Oppenheimer Releases a Hold Rating on Advanced Micro Devices

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Polaris GPU and client processor sales were relatively solid, partially ... new product line-up can take high-end CPU/GPU share from INTC/NVDA.”.

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OnePlus and Meizu Found to Artificially Tweak Benchmark Results

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According to them, the OnePlus 3T's processor did not revert to its normal ... Furthermore, the research team has found that OnePlus made the CPU ...

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System agent bloat: too many slices

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I flash back to my first computer and remember that it was using 4K of memory. That's it. It had a word processor, VisiCalc and some rudimentary ...

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AMD Announces Q4 2016 Earnings

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This afternoon, AMD announced their fourth quarter earnings for the 2016 fiscal year. 2016 was a challenging year for AMD, as they continue to expand their business away from only focusing on the PC market, and although they still have a long way to go, 2016 was an improvement on 2015. For Q4 AMD had revenues of $1.11 billion, which is up 15% from Q4 2015. Gross margin for the quarter was $351 million, up from $283 million a year ago. As a percentage, AMD’s gross margin was 32%, compared to 30% in Q4 2015. AMD had an operating loss of $3 million for the quarter, compared to a loss of $49 million a year ago, while net loss improved as well, from $102 million in Q4 2015 to $51 million this quarter. This resulted in a loss per share of $0.06, compared to a loss of $0.13 last year. AMD makes note that Q4 2016 was a 14-week quarter, compared to a 13-week quarter for Q3 2016 and Q4 2015.

AMD Q4 2016 Financial Results (GAAP)
	Q4'2016	Q3'2016	Q4'2015
Revenue	$1106M	$1307M	$958M
Gross Margin	32%	5%	30%
Operating Income	-$3M	-$293M	-$49M
Net Income	-$51M	-$406M	-$102M
Earnings Per Share	-$0.06	-$0.50	-$0.13

For the full fiscal year, AMD had revenues of $4.27 billion, which is up 7%, but a sixth amendment to their wafer supply agreement hit their margins very hard in 2016. For the full year, AMD had margins of just 23%, which is a drop of 4% compared to 2015. Operating loss was $372 million for the year, compared to $481 million in 2015, and net loss was $497 million, compared to $660 million a year ago. For the full year, AMD had a net per share loss of $0.60, which is an improvement from the $0.84 loss in 2015.

AMD also reports Non-GAAP results, which exclude stock-based compensation, restructuring charges, node transition costs, and wafer agreement charges, to give a look at their core business. On a Non-GAAP basis, AMD had revenues of $1.11 billion, just like their GAAP numbers, but they posted operating income of $26 million for the quarter, compared to an operating loss of $39 million a year ago. Net loss was $8 million, compared to $79 million in Q4 2015, and loss per share was $0.01 compared to $0.10 a year ago.

AMD Q4 2016 Financial Results (Non-GAAP)
	Q4'2016	Q3'2016	Q4'2015
Revenue	$1106M	$1307M	$958M
Gross Margin	32%	31%	30%
Operating Income	$26M	$70M	-$39M
Net Income	-$8M	$27M	-$79M
Earnings Per Share	-$0.01	$0.03	-$0.10

AMD attributes their increase in revenue primarily due to increased GPU sales. AMD’s Computing and Graphics segment had revenues for the quarter of $600 million, which is up 28% year-over-year. Polaris seems to be doing quite well, which is great to see. The segment still had an operating loss of $21 million, but that is a big improvement from the operating loss of $99 million a year ago. CPU average selling price fell year-over-year, but GPU average selling price increased year-over-year, thanks to higher desktop and professional graphics pricing. We eagerly await the launch of Ryzen, which AMD showed off last quarter, and expect to hear more about it this quarter.

AMD Q4 2016 Computing and Graphics
	Q4'2016	Q3'2016	Q4'2015
Revenue	$600M	$472M	$470M
Operating Income	-$21M	-$66M	-$99M

AMD branched into Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom designs and it has proven to be a strong source of revenue for them. With wins in both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, AMD continues to be the beneficiary of both of those consoles outselling their predecessors. For Q4, this segment had revenue of $506 million, which is up 4% year-over-year, thanks to higher embedded and semi-custom SoC revenue. This segment does have it’s ups and downs annually with consoles peaking and ebbing, but annually it has been a strong market for AMD to branch into. This segment had an operating income of $47 million for the quarter, which is down from $59 million a year ago, which AMD attributes to higher R&D investments this quarter.

AMD Q4 2016 Enterprise, Embedded, and Semi-Custom
	Q4'2016	Q3'2016	Q4'2015
Revenue	$506M	$835M	$488M
Operating Income	$47M	$136M	$59M

Finally, All Other had an operating loss of $29 million, compared to $9 million a year ago. The increased loss is attributed to higher stock-based compensation charges for Q4 2016.

AMD had strong margins for this quarter, and if they are going to have a strong 2017, that needs to be their focus. Ryzen may help as well, depending on how it compares, but Dr. Lisa Su, AMD’s president and CEO, has been slowly but surely bringing AMD back to a point of profitability. Looking ahead, AMD expects revenues to decrease 11% for next quarter, plus or minus 3%, which would put them at an 18% increase in revenue for Q1 2017 compared to Q1 2016, if you pick the mid-point in their target.

