This piece of news shouldn't surprise anyone, except for the fact that Intel is apparently signing on a TDP of 125 W for even its K-series unlocked processors for their next-generation Comet Lake-S family. Intel's current Comet Lake 9900K CPU features a TDP of "only" 95 W - when compared to the rumored 125 W of the 10900K), whilst their current top offering, the i9-9900KS, features a 127 W TDP. Remember that Intel's 10900K should feature 10 cores and 20 threads, two extra cores than their current 9900K - this should explain the increased TDP, a mathematical necessity given that Intel can only count on marginal improvements to its 14 nm fabrication process to frequencies and power consumption of its CPUs.



A leaked slide from momomo on Twitter shows, if real, that Intel's future enthusiast-grade CPUs (likely i5-10600K, i7-10700K and i9-10900K) will feature this 125 W TDP, while other launches in that family will make do with the more traditional 65 W TDP (interesting to see that Intel has some 10-core CPUs with 65 W TDP, the same as their current 9900, despite two more cores). A footnote on the leaked slide shows that these K processors can be configured for a 95 W TDP, but this would likely come at a significant cost to operating frequency. Intel seems to be bringing a knife to a gunfight (in terms of core counts and TDP) with AMD's Ryzen 3000 and perhaps Ryzen 4000 CPUs, should those and Intel's future offerings actually coexist in the market.

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AMD Ryzen 4000 Rumored to Offer Around 17% Increased Performance
AMD's upcoming Ryzen 4000 series processors will be based on the company's Zen 3 design, which will feature a deeply revised architecture aiming to offer increased performance (surprising no-one). AMD themselves have already said that Zen 3 will offer performance increases in line with the reelase of new architectures - and we all remember the around 15% increase achieved with the release of Zen 2 Ryzen 3000 series, which surprised even AMD on its performance capabilities. Several sources around the web are quoting an around 17% increase in performance, taking into account increased operating frequencies of Zen 3 (100 to 200 MHz at least for the enterprise solutions, which could pave the way for even higher increases in consumer-geared products) and increased IPC of its core design. The utilization of EUV in the 7 nm process shouldn't have much to do with the increased frequencies of the CPUs, and will mostly be used to reduce the number of masks that are required for production of AMD's Zen 3 CPUs (which in turn will lead to increased yields).



Sources are claiming an increase of up to 50% in Zen 3's Floating Point Units (FPU) compared to Zen 2, while integer operations should make do with a 10-12% increase. Cores should remain stable across the board - and with that increase in performance, I'd say an upper limit of 16 physical and 32 logic cores in a consumer-geared CPU is more than enough. Increased IPCs and frequencies will definitely make AMD an even better proposition for all markets - gaming in particular, where Intel still has a (slightly virtual) hold in consumer's minds.

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(PR) SK hynix to Introduce Consumer PCIe NVMe SSDs at CES 2020
SK hynix Inc., a global semiconductor maker based in Korea, is set to introduce its newest offering of "Gold P31" and "Platinum P31" PCIe NVMe Solid State Drives (SSDs) at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2020, which will be held on January 7-10 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The drives are built with SK hynix's 128-layer 4D NAND flash, only six months after the Company announced the mass production of the world's first and highest vertical stack for NAND flash, demonstrating the chipmaker's technological edge.



As a leading manufacturer of memory chips, SK hynix builds and supplies its own DRAM and NAND flash devices, as well as SSD controllers designed and developed in-house. The company has a proven track record as a major supplier to global OEMs including top-tier PC makers, who have trusted and purchased SK hynix's SSDs for nearly a decade now. As a next step, SK hynix is now expanding into the consumer market with its newest drives.
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GTA V was in Top US Game Sales Charts for 74 Months
GTA V, made by Rockstar and Take-Two, is possibly the biggest game ever designed, with the massive player base and massive profits fulfilled. Perhaps the most interesting report today is that the game has stayed in the top game sales chart in the United States for the past 74 months. Month after month, gamers have been buying digital copies of the game to a point where it maintained some of the top spots on the charts. Since the game launched in 2013, it got support for two generations of consoles and PC platforms, making it accessible to a huge base of gamers. With constant updates and new content, the game managed to keep players interested and busy with new quests to conquer.



"Recurrent consumer spending on GTA Online grew 23% YoY to a new record, driven by the July release of the Diamond Casino Resort update. This update was GTA Online's biggest content launch ever, delivering record daily, weekly, and monthly active users in July and again in August," CEO of Take-Two Interactive Strauss Zelnick said in November.

