Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti graphics card

Nvidia releases the “Ti” version of cards as it approaches the end of the series. No doubt this is the last graphics card in the GeForce 10 series and it saved the best for last!

GTX 1080 Ti “35 percent faster than a GTX 1080”

The company’s website markets the GTX 1080 Ti as the “World’s Fastest Gaming GPU” which is a big statement coming from Nvidia. The card was reveled late February at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang made the big reveal saying, “It’s time for something new, something that’s 35 percent faster than a GTX 1080, something that’s faster than TITAN X.” It’s hard to imagine that kind of performance but Nvidia reigns supreme at squeezing the efficiency out of it’s silicon.

What’s even more shocking is the price. With a MSRP of $699 the GTX 1080 Ti is almost half the cost of the TITAN X at it’s launch. Also the Founders Edition does not come with a price increase so you’ll be paying the same no matter when you decide to buy. Simply put, for $699 you can get the performance of a TITAN X or better!

The release of the GTX 1080 Ti also ushered in a price cut for the GTX 1080 to $499.99 and the GTX 1070 $349.99 as well. Of course these are the recommend retailer prices and not mandatory so you might end up paying a little more depending on where you buy it. At the time of writing this the GTX 1080 Ti is sold out on Nvidia’s offical site and retailers. Newegg is showing some GTX 1080 prices were lowered but only handful of models are at MSRP. I found some refurbished GTX 1070 from Newegg for $349.99 but all the new cards were more expensive.

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AMD Ryzen AM4 motherboard

Ryzen 7 1800X, 1700X, and 1700 processors were released March 2nd. These are the latest high-performance processors released by AMD based on the Zen microarchitecture. Hardware manufacturers also launched new motherboards equipped with AM4 sockets and new chipsets to take advantage of features like native DDR4 memory, USB 3.1 Gen 2 and NVMe.

This is the first major microarchitecture launch for AMD since Bulldozer in 2011. That family of processors also included Piledriver, Steamroller, and most recently Excavator generations. Although APUs were strengthened considerably in Excavator none of AMD’s CPUs could compete when it came to intense single-core performance that enthusiasts and gamers required. This resulted in Intel’s dominance in the high-performance processor space for the last six years.

Ryzen 7 sets world record for 8-core Cinebench benchmark

Thie release of Ryzen 7 CPUs is AMD’s answer to Intel’s i7 lineup. A defining feature of Ryzen 7 processors is they all sport 8-cores and 16 threads. This is huge because a majority of Intel chips are stuck on quad-core with a few octa-core that are expensive. Essentially, AMD is bringing 8-core processors to the masses at a price most can afford. Ryzen 5 chips were also announced to be released Q2 of this year.

It’s obvious the strategy for AMD is more cores but that was not very successful for Bulldozer and Excavator CPUs so what’s changed in Zen and Ryzen? The Zen microarchitecture dramatically increased it’s instructions per clock or IPC. This measures how many instructions per hertz can be computed by a processor. Originally, AMD was aiming for a 40% increase from Excavator to Zen but at AMD Ryzen Tech Day it was announced that Zen was actually performing 52% better than Excavator in benchmarks.

Benchmarks should always be taken with a grain of salt but when it comes to rendering and multi-core applications the Zen microarchitecture performs very well. The AMD Ryzen 7 1800X actually captured the world record for the Cinebench – R15 benchmark the day it launched. The AMD Ryzen 7 1800X beat out an Intel Core i7 5960X that’s clocked 680 MHz higher and costs $570 more!

Gaming benchmarks show a different story though. Video games especially depend on single-core performance because so few games really make use of every core in a processor. While AMD did make great improvements in IPC it’s still beaten out by Intel in this category and this shows in benchmarks for games. Another factor is Ryzen, AM4, and the motherboard chipsets are all brand new and could use optimization in both hardware and software.

All these chips come unlocked to allow for overclocking through the BIOS or AMD’s software. New “Wraith Coolers” were also released that provide cooling specifically designed for Ryzen chips.

