NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3060 Ti custom graphics cards from Gigabyte have been listed by EEC where they were submitted by the manufacturer for certification. This confirms that NVIDIA and its board partners are getting ready to unveil a fourth GeForce RTX 30 series graphics card next month that will target the mainstream segment.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB Custom Graphics Cards Listed by EEC – Four Gigabyte Models Featuring AORUS Master, Gaming, & Eagle Series
The Gigabyte models that were listed at EEC were spotted by Komachi_Ensaka (via Videocardz). It looks like Gigabyte is working on at least four models which will be part of its GeForce RTX 3060 Ti series lineup. The custom models are listed below:
GIGABYTE RTX 3060 Ti 8GB AORUS Master (GV-N306TAORUS M-8GD)
GIGABYTE RTX 3060 Ti 8GB GAMING OC (GV-N306TGAMING OC-8GD)
GIGABYTE RTX 3060 Ti 8GB EAGLE OC (GV-N306TEAGLE OC-8GD)
GIGABYTE RTX 3060 Ti 8GB EAGLE (GV-N306TEAGLE-8GD)
As you can see, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is more or less confirmed now and the card will feature 8 GB of GDDR6 memory. Gigabyte will have the AORUS Master variant as its top model while the OC and standard variants of the Eagle and Gaming series will serve the gaming market at a lower price point.
As per previously leaked out specifications, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics card will use the GA104-200 GPU core and the latest PG190 SKU 10 PCB design (Reference & Founders Edition). The card will feature 4864 CUDA cores arranged in 38 SMs along with 8 GB of GDDR6 memory that will be operating at 14 Gbps across a 256-bit bus interface to deliver a total bandwidth of 448 GB/s. The graphics ard is rumored to feature a TDP of around 180W.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series ‘Ampere’ Graphics Card Specifications:
Graphics Card Name
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090
GPU Name
Ampere GA104-200
Ampere GA104-300
Ampere GA102-200
Ampere GA102-300
Process Node
Samsung 8nm
Samsung 8nm
Samsung 8nm
Samsung 8nm
Die Size
395.2mm2
395.2mm2
628.4mm2
628.4mm2
Transistors
17.4 Billion
17.4 Billion
28 Billion
28 Billion
CUDA Cores
4864
5888
8704
10496
TMUs / ROPs
TBA
TBA
272 / 96
TBA
Tensor / RT Cores
152 / 38
184 / 46
272 / 68
328 / 82
Base Clock
TBA
1500 MHz
1440 MHz
1400 MHz
Boost Clock
TBA
1730 MHz
1710 MHz
1700 MHz
FP32 Compute
TBA
20 TFLOPs
30 TFLOPs
36 TFLOPs
RT TFLOPs
TBA
40 TFLOPs
58 TFLOPs
69 TFLOPs
Tensor-TOPs
TBA
163 TOPs
238 TOPs
285 TOPs
Memory Capacity
8 GB GDDR6
8/16 GB GDDR6
10/20 GB GDDR6X
24 GB GDDR6X
Memory Bus
256-bit
256-bit
320-bit
384-bit
Memory Speed
14 Gbps
14 Gbps
19 Gbps
19.5 Gbps
Bandwidth
448 Gbps
448 Gbps
760 Gbps
936 Gbps
TDP
180W?
220W
320W
350W
Price (MSRP / FE)
$399 US?
$499 US
$699 US
$1499 US
Launch (Availability)
October 2020
15th October
17th September
24th September
There’s no word on the availability of the graphics card yet but previous reports have highlighted at a late October launch for the graphics card so we might get to hear about the card around the time the GeForce RTX 3070 is launched. As for pricing, considering that the GeForce RTX 3070 costs $499 US, the GeForce RTX 3060 Ti could be priced around $349-$399 US while offering performance on par or faster than the GeForce RTX 2080 SUPER.
The potential launch date of AMD’s next-generation Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X “Vermeer” Zen 3 CPUs may have been unveiled. According to 1usmus (Yuri Bubliy) and Computerbase, the Ryzen 5000 CPU series could hit the market even before the introduction of AMD’s RDNA 2 based Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards.
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X 12 Core & Ryzen 7 5800X 8 Core “Vermeer” CPUs With Next-Gen Zen 3 Architecture Could Launch As Early As 20th October
According to the sources which were reported by Videocardz, it is stated that AMD’s Ryzen 5000 series family would initially include the Ryzen 9 5900X and the Ryzen 7 5800X however, Uniko’s Hardware recently tweeted that the initial lineup would not only be based off those two SKUs but also feature the Ryzen 9 5950X and the Ryzen 5 5600X.
