As we inch closer to the supposed 15th February launch of the GeForce GTX 1660 Ti, pictures of more AIC partner branded custom-design cards. The first two of these are from Palit and EVGA. Palit is bringing two very compact cards to the table under its StormX banner. These cards appear to be under 18 cm in length, and use an aluminium fin-stack cooler that's ventilated by a single 100 mm fan. There are two grades based on factory-overclock. The base model ticks at 1770 MHz boost, while the OC variant offers 1815 MHz boost.

EVGA's GTX 1660 Ti lineup includes two cards under its XC brand, with both cards being under 20 cm in length, but are 3 slots thick. Both cards appear to be using the same 3-slot single-fan cooling solution as the company's RTX 2060 XC. Once again, we see two variants based on clock-speeds, with the "Black" variant sticking to 1770 MHz boost, and the XC version slightly dialing up that frequency. Based on the 12 nm "TU116" silicon, the GTX 1660 Ti is rumored to feature 1,536 CUDA cores based on the "Turing" architecture, but lacking in RTX technology. The SKU succeeds the GTX 1060 6 GB.

This should be old news by now, but it actually isn't: MSI is just now releasing their iteration of the AMD Radeon RX 590 SKU. Perhaps the company decided that the product wasn't too differentiated from the previous RX 480 and RX 580 graphics cards so as to justify all the resources they'd have to pour through to its development; or they wanted to first sell through their RX 580 inventory, and have now struck a good balance with stocks of the old and the new.

Whatever the reason, the fact is that MSI's first RX 590, launched in the Armor series - it isn't even in the gaming X department - has been released, three months later, in two variants: Armor and Armor OC (the latter is running a paltry 20 MHz higher than the non-OC version, so). The 12 nm, Polaris 30 XT graphics card draws power from an 8-pin connector, and video outputs include 2x DisplayPort, 2x HDMI, and 1x DVI. It's a dual-slot affair, like almost all MSI graphics cards, and all Armor ones. No word as of yet on availability nor pricing.

GIGABYTE extended its all-white trim to its third graphics card from the RTX 20-series, the RTX 2070 Gaming OC White (model: GV-N2070GAMINGOC WHITE-8GC). This follows similar trims for the RTX 2060 Gaming OC Pro White and RTX 2070 Gaming OC Pro White. As with the others, the card's USP is its mostly-white cooler shroud with chrome inserts, and a matching white metal back-plate. Contrasting them are a trio of 90 mm matte-black fans with chrome hub stickers, and the black PCB carried over from the original Gaming OC series.

As with the RTX 2070 Gaming OC, this card offers a factory-overclock of 1725 MHz boost, compared to 1620 MHz reference. The memory is untouched at 14 Gbps (GDDR6-effective). The cooler offers 0 dBA mode (idle fan-stop). The card draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, one HDMI 2.0b, and a USB-C VirtualLink. Based on the 12 nm "TU106" silicon, the GeForce RTX 2070 offers 2,304 CUDA cores, 288 tensor cores, 36 RT cores, 144 TMUs, 64 ROPs, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 8 GB of memory. GIGABYTE is offering a unique 4-year warranty with this card, if you register your purchase with them.

AMD in its Q4-2018 Earnings Report disclosed that it has amended its Wafer Supply Agreement (WSA) with GlobalFoundries that frees it from paying a "7 nanometer tax." Under the older version of WSA, AMD would have had to pay a penalty to GlobalFoundries if it sourced processors from any other semiconductor foundry. The company got preferential pricing in return for the exclusivity. With GlobalFoundries discontinuing development of cutting-edge processes such as 7 nm and 5 nm, it makes sense for AMD to seek out other foundry partners, such as TSMC, and an amendment to the WSA was needed. With this amendment in place, AMD can go ahead and source 7 nm dies from TSMC without paying penalties to GlobalFoundries (GloFo).

With its "Zen 2" microarchitecture, AMD is going big on multi-chip modules, in which only those components that can tangibly benefit from the switch to the 7 nm node, namely the CPU cores, would be built on 7 nm dies, called "CPU chiplets," while components that don't need the miniaturization just yet, such as the processor's memory controller, PCIe root-complex, etc., will be built on separate dies called "I/O controllers." These dies will continue to be 14 nm, and likely supplied by GloFo. Final packaging of 7 nm CPU chiplets from TSMC, and 14 nm I/O controllers from GloFo, will happen at GloFo's facilities in China or Malaysia. AMD in its amendment committed to purchasing 14 nm and 12 nm chips from GloFo between 2019 and 2021, which means the MCM approach to processors is here to stay.

