I unfortunately missed the AMD keynote at Computex 2024, but managed to join Dr. Lisa Su’s Q&A session! Check it out!
AMD Computex 2024 Q&A With Dr. Lisa Su!
I could not make it to Dr. Lisa Su’s keynote at Computex 2024, but I managed to join her Q&A session after the keynote. Enjoy the full recording of the Q&A session with Dr. Lisa Su!
For those who missed it, here is a quick summary of new AMD products and technologies that Dr. Lisa Su announced at Computex 2024
AMD Ryzen 9000 Series Desktop Processors
Dr. Lisa Su unveiled the AMD Ryzen 9000 series (codenamed Granite Ridge) of desktop processors, slated for release in July 2024. These processors are built around the Zen 5 microarchitecture, which AMD says will offer a 16% average performance boost over the previous Zen 4 microarchitecture.
Here is the first slew of AMD Ryzen 9000 processors announced at Computex 2024:
Ryzen 9 9950X : 16C/32T, up to 5.7 GHz max boost, 80MB L2+L3 cache, 170W TDP
Ryzen 9 9900X : 12C/24T, up to 5.6 GHz max boost, 76MB L2+L3 cache, 120W TDP
Ryzen 7 9700X : 8C/16T, up to 5.5 GHz max boost, 40MB L2+L3 cache, 65W TDP
Ryzen 5 9600X : 6C/12T, up to 5.4 GHz max boost, 38MB L2+L3 cache, 65W TDP
3rd Gen AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series Laptops
Microsoft, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS, unveiled their laptops based on the 3rd Gen AMD Ryzen AI 300 series mobile processors.
Ryzen AI is combination of a dedicated AI engine, AMD Radeon graphics engine, and Ryzen processor cores that enable AI capabilities.
5th Gen AMD EPYC Server Processors
Dr. Lisa Su also previewed the 5th Gen AMD EPYC server processors (codenamed Turin), which are on track to launch in H2 2024. Like the new Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors, the 5th Gen EPYC processors are built around the Zen 5 core microarchitecture.
AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2
The new AMD Versal AI Edge Series Gen 2 brings together FPGA programmable logic for real-time pre-processing, next-gen AI Engines powered by XDNA technology for efficient AI inference, and embedded CPUs for post-processing to deliver the highest performing single chip adaptive solution for edge AI.
AMD Versal AI Edge Gen 2 devices are available now for early access with over 30 key partners currently in development.
AMD Instinct MI325X Accelerator
The AMD Instinct MI325X accelerator will be available in Q4 2024, offering 288 GB of ultra-fast HBM3E memory.
AMD Instinct MI350 Series
The AMD Instinct MI350 series is expected to debut in 2025, based on the next-generation AMD CDNA 4 architecture. AMD expects it to deliver up to 35X better inference performance compared to the AMD Instinct MI300 series, which is based on the current CDNA 3 architecture.
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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The US government has quietly revoked some export licences from Intel and Qualcomm, cutting off more chip supplies to Huawei!
US quietly revokes Intel + Qualcomm export licences to Huawei!
A week after Huawei unveiled its MateBook X Pro laptop, which is powered by the latest Intel Core Ultra 9 processor, the US government quietly revoked some export licences from Intel and Qualcomm, cutting off more chip supplies to Huawei!
It does not appear that Intel has violated any sanctions by supplying its latest Core processors to Huawei for its laptop. After all, Intel received a licence to export laptop CPUs to Huawei in 2020. Qualcomm also received a licence in 2020, to sell older 4G chips to Huawei.
However, American politicians who are critical of China have said that any authorisation by the Commerce Department “would be unacceptable and a failure to enforce export controls against a blacklisted champion of the Chinese Communist Party.”
That could explain the quiet revocation of existing export licences on Tuesday, 7 May 2024, not only affecting Intel and Qualcomm, but also other unnamed companies as well.
The US Department of Commerce confirmed that it revoked some export licences, but did not specify which licences were cancelled, and which companies were affected. However, Intel and Qualcomm have confirmed that some (but not all) of their licences were revoked.
While AMD has not been mentioned, it seems likely that Intel’s rival could also be affected.
Revoked Intel + Qualcomm Export Licences Will Hurt Huawei
The export licences being revoked appear to target processors and System-on-a-Chip (SoCs) used in laptops and smartphones, although it is still unknown which exact chips are affected.
The loss of high-performance computer chips will be particularly hurt Huawei, as it has no viable alternative, especially if AMD had its export licences revoked as well.
Huawei was able to circumvent US sanctions by developing last year’s HiSilicon Kirin 9000S mobile SoC for its Mate 60 series of smartphones, and fabricating it using SMIC’s 7nm process technology. But it won’t be able to do this for its laptops, which are based on the x86 architecture.
That said, it seems likely that the US government is only interested in curtailing the export of high-performance processors to Huawei. If Intel and Qualcomm are still allowed to sell less powerful chips to Huawei, it may not be quite the death knell for the embattled Chinese company. But it will certainly hurt its competitiveness.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The US government just imposed sweeping chip and chipmaking export restrictions that target Chinese military capabilities!
US Targets Chinese Military With New Chip Export Ban!
On Friday, October 7, 2022, the US government announced new regulations on computer chips and chipmaking technologies designed to target Chinese military capabilities.
The stated goal of these new export restrictions is to “block the People’s Liberation Army and China’s domestic surveillance apparatus from gaining access to advanced computing capabilities that require the use of advanced semiconductors.”
According to US officials, these rules target not only the sale and export of chips, but also the tools and software that might help the Chinese military in any way, including aiding the development of weapons of mass destruction.
Unlike earlier rules that target specific Chinese companies (like HUAWEI), the new rules have far greater reach, covering everything from chips made by AMD and NVIDIA, to complex and expensive hardware and software used to design and manufacture semiconductor chips.
These rules, some of which go into effect immediately, build on existing restrictions that were earlier applied to top chip toolmaking companies in the US, like KLA Corporation, Lam Research Corporation, and Applied Material Incorporated.
It’s not just advanced chips used for AI computing and national security or military applications that are being targeted.
The new rules are more generic, and forbid US companies from selling technologies to indigenous Chinese companies that will enable the production of:
DRAM chips at 18 nm or below,
NAND flash chips at 128 layers or above, and
logic chips at 14 nm or below.
Even foreign companies operating China are somewhat affected. US companies will need to obtain a license to export more advanced equipment to them.
But in a concession to South Korea, the US government will spare SK Hynix and Samsung from these measures. US companies will be able to continue supplying their production facilities in China.
Many of the rules aim to block foreign companies from selling advanced chips or chipmaking technologies and tools to China. However, the US government will need to “lean” on those countries to introduce similar measures.
Most advanced chips are manufactured in South Korea and Taiwan. If they continue to export to China, they will allow China to bypass US restrictions.
On Saturday, the Chinese government criticised the new US chip export ban, calling it a violation of International economic and trade rules that will “isolate and backfire” on the US.
Out of the need to maintain its sci-tech hegemony, the U.S. abuses export control measures to maliciously block and suppress Chinese companies.
It will not only damage the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies, but also affect American companies’ interest.
– Mao Ning, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson
Despite Mao’s assertions that US actions will not stop China’s progress, the new wide-ranging chip and chipmaking export ban will undoubtedly be detrimental to the Chinese semiconductor industry, and set back its attempts at indigenous production by many years.
On the other hand, this export ban will spur China to redouble its efforts to develop its own chipmaking capabilities, and possibly “strike back” by restricting exports of rare earths to US companies.
US Chip Export Rules Affecting Chinese Companies Summarised
Here is a summary of the new restrictions that take effect on Friday (October 7, 2022):
Tools that are capable of producing logic chips made using fin field-effect transistors (FinFET) are blocked from sale to China.
Tools capable of fabricating NAND flash storage chips with 128-layer technology or greater, and DRAM based on 18-nanometer half-pitch or less technology are blocked from sale to China.
Servicing and maintenance of restricted tools are also banned, which would prevent keeping advanced equipment in good enough shape to keep producing quality chips at high volume.
US citizens currently servicing or supporting tools on the restricted list must halt their activities by Wednesday, October 12.
Export of items that China can use to make its own chip manufacturing tools, such as a photolithography light source and other specialised components are also blocked from sale to China.
The US Commerce Department also enacted these additional measures on Friday:
31 Chinese entities were added to the Unverified List, which consists of companies that the US government believes could divert technology that they purchase to restricted entities.
The Commerce Department expanded the scope of controls for the 28 Chinese firms already on the US Entity List, including presumptively denying any licenses because of the risk they will divert technology to the Chinese military.
Then two weeks later, these restrictions will take effect on Friday, October 21, 2022:
Using a new foreign direct product rule, the U.S. will block any chips that used in advanced computing and artificial intelligence applications.
The foreign direct product rule can block chips made by non-US companies — including Chinese chip designers — if they use American technology or software.
TSMC may be forced by this new rule to halt production on advanced AI or supercomputer chips designed by Chinese firms that are fabricated in Taiwan, unless it gets an exemption.
A new foreign direct product rule will apply to components and chips destined for supercomputers in China.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
The Biden Administration is planning to hit China with more restrictions on chip supplies, as well as chipmaking technology!
Biden To Hit China With More Chip Restrictions!
Sources familiar with the matter just revealed to Channel News Asia that the Biden Administration plans to hit China with more more restrictions on chip supplies, as well as chipmaking technology.
In September 2022, the US Commerce Department intends to publish new regulations for the semiconductor industry, based on :
restrictions that earlier applied only to KLA Corporation, Lam Research Corporation, and Applied Material Incorporated.
The first three US companies received letters from the US Commerce Department, explicitly forbidding them from exporting chipmaking equipment to Chinese factories that produce sub-14 nanometer semiconductors without special export licences.
AMD and NVIDIA, on the other hand, received letters informing them that they were now banned from selling high-performance AI chips to China (as well as Russia) without special export licences.
On top of those restrictions, the US Commerce Department will likely impose additional chip restrictions on China.
The US Chamber of Commerce claims last week that the Commerce Department plans to add more Chinese supercomputing entities to a trade blacklist.
