Ryzen (Zen)

With the third generation of Ryzen processors looming over the horizon, now seems like a good time to pick up a second-generation processor for a bargain price. At the moment, you can purchase an AMD Ryzen 5 2600X desktop CPU for US$184.99 at Newegg. Amazon US is offering the same chip for even less, at a low price of US$179.99.

Danish desktop enthusiasts have built an incredible workstation based around an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X. The desktop computer was actually undergoing a thorough upgrading session in a venture labeled “Project Threadripper”. The end product looks terrific and features hardware from Corsair, Samsung, Asus, and Cooler Master.

There has been mention of an AMD Ryzen 5 3550U with Vega 9 made online, but no other information has been offered apart from the names for the two potential components. AMD already has a Ryzen 5 3550H mobile processor in its lineup that features a Radeon Vega 8 Graphics solution. The Picasso APU family features H-series and U-series chips.

A benchmark comparison between an Asus FX505DU laptop with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU and an Asus GU502DU laptop fitted with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q design GPU has been spotted on 3DMark. Both devices also featured an AMD Ryzen 7 3750H Zen+ APU. The Max-Q variant managed to keep up within an acceptable distance.

Asus has introduced a new member to the Zephyrus family with the Zephyrus G GA502. The GA5002 aims to bring the Zephyrus series to a wider audience and is powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 3550H CPU and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti GPU to offer a high-performant combination for multitasking and gaming while still being easier on the battery life.

Asus has announced the availability of the TUF Gaming series with the latest NVIDIA Turing GTX 1660 Ti graphics. The TUF Gaming series is available in FX505 and FX705 SKUs and come with AMD Zen+ Ryzen 5 3550H and Ryzen 7 3750H CPU options. Apart from the new GTX 16-series GPU option, these laptops are otherwise identical to the original TUF Gaming series with Radeon RX 560X graphics announced during CES 2019.

Another limited edition product has been unearthed that will be seemingly part of AMD’s 50th anniversary celebrations. A red version of the great value for money Radeon VII desktop graphics card has made an appearance, although it looks likely at the moment the only differences with the regular card will be design-based rather than performance-based.

AMD has posted a tweet on its Ryzen Twitter account showing what can be done with just one Ryzen Threadripper 1950X HEDT chip and four Radeon RX Vega 64 LC graphics cards. The builder of the custom desktop PC setup has called his system “RippinRed 2.0”, and it also features 32 GB RAM, a motherboard from Gigabyte, and four monitors from Dell and Acer.

Gigabyte Japan has announced the upcoming launch of the X470 Aorus Gaming 7 WiFi-50 motherboard. The board will be released domestically on April 26 for about 35,000 yen including taxes (~US$310). It’s not yet known if the Taiwanese manufacturer will be bringing the limited edition motherboard to other markets.

The next pitched battle between Sony and Microsoft in their console wars is starting to heat up. The latest news to surface is courtesy of some Microsoft insiders who say that the next-gen flagship Xbox will be more advanced than the Sony PlayStation 5.

Two images of one of AMD’s upcoming Picasso range of desktop APUs have been leaked online. The pictures themselves don’t reveal very much, apart from the fact that AMD is likely preparing to finally release the desktop APU counterparts of the Picasso mobile APUs that were released earlier this year. The APU in question is believed to be the Ryzen 3 3200G.

Images of the components for the upcoming GPD Win Max handheld gaming PC have been leaked. The pictures show that an embedded chip from AMD’s Ryzen V1000 series has been chosen to power the device. It also seems that GamePad Digital (GPD) has decided to change the device’s name from Win 2 Max to simply Win Max.

The iBOX-R1000 from ASRock is the first mini PC to integrate the new Ryzen R1606G / R1505G embedded dual-core CPUs with Vega 3 iGPUs. It comes with up to 32 GB DDR4-2400 RAM and supports one 2.5-inch SATA SSD / HDD. This mini PC is designed for digital signage, arcade gaming and gambling, kiosks, IoT gateways and thin client terminals.

The Zen 2-based Ryzen, EPYC and Threadripper chipsets should make for exciting launches soon. This is because their state-of-the-art 7nm architectures should deliver performance improvements in many areas compared to their Zen+ predecessors. However, it appears that the Zen 3s of the future are shaping up to be even better already.