The AMD Ryzen 9 5950X will definitely be the flagship with 16 cores and 32 threads followed by the Ryzen 9 5900X which will feature 12 cores and 24 threads. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X will come with a total of 8 cores and 16 threads while the Ryzen 5 5600X will feature 6 cores and 12 threads. Pricing is likely to remain close to the existing parts but we have seen from yesterday’s leaked benchmark that Zen 3 offers a serious upgrade over Zen 2 CPUs.
The following table which was created by Twitter fellow, CapFrameX, shows more than 30% faster performance for the Ryzen 7 5800X 8 core versus the Zen 2 based Ryzen 7 3800X 8 core processor:
As for the launch date, both sources reported at least one day that matches and that’s the 20th of October. Yuri stated that his information is based on older reports and that the Zen 3 launch will be held on 20th October with the Ryzen 9 5900X and Ryzen 7 5800X going on sale that day. This would mean that AMD’s Zen 3 CPUs will be on store shelves in less than a month’s time if the report is true and even before Radeon RX 6000 series graphics cards which will be introduced on the 28th of October.
Zen 3 – 20th October (5800X/5900X) Navi 2 – 15-20th November This is old information, but I can see that AMD has not adjusted the plans.
Computerbase also points out two potential dates, one being 20th October and the other being 27th October. It might be possible that AMD releases top-tier chips first followed by the more mainstream parts or they could just select one day and launch the four chips together in retail. 1usmus also points out that AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 series (RDNA 2) graphics cards may hit retail much later in November (15-20th) which is around two months after the NVIDIA Ampere GeForce RTX 30 series lineup.
AMD Ryzen 5000 Series “Vermeer” CPU Lineup
CPU Name
Cores/Threads
Base Clock
Boost Clock
Cache (L2+L3)
PCIe Lanes (Gen 4 CPU+PCH)
TDP
Price
AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
16/32
TBA
TBA
72 MB
TBA
TBA
TBA
AMD Ryzen 9 5900X
12/24
TBA
TBA
70 MB
TBA
TBA
TBA
AMD Ryzen 7 5800X
8/16
TBA
TBA
36 MB
TBA
TBA
TBA
AMD Ryzen 5 5600X
6/12
TBA
TBA
35 MB
TBA
TBA
TBA
Here’s Everything We Know About The AMD’s Zen 3 Based Ryzen 5000 ‘Vermeer’ Desktop CPUs
The AMD Zen 3 architecture is said to be the greatest CPU design since the original Zen. It is a chip that has been completely revamped from the group up and focuses on three key features of which include significant IPC gains, faster clocks, and higher efficiency.
We also got to see a major change to the cache design in an EPYC presentation, which showed that Zen 3 would be offering a unified cache design which should essentially double the cache that each Zen 3 core could have access compared to Zen 2.
The CPUs are also expected to get up to 200-300 MHz clock boost, which should bring Zen 3 based Ryzen processors close to the 10th Generation Intel Core offerings. That, along with the massive IPC increase and general changes to the architecture, would result in much faster performance than existing Ryzen 3000 processors, which already made a huge jump over Ryzen 2000 and Ryzen 1000 processors while being an evolutionary product rather than revolutionary, as AMD unveiled very recently.
The key thing to consider is that we will get to see the return of the chiplet architecture and AMD will retain support on the existing AM4 socket. The AM4 socket was to last until 2020 so it is likely that the Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 CPUs would be the last family to utilize the socket before AMD goes to AM5 which would be designed around the future technologies such as DDR5 and USB 4.0. AMD’s X670 chipset was also hinted as to arrive by the end of this year and will feature enhanced PCIe Gen 4.0 support and increased I/O in the form of more M.2, SATA, and USB 3.2 ports.
It was recently confirmed by AMD that Ryzen 5000 Desktop CPUs will only be supported by 400 & 500-series chipsets while 300-series support would be left out.
AMD had also recently confirmed that Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 desktop processors would mark the continuation of its high-performance journey. The Zen 3 architecture would be first available on the consumer desktop platform with the launch of the Vermeer family of CPUs that will replace the 3rd Gen Ryzen 3000 Matisse family of CPUs.
