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Pixio PXC327 Review: Affordable 165Hz Curves

Our Verdict

It’s hard to fault a 32-inch VA 1440p monitor with 165 Hz that sells for so little. There are a few flaws, but taken purely as a gaming display, the Pixio PXC327 delivers excellent performance where it counts. With excellent SDR picture quality and smooth video processing, it’s a great way to put a big screen on your desk for not a lot of money.

For

Good contrast
Excellent, large color gamut after calibration
Good value

Against

No sRGB mode
Undersaturated HDR color
Smearing effect with backlight strobe

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Features and Specifications

Gaming monitors come in a huge variety of shapes and sizes, and we’ve covered just about every category currently available. Whether your preference runs flat or curved, there’s a screen for you. For the best experience, a panel of at least 25 inches diagonal is a good choice, but if you have the space and budget, well, bigger is usually better. One of the more unusual form factors is 32-inch curved. We’ve looked at a number of these over the past two years and found them very worthy of consideration. A 32-inch screen in the 16:9 aspect ratio provides plenty of width and height to immerse gamers while still being well-suited for productivity. Adding a curve brings the user a little closer to virtual reality.

Some of these screens are premium priced, but the Pixio PXC327 manages to break the cost barrier. This 32-inch VA panel with 1440p resolution and an 1800R curve sells for just $310, cheaper than most of the best gaming monitors, either direct from the manufacturer or several popular online outlets. Though it doesn’t offer a lot of bells and whistles, it does have AMD FreeSync Premium, along with a speedy 165 Hz refresh rate and HDR.

Pixio PXC327 Specs

Panel Type / Backlight	VA / W-LED, edge array
Screen Size, Aspect Ratio & Curve	31.5 inches / 16:9
	Curve radius: 1800mm
Max Resolution & Refresh Rate	2560 x 1440 @ 165 Hz
	AMD FreeSync Premium
Native Color Depth & Gamut	8-bit / DCI-P3
Response Time (MPRT)	1ms
Brightness (mfr)	350 nits
Contrast (mfr)	3,000:1
Speakers	None
Video Inputs	2x DisplayPort 1.2
	1x HDMI 2.0
Audio	3.5mm headphone output
USB 3.0	None
Power Consumption	29.3w, brightness @ 200 nits
Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base	28.5 x 16.7 x 7.5 inches (724 x 424 x 191mm)
Panel Thickness	1.7 inches (43mm)
Bezel Width	Top/sides: 0.4 inch (9mm)
	Bottom: 0.7 inch (17mm)
Weight	12.1 pounds (5.5kg)
Warranty	3 years

Backlit by a white LED edge array, the PXC327 is specced for 350 nits maximum brightness and coverage of about 83% of the DCI-P3 color space. It accepts HDR10 signals and runs at 165 Hz without overclock. AMD FreeSync Premium is the native adaptive tech. It’s AMD mid-tier screen tear-fighting offering and adds low framerate compensation (LFC) over standard FreeSync. The PXC327 isn’t G-Sync Compatible-certified, but we got it to run Nvidia’s anti-screen tear feature anyway (see: How to Run G-Sync on a FreeSync Monitor). Both flavors of Adaptive-Sync and HDR work in concert over DisplayPort at 165 Hz and over HDMI at 144 Hz.

The PXC327 has little else in the way of features, but as a basic gaming monitor, it offers a lot of positives for the price.

Assembly and Accessories

You’ll need to break out the Phillips-head screwdriver to assemble the PXC327’s metal base and upright. From there, just snap the panel in place. The external power supply is a small brick, and you also get a DisplayPort cable.

If you prefer to use a monitor arm, the panel has 100mm VESA lugs in back, but you’ll have to source your own bolts to use them.

Product 360

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(Image credit: Pixio)

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(Image credit: Pixio)

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(Image credit: Pixio)

The PXC327 maintains the current styling trend of thin flush-mounted bezels with a 9mm frame around the top and sides and a 17mm wide strip across the bottom. Only a small Pixio logo is visible in the center. In back, there’s a larger Pixio logo molded in a shiny finish with the surrounding plastic done in smooth matte. A large chevron is deeply cut into the back cover also finished in gloss. Underneath that are geometric shapes that resemble the side of a sci-fi movie spaceship.

The input panel is clearly labeled with white lettering visible from the back. You get two DisplayPort 1.2 inputs that support HDR and Adaptive-Sync up to 165 Hz. A single HDMI 2.0 can do up to 144 Hz, along with HDR and FreeSync. You can also plug your best gaming headset into the 3.5mm audio jack. There’s a USB port for service and firmware updates, but it does not support peripherals.

The all-metal stand is much more solid than its thin appearance would suggest. However, it allows for a 25-degree tilt. There are no swivel or height adjustments available, but the PXC327 is light enough to move around easily. The screen sits a little low for a perfectly vertical position, so we had to tilt it up a bit.

