Put your hands together for Kevin from Connecticut, USA. The Winner of TechPowerUp and Digital Storm Lynx Gaming Desktop Giveaway, Kevin will soon receive a swanky, brand-new Digital Storm Lynx gaming desktop, configured with an Intel Core i7-9700K 8-core processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics, 16 GB of dual-channel DDR4-3200 memory, a 500 GB Samsung 970 EVO NVMe SSD, a Corsair-made 750W PSU, and a custom case with RGB LED lighting, all put together by the craftsmen at Digital Storm, our favorite gaming PC vendor for those who want a really fast PC really fast. We here at TechPowerUp wish Kevin his most glorious gaming moments as the Digital Storm Lynx sits at the heart of his battle station.

TechPowerUp today released GPU-Z 2.20.0 as a very quick follow-up to version 2.19.0 from a few hours ago. We have come across a few critical bugs with the older version that needed immediate fixing. To begin with, your overclock getting reset on NVIDIA graphics cards with Boost when using GPU-Z, has been fixed. A crash noticed on machines with NVIDIA "Pascal" GPUs with no driver loaded, has also been fixed. Crashes noticed on Apple machines (i.e. Windows on Apple) with AMD Radeon Vega 12 GPU have been fixed. We touched up the memory bus-width read-out to show "bit" instead of "Bit," while we were at it. Grab the download from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.20.0The change-log follows.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the definitive graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. Version 2.19.0 adds support for several new GPUs, improves user experience, and fixes bugs. To begin with, support is added for AMD Ryzen 3000-series "Picasso" iGPUs, besides NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, GTX 1650 Mobile, GTX 1660 Mobile, GTX 1660 Ti Mobile, GeForce MX250, and the TU117-B revision. Transistor counts were added for GeForce MX230 and GP108 chips. AMD Radeon Pro series graphics cards get a proper logo display.

TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.19.0 also improves support for EVGA iCX technology with better detection of support, and improved accuracy. We've added the ability to detect support for DirectX Raytracing (DXR), Variable-rate shading, WDDM 2.6 (requires Windows 10 1903), and Shader Model 6.5, and Tiled Resources Tier 4 in the Advanced panel. The tab now also lists out new DirectX 12 capabilities incrementally rolled out through Windows 10 1803 and 1809. The ASIC Quality readout will now only display on GPUs that support the read-out. Among the fixes include faster startup on devices with AMD PowerXpress, a crash when no known cards are detected and driver info is sought by a mouse-hover, a startup crash on Windows XP machines, and the correct silicon display of GK210 for Tesla K80.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.19.0

The change-log follows.

BIOSTAR and TechPowerUp brought you a chance to win one of two AMD platform motherboards with unique design and feature-sets. The Giveaway period is up, and the results are in! Among the prizes are the BIOSTAR Racing B450GT3, a formidable socket AM4 motherboard in the micro-ATX form-factor designed to be the foundation of a highly capable gaming PC build, and the BIOSTAR A10N-8800E, which packs an embedded AMD A10-8800E processor to everyday tasks and casual gaming. Without further ado, the Winners:

• Dumitru from Romania, wins the BIOSTAR Racing B450GT3
• Rene from Denmark, wins the BIOSTAR A10N-8800E

A huge Congratulations to the Winners!

TechPowerUp partners with BIOSTAR to bring you the Gaming Ready Motherboard Giveaway! Up for grabs are two gaming-grade motherboards from the AMD platform by BIOSTAR, with which you can build an e-Sports capable gaming PC build without breaking the bank. One lucky winner brings home a BIOSTAR Racing B450GT3 motherboard, and another lucky winner gets a BIOSTAR A10N-8800E motherboard with an embedded CPU.

