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XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Merc 319 Black Review

Introduction

XFX Radeon RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319 is the company’s premium custom-design Radeon RX 6700 XT card debuting today. With this, AMD intends to dominate the performance segment, taking the fight to popular NVIDIA Ampere SKUs such as the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and even RTX 3070. The card is targeted at serious gamers seeking maxed out 1440p gaming, and also supports real-time raytracing, as it supports the full DirectX 12 Ultimate feature-set. It’s based on the same RDNA2 graphics architecture as the RX 6900 XT “Big Navi.”

The latest RDNA2 graphics architecture debuted with next-generation consoles, making its way to the PC with the Radeon RX 6000 series. This gives AMD a unique advantage as game developers optimizing for console also end up doing so for Radeon. AMD’s raytracing architecture involves specialized hardware called Ray Accelerators, which compute ray intersection; while much else of it is handled by the enormous compute muscle of these cards. This also means increased performance in non-raytraced games, as these programmable shaders can be made to do anything.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is based on the new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon, and maxes it out. The chip is equipped with 40 RDNA2 compute units, which means 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The company has also generationally increased the memory amount to 12 GB, which is certainly welcome, however, the memory bus is narrower at 192-bit. The company worked to overcome this bandwidth deficit by using the fastest 16 Gbps JEDEC-standard GDDR6 memory chips, and deploying its Infinity Cache technology, a fast on-die 96 MB cache located in the GPU, which operates at much higher bandwidths and lower latencies, cushioning data-transfers between the GPU and memory.

The XFX RX 6700 XT Speedster Merc 319 features a large triple-slot, cooling solution with a heatsink that outgrows the PCB not just lengthwise, but also in height, which means a significant amount of airflow from the three fans flows right through, resulting in much better ventilation. The design has certainly come a long way from the THICC series. XFX is giving the card its highest factory OC, running it at 2.65 GHz max boost, up from 2.58 GHz reference. The company is pricing the card at $570 USD, a $90 premium over AMD’s reference price. Both these prices are fantasy in today’s market situation, and one can expect to pick this up closer to $750. In this review, we take the card for a spin across our brand new test bench.

Our Radeon RX 6700 XT launch-day coverage includes six articles including this one. Do check them out!

AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT (reference) | MSI Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming X | ASUS ROG Strix Radeon RX 6700 XT OC | Sapphire Radeon RX 6700 XT NITRO+ | PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT Red Devil

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Shader Units	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RX Vega 64	$400	4096	64	1247 MHz	1546 MHz	953 MHz	Vega 10	12500M	8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT	$370	2560	64	1605 MHz	1755 MHz	1750 MHz	Navi 10	10300M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070	$340	2304	64	1410 MHz	1620 MHz	1750 MHz	TU106	10800M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060	$600	3584	48	1320 MHz	1777 MHz	1875 MHz	GA106	13250M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super	$450	2560	64	1605 MHz	1770 MHz	1750 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII	$680	3840	64	1400 MHz	1800 MHz	1000 MHz	Vega 20	13230M	16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080	$600	2944	64	1515 MHz	1710 MHz	1750 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super	$690	3072	64	1650 MHz	1815 MHz	1940 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti	$700	4864	80	1410 MHz	1665 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT	$700 MSRP: $480	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
XFX RX 6700 XT Merc 319	$750 MSRP: $570	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti	$1000	4352	88	1350 MHz	1545 MHz	1750 MHz	TU102	18600M	11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070	$800	5888	96	1500 MHz	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800	$1000	3840	96	1815 MHz	2105 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT	$1300	4608	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080	$1300	8704	96	1440 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT	$1500	5120	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090	$2000	10496	112	1395 MHz	1695 MHz	1219 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit

PowerColor RX 6700 XT Red Devil Review

Introduction

PowerColor announced its top custom design AMD Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card, the RX 6700 XT Red Devil. After surprising everyone with competitive graphics cards in the enthusiast segment with the RX 6800 series and the flagship RX 6900 XT, AMD is turning its attention to the segment that earns NVIDIA the most attention from serious gamers—the sub-$500 performance segment, where it’s looking to take on established rivals, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti and the RTX 3070. Unlike the last time, AMD has largely leveled up to NVIDIA on the features front, with the RX 6700 XT being full DirectX 12 Ultimate capable, including real-time raytracing. The target user of this card is someone who games at 1440p with settings maxed out.

At the heart of the RX 6700 XT is the new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon by AMD, has half the compute muscle of the Navi 21 powering the RX 6900 XT. The chip has 40 RDNA2 compute units, which mean 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. AMD also increased the memory size to 12 GB compared to the previous generation, but the memory bus width is narrowed to 192-bit. The company attempted to make up for this by increasing the memory clocks and using the new Infinity Cache on-die cache memory that the company claims to significantly improve effective bandwidth. The new RDNA2 graphics architecture uses fixed function hardware to accelerate raytracing intersections, but the tech also heavily relies on the compute shader. A side-effect of this is a massive raster 3D performance gain over the previous generation. We detail the silicon in the next page.