TSMC's Fab 14 B has been affected with a chemical contamination that has put a considerable number of wafers in suspend mode. Fab 14 B essentially produces 12 and 16 nm, 300 mm wafers for 14 companies, including NVIDIA, MEDIATEK, Huawei and Hisilicon. Reportedly, between 10,000 and 30,000 wafers have been affected (though not scrapped, so there might be salvageable bits and pieces here and there). Of course, every wafer will have to go through a thorough certification process, and the fab will have to go down for the company to purge any remains of these botched chemical compounds.

To put things into perspective, though, Fab 14 B is one of TSMC's Gigafabs, which have a rated monthly output of 100k wafers - so production worth between three and ten days could be affected already, with the additional downtime accruing lost potential fabrication. This event isn't expected to significantly affect availability of any of the products for any of the companies, but these are becoming, at the very least, late inventory - this could well play into some speculative increases in pricing from some players in the market.

PC World managed to get a hold of NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, picking his thoughts on AMD's recently announced Radeon VII. Skirting through the usual amicable, politically correct answers, Jensen made his thoughts clear on what the competition is offering to compete with NVIDIA's RTX 2000 series. The answer? Vega VII is an "underwhelming product", because "The performance is lousy and there's nothing new. [There's] no ray tracing, no AI. It's 7nm with HBM memory that barely keeps up with a 2080. And if we turn on DLSS we'll crush it. And if we turn on ray tracing we'll crush it." Not content on dissing the competition's product, Jensen Huang also quipped regarding AMD's presentation and product strategy, saying that "It's a weird launch, maybe they thought of it this morning."

NVIDIA could launch its "RTX for the masses" SKU, the GeForce RTX 2060, sometime mid-January, according to Andreas Schilling. It is also confirmed that the RTX 2060 will feature 6 GB of GDDR6 memory. Schilling confirmed no other specifications of the GPU, but posted official branding for the RTX 2060 SKU. Earlier leaks pin the RTX 2060 as being carved out from the 12 nm "TU106" silicon, with 1,920 CUDA cores, 120 TMUs, 48 ROPs, and a 192-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, which at 14 Gbps produces a memory bandwidth of 336 GB/s. NVIDIA could target the crowd that wants DXR-enabled gaming at 1080p thru 1440p resolutions.

AMD's "Polaris 30" silicon at the heart of Radeon RX 590 graphics card is the company's first 12 nm GPU. Unlike NVIDIA, which is exclusively sourcing its "Turing" family of GPUs from TSMC, the "Polaris 30" is coming from not one, but two sources. This, according to AMD in response to a question by TechPowerUp. The two foundries manufacturing "Polaris 30" are GlobalFoundries and Samsung. AMD did not provide us with visual cues on how to tell chips made from either foundries apart (such as serial numbering schemes). Packaging of dies sourced from both foundries is done in China, and the national-origin marking for the chip is on the package, rather than printed on the die.

GlobalFoundries' 12 nanometer FinFET node, called GloFo 12LP, shares a lot of similarities with Samsung's 11LPP, because both are "nodelets" that are derived from an original 14 nm FinFET process blueprint Samsung licensed to GloFo, deployed in its facility in upstate New York, where AMD's "Zen" processors are made. GloFo's 12 nanometer process is a refinement of its 14 nm node, in which 12 nm transistors are etched onto silicon using the same lithography meant for 14 nm. It doesn't improve transistor densities, but provides dividends in power, which explains why "Polaris 30" and "Pinnacle Ridge" have the same die sizes as "Polaris 20" and "Summit Ridge," respectively. This WikiChip article provides a good explanation of how GloFo 12LP is a nodelet.

You can find our launch-day reviews of the Radeon RX 590 here: Sapphire RX 590 Nitro+, XFX RX 590 Fatboy

AMD today unveiled the Radeon RX 590 graphics card, an advanced 12 nm GPU designed to deliver amazing gaming experiences and outstanding performance for the latest AAA, eSports and Virtual Reality (VR) titles.

Powered by AMD "Polaris" architecture, the AMD Radeon RX 590 graphics card provides faster clock speeds for higher gaming performance than the AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card2, and delivers up to 20 percent or higher performance-per-dollar than the competition. Paired with the advanced AMD Radeon FreeSync gaming display technology and loaded with the latest AMD Radeon Software features, the AMD Radeon RX 590 graphics card delivers an exceptional gaming experience.

