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A recent MSI YouTube video meant to be kept private was accidentally leaked, revealing confidential specifications of Intel’s upcoming Raptor Lake Refresh CPU lineup that will vie for a spot in our list of Best CPUs coming soon. The internal video, which reads “NDA, do not share!” has since been taken down, but was up long enough for us to take a screenshot of the video’s key takeaways. The video confirmed what we already know about Raptor Lake Refresh, including its minute performance jump over 13th Gen Raptor Lake, and a minor change in core count on the Core i7 model.

MSI’s leaked video confirms what we’ve known already about Raptor Lake Refresh, the new CPU lineup will be codenamed Raptor Lake-S Refresh and will feature no architectural changes compared to Raptor Lake or Alder Lake — relying on the same Intel 7 process. MSI’s Average performance estimation confirms that Raptor Lake Refresh chips will only have a 3% faster performance advantage over 13th Gen. There’s also lack of any core count upgrades on most chips.

The only exception to this is the i7-14700K which gets a slight core count improvement over its predecessor the i7-13700K. Core count changes go from 8P cores and 8E cores to 8P cores and 12E cores on the 14700K, giving the newer chip four additional E cores over the 14700K. According to MSI, the additional cores give the 14700K 17% more multi-core performance on average.

Raptor Lake Refresh will be the next CPU generation to succeed Intel’s current lineup of 13th Gen Raptor Lake processors. It seems Intel’s plan was to initially launch Meteor Lake as the successor to Raptor Lake (Raptor Lake Refresh is not listed in Intel’s original Meteor Lake slides) and has instead opted to release a refresh of Raptor Lake (which is in and of itself a refresh of Alder Lake) to take its place.

The good news is that Intel’s 14th Gen Raptor Lake Refresh parts will be compatible with current LGA 1700 socket motherboards, and won’t require new motherboards to support the new lineup. In fact, it seems very likely that Intel will not release a new motherboard chipset generation this time around, which will make the current generation 700 series chipset motherboards the primary and only platform for Raptor Lake Refresh if true.

With a rumored release date of October for these new chips, we won’t have to wait long before Raptor Lake Refresh arrives in reviewers’ hands.

Keyboards and key switch maker Cherry today announced its MX2A mechanical switches. The new switches indeed look like a significant rework of the full-sized MX switch, with improvements to many key facets including: smoothness, lubrication, debounce time, and guaranteed lifespan “exceeding 100 million clicks for select switch types”. Cherry also launched the XTRFY K5V2 keyboard, which serves as a platform to showcase the new MX2A (red) switches.

Cherry produces some of the most popular mechanical key switches for PC keyboards. However, in the last few years there have been some notable challengers and upstarts delivering compatible switches with certain refinements and advantages compared to the Cherry originals; the introduction of the MX2A design looks like a concerted effort for Cherry to re-establish a lead.

Today, Cherry is attempting to reclaim its hegemony of the PC keyboard switches market. Changes include:

• Application of high-precision ring lubrication for smoothness, stability and removal of any scratchiness
• A new barrel spring design to ensure the spring maintains its original form better
• Cherry’s updated stem geometry is claimed to improve key press consistency, stability an precision
• Optimized sliding surfaces within the switch. In particular advanced stem guidance is claimed to ensure steady, non-scratchy actuation.

Important features that are retained from previous designs are the switch to PCB connections (3- and 5-pin variants will be available), the “industry leading” gold crosspoint contacts, and the standard cross keycap fit.

Taken together the above improvements plus retention of best in class tech means users can expect benefits to actuation, debounce, operation, noise, and reliability / endurance. The new “lifespan exceeding 100 million clicks,” leapfrogs many rival designs which had outgunned the original Cherry MX switches durability claims (50m).

Cherry hasn’t gone a million miles away from its long-lasting key switch design with the MX2A design. It hasn’t created a new optical or hall effect, for example. But many small and thoughtful changes to its long enduring design might pay dividends for keyboard enthusiasts. We’ll have to go hands-on with the switches to be sure.

Cherry XTRFY K5V2, a 65% Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Cherry has also launched the Cherry XTRFY K5V2 keyboard with these MX2A (red) switches as a pre-install option. The product page is live, and you can see it is a pretty standard looking 65% design with RGB LED illumination. Potential users will be happy to read that the installed MX2A reds are hot swappable, and the more graceful new switches should feel at home in this double layer foam sound dampening keyboard.