Overall the AMD Ryzen 7 processors provide a good price-performance ratio. At the time of writing this you could buy a 1700 for $329.99, 1700X for $399.99 and the Ryzen 7 1800X for $499.99 though it’s back ordered on both Newegg and Amazon. This is just the start for CPUs released with Zen microarchitecture. Ryzen 5 processors are due out Q2 and there will also be APUs and server chips down the line.

Here are the specifications for Ryzen 7 & Ryzen 5 processors:

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BLU R1 HD home screen

The BLU R1 HD is the best Android phone of 2016 for price and feature set. Specs include a 1.3 GHz quad-core MediaTek processor, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB of internal storage, 4G LTE all behind a 5-inch Gorilla Glass 3 display. Don’t worry about filling up the internal storage because the phone features a MicroSD slot that can accommodate 64 GB cards. The standout feature is it’s dual SIM slots though.

All this can be purchased for $60 through Amazon Prime with “Lockscreen Offers & Ads” included and without for $110. That’s right, this phone is subsidized by Amazon to show non-intrusive ads in the notification area when locked. Of course you can pay more to get the ad-free version or with some tech skills root the  phone and remove them yourself!

BLU R1 HD — Bold Like Us

BLU  or “Bold Like Us” is a relatively new phone manufacturer based in Miami, Flordia. They’ve produced other value Android phones and feature phones like the PURE XR, LIFE ONE X2, and VIVO line. All their phones come GSM unlocked to let users choice which carrier they want to use. Sometimes they let you choose two carriers thanks to the inclusion of the dual SIM slots. Although their phone’s are priced competitively they seem to offer decent hardware and up-to-date software with the more recent versions of Google’s Android operating system.

The phone was released on Prime Day, July 12 2016, and  since then has become the number one (#1) best seller in Unlocked Cell Phones on Amazon. Their is also a lesser model with half the RAM and storage but only slightly cheaper at $49.99 & $99.99 respectively. Honestly, it’s worth an extra ten bucks to get double the RAM and internal storage.

If you are the market for a new Android phone then look no further! I’ve been using it almost daily since July and have had nothing but positive experiences with it. It’s a snappy phone with plenty of speed for games and intense apps. The outside is strudy and thanks to Gorilla Glass 3 it’s quite scratch resistant on the screen. At a price you can’t beat this could become your primary phone or serve as a great backup phone. I could see international business travels would also be interested in this phone because of it’s dual SIM slots.

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AMD Ryzen processor logo

Yesterday AMD announced Ryzen, their latest generation high-performance processors, at the “New Horizon” fan event. This is the first CPU based on “Zen” microarchitecture which has been under development for the last four years. Besides new silicon chips, AMD also released technology dubbed “SenseMI” that makes use of sensors and artificial intelligence to deliver even better voltage, clock frequency, and cooling.

Hardware specs of the featured Ryzen CPU include 8-cores, 16-threads, 95-watt TDP all running at 3.4 GHz without boost. AMD claims performance gains of “greater than 40 percent in instructions per clock” which could equalize or inch out Intel’s current offerings.

The fan event showed off benchmarks and 4K gaming demos pitting the AMD Ryzen against Intel’s Core i7-6900K. According to the AMD press release, “Blender- and Handbrake-based image rendering and video transcoding demos showed that the new CPU can match or outperform the Intel Core i7 6900K.” These benchmarks and demos should be taken with a grain of salt but AMD did release the Ryzen Blender demo for users to download and test out themselves.

Zen-based Ryzen processors & SenseMI

Zen microarchitecture was originally shown at E3 2016 using the code name “Summit Ridge”. Details have been sparse since then leaving enthusiasts to question if they should continue to wait or opt for Intel chips. Luckily for them this announcement cements the official launch of Ryzen/Zen for the first quarter of 2017 (Q1 2017). Generally, the highest performing processors are released first followed by consumer desktop and notebook variations and ending with server and extreme models.