So, what’s next for AMD in the PC space? Well, I cannot share too much, but I can say our high-performance journey continues with our first “Zen 3” Client processor on-track to launch later this year. I will wrap by saying you haven’t seen the best of us yet.
AMD Executive Vice President of Computing & Graphics – Rick Bergman
As of now, the competitive advantage that AMD has with its Zen 2 based Ryzen 3000 is just way too big compared to whatever Intel has in their sleeves for this year, and Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 CPUs are going to push that envelope even further. Expect AMD to unveil its next-generation Ryzen CPUs and the underlying Zen 3 core architecture on 8th October.
AMD CPU Roadmap (2018-2020)
Ryzen Family
Ryzen 1000 Series
Ryzen 2000 Series
Ryzen 3000 Series
Ryzen 4000 Series
Ryzen 5000 Series
Ryzen 6000 Series
Architecture
Zen (1)
Zen (1) / Zen+
Zen (2) / Zen+
Zen (3) / Zen 2
Zen (3)+ / Zen 3?
Zen (4) / Zen 3?
Process Node
14nm
14nm / 12nm
7nm
7nm+ / 7nm
7nm+ / 7nm
5nm / 7nm+
Server
EPYC ‘Naples’
EPYC ‘Naples’
EPYC ‘Rome’
EPYC ‘Milan’
EPYC ‘Milan’
EPYC ‘Genoa’
Max Server Cores / Threads
32/64
32/64
64/128
64/128
TBD
TBD
High End Desktop
Ryzen Threadripper 1000 Series (White Haven)
Ryzen Threadripper 2000 Series (Coflax)
Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Series (Castle Peak)
Ryzen Threadripper 4000 Series (Genesis Peak)
Ryzen Threadripper 5000 Series
Ryzen Threadripper 6000 Series
Max HEDT Cores / Threads
16/32
32/64
64/128
64/128?
TBD
TBD
Mainstream Desktop
Ryzen 1000 Series (Summit Ridge)
Ryzen 2000 Series (Pinnacle Ridge)
Ryzen 3000 Series (Matisse)
Ryzen 4000 Series (Vermeer)
Ryzen 5000 Series (Warhol)
Ryzen 6000 Series (Raphael)
Max Mainstream Cores / Threads
8/16
8/16
16/32
16/32
TBD
TBD
Budget APU
N/A
Ryzen 2000 Series (Raven Ridge)
Ryzen 3000 Series (Picasso Zen+)
Ryzen 4000 Series (Renoir Zen 2)
Ryzen 5000 Series (Cezanne Zen 3)
Ryzen 5000 Series (Rembrandt Zen 3)
Year
2017
2018
2019
2020/2021
2020/2021
2022
What do you want to see in AMD’s next-gen desktop CPUs?
MSI has just announced the release of the AMD Combo PI V2 1.1.0.0 BIOS Firmware which adds offers improved support and compatibility with existing and next-generation Ryzen processors. AMD X570 chipset motherboards will be receiving the BIOS update first followed by B550 & A520 chipset-based motherboards.
MSI Rolls Out AMD Combo PI V2 1.1.0.0 BIOS Firmware For Its AM4 Lineup, Optimized Compatibility With Existing & Next-Gen Ryzen CPUs
According to MSI’s blog post, the AMD Combo PI V2 1.1.0.0 BIOS update will release in four phases A total of 10 MSI X570 motherboards will be receiving the BIOS update starting today while B550 & additional X570 motherboards will be added to the support list by the middle of October. MSI will also have the BIOS Firmware ready for its A520 series motherboards by end of October while MSI plans to phase out the BETA release with the official MP BIOS starting in early November.
This will be around the same time when AMD’s next-generation Ryzen 5000 “Vermeer” CPUs based on the new Zen 3 core architecture are launched. As for features of the new Combo PI V2 1.1.0.0 BIOS Firmware, you can read them below:
Optimized compatibility for AMD Ryzen 3000-Series and Ryzen 4000 G-Series Desktop Processors and future AM4 socket processors
Solve some specific OC failure issues
Update SMU module
Optimized DDR4 memory overclocking solution
MSI X570/B550 Motherboards With AMD Combo PI V2 1.1.0.0 BIOS:
Aside from just offering optimized compatibility for existing and next-generation AMD Ryzen CPUs, the new BIOS Firmware also improves overclocking support, specifically DDR4 OC. There is also a range of fixes including some overclocking specific failures that users might have encountered when performing manual overclocks. We will keep you updated as more information is revealed regarding support for AMD’s next-generation Zen 3 based Vermeer CPUs for 500-series boards. AMD will officially be lifting the curtains of its Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 CPU lineup on the 8th of October that comes next week.
