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GeIL Orion AMD Edition DDR4-3200 16GB Dual-Channel Memory Kit Review - TweakTown
GeIL's Orion AMD Edition DDR4-3200 16GB dual-channel RAM kit goes under the spotlight. Join us as we fully check it out.
Introduction, Specifications, and Pricing Even though GeIL may not be on the radar when looking for a new kit of DDR4, with thirteen current flavors of families to choose from, it is high time they should be! From naked sticks and the Dragon RAM, all the way to some of the tallest heat spreaders in the industry, over as many series as GeIL has available, you will find something that fits the need! If not for an overclocking competition many moons ago, we likely would have never heard of them outside of our current occupation, but thinking about that kit brings back fond memories, no pun intended. Even with many of the more recent kits we have been sent over the years, in one way or another, there was always something to brag about when reviewing those products, and we expect no less today! With much news about DDR5 at this point, many will say this is a waste of time reviewing more DDR4, but two things play into the relevance of DDR4. The first is the adoption rate. While we all love to be on the bleeding edge of tech releases, it will still be a couple of years before DDR5 will be widely available. The second thing going for DDR4 is the cost. While many things part of the PC game are either out of stock or being scalped at ridiculous prices, DDR4 is affordable and will remain so until the stock starts to disappear, and that is no time soon. Taking it the step that GeIL did also makes this kit more relevant than ever since the new AMD CPUs are out in the wild. Many will know the issues with memory on many a motherboard and CPU combination for Ryzen. When looking for advice, you get three answers. Look at the QVL for the motherboard, buy a known B-die kit, or invest in a set tuned for Ryzen, which the latest GeIL memory is! Keep in mind, too, we have, but one of a plethora of options regarding the Orion AMD Edition sticks we have from GeIL. With a wide range of speed, timings, and density, GeIL has what you need, no matter if it's a high-speed kit for gaming or a mass of RAM on demand for productivity. Along those same lines, if the aesthetics of the kit we have do not play well with the build you have in mind, this is one of two color choices within the Orion AMD Edition Series. Within the chart found on the GeIL product page for the Orion AMD Edition Series kits, we see that these "long DIMM" sticks can be gotten in packs with single sticks, two sticks, or four. Speed in this series ranges from 2666 MHz on the low-end through to 4000 MHz on the high-end, and each stick can be had in densities of 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB to make sets up to 128GB in density over four modules. CAS latency differs depending on the kit you are looking at, but we do know that CL16 includes the 2666 MHz, 3000 MHz, and 3200 MHz kits but increases as speed increases after that in even-numbered jumps. The slower sticks can run at 1.20V, while many will need 1.35V, and the 4000MHz sets need 1.40V to run properly. We made mention of the fact that we have one of two color options. Our kit is delivered in Racing Red, but there is a more subdued looking Titanium Gray version that many will likely gravitate towards. All of the GeIL memory runs through their proprietary DYNA 4 SLT testing, and while AMD compatible, they still use an XMP 2.0 profile for their rated settings. The last thing to cover is the warranty, where GeIL offers a limited lifetime warranty on all of their DDR4. Knowing what the range of all of their options are is a good thing to know, but more specifically, we have the GAOR416GB3200C16ADC. Breaking that down, these are GeIL Orion sticks, but ours are 3200 MHz in speed, with the CAS set at 16, requiring 1.35V to run properly. We have the Racing Red variety, and we are taken back to when we first saw their DDR2, as the styling is reminiscent of heat spreaders seen years ago! That fact also carries into the overall height, where minimal room is required to fit our RAM as they are not much taller than their naked Dragon RAM. So far, all things point to an experience we may enjoy, and it has us eagerly awaiting testing! Putting it out there, GeIL memory is not always the easiest to find when looking to buy a kit! When we took a look at Amazon, the GeIL memory offered is limited. We found a 3000 MHz red kit and a 3600 MHz red kit, which is what we link to buy. However, on top of limited offerings, the only sellers are third-party and are asking way too much for these sticks! Off to Newegg, we went to see what they have listed and were astonished at all of the kits we saw. We found the kit we have in hand listed there for just $76.99, which we feel is a great price for a 16GB kit of DDR4 at this time. All we can do now is look over what GeIL sent us, see what is under the hood, and get to testing and see if all of this AMD Edition stuff is worth the effort! Packaging and G.Skill Ripjaws V Our set of Orion AMD Edition sticks came in a thick box with a fancy looking front panel. Using the bulk of the space for an image of the Racing Red module, the background is a mix of brushed metal and some industrial building or guts of a space module behind it. Around the module, you see the GeIL name, the notation of the DYNA 4SLT testing, its DDR4 nature, that this is a dual-channel kit, and it is hard to miss the Ryzen name and logo at the left. The box's back is covered in what looks like it could be the outside of a spaceship, where the manufacturer is listed first and foremost. A small window lets you get a glimpse of what is inside, but a product sticker is applied to the packaging to tell you all you need to know except for the voltage. To the right is the company information for GeIL, along with the web address. Fresh out of the boxes clamshell inner packaging, and with thin strips of plastic removed from the shiny black tops of the heat spreaders, these gloriously bright red sticks are what we have for testing. With a slightly raised black plastic top and the anodized side components, along with the bulbous GeIL emblem at the right, they harken back to a much older time in RAM