The biggest benefit of the GeForce RTX 4060 "Ada" being based on the tiny AD107 silicon, and needing just four memory chips, is its tiny PCB footprint. This allows low-profile RTX 4060 graphics cards, as board partners found out. The GALAX RTX 4060 low-profile graphics card just made its debut in the Japan—a huge market for SFF and low-profile desktop PC hardware. The card is 18.2 cm long, and is exactly 6.9 cm tall, or what constitutes half-height. The card is 2 slots thick, and uses an aluminium fin-stack cooling solution that uses a trio of 40 mm fans.

Despite its limited PCB real-estate, the low-profile GALAX RTX 4060 wires out four display connectors—two each of DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1a. The card draws power from a single 8-pin PCIe power connector at the tail-end of the card (so you might need a little extra clearance there). The most striking aesthetic aspect of the card is its all-white PCB, which combined with the white cooler shroud and fans, contrast the fin-stack heatsink. Out of the box, the card comes with its full-height bracket, which can be replaced with the included low-profile bracket. GALAX isn't the only brand with low-profile RTX 4060 cards, there are also such cards from ASUS and GIGABYTE.

All-in-one computers are often traditionally seen as lower-powered alternatives to traditional desktop workstations. However, a new offering from Alafia AI, a startup focused on medical imaging appliances, aims to shatter that perception. The company's upcoming Alafia Aivas SuperWorkstation packs serious hardware muscle, demonstrating that all-in-one systems can match the performance of their more modular counterparts. At the heart of the Aivas SuperWorkstation lies a 128-core Ampere Altra processor, running at 3.0 GHz clock speed. This CPU is complemented by not one but three NVIDIA L4 GPUs for compute, and a single NVIDIA RTX 4000 Ada GPU for video output, delivering a combined 28,416 CUDA cores for accelerated parallel computing tasks. The system doesn't skimp on other components, either. It features a 4K touch display with up to 360 nits of brightness, an extensive 2 TB of DDR4 RAM, and storage options up to an 8 TB solid-state drive. This combination of cutting-edge CPU, GPU, memory, and storage is squarely aimed at the demands of medical imaging and AI development workloads.

The all-in-one form factor packs this incredible hardware into a sleek, purposefully designed clinical research appliance. While initially targeting software developers, Alafia AI hopes that institutions that can optimize their applications for the Arm architecture can eventually deploy the Aivas SuperWorkstation for production medical imaging workloads. The company is aiming for application integration in Q3 2024 and full ecosystem device integration by Q4 2024. With this powerful new offering, Alafia AI is challenging long-held assumptions about the performance limitations of all-in-one systems. The Aivas SuperWorkstation demonstrates that the right hardware choices can transform these compact form factors into true powerhouse workstations. Especially with a combined total output of three NVIDIA L4 compute units, alongside RTX 4000 Ada graphics card, the AIO is more powerful than some of the high-end desktop workstations.

The expansion of AI technology affects not only the production and demand for graphics cards but also the electricity grid that powers them. Data centers hosting thousands of GPUs are becoming more common, and the industry has been building new facilities for GPU-enhanced servers to serve the need for more AI. However, these powerful GPUs often consume over 500 Watts per single card, and NVIDIA's latest Blackwell B200 GPU has a TGP of 1000 Watts or a single kilowatt. These kilowatt GPUs will be present in data centers with 10s of thousands of cards, resulting in multi-megawatt facilities. To combat the load on the national electricity grid, US President Joe Biden's administration has been discussing with big tech to re-evaluate their power sources, possibly using smaller nuclear plants. According to an Axios interview with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, she has noted that "AI itself isn't a problem because AI could help to solve the problem." However, the problem is the load-bearing of the national electricity grid, which can't sustain the rapid expansion of the AI data centers.

