After recently announcing PS5 and PC cross-play, Airship Syndicate announced that its co-op, indie, ARPG dungeon crawler, Wayfinder, will officially exit early access on October 21. Along with the full version 1.0 release, Wayfinder will introduce both a new playable area, called The Crucible, and a new vertical traversal tool, called a Hookshot, specifically designed to explore the ruins of the ancient city. The announcement comes with gameplay footage (see on the PlayStation Blog) of the overgrown, gloomy mega-mech that was built by the ancients to fight a war but has since been reclaimed by nature. The new map adds an extra degree of verticality to the game, giving the developers an opportunity to expand the player experience and arsenal.

In addition to the new region and extended mobility options, Airship Syndicate is teaming up with Critical Role for a paid DLC that will add The Legend of Vox Machina characters to Wayfinder as playable characters. Although exact pricing of the DLC is unknown both the Critical Role DLC Supporter Pack and The Crucible will be available on October 21. After the update, players will still be able to play in both single-player and co-op modes, just like before.

Leading gaming accessories maker Turtle Beach Corporation today revealed the latest accessory to join its award-winning line of VelocityOne simulation products. The Turtle Beach VelocityOne Multi-Shift now steps into the spotlight as racing simulation's new, groundbreaking three-function gear shifter and handbrake. VelocityOne Multi-Shift is a premium universal racing sim shifter and handbrake module that's expertly designed with high-end materials and innovative versatility to deliver enhanced realism to most racing sim setups. Multi-Shift is the perfect expansion to Turtle Beach's VelocityOne Race Wheel & Pedals for Xbox and PC, plus it can be used with other compatible PC racing simulation kits. Turtle Beach's VelocityOne Multi-Shift Universal Gear Shifter & Handbrake is available for pre-order at www.turtlebeach.com and participating retailers worldwide for $129.99/£119.99/€129.99 MSRP.

"Turtle Beach once again revolutionizes gaming simulation, this time with VelocityOne Multi-Shift, our innovative three-function gear shifter and handbrake," said Cris Keirn, CEO, Turtle Beach Corporation. "Multi-Shift's ability to be used as a sequential gearbox, H-gate gearbox, or precision hand brake is impressive on its own. The flexibility to be used on Xbox or PC with our VelocityOne Race Wheel & Pedals kit and with other PC racing sim products, combined with its attractive sub-$150 price point, makes Multi-Shift a must-have accessory for fans looking to take their racing sim setup to the next level."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the IT industry's average growth is much higher than that of other industries, and the median wage is reported to be more than double the standard. If you're looking for a new or more lucrative career path, it may be smart to consider becoming an IT professional.

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 is fast approaching its October 25 launch date on the PC Microsoft Store, Battle.net and Steam. In partnership with Treyarch Studios, Call of Duty PC lead developer Beenox is developing a cutting-edge PC experience with 4K graphics and Ultrawide support plus a huge number of options across a variety of settings so players can dial in the best playing experience possible.

Get the Ultimate Performance Boost with AMD FSR 3.1
Some of the major features include:

• AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution
  • AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 transforms your gaming experience with faster, more responsive framerates in Black Ops 6 using super resolution temporal upscaling and advanced frame generation.
• Advanced Frame Generation Technologies
  • The FSR Frame Generation toggle found in your graphics settings allows you to enable Frame Generation, which significantly increases your framerate and works seamlessly with other upscaling solutions.
• AMD FidelityFX Contrast Adaptive Sharpening (CAS)
  • An overhead sharpening slider can help bring more details to edges of weapons, players, and environments.

AMD FSR 3.1 is compatible with a wide range of graphics cards from AMD and other vendors, delivering exceptional upscaling image quality and massive performance boosts when gaming at 4K or 1440p.

Despite the recent successful launch of Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero, which sold 3 million units in 24 hours, it looks as though Bandai Namco is pressuring 200 of its 1,300 employees in Japan to voluntarily resign in what is being called a short-sighted move to boost profits. According to a recent Bloomberg report, the Japanese game developer is skirting strict labor laws in Japan by removing all work responsibilities from 200 of its employees. Allegedly, nearly 100 of those staff being pressured into resignation have already left the company. Along with the layoffs, Bandai Namco has apparently cancelled three new games that were in development, namely, new Dragon Ball, One Piece, and Naruto games.

This shift at Bandai Namco comes in spite of a booming Japanese game industry, which will reportedly grow by 6.66% annually until 2029. Game Developer attributes Bandai Namco's coerced "voluntary" layoffs to the losses generated by the consistently underwhelming performance of the company's online division, which supposedly generated a net loss of an equivalent to $51.35 million in the last fiscal year. If our recent reporting is any indication, there seems to be a shift in the overall gaming market, in which younger audiences predominantly seem to prefer multiplayer (specifically PvP) games. Second to PvP is single-player gaming, which was consistently the preferred game type for more than 30% of gamers, regardless of age groups. This latter niche is seemingly where Bandai Namco's strengths and audience seem to lie, along with many of its other Japanese game studio competitors, like From Software, Nintendo, and Capcom.

MSI, a leading global provider of high-performance server solutions, is excited to showcase its comprehensive lineup of motherboards and servers based on the OCP Modular Hardware System (DC-MHS) architecture at the OCP Global Summit from October 15-17 at booth A6. These cutting-edge solutions represent a breakthrough in server designs, enabling flexible deployments for cloud and high-density data centers. Featured innovations include CXL memory expansion servers and AI-optimized servers, demonstrating MSI's leadership in pushing the boundaries of AI performance and computing power.

DC-MHS Series Motherboards and Servers: Enabling Flexible Deployment in Data Centers
"The rapidly evolving IT landscape requires cloud service providers, large-scale data center operators, and enterprises to handle expanding workloads and future growth with more flexible and powerful infrastructure. MSI's new rage of DC-MHS-based solutions provides the needed flexibility and efficiency for modern data center environments," said Danny Hsu, General Manager of Enterprise Platform Solutions.

Micro Center, a leading national computer and electronic device retailer, has relaunched the online presence of its PowerSpec brand, a trusted name in high-performance desktop PCs. The newly redesigned PowerSpec.com offers an enhanced user experience tailored to meet the needs of gamers, professionals, and tech enthusiasts alike.

Since 1992, PowerSpec has been at the forefront of delivering powerful, adaptable, and upgradeable PCs backed by Micro Center's industry-leading customer service. The revamped website reflects PowerSpec's commitment to quality, innovation, and customer satisfaction by offering streamlined navigation, detailed product information, and easy access to essential drivers and support resources.

Emteq Labs, the market leader in emotion-recognition wearable technology, today announced the forthcoming introduction of Sense, the world's first emotion-sensing eyewear. Alongside the unveiling of Sense, the company is pleased to announce the appointment of Steen Strand, former head of the hardware division of Snap Inc., as its new Chief Executive Officer.

Over the past decade, Emteq Labs - led by renowned surgeon and facial musculature expert, Dr. Charles Nduka - has been at the forefront of engineering advanced technologies for sensing facial movements and emotions. This data has significant implications on health and well-being, but has never been available outside of a laboratory, healthcare facility, or other controlled setting. Now, Emteq Labs has developed Sense: a patented, AI-powered eyewear platform that provides lab-quality insights in real life and in real time. This includes comprehensive measurement and analysis of the wearer's facial expressions, dietary habits, mood, posture, attention levels, physical activity, and additional health-related metrics.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is accelerating the industry's transition to liquid-cooled data centers with the NVIDIA Blackwell platform to deliver a new paradigm of energy-efficiency for the rapidly heightened energy demand of new AI infrastructures. Supermicro's industry-leading end-to-end liquid-cooling solutions are powered by the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 platform for exascale computing in a single rack and have started sampling to select customers for full-scale production in late Q4. In addition, the recently announced Supermicro X14 and H14 4U liquid-cooled systems and 10U air-cooled systems are production-ready for the NVIDIA HGX B200 8-GPU system.

"We're driving the future of sustainable AI computing, and our liquid-cooled AI solutions are rapidly being adopted by some of the most ambitious AI Infrastructure projects in the world with over 2000 liquid-cooled racks shipped since June 2024," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "Supermicro's end-to-end liquid-cooling solution, with the NVIDIA Blackwell platform, unlocks the computational power, cost-effectiveness, and energy-efficiency of the next generation of GPUs, such as those that are part of the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72, an exascale computer contained in a single rack. Supermicro's extensive experience in deploying liquid-cooled AI infrastructure, along with comprehensive on-site services, management software, and global manufacturing capacity, provides customers a distinct advantage in transforming data centers with the most powerful and sustainable AI solutions."

Today, ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2024 third-quarter results.

• Q3 total net sales of €7.5 billion, gross margin of 50.8%, net income of €2.1 billion
• Quarterly net bookings in Q3 of €2.6 billion of which €1.4 billion is EUV
• ASML expects Q4 2024 total net sales between €8.8 billion and €9.2 billion, and a gross margin between 49% and 50%
• ASML expects 2024 total net sales of around €28 billion
• ASML expects 2025 total net sales to be between €30 billion and €35 billion, with a gross margin between 51% and 53%

CEO statement and outlook
"Our third-quarter total net sales came in at €7.5 billion, above our guidance, driven by more DUV and Installed Base Management sales. The gross margin came in at 50.8%, within guidance. While there continue to be strong developments and upside potential in AI, other market segments are taking longer to recover. It now appears the recovery is more gradual than previously expected. This is expected to continue in 2025, which is leading to customer cautiousness. Regarding Logic, the competitive foundry dynamics have resulted in a slower ramp of new nodes at certain customers, leading to several fab push outs and resulting changes in litho demand timing, in particular EUV. In Memory, we see limited capacity additions, with the focus still on technology transitions supporting the HBM and DDR5 AI-related demand."

