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An engineering sample processor has turned up on Twitter with the codename “ZG16702AE8JB2_32/10/18_13F8”. Fortunately, a little bit of light has been shed on what this mystery processor could be, and it is claimed that it is actually AMD’s custom chip Gonzalo, which is expected to appear in the next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony.

A new Chromebook featuring APUs from AMD’s Picasso range of processors might be in the works. A device with the codename “Zork” has been unearthed that apparently utilizes a Chrome OS board called “Trembyle”. Data management commits have been spotted that link Zork with Picasso – which means a Chromebook with an AMD Ryzen 5 3500U inside could be in development.

A 2019 refresh of the 14-inch Honor MagicBook is going to be released on April 17, according to a Chinese retailer. The main difference between the upcoming version and the 2018 laptop is a processor upgrade: Last year’s AMD MagicBook variant came with a Ryzen 5 2500U, whereas the 2019 model will be fitted with a Ryzen 5 3500U APU.

2019 is already shaping up to be a good year for AMD. The 7 nm chips are currently manufactured by TSMC on the new EUV lithography, and the red team has considerably increased its chip orders, as the launch dates are looming. Intel, on the other hand, is faced with weakened investor confidence and could lose important market share in the mainstream CPU and server sectors.

AMD has taken a bite out of Intel’s overall share in Steam’s monthly survey in the PC processor usage category. The red team was up to 18.1% for March, rising 0.5% from 17.6% for February. AMD took share away from Intel for systems running Windows, but the latter chipmaker gained a little for computers operating on Linux.

The March 2019 Steam Hardware & Software Survey has been posted by the software distribution platform, and as usual things look rosy for Nvidia in the video card usage category. Three of the top six places in terms of percentage increase over the month are occupied by GeForce RTX 20 series products, with last month’s missing RTX 2060 now taking the top spot.

A screenshot of information concerning three processors has surfaced that seems to reveal that AMD is preparing to release some new embedded SoCs. The screenshot was taken from a Futuremark database, with the information being spotted and shared by Tum Apisak. The three mysterious chips have the driver names Cato SoC and Radeon RX 350 Series.

We have reviewed the Lenovo ThinkPad E485. Of this model, we received not only one, but two review samples. As in many cases, both review samples had different LCD panels. Unfortunately, one panel is much darker than the other one.

The new mobile Zen+ Ryzen 7 Pro 3700U (4.0/2.3 GHz) will be just marginally faster than the outgoing Zen Ryzen 7 2700U (3.8/2.2 GHz). When compared to the Intel Core i7-8650U, however, AMD is promising up to 258 percent faster graphics performance in certain applications. More significant gains in CPU performance are not expected until the "proper" third generation Zen 2 series refresh.

According to a new report by DigiTimes, the uptake of 7nm chips from TSMC was at its lowest 2019 ebb in the first quarter of this year (1Q2019). However, the company expects its orders to push its relevant processes to their full capacity in 3Q2019. The firm has also started using the improved EUV method for the production of 7nm dies.

A blog called ServertheHome has drawn on the latest leaks and info on EPYC Rome to conclude that it could have between 128 and 160 PCIe lanes. By contrast, the competing Intel Xeon Platinum 9200 solution may have only 80. On top of that, the Xeon's lanes may be Gen3, whereas Rome is likely to have Gen4.

The latest version of HWiNFO is available for download, and it now offers support for AMD Navi and Intel Emmitsburg. The inclusion of preliminary support for Navi points to the fact that the much-anticipated range of GPUs should be soon with us. There is also mention of Intel Emmitsburg, which could be related to an upcoming PCH.

The WIN 2 Max is rumored to get a few improved specs, including a higher-resolution 1280 x 800 screen, a new AMD APU with integrated Radeon graphics that can be overclocked for improved performance or underclocked for extended battery life, and a keyboard with bigger keys. The model is expected to launch in late 2019.

A recent post made on Dell’s blog has revealed that the manufacturer has started to incorporate AMD’s Picasso range of mobile APUs into its Inspiron lineup. The Inspiron 15 5000 (5585) with a second-generation Ryzen CPU is now available to select on Dell’s online configurator, with shoppers being able to choose from three processor options.

The codename given to an AMD engineering sample processor has been leaked online and has already sparked considerable speculation as to what it could be. A breakdown of the name seems to point at the chip being a desktop APU from the Picasso range based on the Zen+ microarchitecture. This series currently consists of just mobile processors.