Source: AMD Investor Relations

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The Best Thin And Light Laptops In Australia

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Its latest incarnation continues to impress with its updated Kaby Lake processor, quick SSD and decent GPU offering with Intel HD Graphics 620.

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AMD has confirmed that their Ryzen CPUs will be launching in early March

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During their Q4 earnings call, AMD has confirmed that their new Ryzen CPUs and AM4 series motherboards will be launching in early March.

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Synology at CES 2017 - RT2600ac Wi-Fi Router, DSM Value Additions, and New Business NAS Units

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As part of my usual CES vendor visits, I caught up with Synology and took a look at the new products and DSM features that had been announced around the show's timeframe. The most interesting product was their second generation Wi-Fi router - the RT2600ac. A few business-oriented NAS products were also on display. The new DSM 6.1 (beta at CES, now in the final release candidate stage) and some value additions were also seen at the booth.

Synology RT2600ac Wi-Fi Router

A follow-on to the Broadcom-based RT1900ac launched in 2015, the RT2600ac makes the move to a Qualcomm Atheros platform. The AC2600 platform has been around since 2015. Synology has again opted not to ship a cutting-edge hardware platform. While the first set of AC2600 routers used a Qualcomm Atheros QCA9980 radio along with a 1.4 GHz IPQ8064 SoC for network processing duties, Synology's 2017 entry has allowed them to go for a slightly more modern platform. The radio is the QCA9984 - it sports specifications similar to the QCA9980 (4x4:4 802.11abgn+ac), with the primary difference being support for 160MHz-wide channels. Note, however, that the maximum data rate possible is still only 1.7 Gbps because the radio doesn't support four spatial streams in the 160MHz mode. The network processor is the IPQ8065 - a higher-clocked version of the IPQ8064 used in the first set of AC2600 routers. The IPQ8065's dual-core Krait CPU and the network accelerator blocks operate at 1.7 GHz and 800 MHz respectively (compared to the IPQ8064's 1.4 GHz and 730 MHz).

The RT1900ac was praised mainly for its operating system / user experience / add-ons, rather than the Wi-Fi performance. For the RT2600ac, Synology has further fine-tuned the SRM OS (Synology Router Manager). It is also playing up the VPN capabilities. Many Synology NAS owners have taken advantage of the VPN features of the Synology NAS. However, that requires setting up port forwarding in the router, and some challenges related to the subnet configurations that can be accessed from an external network. Placing the VPN server in the router / gateway is the logical solution to the problem, and Synology is aptly promoting their VPN Plus server package for advanced VPN configurations.

Gallery: Synology RT2600ac and Synology Router Manager OS

Other than the VPN features, Synology also supports dual WAN capabilities in the RT2600ac. Readers interested in the detailed specifications can peruse the datasheet (PDF).

Business NAS Products

Synology's DSM is one of the few NAS operating systems to support both btrfs and ext4 for the internal volumes. This allows them to support different business requirements. Their business lineup has benefited quite a bit from this dual file-system support. In order to capitalize further on this aspect, Synology has launched a number of high-end systems targeting SMBs and SMEs.

Amongst the new business-oriented NAS products on display was the FS3017 (PDF) - a 24-bay 2U rackmount NAS equipped with two Xeon E5-2620 v3 CPUs and 64GB (expandable to 512GB) of DDR4 ECC DRAM. There are two 10GBASE-T ports, with spare PCIe slots to integrate 10GbE / 25GbE / 40 GbE network cards. Both 2.5" SATA and SAS drives are supported, with the primary focus being delivery of high IOPS for performance-sensitive applications.

The DS3617xs (PDF) is a Xeon D-based tower form-factor NAS with 12 bays. The Xeon D-1527 used in the system is a 4C/8T model. It is complemented by 16GB of DDR4 ECC DRAM (expandable to 48GB). The system also supports two DX1215 expansion chassis (with Infiniband connections). There are only four 1GbE LAN ports, though a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot is available (for installation of 10GbE cards, if needed).

The RS4017xs+ (PDF) is a Xeon D-1541 (8C/16T)-based 3U rackmount with 16 3.5" bays. It ships with 8GB of DDR4 ECC RAM (expandable to 64GB). There are two native 10GBASE-T ports and four 1GbE ports. Two PCIe 3.0 x8 slots are available to add more high-performance LAN interfaces. The system can scale up to 40 bays with two RX1217(RP) expansion chassis.

The RS18017xs+ (PDF) is a Xeon D-1531 (6C/12T)-based 2U rackmount with 12 3.5" bays. It ships with 16GB of DDR4 ECC RAM (expandable to 128GB). There are two native 10GBASE-T ports with four 1GbE ports, as well as two PCIe 3.0 x8 slots for additional network interface cards. The 12-bay unit can pair with up to 7 expansion units (RX1217sas for 84 bays, and RX2417sas for 168 bays) over its single SAS expansion slot.