Intel Corp. (INTC) and AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced the creation of an x86 ecosystem advisory group bringing together technology leaders to shape the future of the world's most widely used computing architecture. x86 is uniquely positioned to meet customers' emerging needs by delivering superior performance and seamless interoperability across hardware and software platforms. The group will focus on identifying new ways to expand the x86 ecosystem by enabling compatibility across platforms, simplifying software development, and providing developers with a platform to identify architectural needs and features to create innovative and scalable solutions for the future.

For over four decades, x86 has served as the bedrock of modern computing, establishing itself as the preferred architecture in data centers and PCs worldwide. In today's evolving landscape - characterized by dynamic AI workloads, custom chiplets, and advancements in 3D packaging and system architectures - the importance of a robust and expanding x86 ecosystem is more crucial than ever.

Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for AI, Cloud, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is launching a new optimized storage system for high performance AI training, inference and HPC workloads. This JBOF (Just a Bunch of Flash) system utilizes up to four NVIDIA BlueField-3 data processing units (DPUs) in a 2U form factor to run software-defined storage workloads. Each BlueField-3 DPU features 400 Gb Ethernet or InfiniBand networking and hardware acceleration for high computation storage and networking workloads such as encryption, compression and erasure coding, as well as AI storage expansion. The state-of-the-art, dual port JBOF architecture enables active-active clustering ensuring high availability for scale up mission critical storage applications as well as scale-out storage such as object storage and parallel file systems.

"Supermicro's new high performance JBOF Storage System is designed using our Building Block approach which enables support for either E3.S or U.2 form-factor SSDs and the latest PCIe Gen 5 connectivity for the SSDs and the DPU networking and storage platform," said Charles Liang, president and CEO of Supermicro. "Supermicro's system design supports 24 or 36 SSD's enabling up to 1.105PB of raw capacity using 30.71 TB SSDs. Our balanced network and storage I/O design can saturate the full 400 Gb/s BlueField-3 line-rate realizing more than 250 GB/s bandwidth of the Gen 5 SSDs."

To drive the development of open, efficient and scalable data center technologies, NVIDIA today announced that it has contributed foundational elements of its NVIDIA Blackwell accelerated computing platform design to the Open Compute Project (OCP) and broadened NVIDIA Spectrum-X support for OCP standards.

At this year's OCP Global Summit, NVIDIA will be sharing key portions of the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 system electro-mechanical design with the OCP community — including the rack architecture, compute and switch tray mechanicals, liquid-cooling and thermal environment specifications, and NVIDIA NVLink cable cartridge volumetrics — to support higher compute density and networking bandwidth.

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association, the global leader in standards development for the microelectronics industry, today announced upcoming raw card designs currently in development in JEDEC's JC-45 Committee for DRAM Modules in collaboration with the JC-40 and JC-42 Committees. These raw card memory device standards are intended for use in client computing applications such as laptops and desktops and will be supported by related appendix specifications. The forthcoming raw cards will also complement two DDR5 Clock Driver standards published earlier this year: JESD323: DDR5 Clocked Unbuffered Dual Inline Memory Module (CUDIMM) Common Specification and JESD324: DDR5 Clocked Small Outline Dual Inline Memory Module (CSODIMM) Common Specification.

Integrating a Clock Driver (CKD) into a DDR5 DIMM provides numerous advantages, particularly in memory stability and performance, and enhances signal integrity and reliability at high speeds. By regenerating the clock signal locally on the DIMM, a CKD ensures stable operation even at elevated clock speeds. With a DDR5 CKD, DIMM data rates can be increased from 6400 Mbps to 7200 Mbps in the initial version of the standard, and targeting up to 9200 Mbps in future versions.

With Industry 4.0, the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI), digitized manufacturing and the age of IoT everything, the demand for wireless connectivity in commercial and industrial applications is growing at an exceptional pace. These applications typically require reliable connectivity that can withstand extreme environments that are exposed to high temperatures, background noise and obstructions. To help meet this need, Microchip Technology has added 20 products to its Wi-Fi portfolio. Expanding one of the industry's most extensive wireless connectivity product lines, Microchip offers high-performance Wi-Fi microcontrollers (MCUs), network and link controllers and plug-and-play modules designed to simplify development and speed time to market.

The company's Wi-Fi solutions are designed to support various application needs and developer skill levels. The selection ranges from modules that are regulatory certified in several countries that require no Radio Frequency (RF) expertise and little programming to robust Systems-on-Chip (SoCs) with industrial-level features.

NVIDIA today released the latest version of its GeForce Studio drivers. These are drivers with optimization targeting creators and creative professionals that use GeForce GPUs at work. The new NVIDIA GeForce Studio 565.90 WHQL is based on the GeForce Game Ready 565.90 WHQL drivers that the company released a couple of weeks ago. Version 565.90 WHQL of the Studio drivers come with support for AI-accelerated features of Adobe Creative Cloud suite announced at Adobe MAX 2024. NVIDIA has been working with Adobe to get all its creativity applications to benefit from the AI acceleration capabilities of GeForce RTX GPUs. Apps such as Premiere Pro, After Effects, and the Substance 3D should benefit the most. The drivers also add support for CUDA 12.7. The drivers also include some of the game-specific fixes introduced in the Game Ready version of GeForce 565.90 WHQL. Grab the drivers from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA Studio Drivers 565.90 WHQL (October 2024 Update)

Sonos (Nasdaq: SONO) announced today the introduction of Sonos Arc Ultra, a new premium soundbar that also debuts the brand's revolutionary transducer technology called Sound Motion. A significant breakthrough in audio engineering, Sound Motion drastically reduces the size of the transducer while supercharging the bass, opening a new chapter in sound innovation where bigger, better sound can be delivered from smaller products. Arc Ultra delivers up to double the bass of its predecessor, with an unprecedented 9.1.4 spatial audio experience in a sleek, sophisticated design.

Sonos is also introducing Sonos Sub 4, the next generation of our iconic subwoofer with a refreshed design and internals that elevate your favorite movies, hit shows and more with rumbling bass.

According to TechNews Taiwan, Intel has made significant progress in implementing ASML's cutting-edge High-NA EUV lithography technology. The company has successfully completed the assembly of its second High-NA "Twinscan EXE" EUV system at its Portland facility, as confirmed by Mark Phillips, Intel's Director of Lithography Hardware. Christophe Fouquet, CEO of ASML, highlighted that the new assembly process allows for direct installation at the customer's site, eliminating the need for disassembly and reassembly, thus saving time and resources. Phillips expressed enthusiasm about the technology, noting that the improvements offered by High-NA EUV machines have surpassed expectations compared to standard EUV systems. Given the massive $380 million price point of these High-NA systems, any savings are valuable in the process.

The rapid progress in installation and implementation of High-NA EUV technology at Intel's facilities positions the company strongly for production transition. With all necessary infrastructure in place and inspections of High-NA EUV masks already underway, Intel aims to have its Intel 14A process in mass production by 2026-2027. As Intel leads in High-NA EUV adoption, other industry giants are following suit. ASML plans to deliver High-NA EUV systems to TSMC by year-end, with rumors suggesting that TSMC's first system will possibly arrive in September. Samsung has also committed to the technology, although recent reports indicate a potential reduction in their procurement plans. Additionally, this development has sparked discussions about the future of photoresist technology, with Phillips suggesting that while Chemically Amplified Resist (CAR) is currently sufficient, future advancements may require metal oxide photoresists. This provides a small insight into Intel's future nodes.

More than 600 games and applications feature RTX technologies, and each week new games integrating NVIDIA DLSS, NVIDIA Reflex and advanced ray-traced effects are released or announced, delivering the definitive PC experience for GeForce RTX players.

This week, A Quiet Place: The Road Ahead and MechWarrior 5: Clans both launch with day-one support for DLSS 3, featuring DLSS Super Resolution and DLSS Frame Generation. We're also highlighting Forgive Me Father 2, which recently added support for DLSS 3, and you can check out another incredible custom GeForce RTX PC, this time themed around FINAL FANTASY XVI.

Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the availability of a brand-new category of clock driver memory with the launch of its Crucial DDR5 clocked unbuffered dual inline memory modules (CUDIMM) and clocked small outline dual memory modules (CSODIMM), which are now shipping in volume. The JEDEC-standard solutions run at speeds up to 6,400 MT/s (megatransfers per second), more than twice as fast as DDR4 and 15% faster than traditional non-clock-driver-based DDR5. Designed to provide more speed stability, faster downloads and better refresh rates, these solutions represent a completely new frontier of memory form factors for next-generation PCs. Micron's CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions are the industry's first commercially available JEDEC-standard DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions to hit the market since JEDEC standardized the specification earlier this year.

In addition, Intel has validated Micron DDR5 CUDIMM and CSODIMM solutions up to capacities of 64 gigabytes (GB) for use with its Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2), which were launched last week on Oct. 10.

