AMD earlier this week trimmed prices of its retail 3rd generation Ryzen desktop processors in the US, through promotions exclusive to Newegg and Amazon. The company is also including 3-month Xbox Game Pass subscriptions with select models. The discounts see the 12-core/24-thread Ryzen 9 3900X go for $449, $50 lower than its MSRP of $499. The company's fastest 8-core/16-thread part, the Ryzen 7 3800X, is now going for $359, or $40 lower than its $399 MSRP. The popular Ryzen 7 3700X 8-core/16-thread chip is selling for $304, a $25 discount from its $329 MSRP. AMD is applying similar $25 cuts to its 6-core/12-thread parts, with the Ryzen 5 3600X going for $224 compared to its $249 MSRP, and the popular Ryzen 5 3600 priced at $174 compared to its $199 MSRP.

AMD introduced the latest edition of the "Raise the Game" bundle, which goes live in February. The mid-range Radeon RX 5500 XT is bolstered with a windfall of games and services. New purchases of RX 5500 XT graphics cards from participating retailers receive "Resident Evil 3," "Ghost Recon Breakpoint," and "Warcraft 3: Reforged," in addition to 3 months of Xbox Game Pass for PC. Buyers of performance-segment RX 5700 and RX 5700 XT cards purchasing from participating retailers, from February 4 till April 25 (with game redemptions ending on May 25), receive "Resident Evil 3" and "Monster Hunter World: Iceborne Master Edition." Buyers of the RX 560, RX 570, RX 580, RX 590, RX Vega series, Radeon VII, RX 5500 XT, and RX 5700 series receive Xbox Game Pass for PC. Curiously, RX 5600 XT is excluded from the game bundle.

Microsoft today announced a new partnership with Spotify for new users of their Xbox Game Pass service. The new partnership is only open for U.S. and U.K residents, though - anyone else will have to pony up for both services, if interested. In essence, should you upgrade your existing Xbox Live subscription to Xbox Game Pass (either on PC or console), which you can currently do for just $1, you will also get access to Spotify's Premium plan for a long 6 months. Fuel for thought and whatever you feel like doing - just diving into one of the more than 100 entries into Microsoft's Game Pass, or the millions of songs available with Spotify.

AMD announced the 2019 edition of its "Raise the Game" game-bundle offer that goes with purchase of its Ryzen desktop processors and Radeon RX graphics cards. The bundle extends the 3-month Xbox Game Pass to a much larger part of AMD's product lineup, and not just the Radeon RX 5700-series. The bundle introduces three new AAA games to the mix - Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint," "The Outer Worlds," and "Borderlands 3," including AMD-exclusive in-game content. Depending on what AMD product you buy, you either get both games, or get to choose between the two. The 3-month Xbox Game Pass stays included.

AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 series and Ryzen 7 3800X includes both games - "The Outer Worlds" and "Borderlands 3," - and the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. The Ryzen 7 3700X, 3600X, 2700X, and 2700 include one of the two games - "The Outer Worlds" or "Borderlands 3," and the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. The Ryzen 5 3600, 3400G, and Ryzen 5 2000-series include just the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. Over in the GPU front, buyers of Radeon RX 5700-series, RX 590, RX 580, and RX 570, get to choose one of the two games - Tom Clancy's "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" or "Borderlands 3," and also receive the 3-month Xbox Game Pass. The Radeon VII, Radeon RX Vega series, and Radeon RX 560 stocks include 3-month Xbox Game Pass. You also get to choose either of the two games when you buy a qualifying pre-built desktop or notebook powered by AMD Ryzen or Radeon products.

Western Digital unveiled a full fledged lineup of WD_BLACK series gaming storage devices. With it, the company is branching out WD_BLACK as its new brand targeted at the gaming crowd, both PC and console. The WD_BLACK brand is a divergence from the company's classic Western Digital Caviar Black line of premium internal hard drives. The brand had a rebirth of sorts with the WD_BLACK SN750 M.2 NVMe SSDs. Its designers are launching several new products, including the WD_BLACK P10 portable hard drive, the WD_BLACK D10 external desktop hard drive, the WD_BLACK P50 portable SSD, and Xbox One variants of the P10 and D10.

The WD_BLACK P10 is a pocket-size portable hard drive with a single USB 3.1 cable needed for both power and connectivity. It comes in 2 TB, 4 TB, and 5 TB capacities. Its Xbox One variant has the Xbox One decal on its body, and includes a 2-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate subscription. The WD_BLACK D10 is meant to sit on your desk with its separate power and host-connectivity cables. It also puts out USB type-A high current ports to recharge your wireless gaming peripherals. The base variant of the WD_BLACK D10 comes in 8 TB capacity, while the D10 Xbox One edition comes with 12 TB capacity and a 3-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. Lastly, there's the WD_BLACK P50. This portable SSD encloses an NVMe drive that serves up sequential transfer rates of up to 2000 MB/s by utilizing USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 (20 Gbps) interface. A single cable handles power and host connectivity. It comes in capacities of 500 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB.

