Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers (Hong Kong Stock Code: 1337), today announced the Razer Anzu Smart Glasses, its first ever eyewear product. Razer Anzu combines the valuable protection of 35% blue light filtering lenses, 99% UVA/UVB protective polarized sunglasses, touch controls, and open-ear audio for a one-of-a-kind wearable. Razer Anzu seamlessly enhances the experience of working from home, and makes digital entertainment or outdoor activities another opportunity to demonstrate your style.

Open-ear wireless sound and the use of Razer's low-latency Bluetooth technology offer consumers greater immersion and convenience to enjoy work-play lifestyles. A less-than 48 g light weight and ergonomic design delivers a comfortable fit for extended use, particularly during work-from-home sessions. Razer Anzu will be available from Best Buy and Razer.com in fashionable rectangular or round frame designs, each in two sizes with subtle branding adorning the durable and flexible frame hinges meant for easy storage.

GoodOffer24 brings you the March Carnival promotion event. Get Genuine Windows 10 Pro for as little as 11€, and have more budget to spare toward your hardware. Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC can be had for as little as 9.86€. No home gaming desktop is complete without the mighty Office 2019 productivity suite. Get the top-spec Office 2019 Professional Plus for as little as 34.29€. Better yet, combine it with your Windows 10 Pro purchase for as little as 41.99€ to save even more. GoodOffer24 accepts PayPal, so your purchase and payment instruments are secured.

Please use the coupon code TP30 at check-out, to avail the prices you see here.

Buy Windows 10 Pro at 11.47€ | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC at 9.86€ | Buy Windows 10 Pro 2-PC at 16.79€ | Buy Windows 10 Home at 11.01€ | Buy Office 2019 Home and Business at 41.31€ | Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus at 33.17€ | Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at 34.29€ | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2019 Professional at 41.99€ | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2016 Professional at 42.69€ | Buy Windows 10 Home + Office 2016 Professional at 39.69€

NVIDIA today released the GeForce Hotfix 461.81 drivers to expeditiously fix bugs discovered with the previous driver. Based mostly on the GeForce 461.72 WHQL, the drivers come with shader cache optimizations for "Fortnite," which work to reduce stutter on certain PC configurations. A display flickering issue on some machines with GeForce GTX 1660 Super, has been fixed. Pixellated black dots noticed in "Red Dead Redemption II" has been fixed. Stuttering noticed with moving windows of certain desktop applications, has been fixed. NVIDIA Surround failing with 4K HDMI 2.1 TVs has been fixed. "Detroit: Become Human" crashing with image sharpening enabled, has been fixed. Also fixed, is long game loading times with "Rocket League." Grab the hotfix from the link below.

DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce Hotfix 461.81

NordVPN is a multinational virtual private network (VPN) service provider with direct presence in over 59 counties and regions. It provides fast and secure VPN services to not just businesses and enterprises, but also individuals and small-businesses, like you. You probably didn't even think you needed a VPN, but there's no better time to get one, as we'll explain below. NordVPN is celebrating its Birthday by offering 2-year subscriptions to its service at a deep discount of 68% off. You also get to try your luck with a return gift, which adds anywhere between 1 month to 2 years in addition to the subscription you've paid for!

NordVPN protects you on the Internet by not just hiding your IP address to websites you access, but also encrypts your Internet traffic, so nobody can eavesdrop on you online. NordVPN scrambles your IP address to the websites you visit. Every visit is made from a different IP address, and tunneled through any of NordVPN's thousands of servers spread across the globe. NordVPN doesn't bill you by the data transfers (it's unlimited), however you're still limited by the data caps of your Internet service provider or mobile Internet provider. With one NordVPN subscription, you can secure all your devices, including your PCs, smartphones, laptops, tablets, and more. NordVPN supports a multitude of operating systems and environments.

Sounds good? Get NordVPN and secure your digital presence online.Still not convinced? Read on.

GALAX, the maker of the popular premium Hall Of Fame (HOF) edition of graphics cards, has recently announced its GeForce RTX 3090 HOF Edition GPU. Designed for extreme overclocking purposes, the card is made with a 12 layer PCB, 26 phase VRM power delivery configuration, and three 8-pin power connectors. Today, we have managed to get the first comprehensive review of the card by a Chinese YouTube channel 二斤自制. However, this wasn't just regular testing being conducted on a card with factory settings. The channel has applied 1000 Watt vBIOS to the GPU and ran it all on the air cooler the GPU comes with.

In the default 420 Watt setting, the card has been running with a GPU clock of 1845 MHz and a temperature of 69 degrees Celsius. However, when the 1000 Watt vBIOS was applied to the card, the GPU core has managed to ramp to 2000 MHz and consume as much as 630 W of power. If you were wondering if the stock cooler was able to handle it all, the answer is yes. The card has reached a toasty 96 C temperature. While GALAX doesn't offer BIOS like this, the ID of the BIOS corresponds to that of a custom XOC 1000 W BIOS for EVGA Kingpin GeForce RTX 3090 GPU, which you can find in our database. When it comes to performance, the gains were very minimal at only 2-3%. That must have been due to the insufficient cooling, and the card could have done much better on water or LN2. The Firestrike Ultra and Firestrike Extreme results are displayed below.

AMD has just announced its Navi 22 RDNA 2 devices, spanning the middle-end gaming sector. The Radeon RX 6700 XT, which is the latest addition to the 6000 series of Radeon graphics cards, is carrying the Navi 22 chip inside it. However, AMD GPUs need to satisfy another sector in addition to the desktop market and that is the laptop/mobile market. With the past 5000 series of laptop GPUs, AMD has made a bit of a disappointing launch. Given the availability of the first-generation RDNA GPUs in mobile devices, many gamers were unable to find 5000 series Radeon GPUs in laptops, as it was rarely a choice. MSI and Dell have carried a few models with the Radeon RX 5500M and RX 5600M, and the highest-end Radeon RX 5700M availability was limited to Dell Alienware Area-51m R2 laptop.

