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With the recent graphics card releases more or less out of the way, it's now time to turn our collective attention to everything Zen. The new AMD CPUs are set to be released sometime in 2017, and it's only fitting that rumor mill has already started churning. A little while back, Guru3D got a lead on the specs for four variants of Zen CPUs.The leak includes information on two Socket AM4-based units and two SP3-based beasts. As always, this is a rumor, ...Read more...

Lenovo is no stranger to making monitors, but we wouldn't associate the company with gaming peripherals off the tops of our heads. The new Y27F FreeSync monitor might change that perception. This 27" display has an aggressive 1800R arc across its surface that some might find more immersive than a flat screen. ...Read more...

Sorry for the late deals post today, gerbils. I've been working hard all week to get our Radeon RX 470 review back in shape after a disturbing discovery. Now that all that's behind us, we've scoured the web for the best deals available on computer hardware today. Here's what we found.There's a chance you're looking for a deal on something we didn't feature here. If that's the case, you can help The Tech Report by using the following referral links when you're out shopping: not only do we have a partnership ...Read more...

We've briefly examined MSI's GTX 1080 Sea Hawk X graphics card here on TR. That product was developed in collaboration with Corsair, who is now selling their own version of the fruits of that partnership. The Hydro GFX GTX 1080 appears to be essentially the same product as the Sea Hawk X, but it carries a Corsair logo for easy coordination with builders' other Corsair gear. ...Read more...

For now, regular old spinning rust has a significant cost-per-gigabyte advantage over solid-state storage. Until fairly recently, it had a substantial advantage in density, too. High capacity SSDs like Samsung's PM1633a have gained some ground on magnetic storage, but Seagate's newest business-class SSD might fully cement the obsolescence of traditional hard drives with its 60TB capacity. ...Read more...

Nvidia has announced its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2017. The company took in revenue of $1.43 billion, up 24% from a year ago, and its operating income of $317 million this quarter more than triples its profit from a year ago. Here's a quick tabulation of the results:Nvidia said that its strong results come from strong demand for its Pascal graphics cards, as well as "surging interest in deep learning." Within just this one quarter, the company introduced the GeForce GTX 1080 , ...Read more...

Nvidia has announced its financial results for the second quarter of its fiscal 2017. The company took in revenue of $1.43 billion, up 24% from a year ago, and its operating income of $317 million this quarter more than triples its profit from a year ago. Here's a quick tabulation of the results:Nvidia said that its strong results come from strong demand for its Pascal graphics cards, as well as "surging interest in deep learning." Within just this one quarter, the company introduced the GeForce GTX 1080 , ...Read more...

Intriguing news keeps coming from this year's Flash Memory Summit. Yesterday, Samsung announced 64-layer V-NAND. Today, Kingston and industry newcomer Liqid announced that they've collaborated to make what they call the world's fastest 2.5" solid-state drive. ...Read more...

When we covered Western Digital's introduction of its Gold hard drives for businesses, a couple of gerbils expressed dissatisfaction—facetious or not—that the largest-capacity drive was only 8TB. Well, how about 10TB? WD recently announced that this family of hard drives is getting a new member with an impressive 10TB capacity. ...Read more...

BitFenix is announcing some new products that should go together like cookies and cream. The Aurora case is a mid-tower design that can accept E-ATX motherboards, and it can show off those fancy parts with tempered glass side panels. At the same time, BitFenix is adding magnetic LED strips to its Alchemy series of colorful internal components....Read more...

Samsung is dropping the mic at the Flash Memory Summit in Santa Clara. The company has taken a page from Gillette's handbook (in a good way) and announced an upgrade to its V-NAND (Vertical NAND) technology. The company is now stacking flash memory 64 layers high, another density increase over the 48-layer V-NAND we just tested in Samsung's Portable SSD T3.The new V-NAND chips serve up 512Gb (64GB) of storage per die, and a single die can now move data at 100 MB/s. Samsung expects to offer products based on the new technology in the fourth quarter of 2016, and believes ...Read more...