On the product page, Cherry’s XTRFY K5V2 keyboard is configurable with MX2A switches and is listed as “coming soon” at $149. Clicking into the customize options, it looks like you can also choose MX2A switches with Blue (clicky) Brown (tactile) and Black (linear) characteristics, too. Stock will be ready by “late 2023,” according to the product page.

Maker and developer Pixelpanic is a fan of UK departure boards and recently decided to make one of their own at home. Using our favorite SBC, the Raspberry Pi, Pixelpanic has brought the knowledge of arrivals and departures at your fingertips—literally. This departure board small enough to fit in your hand as this project uses a Pimoroni Badger 2040 W as the main board. It’s aided by a Pico W that handles some of the extra data processing used to update the departure board.

The idea behind the project wasn’t to replicate the UK departure boards to a tee but rather display the same information in a format suitable for the Badger 2040 W. This particular display board was chosen because of its E ink panel. This makes it both an affordable and energy efficient option compared to something like an LCD or OLED screen.

According to Pixelpanic, most of the UK departure boards have a similar format in which the data is laid out in a fairly consistent manner. This is because they all use the same API that Pixelpanic is actually tapping into for this replica. The data is presented in this project with a format similar to their local station.

It doesn’t take much hardware to recreate this project, but it does take a bit of ingenuity to put it together efficiently like Pixelpanic has done. While the project relies on a Pimoroni Badger 2040 W,i t’s aided in part by a Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller which helps with processing data from the API.

The API used to gather departure data in this project is the National Rail Enquiry DARWIN API. The Pico is responsible for gathering data from this system and processing it for the Badger 2040 W. With the data consolidated, it’s processed for formatting onto the eInk display. Pixelpanic was kind enough to provide a complete breakdown of how this system goes together over at their official blog.

If you want to get a closer look at this Raspberry Pi project, check out the project page shared to Pixelpanic’s website. There are plans in the works to possibly redo this project with a larger E Ink display with colors, so be sure to follow them for future updates.

Nvidia this week posted its all-time-record revenue of $13.5 billion as sales of its gaming hardware exceeded expectations, while sales of its compute GPUs for data centers exceeded $10.3 billion — more than double the previous quarter — and demonstrated the roaring success of the company’s A100 and H100 processors for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications (HPC).

“A new computing era has begun,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia. “Companies worldwide are transitioning from general-purpose to accelerated computing and generative AI.”

Nvidia’s revenue in the second quarter of fiscal 2024 reached $13.51 billion, marking a 101% rise from the previous year and an 88% jump from the previous quarter. Gaming revenue grew by 22% year-over-year, driven by demand for the GeForce RTX 40-series GPUs after inventory stabilization and the launch of multiple new offerings, including GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4070 class cards.

But sales of datacenter GPUs in Q2 FY2024 was Nvidia’s major triumph. It hit $10.323 billion, growing 171% year-over-year, and exceeded the datacenter revenue of AMD and Intel combined. Nvidia’s datacenter revenue saw significant growth driven by demand from cloud service providers. Nvidia’s HGX platforms based on the Ampere and Hopper GPU architectures were particularly sought after, especially for the development of large language models and generative AI. Additionally, the expansion of InfiniBand infrastructure, which supports the HGX platform, and the strong performance of the Hopper-based compute GPUs for HPC, further boosted the revenue.

“During the quarter, major cloud service providers announced massive Nvidia H100 AI infrastructures,” said Huang. “Leading enterprise IT system and software providers announced partnerships to bring Nvidia AI to every industry. The race is on to adopt generative AI.”

Other Nvidia businesses also performed very well. Professional visualization (ProViz) revenue declined 24% year-over-year but rose 28% quarter-over-quarter, influenced by enterprise workstation demand and new Nvidia RTX products. Automotive revenue increased 15% annually, boosted by autonomous platform sales, but dropped 15% quarterly due to reduced auto demand, notably in China.

Over the past few months we have heard rumors that Nvidia’s compute GPUs are sold out for quarters to come. Given the ongoing generative AI craze and demand for appropriate hardware, we’re not surprised, but since the sources of the information were unofficial, we took the data with a grain of salt.

But Nvidia seems to be extremely optimistic about its future. The company expects its revenue in Q3 FY2024 to be $16 billion ± 2% and gross margins to be between 71.5% to 72.5%.

