Dr. Lisa Su introduced AMD's "next-gen AMD Ryzen" processor series during a recent presentation at the Beijing AI PC Innovation Summit—this announcement confirms that Team Red's RDNA 3+ (AKA 3.5) graphics technology is destined to arrive (on board) with the launch of "Strix Point" processors. Product roadmaps remain unchanged—when compared to slides from last December—AMD still anticipates a 2024 launch window. China has been introduced to current-gen "Hawk Point" Ryzen 8040 mobile and 8000G (AM5) desktop processors—key AMD personnel presented a variety of products, including region-specific budget options.

David Wang, SVP of GPU Technology and Engineering R&D, covered the RDNA 3+ and XDNA 2 architectures (very briefly) during his on-stage appearance—he dedicated most of his attention to current-gen "Hawk Point" processors. The Strix Point integrated solution—a GFX1150 target—has been linked to "RDNA 3.5" for a while, a lot of this information was gleaned from publicly visible AMD patch notices. The latest Team Red software engineering activities indicate that Zen 5 CPU enablement is nearing a possible finish line.

AMD's Beijing AI PC Innovation Summit served as introduction point for a Chinese market launch of "Hawk Point" Ryzen 8040 mobile series and 8000G desktop processors—news coverage has, so far, focused on that rollout as well as a teasing of next-gen "Strix Point" processors. HXL/9550pro has put a spotlight on an easy-to-miss presentation slide—their social media post revealed the existence of new budget-friendly Ryzen 8000F CPUs. Team Red seems to be preparing two China-exclusive SKUs: Ryzen 7 8700F and Ryzen 5 8400F—not many details were revealed on-stage, so reporters have played a guessing game with speculated technical information. Industry experts believe that the 8700F is an iGPU-less version of AMD's "Hawk Point" Ryzen 7 8700G APU—utilizing the same 8 core and 16 thread configuration, but missing the Radeon 780M integrated graphics solution.

The lower-end SKU is a more perplexing product, since AMD did not elaborate much during "budget" product unveilings—VideoCardz put its thinking hat on for this one: "meanwhile, the 8400F might be harder to guess, as the name sits between 8500G and 8300G, both featuring vastly different configurations. An educated guess would be 6 cores and 12 threads, possibly with two Zen 4 and four Zen 4c cores." The "F" model suffix gained attention last year—courtesy of Team Red's Ryzen 5 7500F CPU. This iGPU-less "Raphael" Zen 4 SKU was initially released as a Chinese market exclusive, but eventually headed West as an option for system integrators.

AMD at GDC 2024 announced the FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.1 (FSR 3.1). While the original FSR 3.0 feature-set largely carries forward the super resolution upscaler from FSR 2.2, adding frame generation on top; the new FSR 3.1 adds several image quality improvements to the upscaler itself, improving image quality at every performance preset. Specifically, it improves the temporal stability of the output at rest and in movement, to reduce flickering and shimmering, or "fizziness" around objects in motion. The new upscaler also reduces ghosting, and better preserves detail.

Next up, is a rather important change in the way the frame generation technology works. AMD has decoupled FSR 3.1 frame generation from the upscaling tech, which allows frame generation to work with other upscaling solutions, such as DLSS or XeSS. The possibilities of such a decoupling are endless—have an RTX 30-series "Ampere" GPU that lacks DLSS 3 frame generation support? No worries, use DLSS 2 for the upscaling, and FSR 3.1 for the frame generation. AMD is also clumping its FidelityFX family of technologies into a new FidelityFX API that makes it easier for developers to debug, and paves the way for forward-compatibility with future versions of FSR. Lastly, FSR 3.1 supports Vulkan API, and the Microsoft Xbox GDK. AMD plans to release FSR 3.1 to developers through its GPUOpen platform in Q2-2024, and its first implementations on games are expected later this year. In the meantime, AMD implemented FSR 3.1 on "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart," to showcase the new upscaler.