OSD Features

You control all of the PXC327’s functions by a single joystick/button on the back right side of the panel. It moves through the simple and efficiently designed on-screen display (OSD) menu with ease and doubles as a power toggle. Clicking the four directions outside the OSD brings up quick menus for picture mode, input selection, brightness and Game Assist’s aiming point, timer and frames per second (fps) counter.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

There are seven picture modes which correspond to different game types. User is the default mode and makes all image controls available. Additionally, there are three user memories in the User Data submenu that can be saved and recalled. Black Equalizer raises the black level to make shadow detail easier to see. We left that option alone as the PXC327 has very good gamma accuracy and deep black levels. We had no problems seeing fine detail in dark places.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

The PXC327 packs three Color Temperature presets, along with sRGB and a user mode. The RGB sliders allow for precise and accurate results during calibration, which we recommend because the preset temps are all either too cool or too warm.

You also get five gamma options. 2.2 is the default and best one. If you want to tweak color saturation and hue, there are sliders for that. And you can dial in a low blue light mode for fatigue-free reading. Note that the sRGB mode here does not reduce the color gamut from the native DCI-P3. DCI-P3 is the one and only choice.

(Image credit: Tom’s Hardware)

Gaming Setup is where you’ll find the FreeSync toggle, three-level overdrive, Game Assist, HDR, dynamic contrast and MPRT, which is Pixio’s term for blur reduction, a backlight strobe.

Pixio PXC327 Calibration Settings

The PXC327’s default User mode has a few flaws that calibration can correct. For one, grayscale runs cool, but that’s easily fixed with adjustments to the RGB sliders in the User color temp. These tweaks also improved gamma, which is a bit too dark by default. No change to the gamma preset is necessary. We also recommend lowering the contrast slider to make highlights pop a bit more.

Once these changes are made, measured contrast is improved, and color is very accurate in the DCI-P3 realm. Again, there is no sRGB option available. The sRGB color temp setting does not reduce gamut volume at all.

Please try our recommended settings for the Pixio PXC327 below:

Picture Mode	User
Brightness 200 nits	51
Brightness 120 nits	25
Brightness 100 nits	19
Brightness 80 nits	13
Brightness 50 nits	5 (min. 34 nits)
Contrast	46
Gamma	2.2
Color Temp User	Red 55, Green 53, Blue 47

Once you switch over to HDR mode, which you must do manually, there are errors in color and luminance tracking that cannot be corrected. We’ll tell you more about that on page 4.

Gaming and Hands-on

The 32-inch form factor is great for just about any use. It provides enough image area to line up two word processing documents side by side. It’s great for editing music scores or photos. And you’ll see a huge portion of any spreadsheet. In the PXC327’s case, QHD resolution provides 93 pixels per inch, enough to render small details sharply without obvious jaggies. You can sit up close to this monitor without seeing the pixel structure in photos and videos.

The PXC327’s curve is subtle, which is typical of curved monitors with a 16:9 aspect ratio. In the past, we’ve wondered if this aspect ratio benefits from curvature at all, and after reviewing many panels in both 27 and 32-inch sizes, we say yes. Though we wouldn’t call it a deciding factor, the PXC327’s 1800R curve clearly enhances gameplay while making no real difference to the Windows desktop, which is a good thing. If gaming is the only intended use for a monitor, it’s hard to have too much curve. But if you must spend part of your day working, an extreme radius can be distracting.

With the PXC327, the Windows desktop looked bright and colorful, thanks to the large color gamut. If you need sRGB for Photoshop or accuracy otherwise, you’ll need to use a software profile. There’s no usable sRGB option in the OSD.

At our reference setting of 200 nits brightness, there was more than enough light output for a brightly lit office. In fact, we turned it down a bit when browsing the web. White backgrounds coupled with a large screen mean less light is necessary.

We weren’t as enamored with HDR operation in Windows. Brightness is locked to the maximum, which made the image very harsh. Color was also more muted than it is in SDR (you’ll see why in our HDR gamut test on page 4). Ultimate, there was no benefit to working in HDR mode.

Booting up our SDR copy of Tomb Raider, we were impressed by deep blacks full of detail and the rich, saturated color palette. Though we saw a bit more color than the game’s creators intended, it looked natural thanks to the PXC327’s accuracy after calibration. Greens and reds were particularly vivid, and fleshtones looked slightly ruddy. With a huge dynamic range, over 3400:1, image depth is superb.

We had the same experience playing Call of Duty: WWII in SDR mode. The PXC327 has contrast to spare. This is a good thing because switching to HDR mode showed some color flaws in terms of saturation. The game just didn’t have the expected pop in pop. Instead, it looked a little more muted than the SDR version of the game. You’ll see why this is so on page four. Meanwhile, HDR contrast looked about the same as SDR, which jives with our measurements, but the image was extremely bright. We weren’t able to play in HDR mode for long before fatigue set in.

There were no such issues with video processing. Our GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card was able to hit 165 fps no matter how intense the action became. That’s a benefit of the PXC327’s QHD resolution. Would 4K resolution look better? Probably a little but at a much greater hit to the wallet. This is one great-looking monitor for the price. Our machine with a Radeon RX 5700 XT card ran the same games at 120-140 fps, still very smooth and responsive. In all cases, we used the High overdrive setting. There was no visible ghosting, and motion resolution remained clear and sharp.

