This one here is another shot in the arm when it comes to faith in humanity. Folding@Home, the distributed computing project where users can donate their spare CPU and GPU cycles for a given cause, has hit an absolute bonkers milestone. According to Greg Bowman, Director of Folding@home, the network has reached a peak compute power amounting to some 470 petaFLOPS - more than double that of the world's current supercomputing record holder, the Summit supercomputer, which dishes out 200 peak petaFLOPS. Folding@Home's 470 Petaflops means users donating their spare cycles are delivering more computing power than that which is available in the world's top 7 supercomputers combined.

After some slight service outages where users weren't getting any work units due to the increased number of donors over the last few days, the computing service now seems to be running at full steam ahead. Remember that you can select the causes for which you are donating your computing power: whether cancer, Alzheimer's, Huntington, or Parkinson's disease, as well as some other non-selectable projects.

NVIDIA, in a blog post/Q&A on its DLSS technology, promised implementation and image quality improvements on its Metro Exodus rendition of the technology. If you'll remember, AMD recently vouched for other, non-proprietary ways of achieving desired quality of AA technology across resolutions such as TAA and SMAA, saying that DLSS introduces "(...) image artefacts caused by the upscaling and harsh sharpening." NVIDIA in its blog post has dissected DLSS in its implementation, also clarifying some lingering questions on the technology and its resolution limitations that some us here at TPU had already wondered about.

The blog post describes some of the limitations in DLSS technology, and why exactly image quality issues might be popping out here and there in titles. As we knew from NVIDIA's initial RTX press briefing, DLSS basically works on top of an NVIDIA neural network. Titled the NGX, it processes millions of frames from a single game at varying resolutions, with DLSS, and compares it to a given "ground truth image" - the highest quality possible output sans any shenanigans, generated from just pure raw processing power. The objective is to train the network towards generating this image without the performance cost. This DLSS model is then made available for NVIDIA's client to download and to be run at your local RTX graphics card level, which is why DLSS image quality can be improved with time. And it also helps explain why closed implementations of the technology, such as 3D Mark's Port Royal benchmark, show such incredible image quality scenarios compared to, say, Metro Exodus - there is a very, very limited number of frames that the neural network needs to process towards achieving the best image quality.Forumites: This is an Editorial

AMD has been steadily increasing output and availability of their latest take on the server market with their EPYC CPUs. These are 32-core, 64-thread monsters that excel in delivering a better feature set in 1P configuration than even some of Intel's 2P setups, and reception for these AMD processors has been pretty warm as a result. The usage of an MCM design to create a 4-way cluster of small 8-core processor packages has allowed AMD to improve yields with minimum retooling and changes to its manufacturing lines, which in turn, has increased yields and profits for a company that sorely needed a a breakout product.

News agency Reuters recently reported that hardware giant Corsair was in talks with middle market private equity firm EagleTree Capital for acquisition of the company in its entirety. The deal was reported by Reuters as being valued at close to $500 million. Part of the Corsair brand is, and continues to be, owned by Corsair founder and Chief Executive Andy Paul, who founded the company in 1994. Another part of it, however, is currently owned by Francisco Partners, an American private equity firm focused exclusively on investments in technology and technology-enabled services. In 2013, Francisco Partners made a $75 million investment in the company, after Corsair scrapped its IPO plans.

However, an industry source has shed some more light on the matter. The source (singular, since we couldn't verify this through multiple channels) told TPU that it isn't the entirety of Corsair that's for sale; only the share previously acquired by Francisco Partners. It's this particular stake that's being eyed by EagleTree Capital - probably at a much higher valuation than the initial $75 million investment. As always, you should take this current information with a grain of salt.

Improbable, which was founded five years ago by Herman Narula and Rob Whitehead, has achieved a Softbank (the company that purchased ARM backing in a funding round that values the business at more than $1bn. >Despite this cash injection, it looks like Improbable will stay independent to work on their purported aim: to build large-scale virtual worlds and simulations. These could be leveraged by games developers, or some other, non-gaming investments and applications, such as transport systems modelling, virtual couch-travelling, and military applications.

Founder Herman Narula said that Improbable's vision "is to create completely new realities, massive virtual worlds that can change the way we live and work and can impact the way we understand some of the hardest problems." The company believes it has developed revolutionary technology with its Spatial OS operating system, which it has recently opened up to other developers. A Google partnership to put its system on the search giant's cloud, thus allowing small developers to create massive simulations without much infrastructure of their own, means real business for this company, and the backing of one of tech's giants lends credence to their ambitions. Let's see where this leads, but it seems that tales of VR's death were greatly exaggerated. You can discuss these finding here, on our very own TPU Virtual Reality Club.