During the announcement of Radeon RX 6700 XT, Scott Herkleman (CVP & GM AMD Radeon) has announced that AMD is preparing the launch of the next-generation RDNA 2 based RX 6000 series of graphics cards for mobile/laptop devices. While there should be a range of models based on Navi 22, Navi 23, and Navi 24, the availability is unknown for now. The only information we have so far is that it is "coming soon". The exact configurations of these chips remain a mystery until the launch happens, so we have to wait to find out more.

In a move that could confuse some of the lesser informed buyers, Samsung is ready with the new 980 M.2 NVMe SSD (not to be confused with the 980 PRO). Unlike the 980 PRO, the 980 is a cost-effective drive that uses PCI-Express 3.0 x4 host interface, and a DRAM-less controller. Luckily, Samsung didn't take the QLC route with these drives, as they feature 136-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory of the same kind used in the 980 PRO.

The Samsung 980 offers sequential transfer speeds of up to 3,500 MB/s reads, with up to 3,000 MB/s writes, and comes in capacities of 250 GB, 500 GB, and 1 TB. It offers 4K random access performance in the neighborhood of 500,000 IOPS reads (4K, QD32), with up to 480,000 IOPS random writes (4K, QD1). Samsung is expected to formally launch the 980 on March 30, 2021.

According to a new research report from the analyst firm Jon Peddie Research, the growth of PC-based Graphics Processor Units (GPU) shipments of all types worldwide reached 20.5 percent in Q4 2020 and 12.4 percent year over year. Overall, the installed base of GPUs will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 3.7 percent during 2020-2025 to reach a total of 419 million units at the end of the forecast period. Over the next five years, the penetration of discrete GPUs (dGPU) in the PC will grow to reach a level of 21 percent.

As part of its ongoing research on the PC graphics market, Jon Peddie Research (JPR) has released its Market Watch report for the fourth quarter of 2020. Before 2020, the PC market was showing signs of improvement and settling into a new normal. The pandemic has distorted all models and predictions, as has the gold-rush in Ethereum. JPR's Market Watch report confirms that trend for the fourth quarter of 2020, but with cautious guidance for next year.

Intel announced their 'mainstream' 670p PCIe 3.0 QLC SSD family earlier this week with pricing more in line with what you would expect for PCIe 4.0 drives. Intel announced three 670p models with 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB capacities, the advertised speeds varied with sequential reads of 3500 MB/s on the 1/2 TB models and 3000 MB/s for the 512 GB variant. Sequential write speeds were quoted as 1600 MB/s for the 512 GB, 2500 MB/s for the 1 TB, and 2700 MB/s for the 2 TB model. The latest QLC memory also brought a write endurance increase of 23% and the SSD's all came with a five-year warranty.

While these drives all offered respectable performance their pricing did not reflect their 'mainstream' target market with the drives priced at 90 USD, 155 USD, and 330 USD for the 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB models respectively. It would appear that retailers are taking it upon themselves to correct this by reducing prices by up to 24% on the new drives. Newegg currently has the drives listed for 69.99 USD, 129.99 USD, and 249.99 USD which represents a price drop of 20 USD for the 512 GB, 25 USD for the 1 TB, and 80 USD for the 2 TB version. These new prices make the 670p series a much more viable PCIe 3.0 SSD however, it is yet to be seen if these are the new official prices or just a discount from an individual retailer.

Thermalright today introduced the Venomous Plus, its latest tower-type CPU cooler and a re-take on the 10+ year old Venomous X. Designed to tackle thermal loads of up to 240 W, the Venomous Plus features a classic aluminium fin-stack design. Six 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heat pipes make indirect contact with the CPU at the mirror-finished base made of the same material; passing through the aluminium fin-stack that's ventilated by a TL-C12S 120 mm fan. The heatsink by itself measures 127 mm x 60 mm x 158 mm (WxDxH), weighing 660 g, and holding 51 fins. The fan adds about 25-27 mm in width.

The included TL-C12S fan is one of the key things setting this apart from the Venomous X. It's a modern unit that takes in 4-pin PWM for its main function, 3-pin ARGB for illumination, and features ARGB illumination through diodes studded in the impeller hub. The fan features fluid-dynamic bearing, turns up to 1,500 RPM (±10%), pushing up to 66.17 CFM of air-flow with static pressure of 1.53 mm H?O; and has a maximum noise output of 25.6 dBA. Among the CPU socket types supported are AM4, LGA1200, LGA115x, and LGA2066.

Nintendo is reportedly preparing to unveil an updated Nintendo Switch console later this year featuring a larger Samsung OLED display. The upcoming model is rumored to feature a 7-inch 720p rigid OLED screen from Samsung Display Co with an initial monthly production target of just under one million units. The screen would be significantly larger than the 6.2-inch screen currently found on the Switch, if Nintendo is to keep the same form-factor the bezels will be significantly thinner. The new model is also likely to feature an upgraded NVIDIA Tegra chip with support for 4K DLSS 2.0 when docked, this will introduce further difficulty for developers who have struggled with the difference between resolutions.

We've all been reading multiple stories covering the current overly high demand compared to manufacturing capability for semiconductors. Some of us have actually felt this lack in supply not only in our pockets (for those who purchased above-MSRP graphics cards, CPUs or consoles). And apparently, TSMC has just made quite a deal more money out of this "extraordinary demand" than it usually does, as it's being reported the company has auctioned off "excess capacity" to an unknown third-party for 15-20% higher prices than they usually practice.