The backlight strobe was unusable in our tests. In addition to reducing brightness by around 20%, it created a smearing effect that made some objects appear doubled around the edges. We stuck with Adaptive-Sync for all gameplay and were more than satisfied.

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Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 review: a ThinkPad with a twist

The ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 is a ThinkPad through and through. It’s got the keyboard nub, the discrete mouse buttons, and the all-black chassis with scattered dots of red. (If you’ve seen its predecessor, the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2, you’ll know what you’re getting — the models are identical, with different chips.)

But this ThinkPad has a unique feature you don’t see every day: an OLED screen. That, combined with its discrete GPU, puts the X1 Extreme Gen 3 out of the business laptop space that ThinkPads traditionally dominate and into the crowded market for ultraportable content-creation machines. Among those competitors, the X1 Extreme has some significant drawbacks that keep it from reaching the top of the pack. But it still includes the features that have made ThinkPads so dominant across the board, and that means there’s certainly an audience for it.

Like other ThinkPads, the X1 Extreme is customizable for a variety of price points. All configurations have an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q. The base model is $2,734 (currently discounted to a much more reasonable $1,640) and includes a Core i5-10400H, 8GB of RAM, 256GB of storage, a 1920 x 1080 non-touch display, and a standard 720p HD webcam. Among prebuilt models, you can go all the way up to a system with a Core i9-10885H, 64GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, a 3840 x 2160 OLED touchscreen, and an IR camera, all for — wait for it — $4,959 (currently listed at $2,974.40). My test configuration is in the middle; it includes a Core i7-10850H, 1TB of storage, 32GB of RAM, and the OLED touchscreen. It has an MSRP of $4,111 but is currently listed at $2,466. You can tweak most of the specs to your liking, though some are dependent on others; for example, all models that don’t have the base display come with the IR camera.

This model has two absolutely standout features. The first is the keyboard. ThinkPads usually have great keyboards, and this one is no exception. It’s one of my favorite keyboards that I’ve tried on a workstation laptop this year, with the possible exception of the Dell XPS 15. The keys have a comfortable texture and a heck of a lot of travel, without being too loud. The typing experience feels closer to that of a mechanical keyboard than to that of flatter laptop keys. I actually found myself eschewing my personal laptop during my testing period in favor of the ThinkPad because of how much I love typing on it.

There’s a row of useful hotkeys on the top of the deck. New to the X1 Extreme are three buttons tailored to remote work: F9 brings up the notification center, F10 answers calls, and F11 ends calls. There are also keys to cut the volume and microphone, toggle airplane mode, and adjust volume and brightness.

Ports include two USB 3.2 Gen 1, two Thunderbolt 3, one HDMI 2.0, one SD slot, one combo audio jack, and an optional Nano-SIM card slot.

One quick thing about the keyboard: the Fn and Ctrl keys are swapped from the locations where you’ll find them on most keyboards. This is how ThinkPad keyboards have been laid out since forever, and you can remap the keys through the BIOS or with Lenovo’s utility app if you prefer. But if you’re not a regular ThinkPad user, or you’ll be swapping between this machine and a personal laptop, it’s worth noting that it’ll take time to adjust (or you’ll be using mislabeled keys). I’ve been using the X1 Extreme for almost a week, and I’m still accidentally hitting Fn all the time.

The second standout feature is the 15.6-inch 4K OLED panel. It covers 100 percent of the sRGB spectrum, 100 percent of Adobe RGB, and 100 percent of P3. (Basically, it maxed out our colorimeter.) The panel is sharp and vibrant with great contrast. You can watch streaming content that supports HDR and swap between various color profiles with Lenovo’s Display Optimizer.

Build quality is another strength. Like most of its ThinkPad siblings, the X1 Extreme feels quite durable. There’s no flex in the keyboard or lid, and Lenovo says it’s been tested against “12 military-grade certification methods and over 20 procedures” for resistance to vibrations, shocks, extreme temperatures, humidity, and the like. The laptop achieves this without sacrificing much portability. It’s on the thick side at 0.74 inches — but at four pounds, it’s lighter than many competitors including the Dell XPS 15 and the MacBook Pro 16.

Lenovo says the multi-layered carbon fiber top cover “provides durability and weight advantages.”

The chassis has a black finish with a nice texture. The ThinkPad logo on the right palm rest and the X1 logo on the top cover add splashes of red. The lid has a unique carbon-fiber weave pattern, which looks and feels similar to the carbon-fiber palm rests on the Dell XPS 15. (This is only available on UHD models). Lenovo says this material is lighter and more durable than aluminum and other common chassis materials. It’s also likely part of the reason for the X1 Extreme’s lofty price tag.

There are dual far-field microphones that work alongside Cortana.

One note on the build: the lid and chassis aren’t the worst fingerprint magnets I’ve ever seen, but they do pick them up. After a few days of use, the keyboard deck was pretty smudgy.