A new feature we are planning here on TPU is a post every so often with the latest Ryzen related bios updates. This will happen more or less as significant updates happen, starting today. This is a starting post and will list all bios updates as of today. Future posts will include only the latest releases and reference this post.

This post will include the latest bios updates, which ones are "hot off the press" (new as of the past 2 days) and links to where to get them. As for the rest, I assume you know how to flash a motherboard.

User TonybonJoby in our own forums has successfully flashed his XFX RX 480 graphics card with the BIOS from a Sapphire RX 580 Limited Edition (the one that runs at 1411 MHz Boost clocks, yes.) Having obtained the Sapphire's BIOS right here on TPU, he then flashed it onto his graphics card (which possesses a dual-BIOS setup; this is an important point which you should consider, as it gives you an extra safety net should anything go wrong) through ATIFlash. The newly-christened RX 580 thus smiles for the screenshot, with a stock clock of 1411 MHz, higher than most overclocks possible with the RX 480 cards, probably due to increased voltages on the BIOS level. The user then tested the card on The Witcher 3 and Furmark, with no problems having been reported. Just remember to back-up your BIOS with GPU-Z and make sure to peruse our forums for some details on this flashing process before you get the proverbial grease on your elbows.

Essentially, this may allow you to bypass some artificial overclocking limitation with your graphics card, probably by increased voltages on different power states of the card. You should do this at your own risk, and remember, the only guaranteed way of getting an RX 580 is... you guessed it, buying an RX 580. However, this might also give you an extra performance boost, and free performance is always good, right?

AMD is on a roll with product launches lately, having just pushed out what is probably the most significant update in mainstream CPUs in years: the Ryzen 5 line of desktop processors. You can look over TPU's review of the 1500X and 1600X here and here. AMD is looking towards powering another central part of your desktop processor, though, with the impending launch of the RX 500 line of GPUs.

Confirmed as rebrands of previous-generation Polaris 10, the new RX 500 series will carry the new Polaris 20 XTX and Polaris 20 XL chips, which are expected to feature higher clocks (in the range of 1300-1400 MHz) from AIBs, before your own overclocking. PowerColor has officially confirmed the launch date as April 18th through social media with a tease for their new Red Devil graphics card. Now if only we could see Vega on this new horizon...

Futuremark has just released a major update to its 3DMark benchmarking suite, adding Vulkan support while simultaneously axing its cousin, Mantle. This means that the API Overhead test now uses a Vulkan path instead of its previous Mantle one, which is sure to lead several enthusiasts into a frenzy of benchmarking under the Khronos's API (which has just recently been announced will offer support for multi-GPU in Windows 10, 8.x, 7, and Linux operating systems.)

Check some of the new features, improvements and fixes on the new version right after the break. You can download this piece of software right here on TPU - just follow the link below.Download: Futuremark 3DMark + TimeSpy v2.3.3663

AMD today released the 17.3.2 Beta version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive. This release features official support for the upcoming Mass Effect: Andromeda space opera, and a 12% performance boost in the game for RX 480 graphics cards compared to results obtained under the previous driver release.

This driver release also sees some fixed issues with texture corruption on some surfaces of The Division under DX12. In addition, this driver release features a fix for what could only have been a rare issue with texture flickering while task-switching on For Honor, considering it only affected 4x Multi-GPU system configurations. This release also features long lists of Known Issues, which you can take a look at after the break.

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 17.3.2 Beta

Slight heads-up: NVIDIA has announced that it is committed to providing gamers the best possible experience in the recently released - and TPU reviewed - Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands. The company reiterated its complete support for the game with its Game Ready drivers (version 378.66). However, NVIDIA is counting on launching a new Game Ready driver later this week, which will "introduce Ansel support for Ghost Recon Wildlands as well as some other surprises for gamers."

