AMD rumored to launch Zen CPUs and AM4 Platform Motherboards in March 2016

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The excitement over AMD’s upcoming Zen architecture has been quite on the high lately, judging on the improvements in performance and TDP optimization which will definitely put their processor line up back in the market. According to the latest rumors, AMD is preparing to release it sooner than previously reported, which is this upcoming March 2016.

Rumor states that AMD would release the new flagship AM4 platform in March, being earlier than the previous release schedule of Q4 2016. Zen CPU would run on the AM4 platform, supporting both APUs and CPUs. Pretty good news since the previous AM3+ platform only supported CPUs and you’d had to change to the FM2(+) platform to support APUs. Even better yet, the new upcoming AM4 platform will reportedly last much longer than the previous platforms, with support for future AMD processors. This is a pretty good step from AMD to improve sales on future AMD processors without users having to upgrade their motherboards together, increasing sales for the existing AM4 platform for new users of the future processors.

The support for Bristol Ridge and Summit Ridge will be present in the new AM4 platform. Summit Ridge line up will be the performance desktop processors under the FX branding on the Zen architecture. Bristol Ridge range, on the other hand, will be the mainstream/desktop mobility APU range targetted at mid-range users and entry-level performance gamers. It will be based on the Excavator architecture, with the Summit Ridge being powered by the smaller and more power efficient 14nm process housing up to 8x CPU cores while the Bristol Ridge APUs will be made on the current 28nm process as quad-core processors. Both offerings will come in at 95W with the APUs holding GCN GPU cores also.

The AM4 motherboards will be focused at powering high-performance desktop PCs with new I/O capabilities, DDR4 memory support and a broad range of updates over the aged AM3+ platform.

SOURCE:
TweakTown

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AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X launched with Zen 2 architecture priced from RM449

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If it’s one thing we know about AMD’s Zen 2 CPU architecture, it’s that it’s good – it delivers more performance with a lower power consumption; and it has been a part of AMD’s Ryzen 5 processors  – but now, the new architecture will be brought to the company’s budget line of CPUs too.

The AMD Ryzen 3 3100 and Ryzen 3 3300X are your latest low-cost options if you’re looking for a new budget rig and they are both
both
 built on AMD’s 7nm Zen 2 APU. The R3 3100 packs four cores and eight threads with a base frequency of 3.6GHz, and can be boosted up to 3.9GHz. It supports AMD’s AM4
platform
, so many of your
favourite
 budget motherboards can still be used.

Image credit: AMD

Meanwhile, the R3 3300X also comes with the same core/thread count but with a higher base clock speed of 3.8Hz, and an even higher boost frequency of 4.3GHz – as its name suggests, the CPU supports overclocking, making it great for budget builders who want to squeeze as much power as the chip can offer.

Both CPUs take advantage of a whopping 18MB cache allowing for lower memory latency – AMD claims that this should translate to smoother, faster gaming performance with CPU-heavy games.

AMD also claims that the Ryzen 3 3100 offers 20% more gaming performance and up to 75% more creator performance than its competition.

Image credit: AMD

The Ryzen 3 3100 is priced from RM449, while the Ryzen 3 3300X will cost RM559; both will come with the ever-reliable AMD
Wraith
 Stealth cooler, further adding value to your purchase. The chips will be available globally this this May 21.

On top of that, AMD has
also
 just
announced
 their newest motherboard chipset – the AMD B550, which succeeds the AMD
B450.
 It supports the standard AM4 socket and is built to house AMD’s Ryzen 3000 series processors. There will also be support for PCIe 4.0, adding more performance offerings to the mid-range segment. The chipsets
is
 expected to arrive via ODM partners this June 16 – so if you’re looking to build a new rig soon, you might want to hold out until then.

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The AMD Ryzen 3 is now official for less than RM600

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AMD’s comeback to the desktop processor market has continued to gained momentum, as the company has finally launched the entry-level Ryzen 3 processor with two models – the 1300X and 1200 -, these processors are currently on their way to Malaysian shores and are confirmed to be priced below RM600. The AMD Ryzen 3 competes directly with Intel’s Core i3 processor, it is based on the very same “Zen” architecture like its higher end Ryzen 5 and 7 siblings, these entry-level processors come with an efficient 65W TDP and 14nm process, they also sport 4-cores and 4-threads, which performs much better than Intel’s Core i3 with only 2 processing cores.

READ MORE: AMD Ryzen 7 Review

The Ryzen 1300X offers a base clock speed of 3.5GHz and a maximum turbo clock speed at 3.7GHZ, while the Ryzen 1200 has a lower 3.1GHz base clock speed and maxes out at 3.4GHz. Like other Ryzen processors, the Ryzen 3 processors have their multipliers unlocked for overclocking for the ultimate performance, and if you intend to run VR applications, these entry-level processors are already capable of doing so. Furthermore, the Ryzen 3 is compatible with the X370, B350 and A320 chipset, so you do have a few choices of motherboards to choose depending on your requirements.

The Ryzen 3 processors will come bundled with AMD’s Wraith Stealth CPU cooler out of the box, it uses a screw in mechanism instead of the clip system used in past AMD processors, making installation a breeze even for PC builders. As for the price, the AMD Ryzen 1300X will retail at RM599 and the Ryzen 1200 will retail at RM519, do check with your nearby PC retailers for the processor’s ETA, we’ll be sure to update if there’s any more news.

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AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs official pricing announced – more PCIe 4.0 support

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Look alive PC-building enthusiasts, the new 3rd-Gen AMD Ryzen CPUs are rolling out in Malaysia and the official prices have been announced.

According to reports, a total of seven CPUs have been launched – the top of the line being the AMD Ryzen 9 3900X priced at RM2,199. We move down the pecking order with the Ryzen 7 3800X at RM1,799; Ryzen 7 3700X at RM1,399; Ryzen 5 3600X at RM1,069; Ryzen 5 3600 at RM859; Ryzen 3400G at RM679; and the Ryzen 3 3200G at RM429.

Two cards that stand out are the Ryzen 5 3600 and the Ryzen 7 3700X – the Rzyen 5 3600 is, of course, the successor to the very popular Ryzen 5 2600, a chip that many consider one of the finest offerings in the last generation of CPUs – by both AMD and Intel – for its price. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 3700X, looks to be a bang-for-your-buck buy wit 8 course, 16 threads priced at a reasonable RM1,399.

All CPUs, barring the Ryzen 5 3400G and the Ryzen 3 3200G support PCIe 4.0; so you’ll need to look at your motherboard specs before you upgrade.

But if your motherboard doesn’t support PCIe 4.0, another plus is of course, the price drop of the 2nd-gen Ryzen CPUs – the aforementioned Ryzen 5 2600, with 6 cores, is now available for just RM590. So if you’re stuck with a much older CPU, you should give the 2nd-gen processors some serious consideration.

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AMD Ryzen 3000XT CPUs launched: Better boost frequencies at similar prices

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With the
AMD
Ryzen
 4000
 series CPUs now in crosshairs of some looking to build a new system – the newly-introduced Ryzen 3000XT could give cause of reconsideration as it offers some serious value with higher boost frequencies with the same Zen 2 7nm architecture.

Image credit: AMD

New to the line-up of processors are the
Ryzen 9 3900XT
,
Ryzen 7 3800XT
 and
Ryzen 5 3600XT
 – these are essentially slightly higher-clocked versions of their regular Ryzen 3000X counterparts.

Specifications

MODEL

CORES/

THREADS

BOOST/ BASE FREQUENCY (GHZ)

TOTAL CACHE (MB)

TDP (WATTS)

Platform

AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT

12/24

Up to 4.7/3.8

70

105

AM4

AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT

8/16

Up to 4.7/3.9

36

105

AM4

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

6/12

Up to 4.5/3.8

35

95

AM4

As you can see, everything remains the same bar an increase in boost frequencies:

Model

Base/Boost Frequency (GHZ)

AMD Ryzen 9 3900XT

3.8/4.7

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

3.8/4.6

AMD Ryzen 7 3800XT

3.9/4.7

AMD Ryzen 7 3800X

3.9/4.5

AMD Ryzen 5 3600XT

3.8/4.5

AMD Ryzen 5 3600X

3.8/4.4

Pricing

In terms of pricing, the Ryzen 9 3900XT suggested retail price is $499 (RM2,132), the Ryzen 7 3800XT will cost $399 (RM1,705), and the Ryzen 5 3600XT will go for $249 (RM1,064). The chips are expected to arrive this July 7.

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AMD Ryzen 3500X now available in Malaysia for RM639 with no hyperthreading

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AMD has been making great strides in toppling Intel for top spot in the CPU arena – and they’re continuing to do so, this time in the lower mid-tier.

The Ryzen 5 3500X is available in Malaysia – after being launched initially as a China-only product. The CPU was also offered as an OEM-only chip, while the consumer release came a little later. You can now get the complete package here – with the box and its accompanying Wraith Stealth cooler.

Image credit: Tech Spot

The chip sits below the R5 3600 and lacks the same hyperthreading feature its bigger sibling does – the R5 3500X is packed with 6 cores and 6 threads, and has a base clock of 3.6GHz along with a boost clock speed of 4,1GHz – just 100MHz less than the 3600.

Priced at RM639, its Intel counterpart would be the Core i5-9400 and i5-9400F chipsets that also have the same core-count with no hyperthreading feature. The intel retails for a bout the same price, but you can get it for less now. What the Ryzen offers instead is a better stock cooler and overclocking ability. So the Ryzen is clearly the better option here.

Meanwhile, the Ryzen 3600 is priced just around RM790 now and has 6 cores, 12 threads – the same Wraith Stealth cooler and a slightly higher boost clock speed. It should handle CPU-intensive tasks much better. For just about RM100 more, this is more value for money if you want to future proof yourself.

In fact, software benchmarks show that the R5 3500X isn’t better than the older Ryzen 2600 – which can now be bought for around RM550 if you search in the right places. It still has 6 cores and 12 threads, but clocks lower at 3.4GHz (3.9GHz boost). So the R5 3500X is a really hard sell with these more value options available.

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AMD Ryzen 4000 desktop CPUs announced – 65W and 35W versions available

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Okay, breathe people! The AMD Ryzen 4000 ‘Renoir’ series desktop CPUs have been
announced
! This time around, AMD is introducing the 4000G and 4000GE lineup which means your options include 65W and 35W chips.

Below is the full list of chips:

Image credit: AMD

As you can see, the 4000GE variants are lower-clocked, more power-efficient models with the same core counts as its 4000G counterparts.

The best of the lot is the Ryzen 4700G with 8 cores and 16 threads, 65W TDP, and max clock of 4.4GHz; there’s no sign of an ‘X’ series yet – these are the ones that are made for overclocking; perhaps AMD will introduce them down the line.