1usmus’s highly anticipated ClockTuner Utility for AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs is now available for download. The new tool not only aims to help deliver increased performance for Zen 2 Ryzen owners but also improves efficiency by reducing the power draw of Zen 2 based processors.
1usmus’s ClockTuner Utility For AMD Ryzen 3000 CPUs Now Available To Download – Free Performance Boost For All Zen 2 CPU Owners!
Unveiled back in August by 1usmus, the ClockTuner Utility for AMD Ryzen CPUs is specifically has been designed to increase the performance of Zen 2 based processors that include Ryzen 3000 & 3rd Gen Ryzen Threadripper CPUs without increasing the power consumption. The utility can be downloaded at the following link:
AMD Ryzen processor with Zen 2 architecture (Renoir is temporarily not supported);
BIOS with AGESA Combo AM4 1.0.0.4 (and newer);
.NET Framework 4.6 (and newer);
CPU Voltage – Auto (BIOS);
CPU Multiplayer – Auto (BIOS);
SVM (Virtualization) – disabled (BIOS, optional);
Spread Spectrum – disabled (BIOS, optional);
Ryzen Master 2.3 (uses the driver for monitoring);
Stable RAM overclocking or stable XMP.
The next set of requirements are also mandatory and apply to UEFI (BIOS) settings. Since the success of CTR depends heavily on the capabilities of the motherboard VRM (highly recommended to read this chapter – link), we need to make a kind of foundation in the UEFI (BIOS) to secure the process of tuning the system from BSOD.
The most important setting is LLC (Load Line Calibration), my recommendations are as follows:
ASUS – LLC 3 or LLC 4;
MSI – LLC 3;
Gigabyte – in most cases Turbo, but it can also be Auto;
ASRock is Auto or LLC 2; Importantly, CTR is mediocre compatible with ASRock motherboards, as all LLC modes show abnormally high Vdroop;
Biostar – Level 4+.
It is recommended to use additional settings for ASUS motherboard owners:
Phase mode – Standard;
Current capability mode – 100%;
How to install CTR
Download the CTR archive (download) and unpack it in a convenient place for you.
Download Cinebench R20 (download) archive and extract the archive contents to the “CB20” folder (this folder is located in the CTR folder).
Run Cinebench R20, accept the license agreement, close Cinebench R20.
How the tool achieves this is quite complicated but 1usmus’s CTR is fully automated so users don’t have to worry about anything. It is explained that the utility will increase the overall performance of AMD’s Zen 2 processors, specifically those that feature a chiplet based design, by undervolting each of the individual CCX modules. By performing an undervolt on each CCX, Zen 2 processors are shown to not only run faster but also cooler. This also drops the overall power consumption while the CPU can retain an active-state for all the energy-saving technologies.
Another key feature of CTR is Smart Overclocking which evaluates the quality of each CCX & adjusts the frequencies individually. A special preset of Prime95, also developed by 1usmus, is embedded within the utility which evaluates the quality of each CCX. An algorithm has been designed which fine-tunes the frequency for a balanced operation for all CCX’s without shifting the load on the CPU nodes (modules).
Prime95 isn’t the only evaluation software embedded within CTR. 1usmus has also featured a plug-in test package of Cinebench R20 which not only evaluates the overall performance of the tuned CPU but also shows the CPU voltage and power consumption as a part of the efficiency tests that have been achieved while running the built-in Cinebench R20 benchmark.
1usmus’s has stated that CTR will be free for everyone to use and offers better performance than most overclocking utilities or automated boosting techniques that motherboard vendors offer that only deliver a small increment in performance while increasing TBP by 50% and sometimes even beyond that.
1usmus’s CTR (ClockTuner For AMD Ryzen) CPU Performance & Efficiency Tests
As for the results achieved with CTR, 1usmus has provided results from two Zen 2 system. One is configured with the Ryzen 9 3900X (ASUS Rog Crosshair VII Hero) and the other is running the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X (ASUS ROG Zenith II Extreme). Both systems were compared at default & tuned (CTR) settings.