Marvell Technology, Inc., a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, demonstrates its industry-leading 3 nm PCIe Gen 7 connectivity at the OCP Global Summit, October 15-17, at the San Jose Convention Center. PCIe Gen 7 doubles data transfer speeds, enabling continued scaling of compute fabrics inside accelerated server platforms, general-purpose servers, CXL systems and disaggregated infrastructure. Building on its widely deployed PAM4 technology and utilizing its industry-leading accelerated infrastructure silicon platform, Marvell has developed the industry's most comprehensive interconnect portfolio addressing all high-bandwidth optical and copper connections in AI data centers. This innovative portfolio empowers cloud data center operators to optimize their infrastructure for their specific architectures and workloads to meet the exponential demands of AI.

Marvell pioneered PAM4 technology over a decade ago and leads the industry in PAM4 interconnect shipments. Today, most of the optical interconnects used in data center backend and frontend networks are based on PAM4 technology. As compared to PCIe Gen 5, which was based on NRZ modulation, PCIe Gen 6 and 7 require the use of PAM4 modulation. With its recent PCIe Gen 6 retimer announcement and this PCIe Gen 7 demonstration, Marvell extends its industry-leading PAM4-based optical and copper interconnect portfolio beyond Ethernet and InfiniBand into copper and optical PCIe, CXL and proprietary compute fabric links.

CORSAIR proudly presents the next generation of award-winning VIRTUOSO gaming headsets: VIRTUOSO MAX. Featuring state-of-the-art 50 mm Graphene drivers, VIRTUOSO MAX joins innovative engineering with cutting-edge audio technology, for spectacularly clear, precise audio. From the lightest footstep to the heaviest rainfall, VIRTUOSO MAX enriches every in-game sound for unbreakable immersion, on any platform. The result is a headset that sounds so good, it's worth obsessing over.

Also launching today is an officially licensed VIRTUOSO MAX for Xbox consoles. Immersive, clear gaming audio from the CORSAIR sound experts is now available on the Xbox as well as PC. In addition to seamless wireless connection between platforms, the VIRTUOSO MAX for Xbox also offers intuitive on-ear audio/chat mix controls.

Apple today introduced the new iPad mini, supercharged by the A17 Pro chip and Apple Intelligence, the easy-to-use personal intelligence system that understands personal context to deliver intelligence that is helpful and relevant while protecting user privacy. With a beloved ultraportable design, the new iPad mini is available in four gorgeous finishes, including a new blue and purple, and features the brilliant 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display. A17 Pro delivers a huge performance boost for even the most demanding tasks, with a faster CPU and GPU, a 2x faster Neural Engine than the previous-generation iPad mini, and support for Apple Intelligence. The versatility and advanced capabilities of the new iPad mini are taken to a whole new level with support for Apple Pencil Pro, opening up entirely new ways to be even more productive and creative. The 12MP wide back camera supports Smart HDR 4 for natural-looking photos with increased dynamic range, and uses machine learning to detect and scan documents right in the Camera app.

The new iPad mini features all-day battery life and brand-new experiences with iPadOS 18. Starting at just $499 with 128 GB—double the storage of the previous generation—the new iPad mini delivers incredible value and the full iPad experience in an ultraportable design. Customers can pre-order the new iPad mini today, with availability beginning Wednesday, October 23.

THQ Nordic is excited to announce that a remastered and enhanced version of Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition is now available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X! While many of you are eagerly awaiting the next chapter of the Darksiders saga, teased during our August 2024 showcase, today we're turning our focus to something you can get your hands on immediately—an enhanced and remastered version of the critically acclaimed action-adventure. Fulfill your apocalyptic destiny with Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition—available now at an SRP of $29.99 / €29.99. If you already own Darksiders II Deathinitive Edition on PlayStation 4, you will receive a free upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version.

Rambus Inc., a premier chip and silicon IP provider making data faster and safer, today unveiled industry-first, complete memory interface chipsets for Gen 5 DDR5 RDIMMs and next-generation DDR5 Multiplexed Rank Dual Inline Memory Modules (MRDIMMs). These innovative new products for RDIMMs and MRDIMMs will seamlessly extend DDR5 performance with unparalleled bandwidth and memory capacity for compute-intensive data center and AI workloads.

"The voracious memory demands of AI and HPC require the relentless pursuit of higher performance through continued innovation and technology leadership," said Sean Fan, chief operating officer at Rambus. "With our 30-plus years of renowned high-speed signal integrity and memory system expertise, the Rambus Gen5 RCD, and next-generation MRCD, MDB, and PMIC will be critical enabling chips in future-generation servers leveraging DDR5 RDIMM 8000 and MRDIMM 12800."

Corsair announced today the availability of the 9000D RGB AIRFLOW case, an update to the massively popular OBSIDIAN 1000D Super-Tower case. Widely known as the ultimate case for custom water-cooling builds, the 9000D improves upon its predecessor in expansion, cooling, and buildability features across the board, while simultaneously incorporating a refreshed industrial design aesthetic.

"The 9000D builds on the successful base of the 1000D to deliver a modern feature set with even more cooling potential and expansion capability" said Mitch Podlaha, head of the Case Product Marketing team at Corsair. "We've developed a new variable fan mounting system named InfiniRail that allows you to cool your build with any fan or radiator setup for the ultimate flexibility and performance potential. One of my favorite features is that front panel I/O has a built-in USB 3.2 hub that gives you full use of the USB Type-C and USB Type-A ports using just a single internal USB Type-E port for data and a PSU connector for power."

More than just storage, Western Digital HDDs are key enablers for businesses looking to optimize their infrastructure, lower TCO and future-proof their data strategies. Constantly innovating to meet the needs of our data-driven world, Western Digital (NASDAQ: WDC) today announced that it is now shipping the world's highest capacity UltraSMR HDD with up to 32 TB leveraging the time-tested, reliable energy-assisted PMR (ePMR) recording technology for hyperscalers, CSPs and enterprises. For those who want a drop-in ready HDD for today's data-intensive workloads, the company is also now shipping the world's highest-capacity ePMR CMR HDD with up to 26 TB for enterprise and channel customers. With the world's first commercially available 11-disk design and field-proven technology, these new drives reinforce Western Digital's commitment to delivering HDD technology that raises the bar on capacity, reliability and innovation.

The AI Data Cycle has emerged as a growth driver for the storage industry. As AI systems become more sophisticated, they process and generate vast amounts of data that must be stored efficiently. HDDs play a crucial role in this ecosystem, handling both the input side, where data is gathered, ingested and stored, and the output side, where AI content is generated and preserved. This dual role positions HDDs as a linchpin in the AI Data Cycle, ensuring that data is available when needed and stored with the lowest TCO.

Created for young listeners, JBL launches three new junior headphones featuring next-generation JBL Safe Sound. With volume and playtime limits, activity reports, and a personalized countdown reminder, kids can now enjoy JBL Sound tailored for little ears with the wireless JBL Junior 470NC and JBL Junior 320BT.

Hearing health is at the heart of the new JBL Junior range, with new parental app control innovations taking JBL Safe Sound beyond simply an 85dB volume limit. Available in vibrant, playful colors to suit every kid's preference, and new, larger child-friendly controls, the new headphones combine clear, safe sound with all-day comfort and durability.

TrendForce's latest findings reveal that NAND Flash products have been impacted by weaker-than-expected seasonal demand in the second half of 2024, leading to a decline in wafer contract prices in Q3. This downward trend is projected to deepen, with prices expected to drop by more than 10% in Q4.

Enterprise SSDs are the only segment likely to see modest price growth—supported by stable order momentum—with contract prices forecast to rise by 0-5% in Q4. However, PC SSDs and UFS will see more cautious procurement strategies from buyers, as weaker-than-expected sales of end products drive buyers to adopt a conservative approach. As a result, TrendForce projects overall NAND Flash contract prices will decline by 3-8% in Q4.

BenQ today premiered the GP520, a groundbreaking 4K all-in-one home entertainment projector designed specifically for modern open-plan living spaces. Perfect for young families who value quality time together, the GP520 delivers the onboard cinema experience of Netflix and Google TV with premium 2600 ANSI-lumen HDR picture quality and ambient adaptive technology, coupled with smart auto setup for stunning viewing quality, regardless of the wall color, lighting conditions, or room layout.

"Families often struggle to achieve high-quality projection in open living spaces," said Peter Huang, President of BenQ Corporation. "The GP520 addresses three critical issues: color distortion from ambient light, optimization to different wall colors, and auto-setup without constant adjustment when the projector is moved into different corners. With the GP520, families can enjoy flawless 4K visuals no matter where or how it is set up."

We're thrilled to announce the next Xbox Partner Preview - our no-fluff, all-games broadcast - is coming this Thursday, October 17. In the latest installment, we'll feature a mix of new and upcoming games for you from incredible partners like Remedy Entertainment, Sega, 505 Games, and many more, with over a dozen new trailers over the course of around 25 minutes. During Xbox Partner Preview, you'll get a first look at gameplay from Alan Wake II's next expansion, The Lake House, an action-packed new trailer for Like A Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii, a peek at multiple bosses in dark-fantasy action game Wuchang: Fallen Feathers, multiple world premieres, and other great titles coming to Xbox consoles, Windows PC, and Game Pass.

As always, Xbox Partner Preview is all about sharing exciting games news from our talented partners across the globe: you'll get new game reveals, release date announcements, and fresh new gameplay from upcoming games. And to sweeten the deal, during the broadcast, Xbox Wire will post exclusive behind-the-scenes stories about select titles shown. This event will be broadcast digitally on Thursday, October 17, at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK across our Xbox channels on YouTube and Twitch.