The PowerColor RX 6700 XT Red Devil uses a lavish triple-slot cooling solution that looks a segment above when installed in your case. Thick aluminium fin-stack heatsinks peek through the cooler shroud, giving it an industrial look. All this cooling muscle comes together to support factory overclocked speeds of up to 2.65 GHz max boost engine clocks, a roughly 100 MHz increase over the reference design. You get plenty of goodies, including RGB LED lighting, dual-BIOS, including a noise-optimized Silent BIOS, and a 3-pin addressable-RGB header, letting you sync your lighting to the card. We expect PowerColor to price the card at a roughly $100 premium over the $479 reference MSRP, like most other custom RX 6700 XT cards we’re reviewing today.

Radeon RX 6700 XT Market Segment Analysis
	Price	Shader Units	ROPs	Core Clock	Boost Clock	Memory Clock	GPU	Transistors	Memory
RX Vega 64	$400	4096	64	1247 MHz	1546 MHz	953 MHz	Vega 10	12500M	8 GB, HBM2, 2048-bit
RX 5700 XT	$370	2560	64	1605 MHz	1755 MHz	1750 MHz	Navi 10	10300M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2070	$340	2304	64	1410 MHz	1620 MHz	1750 MHz	TU106	10800M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060	$600	3584	48	1320 MHz	1777 MHz	1875 MHz	GA106	13250M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2070 Super	$450	2560	64	1605 MHz	1770 MHz	1750 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
Radeon VII	$680	3840	64	1400 MHz	1800 MHz	1000 MHz	Vega 20	13230M	16 GB, HBM2, 4096-bit
RTX 2080	$600	2944	64	1515 MHz	1710 MHz	1750 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 2080 Super	$690	3072	64	1650 MHz	1815 MHz	1940 MHz	TU104	13600M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3060 Ti	$700	4864	80	1410 MHz	1665 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6700 XT	$700 MSRP: $480	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
PowerColor RX 6700 XT	$750	2560	64	2424 MHz	2649 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
RTX 2080 Ti	$1000	4352	88	1350 MHz	1545 MHz	1750 MHz	TU102	18600M	11 GB, GDDR6, 352-bit
RTX 3070	$800	5888	96	1500 MHz	1725 MHz	1750 MHz	GA104	17400M	8 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800	$1000	3840	96	1815 MHz	2105 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RX 6800 XT	$1300	4608	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3080	$1300	8704	96	1440 MHz	1710 MHz	1188 MHz	GA102	28000M	10 GB, GDDR6X, 320-bit
RX 6900 XT	$1500	5120	128	2015 MHz	2250 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 21	26800M	16 GB, GDDR6, 256-bit
RTX 3090	$2000	10496	112	1395 MHz	1695 MHz	1219 MHz	GA102	28000M	24 GB, GDDR6X, 384-bit

How a metal with a memory will shape our future on Mars

A rover on the Moon has metal wheels that can flex around rocky obstacles, then reshape back to their original form. On Earth, surgeons install tiny mesh tubes that can dilate a heart patient’s blood vessels all on their own, without mechanical inputs or any wires to help.

These shape-shifting capabilities are all thanks to a bizarre kind of metal called nitinol, a so-called shape-metal alloy that can be trained to remember its own shape. The decades-old material has become increasingly common in a wide range of everyday applications. And in the next decade, the metal will face its most challenging application yet: a sample return mission on Mars.

Nitinol, made of nickel and titanium, works its magic through heat. To “train” a paper clip made of nitinol, for example, you heat it at 500 degrees Celsius in its desired shape, then splash it in cold water. Bend it out of shape, then return the same heat source, and the metal will eerily slink back into its original form.

The temperature that triggers nitinol’s transformation varies depending on the fine-tuned ratio of nickel to titanium. Engineers can tweak the metal to adapt to a wide array of conditions, making it a key tool in places where complex mechanics won’t fit, like the blood vessels surrounding a human heart or a hinge that positions a solar panel by responding to the sun’s heat.

The Verge spoke with engineers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center to see how nitinol will play a role in a mission to retrieve humanity’s first cache of pristine Martian soil samples — the second leg of a Mars mission campaign led by NASA and the European Space Agency. Check out the video above to see how and to see nitinol in action. (We promise, it’s not CGI.)

DDR5-6400 RAM Benchmarks Show Major Performance Gains Over DDR4

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Shenzhen Longsys Electronics Co. Ltd, a Chinese NAND flash memory manufacturer, has demonstrated the power of its DDR5-6400 memory with one of Intel’s Alder Lake-S processors. The company’s results show that DDR5 will be an absolute delight for next-generation hardware.

Longsys currently has two DDR5-6400 memory modules in development. The 16GB variant follows a single-rank design, while the 32GB variant conforms to a dual-rank design. Both memory modules feature an eight-layer PCB, CAS Latency (CL) of 40, and a 1.1V DRAM voltage. Longsys’ offerings aren’t even the pinnacle of what DDR5 has to offer, though. DDR5 will eventually arrive with data rates up to DDR5-8400 and capacities that scale up to 128GB per module.

Longsys demonstrated the company’s DDR5-6400 (ES1) memory module in its 32GB version with a CL40. For comparison, JEDEC’s “A” specification for DDR4-6400 is rated for CL46.

There aren’t many processors that support DDR5 memory, and we haven’t heard anything conclusive from the AMD camp. Alder Lake is the closest processor on the horizon that will support DDR5. In fact, Longsys’ test platform is based on an Alder Lake-S chip with eight cores that operate with an 800 MHz base clock speed.

