Desktop

Dell launched a new XPS desktop today. The desktop can be configured with high-end specs like a 10th Gen Intel Core i9 CPU and either an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super or AMD Radeon RX 5700XT. The desktop is also designed to be upgraded by the end-user.

Dell has introduced new 27-inch and 32-inch monitors in its S-series lineup tailored primarily towards multimedia consumption and not-so-demanding gamers. The 27-inch lineup is comprised of 2K and 4K IPS monitors with support for AMD FreeSync while the 32-inch variant is a curved 4K VA panel.

With the entry-level and lower-mid-range RTX 3000 GPUs already in production, we could expect a complete Ampere lineup by late 2020. This way, Nvidia can better counter AMD's RDNA2 GPUs that threaten to take over the gaming GPU market in Q3 this year.

NVIDIA may be on the verge of releasing its new Ampere architecture. However, the latest Steam hardware survey reveals that many gamers have yet to move to the company's Turing architecture. Instead, Pascal generation cards remain dominant, as does a preference for gaming at 1080p.

Shengchang Chiang - also often known as Charles Chiang - has been reported dead. He had taken over as the chief executive officer (CEO) of MSI in January 2019, having served as the company's head of its desktop division prior to that. Chiang reportedly fell to his untimely demise at the OEM's Taipei headquarters.

Ryzen 4000 desktop processors will be launching this year, AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed. Codenamed "Vermeer", the processors are based on the company's Zen 3 architecture and an improved 7 nm process.

The Ryzen Threadripper PRO CPUs are supposed to integrate more business/workstation-oriented features along with server-oriented features borrowed from the Epyc-series like the 8-channel memory support for up to 2 TB of RAM capacity, and possibly even more cores and threads.

Logitech is back this time with a new keyboard and mouse specifically customized for use with Apple’s Macs and iPads. The new MX Keys keyboard for Mac and MX Master 3 mouse incorporate pre-set functionality and features that even Apple’s own accessories don’t offer, making them well worth a look.

NVIDIA and its partners are continuing to release TU106 and TU116 versions of the GeForce GTX 1650. At least three new partners have now released new GTX GeForce 1650 models. All include the Turing NVENC encoder, which promises to encode videos up to 15% more efficiently while minimising artefacts.

Details about the overclocking potential of the AMD Ryzen 7 4700G have been revealed online. The Zen 2 APU, which is reported to have a 4.4 GHz boost clock and a 65 W TDP, has been shown to reach over 4.7 GHz at 1.425 V. The APU is also thought to include an 8 CU GPU and will support SMT.

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz institute recently announced the new H.266 video codec standard as a successor to H.265. The new codec promises equivalent image quality at half the bit rate. This could make 8K and 4K content accessible to wider audiences.

Samsung promised to deliver 128 TB SSDs by 2018, but it looks like the demand for such large drives is not there yet. Nevertheless, Nimbus Data thinks that we are ready for 100 TB SSDs, unleashing this model upon us for US$40,000. There is also a 50 TB model in case your budget is only limited to US$12,500.

Tipster @kopite7kimi leaked specs for two different GA104 cards. However, contrary to expectations, we think that these might represent the same functional SKU and not two different card tiers, considering the very slight spec difference.

A new study conducted in June 2020 by the company TeamBlind indicates that 33% of the workers who participated in it have been given a date on which they can resume office work. This figure varied when corrected for location or company, however. 57% of the respondents stated that they would keep working from home given the opportunity, however.

The widget is lacking at the moment, but it's at least easy on the eyes with direct controls for brightness, colors, power plan, and live recording or streaming. A more fully-featured version of the widget is expected to come later in the year.

A new feature update coming to Chrome 86 looks set to make serious reductions in its resource usage. The experimental feature could extend battery life considerably on laptops by shutting down certain background tasks in open tabs.

A possible 2020 Apple iMac refresh device has been discovered on Geekbench with some surprising components: An unknown Intel Core i9-10910 processor and an unannounced AMD Radeon Pro 5300 desktop GPU. There has been speculation before of an upcoming refreshed 27-inch iMac being configured with a fast Comet Lake Core i9 CPU.

An Intel Core i9-10850K processor has been spotted on Geekbench, where it was recorded reaching a maximum frequency of 5.17 GHz. The Comet Lake part also amassed strong benchmark results that stand up well against an i9-10900KF and an i9-10900K. It’s possible Intel could launch the i9-10850K as a cheaper alternative to the i9-10900K.