The aforementioned CPU is apparently 5% better at single-thread performance compared to the Intel Core i7-9700, up to 31% better at multi-threaded operations compared to the same chip, and a massive 202% better in graphics performance compared to its Intel counterpart.

The chips will be available on systems from Lenovo and HP starting Q3 this year, but no official pricing has been disclosed yet. We’ll be sure to keep you updated when more information comes.

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AMD Ryzen 5 2400G outperforms the Core i5-8400 in benchmark tests

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AMD’s APU family of processors has just undergone their first benchmark test for triple-A games like Overwatch, The Witcher 3, Battlefield 1 and more. Combining them with Vega architecture, it allowed the new Ryzen processors to even beat an Intel Core i5 processor at iGPU performance.

AMD compared the Ryzen 5 2400G processor with its Intel counterpart, the Core i5-8400 and if the results are true, the Ryzen leaves the Core i5 far behind in the dust. The test was done with the games set on the highest graphics settings and in 1080p resolution with the exception of Overwatch which was set at medium graphics settings. The Ryzen processor managed at least 20 more frames per second in all the games and shows a huge jump when it came to Skyrim. Where the Intel processor struggles to get games running at the 30 frames mark, the Ryzen processor manages almost 60 frames on some of the game and a steady 40 frames and above for the rest.

It looks like the new Ryzen processors are living up to the expectation, as we seen the same great performance over Intel when it came to the regular Ryzen processors that released last year. The processor will not be ideal for enthusiasts gamers but for those of you casual gamers, this will definitely be a bang for your buck.

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AMD Ryzen 5000 laptop CPU lineup leaked

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AMD’s upcoming line-up of
Ryzen 5000
 series CPUs are exciting pieces of hardware as they pack the brand’s newest Zen 3 architecture which boasts a
19%
 increase in IPC performance over the
previous
, Zen 2
iteration
.

The benefit isn’t going to just be making PC owners happy, but laptop buyers too as a new line of Ryzen 5000-series mobile chips have been leaked and they come with some interesting specs. There are a total of six CPUs, half of which are built on Zen 3, while the other half is built on Zen 2. Here’s the full list of CPUs and their specs:

Image credit: Hot Hardware

We suspect that Zen 2 is still in the picture for Ryzen 5000 because AMD wants to offer laptop manufacturers to build cheaper, lower-clocked laptops to meet a budget-conscious crowd. The TDP output of each chip is configurable from 10W to 25W – this of course would depend on the kind of laptop manufacturers build.

These specs are not official yet, but we’ll take this as a sign that their arrival is around the corner. We’ll keep you updated when we get more information.

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AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU prices announced in Malaysia

1.2K

The new
AMD
Rzyen
 5000
 series CPUs are officially in Malaysia – there are four variants to choose from: Ryzen 5 5600X, Ryzen 7 5800X, Ryzen 9 5900X, and the Ryzen 9 5950X.

The Malaysian pricing is as below:

Ryzen 5 5600X – RM1,349

Ryzen 7 5800X – RM2,049

Ryzen 9 5900X – RM2,499

Ryzen 9 5950X – RM3,699

Each chip is built on newest Zen 3 architecture which the company claims offer an average of 28% in performance improvement for 1080p gaming. When compared to Intel’s Core i9-10900K, the Ryzen 9 5950X achieves better performance across the board in several applications. When it comes to gaming, the Ryzen 5900X has been benchmarked to perform 21% better in
LoL
 compared to the Core i9-10900K.

When it comes to compatibility, all AMD 500 series motherboards will support the Ryzen 5000 chips with a BIOS update, while older 400 series motherboards will depend on the board manufacturers. The
chips
 are available to purchase now – you can visit AMD’s website
here
 to learn more.

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AMD Ryzen 5000 series CPUs launched with new Zen 3 architecture

1.5K

The new generation of AMD Ryzen processors are finally here – the
Ryzen 5000
 series is the brand’s new generation of desktop CPUs – if you’re wondering why this comes so soon after the recently-launched
4000
 series chips, the latter runs on the older Zen 2 architecture, while the 5000 series runs on Zen 3; Ryzen 4000 is also only available for laptops and pre-builts.

There are four CPUs that have been announced in the 5000 series family – the most accessible of the lot is the AMD Ryzen 5 5600X with six cores, 12 threads. It has a base clock of 3.7GHz, and a boost clock of 4.6GHz – an improvement over the 3600X’s 3.6GHz and 4.2GHz base/boost clock speeds. The chip will come with the trusty Wraith Stealth air cooler too. The chip has a TDP of 65W, which is the same as the 3600X. The Ryzen 5600X is priced at $299 (RM1,242).

Image credit: AMD

The next chip in line is the Ryzen 7 5800X with eight cores, 16 threads, a base clock of 3.8GHz, and a boost clock of 4.7GHz. It has a TDP of 105W but it’s unsure if it’ll come with a cooler. The CPU is priced at $449 (RM1,865).

The premium tier is populated by
the Ryzen
 5900X and Ryzen 9 5950X CPUs – starting with the former, has 12 cores and 24 threads, a 3.7GHz base clock, and a 4.8GHz boost clock. Meanwhile, the latter has 16 cores and 32 threads and a base/boost frequency of 3.4/4.9GHz. Both chips have a TDP rating of 105W. The R5900X is priced at $549 (RM2,280), while the R5950X is priced at $799 (RM3,319).

Image credit: The Verge

According to AMD’s own benchmarks, their Ryzen 9 5900X is capable of outperforming an Intel Core i9-10900K in a list of games – up to 21% increase in League of Legends but falls 3% short of its counterpart in Battlefield V.

All AMD 500 series motherboards will be ready for the Ryzen 5000 series chips with a BIOS update, while older 400 series boards may also support the new CPUs but that depends on the manufacturers and board models. The Ryzen 5000 chips will be available to purchase globally this
November
 5.

AMD’s Equipped to Win Game Bundle lets customers who purchase any of the Ryzen 5000 chips bar the Ryzen 5 5600X, between November 5 to December 31 2020 will get a copy of the upcoming
Far Cry 6
 Standard Edition for PC.

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AMD Ryzen 7 1700 Review: Intel needs to watch out

373

It has been a tough war for AMD in both the desktop CPU and GPU market, though the company has spent the past few years hitting the sweet spot price tag with its products, they barely reminded the average consumers of its existence. AMD has sent us the review unit of the Ryzen 7 1700 for a while now, and we have enjoyed every moment of its existence in the office, our friend who is a videographer has got so impressed with it that he immediately bought one the next day, it may not be the flagship processor of the range, but it is certainly no slouch even when you compare it to Intel’s Core i7 7700K.

Introduction of AMD Ryzen

Based on the Zen microarchitecture, the Ryzen is an entirely new CPU that’s built from the ground up from AMD, using the 14nm FinFET process, it is designed for high performance computing with a low power design in mind, thus aiming to create a balanced and versatile architecture right at home in the desktop, laptop, datacenter and supercomputer, it replaces the AMD FX processors and uses the AM4 socket, which supports the 7th Gen AMD APU and upcoming “Raven Ridge” APU, it also features the latest I/O standards like USB 3.1 Gen2, NVMe, or PCI Express 3.0.

The first AMD Ryzen processors were debuted in March 2017, the flagship Ryzen 7 performance processors were targeted at Intel’s Core i7 Kaby Lake processors, and followed by the mainstream Ryzen 5, which was announced on April 2017 to take on the Intel Core i5 processor. At this time of writing, the entry-level Ryzen 3 has yet to be announced and it is slated for a Q3 2017 release.

For the first time, all Ryzen products have unlocked multipliers for overclocking, it also features XFR (eXtended Frequency Range), an automatic overclocking feature that allows the processor to dynamically adjust its clock speed above the stock and Precision Boost clocks depending on thermal conditions, while the new AMD SenseMI Technology learns and adapts to user behaviours to offer the best computing performance, simply put the processor has a true neural network that predicts the required performance by the user.

Test System Setup (AMD Ryzen)
 Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 1700, 8-Core, 3.0GHz (3.7GHz Turbo)
 Cooling: Thermaltake Contac Silent 12
 Motherboard: Gigabyte Aorus AX370 Gaming 5 (provided by AMD)
 RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB 2400MHz X 2
 SSD: Sandisk Ultra II 240GB
 HDD: WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM
 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition
 Power Supply: Cooler Master G750M
 Chassis: Cooler Master Test Bench v1.0

Test System Setup (Intel Kaby Lake)
 Processor: Intel Core i7 7700K, 4-Core, 4.2GHz (4.5GHz Turbo Boost)
 Cooling: Arctic Cooling Freezer i32
 Motherboard: ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero
 RAM: Kingston HyperX 8GB 2400MHz X 2
 SSD: Plextor M6s 256GB
 HDD: WD Blue 1TB 7200RPM
 GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition
 Power Supply: Aerocool KCAS-850M
 Chassis: Segotep Raynor T3

The Test and Comparison

We have spent a little bit of time comparing both the AMD and Intel systems we have built in our labs, as it would be interesting to see how the base model of the Ryzen 7 performs against the flagship unlock i7 Kaby Lake processor, hence we are going to talk briefly on both motherboards.