Finally, the X1 Extreme comes with some helpful features for remote meetings. You can optimize the dual microphones for various settings (including voice recognition, solo calls, and conference calls) in Lenovo’s Vantage software. They didn’t have any trouble picking up my voice. And the stereo speakers are fine, delivering distortion-free audio with percussion and bass that are audible but not exceptional. You can create custom equalizer profiles in the preloaded Dolby Access software, and you can also toggle presets for scenarios like voice, music, movies, and games.

The infrared webcam was also a pleasant surprise — while a bit grainy, it was fairly color-accurate and delivered a decent picture in low-light environments. There’s a physical privacy shutter that’s easy to click back and forth. You can sign into the X1 Extreme with Windows Hello facial recognition, as well as a match-on-sensor fingerprint reader on the side of the keyboard deck, which was quick to set up and didn’t usually have trouble recognizing me.

All of this stuff is similar to the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 2 — there’s not much noticeable change. The Gen 3’s upgrades are on the inside. It has a six-core 10th Gen Intel processor and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q, where its predecessor had a 9th Gen Intel processor and a GeForce GTX 1650 Max-Q.

The Core i7-10850H isn’t the most monstrous processor around, especially compared to AMD’s recent H-series chips. But it does bring the business-specific benefits of Intel’s vPro platform, and it did a fine job with my piles of spreadsheets, emails, Slacking, and other general office work.

Similarly, the GTX 1650 Ti Max-Q is a midrange graphics card — it’s not what you’d want to use for serious gaming or high-throughput professional video editing. But for amateur creators and other artists, it can certainly lend a hand.

My test model scored a 386 on PugetBench for Premiere Pro, which tests its proficiency in real-world Premiere Pro tasks. That’s not a shameful score among top competitors, but it’s not great either. The system comes in under scores we’ve seen from the Dell XPS 15 with the same GPU, and the six-core MacBook Pro, which has AMD Radeon Pro 5300M. And, of course, it loses out to creator machines with more powerful Nvidia chips, such as the lower-priced Gigabyte Aero 15 with an RTX 3060.

If you’re going to be doing intense content work, prepare to hear the fans. Even when I was just bouncing around in Chrome, they were audible quite often. On the plus side, they did their job: the laptop’s bottom, keyboard, touchpad, palm rests, and hinge all remained cold.

Lenovo says the ThinkPad can charge up to 80 percent in 60 minutes with its “Rapid Charge” feature.

Another compromise you’re making here is battery life. I only averaged four hours and 59 minutes on our battery test, which involved using the ThinkPad for continuous office multitasking on the Battery Saver profile, with the screen around 200 nits of brightness. I ran a trial without using Chrome to see if that would make a difference; it didn’t. And this result actually seems to be a bit on the high side — Tom’s Hardware got an even pithier two hours and 19 minutes on a synthetic streaming benchmark.

It’s not unexpected that a machine with a 4K screen and a discrete GPU wouldn’t last all day. But I got more juice out of the Gigabyte Aero 15, which has both an OLED display and a heftier graphics card. And if you don’t need the high-resolution screen (which many people won’t), the Dell XPS 15 (which still has an exceptional display) lasted an hour longer with my workflow, while my colleague Dieter Bohn got up to eight hours out of the MacBook Pro. Folks who are interested in the X1 Extreme who would prefer not to have it plugged in all the time should consider an FHD (1080p) model.

It’s a ThinkPad through and through.

Ultimately, the decision between the ThinkPad X1 Extreme Gen 3 and other 15-inch thin-and-light workstations really boils down to: do you want a ThinkPad?

This is to say that the X1 Extreme shares many of the strengths and weaknesses of Windows machines like the XPS 15. Both have dazzling displays, decent chips, sturdy build, boisterous fans, and mediocre battery life. Both have best-in-class keyboards and touchpads, with average webcams and speakers.

But a ThinkPad and an XPS are still very different machines — and if you’ve used any member of either lineup before, you probably know which one you prefer. They have different looks and different feels. The ThinkPad is slightly lighter and slightly thicker, with more ports and larger bezels. The XPS is a bit more powerful, but the ThinkPad has extra business features.

The XPS, due to its lower price, is a more accessible model for most consumers. And the X1 Extreme’s weaker chips and poor battery life, in particular, are tough pills to swallow at such a high price. But there’s still a market for the X1 Extreme — and if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit of power, a bit of money, and a bit of battery life for the unique advantages of a ThinkPad, you probably fall into it.

Photography by Monica Chin / The Verge

GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Allegedly Delayed Until mid-May

GeForce RTX 3090
(Image credit: Nvidia)

It would seem that Nvidia might have encountered a setback leading up to the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti’s release. According to a message posted on the Board Channels forums, the chipmaker has purportedly pushed the launch date to mid-May. The GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was previously rumored to debut in mid-April.

The GeForce RTX 3090 and the Radeon RX 6900 XT are the two of the best graphics cards on the market right now. The truth of the matter is that neither flagship is cheap or in stock. The GeForce RTX 3090 retails for $1,499, while the Radeon RX 6900 XT sells for $999 if you can find one outside of eBay (see our GPU price index). The general consensus is that Nvidia is cooking up the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti to compete with the Radeon RX 6900 XT at the $999 price bracket. In order for that to happen, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti’s performance would have to be on equal grounds or better than the Radeon RX 6900 XT.

