Reviews 51949 Published by

Here a roundup of today's reviews and articles:

ASRock Z390 Extreme4 Intel Z390 Motherboard Video
ASRock Z390 Extreme4 Preview
ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac Motherboard Preview
ASRock Z390 Taichi Preview
ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming Preview
Gigabyte AORUS P850W Gold Power Supply Review
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8 GB Review
Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GAMING OC 11G Review
GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS Pro Motherboard Launch Day Preview
Intel Announces 9th Gen Core CPUs: Core i9-9900K (8-Core), i7-9700K, & i5-9600K
Intel Announces Xeon W-3175X: 28-Core Processor for Extreme Workstations
Intel Core i9-9900K Overclocked to 6.9 GHz On All Cores - With LN2
Intel Z390 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Analyzed
Intel's Basin Falls Skylake-X Refresh: Core i9-9980XE with up to 15% Better Power Efficiency
MSI MEG Z390 GODLIKE Preview
MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon Preview
MSI Z390 Motherboards Preview
Plasma secrets: Make the desktop remember window position
The Best Headphones 2018
The new Mac Pro might get Intel's new 28-core 5 GHz Xeon processor
Z390 Motherboard Preview: Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock Tested



ASRock Z390 Extreme4 Intel Z390 Motherboard Video

We have published a new unboxing video in German with English subtitles of ASRock's Z390 Extreme4 motherboard on OCinside.de, which is announced today and supports Intel 9th Gen Core 9000 Socket LGA 1151 v2 processors. The written review of this ASRock Z390 Extreme4 ATX motherboard will be published soon as well.

Read full article @ OCInside.de

ASRock Z390 Extreme4 Preview

So, in the spotlight today we have the ASRock Z390 Extreme4. As we come to expect from the Extreme4, this is a mid-range motherboards carrying a good blend of features and performance. Some of these features include, dual M.2 slots, USB 3.0 and 3.1 headers and NVIDIA NVLink, SLI/AMD Crossfire support.

Read full article @ Vortez

ASRock Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac Motherboard Preview

Today an embargo has lifted that allows us to show you up-close shots of Z390 motherboards. We are taking a look at one of ASRock's latest mini-ITX motherboards, that is designed to be high-end and appeal to power users who want a small practical machine. Let's take a look at the Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac, and yes, Phantom replaces Fatal1ty in regards to ASRock naming.

Specifications: The Fatal1ty Z390 Phantom Gaming-ITX/ac features two M.2 slots, new WIFI, Intel LAN, Thunderbolt 3, HDMI 2.0, USB 3.1, and SATA6Gb/s.

Read full article @ TweakTown

ASRock Z390 Taichi Preview

ASRock once again brings forward a new generation of motherboards in their Taichi family. The ASRock Z390 Taichi boasts all the improvements of the refreshed chipset, plus some clever extras.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

ASUS ROG Strix Z390-E Gaming Preview

Under the hood, the Z390 chipset offers support for the next-gen Intel CPUs as well as the current 8th Generation Core CPUs. We also get mutli-GPU compatibility with NVIDIA SLI and AMD CrossfireX, a pair of NVMe M.2 slots, with heatsinks, and SupremeFX audio.

Read full article @ Vortez

Gigabyte AORUS P850W Gold Power Supply Review

Gigabyte recently introduced two new power supplies to their premium AORUS line of gaming products. The AORUS P850W and AORUS P750W are both fully modular power supplies and certified to comply with the 80 Plus Gold certifications for high efficiency. The power supplies use a 135mm smart ball bearing fan for cooling that turns off during system idle or under low loads. Both power supplies feature high-quality components including 100% Japanese made capacitors and come backed by a 10-year warranty!
We will be taking a detailed look at the Gigabyte AORUS P850W power supply in this review.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Gaming OC 8 GB Review

Gigabyte's RTX 2080 Gaming OC is a customized, overclocked variant of the RTX 2080. It runs at a boost clock of 1815 MHz, which is 15 MHz higher than the Founders Edition. Gigabyte has also released a new BIOS, which increases the card's power limit. We ran all our tests with both stock and the new BIOS. NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 20-series with the introduction of the GeForce RTX 2080 and RTX 2080 Ti. It comes at a time when the silicon fabrication technology isn't advancing at the rate it used to four years ago, wrecking the architecture roadmaps of several semiconductor giants, including Intel, NVIDIA, AMD, and Qualcomm, which is forcing them to design innovative new architectures on existing foundry nodes. Brute transistor-count increases, as would have been the case with "Volta," are no longer a viable option, and NVIDIA needed a killer feature to sell new GPUs. That killer feature is the RTX Technology. This feature is so big for NVIDIA that it has changed the nomenclature of its client-segment graphics cards with the introduction of the GeForce RTX 20-series.