Gigabyte Aorus AX370 Gaming 5

Once you see the Aorus branding being used on a Gigabyte product, you will know for sure that this is a high end premium product from the Taiwanese company, the AX370 Gaming 5 features the flagship AX370 chipset, which offers comprehensive, low-level control and supports dual graphics card configurations. Here are the highlight features of the motherboard:

• Supports AMD Ryzen™ & 7th Generation A-series/ Athlon™ Processors
 • Dual Channel ECC/ Non-ECC Unbuffered DDR4, 4 DIMMs
 • Fast 4 USB 3.1 Gen 2 with USB Type-C™ and Type-A
 • 2-Way CrossFire™/SLI™ Multi-Graphics Support with Dual Armor and Ultra Durable™ Design
 • NVMe PCIe Gen3 x4 U.2 Connector
 • Ultra-Fast PCIe Gen3 x4 M.2 with PCIe NVMe & SATA mode support
 • Creative® Sound Blaster X-Fi MB5 support
 • Dual ALC 1220 with Front & Rear 120dB SNR HD Audio with Dual Smart Headphone Amps
 • Killer™ E2500 Gaming Network + Intel® Gigabit LAN
 • USB DAC-UP 2 & 4 Front USB 3.0 Ports with Adjustable Voltage
 • RGB FUSION with Multi-Zone LED Light Show design
 • Swappable Overlay for Accent LED
 • Smart Fan 5 features 9 Temperature Sensors and 8 Hybrid Fan Headers
 • 2 External Thermistors Headers with 2 Included Thermistors
 • GIGABYTE UEFI DualBIOS™
 • APP Center Including EasyTune™ and Cloud Station™ Utilities

ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero

The ROG Maximus family of motherboards need no further introduction for the enthusiasts, in this case the Maximus IX Hero has a lot more goodies over the Aorus AX370, it uses the Intel Z270 chipset, the enthusiast level chipset for the Kaby Lake platform, and supports RAM overclocking up to frequencies of 4133MHz as opposed to the Aorus’ 3200MHz. Here are the highlight features of the motherboard:

• Designed for 7th generation Intel® Core™ processors to maximize connectivity and speed with Dual M.2, front panel USB 3.1 and Intel® Optane™ Memory compatibility
 • 5-Way Optimization with Auto-Tuning and FanXpert 4 automatically tailors overclocking profiles to your unique build for maximum OC performance and dynamic system cooling
 • Unmatched personalization with ASUS exclusive AURA Sync RGB lighting and a 3D-printing friendly mount
 • Two Patent-pending SafeSlots feature an injection molding process that integrates metal framing for a stronger, firmly anchored PCIe slot built for heavyweight GPUs
 • Industry-leading 8-channel HD audio with the ROG exclusive SupremeFX S1220 driven by Japanese capacitors

Benchmarks

Gaming

The benchmark results are pretty interesting here, as both the Ryzen 7 1700 and Core i7 7700K have vastly different results in the games we tested. Take GTA 5 for instance, the Ryzen manages at least 10% more frames per second than the i7, the game has certainly taken advantage of the cores and threads for better performance. However, the Kaby Lake system manages to score a significant amount of frames over the Ryzen when it comes to older titles like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Gears of War 4, we believe the result should improve if the games are updated in the future, as it can be assumed that they are still not made to take advantage processors with more than 4 cores.

3DMark16

The Ryzen 7 1700 once again managed to impress here, especially when it comes to the Time Spy DirectX 12 benchmark, while the Core i7 is slightly behind on the old Fire Strike Ultra and Extreme tests.

PCMark 8 Home Accelerated

Most home use applications aren’t really made to take advantage of more cores till today, and this is where the i7 manages to get a significant better score over the Ryzen, an expected result for very basic computing.

7-Zip

The Ryzen 7 is a superb performer here, scoring over 35973 MIPS in the 7-Zip benchmark puts Intel’s Kaby Lake in the cold, this is all thanks to the 16 threads, double the amount of the Core i7 processor.

Cinebench R15

Though the Ryzen 7 loses out to the Core i7 when it comes to OpenGL rendering on Cinebench, the additional cores and threads show power when it comes to CPU rendering, you get the point here.

Handbrake (4K to 1080p Encoding)

Handbrake is an open source video converter that takes full advantage of processor core and threads, the Ryzen 7 once again is the champ in this test and it converts a 4K video down to 1080p 50 seconds faster than the Core i7.

Thermals

Both processors did fairly well when it comes to thermal controls, the systems are located in our air conditioned office with a temperature of 24 degree Celsius, we stressed both systems by exporting a 1 minute video with Adobe Premiere Pro, and the Intel Core i7 has higher temperatures due to its higher clock speed.

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ryzen 7 1700 vs core i7 7700k


The Ryzen 7 4800H is more powerful than a desktop Core i7 9700K

613

AMD is on a roll today to announce several high performance computing products, and the Ryzen 7 4800H is probably the most exciting one of all as the company claims that it could easily crush the performance of a Core i7 9700K gaming desktop.

The H-series Ryzen processors are designed for gaming and creator laptops, the Ryzen 7 4800H sports 8-cores and 16-threads on a 45W TDP package, it has a base clock speed of 2.9GHz and will boost up to 4.2GHz when it needs to.

While AMD showed a slide that compares the performance of the chip to Intel’s Core i7-9750H and Core i7-9700K, the company didn’t mention about the performance of the mobile Intel Core i9 processor, which is pretty weird as they are bold enough to compare to a desktop processor claiming 39% better performance, but we can also assume that the company could have a Ryzen 9 H-series processor in the works to compare to that.

On the mobile products side, AMD has also teased that it is working on bringing the Radeon RX5600M and RX5700M to laptops, and one of those laptops are expected to come in Q2 2020 as the Dell G5 SE is being featured on stage, as it will be equipped with the Ryzen 7 4800H, Radeon RX5600M, AMD FreeSync display and preinstalled with AMD’s Radeon Adrenaline 2020 software.

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AMD introduces the Ryzen 7 4800U, the first 8-core 16-thread CPU for laptops

455

AMD CEO Dr Lisa Su has kicked off the CES 2020 keynote with the announcement of the Ryzen 7-4800U processor, as the company focuses on delivering high performance computing this year, this is the first and most powerful processor for ultrathin laptops that sports 8-cores and 16 threads with a 15W TDP, it also packs an 8-core Radeon graphics processor.

Positioned as the direct competitor to Intel’s Ice Lake Core i7-1065G7 processor, the Ryzen 7-4800U offers up to 4% better single threaded performance and 90% multi threading performance, graphics performance is 28% faster and you can expect up to 50% faster performance in Premiere Pro video editing. Power efficiency of the Ryzen 7-4800U is 2X better over its predecessor due to its 7nm process, leading to a 124% increase in performance per watt.

We should expect the rest of the Ryzen mobile models to come later in the year, AMD has teased that we should be able to see more than a hundred Ryzen 7-4800U laptops and they are coming in this quarter, one of them being the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7, which weighs merely 1.4kg and comes with a 14″ FHD Freesync display.

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AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Review: A Beast in the multi-threaded department

478

When AMD launched the Ryzen processors and they seem to beat or match their Intel counter parts in almost every test, proving to us that AMD is back and they are not playing games anymore. The entire Ryzen line of processors seems to take centre stage as Intel fumbles about trying to release newer processors that that hoped would put them back on top but was met with no response from customers as they were still cheering on the Ryzen processors. However, Intel was always a thorn in AMD’s side and because of that AMD decided that enough is enough and released the biggest and fastest consumer grade processor ever made, the AMD Ryzen Threadripper.

The model that we did our review on is the 1950X, the Threadripper that has 16 core and 32 threads and a base clock speed of 3.4GHz with a Turbo clock speed of 4GHz, making it a very good contender when it comes to multi threaded processors and applications. However, you will have to get an equally powerful power supply because this monster has a TDP of 180W and it is also recommended that the power supply used is pure power to ensure there is no voltages issues or dips in performance. With that aside let’s take a look at what we are using to test out this beast.

Processor
: AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X, 16-Core, 3.4GHz (4GHz Turbo)

Cooling
: Thermaltake Floe Riing 360 TT Premium Edition (provided by AMD)

Motherboard
: ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme (provided by AMD)

RAM
: G.Skill Trident Z RGB 3200MHz 8GB x4 (provided by AMD)

SSD
: Plextor 240GB

HDD
: Seagate SSHD 2TB 7200RPM

GPU
: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB Founders Edition

Power Supply
: Cooler Master G750M

Chassis
: Cooler Master Test Bench v1.0

AMD has also provided the AMD Ryzen Master, a software to further enhanced the Threadripper by assigning profiles to it depending on if you are gaming or doing creative work on it. The Game Mode will disable 8 out of the 16 cores to run games which AMD claims will allow the games to perform better as most games are not able to utilize more than 8 cores. In Creator Mode, all the cores are enabled which will allow for applications to make use of the 32-threads that the Threadripper can offer. As a heads up, benchmarks that are not gaming related will be using the Creator Mode while game benchmarks will be using the Game Mode. We have also included our previous benchmark of the i7 processor, the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 3 to give you a rough understand the difference in performance in hopes that it will help you pick the right processor for you.

3D Mark

As you can see when it comes to our 3D Mark test, the performance of the Threadripper was not as impressive as we initially assumed it would be. The processor seems to come in very close with the Ryzen 7 1700. In its defense, this benchmark is testing the full capabilities of the entire system and not only the processor making it a test of how good the system can perform when it comes to high-intensity gaming applications.

Handbrake
 4K to 1080p Encoding

If you thought that the performance of the Ryzen 7 was impressive the Threadripper had the easiest time encoding a 4K video as it completed it just over 2 minutes which is thanks to the use of the cores and threads.

7-Zip

Another application that will use the full power of the processor and of course, the Threadripper just shrugged it off and had a score that made the other processors look away in shame. Never will you have to worry about compressing or decompressing huge files as it is just an everyday job for the Threadripper.

Cinebench R15

I always say that Cinibench can make your processor cry but in the case of the Threadripper, this champion took a few hits but still managed to prove a point that it can handle whatever you plan to throw at it scoring the best out of all the others and will tell you “Is that your best shot?”

PCMark 8 Home Accelerated

When it comes to a test of everyday computing, the Threadripper does not shine very bright as the Ryzen 7 is very close on its tail, but it still manages to push through when it needs to but it is still not as good as the Core i7 processor.

In addition to that, we have also included the PCMark 10 test which is the latest software from PCMark for the sake of comparison and it does perform better here. In the future, we are moving over to PCMark 10 for other component tests.

Thermals

The Threadripper is a huge processor with many cores, so it’s no surprise that its idle temperature is at 36 degrees and on load it’s at 71 degrees which is still much better compared to the Ryzen 3 but do note that it is using liquid cooling to keep the temperatures down, which is something we recommend to all of you that want to get a Threadripper.

Now we move over to the gaming benchmark, which most of you are probably interested to look at. Spoiler alert, it is not as impressive as you think.

Gaming Benchmarks

Don’t get me wrong, but the Threadripper will easily perform on games, as all of the benchmarks here are the test done on these games running at the highest graphics settings possible in 1080p. All the frames we get are well above 60 frames but it still comes in very close with the Ryzen 3 and 7. When it came to Gears of War 4, it blazed past all the others mainly because the game is more CPU demanding rather than graphics, something that the Threadripper does not choke on as seen in the other CPU intensive benchmarks

1950x
amd
benchmarks
processor
review
ryzen
threadripper


AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X are now on shelves, will arrive in Malaysia very soon

343

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper processors are one of the best processors for multi-threaded work and sit above the some of the highest-end Intel processors. Now they are stepping up their game with the release of the 2nd generation AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X.

The processor comes with 16-cores and 31-threads and delivers 41 percent more multi-threaded performance than the Intel Core i9-7900X. The new generation processor comes with improved AMD SenseMI Technology along with Precision Boost 2 and Extended Frequency Range 2. These upgrades can also be found on the 2nd generation AMD Ryzen processors. In addition to that, the X399 platform offers customers with advanced features like AMD StoreMI Technology which gives the ability to load files, games and applications from a high-capacity hard drive as SSD read speeds.