BenQ, a global leader and pioneer of professional display technology, today announced the unveiling of its newest additions to the award-winning DesignVue PD monitor series at the upcoming Adobe MAX event, a global creativity conference bringing together creators, developers, and technology partners to learn about Adobe products, discover new tools, and connect with other creatives. While the new 5K PD2730S is geared toward designers and content creators utilizing either Mac or PC platforms, the new 4K PD3226G features a high refresh rate (144 Hz), ideal for designers, illustrators, game developers, and content creators, especially those who create 3D creatures or draw their creations on a tablet.

"BenQ has meticulously gathered feedback from professionals to design monitors that precisely meet their requirements with always accurate and consistent colors," said Houston Wei, senior director of BenQ North America. "The new PD2730S and PD3226G were designed with both Mac and PC users in mind to provide unparalleled color features with invaluable new software including Display ColorTalk and Palette Master Ultimate."

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the launch of the Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme, a new ROG Ryujin all-in-one cooler introduced during Gamescom 2024. The ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme is specially optimized for the heat zones of Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) via a movable bracket design that effectively reduces CPU heat.

The cooler is also equipped with an Asetek Emma Gen 8 V2 pump for optimal cooling performance, and its embedded pump fan assists in cooling a motherboard's voltage regulator modules (VRMs). Meanwhile, 30 mm daisy-chainable ROG ARGB fans provide high airflow and static pressure with noise optimization, and users can connect lighting and fan control with one cable for easy installation and cable management. The ROG Ryujin III 360 ARGB Extreme also boasts a full-color 3.5-inch display with a 640x480 resolution which can be customized through Armoury Crate to display exclusive ROG wallpaper, real-time system information or personalized content.

AMD is allegedly announcing its Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor on October 25, with availability in the first week of November 2024. This according to leaky taps among Chinese tech forums with a track record of getting such details right. We've been hearing about an October launch of the 9800X3D in late-September, which puts the announcement just a month after the 9800X3D's early launch first hit the radar. We've since seen a couple of performance or specs leaks, such as this one, which talks about a significant increase in clock speeds over past generations of X3D processors, this one which points to its Cinebench scores, and this one, which confirms a 5.20 GHz all-core boost frequency. Perhaps the biggest leak of them all, which is quasi-official, as it comes from a major PC hardware manufacturer, is this one, with some performance testing. When you cross-reference these numbers with Intel's first party gaming performance claims for its upcoming Core Ultra 9 285K "Arrow Lake-S" processor, you get the hint that AMD is set to win this round for gaming performance.

Colorful Technology Company Limited, a leading brand in gaming PC components, gaming laptops, and Hi-fi audio products, announces its participation at GITEX GLOBAL 2024 on October 14 to 18. Come and check out Colorful latest products launched at Booth H15-D10 this year! Winner of various awards at COMPUTEX 2024, the iGame Neptune Series is designed with liquid cooling as the primary thermal solution. Its liquid cooling components use high-quality aluminium for CNC integrated molding, with a fully sealed water channel for cooling the processor. The motherboard and SSD are passively cooled with the large full-cover heatsink. A stacked water cooling design is employed for secondary cooling, featuring an adjustable bracket.

The graphics card of the iGame Neptune Gaming PC is vertically mounted for open display, and the PCIe adapter supports both water-cooled and air-cooled graphics cards. It comes in a pre-assembled kit, including the open-frame chassis with liquid cooling components, Neptune motherboard, processor, SSD, and power supply. Users can customize the other components such as the graphics cards, memory, SSDs, and others.

Microsoft's Flight Simulator 2024 is shaping up to be a pretty demanding title. From the very high-performance system needed for ideal system specifications, the game now uses up to 180 Mbit/s of internet bandwidth while the user is in flight and the terrain is loading. This is equivalent to as much as 81 GB per hour of internet data, which is a nightmare for users with a data cap. Data caps are often standard in US homes, with internet providers imposing their own rules on up to 1 TB of uncapped traffic, which considerably slows down after that. The new Flight Simulator 2024 may be a bit much for users who don't have powerful systems and data plans.

The Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024 requires 30 GB of storage for the game. The alpha version comes in at only 9 GB, meaning that it is pulling much of its resources from Microsoft's servers, thus requiring this massive bandwidth to operate smoothly. Microsoft recommends a 50 Mbit/s internet connection for the final game, meaning that the final 30 GB install will pack more textures, thus lowering the massive load on Microsoft's servers. Of course, the 180 Mbit/s is the peak load, and the lowest measured load is around 10 Mbit/s. The game typically runs below 50 Mb/s, but this peak value is quite noticeable.

Patriot, a leading provider of storage solutions, unveils its latest innovation, the iLuxe for Apple series, centered around advanced flash memory technology. The first product in this lineup, the iLuxe Cube smart backup solution, seamlessly integrates charging and backup functions, offering users a convenient and secure way to manage their photos and videos. With no subscription fees required, iLuxe Cube provides a cost-effective alternative for long-term data storage, helping users avoid hefty monthly cloud storage fees.

The iLuxe Cube smart backup solution features advanced smart backup technology that stores only new, unbacked-up content, ensuring efficient use of storage space. It preserves the original date, time, location tags, and file formats from the time of capture, allowing for accurate and complete restoration. The device supports multiple users, with each member having their own dedicated iPhone ID folder for individual backups, eliminating the risk of data overlap and ensuring data integrity. Its intuitive and efficient design makes the iLuxe Cube an ideal solution for seamless device backups.

Marvell Technology, Inc. (NASDAQ: MRVL), a leader in data infrastructure semiconductor solutions, today announced the development of FBNIC, a custom 5 nm network interface controller (NIC) ASIC in collaboration with Meta to meet the company's infrastructure and use case requirements. The FBNIC board design will also be contributed by Marvell to the Open Compute Project (OCP) community. FBNIC combines a customized network controller designed by Marvell and Meta, a co-designed board, and Meta's ASIC, firmware and software. This custom design delivers innovative capabilities, optimizes performance, increases efficiencies, and reduces the average time needed to resolve potential network and server issues.

"The future of large-scale, data center computing will increasingly revolve around optimizing semiconductors and other components for specific applications and cloud infrastructure architectures," said Raghib Hussain, President of Products and Technologies at Marvell. "It's been exciting to partner with Meta on developing their custom FBNIC on our industry-leading 5 nm accelerated infrastructure silicon platform. We look forward to the OCP community leveraging the board design for future innovations."

Flex today announced new reference platforms for liquid-cooled servers, rack, and power products that will enable customers to sustainably accelerate data center growth. These innovations build on Flex's ability to address technical challenges associated with power, heat generation, and scale to support artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

"Flex delivers integrated data center IT and power infrastructure solutions that address the growing power and compute demands in the AI era," said Michael Hartung, president and chief commercial officer, Flex. "We are expanding our unique portfolio of advanced manufacturing capabilities, innovative products, and lifecycle services, enabling customers to deploy IT and power infrastructure at scale and drive AI data center expansion."

As autumn arrives, Valve's Steam platform is heating up the gaming world with its latest Steam Next Fest. From now until October 21st, gamers can dive into hundreds of free demos from upcoming indie titles, turning their homes into a virtual gaming convention. Steam Next Fest spotlights indie projects and games from smaller development teams, offering various genres, from action RPGs to building strategies and visual novels. Valve compares the event to traditional gaming fairs, with one key advantage: players can try out demos at their leisure, without the time constraints and crowds typically found at physical events. To help users navigate the vast selection, Steam's homepage features an algorithmically curated discovery list tailored to each user's gaming preferences. Additional sorting options include lists of the most popular games, soon-to-be-released titles, and the most requested games participating in the fest.

For those seeking specific experiences, games can be filtered by categories such as action, adventure, strategy, and more. One of the event's unique aspects is that developers can only participate once with a particular game, ensuring that most demos are available to the public for the first time. This exclusivity adds to the excitement, giving players a first look at upcoming releases. Enhancing the interactive experience, Steam Next Fest also features numerous live streams where developers showcase their games, provide behind-the-scenes insights, and engage with the audience through Q&A sessions. These streams offer a personal touch, mimicking the developer interactions one might have at a physical gaming convention.

GPU chip packages of the "Navi 4x" generation of GPUs could be generationally smaller than their predecessors, according to leaked package dimensions of the "Navi 44" chip put out by Olrak29_. With its next-generation Radeon RX gaming GPUs based on the RDNA 4 graphics architecture, AMD has decided to focus on gaining market-share in the performance and mainstream segments, ceding the enthusiast segment to NVIDIA. As part of its effort, the company is making RDNA 4 efficient at every level—architecture, process, and package.

At the architecture level, RDNA 4 is expected to improve performance, particularly the performance cost of ray tracing, through a more specialized ray tracing hardware stack. At the process level, AMD is expected to switch to a more efficient foundry node, with some reports suggesting the TSMC 4 nm, such as the N4P or N4X. For a mid-range GPU like the "Navi 44," which succeeds the "Navi 23" and "Navi 33," these mean a rather big leap from the 7 nm or 6 nm DUV nodes. The leak suggests a smaller package, measuring 29 mm x 29 mm. In comparison, the "Navi 23" package measures 35 mm x 35 mm. The smaller package could make these GPUs friendlier with gaming notebooks, where mainboard PCB real-estate is at a premium.