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Welcome 2020 with the Latest Genuine Software from GoodOffer24
With the warmth of Christmas upon us, we turn to the turn of the year - and of the decade. Why not give your computers the latest genuine software they deserve? With GoodOffer24, you can save big on genuine, globally-valid Windows 10 and Office digital licenses, helping you spend more of your X'mas moneis on better hardware; or upgrading your computers from Windows 7 to the latest and greatest editions of Windows 10. Save even more, when you pick up bundles of the various editions of Windows 10 and Office, giving your PCs the best software they need. Shop confidently on GoodOffer24 with PayPal securing not just your payment instruments, but also you purchase. Don't forget to apply TechPowerUp-exclusive coupon codes to avail the prices you see here.



Apply the coupon code JGohw25 at checkout on the following items to shave 25% off on the list prices and avail the prices you see here.

Buy Windows 10 Pro at $11.38 | Buy Windows 10 Pro Twin Pack at $19.50 | Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus at $28.19 | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC at $13.29 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2016 Professional Plus at $33.69 | Buy Windows 10 Home + Office 2016 Professional Plus at $31.92



Don't forget to apply the coupon code JGohw40 at checkout on the following items to shave 40% off and avail the prices you see here.

Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at $42.56 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2019 Professional Plus at $46.11 | Buy Windows 10 Home + Office 2019 Professional Plus at $44.69
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TechPowerUp Cooler Master TUF Gaming Alliance Full System Giveaway: The Winner!
TechPowerUp and Cooler Master, in partnership with ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance, brought you a cracker of an year-end Giveaway, with a full gaming desktop on offer, equipped with stable and reliable components from the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance of co-branded hardware. Our TUF Gaming Alliance system includes an ASUS TUF X470-Plus Gaming motherboard, AMD Ryzen 5 2600 processor, ASUS GeForce RTX 2060 TUF Gaming graphics card, 16 GB Apacer Panther Rage RGB TUF Gaming Edition memory, Cooler Master MasterBox MB500 TUF Gaming Edition case, Team Group T-Force Delta S TUF RGB 250 GB SSD, Cooler Master MasterWatt 750 W TUF Gaming Edition power-supply, and a Cooler Master MasterAir MA410M TUF Gaming Edition CPU cooler. The Winner takes all in our Giveaway, and without further ado here they are:
  • TechPowerUp Forums user "diatribe" from the United States
Huge Congratulations @diatribe, a winner is you! TechPowerUp and Cooler Master will return with more such interesting giveaways!

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MSI Unveils the Optix MAG272QR 27-inch Fast 1440p Monitor
MSI today unveiled the Optix MAG272QR, a 27-inch fast gaming monitor. Slotted in the company's Arsenal Gaming family, the MAG272QR features a VA panel with WQHD (2560 x 1440 pixels) resolution, 165 Hz refresh-rate, 1 ms (GTG) response-time, AMD FreeSync support, and 95.6% DCI-P3 coverage. Other key panel specs include 10 bpc color (1.07 billion colors), 178°/178° viewing-angles, 300 cd/m² maximum brightness, and dynamic mega-contrast ratio, besides 3000:1 static contrast.



The Optix MAG272QR features a stand that lets you adjust height, 90° rotation to portrait mode, ±75° swivel, and 5-20° tilt. Behind the monitor are RGB LED embellishments that you control with MSI Mystic Light RGB app, and can also configure as mood-light. Display inputs include USB-C (DisplayPort TMDS passthrough), standard DisplayPort 1.2a, and two HDMI 2.0b inputs; all of which support the monitor's full 1440p resolution. Using HDMI 2.0b caps the refresh-rate to 144 Hz. Available now, the Optix MAG272QR is priced at USD $350.

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Intel DG1 Discrete GPU Shows Up with 96 Execution Units
As we are approaching the year 2020, when Intel is rumored to launch its discrete graphics cards to the hand of consumers around the world, we are gearing up on the number of leaks about the upcoming products. Thanks to Twitter user @KOMACHI_ENSAKA, who found the latest EEC listing, we have new information regarding Intel's upcoming DG1 discrete graphics solution.



In the leaked EEC listing, the DG1 GPU is being presented as a GPU with 96 execution units, meaning that Intel is planning to take on entry-level graphics cards with this GPU. If the graphics unit is following the same design principle of the previous-generation GPUs, then there should be around 8 shading units per one execution unit, totaling 768 shading units for the whole DG1 GPU. If the 12th Gen Xe design inside the DG1 follows a different approach, then we can expect to see a double amount of shading units, meaning 1536 in total.


