AMD is expected to package its upcoming Ryzen desktop processors in five ways - OEM trays (for system integrators and big pre-built PC manufacturers), PIB (processor in a box) with its basic fan-heatsink cooling solution, PIB with the new Wraith Spire cooling solution; PIB with the new Wraith Max cooling solution, and WOF (without fan-heatsink consumer). You can find the various models of Ryzen processors listed in our older article.

AMD's first wave of Ryzen processors consist of 65W and 95W TDP chips. Some of the more cost-effective models, such as the quad-core Ryzen R3 and SMT-equipped quad-core Ryzen R5, and certain variants of the six-core Ryzen R5, which have their TDP rated at 65W, could include AMD's basic cooling solution. According to XFastest, this cooler will look identical to the ones AMD used to bundle with its FX-series processors, before it innovated its Wraith cooling solution (representative image below). These coolers were being bundled with 125W TDP FX-series chips, and will now be re-tuned for low noise for the 65W TDP Ryzen chips, and will feature AM4 compatibility. Given this, we expect them to do a good job.

Featuring a total of 11 global patents (pending and granted), iCX from EVGA is efficiency perfected. With 9 additional sensors embedded on the PCB, a newly designed diecast baseplate and backplate, purposefully directed airflow chambers, and full control using EVGA Precision XOC, EVGA's iCX is the very definition of Interactive Cooling.

Why was iCX Technology Created?
With PC gaming growing, it is important to provide "Peace of Mind Gaming" to the user. With EVGA's new iCX technology, users can have a better understanding of their cards operation. This includes temperature monitoring on key components (not just GPU), interaction with other devices and better cooling with asynchronous fan control providing better overclocking capabilities.

With EVGA iCX technology, a new era of PC gaming is coming.

A Reddit user has used some good, old-fashioned thinking and inference (along with a good memory for details and investigative spirit) to try and shed some light on AMD's upcoming Ryzen chips - particularly, on the "X" part of their nomenclature.

As we've previously reported, upcoming AMD Ryzen chips will slot in two versions for each model: for example, there will be a R7 1700X, 8-core, 16-thread processor (with 95 W TDP), and expected to retail for $381.72, and a R7 1700 (sans "X"), also 8-core, 16-thread, with a rated TDP at 65 W, expected to retail at $316.59, almost $70 cheaper than the 1700X. Now, with AMD's promise of all Ryzen processors being multiplier unlocked (and thus user - or even through an automatic BIOS - overclockable), this would mean that acquiring the 1700X chip would somehow feel like bad business - after all, if the only difference between the two models were to be base and boost clocks (thus higher pricing and TDP), that would fall irrelevant to most power users, since the ability to overclock their Ryzen processors to those levels would be there anyway.

AMD Ryzen processors, which are scheduled to hit the shelves later this month, could be priced competitively, and one can read into their performance looking at their prices (compared to Intel's Core i5 and Core i7 "Kaby Lake" series). US pricing of at least three top-tier 8-core Ryzen models surfaced on ShopBLT. The flagship AMD Ryzen R7-1800X, bearing PIB part number "YD180XBCAEWOF," is priced at USD $490.29. The Ryzen R7-1700X (YD170XBCAEWOF), on the other hand, goes for $381.72. It's interesting to note here that the part numbers end in "WOF," designating "without fan-heatsink."

Lastly, there's the Ryzen R7-1700 (YD1700BBAEBOX), with 65W TDP, which is priced at $316.59. Given that all three parts are priced above the Core i5-7600K, and two of these are significantly pricier than the Core i7-7700K, which goes for $330, one could read into the chips' possible performance numbers. Remember, AMD has been selling 8-core FX "Piledriver" chips consistently cheaper than Intel's quad-core LGA115x Core i7 parts, and that has been significantly changed with Ryzen.

Noctua today presented three special-edition models of its award-winning quiet CPU coolers. The new SE-AM4 versions of the NH-D15, NH-U12S and NH-L9x65 are dedicated premium-quality solutions for the new AM4 socket of AMD's upcoming Ryzen architecture. Whereas the NH-L9x65 SE-AM4 is tailored for compact systems and the NH-U12S SE-AM4 offers an excellent balance of performance and compatibility, the NH-D15 SE-AM4 provides maximum cooling performance for overclockers and silent enthusiasts.

