TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics sub-system information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility. Version 2.51.0 adds full support for the new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics card, including support for BIOS extraction from RTX 4090 and RTX 4080. Besides these, it supports the new RTX 3060 Ti GDDR6X variant, and RTX 3060 based on GA104. We've added the ability to monitor real-time power draw from 16-pin ATX 12VHPWR connector on graphics cards with it. Memory temperature sensors for RTX 40-series has also been added. The transistor-count of the AD102 silicon has been fixed. The DLSS Scan in the Advanced tab no longer starts automatically, and waits for you to select the drives first. It now properly indicates that a search operation has been stopped, when you click on "stop." A crash with crash in Glenfly's Advanced panel has been fixed. The Vulkan and OpenGL tabs have visual improvements. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.51.0

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of the TechPowerUp NVCleanstall, the definitive utility for taking greater control over your NVIDIA GeForce software installation and update processes. NVCleanstall gives you a far greater degree of control over the various low-level driver components you want to install or skip, letting you disable things you don't need, such as Telemetry. These options aren't available in the "Custom install" page of the NVIDIA installer. Our latest version 1.14.0 comes with a few handy changes.

We've fixed an issue that caused driver update check to not work. We added the ability to not disturb an active gaming session when a new version of GeForce drivers is detected, and wait for the game session to end before prompting you to update. NVCleanstall deconstructs and reconstructs the GeForce software package to your exact specifications, if rebuilding the digital signature of this this fails due to the KeyISO service being disabled, a proper error message will be shown now. The "unsigned driver" error message by Windows can now be skipped when an EAC-compatible signature mode is selected. Grab NVCleanstall from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp NVCleanstall v1.14.0The change-log follows.

AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX reference design graphics card features an innovative new real-time monitoring feature, the Fan Intake Temperature Sensors. The reference-design RX 7900 XTX cooler has the ability to report individual fan-speeds to software (which isn't new, given that each fan will independently connect to the PCB); but what's new is that each of the fans has a temperature sensor that can detect the temperature of the air as it's being drawn in, before reaching the heatsink.

The temperature measurement of the fan intake sensors should give you a fair idea of what is the ambient temperature inside your case. At this point we don't know if the feature is exclusive to the AMD reference design, or if the company has shared the know-how with its add-in board (AIB) partners to add to their custom-design products. This sensor should be accessible by AMD Software, the utilities included by AIB partners, and we will try to add ability to read from this sensor to TechPowerUp GPU-Z. The reference RX 7900 XTX cooler also features addressable RGB LEDs, first ever for a reference-design graphics card (they've had single-color lighting).

TechPowerUp partners with Team Group to bring you the year's Black Friday + Cyber Monday (BFCM) Giveaway. Open worldwide (wherever legal), we give you a chance to pick up one of six pieces of premium Team Group hardware to spice up your gaming PC with. Up for grabs are one Team Group Delta RGB DDR5-6400 CL40 32 GB (2x 16 GB) memory kit; and five Team Group Vulcan Z 1 TB SATA SSDs. To participate, answer five quiz questions related to the various Team Group gaming hardware brands; and give us your contact details. Entries close on November 24, and the winners will be announced shortly after. All the best!

For more information and to participate, visit this page.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics sub-system information and diagnostics utility for PC enthusiasts and gamers. Version 2.50.0 adds support for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, and improved support for Intel Arc A770, and Arc A750. Video memory chip temperature monitoring has been added for Arc "Alchemist," and the overall temperature sensors for the Arc series have been fixed. The DLSS game scanning has been improved to tell if no DLSS-compatible games have been found.

While the number "2.50" might sound special, it is not, it is simply 49+1. We also had to get this build out quickly so that reviewers can do their jobs playing with the latest hardware from Intel and NVIDIA.

Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.50.0

TechPowerUp released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics information and diagnostics utility for gamers and PC enthusiasts. Version 2.49.0 adds support for the iGPU of the upcoming Ryzen 7000-series "Zen 4" desktop processors, codenamed "Raphael." CPU temperature monitoring for these processors works the same way as it does for older Ryzens, so no changes needed in that regard. The GPU model reporting for Intel Arc A750/A770 has been fixed. Support is added for the Intel Arc A580. Some rare application crashes with AMD Radeon cards have been fixed. The NVIDIA DLSS game scan we introduced with the previous version doesn't actually "use" DLSS in any way, it only scans for games supporting DLSS, so we made it available on all systems.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.49.0

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the handy graphics sub-system information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility for gamers, developers, and enthusiasts. Version 2.48.0 introduces several new features. To begin with, we've added a new DLSS section to the Advanced Tab, which has the ability to find all installed games on your machine, and report their DLSS library version. You can use this information to try and replace the library with the latest one from our collection. GPU-Z will no longer send any traffic to "www.techpowerup.com," but instead to the "www.gpu-z.com" URL, so IT administrators can easily block traffic originating from GPU-Z across a large organization. Previous endpoints on "techpowerup.com" will be disabled soon. Also, on NVIDIA's request, we have programmed GPU-Z to disable all its network activity (automatic and manual) when an Engineering Sample is detected.

Intel Arc "Alchemist" detection, sensors, specs, and reporting, have undergone numerous improvements as we've had more time to spend with these GPUs. Intel's discrete-GPU power sensor is now labeled "GPU chip power draw," to let you know that it only measures the ASIC power, and not the total board power. Vendor ID has been added for Advantech. Numerous information-related errors have been fixed. Among the new GPUs supported with this release are the NVIDIA RTX 3050 OEM, MX550 (TU117-A), RTX A5500, A5500 Mobile, A4500 Mobile, A3000 12 GB Mobile, and A1000 Embedded; and several Arc "Alchemist" SKUs. Support is also added for the legacy AMD FireStream 9170.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.48.0The change-log follows.

TechPowerUp partnered with Creative, the pioneers of PC gaming audio, to bring you the "Hearing is Believing" Giveaway. Under Creative's technological leadership, PC gaming audio evolved with the times, and is now squarely in the era of game streamers and content creators. With the company's Sound Blaster GC7, not only do you get the highest quality audio tuned by experts, but also DSPs optimized for various game genres, and audio controls for content creators. We're giving away three prizes from the Creative stable, and without further ado, here they are:

• @truehighroller1 from the US, wins the Creative Sound Blaster GC7
• Gabriele from Italy, wins the Creative Sound Blaster X4
• Jeff from the US, wins the Creative Sound BlasterX G6

A huge Congratulations to you three! TechPowerUp and Creative with more such interesting giveaways!

TechPowerUp is looking for a content proofreader with a strong command of U.S. English. This is a remote, part-time position, the job entails proofreading our written content, like reviews. The position is paid and open worldwide, expect 1-2 hours of work per day, Mon-Fri. Besides excellent language skills, it's a big plus if you understand the topics we're writing about. No need to get all the technical details, but it will help a lot if you know the difference between Mb and MB, NVMe and SATA, and can catch other similar mistakes, in addition to spelling and grammar. We're looking to fill this position by August.

Interested? Write to w1zzard@techpowerup.com. If you can, do tell us a bit about yourself, like age, location, time constraints, etc.

The TechPowerUp and Creative "Hearing is Believing" Giveaway is well underway, with just a day before entries close! All it takes is a minute to drop your hat in, with details that help us get back to you if you've won! Creative is as old as PC gaming itself, and is one of the pioneers of PC audio, always being at the forefront of gaming audio innovation. They're out to be the leaders in audio for the latest generation of gamers that like to stream their gameplay, and are serious creators in their own might. We are giving away three such pieces of Creative engineering—the Sound Blaster GC7, the Sound Blaster X4, and the Sound BlasterX G6 portable sound card. The Giveaway is open worldwide. What are you waiting for?