The latest Windows 11 update is causing blue screens of death with a stop code of “unsupported processor” on some MSI motherboard-based PC systems. Microsoft has acknowledged the issue, noted the Verge, and stopped pushing KB5029351 updates to systems which would be adversely affected. MSI has yet to respond.

We have a pretty good idea about why some MSI motherboards are affected by this Microsoft OS update thanks to the experience of Tom Warren of The Verge and various redditors who have posted about their issues.

The “unsupported processor” BSOD only seems to appear on systems with MSI boards that have applied the latest BIOS updates. These BIOS files have been released for MSI Z690 and Z790 motherboards, in preparation for the arrival of Intel’s upcoming 14th Gen Core ‘Raptor Lake-S Refresh’ processors. They explicitly support “next-gen CPUs,” and appear to have caught Microsoft newest OS off guard.

Microsoft’s Windows 11 notoriously excludes what should be capable processors (like first gen Ryzen CPUs) from its compatibility list. Users of such systems have to fiddle with bypass techniques to get Microsoft’s latest OS to play nicely on their otherwise competent machines. It could well be the case that MSI’s BIOS tweak extending CPU support has triggered something in Microsoft’s CPU exclusion code.

“We are presently investigating to determine if this is an issue caused by Microsoft,” reads an update on the Windows Help Center. “We will provide an update when more information is available.”

So, what should MSI Z690 and Z790 motherboard users do now? If you haven’t already installed the Windows KB5029351 update, then put it off. If it is already installed and you get this BSOD, reports suggest that it is possible to recover Windows and rollback the patch. Coming at the problem from a different angle, you could avoid or roll-back the MSI BIOS update.

PC users with other motherboard brands might be wise to wait and see how MSI users get over this issue before seeking out similar 14th Gen Core CPU BIOS updates.

Several months back, Sony teased a dedicated remote-play device for the PlayStation 5. Now it’s got a name and a price. The PlayStation Portal will cost $200 when it lands later this year,.

Aesthetics-wise, it looks like a tablet wedged between two halves of a DualSense controller. The eight-inch LCD screen can stream games at up to 1080p visuals at 60 fps. The device also includes DualSense features, such as haptic feedback. It can stream games from your PS5 console, so when someone else is using the TV or you’re in another room (or even traveling), you can still play remotely via WiFi.

Sony

But it’s shaping up to be a surprisingly limited device if you’re outside of WiFi networks. PlayStation Portal doesn’t run any apps locally, with everything pulled from your PS5. Handhelds like the Razer Edge can are able to run Android apps locally, while some third-party devices, think the ASUS ROG Ally or a Steam Deck, can remote-play your PS5, too.

The biggest omission could be cloud game streaming, something available to PS Plus Premium subscribers with a PS5. Sony says cloud game streaming isn’t supported on the handheld.

– Mat Smith

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You can even extend the six-foot wide surface.

Corsair

When IKEA just isn’t delivering, and you need your work desk to dominate your home, there’s Corsair’s Platform:6 Modular Computer Desk. It’s six feet wide, with an additional one foot by two and a third foot extension. The flagship Platform: 6 Creator Edition desk also has a top-mounted pegboard for mounting cameras, controllers and other accessories. Every Platform:6 has a modular rail system, and you can include dual electric motors to adjust the height using an LCD controller. No price has been announced yet.

Continue reading.

One of the new chips is the follow-up to Snapdragon G3x, which powers the Razer Edge.

Qualcomm has announced its follow-up to the Snapdragon G3x chip, which powers the Razer Edge handheld console. The company says the G3x Gen 2’s CPU performance is 30 percent faster than its predecessor’s, and its GPU performance is twice as fast. It’s capable of powering a handheld device with cross-platform gaming capabilities, as well as devices used for Android, PC, cloud and remote console gaming.

Continue reading.

Chandrayaan-3 is also India’s first successful Moon lander.

India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft’s Vikram lander has successfully touched down on the Moon, marking the country’s first successful landing on the lunar surface. It’s just the fourth country to do so after the Soviet Union, US and China. More importantly, it’s the first country to land near the Moon’s south pole — a difficult target given the rough terrain, but important for attempts to find water ice. Other nations have only landed near the equator.

Continue reading.

PlayStation has confirmed an official launch price for the new PlayStation Portal remote player handheld, which was announced as being in development back in April. Users can expect a launch price of $199.99 (USD) for the new PlayStation Portal remote player when it’s released later this year.