The Department of Energy (DOE) has been reportedly talking with firms, most notably hyperscalers like Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, to start considering nuclear fusion and fission power plants to satisfy the need for AI expansion. We have already discussed the plan by Microsoft to embed a nuclear reactor near its data center facility and help manage the load of thousands of GPUs running AI training/inference. However, this time, it is not just Microsoft. Other tech giants are reportedly thinking about nuclear as well. They all need to offload their AI expansion from the US national power grid and develop a nuclear solution. Nuclear power is a mere 20% of the US power sourcing, and DOE is currently financing a Holtec Palisades 800-MW electric nuclear generating station with $1.52 billion in funds for restoration and resumption of service. Microsoft is investing in a Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) microreactor energy strategy, which could be an example for other big tech companies to follow.

Speculated lower-end Intel second generation Arc GPUs popped up via SiSoftware Sandra database entries around mid-March—evaluation samples are likely in the hands of trusted hardware partners. Yesterday, momomo_us happened upon another interesting shipping manifest, following a series of AMD-related leaks. The latest list reveals five "Battlemage" products—three utilizing the BMG-21 GPU, and the remaining two being based on the BMG-10 design. These identifiers have appeared in older leaks, although the latter has been viewed in place sight—chez Intel Malaysia's Failure Analysis Lab.

Previous leaks suggest that these second generation Arc models (Xe2) reside within a "High-Performance Graphics" (HPG) discrete GPU family—the Xe2-HPG BMG-10 range is likely targeting an "enthusiast" market segment, while the Xe2-HPG BMG-21 tier is rumored to offer mid-tier performance. Intel staffers have expressed confidence about a possible late 2024 launch window. Back in January, Tom "TAP" Petersen revealed that the Arc hardware team had already moved onto third-gen "Celestial" GPU endeavors: "I'd say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing." The first-gen deck has not been cleared fully it seems—the Alchemist family could be joined by two new variants in the near future.

Phoronix has taken a short break away from monitoring the latest goings-on at AMD's software department—the site's editor-in-chief, Michael Larabel, took a moment to investigate patch notes relating to Intel's Xe and i915 Linux kernel graphics drivers. Earlier today, he noticed that "two additional PCI IDs" have been added to Team Blue's DG2/Alchemist family. This discovery prompted further sleuthing—after: "some searching and turning up hits within the Intel Compute Runtime code, 0x56BE is for an Intel Arc Graphics A750E variant and 0x56BF is for an Intel Arc Graphics A580E."

The aforementioned GPU identification codes seem to exist in gray area—the patch notes do not reveal whether these new variants are destined for desktop or mobile platforms. VideoCardz cited a remark made by "Bionic_Squash"—the reputable leaker reckons that the: "IDs are linked to Intel's Arc Embedded series. This family is tailored for industrial, business, and commercial applications, ranging from edge systems to powering large interactive screens." It is highly likely that Intel is paving the way for embedded/low-power variants of its existing Arc A750 and A580 GPUs. Tom's Hardware proposes that Team Blue is clearing out its inventory of remaining Alchemist silicon ahead of a successive generation's rollout—Battlemage is a major priority in 2024.

SPARKLE unveiled its low-profile series around mid-January—this lineup included an Intel Arc A380 GENIE dual-fan/dual-slot model and an Arc A310 ECO (single-slot, single-fan config) card. Compact device expert/YouTuber, ETA Prime, has uploaded a fascinating video that covers a modification project that involved a hybridization of SPARKLE's latest low-profile graphics cards and a Minisforum MS-01 test system. SPARKLE has released various models based on Intel's "Alchemist" Arc A380 6 GB GPU, but their PCB design is shared across a range of cooling options. ETA Prime could not source an aftermarket lower-profile cooler for his SPARKLE A380 GENIE, so he resorted to cannibalizing the A310 ECO model for relevant parts.