Compared to the default AMD Ryzen 9 3900X CPU, the tuned variant delivers a 7% increase in performance while reducing the total CPU power draw by 12.8 Watts. The CPU runs at a higher frequency while maintaining a lower voltage of 1.225V versus the default 1.312V.
The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X system saw a performance uplift of 5.2% and the total power draw dropped by 12 Watts. The CPU was also running at a lower voltage of 1.25V while maintaining stable clocks versus the default chip that was configured at 1.296V.
As for compatibility, the CTR software for AMD Ryzen CPUs is supported by all AM4 motherboards. Even if your motherboard doesn’t support CCX configuration for CCX, it would still work since the low-level SMU access is able to bypass any limitations imposed by CPU or motherboard vendors. It is also specifically stated that CTR doesn’t contain any unsafe code that may be perceived by anti-virus software as dangerous for the system. This was one of the major issues with the AMD DRAM calculator for Ryzen CPUs but has been fixed with CTR.
I’ve been tinkering about with undervolting ever since my days of running an FX 8350 and R9 290. Why? Better thermals, similar performance, lower power draw, it was a win all around. I’ve found that even in recent times it’s still a useful thing to give a go, I did it with the RX 480 and Vega some time ago and I run my Ryzen 5 3600X undervolted to control temp spikes. But with the RTX 3080, I just had to give it a go. Could I tweak down the power draw from its 320w TGP and maintain as much performance as possible? Yeah, yeah I could.
How To?
Okay enough of that, how about a real quick run down step by step to get your RTX 3080 undervolted (same steps apply to Turing but voltages/frequencies will differ). I use MSI Afterburner and its voltage/frequency curve editor as my tool of choice for my GeForce undervolting adventures.
The video format is included here in case you want to watch it play out step by step
When you open up MSI Afterburner strike CTRL+F in order to open the Frequency/Voltage Curve Editor displayed in the window on the right in the image above.
Now that you have the F/V Curve Editor open reduce the core clock to around a -290MHz (I found this as a good starting point thanks to the team at GPUReport). This will reduce the entire curve to keep GPU Boost from going wild with the higher voltage allowance as the card attempts to boost back up.
Now that you’ve got your baseline established move over to the F/V Curve and get ready to grab your target Voltage and move it to your target Frequency. My suggestion is to grab the little dot above the 950mV setting and slide it right up to the 1900MHz target Frequency. Then hit apply.
Once you’ve hit apply you’ll see the entire curve change. This is showing that once the GPU reaches that frequency at that voltage it’ll stop, the curve dictates there’s no reason/benefit for the GPU to push past that voltage because it won’t benefit from a frequency increase.
Now you’ll want to test it, in every game or application you use or will use. If it’s unstable then choose whether to drop the clocks or raise the voltage. But it’s going to take you a while to confirm stability, that’s why I didn’t rush this out last week when I started on it.
I found that our Founders Edition is 100% stable with a target frequency of 1890MHz at 862mV without losing much, if any, in terms of performance. but if I wanted to go for even more reduction I can get the same stability at 1815MHz at 806mV.
Results vs RTX 2080Ti
We need to compare the results to see the benefit or even if there is one we need to compare against stock settings and another point of reference. We ran the benchmark for Forza Horizon 4 at 4K Ultra settings with the RTX 2080Ti and the RTX 3080 (with the performance undervolt of 862mV) and found the performance of the undervolted RTX 3080 to be just a hair behind the stock configuration but pulling EVEN LESS power than the RTX 2080Ti while being 27% faster than the RTX 2080Ti. These tests were run on the same test bench we used for the GeForce RTX 3080 review.
How Low Can You Go?
That’s great and all, but can we go lower? You betcha. I took things down a notch to see if performance dropped off as we went just a hair lower on the voltage curve. Dropping down to 806mV we found the highest target achievable was 1815Mhz, which is technically over the rated boost clock still. The initial undervolt dropped our total board power consumption by 26% but this one nailed a whopping 35% reduction in power draw!
What Does This All Mean?
I can’t go further without making sure I mention that your mileage may vary, you might not get any benefit, and you might get more benefit than I did. That said, if I had a GeForce RTX 3080 of any flavor I’d be giving this a hearty try. It works the same for the RTX 3090 and I imagine the upcoming RTX 3070 will as well. Both of these undervolts are easily achieved and were stable under every scenario that I put them through. There are a few outcomes worth exploring, and the biggest is in future releases. I can easily see fine-tuned custom cards coming in the future, small form factor versions of the RTX 3080 could easily be made if these numbers are achievable across a large swath of cores.