Now before we start lynching TSMC here, that can mean many things. There is a backlog of orders still to be filled for most manufacturers, that much the reports doing the rounds claim; however, the nature of semiconductor manufacturing occurs throughout many different nodes and technologies. It's more than likely that this doesn't mean that TSMC saved some wafers that could have been used for AMD's RX, Zen, or custom APUs for next-gen consoles on the side and decided to give them to another buyer. This likely means that TSMC had one or more nodes or manufacturing technologies that hadn't been pre-booked yet, and that some players might've looked at that as a solution to their semiconductor woes. And TSMC, having more than one interested party, auctioned the excess capacity. The rumor places the most likely candidates for the purchase as car manufacturers, who have also been hard by the lack of semiconductors in the market, and that's one business where it may make sense to order manufacturing on nodes other than the most cutting-edge; cars just don't need the latest, most powerful and greatest chips to run their software. But all in all, the result is this: a good day for TSMC.

MSI today announced another entry into their MAG monitor lineup in the form of the MAG272CQP. As the name implies, we're looking at a 27" affair packing a WQHD resolution (2560 x 1440). The panel is a VA type (as implied by its 3000:1 contrast ratio, although at a basic 300 nits maximum brightness), and has a curve ratio of 1500R. The monitor supports VRR (marketed as FreeSync Premium), and 165 Hz refresh rates with 1 ms response times.

I/O is (generously) assured by 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 2x HDMI2.0, 2x USB3.2 Gen.1 Type-A, 1x USB3.2 Gen.1 Type-B, 1x USB Type-C (DisplayPort Alternate), and an earphone jack. no word on pricing or actual release date was available at time of writing.

NVIDIA's upcoming GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics card is likely to feature a hardware hash-rate limiter, much like the recently launched RTX 3060, according to kopite7kimi, a reliable source for NVIDIA rumors. The hash-rate limiter ensures that that crypto-currency mining performance of the card is significantly lower than what its hardware is capable of, so it doesn't remain viable for miners. The limiter works through a secure key exchange between the video BIOS, system firmware, and the driver; so driver-level modifications wouldn't affect it.

The RTX 3080 Ti is being launched to fill the large price-performance gorge between the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090. Its rumored specifications wildly swing between a 12 GB memory setup maxing out the 384-bit memory interface of the "GA102" silicon; and 20 GB of it across a narrower 320-bit wide interface. The card allegedly features 80 out of 84 streaming multiprocessors (40 out of 42 TPCs) enabled, working out to 10,240 CUDA cores, 80 RT cores, and 320 Tensor cores. Below is a picture of the RTX 3090 Founders Edition.

Elgato, the leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, today announced the launch of two new product lines to help creators personalize their home studios and streaming setups - Elgato Light Strip and Elgato Wave Panels.

Elgato Light Strip offers convenient app-controlled ambient lighting with RGBWW LEDs capable of displaying 16 million colors, with a wide brightness and color temperature range to create the perfect look for your setup. Elgato Wave Panels feature two-layer foam construction to reduce room echo and reverberation, easily mounting to your wall in modular hexagonal panels. Whether it's lighting up your stream or improving room acoustics, Elgato Light Strip and Elgato Wave Panels provide new ways to make your space, and your content, your own.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), one of the largest manufacturers of silicon, is seemingly making plans to build as many as six of its US-based fabs in Arizona. According to the unconfirmed report coming from UDN, TSMC could be building its Arizona-based factories for much larger capacities. Based on TSMC's classifications, the MegaFab-class of factories is the one with 25,000 WSPM output. According to the report, TSMC plans to build six additional facilities in the area where the Arizona fab is, and have a GigaFab-class (even larger type) factory present on US soil. Currently, the company operates six GigaFabs and all of them are based in Taiwan.

The GigaFab class factory is supposed to have over 100,000 WSPM output, and by building one in the US, TSMC could get much closer to big customers like Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD. Reports are saying that TSMC's primary target is 3 nm node production on 12-inch (300 mm) wafers. All six of the supposed facilities are expected to output more than 100,000 wafers at their peak, making it one of the largest projects TSMC has ever done. The Arizona location is supposed to serve as a "mega fab" facility and it is supposed to start manufacturing silicon in 2024. This information is, of course, just a rumor so you should take it with a grain of salt, as this type of information is usually only known by top-level management.

Global DRAM revenue reached US$17.65 billion, a 1.1% increase YoY, in 4Q20, according to TrendForce's latest investigations. For the most part, this growth took place because Chinese smartphone brands, including Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi, expanded their procurement activities for components in order to seize the market shares made available after Huawei was added to the Entity List by the U.S. Department of Commerce. These procurement activities in turn provided upward momentum for DRAM suppliers' bit shipment. However, clients in the server segment were still in the middle of inventory adjustments during this period, thereby placing downward pressure on DRAM prices. As a result, revenues of most DRAM suppliers, except for Micron, remained somewhat unchanged in 4Q20 compared to 3Q20. Micron underwent a noticeable QoQ decline in 4Q20 (which Micron counts as its fiscal 1Q21), since Micron had fewer work weeks during this period compared to the previous quarter.

The Genesis Krypton 310 is a gaming mouse which captivates users with its simple form while providing a wide range of options. The device is equipped with programmable buttons, in-built memory as well as durable switches. The RGB illumination, on the other hand, allows for device personalization.

The Genesis Krypton 310 is a gaming mouse with an ADNS-3050 optical sensor with up to 4000 DPI, which allows for precise movement tracking. Users can configure the DPI and decrease it as far as 500 DPI. The sensor is accompanied by seven programmable buttons which can be configured with the use of the manufacturer's software. The application allows users to save complex macros and change the Prismo RGB illumination settings.

Antec Inc., a leading provider of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself market, is presenting a new ITX case which offers PC enthusiasts the best watercooling options in a small format case. The Dark Cube will soon reach store shelves and online retail outlets in Europe with a competitive MSRP of 209 Euros.

