AMD

NZXT N7 B550 – GameRevolution

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Today is a big day for those who are fans of both NZXT and AMD. Now the clean and builder-friendly style of NZXT motherboards can be experienced by those using AMD processors. In the past, it was an Intel-only club, but now NZXT’s range of motherboards has expanded to include “Team Red,” whose CPUs have been growing in popularity ever since Ryzen launched back in 2017. While it’s great to see NZXT supporting AMD, the company best known for its coolers and cases still has other boxes to check if its N7 B550 motherboard is to win the day. This is the GameRevolution review.

Read more @ GameRevolution

NZXT N7 B550 – Tom’s Hardware

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Performance-wise, the N7 B550 did well overall in our test suite. We observed above-average results in the PCMark10 tests, with the other results mixing in with all other B550 and X570 based systems. According to Hwinfo, the board boosted our 5950X to 5 GHz (albeit briefly, per usual), so this chip’s full potential is realized during default operations. When overclocking, the board efficiently handled our CPU with the VRMs running warm, but well within specification throughout all testing. Read on as we delve more into the details and performance results of the NZXT N7 B550.

Read more @ Tom’s Hardware

NZXT Announces N7 B550 Motherboard

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Designed around AMD’s latest chipset, the N7 B550 delivers everything you need to build an incredible gaming PC. Featuring built-in WiFi and Bluetooth, an integrated fan controller, and enough USB ports to add as much RGB as your heart desires – the N7 B550 is built for builders.

In addition to smart controls and making building easier, the N7 B550 also features the same clean aesthetic you’ll find in every NZXT product. The elegant metal cover blends seamlessly into your case and effortlessly brings out the beauty of your computer. Those of you looking to create a clean build that grabs people’s attention–look no further!

Apart from its clean aesthetics, the N7 B550 brings features that make building a more enjoyable experience. Each port on the motherboard is optimally placed so that it can be easily found when building your computer. The N7 B550 also provides you with all the internal connectivity that you will ever need with its abundance of internal USB 2.0 ports and RGB/fan headers.

See more @ NZXT

NZXT N7 B550 – iXBT

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The functionality of the NZXT N7 B550 is excellent for its niche. The board has as many as 21 (!) USB ports of various types (including 5 (five!) USB 3.2 Gen2), 2 PCIe x16 slots (of which the first receives 16 PCIe lanes from the processor) with the ability to combine video cards into AMD CrossFire, 2 PCIe x1 slots for expansion cards, 2 M.2 slots, 6 SATA ports, 7 connectors for fans and pumps. There is both a high-speed wired 2.5 Gigabit controller and a modern wireless controller with support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2. ARGB / RGB devices can be connected to control the backlight.

Read more @ iXBT (Russian)

GIGABYTE B550 AORUS ELITE – HDR247

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Aorus adopted an AMP-UP audio system that provides many improvements, including noise isolation and static electricity, and good audio performance. The chip used is the upgraded Realtek ALC 1200, which is completely isolated from the rest of the board components to ensure the best audio experience, in addition to the high-quality WIMA FKP2 capacitors and also covered with gold to provide A clearer pitch with higher frequencies and stronger bass, which are capacitors used in high-end Hi-Fi devices. 

Read more @ HDR247 (Arabic)

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT Breaks Cover

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As you might have noticed, today marks the release of AMD’s latest Radeon RX 6700 XT. Here’s some information on this new chip, as well as a plethora of reviews to deep dive if this is the right card for you.

The AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card is built on 7nm process technology and AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture, designed to deliver the optimal combination of performance and power efficiency. Additional features and capabilities include:

AMD Infinity Cache – 96MB of last-level data cache on the GPU die provides up to 2.5X higher bandwidth at the same power level as traditional architectures3 to provide higher gaming performance.

AMD Smart Access Memory – Unlocks higher performance when pairing AMD Radeon RX 6000 Series graphics cards with AMD Ryzen 5000 or select Ryzen 3000 Series Desktop Processors and AMD 500-series motherboards. Providing AMD Ryzen processors with access to high-speed GDDR6 graphics memory can deliver a performance uplift of up to 16 percent4.

12GB High-Speed GDDR6 VRAM – Designed to handle the increasing texture loads and greater visual demands of today’s modern games at higher resolutions and max settings, the new graphics card with 12GB of GDDR6 of memory allows gamers to easily power through today and tomorrow’s demanding AAA titles.

AMD FidelityFX – Integrated into more than 40 games and counting, AMD FidelityFX is an open-source toolkit of visual enhancement effects for game developers available at AMD GPUOpen. Optimized for AMD Radeon graphics, it includes a robust collection of rasterized lighting, shadow and reflection effects that can be integrated into the latest games with minimal performance overhead.

DirectX® Raytracing (DXR) – AMD RDNA 2 architecture-based graphics cards are optimized to deliver real-time lighting, shadow and reflection realism with DXR, providing a stunning gaming experience. When paired with AMD FidelityFX, developers can combine rasterized and ray-traced effects to provide an ideal balance of image quality and gaming performance.

AMD Radeon Anti-Lag5 – Now with support for the DirectX 12 API, AMD Radeon Anti-Lag decreases input-to-display response times, making games more responsive and offering a competitive edge in gameplay.

AMD Radeon Boost6 – Now with support for Variable Rate Shading, AMD Radeon Boost delivers up to a 27 percent performance increase7 during fast-motion gaming scenarios by dynamically reducing image resolution or by varying shading rates for different regions of a frame, increasing framerates and fluidity, and bolstering responsiveness with virtually no perceptual impact on image quality.

