Aetina, a leading Edge AI solution provider, announced the launch of the Aetina IA380E-QUFL at Embedded World 2024 in Nuremberg, Germany. This groundbreaking product is a small form factor PCIe graphics card powered by the high-performance Intel Arc A380E GPU.

Unmatched Power in a Compact Design
The Aetina IA380E-QUFL delivers workstation-level performance packed into a low-profile, single-slot form factor. This innovative solution consumes only 50 W, making it ideal for space and power-constrained edge computing environments. Embedded system manufacturers and integrators can leverage the power of 4.096 TFLOPs peak FP32 performance delivered by the Intel Arc A380E GPU.

Today, we have the latest round of leaks that suggest that AMD's upcoming RDNA 4 graphics cards, codenamed the "RX 8000-series," might continue to rely on GDDR6 memory modules. According to Kepler on X, the next-generation GPUs from AMD are expected to feature 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory, marking the fourth consecutive RDNA architecture to employ this memory standard. While GDDR6 may not offer the same bandwidth capabilities as the newer GDDR7 standard, this decision does not necessarily imply that RDNA 4 GPUs will be slow performers. AMD's choice to stick with GDDR6 is likely driven by factors such as meeting specific memory bandwidth requirements and cost optimization for PCB designs. However, if the rumor of 18 Gbps GDDR6 memory proves accurate, it would represent a slight step back from the 18-20 Gbps GDDR6 memory used in AMD's current RDNA 3 offerings, such as the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX GPUs.

AMD's first generation RDNA used GDDR6 with 12-14 Gbps speeds, RDNA 2 came with GDDR6 at 14-18 Gbps, and the current RDNA 3 used 18-20 Gbps GDDR6. Without an increment in memory generation, speeds should stay the same at 18 Gbps. However, it is crucial to remember that leaks should be treated with skepticism, as AMD's final memory choices for RDNA 4 could change before the official launch. The decision to use GDDR6 versus GDDR7 could have significant implications in the upcoming battle between AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel's next-generation GPU architectures. If AMD indeed opts for GDDR6 while NVIDIA pivots to GDDR7 for its "Blackwell" GPUs, it could create a disparity in memory bandwidth performance between the competing products. All three major GPU manufacturers—AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel with its "Battlemage" architecture—are expected to unveil their next-generation offerings in the fall of this year. As we approach these highly anticipated releases, more concrete details on specifications and performance capabilities will emerge, providing a clearer picture of the competitive landscape.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today, is thrilled to introduce the brand-new Intel Arc A750 OC Graphics card. BIOSTAR proudly presents the Arc A750 OC graphics card, a true game-changer for content creators and professional gamers. It is meticulously designed to cater to a wide range of computing needs, seamlessly accommodating content creation and gaming at every level. The Arc A750 OC graphics card harnesses the cutting-edge Intel Arc graphics technology, offering a unique blend of unmatched performance and innovative features that sets it apart in the competitive market.

With its impressive 28 Xe-Cores and a graphics clock speed of 2200 MHz, the BIOSTAR Arc A750 OC is a powerhouse designed to deliver robust gaming and content creation performance. It comes packed with a substantial 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, operating at a lightning-fast speed of 16 Gbps, and utilizes a 256-bit memory interface for efficient data transfer and processing. With a total board power (TBP) of 225 W, this graphics card is engineered to balance power consumption with high-end performance, making it an exciting option for users looking for a powerful yet efficient GPU solution.

TrendForce's latest report reveals that despite DRAM suppliers' efforts to trim inventories, they have yet to reach healthy ranges. As they continue to improve their lose situations by boosting capacity utilization rates, the overall demand outlook for this year remains tepid. Additionally, significant price increases by suppliers since 4Q23 are expected to further diminish the momentum for inventory restocking. As a result, DRAM contract prices for the second quarter are projected to see a modest increase of 3-8%.

The shift toward DDR5-compatible CPUs is set to drive an increase in PC DRAM demand in the second quarter. As manufacturers move toward more advanced, cost-efficient production processes for DDR5, their profitability is expected to rise significantly. This anticipation of higher DRAM prices in 1H24 has led to suppliers to aim for price increases in Q2, targeting a 3-8% hike in PC DRAM contract prices. Notably, even though DDR5 prices have already seen a notable rise in Q1—exceeding the average increase for other products—the expected emergence of AI PC demand may lead to a slight moderation in DDR5 price increases in Q2.