Nvidia has gone to lengths to keep the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti under wraps, but it presumably takes after the GeForce RTX 3090. It’s probable that the graphics card uses the same GA102 silicon. There is speculation that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti comes equipped with 82 Streaming Multiprocessors (SMs), same as the GeForce RTX 3090. However, there’s another group that thinks that Nvidia might disable two SMs to bring the CUDA count down to 10,240. The latter seems reasonable since Nvidia wouldn’t want the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti’s performance to be too close to the flagship SKU.

Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Specifications

	GeForce RTX 3090	GeForce RTX 3080 Ti*	GeForce RTX 3080	GeForce RTX 3070
Architecture (GPU)	Ampere (GA102)	Ampere (GA102)	Ampere (GA102)	Ampere (GA104)
CUDA Cores / SP	10,496	10,496 / 10,240	8,704	5,888
RT Cores	82	82 / 80	68	46
Tensor Cores	328	328 / 320	272	184
Texture Units	328	328 / 320	272	184
Base Clock Rate	1,395 MHz	1,365 MHz	1,440 MHz	1,500 MHz
Boost Clock Rate	1,695 MHz	1,665 MHz	1,710 MHz	1,730 MHz
Memory Capacity	24GB GDDR6X	12GB GDDR6X	10GB GDDR6X	8GB GDDR6
Memory Speed	19.5 Gbps	19 Gbps	19 Gbps	14 Gbps
Memory Bus	384-bit	384-bit	320-bit	256-bit
Memory Bandwidth	936 GBps	912.4 GBps	760 GBps	448 GBps
ROPs	112	112	96	96
L2 Cache	6MB	6MB	5MB	4MB
TDP	350W	350	320W	220W
Transistor Count	28.3 billion	28.3 billion	28.3 billion	17.4 billion
Die Size	628 mm²	628 mm²	628 mm²	392 mm²
MSRP	$1,499	$999	$699	$499

*Specifications are unconfirmed.

Reputable hardware leaker kopite7kimi reported that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti could feature a 1,665 MHz boost clock, 30 MHz lower than the GeForce RTX 3090. If Nvidia applies the same treatment to the base clock then the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti should check in at 1,365 MHz.

On the memory front, the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti reportedly features 12GB of 19 Gbps GDDR6X memory, half of what’s on the GeForce RTX 3090 and slightly slower. However, it may still retain the 384-bit memory interface. If so, the memory bandwidth would peak around 912.4 GBps. The GeForce RTX 3090 delivers a hash rate up to 106.5 MH/s on Ethereum so it’ll be interesting to see just how the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti performs in mining Ethereum.

Previous Ampere launches have taught us that intial supply is extremely limited, and we don’t expect the situation to change with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. It’ll probably require a miracle to beat scalpers to one, much less find it at the rumored $999 price tag. Let’s hope that the extra month gives Nvidia enough time to build up its GeForce RTX 3080 Ti stock. If not, it’s time to pull another all-nighter continuously hitting that F5 button in hope to snag one away from the scalpers.

Gigabyte Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming OC Review

Introduction

The Gigabyte Radeon RX 6700 XT Gaming OC is the company’s factory-overclocked graphics card for those seeking a close-to-reference custom rendition of the RX 6700 XT from Gigabyte without the bells and whistles of the AORUS Gaming brand. The Radeon RX 6700 XT is AMD’s fourth RX 6000 series RDNA2 graphics card, and arguably its most important so far as it targets a sub-$500 (MSRP) price point, bringing the architecture to a wider audience. A successor to the RX 5700 XT, it brings full DirectX 12 Ultimate readiness, including real-time raytracing, and is suited for maxed out gaming at 1440p. AMD claims that the card is competitive not only against NVIDIA’s RTX 3060 Ti, but also the pricier RTX 3070 in certain games.

The RDNA2 graphics architecture powering the RX 6700 XT is spread far and wide in the current generation, spanning not just the Radeon RX 6000 series, but also the latest game consoles. This makes it easier for game developers to optimize for the architecture on the PC. AMD’s approach to real-time raytracing involves using special hardware called Ray Accelerators to handle the most compute-intensive task in raytracing, of ray intersections, while compute shaders are used for almost everything else, including de-noising. A side effect of this approach is that AMD has had to bolster its SIMD muscle significantly over the previous generation, which can work wonders for conventional raster 3D games.

The Radeon RX 6700 XT is based on and maxes out the new 7 nm Navi 22 silicon, which physically features 40 RDNA2 compute units. This works out to 2,560 stream processors, 40 Ray Accelerators, 160 TMUs, and 64 ROPs. The stream processor count is exactly the same as with the RX 5700 XT, but besides having a higher IPC, they run at much higher engine clocks in excess of 2.42 GHz, compared to the 1.77 GHz game clock of the RX 5700 XT.

