GPU

AOOSTAR has launched a brand-new eGPU dock called AG01. Retailing at only $149, it's one of the affordable external graphics card docks with an OCuLink port. However, note that it doesn't come with a GPU, but it does feature a built-in 400W power supply.

Microsoft has added Nvidia and AMD GPU options to its Windows 365 Cloud PC offerings. The desktop-as-a-service enables companies anywhere in the world to provide staff with a virtual PC configured with all necessary work software and settings. Windows 365 can be accessed online from personal computers, tablets, or smartphones.

Huawei has just launched the MateBook GT 14. While it features top-end specs, it doesn't sport a dedicated graphics card. That's basically where the company's WIKO Hi GT Cube external GPU steps in. It launched alongside Huawei's gaming laptop, and it packs the AMD Radeon RX 7600M XT.

The RTX 40 GPUs may become harder and pricier to buy in the coming days as Nvidia has seemingly drastically reduced the supply of the Ada Lovelace cards. The supply cut is reportedly triggering a price increase from Nvidia's AIB partners like ASUS.

CheckMag Turing, the GPU generation that delivered upscaling and ray tracing, has now all but fallen into obscurity as compared to its still widely used Pascal and Ampere brethren. The desktop RTX 2070 may have been middling at best even at launch, but its laptop counterpart fully deserves a bit of a spotlight. Let's try and look into how it managed to remain relevant for much longer than some expected.

CheckMag It's no secret that the littlest GPU out of AMD's RDNA 2 generation wasn't too warmly received. In fact, it was almost universally lambasted for being overpriced and underperforming, even in a time of shortages. But what if it didn't have to be that way?

SK hynix Inc. has unveiled its latest graphics memory, GDDR7, which boasts a 60% increase in speed and 50% higher power efficiency compared to GDDR6. Expected to begin mass production in Q3 2024, GDDR7 can reach speeds of up to 32Gbps, and handle over 1.5TB of data per second. The memory uses new packaging technology for better heat dissipation. GDDR7 DRAM is anticipated to be widely used in AI, high-spec 3D graphics, and autonomous driving applications.

The Asus Zephyrus ROG G14 (2024) with an RTX 4070 laptop GPU has dropped to a record low price. Unlike the company's previous iteration, Asus's latest compact 14-incher aims to serve both habitual gamers and multimedia users alike. Thankfully, Asus Zephyrus ROG G14 2024 succeeds in almost every aspect.

Asus ROG XG Mobile interface is available on ROG Flow laptops and the ROG Ally gaming handheld, and it lets users get better gaming performance with an external GPU. However, Asus has a few graphics card options available, and the 2023 dock costs $2,000. Well, a hardware hacker has managed to bring expanded support with an open-source eGPU dock.

The Lenovo LOQ 15 (2024) with the RTX 4060 laptop GPU is back on sale at Best Buy. The cost-effective gaming laptop is currently down by $200, making this an excellent opportunity to score the machine that promises to offer solid gaming performance.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 40 series cards are facing performance issues months after purchase. An investigation by Igor's Lab reveals the culprit: subpar thermal paste that deteriorates rapidly, suggesting a potentially widespread cost-cutting measure in the GPU industry that could be impacting long-term performance.

The Alienware x16 R2 with an RTX 4080 laptop GPU, a Core Ultra 9 185H CPU, 32 GB of LPDDR5X-7467 memory, and 1 TB of storage is now up for grabs at more than $800 off. The laptop packs a big 16-inch display making it perfect for people who want a large monitor to game on. Additionally, since the screen covers 100% DCI-P3, Alienware x16 R2 can also work well for creators.

A noted leaker on X opines we might not see Nvidia's next-gen RTX 5000 series graphics cards this year. Instead, they could be unveiled in the first week of January 2025 at CES.

Nvidia's rumored RTX 5090D could be the next China-exclusive GPU, following the footsteps of its predecessor, the RTX 4090D. It is not yet clear what differences this new card might carry to circumvent export restrictions and how it might compare to the standard RTX 5090.

Best Buy currently has the 2023 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 in open-box fair/good/excellent condition on sale for lucrative prices. For instance, the “Open Box Fair” ASUS ROG Zephyrus G16 with an RTX 4060 laptop GPU and a Core i7-13620H can now be had for less than $800

The first AMD Strix Point laptops have landed in China. These systems are from Asus, and the company has given some details on the RDNA 3.5 AMD Radeon 880M iGPU found in the Ryzen AI 9 365. Compared to the Radeon 780M with RDNA 3 architecture, it is said to deliver 15% better performance in Time Spy.