Without making much noise, AMD lifted the memory overclocking limits of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics card with its latest Adrenalin 24.3.1 WHQL drivers, TechPowerUp found. The changelog is a bit vague and states "The maximum memory tuning limit may be incorrectly reported on AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics products."—we tested it. The RX 7900 GRE has been around since mid-2023, but gained prominence as the company gave it a global launch in February 2024, to help AMD better compete with the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Super. Before this, the RX 7900 GRE had started out its lifecycle as a special edition product confined to China, and its designers had ensured that it came with just the right performance positioning that didn't end up disrupting other products in the AMD stack. One of these limitations had to do with the memory overclocking potential, which was probably put in place to ensure that the RX 7900 GRE has a near-identical total board power as the RX 7800 XT.

Shortly after the global launch of the RX 7900 GRE, and responding to drama online, AMD declared the limited memory overclocking range a bug and promised a fix. The overclocking limits are defined in the graphics card VBIOS, so increasing those limits would mean shipping BIOS updates for over a dozen SKUs from all the major vendors, and requiring users to upgrade it by themselves. Such a solution isn't very practical, so AMD implemented a clock limit override in their new drivers, which reprograms the power limits on the GPU during boot-up. Nicely done, good job AMD!

Sony is preparing to launch its next-generation PlayStation 5 Pro console in the Fall of 2024, right around the holidays. We previously covered a few graphics details about the console. However, today, we get more details about the CPU and the overall system, thanks to the exclusive information from Insider Gaming. Starting off, the sources indicate that PS5 Pro system memory will get a 28% bump in bandwidth, where the standard PS5 console had 448 GB/s, and the upgraded PS5 Pro will get 576 GB/s. Apparently, the memory system is more efficient, likely coming from an upgrade in memory from the GDDR6 SDRAM of the regular PS5. The next upgrade is the CPU, which has special modes for the main processor. The CPU uArch is likely the same, with clocks pushed to 3.85 GHz, resulting in a 10% frequency increase.

However, this is only achieved in the "High CPU Frequency Mode," which steals the SoC's power from the GPU and downclocks it slightly to allocate more power to the CPU in highly CPU-intense settings. The GPU we discussed here is an RDNA 3 IP with up to 45% faster graphics rendering. The ray tracing performance can be up to four times higher than the regular PS5, while the entire GPU delivers 33.5 TeraFLOPS of FP32 single-precision computing. This comes from 30 WGP running BVH8 shaders vs the 18 WGPs running BVH4 shaders on the regular PS5. There are PSSR upscalers present, and the GPU can output 8K resolution, which will come with future software updates. Last but not least, the AI front also has a custom AI accelerator capable of 300 8-bit INT8 TOPS and 67 16-bit FP16 TeraFLOPS. Audio codecs are getting some love, as well, with ACV running up to 35% faster.

The mid-range AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT is not supposed to have 16 GB of video memory, but the same hardware modders from Brazil behind the recent GeForce RTX 2080 16 GB mod, had other ideas for the card. They have not only increased the memory size to 16 GB through memory chip replacement, but also succeeded in widening its memory bus to 256-bit. The RX 5600 XT was launched in 2018 with 6 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory over a 192-bit memory interface. The card is cut down from the 7 nm "Navi 10" silicon powering the RX 5700 series, by enabling 36 out of 40 compute units (the same count as the RX 5700), but with a truncated 192-bit memory bus wired to 6 GB of memory (and so 25% lower memory bandwidth).

Paulo Gomes and Ronaldo Buassali pulled off the daring Radeon RX 5600 XT memory mod, which involves not just increasing the memory size from 6 GB to 16 GB, but also widening the memory bus from 192-bit to 256-bit. Since the RX 5600 XT is based on the same "Navi 10" GPU as the RX 5700, custom-design graphics cards tend to reuse PCB designs from the RX 5700 series, and have two vacant memory pads that are sometimes exposed and even balled. The mod involves three key stages—to replace the six 8 Gbit GDDR6 memory chips with eight 16 Gbit ones; to add the required electrical SMDs and VRM components for the two additional memory chips; and lastly, to give the card a modified BIOS that can let it play with the new memory configuration. The "Navi 10" silicon also powers certain Radeon Pro graphics cards with 16 GB of memory using 16 Gbit memory chips, so that could be the starting point for the BIOS mod.

