneously the current installed driver version and, more importantly, the annoying bug affecting some RX Vega users of elevated memory clocks even during system idle states has been resolved.

The driver also brings with it support for a Vulkan extension, VK_AMD_memory_overallocation_behavior, that "allows controlling whether explicit overallocation beyond the device memory heap sizes is allowed or not" as AMD puts it themselves. Things are not all rosy, however, with known issues including potential crashing of Assassin's Creed: Odyssey at some locations on Windows 7 systems and possible mouse lag with multi-display setups with at least one display enabled but powered off. This is disappointing considering an older driver update from September had seemingly fixed it too. The drivers are up for download at the link below, hosted directly on TechPowerUp for your convenience, and the change log is available past the break for those interested.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.11.2

AMD today released their last driver update for 2018 in the enterprise segment, the Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Edition 18.Q4 driver. A new feature is the Day Zero Certification Program, which serves for would-be deployers of AMD's updated drivers (or any business looking to leverage the red team's products in a new installation) to know which programs have already been certified to work flawlessly with the latest driver revision. Exactly which scenarios and configurations (name of the ISV, software, OS and graphics card used during the certification process) are also part of this certification. This list is up to 290 entries as of November 13th.

AMD is quoting performance improvements that can go up to 89% in YoY performance gains compared to their last 2017 driver. There's also a mountain of fixed bugs in the latest release, and AMD is keeping up with its commitment to stable, predictable driver releases that it started with their new vision for the enterprise and business environments.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition. Version 18.9.3 beta comes just in time for "Assassin's Creed: Odyssey," posting up to 5% higher performance at 1440p, when tested with a Radeon RX Vega 64; and up to 3% higher performance at 1080p, tested with an RX 580. The game also comes with optimization for "Forza Horizon 4," although AMD did not put out performance guidance for that game. AMD also addressed a couple of issues, beginning with fixing a stutter observed when exceeding FreeSync refresh-rate range in some high frame-rate scenarios. Also addressed is machines with 16 CPU cores experiencing a random system reboot during driver installation, when upgrading from 18.8.1 drivers. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.9.3 beta

The change-log follows.

AMD today released version 18.8.2 Beta of their Radeon Adrenalin drivers. This driver version brings with it support for Strange Brigade, so if you're planning on partaking in some gaming over that title's waters, you should have this driver suite. Apart from that, there are just some known issues with this driver release: minor corruption on Strange Brigades' Vulkan renderer on Windows 7 systems; application hangs on V-Sync and FreeSync (at the same time) enabled systems (also on Windows 7); and Radeon Overlay's functioning in multiple-GPU configurations under the Vulkan renderer. Grab these drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.8.2 Beta

Intel on their latest Microcode Revision Guidance Guide has apparently stopped development of mitigations for some of its processor families that still haven't been updated to combat the threat of Spectre. The odyssey for the return to form of security on Intel products has been a steep, and a slow one, as the company has struggled to deploy mitigations for speculative code execution on its processor families that run it. Updates for some families of products, however - such as Penryn, Wolfdale, Bloomfield and Yorkfield, among others - are apparently not going to get an update at all.

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition. Version 18.2.2 Beta introduces much welcome performance uplifts for Player Unknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), with up to 5 percent gains over 17.12.1 at 1440p, and up to 7 percent gains over it at 1080p. It also includes optimization for "Kingdom Come: Deliverance" and "Fortnite." You can expect up to 3 percent performance uplift at 1440p, and up to 4 percent at 1080p with "Kingdom Come: Deliverance," and up to 3 percent at 1440 and up to 6 percent at 1080p with "Fortnite." Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.2.2 Beta

Remember all that talk and noise regarding Microsoft's "automagical" telemetry data collection, and how that spurred the company to create a "telemetry-less" version of its Windows 10 operating system for the Chinese market? It seems Microsoft is keen to keep giving users more information on exactly what information is gathered and when - slowly but assuredly striving for greater transparency, and looking to garner increased trust from consumers and enterprises alike.