The ECO's single-slot cooling solution was not well proportioned enough to make contact with the SPARKLE A380 GENIE's VRM, so ETA Prime had to "add an aftermarket heatsink." He sold the remaining unneeded pieces—A310 board and GENIE cooler—to a friend for $60. The resultant hybrid—the "world's first-ever single-slot Intel Arc A380"—was bunged into the SFF Minisforum MS-01 test system. Notable specs included the Intel Core i9-13900H CPU and 32 GB of DDR5-5200 RAM. ETA Prime utilized Acer's Predator BiFrost graphics card utility to "trick" in a stable 54 W power limit. 60-ish FPS performance results—with low-to-medium settings at 1080p across a selection of games—were promising, especially for a restrictive small form factor build. ETA Prime hopes that SPARKLE will launch a smaller A380 model in the future—alternatively a specialist firm could produce a nice aftermarket copper part.

Graphics card enthusiasts with a thing for earthy green hues, will likely appreciate Manli's latest products—its Gallardo graphics card range has expanded with two new models. The Asian and European market-focused manufacturer has already unleashed "refreshed" models that utilize NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 40-series SUPER GPUs, but the newest entries sport a revised signature green flagship "Gallardo" design. VideoCardz has pored over the small details—it turns out that Manli has produced a slimmer profile: "perhaps something that is not obvious is that Manli has introduced the RTX 4070 Ti SUPER Gallardo already. The new version marks a second revision, featuring an entirely different aesthetic compared to its predecessor. The most important change is that it no longer occupies a 3.5-slot space." Manli has evidently put together a "much slimmer 2-slot version" under a "M3604+N693" moniker.

The non-Ti model is likely coming out soon, but Manli has not yet announced official pricing or launch date details for their newly redesigned Gallardo Ada Lovelace cards—official product pages were created last week. Despite flagship status, VideoCardz notes that Manli has not implemented any factory overclocking—the Gallardo range is often associated with: "system integrators like Sycom for further customization." The spec sheet advertises integrated LED lighting with seven available color cycles, four 6 mm copper heat pipes with segmented heatsinks, and a metal backplate for reinforcement and protective purposes.

Intel is quietly working on second generation Arc GPUs—we have not heard much about Xe2 "Battlemage" since CES 2024. Back in January, Tom "TAP" Petersen—an Intel fellow and marketing guru—casually revealed during an interview conducted by PC World: "I'd say about 30% of our engineers are working on Battlemage, mostly on the software side because our hardware team is on the next thing (Celestial)...Battlemage has already has its first silicon in the labs which is very exciting and there's more good news coming which I can't talk about right now." Intel appears to be targeting a loose late 2024 launch window; Petersen stated that he would like to see second generation products arrive at retail before CES 2025's commencement. The SiSoftware Sandra database was updated around mid-March with two very intriguing new Intel GPU entries—test systems (built on an ASUS PRIME Z790-P WIFI mainboard) were spotted running graphics solutions "equipped with 20 Xe-Core (160 EU) and 24 Xe-Cores (160 EU)."

Michael/miktdt commented on the freshly discovered database entries: "some smaller versions are on Sisoft...I guess they are coming. Single-float GP Compute looks quite good for just 160 VE/192 VE. Doesn't tell much about the release though, I guess anything between Q4 2024 and Q2 2025 is a possibility." Both models seem to sport 11.6 GB VRAM capacities—likely 12 GB—and 8 MB of L2 cache. Wccftech has guesstimated potential 192-bit memory bandwidth for these speculative lower-level GPUs. Team Blue has a bit more tweaking to do—based on leaked figures—but time is on their side: "the performance per core for Alchemist currently sits an average of 16% faster than the alleged Battlemage GPU which isn't a big deal since driver-level optimizations and final silicon can give a huge boost when the retail products come out."