The first round of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 50-series "Blackwell" graphics cards that implement GDDR7 memory are rumored to come with a memory speed of 28 Gbps, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. This is despite the fact that the first GDDR7 memory chips will be capable of 32 Gbps speeds. NVIDIA will also stick with 16 Gbit densities for the GDDR7 memory chips, which means memory sizes could remain largely unchanged for the next generation; with the 28 Gbps GDDR7 memory chips providing 55% higher bandwidth over 18 Gbps GDDR6 and 33% higher bandwidth than 21 Gbps GDDR6X. It remains to be seen what memory bus widths NVIDIA chooses for its individual SKUs.

NVIDIA's decision to use 28 Gbps as its memory speeds has some precedent in recent history. The company's first GPUs to implement GDDR6, the RTX 20-series "Turing," opted for 14 Gbps speeds despite 16 Gbps GDDR6 chips being available. 28 Gbps is exactly double that speed. Future generations of GeForce RTX GPUs, or even refreshes within the RTX 50-series could see NVIDIA opt for higher memory speeds such as 32 Gbps. When the standard debuts, companies like Samsung even plan to put up fast 36 Gbps chips. Besides a generational doubling in speeds, GDDR7 is more energy-efficient as it operates at lower voltages than GDDR6. It also uses a more advanced PAM3 physical layer signaling compared to NRZ for JEDEC-standard GDDR6.

Some of the first gaming GPUs that implement the next-generation GDDR7 memory standard, will stick to 16 Gbit memory chip densities (2 GB), according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA GeForce leaks. 16 Gbit is what is standard for the current RTX 40-series graphics cards, which ensures that a GPU with 256-bit memory bus gets 16 GB of video memory; the ones with 192-bit get 12 GB; and the ones with 128-bit get 8 GB. The flagship RTX 4090 uses twelve of these chips over its 384-bit memory bus for 24 GB.

Kopite7kimi's leak could have a different connotation, that much like the RTX 30-series "Ampere" and RTX 40-series "Ada," NVIDIA might not use JEDEC-standard GDDR7 on all product segments, and might co-engineer an exclusive standard with a DRAM company with memory bus signaling and power management technologies most optimal to its graphics architecture. It co-developed the GDDR6X with Micron Technology to do exactly this. GDDR7 comes with data-rates as high as 32 Gbps, which will be the top speed for the first round of GDDR7 chips that come out toward the end of 2024, heading into 2025. The second round of GDDR7 chips slated for late-2025 going into 2026, could go as fast as 36 Gbps. This is similar to how the first GDDR6 chips were 14-16 Gbps, and the next round did 18-20 Gbps.

ASRock, the leading global motherboard, graphics card and mini PC manufacturer, today launched the new Steel Legend and Challenger series graphics cards based on the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE GPU. The new ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards are built on the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 3 architecture, featuring redesigned compute units, second-generation AMD Infinity Cache and ray tracing technologies, and increased AI throughput. They also feature the AMD Radiance Display Engine with support for DisplayPort 2.1, full AV1 encoding and are optimized for high-performance, high-resolution 4K/1440p gaming, streaming and content creation applications.

The new ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards are equipped with high-speed 16 GB GDDR6 memory at 18 Gbps, and are pre-overclocked to deliver higher levels of performance. In addition, the AMD Radiance Display Engine provides 12 bit-per-channel color for up to 68 billion colors for incredible color accuracy. ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards also support various ASRock exclusive features, including the Striped Ring/Axial Fan, Air Deflecting Fin, Ultra-fit Heatpipe, Metal Backplate, and Polychrome SYNC technology to provide great cooling efficiency, solid construction and fancy ARGB lighting effects. With these exclusive features, ASRock AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Series graphics cards are premium choices for 4K/2K gamers and creators.

Brazilian tech enthusiast Paulo Gomes, in association with Jefferson Silva, and Ygor Mota, successfully modded an EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 "Turing" graphics card to 16 GB. This was done by replacing each of its 8 Gbit GDDR6 memory chips with ones that have double the density, at 16 Gbit. Over the GPU's 256-bit wide memory bus, eight of these chips add up to 16 GB. The memory speed was unchanged at 14 Gbps reference, as were the GPU clocks.