DDR5-6400 Benchmarks

It’s uncertain if Longsys compared its DDR5-6400 or DDR5-4800 memory module to one of the brand’s DDR4 memory modules. The company refers to DDR5-6400 in its results, but the BIOS screenshots show DDR5-4800. The data rate of the DDR4 memory is unknown as well. But judging by the CL22 value, the DDR4 memory module most likely conforms to the DDR4-3200 standard. In any event, we’ve reached out to Longsys for clarification.

	Longsys DDR4 32GB C22	Longsys DDR5 32GB C40	Difference
AIDA64 Read	25,770	35,844	39%
AIDA64 Write	23,944	32,613	36%
AIDA64 Copy	25,849	28,833	12%
AIDA64 Latency	56.8	112.1	97%
Master Lu Benchmark	91,575	193,684	112%

According to Longsys’ provided RAM benchmarks, the DDR5 memory module outperformed the DDR4 memory module in AIDA64’s read, write and copy tests. The performance gains came down to 39%, 36%, and 12%, respectively. However, the DDR5 memory module did show a 97% higher latency than the DDR4 offering, though.

Longsys also shared the memory result for the Master Lu benchmark, which is a pretty popular benchmark in China. The DDR4 memory module scored 91,575 points, while the DDR5 memory module put up a score of 193,684 points. Synthetic benchmarks don’t tell the whole story, but the DDR5 memory module delivered up to 112% better performance in Master Lu.

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DDR5 (Image credit: Longsys)

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DDR5 (Image credit: Longsys)

Intel’s 12th Generation Alder Lake-S processors may debut in late 2021 or early 2022, therefore, it shouldn’t be long before consumers get a first taste of the type of performance that DDR5 can supply.

Nvidia Hacks Its Own GeForce RTX 3060 Anti-Mining Lock (Updated)

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

Early reports are piling up that cryptominers have deciphered Nvidia’s anti-mining algorithm on the GeForce RTX 3060. Theoretically, it’s one of the best graphics cards, if you could find one for anything close to the official $329 MSRP. The Ampere graphics card was also supposed to be less attractive to miners, but it appears that the chipmaker shot itself in the foot and inadvertently posted a driver that unlocks mining performance on the RTX 3060. Meaning, anyone can unlock full mining performance with a minimum of effort.

Nvidia was pretty confident that its anti-mining algorithm is unhackable, which naturally put out an invitation for cryptominers to try to crack it. The chipmaker even affirmed that “End users cannot remove the hash limiter from the driver. There is a secure handshake between the driver, the RTX 3060 silicon, and the BIOS (firmware) that prevents removal of the hash rate limiter.” While the verification sounds like an intricate process, someone inadvertently released a workaround for it.

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RTX 3060 12GB with Nvidia 461.81 drivers at ~28MH/s (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

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RTX 3060 12GB with Nvidia 470.05 drivers at ~48MH/s (Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The simple hack reportedly requires a clean driver install with Nvidia’s latest GeForce 370.05 Beta driver — some report the need to flash the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with a hacked vBIOS, though in our testing that’s not required. Nvidia apparently messed up something in this particular driver that renders its anti-mining algorithm completely useless.

Above, you can see Ethereum mining performance using the 461.81 drivers, topping out at around 28MH/s after tuning. (We set the power limit to 75% and boosted the memory clock by 1250MHz using MSI Afterburner.) With the 470.05 drivers, using the same power and clock settings, we’re now getting a consistent 48MH/s. It’s also interesting that power use didn’t change between the drivers, coming in at around 118W in both cases.

Now that the cat is out of the bag, Nvidia will likely remove the driver and pretend that it never existed. Sadly, the news is everywhere, meaning that cryptominers will be back on the hunt for GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards. Not that they weren’t already, considering what we’re seeing in our GPU pricing index.

AMD Unveils EPYC ‘Milan’ 7003 CPUs, Zen 3 Comes to 64-Core Server Chips

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AMD unveiled its EPYC 7003 ‘Milan’ processors today, claiming that the chips, which bring the company’s powerful Zen 3 architecture to the server market for the first time, take the lead as the world’s fastest server processor with its flagship 64-core 128-thread EPYC 7763. Like the rest of the Milan lineup, this chip comes fabbed on the 7nm process and is drop-in compatible with existing servers. AMD claims it brings up to twice the performance of Intel’s competing Xeon Cascade Lake Refresh chips in HPC, Cloud, and enterprise workloads, all while offering a vastly better price-to-performance ratio.

Milan’s agility lies in the Zen 3 architecture and its chiplet-based design. This microarchitecture brings many of the same benefits that we’ve seen with AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series chips that dominate the desktop PC market, like a 19% increase in IPC and a larger unified L3 cache. Those attributes, among others, help improve AMD’s standing against Intel’s venerable Xeon lineup in key areas, like single-threaded work, and offer a more refined performance profile across a broader spate of applications.

The other attractive features of the EPYC lineup are still present, too, like enhanced security, leading memory bandwidth, and the PCIe 4.0 interface. AMD also continues its general approach of offering all features with all of its chips, as opposed to Intel’s strict de-featuring that it uses to segment its product stack. As before, AMD also offers single-socket P-series models, while its standard lineup is designed for dual-socket (2P) servers.

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The Milan launch promises to reignite the heated data center competition once again. Today marks the EPYC Milan processors’ official launch, but AMD actually began shipping the chips to cloud service providers and hyperscale customers last year. Overall, the EPYC Milan processors look to be exceedingly competitive against Intel’s competing Xeon Cascade Lake Refresh chips.