"AMD's Ryzen architecture promises exciting possibilities for various applications and the NH-D15, NH-U12S and NH-L9x65 are some of our most popular models, so it was a natural choice to create dedicated special editions for the new platform," says Roland Mossig (Noctua CEO). "Each of these coolers has received more than 100 awards and recommendations from international websites and magazines, so we're confident that the SE-AM4 special editions will be a great choice for anything from compact ITX builds to overclocked gaming rigs."

As TPU has reported before, some versions of AMD's RX 460 graphics cards were able to be unlocked to their full configuration with a simple BIOS update. This raised some questions as to why AMD didn't initially launch the RX 460 as such, increasing their competitiveness against rival NVIDIA's offerings, but now, it seems at least one of AMD's AIB partners has decided to take action in releasing a fully unlocked Polaris 11 GPU.

Marketed as the Sapphire Radeon RX 460 Nitro OC, this is the first officially launched retail version of the full, unlocked Polaris 11 chip, with all of its stream processors unlocked, for a grand total of 1024 SPs against the usual, and much more meager, 896. This brings the card's peak theoretical throughput at 2.56 TFLOPs (versus the base 2.2 TFLOPs on the 896 SP version), while keeping the card's 75 W TDP.

Intel Corporation has made a slight tweak to its product line: the addition of Hyper-Threading to some of its processors which, traditionally, didn't carry it. This includes the Pentium G4620 (3.7 GHz base frequency and integrated graphics HD 630, $93) and G4600 (3.6 GHz base frequency, $82), both at 51 W TDP; G4560 (54W TDP at 3.5 GHz and integrated HD 610 graphics, $64); and the Pentium G4600T (3 GHz, HD 630, $75) and G4560T (2.9 GHz, HD 610, $64) slot in as the low power Pentium offerings with a 35W TDP. All of these processors now carry 2 physical cores, which the system sees exposed as 4 logical cores due to their Hyper-Threading enablement.

Intel today announced availability of its first 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" desktop processors. All the processor SKUs being launched today are quad-core, across the company's Core i7 and Core i5 brand extensions. Leading the pack is the Core i7-7700K, priced at US $339, with a clock speed of 4.20 GHz, and 4.50 GHz Turbo Boost. This chip offers 8 MB of L3 cache, HyperThreading, and an unlocked base-clock multiplier, which enables easy overclocking. Next up, is the Core i7-7700 (non-K). This chip lacks an unlocked base-clock multiplier, and has lower clocks of 3.60 GHz, with 4.20 GHz Turbo, but offers 8 MB cache and HyperThreading. It is priced at $303.

The next chip which could interest PC enthusiasts is the Core i5-7600K. This chip features 3.80 GHz core, and 4.20 GHz Turbo Boost, 6 MB of L3 cache, and an unlocked base-clock multiplier, but like other Core i5 branded quad-core chips, lacks HyperThreading. It's priced at $242. The Core i5-7600 (non-K) lacks unlocked multiplier, and comes with lower clocks of 3.50 GHz core with 4.10 GHz Turbo Boost. It goes for $213. Priced below the $200 mark at $192, is the Core i5-7500, with its 3.40 GHz clock speed, and 3.80 GHz Turbo Boost. The i7-7700K and i5-7600K come with TDP rating of 95W. The non-K SKUs are rated at 65W. Intel also launched energy-efficient "T" Core i7 and Core i5 processors, with their TDP rated at just 35W.

French tech print magazine "Canard PC" is ready with early benchmarks of an AMD Ryzen 8-core processor. The scan of a page from its Ryzen performance review article got leaked to the web, revealing three key performance takeaways. In the first selection of tests, Canard PC put Ryzen through synthetic CPU-intensive tests that take advantage of as many CPU cores/threads as you can throw at them. These include the likes of H.264 and H.265 video encoding, WPrime, Blender, 3DSMax 2015, and Corona. Ryzen was found to be faster than the quad-core Core i7-6700K, and the six-core i7-6800K, but somewhere between the i7-6800K and the eight-core i7-6900K.

The next selection of tests focused on PC gaming, with a list of contemporary AAA titles, including "Far Cry 4," "Battlefield 4," "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt," "Anno 2070," "GRID: Autosport," and "ARMA III." Here, the Ryzen sample was found to be underwhelming - it was slower than the Core i5-6600 quad-core chip clocked at 3.30-3.90 GHz; but faster than the i5-6500, clocked at 3.20-3.60 GHz. The fastest chip in the table is the i7-6700K (4.00-4.20 GHz). The reviewer still notes that Ryzen has a decent IPC gain unseen from the AMD stable in a while.