Gallery: Synology at CES 2017 - Business NAS Units

It is interesting to see that Synology is mainly using the Xeon D SKUs for their rackmounts, compared to QNAP and Netgear's primary push using the tower form factor. The support for multiple expansion chassis with huge bay counts differentiates Synology's Xeon D offerings from the rest of the vendors. It is not clear if IT administrators might prefer a more powerful CPU (like the Xeon used in the FS3017) to handle large number of physical drives, though dedicating some of the bays for cold storage might make Xeon D an attractive solution.

New DSM 6.1 Features

The next version of the Disk Station Manager (DSM 6.1) is slated to come out around mid-Febraruary 2017. At CES, Synology was showing off some of the new features such as Universal Search (couldn't help drawing similarities to QNAP's QSirch). Surveillance Station 8.0 has also been released, and the native Windows client support (also available in a portable version) definitely improves usability. The traditional web view is still supported - so, it is overall a welcome addition.

DSM 6.1 also has some features that work exclusively with the Seagate IronWolf drives for better health monitoring than what is done with just S.M.A.R.T alone. The Seagate IronWolf Health Manager (IHM) takes advantage of the hardware sensors and firmware features that are present in the new IronWolf drives.

Synology also played up their frequent security and feature updates to DSM. Having recently set up the testbed to evaluate the software features of various COTS NAS units, I can say that Synology units are the ones that prompt me to upgrade most frequently. I would prefer avoiding the associated reboots, but, there is definitely some peace of mind in knowing that Synology is being proactive in handling security threats. Given the Synolocker issue that affected some Synology users back in 2014, it is good to see the company taking efforts to prevent the recurrence of any similar attacks.

Synology had a number of interesting announcements before and after the show, with the CES booth allowing us to take a look at the products and software features in person. Frequent OS updates and focused hardware launches bode well on the NAS side. On the consumer router side, the shipping of the RT2600ac MU-MIMO Wi-Fi router with a focus on Synology's strengths (VPN and other value additions) shows that the company is in the highly competitive market segment for the long haul.

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Kaby Lake gaming PC with GeForce GTX 1050 Ti on sale at Micro Center for $600

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This is a Kaby Lake system featuring an Intel Core i5-7500 processor nestled into an ASRock B250-HDV motherboard. The CPU is flanked by 8GB of ...

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AMD confirms its Ryzen CPU will launch in early March, followed by the Vega GPU

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AMD's eagerly-awaited Ryzen processor will launch in early March, according to AMD chief executive Lisa Su. Su specified the target date during the ...

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Intel Xeon Processor CPU X5560 (8M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 6.40 GT)

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... Xeon Processor X5560 (8M Cache, 2.80 GHz, 6.40 GT). The price each CPU is $35.00 - OBO Description: Intel Xeon processors represent a broad.

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Computer processor CPU rotation macro

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Download the royalty-free video "Computer processor CPU rotation macro" created by Mediagfx at the best price ever on Fotolia.com. Browse our ...

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Best PCs for Playing Overwatch

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Overwatch's base requirements include an Intel Core i3 processor and integrated Intel graphics, meaning you can even run it on many mainstream ...

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Nintendo Switch Release Date, Specs Rumors: Console's Nvidia Processor Unknown; Branded ...

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However, despite the mystery surrounding its hardware, the Japanese gaming company has not announced specifications of its GPU and CPU.

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Honor 8 Lite Coming in Early March with Kirin 655 CPU, Android 7.0 Nougat

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Honor 8 Lite Coming in Early March with Kirin 655 CPU, Android 7.0 ... On the inside, it's got an octa-core Kirin 655 processor, coupled with 3GB RAM ...

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CPU Failures Hurt Intel's Bottom Line

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Intel revealed during its Q4 2016 earnings call that unspecified CPU failures have impacted its bottom line. Intel enjoyed record Q4 revenue and a record $59.4 billion in overall 2016 revenue, but CPU failures reduced the Data Center Group's financials.

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Intel Core i3-7350K Review

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Clock speeds do favor the i3-7350K, but dual-core and quad-core processors have been around long enough that our software actually does benefit ...

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CPU Failures Hurt Intel's Bottom Line

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Intel revealed during its Q4 2016 earnings call that unspecified CPU ... Intel replied that the failures are limited to the Intel Atom Processor C2000 ...

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Rumors Point To No 6 Core SKUs in The AMD Ryzen Processor Family - Enthusiast Chips May ...

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Details of the processors were first leaked several months ago which pointed to three variants. The high-end variants were labeled as AMD Zen SR7, ...

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More RGB from Thermaltake as Pacific W4 CPU Block and Riing Plus 12 Fans Launched - News and Articles – Modders-Inc

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Thermaltake is not planning on slowing down with the RGB trend anytime soon as they have just announced two new products for their liquid cooling line equipped with colorful lighting: the Pacific W4 RGB CPU water block and the Riing Plus 12 LED RGB radiator fan.  The Thermaltake Pacific W4 RGB CPU Water block has …

- Post More RGB from Thermaltake as Pacific W4 CPU Block and Riing Plus 12 Fans Launched appeared first on Modders-Inc. #moddersinc

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Overclockers UK unveils 8Pack OrionX PC

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The primary system is based on a X99 setup featuring an Intel Core i7-6950X processor overclocked to 4.4 GHz and sitting on an ASUS Rampage V ...