Other than that, users can enjoy Precision Boost Overdrive which raises multi-threaded boost limits by tapping into extra power delivery headroom in premium motherboards. Lastly, it comes with Ryzen Master Utility which allows users the freedom of an unlocked processor and features like fast core detection, advance hardware controls and one-click workload optimizations.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2950X comes with a base clock speed of 3.5GHz, boost speeds of 4.4GHz and TDP of 180W. The processor will be priced at $899 (RM3729.68) and will arrive in Malaysia in the coming weeks.

2950x
amd
release
ryzen
threadripper


AMD’s Ryzen Threadripper 3990X has 64-cores and 128 threads for $3990

482

If you are looking to level up your content creation with faster processing, there’s now an alternative than investing in a Mac Pro or a Dual Intel Xeon workstation. AMD has surprised the medias today with the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X, the world’s first 64-core/128 thread HEDT processor made to take on the most complex multithreaded tasks.

The 3990X is a beast in the creative studio, it has a base clock speed of 2.9GHz and boosts up to 4.9GHz per core, along with 288MB of total cache, this CPU can save up to 70% of rendering time on a complex 3D rendering workflow. As AMD showed a video comparing to a $20,000 Dual Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 system on VRay rendering, the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X system completes a 3D model of Terminator: Dark Fate 27 minutes faster than its competition.

AMD continued to show a testimonial video from RED camera, where the team shared how the Ryzen Threadripper 3990X has been able to process RED colors much faster than before where they couldn’t have imagined, thus allowing them to create higher quality video content that they have intended for the audience.

As for retail price, the model number of the processor is the price – at US$3990, which is five times cheaper than the competing Intel Xeon system.

3990x
amd
ryzen
ryzen threadripper


AMD slashes price of Radeon RX Vega 56 to a mouth-watering RM1,137

306

Looking for a powerful graphics card on the cheap? According to WCCF Tech, AMD has slashed the price of their Radeon RX Vega 56 in preparation of the impending release of Nvidia’s release of the GTX 1660 Ti later tonight.

The price cut is happening in the States at the moment but it’s likely to happen here too. The reason for its discount is that, at full price, the RX Vega 56 is nearly $100 more expensive than the GTX 1660 Ti’s rumored price tag.

Image credit: WCCF Tech

To gain an upper hand, AMD slashes its original $399 price to a thrifty $279 to compete with it’s upcoming contender.

The RX Vega 56 comes with 8GB of HBM2 VRAM and comes with features such as Rapid Packed Math, Shader Intrinsics and is supported by Freesync 2 – which given its price cut, is a bang for your buck if you’re looking for a high-end gaming GPU.

amd
discount
gpu
nvidia
radeon
vega


AMD unveils a dual Polaris GPU card with 11.45 teraflops and 32GB memory

267

With the release of the RX series and Vega on the horizon, AMD has recently unveiled the Radeon Pro Duo a graphics card with two times the power of a Radeon Pro WX 7100 into a single card. The card is equipped with 32GB GDDR5 memory and offers a compute performance of 11.45 teraflops. This is achieved by using two Polaris-based GPUs, each with 36 compute units making it a total of 72 compute units combining 4608 stream processors on a single card.

The Radeon Pro Duo can power up four 4K monitors at 60Hz and an 8K display at 30Hz on a single cable or 60Hz by using a dual cable solution with a DisplayPort technology known as MST or Multi-Stream Transport. The card will require power connectors, one 6-pin and one 8-pin, running a board power of 250 watts. The card, unlike the Pro WX series, will require two slots of space to fit.

The Pro Duo will release at the end of May with a retail price of $999 which is relatively worth it, seeing as it packs the power of two Radeon Pro WX 7100 which currently retails at $620, however, the application must have support for multiple GPUs and AMD’s graphics drivers.

Source:
Forbes

amd
polaris
radeon pro duo


AMD unveils pricing of Ryzen ThreadRipper and Radeon RX Vega GPU

352

AMD has kept its word in Computex last month, it has officially unveiled the pricing of the highly anticipated powerful Ryzen Threadripper CPU and its “Vega” GPUs over at SIGGRAPH, the event for GPU technologies that is happening at Los Angeles right now. The Ryzen Threadripper is a high performance desktop CPU that rivals Intel’s Core i9 processor, available in 16-core, 12-core and 8-core models, the Ryzen Threadripper is based on the “Zen” architecture while sporting 64 PCIe lanes and up to 32 threads, which makes it a beastly hardware to perform complex computing tasks.

The AMD Radeon RX Vega on the other hand is the most advanced Radeon graphics card ever made, based on the ‘Vega’ architecture, it delivers up to 13.7 TFLOPs of compute power and has 8GB of HBM2 memory, doubling the bandwidth of previous HBM technology and delivering 60% more memory bandwidth over GDDR5. Furthermore, the Vega architecture has features that will help push the performance boundaries in low-level APIs like DirectX 12 and Vulkan, which allows game developers the flexibility in designing beautiful graphics.  AMD has mentioned previously in Computex that customers can expect various cooling solutions from its AIB partners, while the company itself has also released two special variants of the RX Vega, a liquid cooled and air cooled edition.

As for pricing and availability, AMD is now taking preorders for the Ryzen Threadripper, which the 1950X and 1920X will be made available first on August 10th at the price of $999  (RM4,274) and $799 (RM3,418) respectively, while the 8-core 1900X will be made available at 31st August at the price of $549 (RM2,348). In the case of the Radeon RX Vega, prices will start from $399 (RM1,707) depending on the card’s cooling solution.

amd
radeon rx vega price malaysia
radeon vega
ryzen
ryzen threadripper
ryzen threadripper price malaysia
vega


AMD unveils the Ryzen APU mobile processors integrated with Radeon Vega graphics

336

Raven Bridge, the mobile processors from AMD has finally be announced today that will cater to all kinds of devices mainly, 2-in-1s, convertibles and ultrathin notebooks. With a configurable 15-watt TDP, the AMD Ryzen 7 2700U and Ryzen 5 2500U processors will be using the Zen architecture featuring AMD SenseMI processor-level intelligence technology and the Radeon Vego graphics in a System-on-Chip design to achieve ultrathin notebook performance.

The Ryzen 7 2700U is the world’s fastest processor for ultrathin notebooks and will offer 3x more CPU performance, up to 2.3x GPU performance and a 58% reduction in power consumption compared to the previous generation AMD mobile processors. In addition to that, they have also included Precision Boost 2 technology which will increase processor performance from using one to many CPU cores depending on the workload.

Mobile Extended Frequency Range is also included to raise sustained performance in notebooks with great cooling solutions on notebooks certified with the technology. Finally, the efficiently designed Ryzen mobile processor is targeting to improve battery life of all devices by twice the normal amount.

In the coming weeks, we will be seeing Ryzen mobile processors systems coming from top manufacturers like Acer, HP, Lenovo and in early 2018 from Dell, Asus and other OEMs. Below is the detailed breakdown of both Ryzen mobile processors:

Model

 CPU Cores

 Threads

Max Clock (GHz)

 Graphics Compute Units
8

 Max GPU Clock (MHz)

 L2/L3 Cache (MB)

cTDP (Watts)

 Ryzen™ 7 2700U with Radeon™ Vega
10
Graphics

 4

 8

 3.8

10

 1300

 6

 15W Nominal

 Ryzen™ 5 2500U with Radeon™ Vega
8
Graphics

 4

 8

 3.6

 8

 1100

 6

 15W Nominal

5
7
amd
mobile
processors
ryzen


AMD wants to make wireless VR better by acquiring IP from Nitero

336

One thing unique to AMD is that it is a company that manufactures computer and graphics processors, and with such advantage it would make sense that the company would want to offer a better computing experience, in this case, Wireless Virtual Reality. The company has just announced in a blog post that it has acquired intellectual property (IP) and key engineering talent from Nitero, a startup based in Austin that builds 60GHz wireless chips for VR and AR, which AMD states that the acquisition will provide the company a broader portfolio of IP capable of enabling VR headset and solution providers with key technology required to create more immersive computing experiences.

All this while VR headsets have been providing a great experience all thanks to the power of GPUs, the tangling wires can be rather annoying when enjoying VR apps, hence a wireless solution is definitely in need at this point of time, AMD’s decision of acquiring Nitero is a great opportunity of being able to implement the latter’s 60GHz wireless transmission technology into future VR headsets, the wireless technology is claimed to have multi-gigabit wireless transmission performance while having beamforming characteristics, which is able to reduce response time on VR headsets and create less nausea for the user.

“Our world class engineering team has been focused on solving the difficult problem of building wireless VR technologies that can be integrated into next-generation headsets,” said Nitero co-founder and CEO Pat Kelly who has joined AMD as corporate vice president, Wireless IP. “We are excited to play a role in furthering AMD’s long-term technology vision.”

Would AMD eventually release a wireless VR headset of its own, or create a wireless VR technology that is exclusive to AMD Radeon cards? We definitely can’t wait to see what the company has planned in hand. What do you think?

SOURCE:
AMD
, VIA:
Engadget

amd
nitero
oculus
radeon
ryzen


AMD will bring Ryzen to laptops and will release a Monstrous PC Processor

350

An announcement from AMD tells us that there are more Ryzen processors that are coming later this year including processors for laptops, Ryzen “Threadripper” for high-end desktop PCs and the Ryzen 3 line. As you know based on our
Ryzen benchmark
, it made Intel take a knee when it came to the comparison between the two and it able to beat it at the price point.

The mobile processors from AMD will be codenamed ‘Raven Ridge’ and it will be an APU similar to the A-series of processors that the company released offering a unique architecture of merging the CPU and GPU into a single chip, which they expect to see in more laptop form factors ranging from ultra portable to gaming machines in the second half of 2017. The Threadripper is set to launch in summer and will have the same Zen architecture as the other processors but will have up to 16-cores and 32-threads. For comparison sake, the high-end Ryzen 7 has 8-cores and 16-threads.

There is no news on the Threadripper but expect it to not be cheap. AMD has also confirmed that the Ryzen 3 is still on track to launch later in 2017 and it is meant to fill the lower end of the line up, rivaling the i3 processors from Intel

amd
apu
raven
ridge
ryzen
threadripper


AMD will hold its "New Horizon" event on the 14th of December

284

The long wait for AMD’s upcoming Zen processors may soon be over as AMD itself has announced that it will be holding the “New Horizon” event on the 14th of December.