The process of modding involves de-soldering each of the eight 8 Gbit chips, clearing out the memory pads of any shorted pins, using a GDDR6 stencil to place replacement solder balls, and then soldering the new 16 Gbit chips onto the pad under heat. Besides replacing the memory chips, a series of SMD jumpers need to be adjusted near the BIOS ROM chip, which lets the GPU correctly recognize the 16 GB memory size. The TU104 silicon by default supports higher density memory, as NVIDIA uses this chip on some of its professional graphics cards with 16 GB memory, such as the Quadro RTX 5000.

Moore Threads, the Chinese company aiming to build a contemporary PC GPU family indigenous to China, formally introduced the MTT S30, an entry-level GPU. Given the performance positioning of the company's flagship MTT S80 GPU even with its recent performance doubling driver update, one can conclude that the MTT S30 isn't quite a gaming GPU. It has a quarter of the unified shaders of the MTT S80, 1/6th its FP32 throughput, and a quarter of its memory size; which means the GPU really is an iGPU replacement that accelerates one or more high-resolution displays for non-gaming productivity workloads, and perhaps some media acceleration.

The Moore Threads MTT S30 features 1,024 unified shaders, an unknown number of tensor accelerators, a 1.30 GHz GPU clock, and 4 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 128-bit wide memory bus. The reference design card is single-slot, half-height, and draws all its power from the PCIe slot, given that its power draw is rated at just 40 W. This card has just two display connectors—HDMI and D-Sub. It features a PCI-Express 4.0 x8 host interface.

KFA2, the EU-focused brand of graphics cards by Galax, today released the GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB EX, a somewhat premium take on the recently released entry-level GPU by NVIDIA. The KFA2 EX features a spruced up aluminium fin-stack heatsink that uses a flattened copper heatpipe to make broader contact with the GPU, and spread the heat better across the fin-stack. The 22.4 cm long card also has a couple of premium touches, such as a metal backplate, and RGB LED lighting. The lighting setup includes physical switch on the tail end of the card, with which you can turn it off. Also featured is idle fan-stop. The card offers a tiny factory overclock of 1485 MHz boost, compared to 1475 MHz reference. It sticks with PCIe slot power, there are no additional power connectors.

NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB as its new entry level GPU. It is based on the older "Ampere" graphics architecture, and the 8 nm "GA107" silicon. It enables 18 out of 20 streaming multiprocessors physically present, which work out to 2,304 CUDA cores, 72 Tensor cores, 18 RT cores, 72 TMUs, and 32 ROPs. The 6 GB of 14 Gbps GDDR6 memory is spread across a narrower 96-bit memory bus than the one found in the original RTX 3050 8 GB. KFA2 is pricing the RTX 3050 6 GB EX at €199 including taxes.

An Ebay Store—customgpu_official—is selling memory modified GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. The outfit (located in Palo Alto, California) has a large inventory of MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AERO cards—judging from their listing's photo gallery. Workers in China are reportedly upgrading these (possibly refurbished) units with extra lashings of GDDR6 VRAM—going from the original 11 GB specification up to 22 GB. We have observed smaller scale GeForce RTX 2080 Ti modification projects and a very ambitious user-modified example in the past, but customgpu's latest endeavor targets a growth industry—the item description states: "Why do you need a 22 GB 2080 Ti? Large VRAM is essential to cool AIGC apps such as stable diffusion fine tuning, LLAMA, LLM." At the time of writing three cards are available to purchase, and interested customers have already acquired four memory modded units.

They advertise their upgraded "Turbo Edition" card as a great "budget alternative" to more modern GeForce RTX 3090 and 4090 models—"more information and videos" can be accessed via 2080ti22g.com. The MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AERO 11 GB model is not documented within TPU's GPU database, but its dual-slot custom cooling solution is also sported by the MSI RTX 2080 SUPER AERO 8 GB graphics card. The AERO's blower fan system creates a "mini-wind tunnel, pulling fresh air from inside the case and blowing it out the IO panel, and out of the system." The seller's asking price is $499 per unit—perhaps a little bit steep for used cards (potentially involved in mining activities), but customgpu_official seems to be well versed in repairs. Other Ebay listings show non-upgraded MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti AERO cards selling in the region of $300 to $400. Custom GPU Upgrade and Repair's hype video proposes that their modified card offers great value, given that it sells for a third of the cost of a GeForce RTX 3090—their Ebay item description contradicts this claim: "only half price compared with GeForce RTX 3090 with almost the same GPU memory."