AMD has increased the standard memory amount to 12 GB, but over a narrow 192-bit GDDR6 memory bus. AMD attempts to overcome the bandwidth deficit compared to the 256-bit GDDR6 interface of the RX 5700 series by increasing the memory clocks to 16 Gbps and deploying its new Infinity Cache technology—a fast 96 MB on-die level 3 cache that accelerates the memory subsystem.

The Gigabyte RX 6700 XT Gaming OC comes with the company’s latest-generation WindForce 3X cooling solution found on several other current-generation products. Three aluminium fin stacks are skewered by five 6 mm-thick copper heat-pipes that make direct contact with the GPU at the base. This heatsink is ventilated by three fans. The cooler is longer than the PCB, so some of the airflow from the third fan flows through a hole in the backplate. The RX 6700 XT comes with factory overclocked speeds of 2514 MHz (game clock) as opposed to the 2424 MHz reference. In this review, we take the card for a spin.

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	$800 MSRP: $480	2560	64	2424 MHz	2581 MHz	2000 MHz	Navi 22	17200M	12 GB, GDDR6, 192-bit
Gigabyte RX 6700 XT Gaming OC	$820	2560	64	2424 MHz	2614 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

HP’s New Intel and AMD Convertibles are Very Different

(Image credit: HP)

HP announced new AMD and Intel convertibles today, the first of which upgrades the company’s AMD convertibles to Ryzen 5000U chips and the latter of which comes with a new discrete graphics option and plenty of utility software. Granted, that discrete GPU isn’t gaming-tier. Also, if you want something a bit larger and just a touch more powerful, there’s also a new, Intel-based Envy 17 coming out with the same GPU options as HP’s new Intel convertibles, plus some of that new utility software (no word on an AMD Envy 17). These are HP’s mid-range attempts to make our list of the best ultrabooks.

	HP Envy x360 15	HP Envy 17
CPU	Up to Intel Core i7-1165G7/Up to AMD Ryzen 7 5700U	Up to Intel Core i7-1165G7
GPU	Up to Nvidia MX450	Up to Nvidia MX450
Memory	Up to 16GB DDR4	Up to 32GB DDR4
Storage	Up to 1TB M.2 SSD	Up to 1TB M.2 SSD
Display	Up to 4K OLED	Up to 4K
Networking	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5	Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
Release Date	March 22nd	March 22nd
Starting Price	$899 for Intel/$749 for AMD	$999

That discrete GPU option coming to these new Intel devices would be the Nvidia MX450, which is meant mostly for light productivity and explains why much of the ad material for these machines is aimed at photographers, artists and other creators who might need a little more oomph for editing, but don’t exactly need to buy an RTX 3000 series card.

(Image credit: HP)

Unfortunately, as we stated before, that GPU isn’t available on the black HP Envy x360 15. Instead, AMD HP convertibles will have to settle with an upgrade to either an AMD Ryzen 5 5500U CPU or an AMD Ryzen 7 5700U CPU with integrated Radeon graphics. That’s a generational upgrade over current AMD Envy x360 devices, which currently use Ryzen 4000U chips. It also has up to 16GB of DDR4-3200 MHz RAM and Up to 1TB of M.2 SSD storage. You can also add on a magnetic HP stylus to the device and choose display options ranging from a 1920 x 1080 IPS touchscreen to a 4K OLED display.

(Image credit: HP)

Intel’s also getting a new HP Envy x360 15 release with the silver edition of the same device, this time with a discrete graphics option. This upgrade stays on the same generation as current HP Intel convertibles with up to an 11th generation Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU, but brings that Nvidia MX450 GPU option to the table. RAM, storage and display options mirror the AMD model, as does the ability to add on an HP pen.

HP hasn’t made it clear yet whether it plans to release silver AMD models or black Intel options. We also don’t know if the company will add additional color options over time.

(Image credit: HP)

For Intel fans (sorry Team Red) who are looking for a more traditional laptop experience, there’s also the new HP Envy 17. This is a silver laptop with up to an Intel Core i7-1165G7 CPU and a 17 inch inch touch-compatible display with options ranging from 1920 x 1080 IPS to 4K. RAM can be pushed up to 32GB and storage up to 1TB, and the Nvidia MX450 is also available as an add-on here. The HP pen isn’t available as a magnetic add-on here, but you will get Bang & Olufsen speakers and an optional fingerprint reader.

The HP Envy 17 and Intel version of the HP Envy x360 15 will also come with toggleable AI noise removal software that attempts to remove background noise like dogs barking or babies crying from your video calls. All devices mentioned here will also get post processing lighting software for adjusting how you appear in video calls, as well as “HP QuickDrop,” which allows for easily sharing files across your phone and your computer.

Unique to the Intel version of the HP Envy x360 15 is a toggleable thermal management option that attempts to leverage machine learning to automatically adjust performance, fan noise and temperature based on which apps you’re using and the airflow surrounding the device.

It’s hard to say which among AMD or Intel is more improved here. While Intel has more options, including discrete graphics, AMD is making a generational leap on the CPU.