Little information was given as to what to expect from the “New Horizon” event, but the teaser website itself reveals a couple of interesting details. The first is the fact that AMD has confirmed that the Zen processors will indeed be launching in the first quarter of 2017. Judging by the event, it is entirely possible that the Zen processors will be available by January. AMD has also roped in Evil Geniuses’ Peter Dager, also known as PPD, to “put the Zen through its paces.

If you’re interested in watching the livestream, you can sign up for the livestream at
the “New Horizon” website
 itself. Those of you who are planning to build a new PC should tune into the livestream, because according to the rumours go around the internet regarding the Zen processors, these chips could give the Intel Kaby Lakes a run for their money.

Source:
AMD

amd
event
livestream
newhorizon
processor
zen


AMD will launch the Ryzen processor in Q1 2017

349

The wait for AMD’s Zen processors will soon be over as the company has finally revealed more details about the upcoming processors, now redubbed as Ryzen.

Let’s start with the details. The Ryzen processors will be part of the Summit Ridge family of high-end desktop chips, sporting an eight-core 16-thread CPU that use simultaneous multithreading. With thte top-end processor sporting a base clock of 3.4GHz, this puts the Ryzen processor within range of Intel’s Broadwell-E processor, although it loses out to the Skylake i7-6700K with its 4GHz base clock.

On top of clock speed, Ryzen will come with a list of efficiency features that is dubbed SenseMI (Machine Intelligence). The first is “Pure Power,” which is a set of temperature, clock speed and voltage sensors that AMD promises will led to more efficient power delivery to the CPU.

From the information gleamed through “Pure Power,” the other SenseMI feature, “Precision Boost,” will take that information and use it to adjust the clock speed on-the-fly “without halts or queue drains” in small 25MHz increments.

Accompanying the above two features is “Extended Frequency Range”, a feature that AMD claims will boost the clock speed of Ryzen outside of the typical range if a user has a robust cooling system in place. As the process is entirely automated, users without any knowledge of overclocking will still be able to gain a performance boost thanks to this system.

Rounding up the SenseMI features are “Neural Net Prediction” and “Smart Prefetch”. According to AMD, Ryzen chips contain a “true artificial network” and “learning algorithms” that would allow it to predict future decisions, pre-load instructions, and learn application data access patterns in order to improve performance. This system will be paired with a 4MB L2 cache and 16MB L3 cache.

Finally, Ryzen will run on the new AM4 chipset. The chipset will feature support for DDR4 memory, PCIe Gen 3, USB 3.1 Gen 2 and NVMe storage. AMD has stated that AM4 will “run multiple processors over multiple generations,” meaning that AM4 will work, at the very least, with the successor to Ryzen. As for pricing, AMD has yet to reveal that particular piece of info.

Source:
Ars Technica
,
Anandtech

am4
amd
broadwelle
intel
platform
processor
ryzen
skylake
summitridge


AMD will reveal more about its Vega GPUs on the 28th of February

311

Yesterday, we’ve finally gotten our first official glimpse at the Ryzen 7 processors. Next week, we’ll be getting our glimpse of another AMD product that is highly anticipated by many: Vega.

On the 28th of February, AMD will be hosting a Capsaicin & Cream event at GDC 2017. This event will see Radeon’s lead Raja Koduri debuting to the public the Radeon 500 series of graphics card, cards that are based on the company’s Vega 10 and Vega 11 architecture. According to the press release, the event will run for an hour, and it will showcase “AMD’s latest graphics and processor technologies, reveal exciting new details surrounding Vega, and showcase the summer’s most anticipated PC and VR games from visionary game developers.

While little is known about Vega 10 and 11, we do know that both architectures are based on the new 14nm manufacturing process. The Vega 10 is expected to compete with Nvidia’s GTX 1080 graphics card, while the Vega 11 is rumoured to be competing with the GTX 1070.

Source:
Digiworthy

amd
capsaicincream
event
gdc2017
vega10
vega11


AMD X570 chipset supports Ryzen 1000 AF CPUs, Gigabyte confirms

361

The AMD X570 chipset is one of the company’s latest to arrive in the market, paving the way for support of AMD’s Ryzen 4000 series CPUs. We recently also
wrote
 that the chipset won’t support CPUs older than the Ryzen 2000 series – but in a welcome, but unsurprising twist, the Ryzen 5 1600 AF and Ryzen 3 1300 AF are the two exceptions to the rule.

界隈で話題の AF 版 Ryzen 5 1600 ですが、弊社の AM4 マザーボードでちゃんと対応しているので、ご安心ください。
 ※1000番台の名称ですが、AF 版は中身が2000番台なので、X570 でも動きます！
pic.twitter.com/VRh9m0IY28

— GIGABYTE Japan (@GIGABYTE_News)
May 17, 2020

According to Tom’s Hardware, Gigabyte Japan had
taken
 to Twitter to confirm the fact, meaning if you have one of the
aforementioned
 CPUs, you can technically upgrade your motherboard to a X570 one without swapping out your Ryzen 1000 AF chip.

But there’s a catch – there always is – Tom’s Hardware also explains why the older generation processor works on the new chipset and why AMD isn’t
recommending
 it. Both the Ryzen 5 1600 and Ryzen 3 1300 are built on newer Zen+ microarchitecture and on the 12nm process node; meanwhile, other Ryzen 1000 series chip used
the
 older, incompatible Zen microarchitecture on a 14nm process instead.

Image credit: AMD

The Ryzen 5 1600 AF and Ryzen 3 1300 AF are basically lower clocked versions of the Ryzen 5 2600 and Ryzen 3 2300X respectively, which are X570-compatible CPUs.

AMD also understands this fact, but won’t officially advertise it because there’s no guarantee that you can get it to work without a hitch.  So, if you’re thinking of slapping on a new X570 motherboard with one of those two chips, know that you’ll be doing it at your own risk.

amd
cpue
processor
ryzen 2000
ryzen 2600
ryzen 3 1300 af
ryzen 4000
ryzen 5 1600 af
x570 chipset
x570 motherboard
zen
zen architecture


AMD’s 2nd-generation Threadrippers might release on 13 August

337

The Threadripper, as most of you know, is one of the most powerful processors that you can get on the market. It came with a whopping 16-cores and 32-threads of processing power, and when we tested it out, it really did perform extremely well when it comes to productivity work but not a lot on gaming. Now, with the 2nd-Generation of the Threadripper processor, AMD went all out and placed 32-cores in the chip, which some of you might ask, why?

Regardless of the madness, a new leaked from Wccftech has surfaced that states the new Threadripper processors will see an August 13 release date alongside the 24-core variant. The Threadripper 2990X will come with a clock speed of 3.4GHz with a boost up to 4GHz while its closest competitor is Intel’s workstation grade processor that comes with 28-cores and a 5GHz clock speed. As you can expect, the price is not going to be cheap, based on a German reseller, the 2900X will cost $1,770. However, it is still cheaper than Intel’s option which might cost $10,000, which is pretty unlikely.

Just like with all leaks and rumours, take this information with a grain of salt as AMD is still very hushed on the release date and price of these new Threadripper processors.

2nd
amd
date
generation
release
threadripper


AMD’s 3rd generation Threadrippers will be coming this year as spec information seen on AIDA64

275

More concrete proof of AMD’s third generation Threadripper processors arrival has propped up recently as preliminary information of the CPU’s specs were added to AIDA64 – a system information and diagnostic tool.

A report by WCCF Tech says that the 7nm Zen 2-based high-end CPU is expected to debut by the second half of 2019 and will be a completely different beast compared to its predecessors.  The release notes found on AIDA64 detail quality-of-life improvements along with physical CPU information display for AMD Castle Peak, Rome, updated JEDEC memory module manufacturers database and more.

Image credit: AMD

A roadmap of the Ryzen family of CPUs was also posted – under the Ryzen 3000 tab details the makeup of the processor. As reports have suggested, it will be based on the Zen (2) architecture and a 7nm process. It sports max 64 HEDT cores and 128 thread counts – doubling the core and thread counts of its predecessors.

It isn’t just the Threadripper that’ll be debuting as the Epyc server processor, mainstream desktop and budget desktop processors will also be introduced in AMD’s third generation family of CPUs.

amd
cpu
processors
ryzen


AMD’s new 7000 series APU and Radeon graphics delivers beastly performance with value

456

Intel may have its 5th generation Core processors offering to kick off the year, however this isn’t stopping its competitor AMD from unveiling its new line of 7000 series APU and Radeon 300 series graphics to the public and OEM PC builders.

AMD’s new 7000 series APU, formerly codenamed “Carrizo-L” is a system-on-a-chip (SoC) that delivers great mainstream desktop performance at an affordable price and rolling out globally in stages, the new APUs are more power efficient and comes with AMD’s powerful GPUs onboard which will allow some decent gaming without the need to invest a dedicated GPU.

The flagship mobile A8-7410 chip is a Quad-Core APU with a maximum clock base of 2.5GHz and has a mere maximum TDP of 25W, the chip will support 1866MHz DDR3 memory and has 2MB of L2 cache, graphics is managed by AMD’s Radeon R5 graphics which is able to take down Intel’s Atom and
Core i3
 processors in terms of performance.

On the other hand, the company’s top of the line desktop APU the A8-7850K is a 12-core (4CPU+8GPU) SoC with a really fast turbo frequency at 4.0GHz while its TDP is configurable from a range of 45W-95W, its Radeon M7 GPU will support DirectX 12, AMD Mantle and FreeSync, and customers will be able to purchase the chip at a mere $127, which gives 5th Gen Core processors a good run for its money in both performance and value.

AMD has also taken the opportunity to introduce the new Radeon
M300
 series mobile GPUs and the Radeon 300 series desktop GPUs for OEM desktops, the new graphics chip will offer unprecedented performance with the company’s Graphics Core Next (GCN) Architecture and have full support for DirectX 12 which will be available on Windows 10, AMD however has yet to reveal its GPU offerings for DIY PC builders.

This will be an interesting quarter as both AMD and Intel are set to release new processors for users and AMD’s APU processors does seem to offer some serious performance for users who are looking to build affordable PCs, next thing that we need to know is that how the APUs will perform in benchmarks to judge its worthiness.


AMD's RX 490 rumoured to be launched in December

320

AMD has been busy releasing its entry level to mid range RX 400 series cards over the past few months or so. Now, it appears that the company is finally ready to go for the enthusiasts as WCCFTech reports that the RX 490 will be making its debut in December.

The RX 490 is the enthusiast-class card from AMD, with its direct competitor being Nvidia’s GTX 1080. Based on what leaked documents have shown, the RX 490 will have a target resolution of 4K, it will have a bus width greater than 256 bits, and it will have a price point that is close to, or matches the GTX 1080.

