There are very few instances where one product category can leap frog over to another and make a profound impact. Today, iBUYPOWER, together with Valve, is making one such leap. Introducing the iBUYPOWER SBX Steam machine, an ultra-simplified system designed to do one thing: entertain. Melding together the simplicity of a traditional game console, but harnessing power usually available to only high-end desktop PCs, iBUYPOWER is able to usher in both performance and content unheard of in the living room space.

Designed in Los Angeles, iBUYPOWER labored to create a highly tuned and optimized system that would deliver a sustainable 60 frames-per second gaming experience at true high-definition resolutions. Powered by multi-core processors in both AMD and Intel flavors and paired with the latest in graphics technology from AMD, customers will be able to jump a full generation ahead of the latest game consoles.

AMD (NYSE: AMD) today announced a new milestone in their collaboration with BlueStacks, a joint solution that brings the complete Google Android OS experience to Microsoft Windows-based tablets, 2-in-1s, notebooks and desktops. Optimizations for the fourth generation AMD APU in BlueStacks provide a complete, Android user interface and extensive support for Android apps for entertainment and productivity.

"Windows and Android are both mature operating systems, each satisfying the needs of millions of users," said Steve Belt, corporate vice president, Product Management, at AMD. "Users whose devices and preferences span the two ecosystems no longer have to face device-specific restrictions on the benefits of one ecosystem or the other because AMD and BlueStacks have created a seamless user experience between the operating systems. Now users have access to all the apps -- games, communications and content consumption -- they love on their Android mobile devices right at their fingertips, while getting important productivity tasks or high-end PC gaming accomplished on their Windows PC."

2014 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) -- As technology leaders from around the globe arrive in Las Vegas for the 2014 International CES, AMD (NYSE: AMD) delivers a technology showcase like no other. Inside the AMD exhibit, show attendees will enjoy an array of innovations powered by the latest AMD APU and graphics technologies, from stunning graphics on 4K displays, gaming on a variety of devices including tablets and the latest game consoles, to new consumer-friendly PCs supporting both Microsoft Windows and Google Android applications. The star of the show is the ground-breaking "Surround House 2: Monsters in the Orchestra," a 360-degree surround-computing demonstration that leverages the immense computing capabilities of AMD technologies to create an immersive, first-of-its-kind audiovisual and interactive experience.

"We live in an exciting new world where computing is everywhere and transforming our daily lives," said Lisa Su, senior vice president and general manager, AMD Global Business Units. "AMD is at the heart of the innovations, driving a vision of 'Surround Computing' to provide the most visually compelling, immersive experiences in gaming, the next-generation of PCs, and the cloud. We are truly re-defining modern computing with our customers and ecosystem partners here at CES."

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) announced today that DockPort will be added as an official extension to the existing DisplayPort standard. DockPort is an emerging technology that enables high-speed USB 3.0 data over the existing DisplayPort connector. Originally developed by AMD, Texas Instruments, and other VESA member companies, the DockPort extension will allow notebooks, tablets and other small form factor computers to aggregate the display, data and power interfaces into a single convenient connector.

Computers and other smart devices require high-speed I/O ports to share high-resolution video with external displays, high-bandwidth data with external storage and other peripherals, and power for battery charging. As notebooks and tablets become thinner and more portable, consumers want to combine these three common interfaces into a single port on their mobile device. With a single DisplayPort connection using the new DockPort extension and enhanced power capabilities under development, consumers will be able to attach their computers or tablets to a docking station and have instant, hassle-free access to a wide array of external resources.

Price wars between GPU makers are something to look forward to each year, as that's typically when you get the best bang for your buck. Such an optimal time to buy new graphics cards usually comes when both AMD and NVIDIA have launched a new graphics card lineup, each. AMD tends to launch its lineup first, followed by NVIDIA, which then begins a cycle of proactive and reactive price-cuts between the two, which churns up the $300 price-performance sweet-spot so well, that a purchase from that segment usually sets your PC up for the following three years. 2013-14 saw a major disruption to this cycle, Litecoin mining. Litecoin miners will hurt more than help brand AMD Radeon, here's why.