The PlayStation Portal is a portable device featuring an 8-inch LCD screen with 1080p resolution and a refresh rate of 60 fps. It has haptic feedback and adaptive triggers, similar to the DualSense wireless controller, and is intended to work in tandem with the PS5 console over Wi-Fi.

The idea behind this handheld is to serve as an extension of the console. Any compatible games on the PS5 can be played on the PlayStation Portal remote player. Games that use the DualSense controller should be compatible but games that require additional hardware might not work. Users can also connect external audio peripherals using its 3.5mm audio jack.

Anything related to PS VR2 will not be compatible, as users must use the headset and VR controllers to interface. It’s also worth noting that games must be installed locally on the PS5. Anything hosted through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming cannot be played on the PlayStation Portal remote player.

Because the PlayStation Portal remote player works in tandem with the PS5, it’s not in direct competition with other handhelds such as the Steam Deck or Asus ROG Ally. This also lends to its lower price threshold of $199. Though it’s possible this price might change in the future, it’s nice to have an official say so from Sony on the matter to set expectations.

You can read more about the PlayStation Portal remote player as well as new products, including the Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds, in the official announcement shared to the PlayStation blog.

One of the best CPUs for gaming has dropped to just $384, thanks to a drop in price on the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU at B&H Photo. With 96MB of L3 cache, this CPU is great for gaming and also performs exceptionally well in productivity tasks.

One of the cheapest ways to upgrade to a bigger SSD in an older machine is to pick up the Team Group MP33 1TB SSD for just $35. It’s certainly not the fastest drive but with read/write speeds of 1800/1500MBps, but it’s more than adequate for most games and applications. 

Grab $50 off this impressive gaming keyboard, and take a look at the SteelSeries Apex Pro TKL wireless keeb for the reduced price of $199. It’s a pretty chunky price reduction for this keyboard and for the money you’re getting a compact TKL gaming keyboard that features SteelSeries’s OmniPoint 2.0 optical switches with per-key adjustable actuation and dual-action actuation, plus an OLED smart display configurable through the SteelSeries software.

See below for more of today’s deals.

TL;DR — Today’s Best Deals

Today’s best deals in detail

Looking for more deals?

Valve’s Steam Deck-focused SteamOS 3 operating system might be one of the best Linux operating systems designed for gaming; however, Valve has yet to release an official desktop version of the OS that is suitable for PC gamers. To remedy the issue, the Linux community has created a custom clone of SteamOS 3 called Bazzite that supports gaming PC hardware right out of the box — making Valve’s SteamOS desktop experience accessible to Linux gamers.

Bazzite isn’t an exact clone of SteamOS 3, but its functionality is virtually identical to Valve’s operating system. On the surface, Bazzite features an identical desktop experience to SteamOS 3. Thanks to the integration of KDE Plasma — a customizable Linux desktop environment, and Valve’s KDE themes from SteamOS, Bazzite shares the same desktop wallpapers, icons, and taskbar as Valve’s operating system. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think you were running the real SteamOS.

But under the hood, Bazzite’s actual operating system is not the same, as it uses an entirely different Linux distro from Valve’s operating system. Instead of using a branch of Arch Linux, which is the distro SteamOS 3 is based on, Bazzite is built using a custom version of Fedora 38, which incorporates more hardware and device support than SteamOS 3. Some of the hardware support includes baked-in proprietary Nvidia driver support for GeForce GPUs, to enable GeForce-powered systems to run Bazzite. (Sadly AMD support is unclear — but the OS does support AMD ROCm.)

One of the perks of Linux-based operating systems is that you have the freedom to build an operating system whichever way you choose, with features you want to have.

Beyond this, Bazzite has a several other features that make it stand out from SteamOS 3, including a CPU scheduler from system builder System76 to optimize CPU performance, an Android emulator called Waydroid, support for DisplayLink, and more. Bazzite is also capable of running Steam/Proton and Lutris through a virtualized compatibility layer of Arch Linux, which should improve compatibility with Steam Deck-approved titles. Even though Steam and Valve’s Proton compatibility layer is already functional on Fedora 38, having a backup system that can run games through Arch Linux is good to have.

There is even a Bazzite version optimized for the Valve Steam Deck for that special niche of users who need more functionality than what Valve’s SteamOS 3 already provides on the Deck. Most of the additions are highly technical, but one of the most unique additions is support for 32GB of memory for people who want to mod their Steam Deck with 32GB of system RAM. The Steam Deck version is definitely not for everyone, since the Steam Deck already comes with SteamOS 3, but it could be a good alternative for hardcore Linux power users.