The Dark Cube is a masterpiece of the revolutionary ITX case from Antec. This untraditional case provides powerful support for the latest gaming gear. Despite the small size, the Dark Cube still supports motherboards up to M-ATX. The Dark Cube supports high-end hardware and provides dual front panel options: Users can choose either the tempered glass panel or mesh front panel - whether the emphasis is on maximum airflow performance or on showcasing the gaming components.

MSI introduces its latest liquid coolers, the MPG CORELIQUID K Series, designed with powerful cooling & a rich user experience, powered by Asetek's most advanced technology. As computing processors become more powerful and hotter, a reliable cooler is needed to help sustain peak performance. Introducing MSI's latest liquid cooler, the MPG CORELIQUID K Series. This eye catching and stunning liquid cooler will be your best choice for its dependable cooling performance. The MPG CORELIQUID K Series is available in 360 mm and 240 mm radiator sizes to meet the needs of gamers who need a choice of specifications.

The MPG CORELIQUID K Series features MSI's exclusive and renowned TORX FAN 4.0, capable of generating concentrated airflow for rapid heat dissipation through the radiator. Another fan, a 60 mm TORX FAN 3.0, has been cleverly placed and hidden inside the water block. The TORX FAN 3.0's dispersion fan blade design accelerates airflow around the CPU socket and increases the effectiveness of heat dissipation around the motherboard's power solutions.

TUL Corporation, a leading and innovative manufacturer of AMD graphics cards since 1997, today announced the new PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card. Powered by the groundbreaking AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture and featuring AMD Infinity Cache, AMD Smart Access Memory and other advanced technologies, the new graphics card delivers the ultimate in 1440p gaming performance.

The PowerColor AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card is built upon 7 nm process technology and AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture, designed to deliver the optimal combination of performance and power efficiency. AMD RDNA 2 based graphics cards are optimized to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism with DirectX Raytracing (DXR). When paired with AMD FidelityFX, developers can combine rasterized and ray-traced effects to provide the ideal balance of image quality and gaming performance.

Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of high-performance, quality PC components and peripherals. With the CA300H, Sharkoon now presents another PC case in the premium ELITE SHARK series. Like the other cases in the series, this sturdy ATX tower is designed for showcasing quality high-end hardware, and, with its generously dimensioned interior, it offers a wide variety of installation options.

From the outside, the case aims to impress with an overall appearance of sturdiness combined with elegance. The side panels are made of tempered glass, allowing an optimal view into the interior of the case. The top panel of the CA300H is made of metal, while the frame of the front panel is made of polished aluminium. The aesthetic highlight of the case is provided by the ornate geometrical pattern on the front panel, which is emphasized by the light of the addressable RGB LED fans which are installed behind it. The LEDs of all the fans, the I/O panel and further RGB components can be adjusted as desired via the addressable RGB controller.

EK, the premium liquid cooling gear manufacturer, and MSI, a world-leading gaming brand, have partnered up once again to launch the next-gen MSI CARBON motherboard and EK-Quantum monoblock combo. The brand new MPG Z590 Carbon EK X is expected to be available for pre-order on February 22, 2021. Based on the latest Z590 chipset and still supporting Intel 10th CPUs, this motherboard offers unparalleled cooling for the VRM section and the upcoming Intel 11th Gen Core series CPUs thanks to the purpose-designed monoblock.

MSI's world-class engineering team and EK's industry-leading thermal engineers worked together to improve the previous-gen solution and bring even more benefits to the newest Intel platform. The MPG Z590 Carbon EK X allows maximum performance without the noisy environment, providing you with countless hours of uninterrupted gameplay while monitoring the flow in your loop via the integrated flow indicator. And to top it all off, it also comes with an included EK-Leak Tester and a coupon code voucher for the EK webshop.

AZZA today rolled out the Overdrive open-air chassis. When viewed from a certain angle, it's supposed to resemble a V8 engine block—well at least one that's clad in copious amounts of plastic in today's performance cars. The chassis features a horizontally partitioned layout, with the bottom compartment housing its motherboard tray that can hold boards as large as E-ATX. All surfaces of the case are made of anodized aluminium, while its structural parts are SECC steel. The upward facing panels are tinted tempered glass.

The motherboard tray has room for graphics cards up to 40 cm in length, and CPU coolers only up to 8 cm in height. The idea probably here is to liquid-cool your CPU, as the case can mount a pair of 360 mm x 120 mm radiators along the bottom panels. The upper compartment has room for drives—two 3.5-inch, and four 2.5-inch—and liquid-cooling components such as pumps and reservoirs. Besides the two radiator mounts, you get a large 200 mm intake fan along the front. The case measures 440 mm x 570 mm x 590 mm (HxWxD), and dry-weighs 15 kg.

ASUS today launched a trio of custom-design AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards. These include the RX 6700 XT DUAL, the TUF Gaming RX 6700 XT OC, and the top-of-the-line ROG Strix RX 6700 XT O12G. All three a factory-overclocked cards, and while the company didn't disclose the clock-speeds, one can make out how the three stack up—the ROG Strix at the top, the TUF Gaming OC next, followed by the DUAL. The company will also sell reference-design RX 6700 XT cards. The ROG Strix RX 6700 XT O12G leads the pack with its latest-gen DirectCU III cooling solution that's featured across its custom RX 6000 and RTX 30-series lineup; which features a large aluminium fin-stack heatsink, a trio of the latest-gen Axial-Tech fans, a blinding amount of RGB bling, and the strongest VRM setup among the three, which pulls power from a pair of 8-pin PCIe power connectors, and other goodies such as dual-BIOS, RGB and case fan headers.