PowerColor may have been the first AMD add-in board vendor to launch a custom-design Radeon R9 290X graphics card with its R9 290X LCS, which is basically an AMD reference PCB with a factory-fitted EKWB FC-R9-290X water-block; but its air-cooled non-reference cards have been nowhere in sight, until now. PowerColor posted these pictures of the Radeon R9 290X PCS+, its premium factory-overclocked and air-cooled graphics card based on AMD's flagship GPU. The company's Radeon R9 290 (non-X) PCS+ is expected to look identical.

Pictures reveal the card's PCB to be largely based on AMD's reference design, perhaps with variations on the choice of components. PowerColor has a knack of splurging on expensive, high-quality components on its PCBs (think International Rectifier and Coilworks VRM components, Samsung and SK Hynix memory chips, etc.), and we expect a similar treatment for the R9 290X PCS+. The two-slot cooling solution featured on this card is making its debut with it. It features a network of aluminium fin stacks to which heat is fed by copper heat pipes, and which are ventilated by a trio of 80 mm fans. PowerColor didn't reveal clock speeds, launch date, or pricing.

What better way to market the graphics processing prowess of your processor than bundling one of the most GPU-intensive games of the season with it? AMD is reportedly planning "Battlefield 4 Edition" packages of its A10 "Kaveri" APUs, which at slightly higher premiums than normal PIB packages, would give you Origin keys to Battlefield 4, much like a similar scheme with AMD's Radeon R9 290 series.

Such Battlefield 4 SKUs could involve at least two APU models, the A10-7850K, and A10-7700K. The two may meet the minimum system requirements of the game at resolutions of up to HD+ (1600 x 900 pixels). Speaking of A10-7850K, Japanese publication "Hermitage Akihabara" snapped a handful pictures and screenshots of the the chip. The first one below reveals the APU package, the following reveal the CPU-Z and GPU-Z screenshots, trailed by a quick run of Cinebench R15. AMD is expected to launch its "Kaveri" line of socket FM2+ APUs on January 13-14 globally.

Gigabyte joined the growing list of AMD Radeon add-in board partners to launch Radeon R9 270X graphics cards with double the standard memory amount. The GV-R927XOC-4GD, available in a standard edition and one with a Battlefield 4 Origin key, features 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 256-bit wide memory interface, clocked at 5.60 GHz, at which the GPU has 179 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal. The card features a long, non-reference design PCB, and the company's new generation WindForce 3X cooler, which together give the card a high-end look when installed. 4 GB of memory makes the R9 270X meet the recommended system requirements of Battlefield 4.

The factory-overclocked card offers 1050 MHz base GPU clock, and 1100 MHz PowerTune Boost frequency. The card draws power from a pair of 6-pin PCIe power connectors, display outputs include a pair of dual-link DVI, and one each of HDMI 1.4a and DisplayPort 1.2. Based on the 28 nm "Curacao" silicon, the Radeon R9 270X features 1,280 GCN2 stream processors, 80 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. It features a 256-bit wide GDDR5 memory interface. Its API support includes DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle. Gigabyte didn't reveal pricing of the two.

AMD is rolling out two new Radeon SKUs to bolster its lineup below the $179.99 price-point held by the Radeon R9 270. The names of these SKUs might confuse the heck out of you, the TechPowerUp reader, and our hearts go out to the target buyers of these products, but bear with us - Radeon R9 255 and Radeon R9 260. Not to be confused with similar-sounding Radeon R7 250 and Radeon R7 260, the two SKUs are positioned in the Radeon R9 series, and could offer either higher performance levels than what the R7 260X manages, or it could also be a sly marketing move by AMD to make the lower-mainstream part of its lineup look more appealing to buyers of pre-built mainstream desktops that are "gaming ready."

There are two pieces of evidence to support the existence of the two. First, AMD updated its website to show R9 255 and R9 260 in the Radeon R9 section of its OEM products page. Second, on close inspection of the driver information (.inf) file of Catalyst 13.12 WHQL, we sniffed out three curious looking device IDs, which point at products going by those names. Selling an SKU named "Radeon R9 260" could work well for AMD's "Never Settle for anything less than AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics" marketing campaign.