AMD is very close to launching its new Radeon RX 590 graphics card, targeting a middle-of-market segment that sells in high volumes, particularly with Holiday around the corner. The card is based on the new 12 nm "Polaris 30" silicon, which has the same exact specifications as the "Polaris 20" silicon, and the original "Polaris 10," but comes with significantly higher clock-speed headroom thanks to the new silicon fabrication process, which AMD and its partners will use to dial up engine clock speed by 10-15% over those of the RX 580. While the memory is still 8 Gbps 256-bit GDDR5, some partners will ship overclocked memory.

According to a slide deck seen by VideoCardz, AMD is setting the baseline price of the Radeon RX 590 at USD $279.99, which is about $50 higher than RX 580 8 GB, and $40 higher than the price the RX 480 launched at. AMD will add value to that price by bundling three AAA games, including "Tom Clancy's The Division 2," "Devil May Cry 5," and "Resident Evil 2." The latter two titles are unreleased, and the three games together pose a $120-150 value. AMD will also work with monitor manufacturers to come up with graphics card + AMD FreeSync monitor bundles.

With a little Javascript trickery, Redditor "BadReIigion" succeeded in making the company website of AMD partner HIS to spit out details of its upcoming Radeon RX 590 IceQ X² graphics card (model number: HIS-590R8LCBR). Pictured below is the RX 580 IceQ X², but we expect the RX 590-based product to be mostly similar, with cosmetic changes such as a different cooler shroud or back-plate design. The website confirms some details like the ASIC being "Polaris 30 XT," a rendition of the 2,304-SP "Polaris 20" die on the 12 nm FinFET node, and that the card features 8 GB of GDDR5 memory. Some of the other details, such as the engine clock being mentioned as "2000 MHz" is unlikely.

The consensus emerging on engine clock boost frequencies from RX 590 leaks so far, put RX 590 custom-design, factory-overclocked cards to tick around 1500-1550 MHz, a 100-200 MHz improvement over the RX 580. Some board vendors such as Sapphire are even overclocking the memory by about 5%. "Polaris 30" is likely pin-compatible with "Polaris 20," because most board vendors are reusing their RX 580 PCBs, some of which are even carried over from the RX 480. For the HIS RX 590 IceQ X² this means drawing power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector.

Sapphire is developing a premium variant of its upcoming Radeon RX 590 series, called the RX 590 NITRO+ Special Edition, much like the "limited edition" branding it gave its premium RX 580-based card. Komachi Ensaka accessed leaked brochures of this card, which will bear an internal SKU code 11289-01. The brochure also confirms that the RX 590 features an unchanged 2,304 stream processor count from the RX 580, and continues to feature 8 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface. All that's new is improved thermals from a transition to the new 12 nm FinFET silicon fabrication process.

The Sapphire RX 590 NITRO+ SE ships with two clock-speed profiles, that can be probably toggled on the hardware by switching between two BIOS ROMs. The first profile is called NITRO+ Boost, and it runs the GPU at 1560 MHz, and the memory at 8400 MHz (GDDR5-effective). The second profile, called Silent Mode, reduces the engine clock boost to 1545 MHz, and the memory to 8000 MHz. For both profiles, the fan settings are unchanged. The fans stay off until the GPU is warming up to 54 °C, and spins at its nominal speed at 75 °C. It cuts off at 45 °C. The nominal speed is 0 - 2,280 RPM and the maximum speed is 3200 RPM.

Thanks to some photographs by Andreas Schilling, of HardwareLuxx, it is now confirmed that AMD's Radeon RX 590 will make use of the 12 nm FinFET process. The change from 14 nm to 12 nm FinFET for the RX 590 brings with it the possibility of both higher clock speeds and better power efficiency. That said, considering it is based on the same Polaris architecture used in the Radeon RX 580 and 570, it remains to be seen how it will impact AMDs pricing in regards to the product stack. Will there be a price drop to compensate, or will the RX 590 be more expensive? Since AMD has already made things confusing enough with its cut down 2048SP version of RX 580 in China, anything goes at this point.