AMD is readying a new mainstream graphics card positioned based on its current RDNA 3 graphics architecture, the Radeon RX 7650 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition). The company has had great success in selling graphics card SKUs with the "GRE" brand extension in China, with the RX 6750 GRE being a popular SKU there; and it even has an enthusiast-class SKU with the RX 7900 GRE, which saw a global launch earlier this year. The company is hoping for the "GRE" moniker to compete better against the GeForce RTX 4060, at least in specific markets. A new Benchlife.info report says that the RX 7650 GRE will be based on the 6 nm "Navi 33" monolithic silicon, and not the 5 nm "Navi 32" chiplet-based GPU previously reported.

AMD has already maxed out the "Navi 33" for both the RX 7600 and RX 7600 XT, with the latter only seeing its memory size doubled over the former, so it remains to be seen where AMD goes with the RX 7650 GRE. The "7650" numbering suggests a faster SKU, so it's possible that AMD increases the engine clock speeds of the "Navi 33" by as much as it can. The RX 7600 comes with a 2.25 GHz Game clock, which the RX 7600 XT slightly bumps up to 2.47 GHz. If we were to guess, the RX 7650 GRE could focus on increasing the Game clock, not the memory size; and so it could have the power configuration of the RX 7600 XT, and room for Game clocks either on-par or higher than the RX 7600 XT, while retaining the 8 GB memory size of the RX 7600.

Thrustmaster is thrilled to reveal its new sim racing base/wheel rim/pedal set ensemble, ushering in a new Direct Drive motor technology: Direct Axial Drive. With its slogan "DRIVE INTO A NEW ERA", at Gamescom 2024 Thrustmaster had announced a new era to come in its range and, more broadly, in the sim racing market. After publishing an article explaining the limitations of the current generation of Direct Drive motors (available here), followed by a second article unveiling Direct Axial Drive, the new Axial flux motor technology (available here), Thrustmaster is now making available the world's first racing wheel to incorporate this brand-new technology. Its main feature: XXL performance for a particularly low price. T598 is a complete base/wheel rim/pedal set ensemble, officially licensed for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4, and compatible with PC.

DRIVE INTO A NEW ERA
A new era has dawned in the world of sim racing. After the advent of Direct Drive motors, the Direct Axial Drive technology designed by Thrustmaster is ushering in new standards. More efficient and less expensive, this Axial flux motor represents the future for tomorrow's racing wheels. T598 is the first to feature it.

Super Flower, a leader in high-performance power supply units (PSUs), is excited to expand its range of power solutions with the launch of the Combat FG ATX 3.1. Building on the successful release of the Leadex III ATX 3.1, the Combat FG ATX 3.1 offers PC enthusiasts even more choices for their custom builds, combining performance with durable design. As part of Super Flower's commitment to innovation, this release adds to their broad product lineup, which includes air coolers, water coolers, case fans, and chassis, catering to gamers, content creators, and tech aficionados.

The Combat FG ATX 3.1, available in 650 W, 750 W, and 850 W models, is designed to meet the demands of modern systems with a focus on efficiency and reliability. This new PSU ensures top-tier performance under high load, making it an ideal choice for those looking to optimize their systems for intense gaming or content creation. With this release, Super Flower continues to solidify its reputation as a top choice for those who demand quality and power from their components.

In close cooperation with hyperscalers and server OEMs, Rittal has developed a modular cooling distribution unit (CDU) that delivers a cooling capacity of over 1 MW. It will be the centerpiece exhibit at Rittal's booth A24 at 2024 OCP Global Summit. The CDU uses direct liquid cooling based on water - and is thus an example for new IT infrastructure technologies that are enablers for AI applications.

New technology, familiar handling?
"To put the technology into practice, it is not enough to simply provide the cooling capacity and integrate the solution into the facility - which also still poses challenges," says Lars Platzhoff, Head of Rittal's Business Unit Cooling Solutions: "Despite the new technology, the solutions must remain manageable by the data center team as part of the usual service. At best, this should be taken into account already at the design stage."

MONTECH a leading PC components and peripherals brand is excited to announce the launch of the KING 65 PRO, the newest addition to the premium lineup of PC cases. This latest model epitomizes the commitment to quality, innovation, and user-friendly design, making it an ideal choice for both novice builders and experienced enthusiasts.

Build with Ease: Quick Release Mechanism for Hassle-Free Setup
The KING 65 PRO features a revolutionary tool-less quick-release mechanism for all outer panels, ensuring seamless access to your components. Whether you're adding new hardware, performing routine cleaning, or making adjustments, this innovative design allows you to do so quickly and effortlessly, eliminating the need for additional tools.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the MONTECH KING 65 PRO is now live]

Credo Technology Group Holding Ltd (Credo), an innovator in providing secure, high-speed connectivity solutions that deliver improved energy efficiency as data rates and corresponding bandwidth requirements increase throughout the data infrastructure market, is excited to announce the company's first Toucan PCI Express (PCIe) 6, Compute Express Link (CXL) 3.x and Magpie PCIe 7, CXL 4.x retimers and OSFP-XD 16x 64GT/s (1 Tb) PCIe 6/CXL HiWire AECs. Credo will demonstrate the Toucan PCIe 6 retimers and HiWire AECs at the upcoming Open Compute Project (OCP) Summit October 15-17 in Booth 31 and the OCP Innovation Center.

Building on Credo's renowned Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes) technology, the new PCIe 6 and PCIe 7 retimers deliver industry-leading performance and power efficiency while being built on lower cost, more mature process nodes than competing devices. Credo will also include enhanced diagnostic tools, including an embedded logic analyzer and advanced SerDes tools driven by a new GUI designed to enable rapid bring up and debug of customer systems.

Western Digital Corp. today announced that its PCIe Gen 5 DC SN861 E.1S enterprise-class NVMe SSDs have been certified to support the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 rack-scale system.

The rapid rise of AI, ML, and large language models (LLMs) is creating a challenge for companies with two opposing forces. Data generation and consumption are accelerating, while organizations face pressure to quickly derive value from this data. Performance, scalability, and efficiency are essential for AI technology stacks as storage demands rise. Certified to be compatible with the GB200 NVL72 system, Western Digital's enterprise SSD addresses the growing needs of the AI market for high-speed accelerated computing combined with low latency to serve compute-intensive AI environments.

AMD today announced the AMD Alveo UL3422 accelerator card, the latest addition to its record-breaking family of accelerators1 designed for ultra-low latency electronic trading applications. AMD Alveo UL3422 provides trading firms, market makers and financial institutions with a slim form factor accelerator optimized for rack space, cost and designed for a fast path to deployment in a wide range of servers. The Alveo UL3422 accelerator is powered by an AMD Virtex UltraScale+ FPGA that features a novel transceiver architecture with hardened, optimized network connectivity cores, custom built for high-speed trading. It enables ultra-low latency trade execution, achieving less than 3ns FPGA transceiver latency and breakthrough 'tick-to-trade' performance not achievable with standard off-the-shelf FPGAs.

"Speed is the ultimate advantage in the increasingly competitive world of high-speed trading," said Yousef Khalilollahi, corporate vice president & general manager, Adaptive Computing Group, AMD. "The Alveo UL3422 card provides a lower-cost entry point while still delivering cutting-edge latency performance, making it accessible to firms of all sizes that want to stay competitive in the ultra-low latency trading space."

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced the availability of its new KIOXIA XD8 Series PCIe 5.0 Enterprise and Datacenter Standard Form Factor (EDSFF) E1.S SSDs. The new drives are the third generation of E1.S SSDs from KIOXIA and are compliant with PCIe 5.0 (32 GT/s x 4) and NVMe 2.0 specifications, and support the Open Compute Project (OCP) Datacenter NVMe SSD v2.5 specification.

Designed for cloud and hyperscale environments, the KIOXIA XD8 Series meets the growing demand for higher performance, enhanced efficiency, and greater scalability in data centers. The new drives empower cloud providers and hyperscalers to optimize their infrastructure, delivering superior performance while maintaining operational efficiency.

Jabil Inc. announced today that it is expanding its server portfolio with the J421E-S and J422-S servers, powered by AMD 5th Generation EPYC and Intel Xeon 6 processors. These servers are purpose-built for scalability in a variety of cloud data center applications, including AI, high-performance computing (HPC), fintech, networking, storage, databases, and security — representing the latest generation of server innovation from Jabil.

Built with customization and innovation in mind, the design-ready J422-S and J421E-S servers will allow engineering teams to meet customers' specific requirements. By fine-tuning Jabil's custom BIOS and BMC firmware, Jabil can create a competitive advantage for customers by developing the server configuration needed for higher performance, data management, and security. The server platforms are now available for sampling and will be in production by the first half of 2025.

ASUS today unveiled a lineup of Z890 motherboards from the ROG Maximus, ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, Prime and ProArt families, supporting Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2). ASUS is marking the occasion with all-new motherboard features that accelerate performance and streamline the build process. ASUS AI Advisor is a new natural-language build assistant powered by AI. AEMP III, NitroPath DRAM Technology and DIMM Fit unleash DDR5 memory kits. NPU Boost provides overclocking of the integrated NPU in an Intel Core Ultra (Series 2) CPU for accelerated AI performancei. ROG M.2 PowerBoost provides more M.2 slots on a motherboard than ever before. On top of all that, there is Thunderbolt 5, WiFi 7 and new PC DIY features to discuss.