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$500 Gaming PC For 2017 - Gaming On A Budget

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Just because it is a Core i3, this processor is not to be underestimated. With its 3.7Ghz clock speed and dual cores, hyperthreaded to 4 cores, this CPU ...

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Rumour: AMD won't be releasing six-core Ryzen CPUs

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The current FX-series of processors features a couple of six core SKUs but according to 'reliable sources' speaking with Zolkorn at the Taipei Game ...

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ADLINK Introduces High Performance Machine Vision Products Featuring New Value Series Smart ...

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The NEON-1021, the first in ADLINK's new value line of smart cameras, features high performance quad core Intel® Atom™ processors, speedy ...

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Texas Instruments - Applications processors built to meet the needs of modern embedded products

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Texas Instruments AM571x Sitara ARM applications processors are built to meet the intense processing needs of the modern embedded products.

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IBM software licensing compliance

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PROCESSOR – There is currently disagreement in the computer industry over the definition of a processor. IBM defines a processor as the core.

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Sse2 cpu

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Does my processor support SSE2 and EM64T, required by the 2010-family CAD application? The CPU instruction set extension - SSE2 (Streaming ...

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Google Pixel 2 vs Samsung Galaxy S8 specs comparison, latest updates: Both smartphones ...

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The Google Pixel 2 is expected to feature Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835 CPU and 4 GB RAM. The same processor is highly likely to be included in Samsung's Galaxy S8. If the Snapdragon 835 is included in Google's upcoming ...

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Google Pixel 2 Will Come Up With Better Camera, Waterproofing and CPU, Report Suggests

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Google has reported the Pixel 2 is currently in testing with two different processor options from two different manufacturers. Some of these models are ...

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SBC for space-constrained industrial environments

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Moreover, DFI's new SBC products have various dual or quad processors options that enable clients to have a suitable motherboard that fits their ...

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Is AMD planning to exclude 6 Core Processor from Ryzen Series

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AMD's Ryzen processor aims to target budget segment by offering good ... Among this three SR5 was rumored to be a 6 core CPU with 12 threads.

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Living dangerously; delidding your i7-7700k

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... some more time with their enhanced Kaby Lake processor to find scenarios in ... results with our retail purchased Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake processor. ... Zen(CPU cores only) variants and that the first consumer Ryzen SKUs were ...

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Ghost Recon: Wildlands Closed Beta PC System requirements

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Ubisoft have now announced the PC system requirements for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands' Closed Beta, requiring a minimum of 4 CPU cores.

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Google Pixel 2 Will Get Improved Camera And Processor; Budget Pixel Also Expected [Rumors]

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It is worth noting that Google is testing the Pixel phones with processors from two different partners, Intel and Qualcomm, with latter's Snapdragon 83X ...

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ARM Cortex-A72 CPU Rockchip RK3399 vs Mediatek MT8693, YUNDOO Y8 beats Mi Box ...

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“Xiaomi has upgraded its Mi Box 3 to use Mediatek MT8693 processor with two Cortex-A72 cores, and four Cortex-A53 cores combined with PowerVR ...

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Intel releases last Haswell IGP drivers for Windows 7 and 8

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Intel has released what will be their last set of integrated graphics drivers (IGP) for Haswell-class processors on Windows 7 and 8.1. This includes Haswell Core, Pentium, and Celeron CPUs launched between late 2013 and early 2015. Windows 10 support will continue. This new version adds support for 3rd-party EDID utilities, meant...





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Arctic cooling has announced which of their coolers will be AM4 compatible

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Arctic cooling has today announced which of their existing CPU coolers will be AMD socket AM4 compatible.

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AMD Ryzen may skip 6-core entirely

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AMD's Ryzen processor launch is right around the corner, expected in late February ... Every Bulldozer family CPU/APU had 1, 2, 3, or 4 fully enabled ...

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Intel's Low Power Kaby Lake-Y Series Processors Rebranded For Good Reason

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Some folks may have thought Intel was trying to pull the wool over our eyes with new processor model number changes it introduced for the ...

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Arctic launches semi-passive Freezer i32 Plus

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... meaning that, when coupled with a processor boasting a low enough thermal design profile (TDP) and a case with decent airflow, the heatsink can ...

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In Theory: Can Xbox Scorpio Use AMD Vega/Ryzen GPU/CPU Combination?

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Because the processor has to make draw calls to the GPU, a CPU bottleneck will arise if the processor is unable to the feed the GPU fast enough.

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Dell XPS 13 2-In-1 Transcends Intel Core M's Performance Flaws, Here's Why

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According to an officer from Dell, the laptop's processor is not going to bring it ... This allows the CPU to keep running at its peak performance without ...