production! We like the added touch of the cutaway hexagonal-shaped openings with the fine black mesh showing through them. Orion's series name is painted onto the spreader and is just below the big "G." You will find a product sticker applied at the left edge on the back of both sticks, just under the GeIL name presented in red on the black tops. Slightly off-center and slightly crooked is the Ryzen name and logo, with the silver "G" at the right like we saw on the other side. What is also visible now is that the heat spreader is not flat; it is highest across the middle, where all sides are angled to meet in the middle. With the angles offered in the spreader, it makes sense that the corners of the top portions are eased back, angled, and offers much of this design style. This is also the side you will see when installed on a mainstream system, leaving you to enjoy all of the efforts they put into making this RAM stand out in the crowd! With Thaiphoon Burner's aid, we see that GeIL came out swinging with these kits based on Samsung B-die. Even while using the standard K4A8G085WB-BCPB IC model number, delivering 16-18-18-36 timings in a 3200MHz kit means it is not the litter's best pick. It goes along with what we say about all B-die not being equal, but this kit does fit two parts of AMD users' typically recommended advice. It is made for Ryzen, and it is B-die! Once the Orion AMD Edition is installed into our AMD system, we find the bright red very appealing! The black portion of the spreaders is designed to come down to the slot and locks, which encompasses that bold red with a black plastic ring! The metallic G at the top, the red GeIL at the bottom, and even the small vents pop. For a "standard" looking set of DDR4, the more we look at them, the more we like about them! While we do prefer to have the space to see more of the red on the sticks' side, we cannot complain about the look when these sticks are placed next to each other. Even though the top portion is made of shiny black plastic, it will also act as a mirror, reflecting any additional lighting that may be going on in the chassis. Test System Details To obtain the AMD CPU-Z screenshots, you will see directly following this image, and this is the system we used to do it, as well as in attaining the results seen in the following pages. Thanks go out to Corsair, ASUS, and GIGABYTE for supporting this venture. For detailed specifications of the system, those can be found below. To obtain the screenshot we have here, all we did after clearing CMOS when installing the kit was to boot the system, enter the BIOS, and enable the DOCP profile. Once done with that, we rebooted to find our GeIL Orion running at its rated 3200 MHz with the appropriate 16-18-18-36 1T timings. The VDIMM required is 1.35V, while our SOC voltage was automatically set at 1.08V. When it came to tightening the timings a bit, we ran into a pretty hard wall. While CAS14 is completely stable, we could not move the secondary timings using 1.45V to the memory. Any attempt to change them resulted in a postcode error or a BSOD. We also attempted to raise the Orion AMD Edition's overall speed to find that there is little room for improvement here, opting to use 1.45 VDIMM and 1.18V for SOC voltage. While the divider is set to 3266 MHz, the fluctuating bus speed shows it slightly slower. However little we could gain, with these settings, the kit is stable as can be! Chad's AMD DDR4 Dual-Channel Test System Specifications To obtain the Intel CPU-Z screenshots, you will see directly following this image, and this is the system we used to do it, as well as in attaining the results seen in the following pages. Thanks go out to Corsair, ASUS, and GIGABYTE for supporting us here too! For detailed specifications of the system, those can be found below. We used the same process to obtain these results as we did for the AMD system, just that this time we enabled the XMP 2.0 profile. In doing that, we have the 3200 MHz speed we should, along with the 16-18-18-36 timings, just that this time we are using 2T command rate. VDIMM is still 1.35V, the VCCIO is at 1.312V, and the VCCSA is at 1.152V. The Orion AMD Edition drops to the same timings on both systems is of no shock to us. 2T command rate does not play much difference in that aspect. 14-18-18-36 2T timings are rock solid, and anything lower with the secondaries resulted in a BSOD. As far as the voltage is concerned, we are using 1.45 VDIMM, and we also increased the VCCSA to 1.252V. While not a drastic improvement over the AMD results, on our Intel-based system, we could get a few more drops of speed. Overall, we only got to 3300 MHz with the XMP timings, using the same voltages as we did in the previous run. Again, everything is stable, and we are appreciative to get something to test, but it does prove that flexibility is not a guarantee! Chad's Intel DDR4 Dual-Channel Test System Specifications Chad's Intel DDR4 Dual-Channel Test System Specifications AMD Performance It is hard to say that GeIL won the read performance metric when the DOCP score is roughly 1400 MB/s behind any of the other 3200 MHz kits. Reducing the timings added less than 100 MB/s advantage over the DOCP profile, but that 66 MHz bump made all the difference in the world, as it finally surpasses the other 3200 MHz kits already tested. Write performance is much better than read, as the Orion shows to be the best kit of 3200 MHz DDR4 in the chart, with just DOCP enabled. This time, reducing the timings offers a double-digit bump in performance, where at 3266 MHz, we saw a boost that puts it to the top of the chart! Very similar to what we saw with read performance, copy performance is also pretty lackluster. No matter how you want to run the Orion AMD Edition sticks, you will still be at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to bandwidth. Latency is important to many AMD users, and the GeIL Orion falls into the middle while running under control of the DOCP profile. We could reduce the latency a bit by overclocking the kit, but they are still one of the better 3200 MHz kits when it comes to this aspect. Our physics testing shows the Orion AMD Edition kit to do fairly well. The Ripjaws V and the TOUGHRAM do slightly better than the Orion, and even though added speed took points away, this