Another busy week in hardware news as we settle into the month of May. We have substantial news items from Intel, as the company continues to explore fab options in Europe. Additionally, Intel is ratcheting up its fab investments, and possibly looking to sell off its Sport Technology Group, which is home to its True View tech. Rounding-out the headline stories is IBM announcing a breakthrough in “2nm” semiconductors using nanosheet FETs. 

In slightly lesser news, TSMC is deploying AMD’s Epyc CPUs in the data centers that not only power its R&D, but its manufacturing as well -- a bragging point for AMD, to be sure. There’s also news regarding Arm, Sony, Steam, and more. 

At GN, we recently reviewed Cooler Master’s MF700 case, in addition to reviewing the Phanteks P360A case. Spoiler alert: Only one of those cases impressed us. We also dove into a decade’s worth of GPU data from AMD and Nvidia to discuss price creep, release patterns, and greed.

Lots of news to cover this week, including an interesting -- and surprising -- use of Intel’s Atom CPUs. We also have some commentary to add regarding the AMD “Warhol” rumor that ran rampant this past week. There’s news on the DDR5 front, as the new memory is nearing mass production and market-ready status, and we have something of an update on the Chia cryptocurrency story from last week. There’s plenty more, with news from AMD, Google, and Microsoft. 

At GN, we recently released a pair of videos diving into the AMD-based AYA NEO: one where we looked at performance and benchmarks, and another where we tore the unit down for analysis. Outside of hardware and gaming, GN has been involved in some environmental initiatives as well, such as this rain garden we recently helped fund.

News article and video below, per the usual.

This week, we see VESA issue a rare press release squashing a run-away rumor claiming a new VESA DisplayHDR 2000 specification. We also have new developments regarding the potential Nvidia-Arm deal, as the UK is becoming increasingly more scrutinous of the deal, now citing national security concerns. AMD also finally got around to releasing its big Radeon Software update, after delaying it out of the usual end-of-year/holiday release window. There’s plenty more to go over, of course, like RTX 3070 Ti rumors.

At GN, we recently dove into the dangers of using cheap cables, and documented the various fire hazards and false marketing therein. We also looked at how Intel has become AMD, in a sense, and looked at Intel’s Phantom Canyon NUC11PHKi7C.

This week, we have several news items anchored by fairly substantial announcements from both AMD and Nvidia. Nvidia kicked off its GTC 2021, and with it, had several key announcements, including its first data center CPU. AMD, for its part, announced a new line up of Zen 3 APUs.

In other news, Intel has stayed in the news cycle with commentary on Nvidia's latest products, as well as expressing its intent to manufacture silicon for the automotive industry. There’s also news from Atari, Nvidia commenting on GPU supply issues, an RX 580 scam, and more.

At GN, we recently announced our newest modmat: The GamersNexus “Volt” Series Modmat, which you can grab over at the GN store.  

News article and video embed follow below, as usual.

This week, we have headlining news regarding AMD research that outlines some security implications regarding Predictive Store Forwarding on Zen 3 CPUs. For the time being, it mostly seems to be a non-issue, unlike the Spectre variants that have hit Intel CPUs hard. Also in AMD news is another patent filed that expands on AMD’s research into GPU chiplets, and is seemingly an improvement over the previous patent we saw earlier this year.

There’s also news regarding a massive haul of smuggled GPUs that were seized in Hong Kong, some discussion on Lenovo using AMD’s PSB feature on its servers and workstations, some commentary on a potential X570S chipset, and more. 

At GN, we recently benchmarked Intel’s UHD 750 and UHD 630 IGPs and compared them to the low-end Nvidia GT 1030. We also reviewed the Arctic Freezer 50 CPU cooler, and detailed some of its pressure and assembly weaknesses. 

Video embed and article follow below, as usual.

This week, we have news regarding the emerging DDR5 memory, with Samsung and TeamGroup both announcing development milestones. Also in DRAM news, there’s the unsurprising revelation that DRAM prices will continue to rise as we move into the second quarter of 2021.

Elsewhere, we have news regarding the most recent Cyberpunk 2077 patch, as CD Projekt Red tries to rebound from its botched marketing and launch of the game. It’s also been discovered that Nvidia is quietly carving new names into its GPUs, a new Windows 10 “device usage” feature exists, TSMC is entering volume production early with N4, and plenty more. 

At GN, we recently reviewed Intel’s i9-11900K, of which we found unexciting -- much like its lower-tier counterpart, the i7-11700K. We also looked at Intel’s i5-11600K, which we found more interesting. Oh, and we reviewed a case from outer space, too.

Article and video embed below, as usual.

It’s been a busy week, with Intel’s “Intel Unleashed: Engineering The Future” event being the highlight of the week. Intel is also set to finally release its Ice Lake-SP Xeons, which will be an important step for the company as it gets its manufacturing and roadmap back on track. 

Outside of Intel, we have news of a massive ransomware attack against Acer, with the biggest ransom demand to date of its kind -- $50M. We have commentary on a couple of rumors regarding Nvidia and Nintendo, Microsoft reportedly in talks with Discord over an acquisition, and some industry news regarding EUV pellicles.

At GN, we’ve recently reviewed Intel’s Core i7-11700K, which we were unimpressed with. We also outlined some of the problems with Intel’s Z590 motherboards, as it pertains to our i7-11700K thermals and power consumption findings. Additionally, we tore-down Saphire’s RX 6700 Nitro+ card and assessed the PCB, build quality, repairability, and more.

This week, we have news from System76, makers of Linux-based workstations and servers, as the company introduces its newest Thelio Mira desktop. We’re also seeing reports that NZXT could be getting into the display market, based on the finding of an NZXT job listing.

Elsewhere, we have AMD news on a couple of different fronts: AMD unwrapped its latest Epyc server CPUs, and the company is also moving up the food chain as it relates to TSMC’s customer base. We’re also following up on a couple of previous stories involving Google and Grand Theft Auto Online.

At GN, we’ve been busy with reviews and benchmarks. First, we looked at the Intel i7-11700K memory performance, as well as covering the entire Intel 11-series lineup announcement. We also took AMD’s RX 6700 XT for a spin, and recently looked at the card’s underlying design with our RX 6700 XT tear down.

This round of HW News brings in a ton of news from several corners of the industry. We have news of Nvidia winning the cryptocurrency lawsuit it found itself tangled in, which is likely some good news for both Nvidia and AMD as both companies become more involved within the cryptocurrency mining segment. 

There’s also news regarding AMD’s upcoming Epyc Milan CPUs and, also on the AMD front, updates for the Ryzen USB drop-out issue. Speaking of Microsoft, the company recently reported that it has completed the acquisition of ZeniMax, which will give it access to some of the most popular gaming IPs in history. 

There’s more, with news from Intel, Samsung, and Gartner. At GN, we’ve been busy with revisiting the GeForce GTX 1060 in 2021 and re-testing and X-raying NZXT’s H1 PCIe Riser. As usual, check out the article and video embed below.

It’s been a busy week, as we have news on several fronts in the industry. There’s news of Steam's hardware survey, the discovery of several GeForce RTX 3090 models making use of a blower-style cooler disappearing from market, and Nintendo Switch 2 rumors.

We also have some news on Intel being handed a massive $2.18 billion bill for patent infringement, TSMC’s 3nm still on track for risk production this year, and reports of Texas semiconductor fabs still idling.  

At GN, we recently dug into the best PC cases of 2021 so far and tore down the EVGA RTX 3060 XC Black. We also covered AMD’s announcement of its RX 6700XT, so be sure to check that out.

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