NVIDIA RTX is a near-turnkey real-time ray-tracing model for game developers that lets them fuse real-time ray-traced objects into 3D scenes that have been rasterized. Ray-tracing the whole scene in existence isn't quite possible yet, but the results with using RTX are still better-looking than anything rasterizing can achieve. To even get those few bits of ray-tracing done right, an enormous amount of compute power is required. NVIDIA has hence deployed purpose-built hardware components on its GPUs that sit alongside all-purpose CUDA cores, called RT cores.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Gigabyte GeForce RTX 2080 Ti GAMING OC 11G Review

Gigabyte is has released their GeForce RTX series graphics cards, in this review we look at their GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, and in specific the GAMING OC 11G edition. Armed with tensor and raytracing processors this model comes slightly tweaked in the clock frequency. Next to that is has been armed with a feisty WINDFORCE 3X Cooling System.

We've already covered a lot of new technology as the Turing architecture of the new GPUs offers a fundament change in the graphics card arena as next to your normal shading engine, NVIDIA has added RT (Raytracing) cores, as well as Tensor (AI), cores onto the new GPUs, and these are active. Is Turing is the start of the next 20 years of gaming graphics? Well, that all depends on the actual adoption rate in the software houses, they guys and girls that develop games and a dozen or so RTX games are in development and a dozen or so announced titles will make use of deep learning DLSS running utilizing the Tensor cores. For the new RTX series, it's mostly about Raytracing though. So welcome to a long row of RTX reviews. We start off with the reference cards and will follow with the AIB cards as for whatever reason NVIDIA figured it to be an okay thing for them to launch everything at once. First a quick recap of what's tested in this article, a bit of architecture and then we'll dive into real-world testing of course. You better grab a drink as these reference articles are prone to be lengthy with all the information we are covering.

Read full article @ The Guru of 3D

GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS Pro Motherboard Launch Day Preview

With the release of Intels lastest consumer-oriented chipset, the Z390, GIGABYTE released the details of their Z390 board line. GIGABYTEs initial sampling to PC Perspective was their Z390 AORUS Pro motherboard, featuring a matte black PCB and an armored rear panel assembly and an integrated rear panel shield. In keeping with their previous AORUS series board designs, GIGABYTE spread RGB LEDs throughout the boards surface, configurable via the Windows applet. The board offers support for the latest Intel 9th genation processors (as well as maintaining support for the 8th generation processors) and Dual Channel DDR4 memory via the Intel Z390 chipset.

Read full article @ PC Perspective

Intel Announces 9th Gen Core CPUs: Core i9-9900K (8-Core), i7-9700K, & i5-9600K

Among many of Intel’s announcements today, a key one for a lot of users will be the launch of Intel’s 9th Generation Core desktop processors, offering up to 8-cores on the mainstream consumer platform. These processors are drop-in compatible with current Coffee Lake and Z370 platforms, but are accompanied by a new Z390 chipset and motherboard launch as well. The highlights from this launch is the 8-core Core i9 parts, which include a 5.0 GHz turbo Core i9-9900K, rated at a 95W TDP.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Intel Announces Xeon W-3175X: 28-Core Processor for Extreme Workstations

Intel on Monday officially introduced its 28-core processor for extreme workstations that it teased first back in June. The new chip comes with unlocked multiplier and can run at up to 4.3 GHz in burst mode.

The Intel Xeon W-3175X CPU is based on the Skylake/Cascade Lake microarchitecture and is compatible with motherboards featuring Intel’s LGA3647 server-based socket. The CPUs runs at 3.1 GHz stock, but can increase its frequency to 4.3 GHz, it features a six-channel DDR4 memory controller that supports up to 512 GB and a massive 38.5 MB cache. Since the chip uses a new socket, it is naturally not compatible with any motherboards available on the market. Meanwhile, to date, only ASUS and GIGABYTE have confirmed plans to offer mainboards for Intel’s Xeon W-3175X.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Intel Core i9-9900K Overclocked to 6.9 GHz On All Cores - With LN2

Intel took their opportunity to add a golden sheen to their new 9th Gen CPUs by going as far as showcasing their extreme overclocking capabilities right from the launch event. partering with world-renowned overclocker Splave, Intel showcased how a Core i9-9900K can withstand up to 1.7V Vcore, with a little aid from yours truly liquid nitrogen.

That scorchingly high Vcore paired with the sub-zero temperatures of LN2 allowed for all CPU cores to be overclocked up to 6.9 GHz, with Splave saying some samples could reach 7.1 GHz across all cores. Intel then went on to show some of the increased performance benchmarks - which, as you'd expect, don't showcase a linear performance improvement with increased frequency. Still, it's an impressive pure voltage and frequency feat. Splave went on to say that these new 9th Gen Intel processors can now achieve some 5.3 GHz under watercooling and at a much more mundane 1.4V Vcore. We'll all be able to test that for ourselves soon now won't we?

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

Intel Z390 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Analyzed

As far back as May of this year details of Intels Z390 chipset were seemingly leaked accidentally (or was it?). And ever since then, speculation has been rife with what Intel has up its metaphorical sleeve. Every time Intel launch a new range of processors there seems to be a new supporting chipset, and with the release of Intels 9th generation processors later on this month, the floodgates have opened on the new Z390 chipset. Intels latest chipset in turn will offer native USB 3.1 Gen2 connectivity, integrated 802.11ac, and an update to Intels Management Engine firmware.