is a good instance where CAS14 shines with a chart-topping score. PCMark 10 does many various tests, covering many aspects of everyday usage on a PC, maybe more oriented towards the professionals and not so much for gamers. Still, we like it for its all-encompassing nature. While the Orion does outperform the Ripjaws V this time, the XLR8 RGB and TOUGHRAM hold higher positions. This time, reducing the CAS latency lost us points, but the additional speed does better, although just seven points better than the XLR8 RGB. The various testing methods of PCMark 10 hammers the Ripjaws V when used with the DOCP profile. Both of the overclocked results are more along the lines of what we expected to see, and both options fall between the PNY XLR8 and the TOPUGHRAM RGB. If file compression is something you do regularly, the Orion AMD Edition may not be what you are looking for. To complete the nearly 8GB file, only the 2400 MHz set of Panther Rage performed worse, no matter how we ran the kit! Cinebench also shows the Orion AMD Edition stick in very dim light. With the DOCP profile offering the worst results in the chart, it is hard to spin on that to help them out. Lowering the CAS to 14 puts it in range of what the other 3200 MHz offerings delivered without any of that messing around! Even though we have been essentially pooping on the Orion kit for many of these charts, but then it comes in and delivers results that are delightful in Handbrake. If you are likely to be editing videos, most times, you will end up transcoding its format, and there is no denying the second-place finish using the DOCP profile; and if you can lower the CAS to 14 with your kit, you can get the best results in the chart at this time! Intel Performance Even on our Intel-based system, read performance is still pretty poor. While they can outperform the XLR8 RGB, it is bested by everything else in its class. Huge gains can be had for the overclockers, though. There is a 3500 MB/s boost opting to use a lower CAS, and another 800 MB/s on top of that when running them at 3300 MHz. Unlike with the AMD system, we see that the write performance does not get better on our Intel rig. All of the 3200 MHz kits beat the Orions with the XMP profile enabled. Even playing around with the speed and timings do not seem to offer the advantage we were expecting, although, at that point, they can compete with the competition. For the third strike in a row, we look at the copy numbers and find the Orion at the bottom, just above the 2400 MHz Apacer kit! We could eke out another 1000 to 1300 MB/s boost by tinkering, get near the TOUGHRAM, and still be beaten by the Ripjaws V. Ironically, with the lackluster performance, we saw across the previous three metrics, the latency is quite good! Much closer to the top of the chart than the bottom, the GeIL Orion are strong contenders in this aspect, but sadly it does not translate to other portions of this test suite. Under the control of the XMP profile, the Orion AMD Edition kit is third from last. Running them at CAS14 gives us a few more points, but the real winner here is running them at 3300 MHz, but it still beat by a pair of 3200 MHz sets of DDR4, and they aren't overclocked in these results! PCMark 10 shines a slightly brighter light on this kit, with the XMP run delivering the best results of all the 3200 MHz sets. More speed is a killer in this benchmark, but we did shoot up the chart using CAS 14 instead of 16. As we saw on the AMD rig, the Orion does not help the Intel rig with compression any better! Next to last is a bad place to be, no doubt about that! Even though overclocking results in improvements, there are better performing 3200 MHz options. Cinebench hammers this kit as well. Next to last again, there is little room to make this seem like a rosy situation. While the points difference is minimal, overclocking does allow the Orion to shine a bit, but neither of those results is guaranteed with all kits! Paired with the 10700K, the Orion AMD Edition RAM falters once again in the Handbrake results. While they can surpass the Ripjaws V, the XLR8 and TOUGHRAM do slightly better. Overclocking does have merit here, and we see that reducing the CAS timing offers the best results out of this RAM. Final Thoughts Can aesthetics carry a set of RAM far enough to make it into your cart? That is the question we have running through our mind right now! To that point, the Racing Red Orion AMD Edition DDR4 we have in hand is stunning! For a kit of RAM without RGB, it has what it takes to gain attention visually. All of the angles, the mix of shiny black angular bits contrasting against the brilliant looking metal side portion is something we absolutely admire about this memory! The issue is for us. When it comes to buying RAM over your system's SPD value, you expect performance for the added speed, and sadly, we felt that the GeIL Orion fell short in this aspect! No matter how pretty and fabulous this kit may be to look at, getting hammered by most of the benchmarks and needing to be overclocked to compete with its direct completion makes it tough to rally behind a product! Some chart-topping results were had by overclocking, but to say that the Orion is mostly capable of outperforming a 2400 MHz as its guarantee does not say much at all! With our sentimental love for GeIL, we will say we expected more from this RAM, and we will even go as far as to say we are a bit disappointed. The one saving grace for the Orion when it comes to performance is that the AMD system did do slightly better in the charts than we saw with the Intel results, which is a first for Ryzen compatible RAM. We typically see the Intel system do better with RAM tightened up for use with AMD systems. Price is of concern to most potential customers, and we can say that the Orion AMD Edition memory we have is affordable at just $76.99 for the set we have in hand! We could get behind the fact that GeIL does hit two of the three major bullseyes with RAM. It is stunning to look at, and it is affordable, but those two things do come with a substantial hit to the overall performance. If you are throwing together a spare rig with some style or budget dictates choices, we could see opting for something like this, but it would not be our first choice in a set of 3200 MHz 16GB kits.
ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler features 3.5-inch LCD display - TweakTown
ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler has a gigantic 3.5-inch LCD display, shows system stats, custom graphics, and so much more.
ASUS is about to launch its slick new ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler, its new flagship dual-fan cooler for your new Intel or AMD CPU with a gigantic 3.5-inch LCD display. The new design of the ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler was shown off by ASUS Technical Marketing Manager Juan Jose Guerrero III, showing off the new cooler installed into an ASUS Z590 ROG Maximus HERO motherboard. Check it out: The ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler is an upgrade over its predecessor that featured a smaller 1.77-inch LiveDash OLED display, while the ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler packs a huge 3.5-inch display that as VideoCardz aptly points out... is the same size as the Apple iPhone 4 smartphone display. We don't know what else is going on under the hood with the ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler, not do we know the pricing or when it'll be released. But going from the previous model which debuted at $220... we should expect the new, larger, bigger, badder ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 240 CPU cooler to be more expensive -- or at least the same $220 price point, minimum.
What's the best AMD motherboard for under $200 for Ryzen 3200G CPU? - TweakTown
Ask the Experts: Lamont is curious about an AMD motherboard upgrade for his Ryzen 3200G, but we suggest a CPU upgrade instead.
I am having a hard time picking my next motherboard upgrade for under $200. My setup is:
- Thermaltake 500W 80 plus white PSU
- GIGABYTE A320M-S2H MB
- AMD Ryzen 3200G 3.6 GHz CPU
- 8 GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4 Ram
- EVGA GTX 1060 3GB GPU
- 250 GB Silicon Power M.2 SSD
The world's most popular battle royale game is getting a TV show - TweakTown
Krafton's ultra-popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds battle royale is getting it's own animated TV show and future films.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting an animated TV show sometime soon. Will it be hand-drawn, or CGI like the old-school Beast Wars show? 2021 will be a big year for PUBG parent Krafton. Not only is the South Korean titan planning a huge billion-dollar IPO that could value the battle royale-maker at over $27 billion, but the PUBG franchise will soon cross-over to other mediums. PUBG company CEO Kim Chang-han tells Bloomberg that he has big plans for transmedia ventures. For instance, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is getting an animated series that will premiere on streaming services. A web-based cartoon is also in the works too. Farther down the line, Krafton has roadmaps for feature-length films and possibly live-action shows centered around the brutal survival franchise. There's no official word when these productions will be available, and Krafton says it's willing to buy out other film companies to help bring these projects to reality.
ASUS reveals funky new GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ZAKU II Edition card - TweakTown
ASUS joins its GUNDAM themed graphics cards with the new GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ZAKU II Edition, factory overclocked, too.
ASUS has just unveiled its new GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ZAKU II graphics card, with the design of the card fully inspired by Char's MS-06S ZAKU II Mobile Suit. The new GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ZAKU II graphics card has a factory overclock, with the TU116-300 GPU having a base GPU clock of 1530MHz and boost GPU clock of 1830MHz. There's 6GB of GDDR6 here @ 14Gbps on a 192-bit memory bus, too. The card measures in at a thicker 2.7-slot design, boasting a triple-fan cooler and even an old school DVI-D connector -- alongside its HDMI 2.0b and DP 1.4a ports. ASUS explains: "TUF Gaming X3 GeForce GTX 1660 SUPER ZAKU II EDITION graphics card combines TUF Gaming enhancements with design flourishes from the GUNDAM anime series. With a refashioning based on Char's MS-06S ZAKU II Mobile Suit, this card features a shroud and backplate in deep red with black and white accents. Also, both sides of the card are decked out with designs inspired by Zeon and Char's mech. For GUNDAM fans looking to upgrade or build a themed gaming rig, your time has come".