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Arctic's Freezer i32 Plus CPU Cooler Has A Zero-RPM Mode

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Arctic's new CPU cooler has a native zero-RPM passive mode.

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The OcUK 8Pack OrionX: X99 + Z270 in a Custom Overclocked $30,000 Desktop PC

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Overclockers UK has started to offer its top-of-the-range 8Pack OrionX computer that weds two completely different systems in one box: a multi-core overclocked Intel Core i7-6950X-based high-end desktop and a quad-core factory overclocked Intel Core i7-7700K-based gaming rig. The 8Pack OrionX was designed by former world #1 overclocker Ian Parry (aka 8Pack, we interviewed him 2013) for those who want to have the absolutely best performance in all applications and who can pay for such system. The limited edition rig is now available from OcUK for £24,000 ($30,116).

Dual Systems

Different types of workloads can benefit from different microprocessor architectures and even different CPU configurations. There are a number of workloads that scale well with an increase cores and there are applications that take advantage of high frequencies, IPC included. In a perfect world, one could dedicate hardware to multi-core or high-frequency as required. In fact, back at CeBIT 2005, ECS demonstrated taking this concept to pure crazy: its PF88 motherboard supported both AMD’s Athlon 64 and Intel’s Pentium 4 processors and allowing users to take advantage of both microarchitectures. The processors used the same graphics card and the same operating system, which optimized the cost of the setup and offered somewhat consistent user experience. But while the concept was interesting, there were multiple factors (apart from the cost of two processors) that prevented it from taking off even in the enthusiast space: switching between CPUs required opening up the system and changing jumper settings manually; it was impossible to install proper coolers on CPUs because they were located nearby each other; ECS had to use SiS chipsets that were not popular among the target audience at the time.

Today, Intel offers two completely different desktop platforms targeting different performance and power targets as well as different applications and pricing. The mainstream/gaming platform is based on CPUs with two or four cores running at rather high frequencies and the majority of games are tailored for 4C/8T processors because that is what most gamers use. This platform typically also uses the latest microarchitecture and supports the latest technologies. Meanwhile, Intel’s high-end desktop platform is powered by CPUs with up to ten cores featuring a previous-generation microarchitecture with certain enhancements but lags a bit behind the latest technologies that Intel has to offer in terms of chipset. The HEDT platform can offer plenty of horsepower for professional applications tailored for multi-core CPUs, but due to relatively low frequencies of such chips, they not always deliver the highest performance in all games. All-in-all, ideally you are going to need different Intel CPUs for different tasks and this is exactly why Overclockers UK are offering the 8Pack OrionX. At a premium.

Conceptually, the 8Pack OrionX resembles the aforementioned platform from ECS, but rather than putting two CPUs on one board with a jumper, it simply squeezes two premium factory overclocked systems featuring high-end components available in one large case.

Chassis and Cooling

When we talk about PCs, we usually start with CPUs and GPUs because they define general capabilities of almost any platform. However, when we discuss a system with two CPUs, four or five GPUs and five SSDs, it makes more sense to start with the chassis and cooling.

The 8Pack OrionX PC comes in the Phanteks Enthoo Elite chassis that was developed to build 2-in-1 desktop PCs featuring an ATX motherboard and a Mini-ITX motherboard. Phanteks calls its chassis “the extreme full tower” because this 123-liter giant is 75 cm tall (29.5”) and can fit in 13 3.5” drives, six 2.5” drives, a standard PSU of virtually any length (the 8Pack OrionX uses the Super Flower Leadex 2 kW PSU) and virtually any cooling system.

For cooling, the 8Pack OrionX uses a custom-built triple-loop cooling system with EK Supremacy Evo CPU water blocks, insane tubing and pass-through plates made of polished acryl. This involves custom reservoirs, as seen above, installed along the rear, front, and mid-plate panels of the case. The LCS has four pumps that are dynamically controlled. OcUK does not reveal too many details about the cooling system, but we suspect that one loop is dedicated to the Intel Core i7-6950X CPU, another is used to cool down three primary graphics adapters and the primary SSD of the X99 platform, whereas the third one is dedicated to the secondary system running the Intel Core i7-7700K and the NVIDIA TITAN X video card. In the past OcUK likes to offer Mayhem coolants, known for their striking color, although this isn't specifically mentioned.

Since the LCS is extremely large and uses two massive radiators located on top and bottom of the chassis, the expansion capabilities of the Phanteks Enthoo Elite will be limited to the owners of the 8Pack OrionX (for example, it will be impossible to install a 5.25” ODD instead of front USB and audio ports), but this is a necessary tradeoff.

“Golden” CPUs and High-End Motherboards

Both CPUs are factory overclocked and Overclockers UK guarantees that the Intel Core i7-6950X will work at an AVX stable 4.40 GHz or higher frequency, whereas the Intel Core i7-7700K will work fine at 5.10 GHz or higher. Since overclocking potential of microprocessors vary, the manufacturer only advertises 4.4 and 5.1 GHz frequencies, but actual systems may run faster.