Primed to perform with Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) in a new socket
Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2) use the new LGA 1851 socket. Users of these processors will need an Intel 800 series motherboard to use one, and a Z890 motherboard specifically to take advantage of CPU overclocking. These options feature up to 24 cores in a new disaggregated architecture. Performance-cores, aka P-cores, take center stage with their high clock rates, while a cluster of Efficient-cores, aka E-cores, provide high-end multithreaded performance.

Lenovo Group announced today the Lenovo ThinkSmart Core Gen 2, one of the first AI-optimized compute device purpose built to run video conferencing room systems. Powered by the Intel Core Ultra processor with an integrated NPU, the ThinkSmart Core Gen 2 is ready for AI-heavy meeting room workloads to deliver unparalleled performance for intuitive collaboration and enhanced productivity, all in a protected and user-friendly solution.

Smarter AI for All Means Smarter Collaboration
Under Lenovo's vision of Smarter AI for All, the company is dedicated to empowering organizations and individuals to put AI to work for them. While the role of collaboration technology has never been more critical, many customers are continuing to redefine meeting spaces and how work is done. The integration of AI into collaboration tools presents a transformative opportunity to connect people and improve productivity. Lenovo, the global leader in PCs, is bringing more compute power to collaboration.

Advantech, a global leader in embedded computing, is excited to announce the release of the SQRAM CXL 2.0 Type 3 Memory Module. Compute Express Link (CXL) 2.0 is the next evolution in memory technology, providing memory expansion with a high-speed, low-latency interconnect designed to meet the demands of large AI Training and HPC clusters. CXL 2.0 builds on the foundation of the original CXL specification, introducing advanced features such as memory sharing, and expansion, enabling more efficient utilization of resources across heterogeneous computing environments.

Memory Expansion via E3.S 2T Form Factor
Traditional memory architectures are often limited by fixed allocations, which can result in underutilized resources and bottlenecks in data-intensive workloads. With the E3.S form factor, based on the EDSFF standard, the CXL 2.0 Memory Module overcomes these limitations, allowing for dynamic resource management. This not only improves performance but reduces costs by maximizing existing resources.

MAXSUN has officially launched 12 new Z890 series motherboards, designed to support Intel's next-generation Core processors. These motherboards, crafted with cutting-edge technology, deliver exceptional performance for gaming, content creation, and high-end computing tasks. As a key Intel partner, MAXSUN has developed this line with the Z890 chipset, covering four main series: iCraft, Terminator, eSport, and Challenger, providing users with a diverse selection tailored to their needs.

The Z890 series offers a variety of form factors to accommodate different user preferences. Whether you're a hardcore gamer seeking top performance, a fan of clean white builds, or someone looking to build a compact mini PC, MAXSUN's Z890 motherboards deliver powerful solutions with both aesthetic appeal and technical prowess to meet various demands.

MSI, a leading brand in gaming hardware, is thrilled to announce an exciting collaboration with SEGA, a prominent Japanese game publisher, to bring gamers on an epic journey through the expansive world of Metaphor: ReFantazio.

Embark on an epic journey in Metaphor: ReFantazio with MSI's Cutting-Edge Motherboards
From 2024 October 11th to November 11th, MSI is offering a special promotion: purchase an X870(E) motherboard and receive a Metaphor: ReFantazio Standard Edition PC digital game key for free.

Leading white box provider AAEON has released the FWS-2290, its most powerful desktop network appliance to date. The FWS-2290 is the first from the company's Network Security Division to feature Intel Processor N-series CPUs, with the Intel Processor N97 being the chosen default processor, but the full Intel Processor N-series range being supported.

This choice of CPU platform lends the FWS-2290 to use in Unified Threat Management (UTM) and Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications, given its inclusion of integrated security features such Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology (CET), Intel Advanced Encryption Standard Instructions (AES-NI), and Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O.

According to a study by William M. Volckmann II from the University of North Carolina, we have received an insight into the financial consequences of digital rights management (DRM) breaches in the PC gaming industry. The research, titled "The Revenue Effects of Denuvo Digital Rights Management on PC Video Games," offers valuable insights into the relationship between piracy and game sales. The study's most striking finding reveals that when Denuvo, a popular anti-piracy technology, is quickly compromised, game publishers face an average revenue decline of 20%. Interestingly, the research suggests that long-term DRM implementation may be unnecessary. Volckmann's analysis indicates that games cracked after the first three months of release or those from which publishers voluntarily removed DRM protection after this period experienced negligible revenue loss.

The study also explored potential predictors for quick DRM breaches but found no conclusive indicators based on game characteristics. This unpredictability poses a challenge for publishers in assessing the risk of piracy for individual titles. Volckmann acknowledges gamers' concerns about DRM's technical drawbacks, recommending that publishers consider removing such protections after the critical initial three-month window. This approach could balance piracy prevention with user experience optimization. The findings present a compelling case for publishers to reconsider their DRM strategies. While protecting games during the launch period remains crucial, extended DRM usage may offer diminishing returns.

Intel's new Core Ultra processor model nomenclature is significantly different from the Core i7 series that held for 14 generations, since its 2008 debut. The desktop Core Ultra 2-series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processor family is led by the Core Ultra 9 285K, which is positioned as a successor to the Core i9-14900K. The choice of numbering the top SKU "285K" instead of something like the "290K," which even caused the top Core Ultra 7 SKU to be numbered the "265K," raises a few questions. The biggest of these is if Intel is creating room for a near-future SKU to go with "295K."

In the classic Intel Core series nomenclature, the digit following the first two, designates a position in the product stack. For example, in the i9-14900K, "14" points to the processor generation, followed by "9" as the top-spec SKU. If you wind the clocks back to the 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake," there was a top-spec Core i9-10900K, but there was also a Core i9-10850K. Both the i9-10900K and the i9-10850K are unlocked 10-core/20-thread parts with identical TDP, set apart only by their stock clock speeds. Could it be possible that the Core Ultra 9 285K is a distant descendant of the i9-10850K, and that Intel's top "Arrow Lake-S" part is the "295K?" Momomo_us recently dug out an inconspicuous Intel Support webpage listing out Core Ultra desktop processors without an included fan-heatsink. This is very likely a typo, but the page mentions a "295K" SKU instead of the Core Ultra 9 285K. This caused us to wonder if the "295K" is being reserved for an i9-14900KS successor.

Minisforum is thrilled to announce the launch of the EliteMini AI370, a powerful mini PC that combines groundbreaking CPU performance with a sleek, compact design. This innovative device is designed to meet the demands of gamers, creators, and tech enthusiasts who need high performance in a small footprint.

The Next-Level Performance
At the core of the EliteMini AI370 is the new AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 processor. Featuring 12 cores and 24 threads, this advanced chip delivers effortless power for gaming and creative applications. It expertly balances high performance and energy efficiency, with integrated AI enhancements that optimize workflows and daily tasks like never before.

Welcome to the middle of October and a slight shift in pace, as this coming week has multiple big releases, albeit no AAA launches. Our top pick for this week involves strapping yourself into a massive, walking machine of destruction in a franchise that kicked off all the way back in 1989. This is followed by some galaxy conquering, a friendly wolf and its human friend, you starting up human civilization on a new planet, a Roman style city builder, silence please and something unknown that's waking up.

MechWarrior 5: Clans / This week's major release / Thursday 17 October
In MechWarrior 5: Clans, players take on the role of a newly graduated pilot from the Smoke Jaguar cadet program, thrust into the heart of the Clan Invasion of the Inner Sphere during Operation Revival. This pivotal moment in the MechWarrior universe sees players leading a five-mech "Star" squad across numerous planets with diverse biomes, engaging in an expansive campaign filled with immersive gameplay and intricate combat encounters. Armed with customizable BattleMechs featuring cutting-edge technologies, players explore a wealth of tactical options and strategic possibilities. Steam link

MSI OCLab made some groundbreaking disclosures about the gaming performance of upcoming AMD Ryzen 9000X3D processors. It looks like AMD is set to dominate the Intel Core Ultra 2-series "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processors in gaming performance, if these numbers hold up. In the games that MSI tested, namely "Far Cry 6," "Shadow of the Tomb Raider," and "Black Myth: Wukong," the "8-core 9000X3D" processor, or the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, is found to be 11% faster on average than the Ryzen 7 7800X3D. The "16-core 9000X3D" processor, which is expected to be the Ryzen 9 9950X3D, is an impressive 13% faster than its predecessor, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D.

Normally we'd expect bigger gen-on-gen gains for the 8-core part than the 16-core part, but the 16-core 9000X3D pulling ahead by that much over its predecessor hints at the possibility of AMD either giving it significantly higher clock speeds, or the rumor about AMD deploying both 3D V-cache on both its CCDs could be true after all. The 9950X3D could end up roughly on-par with the 9800X3D if this turns out to be true, given that the gaming performance delta between the 7800X3D and 7950X3D is roughly that much—2-3 percentage points. Intel earlier this week officially announced the Core Ultra 2-series desktop processors. As part of the announcement, the company put out some first-party gaming performance numbers, which put the top Core Ultra 9 285K either on-par with the Core i9-14900K, or faster by 2-3%, which means it should land behind even the 7950X3D in gaming performance, and AMD is set to dominate Intel in gaming performance with the 9000X3D series.