AMD announced dual AMD FirePro professional graphics solutions (GPUs) deliver unprecedented levels of performance for the new Mac Pro. The AMD FirePro D300, D500 and D700 professional GPUs offer exceptional compute power and reliability for creativity and productivity in a wide range of applications. With industry-adopted OpenCL (Open Computing Language) support, Mac Pro users have the ability to seamlessly edit full-resolution 4K video and simultaneously render effects in the background, and still have enough performance to power up to three high-resolution 4K displays.

These new AMD FirePro GPUs are built on the strength of AMD's award-winning Graphics Core Next GPU design -- an architecture conceived from the ground up to intelligently manage rendering and compute workloads. The combination of AMD FirePro GPUs and OpenCL -- strongly supported by both Apple and AMD -- is designed to deliver massive compute and graphics performance in one compact solution.

XFX rolled out its first non-reference design Radeon R9 290 series graphics cards, the Radeon R9 290X Double Dissipation (model: R9-290X-EDFD), and the R9 290 Double Dissipation (model: R9-290A-EDFD). The two are based on a common board design, with a non-reference design PCB by the company, and its tall, dual-slot Double Dissipation cooling solution that's featured on the company's Radeon R9 280X DD graphics card. The cooler uses a dense aluminium fin stack to which head drawn from the GPU is fed by copper heat pipes, and dissipated by a pair of 80 mm fans. As an added bonus, the "XFX" logo on the cooler shroud lights up. Both cards stick to AMD reference clock speeds. That's 1000 MHz core and 5.00 GHz memory for the R9 290X, and 947 MHz core and 5.00 GHz memory for the R9 290. The two are offered at prices identical to reference-design cards, or a tiny premium in some markets.

Futuremark is proud to announce that Quanta Computer has joined its Benchmark Development Program. Quanta will work with Futuremark to create new benchmarks for PC and mobile platforms. Futuremark creates the world's most widely used benchmarks, software that helps people compare the performance of the devices they depend on every day. 3DMark and PCMark are used throughout industry, business and government, by more than a thousand specialist press publications, and millions of people worldwide.

Quanta Computer is the world's largest notebook computer ODM company. Quanta manufacturers one out of every three laptops sold globally and is an ODM partner for every one of the top ten PC companies. In recent years, Quanta has extended its businesses into enterprise network systems, home entertainment, mobile communication, automotive electronics and digital home markets.

ASUS announced its Radeon R9 290X DirectCU II series graphics cards, which include a model that sticks to AMD-reference clocks (up to 1000 MHz core, 5.00 GHz memory), and one that offers factory-overclocked speeds of up to 1050 MHz core, and 5.40 GHz memory, the DirectCU II OC. The card features a completely non-reference design, with a PCB designed in-house by ASUS, which features a 10-phase VRM, which draws power from a combination of 6-pin and 8-pin PCIe power connectors. The features Samsung-made GDDR5 memory chips. There's 4 GB of memory on board, across a 512-bit wide memory interface.

The DirectCU II cooling solution is nearly identical to the one deployed on the recently launched GeForce GTX 780 Ti DirectCU II OC. It features a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink to which heat is fed by 8 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes. The heatsink is ventilated by a pair of 92 mm fans, one of which features ASUS's unique lateral+axial hybrid impeller, called CoolTech. Niceties include a back-plate, and an all-black cooler shroud, with sheets of red and gold stickers, so you could style the card the way you want to. The card is expected to be priced as low as 499€.

After months of Catalyst 13.11 betas AMD has now made available a new WHQL-certified graphics driver, the Catalyst 13.12. This release features support for the Radeon HD 5000, HD 6000, HD 7000, Radeon R7 and R9 Series cards and is available for Windows Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1.