Like AMD, Intel has also been shipping to its largest customers; the company recently told us that it has already shipped 115,000 Ice Lake chips since the end of last year. Intel also divulged a few details about its Ice Lake Xeons at Hot Chips last year; we know the company has a 32-core model in the works, and it’s rumored that the series tops out at 40 cores. As such, Ice Lake will obviously change the competitive landscape when it comes to the market.

AMD has chewed away desktop PC and notebook market share at an amazingly fast pace, but the data center market is a much tougher market to crack. While this segment represents the golden land of high-volume and high-margin sales, the company’s slow and steady gains lag its radical advance in the desktop PC and notebook markets.

Much of that boils down to the staunchly risk-averse customers in the enterprise and data center; these customers prize a mix of factors beyond the standard measuring stick of performance and price-to-performance ratios, instead focusing on areas like compatibility, security, supply predictability, reliability, serviceability, engineering support, and deeply-integrated OEM-validated platforms. To cater to the broader set of enterprise customers, AMD’s Milan launch also carries a heavy focus on broadening AMD’s hardware and software ecosystems, including full-fledged enterprise-class solutions that capitalize on the performance and TCO benefits of the Milan processors.

AMD’s existing EPYC Rome processors already hold the lead in performance-per-socket and pricing, easily outstripping Intel’s Xeon at several key price points. Given AMD’s optimizations, Milan will obviously extend that lead, at least until the Ice Lake debut. Let’s see how the hardware stacks up.

AMD EPYC 7003 Series Milan Specifications and Pricing

	Cores / Threads	Base / Boost (GHz)	L3 Cache (MB)	TDP (W)	1K Unit Price
EPYC Milan 7763	64 / 128	2.45 / 3.5	256	280	$7,890
EPYC Milan 7713	64 / 128	2.0 / 3.675	256	225	$7,060
EPYC Rome 7H12	64 / 128	2.6 / 3.3	256	280	?
EPYC Rome 7742	64 / 128	2.25 / 3.4	256	225	$6,950
EPYC Milan 7663	56 / 112	2.0 / 3.5	256	240	$6,366
EPYC Milan 7643	48 / 96	2.3 / 3.6	256	225	$4.995
EPYC Milan 7F53	32 / 64	2.95 / 4.0	256	280	$4,860
EPYC Milan 7453	28 / 56	2.75 / 3.45	64	225	$1,570
Xeon Gold 6258R	28 / 56	2.7 / 4.0	38.5	205	$3,651
EPYC Milan 74F3	24 / 48	3.2 / 4.0	256	240	$2,900
EPYC Rome 7F72	24 / 48	3.2 / ~3.7	192	240	$2,450
Xeon Gold 6248R	24 / 48	3.0 / 4.0	35.75	205	$2,700
EPYC Milan 7443	24 / 48	2.85 / 4.0	128	200	$2,010
EPYC Rome 7402	24 / 48	2.8 / 3.35	128	180	$1,783
EPYC Milan 73F3	16 / 32	3.5 / 4.0	256	240	$3,521
EPYC Rome 7F52	16 / 32	3.5 / ~3.9	256	240	$3,100
Xeon Gold 6246R	16 / 32	3.4 / 4.1	35.75	205	$3,286
EPYC Milan 7343	16 / 32	3.2 / 3.9	128	190	$1,565
EPYC Rome 7302	16 / 32	3.0 / 3.3	128	155	$978
EPYC Milan 72F3	8 / 16	3.7 / 4.1	256	180	$2,468
EPYC Rome 7F32	8 / 16	3.7 / ~3.9	128	180	$2,100
Xeon Gold 6250	8 / 16	3.9 / 4.5	35.75	185	$3,400

AMD released a total of 19 EPYC Milan SKUs today, but we’ve winnowed that down to key price bands in the table above. We have the full list of the new Milan SKUs later in the article.

As with the EPYC Rome generation, Milan spans from eight to 64 cores, while Intel’s Cascade Lake Refresh tops out at 28 cores. All Milan models come with threading, support up to eight memory channels of DDR4-3200, 4TB of memory capacity, and 128 lanes of PCIe 4.0 connectivity. AMD supports both standard single- and dual-socket platforms, with the P-series chips slotting in for single-socket servers (we have those models in the expanded list below). The chips are drop-in compatible with the existing Rome socket.

AMD added frequency-optimized 16-, 24-, and 32-core F-series models to the Rome lineup last year, helping the company boost its performance in frequency-bound workloads, like databases, that Intel has typically dominated. Those models return with a heavy focus on higher clock speeds, cache capacities, and TDPs compared to the standard models. AMD also added a highly-clocked 64-core 7H12 model for HPC workloads to the Rome lineup, but simply worked that higher-end class of chip into its standard Milan stack.

As such, the 64-core 128-thread EPYC 7763 comes with a 2.45 / 3.5 GHz base/boost frequency paired with a 280W TDP. This flagship part also comes armed with 256MB of L3 cache and supports a configurable TDP that can be adjusted to accommodate any TDP from 225W to 280W.

The 7763 marks the peak TDP rating for the Milan series, but the company has a 225W 64-core 7713 model that supports a TDP range of 225W to 240W for more mainstream applications.