TPUCapture is our gift to the PC enthusiast community. This nifty little screenshot utility lets you directly upload screenshots to our Free Image Hosting service, and gives out direct sharing links, along with Forums BBCode. We have given it its first major update in years. The new TPUCapture v2.0 is packed to the brim with new features, including support for HiDPI (high pixel-density) displays, in which the OS is upscaling your desktop for clearer fonts. You can now save in three JPEG quality presets, GIF, and lossless PNG formats. You can also tell us if you want us to delete your uploaded image after a specified amount of time. As always, TPUCapture lets you capture select areas of the screen, active windows, or the entire screen. It also lets you highlight portions of your screenshot. Grab TPUCapture from the link below.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp TPUCapture v2.0

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

AMD today released the 17.1.2 WHQL version of its Radeon Software Crimson ReLive. The release packs the exact same game support, fixes and known bugs as the previous 17.1.2 Beta, with the only difference being that this version is now WHQL-signed.

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 17.1.2 WHQL

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility that no enthusiast can leave home without. With the latest version 1.9.0, GPU-Z is out of "beta." We chose 1.9.0 over the more sequential 1.0.0 as it presents better continuity and averts the confusion of 1.0.0 (read 1.0) somehow sounding older.

Version 1.9.0 adds support for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 940MX, and GT 740 (GK107). On machines with GeForce "Pascal" GPUs, it can also tell if you have an SLI HB bridge installed in your machine or a classic SLI bridge. This way you know if your pre-built OEM has cut-costs. GPU-Z can now reliably extract video BIOS from AMD "Polaris" GPUs such as the Radeon RX 480. Improvements were made to the way it reads engine clock on AMD "Polaris" GPUs. All communication between GPU-Z and TechPowerUp servers (such as voluntary BIOS uploads, validations, etc.) now happens over secure HTTPS.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 1.9.0 | GPU-Z 1.9.0 ASUS ROG ThemedThe change-log follows.

As many of you will know, back in June last year we lost our good friend and Senior Moderator Dean Kortenhoven, better known to us as Kreij to Cancer. For those of you that knew Kreij you will know that not only was he a leading light within this community but he was one damn fine human being. TPU, his family and anyone who knew him well are the poorer without him.

Kreij is remembered throughout our community in many ways, none more prominent than our Memorial build giveaways that not only support current members with the opportunity to win good quality hardware/systems (giveaway builds are geared to be able to game/crunch/fold well) but just as importantly to add more machines to the constant war against this ugly and hateful disease, for that we have our crunching/folding friends to thank as well as our outstanding TPU forum community, we thought it would be a good idea to compliment the existing memorials with something a little different in the form of a Christmas competition but with a little twist. The competition will involve a little writing but in return the winner will receive a graphics card kindly donated by our friends from XFX to whom we are very grateful.

More details and the competition opener will be published shortly, the final twist is that the competition will be hidden within an existing Kreij thread, so practice those forum searching skills to find and participate!Written by Tatty_One

There won't be a Radeon R9 Nano review on TechPowerUp. AMD says that it has too few review samples for the press. When AMD first held up the Radeon R9 Nano at its "Fiji" GPU unveil, to us it came across as the most promising product based on the chip, even more than the R9 Fury series, its dual-GPU variant, and the food-processor-shaped SFF gaming desktop thing. The prospect of "faster than R9 290X at 175W" is what excited us the most, as that would disrupt NVIDIA's GM204 based products. Unfortunately, the most exciting product by AMD also has the least amount of excitement by AMD itself.

The first signs of that are, AMD making it prohibitively expensive at $650, and not putting it in the hands of the press, for a launch-day review. We're not getting one, and nor do some of our friends on either sides of the Atlantic. AMD is making some of its tallest claims with this product, and it's important (for AMD) that some of those claims are put to the test. A validated product could maybe even convince some to reach for their wallets, to pull out $650.

Well folks, it is this time of the year again! Everyone at TechPowerUp (and NextPowerUp) would like to wish you a Merry Christmas with your loved ones! We hope the festivities are grand and the presents of high performance. May all your wishes have come true and you are able to celebrate in a tranquil atmosphere.

And, we also want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you for making 2014 another awesome year. We had lots and lots of interesting things to tell you about, but rest assured, that 2015 will be even greater! We hope you will enter the new year with a great big bang and wish you all the best for the new year.

From all of us, here at TPU/NPU: Merry Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten, Joyeux Noël, Καλά Χριστούγεννα, Buon Natale, Feliz Natal, Feliz Navidad,...

ASUS today announced X99-Deluxe, X99-Pro and X99-A, three new ATX motherboards based on the Intel X99 chipset and packed with exclusive technologies, including OC Socket and 5-Way Optimization, to ensure ultimate performance from the latest LGA 2011-v3 Intel Core i7 processors.