For more information, and to participate, visit this page.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z. Version 2.47.0 adds support for new GPUs and improves on several fronts. To begin with, it adds support for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1630, RTX 3050 Laptop, MX570, A1000, A2000, A3000, and other pro-vis GPUs; on the AMD front, it can detect RX 6700 or "Radeon 6700" cards. Support is also added for Intel Core "Alder Lake-H," "Alder Lake-U," and "Alder Lake-HX" processors and their iGPUs.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.47.0 comes with many improvements to the detection of Intel Arc "Alchemist" GPUs. The fake GPU detection was expanded to cover knockoffs based on NVIDIA G98, GT200, and GK104. A workaround was added to fix broken clock-speed detection for AMD GPUs with some recent driver versions this year. Non-LHR reporting of the RTX 3080 12 GB has been fixed. You now have the ability to no longer resume logging on GPU-Z restart, by unchecking a checkbox. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.47.0The change-log follows.

Intel is preparing to launch its 13th generation of desktop processors codenamed Raptor Lake. Succeeding Alder Lake, the 13th gen design will implement up to eight P-cores with 16 E-cores manufactured on Intel's improved 7+ technology node. Today, we got a performance preview from SiSoftware that has collected SiSoftware Sandra database scores of Intel Core i9-13900 Raptor Lake-S processor. They present an overview of a few benchmarks. Firstly, the SoC features 36 MB of unified L3 cache versus 30 MB in Alder Lake. With DDR5 memory running up to 5600 MT/s and PCIe 5.0, the SoC features the latest IO and memory standards. The big P-cores now lack AVX-512 and feature 2 MB of L2 cache per core. We see 4 MB of L2 cache for a cluster of small E-cores. An exciting addition to E-cores is the AVX/AVX2 support, which is a first for Atom cores.

Regarding testing, the author has collected a few tests that seemed appropriate to compare to the equivalent Alder Lake model. Starting with ALU/FPU tests that benchmark basic arithmetic tasks, Raptor Lake delivered 33% to 50% improvement over Alder Lake. The Raptor Lake design achieved this with 3.7 GHz P-Core and 2.76 GHz E-Core frequency. In vectorized and SIMD tests, the 13th gen design showed only 5% to 8% improvement over the previous generation. For more benchmarks and accurate results, we have to wait for TechPowerUp's test, which will be coming on the release day.

In April, we polled our readers with the question "Are components with high power draw an issue for you?," and got back 22,040 responses. An overwhelming 85.5 percent of our readers (PC gamers and enthusiasts) take issue with high power draw for PC components. This comes in the wake of key components such as processors and discrete graphics cards rising in power-draw generation-over-generation, despite transitioning to smaller and smaller silicon fabrication nodes, signaling that Moore's Law isn't able to keep up with advances in performance and capabilities. The 85.5 percent of respondents who voted "yes," did so for very diverse reasons.

Our poll question wasn't a binary yes-or-no; and people could vote yes for different reasons—power bill, heat, noise, and the environment. 33.5 percent of respondents felt that power bill (energy costs) is the biggest reason why they chose yes. Heat is the second big factor, with 28.5 percent feeling that they don't want high power-draw component because power has a direct impact on heat, and all that heat is put out into the room despite how good the cooling solution is. The third place goes to noise at 12.2 percent, with bigger cooling requirements having an impact on system noise. Even big fat liquid cooling solutions ultimately rely on fans. Interestingly, only 11.3 percent voted that they care about the environment and hence take issue with high power-draw components. This figure, by the way, is much less than the 14.5 percent who voted that they don't care at all about components with high power draw.

Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions & Marketing at AMD, has posted an interesting slide on Twitter, claiming that AMD Radeon products possess higher FPS/$ value than NVIDIA's graphics offerings. According to the slide, AMD Radeon graphics cards are the best solutions for gamers looking at performance per dollar ratings and performance per watt. This means that AMD claims that Radeon products are inherently higher-value products than NVIDIA's offerings while also more efficient. As the chart shows, which you can see below, some AMD Radeon cards are offering up to 89% better FPS/$ value with up to 123% better FPS/Watt metric. This highest rating is dedicated to Radeon RX 6400 GPU; however, there are all GPUs included in comparison with up to the latest Radeon RX 6950 XT SKU.