AMD today released the latest version of its Adrenalin graphics drivers. Version 24.3.1 WHQL comes with optimization for Dragon's Dogma 2, Horizon Forbidden West Complete Edition, and Outpost: Infinity Siege. The drivers also add AMD HYPR-Tune optimizations for Dragon's Dogma 2, Diablo IV, Ghostrunner 2, and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

The drivers address a fairly large number of issues. To begin with, excessive micro-stutter after enabling AFMF for select games has been fixed. Driver timeout issues with Helldivers 2 and Starcraft II on RX 7900 series GPUs has been fixed. Excessive loading times with World of Warcraft (DX12) on some GPUs has been fixed. A purple tinge noticed in Dying Light 2 Stay Human Reloaded Edition with Radeon Boost enabled, has been fixed. Invisible or missing textures on some characters with Cossacks 3 has been fixed. Incorrect memory tuning limit reported for the RX 7900 GRE has been fixed. Also fixed is a shader caching failure for Windows usernames containing accented characters. Grab the driver from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 24.3.1 WHQL

Yesterday, AMD announced that its cutting-edge adaptive computing technology was selected by Sony Semiconductor Solutions (SSS) for its newest automotive LiDAR reference design. SSS, a global leader in image sensor technology, and AMD joined forces to deliver a powerful and efficient LiDAR solution for use in autonomous vehicles. Using adaptive computing technology from AMD significantly extends the SSS LiDAR system capabilities, offering extraordinary accuracy, fast data processing, and high reliability for next-generation autonomous driving solutions.

In the rapidly evolving landscape of autonomous driving, the demand for precise and reliable sensor technology has never been greater. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology plays a pivotal role in enabling depth perception and environmental mapping for various industries. LiDAR delivers image classification, segmentation, and object detection data that is essential for 3D vision perception enhanced by AI, which cannot be provided by cameras alone, especially in low-light or inclement weather. The dedicated LiDAR reference design addresses the complexities of autonomous vehicle development with a standardized platform to enhance safety in navigating diverse driving scenarios.

George Hotz and his Tiny Corporation colleagues were pinning their hopes on AMD delivering some good news earlier this month. The development of a "TinyBox" AI compute cluster project hit some major roadblocks a couple of weeks ago—at the time, Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU firmware was not gelling with Tiny Corp.'s setup. Hotz expressed "70% confidence" in AMD approving open-sourcing certain bits of firmware. At the time of writing this has not transpired—this week the Tiny Corp. social media account has, once again, switched to an "all guns blazing" mode. Hotz and Co. have publicly disclosed that they were dabbling with Intel Arc graphics cards, as of a few weeks ago. NVIDIA hardware is another possible route, according to freshly posted open thoughts.

Yesterday, it was confirmed that the young startup organization had paused its utilization of XFX Speedster MERC310 RX 7900 XTX graphics cards: "the driver is still very unstable, and when it crashes or hangs we have no way of debugging it. We have no way of dumping the state of a GPU. Apparently it isn't just the MES causing these issues, it's also the Command Processor (CP). After seeing how open Tenstorrent is, it's hard to deal with this. With Tenstorrent, I feel confident that if there's an issue, I can debug and fix it. With AMD, I don't." The $15,000 TinyBox system relies on "cheaper" gaming-oriented GPUs, rather than traditional enterprise solutions—this oddball approach has attracted a number of customers, but the latest announcements likely signal another delay. Yesterday's tweet continued to state: "we are exploring Intel, working on adding Level Zero support to tinygrad. We also added a $400 bounty for XMX support. We are also (sadly) exploring a 6x GeForce RTX 4090 GPU box. At least we know the software is good there. We will revisit AMD once we have an open and reproducible build process for the driver and firmware. We are willing to dive really deep into hardware to make it amazing. But without access, we can't."