Regardless of your pick, you can order certain configurations at

Best Buy

starting today, with the rest set to come to HP.com in April.

PowerColor Preps Cheap Radeon RX 6700 Graphics Card with 6GB of Memory

(Image credit: TechPowerUp)

In a world where more or less up-to-date graphics cards cost hundreds of U.S. dollars, it is hard to call any of them an entry-level product, but this is exactly the kind of graphics board that PowerColor is preparing to launch. The company is about to release its Radeon RX 6700 Fighter graphics board with 6GB of memory that promises to cost less than existing offerings.

AMD’s Radeon RX 6700 non-XT is a yet-to-be-announced product that is expected to be based on a cut-down version of the company’s Navi 22 GPU, so expect it to feature less than 2560 stream processors and offer lower performance than the RX 6700 XT model. AMD is projected to position its Radeon RX 6700 for gamers that play at a 2560×1440 resolution, though at this point, it is unknown how the RX 6700 stacks up against the RX 6700 XT.

PowerColor has accidentally published images of its Radeon RX 6700 Fighter graphics card with 6GB of memory, reports TechPowerUp. The maker of add-in-boards (AIBs) did not really publish the product’s specifications but demonstrated its looks. The card seems to be rather long but not as ‘tall’ as the Radeon RX 6700 XT/6800 XT product and is two slots wide. Meanwhile, it is equipped with a cooling system featuring at least four thick heat pipes and two fans.

It’s unclear whether AMD plans to give its partners some freedom and allow them to install either 6GB or 12GB of GDDR6 memory on their Radeon RX 6700 cards, but there are reports Asus might offer a Radeon RX 6700 board with 12GB of memory.

Graphics cards with 6GB of memory will naturally cost less than boards with 12GB of GDDR6 DRAM. Still, it is unclear whether the difference will be significant enough for the end-user to justify performance drops in memory-hungry games. Furthermore, it is unclear whether it makes any financial sense for GPU makers to release AIBs with less memory onboard, because they cannot get enough GPUs from their partners.

In any case, the unintentional leak by PowerColor indicates that the company is ready to launch its Radeon RX 6700 Fighter soon and is waiting for AMD to formally announce the vanilla Radeon RX 6700 based on a cut-down Navi 22.

AMD Radeon Software update adds Performance Tuning tool and improves Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag

Home / Component / Graphics / AMD Radeon Software update adds Performance Tuning tool and improves Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag

João Silva
12 hours ago
Graphics

Besides a multitude of fixes, AMD’s latest Radeon Software 21.3.1 driver also comes with some new improvements for Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag, as well as a new stress test to ensure all of your settings are stable.

With the AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 driver, users can take advantage of Anti-Lag in DirectX 12 titles. Radeon Boost also received DX12 support, allowing users to optimise selected games featuring Variable Rate Shading.

Another feature included in this driver is the Performance Tuning Stress Test, a new built-in stress tool to test GPU overclock stability. AMD has also redesigned portions of the UI to simplify the process.

The following list includes all the fixes coming with AMD Radeon Software 21.3.1 driver:

Radeon Software may sometimes have higher than expected CPU utilization, even when a system is at idle.
A system hang or crash may be experienced when upgrading Radeon Software while an Oculus™ VR headset is connected to your system on Radeon GCN graphics products.
Minecraft DXR may exhibit corrupted or missing textures when ray tracing is enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
An application crash may occur in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with ray tracing on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics products.
Lighting fails to render correctly on Radeon RX 6800 series graphics products in Star Citizen.
A black screen may occur when enabling and disabling Enhanced Sync while vsync is enabled in some Vulkan API games.
A black screen or system hang may occur on Hybrid Graphics systems for some Vulkan API games when Enhanced Sync is enabled.
Bethesda launcher may experience an application crash on startup when launching some games.
Users may be unable to create a new scene in the Radeon Software Streaming tab on first launch or after a settings factory reset.
Game specific performance tuning profiles may fail to load when a global performance tuning profile has been created or set.
Disabling HDCP support and performing a factory reset and/or system restart may sometimes trigger a system crash.
Epic Games social overlay or launcher may exhibit color corruption.
Xuan-Yuan Sword VII may experience an application crash with DirectX 12 ray tracing enabled on Radeon RX 6000 series graphics.
Color corruption may be experienced in Cyberpunk 2077™ when Radeon Boost is enabled.
Display flicker or corruption may occur on high refresh rate/resolution multi-monitor system configurations on Radeon RX Vega series graphics.
Audio loss or cut-out may intermittently occur on some TV displays when Windows® audio is set to use 5.1 or 7.1 speaker configurations.

The new Radeon Software graphics driver also adds support for Radeon RX 6700 graphics and DOOM Eternal: the Ancient Gods – Part Two. Lastly, it also brings back Frame Rate Target Control (FRTC) and enhances Vulkan support.

You can download the new AMD Radeon Software Adrenalin 2020 Edition 21.3.1 driver HERE.

KitGuru says: The Performance Tuning Stress Test and DirectX 12 support on Radeon Boost and Radeon Anti-Lag are welcome additions to the software. Did you already try these new features? What do you think of them so far?