Why Biden Is Introducing More Chip Restrictions On China
The US Commerce Department issued those 5 companies the so-called “is informed” letters to quickly impose restrictions without going through the lengthy rule-writing process, but they would only apply to companies that receive them.
That leaves open the possibility for other companies to bypass those restrictions, or offer comparable chips or technologies to the Chinese as an alternative.
For example, NVIDIA is banned from selling their A100 artificial intelligence chips to Chinese companies. However, China can still purchase servers containing NVIDIA A100 chips from Dell Technologies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro Computer.
Hence, the new regulations serve to codify those restrictions and apply them across the board, preventing those chips and technologies from “leaking” to China.
As a general rule, we look to codify any restrictions that are in is-informed letters with a regulatory change.
– Senior US Commerce Department official
The Biden Administration has also reached out to US allies to lobby them into enacting similar restrictions, to prevent China from obtaining critical chips and technologies through other sources.
This move comes after the US Congress voted to pass the historic CHIPS and Science Act, which not only provides semiconductor companies with billions of dollars of funding, but also blocks them from building advanced chip fabs in China.
The Biden Administration appears to be more cognisant than the Trump Administration of the risks of permitting China continued access to advanced semiconductors and chipmaking technologies.
The Chinese government has become very belligerent and aggressive in the South China Sea, and cutting access to advanced chips will reduce its ability to build more advanced missiles like the Dong-Feng 21 (DF-21) and the YJ-12.
China is also a source of chips that Russia desperately needs to build its own advanced missiles, so these rules would also prevent that possibility.
By blocking China’s access to advanced chips, the hope is that it will preclude hostilities from breaking out in Asia, and force an earlier and better conclusion of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Both AMD and NVIDIA have just been banned from selling high-performance AI chips to both China and Russia!
Here is what you need to know…
AMD, NVIDIA Banned From Selling AI Chips To China + Russia!
On Friday, 26 August 2022, NVIDIA and AMD were both ordered by the US government to stop exporting high-performance AI chips to both China and Russia.
In its regulatory filing to the SEC, NVIDIA stated that the US government introduced this ban to prevent them from being used for military purposes, or by the Chinese or Russian military.
The ban uses the A100 Tensor Core GPU as the baseline for NVIDIA, and the 3rd Gen Instinct MI250 accelerator chip for AMD.
Effective immediately, anything equal to, or faster than, the NVIDIA A100 or the AMD Instinct MI250 can no longer be exported to either China or Russia. That includes the upcoming H100 chip.
On August 26, 2022, the U.S. government, or USG, informed NVIDIA Corporation, or the Company, that the USG has imposed a new license requirement, effective immediately, for any future export to China (including Hong Kong) and Russia of the Company’s A100 and forthcoming H100 integrated circuits.
DGX or any other systems which incorporate A100 or H100 integrated circuits and the A100X are also covered by the new license requirement.
The license requirement also includes any future NVIDIA integrated circuit achieving both peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O performance equal to or greater than thresholds that are roughly equivalent to the A100, as well as any system that includes those circuits. A license is required to export technology to support or develop covered products.
The USG indicated that the new license requirement will address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia. The Company does not sell products to customers in Russia.
I should point out that the NVIDIA A100 was launched two years ago – on June 22, 2020, while the AMD Instinct MI250 was introduced on November 8, 2021.
So it appears that the US government wants to maintain at least a 1-year advantage in high-performance AI chips.
AMD, NVIDIA Set To Lose Billions From AI Chip Sales To China!
Both AMD and NVIDIA stopped selling chips to Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine, so there is no material loss from such a ban on sales to Russia.
However, they both stand to lose billions of dollars worth of sales to China. NVIDIA alone estimates that the ban will affect US$400 million of sales, just in the third fiscal quarter.
Even more worrying was the likelihood that this ban may delay the H100 chip’s launch, and force NVIDIA to move “certain operations” out of China.
The new license requirement may impact the Company’s ability to complete its development of H100 in a timely manner or support existing customers of A100 and may require the Company to transition certain operations out of China.
AMD however claims that the ban will not have a material impact on its business, because shipments of its less powerful MI100 chips are not affected.
At this time, we do not believe that shipments of MI100 integrated circuits are impacted by the new requirements.
We do not currently believe it is a material impact on our business.
Both AMD and NVIDIA will now have to discuss with their customers in China on using alternative (less powerful) chips, or obtaining special licenses from the US government.
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
Is Malaysia preparing to break Western sanctions, and supply Russia with electronics and semiconductors?!
Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!
Claim : Malaysia Preparing To Supply Russia With Semiconductors!
People are sharing a GizChina article that claims that Malaysia is preparing to supply Russia with electronics and semiconductors against Western sanctions!
Here is what the article says… It’s long so please feel free to skip to the next section for the facts…
It looks like Malaysia is prepping to supply electronics and semiconductors to Russia amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine. This piece of information has been confirmed by the Malaysian Ambassador to the Russian Federation, Bala Chandran Tharman.
He announced that the Southeast Asian country will consider any requests from Russia for providing electronics, as well as semiconductors. Notably, this comes at a time when Western countries are sparing no effort to single out Russia after its gratuitous attack on Ukraine.
Aside from this, Multiple Asian tech giants have been imposing sanctions in a bid to isolate Russia. Following in the footsteps of Huawei, Chinese company BOE recently clarified it does not have a production line in Russia. However, there are still some countries that aren’t willing to wreak havoc on their relationship with Russia.
Now, Malaysia said it will not shy away from supplying electronics and semiconductors to Russia if it needs them. To recall, Bala Chandran even confirmed that Malaysian financial institutions will join the Russian financial messaging system, provided they meet specific criteria.
Tharman told Sputnik (via The Edge Market) that all partner countries that are doing business with Russia are now looking into opportunities to take the business forward. Now, Bala Chandran said Malaysia will investigate Russia’s request for semiconductors and electronics.
Aside from this, he pointed out that the Malaysian economy is market-driven. So, the country will unhesitatingly take any request for products from Russia into consideration. However, Bala Chandran clarified that he isn’t aware of any ongoing conversations at the government level.
Last month, Taiwan said that Malaysia can play a vital role in ending the global shortage of auto semiconductors, and specifically ease the challenge related to auto semiconductors packaging. Notably, the ambassador said he is glad people consider Malaysia as a potential high-tech equipment supplier to Russia.
Furthermore, he even hinted at a potential business-to-business association with the Russian Federation. Malaysia is a major exporter of semiconductors, offering a volume of $8.7 billion every year.
Moreover, Malaysia’s electronics sector incorporates more than 6 percent of the country’s GDP. Since Malaysia is a trade state, the ambassador claims that the country’s business sector will acknowledge products’ demand and supply in the global market.
The country will actively respond to the requirement of electronic gadgets, respond, and semiconductors in the global market. To recall, both Malaysia and Vietnam do not support sanctions on Russia. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Western countries imposed harsh sanctions on Moscow.
Truth : Malaysia NOT Preparing To Supply Russia With Semiconductors!
The truth is – GizChina made up this story, and here are the reasons why…
Fact #1 : Mahathir Is No Longer Prime Minister Of Malaysia
GizChina does not seem to be aware that Dr. Mahathir Mohamad has not been the Prime Minister of Malaysia since he stepped down on 24 February 2020.
They hilariously used the photo of Dr. Mahathir with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was taken at the 33rd ASEAN Summit in Singapore, in 2018.
Mahathir wasn’t even mentioned in their article. They could have used a photo of the Malaysian Ambassador to Russia, Bala Chandran Tharman…
Please don’t tell them they thought that this was a picture of the Malaysian Ambassador to Russia with Putin…
Fact #2 : GizChina Offered No Evidence
GizChina offered ZERO evidence that Malaysia is preparing to go against Western sanctions, and supply Russia with semiconductors.
The writer, Vinay Patel, claimed that “this piece of information has been confirmed by the Malaysian ambassador to the Russian Federation, Bala Chandran Tharman“.
However, he offered no evidence to back up that claim. There was no link to any statement, or a quote of Bala Chandran confirming that Malaysia would be supplying Russia with semiconductors.
Fact #3 : Bala Chandran Did Not Say Malaysia Will Supply Russia With Semiconductors
Despite other sources claiming that Bala Chandran made that claim to RIA Novosti and Sputnik News, I could find no reference in their official websites.
The only legitimate news source I could find was a Bernama report on 23 April 2022, which stated :
In another development, Bala Chandran believes Malaysia would consider an opportunity to sell semiconductors and electronics to Russia.
“The Malaysian industry is market-oriented and I am absolutely sure that any request from the Russian party concerning such products will be considered,” the ambassador said.
He stressed that he was not aware of any current talks on the issues between the two countries.
Bala Chandran, as far as I can tell, never said that Malaysia would go against Western sanctions, and actually supply Russia with semiconductors.
He only said that “Malaysia would consider” the “opportunity to sell semiconductors and electronics to Russia“.
This is no different from a lady telling you that “she would consider” going out on a date with you. That could possibly happen, but it does NOT mean she actually agreed to go out on a date with you.
Fact #4 : Malaysia Is A Democracy With A Market Economy
Bala Chandran also pointed out that the Malaysian market is “market-oriented“. Malaysia has a market economy, and is not controlled by the government.
Malaysia is also a democratic country, not an autocratic / authoritarian state like China, where the government has massive power to control private / public enterprises.
In short, the Malaysian government cannot and does not dictate who Malaysian companies should sell to. Even if Malaysia wanted to sell semiconductors to Russia, it cannot simply order companies to do so.
Bala Chandran also clarified, he isn’t aware of any ongoing conversations at the government level. In other words, the Malaysian government itself has made no effort to sell or market semiconductors to Russia.
Fact #5 : Malaysia Does Not Own Semiconductor Companies
Malaysia has a number of homegrown semiconductor companies that provide critical support to multinational corporations like Intel, AMD, Agilent, Renata, Osram, Infineon and Broadcom.
However, they are private and public-listed companies and not owned by the Malaysian government, or beholden to it. Practically all of them have ties to Western companies that have to comply with Western sanctions against Russia.
Therefore, the Malaysian government cannot dictate who these companies should supply their products and services to. It can only say that “any request from the Russian party concerning such products will be considered“, and nothing more.