Naughty Dog, developer of "The Last of Us Part I" released a small patch for the Windows PC version of the game, which adds official support for FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 (FSR 3). This includes support for both FSR 3 Frame Generation, and FSR 3 Super Resolution. Today's update takes the count of games that officially support FSR 3 up to 19. There are unofficial ways to mod most popular games to support AMD's latest upscaling tech, thanks to the algorithm being freely available through AMD's GPUOpen platform.

Today, Lenovo launched its latest business laptop offerings in the form of the ThinkPad L series and ThinkPad X13 series. The new laptops are a testament to Lenovo's commitment to innovation and sustainability with features such as enhanced repairability, more recycled materials, efficient power management, and powerful processing capabilities with built-in security and manageability. With these offerings, Lenovo is not only showcasing its technological expertise but also its dedication to supporting a diverse customer base in achieving success across many business segments.

Lenovo's latest ThinkPad L series and X13 series with multiple advancements geared towards enhancing user experience. The new models offer several form factors - including 13-inch or 13-inch 2-in-1, 14-inch and introducing new 16-inch displays in ThinkPad L16 - catering to those in need of portability without compromising performance. Equipped with an optional higher resolution 5MP camera, users can expect enhanced video conferencing and content creation capabilities. The 16:10 ratio displays are designed to offer an immersive viewing experience for optimal productivity and with support up to 64 GB RAM, these laptops promise seamless multitasking and enhanced performance. Improvements in rear vent thermals ensure efficient cooling for prolonged usage, while select models offer support for up to Wi-Fi 7 and 4G LTE or 5G sub6 on select models, enhancing connectivity options. Powered by Intel Core Ultra processors with Intel vPro or AMD Ryzen PRO 7030 Series processors on ThinkPad L14 Gen 5 and L16 Gen 1, these new laptops are designed to optimally run Windows 11 and are poised to elevate productivity and streamline professional tasks.

Last week, the Professional Gamers League (PGL) announced an interesting overhaul of tournament hardware—new systems will be fitted with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 graphics cards, then hooked up to BenQ ZOWIE XL2566K 24.5" 360 Hz gaming monitors. Their previous generation machines were (initially) designed around AMD's Ryzen 9 5950X processor, but the organization is leaving AM4 platforms behind: "PGL is excited to announce that our team has fully optimized upgraded gaming PCs in partnership with Afromnazareth, and we are ready to deliver an unparalleled esports experience at the PGL CS2 Major Copenhagen 2024. At the heart of this cutting-edge setup is the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D processor, explicitly chosen for its exceptional performance capabilities and ability to handle the demands of CS2. This processor is renowned for its superior gaming performance, offering players the speed, power, and efficiency required to perform at the highest levels of competition."

The Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a more straightforward upgrade—as an easy drop-in for the PGL's older AM4 platform machines, but a leap into new ecosystems will grant a bit of future-proofing. Team Red is expected to support AM5 across a couple of processor generations. PGL did upgrade systems with 5800X3D CPUs, due to player feedback—according to Tom's Hardware: "there was some discontent among players with the previous configuration with the Ryzen 9 5950X because, while the chip sports 16 Zen 3 execution cores, Counter-Strike 2 doesn't exploit the processor's prowess. Some players criticized PGL's poor processor choice for previous events, claiming lousy frame rates." Performance connoisseurs will be pleased to hear about the tournament organizer's new push into modern platforms—Silviu Stroie, PGL CEO, stated: "we have meticulously optimized this bespoke gaming setup to ensure that every participant experiences CS2 in the highest fidelity without compromise. The AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU stands out as a game-changer in the esports arena, promising to elevate the competitive play of CS2 to new heights."

AMD in a GPUOpen blog post showed off some "super early" performance numbers for a Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPU rendering a DirectX 12 workload using Work Graphs, instead of the traditional ExecuteIndirect method. Work Graphs is method by with GPUs enjoy greater autonomy in executing render and general purpose compute workloads, by vastly reducing the role of the CPU in the rendering pipeline. At the ongoing GDC 2024, AMD showed off a performance demo of a DirectX 12 rendering workload that implements Work Graphs, running in sync with Mesh Nodes, a feature that will process draw calls while the rest of the graph is executing. This is compared its render times to the traditional method. The differences are staggering.