X99-Deluxe is the flagship model, with a bundled ASUS Hyper M.2 x4 expansion card for ultra-fast 32 Gbit/s transfer speeds; onboard 3x3 (3T3R) 802.11ac for ultra-fast Wi-Fi speeds of up to 1,300 Mbit/s; and an ASUS Fan Extension Card for flexible additional cooling. With a cool, streamlined outlook that includes a broad, striking-white shield, X99-Deluxe and X99-Pro also deliver the futuristic style and strong performance demanded by PC enthusiasts.

TechPowerUp is Live from Computex 2013, the biggest expo covering PC and related consumer technology! Armed with instant image upload devices, three of us are spread across the vast and never-ending show floor, bringing you the newest in the world of PC technology, fastest. Catch up with our newest finds in TPULive. Chat with us directly, and others in the chatbox. Keep up with the latest on TechPowerUp News! See you around.

You may have read our report from earlier today, covering the main points that AMD was trying to make in its recent teleconference with the European press (which includes us). While in the call, we were a little jolted by the choices of words some of AMD's executives used to describe their company's consumer graphics outlook for 2013, how they believe they can hold out for almost the entire year with little or no major updates to their product stack, and more interestingly, a few above-the-belt jabs at NVIDIA and its upcoming GeForce GTX Titan product.

The crux of AMD's emergency meeting with the press was to bust some misconceptions spread in the press over the last couple of weeks, to tell them a Graham's Number of times that they still hold the fastest single GPU on the planet, which powers the fastest graphics card there is (ASUS ARES II). The most ironic part of AMD's emergency meeting with the press was the one in which they called GeForce Titan NVIDIA's emergency/knee-jerk reaction to AMD's getting cozy with game developers, and netting some of the biggest PC game launches of the season for its Never Settle Reloaded bundle.

TechPowerUp's World Community Grid (WCG) team is on a roll. It currently generates the fourth highest production of BIONC points in the world, and is growing. To help accelerate its growth further, our WCG community is announcing the February Challenge. The contest requires you to net at least 25,000 WCG points for TPU's WCG team in the contest period (08/Feb/2013 to 08/Mar/2013).

At the end of the contest, winners will be picked completely at random, who will stand to win one each of thirty (30+) prizes, ranging from Radeon HD 7770 graphics cards to Core i7 "Sandy Bridge-E" processors, LGA2011 motherboards, PSUs, memory kits, other enthusiast PC hardware, games (Steam/Origin/U-Play keys), gift cards, and consumables (such as TIM tubes), all of which are community sourced.

For more information, and to get crunching, visit this thread.

What better way of beginning a new year than riding the avalanche of new hardware and gadgets? We at TechPowerUp and NextPowerUp, are the 2013 International CES, and the ice looks lovely! As has been our tradition for the past few years, before "smart" cameras even made it to drawing boards, our cameras are jerry-rigged to instantly upload pictures from the CES as they're clicked, making us a really fast source of news, unveils, and opinions, from the show-floor.Take a peek at the pictures, and chat with us directly by visiting: TPU Live CES 2013

To provide the best user experience on the AMD platform, ASUS has refreshed a variety of motherboards, including mainstream channel models, dedicated products from ROG and the TUF Series, plus FM1 socket-compatible and power-efficient APU-based models. Each product offers a variety of new ASUS exclusive technologies such as digital power control, Remote GO!, and Network iControl, alongside innovative Fast Boot, ASUS Boot Setting, and DirectKey, all specifically leveraging upcoming Windows 8 capabilities. Both new and existing features have been tailored and tested to comply with the Windows 8 architecture for total stability and maximized utility, while all motherboards have gone through a full series of compatibility assurance tests in getting ready for the move to Windows 8.

Now, iPhone users can take their TPU (TechPowerUp) places, too! Four months after launching TechPowerUp for Android, we finally managed to clear Apple's App Store bureaucracy and launch our app for the iPhone and iPod Touch (requires iOS 3.0 or later). The TechPowerUp app delivers our site to you in a form that's optimized for your phone, without a browser overhead. News and updates, new reviews and articles are sent as alerts, the content is delivered in just the right way. Not only can you read our stuff, but can also comment, and get access to our 70,000-strong community. Now your iOS device is never too far away from TPU.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp App (free, for Apple iPhone and iPod Touch, requires iOS 3.0 or later)