The Kaby Lake G CPUs with integrated AMD RX Vega graphics seemed to be exactly what budget gaming laptops needed, but the initial supply and the 14 nm CPU shortages lead to very limited support from laptop OEMs. Surprisingly enough, when no one seemed to be giving these CPUs a chance anymore, the Kaby Lake G processors are now expected to make a return in select Acer Aspire 7 notebooks.

The Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) has announced that AMD’s CEO, Dr. Lisa Su, will be delivering the opening keynote at Computex 2019. The keynote has been scheduled for May 27, and it seems like this could be the ideal setting for Su to show off AMD’s anticipated Radeon Navi GPU series. It’s also been speculated that she could launch the Ryzen 3000 series at the same time.

A record in SiSoftware’s Sandra benchmark database has offered up two new pieces of information in regard to AMD’s upcoming Zen 2-based products. Firstly, the entry shows that MSI is developing hardware in the form of an X570 motherboard to support the expected Ryzen desktop processors, and secondly a mysterious AMD processor was involved in the test.

The names of three new Gigabyte motherboards have been revealed bearing the “X499” designation. It’s believed at least one of the boards will be capable of offering 10 GbE network data rates. AMD is expected to introduce the X499 chipset specifically for the 3rd Gen HEDT Ryzen Threadripper processors.

A list of X570 motherboards from Gigabyte has been leaked thanks to data published online by the Eurasian Economic Committee (EEC). Various OEMs are gearing up for the upcoming release of AMD’s 3rd Generation of Ryzen desktop processors, which are based on the power-efficient Zen 2 microarchitecture.

The new, ultra-compact Vnopn K1 does without a fan and has no moving parts, which helps keep its form factor down. Vnopn has equipped the K1 with an AMD processor too unlike many other PCs of its size.

There is a rumor that AMD has been working on its own version of ray-tracing technology that could be incorporated into the red team’s expected Navi 20 series. The same source speculates that this high-end lineup could challenge or even surpass the ray-tracing capabilities of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards.

UDOO recently ran a campaign on Kickstarter for the UDOO BOLT single-board computer, and the developers of the device managed to secure US$635,769 in crowd-sourced funding. It’s likely many investors were attracted by the claim that the BOLT is “almost twice as fast as the MacBook Pro 13”. The Ryzen-powered board should start shipping by the end of the month.

Leaked information about some potential upcoming laptops from Asus suggests that the Taiwanese manufacturer is preparing to reveal devices that feature both Picasso and Turing technology. Three different models are mentioned that combine two different AMD Ryzen APUs with seemingly three Nvidia GeForce GPUs. Asus has already released gaming laptops with the new Picasso chips but not with an Nvidia GPU.

Prices for second-generation AMD Ryzen CPUs have dropped, with US$50 being shaved off a performance-level Ryzen 7 2700 CPU on Newegg. A number of CPUs based on the Zen+ microarchitecture have been discounted, leading to speculation that AMD is making space in its inventory for the upcoming Zen 2-based Ryzen chips.

AMD's use of a multi-chip module (MCM) approach offers quite a few advantages for AMD in terms utilizing TSMC's lines efficiently and also in driving down costs. We are now getting to know that Ryzen 3000 sports a new Infinity Fabric version that offers twice the bandwidth of the previous generation. The chiplet design should also enable AMD to disable cores with minimal loss to cater to the entry level and mid-range markets.

Users of AMD X470 chipset-based motherboards who have updated to the latest AGESA 0.0.7.x offered by some OEMs over the past week are reporting that the update cripples the Precision Boost Overdrive (PBO) from working automatically, requiring manual adjustments via Ryzen Master. The issue seems to have affected some Asus and MSI X470 boards and the only recourse is to downgrade the BIOS (if possible) or wait till a fix for the PBO issue is released.

The new AMD X570 chipset is expected to be launched soon and a list of motherboards produced by Asus for this particular generation has been leaked. The products being prepared cover a number of well-known Asus lines, including ROG and TUF. ASRock’s upcoming line-up of X570 boards has also been published online.

The 1st-Gen AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X CPU is currently priced at US$299.99 on Newegg. This Zen-based high-end desktop processor (HEDT) was originally released in August 2017 and cost US$549 at the time of launch. The chip has eight cores and 16 threads, and it can offer a boost clock of up to 4 GHz.