The team over at Tom's Hardware have gotten their hands on Intel's new 'Kaby Lake' CPU - The Core i7-7700K. While the chip is not marked as an engineering sample, they cannot confirm with confidence that it is a retail part. They then did what we all hoped and expected, they put the new i7 through a series of benchmarks both at its stock speeds and overclocked. Without a retail Z270 series motherboard to test with, Kaby Lake compatible firmware was loaded onto their Gigabyte GA-Z170X-Ultra Gaming board.

In line with what has been reported so far, the stock clock speeds of their sample was 4.20GHz base and 4.50GHz max turbo boost with a TDP of 95W, up marginally from the i7-6700K's 91W. As tested the 7700K drew slightly more power under load than the 6700K whilst achieving benchmark results that are more-or-less in line with the percentage clock speed increase. Using the same core voltage for overclocking, the 7700K was able to manage a 4.8GHz overclock at 1.3v where the 6700K achieved 4.6GHz. As Intel did not change the core micro architecture between Skylake and Kaby Lake, it appears that save for HEVC and VP9 8/10-bit encode/decode and other possible features we may not yet know of, slightly faster clock speeds is the principal improvement. Given this is a pre-release test conducted on a motherboard that may not be able to unleash the full potential of the i7-7700K, the results should be taken with their appropriate pinch of salt. For the article and detailed findings, please follow the source link.

News and specifications about Intel's upcoming Kaby Lake-based desktop CPUs are thin, but a recent leak has made it possible to discern at least some details, due to an Intel product change notification (PCN) document.

A PCN is a document issued by a manufacturer to inform customers about a change to a mass-produced product or its manufacturing process. In this PCN, Intel details a new factory in Vietnam which will work in order to "ensure a continuous supply of the Select Intel Xeon Processor E3-1205, Intel Core i5-7400 Processor, Intel Core i5-7400T Processor, Intel Core i5-7500 Processor, Intel Core i5-7500T Processor, Intel Core i5-7600 Processor, Intel Core i5-7600K Processor, Intel Core i5-7600T Processor, Intel Core i7-7700 Processor, Intel Core i7-7700T Processor and Intel Core i7-7700K Processor products".

NVIDIA announced retail availability of its GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1050 graphics cards. Targeting two key sub-$200 price-points, and positioned as gateways to competitive e-Sports gaming, the two chips compete with AMD Radeon RX 460 and RX 470, and exploit a vast price/performance gap between the two. The GTX 1050 Ti starts at USD $139.99, while the GTX 1050 starts at $109.99. Since there are no reference-design cards, all cards available from today are custom-design implementations of all shapes and sizes.

The GTX 1050 Ti and GTX 1050 are based on the new "GP107" silicon, NVIDIA's first built on the 14 nm FinFET process. Both chips are implementations of NVIDIA "Pascal" architecture. The GTX 1050 Ti features 768 CUDA cores, 48 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 4 GB of GDDR5 memory across a 128-bit wide interface. The GTX 1050, on the other hand, features 640 CUDA cores, 40 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 2 GB of GDDR5 memory across the 128-bit memory bus. Both cards have their TDP rated at 75W.

According to TweakTown, AMD may be preparing to bring the fight to the as-of-yet unannounced GTX 1050 Ti with a $10 price-drop on their 1080p price-performance king RX 470 from the current $179, bringing the price down to $169. NVIDIA is purportedly planning to bring the GTX 1050 Ti to market at the $149 price point, with a rated TDP of only 75 W and apparently no need for additional power connectors (at least on reference designs). However, faced with a measly $20 difference from the supposedly higher-performing RX 470 - which could sometimes be up to 30% faster - the battle for the $150 bracket might prove to be an uphill battle for the green camp.

Add to that the latest updates unveiled by Oculus on Oculus Connect 3, with the RX 470 being stamped with the VR-ready approval, as well as the greater availability and lower price of FreeSync monitors (sometimes with as much as four times the number of FreeSync offers versus G-Sync ones), and it really does seem that AMD is poised to offer the best value in its price bracket. Of course, things get muddier if you take into account the current pricing landscape for graphics cards from either manufacturer (where most models are selling upwards of their MSRP).

Intel is reportedly planning launch its 7th generation Core "Kaby Lake" processors by Q4-2016. Its desktop variants, built in the existing LGA1151 package, will be the third Intel micro-architecture built on the 14 nm process (after "Skylake" and "Broadwell" architectures). With this generation, Intel is planning to sub-classify LGA1151 into three categories, to ensure people don't try to install higher-powered CPUs on low-power machines.

