• Breaking News

    Tuesday, February 16, 2021

    Hardware support: PlayStation 5 die shots confirm no AMD Infinity Cache support; other RDNA features may been cut too

    Hardware support: PlayStation 5 die shots confirm no AMD Infinity Cache support; other RDNA features may been cut too


    PlayStation 5 die shots confirm no AMD Infinity Cache support; other RDNA features may been cut too

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 06:23 AM PST

    [Gamers Nexus] Xbox Series X Thermals, Power & Noise Testing: Cooler Design Analysis & Break-Down

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 12:22 PM PST

    Anandtech: "Xbox Series X SoC: Power, Thermal, and Yield Tradeoffs"

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 10:12 AM PST

    BREAKING NEWS: �� ADATA SX8200 Pro M.2 SSD performance has been DOWNGRADED by ADATA *AGAIN* in 2021!

    Posted: 14 Feb 2021 05:26 PM PST

    I am in the unique position of having purchased 3x ADATA SX8200 Pro 2TB drives at three different points in time. And I purchased all of them at the exact same retailer, using the exact same ADATA product number each time.

    ADATA recently downgraded the hardware in October 2020, by using a slower controller and slower Samsung flash, angering a lot of people and making news headlines. ADATA were even contacted by Tom's Hardware and put out an official statement:

    Unlike other people, I wasn't too upset by that downgrade (my 2nd order), since it was still fast enough and used quality Samsung flash which was still fast.

    So I ordered a third one (order 3) thinking I'd get the same downgraded version.

    NOPE. ADATA has found a way to downgrade it EVEN MORE while still charging the same high price for customers! They now use SK Hynix flash which is around -1000MB/s SLOWER than the Samsung "downgrade" flash! The decision makers at ADATA didn't even care about updating their TBW endurance specifications or their expected speeds when they continue downgrading these units. So I have no idea how long this slow and low-quality flash will last. And its new speed is NOWHERE NEAR the original specifications ADATA wrote for the SX8200 Pro back when it used quality flash memory.

    Thanks a lot for being super awful and learning nothing from your previous scandal a few months ago, ADATA!

    Order 1: January 2020

    • My drive: C: (via PCH bridge)
    • Controller: SM2262EN
    • Firmware Revision: 42A4SANA
    • ROM Revision: 2262B0ROM:SVN047
    • Flash: Micron 96L(B27B) TLC 512Gb/CE 512Gb/die
    • DRAM: Samsung DDR4 2048MB

    Order 2: November 2020

    • My drive: D: (direct CPU lanes)
    • Controller: SM2262G
    • Firmware Revision: 32B3T8EA
    • ROM Revision: 2262ROM:SVN00235
    • Flash: Samsung 3dv4-64L TLC 16k 512Gb/CE 512Gb/die
    • DRAM: Samsung DDR4 2048MB

    Order 3: February 2021

    • My drive: E: (via PCH bridge)
    • Controller: SM2262G
    • Firmware Revision: 32B2T6TA
    • ROM Revision: 2262ROM:SVN00235
    • Flash: Hynix 3dv5-96L TLC 16k 512Gb/CE 512Gb/die
    • DRAM: Samsung DDR4 2048MB

    Tools:

    • CrystalDiskMark 7.0 64-bit, using "Benchmarking profile: Default".
    • Identified flash and controller for Silicon Motion NVMe drives using the well-known "smi_nvme_flash_id.rar" from the tool author's own website at http://vlo.name:3000/ssdtool/ (VirusTotal scan result showing that Windows Defender has a false positive). The "driver" download is NOT required. Only the ID tool is needed. Alternatively, you can disassemble your computer and look at the SSD chips under a magnifying glass if you prefer the manual way of checking, hehe.
    • AMD X570 (MSI X570 Unify motherboard) and Ryzen 3900x, so it's a high-speed PCIe Gen4 PCH bridge. Therefore whether I used the CPU or PCH connection method shouldn't matter much for performance. It may sway things by 1-2% at most according to PCH benchmarks I've seen. But all the other massive differences are entirely due to ADATA's different flash memory and controllers.