Aetina, a leading global Edge AI solution provider, announces the release of its new embedded MXM GPU series utilizing the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture - MX2000A-VP, MX3500A-SP, and MX5000A-WP. Designed for real-time ray tracing and AI-based neural graphics, this series significantly enhances GPU performance, delivering outstanding gaming and creative, professional graphics, AI, and compute performance. It provides the ultimate AI processing and computing capabilities for applications in smart healthcare, autonomous machines, smart manufacturing, and commercial gaming.

The global GPU (graphics processing unit) market is expected to achieve a 34.4% compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2028, with advancements in the artificial intelligence (AI) industry being a key driver of this growth. As the trend of AI applications expands from the cloud to edge devices, many businesses are seeking to maximize AI computing performance within minimal devices due to space constraints in deployment environments. Aetina's latest embedded MXM modules - MX2000A-VP, MX3500A-SP, and MX5000A-WP, adopting the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture, not only make significant breakthroughs in performance and energy efficiency but also enhance the performance of ray tracing and AI-based neural graphics. The modules, with their compact design, efficiently save space, thereby opening up more possibilities for edge AI devices.

AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT went on sale today, at a starting price of $330. Designed for maxed out AAA gameplay at 1080p, this card can try its hands with 1440p gaming, at mid-thru-high settings; you can use features such as FSR 2, FSR 3 Frame Generation, the AMD Fluid Motion Frames feature that extends frame generation to any DirectX 11/12 game; as well as the HyperRX one-click performance enhancement that's part of the AMD Software control panel app. AMD had already maxed out all available shaders on the 6 nm "Navi 33" monolithic silicon, but has opted not to rope in the larger "Navi 32" chiplet GPU for the RX 7600 XT. Instead, it attempted to squeeze out the most performance possible from the "Navi 33," by dialing up clock speeds, power limits, and doubling the memory size.

You still get 32 compute units on the RX 7600 XT, which are worth 2,048 stream processors, 64 AI accelerators, 32 Ray accelerators, 128 TMUs, and 64 ROPs, but the 128-bit GDDR6 memory bus now drives 16 GB of memory running at the same 18 Gbps speed, yielding 288 GB/s of bandwidth. The GPU game clock has been increased to 2.47 GHz, up from 2.25 GHz on the RX 7600. The power limit has been increased from 165 W to 190 W on the RX 7600 XT; and implementing DisplayPort 2.1 has been made mandatory for board partners (they can't opt for the DisplayPort 1.4a like they could on the RX 7600). AMD claims that the 16 GB of video memory should come in handy for content creators, and those dabbling with generative AI.

We have three reviews of the Radeon RX 7600 XT for you today, so be sure to check them all out.

Sapphire Radeon RX 7600 XT Pulse | XFX Radeon RX 7600 XT Speedster QICK 309 | ASRock Radeon RX 7600 XT Steel Legend

According to the recent listing on Goofish, discovered by VideoCardz, Chinese companies have begun selling mobile versions of NVIDIA's latest RTX 40-series GPUs as desktop graphics cards. Initially designed for gaming laptops, the GeForce RTX 4080M and RTX 4090M are now being marketed in China as more affordable alternatives to their official desktop counterparts. This development is no surprise to industry observers who recall similar adaptations with the RTX 20 and 30 series. These companies are leveraging the lower cost of mobile GPUs, combined with budget cooling solutions and simpler PCB designs, to offer more affordable desktop GPU options. The mobile GPUs, which are capped at a power consumption of 175 Watts, are being repurposed without official sanction, with NVIDIA seemingly disregarding this practice. Despite the lack of official endorsement, these modified GPUs are finding their way into the market, providing gamers a cost-effective alternative to the more expensive desktop versions.

While not officially supported by NVIDIA, these cards utilize the mobile GPU dies paired with custom cooling solutions and PCBs to work in desktop PCs. According to reports, the RTX 4080M desktop variant offers 7424 CUDA cores and 12 GB GDDR6 memory, representing a 24% reduction in cores and 4 GB less memory versus the desktop RTX 4080. The desktop RTX 4090M is even more cut-down, with 9728 cores and 16 GB memory—a 40% drop in cores and 8 GB less memory than the flagship RTX 4090 desktop card. Pricing falls between $420 and $560 for the RTX 4080M and exceeds that of even the desktop RTX 4090 for the 4090M variant. Performance and longevity still need to be determined for these unofficial cards. While they present a cheaper RTX 40-series option for Chinese gamers, the reduced specifications come with tradeoffs. Still, their availability indicates the ongoing demand for next-gen GPUs and the lengths some vendors go to to meet that demand.