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(Image credit: Nvidia)

Last year, in a bid to increase system responsiveness in competitive video games, both Nvidia and AMD released new technologies to reduce input lag for improved system performance: Nvidia’s Reflex Low Latency and AMD’s Radeon Boost. Both Nvidia and AMD say their respective technologies’ performance gains are significant, but how true is that really?

Fortunately, YouTuber Battle(non)sense recently published a full rundown of both technologies and compared them side by side to see how they actually perform.

How Do These Low Latency Boosters Work?

Latency can be reduced with two methods: First, by increasing your frame rate, and second, by optimizing the pipeline between the CPU and the GPU.

AMD’s Radeon Boost uses the first method to improve frame rates. Radeon Boost will intelligently reduce your in-game resolution, only while there’s motion, to spike your frame rate super high to give you a lower input latency. If you’re just standing still and not moving your mouse, your resolution will return to its default state.

Nvidia’s Reflex technology, on the other hand, works by improving CPU to GPU communication to reduce latency. Here’s why this is helpful; in a traditional video game, with no latency boosters active, the CPU will send frames to the GPU as fast as it possibly can, which is perfectly fine and something we want.

But here’s where a problem can occur; if the GPU becomes “GPU-bound” (where utilization is basically maxed out), the GPU will not be able to render frames as fast as the CPU feeds them. This causes a pipeline bottleneck where the frame buffer gets queued with frames that the GPU needs to work on at a later time. This causes latency to spike.

Nvidia’s Reflex technology solves this problem by preventing that pipeline bottleneck from occurring as much as possible. Instead, the game engine will only send frames to the GPU when the GPU is ready to accept a new frame from the CPU, thus keeping latency low.

Also, there are two more additional low latency modes that Nvidia and AMD offer outside of Radeon Boost and Nvidia Reflex: Nvidia Low Latency Mode and Radeon Anti-Lag.

In basic terms, these technologies also try to deliver what Radeon Boost and Nvidia Reflex try to offer; however, they do it at the driver level only. The advantage is that you can apply these technologies to any video game you want. However, it can be less effective because the game engine is not involved. Nvidia Reflex and Radeon Boost require game developers to implement the technology into the game engine for the features to work.

The Unexpected Low Latency Booster: Frame Rate Cap

But the low latency modes don’t end there — you might be surprised to hear this, but capping your frame rate can be an effective way to reduce input lag.

This method works like Reflex in that it uses by optimizing the CPU-to-GPU pipeline to reduce latency. When your frame rate is capped, GPU utilization decreases so you are no longer “GPU bound.” This alleviates the CPU & GPU pipeline, allowing the GPU to render frames as fast as it’s been fed by the CPU because the CPU is also being limited by the frame rate cap.

Now the question is, which of these five low latency boosters is best?

Benchmarks:

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(Image credit: YouTube)

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(Image credit: YouTube)

In Battle(non)sense’s first test, the channel tested a frame rate cap against Nvidia’s Low latency mode (not Nvidia Reflex). Surprisingly, this led to the frame rate cap winning against the driver-level low latency feature from Nvidia.

But moving to the next slide — the situation changes after swapping to Nvidia’s Reflex technology; Nvidia’s more advanced low latency tech is on par, if not slightly better than, a frame rate cap, providing excellent low latency numbers without needing to fiddle with a frame rate cap.

The YouTuber also tested AMD’s Anti-Lag against Nvidia’s Low Latency mode and found both to have identical performance.

Image 1 of 3

(Image credit: YouTube)

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(Image credit: YouTube)

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(Image credit: YouTube)

Next up is Nvidia’s Reflex technology against AMD’s Radeon Boost, and the results are unquestionable. Reflex easily beats AMD’s Boost technology by a significant amount.

This test shows us that the optimized pipeline method of reducing latency is the most reliable way to lower latency. AMD’s solution falls apart because the GPU is still GPU bound and forced to work on frames queued up in the frame buffer. Even worse, your resolution AND latency are constantly changing, which can lead to inconsistent gaming performance.

Not to mention that AMD’s Boost technology is not stable in both Fortnite and Apex Legends, as Battle(non)sense discovered in his tests. In Fortnite, the game would freeze up after firing 90 shots, and Apex Legends’ implementation of Radeon Boost is completely unreliable, causing lag spikes that make the game unplayable.

Conclusion:

Thanks to Battle(non)sense, we’ve learned that optimizing the pipeline between the CPU and GPU is a much better way of lowering latency than simply pumping up the frame rate.

Plus, we’ve also learned that using a frame rate cap can significantly reduce input lag, enough to where it’s on par with Nvidia’s Reflex technology. That makes this solution absolutely perfect for the vast majority of titles that do not support Nvidia Reflex.

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AMD Radeon Software update adds Performance Tuning tool and improves Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag

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AMD Radeon Software update adds Performance Tuning tool and improves Radeon Boost and Anti-Lag

How Do These Low Latency Boosters Work?

The Unexpected Low Latency Booster: Frame Rate Cap

Benchmarks:

Conclusion:

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