These are LGA1151-Standard Power; LGA1151-Low Power; and LGA1151-Ultra Low Power. These are defined by the TDP of the packages. Standard Power chips run at 95W TDP, Low Power at 65W TDP, and Ultra Low Power at 35W TDP. There could be motherboards and machines that, depending on their VRM setup, completely shut out Standard Power or even Low Power chips.

Here's one of the first pictures of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition (reference) PCB. The PCB is about 2/3rds the length of the actual card, and despite that, it's pretty barren. Power is drawn from a 6-pin PCIe power connector, however, this connector isn't on the PCB, but is on a receptacle towards the end of the cooler. NVIDIA designed this in response to complaints that on cards with PCB shorter than the cooler, the power connector would be in the middle of the card. It would also block the illuminated GeForce GTX logo along the top.

The 6-pin PCIe power receptacle connects to the card at big solder points. This approach has one downside. If you want to change the cooler (to, say, an aftermarket air cooler), you will have to deal with that ugly cabling. The card uses a simple 3+1 phase VRM to power the GPU, with its TDP rated at just 120W. The GP106 GPU is neighbored by six 8 Gbps GDDR5 memory chips populating its 192-bit memory bus. There's no SLI support. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 1.4, and one each of HDMI 2.0b and DVI.

AMD is reportedly bundling its Wraith stock CPU cooling solution with even more of its desktop CPUs. Some of the newer batches of two of the most selling socket AM3+ chips, the eight-core FX-8350 and the six-core FX-6350, could sell in special packages that include Wraith, likely at a tiny premium over packages with the older cooling solution that are already in circulation.

With a clock-speed ranging between 4.00 GHz to 4.20 GHz, the FX-8350 is one of the most popular FX-series chips. Along with the FX-6350, its TDP is rated at a scorching 125W. The Wraith cooler, which was extensively reviewed with the FX-8370, was generally appreciated by tech-reviewers for being as quiet as some of the more expensive third-party air coolers, and performing better than the older cooler.

AMD today launched new thermal solutions, including the flagship AMD Wraith Cooler, as well as the new AMD A10-7860K and new AMD Athlon X4 845 desktop processors. Designed for the consumer who cares about how their desktop PC runs, sounds, and looks, AMD now offers new thermal solutions that generate less than one-tenth the noise of their predecessors -- running at a near-silent 39 decibels, about as quiet as a library.

The new AMD Wraith Cooler combines near-silent operation with unique styling via a sleek fan shroud and LED illumination. Providing superb cooling, the new design delivers 34 percent more airflow and 24 percent more surface area for heat dissipation than its predecessor.

Arctic unveiled a new fan-less CPU cooler for Intel LGA115x sockets, the Alpine M1 Passive. With a rated cooling capacity of 48W (TDP), the cooler is only recommended for dual-core LGA1150 and LGA1151 Core i3, Pentium, Celeron, or energy-efficient Core i5 processors. Its design couldn't get any simpler - a big chunk of aluminium that's ridged to make up fins of the heatsink, with a bulge near the CPU area, with pre-applied thermal paste. Measuring 95 mm x 95 mm x 69 mm (LxDxH), it weighs in at 508 g. Available now, it's priced at 13€. It could prove to be an interesting option for low-power builds that never game.

Intel's first 5-gigahertz CPU will bear an unlikely brand - Xeon. The company's upcoming Xeon E5-2602 V4 quad-core chip based on the 14 nm "Broadwell-EP" silicon, is rumored to ship with a staggering 5.10 GHz clock speed out of the box. Getting there won't be easy for this socket LGA2011v3 chip. Despite being a quad-core chip, with just four out of ten cores on the "Broadwell-EP" silicon bring physically enabled, the chip's TDP is rated at 165W. Other features include 10 MB of L3 cache, and a quad-channel DDR4 memory interface.

AMD fleshed out its sub-$150 desktop CPU lineup with the new FX-6330, a socket AM3+ six-core chip based on the 32 nm "Vishera" silicon, which is priced at $109. At this price, it will take on the entry-level Core i3 and Pentium dual-core chips from Intel. This chip offers out of the box clocks of 3.60 GHz, and a maximum TurboCore frequency of 4.20 GHz. Its six cores are spread across three "Piledriver" modules. It features a total of 6 MB of L2, and 8 MB of L3 caches. The integrated memory controller supports dual-channel DDR3-1866 memory. Its TDP is rated at 95W.

