Category: Technology

AMD’s motherboard partners such as ASUS, MSI, ASRock, Gigabyte & Biostar have unveiled more details about their top X670E designs for Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs.

ASUS, MSI, Gigabyte, ASRock & Biostar Showcase Their High-End AMD X670E Motherboards

The AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs will be migrating to a new home known as AM5, the successor to the long-lasting AM4 platform. It marks a fresh start for the Ryzen Desktop family and as such, existing Ryzen CPUs starting with Ryzen 1000 & all the way up to Ryzen 5000 won’t be supported by the new platform we will tell you why it is so.

The AM5 platform will first and foremost feature the brand new LGA 1718 socket. That’s correct, AMD isn’t going the PGA (Pin Grid Array) route anymore and now focusing on LGA (Land Grid Array), similar to what Intel uses on its existing desktop processors. The main reason to go LGA is due to the addition of enhanced and next-gen features such as PCIe Gen 5, DDR5, etc that we will get to see on the AM5 platform. The socket has a single latch & gone are the days of worrying about pins underneath your precious processors.

Representatives of each motherboard manufacturer joined AMD’s latest “Meet The Experts” live-stream to talk about their next-gen X670E designs but it looks like we may still be missing some details regarding overclocking and memory support which is something that AMD might not like being talked about right now although the full announcement of the product lineup is just a few weeks away on 29th August with a planned launch for 15th of August. So let’s look into what the new high-end motherboard offerings have to offer.

ASUS X670E Motherboard

ASUS kicked it off by unveiling its high-end ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme and ROG Crosshair X670E HERO motherboards. The ROG Crosshair motherboards come with 20+2 phases for the Extreme & 18+2 phases for the HERO models. Both models are designed with some insane 110A Power Stages and in a Teamed design. The VCore PWM controller is an Infineon ASP2205 while the Power Stages are based on Vishay’s SIC850.

• ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme – 20+2 Phase (110A)
• ROG Crosshair X670E HERO – 18+2 Phase (110A)

ASUS specifically states that the high-end power delivery is a necessity when overclocking the CPU as it leads to massive current swings and power demand increasing exponentially. Some features highlighted include WiFi 6E (AX210), 10 GbE Marvell AQC113CS connectors, Gen 5.0 PCIe x16 & M.2, USB 4 and Quick Charge 4+ ports.

MSI X670E Motherboard

MSI will be rolling out four brand new X670E Motherboards within its MEG, MPG, and PRO lineups. We recently revealed their flagship MEG X670E GODLIKE motherboards and the manufacturer has confirmed the specs and PCB we reported. The VRM configuration for MSI’s X670E motherboard is as listed below:

• MEG X670E GODLIKE – 24 (105A) + 2 + 1
• MEG X670E ACE – 22 (90A) + 2 +1
• MPG X670E Carbon – 18 (90A) + 2 +1
• PRO X670E-P WiFi – 14 (80A) + 2 +1

MSI is pushing things to the limits with high-end heatsink designs such as screwless M.2 Shield Frozr technology, M.2 XPANDER-Z Gen 5 Dual AIC (supporting up to two PCIe Gen 5.0 x4) SSDs in actively cooled solution), 60W USB Type-C power delivery and more robust power delivery for each tier of the motherboard. We also get a better look at the MEG X670E GODLIKE which looks as beast as ever with its massively saturated PCB design and tons of IO to work with. More details on MSI’s lineup here.

Gigabyte X670E Motherboards

The lineup that Gigabyte unveiled includes four AORUS motherboards which include X670E AORUS Xtreme, AORUS Master, AORUS Pro AX & AORUS Elite AX. The Xtreme is expected to break some OC records on AMD Ryzen 7000 CPUs.

• X670E AORUS Xtreme – 18 Phase (SPS 105A) Renesas RAA229628
• X670E AORUS Master – 16 Phase (SPS 105A) Renesas RAA229620
• X670E AORUS ProAX – 16 Phase (SPS 90A) Infineon XDPE192C3
• X670E AORUS EliteAX – 16 Phase (SPS 70A) Infineon XDPE192C3

We already covered these motherboards including the AERO model previously over here along with their prices.