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MSI Teases Evoke Line of Notebooks for Creators
MSI debuted the Evoke brand of hardware targeted at creators, with its Radeon RX 5700-series Evoke graphics cards. The company is now planning to extend the brand to a range of other products, beginning with notebooks. The company teased the design of what's allegedly the first Evoke branded notebook, which ships with a minimalist and durable design, and hardware tailored for content-creation applications. The company didn't tease its specs, but you can expect anything from Intel's 10th gen "Comet Lake-H" to AMD's Ryzen 4000 "Renoir" processors, and discrete graphics options that include RX 5500M "Navi" or even Max-Q RTX 20-series. Some of the higher trims could even leverage fast NVMe storage. MSI is expected to launch its Evolve notebooks on 7th January, 2020.

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Intel LGA1200 Socket Sketched, Appears Cooler-compatible with LGA115x
Intel's upcoming LGA1200 mainstream desktop socket (aka socket H5), appears to be cooler-compatible with older LGA115x sockets. This would mean any CPU cooler compatible with sockets LGA1156, LGA1155, LGA1150, and LGA1151, should be mechanically compatible with LGA1200. You'd still need to ensure the cooler has enough thermal capacity to cool some of the higher TDP SKUs such as the range-topping Core i9-10900K.



Comparative mechanical drawings of LGA1200 and LGA1151 were posted by momomo_us and eUUUK50, which show the LGA1200 package to have the same dimensions as the older socket. A picture of the land-grid of an LGA1200 package also leaked to the web, showing how Intel utilized empty bits of the fiberglass substrate to cram in the additional 49 pins, without changing the size of the contacts. The LGA1200 socket debuts with Intel's 10th generation Core "Comet Lake" desktop processors and motherboards based on the company's 400-series chipsets. Intel is expected to launch these processors by Q2-2020.

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(PR) MONTECH Releases New Fighter 400 and Fighter 600 Budget Gaming Cases
Montech, a new enthusiast PC Case, Power and Cooling solutions brand based in Taiwan introduces their new Fighter 400 and Fighter 600 line of competitively priced gaming cases. Both mid-tower ATX cases come with tempered glass side panels. The Fighter 400 comes with a pre-installed 120 mm Blue LED rear fan, while the Fighter 600 comes 3 front 1 rear 120 mm Rainbow LED fans.



Aimed at the highly competitive budget gaming case range, both the Fighter 400 and Fighter 600 comes with all the bells and whistles of higher end alternatives. Both cases comes with full Tempered Glass side panels to show off your RGB peripherals, not to mention both cases comes with pre-installed 120 mm LED fans! For the Fighter 400 you get a 120 mm blue LED rear fan and with the Fighter 400 you get a total of 4 120 mm Rainbow LED fans. Designed for maximum airflow and performance, both cases include top and bottom dust filters to keep cooling and also dust in check. Industry standard front USB 3.0/2.0 I/O ports are also present, as well as a shielded PSU compartment, cable management ports, support for 120/240 mm radiators on the Fighter 600 and 120/240/280/360 mm radiators on the Fighter 400.
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TechPowerUp Wishes You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
We at TechPowerUp wish you and your family a Merry Christmas! We thank you from the bottom of our hearts to help us make 2019 a phenomenal year in the tech world, with the introduction of new computing platforms that set the direction in which the industry will grow in the next decade. Our content teams have kept you on the forefront with lightning fast news and in-depth product reviews. As we begin to turn the page in our calendars, we wish you an equally fruitful New Year, and the beginning of a prosperous new decade. Don't forget to tell us what you found under your tree!
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ADATA to Expand its Product Offerings to Monitors, Laptops and Gaming PCs
ADATA is a company currently selling only memory solutions like SSDs and DRAM, however, the company now wants to try something different in 2020. For starters, ADATA wants to launch more products that will be a part of its Xtreme Performance Gear lineup called XPG shortly. XPG will start offering new products like monitors, laptops, gaming PCs and PC cases with a goal of capturing new market share and try to establish itself as a strong brand of PC gaming products. The new lineup will get revealed with more details at CES 2020, however, we have information of what the new lineup contains.



For starters, XPG will begin with a laptop called Xenia 15, a 15.6-inch gaming laptop with 1080p IPS display and 9th gen Intel core i9 CPU. Next up the chain is a gaming PC called XPG Gaia - 5 liters mini PC with one PCIe slot for a graphics card that's up to 8-inches long. In addition, XPG will showcase a new monitor called Photon equipped with a 27-inch panel that features PixelDisplay's Vivid Color Eye-Safe Display technology which is essentially a technique for blocking out blue light. There is also going to be a new case called XPG Volta, a cylindrical case made out of premium materials such as tempered glass and metal. It is supposed to fit up to E-ATX motherboard and have plenty of room for water-cooling setups. Last but not least, XPG will have two concepts of RGB DDR4 memory modules, with both of them having speeds of up to 4800 MHz and having capacity of up to 32 GB per DIMM.

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