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.

Building on the success of their BlackWidow Chroma mechanical keyboard, Razer has definitely gone towards the "if it isn't broken, don't touch it" kind of approach, with some evolutionary yet welcome changes taking place with their revised version. First up, there's the addition of a magnetic (and thus attachable and removable at will) wrist rest. Second, the addition of a new switch option: the new Razer Yellow, which promises a silent, linear design, with a shorter travel distance when compared to Razer's Orange and Green switches. These yellow switches carry a 45 g actuation force, being rated for up to 80 million keystrokes.

AMD today released the latest version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition. The reason these are not marked 17.1, after January 2017, is because they're just WHQL-signed versions of the 16.12.2 beta drivers released in December 2016, and as such feature an identical change-log. Grab them from the links below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 16.12.2 WHQL for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

If you are using a modded BIOS on your AMD Polaris card, and try to install AMD's excellent Crimson ReLive drivers, you might be in for a surprise. This is because AMD re-enabled their BIOS signature enforcement with these latest drivers. Basically, if you modded your card's BIOS in search of higher overclocking, more voltage or customized fan settings, the hash in your BIOS is no longer recognized by AMD the driver, since it differs from the factory values.

On detecting such a modded BIOS with an invalid checksum, the Crimson ReLive driver won't load, meaning that the system will run with the VGA fallback driver only, without 3D acceleration and Radeon Settings will not start. However, you can force your modded BIOS to load on Crimson ReLive if you're willing to jump through some hoops.

AMD has just announced their 2016 major software update release (following Catalyst Omega in 2014 and Crimson Edition in 2015). It's dubbed the "Crimson ReLive" release (numbered 12.6.1), and is purported to bring a lot of features and performance improvements across the board for AMD products, as has been historically achieved by AMD with these annual driver releases. This time, there's just one other thing: game recording and streaming through the built-in ReLive app. It serves as a streaming app that works for both professional, developer and consumer use cases. It supports major streaming giants (such as Twitch and YouTube), includes an in-app toolbar and custom overlay, and is apparently going to feature its own tab inside AMD's updated driver suite, with minimal reported impact on performance.

As always, you can grab the drivers right here on TPU: just follow the links below. And for more information, benchmarks, and a run-through of the new driver and its features, check out TPU's review of the driver suite, right here.Download: AMD Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition 16.12.1 for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

Other information to surface from WCCFTech's leak on the upcoming Radeon Software Crimson ReLive drivers, is its dual nature, for both consumers and professionals. The Radeon Technologies Group is seemingly on a crusade to bolster AMD's software support recognition with customers, and that naturally extends towards the professional side of the equation as well.

As such, the first immediate feature to be introduced is AMD's Pro Renderer, a physically-based rendering engine that enables production of photorealistic images, with both plugin and native integration support from the big names in professional workflows, such as Autodesk's 3DS Max, Autodesk Maya, and Blender (just to name a few), along with game-engine integration and support through the Unity Engine and Stingray. LiquidVR support is also headed for professionals, enabling professional VR workflows in design, engineering, animation, filmmaking, and VR game engines.

The crew at WCCFTech have just leaked AMD's now annual major software update release (with Catalyst Omega in 2014 and Crimson Edition in 2015). The new 2016 release is apparently dubbed the "Crimson ReLive" release, and these are purported to bring a lot of features and performance improvements across the board for AMD products, as has been historically achieved by AMD with these annual driver releases. This time, there's just one other thing: game recording and streaming through a built-in app.

Since its inception, the Radeon Software division has released 29 drivers of which 8 were WHQL releases, with support and optimizations for over 28 gaming titles, having been downloaded over 85 million times. AMD seems to put newfound interest in consumer satisfaction with their driver releases, considering how a leaked slide mentions that they have achieved a 4.5/5 rating in customer satisfaction in recent times (AMD had already given us at TPU a glimpse of that at the Computex event in Macau, pre-Polaris days, and this seems to be it). AMD is putting much stock in their DX12 performance thanks to features such as asynchronous compute, and the staples of supported platforms and projects. AMD also seems to have a new-found claim towards it being one of the most important players in the graphics industry, chalking up their market dominance by including gaming consoles in their portfolio.