The much awaited capability is being baked in to the next major Windows 10 release, and Microsoft is giving Windows Insiders an early preview of the Windows Diagnostic Data Viewer utility. Adding to this new utility are some changes to the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard that will enable users to see and manage more data associated with their Microsoft accounts. Available to everyone in the Microsoft Store, the Diagnostic Data Viewer is separate from the Microsoft Privacy Dashboard, and "allows you to see, search, and take action with your diagnostic data." It's not clear yet what sort of telemetry features users will be able to stop Microsoft from collecting, if any. However, at least now you'll be able to look at exactly which processes and services are collecting data form your system. The diagnostic data that will be viewable in the new utility follows.

Making good on its post-New Year promise, AMD late Thursday released its first Radeon Software Adrenalin iteration for the year, version 18.1.1 Alpha. Being flagged "Alpha," these are very early drivers, the use of which are not backed by any warranties. They're not fully tested to work by AMD.

Version 18.1.1 Alpha addresses critical bugs that caused some of the older games to break following Adrenalin 17.12 release. The games, which are nearly a decade old, are AAA blockbusters which are based on the older DirectX 9 API. A number of older DirectX 9 games, such as EA's "Command & Conquer 3," "Command & Conquer 4" series, "Battle for Middle Earth 1-2," and "The Witcher Enhanced Edition" had simply refused to start following the 17.12 driver update. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 18.1.1 Alpha

DARPA seems to be taking to heart engineer and cyber-security experts' opinions that hardware-based security would be the best security. The Defense Advanced Research Agency (DARPA), which has appeared in every other sci-fi war movie, has started its System Security Integrated through Hardware and Firmware (SSITH) program, with an initial kick worth $3.6 million to the University of Michigan. The objective? To develop "unhackable" systems, with hardware-based security solutions that become impervious to most software exploits.

Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) of the University of Michigan Professor Todd Austin, lead researcher on the project, says his team's approach, currently code-named Morpheus, achieves hack-proof hardware by "changing the internal codes once a second". Austin likens Morpheus' defenses to requiring a would-be attacker to solve a new Rubik's Cube every second to crack the chip's security. In this way, the architecture should provide the maximum possible protection against intrusions, including hacks that exploit zero-day vulnerabilities, or those that cybersecurity experts have yet to discover. Morpheus thereby provides a future-proof solution, Austin said. "This race against ever more clever cyberintruders is never going to end if we keep designing our systems around gullible hardware that can be fooled in countless ways by software," SSITH program manager Linton Salmon of the Agency's Microsystems Technology Office.

AMD today released an update to their Radeon Software Adrenalin Drivers and software suite. Under the Beta label, the new version brings many resolved issues to the table, whilst listing some unresolved - but recognized as existent - issues behind it still. Some problems with AMD XConnect for hot-swapping external GPUs should be fixed, some areas of Star Wars: Battlefront II that were displaying graphics corruption should no longer do so, and your Netflix playback should finally let you chill without any kind of AMD-caused stuttering, among other quality of life improvements.

Look for the full patch notes after the break, and keep in mind you can download the latest AMD drivers right here on TPU. Just follow the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 17.12.2 Beta

AMD today put out its fourth Radeon Software release of the month, the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.11.4 Beta. These drivers come with optimization for "Doom" VFR, and Oculus Dash Open Beta. The drivers fix an issue with certain levels of HBCC size adjustments causing system instability on machines with Radeon RX Vega series graphics cards. It also fixes a system hang noticed when switching display modes on "Star Wars Battlefront II" on CrossFire machines. Also fixed, are incorrect clock and power values being reported on some machines with RX Vega series graphics cards. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.11.4