ASRock X670E Motherboards

ASRock is showing five X670E motherboards for the AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPUs. These include the X670E Taichi Carrara, X670E Taichi, X670E Steel Legend, X670E PRO RS & X670E PG Lightning. All five motherboards feature full compatibility with the next-gen AMD Zen 4 CPUs along with DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5.0.

The company highlighted some of the main features being USB Type-C with fast charging, an 8-layer PCB design, PCIe 5.0, and M.2 fan heatsink design plus DDR5 with protection circuits. The lineup is also detailed by us here.

Biostar X670E Motherboards

Biostar also talked a bit about their flagship X670E VALKYRIE motherboard which features a 22-phase VRM design and a very solid-looking design that comes with DR.MOS and Digital PWM ICs. The motherboard is a very premium product designed to support the highest-end AMD Zen 4 CPUs.

Will There Be mATX & Mini-ITX AM5 Motherboards?

Answering a question raised by viewers on whether we will see mATX and Mini-ITX designs within the AM5 family, ASRock’s Mike Yang stated that there are certain obstacles that they are working on such as thermal heat dissipation on such a small form factor but once a breakthrough is made, they certainly plan on offering smaller board designs for every chipset of the AMD 600-series line.

Do 2280 M.2 SSDs Fit On The New 2510 M.2 Slots?

MSI’s Michiel Berkhout stated that the current 2280 M.2 form factor is fully compatible with the 2510 M.2 slots featured on their motherboards.

Will Gigabyte Have A Tachyon Motherboard For AM5?

Gigabyte’s Sofos Oikonomou has stated that there will indeed be a Tachyon motherboard based on the AM5 socket but it will be based on a different chipset, not the X670 so we are likely looking at a B650(E) product.

It is always great to hear more information directly from motherboard manufacturers but key details such as AMD EXPO DDR5 memory and overclocking support are still missing. It looks like we now have to wait till the reviews which don’t come out until the 13th of September to get more data on those but we will try to provide you with more information on those in the coming weeks.

Xbox Series S games are reportedly set to receive a serious boost to graphics thanks to a new Microsoft update.

A video circulated to game developers by Microsoft has teased some very promising Xbox Series S updates. The video accompanies a new software development kit released by Microsoft which “gives developers more control over memory, which can improve graphics performance in memory-constrained conditions.”

The phrase “memory-constrained conditions” is very relevant to owners of the Xbox Series S. The major drawback of the cheapest and most accessible next gen console is that it is all-digital. This limits the amount of games one can have installed on the console and leads to concessions like a maximum 1080p resolution for most games.

This update may lead to some serious changes in these areas, so let’s take a look at what it’s really delivering. For more information, check out 7 reasons to choose the Xbox Series S over the Xbox Series X.

Xbox Series S update August 2022

How exactly is Microsoft’s latest software update optimizing graphics for users? The video in question asserts that “Hundreds of additional megabytes of memory are now available to Xbox Series S developers.” This should lead to greater graphical capabilities for your favorite games.

The Xbox Series S is capable of running games at 1440p 120FPS, but this has proven to be a chimera in many cases. Most of the time, you’ll be booting up a game to run at 1080p and you’re unlikely to hit 120FPS. Microsoft believes this update can change that and “improve graphics performance.”

The Series S features just 10GB of RAM compared to the 16GB of the more premium Xbox Series X. To make matters worse, the Xbox reserves 2GB of RAM for OS functionality. This has led to reported discontent among developers when it comes to producing games for the Series S.

This update is set to make developer’s lives’ easier and encourage them to continue to optimize their games for the Series S. Customers should enjoy better performance than ever on their budget next gen console. We’ll have to wait to see the full effects of this update, but right now it looks like everyone’s a winner.