The Racing B450GT3 is the perfect start to a highly capable AMD Ryzen gaming PC build, bolstered by gaming-grade onboard audio, and a reinforced PCI-Express slot, not to mention BIOSTAR's VIVID LED DJ embellishments. The A10N-8800E, on the other hand, is a mini-ITX motherboard that packs an AMD FX-8800P embedded processor with a 4-core/4-thread "Excavator" CPU, and Radeon R7 integrated GPU with 512 stream processors. There's also a PCI-Express slot for graphics expansion. To stand a chance to win one of these, simply fill up a form to let us get back to you if you've won. You can improve your chances by sharing the giveaway on social media.

For more information and to participate, visit this page.

Latest generation graphics cards and memory are pricier than they used to be. Where do you offset the added costs? A cheaper motherboard? A smaller SSD? Stock CPU cooling? Why not save on the one key component whose quality won't get any lower with cost-savings, software? CDKoffers lets you do that. With genuine, globally-valid OEM licenses to two important software your PC build is incomplete without, you save up to $300 over what you had originally planned, letting you keep your hardware choices unaffected!

Windows 10 Pro globally-valid OEM licenses can be had for as USD $19, which is an 89 percent saving over the $150 price this software usually commands. Office is another software no home desktop is complete without. CDKOffers is selling globally-valid Office 2016 Professional Plus licenses for $48.40, which is a straight 82 percent saving over the $289 price it's usually sold at. TechPowerUp readers get to save even more over these prices by applying an exclusive discount coupon at checkout. CDKOffers uses PayPal gateway, so your payment instruments remain completely secure. Do also check them out for deep-discount game keys and in-game items.

Buy Windows 10 Pro from CDKOffers for $19 | Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus from CDKOffers for $48.40

TechPowerUp Readers get an additional 20% Off! Simply apply the coupon code "TP20" at checkout.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z, the graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility no enthusiast can leave home without. Version 2.17.0 adds support for new GPUs, and fixes a number of issues. To begin with, GPU-Z adds support for AMD Radeon VII, NVIDIA TITAN RTX, GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, GeForce RTX 20-series Mobile, Quadro RTX 4000, Intel "Amber Lake" GT2 graphics, among several other rare GPU models detailed in the change-log. Support is also added for AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition drivers.

Among the several issues fixed are improved monitoring on Radeon RX 580 2048-SP, default boost frequency reporting on GTX 1660 Ti and certain "Pascal" GPUs, missing fan sensors on RTX 20-series cards with no display connected, a start-up crash and DXVA 2.0 report crash noticed on Windows XP machines; power-limit reporting and BIOS extraction crashes on certain older NVIDIA GPUs, various general crashes caused by physical memory access, and video memory reporting on "Vega" based graphics cards with 16 GB memory. There are numerous user-experience improvements, including simplified sensor labels, improved memory usage readouts, a more functional crash-reporter that lets you describe the problem along with an e-mail address input so we could directly get back to you; memory timings readouts only appearing in compatible environments, etc. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.17.0

The complete change-log follows.

EKOffers is a deep-discount online store specializing in selling genuine, globally-valid software licenses and gaming peripherals. In partnership with TechPowerUp, they bring you a chance to save big on the two pieces of software no home PC build is complete without - Windows 10 operating system and Office 2016 productivity suite. EKOffers is selling genuine, globally-valid keys to Windows 10 Pro operating system for USD $14.88, which is already a roughly-90 percent discount over normal pricing. Office 2016 Professional Plus remains a market leader in productivity software, and EKOffers is selling genuine, globally-valid, lifetime keys for $41.38, which is an 80% discount. That's not all, EKOffers is also selling bundles of Windows 10 Pro and Office 2016 Professional Plus keys for a stunning $51.41, which is roughly the price of a single AAA game.TechPowerUp readers get a further 20% off on the already discounted prices when they apply the coupon code "TP20" at checkout!