I spy with my little eye. That's likely the new motto of Adam Jensen, the protagonist of the upcoming Deus Ex: Mankind Divided. The game is now augmented with support for the Tobii EyeX gaze-tracking controller, letting players perform a number of actions using only their pupils. How do you like them apples, Vive? ...Read more...

Fans of mice with configurable hardware and software are probably already aware of the RAT series of gaming mice, since that product family's highly tweakable frame and outer shell is pretty distinctive in the crowded world of gaming mice. We first had a run-in with RATs in 2010, when we were quite taken with the RAT 7 and deemed it worthy of a TR Editor's Choice award. After a long run in the marketplace, MadCatz is now performing a top-to-bottom refresh of its line of RATs. The first four models in a dizzying family of six rodents will arrive in October. ...Read more...

At some point in the last couple of days, MSI quietly updated its website with a pair of new Radeon graphics cards, called simply the MSI Radeon RX 460 2GB OC and RX 460 4GB OC. The company already has a plethora of Polaris parts, but these are RX 460s, and thus use the smaller Polaris 11 processor. Normally, the stealthy launch of some entry-level graphics cards might not be worth a lot of fuss, but these are the first single-fan RX 460s we've seen that don't require a PCIe power connector. ...Read more...

Deep learning technology is one of the buzziest, fastest-growing fields in tech right now. We've long heard about the potential of the technology from Nvidia, who has positioned its GPUs as ideal platforms to power applications like self-driving cars and neural-network-powered image identification, to name just two potential applications for the tech. Today, Intel is trying to get a leg up in the game by purchasing Nervana Systems, a deep-learning hardware and software provider, for an undisclosed sum.Intel says it'll be using Nervana's software to refine its Math Kernel Library, and the company's hardware expertise ...Read more...

It's rare for companies to release actual die shots of their hardware these days, possibly because the keen-eyed can deduce things about a chip that companies might otherwise want to keep a secret. Generally, we have to make do with Chiclet-like block diagrams, and that's certainly been the case with AMD's Polaris and Nvidia's Pascal chips. However, one photographer on Flickr is deliberately destroying a wide variety of chips to show us what lurks underneath the caps and heatspreaders on CPUs, GPUs, and more. Flickr user "Fritzschens Fritz" has even delidded a Radeon RX 470 to show us the actual Polaris 10 die. We salute you for your sacrifice, Fritzschens Fritz.

Intel and Micron's 3D XPoint memory technology has been drawing attention recently. The companies claim that this non-volatile memory (pronounced "3D cross-point") should provide significantly higher performance than NAND while being much more dense. In advance of its keynote speech later today at the Flash Memory Summit, Micron has released details about how 3D XPoint will appear on the market. ...Read more...

Remember that Elite X3 phablet from HP? The six-inch Windows 10 phone could be the device that delivers on all the promise of Windows Continuum. Earlier in the year, HP said it was targeting a late-July release for the phone, but a quick search doesn't find it listed anywhere for sale. HP confirmed early last month that it would begin selling the phone bundled with desk and lap-oriented docks August 29, but it wasn't clear when the phone would be available by itself. That is, until yesterday. Neowin got a statement from HP in which the company said the phone will start selling through its website on September 5. ...Read more...

MediaTek will build its next high-end SoC, the X30, on TSMC's 10-nm FinFET process. The fabless semiconductor design firm's chief operating officer confirmed the move in an interview with EE Times China from late last month. In the same interview, MediaTek's COO also revealed that the company has chosen to pair an Imagination Technologies GPU with the X30 instead of ARM's next-generation Mali for power efficiency reasons. Phone Radar speculates the SoC will use two of ARM's Cortex-A73 high-end CPU cores, four Cortex-A53 cores, and two Cortex-A35 cores. The site also guesses the SoC will use an Imagination PowerVR Series7XT GPU.This move (and Phone Radar's speculation) make sense given that ARM and TSMC have been publicly discussing their plans for 10-nm fabrication technology at least as far back as 2014. The duo revealed a 10-nm FinFET test chip in May to validate the Artemis CPU core, which we now know as the Cortex-A73. ARM also announced a new GPU, Mali-G71, alongside the Cortex-A73 at Computex ...Read more...