AMD touts “multiple architectural advances combined with platform and processing technologies” for Zen. President and CEO Dr. Lisa Su elaborated further saying, “The ‘Zen’ core at the heart of our Ryzen processors is the result of focused execution and thousands of engineering hours designing.”  Zen’s performance is bolstered by “SenseMI” technology which was also announced yesterday.

SenseMI is not a singular technology but rather “comprised of five components” according to AMD. Those components are: “Pure Power, Precision Boost, Extended Frequency Range (XFR), Neural Net Prediction, and Smart Prefetch.” The first three components revolve around embedded and integrated sensors for optimal voltage, clock frequency, clock speeds, and cooling capability. The last two utilize artificial intelligence, algorithms, and software, “that learns to predict what future pathway an application will take based on past runs.”

The success of these new Zen-based CPUs is key for AMD’s future and to challenge Intel’s dominance in the microprocessor space. No doubt the performance and price of Ryzen/Zen could very well make or break AMD in the consumer desktop market.

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Apple iPhone 7 “This is 7.”

For the curious, you can use the EarPods on devices with a Lightning port after they’ve been updated to iOS 10, though I’m not sure why you’d want to. Using wired audio through the Lightning connector means you cannot be charging or connecting to a computer because it can’t do any of those simultaneously! It’s a stunning omission but by default the new iPhone 7 cannot charge and be connected to EarPods or any wired headphones at the same time.

Rumors about the change to the audio port surfaced well before Apple’s official announcement on September 7 in San Francisco. Earlier in the year a redesigned MacBook was released which consolidated almost all of the ports into single USB Type-C port but the 3.5 mm headphone jack survived. Could Apple really keep a headphone jack in a redesigned MacBook but not the new iPhone?

iPhone 7 Lightning Port & EarPods

Instead, Apple is pushing it’s propitiatory Lightning port for wired audio consumption. It released it’s own EarPods with Lightning Connector that retail for $29.00 and got some audio manufacturers on board early to have new Lightning specific devices ready for the iPhone 7. For a cool $199.95 you can pickup the JBL Reflect Aware that are advertised as a “Lightning connector sport earphone” featuring Noise Cancellation and Adaptive Noise Control.

Here’s a list of what’s included with the purchase of an iPhone 7 or Plus:

• iPhone with iOS 10
• EarPods with Lightning Connector
• Lightning to 3.5 mm Headphone Jack Adapter
• Lightning to USB Cable
• USB Power Adapter
• Documentation

All this might have left you scratching your head. Why would Apple make the decision to drop the standardized 3.5 mm headphone jack? Besides Apple’s design aesthetic an answer also came from Phil Schiller, Apple VP, is quoted as saying “the reason to move on [is] courage.” So there you go, Apple removed one of the most ubiquitous audio connections ever on the basis of “courage.”

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AMD Linux Driver Stack September 2015 AMDGPU

Last month at the XDC2015 conference AMD detailed plans for their Linux driver stack dubbed “AMDGPU”. At the center of AMDGPU is a new open-source Kernel driver that interfaces both closed and open source user-mode drivers (UMDs) unifying it’s driver offering into a solution that both official drivers and community created alternatives can tap into.

From the images displayed on your monitor all the way down to the physical hardware, the graphics driver stack controls every aspect of of rendering both 2D and 3D graphics on a computer. It’s important to differentiate between the Kernel graphics driver (AMDGPU) which is used by hardware and the user-space drivers which is used by the operating system (Linux). Since both closed and open source user-space drivers will utilize the same Kernel driver it will be possible to switch between user-spaces without the need to reboot!

Using AMDGPU most of the graphics stack will be open-source including the KFD and HSA runtime, OpenGL, Video Encode/Decode Gallium, DDX and Advanced Micro Devices has promised to open up OpenCL and Vulkan as it progresses down the AMDGPU road map. They also showed a closed stack diagram for AMD FirePro that will remain proprietary for workstation graphics cards but these are mostly used at the enterprise level.