AMD today released the Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.11.5 Hotfix, highlighting improved support for Watch Dogs 2, as well as the addition of a new AMD CrossFire profile for Dishonored 2 under DirectX 11.

As for other important tidbits, this release fixes instances of flickering on The Division and Battlefield 1, both occurring when using AMD Crossfire technology. As always, you can grab the drivers right here at TechPowerUp - just follow the links below.Download: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.11.5 Hotfix for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

On Wednesday, during its annual Connect(); developer event, Microsoft Corp. unveiled a series of products and partnerships that strengthen the company's Azure cloud platform for building intelligent, cross-platform apps and services. Microsoft Cloud and Enterprise Executive Vice President Scott Guthrie detailed significant steps Microsoft is taking to empower the ecosystem by giving developers greater choice in the tools they use - including joining the Linux Foundation as a Platinum Member to better collaborate with the open source community, welcoming Google to the independent .NET Foundation, and working with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. to enable .NET developers to build apps for more than 50 million Samsung devices worldwide.

Guthrie also demonstrated a preview of Visual Studio for Mac, which enables developers to write cloud, mobile and macOS apps on Apple's Mac operating system using the popular development environment; a preview of the next version of the company's flagship SQL Server database with support for Linux, Linux-based Docker containers and Windows-based environments; and a preview of Azure App Service on Linux with support for containers.

AMD today released yet another version of their Software Crimson driver. The version, now updated to 16.11.3, highlights support for the imminent and highly awaited Dishonored 2. The fixed issues list is a bit shorter than last time: according to AMD, with this version, "Steam and Origin will no longer terminate when using AMD X-Connect Technology on unplug.

Barring that, no more new highlights or new features. This release also packs all of the previous 16.11 driver branch fixes and game support. As always, you can download the drivers from the links below.Download: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.11.3 Beta for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

Alongside the new WX hardware products, the WX4100, 5100 and 7100, AMD also revealed a new software initiative aimed at enterprises. The most important part is continued, issue-free usage of hardware solutions, but AMD stands to take a two-pronged attack: through performance-enabling hardware, as well as stable, predictable, and robust software solutions.

AMD today released Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.3, the month's third release of the drivers. Version 16.10.3 addresses a "Titanfall 2" intermittent game crash affecting AMD Graphics CoreNext GPUs (which is all of the GPUs under the current driver support branch). The rest of its feature-set appear to be consistent with the older Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.2 drivers. Grab the drivers from the links below.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.3 for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

AMD today released a new beta update to their Radeon Software Crimson Edition. Version 16.10.2 Beta features driver support for upcoming games like "Battlefield 1", "Sid Meier's Civilization VI", "Titanfall 2", "Serious Sam VR Early Access", as well as "Eagle Flight VR". Also included is a new AMD CrossFire profile for "Sid Meyer's Civilization VI" under DX11, and Battlefield 1 AMD CrossFire profile updates for the game's launch.

The release notes also list some fixed issues, namely:

• Fan speed may sometimes remain elevated on select Radeon RX 400 series graphics products even when an application has been exited;
• Eyefinity group settings may not be retained after driver upgrade when using AMD CrssFire configurations;
• Gears of War 4 may experience an application hang when using select high resolution and quality configurations i some specific game maps;
• DirectX 12 content may be unable to launch on some older CPUs that do not support "popcnt" instruction.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.2 Beta for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit

AMD today released its latest version of its Radeon Software Crimson Edition drivers. Version 16.10.1 comes with optimization for "Gears of War 4" and "Mafia III." The drivers also add CrossFire support for "Shadow Warrior 2." The drivers also correct various game-specific bugs, including the stutter and crash affecting CrossFire systems on "Deus Ex: Mankind Divided," FPS drops with "The Crew," surface flickers for CrossFire systems in "Battlefield 1," and CrossFire/FreeSync users noticing flickering on "Paragon." A Radeon WattMan bug that prevents it from applying its settings, was also fixed.DOWNLOAD: AMD Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.10.1 for Windows 10 64-bit | Windows 10 32-bit | Windows 8.1 64-bit | Windows 8.1 32-bit | Windows 7 64-bit | Windows 7 32-bit