Compared to TechPowerUp's own testing of AMD's Radeon cards and multiple reviews calculating the performance per dollar metric, we could not see numbers as high as AMD's. This means that AMD's marketing department probably uses a different selection of games that may perform better on AMD Radeon cards than NVIDIA GeForce RTX. Of course, as with any company marketing material, you should take it with a grain of salt, so please check some of our reviews for a non-biased comparison.

Ten years ago, in 2012, NVIDIA introduced its Kepler series of graphics cards based on the TSMC 28 nm node. Architecture has been supported for quite a while now by NVIDIA's drivers, and the last series to carry support was the 470 driver class. Today, NVIDIA pushed a security update in the form of a 473.47 WHQL driver that brings fixes to various CVE vulnerabilities that can cause anything from issues that may lead to denial of service, information disclosure, or data tampering. This driver version has no fixed matters and doesn't bring any additional features except the fix for vulnerabilities. With CVEs rated from 4.1 to 8.5, NVIDIA has fixed major issues bugging Kepler GPU users. With a high risk for code execution, denial of service, escalation of privileges, information disclosure, and data tampering, the 473.47 WHQL driver is another step for supporting Kepler architecture until 2024, when NVIDIA plans to drop the support for this architecture. Supported cards are GT 600, GT 700, GTX 600, GTX 700, Titan, Titan Black, and Titan Z.

The updated drivers are available for installation on NVIDIA's website and for users of TechPowerUp's NVCleanstall software.

AMD today gave its Radeon RX 6000 series a pretty broad-ranging update with the introduction of three new SKUs, the Radeon RX 6950 XT, the RX 6750 XT, and the RX 6650 XT. The RX 6950 XT and RX 6750 XT are positioned at competitive price-points of $1,099 and $549, respectively, and they push the RX 6900 XT and RX 6700 XT down to lower price-points. The RX 6650 XT, however, replaces the RX 6600 XT at $399, which gets retired from the product-stack.

All three of these are based on the same 7 nm (TSMC N7) silicon fabrication node, and the same exact RDNA2 architecture as the cards they're displacing/replacing; but AMD has developed them in three distinct directions. The first of course is at the firmware/software level, which is a mysterious secret-sauce and probably has to do with the boosting algorithm. The second is increased GPU clocks, and the third is faster memory, with 18 Gbps-rated GDDR6 memory deployed on all three cards. AMD claims that the RX 6950 XT beats the GeForce RTX 3090 and the RTX 3080 Ti; the RX 6750 XT increases lead over the RTX 3070 and gains on the RTX 3070 Ti; while the RX 6650 XT increases lead over the RTX 3060, gaining in on the RTX 3060 Ti.Check out the TechPowerUp reviews of the MSI RX 6950 XT Gaming X, Sapphire RX 6950 XT NITRO+ Pure, GIGABYTE RX 6950 XT Gaming OC, MSI RX 6750 XT Gaming X, ASUS ROG Strix RX 6750 XT OC, and MSI RX 6650 XT Gaming X

Creative Labs is a name that's as old as PC gaming itself—pioneering PC audio since its formative years. The Creative Sound Blaster line of sound cards helped generations of gamers realize the power of high-quality audio in competitive gaming—when you can hear what your rivals don't. Your GPU will only show you what's on the screen, but not enemies hidden around the corners. Most competitive games have audio cues such as footsteps, reload sounds, or taunts. This is where Creative's engineering steps in—the highest quality DACs, paired with the best DSPs fine-tuned for various genres of games; and a purpose-designed set of analog components that present that best possible sound-stage for gaming, as well as high-resolution lossless music listening for audiophiles.