Buy Windows 10 Pro on EKOffers at $14.88 | Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus on EKOffers at $41.38 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2016 Professional Plus Bundle at $51.41

DIYPC and TechPowerUp brought you the New Year's Resolution Giveaway through late-January and February 8. A DIYPC Trio-GT RGB case and Rainbow-RGB 120 mm fan are up for grabs. The Trio-GT RGB case packs a balanced combination of tempered glass, RGB LED lighting, and a highly practical case layout. The Rainbow-RGB 120 mm is a neat package of RGB LED lighting and durable bearing. From thousands of entries, two winners are randomly selected. Without further ado, the winners:

• Courtney from the United States: Wins a DIYPC Trio-GT RGB case
• Bruno from Portugal and Matt from the United States: Win a Rainbow-RGB 120 mm, each.

TechPowerUp will return with more interesting Giveaways.

Apple's MacBook Pro (2018) with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 20 graphics option appears to have a serious design flaw related to its video subsystem. The laptop tends to show severe screen flickering and lines crossing through the picture after waking up from extended periods of idling (after the display has turned off). The problem persists even through reboots. A reboot will make the flickering go away, however the next time the MacBook idles and decides to turn off its display, waking the machine will bring the flicker back. Most common remedies an enthusiast could think of, such as disabling the auto-switching between integrated- and discrete GPUs, and preventing the monitor from idling, don't appear to fix the problem.

The problem was discovered on a brand new $4,500 15-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i9, AMD Vega 20, 32 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD). Upon its discovery, it was taken to the Apple Store, where the employees immediately replaced it without further questions when they heard "display corruption after standby". The replacement process was hassle-free, it looks like others have faced this issue with this MacBook Pro model and Apple is trying to quickly resolve it to keep the lid on it. However, after a couple of days, the problem re-surfaced on the replacement MacBook, too. Both models were running MacOS "Mojave" version 10.14.2.

Emerging PC case and accessories powerhouse DIYPC and TechPowerUp bring you a chance to change your least-often upgraded parts: cases and case-cooling, and take a plunge into the bright and colorful world of RGB LED aesthetics. Three lucky winners receive DIYPC hardware upgrades. The first winner receives DIYPC Trio-GT RGB case, while two other winners get a Rainbow-RGB 120 mm case fan, each. The Trio-GT RGB is DIYPC's flagship case that incorporates tempered glass, a contemporary interior layout, and up to four included RGB LED case fans. The Rainbow-RGB 120 mm fan embed addressable RGB LEDs into a silicone diffuser along the frame, coupled with high-durability bearings. To enter, simply fill in a short form to help us to get back to you; the three winners will be randomly selected and announced after February 8th, 2019.For more information, and to participate, visit this page.

TechPowerUp and be quiet! brought you the Upgrade Kit Giveaway through December 2018, presenting you with a unique chance to overhaul the case, PSU, and cooling of your gaming rig from Germany's leading PC cooling components maker. From a pool of thousands of entries, three winners were randomly selected, and without further ado, here are the winners!

• Jernej from Slovenia: Wins the full Upgrade Kit, including a be quiet! Silent Base 801 Window case, Straight Power 11 550W power-supply, and Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler
• Andre from Brasil and Sebastien from the United Kingdom: Each win a be quiet! Dark Rock 4 CPU Cooler

A huge Congratulations to you three! TechPowerUp and be quiet! will return with more such interesting giveaways.

Every year ends on a high here at TechPowerUp, as we look back to a year's work in bringing the fastest, best, and most incisive technology content to our readers. There can be no better year-ender than the Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year we wish for you, your colleagues, family, and friends!

From all of us here at TechPowerUp, spread across the globe, Thank You for 2018. We once again wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

URCDKeys is a sensational new deep-discount online software license store. The store is selling two of its most popular products among TechPowerUp readers, at an unbeatable discount of up to 92% off the regular online price. Windows 10 Pro is a recommended flavor of Windows 10 for PC enthusiasts as it gives you greater control thanks to Group Policy Editor, and other administrative tools. URCDKey is selling the OEM license key to Windows 10 Pro for USD $14.86, which further goes down to $11.81 when you apply a TechPowerUp-exclusive coupon at checkout.