Over the last year, Netflix has been transitioning from HTTP to HTTPS for its customers' streams. The process hasn't been simple. The company indicates that the computational costs to its serving platform from this move have been significant. To reduce the operational costs of encrypting all streams, Netflix has exploring new ways of optimizing Transport Layer Security (TLS) bulk encryption. In a recent paper, Netflix's engineers explain what they've been able to accomplish.First, the engineers considered different options for Netflix's cipher. They opted for the AES-GCM cipher over the more common Cipher Block Chaining, deciding that GCM provided adequate protection while requiring less processsing and computation. Second, Netflix considered a number of ...Read more...

SteelSeries is no stranger to releasing quality (and often pricey) gaming peripherals. Today, the company has turned its ears towards its Siberia lineup of headsets (née H Wireless). Meet the Siberia 800 and Siberia 840 wireless cans. ...Read more...

It's August, and we're at the height of the summer season. That means beaches, hot weather, cold beer, and large-impact Android device vulnerabilities. The folks at Check Point are at DEF CON 24, where they made a presentation on QuadRooter, a tetra-whammy of security vulnerabilities in Qualcomm device drivers. According to Check Point, Qualcomm's chipsets are used in an estimated 65% of Android devices, which works out to a count of roughy 900 million units. Furthermore, since the vulnerabilities exist at the driver level, the security experts warn that any malicious application can exploit them to gain complete access to all of the device's software and data.Check Point has made a report available with technical details about each of the vulnerabilites. The list of affected phones includes the majority of the latest-model headsets from all the high-end manufacturers. That means ...Read more...

I've been putting AMD's Radeon Software 16.8.1 driver through its paces over the past few days, and now the rest of you can enjoy it, too. The biggest highlights of this release are official support for the Radeon RX 470 and the Radeon RX 460, along with a new Crossfire profile for F1 2016. If you're one of the lucky few with either of those new Radeons, you'll want to grab this driver before starting your engines.AMD also fixed a raft of minor issues in this release. The WattMan utility should now show the appropriate memory overclocking ceiling for the Radeon RX 480. Overwatch should no longer crash on Radeon RX 480s running in Crossfire. ...Read more...

AMD's petite Polaris 11 GPU has arrived aboard the Radeon RX 460, and while Jeff slaves away at getting the review finished up, we've taken the liberty of running around the web checking whether any e-tailers have these cards up for purchase. The answer is: sort of. Inventory is spotty and going fast, but it appears there's generally an RX 460 for you to buy somewhere. ...Read more...

We don't have a lot of love for pre-built desktop computers around these parts, but we're fond of Dell anyway. That Texas company produces some of the finer monitors around. Dell has two more monitors on the way, called the S2417DG and SE2717H, and both are gaming monitors. That commonality aside, they serve very different markets. ...Read more...

Morning, folks. As you read this, you're no doubt beginning to sort through a deluge of Radeon RX 460 reviews. I'd love to have made TR's among them, but FedEx put the handsome 4GB Sapphire card you see below in my hands just moments before the press embargo lifted. The good news is that the rest of the cards I wanted to bench the RX 460 against have all been tested, and I just need to plop AMD's mighty mite into our test system and go. It'll be interesting to see what the RX 460 can do in the $109-and-up price class. ...Read more...

Eight is Enough

Looking to develop a VR application, perhaps a headset accessory, or maybe your own VR headset? Valve's got you covered. The company is opening up its SteamVR Tracking tech for anyone to use, with no strings attached. ...Read more...

Last week, in a forum thread announcing availability of Sapphire's RX 480 Nitro+, Overclockers UK staffer Gibbo dropped some interesting news. Replying to a poster asking about when the sold-out card would come back into stock, he said the e-tail shop would be receiving more stock over the next two weeks. He then relayed the news, apparently straight from the horse's mouth, that AMD is shipping over 100,000 Radeon RX 480 GPUs to board vendors. ...Read more...