Download: Catalyst 13.12 WHQL 32-bit / Catalyst 13.12 WHQL 64-bit

AMD launched the Radeon R7 260 graphics cards, positioned in between the $139 Radeon R7 260X, and the $89 Radeon R7 250, which makes for a fairly big gap. It is expected to be priced no more than $110. Based on the same 28 nm "Bonaire" silicon as the R7 260X and the HD 7790 from the previous generation, the R7 260 is a mildly de-tuned variant of the R7 260X.

The Radeon R7 260 features just 768 of the 896 stream processors physically present on the "Bonaire" silicon. The GPU is clocked at 1000 MHz, compared to the 1100 MHz of the R7 260X; and the memory is clocked at 6.00 GHz (GDDR5-effective), compared to the 6.50 GHz of its sibling, which churns out a memory bandwidth of 96 GB/s on the chip's 128-bit wide memory bus. 1 GB, and not 2 GB is the standard memory amount. The maximum power draw is reduced to 95-Watt from 115-Watt on the R7 260X, and the card makes do with a single 6-pin PCIe power connector to draw power from. API support is consistent - DirectX 11.2, OpenGL 4.3, and Mantle. AMD TrueAudio appears to be supported.

Here's the first picture of the PCB under the hood of MSI's Radeon R9 290X Gaming OC graphics card, which was unveiled in Japan, over the weekend, and which was detailed in a slightly older article. It turns out that MSI will use the same board design (including the back-plate) on both the R9 290X Gaming OC and the R9 290 Gaming OC, both of which have been put up for pre-order by Canadian e-tailer NCIX. The R9 290X Gaming OC is priced at $699 CAD including taxes (US $660); while the R9 290 Gaming OC is priced at $529.99 CAD including taxes (US $500).

The PCB itself is a slight variation of MSI on AMD's reference design. The layout is identical, but there are subtle differences in component choices MSI made. For example, it ditches Coiltronics-made chokes for MagicTech. Appears to use SK Hynix made memory chips (instead of Elpida on a vast majority of retail R9 290 series boards), etc. It also appears to retain dual-BIOS. According to NCIX, both cards will feature untouched memory clock speeds of 5.00 GHz, yielding memory bandwidth of 320 GB/s, but feature 5-7 percent overclocks on the GPU. The R9 290 Gaming OC features GPU clock speeds (possibly PowerTune boost) of up to 1000 MHz (vs. 948 MHz reference), while the R9 290X Gaming OC features 1040 MHz.

At a press event held in Japan, MSI showed off its second non-reference design Radeon R9 290X graphics card besides the R9 290X Lightning, the R9 290X TwinFrozr 4S Gaming OC. The card features MSI's top-grade TwinFrozr IV cooling solution with the red+black color scheme; and a non-reference design PCB by MSI. Its PCB will feature a strong VRM, a voltage controller that's fully accessible using Afterburner, factory-overclocked speeds, and a back-plate decking up the rear portion of the card, even though there's nothing on the rear side of the PCB that requires active cooling. Since the card features a BIOS-toggle switch, you can expect one of the two BIOS ROMs to feature a failsafe BIOS with reference clock speeds. MSI is expected to launch the card a little later this month. The R9 290X Lightning, however, can't be expected before 2014. One could expect a similar-looking card (perhaps minus the back-plate) based on the R9 290 (non-X).

AMD's Radeon R9 290X is a great chip with sub-par reference cooling performance that's not just noisy but could also cool the GPU inadequately, making it throttle. With AMD allowing its partners to come up with non-reference design cards, most AMD Radeon add-in board (AIB) partners are pulling out their workhorses (think DirectCU II, WindForce 450W, TwinFrozr IV, VaporX Dual-X, etc). PowerColor has more fluid plans. The company could be among the first partners to come up with an R9 290X card that's ready for liquid cooling out of the box, the R9 290X LCS.

PowerColor Radeon R9 290X LCS features a full-coverage liquid-cooling block by EK Water Blocks, which besides the PowerColor LCS branding, is basically EK-FC R9-290X with the nickel-acetal top option. The block appears to be factory-fitted onto an AMD reference design PCB. PowerColor didn't mention clock speeds or pricing, although given the block's $145 aftermarket price, one can't discount the possibility of a $120~150 premium over the $549.99 pricing of the R9 290X. PowerColor could launch the Radeon R9 290X LCS, along with another air-cooled non-reference design card a little later this month.