Newegg is not honoring AMD's Xbox Game Pass for PC promotion for some of the very first buyers of AMD Ryzen 3000-series processors. One of these took to Reddit to complain that Newegg started including the Xbox Game Pass with Ryzen 3000-series purchases only after 2:30 PM on the 8th of July (U.S. timezone not mentioned). This contradicts AMD's own terms and conditions for the promotion that define the offer period as beginning on 1st July, 2019, a whole week before Newegg began honoring its bundle. Another buyer reports that MicroCenter began honoring the offer 10 minutes into the July 7 launch. AMD is giving away 3-month Xbox Game Pass subscriptions with purchases of its AMD Ryzen 3000-series processors and Radeon RX 5700-series graphics cards, which gives you access to the Xbox game library, and includes the upcoming "Gear 5" if it releases during your subscription period.

Great gaming experiences are created by bending the rules. The new SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 5700 Series GPUs, powered by RDNA architecture, are designed from the ground up for superb 1440p performance and exceptional power efficiency for high-fidelity gaming. The Radeon RX 5700 Series GPUs house AMD's 2nd generation 7nm architecture, 8GB of GDDR6 high-speed memory and PCI Express 4.0 support. These GPUs are impeccably engineered to exponentially reduce lag, increase efficiency and surround you in immersive stutter-free gameplay.

The Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU bends the rules with a revolutionary metal exoskeleton for heat dissipation, fused with the reimagined contour silhouette, and precision machined accents to perform as good as it looks.

AMD in a Facebook post late Friday confirmed that its Radeon RX 5700 series graphics cards will launch at reduced prices compared to what it announced at its E3-2019 product announcement. The Radeon RX 5700 XT will have a reduced MSRP of USD $399, which puts it on par with that of the GeForce RTX 2060 Super. The Radeon RX 5700 will cost $50 less, at $349, which puts its price on par with the original RTX 2060. The commemorative limited-edition RX 5700 XT AMD 50th Anniversary Edition is now reduced to $449. AMD didn't announce any changes to the two cards' launch bundle that include a 3-month Xbox Game Pass for PC.

Commenting on the development, AMD said "We embrace competition, which drives innovation to the benefit of gamers. In that spirit, we are updating the pricing of our Radeon RX 5700 Series graphics cards, launching July 7." The company added "We know that gamers will be thrilled once they have the opportunity to experience the amazing performance, stunning visual fidelity and highly responsive gameplay these new graphics cards provide. Making history on 7/7 as the first company to launch gaming CPUs and GPUs together - the first in 7nm and PCIe 4.0 - is all about pushing the ultimate gaming experience forward for as many gamers as possible."

AMD reference-design Radeon RX 5700 XT and RX 5700 graphics cards will launch on the 7th of July, and the company's various add-in-board (AIB) partners are ready with their inventories. VideoCardz scored pictures from various such board partners. As for the cards themselves, all of these are based on the AMD reference-design. The RX 5700 reference-design is in mass-production, contrary to older reports. All these packages appear to indicate reference clock speeds. In select markets, all of these packages include the Xbox Game Pass for PC, which gives you a 3-month access to vast library of full game titles from Microsoft.

There still are no picture leaks on custom-design Radeon RX 5700-series graphics cards, which suggests that they will be launched a little later. At Computex we spotted several new graphics card cooling solutions from AMD partners, confirming that custom-design cards are a go. The reference Radeon RX 5700 XT has an MSRP of $449, while the RX 5700 is priced at $379. As for the limited-edition Radeon RX 5700 XT AMD 50th Anniversary Edition, it will be available online through AMD.com in select markets, priced at $499. You pay the extra $50 for an exclusive product design, higher clock speeds, and likely some AMD goodies, such as an AMD|50 t-shirt.

AMD over the weekend released the latest version of Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition. Version 19.6.1 Beta adds support for Microsoft Xbox Game Pass for PC. The groundbreaking new service from Microsoft benefits gamers who play on both PC and Xbox, by providing Windows PCs with a Library and common access to games across platforms. The drivers also address AMD Link not working correctly on some of the installations of Radeon Software. Grab the driver from the link below.DOWNLOAD: Radeon Software Adrenalin 19.6.1 Beta

The change-log follows.

Microsoft launched Xbox Game Pass in June 2017. This video game subscription service allows users to install and play Xbox games (not just Xbox One ones, there are titles from the Xbox 360 and even the original Xbox) , with over 230 games currently available, a number that is constantly growing. Often called 'The Netflix of video games', the service has been improving its offering, but now the project will go beyond it's initial focus. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, announced during an investor meeting that Xbox Game Pass will come to PCs soon.

Nadella gave no further details, so we still don't know what games will be included on that service or the subscription price (currently $9.99/month), but the announcement is promising and another sign that the company is moving forward to expand their reach and, of course, their earnings. On the latest earnings release (FY19 Q1) Microsoft pointed out how gaming revenue "increased 44% with Xbox software and services revenue growth of 36% mainly from third-party title strength". This move could make that growth go even higher, and it joins other recent announcements that could improve Microsoft's role in this market.