Perhaps the most interesting part of the rumour that surrounds the RX 490 is that the card could potentially be a dual-GPU card like the Radeon Pro Duo. The leaked documents reveal that the card itself could be based on either a dual-GPU Polaris 10 design or a Vega 10 design. If the RX 490 will in fact be launched next month, it is highly likely that the card will be based on Polaris. On the other hand, if AMD pushes back the RX 490 launch date to 2017, a Vega design would be plausible.

Source:
WCCFTech

amd
polaris
radeon
rx490
vega


AMD's Ryzen 5 series of processors will launch on the 11th of April

338

With AMD’s Ryzen 7 processors now available in the market, AMD is now shifting its attention to Ryzen 5. Today, AMD has confirmed that the mid-range Ryzen 5 processor will be arriving on the 11th of April.

For the Ryzen 5 processors, AMD has prepared four different variants on the processors: the 1600X, the 1600, the 1500X and the 1400. In the case of the 1600X and the 1600, these processors will be six-core, 12-thread Zen-based processors. The 1600X will have a base speed of 3.6GHz and boost speed of 4.0GHz, while the 1600 will have a base speed of 3.2GHz and a boost speed of 3.6GHz.

Meanwhile, the 1500X and the 1400 are four-core, six-thread Zen-based processors. The 1500X will have a base speed of 3.5GHz with a boost speed of 3.7GHz, while the 1400 will have a base speed of 3.2GHz and a boost speed of 3.4GHz. All the CPUs in the Ryzen 5 line will have unlocked multipliers, allowing you to manually overclock the processors assuming you have the appropriate AM4 motherboards for it.

As for the local pricing of the chips, the 1600X will have a pricetag of RM1,199, the 1600 will retail for RM1,039, the 1500X will cost RM899, while the 1400 will go for RM819.

Source:
Ars Technica
,
Lowyat

1400
1500x
1600
1600x
am4
amd
processor
ryzen5
zen


AMD's Ryzen 7 processors will arrive on the 2nd of March; price begins at USD329

365

The wait is almost over. After months of teasing and weeks of leaks, AMD has finally announced that the Ryzen 7 line of processors will be making its way to the markets on the 2nd of March with a starting price of just USD329 (RM1,465).

At the AMD Ryzen Tech Day event, the company announced that the processors will be split into three tiers based on performance and price point. The high end models will be dubbed the Ryzen 7, the mid rangers will be Ryzen 5, while the budget-level processors will be found under Ryzen 3. On the 2nd of March, only the Ryzen 7 processors will be made available. Processors from the Ryzen 5 and Ryzen 3 series will be launched at a later date.

For Ryzen 7, all three processors in the series will have eight cores as well as support for simultaneous multi-threading. The cream of the crop of the Ryzen 7 is the 1800X, featuring a base clock of 3.6GHz, a boost of 4.0GHz, and a TDP of 95W. Behind it is the 1700X, a chip that comes with a base clock of 3.4GHz, a boost of 3.8GHz, as well as a 95W TDP. Rounding up the series is the 1700 with its 3.0GHz base clock and a 3.7GHz boost.

While benchmarks of the Ryzen 7 processors are unlikely to appear until the launch date arrives, AMD’s demonstration shows that the Ryzen 7 1800X processor is capable of beating Intel’s i7-6900K Broadwell-E processor at the Cinebench R15 multithreaded rendering benchmark, Handbrake video encoding, as well as showing better frame rates for Sniper Elite 4 at 4K resolution.

As for prices, Goldfries is reporting that the local prices for the Ryzen 7 processors will be RM2,599 for the 1800X, RM1,899 for the 1700X, and RM1,599 for the 1700.

Source:
Goldfries
,
Ars Technica
,
Anandtech

1700
1700x
1800x
amd
processor
ryzen
ryzen3
ryzen5
ryzen7


American Galaxy Note 7 units will stop charging from December 15

280

With Samsung New Zealand and Canada carrying out measures to ensure that the unreturned Galaxy Note 7 phablets will be rendered useless, Samsung USA has also joined in on the fight to stop the usage of the device. Samsung NZ has stopped all local carrier services for the phone, making it lose cellular network access. Samsung Canada on the other hand, will stop Bluetooth and Wi-Fi functionality on the phablet, before eventually halting cellular services.

As for Samsung USA, the company has conducted a firm move to ensure that the remaining Galaxy Note 7 users won’t be able to use the phablet any longer. The company has sent a cellular message, stating:

“AS OF DEC. 15, SAMSUNG WILL MODIFY THE SOFTWARE TO PREVENT THE GALAXY NOTE7 FROM CHARGING. THE PHONE WILL NO LONGER WORK.’

The announcement comes after Samsung has recently pushed out an update that limits the Note 7’s charge to only 60 percent, to make it safer for use. The above message would mean that, beginning December the 15th, all US Galaxy Note 7 units will be unable to charge, forcing the hand of the users to either return the phablet to Samsung or to keep the it as a display prop at home.

As of one month ago, Samsung USA managed to recall 85 percent of Note 7 units across the country. The modification to stop the phone from charging is beyond disabling its services, a drastic measure indeed, but a good one as well. What do you think?

Source:
The Verge

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American T-Mobile Galaxy Note 7's will eventually shut down after this software update

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Samsung Malaysia has taken measures to shut down local Galaxy Note 7 devices, forcing users to either exchange the phablet or keep it as a useless brick of a prop. As reported earlier today, Malaysian Galaxy Note 7 phones will be powered down toe 0 percent charge, with a prompt/notification for users to backup all their data before the device is being put to sleep. Major US carrier T-Mobile has just rolled out a software update that will prevent the phone from charging.

The T-Mobile Galaxy Note 7 units last received a software update in early November that limits the battery charge to 60 percent, deeming it safe to be operated. The carrier has now pushed out a new update which will stop the Note 7 from being able to charge once and for all. Apart from preventing the phablet’s charge ability, the update comes with an on screen notification to remind users about the recall, along with the steps to take to return it.

The Galaxy Note 7, if still alive, might turn out to be 2016’s best smartphone, but unfortunately the phablet suffered a series of explosions, triggering a recall by Samsung, with the replacement units still lighting up and combusting in flames, eventually leading to its official demise. With T-Mobile’s software update, fellow major carries are slated to roll out theirs early next monht in January 2017. What do you think?

Source:
T-Mobile

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An 8-hour Review: Xiaomi Mi Note. How does it fare?

401

Xiaomi took the world by storm ever since it came out with its first smartphone – the Mi1, and now it has become the fourth largest smartphone maker in only four years. Anyway, Xiaomi has just launched its Mi Note, and frankly, it is one of the sexiest phones they have made so far, looking and feeling much more premium compared to its other phones.

Beautiful Inside Out

The Mi Note comes with pretty decent specs, with
Qualcomm Snapdragon 801
, 3GB of RAM and internal storage of 64GB. Granted it does not come with expandable storage, but none of Xiaomi’s phones comes with microSD support so I suppose since no one expects it to have any, being told that it has 64GB of internal storage compared to its usual 16 or 32GB has already exceeded many of Xiaomi’s fans expectations.

Looks-wise, the Mi Note somehow reminds me of the latest
Samsung Note
 5 that has just been launched recently. Maybe it is because of its curved glass back and metal frame around the phone. Since glass and metal unibody phones seems to be the rage nowadays, I suppose it can’t be helped that very soon, every phone is going to look even more alike. Having said that, I still think the Mi Note looks good and feels very premium-like, with a competitive price of RM1,549.

When it comes to performance, there has been no big issues. The only problem I had was once a while the phone restarted for no reason at all. I suspect it has to do with Xiaomi’s MIUI 6, which comes to the next point..

Dated Software

What I was most surprised is that despite the fact that Android Lollipop has been out for a while now, the Mi Note comes with Android KitKat instead. Due to this dated software, some apps can’t be installed such as Facebook Manager, Singapore Airlines app and a few others that I can’t remember. Another issue I had was with MIUI 6. Although MIUI 7 has finally been launched, it will take a while before we can update our Mi phones to the latest firmware. MIUI 6.6.6 feels clunky and somehow I feel that the reason the phone keeps restarting at times is due to this same MIUI 6. I am still waiting for Xiaomi to rollout the OS and UI update for the Mi Note, or else this pretty phone will just be substandard due to its software.

Sharp Shooting

Like I mentioned in my video, what makes a smartphone “great” nowadays, is how well a camera performs. Some may argue that specs and UI makes a difference, but to everyday users, having a good camera phone is one of the main reasons to purchase that particular device. Having said that, the camera on the Mi Note is actually pretty good.

In low-light, it performed decently, although when it is too dark and even when using HHT (Hand Held Twilight) mode, the photo will still be relatively dark. So when it comes to low-light shooting, there still needs to be an adequate amount of light and a steady hand. Honestly, I just rather use HDR Pro mode, unless you are shooting a portrait, then you should just go for the Beautify feature instead. Don’t like your face to be too smooth? You can always switch the Beautify feature at low or off completely.

The camera of the Mi Note also launches pretty quickly. Even when running games and other apps in the background, the camera still launches in about one second. However, taking a photo doesn’t seem fast enough. There isn’t a feature where you can opt for sports photography, so the only way to capture moving objects is to go into manual mode. Speaking of manual mode, the manual mode for the Mi Note camera is pretty simplified. You can only have control over ISO, exposure time, white balance and three focus points.

As for the photo quality produced by Mi Note’s camera, I have to say it is pretty decent, and sharp enough to post on social media and used digitally. However, don’t expect it to be of DSLR quality though, since the edges are a little too soft.

Of Battery Life and Benchmarks

Battery life. Another important function often overlooked by many smartphone makers. For the Mi Note, battery life was not too bad. Being 3,000mAh in capacity, it can last more than one day even with heavy use. In fact, it lasted almost 36 hours without having to charge, and this is on pretty heavy usage such as playing games, watching videos and the usual interactions via IMs and social media apps.

As for benchmarking, here are the results using Antutu, 3DMark, and GFXBench GL. As you can see, the Xiaomi Mi Note holds itself pretty well compared to other premium phones, just by scores alone.

android
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An act of kindness from HP Malaysia and Teach For Malaysia to keep learning going

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In light of the current situation in the country, HP Malaysia is working with Teach
For
 Malaysia (TFM) to make learning more accessible to children in need.

The #MovewithHP campaign serves to generate awareness towards helping the school students who fall under the B40 group, who’re forced to put learning on hold due to the MCO – HP Malaysia will donate 50 units of their HP 14 line of laptops to TFM, who will then distribute them to those in need.