- Advanced Edition: Boost Clock 1830 MHz (OC Mode)/ 1800 MHz (Gaming Mode)
- The GeForce X3 GTX 1660 SUPER is up to 20% faster than the original GTX 1660 and up to 1.5X faster than the previous-generation GTX 1060 6GB. Powered by the award-winning NVIDIA Turing™ architecture and ultra-fast GDDR6 memory, it's a supercharger for today's most popular games. Time to gear up and get SUPER.
- Ultra-fast GDDR6 with over 50% more memory bandwidth for high-speed gaming.
- GeForce Experience: Capture and share videos, screenshots, and livestreams with friends. Keep your drivers up-to-date and optimize game settings. GeForce Experience lets you do it all, making it the essential companion to your GeForce graphics card.
- Special Edition ZAKU design modeled after the series' mech.
- Dual ball fan bearings can last up to twice as long as sleeve bearing designs.
- Auto-Extreme Technology uses automation to enhance reliability.
- TUF compatibility testing ensures TUF Gaming and TUF Alliance products work together flawlessly.
Best gaming GPU to be paired with new AMD Ryzen 5600X-based computer? - TweakTown
Ask the Experts: Roberto just built an AMD Ryzen 5600X-based system and is wondering what graphics card he should pick for it.
I just built a new rig with X570 mobo, Ryzen 5600x CPU, 16GB DDR4 4000 RAM, and PCIe 4 M.2 SSD. My goal is to run all the latest games, including Cyberpunk, at 1080p and minimum 60 FPS or higher. What would you recommend for a GPU? Hi Roberto, I will try my best to steer you in the right direction! First, congrats on the new build! Ryzen 5600X is a fantastic CPU for gaming builds! Since you explicitly mentioned Cyberpunk 2077 as a title you will be playing, we will need to use their recommended specifications for a baseline for our GPU recommendation. This starts us out with an RX 590 or GTX 1660, depending on which vendor you prefer. Moving on to current titles like COD: Cold War, the recommended specs for high refresh will bump up your needs to an RTX 3060/3070 or RX Vega 64. Additional titles like AC: Valhalla or MS Flight Simulator 2020 share simulator system requirements and benefit from any extra GPU power you can provide. With all of that out of the way, you can get an idea of the range you want to be in for your GPU. I would push you towards RTX 3060 Ti at the lowest or RTX 3070 if you can find one, but that may be tough with the current market. Another option could be to look for a used RTX 2080 Super or RTX 2080Ti. These can now be had for cheaper as more people get their hands-on the RTX 3000 series and offer competitive performance levels for the money.
How to move Xbox screenshots to a USB stick automatically - TweakTown
Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles don't let you move screenshots manually to USB sticks, so do this to auto-move them.
Want to move your captured screenshots and video to a USB stick or external device? Here's how to do it. Unlike the PS5, the Xbox One and Xbox Series S/X consoles don't let users easily transfer/export screenshots to USB sticks. Instead, the sticks or external USB devices have to be formatted and configured as separate storage. Here's how to do it so you can auto-save your captures to a USB device and not have to mess around with the confusing and awkward Xbox LIVE/One Drive sharing features. First you'll need a USB 3.0 device. Older USB 2.0 drives aren't compatible (again this is unlike the PS4 and PS5, which both allow you to use older drives to store console-generated media). Then you'll need to properly format the drive. Here's a step-by-step guide with pictures. 1. Format the USB drive to NTFS - Go to This PC -> Right Click on drive -> Format This will permanently delete anything on the drive, so be sure to move anything you want to save. 2. Assign the drive to default capture location on Xbox console Now the drive has been formatted, the console needs to recognize it as the default storage device for captured content. First insert the drive into a USB slot. To assign the drive, go to Settings ->System -> Storage Click on the drive and select Set as Capture Location. Any screenshots or video you take will now be stored on the assigned drive. Things to remember: You can change the default capture location at any time. There's two ways to do this: Press the Xbox button. Navigate to the Capture & Share quick-launch section to the far right. Select Capture Settings. Now go all the way to the bottom to the Capture Location tab. You can assign internal or external storage for captures. Or you can go to Settings -> Preferences -> Capture & Share and get to the same section.
Best New Year Sales 2021: Get Windows 10 CD-Key for free with Office! - TweakTown
GoDeal24 has some great New Year deals up for grabs, like Windows 10 for free when you buy a copy of Office 2019 for $34.84.