Your Windows 10 PC is incomplete without Microsoft Office, and URCDKey is stocked with Office 2016 Professional lifetime global license keys for just $38.02, with a further 20% off for TechPowerUp readers, making the effective price you pay just $30.42. That's a fraction of the price you'd pay for an annual subscription of Office 365. This deal is particularly useful for students, so they don't have to shell out $100 every two semesters.

Buy Windows 10 Pro OEM from URCDKeys | Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus from URCDKeys

Exclusive Discount for TechPowerUp readers: Don't forget to use coupon-code TP20 at checkout for an additional 20% off on the already discounted prices!

TechPowerUp and German PC cooling experts Be Quiet! partner to bring you a unique opportunity to overhaul the casing, power, and cooling of your rig, with the Upgrade Kit Giveaway. One randomly-selected lucky winner stands to win a kit consisting of a Be Quiet! Silent Base 801 case, Straight Power 11 550W 80 Plus Gold power-supply, and a Dark Rock 4 CPU cooler (all three). Additionally, two runners up receive a Dark Rock 4, each. Open from today, the Giveaway ends on December 22. It is open to all our readers worldwide (wherever legal). To participate simply fill up a short form that helps us get back to you if you've won. Be Lucky with Be Quiet!

For more information and to participate, visit this page.

PowerColor and TechPowerUp brought you a sensational Giveaway embedded into TechPowerUp GPU-Z v2.15.0, with a crateful of PowerColor and AMD gear up for grabs. The Giveaway has drawn to a close, and from nearly 15,000 entries, nineteen lucky winners were picked out. It's a long list, and so without further ado, the winners:

• Umut from Turkey, and Dimitris from Greece, win a PowerColor Radeon RX 590 Red Devil 8GB graphics card, each
• Sava from Serbia, and Gary from the United States, win an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X 6-core/12-thread desktop processor, each
• The following winners get a $30 Steam Wallet Coupon, each: Tarek from Egypt, Mike from Canada, Tundzhay from Bulgaria, David from Alabama USA, Rafael from Brazil, Wassim from Algeria, Serghei from Italy, Tim from Germany, George from Greece, Luca from New York state USA, Oskari from Finland, Jasmin from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Balazs from Spain, Wesley from North Carolina USA, and Martin from the United Kingdom.

A huge Congratulations to each of you. We hope you've had as much trying out the GPU-Z 2.15.0 Giveaway tab as we had fun making it. TechPowerUp and PowerColor will return with more such interesting giveaways!

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular video sub-system information and diagnostic utility. Version 2.16.0 adds support for new and upcoming GPUs, new features and comes with various bug fixes. To begin with, GPU-Z adds support for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card. Support is added for the EVGA iCX sensor suite on RTX 2080 FTW3 and RTX 2080 Ti FTW3 graphics cards.

GPU-Z can now detect UWD and DCH graphics drivers. When such drivers are detected on Windows 10 machines, the driver version will include the "DCH" marker. The "Advanced" tab gives info on the DCH driver status of the installed GPU, too. With version 2.16.0, we also made GPU-Z more high-DPI friendly. The splash screen is aware high-DPI screen resolutions. More importantly, we fixed the sensor list not correctly displaying on high-DPI monitors. Rendering artifacts when resizing the sensor window have been fixed. The main settings panel now has a checkbox that lets you control the updater (this option was previously located inside the update checker itself). A rare crash noticed with AMD "Polaris" GPUs has been fixed.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.16.0The change-log follows.