If you don’t mind a bit of technobabble, you can check out the video in full below.

About Xbox Series S

With games performance set to get better than ever, now’s a great time to secure your Xbox Series S. So what is this budget next gen offering all about?

Arguably the most appealing aspect of the console is its price tag. Its RRP of $499 is very attractive when stacked up against the RRP of $799 for the Series X and $749.95 of the PlayStation 5.

This difference is even more stark because the Series S is actually readily available for its RRP, while you’ll be looking at paying a reseller premium when purchasing the Series X and especially the PS5.

Aside from resolution and frame rate, the Series S holds up very well indeed against the Series X, and is capable of playing every single game that’s available on its big brother. If you aren’t a complete performance fiend, the Series S is a truly tempting offering.

If you can’t wait to take advantage of the latest Xbox Series S update, grab the console on eBay right now for $495.

xbox storage deals

If you require even more storage for your expansive game collection, check out the following Amazon deals.

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Gigabyte Tachyon on B650 chipset

High-end overclocking boards may not need X670 after all.

During AMD Meet The Expert event Gigabyte representative Sofos Oikonomou confirmed that the company will launch a Tachyon motherboard for AM5 socket. Interestingly this board will not be based on X670 chipset but on a mainstream B650 one.

The Tachyon series are designed for overclocking with the most distinctive feature being the dual memory slot configuration as opposed to four. AMD already confirmed that memory overclocking will be enabled for B650 series (same as B550), however the X670E and X670 are still advertised for ‘extreme/enthusiast overclocking’, while B650 is not.

Will Gigabyte Have A Tachyon Motherboard For AM5?

Gigabyte’s Sofos Oikonomou has stated that there will indeed be a Tachyon motherboard based on the AM5 socket but it will be based on a different chipset, not the X670 so we are likely looking at a B650(E) product.

— Hassan Mujtaba (@hms1193) August 4, 2022

Other companies did not confirm such designs yet. The MSI Unify-X or ASUS ROG Crosshair Apex have not been demonstrated during the event, either suggesting that there are no plans for them, or they are based on B650 chipset as well, a chipset that was not showcased during the webinar.

Interestingly, AMD never acknowledged the Extreme variant of the B650 motherboard chipset. This special variant of the ‘mainstream’ PCH could feature PCIe Gen5 support for both the storage and GPU.

AMD 600-series (left) & GIGABYTE Z690 Tachyon (right)

Source: AMD Meet The Experts Q&A

Pokemon Scarlet & Violet seems to have gotten rid of a few quality of life improvements made in Legends: Arceus, including watching your experience points go up outside of battle.

Earlier this week, The Pokemon Company gave us our first proper look at gameplay of Scarlet & Violet, introducing the region of Paldea and a host of new Pokemon. Although reactions to most of what was shown has been positive (I mean, have you seen Fidough?), some Pokemon fans weren’t happy to see that Scarlet & Violet hasn’t brought over some of the quality of life features introduced in Legends : Arcus.

Related: TheGamer’s Biologist Explains Why Pokemon Scarlet & Violet’s Fidough Is Busted

Twitter account CentroLeaks shared an image of two examples where improvements made in Legends: Arceus are missing in Scarlet & Violet. The first example is that players will now have to sit through the experience points animation at the end of a match, rather than it taking place in real-time and not interrupting the player.

The second example is that players will also be interrupted and have to sit through Pokemon wanting to learn new moves at the end of a battle. Both of these were changed in Legends: Arceus to no longer interrupt the player, a change that was much-appreciated considering how often Pokemon evolve and gain experience.

Those aren’t the only features that have been removed, however. As pointed out by ResetEra user Personablue, there are a number of smaller things that don’t seem to be returning. One such example is that players can’t select their Pokemon or try to catch a Pokemon before battle, and must run into a ‘Mon to get the battle started. Finally, the battle speed seems to have been slowed back down to Sword & Shield, with a larger number of text walls during battle for status effects.