Creative Labs partners with TechPowerUp to bring gamers special discounts on its entire range of gaming DACs and sound cards. The Sound BlasterX G6 is best suited for game consoles, such as the Xbox One/Series, PlayStation 4/5, Switch, and PCs. It takes in analog or digital (optical) input from your device, and processes it for high-quality amplified analog output, along with Game Voice Mix, Scout Mode, and more. The Sound Blaster GC7 supercharges game streamers' desktops, with studio-quality audio mixing controls right at your fingertips, along with Creative's top-of-the-line Super X-Fi audio circuitry. The Sound Blaster X4 is a powerful, well-priced USB DAC that works with all consoles and PCs, including most essential DSP controls right on the device. Still in two minds about whether you even need special gaming audio hardware? Check out our post on the topic aptly named USB Sound Cards Explained: Tech, Benefits, Do I Need One?.

Use the TechPowerUp-exclusive coupon code POWERUP15 to avail 15% Off on the entire range of DACs and sound cards from Creative, on the Creative United States online store. Offer valid until July 31, 2022.

Buy Creative Sound Blaster Sound Cards and Gaming DACs

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the popular graphics sub-system information, diagnostic, and monitoring utility. Version 2.46.0 introduces support for the AMD Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT, and RX 6650 XT. It also improves support for Intel Arc "Alchemist" GPUs. Support is added for rare graphics cards, such as the GA107-based GeForce RTX 2050, and NVIDIA A30. Support is also improved for Xe LP-based iGPUs in "Alder Lake" mobile processors, and the Glenfly GPU. The core driver of GPU-Z has been updated to no longer require an SSE2-capable CPU. AMD's 2022-series drivers are correctly labeled as "AMD Software." Resizable BAR misreading on AGP graphics cards has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.46.0

EK Water Blocks, possibly the most notable manufacturer of DIY PC cooling solutions, has downsized a quarter of its staff in response to a sharp drop in sales. This affects over 60 of the 200+ tech jobs in Slovenia, the home country of EKWB, something it proudly flaunts. EKWB sees its sales principally split in half between the North American and European markets. The company's market-presence in Asia is limited at this time, although it is now a reinvigorated area of interest. The company noticed quarterly sales-drops in steps as big as 20 percent since October 2021, according to Slovenian press reports.

The company is faulting these sales drops on the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically its economic impact, spike in PC hardware prices, and people spending less on premium/novelty hardware that EKWB principally specializes in—DIY liquid cooling solutions. The company also noted the impact of the war in Ukraine causing various commodity shortages for manufacturers in Europe. Matjaž Krč (CEO, EKWB) in a statement even blamed the sociological impact of COVID-19, specifically gaps between pandemic waves that enable people to travel and enjoy the outdoors—not wanting to spend on things that keep them indoors, such as gaming.

TechPowerUp today released latest version of ThrottleStop by Kevin Glynn. A nifty tool that gives you greater control over the power-management features of your processor, which should prove particularly useful for notebooks, letting you override several OEM power limitations to bring out the best in your hardware. Version 9.4.6 beta introduces several updates and bug fixes. The "Disable and Lock Power Limits" box is now replaced with the MMIO Lock box. The FIVR and TPL window themes have been updated. The Turbo Boost limits and Turbo groups have been combined into the FIVR window. CPU voltage is slightly increased at 800 MHz for stability when undervolting. Compatibility of SpeedStep and SpeedShift with Windows has been increased. The chance for BSODs with voltages set too low, have been reduced. Grab ThrottleStop from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: ThrottleStop by Kevin Glynn 9.4.6 beta