AMD today have released the latest (unnumbered) Beta version of their Radeon Crimson ReLive driver suite for Radeon graphics, which brings with it "Beta level support for the latest version of Microsoft's Windows 10 Operating System". Naturally, AMD says it should be considered "as is", which is always refreshing to see in a driver release. This update should improve users' experience when dealing with the Fall Creators Update's extended Mixed Reality features, so if you have one of those headsets ready to go and to power 343 Industries' "Halo Recruit" Experience please do and report back to this news editor. There's a list of known issues under MR and the Fall Creators Update, though, so be sure to check that list after the break. Follow the link below for AMD's driver download page.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Crimson ReLive Beta Edition Windows 10 Fall Creators Update Drivers

Sharkoon expands their range of mechanical keyboards and introduces the PureWriter TKL, an innovative mechanical keyboard with low-profile switches from the micro-switch Asian specialist Kailh. These innovative, flat mechanical switches enable the compact and flat design of the Sharkoon PureWriter: TKL stands for tenkeyless - the keyboard comes without a number block. The PureWriter TKL is currently available with red and blue switches; brown switches will follow shortly.

With the PureWriter TKL, Sharkoon presents a purist keyboard for all occasions, which, in addition to its light and compact construction, stands out through its innovative mechanical switches in ultra-flat design. Thanks to the missing number block, the frameless keyboard measures a compact 355 mm in length, 127 mm wide and only 23 mm in height when the feet are folded-in, making it as flat as possible. It weighs only 503 grams. It also offers all the technical essentials with n-key rollover, anti-ghosting keys and a polling rate of 1,000 Hz. The PureWriter TKL Blue offers the usual characteristics of the same mechanical switches or rather an acoustic, tactile feedback with a detectable switching point. The distance to actuation point is only 1.5 mm and an operating force of 55 grams.

Today, Microsoft announced a new framework that enables businesses to adopt blockchain technology for increased enterprise privacy and security, and named Intel as a key hardware and software development partner. As part of this collaboration, Microsoft, Intel and other blockchain technology leaders will build a new enterprise-targeted blockchain framework - called the Coco Framework - that integrates Intel Software Guard Extensions (Intel SGX) to deliver improved transaction speed, scale and data confidentiality to enterprises. This first-of-its-kind innovation accelerates the enterprise readiness of blockchain technology, allowing developers to create flexible and more secure enterprise blockchain applications that can be easily managed by businesses.

Futuremark today announced Testdriver, a benchmark automation software targeted at PC hardware reviewers, system analysts, and quality-control departments of computer hardware manufacturers. The software doesn't have any benchmarks of its own, but lets you script and automate your own selection of benchmarks, and helps with test data aggregation and presentation.

Testdriver comes with out of the box readiness for Futuremark's popular benchmark suites, such as the 3DMark family, the PCMark family, and VRMark, but also lets you add third-party benchmarks. The company offers email-support to customers in integrating benchmarks with the app. Given that the software is designed for diverse customer groups, Futuremark will be selling it through its parent company UL, and is taking orders over email by quoting a price specific to the customer's application of the software.

AMD late Wednesday released the latest version of Radeon Software Crimso ReLive Edition. Version 17.6.2 beta is the second release for this month, and comes with a quick-fix for the performance loss noticed in DiRT 4 after its latest game-patch, when the MSAA is cranked up to 8x. The rest of its feature-set appears unchanged from the previous 17.6.1 drivers. AMD has added to the list of known issues, listed after the break.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.6.2The change-log follows.

The PC Mark benchmarking software is one of the mainstays of system benchmarking. Although it isn't as attractive to enthusiasts and gamers due to the lack of such visually impressive showcases like Time Spy, it stands as a more complete suite for users looking to thoroughly examine their systems' performance. And it now offers a more complete package even for gamers and enthusiasts, since it does include a graphical, game-like benchmark in FireStrike.

Based on real-world apps and activities, the tests in PC Mark 10 work with some included third-party programs as part of the benchmark suite to reflect common tasks performed in the modern workplace. Futuremark is releasing three versions of PCMark 10, the Basic, Advanced, and Professional Editions, with different tiers of features for each. The Basic version will be free of charge (available to download on June 22nd), while the Advanced version will retail for $29.99 (and will be available on Steam.) You can read our review of PCMark's latest iteration right here, courtesy of our own VSG.