While Apple laptops have never really been the first stop for PC gaming, Linux is slowly shaping up to be an excellent gaming platform, largely thanks to open-source development efforts as well as work from the likes of AMD and NVIDIA, who have both put significant work into their respective Linux drivers in recent years. This makes efforts like the Asahi Linux Project all the more intriguing. Asahi Linux is a project that aims to bring Linux to Apple Silicon Macs—a task that has proven rather difficult, thanks to the intricacies of developing a bespoke GPU driver for Apple's custom ARM GPUs. In a recent blog post, the graphics developer behind the Asahi Linux Project showed off a number of AAA games, albeit older titles, running on an Apple M1 processor on the latest Asahi Linux build.

To run the games on Apple Silicon, Asahi Linux uses a "game playing toolkit," which relies on a number of custom graphics drivers and emulators, including tools from Valve's Proton translation layer, which ironically was also the foundation for Apple's Game Porting Toolkit. Asahi uses FEX to emulate x86 on ARM, Wine as a translation layer for Windows apps, and DXVK and vkd3d-proton for DirectX-Vulkan translation. In the blog post, the Asahi developer claims that the alpha is capable of running games like Control, The Witcher 3, and Cyberpunk 2077 at playable frame rates. Unfortunately, 60 FPS is not yet attainable in the majority of new high-fidelity games, there are a number of indie titles that run quite well on Asahi Linux, including Hollow Knight, Ghostrunner, and Portal 2.

More developers than you think are self-taught, and you can easily teach yourself how to code with this bundle of coding e-courses and Microsoft Visual Studio Pro. You could build a portfolio and start a new career, freelance, or know how to create apps and websites. If you purchase everything separately and not on sale, it would cost you $1,999, but it's only $55.97 on StackSocial right now.

The 15 coding e-courses cover front-end development with HTML, JavaScript, Vuex, and React and back-end development with Python, Ruby on Rails, Java, C++, and SQL so you can create websites or desktop applications. Or, maybe you're interested in mobile apps with Flutter, Swift, and Kotlin, data science and machine learning, or DevOps engineering with AWS or Azure. This is the lowest price that's ever been offered for learning to code with Visual Studio Pro, but it won't last long: $55.97 (reg. $1,999).

For a limited time, get this bundle of Microsoft Visual Studio Pro and 15 coding e-courses on sale for $55.97 (reg. $1,999) on StackSocial.

With the fifth anniversary of Disco Elysium on the horizon, Longdue is proud to announce its formation as a new independent studio that has raised seed investment to create an RPG that will continue Disco Elysium's award-winning legacy and represent a bold new artistic endeavor that aims to trailblaze in the narrative-first cRPG space.

Longdue is already a dozen strong, including team members that worked on the original Disco Elysium and its unreleased sequel. The team is also drawing talent from across the industry, including veterans from Bungie, Rockstar, and Brave At Night.

AMD has unveiled its latest EPYC processors, codenamed "Turin," featuring Zen 5 and Zen 5C dense cores. Phoronix's thorough testing reveals remarkable advancements in performance, efficiency, and value. The new lineup includes the EPYC 9575F (64-core), EPYC 9755 (128-core), and EPYC 9965 (192-core) models, all showing impressive capabilities across various server and HPC workloads. In benchmarks, a dual-socket configuration of the 128-core EPYC 9755 Turin outperformed Intel's dual Xeon "Granite Rapids" 6980P setup with MRDIMM-8800 by 40% in the geometric mean of all tests. Surprisingly, even a single EPYC 9755 or EPYC 9965 matched the dual Xeon 6980P in expanded tests with regular DDR5-6400. Within AMD's lineup, the EPYC 9755 showed a 1.55x performance increase over its predecessor, the 96-core EPYC 9654 "Genoa". The EPYC 9965 surpassed the dual EPYC 9754 "Bergamo" by 45%.

These gains come with improved efficiency. While power consumption increased moderately, performance improvements resulted in better overall efficiency. For example, the EPYC 9965 used 32% more power than the EPYC 9654 but delivered 1.55x the performance. Power consumption remains competitive: the EPYC 9965 averaged 275 Watts (peak 461 Watts), the EPYC 9755 averaged 324 Watts (peak 500 Watts), while Intel's Xeon 6980P averaged 322 Watts (peak 547 Watts). AMD's pricing strategy adds to the appeal. The 192-core model is priced at $14,813, compared to Intel's 128-core CPU at $17,800. This competitive pricing, combined with superior performance per dollar and watt, has resonated with hyperscalers. Estimates suggest 50-60% of hyperscale deployments now use AMD processors.

Eliyan Corporation, credited for the invention of the semiconductor industry's highest-performance and most efficient chiplet interconnect, today revealed the successful delivery of first silicon for its NuLink -2.0 PHY, manufactured in a 3 nm process. The device achieves 64 Gbps/bump, the industry's highest performance for a die-to-die PHY solution for multi-die architectures. While compatible with UCIe standard, the milestone further confirms Eliyan's ability to extend die-to-die connectivity by 2x higher bandwidth, on standard as well as advanced packaging, at unprecedented power, area, and latency.

The NuLink-2.0 is a multi-mode PHY solution that also supports UMI (Universal Memory Interconnect), a novel chiplet interconnect technology that improves Die-to-Memory bandwidth efficiency by more than 2x. UMI leverages a dynamic bidirectional PHY whose specifications are currently being finalized with the Open Compute Project (OCP) as BoW 2.1.

TSMC announced that its revenue for September 2024 reached NT$251.87 billion (US$7.80 billion), representing a 39% increase compared to the same month last year. The cumulative revenue for the first three quarters of 2024 climbed to NT$2,025.85 billion (US$62.72 billion), showing a 32% year-over-year growth. The company's third-quarter revenue amounted to NT$759.7 billion (US$23.52 billion), exceeding TSMC's own guidance of NT$706.6 billion to NT$731.5 billion (US$22.4 billion to US$23.2 billion). TSMC will report full third-quarter earnings on Oct. 17.

A report from Data Center Dynamics quotes sources saying that, due to increasing demand from NVIDIA and others, TSMC has been forced to change its CoWoS capacity expansion plan several times. In response, TSMC is building two more fabs, named P4 and P5, in Kaohsiung, Taiwan, raising the company's total number of facilities in the region to five. Four months ago, the company announced that it would build a third 2 nm fab at Nanzih Technology Industrial Park in Kaohsiung. The company's P1 fab, which started in August 2022, is expected to begin mass production next year, while P2 and P3 are still in the construction phase. TSMC's CoWoS monthly capacity is expected to reach more than 40,000 wafers by the end of 2024, 65,000 wafers in 2025, and at least 80,000 wafers in 2026.

ENERMAX, an industry-leading force dedicated to designing high-performance computer hardware and cooling solutions, announced that its CPU cooler product line now supports the new generation Intel processor socket, LGA1851. The new generation of Intel CPUs utilizes the LGA1851 socket, which is compatible with existing LGA1700 CPU coolers. Therefore, users with ENERMAX CPU coolers can directly upgrade to the new generation Intel platform.

ENERMAX provides a comprehensive range of CPU cooling solutions with a maximum thermal design power (TDP) of up to 420 W, successfully unleashing CPU performance and enabling fast processing capabilities during multitasking.

Leading gaming accessories maker Turtle Beach Corporation (Nasdaq: HEAR), and Performance Designed Products LLC (PDP) today announced the availability of limited-edition TEKKEN 8 Victrix Pro FS Arcade Fight Sticks. This exclusive, limited-edition fight stick line includes six different TEKKEN 8 designs, including Jin, Kazuya, King, Law, Lili, and Xiaoyu, each in their own colorway. The TEKKEN 8 Victrix Pro FS Arcade Fight Sticks are compatible with PS5 and PS4 consoles and Windows PC and are available for $499.99/€549.99 MSRP only at www.victrixpro.com.

"Our Victrix Pro fight sticks have already set the bar for what gamers should expect from a full-featured fighting game controller," said Trevor Lehr, Director of Product Management for PDP's Victrix products, Turtle Beach Corporation. "We were thrilled to collaborate with our friends and fellow fighting game genre leaders at Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc. to create something truly special for hardcore TEKKEN fans."

LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of chassis and PC accessories, has introduced the latest model to its O11 series of PC cases with the O11 Vision Compact. Developed in collaboration with PC Master Race (PCMR), the O11 Vision Compact is a refinement of the previous O11 Vision. It maintains the 3-sided tempered glass showcase style while adding a top mesh panel and bracket for top cooling options. With a fixed motherboard tray and a more compact design, the O11 Vision Compact can support back-connect ATX motherboards. It features a large grommet passthrough for AIO radiators to connect to a side-mounted radiator in the second chamber. The O11 Vision Compact even integrates a rear passthrough for an internal IPS display, which can be easily mounted above the motherboard. The O11 Vision Compact is available in black and white at an MSRP of $119.99.

Two Configurations
The O11 Vision Compact now includes a top mesh option for excellent airflow in addition to the top glass configuration. The top glass mode provides a completely unobstructed view of the system with top, front, and left-side tempered glass panels. The magnetic mounting key in the top left corner performs double duty, securing the mesh configuration top bracket to the front glass, and with top glass, holding the three glass panels together with 35 kg of supporting force.