The TUF Gaming RX 6700 XT OC is next up, along with its acclaimed TUF Gaming cooling solution that exposes much of its heatsink's bare-metal, through an airy metal shroud; and uses a trio of Axial-Tech fans. This card pulls power from two 8-pin PCIe connectors, much like the ROG Strix, but is expected to have a slightly downsized VRM, and lower factory-overclocked speeds. You still get dual-BIOS. Lastly, there's the RX 6700 XT DUAL, slotted in the company's sober-looking PRIME family of motherboards and graphics cards. It features a more compact board design, with a lighter aluminium fin-stack heatsink that uses only a pair of Axial-Tech fans. This card pulls power from 6-pin + 8-pin connectors. All three are expected to launch on March 18, 2021.

GIGABYTE today rolled out a pair of custom-design AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards. These include the RX 6700 XT Gaming OC, and the RX 6700 XT EAGLE. The company will also sell reference-design "made by AMD" RX 6700 XT cards. The RX 6700 XT Gaming OC features a WindForce 3X cooling solution that looks practically identical to the Radeon RX 6800 Gaming OC card, with possible modifications to its heatsink's base-plate. Three aluminium fin-stacks are skewered by five 6 mm-thick copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the GPU. Additional base-plates pull heat from the memory and VRM areas. The card draws power from a combination of 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe power connectors. Display outputs include two each of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 connectors.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT EAGLE is the more slender of the two custom-design RX 6700 XT cards by GIGABYTE. It is strictly 2 slots thick, and uses a slimmer heatsink. Three aluminium fin-stacks are joined by three 8 mm-thick copper heat pipes that make direct contact with the GPU. The power input configuration is the same as the Gaming OC card, as is the display output configuration. GIGABYTE didn't disclose the factory overclock speeds or either cards, but the Gaming OC card is expected to be the faster of the two. Both cards are expected to launch on March 18, 2021.

Samsung has recently announced their latest flagship gaming monitor the Samsung Odyssey G9 2021. The new Odyssey G9 is the successor to the original monitor by the same name which was released by Samsung in June 2020. The monitor is the first from the company to feature their Quantum MiniLED technology which will greatly improve peak brightness levels. The Odyssey G9 2021 will reportedly be able to reach a peak brightness of 2,000 nits when displaying HDR content. The monitor retains its 49" size, 1000R curvature, 240 Hz refresh rate, 1 ms response time, and 5,120 x 1,440 resolution. Pricing and availability for the new monitor are currently unknown however we would expect the price to remain near the 1699 USD RRP of the original.

Check out the latest B550 board from ASUS. Designed for professionals and creatives who need ultra-fast USB and Thunderbolt connectivity alongside stable and reliable operation. The B550-Creator is a great choice for those building a Ryzen based system with Ryzen 3000 series or Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. The board Features out-of-the-box UEFI support for both series of processors. The B550 Creator is the first AM4 motherboard with Thunderbolt 4 onboard! In addition, you have dual 2.5 Gbps LAN, dual M.2 slots alongside dual heatsinks. It also incorporates the latest ASUS M.2 Q-Latch design for simple and tool-free M.2 drive installation. For the latest generation of chassis, you also have front USB 3.0 connectivity as well as USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type Internal connectivity.

AMD in its "Where Gaming Begins Episode 3" online event, announced that it is introducing Smart Access Memory (resizable base address register) support to Ryzen 3000 series "Matisse" processors, based on the "Zen 2" microarchitecture. These exclude the Ryzen 3 3200G and Ryzen 5 3400G. The PCI-SIG innovated feature was, until now, restricted to the Ryzen 5000 series on the AMD platform, although is heavily proliferated across the Intel platform. Resizable BAR enables the CPU to see the graphics card's entire dedicated memory as one addressable block, rather than through 256-megabyte apertures. For game engines that are able to take advantage of the feature, this could translate to a performance boost of up to 16 percent. Be on the lookout for BIOS updates from your motherboard manufacturer.

AMD has pulled what could be another sucker punch on NVIDIA with the announcement of its upcoming Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card set at the $479 price point. Considering, of course, that there's availability; in case there's not, our very own btarunr defined AMD's claims quite well on the news post covering AMD's announcement. If there is actual availability, however, AMD has showcased eight different designs coming from its more high-profile partners: AsRock, ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI, PowerColor, Sapphire, XFX, and Yeston.

All the showcased graphics cards will feature the Navi 22 GPU and 12 GB of GDDR6 memory, but all of them should differ from AMD's reference design in the power delivery: dual 8-pin configurations are the expected changes to the design, so as to allow for higher performance, higher power limit ceilings, and better potential overclocks. Expect all of them - all of them - to be priced higher than AMD's suggested (and we know how that suggestion goes nowadays) MSRP of $479. All of these cards should be available in some quantity come March 18th.

As a leading brand in True Gaming hardware, MSI is proud to announce a new graphics card line-up based on the AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT GPU, uniting the latest in graphics technology, high-performance circuit board design and advanced cooling.

GAMING series
MSI brings the GAMING series with the iconic TWIN FROZR 8 thermal design to the MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card. Compared to the previous generation, the dual fan design has been improved with TORX FAN 4.0, binding fan blade pairs together with an outer link to focus airflow into the TWIN FROZR 8 cooling system. The heatsink features advanced aerodynamic and thermodynamic technologies for efficient heat dissipation, reducing temperatures while maintaining high performance. A new design emphasizes the dazzling Mystic Light RGB infused into the card. Gamers can easily control and synchronize LED-lit components with the upgraded MSI Dragon Center software.

Lexar, a leading global brand of flash memory solutions, is proud to announce the Lexar PLAY microSD card. The Lexar PLAY microSDXC UHS-I Card is designed to keep up with all your content, no matter if they are games, movies, music or books. Avoid slow load times with read speeds of up to 150 MB/s and fast A1 or A2-rated performance, so you can play more of what you love without missing a beat. With large capacities up to 1 TB you can save all your favorite content and is ideal for portable gaming devices, smartphones, and tablets.

