If you've been keeping up to date with the goings on in the world of desktop CPUs, you'll no doubt be aware that we're on the cusp of a new generation of Ryzen chips from AMD launching with the Zen 5-powered Rzyen 9000 Series.

You'll also know that Intel has been under fire for months due to instability reports, crashing, and other issues surrounding its flagship Intel Core i9 13900K and 14900K processors being widely reported. It's been an ongoing saga, and several motherboard makers have released BIOS updates and fixes based on feedback and Intel guidance.

The other day, Intel released an official statement stating the issue relates to a microcode error and incorrect voltage and that it would issue a path in mid-August. However, that hasn't stopped many people across various industries from jumping ship to AMD and Ryzen. The latest is a VFX studio in Australia, claiming that the failure rate on its Intel Core i9 13900K and 14900K machines is around 50%.

Flash memory and storage are everywhere: in the PCs we use, smartphones, SSDs, and data centers, powering everything from smartwatches to powerful AI workloads. Flash memory has been a game changer not only in helping usher in a new era of smaller and smarter devices but has also revolutionized several industries.

KIOXIA, the inventor of NAND flash memory, is the recipient of the FMS: the Future of Memory and Storage Lifetime Achievement Award for 2024. The company's engineering team (Hideaki Aohi, Ryota Katsumata, Masaru Kito, Masaru Kido, and Hiroyasu Tanaka) will accept the award for the storage company's "pioneering work in developing and commercializing 3D flash memory."

KIOXIA first showcased its innovative BiCS FLASH 3D flash memory in 2017, and in 2015, it introduced the world's first 256-gigabit, 48-layer 3D flash memory. 3D stacking not only boosts capacity and performance but does so with reliability and efficiency, making it the sort of groundbreaking tech from the company that the award givers are celebrating.

An early review of AMD's new Ryzen 9 9900X CPU has appeared online via Italian tech outlet SaddyTech ahead of the Ryzen 9000 Series launch and official reviews from outlets receiving pre-release samples from AMD. This review is still online and hasn't been taken down because the outlet managed to snag a retail version of the CPU early.

The 12-core CPU with a Boost Clock of 5.6 GHz and a 120W power rating isn't the flagship option in the new Zen 5 line-up (that title goes to the Ryzen 9 9950X), but it's still up there as an enthusiast-grade, high-end desktop CPU. With that, SaddyTech tested the Ryzen 9 9900X in ten games, comparing performance to the AMD Ryzen 7 7800X3D gaming processor.

The test rig sports a GeForce RTX 4090 GPU (to minimize bottlenecks), an X670 motherboard, and DDR5-7200 memory. Gaming performance between the two CPUs is close, with the 7800X3D pulling ahead, with up to double-digit gains in some titles.

AMD has launched FLM or Frame Latency Meter for all GPUs and PC gamers who want to measure the input response time when playing games with mouse movement - like first-person shooters. According to AMD, FLM "measures the entire latency of the mouse response time, from the moment the mouse is moved to the moment the frame is displayed on the screen."

With detailed statistics for latency and "effective framerate" measurements, FLM is a great tool for optimizing systems or pinpointing potential bottlenecks. Unlike competing measurement tools, FLM doesn't use an FPS muzzle flash to determine or measure latency, which means the app can work autonomously, collecting an "unlimited number of measurement samples" for higher accuracy.

FLM works by continuously capturing frames and comparing each frame to the previous one within the selected region. It then generates a mouse movement event (AMD describes it as a standard Windows function) and waits for the "frame contents to change." It is pretty straightforward, but with this data, it can determine overall input latency with a high degree of accuracy.

Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail is the latest expansion for Square Enix's long-running and popular MMO. Danwtrail introduces the game's first major graphical update and overhaul. The update includes DLSS 2 Super Resolution upscaling support to improve performance for all GeForce RTX owners without sacrificing visual fidelity.

The Final Fantasy XIV Online: Dawntrail official benchmark is available as a standalone app for those interested in seeing how it looks. The benchmark tool also offers an option for players to create a character to be featured in the benchmark's real-time cinematic sequences and one for existing players to import their own Final Fantasy XIV Online character. Very cool.

