Month: February 2021

Intel: Rocket Lake-S PCIe 4.0 M.2 11% Faster Than Ryzen

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Ryan Shrout of Intel dropped some additional performance numbers for the upcoming Rocket lake-S platform, this time focusing on PCIe 4.0 performance. Intel has been behind AMD for years now in their support for PCIe 4.0, so it’s nice to see them finally join AMD with the Rocket Lake-S CPUs. Unfortunately, that also means a motherboard upgrade to get there. Intel is claiming an 11% gain over the AMD Ryzen 5950X in the PCMark10 Quick test with an i9-11900K. This should be an interesting battle once all performance numbers roll out in a few weeks.

GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS MASTER: PCB Review – Steve’s Hardware

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The motherboard has a very neutral aesthetic appeal, with a nice black and gunmetal color theme. Most of the motherboard’s shields are actually made of actual metal instead of the typical plastic we see most of the time. There are eight fan headers located on the motherboard, including two pump headers that probably operate at full speed by default, and a CPU_OPT header. There are also two external temperature sensors circled in green, and there are included temperature probes that you can stick in a GPU or near an exhaust or intake vent in the case.

Read more @ Steve’s Hardware

GIGABYTE Z490 AORUS MASTER – TweakTown

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We kick off motherboard specifications starting with the Intel LGA1200 socket. This platform is compatible with an entire range of processors from 10th Gen Core i3 to Core i9. This board’s power design is thoroughly overkill, even for the enthusiast overclocker, offering a doubled seven-phase design for the Vcore with Intersil ISL99390 stages at 90A each. SOC is powered by a single Vishay SIC651 50A stage and Intersil ISL69269 PWM controller behind it all.

Read more @ TweakTown

Hardware Review Roundup (2/23)

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Audio: ROCCAT Elo 7.1 Headset @ TweakTown, ASUS ROG Delta S USB-C Headset @ TweakTown, SteelSeries Arctis 7P Wireless Headset @ KitGuru

Storage: Sabrent Rocket 4 PLUS 2TB @ Guru3D, ORICO Portable M.2 Enclosure @ ThinkComputers, Sabrent Rocket 4 PLUS 2TB @ NikKTech, ADATA XPG Gammix S70 2 TB @ TechPowerUp

Cooling: Deepcool AS500 @ ThinkComputers

Graphics: Inno3D GeForce RTX 3060 Ti iCHILL X3 @ TweakTown

Memory: Patriot Viper Steel RGB 32GB DDR4 @ NikKTech, Patriot Viper Steel RGB DDR4-3200 2x16GB @ APH Networks

Accessories: CORSAIR MM700 RGB Extended Cloth Gaming Mouse Pad @ [M]adShrimps

Peripherals: Patriot Viper V730 Keyboard @ FunkyKit, Dream Machines DM6 Holey Duo @ TechPowerUp, HyperX Pulsefire Raid Gaming Mouse @ FunkyKit

CPU: AMD RYZEN 5 5600X @ PCTestBench

PSU: Cooler Master V850 SFX Gold 850W @ APH Networks

Laptop: Apple MacBook Air M1 @ DVHardware, ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo SE GX551 @ TechSpot

AMD 500 Series Motherboard USB Problems? – Head to Reddit

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AMD is aware of reports that a small number of users are experiencing intermittent USB connectivity issues reported on 500 Series chipsets. We have been analyzing the root cause and at this time, we would like to request the community’s assistance with a small selection of additional hardware configurations. Over the next few days, some r/Amd users may be contacted directly by an AMD representative (u/AMDOfficial) via Reddit’s PM system with a request for more information.

This request may include detailed hardware configurations, steps to reproduce the issue, specific logs, and other system information pertinent to verifying our development efforts. We will provide an update when we have more details to share. Customers facing issues are always encouraged to raise an Online Service Request with AMD customer support; this enables us to find correlations and compare notes across support claims.

Read more @ Reddit

Gigabyte W480 Vision D – TechPowerUp

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The Gigabyte W480 Vision D is a striking motherboard. Gigabyte has done a good job of creating a white theme that stands out visually, but still fits a wide array of components. While the RGB LED implementation lags behind some other boards in terms of complexity and customization, diffusion is excellent, and the placement blends in seamlessly with the board’s theme.

Out of the box, performance was excellent for the Gigabyte W480 Vision D. Memory overclocking was good as well, as I reached 4000 MHz CL16 stable with my Trident Z Neo kit. CPU overclocking is locked down on the W480 chipset, but VRM thermals were great when running Prime95 at stock settings, never exceeding 45 °C.

Read more @ TechPowerUp

MSI MPG Z590 GAMING CARBON WIFI – HW Journal Preview

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The Gaming Carbon has been the top model in the MPG series from MSI for some time. It does not matter which socket or chipset is on the board. The MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Carbon WiFi can also be understood in the same way. For gamers, it should have everything they need and offer slightly upscale features. This time the board has got a twin, so to speak – the MSI MPG Z590 Gaming Force dispenses with the WLAN adapter and is more colorful, but otherwise designed and equipped identically ( see Intel Z590 overview ). The most recent version of the carbon motherboard has reduced its playful character a little, but not completely discarded it.


Read more @ HW Journal (German)

MSI’s Blacked Out MEG Z590 UNIFY/UNIFY-X

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If you’re a fan of the blacked out look of MSI’s UNIFY line, you’ll want to take a look at the latest MSI Insider stream. In addition to announcing pricing on the B560 and H510 motherboard, MSI is preparing to drop these gorgeous Z590 UNIFY / UNIFY-X motherboards. If you’re not a fan of RGB, these could be just what you’re looking for.

AMD Radeon RX 6700XT Drops March 18th?

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Another launch date reported today, courtesy of Cowcotland and via VideoCardz, is for AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 XT. That date? March 18th. This is the first card expected to be based off of the the Navi 22 GPU. Their sources speculate that supplies will be very limited at launch which, with how all hardware launches lately have gone, should be no surprise at all.

Intel Rocket Lake-S Available March 15th?

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According to an article posted on HKEPC, Intel’s Rocket Lake-S processors are reported to be available as soon as March 15th:

According to a report from China’s Mydriver on the 17th, Intel’s 11th generation Rocket Lake-S CPU will be available on March 15. Although the number of cores is less than that of the 10th generation, IPC performance has grown significantly. If you are willing to wait, you can consider going straight. The 12th-generation Alder Lake has 16 cores and an IPC performance improvement of 20%. It is expected to be released in September this year and officially launched in December.

It is understood that the new 12th-generation Alder Lake-S CPU will use an enhanced version of the 10nm ESF process, which reduces power consumption by 15% compared to the existing 10nm SuperFin, and uses the new big.LITTLE hybrid CPU architecture. The big core will use The new Golden Cove CPU core, the small core will use Atom’s Gracemont core, 8 large and 8 small provide up to 16 cores, 24 threads, performance must not be ignored.

Intel has reported ~19% IPC gains for Rocket Lake-S, looking to reclaim several performance crowns from AMD’s Zen 3 line that launched late last year. These chips will also use the 10nm SuperFin manufacturing process. Head on over to read more details.