All Milan models come with a default TDP rating (listed above), but they can operate between a lower minimum (cTDP Min) and a higher maximum (cTDP Max) threshold, allowing quite a bit of configurability within the product stack. We have the full cTDP ranges for each model listed in the expanded spec list below.

Milan’s adjustable TDPs now allow customers to tailor for different thermal ranges, and Forrest Norrod, AMD’s SVP and GM of the data center and embedded solutions group, says that the shift in strategy comes from the lessons learned from the first F- and H-series processors. These 280W processors were designed for systems with robust liquid cooling, which tends to add quite a bit of cost to the platform, but OEMs were surprisingly adept at engineering air-cooled servers that could fully handle the heat output of those faster models. As such, AMD decided to add a 280W 64-core model to the standard lineup and expanded the ability to manipulate TDP ranges across its entire stack.

AMD also added new 28- and 56-core options with the EPYC 7453 and 7663, respectively. Norrod explained that AMD had noticed that many of its customers had optimized their applications for Intel’s top-of-the-stack servers that come with multiples of 28 cores. Hence, AMD added new models that would mesh well with those optimizations to make it easier for customers to port over applications optimized for Xeon platforms. Naturally, AMD’s 28-core’s $1,570 price tag looks plenty attractive next to Intel’s $3,651 asking price for its own 28-core part.

AMD made a few other adjustments to the product stack based on customer buying trends, like reducing three eight-core models to one F-series variant, and removing a 12-core option entirely. AMD also added support for six-way memory interleaving on all models to lower costs for workloads that aren’t sensitive to memory throughput.

Overall, Milan has similar TDP ranges, memory, and PCIe support at any given core count than its predecessors but comes with higher clock speeds, performance, and pricing.

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Milan also comes with the performance uplift granted by the Zen 3 microarchitecture. Higher IPC and frequencies, not to mention more refined boost algorithms that extract the utmost performance within the thermal confines of the socket, help improve Milan’s performance in the lightly-threaded workloads where Xeon has long held an advantage. The higher per-core performance also translates to faster performance in threaded workloads, too.

Meanwhile, the larger unified L3 cache results in a simplified topology that ensures broader compatibility with standard applications, thus removing the lion’s share of the rare eccentricities that we’ve seen with prior-gen EPYC models.

The Zen 3 microarchitecture brings the same fundamental advantages that we’ve seen with the desktop PC and notebook models (you can read much more about the architecture here), like reduced memory latency, doubled INT8 and floating point performance, and higher integer throughput.

AMD also added support for memory protection keys, AVX2 support for VAES/VPCLMULQD instructions, bolstered security for hypervisors and VM memory/registers, added protection against return oriented programming attacks, and made a just-in-time update to the Zen 3 microarchitecture to provide in-silicon mitigation for the Spectre vulnerability (among other enhancements listed in the slides above). As before, Milan remains unimpacted by other major security vulnerabilities, like Meltdown, Foreshadow, and Spoiler.

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The EPYC Milan SoC adheres to the same (up to) nine-chiplet design as the Rome models and is drop-in compatible with existing second-gen EPYC servers. Just like the consumer-oriented chips, Core Complex Dies (CCDs) based on the Zen 3 architecture feature eight cores tied to a single contiguous 32MB slice of L3 cache, which stands in contrast to Zen 2’s two four-core CCXes, each with two 16MB clusters. The new arrangement allows all eight cores to communicate to have direct access to 32MB of L3 cache, reducing latency.

This design also increases the amount of cache available to a single core, thus boosting performance in multi-threaded applications and enabling lower-core count Milan models to have access to significantly more L3 cache than Rome models. The improved core-to-cache ratio boosts performance in HPC and relational database workloads, among others.

Second-gen EPYC models supported either 8- or 4-channel memory configurations, but Milan adds support for 6-channel interleaving, allowing customers that aren’t memory bound to use less system RAM to reduce costs. The 6-channel configuration supports the same DDR4-3200 specification for single DIMM per channel (1DPC) implementations. This feature is enabled across the full breadth of the Milan stack, but AMD sees it as most beneficial for models with lower core counts.

Milan also features the same 32-bit AMD Secure Processor in the I/O Die (IOD) that manages cryptographic functionality, like key generation and management for AMD’s hardware-based Secure Memory Encryption (SME) and Secure Encrypted Virtualization (SEV) features. These are key advantages over Intel’s Cascade Lake processors, but Ice Lake will bring its own memory encryption features to bear. AMD’s Secure Processor also manages its hardware-validated boot feature.

AMD EPYC Milan Performance

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AMD provided its own performance projections based on its internal testing. However, as with all vendor-provided benchmarks, we should view these with the appropriate level of caution. We’ve included the testing footnotes at the end of the article.

AMD claims the Milan chips are the fastest server processors for HPC, cloud, and enterprise workloads. The first slide outlines AMD’s progression compared to Intel in SPECrate2017_int_base over the last few years, highlighting its continued trajectory of significant generational performance improvements. The second slide outlines how SPECrate2017_int_base scales across the Milan product stack, with Intel’s best published scores for two key Intel models, the 28-core 6258R and 16-core 4216, added for comparison.

