AMD is slowly preparing to launch its next-generation of mid-range graphics cards based on the RDNA 2 architecture. Following the launch of Navi 21 GPU SKUs, next in line comes the slower Navi 22 variant with fewer compute units (CU). Envisioned to compete against NVIDIA's GA104 and GA106 GPU SKUs, the Navi 22 based GPU is targeting 1440p gamers mainly. Today, thanks to Andreas Schilling from the German website HardwareLuxx, we got a few pieces of information regarding AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card. The source is claiming that we are getting this card sometime in the first half of this year, with the possibility to get it in Q1.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card is designed for 1440p gaming as mentioned, and its VRAM configuration is interesting. It features 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, which is more than enough for the types of workloads this card is meant for. The memory communicates using 192-bit bus. The Navi 22 GPU is configured for 40 CUs in total, with 2560 cores maximum. The Radeon RX 6700 XT features the Navi 22 XT variant with the fully enabled die, while its smaller brother Radeon RX 6700 is featuring Navi 22 XL die that has possibly fewer CUs and smaller TDP. The pricing of the upcoming cards is unknown.

Intel's 11th Gen Core "Rocket Lake-S" desktop processors could feature similar TDP values to their 10th Gen "Comet Lake-S" predecessors, according to Momomo_us. Intel is preparing to give the Unlocked "K" and "KF" SKUs a TDP rating of 125 W, while the locked non-K models feature 65 W rating. The lineup is led by the 8-core/16-thread Core i9-11900K, followed by the locked i9-11900 and iGPU-devoid i9-11900F; the slightly slower 8-core/16-thread Core i7-11700K, followed by the i7-11700KF, i7-11700, and i7-11700F; and the 6-core/12-thread i5-10600K and its derivatives.

The 11th Gen Core desktop processor series arrives in Q1 2021, and is based on the 14 nm "Rocket Lake-S" silicon, and built into the Socket LGA1200 package, with backwards compatibility with Intel's 400-series chipset motherboards, and native support for the Intel 500-series. The "Rocket Lake-S" die is rumored to feature up to 8 "Cypress Cove" CPU cores, a dual-channel DDR4 memory controller, a 24-lane PCI-Express 4.0 root complex, and an updated Gen12 iGPU based on the Xe LP graphics architecture. The "Cypress Cove" CPU cores are reportedly 14 nm back-ports of the "Willow Cove" cores, and feature a double-digit percent IPC increase over the "Skylake" cores.

AMD has been improving its Zen core design, and with the latest Zen 3 IP found in Ryzen 5000 series CPUs, it seems like the company struck gold. Thanks to the reporting of VideoCardz, we come to know that AMD's upcoming Ryzen 5 5600X CPU has been benchmarked and compared to other competing offerings. In the CPU benchmark called PassMark, which rates all of the CPUs by multi-threaded and single-threaded performance, AMD's Ryzen 5 5600X CPU has taken the crown of the fastest CPU in the single-threaded results chart. Scoring an amazing 3495 points, it is now the fastest CPU for 1T workloads. That puts the CPU above Intel's current best—Core i9-10900K—which scores 3177 points. This puts the Zen 3 core about 10% ahead of the competition.

As a reminder, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU is a six-core, twelve threaded design that has a base clock of 3.7 GHz and boosts the frequency of the cores to 4.6 GHz, all within the TDP of 65 Watts. The CPU has 32 MB of level-3 (L3) cache and 3 MB of L2 cache.

AMD is preparing to launch its Radeon RX 6000 series of graphics cards codenamed "Big Navi", and it seems like we are getting more and more leaks about the upcoming cards. Set for October 28th launch, the Big Navi GPU is based on Navi 21 revision, which comes in two variants. Thanks to the sources over at Igor's Lab, Igor Wallossek has published a handful of information regarding the upcoming graphics cards release. More specifically, there are more details about the Total Graphics Power (TGP) of the cards and how it is used across the board (pun intended). To clarify, TDP (Thermal Design Power) is a measurement only used to the chip, or die of the GPU and how much thermal headroom it has, it doesn't measure the whole GPU power as there are more heat-producing components.