While the price point is enticing for the CPU and GPU combo, HP is not including any other outstanding features with this configuration, as the 16.1-inch IPS display is limited to 1080p and 300 nits, plus there is no Thunderbolt 4 connector.

Khadas has officially introduced the Mind Graphics eGPU Module for its workstation ecosystem. The external graphics card solution sports a desktop-level Nvidia RTX 4060 Ti and can deliver up to 128 GT/s of data transmission through Mind Link, which is 4x higher than Thunderbolt 4 or USB4.

AMD has shared the performance comparisons of RDNA 3.5 found inside the Strix Point lineup. The new GPU architecture is shown to be 32% better than the RDNA 3 of Hawk Point on the 3DMark Timespy benchmark at 15W. This is a significant improvement for the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series processors.

The Alienware m16 R2 gaming laptop with a 16-inch QHD+ display running at 240 Hz and an RTX 4070 dGPU is now going for only $1,299.99 at Best Buy. With a 4.5/5 user rating and an excellent 90% review rating from us, the Alienware is a capable mid-ranger that is bound to make many gamers happy.

Seasonic's official PSU wattage calculator page was updated with Nvidia's upcoming GeForce RTX 50 series GPUs and their respective wattage. The all new 50-series cards will consume fairly more power than their predecessors. An October launch is expected, with the RTX 5080 and 5090 being the first ones to be unveiled.

A former AMD engineer, Hemant Mohapatra, recently revealed that AMD had almost bought Nvidia. The ex-employee says that the deal fell through because Jensen Huang, the CEO of Nvidia, didn't want to sell unless he became the CEO of the merged company.

The MSI Vector GP68HX powered by an RTX 4090 laptop GPU, a Core i9-13980HX CPU, 32 GB of RAM, and 2 TB of storage can now be had for a massive $800 off the list price. Coupled with a 16-inch QHD+ panel, the MSI Vector GP68HX is a true desktop-replacement and seems like a perfect option for folks who want power in a mobile form-factor.

The mid-range Legion Slim 5 16 Gen 9 is currently on sale straight from Lenovo at a sizeable discount of more than $550. The price cut makes the RTX 4070-equipped laptop an excellent value since the machine also packs an 8-core CPU and a QHD+ display.

The Acer Predator Helios 16 in certified-refurbished condition has scored a whopping 48% discount. The laptop brings an RTX 4080 laptop GPU and a Core i9-13900HX, making the machine a high-end gaming laptop capable of playing demanding games at more than 60 FPS.

The Lenovo Legion Slim 5 14 with an RTX 4060 laptop GPU and a 14.5-inch OLED display is currently enjoying a big discount of 38%. Thanks mainly to its solid performance and awesome display, the Legion Slim 5 14 is a stellar machine that is highly rated by both fans and media alike.

The launch of Intel's next-generation gaming graphics cards is getting closer. Two new leaks reveal that Intel is working on three new GPUs equipped with up to 56 Xe2 cores. The new Xe2 architecture will soon be launched as part of Intel Lunar Lake.

CheckMag 2.5 slots? Twelve inches? You call that small form factor, Jensen Huang? Absolutely not. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further!

Starting with FSR 3.1, AMD is separating frame generation from image upscaling. This means that older GPUs from Nvidia as well as Intel's Arc GPUs can now benefit from frame generation in select games.

Team Red will present its new "Neural Texture Block Compression" next week at an event in London. The AI-powered method seems to be an alternative for Nvidia's "Random-Access Neural Compression of Material Textures" that has not yet seen actual implementation.

Legendary GPU overclocker, Vince Lucido (aka Kingpin), talking about his future plans in a recent interview, dropped a hint that there may be a future for his custom-designed, overclocking specific GPU series. The overclocker was previously left without a GPU partner when EVGA exited the computer hardware business in late 2022.

The MINISFORUM DEG1 is now available to order globally. Starting at $99, €90 and £95 in the US, Europe and the UK, respectively, the MINISFORUM DEG1 combines OCuLink and PCIe x16 connectors to bring desktop-level GPU performance to compatible gaming handhelds and mini-PCs.

Since the start of 2024, Nvidia's market cap has almost tripled to currently reach $3.34 trillion. Microsoft is following close behind with $3.31 trillion and Apple is now third with $3.28 trillion.