Fact #6 : Even Chinese Companies Are Avoiding Russia
Despite China coming out against economic sanctions imposed on Russia, Chinese companies are studiously avoiding breaking Western sanctions.
Even Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, explicitly said that “China is not a party to the crisis, nor does it want the sanctions to affect China.”
Companies placed under US sanctions, for example, will have all of their US assets and banned from trading with US companies.
If China does not dare to break Western sanctions against Russia, do you really expect Malaysia to break them? Do you expect private and public-listed companies to break Western sanctions?
As a warning shot, Singapore electronics wholesaler Alexsong Pte Ltd. was placed under US sanctions for facilitating “transactions that helped Russia evade sanctions“.
The truth is, for most companies, the Russian market is much too small to risk losing access to Western markets, capital and technologies.
Variants of this FAKE NEWS are now being shared in pro-Russia and pro-China websites.
Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out!
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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.
He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.
AMD unveiled a WHOLE SLEW of new products and technologies at Computex 2021!
Here is a recap of everything AMD announced at Computex 2021!
AMD @ Computex 2021 : Everything They Announced!
On 1 June 2021, AMD kicked off their virtual Computex 2021 press conference, announcing a whole slew of new products and technologies!
Let’s take a look at what AMD announced at Computex 2021!
3rd Gen EPYC Beats Intel Xeon Scalable!
AMD President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su showed how the dual-socket 3rd Gen EPYC 7763 system beat the dual-socket Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 system by 50%!
2P Intel Xeon Platinum 8380 delivered 201,334 Java operations per second
2P AMD EPYC 7763 delivered 301,297 Java operations per second
This is because the EPYC 7763 has far more cores than the Xeon Platinum 8380 – 64 cores versus just 40 cores!
AMD RDNA 2 Coming To Automotive + Mobile!
AMD is working to bring the RDNA 2 gaming architecture to industry leaders in the automotive and mobile segments :
Tesla Model S + Model X
The new infotainment systems in the Tesla Model S and Model X are powered by an AMD Ryzen Embedded APU, with an AMD RDNA 2-based GPU capable of AAA gaming!
Samsung Exynos
The next-generation Samsung Exynos SoC will feature custom AMD RDNA 2-based graphics IP, that will introduce raytracing and variable rate shading capabilities to flagship mobile devices!
AMD Ryzen 5000G Desktop APUs
Dr. Lisa Su also announced that they are introducing two AMD Ryzen 5000G series desktop APUs, that will be available to the DIY market starting 5 August 2021.
AMD Ryzen 7 5700G
The AMD Ryzen 7 5700G has an 8-core, 16-thread processor, with a base clock of 3.8 GHz and a boost clock of 4.6 GHz.
It has 4 GB of L2 cache, and 16 GB of L3 cache; and 8-core integrated Radeon graphics clocked at 2.0 GHz.
This 65 watt desktop APU will have a launch price of US$359.
AMD Ryzen 5 5600G
The AMD Ryzen 5 5600G has an 6-core, 12-thread processor, with a base clock of 3.9 GHz and a boost clock of 4.4 GHz.
It has 3 GB of L2 cache, and 16 GB of L3 cache; and 7-core integrated Radeon graphics clocked at 1.9 GHz.
This 65 watt desktop APU will have a launch price of US$259.
AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 Series Desktop CPUs
While not mentioned in the main Computex 2021 press conference, AMD also launched the Ryzen PRO 5000 series desktop processors based on the Zen 3 core!
You can get the full details in this official AMD deep dive into the Ryzen PRO 5000 series desktop processors!
AMD Radeon RX 6000M Series Mobile Graphics
Scott Herkelman, Vice President & General Manager of AMD Graphics Business Unit, officially announced the introduction of the Radeon RX 6000M series mobile graphics for laptop gaming.
AMD Radeon RX 6800M
Their flagship model has a 2.3 GHz game clock and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, and is designed to deliver 120 fps gaming at 1440p.
AMD says that it will offer significantly better performance than the competition :
40% to 70% better gaming performance than the GeForce RTX 2070 at 1440p Max Settings.
14% to 40% better gaming performance than the GeForce RTX 3080 while gaming on battery.
AMD Radeon RX 6700M
This model has a 2.3 GHz game clock and 10 GB of GDDR6 memory, and is designed to deliver 100 fps gaming at 1440p.
AMD Radeon RX 6600M
This model has a 2.177 GHz game clock and 8 GB of GDDR6 memory, and is designed to deliver 100 fps gaming at 1080p.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR)
FidelityFX Super Resolution, or FSR for short, is AMD’s spatial upscaling technology that is designed to boost frame rates, while delivering a high-quality gaming experience.
Think of it as AMD’s version of NVIDIA’s DLSS. But while DLSS is proprietary, FidelityFX Super Resolution is open-source, and will be supported on both AMD processors and GPUs as well as NVIDIA GPUs!
More than 10 game developers plan to integrate FSR into their top titles and gamer engines in 2021.
AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution (FSR) will be available starting 22 June 2021.
AMD Advantage Gaming Laptops
Think of AMD Advantage as a marketing programme, based around a “design framework” of premium gaming features.
Amplified Performance : AMD Ryzen processor + AMD Radeon RX 6800M graphics + AMD Radeon Software for gaming at 100 fps at 1080p
Built To Game : NVMe SSD, less than 40°C WASD keyboard temperatures when gaming, >10 hours binge watching on battery
AMD 3D Chiplet Technology
AMD continues to build on their packaging technologies with their new 3D Chiplet technology, developed in collaboration with TSMC.
It enhances their existing chipset architecture with 3D stacking using a hybrid bond approach that provides over 200X the interconnect density of 2D chipsets and more than 15X the density of existing 3D packaging solutions.
This new 3D chiplet technology also consumes less energy than current 3D solutions, and is the most flexible active-on-active silicon stacking technology.
In Computex 2021, Dr. Lisa Su showed off the 3D vertical SRAM cache bonded to an AMD Ryzen 5000 Series processor prototype.
AMD is on-track to begin production on high-end computing products with 3D chiplets by the end of 2021.
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Acer just introduced the 2021 Nitro 5 gaming laptop, powered by Ryzen 9 and GeForce RTX 3080!
Here is what you need to know about this new super-fast Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop!
2021 Acer Nitro 5 : Ryzen 9 + RTX 3080 FTW!
The 2021 Acer Nitro 5 just got a MASSIVE upgrade! You can now opt for the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX mobile processor, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics!
It even comes with two DDR4-3200 slots with up to 32 GB memory, and two M.2 slots of PCIe NVMe SSDs! On top of that, it comes with Wi-Fi 6 and Killer Ethernet E2600 connectivity built-in.
The 2021 Nitro 5 boasts a 15.6-inch IPS display with a 165 Hz refresh rate with a QHD resolution, or a stupendously fast 360 Hz refresh rate with a FHD resolution. Both options offer a 3 ms response time for minimal ghosting.
To ensure the 2021 Nitro 5 can withstand even the most intense gaming sessions, it features a revamped thermal system with dual fans and four exhaust fans. On top of that, Acer CoolBoost and NitroSense lets you monitor fan speed, and increase it when you need that extra performance.
It also comes with a multitude of ports – a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type C port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port with power off charging capability, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and HDMI 2.1 port and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
Acer is introducing six variants, in three phases, and here are their key specifications :
2021 Acer Nitro 5 : Pre-Order Deals!
As part of their Zero to Nitro campaign, Acer Malaysia is offering these pre-order deals for the 2021 Nitro 5!
27 to 29 April 2021
Get RM 200 TNG e-Wallet top-up, a Predator Hybrid Backpack, a Predator Galea 350 gaming headset and a Predator Mousepad worth RM 967 when you purchase :
Get RM 200 TNG e-Wallet top-up, a Predator Utility Backpack, a Predator Galea 350 gaming headset and a Predator Mousepad worth RM 967 when you purchase :
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NVIDIA finally released Resizable BAR support, and it is currently limited to RTX 30 series graphics cards only.
Here is what you need to know about Resizable BAR, and how to get your FREE performance boost!
NVIDIA Resizable BAR : What Is It?
Resizable BAR is an optional PCI Express feature, that can deliver a small but free boost in performance for the graphics card.
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. This of it as an “data dump” for stuff like textures, shaders and geometry.
Since this “data dump” is limited to 256 MB, the CPU can only send texture, shader and geometry data as and when the GPU requires them.
This introduces some latency – delay from when the GPU requires the data, and the CPU send them.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory greatly expands the size of that data dump, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.
Instead of transferring data when requested by the GPU, the CPU processes and stores the data directly in the graphics memory.
Graphics assets can be transferred to graphics memory in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.
Do note that Resizable BAR will not increase memory bandwidth.
What it does is let the CPU directly access the entire GPU frame buffer memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “dump”. That reduces latency because the graphics assets are now accessible by the GPU at all times.
NVIDIA Resizable BAR : Delayed From February 2021!
AMD was first out the door with Resizable BAR in November 2020, launching it as Smart Access Memory.
It gave their Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card a free performance boost of up to 16% in some games, but no effect in other games.
On 12 January 2021, NVIDIA announced that they will be able to introduce Resizable BAR support in GeForce drivers from Late February 2021 onwards.
They finally released Resizable Bar support on 30 March 2021, through GeForce Game Ready Driver 465.89.
It will be limited to their GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards and laptops, but will work with both Intel and AMD CPUs.
However, it’s not as simple as just installing GeForce Game Ready Driver 465.89.
The newly announced GeForce RTX 3060 will ship with support for Resizable BAR. However, older GeForce RTX 30 series cards will need to have their VBIOS updated from March 2021 onwards.
The motherboard must also be updated with Resizable BAR support. According to Intel, this will be limited to 11th Gen platforms, and select 10th Gen platforms.
So ironically, Resizable BAR will first work on GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards paired with AMD Ryzen 5000 processors and AMD 500-series motherboards!
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You may not know this, but HUAWEI just launched the MateStation S, which is just great for the new WFH normal!
Find out what the HUAWEI MateStation S offers, and why it is perfect for WFH!
HUAWEI MateStation S : Why It’s Perfect For WFH!
The HUAWEI MateStation S is their first-ever desktop PC, and is designed for the new WFH (Work From Home) normal.