So the break down of the Navi 21 XT graphics card goes as follows: 235 Watts for the GPU alone, 20 Watts for Samsung's 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory, 35 Watts for voltage regulation (MOSFETs, Inductors, Caps), 15 Watts for Fans and other stuff, and 15 Watts that are used up by PCB and the losses found there. This puts the combined TGP to 320 Watts, showing just how much power is used by the non-GPU element. For custom OC AIB cards, the TGP is boosted to 355 Watts, as the GPU alone is using 270 Watts. When it comes to the Navi 21 XL GPU variant, the cards based on it are using 290 Watts of TGP, as the GPU sees a reduction to 203 Watts, and GDDR6 memory uses 17 Watts. The non-GPU components found on the board use the same amount of power.

Since AMD announced its next-generation Ryzen 5000 series desktop processors based on Zen 3 core, everyone has been wondering how the new processors perform. For a detailed review and performance numbers, you should wait for official reviews. However, today we have the scores of Ryzen 5 5600X CPU. Thanks to the popular hardware leaker @TUM_APISAK, the Ryzen 5 5600X performance numbers in the SiSoftware Sandra benchmark suite have been leaked. When digging under the hood, the new Ryzen CPU contains six of Zen 3 cores with 12 threads, paired with as much as 32 MB of level three (L3) cache. These cores are running at 3.7 GHz base frequency, while the boost speeds are reaching 4.6 GHz.

In the test results, the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X CPU has scored Processor Arithmetic and Processor Multi-Media scores of 255.22 GOPS and 904.38 Mpix/s. These scores are not much on their own until we compare them to some of the Intel offerings. When compared to the Intel Core i5-10600K CPU, which is likely its targeted competing category, it scores 224.07 GOPS and 662.33 Mpix/s for Processor Arithmetic and Processor Multi-Media tests respectively. This puts the AMD CPU ahead 13.9% and 36.5% in these tests, indicating the possibility of Zen 3. Another important note here is the thermal headroom both of these CPUs run. While the Intel model is constrained withing 125 W TDP, the AMD model runs at just 65 W TDP. This could be an indication of the efficiency that these new processors harness.

When NVIDIA introduced its Ampere consumer graphics cards, they launched three models - the GeForce RTX 3070, RTX 3080, and RTX 3090 GPUs. Both the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 have seen the light of the day as they are now available for purchase, however, one card has remained. The GeForce RTX 3070 launch was originally planned for October 15th launch, but it has officially been postponed by NVIDIA. According to the company, the reason behind this sort of delay in the launch is the high demand expected. Production of the cards is ramping up quickly and the company is quickly stocking up the cards. Likely, NVIDIA AIBs are taking their time to stock up on cards, as the mid-range is usually in very high demand.

As a reminder, the GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card features 5888 CUDA cores running at a base frequency of 1.5 GHz and boost frequency of 1.73 GHz. Unlike the higher-end Ampere cards, the RTX 3070 uses older GDDR6 memory on a 256-bit bus with a bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The GPU features a TDP of 220 W and will be offered in a range of variants by AIBs. You will be able to purchase the GPU on October 29th for the price of $499.

MonsterLabo, a maker of fanless PC cases, today announced its latest creation - The Beast. Featuring a design made from glass and 6 mm thick aluminium, the ATX case is resembling a design we usually could see only from the folks like InWin. The whole chassis is actually made up of two 3 KG aluminium heatsinks that feature ten 6 mm copper heat pipes each. All of this is used for heat dissipation and the case can accommodate up to 400 W of TDP in passive mode. When two 140 mm fans, running at 500 rpm, are added the case can cool more than 500 W of TDP. The Beast measures at 450 mm (L) x 380 mm (W) x 210 mm (H), making it for one large and heavy case. It supports graphics cards up to 290 mm in PCB length and is fully capable of supporting the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series "Ampere" graphics cards. Pre-orders for The Beast are starting onOctober 9th, with an unknown pricing. You can expect it to be a high premium over 349 EUR price of The First case. Pre-orders will be shipping in Q1 2021.