The only issue right now with Bazzite is that the installation procedure is a bit complicated for normal users, to the point where the developers consider the OS installation process as incomplete. However, the installation shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you’re already familiar with Linux operating systems.

Bazzite is arguably one of the best efforts to get SteamOS 3’s desktop experience running on anything other than the Steam Deck. There have been other attempts to get an actual copy of SteamOS 3 to work on non-Steam Deck hardware like HoloISO, but hardware support is unreliable and, in the case of HoloISO, it only really works with specific AMD GPUs.

A Chinese TechTuber has revealed how Asus has managed to cool the powerful new AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D for laptops, as well as the GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU. Bilibili user Ordinary Uncle Tony disassembled his Asus ROG Strix Scar to quite a daring degree to reveal the AMD APU as shown above and below (h/t HXL).

What you see is AMD’s powerful X3D enhanced mobile APU — without an IHS, of course — with its multiple dies visible. Solder mask, or a similar non-conductive barrier like a lacquer or epoxy resin, has been meticulously applied to the protect the processor circuitry surrounding the dies from the damage which might occur from stray drips and drops of (electrically conductive) liquid metal.

PC enthusiasts will be aware that liquid metal is coveted for its great thermal properties when used as a TIM (Thermal Interface Material), but it has some particular drawbacks.

On desktop processors with liquid metal TIM, the application placement and maintenance of the metallic goo is still tricky, but it can be constrained more simply with a uniformly shaped barrier, stopping it from flowing to areas it should not be.

Asus has been applying liquid metal to high-end laptop processors for several generations now. Before its first commercial laptop use in 2019, Asus says it took two years to experiment with production line application of the conductive but messy liquid. Asus “added a tiny barrier sponge just 0.1mm tall around the CPU socket, safeguarding against any accidental seepage.” This spongy method seems to have become redundant with the X3D mobile processor.

If it applied liquid metal to the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, it would have been first time Asus has had to cope with the complications of a multi-tile processor. With the exposed dies and electronic components on a mobile chip like the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D, some more complicated TIM wrangling would be called for.

We see that the red solder mask (or similar lacquer coating) is one effective method of mitigating the presence of potentially hazardous room-temperature liquid metallic material. Solder mask is a simple, non-conductive durable barrier that has been used in electronics applications for decades. We wonder if it too is being applied by robots on the production line. Anyway, this application seems to have only been done to protect the X3D APU from liquid metal contamination from the GPU. It looks like the AMD APU contacts with the large vapor chamber cooler via a thermal pad.

In our review of the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 X3D, we noted the massive cooler and vapor chamber for the CPU and GPU. The hottest area of the system was recorded 56.6 degrees Celsius (133.88 F) on its underside. However, the thermal imagery indicated that the cooling was effective in taking the heat away from the processors and expelling most of it out the back. No evidence of thermal throttling was observed in the demanding benchmark runs.

Asus has just announced a new curved ultrawide ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM that offers a unique combination of a high refresh rate, ultra-low response time, and very high luminance. The combination should make this a hot product to watch among the best ultrawide gaming monitors and best curved gaming monitors.

The ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM is a 34-inch curved ultrawide monitor offering a 3440×1440 resolution and an 800R curvature. It also offers a variable refresh rate of up to 240 Hz with Nvidia’s G-Sync technology and a 0.03 ms response time — which is extremely low, even for OLED panels. Furthermore, the monitor boasts a peak brightness of 1300 nits (albeit on only 3% of the screen), which is higher than most LCDs on the market and unique for a gaming OLED monitor.

An interesting peculiarity of the display is that it comes equipped with a special custom heatsink to keep the operating temperatures of the panel lower and reduce the risk of burn-in.

For those seeking versatile connectivity, the ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM is equipped with a wide array of ports, including DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and a USB Type-C port, which not only serves as an additional display input but also delivers up to 90W to the host supporting USB Power Delivery. This diverse range of ports makes it possible to connect the monitor to desktop PCs, laptops, gaming consoles, smartphones, and other compatible devices.

To make it easier to use multiple devices connected to a single display, it fully supports picture-in-picture (PIP) or picture-by-picture (PBP) modes. To make things more comfortable, the ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM comes with Smart KVM that now only allows users to control multiple devices using a single set of peripherals but also allows swift file transfers between the two connected devices using USB 3.2 connectivity — eliminating the need for extra hardware or specialized software. 