New Year means New Beginnings, a great time to enjoy the best offers and restart the life of your computer software for a low price! Shop the cheapest New-year deals on Microsoft software keys at Godeal24.com for a limited time! Godeal24.com is no exception to this and has launched a Mega New Year Promotion Campaign, with incredible jaw-dropping deals on Microsoft's most popular software. From now on, you can get Windows 10 license for free if you buy Office 2019 or 2016, and all products in the Software Section will also have up to 55% EXTRA OFF, offering just the top discount prices you deserve! Buy one get one for free! Limited Offer! Without using coupon code: Flat 50% Discount on Windows 10 If you wish to just upgrade to Windows 10, then also GoDeal24.com Super New Year Sale has got you covered. Get a flat 50% discount on our already discounted Windows 10 license key rates. Take your pick from the deals below with coupon code: BFLE50 Flat 55% Discount On Everything Else Deals are aplenty during GoDeal24.com Super New Year Sale. Get a flat 55% discount on the items listed below with coupon code: BFLE55 More >> At GoDeal24.com, you can expect the best service. Shortly after ordering, you will receive the goods quite simply and quickly by email. And if it comes to problems or you have a question, the customer service is there to help you with words and deeds. You can send an email to the address: [email protected] regarding any problem. Saving money in 2021 will be easy, with New Year's Deals offering unbeatable savings on MS software. Enjoy the GoDeal24's year-end clearance, help them make room for next year's kit.
MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO Review - TweakTown
MSI's new custom Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO graphics card is here and here are our thoughts on it -- fill this in more.
Introduction The first card to arrive at my doorsteps on the third day of 2021 was MSI's just fresh out of the oven Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO graphics card. I've already taken a look at AMD's own reference Radeon RX 6800 XT which is a fantastic card, and the custom XFX Radeon RX 6800 XT Speedster MERC 319 graphics card which was awesome. MSI always impresses with its flagship graphics card, so I'm expecting the Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO to give me what the RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO did -- a kick ass card for the money, that stays nice and cool and has some overclocking headroom. Well, MSI delivers in every department as expected but now that the new SUPRIM X brand is here the GAMING X TRIO just... I don't know, it doesn't feel as special. It's not to take away that the GAMING X TRIO isn't an awesome card, it's just that it would be great to see a Radeon RX 6800 XT SUPRIM X that follows through soon. As for pricing, MSI has the new Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO at over $850. Everything You Need to Know About RDNA 2 AMD's new RDNA 2 architecture has more changes than any previous-gen GPU architecture I can remember from AMD (and even ATi) in the last 10+ years. There's a lot to go over here, but we're looking at an enhanced compute unit, new visual pipeline featuring Ray Accelerators, and the all-new (and very exciting) Infinity Cache (which I'll go into on the next page. We're looking at a huge 1.54x higher performance-per-watt and 1.3x higher frequency at the same per-CU power -- impressive stuff, AMD. Ray Accelerators One of the largest new introductions in the new RDNA 2 architecture is the high-performance ray tracing acceleration architecture known as the Ray Accelerator. AMD doesn't have NVIDIA-beating ray tracing performance, but it's here in RDNA 2. Each Ray Accelerator is capable of calculating up to 4 ray / box intersections, and 1 ray / triangle intersection every clock. This means the RDNA 2-based Ray Accelerators can efficiently calculate the intersections of the rays with the scene geometry as represented in a Bounding Volume Hierarchy, sorts them, and returns the information to the shaders for further scene traversal or result shading. HDMI 2.1 This is another big deal -- HDMI 2.1 connectivity. HDMI 2.1 ushers in the worlds of 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz through a single HDMI 2.1 cable to your flashy new TV or gaming monitor. Personally I own a new CX series LG OLED TV with HDMI 2.1 that drives its 4K 120Hz, so plugging my gaming PC into my TV can only be done a single way if I want 4K 120Hz -- which I kinda do. The introduction of HDMI 2.1 on graphics cards began with NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 30 series, and continues with AMD's new Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards. All 3 of the new Radeon RX 6000 series cards -- the Radeon RX 6900 XT (coming soon), the Radeon RX 6800 XT (review here) and Radeon RX 6800 (this review) all have HDMI 2.1 output. Board Design Another great thing AMD did with the Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6800 graphics cards is the board design, with the company making all 3 of the cards at a standard ~10.5 inches or so. The card is also max 2.5-slot for reference boards, which means it'll slot into virtually any PC that is capable of taking a regular-sized card. What Is Infinity Cache? Now this is where things get really interesting -- Infinity Cache, which provides some kick ass memory bandwidth even with it smaller 256-bit memory bus and slower GDDR6 memory. NVIDIA might have a superior 320-bit memory bus, faster GDDR6X -- but it has less VRAM (10GB versus 16GB) and the Radeon RX 6800 XT still kicks ass against the GeForce RTX 3080 in all resolutions and situations. But in the right situation -- like when paired with a Zen 3 processor, like I've done preliminary with the Ryzen 9 5900X -- you can get in excess of 10% more performance when you add SAM (Smart Access Memory) into the equation. If you've got the right hardware -- a new RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6800 XT for example, with a Zen 3-based Ryzen 5000 series -- like the Ryzen 9 5900X that I got in the days leading into the review. I will have some numbers on those tomorrow, but I needed to get these reviews out first. The SAM results are as good as you see in these charts, and in some cases better -- it's an impressive thing to see, and I truly can't wait to see more from Smart Access Memory technology. Detailed Look MSI has always got great retail packaging for their cards, so nothing is different here with the Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO. I'm sure there are only a handful of the cards in the world, but if you do see the card on the shelf then it's going to catch your eye. The GAMING X TRIO looks great from the front, rocking that custom Big Navi GPU underneath. I'm loving the backplate tweaks MSI did to the Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO versus the GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO graphics card. We have a near triple-slot graphics card here, so prepare for that. Only dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors required. The standard display output for RX 6800 XT cards: 3 x DP 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 output. Test System Specs Latest upgrade: Sabrent sent over their huge Rocket Q 8TB NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSD, which will be my new Games install SSD inside of my main test bed. I've got a new upgrade inside of my GPU test bed before my change to a next-gen test bed, where I will be preparing for NVIDIA's next-gen Ampere graphics cards and AMD's next-gen RDNA 2 graphics cards. Sabrent helped out with some new storage for my GPU test beds, sending over a slew of crazy-fast Rocket NVMe PCIe M.2 2280 SSDs. I've got this installed into my GPU test bed as the new Games Storage drive, since games are so damn big now. Thanks to Sabrent, I've got 2TB of super-fast M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 SSD storage now. Anthony's GPU Test System Specifications I've recently upgraded my GPU test bed -- at least for now, until AMD's new Ryzen 9 5950X processor is unleashed then the final update for 2020 will happen and we'll be all good for RDNA 2 and future Ampere GPU releases. You can read my article here: TweakTownGPU Test Bed Upgrade for 2021, But Then Zen 3 Was Announced. Benchmarks - Synthetic 3DMark Fire Strike 3DMark has been a staple benchmark for years now, all the way back to when The Matrix was released and Futuremark had bullet time inspired benchmarks. 3DMark is the perfect tool to see if your system - most important, your CPU and GPU - is performing as it should. You can search results for your GPU, to see if it falls in line with other systems based on similar hardware. 3DMark TimeSpy Heaven - 1080p Heaven is an intensive GPU benchmark that really pushes your silicon to its limits. It's another favorite of ours as it has some great scaling for multi-GPU testing, and it's great for getting your GPU to 100% for power and noise testing. Benchmarks - 1080p Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs. You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing. You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon. Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now. 1080p Benchmark Performance Thoughts MSI comes out with some strong numbers in both stock and manual OC abilities with its custom Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO graphics card, with Assassin's Creed: Valhalla cranking along with 125FPS average at 1080p when overclocked -- 1FPS faster than the RX 6900 XT. MSI's overclocked Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO also kills it in Metro Exodus with performance that is 2FPS off the RX 6900 XT at stock, but 4FPS better when overclocked. Not too bad at all. Benchmarks - 1440p Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs. You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing. You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon. Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now. 1440p Benchmark Performance Thoughts MSI is edging over 100FPS average at 1440p in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla with the RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO when overclocked, while Shadow of War runs at 152FPS average overclocked -- the same as the stock Radeon RX 6900 XT. Metro Exodus hits 84FPS average beating the stock RX 6900 XT with its 80FPS, beating the RTX 3080 with its 77FPS average at 1440p. If you're gaming @ 1440p then the RX 6800 XT is perfect if you want to go Team Red. Benchmarks - 4K Assassin's Creed: Valhalla is the latest game to be inserted into our benchmark suite, with Ubisoft Montreal using its AnvilNext engine to power the game. It scales really well across the cards, and has some surprising performance benefits with AMD's new Big Navi GPUs. You can buy Assassins Creed: Valhalla at Amazon. Middle-earth: Shadow of War is a sequel to the popular Shadow of Mordor, which was powered by the Lithtech engine. When cranked up to maximum detail, it will chew through your GPU and its VRAM like it's nothing. You can buy Middle-earth: Shadow of War at Amazon. Metro Exodus is one of the hardest tests that our graphics cards have to go through, with 4A Games' latest creation being one of the best looking games on the market. It is a serious test that pushes GPUs to their limits, and also features RTX technologies like DLSS. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is one of the latest games to join our graphics card benchmark lineup, with the game built using the Foundation engine as a base, the same engine in Rise of the Tomb Raider. Eidos Montreal R&D department made lots of changes to the engine during the development of Shadow of the Tomb Raider to make it one of the best-looking games out right now. 4K Benchmark Performance Thoughts This is where things get serious, with the overclocked MSI RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO hitting 65FPS in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla -- 1FPS above the RX 6900 XT and 6FPS more than the stock performance @ 59FPS average. Shadow of War @ 4K sees the MSI RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO at 108FPS average -- once again 1FPS faster than the RX 6900 XT. Metro Exodus is very similar, with 57FPS average on the overclocked card against 55FPS on the RX 6900 XT. Overclocking Out of the box the MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO runs at around 2310-2330MHz and at 67C, the GPU hotspot sits at just under 90% while the fans are at 45% or 1600RPM or so. I thought I'd be able to squeeze 2650MHz+ out of the MSI Radeon RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO, but my sample was pushing just over 2600MHz on the Big Navi GPU without an issue. With the fans cranked up to 100% the card wasn't running too hot at all, sitting at just 53C under full 100% load for over an hour. I could get the MSI RX 6800 XT GAMING X TRIO upwards of 2600MHz but not much higher -- the XFX RX 6800 XT Speedster MERC 319 has a little bit more juice ready for OC fun. But, the performance is so close between those speeds in games that you'd never notice. Power Consumption & Temps What's Hot, What's Not What's Hot What's Not
- Not the fastest custom RX 6800 XT card: I am a couple of weeks behind with reviews thanks to getting a very, very bad bout of food poisoning + the middle of Christmas -- so I haven't completed all of my reviews that I have stacking up. But MSI doesn't have the fastest RX 6800 XT card with its GAMING X TRIO -- but it's definitely up there. ASRock's custom RX 6800 XT is faster, but I need more time with that to see what I can pull out of it yet.