Intel in the opening presentation of the Hot Chips 32 virtual conference detailed its next-generation Xeon Scalable "Ice Lake-SP" enterprise processor. Built on the company's 10 nm silicon fabrication process, "Ice Lake-SP" sees the first non-client and non-mobile deployment of the company's new "Sunny Cove" CPU core that introduces higher IPC than the "Skylake" core that's been powering Intel microarchitectures since 2015. While the "Sunny Cove" core itself is largely unchanged from its implementation in 10th Gen Core "Ice Lake-U" mobile processors, it conforms to the cache hierarchy and tile silicon topology of Intel's enterprise chips.

The "Ice Lake-SP" die Intel talked about in its Hot Chips 32 presentation had 28 cores. The "Sunny Cove" CPU core is configured with the same 48 KB L1D cache as its client-segment implementation, but a much larger 1280 KB (1.25 MB) dedicated L2 cache. The core also receives a second fused multiply/add (FMA-512) unit, which the client-segment implementation lacks. It also receives a handful new instruction sets exclusive to the enterprise segment, including AVX-512 VPMADD52, Vector-AES, Vector Carry-less Multiply, GFNI, SHA-NI, Vector POPCNT, Bit Shuffle, and Vector BMI. In one of the slides, Intel also detailed the performance uplifts from the new instructions compared to "Cascade Lake-SP".

Intel designed an Apple-exclusive Core i9-10910 10-core processor for its new-generation iMac, with an interesting set of specs. The chip has a base frequency of 3.60 GHz - much higher than the 2.90 GHz of the i9-10900 - but a lower max boost frequency of 5.00 GHz (against 5.20 GHz TVB max of the i9-10900). The TDP of the new chip is rumored to be higher, at 95 W, giving its boosting algorithm more breathing room. Leakbench, a twitter handle that tracks interesting submissions to the Geekbench online database, fished out one of the first Geekbench 5 submissions of the i9-10910.

The i9-10910 serves up 6.9% higher single-threaded performance than the i9-10900. It however, falls behind the i9-10900 in multi-threaded performance by 9.6%. These results as surprising. Normally, we'd expect the i9-10910 to have a lower single-threaded performance and higher multi-threaded performance. As its max boost frequency is lower, and the i9-10900 is able to run single-threaded workloads on its favored cores at frequencies of up to 5.20 GHz (as opposed to 5.00 GHz on the i9-10910). On the other hand, with a higher TDP (higher PL1), the i9-10910 has more power budget for its cores to sustain higher boost states, which should give it a slight edge over the i9-10900 in multi-threaded performance. The raison d'être of the i9-10910 appears to be in giving Apple a variation of the 10-core "Comet Lake" die that macOS can make the most of, as it probably lacks optimization for Turbo Boost Max 3.0 and Thermal Velocity Boost.

Launch of Noctua's large fanless CPU cooler designed for high TDP scenarios - more realistically, running premium desktops fanless - has been delayed to Q1 2021, according to a FanlessTech report citing a company roadmap. Noctua has been working on this cooler for some time now, with the early prototypes exhibited back in the 2019 Computex. In May 2020, we reported citing OC3D that the cooler was closer to launch, and expected to come out within 2020. Noctua's product roadmap looks pretty spartan for the remainder of 2020, with Black trims of the NH-D15S and NH-U9S expected in Q3, and Redux variants of various CPU coolers expected in Q4. Several CPU cooler launches have been pushed to Q1 2021, possibly bunched up for CES. Unfortunately, CTA put out some bad news on Tuesday.

ZOTAC today introduced the ZBOX C-series Edge C1341 mini PC. The company had exhibited this NUC-sized contraption at its 2020 International CES booth. Measuring just 147.2 mm x 147.2 mm x 32.1 mm (WxDxH), this ZBOX features VESA mounts, and can be tucked away behind a monitor that supports the standard. Under the hood is some pretty basic hardware, with a 4-core/4-thread Intel Celeron N4100 SoC that has UHD Graphics 600, 4 GB of hardwired single-channel DDR4 memory (expandable with an empty DDR4 SO-DIMM slot to dual-channel), and an included 64 GB M.2 SATA SSD.