What do we mean by that? Desktop computers are known for offering excellent performance, but are usually bulky, expensive and lack wireless connectivity.
The HUAWEI MateStation S changes that by offering desktop performance in a small package, with wireless connectivity and smart sharing capabilities.
In other words, you don’t have to worry about wires, space or battery life. Just plunk it anywhere at home, and you can start working!
Meanwhile, the HUAWEI AX3 Dual Core router with Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi Mesh capability is also coming soon, at just RM 199!
Super Compact!
The HUAWEI MateStation S is super compact. At 9 cm wide and 29 cm tall, with a cubic volume of just 8.6 litres, it is just a third of a standard PC case!
With a stylish star trail design, you can place it on your desk, under it, or even on a nearby bookshelf!
6-Core Powerful Performance!
The HUAWEI MateStation S is powered by the AMD Ryzen 5 4600G, a 7 nm processor with 6 cores for excellent multi-tasking performance.
It also comes with integrated 7-core Radeon Graphics, dual-channel memory, and a PCIe x4 NVMe SSD, which delivers ultra-quick start up and response times thanks to its 32 Gbps throughput.
Users have the option to add extra SSD / HDD and even RAM, if they wish to upgrade it after purchase. It comes with two M.2 2280 slots.
23.8-inch FullView Monitor!
It comes with a 23.8-inch FullView monitor, with ultra thin bezels that delivers a 90% screen-to-body ratio.
To ensure eye comfort during long hours of use, the monitor is flicker-free and TÜV Rheinland-certified for low blue light emissions.
Ultra-Quiet Cooling System
To ensure minimal noise impact on your home environment, the MateStation S comes with an ultra-quiet cooling system.
The fan features vertical blades, and works in tandem with a “high-density bionic heat sink” to deliver superior cooling performance at low noise levels.
The fan usually has a noise level of only 22 dB. Even at full throttle, it maxes out at 28 dB, so it won’t disturb anyone sleeping nearby.
Integrated Wireless Connectivity!
Unlike many desktops, the HUAWEI MateStation S offers the wireless connectivity of a laptop.
It comes with WiFi-AC – 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band with 2×2 MIMO – and Bluetooth 5.0 connectivity built-in.
So you can easily connect to the Internet and other devices, without worrying about cables!
But in case you need LAN connectivity, it also comes with an RJ45 Ethernet port!
Smart Connectivity!
The HUAWEI MateStation S supports improved HUAWEI Share capability, allowing you to easily share files, images and even text between two devices using drag-and-drop or a simple tap.
You can also connect your smartphone and open three mobile app windows on the large display at once. This allows you to handle multiple tasks on one display, improving your productivity.
For instance, you can attend a video call on one mobile app screen, and take notes on a second screen, while chatting with colleagues on a third screen.
Loads Of Ports!
The HUAWEI MateStation S offers loads of ports – something laptops lack, and many users desperately need.
In The Front
3.5 mm audio jack
USB 3.2 Gen 2 (Type A) port
USB 2.0 (Type C) port
We should point out that this USB Type C port in the front supports 18 watt fast charging for your smartphone, so you can plug it in to charge while using the MateStation S!
In The Back
Audio input port
Audio output port
Microphone input port
HDMI port
VGA port
2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (Type A) ports
2 x USB 2.0 (Type A) ports
RJ45 Ethernet port
Serial port
The HDMI port connects to any monitor or TV, while the VGA and serial ports offer backward compatibility with many commercial and industrial devices, like projectors and bar code scanners.
Smart Keyboard!
The HUAWEI MateStation S comes with a HUAWEI Wired Keyboard with a built-in fingerprint sensor.
This makes it the world’s first desktop to feature a fingerprint power on and unlock capability! A single touch is all it needs to power on and log-in.
This is a full-sized keyboard with a numeric keypad, and a scissor key mechanism that offers 2.5 mm key travel.
Each key measures 16.05 x 6.05 mm, offering a comfortable touch type experience with tactile feedback.
HUAWEI MateStation S : Price + Availability
The HUAWEI MateStation S is available for sale with immediate effect at these launch prices :
Desktop + Keyboard : RM 2,488
Desktop + Monitor + Keyboard : RM 2,999
Every purchase of the full bundle (including monitor) will receive FREE GIFTS worth up to RM 855* upon purchase.
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The new mobile processors also uses a single, monolithic die, which eliminates the I/O latency between dies.
Placeholder : AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 tech briefing video coming soon!
In addition to its improved performance, the AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 mobile processors also come with these AMD PRO technologies :
AMD PRO security provides a multi-layered approach to security features by embedding defenses at every level, from silicon through operating system.
– AMD Memory Guard, automatically enabled on Microsoft Secured-Core PCs, helps enable data and identity protection, while
– AMD Shadow Stack helps provide hardware enabled protection against malware attacks.
AMD PRO manageability enables a full manageability feature set for simplified deployment, imaging and management that is compatible with modern IT infrastructures.
AMD Ryzen PRO processors offer full support for Microsoft Endpoint Manager to deliver a flexible and integrated cloud management solution.
AMD PRO business ready technologies bring enterprise-grade computing solutions designed for quality and reliability, in addition to platform longevity.
AMD Ryzen PRO processors feature 18-months of planned software stability and 24-months of planned availability.
AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 : Models + Specifications
AMD announced three Ryzen PRO 5000 models to replace the three Ryzen PRO 4000 models from last year.
Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U : 8C/16T | 15W | 1.9 to 4.4 GHz | 20 MB cache
Ryzen 5 PRO 5650U : 6C/12T | 15W | 2.3 to 4.2 GHz | 19 MB cache
Ryzen 3 PRO 5450U : 4C/8T | 15W | 2.6 to 4.0 GHz | 10 MB cache
For easier comparison, here is a table comparing their key specifications :
Specifications
Ryzen 7
PRO
5850U
Ryzen 5
PRO
5650U
Ryzen 3
PRO
5450U
Process
7 nm
Cores / Threads
8 / 16
6 / 12
4 / 8
Base Clock
1.9 GHz
2.3 GHz
2.6 GHz
Boost Clock
4.4 GHz
4.2 GHz
4.0 GHz
L2 Cache
4 MB
3 MB
2 MB
L3 Cache
16 MB
8 MB
TDP
15 W
AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 : Availability
According to AMD, enterprise customers will be able to purchase the new Ryzen PRO 5000 laptops from top PC vendors like HP and Lenovo starting in Q2, 2021.
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Find out what AMD Smart Access Memory is all about, and how to turn it on for a FREE BOOST in performance!
Smart Access Memory : PCIe Resizable BAR for AMD!
Smart Access Memory is AMD’s marketing term for their implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
What does that mean exactly?
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. This of it as an “data dump” for stuff like textures, shaders and geometry.
Since this “data dump” is limited to 256 MB, the CPU can only send texture, shader and geometry data as and when the GPU requires them.
This introduces some latency – delay from when the GPU requires the data, and the CPU send them.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory greatly expands the size of that data dump, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.
Instead of transferring data when requested by the GPU, the CPU processes and stores the data directly in the graphics memory.
Graphics assets can be transferred to graphics memory in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.
While this AMD graphic above suggests that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path (and thus memory bandwidth) between the CPU and GPU, that is not true.
Smart Access Memory / Resizable BAR will not increase memory bandwidth.
What it does is let the CPU directly access the entire GPU frame buffer memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “dump”. That reduces latency because the graphics assets are now accessible by the GPU at all times.
AMD Smart Access Memory : Performance Gains
According to AMD, enabling Smart Access Memory will give you a small but free boost of 5% to 11% in gaming performance.
You can expect up to 16% better performance in some games, but no effect in certain games. But overall, you get a free boost in performance. There is simply no reason not to enable Smart Access Memory.
1080p Resolution (1920 x 1080)
1440p Resolution (2560 x 1440)
2160p Resolution (3840 x 2160)
AMD Smart Access Memory : Requirements
Since Smart Access Memory is just an AMD implementation of PCI Express Resizable BAR. Therefore, it can be be implemented for all PCI Express 3.0 and PCI Express 4.0 graphics cards and motherboards.
If you have all of those supported components above, and updated your motherboard BIOS, you need to manually enable Smart Access Memory.
Now, the method will vary from motherboard to motherboard, and it probably won’t even be called Smart Access Memory.
Instead, look for variations of Above 4G Decoding, or Resizing BAR, or Resizable BAR, or Re-Size BAR Support.
AMD Generic Method
AMD has provided these generic steps to enable Smart Access Memory :
Enter the System BIOS by press <DEL> or <F12> during the system startup.
Navigate to the Advanced Settings or Advanced menu.
Enable “Above 4G Decoding” and “Re-Size BAR Support“.
Save the changes and restart the computer.
Step-by-Step Method For ASUS Crosshair VIII Hero
In our guide, we are using the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII Hero (AMD X570) motherboard, as an example :
First you will need to turn off CSM (Compatibility Support Module), or make sure it’s disabled.Go to the Boot menu and look for a CSM / Compatibility Support Module option.
Set CSM (Compatibility Support Module) to Disabled.
Go to the Advanced menu and look for the PCI Subsystem. In other motherboards, look for PCIe / PCI Express configuration options.
Enable Above 4G Decoding.
This will give you access to the Re-Size BAR Support option. Set it to Auto.
Now go to the Exit menu, and select Save Changes & Reset.
It will ask you to confirm the changes. Just verify both, and click OK.
CSM is disabled by default for the ASUS, ASRock and MSI motherboards. However, it is enabled by default in the GIGABYTE AORUS X570 Master.
If you installed Windows without first turning CSM off, it will be configured as non-UEFI. It will NOT boot if you enable Resizable BAR Support (Smart Access Memory).
You will need to reinstall Windows with CSM support disabled.
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Smart Access Memory : How Does It Boost Ryzen 3000 Performance?
Smart Access Memory is AMD’s marketing term for their implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
What does that mean exactly?
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. This of it as an “data dump” for stuff like textures, shaders and geometry.
Since this “data dump” is limited to 256 MB, the CPU can only send texture, shader and geometry data as and when the GPU requires them.
This introduces some latency – delay from when the GPU requires the data, and the CPU send them.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory greatly expands the size of that data dump, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.