In what is essentially an eGPU docking station in reverse, the Eurocom Riser card allows users to install laptop MXM3 graphics cards directly onto their desktop PCIe slots. The product is aimed at professionals and workstation environments for specialized SFF PCs rather than a home office.

Dutch online retailer Centralpoint.nl is already offering tray versions for AMD's top-of-the-line 65 W Ryzen 4000 desktop APUs. These are Euro prices, but we can estimate that the Ryzen 7 Pro 4750G 8-core / 16-thread should cost around US$300, while the Ryzen 5 Pro 4650G 6-core may be priced at around US$200, and the Ryzen 3 Pro 4350G quad-core may end up costing around US$150.

The HBM2E memory chips offer up to 460 GB/s bandwidth, plus they are 50% more energy efficient and come in a 30% smaller package compared to the HBM2 models. With such an improved bandwidth, the HBM2E chips are expected to significantly improve performance for Exascale computers and high-end GPUs.

The alleged 3080 Ti ROG STRIX features a triple-fan cooler with aggressive silver accents that remind of the ROG MATRIX series, plus an RGB strip at the top, suggesting that the series could potentially go into premium-grade territory.

Tipster @kopite7kimi recently stated that NVIDIA’s upcoming Ampere RTX 3000 series cards will be manufactured on Samsung’s 8nm process, not TSMC’s 7nm node. While this is unlikely to have performance implications this far down the line, it does mean that AMD will retain process leadership for another generation.

After hinting at upcoming changes to the Start menu, Microsoft has officially announced that it is coming to Window 10 in the near future. Currently only available in Windows 10 Preview build 20161, users can start to play with the new Start menu and other design and UI tweaks coming to the shipping build soon.

The NH-L12 is a cooler that, according to its maker Austria-based Noctua, offers many advantages for compact PC builds. However, it did not completely fit in the Ghost S1 case by the Swedish company Louqe. Therefore, the 2 firms have collaborated on a new variant for self-building fans of both PC-component brands.

The Aida Cache and Memory benchmarks show that the Ryzen 7 4700GE desktop APU can easily be coupled with DDR4 RAM modules running at 4333 MHz. The resulting memory latency is lower than 50 ns, which is quite the improvement over the 60 ns average latency of the Ryzen 3000 desktop APUs.

The gaming component and peripherals company GALAX has launched a new product called the GTX 1650 Ultra. However, its GPU is not that of the original non-ray-tracing Turing variant, but of underpowered chips left out of other cards such as the RTX 2070. Then again, its TDP is higher than some others of its name.

The a7S II is a member of Sony's Alpha series of full-frame cameras lauded for its low-light and 4K video performance, even though it has been several years since its release. Now, an executive from this OEM has confirmed that a successor for the unit is on the way. According to this source, every aspect of the 7S has been completely re-designed.

The first Geekbench 5 results of the Apple Mac Mini Developer Transition Kit (DTK) powered by the A12Z Bionic running macOS 11 Big Sur Developer Beta 1 have surfaced despite Apple's developer NDA being in force. The benchmark is running under a Rosetta 2 emulation and the performance deficit, though significant compared to the Core i5 MacBook Air 2020 and the iPad Pro, is understandable and in many ways, encouraging.

Modder sw3dg1n recently released True Fires, a graphics mod that overhauls fire light sources in The Witcher 3. With Cyberpunk 2077 just months away, True Fires might give CD Projekt fans a way to appreciate next-gen graphics in 2015’s RPG classic. You will need a meaty graphics card, though, as double-digit performance drops are to be expected.

The first indications of an RDNA3-based Navi 31 GPU have surfaced in the macOS 11 Big Sur Developer Beta 1 driver code. The driver also contains references to upcoming AMD APUs such as Van Gogh and Cezanne along with HPC accelerators such as the MI100 and M200. With the MI200, AMD could be looking at a multi-chip module (MCM) approach and that could trickle down to Navi 31 as well.

The latest Mindfactory CPU retail sales report has been shared online, and although it’s business as usual for AMD in terms of share dominance, there has been some positive movement for the Intel Core i7-10700K. The 8-core Comet Lake processor is a good choice for gamers and offers a potential maximum boost clock of 5.10 GHz.

Apple could be working on an iPhone prototype running a full-fledged macOS, according to insider information cited by Mauri QHD. While there is no way to confirm this, such a possibility is not a distant dream given that Apple has begun transitioning its entire lineup to ARM. If this news is indeed true, it remains to be seen how effective would be its implementation considering that previous such attempts by competitors haven't been too successful.