One of our readers tipped us off with a very plausible looking image that drops a motherlode of information about what AMD's 2nd generation Ryzen (aka Ryzen 3000 series) processor lineup could look like. This includes a vast selection of SKUs, their CPU and iGPU core configurations, clock-speeds, and OEM channel pricing. The list speaks of a reentry for 7th generation A-series "Excavator" as Duron X4 series, followed by Duron 300GE-series based on a highly cut down "Raven Ridge," Athlon 300GE 2-core/4-thread based on an implausible "Zen+ 12 nm" APU die, followed by quad-core Ryzen 3 3000 series processors with and without iGPUs, making up the company's entry-level product lineup.

The core counts seem to jump from 4-core straight to 8-core, with no 6-core in between, for the Ryzen 5 series. This is also where AMD's new IP, the 7 nm "Zen 2" architecture, begins. There appears to be a large APU die (or a 3-chip MCM) with an 8-core CPU and 20-CU iGPU, which makes up certain Ryzen 5 SKUs. These chips are either 8-core/8-thread or 8-core/16-thread. The Ryzen 7 series is made up of 12-core/24-thread processors that are devoid of iGPU. The new Ryzen 9 series extension caps off the lineup with 16-core/32-thread SKUs. And these are just socket AM4.

TechPowerUp today released the latest version, 2.15.0, of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. This brings along with it support for AMD's Radeon RX 590 GPU, two reviews of which can be seen here and here for those interested. In addition, GPU-Z 2.15.0 adds support for Intel Whiskey Lake, UHD Graphics 617, and NVIDIA Tesla V100-SXM2-32GB along with minor bug fixes including detection of certain Quadro cards as fake, as well as an updated Vega 20 release date.

While this alone is plenty to merit an update, there is a special giveaway added to this version. Indeed, to the left of the "Close" button at the bottom is a temporary button that opens up a giveaway window listing a collaboration with PowerColor enabling users to potentially win the following (one per winner):

• 2x PowerColor Radeon RX 590 Red Devil
• 2x AMD Ryzen 5 2600X
• 15x $30 Steam Wallet Coupon

The terms and conditions can be found in GPU-Z again, but know that the contest runs through Dec 6, 2018 and you will have to enter via the form in the utility itself. The full change log can be found in the download link seen below, and do let us know what you feel about integrating our giveaways with our utilities in the comments section below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.15.0

More than a quarter of TechPowerUp readers either already game at 4K Ultra HD resolution, or plan to do so by next year, according to our front-page survey poll run over the past 50 days. We asked our readers if they are gaming at 4K. Among the 17,175 respondents at the time of this writing, 14.5 percent said that they are already gaming at 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels), which includes not just a 4K display, but also having their games render at that resolution. 3 percent say that while they have a 4K display, they game at lower resolutions or with reduced level of detail, probably indicating that their PC hardware isn't yet capable of handling 4K.

Almost a tenth of the respondents (9.5 percent to be precise), say that while they don't game at 4K, they plan to do so in the near future. 1.6 percent responded that they expect to go 4K within 2018, and 7.9 percent in 2019. The majority 73 percent of our readers neither game at 4K nor plan to any time soon. These results are particularly encouraging as a reasonably big slice of our readership is drawn to 4K, the high-end gaming resolution of this generation, which can provide four times the detail as Full HD (1080p). Of the 9.5 percent lining up to upgrade, a near proportionate amount could upgrade not just their display, but also other hardware such as graphics cards, and perhaps even the rest of their platforms, to cope with 4K.

TechPowerUp partnered with SeaSonic, one of the most reputed PSU manufacturers, to bring you the Focus Plus Gold PSU Giveaway, a chance for one of our readers to win a SeaSonic Focus Plus Gold 650W power-supply, and 10 others to win SeaSonic-branded gym bottles. The Focus Plus series are mid-range PSUs designed to offer clean and efficient power-delivery without costing a lot. The 650W model has enough juice and straws for even a high-end desktop build with a single enthusiast-segment graphics card, or two performance-segment ones. Without further ado, the winners:

• Juan from Spain: Wins a SeaSonic Focus Plus Gold 650W power supply
• SeaSonic gym bottles won by: David from Spain, Michael from Canada, Adrian from Romania, Gary from the United States, Luca from Italy, Bertalanne from the United States, Daniel from Iceland, Nikola from Croatia, Stephen from the United States, and Pat from the United States

A huge congratulations to all you! TechPowerUp and SeaSonic will return with more such interesting giveaways!