Read full article @ Anandtech

Intel's Basin Falls Skylake-X Refresh: Core i9-9980XE with up to 15% Better Power Efficiency

One of the interesting things about Intel’s latest generation of high-end desktop parts was the jump from ten cores at the peak to eighteen, as Intel moved its high core count Skylake-X die into the consumer market. This meant more cores, at a higher cost, and now Intel had seven different processors rather than three or four. Today Intel is releasing information about an update to this platform: seven new processors, with higher frequency, but there’s something funny going on with the cache.

Read full article @ Anandtech

MSI MEG Z390 GODLIKE Preview

MSI pulled out all the stops for their massive, EATX-sized MEG Z390 Godlike motherboard, which comes with three M.2 slots, full RGB support, and an adapter to add two more M.2 NVMe slots. You also get an OLED screen that can display pre-programmed stats and messages.

Read full article @ TechPowerUp

MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon Preview

Today we introduce you to the MSI MPG Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon; this board pads out the mid-high end of MSIs lineup with several impressive features. Following the typical styling of the Carbon lineup, the Z390 Gaming Pro Carbon is no different, with the black and white colour scheme. The dragon also makes an appearance on the Southbridge.

Read full article @ Vortez

MSI Z390 Motherboards Preview

We take a quick look at the new lineup of Z390 motherboards from MSI, designed for use with Intel's new 9th Gen Core processors. As with the manufacturer's previous offerings, the latest lineup has something to offer for all users ranging from gamers and enthusiasts to those on a budget.

Beginning this generation, MSI motherboards will follow revamped naming rules that align products with feature segments. Overclockers, gamers, content creators, and professionals can now more easily make their choice from the MEG (MSI Enthusiast GAMING), MPG (MSI Performance GAMING) or MAG (MSI Arsenal GAMING) series as well as the existing PRO Series.

Read full article @ Neoseeker

Plasma secrets: Make the desktop remember window position

Let there be no secrets between us. Hence, this tutorial explaining how to configure Plasma to remember application window position and size on startup, with per-application settings overrides. Desktop away.

The Plasma desktop has many virtues. It's elegant, stylish, and you can customize the living daylights out of it, if such a need grabbeth thy heart. But then, side by side with this modern, sleek look, you get some rather odd ergonomic choices. Like the fact that Plasma does not have a simple toggle to allow you to save window positions for your applications. Start a program, and it's always placed in the top left corner.

In this tutorial, I will show you how you can work around this issue. And that way, you will achieve the expected functionality, which exists elsewhere, of being able to have your programs start with the size and position that you want, every time, whether you choose to save the desktop session or not. After me.

Read full article @ Dedoimedo

The Best Headphones 2018

There's an endless selection of headphones out there and finding the right pair can be an arduous process. Taking in consideration audio quality, convenience, comfort and price point, here are our picks for best over-the-ear, wireless, in-ear, noise cancelling, gaming, sports and budget headphones.

Read full article @ TechSpot

The new Mac Pro might get Intel's new 28-core 5 GHz Xeon processor

Intel has revealed its upcoming collection of high-specification processors, including a 28-core Xeon processor for professional users alongside its 9th-generation Core processors boasting high core counts that could be heading for the Mac Pro, along with one eight-core model clocked at 5GHz.

Unveiled at an event on Monday, the Xeon W-3175X is a 28-core, 56-thread chip that is intended for professional applications. While it has a base clock speed of 3.1GHz, the processor is capable of reaching to to 4.3GHz when boosted, and ships with an unlocked multiplier.

Offering a six-channel DDR4 memory controller, it is capable of supporting up to 512GB of memory. Aimed at content creators, the chip also includes 68 PCIe lanes, 44 of which are on the CPU, providing extensive connection opportunities to other hardware.

Read full article @ Apple Insider

Z390 Motherboard Preview: Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock Tested

These three new motherboards from Gigabyte, MSI and ASRock sport Intel's new Z390 chipset. Do their features and performance beat the the older Z370 models?

Even though it's only been around since the launch of Coffee Lake desktop processors, Intel's mainstream flagship Z370 chipset felt outdated by years. The company finally launched four modernized 300-series chipset models way back in April, but those were designated for lower-cost systems, forcing enthusiasts to either go without things like integrated wireless AC and USB 3.1 Gen2 support, or buy a lesser board that doesn't support overclocking or CPU PCIe bifurcation.

That all changes today with the launch of Z390 and a slew of boards to go along with it. The new flagship Intel chipset replaces Z270, while delivering overclocking support aplenty, plus all the new and updated features previously revealed in its H370 PCH. Specifically, Z390 combines the integrated USB 3.1 Gen2 controller and CNVi link of its latest mainstream chipsets with the overclocking capability and CPU PCIe bifurcation that’s typically limited to its Z and X series parts. Intel's block diagram below does a good job of calling out the key features of the new Z390 chipset.

Read full article @ Tom's Hardware