For now, Asus has not disclosed the price or availability of the ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM. But given the unique capabilities of the display, we expect it to be priced accordingly.

The Raspberry Pi goes with cyberdeck builds like peas and carrots. Today we’ve got another neat cyberdeck creation cooked up by a maker who goes by NoSegfaultPlz over at Reddit. NoSegfaultPlz has combined two Pi projects into one: by using a Pico to power a custom keyboard and building a Pi Zero into the unit to work as a main computer — turning it into a cyberdeck keyboard combo.

NoSegfaultPlz dubs the project ‘CyberKeeb 2040,’ and it looks great as well as being practical. This isn’t much of a surprise considering NoSegfaultPlz already has a history of similar designs. Previously, they put together a Pico Keyboard which made constructing this project a little easier (or, at least, familiar).  This cyberdeck keyboard is versatile in that it can operate as a regular keyboard or cyberdeck, depending on what you need at the time.

According to NoSegfaultPlz, the Pico is running custom firmware that handles all of the keyboard functionality. It’s able to transmit data to the Pi Zero using SPI. At the moment, the Pi Zero is only able to receive input from the Pico. However, there are plans in the works to enable the Pi Zero to send data to the Pico keyboard which would make it possible to use auto-typing.

A full breakdown of the hardware used in this project has been provided, as well. It includes the aforementioned Raspberry Pi Pico microcontroller and Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. But there’s a lot more that goes into building a keyboard from scratch from switches to rotary encoders and more. You can find the full parts list over at the official CyberKeeb2040 project page at GitHub.

Thankfully, NoSegfaultPlz made the whole project open source — which is awesome, because a lot of hard work went into developing this setup and it’s always exciting to dig into what makes something like this work. The Pico firmware is called PicoMK and is available at GitHub on its own project page. 

If you want to see this Raspberry Pi project in action, check out the demo video shared to YouTube. You can also explore the thread shared to Reddit for some extra details as well as the CyberKeeb2040 GitHub page.

US retailer Best Buy appears to have spilled some Radeon RX 7700 XT details ahead of AMD’s expected official launch. Twitter tech detective momomo_us unearthed a listing on the retailer’s website that apparently shares images and specs for a Gigabyte GV-R77XTGAMING OC-12GD. Except, it has more than a few issues.

All indications are that AMD will reveal Navi 32 GPUs with the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT in the next few days at Gamescom. Until the official reveal, we need to exercise caution with retail listings like this one at Best Buy. It looks as though someone cloned an existing Gigabyte RTX 4070 listing, updated some of the items, but missed a few pieces.

Some of the specs appear to be in line with expectations, but there are notable gaffes, like mentioning the product’s GPU is an “Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070,” and one of the images clearly showing Gigabyte Radeon RX 7900 XT packaging. The price is also most certainly a holdover from a different GPU, probably an RTX 4070 Ti given that it’s $879 — more than an RTX 4070, and also more than the typical RX 7900 XT. Oops.

But the name at least looks correct: GIGABYTE – Radeon RX 7700XT GAMING OC 12GB GDDR6 PCI Express 4.0 Graphics Card. And we can laugh at the perhaps 7900 XT pricing: It was $999.99 and has now been slashed to $879.99. Interestingly, you can add this product to the shopping cart today, with delivery by Aug 25 touted, and it qualifies for the Starfield game bundle.

While most of the listing details are quite suspect due to the mishmash of references to other SKUs we mentioned above, we are at least on some more solid ground with the Gigabyte codename. The GV-R77XTGAMING OC-12GD name indicates this is a Radeon RX 7700 XT Gaming model with 12GB of VRAM and a factory overclock. That’s the expected configuration and has been for some time.

AMD should debut both the RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT graphics cards shortly. We expect the 7800 XT to have a 256-bit interface and 16GB, while the 7700 XT looks to have a 192-bit interface and 12GB VRAM. The GDDR6 memory could run at anywhere from 18 to 20 Gbps, based on other RDNA 3 GPUs, though we don’t know exactly where it will land on the cards yet. We also don’t have clock speeds, but the RDNA 3 GPUs here will probably run in the 2.5 GHz (boost clock) range.

Little or nothing has been seen with regard to Radeon RX 7800 and/or 7700 non-XT graphics cards. There would probably be room for them in the market, but we might again see AMD ignore this type of gap filling or make these models OEM exclusive. There is also a chance of more Golden Rabbit Editions (GRE) models from this generation, or using the previous gen to fill the gaps and go toe-to-toe with Nvidia rivals at the widest range of price points.