Intel is breaking away from its tradition of three Core i7 HEDT (high-end desktop) processors per generation, capturing price points of $400, $600, and $1000; with its upcoming Core i7 "Broadwell-E" HEDT lineup. According to leaked documents accessed by BenchLife.info, the company is readying four SKUs based on the 14 nm "Broadwell-E" silicon, these include the Core i7-6800K, the Core i7-6850K, the Core i7-6900K, and the Core i7-6950X.

The Core i7-6800K and i7-6850K are six-core chips, with HyperThreading enabling 12 logical CPUs, and 15 MB shared L3 cache. The i7-6800K is clocked at 3.40 GHz, with a 3.60 GHz Turbo Boost frequency. The i7-6850K is a notch above, with 3.60 GHz core, and 3.80 GHz Turbo Boost frequency. The slide doesn't mention if either of the two parts feature a limited PCIe root complex, like the one on the i7-5820K.

Giada Technology, an industry leader in Mini PCs, embedded systems and servers for small & medium enterprises, is proud to unveil a compact fan-less mini PC system - the F103D. With a powerful new Intel Baswell Processor and lower power consumption, the F103D primarily targets organizations in industry control applications and will provide a perfect solution for digital signage including electric white boards, outdoor ads, cinema trailers and other types, all in glorious 4K resolution.

The F103D adopts the latest Intel Braswell N3150/N3050/N3000 Processor using the 14nm process technology that is greatly improving data processing performance while reducing the power consumption. (TDP 4-6W), thus offering a well-balanced cost/performance ratio. With the latest Intel HD graphics GPU core, the F103D ensures stunning 4K output for digital signage. The Giada F103D supports Dual Channel Memory with onboard 2GB DDR3 memory for standard use. If more performance is required for e.g. video playback of 4K@30Hz, an additional 2GB DDR3L SO-DIMM is required to guarantee smooth operation.

PC thermal solution innovation brand CRYORIG is releasing a new addition to it's C Series line up and also it's smallest cooler to date, the C7 compact cooler. First revealed in Computex 2015 the C7 is a low profile cooler with a max height of 47mm. The C7's 47mm height also makes it only 2mm taller than the Intel Stock Heatsink, meaning it will fit in almost all case designs.

Despite it's size the C7 also packs a heavy dose of cooling with a total of 4 high performance heatpipes, phenomenal for it's size. Fitted with a dedicated 92mm 2500rpm PWM fan with CRYORIG's proprietary Quad Air Inlet System for maximum airflow. The C7 effectively provides 25% more cooling capacity than stock heatsinks from Intel/AMD, while being up to 20% lower in noise. It's (W)97x(L)97x(H)47mm dimensions also makes it compatible with the latest 1151/115x Intel boards and AMD offerings, with no interference with PCI-E GPU cards or RAM slots.

Thermal Solutions specialist GELID Solutions unveils the latest top performance CPU cooler for Intel and AMD CPU. The Antarctica CPU cooler is a product of GELID Solutions GAMER product line.

The Antarctica comes with a 3D optimized heatsink that offers best-in-class thermal performance. The engineers of GELID Solutions especially designed a set of 5 power heat pipes, aluminum fins with improved profiling and an additional smaller heatsink with a copper core. These elements provide exceptional heat transfer from the CPU to the heatsink. Both heatsinks were created using precise software simulation and calculation during the development stage to ensure efficient air flow distribution at the lowest fan speed possible. The result, the Antarctica fully supports heat transfer of TDP 220W being paired with even very low-speed, virtually noiseless fans.

Intel expanded its 6th generation Core "Skylake" processor lineup for the desktop, with seven new models. Built in the LGA1151 package, these chips work on motherboards running the company's 100-series chipset. Besides the overclocker-friendly Core i7-6700K and the i5-6600K already launched, the lineup now includes the i7-6700, i5-6600, i5-6500, i5-6400, i3-6320, i3-6300, and the i3-6100. Of these, the Core i7 and Core i5 models are quad-core, while the Core i3 ones are dual-core.

The Core i7-6700 and i5-6600 are not just different from the i7-6700K and i5-6600K in that they lack unlocked BClk multipliers, they also come with lower clock speeds out of the box. The i7-6700 is clocked at 3.40 GHz with 4.00 GHz max Turbo Boost (i7-6700K offers 4.00 GHz with 4.20 GHz Turbo), while the i5-6600 is clocked at 3.30 GHz, with 3.90 GHz Turbo Boost (i5-6600K offers 3.50 GHz with 3.90 GHz Turbo). The i7-6700 is priced at US $312, while the i5-6600 goes for $213 (single-unit box price).