Display outputs include DP and HDMI. Networking includes two 1 GbE wired and 802.11ac + Bluetooth 4.2 WLAN. USB connectivity includes three 5 Gbps USB 3.1 ports, from which one is type-C, and two type-A ports. A microSD card reader and headset jack make for the rest of it. The C-Series Edge C1341 runs completely fanless, with its ridged top panel doubling as a heatsink for the 6-Watt TDP SoC. A 40 W power brick comes included. Windows 10 Pro comes pre-installed. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Now, take that title with the customary grain of salt, and remember: most mobile configurations aren't directly comparable due to different components, speed of the memory subsystem, and so on. Putting that salt aside, though, one thing remains: Intel beats AMD in the latest purported 3DMark benchmarks - and on the red team's home-field, so to speak: graphics performance. A benchmark posted by renowned leaker and benchmark scavenger rogame on twitter has turned up an Intel Tiger Lake-U (i7-1165G7) scoring 11879 (99.68%) in the Physics and 6912 (112.92%) in the Graphics score compared to AMD's R7 4800U 11917 Physics score and 6121 Graphics score.

For context, this pits a 4-core, 8-thread Intel Willow Cove design paired with Gen12 Xe graphics tech (2.8 GHz base, 4.4 GHz boost) against 8 of AMD's Zen 2 cores and Vega graphics. Also for context, it's expected that Intel's i7-1165G7 runs with a 28 W TDP, compared to AMD's R7 4800U 15 W envelope. Also of note is that 3D Mark isn't exactly the poster-child for CPU parallelization performance, as the benchmark scales up rather poorly as more cores are added. Perhaps more interesting as a comparison, these scores from Intel's Tiger Lake are comparable to the company's current i5-10300H (4C/8T 2.5 GHz base 4.5 GHz boost), which scores 10817 on the Physics side (making the i7-1165G7 9.8% faster with a 200 MHz slower base clock, 100 MHz higher boost & 17 W less TDP (28 W for the Tier Lake and 45 W for the i5-10300H).

Intel today updated the public data-sheet of its 10th Gen Core "Comet Lake-S" desktop processor to reveal precise power limit and tau values of each specific SKU. PL 1 or power level 1 is interchangeable with the processor's TDP as a power value. PL 1 is sufficient for a processor to sustain its base frequency (nominal clocks). For example, a processor with 65 W TDP has PL 1 at 65 W. PL 2 is what affords the processor the power to seek out boost frequencies. This value varies with between model to model, with the unlocked K/KF SKUs getting higher PL 2 values than the locked ones. The company also disclosed Tau. This is a timing variable that tells the processor how long (in seconds) can it stay within PL 2, before having to retreat to PL 1.

Intel has recently released 4 new Atom C3000 chips now sporting "R" and "L" suffixes, these chips join the lineup as it enters its third year of service. The dual-core C3338R chip comes in at 38 USD and gains a 300 MHz base clock boost along with QAT support for just a $1 premium over the C3338. The quad-core C3436 comes in at 64 USD and features the lowest per-core pricing of the entire lineup at just 16 USD per core and with a 10.75 W TDP. The 96 USD quad-core C3558R gains a 200 MHz base clock boost and DDR4-2400 support for a 10 USD and 1 W TDP premium over the C3558. Finally, the 209 USD octa-core C3758R gains a 200 MHz base clock boost for a 16 USD and 1 W TDP increase over the Intel Atom C3758.

Intel's next-generation Atom processor is codenamed "Elkhart Lake." Built on the 10 nm silicon fabrication process, the chip combines up to four CPU cores based on the "Tremont" microarchitecture, with an iGPU based on the Gen11 architecture, and a single-channel memory interface that supports DDR4 and LPDDR4. Differentiation of the processor include 2-core and 4-core CPU variants, and TDP variants spanning 6 W, 9 W, and 12 W. "Tremont" is a lightweight CPU core by Intel that lacks AVX capabilities. Besides "Elkhart Lake," the core is featured in the "Lakefield" Core heterogenous processors as the their low-power cores.