NVIDIA completed its last round of GeForce NVIDIA RTX 40-series GPU refreshes at the very end of January—new evidence suggests that another wave is scheduled for imminent release. MEGAsizeGPU has acquired and shared a tabulated list of new Ada Lovelace GPU variants—the trusted leaker's post presents a timetable that was supposed to kick off within the second half of this month. First up is the GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, with a current designation of AD104-251—the leaked table suggests that a new variant, AD103-175-KX, is due very soon (or overdue). Wccftech pointed out that the new ID was previously linked to NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER SKU. Moving into April, next up is the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti—jumping from the current AD106-351 die to a new unit; AD104-150-KX. The third adjustment (allegedly) affects the GeForce RTX 4060—going from AD107-400 to AD106-255, also timetabled for next month. MEGAsizeGPU reckons that Team Green will be swapping chips, but not rolling out broadly adjusted specifications—a best case scenario could include higher CUDA, RT, and Tensor core counts. According to VideoCardz, the new die designations have popped up in freshly released official driver notes—it is inferred that the variants are getting an "under the radar" launch treatment.

EMTEK products rarely pop up on TPU's news section, but the GPU database contains a smattering of the South Korean manufacturer's Ampere-based GeForce RTX graphics card. VideoCardz has discovered an updated MIRACLE X3 White model—EMTEK's latest release is a GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER 12 GB card. The triple-fan model seems to stick with NVIDIA's reference specifications—VideoCardz also noticed a physical similarity: "under the cooler shroud, the card boasts a non-standard U-shaped PCB, reminiscent of Team Green's Founders Edition. However, it remains uncertain whether EMTEK utilizes the same PCB as NVIDIA." The asking price—of ₩919,990—converts to around $680, when factoring in regional taxes. EMTEK's MIRACLE X3 cooling solution seems to be fairly robust—featuring four 6 mm heat pipes—so an adherence to stock clocks is a slight surprise. The company's GAMING PRO line includes a couple of factory overclocked options.

Thermaltake USA, the leading PC Case, Cooling, Power, and memory solutions, proudly announces the launch of twelve innovative models in the LCGS (Liquid Cooled Gaming System) Reactor series, available exclusively at Best Buy. This launch marks a significant milestone for Thermaltake, introducing the next generation of gaming PCs, meticulously designed with the newly unveiled The Tower 300 Micro Tower Chassis. These gaming powerhouses are equipped with the latest high-performance components, including the cutting-edge Intel Core 14th Gen i9/i7 processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Super Series/4090 graphics cards, 32 GB of DDR5 5600 MT/s memory, and expansive 2 TB NVMe M.2 SSD storage.

Each system in the LCGS Reactor series boasts a 360 mm radiator liquid cooling solution, ensuring exceptional cooling performance and stability during intense gaming sessions. The addition of vibrant color options such as Snow, Black, Hydrangea Blue, and Turquoise adds a personalized touch to these systems, catering to gamers' and content creators' diverse tastes and styles. Tailored for the most demanding gamers and creative professionals, these pre-built gaming desktop PCs are assembled and rigorously tested by Thermaltake's skilled engineers in the USA, ensuring unparalleled build quality and reliability.

NVIDIA's recent launch of a "new" entry-level gaming GPU has not set pulses racing—their return visit to Ampere City arrived in the form of custom GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB graphics cards. The absence of a reference model sometimes signals a low expectation, but Team Green's partners have pushed ahead with a surprisingly diverse portfolio of options. Early last month, Galax introduced a low-profile white design—the custom GeForce RTX 3050 6 GB card's slot-powered operation presents an ideal solution for super compact low-power footprint builds. ASUS is readying its own dual-fan low-profile models—as evidenced by official product pages. The listings do not reveal release dates or recommended price points for the reference-clocked GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB card, and its OC sibling. ASUS believes that both models offer "big productivity in a small package."

Low-profile card enthusiasts have warmly welcomed new-ish GeForce RTX 4060 GPU-based solutions—courtesy of ASUS and GIGABYTE, but reported $300+ MSRPs have likely put off budget-conscious buyers. A sub-$200 price point is a more palatable prospect, especially for system builders who are not all bothered about cutting-edge gaming performance. A DVI-D connector ensures legacy compatibility, alongside modern port standards: HDMI 2.1 and DP 1.4a. As mentioned before, ASUS has not publicly disclosed its pricing policy for the GeForce RTX 3050 LP BRK 6 GB card (and its OC variant)—the manufacturer's Dual and Dual OC models retail in a range of $170 - $180. Graphics card watchdogs reckon that the LP BRK designs will warrant a small premium over normal-sized products.