Image credit: Teach For Malaysia

In a press release shared to us by HP, 40% of students from a total of 670,000 household surveyed lack the necessary equipment to carry out e-learning – with that in mind, TFM will identify a list of schools within
Klang
 Valley with a high number of
underprivileged
 students, and will work with the schools to
nominate
 families to receive the HP 14 laptops.

View this post on Instagram

Hey guys! I’m excited to share that I’m collaborating with HP to give a little something back to our community and I’d like to invite you guys to be part of this meaningful campaign♥ HP will be donating 50 laptops to students in need and with your help let’s push to get 100 laptops in total! All you have to do is: 1) Post a video of you trying this dance challenge. 2)Tag @HP_Malaysia & @jestinna and hashtag #iMovewithHP For every 50 submissions we receive, HP will give out an additional laptop. So let’s stand together and do something great! I can’t wait to see your versions of my dance challenge!

A post shared by
 Tina J 🇲🇾
 (@jestinna) on
Apr 28, 2020 at 2:43am PDT

The public can also help in providing getting more laptops distributed to more families – a host popular personalities, such as
Jestinna

Kuan
,
Zamaera
,
Nurin

Afiqah
, and Sean Lee, will create challenges for their followers to participate in; with the hashtag #MovewithHP, every 50 submission in participation with the challenges will see one extra HP 14 laptop being donated to TFM.

The HP 14 line of laptops are great affordable all-rounder devices that are best suited for both the business and
classroom
 environment. You can visit HP’s website
here
 to learn more about the laptops, or visit Teach For Malaysia’s website
here
 to find out what else you can do to aid in the cause.

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An Android smartphone that costs less than RM6

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What can RM6 get you these days? Not much, right? Probably a satisfactory dinner for half an hour, or barely. But that’s all you’re getting when taking the nation’s plunging economy to consideration. In the midst of all these, there’s a smartphone in India that costs a measly Rs. 99 (RM5.98), which by the sound of it, isn’t an operational phone.

As a matter of fact, this Indian phone turns out to be an Android smartphone, known as the Namotel Achhedin. We’re not too sure on how usable (or bearable) the phone is, but here’s a list of what it packs. First off, we’re looking at a 480p display measuring at 4 inches, an undisclosed quad core processor with 1GB of RAM, which might just run better than those cheap flagship clones sold out there. Coupled with that is 4GB of internal storage, expandable up to 32GB via micro SD.

Be sure not to expect too much from this phone’s camera department, though you should be thankful that it has a front facing camera. On the back is a 2MP primary camera alongside the 0.3MP front facing shooter which shouldn’t be considered as a selfie camera. Despite not having 4G LTE connectivity, we’re looking at 3G support with a dual-SIM slot. The handset packs a 1,325mAh battery, which should be enough considering its specs. Plus, this phone surprisingly runs Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, and not Kit Kat or Gingerbread. Sounds like a good deal if you buy this Android smartphone in tens. Do note that you’re not the only one who’s trying to think of the sorcery and magic behind this ridiculously cheap smartphone, but it will be available to our lucky friends in India starting this week. What do you think?

Source:
Phandroid

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An Antipathy Battle between Lalasong vs RollsRoyce on Hearthstone Sea

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One of the ultimate Hearthstone Malaysia first grudge matches is happening in 1-day time. In a local competition in our very own Malaysian community, RollsRoyce faced Lalasong in the very first round and lost (
video here
). According to Hearthstone Malaysia community, RollsRoyce created a huge drama when one of the members posted the video of him losing to Zi Song and rechallenged Lalasong into another match which turned to be a big deal for the Hearthstone Malaysia scene. The grudge match managed to attract many sponsors in a very short period and managed to raise RM300 for the winner.

Proudly announced the two players will be fighting on Sunday at Players Bio (drum roll).

Players Bio

Gosu Rank: 2nd in Malaysia (23rd in Asia)

First we have is Lalasong aka Zi song, he managed to attain legendary ranking in Hearthstone for every season, which is definitely hard to reach (I managed to reach Rank 15 only). Proficient in many classes and highly experienced in Hearthstone, Lalasong also like to help many players to train for tourney behind the scene without asking any returns.

Gosu Rank: 11th in Malaysia (112 ranking in Asia)

Secondly, we have one of the most infamous gamers Malaysia has ever had, according to Wanuxi – Billy Chin aka RollsRoyce successfully blocked numerous players that he had played with and his personality is highly active in self-bragging and had taken a hobby of mocking other players.

Match Details:

Mode: Conquest Mode

Number of Matches: Best of 7

Date: Sunday 7/6/2015

Time: 20:00 (GMT+8)

The match will commence on June 7th, Sunday at 8:00PM sharp. You can watch the gruesome match with blood and sweat at
ChaosHamtaro
Twitch.


381

One of the ultimate Hearthstone Malaysia first grudge matches is happening in 1-day time. In a local competition in our very own Malaysian community, RollsRoyce faced Lalasong in the very first round and lost (
video here
). According to Hearthstone Malaysia community, RollsRoyce created a huge drama when one of the members posted the video of him losing to Zi Song and rechallenged Lalasong into another match which turned to be a big deal for the Hearthstone Malaysia scene. The grudge match managed to attract many sponsors in a very short period and managed to raise RM300 for the winner.

Proudly announced the two players will be fighting on Sunday at Players Bio (drum roll).

Gosu Rank: 2nd in Malaysia (23rd in Asia)

First we have is Lalasong aka Zi song, he managed to attain legendary ranking in Hearthstone for every season, which is definitely hard to reach (I managed to reach Rank 15 only). Proficient in many classes and highly experienced in Hearthstone, Lalasong also like to help many players to train for tourney behind the scene without asking any returns.

Gosu Rank: 11th in Malaysia (112 ranking in Asia)

Secondly, we have one of the most infamous gamers Malaysia has ever had, according to Wanuxi – Billy Chin aka RollsRoyce successfully blocked numerous players that he had played with and his personality is highly active in self-bragging and had taken a hobby of mocking other players.

Match Details:

Mode: Conquest Mode

Number of Matches: Best of 7

Date: Sunday 7/6/2015

Time: 20:00 (GMT+8)

The match will commence on June 7th, Sunday at 8:00PM sharp. You can watch the gruesome match with blood and sweat at
ChaosHamtaro
Twitch.


An apple a day…Let’s have some Pearbuds instead!

390

It was not too long ago that a friend of mine caught me off-guard wearing my detached Shure SE215
earbuds
 and she was like, “Are you listening to music on those tiny things?!” and I was like, “Nah! The lecturer was a tad bit screeching in class. Gotta protect my hearing,” and then she was like, “Oh! Too bad. I thought someone already invented those things – wireless earbuds for music listening.”

Shure SE215

Fast forward a couple of months and that day has surely come. Pearbuds are all the rage on
Kickstarter
 today as the team from
Pear Designs
 has successfully done what my friend thought of and made it really cool-looking too!

“Say hello to the future of audio experiences. Say hello to Pearbuds.” is the opening title sequence for the Kickstarter campaign and boy did that video get my attention. With less than a month left to go, the Kickstarter campaign is already backed
four times over
 and there are still a couple of Rewards up for grabs. But before giving all your money away, let’s get into the nitty gritty of the specs shall we?

Aesthetically,
 the Pearbuds are the smallest
bluetooth
earbuds
 that are soon to be available in the market. They are designed to be like pears (hence, the name) and also crafted from premium materials which focuses on style and comfort. The company is bent on being a game-changer by eliminating the need for wires and clunky metal cans while also making the pearbuds extra durable. These
earbuds
 are also
water & dust resistant
 with a
IP53
 certification which make them perfect for workouts.

“Although sized at only
0.47″
, we managed to incorporate balanced armature audio transducers which offer very low noise distortion which are optimally tuned to specific frequency ranges,”
 Pear Designs mentioned.

And for those
 audiophiles
 out there, you’ll be pleased to know that the Pearbuds is AptX-codec-enabled which ensures that the sound you hear over Bluetooth is CD-like quality and not forgetting that these little fellas also have an ambient noise cancellation feature on-board for a maximum sonic experience.

However, all those bells and whistles will be rendered useless without proper juicing methods (no pun intended). I’m talking about Power Retention & Consumption a.k.a.
Battery Life.
 Well, Pear Designs has indeed developed a breakthrough wireless in-ear headphone that fits snuggly in your ears and making them last for a whopping
6 hours on a single charge
, which by the way, is currently the longest battery life in the market. Coupled with the very nicely designed portable
charging
case
 and voila! You’d get another
full charge in only 45 minutes.
 Talk about power!

“The two main points of current wireless earphones on the market were size and battery life and we took that to heart by optimizing the Pearbuds to be both the smallest in the market while having the longest battery life, in order to make the best completely cordless
earbud
 package out there,”
 quipped Pear Designs.

And that was all the information that I personally needed for me to head straight on over to their Kickstarter campaign and backed the
$99 Reward tier.

Fun fact:
 The $99 Reward tier was gone at the start of the writing of this article but someone backed out and there was 1 available slot left and I didn’t even bat an eye lid – Pearbuds are gonna be mine!

Now the ball is in your park, what will
you
 do with this information at hand? If you’re like me, the Kickstarter campaign redirects
here.
 Happy Monday!

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An ASUS + HTC alliance could be a good thing and here’s why

450

With HTC’s recent disappointing results and stories of ASUS having thoughts of buying over the troubled company, the news has caused quite a stir in the industry and heated discussion among the tech media community. Today, we have certainly come to a point to agree that almost any company could make a smartphone, they can easily come with the highest resolution displays, impressively curated build material and most importantly, they are no longer expensive, such examples include Xiaomi and OnePlus.

HTC makes great smartphones, they have always been a heroic smartphone brand in my heart and I can simply refer the company as the Apple of Android and Windows Mobile (Windows Phone was named back then). ASUS, a brand that makes one of the world’s best PC motherboards and notebooks have diversified its business so well that out of the blue, the company’s ZenFone handsets topped the charts in certain Asian countries. When I think of the possibility of these two companies merging together, I have excited thoughts about it and believed that both of them could
stand
 a chance to show the world on what smartphone they could produce together and it is even possible to pose a serious threat to big boys like
Samsung
 and Apple.

HTC makes great user experience and hardware, ASUS knows how to market the products well.

To be fair, both HTC and ASUS make great smartphones these days, however the main problem between the two is pretty obvious – HTC does not know how to market its products well but knows how to create a near flawless and unique user experience, ASUS prices its Zenfones right with partial support from Intel however ZenUI is a rip off of many other smartphone’s great software features and requires some amount of hardware power to run well. In a nutshell, these two brands have the best abilities that each other does not have, while they don’t necessarily need to end in the Nokia and Microsoft way but the duo could actually work to satisfy different segment of consumers in terms of pricing strategy, marketing and technology sharing.