The GeForce RTX 40 SUPER series of gaming graphics cards has been getting most of the Ada Lovelace-related attention over the past week and half, so it is a little bit surprising to see ASUS sneak out another RTX 4060 (AD107-400-A1) model to little fanfare. As befits the recently published low profile ASUS GeForce RTX 4060 LP BRK 8 GB GDDR6 product page, VideoCardz seems to be the first publication to cover this diminutive 115 W TDP solution. Its narrow triple-fan design is not wholly original though—ASUS has certainly taken a little bit of inspiration from a similar GIGABYTE low profile RTX card. TPU's TheLostSwede published a hands-on report last summer, with coverage of the GIGABYTE RTX 4060 Low Profile OC model. According to VideoCardz, this card is available to purchase at a $325 price point (Amazon USA).

Low profile graphics cards are ideal components for compact HTPC builds, but not many mainstream manufacturers offer slim options in modern times. It is encouraging to see ASUS throwing their proverbial hat into the ring—many will welcome another efficient GeForce RTX 4060 GPU packaged inside a Low Profile shroud with more than adequate cooling (for a very gentle factory overclock). The ASUS website does not provide any pricing details, and official press material does not exist at the time of writing.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launches a new graphics card powered by AMD RDNA 3 architecture. The GIGABYTE AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT GAMING OC 16G graphics card comes with the top-of-the-line WINDFORCE cooling system from GIGABYTE. It delivers unmatched performance, stunning visual effects, and exceptional efficiency, perfect for smooth 1080p gaming and streaming experience.

The GIGABYTE WINDFORCE cooling system is tailored for gamers, boasting three unique blade fans with alternate spinning, composite copper heat pipes in direct contact with the GPU, 3D active fans and screen cooling. The Alternate Spinning technology rotates the central fan in the opposite direction of the side fans, directing airflow in the same direction and doubling air pressure while reducing turbulence. This design effectively dissipates heat from both the top and the bottom of the graphics card, resulting in improved overall cooling performance.

TrendForce reports that the DRAM contract prices are estimated to increase by approximately 13-18% in 1Q24 with mobile DRAM leading the surge. It appears that due to the unclear demand outlook for the entire year of 2024, manufacturers believe that sustained production cuts are necessary to maintain the supply-demand balance in the memory industry.

PC DRAM: The market is buzzing with unfilled DDR5 orders, while savvy buyers brace for a continued surge in DDR4 prices, keeping procurement engines running. This trend, however, is shadowed by a gradual industry pivot toward DDR5, casting uncertainty over the expansion of DDR4 bit procurement volumes. Despite this, both DDR4 and DDR5 prices have yet to hit the target set by manufacturers, and buyers seem ready to ride the wave of price hikes into 1Q24. This sets the stage for an estimated 10-15% in PC DRAM contract prices, with DDR5 poised to take the lead over DDR4 in this pricing rally.

The lower mainstream graphics segment is considered to be the starting point for PC gaming, targeting 1080p gaming with medium-thru-high (though not extreme) settings, and popular e-sports titles at 1080p with high settings. This segment is preparing to see some action in the coming days, with the introduction of two new products, the Intel Arc A580, and a new 6 GB variant of the GeForce RTX 3050. We've seen the A580 "Alchemist" in development for a while now.

Based on the 6 nm ACM-G12 silicon, the Arc A580 comes with 24 Xe Cores, or 384 EU (execution units), which work out to 3,072 unified shaders, compared to the 3,584 of the A750, 4,096 of the A770, and the significantly lower 1,024 of the entry-level A380. The most interesting aspect of the A580 is its memory. Although 8 GB in size, it uses a wide 256-bit memory interface, and 16 Gbps memory speed, which works out to a generous 512 GB/s of bandwidth. The A580 also comes with a full PCI-Express 4.0 x16 host interface.

AMD, in a now-deleted tweet, revealed what it is probably going to announce later today—the Radeon RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT desktop graphics cards. The company briefly tweeted the marketing flier for these cards, before deleting it, but not before VideoCardz saved a copy. This flier confirms the SKU names RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT up for launch; and gives us two images of the Made by AMD (reference design) graphics card. It appears like AMD is using a common board design for both SKUs.