AMD has a special event on Friday at Gamescom 2023. It was previously confirmed we would get more Radeon RX 7000 cards revealed at the event, but no specific models have been officially mentioned. It’s a reasonably safe bet that it will be RX 7800 XT and RX 7700 XT, but check back in a couple of days for the full details.

Ever since the U.S. government blacklisted Huawei, the Chinese tech giant has experienced difficulties procuring almost all kinds of chips, because they all use American technologies in one way or another. And so to avoid curbs imposed by the U.S., Huawei has been building a secret fab network in China that can meet its demand for commodity logic, memory, microcontrollers, and even power semiconductors, according to a presentation by SIA (reported by Bloomberg).

Right now, Huawei’s network includes five fabs: Shenzhen Pensun Technology’s (PST) 28nm/40nm-capable logic fab; former Fujian Jihnua’s (aka Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., JHICC) memory fab that can make commodity DRAMs; SwaySure’s fab, which is set to produce memory chips for automotive applications, consumer electronics, and wearables; Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co.’s (PXW) fab that specializes on image sensors and RF chips; and Qingdao Si’En’s fab that produces microcontrollers (on 28nm – 180nm process technologies) and power electronics, such as MOSFETS, BCDs, and IGBTs.

This network is not a perfect substitute for TSMC and its leading edge process technologies — Huawei will not be able to produce advanced ASICs, processors, or SoCs for PCs, smartphones, and servers at these fabs — but it will make it easier for Huawei to procure commodity chips for a variety of applications without any restrictions from the U.S.

The SIA suggests that Huawei might be avoiding scrutiny and sanctions by creating and buying facilities under the names of other companies without disclosing its direct involvement.

To build its network, Huawei acquired fabrication facilities from JHICC and Qingdao Si’En and is assisting in the construction of fabs that belong to Pengxinwei IC Manufacturing Co. (PXW) and Shenzhen Pensun Technology Co. (PST), according to Bloomberg. Meanwhile, SwaySure is a state-backed company that will supply to Huawei. 

It is noteworthy that entities like JHICC and PXW are already blacklisted by the U.S. government — they cannot sell their products to multinational corporations and have problems with procuring advanced wafer equipment. Meanwhile, Huawei is assisting construction of least three additional fabs in China.

China’s ambition to become self-reliant in the semiconductor domain is evident in its hefty investments. Plans are underway for approximately 23 chip-making facilities, aiming for an investment surpassing $100 billion by the end of the decade, according to Bloomberg. By around 2030, China hopes to dominate over half of the world’s production capacity for older-generation chips, which remain crucial for industries such as electric vehicles.

However, the real concern for the international community, especially the U.S., is the potential trajectory of Chinese firms such as Huawei, which is a huge conglomerate with plenty of resources. Such companies could eventually leapfrog into leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing, which will give China access to advanced AI and HPC processors and will render international sanctions obsolete. This developmental pathway mirrors the success stories of giants like TSMC and Samsung, which once lagged but now spearhead the industry. However, it will likely take decades for Chinese companies to get into leading-edge chip production nodes using domestic wafer fab equipment.

Qualcomm is updating its lineup of processors designed for dedicated gaming handhelds, diversifying into a line of three chips for a wider variety of devices. The flagship, the Snapdragon G3x, is getting a bump to a second generation, while the company is also introducing G1 and G2 chips for cheaper devices focused primarily on streaming games from the cloud and other devices. All of them are aimed toward handhelds running Android.

The announcement (timed with the Gamescom trade show in Cologne, Germany) is limited to chip specs. Qualcomm told me that its partners will announce devices using the chips (and their prices) in due course. In a release, Qualcomm specifically said it’s working with Aya Neo, Chinese device manufacturer Huaqin, Taiwan-based Inventec, and Thundercomm (which is typically known as an IoT provider and is partially owned by Qualcomm). Aya Neo has been teasing a new Android-powered device, called “S”, so perhaps that’s one of the devices we’ll see using these new chips.

The new flagship is the Qualcomm Snapdragon G3x Gen 2. It will utilize Qualcom’s 8-core Kryo CPU with an Adreno A32 GPU. (Each of the chips use similar CPU cores). But it gets top-notch connectivity options, including Wi-Fi 7, both mmWave and 300 MHz sub-6 5G, and Bluetooth 5.3. It’s also the only chip in the stack that supports ray tracing and camera support.

