Polaris
As AMD is now well into their third generation of RDNA architecture GPUs, the sun has been slowly setting on AMD’s remaining Graphics Core Next (GCN) designs, better known by the architecture names of Polaris and Vega. In recent weeks the company dropped support for those GPU architectures in their open source Vulkan Linux driver, AMDVLK, and now we have confirmation that the company is slowly winding down support for these architectures in their Windows drivers as well. Under AMD’s extended driver support schedule for Polaris and Vega, the drivers for these architectures will no longer be kept at feature parity with the RDNA architectures. And while AMD will continue to support Polaris and Vega for some time to come, that support is being reduced...
AMD Officially Launches the Radeon RX 590 GME For China: RX 580 Rides Again
While AMD’s Polaris family of GPUs have surprised us in a few different ways, perhaps the most impressive aspect has been their sheer longevity. First introduced in 2016 as...
15 by Ryan Smith on 3/11/2020AMD Refreshes Embedded GPU Lineup, Launches Polaris-Based Embedded Radeon E9560 & E9390
AMD’s GPU division has long had its hands in many businesses. While their consumer GPUs and semi-custom efforts tend to attract the most attention – and more recently, their...
7 by Ryan Smith on 10/15/2019AMD Unveils Radeon Pro WX 3200: A Professional Graphics Card for Sub-$200
AMD on Tuesday introduced one of the industry’s most affordable professional graphics cards with drivers certified by leading vendors of CAD/CAM software. The Radeon Pro WX 3200 comes in...
44 by Anton Shilov on 7/2/2019Intel’s Islay Canyon Mini NUCs Available: Whiskey Lake, Radeon 540X, 8GB LPDDR3
Several retailers have started sales of Intel’s NUC 8 Mainstream-G systems previously known as codenamed Islay Canyon. The ultra-compact form-factor PCs pack Intel’s 8th Gen Core i5/i7 processors for...
43 by Anton Shilov on 7/1/2019AMD Launches China-only Radeon RX 560 XT
This evening – or rather this morning in China – AMD is rolling out a new mid-to-entry level Radeon RX video card. Dubbed the Radeon RX 560 XT, the...
22 by Ryan Smith on 3/12/2019Best Video Cards for Gaming: Q1 2019
For gaming PCs that push the pretty pixels on the screens, the video card is the most important component. And given the sheer amount of custom options, choosing the...
19 by Nate Oh on 3/11/2019The Acer Nitro 5 Gaming Laptop Review: Absolutely AMD - Ryzen Plus Polaris
Today we are taking a look at the Acer Nitro 5, which is one of the least expensive ways to get into a gaming laptop. Acer offers several models...
90 by Brett Howse on 2/15/2019Sapphire Launches Mining-Focused Radeon RX 570 with 16 GB of GDDR5 Memory
Sapphire has introduced one the industry’s first Radeon RX 570 graphics cards that carry 16 GB of GDDR5 memory onboard. The board is designed primarily for cryptocurrency mining, but...
36 by Anton Shilov on 1/23/201910nm Cannon Lake NUC at Major US Retailers
Amazon, Newegg, and Walmart have started to sell Intel’s Crimson Canyon NUC that is based on Cannon Lake processors produced using the company’s 10 nm process technology. Availability of...
52 by Anton Shilov on 12/3/2018The AMD Radeon RX 590 Review, feat. XFX & PowerColor: Polaris Returns (Again)
When AMD launched the Polaris-based Radeon RX 480 in June 2016, the focus was firmly on the mainstream market, looking to offer superior value over raw performance. At the...
138 by Nate Oh on 11/15/2018AMD Launches Radeon RX 580 with Reduced Number of Stream Processors
AMD has quietly launched a Radeon RX 580 GPU with a reduced number of stream processors. The new product is called the Radeon RX 580 2048SP and, as the...
38 by Anton Shilov on 10/15/2018Intel’s Crimson Canyon NUCs with Cannon Lake CPU & Radeon dGPU Available for Pre-Order
SimplyNUC, a retailer specializing on SFF PCs, has started to take pre-orders for Intel’s NUC8i3CYSM and NUC8i3CYSN ultra-compact form-factor PCs (codenamed "Crimson Canyon"), which are based on Intel’s Cannon...
25 by Anton Shilov on 8/8/2018AMD 18.4.1 Driver Brings Beta PlayReady 3.0 Support for Polaris; Support for Vega GPUs & APUs Still to Come
Undocumented in last week’s release of Radeon Software 18.4.1 Adrenalin Edition, AMD’s newest driver has brought beta support for PlayReady 3.0, Microsoft’s video playback DRM solution, to Polaris GPUs...
8 by Nate Oh on 5/7/2018AMD Launches Combat Crate Bundles: CPU, GPU, & Motherboard In a Box
AMD on Wednesday announced its Combat Crate bundles, an initiative aimed to deliver a complete set of barebones PC hardware straight to the hands of gamers. The bundles will...
12 by Anton Shilov on 4/25/2018Phantom Gaming: ASRock Unveils as an AMD GPU Partner
ASRock has officially introduced its first graphics cards. The Phantom Gaming family will initially include four GPU models based on the Radeon RX 500-series GPUs and are aimed at...
12 by Anton Shilov on 3/29/2018AMD Plans PlayReady 3.0 Support for Polaris and Vega based GPUs in 2018, Vega APUs in Q2
For the recent launch of AMD’s Ryzen 5 2400G and Ryzen 3 2200G APUs, our review found that AMD raised the low-end integrated graphics bar to a new level...
23 by Nate Oh on 2/16/2018Acer Unveils Nitro 5: 15.6-inch Gaming Laptop with AMD Ryzen Mobile & Radeon RX560
LAS VEGAS, NV — Acer this week announced its first modern laptop that uses an AMD processor and an AMD Radeon discrete graphics chip. The Nitro 5 is a...
19 by Anton Shilov on 1/10/2018AMD Silently Lowers Radeon RX 560 Specifications, Now Covers RX 460-class Products (Updated)
Spotted yesterday by Heise.de, AMD has silently lowered the specifications of the Radeon RX 560 to encompass parts with 14 CUs (896 Stream Processors), allowing them to be sold...
38 by Nate Oh on 12/5/2017ASUS Launches ROG Strix GL702ZC: 17.3-inch, Eight-Core AMD Ryzen 7, Radeon RX580
ASUS this week introduced the industry’s first gaming laptop powered by AMD’s eight-core Ryzen 7 1700 processor. The ASUS ROG Strix GL702ZC-WB74 is a 17.3” desktop replacement machine that...
19 by Anton Shilov on 11/22/2017