Overclockers UK chose ASUS’ Rampage V Edition 10 and ROG Strix Z270I Gaming motherboards for its 8Pack OrionX systems. Both mainboards feature high-quality VRMs to guarantee stable operation of overclocked CPUs, offer plenty of USB 3.0 and 3.1 ports, GbE, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, 7.1-channel audio sub-systems and so on. Meanwhile, since the system lacks ODD space, it will be impossible to install Rampage V’s additional front-panel SupremeFX Hi-Fi headphone audio sub-system (ESS ES9018K2M Sabre DAC, Cirrus Logic CS5361 AD converter, multiple amps) into the case, but maybe OcUK has an external solution for this add-on for those who want to have a high-end audio.

As for memory sub-systems, the manufacturer chose 8 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 modules: eight of such DIMMs are installed into the X99 motherboard (making up for 64 GB) and two are used for the Z270 platform (making up for 16 GB).

Four NVIDIA TITAN X Cards in One Box

Since the 8Pack OrionX is designed a no-compromise system, it also uses the highest-performing graphics cards today: the NVIDIA TITAN X with 12 GB of GDDR5X memory. Moreover, an interesting thing is that NVIDIA does not advertise more than two TITAN X cards per system for gaming, however other non-gaming uses can take advantage. Three of the NVIDIA TITAN X cards are installed into the primary X99 motherboard and come with factory overclocked GPUs operating at 2 GHz. Meanwhile, the fourth one runs with the Z270 platform.

Keeping in mind that far not all games are compatible with the AFR rendering technique, even a dual-GPU sub-system is an overkill nowadays and NVIDIA officially does not support 3-way and 4-way GPU configurations for its GeForce GTX 10 (Pascal) family. Nonetheless, some may try to run older games at 4K resolution with FSAA and since some of those games support AFR, three GPUs might make sense. In any case, the overclocked TITAN X GPU can offer a very high level of performance in modern games even when working alone.

Meanwhile, many prosumers use GPU-accelerated applications and this is exactly where 10752 stream processors of three TITAN X GPUs will show their potential. In fact, specifically for people looking forward extreme FP32 performance, OcUK offers an option to install the fourth TITAN X into the X99 system.

The manufacturer mentions overclocking for the NVIDIA TITAN X card plugged into the Z270 motherboard, but does not specify exact GPU frequency here. In any case, this card inside the 8Pack OrionX will offer something more than the “regular” TITAN X.

Five SSDs and 20 TB of HDD Space

The storage sub-system of the 8Pack OrionX is reported as being tailored for the workloads of each platform. In total, the rig comes with 4.2 TB of solid-state storage and 20 TB of HDD storage space.

The X99 system is equipped with three layers of storage. The primary SSD of the X99 is the Intel 750 1.2 TB NVMe SSD that is based 20 nm MLC NAND flash memory and offers sequential read speed up to 2.5 GB/s as well as sequential write speed up to 1.2 GB/s. To ensure that the SSD does not throttle under high loads, it is liquid-cooled. The secondary SSD-based layer of the X99 system is comprised of two Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB SSDs working in RAID 0 and thus delivering up to 1.1 GB/s read performance. The final layer uses Seagate’s top-of-the-range helium-filled BarraCuda Pro 10 TB drive.

Being primarily aimed at gaming, the Z270 part of the 8Pack OrionX is equipped with a simpler (if this word is applicable to this rig at all) storage sub-system. The primary storage is based on two Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB SSDs running in RAID 0. Meanwhile, there is another Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10 TB attached to the Z270 motherboard to keep all the data that is not stored on the SSDs (or backup copies).

8Pack OrionX Specifications
		X99 Primary System	Z270 Secondary System
CPU		Intel Core i7-6950X 10C/20T OC to 4.4+ GHz 25 MB L3 Cache 140 W	Intel Core i7-7700K 4C/8T OC to 5.1+ GHz 8 MB L3 Cache 91 W
PCH		Intel X99	Intel Z270
Motherboard		ASUS Rampage V Edition 10	ASUS ROG Strix Z270I Gaming
Graphics		3 × NVIDIA TITAN X or 4 × NVIDIA TITAN X GPU overclocked to 2 GHz	NVIDIA TITAN X Unknown OC
Memory		8 × 8 GB DDR4-2666 Corsair Dominator Platinum	2 × 8 GB DDR4-3200 Corsair Dominator Platinum
Storage	Primary SSD	Intel 750 1.2 TB PCIe NVMe	2 × Samsung 960 Pro 512 GB RAID 0
	Secondary SSD	2 × Samsung 850 Pro 1 TB RAID 0	-
	HDD	Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10 TB	Seagate BarraCuda Pro 10 TB
	Bays	13 × 3.5" drives, 6 × 2.5" drives
Wi-Fi		IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi + BT 4.0	IEEE 802.11ac Wi-Fi + BT 4.1
Ethernet		Intel I218V GbE Intel I211-AT GbE	Intel I219V GbE
Display Outputs	Front	HDMI 2.0
	MB	-	1 × HDMI 1 × DP
	Graphics Card	Every card: 1 × HDMI 2.0b 3 × DisplayPort 1.4 1 × DVI-I	1 × HDMI 2.0b 3 × DisplayPort 1.4 1 × DVI-I
Audio		7.1-channel Realtek ALC1150 SupremeFX Shielding Sonic software enhancements	7.1-channel Realtek ALC1220A SupremeFX Shielding Sonic software enhancements
USB	Front	2 × USB 3.0 Type-A 1 × USB 3.1 Type-C (shared)	2 × USB 3.0 Type-A 1 × USB 3.0 Type-C (shared)
	Rear	2 × USB 3.1 Type-C 2 × USB 3.1 Type-A 4 × USB 3.0 Type-A 2 × USB 2.0 Type-A	1 × USB 3.0 Type-C 3 × USB 3.0 Type-A 4 × USB 2.0 Type-A
Other I/O		Earphone, microphone 3.5-mm jacks on the front panel SPDIF, PS/2 on the back panels
Dimensions	W×H×D	270 × 750 × 615 mm 10.6 × 29.5 × 24.2 inch
	Volume	123 L
Chassis		Phanteks Enthoo Elite (PHES916E)
PSU		Super Flower Leadex ‘8Pack Edition’ 2000 W PSU
OS		Windows 10 Pro	Windows 10 Pro

