AMD Ryzen 5 smashes records at nearly 6GHz

AMD this week announced its Ryzen 5 series of processors with fewer cores and lower prices than its Ryzen 7 lineup. Arguably the most intriguing one of the bunch is the Ryzen 5 1600X, a 6-core chip that is clocked the same as the Ryzen 7 1800X. Turns out it's also a pretty good overclocker, at least when liquid nitrogen is involved.

Renowned overclocker "Der8auer" was able to crank a Ryzen 5 1600X to just over 5.9GHz (5,905.64MHz, to be exact). He managed the feat without disabling any of the cores, and in the process set a record for the highest overclock on a 6-core part, beating out a Core i7-5820K for the top spot.

Other hardware involved the record-setting overclock included an Asus ROG Crosshair VI Hero X370 motherboard, 2GB of G.Skill Trident Z DDR4 RAM, and a 128GB Samsung SSD. On the software side, he was running Windows 7 Pro 64-bit.

With a full pot of LN2, temps dropped to around -170C. Der8auer was then able to run the chip at a base clockspeed of 129.79MHz with a 45.5X multiplier. It is not clear what he set the voltage at.

While overclocked, Der8auer ran a few benchmarks, achieving record breaking scores in Cinebench (R15 and 11.5), GPU Pi, and Geekbench 3.

Check it out:

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Nvidia Titan Xp introduced as 'the world's most powerful graphics card'

Nvidia has revealed its new Titan, the Xp. It features 3840 Cuda cores running at 1.6GHz, and 12GB of DDR5X memory. The card runs on Nvidia's Pascal architecture and comes with a suitably titanic price tag of $1200 / £1,159. It's available now on the Nvidia site.

"They made 1080 Ti so fast that they need a new top-tier Titan," says PC Gamer hardware expert Jarred Walton. "It's the full GP102 chip, so just like we had GTX 780, the Titan, the 780 Ti and the Titan Black, we're getting the 1080, Titan X (Pascal), 1080 Ti, and Titan Xp."

GPU Engine Specs

NVIDIA CUDA® Cores 3840 Base Clock (MHz)1582
Memory Specs: Memory Speed 11.4 Gbps
Standard Memory Config: 12 GB GDDR5X
Memory Interface Width: 384-Bit
Memory Bandwidth (GB/sec): 547.7 GB/s

Technology Support:

Simultaneous Multi-Projection: Yes
VR Ready: Yes
NVIDIA Ansel: Yes
NVIDIA SLI Ready: Yes - SLI HB Bridge Supported
NVIDIA G-Sync-Ready: Yes
NVIDIA GameStream-Ready: Yes
NVIDIA GPU Boost: 3.0
Microsoft DirectX: 12 API with feature level 12_1
Vulkan API: Yes
OpenGL: 4.5
Bus Support PCIe: 3.0
OS Certificates: Windows 7-10, Linux, FreeBSDx86

Display Support:

Maximum Digital Resolution: 27680x4320 @ 60Hz
Standard Display Connectors: DP 1.43, HDMI 2.0b
Multi Monitor: Yes
HDCP: 2.2

Graphics Card Dimensions:

Height: 4.376"
Length: 10.5"
Width: 2 Slot

Thermal Power Specs:

Maximum GPU Temperature (in C): 96
Graphics Card Power (W): 250 W
Recommended System Power(W): 600 W
Supplementary Power Connectors: One 6-pin, One 8-pin

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MSI taps Corsair to liquid cool its GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk cards

All-in-one liquid coolers have become popular alternatives to air cooling because they're relatively easy to install, sometimes offer better performance, and require zero maintenance (unlike regular liquid cooling). They're not just for CPUs, either—MSI announced a pair of new GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk cards that have been outfitted with AIO liquid coolers from Corsair.

The GTX 1080 Ti Sea Hawk and Sea Hawk X are the same except for the clockspeeds, with the latter sporting faster frequencies in both Gaming and OC modes.

Here is a look at the Sea Hawk X's clocks:

OC Mode: 1,569MHz base, 1,683MHz boost
Gaming Mode: 1,544MHz base, 1,657MHz boost
Silent Mode: 1,480MHz base, 1,582MHz boost

And here are the clocks on the regular Sea Hawk:

OC Mode: 1,506MHz base, 1,620MHz boost
Gaming Mode: 1,493MHz base, 1,607MHz boost
Silent Mode: 1,480MHz base, 1,582MHz boost

Both cards sport a full-coverage cooler attached to an AIO kit based on Corsair's Hydro Series H55 design. It consists of a 120mm aluminum radiator with a quiet fan attached. This is what keeps the GPU cool, while the memory and VRM are both air cooled in each card.

There's also a solid metal backplate on both Sea Hawk cards. This provides rigidity, if that's something you're concerned about.