Instead of transferring data when requested by the GPU, the CPU processes and stores the data directly in the graphics memory.
Graphics assets can be transferred to graphics memory in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.
While this AMD graphic above suggests that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path (and thus memory bandwidth) between the CPU and GPU, that is not true.
Smart Access Memory / Resizable BAR will not increase memory bandwidth.
What it does is let the CPU directly access the entire GPU frame buffer memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “dump”. That reduces latency because the graphics assets are now accessible by the GPU at all times.
Smart Access Memory For Ryzen 3000 : Requirements
This is what you currently require to enable AMD Smart Access Memory for Ryzen 3000 desktop processors :
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The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT is here, and it only costs $479… if you can find one!
Here is what you need to know about the new 1440p gaming card from AMD!
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Official Launch Briefing!
AMD is targeting the Radeon RX 6700 XT at 1440p gamers, with its 40 enhanced Compute Units and 12 GB GDDR6 memory.
Let’s start with the official launch briefing by Scott Herkelman, Corporate Vice President & General Manager at the AMD Graphics Business Unit.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Key Features
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards are built on the new RDNA 2 architecture, which features an enhanced Compute Unit, a new visual pipeline with Ray Accelerators, and the new AMD Infinity Cache.
The Ryzen 5000 processor is given greater access to its GDDR6 graphics memory, providing up to 13% better performance when combined with the new Rage Mode one-click overclocking setting.
They will support the next-generation games with greater realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR) and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator
Every RDNA 2 computer unit has a new fixed-function Ray Accelerator engine to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and refection realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
It can be paired with AMD FidelityFX to enable hybrid rendering, offering a combination of rasterised and ray-traced effects for a blend of better image quality and higher performance.
Variable Rate Shading (VRS)
Variable Rate Shading dynamically reduces the shading rate for areas of the frame that do not require a high level of visual quality, improving performance at little to no perceptible loss in image quality.
Microsoft DirectStorage Support
They will support the future DirectStorage API for faster load times, and high-quality textures.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Specifications
The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT headlines the Radeon RX 6000 series :
Here is a table comparing their key specifications :
Specifications
RX
6900 XT
RX
6800 XT
RX
6800
RX 6700
XT
Transistors
26.8 billion
NA
Fab Process
7 nm
TGP
300 W
250 W
230 W
Compute Units
80
72
60
40
Ray Accelerators
80
72
60
40
Stream Processors
5120
4608
3840
2560
Game Clock
2015 MHz
2015 MHz
1815 MHz
2424 MHz
Boost Clock
2250 MHz
2250 MHz
2105 MHz
2581 MHz
TFLOPS
23.04
20.74
16.17
13.21
TMUs
320
288
240
192
Max. Texture Rate
720 GT/s
648 GT/s
505 GT/s
495 GT/s
ROPs
128
96
64
Max. Pixel Rate
288 GP/s
202 GP/s
165 GP/s
Infinity Cache
128 MB
Graphics
Memory
16 GB GDDR6
12 GB GDDR6
Bus Width
256-bit
192-bit
Bandwidth
512 GB/s
384 GB/s
PCIe Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
PCIe Power
2 x 8-pin
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Performance
AMD shared these performance charts to demonstrate its gaming performance at the 1440p resolution, beating the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti.
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT : Price + Availability
At launch, the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT has a SEP (Suggested E-tail Price) of US$479, which is approximately £343 / A$614 / S$638 / RM1,940.
The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT will be available from AMD board partners like ASRock, ASUS, GIGABYTE, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire and XFX starting 18 March 2021.
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Lenovo just introduced four 2021 YOGA laptop models – Yoga 6 AMD, Yoga Slim 9i, Yoga 9i and Yoga Slim 7i Carbon.
Confused? Hear from Lenovo themselves, and we will give you a quick run down of all four models!
2021 Lenovo YOGA Laptop Models Revealed!
The Yoga is Lenovo’s top-of-the-line consumer sub-brand, and is designed to offer refined craftsmanship and stunning design, for “consumers with sophisticated taste”.
Lenovo Yoga 6 AMD
The 2021 Lenovo Yoga 6 AMD is their first-generation consumer convertible laptop, that uses a hybrid design of metal and soft-touch materials wrapped in blue fabric.
This 13.3-inch, 2-in-1 convertible laptop features an AMD Ryzen 4000 series mobile processor with optional AMD Radeon graphics, with up to 16 GB of DDR4 memory an 1 TB of SSD storage.
It comes with a Full HD touch screen display, with narrow bezels and a backlit keyboard. It also comes with front facing stereo speakers that support Dolby Atmos.
Weighing only 1.32 kg, the Yoga 6 AMD offers up to 18 hours of battery life with a 60 Whr battery.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i
The 2021 Lenovo Yoga Slim 9i offers an exquisite Shadow Black genuine leather cover bonded to an aluminium chassis for a better feel and greater durability.
Built around the 11th Gen Intel Core processors, with Intel Xe Graphics, this 14-inch laptop is just 13.9 mm thick, and weighs just 1.29 kg.
Lenovo also offers a more powerful 15-inch option, powered by the 10th Gen Intel Core i9 HK-series mobile processor, and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti with Max-Q Design graphics.
Both models offer up to 16 GB of LPDDR4X memory and up to 2 TB of PCIe SSD storage, with three USB-C Thunderbolt 4 ports.
Lenovo Yoga 9i
The 2021 Lenovo Yoga 9i offers an exquisite Shadow Black genuine leather cover bonded to an aluminium chassis, as well as an all-metal Mica option.
They both come with an edge-to-edge Glass Palm Rest with an encased Smart Sensor Touchpad with haptic feedback.
Built around the 11th Gen Intel Core processors, with Intel Xe Graphics, this 14-inch convertible laptop features thermal venting holes under the keyboard to lower its temperature by two degrees Celsius compared to the previous generation.
Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon
The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i Carbon is an ultra-light 13.3-inch laptop, with a 16:10 display and a thickness of just 14.25 mm and a weight of just 966 grams.
This is an Intel Evo-certified laptop, with a stunning Moon White finish, and a chassis made from carbon fibre with an anti-fingerprint finish.
2021 Lenovo YOGA Models : Price + Availability
All four 2021 Lenovo Yoga laptop models are available for purchase, with immediate effect, at these starting prices :
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HP just unveiled their 2021 OMEN 15 gaming laptop, codenamed Valkyrie – powered by both AMD and NVIDIA!
2021 HP OMEN 15 (Valkyrie) Gaming Laptop
Codenamed Valkyrie, the 2021 HP OMEN 15 gaming laptop is a 15.6-inch laptop built with serious gaming in mind, with a sleek and modern minimalistic design!
15.6-inch IPS Display
The 2021 HP OMEN 15 comes with a large 15.6-inch IPS display, with a Full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels.
You can opt for a 144 Hz refresh rate, as well as a premium 144 Hz display with 300 nits brightness and 72% NTSC colour gamut.
Gaming Performance
The 2021 HP OMEN 15 is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 5000 series processor, and paired with up to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 graphics!
It is kept cool by the OMEN Tempest Cooling Technology, with 3-sided venting and 5-way airflow, to ensure maximum performance even during prolonged gaming sessions!
Memory + Storage
The 2021 HP OMEN 15 comes with up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 memory, in dual-channel mode for maximum performance.
You can equip it with up to a 1 TB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD, or up to two 256 GB SSDs in RAID 0 mode for super-fast transfers.
Connectivity
The 2021 HP OMEN 15 comes with Gigabit LAN wired connectivity built in, and offers either Intel Wi-Fi 6 or Realtek Wi-Fi 5 wireless connectivity.
Audio
You do not have to rely on headphones for maximum gaming enjoyment. The new OMEN 15 comes with Bang & Olufsen speakers and support for DTS:X Ultra!
Gaming Keyboard
The 2021 HP OMEN 15 comes with an island-style backlit keyboard with integrated numeric keypad.
You have the option of simple dragon red backlighting, or RGB backlighting with 4 independent zones.
2021 HP OMEN 15 (Valkyrie) : Specifications + Options
The 2021 HP OMEN 15 gaming laptop comes with these specifications and configuration options :
Up to 1 TB PCIe NVMe TLC SSD
Up to 2 x 256 GB PCIe NVMe TLC SSDs
Card Reader
SD card reader
Audio
Bang & Olfusen dual speakers
DTS:X Ultra support
Networking
Gigabit LAN
Wireless Options
Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX200 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.0
Realtek Wi-Fi 5 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.0
I/O Ports
1 x USB 3.0 Type C with DisplayPort 1.4
1 x USB 3.0 Type A with Sleep + Charge
2 x USB 3.0 Type A
1 x RJ45 LAN port
1 x headphone / mic combo port
1 x Mini DisplayPort
1 x HDMI 2.0a
Camera
HD camera with dual-array digital mic
IR thermal sensor
Keyboard Options
1-zone dragon red backlit keyboard
4-zone RGB backlit keyboard
Touchpad
HP Imagepad Touchpad
Battery Options
6-cell Li-Po, 70.9 Wh
3-cell Li-Po, 52.5 Wh
Charger
150 / 200 watt charger
Dimensions
357.96 mm wide
239.7 mm deep
22.5 mm thick
Weight
2.37 kg
2021 HP OMEN 15 : Price + Availability
The new HP OMEN 15 gaming laptop has a starting price of RM 3,899 (about US$965 / £684 / A$1,220 / S$1,272).
It comes with 2-years of Accidental Protection Damage warranty, and is available from the HP Online Store in Malaysia right now.
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If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
NVIDIA just announced that they will introduce Resizable BAR support at the end of February 2021!
Find out what Resizable BAR is all about, and why it matters!
Resizable BAR : What Is It?
Resizable BAR is an optional PCI Express feature, that can deliver a small but free boost in performance for the graphics card.
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address region for the GPU frame buffer. The CPU can only transfer data like textures, shaders and geometry to the GPU through that small 256 MB “window”.
Turning on Resizable BAR expands that small access window, letting the CPU directly access the GPU’s entire frame buffer memory.
Those graphics assets can thus be sent in full, instead of in pieces. In addition, multiple transfers can occur simultaneously, instead of being queued up.
NVIDIA To Introduce Resizable BAR In February 2021!