When it comes to bespoke PCs from boutique PC makers, the look is as important as performance because such systems have to be distinct from others. Without any doubts, the look of the 8Pack OrionX is different, mostly because of the complex LCS and lighting.

First, the Phanteks Enthoo Elite has its own RGB lighting on its right side and on the bottom. The lights can be customized from the front panel of the rig. Secondly, Overclockers UK offers a choice of different watercooling fittings and fluid colors. As it is shown in the pictures, different liquid colors may be used for different LCS loops. The SI also offers different PSU cable braiding to match the color scheme of a particular system. Finally, there are multiple RGB stripes installed inside the 8Pack OrionX and their color can be set by OcUK or by the owner using appropriate ASUS software.

The manufacturer does not keep the 8Pack OrionX in stock and each PC is built-to-order by OCUK and Ian Parry who then tunes each one to its own stable maximum. What the manufacturer advertises right now is the base model and actual specs can be modified upon request. For example, some people may prefer to have only two graphics cards installed into the X99 system, or 32 or 64 GB of memory installed into the Z270 platform.

Pricing

The base price of the 8Pack OrionX is £24,000 ($30,116), but it may increase or decrease depending on exact configuration. The base model does not look like a PC for everyone even despite the price because there are not a lot of applications that can take advantage of three NVIDIA TITAN X graphics cards. Moreover, two systems in one box make sense for those who would like to physically separate their work projects from their gaming or entertainment, but for some reason prefer not to buy two separate PCs (or do not want to work with VMs).

But even if money is not a problem, the minimum lead-time for these systems is 42 working days, which means over two months and OcUK warns that delays may occur. When speaking with 8Pack at the last OCUK event, We were told that these sorts of high-end systems do sell sufficiently to warrant their development costs. Buyers apparently come from all over the world, even if not for the aesthetics but the raw performance. Undoubtedly a self-build is cheaper, but some customers want the support package as well, or financially sufficient to have a system integrator build what they want. Just fire up Minecraft and away you go...

Gallery: 8Pack OrionX

Related Reading:

• OverclockersUK release 8Pack Range of ‘World’s Fastest Systems’
• ASUS ROG GT51 Desktop: Overclocked i7-6700K, GTX 1080 SLI, 64 GB DDR4, $4999
• Acer Announces The Acer Predator 21 X: 21-Inch Curved Screen Gaming Notebook
• MSI Upgrades Its Aegis and Nightblade PCs with Intel’s Kaby Lake CPUs

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Basemark Releases VRScore, a VR & VR Headset Benchmark Suite for Windows

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Back in 2015 as the development of the first generation of modern VR headsets was coming to a close, benchmark developer Basemark announced that they would be applying their talents to the field of VR. The benchmark, now named VRScore, was to be developed in conjunction with Crytek and would serve as a multi-faceted VR test suite for VR headsets and computers, covering everything from rendering performance to display latency. At the time Basemark was expecting to launch the benchmark in mid-to-late 2016, and while development has taken a bit longer than expected, they are finally releasing version 1.0 of the benchmark this morning.

The final product – or rather the first iteration thereof – is designed to be a high-end AAA-quality benchmark, an unsurprising choice given the use of CryEngine V and the need for benchmarks to be forward-looking. CryEngine V of course introduces support for VR to CryEngine, but it also adds support for DirectX 12 as well. For VRScore, Basemark has played things a little more conservatively, designing the benchmark and its “Sky Harbor” scene around DX12, but including a DX11 mode as well for pre-Windows 10 OSes and headsets that don’t yet work with DX12 mode (which happens to be everything except the Oculus Rift at this time). VRScore has no specific minimum recommended GPU – and Basemark isn’t looking to test against Oculus/Valve’s GTX 1060/RX 480 class GPU performance recommendation – but to sustain 90fps you’ll generally need a GTX 1080 or faster.