XFX unveiled the first passive-cooled Radeon R7 200 series graphics cards, the full-height Radeon R7 250 Core Edition, and the half-height (low-profile) Radeon R7 240 Core Edition, pictured in that order. Both cards are based on a common half-height PCB design for the 28 nm "Oland" GPU, but due to higher thermal loads on the R7 250, its taller heatsink makes the card full-height. The R7 250 Core Edition offers AMD reference clock speeds of 1050 MHz core, and 4.60 GHz memory. It offers 1 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide memory interface. Its cooling solution is a heat-pipe fed aluminium fin stack. The R7 240 Core Edition, on the other hand, retains the same PCB, but makes do with a more compact cooling solution that makes the card low-profile ready. It features AMD reference clock speeds of 780 MHz core and 1.80 GHz memory, featuring 2 GB of DDR3 memory. The R7 250 Core Edition is priced around €92, while the R7 240 Core Edition goes for around €75.

AMD is inching toward a possible post-x86 future for itself, beginning with its enterprise product stack. In a blog-post, the company outlined a landmark product bearing its enterprise Opteron branding, codenamed "Seattle," which will be designed for scalar data-centers. Based on the 64-bit ARMv8 architecture by ARM, the chip will feature either four or eight cores based on AMD's own implementation of ARMv8, and a high-bandwidth integrated memory controller with support for up to 128 GB of system memory with ECC.

Since ARM-based processors are traditionally part of heavily integrated systems on chips (SoCs), "Seattle" will be an SoC, and among other things, will integrate a 10 Gb/s Ethernet controller, with support for AMD's FreedomFabric technology. Linux kernel 3.7 and above will come with ARMv8 architecture support, and Microsoft is already developing a Windows kernel with ARMv8 support that will be implemented on both its client (Windows RT, Windows Phone) product lines, and a future version of Windows Server. That said, AMD won't give up on x86. As the only active x86 licensee apart from VIA, AMD will continue to make APUs with 64-bit x86 cores for as far as the eye can see (in other words 2015). Future of its client CPU (non-APU) lineup based on the AM3+ socket, however, appears bleak.

Here's the first detailed body-shot of ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer, which was teased by the company earlier today, and which could end up being one of the most feature-rich socket AM3+ motherboards, if the end is neigh for AM3+. Designed for gaming PCs with up to two graphics cards, although it features three long x16 slots, the Fatal1ty 990FX Killer is a full-size ATX motherboard. It's design appears to be more gamer-centric than overclocker-centric. It draws power from 24-pin ATX and 8-pin EPS connectors, with an optional 4-pin Molex connection to stabilize power to add-on cards; and conditions it for the AM3+ CPU using a 10-phase VRM that's cooled by an heatsink that's independent from that which cools the AMD 990FX northbridge (i.e. no heat-pipe linking the two). The AM3+ CPU socket is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots, which support up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR3-2400 MHz memory; and to the 990FX northbridge over a 5.2 GT/s HyperTransport link.

The AMD 990FX chipset puts out two PCI-Express 2.0 x16 slots, the third slot is electrical PCI-Express 2.0 x4, and possibly wired to the SB950 southbridge. The southbridge handles five internal SATA 6 Gb/s ports, the sixth port is wired out as eSATA. The Fatal1ty 990FX Killer, as teased this morning, is among the first motherboards to feature an M.2 slot, extended out of a PCI-Express link. PCIe SSDs tend to be faster, as more interface bandwith is on tap. As many as six USB 3.0 ports are on offer, of which one switches between header and internal type-1 port (for those tuck-away software license keys) all of which are driven by third-party controllers. Wired networking is care of a Killer E2200 network controller, that's optimized for gaming. The board features 7.1-channel HD audio, with a high SNR CODEC, PCB ground-layer isolation (to prevent electrical noise), and an EMI shield for the CODEC; which ASRock collectively labels "Purity Sound." The board is driven by AMI UEFI BIOS, with full support for Windows 8 Secure Boot.