This is a big deal for Linux users who for years had to choose between proprietary graphics drivers that offered better performance or open-source alternatives created by the community. For AMD cards, Radeon is the open source project that is based on documentation released by AMD and Catalyst Linux previously known as fglrx is the current official drivers. On the NVIDIA side of things, Nouveau is the open source project that relies almost entirely on reverse engineering and NVIDIA’s proprietary Linux Display Driver is what they officially recommend for Linux users.

AMD code included in Linux Kernel 4.2 for AMDGPU

Starting with Linux Kernel 4.2 released on September 1st 2015 AMDGPU code was included through AMD pull requests and they continue to submit new updates for Linux 4.3 and most recently Linux 4.4 as different parts become stable. This is not an open-source version of their currently closed Catalyst drivers but as the slides put it: “AMDGPU is based on current upstream open source AMDRadeon kernel driver” and “The existing open source AMD Radeon driver and new AMDGPU driver leverage upstream components.”

Support of this new driver does require owning a slightly newer AMD graphics card with GCN 1.2 support which are chips based on Tonga, Fiji, and Carrizo it’s new mobile-only chips. This does include the latest and greatest AMD Fiji cards: R9 Fury X, R9 Fury, and R9 Nano. Tonga cards supported only include the Radeon R9 285 and OEM only R9 380. All Carrizo APUs are supported but so far few have been announced or released.

Advanced Micro Devices is not opening up professional workstation cards which are separate from consumer chips and high-end graphics cards for gaming. AMD FirePro add-ons along with some other UMDs will remain closed source indefinitely and are not marked for become open-source ever. See the AMD Linux Stacks slide below for more details:

AMD Linux Driver All Open vs Pro

To help conceptualize from User Space (OS) to Kernel Space (hardware) here is the stack diagram for the All Open drivers:

AMD Linux Driver Stack Diagram All Open

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This is good news for everyone interested in Intel’s new 6th Generation processors codename Skylake. Computer enthusiasts, architects and video editors are prime buyers for the high-end Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz because it’s the the fastest 6th Generation chip released by Intel so far. The scarcity of Skylake i7 chips in the US had been driving prices up as well so more stock equals normalized prices.

Both Newegg and TigerDirect are limiting purchase to 1 per customer at this time. At $369.99 it’s only $19.99 higher than the $350 MSRP for the i7-6700K which is the best price the United States has seen so far. If you had been waiting to build a new Skylake desktop or had bought a Z170 motherboard hoping to plop the i7-6700K into it once available then now is your chance!

Intel i7-6700K availabile at TigerDirect

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Intel Core i7 6700K available at Newegg as combo only: “This item can only be purchased with a combo”

I wrote about the availability of Intel’s Core i7-6700K in the United Stats recently and noted it was not available at any of the major US computer parts retailers. Today, Newegg does have it in stock with one catch: you must buy it as bundle. If you try to add an i7-6700K to your cart you get an error: “Sorry, this gift item is part of a promotional special and cannot be manually added to your cart” with bundles listed below it.

If you’re building a brand new desktop computer and need to pick all the parts then these bundles may not be so bad but if you’ve just been looking to buy an Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz alone then you’ve out of luck. Some bundles come with a motherboard, memory, and of course the Skylake Core i7-6700K but most are just motherboards and the i7 CPU.

Here are the combos from cheapest to most expensive, all of them come with the i7-6700K:

Intel i7 6700K available Newegg as combo only

Newegg Intel Core i7 6700K Combos

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Intel Core i7-6700K packaging box design

August 5th was the official launch of Intel’s new 6th Generation processors codename Skylake. Two new chips were released: the Intel Core i5-6600K 6M Skylake Quad-Core 3.5 GHz and the Intel Core i7-6700K 8M Skylake Quad-Core 4.0 GHz but at the time of writing this, 44 days since launch, you can only buy the i5-6600K easily from online retailers in the United States while the i7-6700K remains out of stock. Across the pond, it’s widely available in European online retailers and is being sold by 3rd party merchants for a tidy profit riding the wave of uncertainty that has cloaked the Skylake i7 launch.