Chinese electronics B2B marketplace CogoBuy.com has the processor listed, although without listing out any processor model numbers. The marketplace is accepting RFQs (requests for quotations) for bulk purchase of these BGA chips on trays, without listing prices. Also listed is an "industrial variant" of the chip, which has an increased TJmax of 110 °C (compared to 105 °C of the standard variant). The Gen11 iGPU wasn't detailed, but it's likely to have a lower execution unit count than the variant found on "Ice Lake" processors, while retaining its display- and media-engines (ability to pull 8K60 displays).

The idea of an ARK is to preserve that which enters it; however, the legend on the basis of arks and their concept must've slipped Intel's internal memos. The company has de-listed a previously detailed Ice Lake mobile CPU from its database - the Core i7-1068G7 - which was a 28 W part available for system integrators to build machines around. That part was special, because it was - then - the only 28 W part listed for mobile Ice Lake, with the rest of the CPU lineup having configurable TDPs between 12 W and 25 W - thus having a lesser maximum theoretical performance due to reduced TDP.

In its stead, Intel has entered a new, Core i7-1068NG7 (yes, the same naming with an extra N), which places this as an Apple-exclusive CPU, according to the folks over at Notebookcheck. Besides this entry, Intel has also listed the i5-1038NG7, which also features a 28 W TDP that's higher than the other available CPUs for other system integrators. If this is true, then Intel is reserving its cream-of-the-crop CPUs for Apple. Since the California-based company wouldn't be using parts with worse thermal and power consumption figures than what's available for others, the only answer to how these products came to being is that they are binned CPUs with better than average characteristics. Intel could be doing this to keep Apple happy even as the California-based company is well on its way to eschew its dependence on x86 with a fully internally-developed ARM CPU.

Historically, Intel has separated its processors and chipsets that accompany them to overclockable and non-overclockable ones. That means that only the "K" CPUs can be overclocked. With the latest generation, only some parts of the lineup are K CPUs, like the Core i9-10900K, i7-10700K, i5-10600K, etc. Those processors could only be overclocked one put in motherboards based on "Z" chipset, like Z390 and Z490. However, it seems like ASRock has developed a new technology that will overclock non-K CPUs on non-Z motherboards, which is quite impressive.

Called the Base Frequency Boost (BFB) technology, it will allow for overclocking the non-K processors on chipsets like B460 and H470. How will that work you might wonder? Well, ASRock will take the TDP of the CPUs and make it run in the PL1 mode, which increases the processor TDP form 65 W and turns it into a 125 W TDP beast. This will, of course, be user selective and case dependent, meaning that if your cooling system can not handle that much heat coming out from the overclocked processors, it is unlikely that they will reach the peak clocks ASRock can target. You can check out the slide below:

AMD is readying a new line of Ryzen 3 socket AM4 desktop processors to bolster its competitiveness against the upcoming 10th generation Core i3 processor family, according to OPN details unearthed by @momomo_us. The new line of processors are expected to be based on the "Matisse" MCM, configured with one "Zen 2" chiplet that has a quad-core CPU configuration. Within the chiplet, AMD appears to be achieving 4 cores by disabling one of the two CCXs completely, instead of taking the 2+2 core CCX configuration route. A single CCX with its 16 MB L3 cache, and 2 MB of L2 cache (4x 512 KB) add up to the processor's 18 MB "total cache."

Among the two SKUs existing are the Ryzen 3 3100 (OPN: 100-000000284) and the Ryzen 3 3300X (OPN: 100-000000159). Both are 4-core/8-thread parts with 18 MB total cache, and 65 W TDP. The 3100 is clocked up to 3.90 GHz, and the 3300X up to 4.30 GHz. It remains to be seen if AMD enables features like PCI-Express gen 4.0, and whether the 3100 has an unlocked multiplier. AMD's move to introduce Ryzen 3 "Matisse" parts appears to be necessitated by Intel's 10th gen Core i3. Intel is configuring its next value-segment chips to be 4-core/8-thread at price-points under $160. AMD has older generation Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 series parts at these prices, but is lacking on any current-gen product. One area where the 10th gen Core i3 one-ups Ryzen 3 "Matisse" is integrated graphics. Then again, Intel is likely to have "F" SKUs of Core i3 parts with disabled iGPUs, meant for gaming PCs. That's what AMD appears to be going after, to establish the next low-cost gaming PC king.