Naturally, the Dawntrail expansion includes all the new zones, increased level cap, new dungeons, and other goodness expected. In other DLSS news this week, Capcom's Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess has launched with DLSS 3 Frame Generation and Reflex support.

LG's new curved, ultrawide, 34-inch monitor is surprisingly not for PC gamers. It has even been designed to work without connecting a PC, with the LG MyView Smart Monitor (34SR65QC) offering access to productivity tools and entertainment apps via the LG webOS platform. With LG's smart apps for main, document editing, and cloud storage, there's no need to hook up a laptop or PC to the LG MyView Smart Monitor.

Of course, you absolutely can, and most likely will, but with the ability to mirror smartphone and tablet displays and a built-in 'Screen Split' function to take advantage of the ultrawide 21:9 aspect ratio, there's more to this display than simply being another ultrawide option for productivity and general 'office-at-home' use.

The specs include a VA panel with 300 nits of brightness and a 34-inch WQHD resolution of 3,440 x 1,440 pixels. LG confirms that it offers a wide viewing angle, and with 99% of the sRGB color gamut, it can deliver that widescreen "movie theater-like experience at home."

The retro but high-end-for-the-time IIyama Vision Master Pro 512 CRT monitor was recently pushed to a staggering 700 Hz refresh rate by the YouTube channel RetroGamingBase. This blasts past the current LCD record of 540 Hz and the OLED record of 480 Hz - as seen in LG and ASUS displays.

This makes the old-school monitor the fastest display in the world for gaming. However, there is one big caveat. The resolution had to be lowered considerably to overclock the display and have a stable 700 Hz image, right down to 320 x 120 pixels, in the region of a video game console or handheld from before the internet was a thing.

Plus, the image is letterboxed, and parts of the screen are cut off, so it's not precisely game-ready. The Vision Master Pro 512 CRT monitor can also be pushed to 500 Hz with a 320 x 200 resolution, anti-aliasing, and other visual effects. RetroGamingBase notes that games like The Witcher are playable at this speed and resolution.

AMD's next-generation EPYC 9755 "Turin" CPU with 128 cores and 256 threads of Zen 5 processing power being tested in ES (engineering sample) form.

The leaks from the new Zen 5-powered EPYC 9755 processor with 128 cores and 256 threads with a base 2.70GHz CPU clock, and up to 4.10GHz boost clock speeds. These clock speeds might not be final, so we could expect a slight boost in base and boost clocks on the EPYC 9755 "Turin" CPU.

AMD's new EPYC 9755 "Turin" CPU also has a huge pool of cache: 512MB of L3 cache, 128MB of L2 cache, and 10MB of L1 cache for a total of 650MB of cache. The current EPYC 9654 CPU has only 384MB of L3 cache and 96MB of L2 cache. Another note is that AMD's new EPYC "Turin" Zen 5 CPUs have up to 16 x CCDs while "Zen 5c" SKUs have 8 CCDs. This means each CCD has 8 cores (16 x 8) and each CCD also features 4MB of L3 cache.

TSMC reportedly turned down a request by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang for the Taiwanese semiconductor giant to set up a dedicated packaging manufacturing line for NVIDIA's products.

In the world of chips, semiconductor fabrication and chip packaging have become increasingly important to pump out the amount of AI GPUs and advanced packaging as possible. Unlike fabrication capacity, packaging has struggled to keep up with the insatiable demand for chips, with TSMC having to dedicate considerable resources towards advanced packaging capacity.

NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang visited TSMC headquarters earlier this year, meeting with TSMC founder Dr. Morris Chang and the firm's former chairman. Industry sources said Jensen requested the company set up a dedicated packaging line for NVIDIA GPUs.