AMD was first out the door with Resizable BAR in November 2020, launching it as Smart Access Memory.
It gave their Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card a free performance boost of up to 16% in some games, but no effect in other games.
On 12 January 2021, NVIDIA announced that they will be able to introduce Resizable BAR support in GeForce drivers from Late February 2021 onwards.
It will be limited to their GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards and laptops, but will work with both Intel and AMD CPUs.
The newly announced GeForce RTX 3060 will ship with support for Resizable BAR. However, older GeForce RTX 30 series cards will need to have their VBIOS updated from March 2021 onwards.
The motherboard must also be updated with Resizable BAR support. According to Intel, this will be limited to 11th Gen platforms, and select 10th Gen platforms.
So ironically, Resizable BAR will first work on GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards paired with AMD Ryzen 5000 processors and AMD 500-series motherboards!
If you like this review, please support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD partnered with The Pixelary to create a series of awesome 3D rendered images of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance car.
Watch how they managed to cut the rendering time by half using Radeon ProRender 2.0, and get those high-resolution desktop wallpapers!
Watch AMD Radeon ProRender 2.0 Render Mercedes-AMG F1 Car!
The 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix marked the end of the 2020 Formula One season, and the first year of the AMD partnership with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.
To showcase that relationship, AMD worked with the team, and The Pixelary to create a series of 3D renders of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance car.
When the new Radeon ProRender 2.0 was released, they rendered them again using the new Radeon RX 6900 XT, and discovered that it cut their rendering time by half!
Mike Pan of The Pixelary explained how much faster the new combination proved to be :
In some tests performed by AMD, when using the “Full” Radeon ProRender 2.0 render quality mode with the AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card that supports hardware ray tracing, the image above rendered in 516 sec, compared to 1065 sec when rendered with the AMD Radeon VII graphics card that does not support hardware ray tracing.
That is up to a 2.1x reduction in render time [3], which is quite an improvement! On top of that, Radeon ProRender 2.0 also has improved multi-GPU scaling so if we were able to render the same image with two Radeon RX 6900 XT’s, the render times would improve even more.
FREE Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance Wallpapers From AMD!
AMD and The Pixelary also made available these incredible photorealistic images of the Mercedes-AMG F1 W11 EQ Performance as high-resolution wallpapers for FREE!
Every download comes with the wallpaper in six different resolutions :
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Quake 2 RTX now supports Vulkan Ray Tracing, which means it will also work on AMD graphics cards! Here are the details!
Quake 2 RTX : What Is It?
Initially released in June 2019, Quake II RTX revamps the classic first-person shooter game with ray-traced lighting, shadows and reflections.
In addition to the ray tracing effects, NVIDIA also introduced new path-traced visual effects, improved texturing and dozens of other changes and improvements.
Quake 2 RTX Now Supports Vulkan Ray Tracing!
Quake 2 RTX originally supported only NVIDIA RTX cards, but the newly-released version 1.4.0 adds support for the new Vulkan Ray Tracing API.
Quake 2 RTX 1.4.0 will dynamically between the pre-existing NVIDIA VKRay and the new Khronos Vulkan ray tracing extension, making it the world’s first cross-vendor ray tracing Vulkan game!
This means it can now run on any GPU that supports the “VK_KHR_ray_tracing_pipeline” extension, including the recently-launched AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards.
The Quake 2 RTX 1.4.0 also adds temporal upscaling, TAAU, for improved image quality at lower resolution scales.
Quake 2 RTX : Vulkan Ray Tracing Requirements
To try out its new Vulkan Ray Tracing capability, this is what you require :
Download and install Quake 2 RTX 1.4.0 or newer
AMD – Requires Radeon RX 6000 series, or future RDNA 2, cards. – Upgrade to Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 20.11.2 Beta or newer
NVIDIA
– Requires GeForce RTX / Quadro RTX graphics cards.
– Upgrade to Game Ready Driver 460.89 (Windows) or 460.27.04 (Linux), or newer
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ability to customise voltages and frequencies to a specific processor.
Precision Boost Overdrive 2 : Curve Optimizer
The new adaptive undervolting capability in Precision Boost Overdrive 2 (PBO2) is achieved through the Curve Optimizer.
The new Curve Optimizer tells the firmware what window of undervolting is desired, and adapts to both light and heavy workloads.
Undervolting, however, will not be done with raw millivolts. Instead, it will be applied with “counts“.
1 Count is approximately 3 mV ~ 5 mV. This range means less undervolting during high loads, and more undervolting when the load is lower.
You can adjust the voltage by +/- 30 Counts. 30 Counts would be a range of 90~150 mV.
The adjustments can be applied per core, or on all cores.
The Curve Optimizer algorithm is adaptive – so it will automatically underplot when the circumstances are suitable, and restore voltage when it needs to.
Precision Boost Overdrive 2 : Performance Boost
According to AMD, PBO2 offers better single-threaded performance than the original PBO.
Enabling it will let the Ryzen 7 5800X deliver 2.6% better 1T performance in CINEBENCH R20, while the Ryzen 9 5900X delivers 2% better 1T performance.
Hardly earth-shattering performance, but hey, it’s free!
Multi-threaded performance also gets a small but nice boost from PBO2.
AMD says the Ryzen 7 5800X should get a 2.2% boost, while the Ryzen 9 5900X gets a very nice 10% boost in multi-threaded performance!
Precision Boost Overdrive 2 : System Requirements
Here are the system requirements for Precision Boost Overdrive 2 to work :
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Find out what AMD Smart Access Memory is all about, and how much of a performance effect it really has on the Radeon RX 6800 XT graphics card!
RX 6800 XT Smart Access Memory : How Does It Improve Performance?
Smart Access Memory is really a marketing term for AMD’s implementation of the PCI Express Resizable BAR (Base Address Registers) capability.
CPUs are traditionally limited to a 256 MB I/O memory address “window” for the GPU frame buffer.
Turning on Resizable BAR or Smart Access Memory removes that small access window, letting the CPU directly access the Radeon RX 6800 XT‘s graphics memory.
While the AMD graphics above suggest that Smart Access Memory will widen the memory path, and thus memory bandwidth, between the CPU and GPU, that’s not true.
It does not increase memory bandwidth. Instead, it speeds up CPU to GPU communications, by letting the CPU directly access more of GPU memory, instead of using the usual 256 MB “window”.
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Sadly, it has now been confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 will NOT support ray tracing on AMD RDNA 2 graphics cards when it launches… 😥
Cyberpunk 2077 Ray Tracing on AMD Cards : Yes? No? Maybe?
Back in October 2020, CD PROJEKT RED art director Jakup Knapik confirmed, in a PC Gamer interview, that only NVIDIA GeForce cards will support ray tracing at launch.
However, CD PROJEKT RED lead PR manager Radek Adam Grabowski, later clarified that Cyberpunk 2077 ray tracing is based on DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
“CP2077’s implementation of ray tracing is based on fully standard DirectX Raytracing (DXR)”
Even NVIDIA’s Brian Burke noted that Cyberpunk 2077 uses the industry-standard DirectX Raytracing API :
“Cyberpunk 2077 uses the industry standard DirectX Ray Tracing API. It will work on any DXR-compatible GPU. Nothing related to Cyberpunk 2077 ray tracing is proprietary to NVIDIA”
Cyberpunk 2077 : Ray Tracing NOT Available For AMD Cards At Launch!
While they listed the new Radeon RX 6800 XT, it was for Cyberpunk 2077 without ray tracing. It was not mentioned in the “ray tracing enabled” section.
CD PROJEKT RED later confirmed that AMD Radeon RX 6000 series cards, which are based on the new RDNA 2 architecture, will NOT support ray tracing on Cyberpunk 2077 when it launches on 10 December 2020.
“We are working together with AMD to integrate ray tracing options for their graphics cards as quickly as possible,” CD PROJEKT RED wrote. “However, this will not be the case when the game launches.”
As Cyberpunk 2077 uses the industry-standard DirectX Raytracing (DXR) API, gamers are wondering – why isn’t it being implemented for AMD RDNA 2 cards?
Technically, they should be able to support ray tracing through the DXR API without any special modification in the. game.
Rumours have it that ray tracing for AMD RDNA 2 cards will be introduced via a patch in 2021.
Is it possible that CD PROJEKT RED worked out a deal with NVIDIA to reserve ray tracing support for GeForce cards for the first few months? 🤔
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The success of the AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards is entirely due to the new RDNA 2 architecture.
Take a look at what’s new in the AMD RDNA 2 architecture!
AMD RDNA 2 Architecture : Tech Highlights!
The AMD Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards are built on the new AMD RDNA 2 architecture, which features an enhanced Compute Unit, a new visual pipeline with Ray Accelerators, and the new AMD Infinity Cache.
AMD Infinity Cache
The AMD Infinity Cache is a new and very large 128 MB data cache. Think of it as an L3 cache for the GPU.
AMD added it to dramatically increase memory bandwidth, which reducing memory latency and power consumption.
They claim it delivers up to 3.25X the bandwidth of the 256-bit GDDR6 memory, and up to 2.4X more effective bandwidth per watt.
RDNA 2 introduces a new Ray Accelerator – one for each Compute Unit.
The Ray Accelerator is a fixed-function ray tracing acceleration engine to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism through DirectX Raytracing (DXR).
It will calculate the intersections of the rays with the scene geometry as represented in a Bounding Volume Hierarchy, sort them, and return the information to the shaders for further scene traversal or result shading.
Each Ray Accelerator can calculate up to 4 rays per box intersections or 1 ray per triangle intersection per clock cycle.
Variable Rate Shading
Variable rate shading allows the GPU to better use its limited processing capability by focusing on the most important parts of the frame.
AMD RDNA 2 has variable rate shading built throughout the entire pixel pipeline, with 1 x 1, 2 x 1, 1 x 2 and 2x 2 shading rates.
RDNA 2 also allows for very fine granularity – a different shading rate can to be selected for every 8 x 8 pixels region.
Hardware Decoding + Encoding
RDNA. 2 also introduces support for hardware 8K and AV1 decoding, allowing you to stream and watch video with virtually no performance impact.
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DirectX 12 Ultimate – offering support for the next-generation games with DirectX Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator – delivers real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism through DirectX Raytracing.