The SteamVR software interface that powers HTC's Vive headset is a solid tool for gamers, but HTC wants to broaden the appeal of the platform with its new Viveport hub. This new front-end for the Vive will feature "VR–like information, edutainment, social media, 360˚ video, news, sports, health, travel and shopping" content, according to HTC's announcement. ...Read more...

Welcome to another round of Friday deals, gerbils. We've scoured the web for the best discounts around on PC components and peripherals this morning, and here are the best deals we found this week.There's a chance you're looking for a deal on something we didn't feature here. If that's the case, you can help The Tech Report by using the following referral links when you're out shopping: not only do we have a partnership ...Read more...

While in many cases we are still waiting on non-reference Radeon RX 480s to hit the market, the RX 470 is ushering in its launch with a full showing of custom cards from all the usual suspects. Gigabyte, MSI, Asus, PowerColor, Sapphire, and XFX all have slightly-nerfed Polaris 10s to show you, and we've taken the time to sift through all their differences so you don't have to. ...Read more...

Eight is Enough

It's good fun to talk about GTX 1080s and Titan Xes, but the fact remains that most people's budgets can't quite stretch to those cards. That same rule applies to monitors, too. Think of a big but decent monitor, with a price tag that your Average Gamer would find reasonable, and chances are you'd come up with Dell's SE2717H. ...Read more...

On August 8, beautiful Santa Clara, California is hosting the 2016 Flash Memory Summit, and it's no surprise that Toshiba will be there. The Japanese electronics giant is already talking about a new series of products it will be showing at the summit. The so-called BG Series are NVMe SSDs that mount the controller and flash on the same 16x20mm package. The new drives will come in 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB capacities, and in both BGA and removable (M.2) forms.

Back in February, Microsoft made its HoloLens augmented-reality headset available to select developers through an application process. Folks that Redmond deemed qualified then needed to fork over $3000 to get their hands on a HoloLens dev kit. Now, Microsoft is making the HoloLens Development Edition hardware available to any "developer" that wants to purchase one. ...Read more...

The tiger is officially out of the bag. Nvidia's sudden release of the new Pascal-based Titan X card caught everyone by surprise, and the burning question on everyone's mind now is probably "what kind of gaming performance does $1200 get me?" We took a long, hard look at some reviews around the internet and distilled the answer to that question.We pride ourselves on long and detailed explanations, yet the Titan X merits a simple summary: it's really, really fast. To our eyes, it's the only GPU capable of playing games at 4K with all maxed-out settings. Halo products always present debatable value propositions, ...Read more...

The market for SFX power supplies has been steadily growing as more and more users turn an eye toward small-form-factor PCs, but there still aren't many high-quality models on the market. Aside from a couple of units from Corsair and Silverstone, builders are pretty much stuck looking at the unofficial "Micro ATX" power supply category. That's why Thermaltake's announcement (late last week) of two new 80 PLUS Gold-certified SFX power supplies is big news. ...Read more...

Firefox 48 began rolling out to users yesterday. This major update marks the beginnings of a fundamental change to the way Firefox processes work: it splits the browser into a process for its user interface and a process for the web content it's displaying. This change is the first mainstream release of the work from Mozilla's Electrolysis project, whose labor is meant to make Firefox less crashy while improving its responsiveness and security. Developer Aza Dotzler calls this release "the largest change we've ever shipped."Electrolysis won't be rolling out to every user with Firefox 48. Mozilla is only turning on the feature for users that aren't on Windows XP and without extensions, screen readers, or right-to-left languages enabled. Of those eligible users, only 1% ...Read more...

As you've no doubt heard, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is out. Well, sort of. Microsoft is rolling out the update slowly to all Windows 10 users, but if you'd rather not wait, Microsoft has a procedure for getting the update sooner. You can hit that link to see the full procedure, but we'll spoil it for you: tell Windows Update to check for updates. Your Windows 10 machine should find a "Feature update to Windows 10, version 1607" ready for download. ...Read more...