The removal of some of these features is a shame considering how positively received they were in Legends: Arceus, but it’s likely to try and keep the two gameplay styles separate from one another. Not all of the quality of life improvements work in classic Pokemon either, such as being able to throw a Pokeball before fighting a Pokemon.

Next: You Can Use Vantage’s Ultimate At “Any Time,” According To Apex Legends Designer

One AIB reportedly no longer interested in Arc

Igor’LAB reports first OEM is jumping ship on Arc GPUs.

A big board partner is no longer producing Intel Arc GPUs. This is alleged by Igor Wallossek who confirmed this information twice over the last day.

Igor is not naming the brand, but his post has a picture of MSI system, indirectly suggesting that this might be the company in question. MSI is actually one of the few companies that did ‘confirm’ making Arc graphics, either through ads for prebuilt systems on Chinese retailer website or through leaked datasheets.

From OEMs perspective there is just too much uncertainty in terms of performance and price. Intel reportedly would not give any price guarantee for Arc, which makes planning so much more complicated. This is probably why we have never heard of any high-end custom model based on Arc, the only rumors were about mid-range solutions such as ASUS TUF.

At least one of the big board partners has even stopped the production of Intel cards completely (“due to quality concerns“), as I could find out yesterday and today. […] Other board partners have at least already completely capped their marketing activities, and it does not currently look as if there will be any real launch offensives from the board partners in the time window I mentioned between August 5, 2022 and September 29, 2022. What will really arrive on the market (as retail) will be seen in the next few weeks. From the customer’s point of view, I can only hope for the best, I alone lack faith.

— Igor’sLAB

GPU Quality and performance may lead to drive the maintenance cost up, this includes higher RMA rates and lesser demand for parts that have unoptimized drivers. That’s why the production of ARC cards might have been stopped by said board partner (but there is no word on cancellation just yet).

Intel is now busy sharing videos answering questions from the community. The most recent one covers the graphics API support for Arc. It’s hard to believe that this is the most important question right now, while literally everyone just wants to know then Arc desktop becomes available and at what price.

Source: Igor’sLAB

Account holders for Microsoft email services are being targeted in a phishing campaign, according to security researchers from Zscaler’s ThreatLabz group.

The objective behind the threat actors’ efforts is believed to be the breaching of corporate accounts in order to perform business email compromise (BEC) attacks.

As reported by Bleeping Computer, BEC-based activity would see payments being redirected toward hackers’ bank accounts via the use of forged documents.

Zscaler, a cloud security company, said that targets were involved in various industries, such as fin-tech, lending, accounting, insurance, and Federal Credit Union organizations based in the US, UK, New Zealand, and Australia.

At the moment, it seems the campaign has yet to be properly addressed by Microsoft, with new phishing domains being published nearly every day.

The campaign was originally detected in June 2022, with analysts observing a sudden rise in phishing attempts against the aforementioned industries, in addition to account holders of Microsoft email services.

Threat actors would incorporate links to the emails as buttons or HTML files that would redirect the target to a phishing page. Bleeping Computer points out how certain platforms don’t see open redirects as a vulnerability, which has led to these malicious redirects going through Google Ads, Snapchat, and DoubleClick.

Businesses and individuals are increasingly turning to multifactor authentication to secure their accounts. As such, obtaining a login email and password nowadays won’t provide anything of value to hackers.

Custom phishing kits and reverse proxies like Evilginx2, Muraena, and Modilshka have now come into play to bypass an MFA-enabled account.

A phishing proxy that essentially acts as a middle man between the victim and email provider service is capable of extracting the authentication cookies. Through this method, hackers can use the stolen cookies to log in and completely evade MFA for an account.

For this particular campaign, a custom proxy-based phishing kit was found utilizing the Beautiful Soup HTML and XML parsing tool, which amends actual login pages derived from corporate logins in order to incorporate phishing components.

Cyberattacks in general have nearly doubled since last year, while Microsoft itself started an initiative to tackle the rapid rise of cybercrime with its Security Experts program.

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