Cut down delays with fast transfer speeds of up to 150 MB/s and get A1 or A2-rated performance, so you can load apps faster on your mobile devices and play more of what you love without missing a beat. "The Lexar PLAY microSDXC Card is the perfect solution for gamers looking to take their game to the next level. It is compatible with the Nintendo Switch and other portable gaming devices including phones and tablets. With capacity options up to 1 TB, you can continue to game without running out of storage space," said Joel Boquiren, General Manager of Lexar.

AMD today announced the Radeon RX 6700 XT, its fourth RX 6000 series graphics card based on the RDNA2 graphics architecture. The card debuts the new 7 nm "Navi 22" silicon, which is physically smaller than the "Navi 21" powering the RX 6800/RX 6900 series. The RX 6700 XT maxes out "Navi 22," featuring 40 RDNA2 compute units, amounting to 2,560 stream processors. These are run at a maximum Game Clock frequency of 2424 MHz, a significant clock speed uplift over the previous-gen. The card comes with 12 GB of GDDR6 memory across a 192-bit wide memory interface. The card uses 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory chips, so the memory bandwidth works out to 384 GB/s. The chip packs 96 MB of Infinity Cache on-die memory, which works to accelerate the memory sub-system. AMD is targeting a typical board power metric of 230 W. The power input configuration for the reference-design RX 6700 XT board is 8-pin + 6-pin.

AMD is marketing the RX 6700 XT as a predominantly 1440p gaming card, positioned a notch below the RX 6800. The company makes some staggering performance claims. Compared to the previous-generation the RX 6700 XT is shown beating the GeForce RTX 2080 Super. NVIDIA marketed the current-gen RTX 3060 Ti as having the same performance outlook. Things get interesting, where AMD shows that in select games, the RX 6700 XT can even beat the RTX 3070, a card NVIDIA marketed as matching its previous-gen flagship, the RTX 2080 Ti. AMD is pricing the Radeon RX 6700 XT at USD $479 (MSRP), which is very likely to be bovine defecation, given the prevailing market situation. The company announced a simultaneous launch of its reference-design and AIB custom-design boards, starting March 18, 2021.AMD's performance claims follow.

AMD Radeon Technologies Group today is writing the third chapter in its return to competitiveness across the board, with the "Where Gaming Begins: Episode 3" online media event, which we are live-blogging here. We expect AMD to announce its much awaited Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card that competes against NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 30-series performance-segment; as well as anticipate updates to the software feature-set of Radeon, and possible sneak-peaks to the future of the Radeon RX 6000 series and RDNA2 graphics architecture on the PC, including its mobile debut. Join us for more!15:44 UTC: 15 minutes to go, all we're seeing is a slick render of what's possibly the RX 6700 XT reference-design board.

15:50 UTC: Scott Herkelman, GM and VP of AMD's Graphics Business, will take centerstage ten minutes from now.

A federal jury in Texas has ruled that Intel Corporation violated two patents of VLSI Technology and must pay 2.18 billion USD in damages. The damages include 1.5 billion for one patent and 675 million for the other. The patents are related to clock frequency control and minimum memory operating voltage technique and were awarded to Freescale Semiconductor Inc in 2012 and SigmaTel in 2010. Freescale bought SigmaTel gaining control of the two patents before being passed to NXP after the company acquired Freescale in 2015, these patents were then transferred to the newly resurrected VLSI Technology in 2019 with the sole purpose of launching a legal battle against Intel. In a comment to Tom's Hardware the company said "Intel strongly disagrees with today's jury verdict. We intend to appeal and are confident that we will prevail.". This legal battle will likely drag-out for several years as Intel plans to appeal the recent ruling. Intel recorded a net income of 5.9 billion USD in Q4 2020 so this fine is by no means insignificant.

Epic Games have recently announced the aquisition of Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout developer Mediatonic for a undisclosed amount. Mediatonic have had a meteoric rise to fame with the release of their hit game Fall Guys in August 2020 with their team rising from 35 members to over 150. Mediatonic and Epic have confirmed that they will continue to support all platforms including Steam and reaffirmed plans to bring the game to Nintendo Switch and Xbox. The Mediatonic team also commented on bringing features from Fortnite and Rocket League to the game including account systems, cross-play, and squad vs squad modes.

Exxact Corporation, a leading provider of high-performance computing (HPC), artificial intelligence (AI), and data center solutions, announced their new line of Valence and TENSOREX Workstations featuring the new AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processors. These professional grade workstations geared towards engineers, visual graphic artists, and scientists provide game changing single and multithreaded performance and provide unrivaled memory bandwidth1. Exxact has positioned itself to be one of the first system integrators to provide workstations equipped with these powerful new processors.

"The new AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO Processors are a massive leap forward for engineers, designers, architects, any professional who demands ultimate performance and security from their workstation," said Jason Chen, Vice President at Exxact Corporation. "By being one of the first companies to offer these workstations, our customers can gain the competitive edge in their industry," added Jason.

Crucial, Micron's global consumer brand of memory and storage, today launched an expansion of its award-winning portable solid-state drive (SSD) portfolio to offer consumers more options for external storage performance, capacity and value at any price point. The new products include the high-capacity 4 TB portable SSD at a RRP of 489.95 USD, and a new 500 GB portable SSD for a wallet-friendly RRP of 69.95 USD. Consumers looking to store large gaming libraries or more movies for long road trips will find an ideal solution in the Crucial X6.