Qualcomm claims that the G3x Gen 2 has a GPU that’s over two times as fast as the last generation, with a CPU that’s “over 30%” faster. The numbers here are somewhat obscured, but Qualcomm’s charts show higher performance per-watt, CPU and GPU performance compared to last gen on Genshin Impact, Geekbench and select graphics benchmarks. To measure sustained performance, however, it tested against the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, which is a flagship found in mobile phones, not gaming devices.

The new introductions are the G1 and G2, which are more basic. The G1 is for entry level devices (perhaps around $200, a Qualcomm rep speculated to me), designed to stream while you’re in the home. It uses an 8-core Kryo CPU, Adreno A11, and older Wi-Fi 5, while supporting up to 1080p and 60 fps. It’s meant for systems with long battery life, perhaps streaming from your own PC over Steam Link, a console over PlayStation Remote Play, or from a cloud service like Xbox Game Pass or GeForce Now. That would make systems with the G1 meant to be primarily a screen for other devices around the home.

The Snapdragon G2, which is designed for a mix of streaming and local Android gaming, bumps up to an Adreno A21 GPU, faster Wi-Fi 6 and 5G options, and a display that goes up to 144 Hz and above FHD. Here, Qualcomm suggested you might want to add in content from the Google Play Store (if vendors support it) or other stores like the Amazon App Store.

All three of the chips are designed for Android-based systems. When asked about the possibility of Linux or Windows-based handhelds in the future, I was told that it was possible, but it’s not likely to happen this generation. Local play using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon G2 and G3x Gen 2 is largely meant for Android games, including cross-platform titles like Fortnite, PUBG, and Minecraft.

In theory, these systems are meant for personal screens. The G1, on Wi-Fi, might power systems you use in the home (say, if your TV is taken up by family members), while the G2 and G3x are designed to power devices you use both in your home and on the go, with more wireless options and more power, including the possibility of active cooling for the most intense Android games.

The New Reference Design

When Qualcomm announced the original G3x back in 2021, it was in a dev kit made by Razer (which eventually led to the Razer Edge gaming tablet, sold through Verizon and Razer itself). For its G3x Gen 2 reference design, Qualcomm has struck out on its own. (Qualcomm reps suggested to me there are no reference designs based around the G1 and G2).

The new design, which I got to try at Qualcomm’s New York office ahead of the announcement, utilizes 12GB of LPDDR5X RAM and 256GB of UFS 4.0 storage, with an option for NVMe expansion. The CPU cooler offers 15W active cooling to the G3X, which is powered by a pair of 3,000 mAh batteries (6,000 mAh total).

Additionally, it features front and rear cameras (one for streaming, the other for AR games), has a USB Type-C port and a SIM card slot, as well as stereo speakers and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.

Qualcomm suggested that this device, which felt a little clunky in my hands for a premium handheld, is effectively a white label system that other companies could customize to their liking.

The company also showcased the device with a Lenovo ThinkReality headset plugged in. This let me use the G3x Gen 2 reference design like a controller while playing games like they were on a TV. Personally, I preferred playing on the system’s screen, but perhaps a purpose-built headset would work better.

I got to try the reference design in controlled scenarios, playing selected games locally on Android, streaming over Steam Link from a nearby gaming laptop (which did see some hiccups over Qualcomm’s office Wi-Fi) and streaming Cyberpunk 2077 from GeForce Now, which largely worked as expected.

A second reference design, made by Carbon Mobile, wasn’t available to see, but is being showcased to Qualcomm’s partners to show what a system made of more premium materials could look and feel like. (This one is made of Carbon Fiber).

Will it Succeed?

There was only one chip the last time Qualcomm tried making chips for this type of device, and it was enthusiast level. The G3x Gen 1 landed in just one mainstream system, the Razer Edge. At the moment, it doesn’t appear that Razer is on board for a sequel, though it’s possible the company will announce something later. Logitech’s attempt at a cloud gaming handheld, the Logitech G Cloud, based on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 720G, received mixed reviews. We’ll have to see what kinds of handhelds these new chips land in, at what price points, and with what features. Systems like the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally are taking a different approach, focusing on desktop operating systems and the raw horsepower from AMD APUs to play games locally (as well as the option to stream through web browsers).

It’s possible that the first G3x was ahead of its time. We’ll see soon what the demand for Android-based, streaming-first devices is. But at least with this new lineup from Qualcomm, device makers will have more options.