Overwatch 2 has just received its very first Mythic weapon skin, with Blizzard introducing the new Bound Demon Mythic Weapon Skin for Reinhardt. Check it out:

This isn't just a regular skin, but the Bound Demon Mythic Weapon Skin reacts to every movement in the game, where the skin comes alive as you battle through the front lines. It doesn't matter if you're charging into battle, or holding the line swinging your big boy axe, Reinhardt's new Bound Demon Mythic Weapon Skin reacts to your every attack.

I've got to admit, the reactive-powered Bound Demon Mythic Weapon Skin for Reinhardt sounds so damn cool, but the price that Blizzard is charging is out of control. The new Bound Demon Mythic Weapon Skin in base Mythic skin form costs 50 Mythic Shards, which is $39.99.

Hackers have leaked internal documents stolen from one of the largest IT services providers to the US government, Leidos Holdings.

Leidos Holdings recently learned of the hack, believing that the documents stolen were in a previously disclosed breach of a Diligent Corp. system it used, according to Bloomberg's sources, who asked not to be identified because the information isn't public. Leidos is reportedly investigating the issue now, the person added.

Now, the customers of Leidos are important: it includes the US Defense Department (DOD), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), NASA, and other US and foreign agencies and commercial businesses. Leidos used the Diligent system to host information gathered from internal investigations, according to a June 2023 filing in Massachusetts.

Google has a potential change inbound for Chrome to further help cure the browser of its reputation for resource hogging, whereby it'll detect websites that are draining resources and flag them up to you.

This change is only in testing for Chrome right now, in the Canary builds, as spotted by regular leaker Leopeva64 on X.

As you can see in the animated GIF in the above tweet, Chrome picks up on tabs that are consuming too much in the way of resources. These are brought to your attention in a pop-up panel, and to improve performance, you're offered the chance for Chrome to make them all inactive. You can do so simply by clicking the 'Fix now' button, or alternatively, you can dismiss the warning - or you can individually close some of the offenders, picking and choosing which sites are for the chop.

HighPoint has unveiled the industry's first PCIe Gen5 x16 NVMe solutions that are capable of offering close to 60GB/sec of real-world transfer speeds, and up to 2PB (petabytes) of storage capacity in a single PCIe slot.

HighPoint has announced that it will showcase its fleet of NVMe AICs, adapters, and external storage solutions for x86 server and workstation platforms and introduce its product roadmap for the second half of 2024 and beyond at FMS 2024 (Flash Memory Summit).

The company is excited to show live demonstrations of its groundbreaking PCIe Gen5 x16 NVMe storage technology at FMS 2024; designed for AI data pipeline infrastructure, the demonstration platform will show the world how HighPoint's new NVMe RAID AICs, adapters and enclosures tackle data ingestion, analysis, and archiving/restoration workflows, and how each device can be managed and monitored through an intuitive, universal web-based software interface.

Sabrent has a new deal on its Amazon UK store for its V60 SD card in the larger 128GB capacity, offering read speeds of up to 270MB/sec that's ready for 8K video recording.

The Sabrent 128GB V60 SD card has a £5 voucher, with the deal starting July 24 and running through July 27, while if you use the following coupon code on the Amazon UK store "5NAHOSPY" you'll get another 20% discount from the 128GB V60 SD card.

If you've got a new DSLR camera or want a new 128GB SD card that's capable of 8K video recording, and you live in the UK, jump on the deal on Sabrent's Amazon UK store here.

SIGGRAPH 2024 has confirmed it will be visited by NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang and Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg to discuss AI advancements in the tech industry.

For those who don't know, SIGGRAPH 2024, which will be held in Denver, Colorado, from July 28 to August 1, is a conference and exhibition concentrating on the intersection between computer graphics and technology. This year will be the 51st conference and it will feature many keynote presentations from prominent industry figures.

But this year, attendees will get presentations from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, the face of the company powering the now extremely hot large language models powering artificial intelligence tools, and Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Meta, which is pioneering the push into virtual worlds with affordable virtual reality solutions. Huang will be discussing AI breakthroughs, generative AI, and open source empowering creators and developers.

Microsoft has connected a deal struck in 2009 with the recent CrowdStrike meltdown that knocked 8.5 million Windows machines offline.