Variable Rate Sharing (VRS) – dynamically reduces shading rate for better performance at little to no loss in image quality.
DirectStorage Support – delivers faster load times and high-quality textures in the future.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Price + Availability
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has a RRP of US$649, and will be available for sale starting 18 November 2020.
Custom boards will be available from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte starting in November 2020.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Specifications
This table summarises how the RX 6800 XT compares against the RX 6900 XT and the RX 6800.
Specifications
Radeon RX
6900 XT
Radeon RX 6800 XT
Radeon RX
6800
Transistors
26.8 billion
Fab Process
7 nm
Die Size
519 mm²
Total Graphics Power
300 W
250 W
Compute Units
80
72
60
Ray Accelerators
80
72
60
Stream Processors
5120
4608
3840
Game Clock
2015 MHz
2015 MHz
1815 MHz
Boost Clock
2250 MHz
2250 MHz
2105 MHz
TFLOPS
23.04
20.74
16.17
TMUs
320
288
240
Max. Texture Rate
720 GT/s
648 GT/s
505 GT/s
ROPs
128
96
Max. Pixel Rate
288 GP/s
202 GP/s
Infinity Cache
128 MB
Graphics Memory
16 GB GDDR6 (16 Gbps)
Bus Width
256-bit
Bandwidth
512 GB/s
PCIe Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
Unboxing The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT comes in a large and heavy cardboard box. Very heavy duty, with thick foam packaging.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Hands-On Experience!
Let’s take a closer look at the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT in our hands-on video, and pictures.
Be careful when you handle it, because it is a rather bulky and heavy card.
That’s partly because it comes with a large (and heavy) 2.5-slot cooler with triple axial fans.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is kept cool by a really thick heatsink, covered by a shroud with triple axial fans.
Part of the reason why it’s so heavy – it has a full-length die-cast aluminium backplate at the back.
Here you can see its thick heatsink, and how its cooler is designed to suck in air from the front of the card, and exhaust the hot air from the top and the bottom of the card.
It has four display connectors. From left to right : one USB Type C port, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI 2.1 port.
The card uses up to 300 watts of power, and comes with two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors.
It should work with two 6-pin power cables though – both 8-pin and 6-pin cables deliver 150 watts.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT supports PCI Express 4.0, which offers double the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0.
However, that requires you to use a PCI Express 4.0 motherboard, like the recommended AMD X570 motherboards.
But do not fret if you are on the Intel platform. It is backward-compatible with PCI Express 3.0, and will work just fine with PCIe 3.0 motherboards.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Benchmarking Notes
In this review, we will take a look at its gaming performance (with and without Smart Access Memory), and compare it to seven other graphics cards :
Our testbed pairs the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor with the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII Hero (AMD X570) motherboard, with 32 GB of DDR4 memory.
Take a look at the Radeon RX 6800 XT in action, and listen to how quiet it sounds… even when it revs up during the strenuous part of the test!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Peak Exhaust Temperature
We recorded the peak exhaust temperatures of those cards, to see how much heat they throw out. Take a look…
Note that these are not the recorded temperatures, but how much hotter the exhaust air is above ambient temperature.
Rated for 300 watts, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is definitely a hot card, blowing out really hot air like a hairdryer. The good news is – its triple axial fans are quiet even during the most strenuous tests.
But please make sure your case is well-ventilated, as the hot air is expelled from the top and bottom of the card, and will recirculate within the case.
It will get really, REALLY hot inside the chassis if you don’t ventilate well!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : 3DMark
We used 3DMark’s Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme synthetic benchmarks, which offers a great approximation of gaming performance in general.
The Time Spy and Time Spy Extreme benchmarks support DirectX 12, and the latest features like asynchronous compute, and multi-threading support.
Time Spy – 2560 x 1440
Look at that! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 52% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 73% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER!
In the overall gaming score, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT ends up about 42% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 58% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER. Very impressive!
Time Spy Extreme – 3840 x 2160
At the higher 4K resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT did even better – it was about 56% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 77% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER!
In the overall score, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 48% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 65% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER!
Port Royal (Ray Tracing)
Nice! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 29% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 49% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER in ray tracing!
DirectX Raytracing Test
We ran the standalone DirectX Raytracing test too, and it confirmed that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 22% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 47% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER in ray tracing!
PCI Express Bandwidth
The AMD cards all support PCI Express 4.0, which gives them an edge over the NVIDIA cards.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : F1 2019
F1 2019 is a racing game by Codemasters, released on 28 June 2019.
We tested it on three resolutions at the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
1080p Gaming Resolution
Very impressive! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was about 48% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, and 53% faster than the RX 5700 XT!
At the higher 1440p resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was 49% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, 75% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER, and 85% faster than the RX 5700 XT.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : Dirt 5
Dirt 5 is a brand new off-road racing game by Codemasters, released on 6 November 2020.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Ultra High settings :
1080p : 1920 x 1080
1440p : 2560 x 1440
2160p : 3840 x 2160
Note : This game appears to be highly-optimised for AMD graphics cards.
At this higher resolution, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT was 64% faster than the RTX 2080 SUPER, 73% faster than the RX 5700 XT, and 87% faster than the RTX 2070 SUPER.
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT Performance : Star Control : Origins
Star Control : Origins is a procedurally-generated action adventure game, released on 20 September 2018.
We tested it on three resolutions using the Great Graphics settings :
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AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Our Verdict + Award!
The new RDNA 2 architecture delivered what AMD promised – a serious threat to NVIDIA’s dominance in gaming performance.
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is an impressive piece of work, offering seriously good gaming performance, with really competitive ray tracing performance.
Pundits may have been worried about its relatively narrow 256-bit memory bus, but the new Infinity Cache appears to have solved that problem.
The proof is in the pudding, as they say… and our benchmarks have shown that the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a leap forward in gaming performance!
Here is a quick summary of its gaming performance over the last-generation Radeon RX 5700 XT.
As you can see, we are talking about a completely new level of gaming performance. Significant enough that it’s worth upgrading from the last-generation cards, never mind older cards!
But we do have to caution you about one thing – its considerable heat output. With a board power of 300 watts, the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT produces A LOT of heat.
Fortunately, the triple axial fans are more than capable of keeping it cool… while remaining very quiet.
However, the heat it produces may interfere with CPU performance, if you are pairing it with powerful but hot 16-core AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor.
If you do not ensure that there is adequate ventilation inside the case, the heat build-up could result in thermal throttling of the CPU and/or graphics card.
That issue aside, we would like to applaud AMD for a job well done! The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is an awesome graphics card, and it deserves no less than our Editor’s Choice Award!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Price + Availability
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has a RRP of US$649, and will be available for sale starting 18 November 2020.
Custom boards will be available from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte starting in November 2020.
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We have been playing around with the AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT and here is our preview of the first RDNA 2 graphics card!
Take a look at our unboxing and hands-on videos, as well as the Radeon RX 6800 XT in action!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : A Quick Primer!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is one of three Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. Based on the new AMD RDNA 2 architecture, they offer these key features :
AMD Infinity Cache – a large 128 MB data cache that dramatically reduces memory latency and power consumption.
AMD Smart Access Memory – offers the Ryzen 5000 series processor greater access to its GDDR6 graphics memory for better gaming performance.
DirectX 12 Ultimate – offering support for the next-generation games with DirectX Raytracing and Variable Rate Shading.
New Ray Accelerator – delivers real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism through DirectX Raytracing.
Variable Rate Sharing (VRS) – dynamically reduces shading rate for better performance at little to no loss in image quality.
DirectStorage Support – delivers faster load times and high-quality textures in the future.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Price + Availability
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT has a RRP of US$649, and will be available for sale starting 18 November 2020.
Custom boards will be available from brands like ASRock, ASUS, Gigabyte starting in November 2020.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Specifications
This table summarises how the RX 6800 XT compares against the RX 6900 XT and the RX 6800.
Specifications
Radeon RX
6900 XT
Radeon RX 6800 XT
Radeon RX
6800
Transistors
26.8 billion
Fab Process
7 nm
Die Size
519 mm²
Total Graphics Power
300 W
250 W
Compute Units
80
72
60
Ray Accelerators
80
72
60
Stream Processors
5120
4608
3840
Game Clock
2015 MHz
2015 MHz
1815 MHz
Boost Clock
2250 MHz
2250 MHz
2105 MHz
TFLOPS
23.04
20.74
16.17
TMUs
320
288
240
Max. Texture Rate
720 GT/s
648 GT/s
505 GT/s
ROPs
128
96
Max. Pixel Rate
288 GP/s
202 GP/s
Infinity Cache
128 MB
Graphics Memory
16 GB GDDR6 (16 Gbps)
Bus Width
256-bit
Bandwidth
512 GB/s
PCIe Interface
PCIe 4.0 x16
Unboxing The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT comes in a large and heavy cardboard box. Very heavy duty, with thick foam packaging.
If you like our work, you can help support us by visiting our sponsors, participating in the Tech ARP Forums, or even donating to our fund. Any help you can render is greatly appreciated!
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : Hands-On Experience!
The AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT is a rather bulky and heavy card, because it comes with a large 2.5-slot cooler with triple axial fans.
Take a closer look at it in our hands-on video, followed by pictures of the card.
It features a die-cast aluminium backplate at the back.
Here you can see its thick heatsink, and how its cooler is designed to suck in air from the front of the card, and exhaust the hot air from the top and the bottom of the card.
It has four display connectors. From left to right : one USB Type C port, two DisplayPort 1.4 ports, and one HDMI 2.1 port.
The card uses up to 300 watts of power, and comes with two 8-pin PCI Express power connectors.
It should work with two 6-pin power cables though – both 8-pin and 6-pin cables deliver 150 watts.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT supports PCI Express 4.0, which offers double the bandwidth of PCI Express 3.0.
However, that requires you to use a PCI Express 4.0 motherboard, like the recommended AMD X570 motherboards.
But do not fret if you are on the Intel platform. It is backward-compatible with PCI Express 3.0, and will work just fine with PCIe 3.0 motherboards.
AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT : In Action!
Our testbed pairs the AMD Ryzen 9 5950X processor with the ASUS CROSSHAIR VIII Hero (AMD X570) motherboard, with 32 GB of DDR4 memory.
