Ryzen (Zen)

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.

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.

AMD has been sharing important information in an investor presentation, including a roadmap for its upcoming processors. Next in line for release is the 2nd Gen Ryzen Pro Mobile, followed by the 3rd Gen Ryzen desktop processors. Making a surprise appearance at the end of the 2019 roadmap is the 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPU.

A new leak associated with the upcoming Ryzen 3000 series has surfaced. It is a pricelist that has been distributed by the IT seller Bizgram, which has an address in Singapore. This document baldly lists all the new Threadripper variants, as well as the prices at which they may be sold.

The affordable IdeaPad S340 and S540 series will carry GeForce MX250 and Radeon RX Vega 10 options when they launch in the next couple of months. The AMD-based IdeaPad S540 SKU in particular will retail for $730 compared to $880 for the Intel variant.

The upcoming 'Navi' GPUs from AMD could offer much better power-efficiency according to notes from AMD's recent Linux driver patches. The patches detail that 'future ASICS' could use a new sw SMU framework superceding the current PowerPlay driver. In all likelihood, the new sw SMU might enable dynamic per-core voltage and frequency adjustment found in Ryzen APUs potentially resulting in less power-hungry GPUs and more performance per Watt.

July 7 will see the launch of AMD's 7 nm parts including the Ryzen 3000 CPUs and Navi GPUs alongside the new X570 chipset. A detailed announcement is expected during Computex 2019 in June followed by wide availability in July. AMD is also expected to announce 12 and 16-core Ryzen CPUs in the July to September timeframe. While Zen 2 is mostly on track, the simultaneous launch of Navi depends on whether TSMC is able to cater to the demand.

One variant of the new Ryzen 3000 mobile CPU series, the 3550H, has been launched in the form of the ASUS TUF Gaming FX505 and FX507 notebooks. They are 15- and 17-inch laptops, respectively, both of which feature 4GB of inbuilt RX 560X graphics memory. They also have 16:9 FHD displays with minimal bezels and options on Radeon FreeSync.

2019 could be the year when the Smach Z handheld Windows gaming device finally becomes reality. Smach is still trying to hype things up, as it recently updated the official site with new prices and specs, plus it added a few videos showing various gaming sessions. There is no specific 2019 launch date mentioned, so delays may still occur.

TSMC confirmed that around 10,000 wafers were compromised, but the Taiwanese company has yet to make an official statement about the full extent of the damages and the exact circumstances of the incident. The unfortunate event could create AMD / Nvidia GPU shortages and artificial MSRP increases in the coming months.

The ProBook 445 G6 and 455 G6 are the AMD versions of the Intel-powered ProBook 440 G6 and 450 G6. Aside from the swap in processors, these AMD SKUs will also sport less RAM with no LTE, discrete graphics, or touchscreen options to keep prices at more affordable levels.

A new leak has named the rumored AMD APU that will power the next generation consoles as Gonzalo. Many speculate that the Gonzalo APU will be used in both the PlayStation 5 (PS5) and next-generation Xbox (Xbox Scarlett). The APU will be built on a 7 nm Zen 2 CPU and a Navi-based GPU. These rumors fortify the belief that AMD will once again be the sole CPU and GPU manufacturer for the major players of the next console generation. As such, AMD stands to enjoy continued financial success from the console market.

A derivative octa-core Zen+ processor and Navi GPU for the next generation Playstation look increasingly likely. The leaked product code implies that AMD and Sony may have already finalized the core specifications for the PS5 - if not very close.

Consumer PCs will finally benefit from PCIe 4.0 devices this year thanks to AMD's support via the Ryzen 3000 CPUs, but the high-end sector will also be getting a taste of the PCIe 5.0 some later in 2019, and the two standards are expected to coexist for a few years. PCIe 5.0 will push the theoretical bandwidth to 128 GB/s on x16 duplex lanes running at 32 GHz.

AMD has issued a statement in regard to the recent rumor that only 5,000 Radeon VII GPUs were going to be made available for sale at release time. However, the statement has not explicitly confirmed or refuted the claim of a limited run of units. It simply mentions that the company expects to be able to meet initial demand for the much-heralded chip.

Laptop OEMs like Emdoor are looking to get around the Intel 14 nm CPU shortage by adding AMD-powered lineups. Thus, for 2019, Emdoor will first release some entry-level SR218 models powered by the older Stoney Ridge CPUs. Later on, when the Zen 2 CPUs get released, Emdoor will also launch a more advance AP618 lineup powered by Athlon, Raven Ridge and the new Picasso CPUs.

The Honor MagicBook pairs the AMD Ryzen 5 2500U CPU with the same RAM and storage options as the Intel counterpart. In contrast, other OEMs often handicap their AMD SKUs with slow HDDs, cheap displays, and limited RAM. The result is an AMD laptop that performs almost as well as the Intel equivalent for about $150 less.

The AMD keynote for this year mainly revolved around the announcement of the Radeon VII GPUs. However, the company's CEO also revealed that the third generation of Ryzen desktop processors would become available soon. There was not much additional detail given on this new CPU line, besides that it is definitely of a 7-nanometer architecture.