With read speeds up to 800 MB/s, the 4 TB drive performs up to 5.6 times faster than portable hard drives in the market and are drop-proof up to 6.5 feet. Similar to the existing products in the Crucial X6 portable SSD lineup, the 4 TB and 500 GB versions deliver compact portable SSDs in these capacities to consumers for the first time. The entire award-winning Crucial portable SSD product line is compatible with the latest USB-C-enabled devices, such as PCs, Macs, PlayStation 5, Android devices and more. When used with the Crucial USB-C to USB-A adapter, the portable drives also work with PS4, Xbox One, XBOX Series S|X and other USB-A devices.

KIOXIA America, Inc. today announced sampling of its 1 terabyte (TB) Universal Flash Storage (UFS) Ver. 3.1 embedded flash memory devices. Housed in a 1.1 mm-high package - making it the thinnest 1 TB UFS offering available - the new product utilizes KIOXIA's BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory and achieves sequential read speed of up to 2,050 MB/sec and sequential write speed of up to 1,200 MB/sec.

Mobile devices are constantly evolving, and 5G networks are poised to deliver levels of speed, scale and complexities the likes of which have never been seen before. Reaping the connectivity benefits of 5G - namely, faster downloads and reduced lag time - requires high performance and low power consumption. Additionally, with 5G making it easier and faster for users to store even more on their mobile devices, the storage requirements for smartphones and other applications are increasing at a rapid pace. KIOXIA's 1 TB UFS brings the ultra-high speed read/write performance, low power consumption, shortened application launch times and storage capacity demanded by 5G and other digital consumer products.

Remember AMD's Threadripper Pro CPUs which went on sale in prebuilt workstations? Well, they're now available for the general public in boxed CPU offerings - if you have the cash for them. The platform offers support for up to 2 TB of DRAM through its eight-channel configuration, 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity, and up to 64 cores (128 Threads with the company's Simultaneous Multi Threading [SMT] technology). The best motherboards for these productivity beasts are, according to AMD, WRX80-based motherboards, which start at a pretty negligible $999.

The company's lineup tops out at the flagship Threadripper PRO 3995WX, which is a 64-core/128-thread max-out of the "Rome" MCM, with a max boost frequency of 4.20 GHz ($5,489). Next up is the Threadripper PRO 3975WX, which is a 32-core/64-thread part, clocked up to 4.20 GHz boost ($2,749). Following this, is the Threadripper PRO 3955WX, a 16-core/32-thread part clocked up to 4.30 GHz boost ($1,149). The Threadripper PRO 3945WX, a 12-core/24-thread part clocked up to 4.30 GHz boost, is apparently absent from this release. If you need the current best from AMD apart from their EPYC CPUs, it doesn't get much better than this.

Intel in a statement to Hardwareluxx has confirmed that the release date for the company's next-gen CPU family, codenamed Rocket Lake-S, will indeed see a global launch come March 30th. The 11000 family of CPUs is already being sold on Germany, however, via etailer Mindfactory.de, who apparently jumped the gun on the actual availability of said CPUs. Mindfactory only ships within Germany, meaning that that country is actually the sole current field for Intel's latest-gen CPUs. The etailer says that they have the right to sell the CPUs, and stands by its decision, which likely means that their supplier failed to convey the proper NDAs and launch dates when selling - or so we're led to believe. That's the reason why benchmarks of Intel's 11000-series are already in the wild - even for currently unannounced CPUs, such as the Core i7-11700K.

WCCFTech over the weekend got their hands on the full table for Intel's upcoming Core i9 and Core i7 products (at least those available at launch). Mainstream CPUs on the Core i5 family and below weren't listed, however. It remains to be seen whether the previously speculated March 15th launch date will actually be the official announcement date from Intel, of if something else is afoot for that particular day of March.

Marsback is pleased to announce the launch of a Kickstarter campaign that will allow the public to meet Marsback M1. M1 is a 75% layout mechanical keyboard that is designed to allow everyone to take advantage of the super tactile experience. It is available now on Kickstarter.

With dual connectivity for Mac, Windows, and Android lovers, M1 features a CNC'd PC base with nice-looking beveled edges, the beauty of mechanical crossover with 16.8M RGB LED lights, and PBT transparent keycaps, making it stand out from the crowd. M1's custom software gives users a variety of personalization options, while the hot-swappable switches offer the greatest convenience by clicking them into place or pulling them out without ever needing to touch a soldering gun. M1 enables audio visualization that converts all the audio signals into a beautiful audio equalizer lighting effect by separating the low, middle, and high notes, offering players a fully immersive gaming experience like nothing else.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the leading provider of semiconductors, is supposed to start 3 nm node production this year. While Samsung, one of the top three leading semiconductor foundries, has been struggling with the pandemic and delayed its 3 nm node for 2022, TSMC has managed to deliver it this year. According to a report, the Taiwanese semiconductor giant is preparing the 3 nm node for the second half of this year, with the correct date of high-volume product unknown. The expected wafer capacity for the new node is supposed to be around 30,000 wafers per month, with capacity expansion expected to hit around 105,000 wafers per month in 2023. This is similar to 5 nm's current numbers of 105,000 wafers per month output, which was 90,000 just a few months ago in Q4 2020. One of the biggest customers of the upcoming 3 nm node is Apple.

Some time ago, Intel has introduced the Performance Tuning Protection Plan (PTPP), which was used as a warranty for any damage that has occurred during overclocking. Customers of PTPP, mainly buyers of Intel Core processors having a "K" tag were able to get a replacement processor whenever they damaged their CPU by overclocking it. When it comes to the pricing of such a service, typical plans were spanning from $19.99 to $29.99, depending on the processor you had. However, there will no longer be such a program, as Intel is discontinuing its PTPP extended overclocking warranty. The company has updated its site to refer to End-Of-Life (EOL) page displaying a quote below.