LG 27GP950 UltraGear: 27-inch 4K 160Hz Nano IPS display with HDMI 2.1 - TweakTown
LG unveils its new UltraGear gaming monitor, a new 27-inch Nano IPS display with native 4K @ a huge 160Hz with HDMI 2.1.
LG has just unveiled a new monster 27GP950 UltraGear gaming monitor, with a 27-inch 4K Nano IPS panel that will surely look gorgeous -- and it's ultra-smooth @ 160Hz, too. The new LG 27GP950 UltraGear has a 27-inch 4K Nano IPS panel with 1ms response, and a huge 160Hz refresh rate. LG is using one of its premium Nano IPS panels on the new 27GP950 UltraGear, which will be 4K @ 144Hz out of the box and 4K @ 160Hz when overclocked. HDMI 2.1 will be included on the LG 27GP950 UltraGear, so you can plug your next-gen PS5 or Xbox Series X/S console right into it and enjoy some next-gen 4K 120Hz gaming. If you're on the PC and with a fast enough graphics card, like the GeForce RTX 3090 or Radeon RX 6900 XT then you'll be able to crank right up to 4K @ 160Hz.
ASUS says its ROG gaming monitors with HDMI 2.1 are 'coming soon' - TweakTown
ASUS will be debuting a new family of ROG gaming monitors with next-gen HDMI 2.1 connectivity, offering 4K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz.
Back in August 2020, we had ASUS announcing an unnamed ROG gaming monitor that packed HDMI 2.1 connectivity at up to 48Gbps, and now the company is officially teasing a ROG monitors with HDMI 2.1 are "coming soon" -- with what I'm sure will be an announcement right around the corner at the all-virtual CES 2021. We should expect some new high-end ASUS ROG gaming monitors offering not just super-high-end 4K 120Hz monitors, but other features like 10-bit color, the latest in HDR technology, G-SYNC, FreeSync Premium, and so much more. HDMI 2.1 is also capable of 5K 120Hz and 8K 60Hz, all over a single cable. ASUS will most likely push boundaries with HDMI 2.1 gaming monitors and its ROG brand, so expect 4K 144Hz and beyond, where we might see 4K 160/175/200Hz or something like that -- maybe 1440p and beyond 275Hz with something like 300/320/360Hz. Imagine that. We already know that ASUS should be preparing the PG32UQX, which was teased in October 2020 as a 32-inch Mini-LED powered 4K 144Hz monitor with HDMI 2.1 connectivity. You can read more on that here. We'll know more in the coming days.
Panasonic is testing delivery robots in Japan, could be the future - TweakTown
Panasonic's first phase of its self-driving robot delivery systems could be rolled out nationwide, with Japan ahead of the pack.
Japan always feels like it is the country where these types of things from the future should be tested first, with Panasonic testing the public acceptance of delivery robots in a Japanese "smart town". The first phase of this self-driving robot delivery system on public roads began in November 2020, and continued through the end of 2020. The second phase will begin in February 2021, in just a few weeks -- where the robots will begin delivering goods into residents in the area where Panasonic can "test the acceptability of the new delivery service experience". Panasonic's new delivery robot will roll through neighborhoods at up to 2.5 miles per hour, or 4 kilometres per hour. They will be monitored remotely by human operators at a control center, who will take over if required -- but without them, the delivery robots are doing it all on their own. Panasonic explains: "By offering a new form of delivery service using robots that work closely with humans, [we aim] to contribute to creating a vibrant community where people and mobility coexist. There has been a serious shortage of home delivery staff to support such services".