AMD is reportedly releasing a fix for frame-pacing issues for Radeon-based systems with Eyefinity setups in January, 2014, according to an AnandTech report. This September, AMD rolled out the first fix into the frame-pacing issues that affected Radeon GPUs based on the Graphics CoreNext architecture, in which raw-framerate didn't come with the right pacing between each frame, resulting in display output that isn't fluid, which even caused accusations to fly from some quarters about how honest AMD really is with performance numbers of its GPUs.

The Catalyst update that rolled out in September 2013 resolved the problem for a majority of users - with single displays connected to single GPUs, but left out cases in which people use Eyefinity (single display head spanning across multiple physical displays), on CrossFireX (multi-GPU) setups. It was originally expected that AMD would release the so-called "phase 2" Catalyst driver update looking into frame-pacing issues this November, but since the month has passed, AMD has obviously hit a delay. AnandTech reports that delay could last as long as two months, and one should expect "phase 2" to come out only towards the later half of January, since in the first half, AMD, along with the rest of the industry, will be busy with the 2014 International CES, where it will launch its next-generation A-Series APUs, codenamed "Kaveri."

Gigabyte rolled out a revision of its Radeon R7 250 OC graphics card, featuring its 100 mm fan-heatsink that featured on its Radeon R7 240 OC graphics card. The card features a blue Ultra Durable 2 PCB, with Gigabyte's in-house fan-heatsink design that uses a chunky aluminium block with copper core and spirally-projecting ridges, and a 100 mm fan ventilating it, suspended on a black ABS shroud. The card features a small factory-overclock on the GPU, at 1100 MHz, compared to AMD reference speeds of 1050 MHz. The 2 GB of DDR3 memory is left untouched at 1.80 GHz. Display outputs include dual-link DVI, D-Sub, and HDMI 1.4a. The card relies entirely on the PCI-Express bus for power. Based on the 28 nm "Oland" silicon, the Radeon R7 250 features 384 Graphics CoreNext stream processors, 24 TMUs, 8 ROPs, and a 128-bit wide memory interface. Expect this card to retail for $90.

TUL Corporation, a leading manufacturer of AMD graphic cards, today launches another high performance model which belongs to TurboDuo series, the PowerColor TurboDuo R9 280X OC. Featuring the most innovative GCN architecture, the TurboDuo R9 280X OC fully utilizes the AMD Eyefinity technology, and support ultra high resolution gaming, providing unrivaled performance without sacrifice a single detail.

The new TurboDuo R9 280X OC runs at a factory-overclock of 880 MHz, even reach to 1030 MHz with boost, together with 1500 MHz for memory clock, using 384-bit high speed memory interface connects to 3GB of GDDR5 memory, indulging gamers with higher frame rates. In addition to default OC setting, the TurboDuo R9 280X OC takes advantage of PowerColor's exclusive Gold Power Kit, which includes multi-phases design, DirectFET and Digital PWM, delivering the best OC performance with stability.

AMD missed its late-November window for giving its partners enough Radeon R9 290 series chips to roll out their custom-design boards in time for Christmas (the winter shopping season). It turns out that custom-design R9 290 and R9 290X cards could launch perilously close to Christmas, or miss it altogether, and launch next year. Custom design R9 290 series cards are highly anticipated as the press didn't receive the reference-design cooling solution of the two cards as well as it did the chips themselves. Reference design coolers, reviews revealed, are not only noisy, but also don't cool the GPUs well enough to prevent throttling under gaming loads.

Barring the recent reveal of MSI's Radeon R9 290X Lightning PCB, we've not come across a single custom-design R9 290 series card. Sources told ComputerBase.de that custom-design R9 290 (non-X) cards could launch first, in the mid/late-December thru January time-frame, and R9 290X could follow "later." One AIB partner which did not want to be named, attributed it to under-supply of the "Hawaii" silicon, and not any design defects that AMD is working to correct. The Radeon R9 290 (reference) is priced at $399.99, and the R9 290X for $549.99.