AMD "Zen" CPU architecture brought the company back to competitive relevance in the processor market. It got an incremental update in the form of "Zen+" which saw the implementation of an improved 12 nm process, and improved multi-core boosting algorithm, along with improvements to the cache subsystem. AMD is banking on Zen 2 to not only add IPC (instructions per clock) improvements; but also a new round of core-count increases. Bits n Chips has information that Zen 2 is making significant IPC gains.

According to the Italian tech publication, we could expect Zen 2 IPC gains of 13 percent over Zen+, which in turn posted 2-5% IPC gains over the original Zen. Bits n Chips notes that these IPC gains were tested in scientific tasks, and not in gaming. There is no gaming performance data at the moment. AMD is expected to debut Zen 2 with its 2nd generation EPYC enterprise processors by the end of the year, built on the 7 nm silicon fabrication process. This roughly 16 percent IPC gain versus the original Zen, coupled with higher clocks, and possibly more cores, could complete the value proposition of 2nd gen EPYC. Zen 2-based client-segment products can be expected only in 2019.

Clues have been popping here and there regarding a possible new Polaris revision being launched by AMD in the (relatively) near future. Speculation first reared its head regarding a revised "Polaris 30" silicon, allegedly being built for TSMC's 12 nm process - not unlike AMD's 2000-series Ryzen CPUs. The company has been enamored with trying out and adapting new foundry processes for its products as soon as possible, now that they've found themselves fabless and not having to directly support the R&D costs necessary for process node development themselves.

Some publications are pointing towards a 15% performance improvement being achieved on the back of this process change for Polaris - which, if achieved only via a new process implementation, would require clock speed increases that are higher than that. AMD has already launched their revised Polaris 20 RX 500 series, which built upon their RX 400 series (and Polaris 10) by upping the clocks as well. A smaller node would likely be associated with higher yields and decreased costs per finished chip, which would allow AMD to further reduce pricing/stabilize pricing while introducing a new product generation to tide users over until Navi is finally ready.

NVIDIA could launch successors to its GeForce GTX 1060 series and GTX 1050 series only by 2019, according to a statement by an ASUS representative, speaking with PC Watch. This could mean that the high-end RTX 2080 Ti, RTX 2080, and RTX 2070, could be the only new SKUs for Holiday 2018 from NVIDIA, alongside cut-rate GeForce GTX 10-series SKUs. This could be a combination of swelling inventories of 10-series GPUs, and insufficient volumes of mid-range RTX 20-series chips, should NVIDIA even decide to extend real-time ray-tracing to mid-range graphics cards.

The way NVIDIA designed the RTX 2070 out of the physically smaller TU106 chip instead of TU104 leads us to believe that NVIDIA could carve out the GTX 1060-series successor based on this chip, since the RTX 2070 maxes it out, and NVIDIA needs to do something with imperfect chips. An even smaller chip (probably half-a-TU104?) could power the GTX 1050-series successor.

AMD is readying its second generation Ryzen Pro socket AM4 processors targeted at commercial desktops in a corporate environment, with additional management and security features. These chips are based on the company's new 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" silicon. Its biggest differentiator from the other Ryzen SKUs is the GuardMI feature, which is a collective of Secure Memory Encryption, a hardened Secure Boot feature, Secure Production Environment (useful for big organizations that oversee the manufacturing of their hardware, and fTPM.

AMD's 2nd gen Ryzen Pro lineup initially includes three models: the 8-core/16-thread Ryzen 7 Pro 2700X, the Ryzen 7 Pro 2700, and the 6-core/12-thread Ryzen 5 Pro 2600. Some of these chips are clocked marginally lower than their non-Pro siblings. The Pro 2700X ticks at 3.60 GHz, with 4.10 GHz (vs. 3.70 to 4.30 GHz of the 2700X); while the Pro 2700 and Pro 2600 are clocked on par with its non-Pro counterparts. The decision behind clocking the Pro 2700X lower could have something to do with TDP, which is now 95W, compared to the 105W of the normal 2700X.

ENERMAX has put up a product page for a revised version of its LIQTECH TR4 II 240 liquid cooler, which they've readied in expectation of AMD's second-gen Threadripper CPU lineup. Remember that the new AMD Threadrippers will bring about much increased levels of performance due to their doubled core-counts in relation to first-gen Threadrippers - and of course, a doubling in core counts necessarily translates into increased power consumption, even if AMD did bring about some more power efficiency improvements to the design (besides those already enabled by the usage of the 12 nm fabrication process).