Seasonic introduced a new 12V-2x6 modular PSU cable model late last year—at the time, interested parties were also invited to Beta test early examples. Finalized versions have been introduced, via a freshly uploaded YouTube video (see below) and a dedicated product page. The "H++" connector standard—part of a new ATX 3.1 specification—is expected to replace the troubled "H+" 12VHWPR design. The PC hardware community has engaged in long-running debates about the development and rollout of a danger/peril-free alternative. PCI-SIG drafted the 12V-2x6 design last summer.

Seasonic's introductory section stated: "with the arrival of the new ATX 3 / PCIe 5.0 specifications, some graphic cards will now be powered by the new 12V-2x6 connector. Offering up to 600 W of power, the Seasonic native 12V-2x6 cable has been crafted with high quality materials, such as high current terminal connectors and 16 AWG wires to ensure the highest performance and safety in usage." The new cables are compatible with Seasonic's current ATX 3.0 power supply unit range—including "PRIME TX, PRIME PX, VERTEX GX, PX, GX White and Sakura, FOCUS GX and GX White" models. Owners of older Seasonic ATX 2.0 PSUs are best served with an optional 2x8-pin to 12V-2x6 adapter cable—although 650 W rated and single PCIe connector-equipped units are not supported at all. Two native cable models, and a non-native variant are advertised in the manufacturer's video.

The Moore Threads MTT S80 first attracted wider media attention last summer due to it being introduced as the world's first PCIe Gen 5 gaming graphics card. Unfortunately, its performance prowess in gaming benchmarks did not match early expectations, especially for a 200 W TDP-rated unit with 4096 "MUSA" cores. Evaluators discovered that driver issues have limited the full potential of MTT GPUs—it is speculated that Moore Threads has simply repurposed existing PowerVR architecture under their in-house design: "Chunxaio." The Chinese firm has concentrated on driver improvements in the interim—mid-February experimentations indicated 100% performance boosts for MTT S80 and S70 discrete GPUs courtesy of driver version 240.90. Germany's ComputerBase managed to import Moore Threads MTT S80 and S30 models for testing purposes—in an effort to corroborate recently published performance figures, as disclosed by Asian review outlets.

The Moore Thread MTT S80—discounted down to $164 last October—was likely designed with MMO gamers in mind. VideoCardz (based on ComputerBase findings) discussed the card's struggles when weighed against Team Red's modern day integrated solutions: "S80 falls short when compared to the Ryzen 5 8600G, featuring the Radeon 760M iGPU with RDNA 3 graphics. A geometric mean across various titles reveals the S80's lag, but there are exceptions, like DOTA 2, where it takes the lead in framerate. It's clear that MTT GPUs (have a) less emphasized focus on supporting AAA titles." ComputerBase confirmed that DirectX 12 API support is still lacking, meaning that many popular Western games titles remain untested on the Moore Threads MTT S80 graphics card. The freshly launched entry-level MTT S30 card produced "1/4 of the performance" when compared to its flagship sibling.

Palit, and its sister brand Gainward, announced the GeForce RTX 4060 Infinity 2, and GeForce RTX 4060 Python 2 custom design graphics cards, respectively. Both cards feature an identical board design, differing only with their badging and outer boxes. Palit and Gainward seem to sell in the same markets, so you could pick either between the two. The card features identical dimensions to the Palit RTX 4060 DUAL V1 and the Gainward RTX 4060 Ghost V1 (which at least differ with their cooler shroud design).