It takes the traditional ExecuteIndirect method 64% longer to render a frame compared to Work Graphs, in other words, the new method is 39% faster. This has a direct impact on frame-rates for applications that implement Work Graphs. Although not part of the demo, AMD RDNA 3 also implement a silicon-level acceleration for Multi-draw indirect, another API-level feature that's underutilized. AMD's demo showcases a 3D scene without the HUD UI and skybox, being rendered on a single work graph dispatch. Work Graphs and Mesh Nodes are the next big feature addition to the DirectX 12 API feature-set, which will begin rolling out later this year. Both AMD and NVIDIA have ongoing implementation efforts to implement it.

Close monitoring of AMD engineering activities—around mid-February time—revealed the existence of a new set of patches for GNU Compiler Collection (GCC). At the time, news reports put spotlights on Team Red's "znver5" enablement—this target indicated that staffers were prepping Zen 5 processor microarchitecture with an expanded AVX instruction set (building on top of Zen 4's current capabilities). Phoronix's Michael Larabel has fretted over AMD's relative silence over the past month—regarding a possible merging of support prior to the stable release of GCC 14.

He was relieved to discover renewed activity earlier today: "AMD Zen 5 processor enablement has been merged to GCC Git in time for the GCC 14.1 stable release that will be out in the coming weeks. It was great seeing AMD getting their Zen 5 processor enablement upstreamed ahead of any Ryzen or EPYC product launches and being able to do so in time for the annual major GNU Compiler Collection feature release." Team Red is inching ever closer to the much anticipated 2024 rollout of next-gen Ryzen 9000 processors, please refer to a VideoCardz-authored timeline diagram (below)—"Granite Ridge" is an incoming AM5 desktop CPU family (reportedly utilizing Zen 5 and RDNA 2 tech), while "Strix Point" is scheduled to become a mobile APU series (Zen 5 + RDNA 3.5).

AMD's flagship desktop processor, the Ryzen 9 7950X3D, saw an impressive retailer-level price-cut, sending its street-price down to $565 on Newegg, or nearly $135 (19%) below its launch price of $700. The processor is listed at $595, but a $30 discount coupon sends the price down to $565. It's not just Newegg, even Amazon US has the chip listed at $591, with a $26 discount coupon sending it down to $565. The Ryzen 9 7950X3D is about 1% slower than the 7800X3D at gaming, but is still about as fast as the Core i9-14900K at gaming; and its 8 additional "Zen 4" cores helps shore up productivity performance over the 7800X3D.

Price-cuts to the Ryzen 9 7950X3D can be seen as a move to greet last week's launch of the Intel Core i9-14900KS, an enthusiast-magnet for its up to 6.20 GHz clock-speeds, and overclocking headroom; but in our testing, the new chip barely beats the Ryzen 7 7800X3D in gaming; although is 2% faster than the regular i9-14900K at both gaming- and productivity.

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.

Acer introduced the Predator Bifrost Radeon RX 7900 GRE OC graphics card. This card is based on what appears to be an identical board design to its Predator Bifrost RX 7800 XT OC. Given that the TBP of both GPUs is similar to each other around the 260 W-mark, this shouldn't be a cause for concern. The card features a triple-slot cooling solution, with an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, and three Frostblade 3.0 fans with webbed impellers, designed to maximum axial airflow. The card draws power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include three DisplayPort 2.1, and an HDMI 2.1. The card comes with a healthy factory OC of 2050 MHz Game clock, compared to 1880 MHz AMD reference for the RX 7900 GRE.

Based on the compacted version of the "Navi 31" chiplet GPU, the RX 7900 GRE is powered by the latest RDNA 3 graphics architecture, and features 5,120 stream processors across 80 compute units (CU); besides 160 AI accelerators, 80 Ray accelerators, 320 TMUs, and 160 ROPs. Only four of the six memory cache dies (MCDs) are enabled, so the GPU gets 64 MB of Infinity Cache, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, driving 16 GB of memory at 18 Gbps (576 GB/s bandwidth). Acer didn't reveal pricing.