The new LIQTECH TR4 II features support for AMD's TR4 socket, and according to ENERMAX, can dissipate up to 500 W of waste heat due to the usage of multiple technologies, such as their patented Shunt-Channel-Technology (SCT) which boosts thermal conductivity, alongside an EF1 pump with high flow rate up to 450L/h. Innovative batwing blades improves overall airflow for increased thermal dissipation at the radiator level, and revised pumps work to allow fluid circulation to flow unimpeded. Additionally, ENERMAX have added addressable RGB functionality to the water block, so users can personalize their cooling champion. The LIQTECH TR4 II coolers will be available in this month of August - right around the time of AMD's Threadripper II.

AMD announced its second-generation Ryzen Threadripper high-end desktop (HEDT) processor series, succeeding its lean and successful first-generation that disrupted much of Intel's Core X HEDT series, forcing Intel to open up new high-core-count (HCC) market segments beyond its traditional $1000 price-point. AMD's 16-core $999 1950X proved competitive with even Intel's 12-core and 14-core SKUs priced well above the $1200-mark; and now AMD looks to beat Intel at its game, with the introduction of new 24-core and 32-core SKUs at prices that are sure to spell trouble for Intel's Core X HCC lineup. The lineup is partially open to pre-orders, with two SKUs launching within August (including the 32-core one), and two others in October.

At the heart of AMD's second-generation Ryzen Threadripper is the new 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" die, which made its debut with the 2nd Generation Ryzen AM4 family. This die proved to introduce 3-5 percent IPC improvements in single-threaded tasks, and multi-threaded improvements with an improved Precision Boost II algorithm, which boosted frequencies of each of 8 cores on-die. The Threadripper is still a multi-chip module, with 2 to 4 of these dies, depending on the SKU. There are four of these - the 12-core/24-thread Threadripper 2920X, the 16-core/32-thread Threadripper 2950X; the 24-core/48-thread Threadripper 2970WX, and the flagship 32-core/64-thread Threadripper 2990WX.

Wrap your head around this: at some point in 2019, AMD will be selling 7 nm processors while Intel sells 14 nm processors. That how grim Intel's 10 nanometer silicon fabrication process development is looking. In the Q&A session of its Q2-2018 Earnings Call, Intel stated that the first products based on its 10 nm process will arrive only by Holiday 2019, making 14 nm micro-architectures hold the fort for not just the rest of 2018, but also most of 2019. In the client-segment, Intel is on the verge of launching its 9th generation Core "Whiskey Lake" processor family, its 5th micro-architecture on the 14 nm node after "Broadwell," "Skylake," "Kaby Lake," and "Coffee Lake."

It's likely that "Whiskey Lake" will take Intel into 2019 after the company establishes performance leadership over 12 nm AMD "Pinnacle Ridge" with a new round of core-count increases. Intel is also squeezing out competitiveness in its HEDT segment by launching new 20-core and 22-core LGA2066 processors; and a new platform with up to 28 cores and broader memory interface. AMD, meanwhile, hopes to have the first 7 nm EPYC processors out by late-2018. Client-segment products based on its architecture, however, will follow the roll-out of these enterprise parts. We could see a point in 2019 when AMD launches its 7 nm 3rd generation Ryzen processors in the absence of competing 10 nm Core processors from Intel. Posted below is an Intel slide from 2013, when the company was expecting 10 nm rollout by 2015. That's how much its plans have derailed.

First benchmarks and CPU-Z screenshots of AMD's upcoming Ryzen Threadripper 32-core monster have surfaced, courtesy of HKEPC. The on-time-for-launch (as AMD puts it) 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" processor has apparently been christened "Threadripper 2990X", which does make sense - should AMD be thinking of keeping the 2920X moniker for 12 cores and 1950X for 16-cores, then it follows a 20-core 2960X, a 24-core 2970X, a 28-core 2980X, and the aforementioned 32-core 2990X. whether AMD would want to offer such a tiered lineup of HEDT processors, however, is another matter entirely, and certainly open for discussion - too much of a good thing can actually happen, at least where ASP of the Threadripper portfolio is concerned.

On the CPU-Z screenshot, the 2990X is running at 3.4 GHz base with up to 4.0 GHz XFR, and carries a 250 W TDP - a believable and very impressive achievement, testament to the 12 nm process and the low leakage it apparently produces. The chip was then overclocked up to 4.2 GHz on all cores, which caused for some thermal throttling, since performance was lower than when the chip was clocked at just 4 GHz on all cores. Gains on this particular piece of silicon were reserved up to 4.12 GHz - the jump to 4.2 GHz must have required another bump in voltage that led to the aforementioned throttling. At 4.12 GHz, the chip scored 6,399 points in Cinebench - a remarkable achievement.