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the graphics sub-system information and diagnostic utility. Version 2.45 introduces support for a number of new GPUs. On the NVIDIA side, we have the GeForce RTX 3090 Ti, RTX 3060 Ti (GA103-based), RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU, T1000 8 GB, T400, CMP 170HX, and A16. On the AMD side, we have the Radeon RX 6950 XT, RX 6750 XT, RX 6800S, RX 6700S, RX 6850M XT, RX 6650M XT, W6400, "Barcelo" APU, "Rembrandt APU," and Valve Steam Deck GPU. Preliminary support is also added for Intel Arc "Alchemist" series. Memory size reporting of NVIDIA "Ampere" was improved. Also improved is support for Intel "Alder Lake" iGPUs, support for HBM and DDR4 memory on NVIDIA, and improved "GA106" transistor count.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.45

TechPowerUp and ORICO brought our readers from across the globe, a unique chance to win an ORICO TB3-S2 NVMe SSD Docking Station; and an ORICO PSSD 1 TB biometric-encrypted portable SSD. The TB3-S2 is a 9-in-1 connectivity expander that takes advantage of Thunderbolt 3 to put out a plethora of USB, wired LAN, memory card, connectivity, while also serving as a handy dual M.2 NVMe enclosure. The PSSD is a rugged portable SSD for road-warriors, with a fingerprint reader, and an in-built drive encryption mechanism. The results are in! Without further ado, the winners:

• "vzangel" from Mexico (Twitch and Twitter handle), wins an ORICO TB3-S2 9-in-1 docking station
• "simiaelevatum" from the United States (Twitch handle), wins an ORICO PSSD 1 TB portable SSD

A huge congratulations to you two! ORICO and TechPowerUp will return with more such interesting giveaways.

TechPowerUp and mobility computing hardware major ORICO announce a chance for you to bag one of two pieces of handy ORICO hardware in our latest Giveaway. We are giving away an ORICO PSSD fingerprint-encryption 1 TB portable SSD, and a TB3-S2 9-in-1 Thunderbolt 3 Dual M.2 bay docking station. Announced recently by the company, the TB3-S2 and PSSD boost your mobile productivity, especially if you're carrying around a thin-and-light commercial notebook that has minimal wired connectivity.

The PSSD takes advantage of USB 3.2 Gen 2, offering transfer speeds of 520 MB/s, along with native drive encryption with a biometric fingerprint sensor on drive. The drive comes partitioned with a primary partition that has the biometric security software that can be made to auto-run; which then decrypts the user-area upon successful authentication, either by password or fingerprint. The TB3-S2 is a force-multiplier for thin-and-light notebooks. It packs two M.2 PCIe/NVMe slots, letting you increase storage; along with a plethora of downstream display, USB, wired Ethernet, and audio connectivity. The Giveaway is open Worldwide (wherever legal), with entries open till March 21, 2022. To participate, head down to our Givelab page, where you can not only participate, but also increase your chances of winning, by sharing the giveaway across your social media.

For more information and to participate, visit this page.

TechPowerUp and 1MORE brought our readers from around the world a chance to win a pair of 1MORE Comfobuds 2 true-wireless headphones. Designed for comfort and convenience without compromising on audio quality, the Comfobuds 2 can give you up to 24 hours of listening when taking around with their case, and 6 hours on a full charge. These are designed for the latest audio codecs across both Android and iPhone, leveraging the latest Bluetooth 5 technology. Without further ado, the winners, all ten of them!

• "Frogger" from Canada
• Mark from France
• "Tigger" from the UK
• Mert from Turkey
• Roberto from Brazil
• Andrew from the US
• Javier from Spain
• Adrian from Romania
• "King Mustard" from the UK
• Daniel from the US

A huge congratulations! What will you listen to first? Do let us know in the comments!

Did you miss the TechPowerUp and 1MORE true-wireless headphones giveaway? Well now's your chance! Sign up for a chance to win one of ten pairs of 1MORE Comfobuds 2 true-wireless headphones, which is open until March 1, 2022, for most of the world. The Comfobuds 2 are a powerful yet practical pair of true-wireless earbuds with a broad range of mobile device support, powerful 13.4 mm drivers, and 24 hours battery life when used with its charging case. What are you waiting for? Come on in!

For more details and to join visit this page.