    Benchmarks:

    • All images: https://imgur.com/a/PIr7FI0
    • Via PCH: SM2262EN with Micron 96L(B27B) TLC: December 2020, 97% full drive / February 2021, 94% full drive. The fact that the drive is full is interfering with the speeds. Otherwise this would be the fastest in all metrics. When this drive was new (same computer, same PCH bridge), I was getting 3400-3600MB/s read and 2800-3000MB/s write, but I didn't save the benchmark images. Unfortunately I can't empty this drive to do an "optimal performance re-test" since it's my OS drive.
    • Via CPU: SM2262G with Samsung 3dv4-64L TLC: December 2020, empty drive / February 2021, 54% full drive. The performance loss in February is again related to this other drive being half-full now.
    • Via PCH: SM2262G with Hynix 3dv5-96L TLC: February 2021, empty drive / Second benchmark to verify that it really IS that slow. Very slow speeds on this brand new, empty drive. Sigh.
    • Summary: ADATA SX8200 Pro is using very slow flash memory now, from a low quality manufacturer (SK Hynix is nowhere near the quality of Intel/Micron or Samsung). The low-quality flash they're using now is around 1000 MB/sec SLOWER than the Samsung flash from their previous "downgrade". Just compare the 2nd and 3rd drives in their "empty drive" state above. It's sickening. And their TBW/endurance value is no longer true, so we don't know how many write cycles this new flash will last.

    What are people's thoughts? I'm thinking of bypassing my store and contacting ADATA directly to get a unit with Samsung or Intel/Micron flash. Or maybe I just return this slow SK Hynix flash garbage to the store and buy an SSD from another brand (if so, which)? What would you do?

    The ADATA SX8200 Pro was once an amazing SSD (it was one of the best on the market), but is now just a basic SSD with bad performance that no longer matches its own price/value. It's now overpriced. Meh.

    Ping: /u/NewMaxx from the previous scandal thread.

    Update: I decided to return all of these scamming "bait-and-switch" ADATA SSDs, only keeping the oldest, high-quality Micron flash unit from before all of their stealth downgrade behaviors began. I will be replacing the two scam units with two very high quality Samsung 970 Evo Plus instead.

    submitted by /u/svartchimpans
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    Western Digital Launches WD Green SN350 M.2 SSD

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 01:30 PM PST

    [Hardware Unboxed] Alienware AW2721D Review, Strong IPS Performance at 1440p 240Hz

    Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:01 AM PST

    [VideoCardz] SAPPHIRE Radeon RX 6900 XT TOXIC 'ATOMIC' to feature a liquid cooling solution?

    Posted: 16 Feb 2021 12:45 AM PST

    [Hardware Unboxed] 4 Years of Ryzen 5 | CPU & GPU Scaling Benchmark

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 02:24 AM PST

    Clock Tuner for Ryzen 2.1 to make 5GHz Zen dream possible [VideoCardz].

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 10:01 AM PST

    [Guru3D] GeForce RTX 3070 Ti Gets Listed on Pre Built Lenovo PC from Alternate

    Posted: 16 Feb 2021 02:11 AM PST

    [Cheese and Chips] - CTR Safety, Revisited

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 06:45 AM PST

    How does CoolIT get around Asetek’s patent?

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 05:26 AM PST

    I know Asetek has the pump-in-block design patented, so where does CoolIT put their pump? They say they put it on a coldplate, but wouldn't that still be in the block?

    submitted by /u/YT_ThaGangstaFTW
    [link] [comments]

    Why are RAM prices so high now? Are there any signs of them coming down?

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 02:33 PM PST

    A few months back 32gb of ram was ~£90 however now the cheapest decent kit is £130. A few months ago I heard on GN that RAM was in oversupply and prices were set to decrease throughout Q4 of 2020 and Q1 of 2021. How comes it's gone in the opposite direction and increased?

    submitted by /u/Livinglifeform
    [link] [comments]

    ZDNet: "Tiny graphene microchips could make your phones and laptops thousands of times faster, say scientists"

    Posted: 15 Feb 2021 05:59 PM PST

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