There’s a lot of scaling down that can be had and shows that while the Ampere core can scale with power doesn’t mean it has to, vendors could choose to reign it in and make a super-efficient version of the RTX 3080. Another outcome that is possible is something I noticed over time with the Radeon RX 480 where over time the voltages the card ran at were slowly reduced over time to the point the later drivers ran the reference card just like my undervolted version.
Long story short, if you’ve got a GeForce RTX 3080 then overclocking might just not be the direction you want to strive for but rather this direction, make it even better. I was able to easily get the RTX 3080 pulling less wattage than the outgoing RTX 2080Ti and still run away from it in performance. And the longer you game the better the undervolt will serve you, just check out that video in here where you can see the clock rate remains way more stable by the end of the Horizon Zero Dawn run as the thermals stayed 4-5C cooler without even trying.
The first performance benchmarks of AMD’s next-generation Ryzen 7 5800X “Vermeer” Zen 3 CPU have leaked out in the Ashes of The Singularity database. The benchmarks have been spotted by TUM APISAK and show that AMD’s upcoming 8 core will absolutely demolish Intel’s fastest 10 core chip when it comes to price/performance.
AMD’s Ryzen 7 5800X 8 Core & 16 Thread “Zen 3 Vermeer” CPU Benchmark Leak Out, Faster Than The Intel Core i9-10900K 10 Core CPU
The performance was measured in the Ashes of the Singularity benchmark at the 4K Crazy preset. While 4K tends to be more of a GPU-bound scenario, the AOTS benchmark does include indicators for CPU performance metrics.
The AMD Ryzen 7 5800X is one of the two Ryzen 5000 “Vermeer” series chips that are confirmed to be part of the launch lineup so far. We talked about the Ryzen 9 5900X yesterday which is a higher-end 12 core & 24 thread part while the Ryzen 7 5800X would replace the Ryzen 7 3800X at a similar price point. From the benchmark, the chip is listed as an 8 core part with 16 thread so the core config hasn’t been changed from its predecessor.
The first leaked benchmark of AMD’s next-generation Ryzen 7 5800X “Zen 3 Vermeer” CPU has been spotted by TUM_APISAK.
The fundamental changes to Zen 3 would come in the form of a new architecture for higher IPC gains, a redesigned CCD/cache structure, higher clocks, and improved efficiency. The clock speeds for the chip weren’t reported within the benchmark but the chip scored 5900 points which are on par with the Intel Core i9-10900K running at stock. Both setups were running a GeForce RTX 2080 graphics card.
What’s more important to look at are the CPU framerates and here you can see the Ryzen 7 5800X completely crushing the Intel Core i9-10900K in terms of max framerate. In the Normal Batch run, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800X delivers up to 22% higher framerate than the Intel Core i9-10900K. We do not know the final clocks for the Ryzen 7 5800X yet but the Intel Core i9-10900K does feature more cores and threads and even runs at clock speeds up to 5.3 GHz. Previously leaked OPN codes did point out up to 4.6 GHz clock speeds for engineering samples which is the same boost clock as the Ryzen 7 3800X. Since the Ryzen 7 3800X operates at up to 4.7 GHz boost clocks, we might get some thing close to 4.7-4.8 GHz with the Zen 3 based parts. Following are the leaked OPN codes of Zen 3 engineering samples from Igor’s Lab:
OPN 1: 100-000000059-14_46 / 37_Y (12 Cores)
OPN 2: 100-000000059-15_46 / 37_N (12 Cores)
OPN 1: 100-000000063-07_46 / 40_N (8 Cores)
OPN 2: 100-000000063-08_46 / 40_Y (8 Cores)
OPN 3: 100-000000063-23_44 / 38_N (8 Cores)
Considering if AMD prices its Ryzen 7 5800X in the same ballpark as the Ryzen 7 3800X, around $350-$400 US, that would mean a big win for consumers as they’ll get performance equivalent to a $500 US+ chip at a much lower price. Additionally, the AMD Ryzen 5000 CPUs will be using an enhanced 7nm+ process node and we can expect higher efficiency resulting in much lower power draw than the competing Intel chips.