Moving on to a broader spate of applications, AMD says existing two-socket 7H12 systems already hold an easy lead over Xeon in the SPEC2017 floating point tests, but the Milan 7763 widens the gap to a 106% advantage over the Xeon 6258R. AMD uses this comparison for the two top-of-the-stack chips, but be aware that this is a bit lopsided: The 6258R carries a tray price of $3,651 compared to the 7763’s $7,890 asking price. AMD also shared benchmarks comparing the two in SPEC2017 integer tests, claiming a similar 106% speedup. In SPECJBB 2015 tests, which AMD uses as a general litmus for enterprise workloads, AMD claims 117% more performance than the 6258R.

The company also shared a few test results showing performance in the middle of its product stack compared to Intel’s 6258R, claiming that its 32-core part also outperforms the 6258R, all of which translates to improved TCO for customers due to the advantages of lower pricing and higher compute density that translates to fewer servers, lower space requirements, and lower overall power consumption.

Finally, AMD has a broad range of ecosystem partners with fully-validated platforms available from top-tier OEMs like Dell, HP, and Lenovo, among many others. These platforms are fed by a broad constellation of solutions providers as well. AMD also has an expansive list of instances available from leading cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle, to name a few.

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Model #	Cores	Threads	Base Freq (GHz)	Max Boost Freq (up to GHz11)	Default TDP (w)	cTDP Min (w)	cTDP Max (w)	L3 Cache (MB)	DDR Channels	Max DDR Freq (1DPC)	PCIe 4	1Ku Pricing
7763	64	128	2.45	3.50	280	225	280	256	8	3200	x128	$7,890
7713	64	128	2.00	3.68	225	225	240	256	8	3200	X128	$7,060
7713P	64	128	2.00	3.68	225	225	240	256	8	3200	X128	$5,010
7663	56	112	2.00	3.50	240	225	240	256	8	3200	x128	$6,366
7643	48	96	2.30	3.60	225	225	240	256	8	3200	x128	$4,995
75F3	32	64	2.95	4.00	280	225	280	256	8	3200	x 128	$4,860
7543	32	64	2.80	3.70	225	225	240	256	8	3200	x128	$3,761
7543P	32	64	2.80	3.70	225	225	240	256	8	3200	X128	$2,730
7513	32	64	2.60	3.65	200	165	200	128	8	3200	x128	$2,840
7453	28	56	2.75	3.45	225	225	240	64	8	3200	x128	$1,570
74F3	24	48	3.20	4.00	240	225	240	256	8	3200	x128	$2,900
7443	24	48	2.85	4.00	200	165	200	128	8	3200	x128	$2,010
7443P	24	48	2.85	4.00	200	165	200	128	8	3200	X128	$1,337
7413	24	48	2.65	3.60	180	165	200	128	8	3200	X128	$1,825
73F3	16	32	3.50	4.00	240	225	240	256	8	3200	x128	$3,521
7343	16	32	3.20	3.90	190	165	200	128	8	3200	x128	$1,565
7313	16	32	3.00	3.70	155	155	180	128	8	3200	X128	$1,083
7313P	16	32	3.00	3.70	155	155	180	128	8	3200	X128	$913
72F3	8	16	3.70	4.10	180	165	200	256	8	3200	x128	$2,468

Thoughts

AMD’s general launch today gives us a good picture of the company’s data center chips moving forward, but we won’t know the full story until Intel releases the formal details of its 10nm Ice Lake processors.

The volume ramp for both AMD’s EPYC Milan and Intel’s Ice Lake has been well underway for some time, and both lineups have been shipping to hyperscalers and CSPs for several months. The HPC and supercomputing space also tend to receive early silicon, so they also serve as a solid general litmus for the future of the market. AMD’s EPYC Milan has already enjoyed brisk uptake in those segments, and given that Intel’s Ice Lake hasn’t been at the forefront of as many HPC wins, it’s easy to assume, by a purely subjective measure, that Milan could hold some advantages over Ice Lake.

Intel has already slashed its pricing on server chips to remain competitive with AMD’s EPYC onslaught. It’s easy to imagine that the company will lean on its incumbency and all the advantages that entails, like its robust Server Select platform offerings, wide software optimization capabilities, platform adjacencies like networking, FPGA, and Optane memory, along with aggressive pricing to hold the line.

AMD has obviously prioritized its supply of server processors during the pandemic-fueled supply chain disruptions and explosive demand that we’ve seen over the last several months. It’s natural to assume that the company has been busy building Milan inventory for the general launch. We spoke with AMD’s Forrest Norrod, and he tells us that the company is taking steps to ensure that it has an adequate supply for its customers with mission-critical applications.

One thing is clear, though. Both x86 server vendors benefit from a rapidly expanding market, but ARM-based servers have become more prevalent than we’ve seen in the recent past. For now, the bulk of the ARM uptake seems limited to cloud service providers, like AWS with its Graviton 2 chips. In contrast, uptake is slow in the general data center and enterprise due to the complexity of shifting applications to the ARM architecture. Continuing and broadening uptake of ARM-based platforms could begin to change that paradigm in the coming years, though, as x86 faces its most potent threat in recent history. Both x86 vendors will need a steady cadence of big performance improvements in the future to hold the ARM competition at bay.

Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait for Ice Lake to get a true view of the competitive x86 landscape over the next year. That means the jury is still out on just what the data center will look like as AMD works on its next-gen Genoa chips and Intel readies Sapphire Rapids.