[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Lian Li O11 Vision Compact is now live]

NVIDIA's "Blackwell" series of GPUs, including B100, B200, and GB200, are reportedly sold out for 12 months or an entire year. This directly means that if a new customer is willing to order a new Blackwell GPU now, there is a 12-month waitlist to get that GPU. Analyst from Morgan Stanley Joe Moore confirmed that in a meeting with NVIDIA and its investors, NVIDIA executives confirmed that the demand for "Blackwell" is so great that there is a 12-month backlog to fulfill first before shipping to anyone else. We expect that this includes customers like Amazon, META, Microsoft, Google, Oracle, and others, who are ordering GPUs in insane quantities to keep up with the demand from their customers.

The previous generation of "Hopper" GPUs was ordered in 10s of thousands of GPUs, while this "Blackwell" generation was ordered in 100s of thousands of GPUs simultaneously. For NVIDIA, that is excellent news, as that demand is expected to continue. The only one standing in the way of customers is TSMC, which manufactures these GPUs as fast as possible to meet demand. NVIDIA is one of TSMC's largest customers, so wafer allocation at TSMC's facilities is only expected to grow. We are now officially in the era of the million-GPU data centers, and we can only question at what point this massive growth stops or if it will stop at all in the near future.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced the industry's first 100% fanless direct liquid cooling systems architecture to enhance the energy and cost efficiency of large-scale AI deployments. The company introduced the innovation at its AI Day, held for members of the financial community at one of its state-of-the-art AI systems manufacturing facilities. During the event, the company showcased its expertise and leadership in AI across enterprises, sovereign governments, service providers and model builders.

Industry's first 100% fanless direct liquid cooling system
While efficiency has improved in next-generation accelerators, power consumption is continuing to intensify with AI adoption, outstripping traditional cooling techniques.

NVIDIA is reportedly considering a significant design change for its GPU products, shifting from the current on-board solution to an independent GPU socket design following the GB200 shipment in Q4, according to reports from MoneyDJ and the Economic Daily News quoted by TrendForce. This move is not new in the industry, AMD has already introduced socket design in 2023 with their MI300A series via Supermicro dedicated servers. The B300 series, expected to become NVIDIA's mainstream product in the second half of 2025, is rumored to be the main beneficiary of this design change that could improve yield rates, though it may come with some performance trade-offs.

According to the Economic Daily News, the socket design will simplify after-sales service and server board maintenance, allowing users to replace or upgrade the GPUs quickly. The report also pointed out that based on the slot design, boards will contain up to four NVIDIA GPUs and a CPU, with each GPU having its dedicated slot. This will bring benefits for Taiwanese manufacturers like Foxconn and LOTES, who will supply different components and connectors. The move seems logical since with the current on-board design, once a GPU becomes faulty, the entire motherboard needs to be replaced, leading to significant downtime and high operational and maintenance costs.

Today, Lenovo announced its industry-leading ThinkSystem infrastructure solutions powered by AMD EPYC 9005 Series processors, as well as AMD Instinct MI325X accelerators. Backed by 225 of AMD's world-record performance benchmarks, the Lenovo ThinkSystem servers deliver an unparalleled combination of AMD technology-based performance and efficiency to tackle today's most demanding edge-to-cloud workloads, including AI training, inferencing and modeling.

"Lenovo is helping organizations of all sizes and across various industries achieve AI-powered business transformations," said Vlad Rozanovich, Senior Vice President, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. "Not only do we deliver unmatched performance, we offer the right mix of solutions to change the economics of AI and give customers faster time-to-value and improved total value of ownership."

Corsair announces broad compatibility across its extensive component ranges designed to realize the potential of the Intel Core Ultra series processors. Intel Core Ultra processors feature a new socket, LGA 1851, and Corsair is ready with a full lineup of compatible CPU coolers. All our CPU coolers compatible with the previous LGA1700 socket are compatible with the new LGA 1851 socket, from our A115 air cooler to our best-performance TITAN RX RGB series of AIO coolers. From our 120 mm single fan radiators to our class-leading 360 mm and 420 mm radiators, we have a solution for you no matter which Core Ultra processor you choose or what case you're using.

To unleash the performance of the new Core Ultra series processors, we have a wide range of DOMINATOR and VENGEANCE series DDR5 memory kits available. These cutting-edge kits are designed to deliver award-winning performance, with XMP certification providing easy overclocking and improved memory bandwidth. Whether you're a gamer, content creator, or professional, Corsair DDR5 memory is the premiere option for reliable high-speed DRAM. With speeds up to 8,200 MT/s and densities up to 128 GB per kit, you can choose from attractive and compact VENGEANCE modules to the aesthetically elite DOMINATOR TITANIUM with RGB lighting that can be controlled through our iCUE software.

GameMax, an emerging brand of PC gaming components including gaming cases and power supply units, introduces the refreshed RGB-Smart Series 80 Plus Gold power supply units now featuring ATX 3.1 and PCIe 5.1 standards. The GameMax RGB-Smart Series is perfect for RGB lighting enthusiasts with its 140 mm smart ARGB cooling fan. Designed for high-end gaming systems, the GameMax RGB-Smart Series is available in up to 1300 W model. The RGB-Smart PSUs feature native 16-pin 12V-2x6 connector for the latest NVIDIA RTX graphics cards, supporting a maximum power output of 600 W. It also features a fully modular cable design, minimizing cable use for cleaner cable management.

The GameMax RGB-Smart's silent 140 mm ARGB cooling fan supports RGB synchronization via motherboard RGB sync. It supports RGB sync technologies from ASUS, MSI, and GIGABYTE. The refreshed GameMax RGB-Smart ATX 3.1 PCIe 5.1 Series is available in 750 W, 850 W, 1050 W, and 1300 W models—all available in black and white models to color match most PC build themes.

Silverstone on Thursday launched the ALTA D1, a highly modular chassis meant for workstations, high-end desktops (HEDTs), and even SMB servers. This case was a star attraction at the 2024 Computex booth, and we covered it. The case is meant to be oriented as a full-tower, with several modular internal components that let you use the case in different ways. Don't want two PSUs? Replace the second PSU bay with a pair of 5.25-inch drive bays. Don't have a lot of add-on cards? Put that space to use for cooling or storage. There is a plethora of configurations possible with the various included components, cages, and bays.

The case's basic internal structure is horizontally partitioned, with the lower half containing the motherboard tray. There's room for an SSI-EEB (12-inch x 13-inch), or a larger specialized form-factor that's up to 15.12-inch x 13.2-inch. There's a total of 11 expansion slots, with almost 1.5x add-on card height clearance, so you can use the most bulky graphics cards or AI GPU cards with their 12V-2x6 connections sticking out from the top. You can even mount server-grade high airflow ventilation. The case includes a pair of 180 mm intake fans, and a 140 mm rear exhaust. There is a third 140 mm intake fan for the upper compartment. The upper compartment has a pair of rear-ended bays for either redundant-PSU, or single PSU, with the other bay holding a pair of 5.25-inch drives. Toward the front are a set of drive cages that can be arranged along the length of the case. You can even have a third PSU toward the lower half of the front-end. Available now, the case is priced at $799.99. You can add wheels to it for another $20.

As a global leader in memory solutions, Team Group Inc. today unveiled its latest T-Force CKD (Client Clock Driver) DDR5 Gaming Memory. Following the worldwide attention received for the 7200 MHz T-CREATE EXPERT Ai CKD DDR5 showcased at COMPUTEX 2024, the T-Force gaming brand takes performance to new heights with the upcoming T-Force XTREEM CKD DDR5 8200 to 9000 (Gear 2) 2x24GB, featuring overclocking capabilities reaching up to 9600 MHz (Gear 4). Consumers can now push the limits of CUDIMM overclocking on the Intel Z890 platform with next-generation CKD DDR5 overclocking memory, achieving unprecedented performance breakthroughs.

Team Group continues to lead the industry in pushing boundaries by crafting the T-Force XTREEM CKD DDR5, which breaks beyond JEDEC frequency specifications. Utilizing CKD components and Intel XMP profiles on the Intel Z890 motherboard, users can effortlessly overclock to DDR5 speeds beyond 9000 MHz with a single click. Unlike JEDEC-compliant memory modules, the T-Force XTREEM CKD DDR5 leverages CKD components to enhance and buffer high-frequency signals from the CPU, ensuring more stable signal transmission to the memory modules. This enables DDR5 to push overclocking performance to even higher frequencies, surpassing traditional U-DIMM overclocking limitations.

AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is rumored to launch sooner than expected, with the company targeting at least an announcement within October, with reviews and product availability within Q4 2024. The chip combines the latest "Zen 5" microarchitecture with 3D V-cache technology, and is expected to increase AMD's gaming performance outlook compared to the 7800X3D, which remains the fastest processor for gaming. An alleged screenshot of the processor grinding away at Cinebench surfaced, which reveals that the processor is capable of a 5.20 GHz all-core boost frequency, and comes with an impressive 4.70 GHz base frequency.

To put these clock speeds into perspective, the current Ryzen 7 9700X processor without the 3D V-cache, comes with a 3.80 GHz base and 5.50 GHz maximum boost frequency. This would be the first time that an X3D SKU is coming with a higher base frequency than a regular SKU. For example, the 7800X3D comes with a 4.20 GHz base frequency compared to the 4.50 GHz of the 7700X. Interestingly, the 5.20 GHz all-core boost frequency of the 9800X3D is on par with the all-core boost of the 9700X, which only hits 5.50 GHz boost on lightly threaded workloads. It remains to be seen what TDP and package power tracking (PPT) values AMD gives the 9800X3D, given that it had to retrofit the SKU with a 105 W cTDP mode via firmware, to eke out an up to 10% performance gain over the original specs.