Atari announced this week that the Atari VCS would switch to an AMD Ryzen Embedded R1000 APU, officially ditching the Bristol Ridge A10 it had planned to use last year. While the R1000 will bring better performance and support for modern features (like 4K video playback), it brings a heavy negative to the effervescent console - delays.

Asus has added the FX95DD laptop to its Chinese website as part of its FX/ZX series of computers. The device will feature a Zen+ Picasso AMD Ryzen 7 3750H APU in combination with the Pascal-based Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 GPU. The notebook, which is known locally as the Flying Fortress, is currently being offered for presale orders.

AMD has introduced two embedded processors as part of the new Ryzen R1000 series. The models are the Ryzen Embedded R1606G and the slightly lower-specced Ryzen Embedded R1505G. Both chips come with two cores and four threads. Strangely enough, it seems the two embedded chips were compared against each other on 3DMark 11 back in October 2018.

An email that has supposedly come from MSI’s German-language tech support team has stated that the company will not be offering support for AMD’s upcoming line of Ryzen 3000 Matisse desktop processors on older motherboards (300-series). However, there has not been an official statement from the Taiwanese company in regard to this issue yet.
MSI has issued a press release stating there will be support for compatible 300-series motherboards.

Mark Cerny, lead architect behind the PlayStation 4, has confirmed several details about the specifications of Sony's next-generation console. The PlayStation 5, as it is rumored to be called, will run on an AMD APU consisting of a 7 nm Zen 2-based CPU and a Navi-based GPU that will support real-time ray tracing and 8K resolutions. The PS5 will also include a lightning-fast SSD that should drastically cut down on load time.

A piece of leaked marketing material purportedly from Gigabyte has led to considerable speculation about what could occur on the date mentioned on it. The image pertains to the gaming-related Aorus sub-brand, with some believing it will lead to an announcement of the X570 motherboards and possibly even a reveal of AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series.

AMD will soon be celebrating 50 years since its formal incorporation, and to celebrate this fact it appears there will be a 50th Anniversary Edition of the Ryzen 7 2700X processor. It’s not known if the special edition of the CPU will differ from the Pinnacle Ridge chip that was originally released in April of last year.

The next generation of AMD cards based on the Navi architecture could be unveiled at Computex this year. However, according to some other rumors, they could also have their own dedicated release event on July 7 this year. It would be a good choice of date, as the potential success of Navi hangs on its state-of-the-art 7nm nature.

Sales data from Mindfactory, a large German computer hardware retailer, has shown that CPUs from AMD are outselling Intel’s processors by more than two to one. Leading the charge for the red team are two CPUs from the Zen+ Pinnacle Ridge series: The mainstream Ryzen 5 2600 and the performance-orientated Ryzen 7 2700X.

A short video uploaded by UDOO on YouTube has shown that the UDOO BOLT single-board computer is now being shipped to early-bird backers. The little board made some waves with claims that it was faster than a MacBook Pro 13 and Microsoft Surface Pro 2017 m3. Apparently, it can even work well when connected to a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti graphics card.

Alleged details of the PlayStation 5 console have been posted online. The incredible claimed specifications include 8K upscaling, 2 TB storage utilizing NAND, 24 GB GDDR6 RAM, VR, ray tracing, backwards compatibility and more. There’s also mention of the widely believed custom AMD Ryzen CPU and the Navi GPU – that apparently offers 14 teraflops of compute performance.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

As the 14 nm CPU shortage Intel is still in full effect, OEMs are now switching to AMD's solutions for select line of products. HP's newly announced ProDesk 405 G4 mini PCs are a good example in this regard, since they pack AMD's Ryzen Pro 2000-series coupled with up to 32 GB of DDR4-2933 RAM, plus they integrate the Vega GPUs.

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.

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).

Intel's latest updates for the Linux DRM kernel driver and coreboot reveal the upcoming Comet Lake CPUs that appear to be a 14 nm refresh of last year's Coffee Lake models. There will be ULV, mobile and desktop variants with up to 10 cores that are expected to be launched in mid-2019, before the anticipated 10 nm Ice Lake family.

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.