Display specialist AOC launches a new monitor line - the V4 series - offering QHD and UHD resolutions with panel sizes of 23.8" (60.5 cm), 27" (68.6 cm) and up to 31.5" (80 cm). With a simple yet attractive 3-side frameless design, these models are great candidates for budget-conscious home users with an eye for design. All displays are equipped with IPS panels for vivid and natural colour reproduction. The 75 Hz refresh rate of the QHD models makes motion 25% smoother than regular 60 Hz monitors. Additionally, Adaptive-Sync support in all models eliminates tear and stutter when the framerate varies, which makes these monitors a great fit for casual gamers. With all these features, the V4 series is a perfect all-rounder for both working from home and entertainment purposes.

AOC's V4 series combines image quality, versatility and attractive design with a great price. Built to be future proof, all four displays employ QHD (2560 x 1440) or 4K/UHD resolution (3840 x 2160) panels, a significant upgrade from the commonly established Full HD standard. The V4 series models are also equipped with flat IPS panels, which are great for productivity work such as spreadsheets, drawing, graphic design, photo editing etc. thanks to their accurate colour reproduction and wide viewing angles (178/178°), which dramatically reduce the horizontal/vertical colour shift and further improve the user experience.
The V4 monitors' versatility also extends to the wide connectivity options, including a DisplayPort for connecting desktop/laptop PCs, HDMI ports suitable for streaming sticks, gaming consoles or any other HDMI-using device.

Micron Technology, Inc. today announced that it has begun sampling the industry's first automotive low-power DDR5 DRAM (LPDDR5) memory that is hardware-evaluated to meet the most stringent Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL), ASIL D. The solution is part of Micron's new portfolio of memory and storage products targeted for automotive functional safety based on the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 26262 standard.

Micron's functional safety-evaluated DRAM is compatible with advanced-driver assistance system (ADAS) technologies, including adaptive cruise control, automatic emergency braking systems, lane departure warning and blind spot detection systems. Micron's LPDDR5's high performance, superior power efficiency and low latency provide the requisite performance and headroom to keep pace with increasing bandwidth requirements of next-generation automotive systems.

"Autonomous vehicles promise to make our roads safer, but they need powerful, trusted memory that can enable real-time decision-making in extreme environments," said Kris Baxter, corporate vice president and general manager of Micron's Embedded Business Unit. "To fulfill this growing market need, we've optimized our automotive LPDDR5 to deliver the utmost performance, quality and reliability for the smart, safe cars of tomorrow."

Scythe today announces the release of the new cooler Mugen 5 Black Edition (SCMG-5100BE). Based on the original Mugen 5 Rev.B cooler, this new edition is all-black design including black heatsink, black Kaze Flex 120 fan, and black accessories. The new Mugen 5 Black is the premium choice of excellent performance and superb quietness as well as aesthetic appeal. The Scythe Mugen 5 Black Edition cooler is available in North America at an MSRP of USD $60.

Based on the classic Mugen 5 cooler, this new edition comes with an all-black Kaze Flex 120 fan (ramp up to 1500 rpm) that pushes its performance to the next level. With the additional fan clip and upgraded mounting system, the Mugen 5 Black is the premium choice of excellent performance and superb quietness.

Greenliant has expanded its ArmourDrive industrial memory card portfolio with the high reliability, high capacity microSD QX Series, available from 256 GB to 1 TB, and operating at wide temperatures (-25 to +85 degrees Celsius). See microSD ArmourDrive product information at http://bit.ly/SD-microSD.

Industrial microSD memory cards have become a popular storage medium for a broad range of applications, including dashcams and bodycams, data loggers, routers and switches, medical equipment and IIoT devices. Built with high quality, advanced 4-bit-per-cell (QLC) 3D NAND flash memory, microSD ArmourDrive QX Series products provide video, security, networking and industrial customers with cost effective, reliable and rugged removable data storage. UHS Speed Class 10 and SD Specification 6.10 compliant, microSD ArmourDrive QX Series cards reach up to 100/37 MB/s sequential read/write performance and are ideal for video recording at high definition resolution.

All of the MSI Z490 motherboards will be supporting PCIe 4.0 with the coming Intel 11th Gen Intel Processors. Through an update to the latest BIOS, MSI Z490 motherboards offer great bandwidth and performance for PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs and graphics cards.

To be PCIe 4.0 compatible, several components on the motherboards are necessary, including PCIe 4.0 ready clock generator, lane switch, redriver, PCIe slots, and M.2 connectors. Thanks to the complete PCIe 4.0 solutions, MSI Z490 motherboards provide the most stable design for PCIe 4.0 and unlock the full performance of PCIe 4.0 devices.

Lenovo announced today its all new portfolio of embedded computers for the edge during the Embedded World 2021 DIGITAL virtual exhibition. Building from the existing edge portfolio from Lenovo, the ThinkEdge devices - the new ThinkEdge SE30 and ThinkEdge SE50 - are small, rugged, and powerful enough to meet the demanding needs of enterprise data processing, security and scalability at the edge.

The new Lenovo ThinkEdge devices are powered by Intel technology and built for the data needs of tomorrow. The embedded edge computers are for customers who need faster processing power, better security, and scalability. With the right data securely on hand for when it matters, businesses can be more efficient, insightful and competitive.

EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, is announcing the release of EK-Loop Connect software version 1.3.11. As a company dedicated to providing water cooling enthusiasts and PC builders with the best of what the market has to offer, and after listening to customers' feedback several months ago, EK has issued a rework on the EK-Loop Connect software. Today, the new version of the software is officially ready and can already be downloaded.

"We were fortunate enough to have onboarded a team of software developers who were dedicated to the cause and managed to deliver functional software within the set deadline. We promised to deliver the software within 3 months, and here we are. The latest version of the EK-Loop Connect software was tested and confirmed by a small group of beta testers, and today we are ready to present it to the public," said Edvard K?nig, founder of EK.