The European Hardware Association (EHA) has announced the devices or components that have won its organization's awards for 2020. This list contains some potentially easy predictions, such as the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 for the Best Gaming Notebook. However, it is the Ryzen 3000 platform that has really cleaned up.

AMD Ryzen 4000 Zen 3 processors remain on track for a Q3 2020 release, a company spokesperson has confirmed. The confirmation quashes a rumour to the contrary, which stated that AMD might have delayed the release of its Vermeer processors until Intel announces its Comet Lake-S architecture.

The latest Diablo IV quarterly update reveals that the development process was not really affected by the pandemic and also details key game aspects like storytelling, open world, multiplayer and itemization. No ETA for the Alpha and Beta tests as of yet, but there will be another update around BlizzCon.

AMD has shown strong monthly growth in the Steam hardware and software survey for May. Team Red managed to snag another 0.74% of the processor usage share from Intel, and this is likely to repeat over the next months thanks to the upcoming Matisse Refresh. But Tiger Lake might still make an impression for Team Blue.

TCL has confirmed that its upcoming display panels have attained an Eyesafe display certification for blue-light reduction and color performance. This standard has been developed to protect user eye health. They are applied to various screen types, those for PCs or monitors included, and may become a preferred spec in the new devices of the near future.

Apple made waves at its 2020 WWDC when it confirmed that Macs were to be powered by non-Intel SoCs going forward. This transition may have many advantages for the company, not to mention the PCs involved. However, self-professed Intel expert François Piednoël claims that there were other reasons for this move.

Even though it comes in a palm-size case, the DeskMini DMAF5 still packs some serious Ryzen power. It ships with a Ryzen 5 3550H APU that integrates a Vega 8 GPU, but users can further upgrade the processor to models with 45+ W TDP. It also supports up to 32 GB of DDR4-2400, plus NVMe / SATA storage combos, and it comes with a pre-installed Wi-Fi 6 card.

Intel's graphics head Raja Koduri teased new Xe dGPUs being currently tested at the company's Folsom labs. Raja's tweets showed off three GPUs — one of which was referred to as a Big Fabulous Package (BFP) — a prototype cooling system, and the test platform. The BFP is a 4-tile Xe dGPU aimed at HPC workloads.

An AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT desktop processor sample has been put through its paces on UserBenchmark, where it managed some decent scores and a respectable average bench result. However, the score of 91.8% would put the 12-core Matisse Refresh Ryzen 9 3900XT in 28th place in the UserBenchmark table, which is even behind the quad-core Intel Core i3-10320!

A Matisse Refresh AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT desktop processor has been spotted on Geekbench 5.1 along with a Gigabyte X570 Aorus Master motherboard. The 12-core chip recorded results that put it in the same ballpark as the Ryzen 9 3900X and Intel Core i9-10900K, but it is likely better scores can be squeezed out of it yet.
Update: Much better results for the 3900XT have been unearthed.

The latest Windows 10 Game Ready driver for NVIDIA GeForce cards unlock DirectX 12 Ultimate features on RTX GPUs. This may bring attributes such as hardware-accelerated ray tracing and mesh shading to certain games. The new driver also supports 9 more G-SYNC-enabled monitors from AOC, Dell, LG and other OEMs.

The ZBOX Cl622 nano mini PC barebones come with CPU options such as the Core i3-10110U and i7-10510U models from the laptop-grade Comet Lake-U family and also offer a fanless design, making these systems ideal for HTPC setups.

Samsung unveiled its colossal 49-inch Odyssey G9 gaming monitor at CES 2020 this year. It has a resolution of 5120×1440 and comes with a QLED panel clocked at 240Hz. The monitor is now available for purchase globally at $1,699.

Undervolting is dead. Worse still, OEMs are killing the functionality on older machines too. Undervolting is no longer possible on recent Dell XPS laptops, for example, nor on the Surface Laptop 3 or Surface Pro 7.

Early bird backers can get the super-small HTPC for $149 instead. The LarkBox is notable for its lemon-sized dimensions, Celeron J4115 CPU, and wide array of ports.

Dell has announced two new gaming monitors that promise a smooth, stutter-free gaming experience. The Dell 27 Curved Gaming S2721HGF is a 1500R curved VA FHD panel with a 144 Hz refresh rate while the Dell 27 Gaming Monitor S2721DGF is a flat panel QHD IPS display with a 165 Hz refresh rate and true 1 ms GTG response time. The S2721DGF also features DisplayHDR 400 support and a plethora of connectivity options.