AMD today started the formal invitation procedure for the company's Computex 2018 presence, which should result in an updated state of affairs for the company as it aims to deliver its 2018 roadmap. You'd be forgiven to think AMD had exhausted its product portfolio for the year with its 12 nm Ryzen 2000 series, but the 2018 release schedule for AMD still counts some notable products.

Chief among these (for enthusiasts, at least) is the company's second generation Threadripper lineup, which will update the company's premium, many-core HEDT products to the current 12 nm process. However, the impact of AMD's Pro products shouldn't be underestimated - as tamer (in consumers' eyes - as they are compared to the screaming wildcat that is a 16-core CPU, these products usually carry higher margins for AMD - the company just also has to count on proper volume being there, which, if AMD's Zen architecture strength is anything to go by, really should keep gaining momentum. Of course, the real question on anyone's minds now regards AMD's RTG, and more precisely, what graphics technology advancements - and especially products - can be expected from the company. The 500 series (well, 400 series on steroids) is old in the tooth by now, and Vega is what it is. Here's hoping the Computex conference will bring some light to these matters. The Press Release follows.

AMD inadvertently put out model numbers of several Ryzen processor model numbers, before redacting the page with them. They reveal pretty much AMD's entire second wave of Ryzen 2000 series processors. To begin with, AMD will finally introduce Ryzen 3 series desktop processor SKUs based on the 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" silicon, with the new Ryzen 3 2100 (YD210BC6M2OFB) and the Ryzen 3 2300X (YD230XBBM4KAF). The Ryzen 3 2000 series includes quad-core parts without SMT. Since the Ryzen 3 2100 lacks integrated graphics, it end-user model numbering below the Ryzen 3 2200G. The Ryzen 3 2300X succeeds the Ryzen 3 1300X covering AMD's entry-level lineup.

The Ryzen 5 2000 series is augmented by the Ryzen 5 2500X (YD250XBBM4KAF). This likely 4-core/8-thread chip could feature higher clock speeds and L3 cache amount than the Ryzen 5 2400G, justifying its model number, despite the lack of integrated graphics. AMD's Ryzen Threadripper 2000 series are multi-chip modules of the 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" die, and AMD has three models in store, the Ryzen Threadripper 2900X (YD290XA8U8QAF), Ryzen Threadripper 2920X (YD292XA8UC9AF), and the top-dog Ryzen Threadripper 2950X (YD295XA8UGAAF), succeeding the TR-1900X, TR-1920X, and TR-1950X. Like the rest of the Ryzen 2000-series, the three new Threadripper chips could feature increased clocks and new features from "Zen+" to hold onto the existing price-points, and turn up the heat on Intel SKUs priced above $999, such as the 12-core i9-7920X, or even the 16-core i9-7960X.

AMD "Vega 20" is rumored to be an optical shrink of the current "Vega 10" GPU die to a newer process, either 12 nm, or 10 nm, or perhaps even 7 nm. Six new device IDs that point to "Vega 20" based products, surfaced on AMD's GPU drivers source code, with its latest commit made as recently as on 28th March. AMD "Vega 10" is a multi-chip module of a 14 nm GPU die, and two "10 nm-class" HBM2 memory stacks, sitting on a silicon interposer that facilitates high-density wiring between the three. In an effort to increase clock speeds, efficiency, or both, AMD could optically shrink the GPU die to a smaller silicon fabrication process, and carve out a new product line based on the resulting chip.

AMD on Monday, announced price-cuts across a bulk of its Ryzen 3-series, Ryzen 5-series, Ryzen 7-series, and Ryzen Threadripper processor models, based on first-generation "Zen" architecture, probably in preparation of its possible-April 19 launch of its 2nd generation Ryzen "Pinnacle Ridge" processors. The decision to trim prices of Threadripper SKUs indicates that AMD is either stepping up the heat on Intel's Core X family, or that one can expect a brisk roll-out of 12 nm "Pinnacle Ridge" silicon-based 2nd Generation Threadripper SKUs, even if not on April 19. The latest roadmaps put 2nd Gen Threadripper launch to the second half of 2018.