Gigabyte releases 55-inch Android-based gaming monitor

Gigabyte's latest gaming product seems to be aimed at console gamers rather than PC gamers, as the S55U gaming monitor is a rather odd device when it comes to specifications.First, it features a 54.6-inch Quantum Dot VA panel with 4K resolution that is said to deliver a typical 500 cd/m² and a peak brightness of 1500 cd/m², as well as a 5000:1 contrast ratio.
That's thanks to array-based LED backlighting, though Gigabyte only used 132 zones, which is the lowest number of zones we've seen to date.It has a 120 Hz refresh rate and an average response time of 5 ms, though Gigabyte also specifies a minimum response time of 2 ms.
The panel is said to deliver 140 percent sRGB color space and 96 percent DCI-P3.
It also supports FreeSync Premium, VRR and ALLM, which means there should be no gaps in gaming.
Dolby Vision, HDR10, HDR10+ and HLG HDR standards are also part of the package.Since the S55U is not a TV, it has two HDMI 2.1 ports, both capable of 48 Gbps signals, and two HDMI 2.0 ports, but it lacks DisplayPort.
Other connectivity options consist of two USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) ports, one downstream and one upstream, one USB 2.0 port, a headphone jack, a Toslink jack and an unspecified Ethernet jack.
There's also built-in WiFi and Bluetooth support, as well as a pair of 10-watt speakers.
Even though the S55U is not a TV, the S55U runs on an uninstalled version of what looks like Android TV, and is said to support Chromecast, Google Assistant and, more importantly, Google Play.As for the software, it supports a number of Gigabyte gaming monitor features, such as sight stabilizer, black EQ, crosshair and screen timers.
Gigabyte has also added a number of different display presets depending on content, both in SDR and several HDR modes, though Dolby Vision and HDR10+ don't seem to support any gaming mode.The included remote control has buttons for direct access to Netflix, YouTube, Prime Video and Google Play, as well as Google Assistant.
It also has a pair of customizable shortcut buttons, as well as one for on-screen crosshairs.
There's no word on pricing, but it will likely cost more than most 55-inch TVs that don't use an OLED panel.

Radeon RX 6400 graphics card loses about 14% performance when using PCIe 3.0 interface

TechPowerUp resource recently tested the new AMD Radeon RX 6400 graphics adapter on the legacy PCIe 3.0 interface to measure performance drops compared to PCIe 4.0, and it turns out it stems from an unorthodox GPU configuration adapted for four PCIe lanes.
The average performance drop was over 14%, depending on resolution.The AMD Radeon RX 6400 is an entry-level graphics gas pedal for the desktop segment with a Navi 24 core, originally designed for laptops, like its big brother, the Radeon RX 6500 XT.
This GPU contains only four PCIe 4.0 lanes as a manufacturing cost-cutting measure.The Radeon RX 6400 has a roughly 13% reduction in cores and memory bandwidth over the Radeon RX 6500 XT.
The graphics card has only 768 cores and 128 Gbps of memory bandwidth, thanks to a reduction in GDDR6 speed to 16 Gbps.
However, the memory capacity remains unchanged at 4 GB.
But the main strength of the Radeon RX 6400 is power consumption, it has half the power of the Radeon RX 6500 XT 53W, making this GPU very useful in small budget systems that can't power higher-end GPUs with an auxiliary power cable.24 games were tested and the Radeon RX 6400, running on the PCIe 3.0 bus, had an average performance drop of 14% at both 1080P and 1440P compared to PCIe 4.0.
The 4K results were even worse, with a 23% performance deficit.
However, it will undoubtedly make a big difference, as the Radeon RX 6400 offers unplayable FPS at any PCIe generation.Some of the worst results included racing simulator F1 2021 and shooter Doom Eternal, which had performance differences as high as 79% and 43% at 1080P.
Fortunately, almost all other gaming applications tested were in the 14% range or lower, but these two games show just how intense some PCIe gaming engines can really get.Testing the Radeon RX 6500 XT showed a performance gap of 13% for PCIe 3.0 versus PCIe 4.0.
The Radeon RX 6400 can't avoid the Navi 24's four-lane limitations, even though the GPU itself is slower.
The PCIe 3.0 Radeon RX 6400 was nearly 20% slower than the GeForce GTX 1650, which runs on the same PCIe 3.0 interface and on a much more optimal x16 lane configuration.
However, when installed in a PCIe 4.0 interface, the Radeon RX 6400 performs similarly to the GeForce GTX 1650.Consumers choosing the Radeon RX 6400 need a PCIe 4.0 platform to avoid serious performance degradation from the PCIe 3.0 bus.
The biggest problem is that most systems are still on PCIe 3.0, and gamers who are likely to buy a Radeon RX 6400 are using it on an older system.
If you don't have PCIe 4.0, the best alternative is Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1650 or even the older Radeon RX 570, which is faster than the Radeon RX 6400 and does not require PCIe 4.0 to unlock its full performance.