Along with the new Galaxy Note7, Samsung also revealed an updated version of its smartphone-based Gear VR headset at the Unpacked event this morning. The price ($99) and features remain essentially the same as the last-generation model's, but the new headset brings in a slightly wider field of view, interchangeable phone connections, and a darker color scheme. ...Read more...

At its latest Unpacked event this morning, Samsung showed off its next-generation Galaxy Note7 smartphone (and no, that's not a typo). The company's latest flagship phablet offers an IP68 water- and dust-resistant shell (and S Pen), HDR content support, and an iris scanner that provides another layer of security on top of the phone's fingerprint sensor. ...Read more...

As it promised a week and change ago, Nvidia officially made its Pascal-powered Titan X available today. Don't confuse this card with the Maxwell GeForce GTX Titan X—this card's official name is just the Nvidia Titan X. As of this writing, the card is in stock on Nvidia's online store for $1200, and it's possible to buy a pair of these babies should you want to team them together in SLI. That money buys a chip that we're guessing is called GP102, and it packs 3584 stream processors running at 1417MHz base and 1531MHz boost speeds. GP102 talks to 12GB of GDDR5X RAM running at 10 GT/s over a 384-bit bus, and Nvidia claims it can deliver 11 TFLOPS of single-precision throughput. ...Read more...

When I write about a glowing computer peripheral these days, I usually have to describe how many millions of colors it's capable of producing. Today's products have the distinction of only glowing in one color. Cooler Master has released two updates to its MasterKeys keyboard line: the MasterKeys Pro L White and the MasterKeys Pro M White. The company suggests these boards offer a cleaner white backlight than what's possible with RGB LEDs. ...Read more...

MSI just released another of its Arsenal series of motherboards: the X99A Tomahawk. At first the name might seem understated compared to the Mortar and Bazooka lower-end boards, but make no mistake—MSI is referencing the Tomahawk cruise missile. That's fitting, as the Tomahawk fills out the top of MSI's arsenal with some high-end features. ...Read more...

Whether one likes Windows 10 or not, there's little argument that Microsoft is doing its best to keep improving and adding features to the operating system. Tomorrow will mark the release of the "Anniversary Update" for Windows 10, and it'll bring a spate of interesting features with it. Among them, you'll find that the Windows Action Center now allows incoming notifications from Android devices.This kind of feature is hardly new. Apple more or less led the way with its Continuity functionality connecting iOS and macOS, and ...Read more...

Custom-loop liquid cooling can be a tricky task. Builders have to carefully select parts—else their expensive cooling hardware may not fit properly. Gigabyte is well aware of these challenges, and it's partnering up with EK Water Blocks to offer a pair of motherboards bundled up with customized waterblocks. These limited-edition board bundles come in Z170 and X99 flavors, and are called the Z170X-Gaming 7-EK and X99-Ultra Gaming-EK. ...Read more...

Microsoft's free update offer for Windows 10 expired this past Friday. Most of the TR staff took that offer almost as soon as it became available, and we've long recommended buying or upgrading to Windows 10 with a new PC in our System Guides. Despite the fact that most everyone we know has had a frustration-free experience with Microsoft's latest OS, a vocal user base has been holding out in the year since Windows 10 became available.Some folks were concerned about the amount of phoning home Windows 10 performs, even if it's possible to turn most of its telemetry features off (and if we discount the fact that it's almost impossible to browse the web these days without accumulating a number of tracking cookies to begin ...Read more...

A funny thing has happened every time we've set out to test polygon throughput using the Beyond3D test suite on Nvidia's Maxwell—and, more recently, Pascal—GPUs. Those chips have always delivered better performance in that test than their peak theoretical numbers would suggest. At least as far back as the GeForce GTX Titan X, we've suspected that Nvidia was using a technique called tile-based rasterization in its chips to increase their efficiency. Now, friend of TR David Kanter has applied a directed test of his own to Nvidia's Maxwell and Pascal chips to demonstrate that they are, in fact, using a form of tile-based rasterization. We won't spoil David's full article at Real World Tech for you here, but we will repost his video for your enjoyment....Read more...