Asus has announced the TUF Gaming FX505DY and FX705DY laptops featuring AMD’s Ryzen 5 3550H APU and Radeon RX 560X GPU. If that isn’t enough to tempt prospective buyers, the Taiwanese manufacturer has also incorporated IPS-level FHD NanoEdge displays into the two laptops that utilize AMD’s FreeSync dynamic refresh rate technology for enhancing gaming sessions.

AMD has confirmed that it will be directly providing driver updates for its Ryzen Mobile APUs via Radeon Software updates. This is a welcome move from AMD as it had previously put the onus of providing APU driver updates on laptop OEMs. Hopefully, this will bring APU users on par with desktop GPU owners in getting access to timely day-zero game support, feature updates. and bug fixes.

Popular hardware review channel Hardware Unboxed is "fairly confident" that AMD's upcoming Ryzen 3000 series for the desktop will not be using AMD's chiplet design. Instead, AMD has allegedly opted for another traditional monolithic design, similar to last generation's Ryzen 2000 and 1000 series.

The new 3000 series of Ryzen APUs (codename Picasso) is now manufactured in an slightly improved process (called 12nm) and uses the slightly reworked Zen+ microarchitecture for the CPU cores. Therefore, AMD states an 8% increased performance compared to the first generation.

Twitter user APISAK, a prolific leaker and data miner, has leaked an alleged codename for a Ryzen 3000 series engineering sample. According to speculation, this CPU will have 12 cores and a TDP of 105 watts, meaning the previously rumored 12 core 3700X could be real.

E-Katalog, a Russian retailer, has put the entire line of Ryzen 3000 desktop CPUs (the 'Matisse' series) on its website. These listings may indeed just be placeholders; on the other hand, they contain detailed information on processors such as the Ryzen 9 3800X. It suggests that the new generation has seriously outpaced its predecessor, especially at the higher end.

AMD has launched two more entries to its Athlon range: the 220GE and the 240GE. Both processors come with Radeon Vega 3 graphics and offer base clocks of 3.4 GHz (220GE) and 3.5 GHz (240GE), respectively. The 220GE has been priced at US$65 and the 240GE has a price of US$75. The California-based company already announced the 200GE CPU back in September.

We know very little about the upcoming iterations of the Xbox console apart from the fact that there will be a traditional as well as a cloud streaming-only version. A rumor is now doing the rounds that the streaming-only SKU will be powered by a semi-custom AMD Picasso APU. The exact specifications are still not available but this APU is expected to provide hardware accelerated deep learning for Project xCloud that allows for real-time AI predictions of player actions and thereby, helps in reducing latency while streaming.

Previous Ryzen mobility solutions were not that great compared to the desktop counterparts, and it looks like the upcoming Ryzen 3000 Picasso mobility chips are still a bit slow compared to Intel's processors. The leaked Geekbench results show that AMD's Ryzen 3000 mobility CPUs are almost on par with Intel's similar chips from 2-3 years ago.

As one could expect, leaks and rumors, whether they're true or not, often times inspire people to manufacture leaks of their own for fun. This seems to be such a case where a Ryzen 3 3300X has surfaced on Userbenchmark; the circumstances surrounding this CPU are very peculiar and seem to indicate that this is nothing but a forgery.

Tech enthusiasts were intrigued by a contest hosted by a South Korean sales agency, the object of which was to guess the Cinebench scores for the as of yet unreleased Ryzen 3600X and 3700X. However, the contest has now been cancelled after AMD was notified about it and the company presumably had a hand in shutting it down.

An AMD-related image trademark has been discovered that has led to some discussion about its possible meaning, if any. The application in question shows a logo that is very similar to the well-known Vega logo, but the right-hand wing of the “V” has been dissected with two vertical lines. Unsurprisingly, some have speculated that this could herald a planned Radeon Vega II refresh.

The 2018 Global Semiconductor Alliance (GSA) Awards have been handed out, and companies like Nvidia, AMD, and Samsung have not gone home empty-handed. Dr. Lisa Su, who is the current CEO and president of AMD, was given the prestigious Dr. Morris Chang Exemplary Leadership Award for her contributions to the industry. Other winners included Marvell, Silicon Labs, and Nordic Semiconductor.

AdoredTV is well known for his previous leaks on AMD's upcoming Rome server CPU and Nvidia's current gen Turing GPUs. It's not entirely surprising that he has come across some information which he once again recommends we take with a grain of salt.

Since the research team who discovered the SplitSpectre attack used SpiderMonkey 52.7.4 — the JavaScript engine in Firefox — to target both Intel and AMD chips nobody seems to be safe anymore. The attack has been successfully carried out against Intel Haswell, Intel Skylake, and AMD Ryzen processors.

The EPYC CPU line, based on AMD's Zen 2 platform, was released recently in order to compete with Intel's x86-based processors for server-grade applications. DRAMeXchange has reported that the new alternative has already managed to reduce Intel's market share by 2%. This may not sound impressive, but it is also significantly better compared to the 0% they commanded prior to the release of EPYC Naples.