Powercolor Radeon RX 6700 XT Hellhound @ Guru3D
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ Hot Hardware
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ Guru3D
MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X @ Guru3D
XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT MERC 319 @ Guru3D
ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT STRIX OC @ Guru3D
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ TweakTown
MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X @ ThinkComputers
PowerColor RX 6700 XT Red Devil @ TechPowerUp
XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Merc 319 Black @ TechPowerUp
Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT Nitro+ @ TechPowerUp
MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X @ TechPowerUp
ASUS Radeon RX 6700 XT STRIX OC @ TechPowerUp
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ TechPowerUp
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ Tom’s Hardware
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ PC Perspective
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ Ars Technica
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ TechSpot
AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT @ KitGuru

And for even more, check out the massive VideoCardz list…

AGESA 1.2.0.2 BIOS Updates for USB Issues Coming Soon

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Per a prost from AMD via Reddit, we can expect an AGESA update shortly to address the known USB connectivity issues. AGESA 1.2.0.2 will be used to deploy this update to the masses:

We would like to thank the community here on r/AMD for its assistance with logs and reports as we investigated the intermittent USB connectivity you highlighted. With your help, we believe we have isolated the root cause and developed a solution that addresses a range of reported symptoms, including (but not limited to): USB port dropout, USB 2.0 audio crackling (e.g. DAC/AMP combos), and USB/PCIe Gen 4 exclusion.

AMD has prepared AGESA 1.2.0.2 to deploy this update, and we plan to distribute 1.2.0.2 to our motherboard partners for integration in about a week. Customers can expect downloadable BIOSes containing AGESA 1.2.0.2 to begin with beta updates in early April. The exact update schedule for your system will depend on the test and implementation schedule for your vendor and specific motherboard model. If you continue to experience intermittent USB connectivity issues after updating your system to AGESA 1.2.0.2, we encourage you to download the standalone AMD Bug Report Tool and open a ticket with AMD Customer Support.

ASUS PRIME B550M-A (WI-FI) – Comptoir Hardware

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The B550 chipset makes it possible to bring more reasonable prices to users wishing to take advantage of PCIe 4.0 on their configuration. This has also enabled manufacturers to improve the quality of cards of a lower range than flagships, by improving the power supplies and on-board functions. So we took a look at the ASUS Prime B550M-A , in Wi-Fi version, to see what it is worth to make more affordable machines.

Read more @ Comptoir Hardware (French)

AMD Brings Power of “Zen 3” to Mobile

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SANTA CLARA, Calif. 03/16/2021

Today, AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) announced the AMD Ryzen™ PRO 5000 Series Mobile Processors, bringing the uncompromising performance and efficiency of the “Zen 3” core architecture to premium business laptops. Paired with AMD PRO technologies that offer strengthened multi-layer enterprise-class security features and powerhouse productivity, the new AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 Series Mobile Processors are built to meet the demands of the modern workforce. With broad availability from HP and Lenovo expected starting in Q2, the number of AMD-powered enterprise notebooks is expected to triple by the end of 2021.

“Navigating an increasingly distributed work environment requires more performance and security from our professional laptops. Businesses need to be confident they are investing in technology that will meet the needs of their employees, whether they are working remotely or from the office,” said Saeid Moshkelani, senior vice president and general manager, Client Business Unit, AMD. “The new AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 Series Mobile Processors significantly increase the capabilities of ultrathin enterprise notebooks and deliver best-in-class user experiences with leadership performance, exceptional battery life and robust security features for every work environment.”

AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 Series Mobile Processors

AMD Ryzen PRO 5000 Series Mobile Processors are built to provide a powerful computing experience with security features for today’s demanding business environments.

  • Leading performance for top-level productivity and collaboration
    • The AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U processor, with 8 cores and 16 threads, delivers leadership CPU performance, offering up to 57%2 more multi-threaded performance than the competition.
    • AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U processor is designed for the increased demand in productivity, offering up to 23%3 faster performance for home and office productivity than the competition.
  • Enhanced power efficiency
    • Built for all-day battery life and productivity, along with the optimized 7nm “Zen 3” core architecture, the AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 5850U processor offers up to 17.54 hours of battery life.
  • Modern AMD PRO Technologies
    • AMD PRO security provides a multi-layered approach to security features by embedding defenses at every level, from silicon through operating system. AMD Memory Guard, exclusive to AMD Ryzen PRO processors and automatically enabled on Microsoft Secured-Core PCs, helps enable data and identity protection, while AMD Shadow Stack helps provide hardware enabled protection against malware attacks.
    • AMD PRO manageability enables a full manageability feature set for simplified deployment, imaging and management that is compatible with modern IT infrastructures. AMD Ryzen PRO processors offer full support for Microsoft Endpoint Manager to deliver a flexible and integrated cloud management solution.
    • AMD PRO business ready technologies bring enterprise-grade computing solutions designed for quality and reliability, in addition to platform longevity. AMD Ryzen PRO processors feature 18-months of planned software stability and 24-months of planned availability. ​

Read more @ AMD Newsroom

AMD Ryzen 5 5300G Tested

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While still yet to be officially announced, a claimed Ryzen 5 5300G has been put through some testing. User Hugo has a video detailing performance as well as specifications of a purported engineering sample. Numerous benchmarks against the 4350G, as well as other competing products are provided. Head on over and take a look.