Reviews of AMD's flagship mobile processor, the Ryzen 9 4900HS went live today, and the verdict is clear. Intel has lost both performance and battery-efficiency leadership over its most lucrative computing segment: mobile client computing. In a Hardware Unboxed review comparing the 4900H to Intel's current Core i9 flagship, the i9-9880H, the AMD chip at its stock 45 W TDP beats the Intel one even with the Intel chip configured to 90 W cTDP.

The 4900HS posts 11.9% higher CineBench R20 score (both chips are 8-core/16-thread) when the Intel chip is bolstered with 90 W cTDP, and a whopping 33% faster when the i9-9980H is at its stock settings, and 54% faster when its capped at 35 W cTDP. It also ends up over 150% faster than AMD's last fastest mobile processor, the 12 nm "Picasso" based Ryzen 7 3750H. The story repeats with CineBench R15 (4900H being 34% faster than stock i9-9880H), 18% faster at Handbrake HEVC, 25% faster at Blender "Classroom," and 35% faster at 7-Zip benchmark. The AMD chip lags behind by 12% in the less-parallelized Photoshop. On creativity apps that do scale with cores, such as Premiere "Warp Stabilizer 4K," the 4900HS is 12.6% faster. Gaming performance remains an even split between the two chips. Find several more interesting test results and commentary in the Hardware Unboxed presentation here. Intel has already announced a response to the 4900HS in the form of the i9-10980HK.

Here are two of the first pictures of Intel's upcoming Core i5-10400 processor, based on the company's 10th generation, 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" silicon. With its 10th generation, Intel is looking to bolster its Core i5 desktop processor series by introducing HyperThreading and increased L3 cache to existing price-points. The i5-10400 is hence a 6-core/12-thread processor with 12 MB of shared L3 cache at its disposal, compared to 9th and 8th generation Core i5 desktop chips being 6-core/6-thread with 9 MB of L3 cache.

The Core i5-10400 succeeds the popular Core i5-9400/F and its equally popular predecessor, the i5-8400. The iGPU-devoid i5-9400F in particular owed its popularity to Intel pricing it $15-20 less than the standard i5-9400. The upcoming i5-10400 is expected to be priced under the $200 mark, with the i5-10400F being similarly discounted. Both chips feature identical CPU specs: 2.90 GHz nominal clock speeds, up to 4.30 GHz maximum Turbo Boost, and 4.00 GHz all-core Turbo Boost. As the chip lacks an unlocked multiplier, its TDP is reportedly rated at 65 W. The chip will compete with AMD's Ryzen 5 3600 for sub-$200 supremacy. The 10th generation Core desktop processor family is built in the new LGA1200 package, and launches alongside the new Intel 400-series chipset, in April.

Ampere Computing, a startup focusing on making HPC and processors from cloud applications based on Arm Instruction Set Architecture, today announced the release of a first 80 core "cloud-native" processor based on the Arm ISA. The new Ampere Altra CPU is the company's first 80 core CPU meant for hyper scalers like Amazon AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud. Being built on TSMC's 7 nm semiconductor manufacturing process, the Altra is a CPU that is utilizing a monolithic die to achieve maximum performance. Using Arm's v8.2+ instruction set, the CPU is using the Neoverse N1 platform as its core, to be ready for any data center workload needed. It also borrows a few security features from v8.3 and v8.5, namely the hardware mitigations of speculative attacks.

When it comes to the core itself, the CPU is running at 3.0 GHz frequency and has some very interesting specifications. The design of the core is such that it is 4-wide superscalar Out of Order Execution (OoOE), which Ampere refers to as "aggressive" meaning that there is a lot of data throughput going on. The cache levels are structured in a way that there is 64 KB of L1D and L1I cache per core, along with 1 MB of L2 cache per core as well. For system-level cache, there is 32 MB of L3 available to the SoC. All of the caches have Error-correcting code (ECC) built-in, giving the CPU a much-needed feature. There are two 128-bit wide Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) units, which are there to do parallel processing if needed. There is no mention if they implement Arm's Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE) or not.