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System76 Launches Thelio Mira: Premium Linux-Based Desktops with AMD Ryzen 5000

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Leading workstation vendors offer Linux-based machines with the latest hardware inside, but those PCs are expensive and are not exactly home-friendly due to their expansive design. Meanwhile, buying a boutique desktop PC with Linux is somewhat tricky. Fortunately for Linux users, there are companies like System76, which just launched its Thelio Mira midrange system that can be equipped with a 16-core Ryzen 9 5950X processor and a leading-edge Nvidia Quadro RTX graphics card.

System76 doesn’t label the Thelio Mira as a workstation; instead, the company brands it as a professional desktop system. Yet the PC can pack an AMD Ryzen 5000-series processor with up to 16 CPU cores, one or two Nvidia’s Quadro RTX graphics cards (up to the RTX 8000 model), up to 128GB of DDR4 RAM with ECC memory, up to 4TB of PCIe 4.0 NVMe storage (using two M.2 drives), and up to 36 TB of HDD storage. Obviously, all the connectivity features that you would expect from a 2021 desktop are all there, too: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.0, 2.5 GbE, USB 3.2 Gen 2, USB Type-C, and audio connectors.

Measuring 436.35 × 253 × 331mm (17.18″ × 9.96″ × 13.03″), the System76 Thelio Mira is smaller than most high-end workstations by major vendors and is more compact than the company’s top-of-the-line Thelio Major box. While the system isn’t large, it can still support two graphics cards and loads of DRAM, which is something you usually don’t find in midrange machines.

One thing to note about the System76 Thelio Mir is that it does not look as utilitarian as machines from the big suppliers. With a choice of five different wooden finishes, it can actually fit almost any home design.

System76’s Thelio Mir stats at $1,499 and comes with Pop!OS 20.10 (64-bit), Pop!OS 20.04 LTS (64-bit), or Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (64-bit) operating systems. Meanwhile, nothing is stopping you from installing Windows 10 on these PCs.

Specifications: ZADAK Spark RGB 1 TB
Brand:	ZADAK
Model:	SPARK PCIe Gen 3×4 M.2 RGB SSD
Capacity:	1024 GB (953 GB usable) No additional overprovisioning
Controller:	Phison PS5012-E12
Flash:	Micron 96-Layer 3D TLC B27A IA7BG64AVA
DRAM:	2x 512 MB SK Hynix DDR4-2400 H5AN4G6NBJR-UHC
Endurance:	726 TBW
Form Factor:	M.2 2280
Interface:	PCIe Gen 3 x4, NVMe 1.3
Device ID:	Z SPKG3 1TB
Firmware:	AP226PH0
Warranty:	5 years
Price at Time of Review:	$220 / 22 cents per GB

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The true wireless earbuds market has never been more crowded than it is in 2021. With so many to choose from, finding the best earbuds can seem daunting. But the vast selection is actually a good thing: not only are there excellent picks for everyday buds to carry in your pocket, but you’ve also got a slew of options that prioritize things like noise cancellation, fitness, lengthy battery life, and comfort.

Even if you don’t consider yourself any kind of audiophile, it’s important to find a set of earbuds that sound good to you. This means different things depending on the person: do you want head-rattling bass or something more balanced with an immersive soundstage? You’ll want to find a pair with a good, reliable Bluetooth connection — all of the below picks check off that box — and enough battery life to last you through a normal day of intermittent listening.

Remember that getting the most out of earbuds requires a good seal in your ear. Always try the various ear tip sizes that come with whichever buds you purchase — and don’t be afraid to experiment with different sizes in each ear. Ears are funny like that. Many of these earbuds have apps you can install on your phone to further personalize their sound and controls the way you want.

If you’re looking for the overall best noise-canceling earbuds, you’ll be very happy with Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds. They have best-in-class noise cancellation and sound great.

But if you’ve got other priorities, there is a range of great options from Apple, Beats, Jabra, Sennheiser, and Ultimate Ears that won’t disappoint. This guide covers higher-end wireless earbuds. If you’re on the hunt for more affordable options, check out the best cheap wireless earbuds to buy.

Bose’s QuietComfort Earbuds are the best noise-canceling wireless earbuds you can get.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

1. Bose QuietComfort Earbuds

Best noise-canceling earbuds

The QuietComfort Earbuds offer very powerful active noise cancellation, but what’s equally nice about them is how customizable the ANC is. You can choose between 11 different levels of noise cancellation (based on how much of the outside world you want mixed in) and set three favorites to cycle between when you double-tap the left earbud.

Bose’s premium earbuds put out fantastic audio with punchy bass. Their transparency / ambient mode is second only to Apple in how natural it sounds. And even the voice mics work well, so you really get the whole package — as you should for this kind of money.

The AirPods Pro remain the best wireless earbuds for iPhone owners because some of their best features only work with other Apple products.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

2. Apple AirPods Pro

Best wireless earbuds for the iPhone

There’s no beating the interplay between AirPods and Apple’s other devices like the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. The AirPods Pro don’t offer the best sound quality of our top picks, but it’s perfectly satisfactory to many people. And the active noise cancellation is right up there with Bose.

But it really all comes together if you’re in Apple’s ecosystem and also own a Mac or iPad. The AirPods Pro can automatically hop between devices based on which one you’re using, and on iPhone or iPad, spatial audio delivers immersive surround sound when watching streaming video apps. They’re fantastic for making calls with, and Apple continues to pull ahead of competitors when it comes to ease of use.

Here’s a tip: if none of the included ear tips get you a perfect seal, I recommend a set of memory foam tips like those from Comply or Dekoni.