A market analyst for financial services company Cowen has predicted that Google will utilize AMD’s upcoming EPYC 2 server CPUs, codenamed “Rome”, for its own services. This would be a huge deal for AMD, which has already been selected to provide customized GPUs for the Google Stadia cloud gaming service.

The AMD 'Matisse' Ryzen 3000 CPUs are still a couple of months away from launch but motherboards OEMs have started prepping for it by offering new AGESA updates that support the new processors. MSI, Asus, and BioStar have started rolling out AGESA v0.0.7.x that includes support for Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 CPUs. Other OEMs are expected to follow suit as we head closer to launch.

A leaked email allegedly from Phil Spencer, the Xbox head executive, has given some ambiguous details about how Microsoft and Xbox will challenge Google’s recent massive announcement about its Stadia game-streaming service. It seems something big is going to happen at E3 though, which officially starts on June 11.

Google has officially announced its Stadia cloud gaming service at the 2019 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Google Stadia will allow users to play games from any computer, smartphone, smart television or tablet that has an Internet connection. The GPUs that have been selected for the service’s hardware are custom Radeon chips from AMD.

HP will be bringing some of its previously exclusive Spectre features to its mid-range Envy lineup this year. The 15.6-inch Envy 15 in particular will get an AMOLED option while all models will have a physical camera kill switch to electronically disable the webcam.

The team behind the much-delayed Atari VCS has announced an APU replacement for the game console. Previously, a customized A10 chip from AMD’s Bristol Ridge series was going to be installed, but perhaps wisely the developer has now upgraded that choice to a more modern dual-core Ryzen processor. Graphics will be processed by a Radeon Vega GPU rather than the R7 GPU.

A number of recent Geekbench listings alluded to the existence of two new Pocophone devices: The Poco F1 Lite and Poco F2. We were skeptical in our coverage of both stories and it turns out were right to be, as it was all just a ruse by the enthusiast community to see how the media would handle the false information.

AMD has announced that the Radeon Software Adrenalin 2019 Edition 19.3.2 installation package is ready for download. The package includes various fixes and support for games, and it is currently available for Windows 10 64-bit and Windows 7 64-bit (with SP1 or higher).

AMD could be planning on some serious product discounting soon. A Gigabyte Radeon RX Vega 56 GAMING OC 8G card has been priced at a very tempting US$279.99 on Newegg for limited time sales, and there has been an RX 590 Special Edition card from Sapphire available from the same retailer for US$219.99 – the same price as the cheapest new Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 cards.

Intel has kept its huge lead over AMD in Steam’s survey for processor usage. The blue team has even managed to slightly increase its share in systems utilizing a Windows OS, but AMD has taken a nibble out of Intel’s share on machines operating on Linux. Steam users have also shown a preference for high-end chips.

A rumored launch date of August has been reported for the upcoming 7 nm Navi GPU series. The highly anticipated hardware from AMD has been surrounded in mystery, with details and specifications being comparatively thin on the ground. However, it seems Navi could be upon us right after AMD has finished with its Ryzen 3000-series launch.

Steam has published its hardware and software survey for February 2019, and once again Nvidia dominates the PC video card usage charts. The Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070, 2080, and 2080 Ti have all enjoyed growth over the month. However, the RTX 2060 graphics card doesn’t even feature in the chart at all. The GeForce GTX 1060 is still the most used GPU in the survey.

AMD has announced the availability of the Radeon RX 560 XT graphics card for just the Chinese market. The GPU bridges the wide gap between the Radeon RX 560 and RX 570 and offers a base clock of 973 MHz and a boost clock of 1073 MHz. The card comes with 4 GB of GDDR5 memory.

References to an unknown AMD GPU, AMD 66AF:F1, have popped up in the CompuBench benchmark site leading to speculation that this could be one of the Navi SKUs. From the initial numbers, we get to see that this GPU offers improved numbers in several memory-intensive compute tests over the Vega 56 but still trails behind the Vega 64. However, this GPU does seem to have significant leads over the Vega 64 when it comes to graphics performance.

The Ryzen 5 3550H and Ryzen 7 3750H are comparable to the Intel Core i5-8300H. It's up to laptop makers now to pair these Zen+ processors with Nvidia GPUs for potentially cheaper prices than the usual Intel-Nvidia offering.