Sony is giving final touches to a first-party super-resolution technology called PSSR (PlayStation Spectral Super Resolution), according to a sensational new leak by Moore's Law is Dead. The company plans to debut the tech with the new PlayStation 5 Pro console, this November. The tech is unlikely to make it to the current PlayStation 5 console due to the underlying graphics architecture. PSSR, from the looks of it, is closer in function to NVIDIA DLSS than it is to AMD FSR. The tech leverages the over 300 TOPS of AI inferencing power of the RDNA 3 GPU powering the PS5 Pro, to drive an AI-based reconstruction algorithm. The RDNA 2-based GPU of the current PS5 lacks AI accelerators. The biggest driving force behind the PSSR development isn't just this AI-based upscaling tech, but the impact of upscaling tech on frame-times and whole-system latencies. PSSR apparently makes the PS5 Pro capable of being not just a 4K-class game console, but also one that's ready to take on 8K. Sony is, after all, a television company, and would want to create use-cases for its latest 8K televisions.

A lot is also being speculated about the GPU driving the PlayStation 5 Pro. We've known from several older leaks that it is based on AMD's latest RDNA 3 graphics architecture, but we're now learning that the GPU will be a mix-match of several current and future graphics architectures from AMD's IP bouquet. It could have more advanced media and display engines than the current Radeon RX 7000 GPUs, but even the shader engines could incorporate certain elements from a future architecture, such as RDNA 4. The report speaks of a total AI inferencing performance of 300 TOPS, an FP16 throughput 67 TFLOPs, and an FP32 throughput of 33.5 TFLOPs. To put these into perspective, the GPU driving the Xbox Series X is rated for 12 TFLOPs FP32.

BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices today, unveils the brand new A620MS motherboard, designed for business and casual use. The A620MS motherboard is a versatile solution that seamlessly bridges the gap between professional efficiency and home entertainment. It's designed to meet the needs of office users, home enthusiasts, and system integrators, whether it's enhancing productivity in the workplace, enjoying online movies and gaming at home, or managing complex business processes and client data. The A620MS is a benchmark for reliability and adaptability, catering to diverse computing environments.

Built on the advanced Socket AM5, the A620MS motherboard offers comprehensive support for the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 and 8000 series processors, ensuring compatibility with cutting-edge CPU technology. It harnesses the power of AMD's A620 single-chip architecture to provide a stable and efficient computing base. With support for up to 96 GB of DDR5 memory across two DIMM slots, it offers ample capacity and superior speed for demanding applications, making it a powerhouse for both current and future computing tasks. Furthermore, It supports PCIe 4.0 M.2 (64 Gb/s) for advanced, high-speed storage solutions, ensuring a streamlined and efficient computing experience.

With the XMG FUSION 15 and CORE 15, XMG unveils its first 15.3-inch laptops in 16:10 format. The two compact devices, which are very similar except for a few details, differ primarily regarding their CPUs: the FUSION 15 is powered by Intel's Core i9-14900HX or i7-14650HX and either an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 or 4070, while the CORE 15 combines an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS with an RTX 4060. Apart from that, the gaming laptops, which weigh around 2 kg and are 21.9 mm high, offer a WQXGA display with a brightness of 500 nits and an almost entirely aluminium chassis with a clean and elegant design.

The design language of the XMG FUSION 15 (E24) and the XMG CORE 15 (M24) focuses on understated elegance. The laptops share an identical, black anodised and torsion-resistant aluminium chassis. At 342.5 x 245 x 21.9 mm, these two 15.3-inch devices are very compact, while a reduced weight of just 2.0 kg (XMG CORE 15) or 2.1 kg (XMG FUSION 15) offers good portability.