Also notable here is that Basemark is looking to support as many PC VR headsets as possible. So this includes not only the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive SDKs, but also the OpenVR and OSVR SDKs. This is an important distinction not only because of the wider compatibility afforded by supporting more SDKs, but because it underscores just how important the SDK is in VR performance. The VR headset SDKs dictate the resolution used – following the best practices for each headset – along of course with controlling how synchronization and features like timewarp/spacewarp work. Consequently at this stage of development, benchmarking an active VR headset is as much an SDK benchmark as it is a GPU or CPU benchmark.

Overall, VRScore is broken down into 3 different types of tests. A 4K “baseline” test run without the headset that is meant to be a more typical system benchmark, a second headset-off test run at headset resolutions and configurations, and finally a headset-on test which runs as a proper VR workload. In the case of the latter two tests, this is particularly interesting as it allows Basemark to actually show the performance cost for VR – how much performance is lost from VR SDK features such as lens distortion, 3D audio, and various synchronization steps. As it turns out, the performance hit is not insignificant.

CPU:	Intel Core i7-4960X @ 4.2GHz
Motherboard:	ASRock Fatal1ty X79 Professional
Power Supply:	Corsair AX1200i
Hard Disk:	Samsung SSD 840 EVO (750GB)
Memory:	G.Skill RipjawZ DDR3-1866 4 x 8GB (9-10-9-26)
Case:	NZXT Phantom 630 Windowed Edition
Monitor:	Asus PQ321
Video Cards:	AMD Radeon RX 480 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 Founders Edition NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 Founders Edition
Video Drivers:	NVIDIA Release 378.49 AMD Radeon Software Crimson 17.1.1
OS:	Windows 10 Pro

Gallery: VRScore Results: RX 480, GTX 1060, GTX 1080

Starting things off with AMD’s Radeon RX 480 and Oculus Rift attached, the average framerate with the full test drops 14% when the Rift is enabled. Unsurprisingly, even without the headset the RX 480 was already averaging less than 90fps, but the additional load brings the average framerate down to the mid-60s. Though all-told, the RX 480 doesn’t fare too poorly here; the downscaled resolution subtest, which tests a scene at 80% of the VR SDK’s recommended resolution (~ 2131x1268 for a Rift, almost precisely its native resolution) has the card averaging 89fps with an HMD. This goes to show just how expensive supersampling is, as although these relatively low DPI pentile screens greatly benefit from it, the performance cost is significant

Meanwhile in the NVIDIA camp, the story with the GTX 1060 is pretty much the same, to the point that the RX 480 and GTX 1060 are within a couple of FPS of each other. The GTX 1060 ends up paying a 17% performance penalty here with the Rift enabled, and similarly quickly perks up once Basemark pulls back on the resolution some. As for the GTX 1080, its high performance means the card has little trouble averaging 89fps with the benchmark’s default test, hitting the 90Hz refresh rate cap much of the time. Put another way, with a 131fps frame rate with the headset turned off, the GTX 1080 has more than enough performance to pay the price of VR overhead.

Moving on, as I mentioned before the other major test in VRScore is the VRTrek Suite, Basemark’s VR headset evaluation tool. Whereas VRScore measures the headset itself, specifically the application-to-photon latency, dropped frames, and duplicated frames.

To measure this, the VRTrek Suite uses the VRTrek tool, a curious device composed of a pair of phototransistors and plugs into a microphone jack. Intended to simulate the human eye, the VRTrek device is what gives the software feedback on the VR headset’s performance. Phototransistors of course aren’t cameras, so they can’t see/report a full image, but they are sensitive enough to see the cues Basemark puts in the rendered image for headset testing.

Measuring input latency and dropped frames goes as far back as the original proposal for VRScore, but it’s interesting that Basemark has opted to follow-through with it. Competitor Futuremark developed a similar test during development of their VRMark benchmark, but they ultimately scaled it back to just industry use, saying that “measuring the latency of popular headsets does not provide meaningful insight into the actual VR experience” and instead focusing on subjective/experiential testing, especially as modern VR SDKs employ a number of tricks to reduce the perceived latency. As a result, the VRTrek is a fairly unique device since Basemark intends to make it accessible (though I suspect not cheap) outside of the usual industry circles.

I haven’t had the chance to use the VRTrek on headsets from multiple vendors yet, but in testing it against the Oculus Rift, it does what it sets out to do. At the moment I’m not sure how valuable that’s going to be, but as Microsoft is trying to encourage cheap(er) VR with their $300 headset initiative, this will likely prove useful in quantifying just how low the latency is of these forthcoming headsets.

Wrapping things up, while today’s announcement marks the formal launch of VRScore, in practice Basemark is dividing up the launch into two parts. Launching immediately are the full-featured corporate and media versions. Launching a bit farther down the line will be the consumer versions, both free and professional. As with some of Basemark’s other benchmarks, they are offering a free version of the benchmark with a single test/report (the system score) and the VR experience mode, meanwhile reporting of the scores for the sub-feature tests and custom configurations will require a paid version.

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