The Jabra Elite 75t are the best wireless earbuds if you want to pair with two devices simultaneously.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

3. Jabra Elite 75t

Best wireless earbuds for multitasking

Jabra is pretty much the only company making true wireless earbuds that support “multipoint” for two simultaneous Bluetooth connections. So you can pair them up with a phone and your laptop or tablet at the same time. Jabra’s mobile app offers a ton of customization over the controls, EQ, and even includes bonuses like white noise or nature sounds if you’ve got situations where they’d be handy.

Jabra Elite 75t

$130
$150
14% off

Prices taken at time of publishing.

Jabra’s Elite 75t earbuds offer pleasing bass-heavy sound, reliable performance, and can connect with two devices — like a phone and laptop — at the same time.

$130

at Amazon
$130

at Best Buy

The newer Elite 85t earbuds add more effective noise cancellation to the mix, but the 75ts are on sale so frequently that they’re still the go-to pick if multitasking is important to you. They pack a wallop when it comes to bass — but not to the point where it overwhelms the rest of the mix.

Jabra backs them with a two-year warranty in the event you experience any hardware issues. (I’ve had a 75t bud stop taking a charge out of nowhere, so it can happen.)

The Powerbeats Pro have been around for some time now, but they still rank as the best wireless earbuds for fitness.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

4. Beats Powerbeats Pro

Best wireless earbuds for fitness

Nothing has managed to unseat the Powerbeats Pro as the best fitness earbuds since their release in 2019. Their ear hook design keeps them planted on your ears during intense exercise, they can endure your sweatiest workouts, and the nine hours of continuous battery life should get you through just about any marathon. And the sound quality is killer, with plenty of bass to keep you motivated and moving.

And since Beats is owned by Apple, the Powerbeats Pro can also take advantage of features like audio sharing, auto device switching (like the AirPods Pro), and a dead-simple pairing process.

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus can last for up to 11 hours on a single charge, which blows away many competitors.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

5. Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus

Best wireless earbuds for battery life

They can last 11 hours on a single charge. That’s what I consider marathon battery life for true wireless earbuds, and few other companies have managed to keep up with the longevity of Samsung’s Galaxy Buds Plus. They lack active noise cancellation, so that helps them keep playing for longer, but even then, 11 hours is quite a feat. Like the Jabras, these are often on sale and easy to grab at a discount.

Sennheiser’s Momentum True Wireless 2 are the best wireless earbuds in terms of sound quality.

Photo by Jon Porter / The Verge

6. Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Best wireless earbuds for sound quality

Sennheiser’s second swing at true wireless earbuds improve on the original Momentums with a more comfortable fit and the addition of active noise cancellation. But everything about these earbuds is second fiddle to their sound quality: the Momentum True Wireless 2 earbuds put out dynamic, expressive, and wonderfully detailed audio. They’re the sort of buds that will bring out things in your favorite music you haven’t noticed before.

But that upgraded sound quality comes for a hefty $300 price. If you want arguably the best sound that true wireless earbuds can deliver, these are it. But all of these other picks sound plenty good in their own right.

You’re not going to find any silicone ear tips that can match the UE Fits and their custom tips, which mold to match your ear shape in seconds.

Photo by Chris Welch / The Verge

7. UE Fits

Best wireless earbuds if comfort is everything

If you often have difficulty finding ear tips that fit your ears comfortably, it doesn’t really get better than the UE Fits. These earbuds include special tips that mold to the shape of your ear during a 60-second fitting process that you activate with UE’s app. They get warm during molding (but not uncomfortably so) and you can feel them adapting to the contours of your ear canal.

Once the process is done, you’re left with custom earbuds with a fit that’s as close to perfect as you’ll ever find — unless you visit your local audiologist for a professional mold, and that gets expensive fast. Ultimate Ears has a fit “guarantee” and will send you a second set of tips should your first molding attempt go awry. The UE Fits are quite good, last for up to eight hours of continuous playback, and they’re rated IPX4 for water resistance.

UE Fits

$249

Prices taken at time of publishing.

The UE Fits come with unique ear tips that permanently mold to the unique shape of your ears in just 60 seconds. This allows for a much better fit that you can comfortably wear for hours.

$249

at Ultimate Ears

Introduction

Introduction

DDR5-6400 Benchmarks

AMD EPYC 7003 Series Milan Specifications and Pricing

AMD EPYC Milan Performance

Thoughts

Caviar introduces a luxury Galaxy S21 Ultra in the shape of a gold bar and decorated with 1 kilo of pure gold. As an investment object for the rich.

Samsung Galaxy S21 Golden Limited Edition

Caviar transforms the iPhone 12 Pro (Max) into a 1 kilogram 24-karat gold bar. These unique Limited Edition smartphones will retain their value over time.

iPhone 12 Pro Goldphone as an investment

Introduction

1. Bose QuietComfort Earbuds

Best noise-canceling earbuds

2. Apple AirPods Pro

Best wireless earbuds for the iPhone

3. Jabra Elite 75t

Best wireless earbuds for multitasking

Jabra Elite 75t

4. Beats Powerbeats Pro

Best wireless earbuds for fitness

5. Samsung Galaxy Buds Plus

Best wireless earbuds for battery life

6. Sennheiser Momentum True Wireless 2

Best wireless earbuds for sound quality

7. UE Fits

Best wireless earbuds if comfort is everything

UE Fits