Both cards get the same pair of 92 mm fans with idle fan-off. So why did Palit/Gainward come up with these? Apparently, cooler shroud of the Infinity 2 and Python 2 lack an RGB LED lighting element that you find on the Palit DUAL V1 and Gainward Ghost V1. The heatsink designs are changed, too. While the Palit DUAL V2 and Gainward Ghost V2 use an aluminium fin-stack heatsink, the newer cards come with an extruded aluminium monoblock heatsink that uses a copper heatpipe to spread heat. The shroud features an S-shaped design element going around the fan intakes, Palit sees the infinity symbol, while Gainward sees a python. Both cards stick to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds for the RTX 4060, of 2460 MHz boost, and 17 Gbps (GDDR6-effective) memory. Palit and Gainward may price the Infinity 2 and Phython at at the ever-shifting baseline price for the RTX 4060, which is now nearing $250 in some places.

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.

ASUS today introduced its custom design Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics cards for a wider product launch outside China. These include the RX 7900 GRE DUAL OC, and the TUF Gaming RX 7900 GRE OC. Given the nearly identical 260 W total board power (TBP) and ASIC pin-map of the RX 7900 GRE to the RX 7800 XT, ASUS appears to be reusing its RX 7800 XT custom-design board designs for these cards. The RX 7900 GRE DUAL OC features a 27.9 cm length, triple-slot thickness, and 13.39 cm height, and uses an aluminium fin-stack heatsink with two 100 mm Axial Tech fans—hence the name. There is no RGB lighting or other such frills to speak of, but you get dual-BIOS. The default P-BIOS runs the card at factory-overclocked 1927 MHz Game clock (vs. 1880 MHz reference); while the quieter Q-BIOS runs it at reference speeds, with a more tame fan profile.

The TUF Gaming RX 7900 GRE features the same version of the company's DirectCU III TUF Gaming cooling solution that the company uses with its RX 7800 XT TUF Gaming product, it's 31.9 cm in length, 3-slot thick, and 15 cm tall (about a 1 cm added due to the stub toward the tail-end). The cooler features a trio of 100 mm Axial Tech fans, and as is characteristic of TUF Gaming cooler designs, is well ventilated, exposing more of the heatsink underneath; than competing cooling solutions. You get a minimal amount of RGB lighting, in the form of a diffuser near the tail-end. You also get dual-BIOS, and a more pronounced factory OC than the DUAL OC card, with the P-BIOS enabling 1972 MHz Game clocks. The Q-BIOS again sticks to reference clocks for quieter fan settings. ASUS didn't release pricing, but given that both are factory-overclocked cards, we expect the RX 7900 GRE DUAL OC to be priced around the $570-mark; and the TUF Gaming OC at $600, if not more.

GIGABYTE, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today announced the new GIGABYTE AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE graphics cards powered by AMD RDNA 3 architecture - the GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7900 GRE GAMING OC 16G graphics cards available for purchase on February 27, 2024. The GAMING OC graphics card, a classic and popular GIGABYTE graphics card, focuses on exceptional performance and stability. With the AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE GPU and 16 GB of GDDR6 memory, it brings next-gen, immersive and high-refresh 1440p gaming and streaming experiences, with additional video memory to enable gamers to step into 4K.

The GIGABYTE Radeon RX 7900 GRE GAMING OC 16G graphics cards come with the WINDFORCE cooling system. The system includes three unique blade fans with alternate spinning, a copper plate that directly contacts the GPU, composite copper heat pipes, 3D active fans and screen cooling to maximize heat dissipation, ensuring the graphics cards operate at low temperatures while delivering outstanding performance. The alternate spinning technology rotates the central fan in the opposite direction of the other two fans, effectively dissipating heat from both the top and the bottom of the graphics card for more efficient cooling. The large copper plate makes direct contact with the GPU and VRAM. Coupled with the composite copper heat pipes, it provides excellent heat dissipation. Moreover, the handy onboard dual BIOS switch allows users to choose between OC and SILENT modes, offering the optimal settings tuned by GIGABYTE.