SAPPHIRE Technology builds on the reputation and strength of its embedded systems business division by announcing a new series of embedded motherboards with a compact footprint that deliver improved levels of performance, features and stability to customers. Powered by the latest AMD Ryzen Embedded Processor which feature the AMD Radeon "Vega" graphics combined with the high-performance "Zen" CPU, the BP-FP5 and NP-FP5 embedded platforms provide a stable balance of low power consumption and optimized performance for the embedded markets.

According to Paul Smith, Director of SAPPHIRE's Embedded Business Division, "the versatile and effective design of these boards with low power compute and high-resolution multimedia display capability make them perfect for a wide variety of industry applications in the Embedded space such as industrial PC, interactive digital signage, thin clients and POS terminals".

be quiet!, the market leader in PC power supplies in Germany since 2007, announces Shadow Rock 3. This addition to the mid-range CPU cooler lineup of be quiet! features a redesigned heat sink and heat pipe layout and a Shadow Rock 2 fan to increase the rated cooling capacity to 190 W TDP while its asymmetrical design improves compatibility with tall RAM modules.

Compared to its predecessor, Shadow Rock 3 has undergone a substantial redesign. The previous model relied on four 8 mm heat pipes to cool the CPU, while Shadow Rock 3 now implements five 6 mm heat pipes with heat pipe direct touch (HDT) technology. The heat pipes are in direct contact with the processor surface, which results in fast heat transfer from the CPU to the heat sink. The fan has been upgraded to a Shadow Wings 2 120 mm PWM high-speed, which is decoupled from the heatsink and offers a silent operation at no higher than 24.4 dB(A), even at maximum speed. Users who are looking for even higher cooling performance have the option to attach a second fan to the heatsink.

PowerColor today issued a press release where they present the world their new Red Devil and Red Dragon models of AMD's RX 5600 XT graphics cards. This comes after reports on AMD's move towards increasing TDP, memory and core clockspeeds on their new graphics card so as to better compete with NVIDIA's recently price-cut RTX 2060, which would make it a much better performer than AMD's RX 5600 XT at a slightly higher price ($279 vs $299).

Hence a reported strike back from AMD in increasing performance for their RX 5600 XT with increased power envelope (160 W over 150 W), faster memory (at 14 Gbps instead of the original 12 Gbps) and increased core clocks (1615 MHz gaming and 1750 MHz boost, versus 1375 MHz gaming and 1560 MHz on AMD's CES press-event slides). The change in configuration brought about changes in the card design, with the higher-powered Red Devil coming in with 1x 8-pin and 1x 6-pin power delivery inputs, instead of the firstly developed 8-pin only. The changes have been brought about by a BIOS change, and not all cards will ship with the new specifications. However, PowerColor said that a BIOS update will be made available for customers to get their RX 5600 XT on steroids. Of course, whether or not it should be the onus of users to do such an update (which may risk in bricking their graphics card) is another matter entirely. The press release follows.

Intel's upcoming Core i9-10900K desktop processor is up to 30 percent faster than the Core i9-9900K according to the company, which put out a performance guidance slide that got leaked to the web. Based on the 14 nm "Comet Lake-S" silicon and built for the new LGA1200 platform (Intel 400-series chipset motherboards); the i9-10900K is a 10-core/20-thread processor that leverages increased TDP headroom of 125 W to sustain higher clock-speeds than 9th generation "Coffee Lake Refresh," while also offering a 25% increase in processing muscle over the i9-9900K, thanks to the two additional CPU cores.

In its performance guidance slide, Intel shows the i9-10900K scoring 30% more than the i9-9900K in SPECint_rate_base2006_IC16.0. There's also a 25% boost in floating-point performance, in SPECfp_rate_base2006_IC16.0, which roughly aligns with the additional core count, as both these tests are multi-threaded. Other noteworthy results include a 26% gain in Cinebench R15, and 10% in SYSMark 2014 SE. In tests that don't scale with cores, Intel appears to rely entirely on the increased clock-speeds and improved boosting algorithm to eke out performance gains in the low-to-mid single-digit percentages. Intel is introducing a new clock-speed boosting technology called Thermal Velocity Boost, which can dial up clock-speeds of the i9-10900K up to 5.30 GHz.