Our benchmark results will be released tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can take a look at the Radeon RX 6800 XT in action, running 3DMark Time Spy Extreme.
Be sure to come back and check our comprehensive review tomorrow, with benchmark results!
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AMD just announced the Instinct MI100 – the world’s fastest HPC GPU accelerator, delivering 11.5 TFLOPS in a single card!
AMD Instinct MI100 : 11.5 TFLOPS In A Single Card!
Powered by the new CDNA architecture, the AMD Instinct MI100 is the world’s fastest HPC GPU, and the first to break the 10 TFLOPS FP64 barrier!
Compared to the last-generation AMD accelerators, the AMD Instinct MI100 offers HPC applications almost 3.5X faster performance (FP32 matrix), and AI applications nearly 7X boost in throughput (FP16).
up to 11.5 TFLOPS of FP64 performance for HPC
up to 46.1 TFLOPS of FP32 Matrix performance for AI and machine learning
up to 184.6 TFLOPS of FP16 performance for AI training
2nd Gen AMD Infinity Fabric
It also leverages on the 2nd Gen AMD Infinity Fabric technology to deliver twice the peer-to-peer IO bandwidth of PCI Express 4.0. Thanks to its triple Infinity Fabric Links, it offers up to 340 GB/s of aggregate bandwidth per card.
In a server, MI100 GPUs can be configured as two fully-connected quad GPU hives, each providing up to 552 GB/s of P2P IO bandwidth.
Ultra-Fast HBM2 Memory
The AMD Instinct MI100 comes with 32 GB of HBM2 memory that deliver up to 1.23 TB/s of memory bandwidth to support large datasets.
PCI Express 4.0 Interface
The AMD Instinct MI100 is supports PCI Express 4.0, allowing for up to 64 GB/s of peak bandwidth from CPU to GPU, when paired with 2nd Gen AMD EPYC processors.
The AMD Instinct MI100 will be available in systems by the end of 2020 from OEM/ODM partners like Dell, Gigabyte, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), and Supermicro.
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In addition to the gaming-centric RDNA architecture, AMD just introduced a new CDNA architecture that is optimised for compute workloads.
Here are some key tech highlights of the new AMD CDNA architecture!
AMD CDNA Architecture : What Is It?
Unlike the fixed-function graphics accelerators of the past, GPUs are now fully-programmable accelerators using what’s called the GPGPU (General Purpose GPU) Architecture.
GPGPU allowed the industry to leverage their tremendous processing power for machine learning and scientific computing purposes.
Instead of continuing down the GPGPU path, AMD has decided to introduce two architectures :
AMD RDNA : optimised for gaming to maximise frames per second
AMD CDNA : optimised for compute workloads to maximise FLOPS per second.
Designed to accelerate compute workloads, AMD CDNA augments scalar and vector processing with new Matrix Core Engines, and adds Infinity Fabric technology for scale-up capability.
This allows the first CDNA-based accelerator – AMD Instinct MI100 – to break the 10 TFLOPS per second (FP64) barrier.
The GPU is connected to its host processor using a PCI Express 4.0 interface, that delivers up to 32 GB/s of bandwidth in both directions.
AMD CDNA Architecture : Compute Units
The command processor and scheduling logic receives API-level commands and translates them into compute tasks.
These compute tasks are implemented as compute arrays and managed by the four Asynchronous Compute Engines (ACE), which maintain their independent stream of commands to the compute units.
Its 120 compute units (CUs) are derived from the earlier GCN architecture, and organised into four compute engines that execute wavefronts that contain 64 work-items.
The CUs are, however, enhanced with new Matrix Core Engines, that are optimised for matrix data processing.
Here is the block diagram of the AMD Instinct MI100 accelerator, showing how its main blocks are all tied together with the on-die Infinity Fabric.
Unlike the RDNA architecture, CDNA removes all of the fixed-function graphics hardware for tasks like rasterisation, tessellation, graphics caches, blending and even the display engine.
CDNA retains the dedicated logic for HEVC, H.264 and VP9 decoding that is sometimes used for compute workloads that operate on multimedia data.
The new Matrix Core Engines add a new family of wavefront-level instructions – the Matrix Fused Multiply-Add (MFMA). The MFMA instructions perform mixed-precision arithmetic and operates on KxN matrices using four different types of input data :
INT8 – 8-bit integers
FP16 – 16-bit half-precision
bf16 – 16-bit brain FP
FP32 – 32-bit single-precision
The new Matrix Core Engines has several advantages over the traditional vector pipelines in GCN :
the execution unit reduces the number of register file reads, since many input values are reused in a matrix multiplication
narrower datatypes create opportunity for workloads that do not require full FP32 precision, e.g. machine learning – saving energy.
AMD CDNA Architecture : L2 Cache + Memory
Most scientific and machine learning data sets are gigabytes or even terabytes in size. Therefore L2 cache and memory performance is critical.
In CDNA, the L2 cache is shared across the entire chip, and physically partitioned into multiple slices.
The MI100, specifically, has an 8 MB cache that is 16-way set-associative and made up of 32 slices. Each slice can sustain 128 bytes for an aggregate bandwidth of over 6 TB/s across the GPU.
The CDNA memory controller can drive 4- or 8-stacks high of HBM2 memory at 2.4 GT/s for a maximum throughput of 1.23 TB/s.
The memory contents are also protected by hardware ECC.
AMD CDNA Architecture : Communication + Scaling
CDNA is also designed for scaling up, using the high-speed Infinity Fabric technology to connect multiple GPUs.
AMD Infinity Fabric links are 16-bits wide, and operate at 23 GT/s, with three links in CDNA to allow for full connectivity in a quad-GPU configuration.
While the last generation Radeon Instinct MI50 GPU only uses a ring topology, the new fully-connected Infinity Fabric topology boosts performance for common communication patterns like all-reduce and scatter / gather.
Unlike PCI Express, Infinity Fabric links support coherent GPU memory, which lets multiple GPUs share an address space and tightly work on a single task.
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With so many desktop graphics card models out there, it is impossible to keep up with the different configurations.
This is where the Desktop Graphics Card Comparison Guide comes in.
It is designed to be an easy reference for those who want to quickly compare the specifications of the various desktop graphics card models in the market, as well as those already obsolescent or obsolete.
Currently covering 858 desktop graphics card models, this comprehensive comparison allows you to easily compare 24 different specifications for each and every graphics card.
We hope it will prove to be a useful reference. We will keep this guide updated regularly, so do check back for the latest updates.
To make it easy to compare the specifications, we split it up into three sections for your convenience. Just click on Split List to access them.
However, if you prefer to compare all of the graphics card models for each company in a single table, we also have a single list which can be accessed by clicking on Full List.
Just click on the company and the type of list you prefer.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT graphics card
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5600 graphics card
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5500 XT graphics card
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5500 graphics card
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER graphics card
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 SUPER graphics card
Total GPUs : 835
30-07-2019
37.0
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary Edition graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 5700 graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon VII graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 590 graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 560D graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 550X graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA TITAN RTX graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Rev. 2 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Rev. 2 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Rev. 2 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 Ti graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1660 graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 1650 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 829
04-06-2018
36.0
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (3 GB) graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1030 (DDR4) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 (2 GB) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1030 (GDDR5) graphics card.
Total GPUs : 808
19-02-2018
35.9
Added the AMD Radeon RX Vega 11 processor graphics.
Added the AMD Radeon Vega 8 processor graphics.
Total GPUs : 806
22-12-2017
35.8
Added the AMD Radeon RX 560 (14 CUs) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the AMD Radeon RX 570 graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the AMD Radeon RX 560 (16 CUs) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the AMD Radeon RX 550 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 804
13-12-2017
35.7
Added the NVIDIA TITAN V graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA TITAN X graphics card.
Total GPUs : 803
27-11-2017
35.6
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce TITAN Xp graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (6 GB) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3 GB) graphics card.
Total GPUs : 802
13-11-2017
35.5
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 802
16-10-2017
35.4
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 Ti graphics card.
Total GPUs : 802
03-08-2017
35.3
Added the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 Liquid Cooled Edition graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 801
19-05-2017
35.2
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GT 1030 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 798
11-05-2017
35.1
Added the NVIDIA GeForce Titan Xp graphics card.
Updated the Texture Fill Rate specification of various NVIDIA graphics cards.
Total GPUs : 797
26-04-2017
35.0
Added the AMD Radeon RX 580 graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 570 graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 560 graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon RX 550 graphics card.
Removed the AMD Radeon R9 490X (Future) graphics card.
Removed the AMD Radeon R9 490 (Future) graphics card.
Removed the AMD Radeon R9 480X (Future) graphics card.
Removed the AMD Radeon R9 480 (Future) graphics card.
Total GPUs : 796
20-03-2017
34.9
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 796
11-02-2017
34.8
Added the Intel HD Graphics 630 (1150 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 630 (1100 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 630 (1050 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 630 (1000 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 610 (1100 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 610 (1050 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 610 (1000 MHz) processor graphics.
Total GPUs : 796
02-01-2017
34.7
Added the AMD Radeon RX 470D graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon R7 455 (OEM) graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon R7 450 (OEM) graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon R7 435 (OEM) graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon R7 430 (OEM) graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon R5 435 (OEM) graphics card.
Added the AMD Radeon R5 430 (OEM) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the AMD Radeon RX 460 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 789
16-12-2016
34.6
Added the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 (1150 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel Iris Pro Graphics 580 (1050 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 505 (800 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 500 (700 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 405 (740 MHz) processor graphics.
Added the Intel HD Graphics 400 (700 MHz) processor graphics.
Added 6 CPU models to the Intel HD Graphics 510 (950 MHz) processor graphics.
Total GPUs : 782
20-10-2016
34.5
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti graphics card.
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card.
Total GPUs : 776
04-10-2016
34.4
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti (Future) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 945A graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 (GDDR5) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 730 (64-bit DDR3) graphics card.
Updated the specifications of the NVIDIA GeForce GT 720 (OEM) graphics card.
Total GPUs : 774
20-09-2016
34.3
Added the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 (3 GB) graphics card.
Updated the