Over the last week I’ve tracked the i7-6700K across major US computer parts retailers: Amazon, Newegg, NCIXUS, TigerDirect and the it’s been Out of Stock for all of them consistently. Using Google Shopping I did find some lesser-known retailers who offer to ship to the United States but for way more than the MSRP. Picking the seller with the highest rating, Play-Asia, they charge $419.99 with $14.90 shipping coming out to a total price of $434.89. Intel’s MSRP for the i7-6700K is $350 so that’s a difference of $84.89 which is roughly a 24% markup.

Update March 8th 2016 – The Skylake Core i7-6700K has been in stock steadily for the last few months so this article is dated and for archival purposes only. Considering buying one at the link to left!

Intel i7 6700K Availability is mostly Out of Stock in the United States

Europe has plenty Skylake Core i7-6700K

Europe on the other hand has plenty Core i7-6700K in stock. PCPartPicker’s UK site has 8 online retailers to choose from ranging from £284.99 – £349.99 though some do not deliver to the US. The current currency conversion from £284.99 is about $442.80 USD at the time of writing this, which is only slightly more than Play-Asia’s price.

Intel i7 6700K Availability Europe PCPartPicker in stock

The other processor released, Intel Core i5-6600K, is widely available in the US and can be bought at this very moment from Newegg for $249.99 and TigerDirect for $239.99 much closer to the MSRP of $225. Obviously, availability is having a big impact on the price of the i7-6700K causing 3rd party merchants to take advantage of the scarcity. It’s been 44 days since the launch of Skylake so speculation has run rampant about what’s going on with Intel’s Skylake i7 chips. The /r/intel subreddit has been vocal in their criticism of Intel since launch, the latest post “Is 6700k ever going to be in NA?”  lSherlockl asks:

I have a rapidly dying desktop on my hands and everything for its replacement except the CPU that released over a month ago and somehow still is not available in america but every other country.

Comments follow discussing the situation, here are some:

Intel should at least let us know that it will be available in NA in two or three months later instead of being silent about it or just saying Soon, some of us, would completely understand and slow down the hype train, or maybe hold off on buying the rest of the components. – HJTh3Best

NCIX in Canada has slowly begun receiving / shipping theirs out. They won’t be “in stock” for a while though at this rate. Lots of preorders – r3animate

20% is slight? Thats a huge markup on a $350 chip. Honestly at this point people are likely better off waiting for Broadwell-e or zen. By the time Skylake is actually available the’ll be out. – LocalDiscNTFS

For tracking prices I used NowInStock.net which is a great tool if you are buying computer parts.

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Opening NVIDIA GeForce Experience shows you that a new driver is available and by clicking Download driver it will update directly from here or you can find version 355.82 on  NVIDIA’s website which says:

The latest GeForce Game Ready driver, release 355.82 WHQL, ensures you’ll have the best possible gaming experience for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and Mad Max.

It adds game improvements like SLI profiles and Application Profiles to tweak for better game play in The Phantom Pain. On my GTX 970 I did notice an increase in FPS overall, of course the game is locked to 60 frames per second (FPS) so there is already a limit to performance in that way.

NVIDIA GeForce Experience Game Ready WHQL driver version 355.82

The driver will download and then a new screen opens to install the driver. While mine was installing I actually saw a banner ad for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which I guess is no surprise considering the NVIDIA logo shows up in game every time you load for the first time.

NVIDIA GeForce Experience install driver 355.82 Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain

Once your done it will show Installation Complete.

NVIDIA GeForce Experience – Installation Complete

AMD also updated their driver to Catalyst 15.8 Beta drivers and you find more info here. Time to play some MGS V: The Phantom Pain!

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