The reference Radeon RX 7800 XT appears to be a slightly shrunk down version of the RX 7900 XT reference. The dual-slot card comes with two axial-flow fans instead of three on the RX 7900 XT. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Earlier this month, a leak by PowerColor spilled the beans on the RX 7800 XT being based on the "Navi 32" silicon. A chiplet-based GPU just like the "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 series; the Navi 32 is maxed out by the RX 7800 XT, and packs 3,840 stream processors, 120 AI accelerators, 60 Ray accelerators, 64 MB of Infinity Cache memory, and a 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface, which holds 16 GB of memory on the RX 7800 XT. Specs of the RX 7700 XT remain under the wraps.

"Navi 4C" is a future high-end GPU from AMD that will likely not see the light of day, as the company is pivoting away from the high-end GPU segment with its next RDNA4 generation. For AMD to continue investing in the development of this GPU, the gaming graphics card segment should have posted better sales, especially in the high-end, which it didn't. Moore's Law is Dead scored details of what could have been a fascinating technological endeavor for AMD, in building a highly disaggregated GPU.

AMD's current "Navi 31" GPU sees a disaggregation of the main logic components of the GPU that benefit from the latest 5 nm foundry node to be located in a central Graphics Compute Die; surrounded by up to six little chiplets built on the older 6 nm foundry node, which contain segments of the GPU's Infinity Cache memory, and its memory interface—hence the name memory cache die. With "Navi 4C," AMD had intended to further disaggregate the GPU, identifying even more components on the GCD that can be spun out into chiplets; as well as breaking up the shader engines themselves into smaller self-contained chiplets (smaller dies == greater yields and lower foundry costs).

AMD Radeon RX 7700 XT is confirmed to feature 12 GB as its standard memory size, and feature a 192-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, according to a leaked regulatory filing by ASRock for its upcoming graphics cards. We already know from last week's mega leak of the PowerColor RX 7800 XT Red Devil that the card maxes out the "Navi 32" silicon, enabling all 60 RDNA3 CU, and comes with 16 GB of memory across the chip's full 256-bit memory bus. This filing suggests how AMD will carve the RX 7700 XT out.

Probably designed to compete with the GeForce RTX 4070, the RX 7700 XT is based on the same "Navi 32" silicon as the RX 7800 XT, but cut down. AMD is expected to disable some of the 60 CU physically present on the 5 nm GCD, while one of the four 6 nm MCDs will be disabled, giving the chip a 192-bit memory bus to drive its 12 GB of memory. We know from the PowerColor leak that the RX 7800 XT gets 18 Gbps memory speed. It remains to be seen if AMD sticks with this speed for even the RX 7700 XT, in which case, it gets 432 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal. AMD is expected to launch the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT within this quarter (before October).

PowerColor inadvertently released the first pictures of its AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT Red Devil graphics card. These pictures confirm that the RX 7800 XT is based on a maxed out version of the "Navi 32" GPU, and not the compact "Navi 31" powering the limited edition RX 7900 GRE. The "Navi 32" is a chiplet-based GPU, just like the "Navi 31," albeit smaller. Its 5 nm GCD (graphics compute die) physically features 60 RDNA3 compute units, which work out to 3,840 stream processors, 120 AI accelerators, 60 Ray accelerators, 192 TMUs, and possibly 128 ROPs. This GCD is surrounded by four 6 nm MCDs (memory cache dies), which each has a 16 MB segment of the GPU's 64 MB Infinity Cache memory, and make up its 256-bit GDDR6 memory interface.

The specs sheet put out by PowerColor confirms that the RX 7800 XT maxes out the "Navi 32," enabling all 60 CUs, and the chip's full 256-bit memory interface, to drive 16 GB of memory. The RX 7800 XT uses 18 Gbps memory speed, and hence has 576 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal. The PowerColor RX 7800 XT Red Devil has dual-BIOS, and assuming the "standard/silent" BIOS runs the card at AMD reference clock speeds, we're looking at Game clocks of 2210 MHz, and 2565 MHz boost. The Red Devil draws power from a dual 8-pin PCIe power connector set up (375 W max); the cooler is visibly smaller than the one on the company's RX 7900 series Red Devil cards. A 16+2 phase VRM powers the card. With pictures of the card out, we expect a global product launch within the next 30 days.