ASUS is preparing a new 4-slot GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card with iconic Noctua brown fans

It's been about half a year since the first ASUS graphics card developed in collaboration with Noctua, and now the company is preparing a new model again.This time it's the GA102-based GeForce RTX 3080.
Interestingly, the company has chosen the 10GB version rather than the 12GB version released in January.
It turns out that the 10GB model is still in demand at the moment.The card has very similar four-slot cooling with two 120mm fans.
If you compare them, both GeForce RTX 3080 and GeForce RTX 3070 seem to be the same size, the cooling solution has not changed much, but the radiator is obviously rebuilt for a much larger GPU.
The graphics card has two 8-pin power connectors and non-standard display connectors are three DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1, reminiscent of the board design that the RTX 3080 TUF series.ASUS GeForce RTX 3080 Noctua comes in at €1150, which is €250 more expensive than the RTX 3070 Noctua.
More specific information about this model ASUS has not yet provided.

New leak of Navi 31, 32 and 33 GPU specs for upcoming AMD Radeon RX 7000 series

Rumors are surfacing again from Greymon55 informant, according to his data the flagship Navi 31 GPU, for RDNA3 architecture-based graphics cards includes not 15360 stream processors, but only 12288.
It turns out that the statement about the power of 100 TFLOPs made a few days ago either turned out to be incorrect, or some details are still undisclosed.Navi 31 graphics processor with 6 shader cores, 12 shader arrays and 48 workgroup processors will be produced with 12288 stream processors, which is 20% fewer cores compared to the previously announced 15360 cores.
The same is true for the Navi 32, which will be produced with 8192 stream processors instead of 10240 cores.
For the Navi 31 this means 4096 cores instead of 5192, but it should be noted that Greymon55 previously mentioned fewer cores.With the updated specs of the Navi 31, the power will likely drop to 73 TFLOPs, and this at a GPU clock speed of 3 GHz.
It remains to wait for information about Navi 32 and Navi 33 clock speeds.It should be mentioned that the release of the new third-generation Navi GPUs is still a few months away.
And now there has been a pretty big leak about the specifications, which have been exchanged for over a year.
So unless there are other reliable sources claiming otherwise, we can assume that these specs are closer to final.The specifications in the table above, represent only the complete GPU configuration, which cannot be guaranteed when released for the Radeon RX 7900 / 7700 / 7600 series.
AMD may reduce the specs of each GPU to improve the performance of its Radeon RX 7000 graphics cards.

ASUS releases the ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard in Evangelion style

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero Neon Genesis Evangelion Limited Edition motherboard comes in two colors, purple and green.
The two colors reflect the color of the humanoid fighting machine Evangelion 1 from the popular anime series.Intel Z690 supports 12th generation Intel Core processors in LGA 1700 socket.
There are four slots for DDR5-6400 memory modules.
There are also 5 M.2 slots for SSDs.ROG Maximus Z690 Hero Evangelion Edition is equipped with 2 PCI Express 5.0 x16 slots for external graphics gas pedals.
In addition, there is a Wi-Fi 6E controller with support for 3 frequency bands - 2.4GHz, 5GHz, 6GHz, and of course 2.5G Ethernet adapter with LANGuard protection.
The interfaces that are installed on the board are front USB 3.2 Gen2x2 and 2 Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports.
The audio codec is ROG SupremeFX ALC4082 and ESS ES9018Q2C digital-to-analog converter.