TechPowerUp announced its new Instagram handle, and the retirement of its Google+ account. Instagram is all about pretty pictures that tell stories; and so our idea behind our Instagram presence is to bring you not just high quality exclusive pictures of the products we're reviewing; but also to get more personal with behind-the-scenes content - such as new product arrivals to our labs, unboxings, etc. Exclusive images from our breaking news coverage also makes it there. Instagram also lets us fuse our technical photography skills with creativity. Every post to Instagram is carefully curated (not automated), so it stays as organic and personal as possible.

You can reach our Instagram timeline on @techpowerupofficial (emphasis on "official").

TechPowerUp today released the latest version of GPU-Z, the popular graphics subsystem information and diagnostic utility. Version 2.14.0 adds support for Intel UHD Graphics iGPUs embedded into 9th generation Core "Coffee Lake Refresh" processors. GPU-Z now calculates Pixel and Texture Fill-rates more accurately, by leveraging the boost clock instead of the base clock. This is particularly useful for scenarios such as iGPUs, which have a vast difference between the base and boost clocks. It's also relevant to some of the newer generations of GPUs, such as NVIDIA RTX 20-series.

A number of minor bugs were also fixed with GPU-Z 2.14.0, including a missing Intel iGPU temperature sensor, and malfunctioning clock-speed measurement on Intel iGPUs. For NVIDIA GPUs, power sensors show power-draw both as an absolute value and as a percentage of the GPU's rated TDP, in separate read-outs. This feature was introduced in the previous version, this version clarifies the labels by including "W" and "%" in the name. Grab GPU-Z from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.14.0The change-log follows.

BIOS modder Vipeax has released a special patched version of NVFlash (version 5.527.0), the utility that allows you to extract and flash the video BIOS of your NVIDIA GeForce graphics card. This special version lets you to bypass NVIDIA restrictions and flash GeForce RTX 20-series Founders Edition (FE) graphics cards with BIOS ROMs of custom-design graphics cards. The official versions of NVFlash that support "Turing" GPUs report a "board ID mismatch" error when trying to do this, and an additional CLI parameter that made it ignore this warning, was removed by NVIDIA, effectively walling off Founders Edition cards from BIOS cross-flashing. You still can't flash the card with a BIOS you modified, because of NVIDIA's digital-signature restriction that has been in place since "Pascal," however, this new change could come handy if you want to flash your FE card with the BIOS of a custom-design card that is largely based on NVIDIA's reference-design PCB.

PC enthusiasts look to flash their Founders Edition cards with BIOS ROMs of custom-design graphics cards by other NVIDIA add-in card partners, mainly to increase power limits that allow the GPU to sustain boost frequencies better, and increase overclocking headroom. As an obligatory word of caution, use of NVFlash isn't covered by product warranties, and you use it at your own risk, especially when cross-flashing between cards that might have subtle differences. We manually checked the modified executable (not just Virustotal) and it doesn't contain any malware.DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA NVFlash with Board ID Mismatch Disabled

TechPowerUp today released GPU-Z 2.13.0, our graphics subsystem information, monitoring, and diagnostic utility. Version 2.13.0 introduces fixes to some of the major bugs reported by our users. To begin with, it corrects missing fan-speed sensors for pre-Turing NVIDIA graphics processors running on GeForce R400 release (or newer) drivers. Some rare crashes during GPU-Z start-up have been corrected. The "take screenshot" tooltip will no longer be part of the screenshot. We also improved the "minimize on close" behavior.DOWNLOAD: TechPowerUp GPU-Z 2.13.0

The change-log follows.