AMD released the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.5.2 drivers. These drivers improve performance of "Prey" a further 4.5 percent, compared to 17.5.1 drivers, as tested on a Radeon RX 580 8 GB graphics card. The drivers also address some critical bugs, beginning with random hangs or application crash noticed on "NieR: Automata," excessive level load times noticed on "Forza Horizon 3," a bug related to multi-GPU setups where displays plugged into the second graphics cards where the first (primary) graphics card disappears from the device list; and a bug with Radeon RX 550 which causes the system to hang when entering sleep or hibernate states. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.5.2

Not to let itself be outshined by arch-rival NVIDIA, AMD today released a new driver suite that introduces support for the impending release of Arkane Studios' Prey. A totally new IP in an era of sequels and re-releases, which has been paired - even if only so slightly - with AMD's own Vega teaser campaign, Prey promises to offer a mix of Bioshock and System Shock, with Arkane's own peculiar blend of game mechanics and art direction. Go on ahead fighting the invasion - I'll be joining you shortly.

These drivers promise an up to 4.7% performance improvement measured on Radeon RX 580 8GB graphics when compared to Radeon Software Crimson ReLive edition 17.4.4, as well as multi GPU profile support. As always, you can grab these right here on your favorite hardware site on the universe. Just follow the link below, and catch some more details like fixed and current issues after the break.Download: AMD Radeon Crimson Relive 17.5.1 Beta Drivers

AMD today released the latest version of Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition. The new Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.4.3 WHQL drivers add official support for the newly launched Radeon RX 500 series GPUs, such as the RX 580, RX 570, RX 560, and RX 550; besides support for Windows 10 Creators Update (v17.4.2 already added WDDM 2.2 support). Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.4.3 WHQL

AMD today released the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.4.2 drivers, its second release this month. The drivers are important if you've updated Windows 10 to the latest "Creators Update" (version 1703), since it supports the new WDDM 2.2 driver model. In addition, the drivers fix bugs related to SteamVR asynchronous reprojection, poor multi-GPU scaling for "Battlefield 1" in DirectX 11 mode, flickering noticed on ReLive running on Windows 7, and a bug with Radeon Settings that removes application profiles upon logout. Grab the drivers from the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive 17.4.2

AMD today released the 17.2.1 Beta version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive. This release features Multi GPU profiles and support for For Honor (with an up to 4% performance improvement on Radeon RX 480) and Sniper Elite 4 (with a 5% performance improvement being registered here). Look after the break for a list of known, fixed issues.

As always, you can grab the drivers right here at TPU, through our revamped downloads section. Just follow the link below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 17.2.1 Beta

ZeniMax Media Inc. has been awarded a $500 million settlement in a virtual reality (VR) patent dispute with Facebook-owned Oculus. A jury in Texas found Oculus in violation of VR patents held by ZeniMax. Oculus in 2014 was acquired by Facebook in a $2 billion deal. ZeniMax owns id Software, a pioneering game studio led by John Carmack. ZeniMax alleges that core components of Oculus Rift VR headset were developed by John Carmack, when he was working at a ZeniMax subsidiary, making them ZeniMax' intellectual property. Carmack left ZeniMax to work for Oculus in 2013.

The EVGA Closed Loop CPU Cooler (CLC) 120 and 280 have arrived. These new liquid coolers from EVGA give you incredible performance, low noise, robust software controls and RGB lighting.

Built to perform
The new cooling block offers improved flowrate and heat transfer surface area for incredible cooling efficiency.

Sync with your EVGA GeForce GTX Graphics Card
Link up your EVGA CLC cooler with select EVGA graphics cards, and match the colors directly from software. One button to control both RGB LED's! Color profiles even save to firmware.