ASUS today announced BIOS updates that enable support for up to 256 GB of memory on its Intel 700 and 600 series motherboards that use DDR5 modules. Such models with four DIMM slots can now support up to 256 GB of memory, while such models with two DIMM slots can now support up to 128 GB. These enhancements significantly improve multitasking potential, ensuring smooth and seamless computing. AMD AM5 motherboards from ASUS do not require a BIOS update to enable support for up to 256 GB of DDR5 memory modules.

The BIOS updates can be accessed on the ASUS support pages for the models listed below.

AMD today released its first drivers to implement Microsoft's DirectX Agility SDK version 1.613, which introduces the new DirectX 12 Work Graphs 1.0 API. AMD has extensively worked on implementing the new technology, which among other things, significantly reduces the CPU's role in most common shader graphics workloads, and improve GPU shader thread saturation, as the GPU waits less on the CPU's share of shader workloads. The new AMD Software Adrenalin 23.40.14.01 drivers are off the main driver update channel, and is intended for developers and enthusiasts to start exploring GPU Work Graphs. GPU Upload Heaps, and certain features of Shader Model 6.8 on supported AMD Radeon GPUs. There are some known issues with the driver specific to AMD's implementation of GPU Work Graphs, and the latest version of the Agility SDK in general, which are listed below.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.40.14.01 for Agility SDK Support

AMD today released the latest version of the Ryzen Chipset Software. Version 6.02.07.2300 WHQL updates the driver versions of its various component drivers, and is applicable to AMD 300-series through 600-series desktop chipsets; and TRX and WRX series Ryzen Threadripper chipsets. The version also identifies a few issues that will be addressed in future updates, such as non-English driver names appearing in the English language selection; incorrect Uninstall log when uninstallation fails; and a failure to upgrade Ryzen PPKG.

The installer from AMD has now been fixed, and we are now hosting the 6.02.07.2300 driver.

DOWNLOAD: AMD Chipset Software 6.02.07.2300 WHQL

A new patch for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora deployed on March 1, bringing more than 150 fixes and adjustments to the game. Title Update 3 includes technical, UI, balancing, main quest, and side quest improvements, plus additional bug fixes. To provide players with an improved experience, the development team, led by Massive Entertainment, listened to feedback from the community while working on Title Update 3.

An additional patch, Title Update 3.1, was deployed on March 7, adding additional fixes to the game. Check out the full list of improvements included in Title Update 3 & 3.1 here, and read on for the most notable improvements now available in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

Update Mar 14th: TPU has received alerts regarding player feedback—Massive Entertainment's "Title Update 3" has reportedly broken their implementation of FSR 3 in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. We will keep an eye on official Ubisoft channels—so far they have not addressed these FSR-related problems.

TrendForce highlights the current landscape of the HBM market, which as of early 2024, is primarily focused on HBM3. NVIDIA's upcoming B100 or H200 models will incorporate advanced HBM3e, signaling the next step in memory technology. The challenge, however, is the supply bottleneck caused by both CoWoS packaging constraints and the inherently long production cycle of HBM—extending the timeline from wafer initiation to the final product beyond two quarters.

The current HBM3 supply for NVIDIA's H100 solution is primarily met by SK hynix, leading to a supply shortfall in meeting burgeoning AI market demands. Samsung's entry into NVIDIA's supply chain with its 1Znm HBM3 products in late 2023, though initially minor, signifies its breakthrough in this segment.

It looks like cryptocurrency mining is back in craze, as miners are firing up their old mining hardware from 2022 to cash in. Bitcoin is now north of $72,000, and is dragging up the value of several other cryptocurrencies, one such being Qubic (QBIC). Profitability calculators put 24 hours of Qubic mining on an AMD Ryzen 9 7950X 16-core processor at around $3, after subtracting energy costs involved in running the chip at its default 170 W TDP. "Zen 4" processors such as the 7950X tend to retain much of their performance with slight underclocking, and reducing their power limits; which is bound to hold or increase profitability, while also prolonging the life of the hardware.