For those that don't know, CrowdStrike rolled out an update to its cybersecurity software that contained files that resulted in kernel-level failures on Windows machines. A kernel-level failure crashes the boot-up of the machine, causing a blue screen of death. Since CrowdStrike's software is marked as a "boot-start driver" machines were thrown into a blue screen of death boot loop.

CrowdStrike is definitely responsible for pushing out a faulty driver update to its customers, but Microsoft is also responsible for giving CrowdStrike, and seemingly third-party security vendors, access to kernel mode in Windows customers' machines. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, a Microsoft spokesperson placed the blame of the access at the feet of a deal struck in 2009 between the Redmond company and the European Union.

A non-password-protected database containing 769 million records was discovered to be exposed to the public, revealing critical information such as secret keys, bank account numbers, tax identification numbers, and email addresses.

Cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler discovered and reported on the database through a post on Website Planet, where he explained the database was owned by ClickBalance, one of Mexico's largest enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology providers. The database contained access tokens, API keys, secret keys, bank account numbers, tax identification numbers, and 381,224 email addresses. After informing ClickBalance about the database exposure, it promptly implemented restrictions.

Notably, ClickBalance is a software company that offers ERPs as a suite of cloud-based applications to enterprise organizations that enable those organizations to access those applications whenever they like across any device. These ERPs are typically used to manage different processes of an enterprise, such as finance, human resources, supply chains, manufacturing, sales, and other business operations.

NVIDIA has reportedly been working on a new Blackwell-based TITAN AI graphics card, which would beat the ultra-enthusiast GeForce RTX 5090 graphics card.

In a new post by RedGamingTech, we're told that NVIDIA has been working on a new TITAN graphics card, which would be dubbed "TITAN AI." It would be around 63% faster than the RTX 4090 and around 10% faster than the next-gen RTX 5090, too.

According to RedGamingTech, NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5090 will reportedly be around 48% faster than the RTX 4090, the RTX 5080 will be 29% faster than the RTX 4080 SUPER, and the RTX 5070 will reportedly be around 26% faster than the RTX 4070 SUPER. Once the post hit X, leakers "kopite7kimi" replied: "the biggest problem is whether it will actually be us ed for sale. TITAN based on Ada Lovelace also exists, but it has never been sold".

ADATA has just launched its new LEGEND 970 PRO Gen5 SSD, powered by the new InnoGrit IG5666 controller with read speeds of up to 14GB/sec. Check it out:

ADATA's new LEGEND 970 PRO Gen5 SSD uses a space-saving actively-cooled heatsink that reduces Gen5 SSD temperatures by a huge 20%. The new LEGEND 970 PRO Gen5 SSD "takes it to the next level" by being the only PCIe Gen5 SSD on the market to power its micro-fan directly through the M.2 slot.

The new Gen5 SSD has read speeds of up to 14GB/sec (14,000MB/sec) and write speeds of up to 11GB/sec (11,000MB/sec) while coming in up to a larger 4TB capacity. ADATA's active cooler on the new LEGEND 970 PRO Gen5 SSD means that you can enjoy those 14GB/sec read speeds all day long, without thermal throttling occuring.

Last Friday, CrowdStrike rolled out a driver update to its Falcon software that caused 8.5 million Windows machines to be thrown into infinite boot loops.

The outage of Windows machines affected many facets of society, such as airlines, telecommunications providers, supermarkets, payment systems, and more. Since then, when the fault was discovered, both Microsoft and CrowdStrike issued guidance on how to remedy affected systems and estimated the number of systems disrupted. According to Microsoft's blog post about the CrowdStrike outage, internal estimates put the total number of affected systems at 8.5 million, or less than 1% of total Windows machines.

CorwdStrike has recently taken to its official X account to share an update on the situation, writing it continues to focus on restoring all disrupted systems "as soon as possible" and that of the approximately 8.5 million Windows devices affected by the faulty driver "a significant number are back online and operational." CrowdStrike also stated it's working on "a new technique to accelerate impacted system remediation," and the cybersecurity is currently "in the process of operationalizing an opt-in to this technique."