Both cards also stick with Nvidia's reference power requirements, requiring 8-pin and 6-pin PCIe connectors. And as for display outputs, they come with HDMI 2.0, dual-link DVI-D, and three DisplayPort 1.4 plugins.

MSI did not say when these cards will be available or for how much.

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HTC unveils Viveport monthly subscription service

The HTC Vive virtual reality headset marks its first year anniversary this week, on April 5, and is set to mark the occasion by launching the "first-ever subscription model for a VR app store"—named Viveport Subscription.

Billed as "a new way to navigate the burgeoning VR app marketplace", Viveport will cost users £6.99/regional equivalent per month, and will run a one month free trial for newbies. For that, you'll get unlimited access to your apps of choice—Viveport Subscription will launch with over 50 apps—with the ability to rotate out selections each month and try apps prior to purchase.

"VR is changing every industry imaginable, from gaming and entertainment, to art, design, engineering and education," says HTC Vive's VP of sales Peter Frolund. "The fact that we can offer a subscription model just shows the sheer amount of developers that have already engaged with Vive. This celebration and these offers are a chance for us to thank the people that have been on this journey with us from the start, as well as invite new people to the party as we look ahead to even more exciting developments going forward."

Furthering the festivities, HTC is also giving away a free copy of Vive Studios' VR action game Arcade Saga and is also offering new customers £100 off Vive headsets on April 5. More information on the Viveport Subscription service can be found on the Vive Blog.

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MSI shows off GeForce GTX 1080 Ti Armor and Aero graphics cards

Over on its global website, MSI has added some new additions to its GeForce GTX 1080 Ti lineup. They include the GTX 1080 Ti Armor and Aero, both of which come in stock clocked and overclocked variants.

MSI's GeForce GTX Ti Aero 11G is similar to Nvidia's Founders Edition but with a more colorful cooler. It has green stripes that line the top and bottom of the card's face, along with a green section on the side with the "GeForce GTX" branding.

Underneath the hood is likely a reference PCB. The non-OC model sticks to Nvidia's default clocks—1,480MHz base and 1,582MHz boost. It also has the same display output configuration and power connectors (8-pin + 6-pin).

There's also an overclocked model with the same cooler and likely the same PCB. It comes from the factory with a 1,506MHz base clock and 1,620MHz boost clock.

According to TechPowerUp, the stock clocked Aero card will be MSI's least expensive GTX 1080 Ti, though not cheap—buyers are looking at about $700, same as Nvidia's MSRP for its Founders Edition.

MSI's Armor cards come with a little more visual bling. They also feature a different style cooler—instead of the single-fan blower type, the Armor cards use a pair of MSI Torx fans to blow cool air onto the card's aluminum heatsink.

Like the Aero variant, the non-OC Armor model sticks to Nvidia's reference clockspeeds—1,480MHz base and 1,582MHz boost.

For the overclocked version, MSI goosed the GPU to 1,531MHz for its base clockspeed and 1,645MHz for its turbo frequency.

Both cards have two DisplayPorts, two HDMI ports, and a dual-link DVI-D connector. They also require two 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

There's no word yet on when these cards will be available or precise pricing across the board. However, there's a listing on Newegg for MSI's overclocked Armor card. It shows a price of $710 plus $10 shipping. It's currently out of stock.

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AMD's rumored 16-core Ryzen CPU may run at 3.1GHz to 3.6GHz

Rumors surfaced earlier this week of a 16-core/32-thread Ryzen processor headed to the enthusiast consumer space. At the time, it was reported the chip would run at 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz, though there's a new rumor pointing at much faster clockspeeds.

According to TechPowerUp, there are reports of engineering samples having a 3.1GHz base clockspeed and a 3.6GHz boost frequency. Assuming that's true, the unreleased/unannounced part becomes much more interesting, rather than standing out as the only Ryzen chip to run slower than 3GHz.

When you're dealing with this many cores and threads, clockspeeds often take a backseat in favor of workloads that are heavily threaded. However, if this chip is AMD's answer to Intel's Haswell-E and Broadwell-E parts, it might be difficult to pitch an alternative CPU with base and turbo clocks in the 2GHz range. It's now looking like that won't be a concern.

The 16-core chip in question is said to be a cut-down version of Naples, which is a beefed up version of Ryzen for the server market. It's said the upcoming part will feature a new socket and X399 chipset featuring quad-channel memory support. It would be AMD's answer to Intel's X99 platform, and in a similar fashion it would borrow elements from the workstation/server platform.

While nothing is official, if AMD is creating a new platform it's hard to imagine there being just one processor for it. And if that's the case, it's not inconceivable that AMD would release 12-core or, going in the other direction, CPUs with more than 16 cores.

If the rumors prove true, expect 64 PCIe Gen3 lanes off the CPU as well. That opens the doors to some very interesting workstation builds, which is arguably the best place for this sort of system. It could definitely eat into Intel's workstation market.

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