Good artists copy, great artists steal! Spot the difference!

Lets not forget the old HTC was once an ODM (original design manufacturer) and they make extremely iconic phones back then – the
O2
 XDA II, Dopod 838 Pro,
Sony
 Ericcson Xperia X1 and currently, the iconic
HTC One
 handset with a full metal body and awesome front facing BoomSound speakers, the company also once pioneered the mobile industry with many firsts, for instance, the first Android smartphone (Google G1), the first Android smartphone with WiMAX (HTC Evo 4G) and many more. On the other hand, ASUS has had a history of failing secure a long term partnership with Garmin back in the WinMo days, which is due to the lack of software innovation, hardware improvement and support.

Both companies have had their ups and downs in the past however at this point of time, ASUS is stealing HTC’s spotlight even in its home land, the new Zenfone 2 is undeniably one of the most powerful smartphones in the market and it didn’t look as bad as the company’s recent One M9 smartphone, the Zenfone 2 is priced almost half of the One M9’s value despite of its slightly inferior build quality.

Both HTC and ASUS could actually help each other when they are together, ASUS could actually serve the entry level market while HTC continue to focus its efforts in the more premium smartphone market while extending its ecosystem to ASUS, a strong alliance between the two companies could actually mean more great quality devices for consumers to choose from, and eventually help HTC out of its financial woes. According to some of our inside sources, ASUS does nick a couple of lead designers from HTC when it was in trouble back, hence contributing to the company’s success, isn’t it time that HTC should consider lowering down its ego and just have a friendly and strategic alliance with ASUS? Your comments are welcome.


An ‘Enhanced Touch ‘n Go card’ is about to launch soon with NFC top-up feature

5K

It’s better late than never, as an enhanced version of the Touch ‘n Go card is about to be sold in the market that will finally let you reload the card over your phone, even though the company has heavily promoted its e-wallet service, the physical card is still widely use in mall parkings and tolls.

Spotted by
Soyacincau
, the card will be simply known as the Enhanced Touch ‘n Go card, it will feature a simple and clean look with an NFC icon on the top corner, while we are pretty sure that it is a generic design for now and we should see quite a few designs just like the non-NFC ones as time goes on.

Reloading the card is done through the Touch ‘n Go eWallet app, where users are required to have a phone that’s equipped with NFC, users can also order the card and check balance inside the app, which is way more convenient than having to head over to a kiosk machine or a physical Touch ‘n Go counter that could be usually out of  service.

This is the second time that Touch ‘n Go has made reloading the physical card via the app, as the first initiative was met with criticism as it still requires the user to head over to the kiosk to tap the physical card after paying through the TNG eWallet app, the feature was later scrapped due to the impracticality.

More details should be revealed soon over the weeks, and we will definitely update this space when we have them, and personally, I’m so glad that I no longer need to hunt for reload kiosks or stations that charges that awful RM0.50 service fee.

enhanced touch 'n go
touch n go


An extraordinary music streaming app – Joox

366

Many people must try a lot of different streaming service, but this time the group that brings WeChat, Tencent released the latest music streaming for everyone – Joox. The application allows you to choose three user interfaces and content selections – Melayu Hits, Chinese Hits and International. Joox provides a widespread library of local and global music from your favorite artists across Malaysia.

The special of this application is the applications bring the music experience up a notch by offering a distinct local flavor with a stream of recommended playlist that are specifically handpicked by the local music curators based on Malaysian trends and activities. Besides that you are also able to play music for 24 hours with the free radio stations that consist of all three language selections and you if you not sure what to listen today, you actually can check out Joox Editors’ Picks for the recommendation.

Besides that, you can share your favorite song and joy with your friends by WeChat, WeChat Moments and Facebook in real-time so you can enjoy the musical moments with your friend instantly. Apart from that you can register for the first time with your Facebook or WeChat, you are able to receive a 30 day VIP to enjoy the service with offline usage, ad-free music streaming and access to high definition quality soundtracks.

Joox is now available to download for free on both
iOS
 and
Android
 devices and if you want to subscribe to the service can purchase in apps start from RM 14.90 for one month, RM 40.90 for three months, RM 73.90 for four months and RM 136.90 for 12 months.

android
facebook
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An in-display fingerprint sensor is great but can be rendered useless

562

The in-display fingerprint scanner has been one of the new technology that several smartphones have managed to adopt this year, and it’s presumable that many more will be using the same technology next year.

With the in-display fingerprint sensor, phones can now be unlocked by tapping the device screen, and of course this would seem fancier than the regular Touch ID or fingerprint sensor on the back or the side of the phone. Few phones like the Huawei Mate 20 Pro and the OPPO R17 Pro have already started using this feature, and the Mate 20 Pro is said to have great unlock speed and accuracy.

That being said, it seems that we’ve all been welcoming the new, advanced feature that we’ve all forgotten a very important issue; cracked screens. What happens if our phones accidentally fall and crack? According to
Express.co.uk
, Huawei confirmed that the screen cracks can affect the capability of the sensor to scan users’ fingerprints. A YouTuber names Jerry Rigs Everything also posted the video above that proved that the Mate 20’s fingerprint scanner stopped working once the device was bent and fractured. Once the screen was cracked, even though he was able to set up his fingerprint, it could not be used to unlock the phone.

Though the current technology of in-display fingerprint sensor is rather incompetent if the screen is cracked, the upcoming technology which is the ultrasonic sensor might not be so easily defeated by cracked screens. Qualcomm’s new ultrasonic scanner is said to be more accurate and can even work on wet and contaminated finger, hence there’s a higher chance that the fingerprint scanner might still work even if the phone’s screen is cracked lightly.

Of course, if the phone’s badly damaged, it’s possible that even the ultrasonic sensor won’t be able to work. Though the technology advancement is great, it seems like we might have overlooked the external factor that is humans’ carelessness. Of course, if technology can offer us unbreakable phone displays or maybe just stronger displays than current ones, the in-display fingerprint sensor will be close to perfection. Otherwise, one cracked screen and the phone will have to be unlocked the traditional passcode way or face unlock if the device supports that.

in-display fingerprint sensor
ultrasonic sensor


An upcoming mid-range Vivo phone could come with a 120Hz display

492

Vivo hasn’t brought any high refresh rate displays to its Y series phones, but that might change soon as the smartphone brand is about to introduce a 120Hz display on an upcoming Vivo Y7x smartphone.

First reported by
PassionateGeekz
, the Y7x is expected to come with a 6.44-inch 120Hz display and will be powered by a capable Mediatek Helio G96 chipset supported by up to 8GB of RAM, it will also reportedly come preloaded by Funtouch OS 12 based on Android 11.

Recently, Vivo has been shifting its focus to gaming for its Y series smartphones starting with the Vivo Y76 5G, the Y7x seem to further confirm that continued effort to bring gaming centric features to the brand’s more affordable models, although sadly the phone will not be a 5G enabled smartphone, and we have no clue whether it will debut as another model name if it ever launches in Malaysia.

The Vivo Y7x is seen as a direct rival to Xiaomi’s popular Redmi Note 11, which has gathered positive reviews from early reviewers and is slated to launch on February 11 in Malaysia, this is definitely an interesting year for mid-range phones.

vivo
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vivo y7x


An upcoming Nokia flagship smartphone may have been shown off at CES

260

Yesterday,
we’ve reported
 that Nokia will be announcing a series of new devices on the 26th of February. However,
if this GSMArena report
 is proven to be correct, it appears that one of the devices that may be revealed on that day may have already been shown off at CES 2017.

According to the report, Nokia’s upcoming flagship phone, the Nokia 8, has already been showcased at Qualcomm’s booth. Two such devices were set up on a small shaking platform that is meant to show off the phone camera’s stabilization capabilities.

Sources speaking to GSMArena indicates that the Nokia 8 will be available in two configurations. The first one would come with a Snapdragon 835 processor, 6GB of RAM, a 24MP OIS+EIS rear camera, a 12MP front camera, either 64GB or 128GB of internal storage space, as well as a microSD card slot. The second is the more affordable option as it comes with a Snapdragon 821 processor, 4GB of RAM, and a lesser camera.

Neither Nokia nor HMDGlobal has come out and confirm that the phones in question are the Nokia 8, so do take this news with a pinch of salt.

Source:
GSMArena

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An Xperia phablet spotted with a huge 6-inch screen

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Back at MWC, Sony dumped the Xperia Z line to introduce the Xperia X series – the Xperia X, Xperia X Performance and Xperia XA. All three handsets sport different specs in some way. While Sony has been silent about new products since then, an Xperia smartphone is spotted in the wild, courtesy of Chinese social networkers on Baidu.

The alleged handset, which is said to sport a 6-inch display, is rumored to be the successor of the Xperia C5 Ultra that was unveiled in August last year. Apart from the huge display as seen in the leaked image, another feature that stands out is the huge lens of the selfie camera, coupled with a flash on its right, which suggests that the phone will most likely feature an impressive front facing shooter. Also spotted is a dedicated camera shutter button located at the usual spot like on most Sony Xperia’s – the bottom right.

In terms of the overall design, this device isn’t running away from the standard Xperia pronounced rectangular and glass build. Other images show that the handset will have NFC built-in and features a micro-USB port instead of the newer USB Type-C. The Xperia C5 Ultra from last year featured a MediaTek MT6752 processor with 2GB of RAM, so chances are that this device will be MediaTek powered as well. The C5 Ultra also featured an impressive 13MP camera on the front with autofocus and LED flash, hence it convinces us more that the device in the leaked images will be its successor. Thoughts?

Source:
Baidu

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Analysts reveal that PC sales plunge in the fourth quarter of 2015

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2015 hasn’t been kind to the PC business as studies from both IDC and Gartner reveals that the PC sales continue to drop in the fourth quarter.

According to IDC, they estimate that computer shipments fell by roughly 10.6 percent, making it the steepest year-over-year drop in history. Gartner’s figures are slightly better as they calculated that the PC market suffered a 8.3% drop in the fourth quarter. This fall in PC sales affected all PC brands including names like ASUS and Lenovo. However, Apple made PCs are mostly unaffected by the drop in PC sales.

Both IDC and Gartner attribute the drop in PC sales to a combination of PC buyers’ behaviour and Microsoft’s stratefy. As PC upgrade cycles are getting longer, old PCs continue to be functional, allow PC users to hold out on buying a new computer to replace their aging machine. The ever increasing presence of smartphones and tablets further reduces the need for a computer. IDC also suspects that the free Windows 10 upgrades played a part wih the drop in PC sales, as PC users have no reason to buy a new computer just to experience Microsoft’s latest Operating System.

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