And thus, the inevitable has happened—stocks of the AMD Ryzen 9 7950X have disappeared overnight across online retail. With the market presence of the 7950X3D and the Intel Core i9-14900K, the 7950X was typically found between $550-600, which would have added great value considering its low input costs. CPU-based cryptocurrency miners, including the QBIC miner, appear to be taking advantage of the AVX-512 instruction set. AMD "Zen 4" microarchitecture supports AVX-512 through its dual-pumped 256-bit FPU, and the upcoming "Zen 5" microarchitecture is rumored to double AVX-512 performance over "Zen 4." Meanwhile, Intel has deprecated what few client-relevant AVX-512 instructions its Core processors had since 12th Gen "Alder Lake," as it reportedly affected sales of Xeon processors. What about the 7950X3D? It's pricier, but mining doesn't benefit from the 3D V-cache, and the chip doesn't sustain the kind of CPU clocks the 7950X manages to do across all its 16 cores. It's only a matter of time before the 7950X3D disappears, too; followed by 12-core models such as the 65 W 7900, the 170 W 7900X, and the 7900X3D.

A 2019-signed export license has allowed Intel to supply laptop processors to Huawei, under an exclusive deal—this US Government approved arrangement was not viewed favorably by AMD. The rival chipmaker apparently missed out on the securing of a similar trade license back in 2021. According to a new Reuters report, Team Red and a handful of supporters have attempted to revoke Intel's license—worth hundreds of millions of dollars. Two anonymous sources allege that: "Intel has survived an effort to halt chip sales to Huawei...giving one of the world's largest chipmakers more time to sell to the heavily sanctioned Chinese telecoms company." Intel and Huawei's symbiosis is set to end later this year—folks on the inside reckon that the current US administration will not approve a renewal. Reports suggest that Qualcomm is not anticipating a renewal either—Huawei is an approved buyer of Snapdragon chips, but industry whispers indicate an eventual shift to in-house fare.

Intel, Huawei, US Commerce Department and the White House have declined to comment on the aforementioned scenario. Reuters also sent a query to AMD, but the publication did not receive a response. Earlier last year, a government official revealed that "Huawei's licensing policy" was under review, alongside a general push to scrap a number of trade deals. According to insiders, the same government official allegedly told companies—in private—that the US Commerce Department would fix "the licensing discrepancy." Another anonymous source believes that the agency shelved these plans late last year, for reasons unknown—they stressed that there is potential for a revival. Given the upcoming expiry of Intel and Huawei's arrangement—within the year—it makes little sense to implement a drastic change.

Thanks to Phoronix, we have discovered that AMD has recently released initial patches for performance monitoring and events related to their upcoming Zen 5 processors in the Linux kernel. These patches, sent out for review on the kernel mailing list, provide the necessary JSON files for PMU (Performance Monitoring Unit) events and metrics that will be exposed through the Linux perf tooling. As the patches consist of JSON additions and do not risk regressing existing hardware support, there is a possibility that they could be included in the upcoming Linux v6.9 kernel cycle. This would allow developers and enthusiasts to access detailed performance data for Zen 5 CPUs once they become available, helping with optimization and analysis of the next-generation processors.

The release of these patches follows AMD's publication of performance monitor counter documentation for AMD Family 1Ah Model 00h to 0Fh processors last week, confirming that these models represent the upcoming Zen 5 lineup. While Linux kernel 6.8 already includes some elements of Zen 5 CPU support, the upstream Linux enablement for these next-generation AMD processors is an ongoing process. Upon Phoronix examining the Zen 5 core and uncore events, as well as the metrics and mappings, it appears that they are mainly similar to those found in the current Zen 4 processors. This suggests that AMD has focused on refining and optimizing the performance monitoring capabilities of its new architecture rather than introducing significant changes. As the launch of Zen 5 CPUs draws closer, we await to see the performance and capabilities of these next-generation processors. With performance monitoring also getting a push, this could be a sign that Zen 5 launch is nearing.