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.

Online hardware communities continue to discuss the 12VHPWR connection standard's troubled existence, while revised technology gets worked on—quietly—in the background. PCI-SIG's 12V-2x6 connector was first revealed last summer, signalling an alternative power delivery method for high-wattage graphics cards. Past TPU reports show that the 12V-2x6 16-pin design has already popped up on select NVIDIA Founders Edition cards, GeForce RTX 40 SUPER custom graphics card designs, and various new generation power supplies. Earlier today, Алексей (AKA wxnod) took to social media and posted an image of the freshly deshrouded "H++" 12V-2x6 (total design limit: 675 W) socket, as well as a shot of the familiar "H+" 12VHPWR (max. 600 W).

This fifth generation socket design largely rolled out with Team Green's GeForce RTX-40 SUPER card series, although wxnod notes that exceptions do exist: "Some AIC GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, 4070 Ti SUPER and 4080 SUPER cards are still using the H+12VHPWR interface." The H++ identified 12V-2x6 design's power limit peaks at 675 W—a technical breakdown from last July revealed that 75 W comes from the expansion slot, while the big 600 W portion flows through the 16-pin connector. As mentioned before, 12V-2x6 debuted on a few Non-SUPER cards back in 2023, but last month's SUPER series product launch marked a more comprehensive rollout. AMD has indicated that it is considering an adoption of Gen 5 H++ in the future, but we have not heard much on that subject since last August. A new generation 16-pin PCIe 6.0 power connector design was linked to the upcoming NVIDIA RTX 50-series of "Blackwell" GPUs, but Hardware Busters has refuted rumors generated by Moore's Law is Dead. Team Green is expected to remain faithful to "H++" 12V-2x6 with the launch of next generation graphics cards.

The MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 Beta update was released three days ago—available to download through Guru3D's distribution section—its patch notes tease the exciting addition of "some future NVIDIA GPU PCI DeviceIDs to (our) hardware database." The forward facing nature of this software upgrade brings some unfortunate news for Windows XP operating system users—Beta version 4.6.6's top bullet point provides some reasoning: "Ported to VC++ 2022 compiler. Please take a note that due to this change MSI Afterburner will no longer be able to start under Windows XP. Please stay on the previous versions of the product if you need this OS support." Unwinder's software engineering team has traditionally stuck with the 2008 Visual C++ compiler, hence Afterburner's long history of supporting Windows XP.

The adoption of a more modern compiler has signaled the end for MSI's overclocking and hardware monitoring program on a legacy operating system. Developers largely moved on from XP-supporting endeavors around the mid-2010s—as pointed out by Tom's Hardware: "To get an idea on how late Afterburner is on dropping Windows XP, the last time we reported on any app ending support for the OS was in 2019, when Steam ended support on New Year's Day." Returning to the modern day—4.6.6 Beta's best-of-list mentions that RivaTuner Statistics Server is host to "more than 90 compatibility enhancements and changes"—v7.3.5 rolls out with NVIDIA Reflex and PresentMon integration, as well as programmable conditional layers support. The other headlining feature addition within Afterburner's latest pre-release guise is voltage control for AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT GPUs.

Building on our previously announced support of the AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT, XTX and Radeon PRO W7900 GPUs with AMD ROCm 5.7 and PyTorch, we are now expanding our client-based ML Development offering, both from the hardware and software side with AMD ROCm 6.0. Firstly, AI researchers and ML engineers can now also develop on Radeon PRO W7800 and on Radeon RX 7900 GRE GPUs. With support for such a broad product portfolio, AMD is helping the AI community to get access to desktop graphics cards at even more price points and at different performance levels.