The AMD Ryzen processors and AMD's data center graphics cards already come with multi-chiplet designs. Now, a newly discovered patent is suggesting that AMD may have been exploring the possibility of bringing more complex chiplets for the upcoming mainstream RDNA GPUs.

Golden Pig Upgrade shared the 3DMark Time Spy benchmark results of the Radeon 890M iGPU inside Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 on Bilibili. The integrated graphics card with the 16 compute units (CUs) reportedly scores over 3600 on the benchmark, which puts it very close to the Nvidia RTX 2050 GPU.

Released yesterday, the latest graphics driver for Intel Arc and Iris Xe comes with day-zero visual enhancements and performance optimizations for Destiny 2: The Final Shape and Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Older titles such as Chivalry 2, Crysis, and Crysis 2 receive performance improvements of up to 16%.

First announced as a product exclusive to the Chinese market, the XFX Phoenix Nirvana video card is now headed for the global market. The swappable fan design might be used in video cards from different lineups, but all will be inspired by the Phoenix Nirvana. However, this is not a solution for low-end products.

Qualcomm and its partners are still a few days away from delivering any Snapdragon X series devices yet. In the meantime, Qualcomm has published early results for its X1-85 GPU, albeit without comparing the GPU against any recent AMD Radeon iGPUs.

NVIDIA has not officially commented on the release of next-generation laptop GPUs yet. In the meantime, a major leak has detailed the RTX 5050 through RTX 5090 with two versions of the RTX 5080 too.

Minisforum has unveiled the R3GAF eGPU based on the Radeon RX 7600M XT mobile GPU at Computex 2024. Thankfully, OCuLink support is present, which offers substantially better performance than Thunderbolt 4.

The very first gaming demo of Xe2 iGPU is here. Intel demoed it at its Tech Tour while introducing the new Lunar Lake processors. The demo only ran one game, F1 2024, and with ray tracing and XeSS, the integrated graphics card could run the game at 60 FPS at 1080p and High settings.

The original 3dfx Voodoo 4 4500 board launched in 2000 was replaced with a custom-made MXM board mounted inside a 2013 Dell Precision M4800 mobile workstation. Modder "sdz" added double the original VRAM for a total of 64 MB, and the MXM variant can now be overclocked to higher core clocks than previously possible.

Battlemage is bringing quite a few architecture improvements over the Alchemist iteration, including increased efficiency, more powerful ray tracing units and optimized scalability. THis new architecture will first be introduced with the Lunar Lake CPUs, but desktop and HPC versions should launch later on.

The 2024 Dell G16 7630 gaming laptop has scored a massive $350 discount on Dell’s official store. The machine brings a 14-core Core i7-13650HX CPU, a 140 W RTX 4060 GPU, 16 GB of RAM, and 1 TB of storage. A 16-inch IPS panel with a QHD+ resolution handles display duties.

Gigabyte is offering new pre-built PCs that allow everyone from students to professionals perform their own AI training and inference from the comfort of their homes. Dubbed AI TOP PCs, these pre-builts come with chosen Gigabyte components and can scale from 8 billion param models up to 236 billion, all while running off a typical house wall socket.

The latest ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 with a Ryzen 9 8945HS CPU and an RTX 4060 laptop GPU has slid down to a new historic low price following a significant 19% discount on the list price. The discounted price presents an excellent opportunity to purchase one of the best Windows devices on the market.

The new ASUS TUF Gaming A14 and A16 gaming laptops have gone official at Computex 2024. Both the 14-inch and the 16-inch machines bring AMD’s next-gen Ryzen AI processors, new designs, better cooling, and more upgradability options. On the graphics side, the TUF 14 and TUF 16 rock NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 GPUs.

AMD is reducing the footprint of the Radeon Pro W7900 at Computex 2024. Called the Radeon Pro Dual Slot, the new GPU takes up only two PCIe slots compared to three in the previous iteration. This allows for the use of more GPUs in parallel for accelerating professional workloads and AI inferencing. AMD is also updating the ROCm stack to 6.1, adding Ubuntu 22.04 support.

CheckMag Intel's Arc Alchemist graphics seems to have been an acquired taste amongst PC gamers. Aggressive pricing and driver fixes have helped its roughest edges, but voices in the community suggesting that Arc might suddenly displace AMD's Radeon GPUs in the budget market are on another planet.