Furthermore, we are complementing our solution stack with support for ONNX Runtime. ONNX, short for Open Neural Network Exchange, is an intermediary Machine Learning framework used to convert AI models between different ML frameworks. As a result, users can now perform inference on a wider range of source data on local AMD hardware. This also adds INT8 via MIGraphX—AMD's own graph inference engine—to the available data types (including FP32 and FP16). With AMD ROCm 6.0, we are continuing our support for the PyTorch framework bringing mixed precision with FP32/FP16 to Machine Learning training workflows.

NVIDIA's decision to shave off $200 from its GeForce RTX 4080 GPU tier has caused a run on retail since the launch of SUPER variants late last month—VideoCardz has investigated an apparent North American supply shortage. The adjusted $999 base MSRP appears to be an irresistible prospect for discerning US buyers—today's report explains how: "a week after its release, that GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER cards are not available at any major US retailer for online orders." At the time of writing, no $999 models are available to purchase via e-tailers (for delivery)—BestBuy and Micro Center have a smattering of baseline MSRP cards (including the Founders Edition), but for in-store pickup only. Across the pond, AD103 SUPER's supply status is a bit different: "On the other hand, in Europe, the situation appears to be more favorable, with several retailers listing the cards at or near the MSRP of €1109."

The cheapest custom GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER SKU, at $1123, seems to be listed by Amazon.com. Almost all of Newegg's product pages are displaying an "Out of Stock" notice—ZOTAC GAMING's GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER Trinity OC White Edition model is on "back order" for $1049.99, while the only "in stock" option is MSI's GeForce RTX 4080 Super Expert card (at $1149.99). VideoCardz notes that GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER and RTX 4070 TI SUPER models are in plentiful supply, which highlights a big contrast in market conditions for NVIDIA's latest Ada Lovelace families. The report also mentions an ongoing shortage of GeForce RTX 4080 (Non-SUPER) cards, going back weeks prior to the official January 31 rollout: "Similar to the RTX 4090, finding the RTX 4080 at its $1200 price point has proven challenging." Exact sales figures are not available to media outlets—it is unusual to see official metrics presented a week or two after a product's launch—so we will have to wait a little longer to find out whether demand has far outstripped supply in the USA.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launches the GeForce RTX 40 EAGLE OC ICE series graphics cards powered by NVIDIA ADA Lovelace architecture. The latest EAGLE OC ICE series presents a white iteration of the well-received EAGLE OC graphics card series. With exceptional performance catering to the diverse requirements of gamers, creators, and AI developers, it features an extensive integration of white materials in its design. This introduces an alternative choice for gamers who appreciate white-themed setups.

GIGABYTE has introduced four models in the GeForce RTX 40 EAGLE OC ICE series, corresponding to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti SUPER, GeForce RTX 4070 SUPER, GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, and GeForce RTX 4060 GPUs. The EAGLE OC ICE series features a brand-new white exterior design inspired by space technology and incorporates futuristic design elements. The graphics cards come with white covers and backplates, complemented by cosmic-themed graphics, symbols, and geometric shapes, providing a unique and personalized appearance for white-themed desktop setups.

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today announced new GeForce RTX 3050 6G graphics cards. The GeForce RTX 3050 EAGLE OC 6G and GeForce RTX 3050 OC Low Profile 6G graphics cards are powered by Ampere- NVIDIA's 2nd gen RTX architecture, featuring dedicated RT cores, AI Tensor cores, and fast GDDR6 graphics memory. They deliver the most realistic ray tracing graphics and advanced AI features with DLSS. In addition to providing gamers with a visually stunning and smooth 1080p gaming experience, creators can also indulge in the joy of creative expression.

The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 EAGLE OC 6G graphics card incorporates futuristic design elements, presenting distinctive and personalized features through cosmic-themed graphics, symbols, and geometric shapes. The GIGABYTE GeForce RTX 3050 EAGLE OC 6G is equipped with the GIGABYTE WINDFORCE cooling system. Featuring unique blade fans, alternate spinning, and fan stop functionalities, this cooling system efficiently lowers the working temperature of the graphics card, ensuring stable performance even under high-demand operations.