Here’s Everything We Know About The AMD’s Zen 3 Based Ryzen 5000 ‘Vermeer’ Desktop CPUs
The AMD Zen 3 architecture is said to be the greatest CPU design since the original Zen. It is a chip that has been completely revamped from the group up and focuses on three key features of which include significant IPC gains, faster clocks, and higher efficiency.
We also got to see a major change to the cache design in an EPYC presentation, which showed that Zen 3 would be offering a unified cache design which should essentially double the cache that each Zen 3 core could have access compared to Zen 2.
The CPUs are also expected to get up to 200-300 MHz clock boost, which should bring Zen 3 based Ryzen processors close to the 10th Generation Intel Core offerings. That, along with the massive IPC increase and general changes to the architecture, would result in much faster performance than existing Ryzen 3000 processors, which already made a huge jump over Ryzen 2000 and Ryzen 1000 processors while being an evolutionary product rather than revolutionary, as AMD unveiled very recently.
The key thing to consider is that we will get to see the return of the chiplet architecture and AMD will retain support on the existing AM4 socket. The AM4 socket was to last until 2020 so it is likely that the Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 CPUs would be the last family to utilize the socket before AMD goes to AM5 which would be designed around the future technologies such as DDR5 and USB 4.0. AMD’s X670 chipset was also hinted as to arrive by the end of this year and will feature enhanced PCIe Gen 4.0 support and increased I/O in the form of more M.2, SATA, and USB 3.2 ports.
It was recently confirmed by AMD that Ryzen 5000 Desktop CPUs will only be supported by 400 & 500-series chipsets while 300-series support would be left out.
AMD had also recently confirmed that Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 desktop processors would mark the continuation of its high-performance journey. The Zen 3 architecture would be first available on the consumer desktop platform with the launch of the Vermeer family of CPUs that will replace the 3rd Gen Ryzen 3000 Matisse family of CPUs.
So, what’s next for AMD in the PC space? Well, I cannot share too much, but I can say our high-performance journey continues with our first “Zen 3” Client processor on-track to launch later this year. I will wrap by saying you haven’t seen the best of us yet.
AMD Executive Vice President of Computing & Graphics – Rick Bergman
As of now, the competitive advantage that AMD has with its Zen 2 based Ryzen 3000 is just way too big compared to whatever Intel has in their sleeves for this year, and Zen 3 based Ryzen 5000 CPUs are going to push that envelope even further. Expect AMD to unveil its next-generation Ryzen CPUs and the underlying Zen 3 core architecture on 8th October.
AMD CPU Roadmap (2018-2020)
Ryzen Family
Ryzen 1000 Series
Ryzen 2000 Series
Ryzen 3000 Series
Ryzen 4000 Series
Ryzen 5000 Series
Ryzen 6000 Series
Architecture
Zen (1)
Zen (1) / Zen+
Zen (2) / Zen+
Zen (3) / Zen 2
Zen (3)+ / Zen 3?
Zen (4) / Zen 3?
Process Node
14nm
14nm / 12nm
7nm
7nm+ / 7nm
7nm+ / 7nm
5nm / 7nm+
Server
EPYC ‘Naples’
EPYC ‘Naples’
EPYC ‘Rome’
EPYC ‘Milan’
EPYC ‘Milan’
EPYC ‘Genoa’
Max Server Cores / Threads
32/64
32/64
64/128
64/128
TBD
TBD
High End Desktop
Ryzen Threadripper 1000 Series (White Haven)
Ryzen Threadripper 2000 Series (Coflax)
Ryzen Threadripper 3000 Series (Castle Peak)
Ryzen Threadripper 4000 Series (Genesis Peak)
Ryzen Threadripper 5000 Series
Ryzen Threadripper 6000 Series
Max HEDT Cores / Threads
16/32
32/64
64/128
64/128?
TBD
TBD
Mainstream Desktop
Ryzen 1000 Series (Summit Ridge)
Ryzen 2000 Series (Pinnacle Ridge)
Ryzen 3000 Series (Matisse)
Ryzen 4000 Series (Vermeer)
Ryzen 5000 Series (Warhol)
Ryzen 6000 Series (Raphael)
Max Mainstream Cores / Threads
8/16
8/16
16/32
16/32
TBD
TBD
Budget APU
N/A
Ryzen 2000 Series (Raven Ridge)
Ryzen 3000 Series (Picasso Zen+)
Ryzen 4000 Series (Renoir Zen 2)
Ryzen 5000 Series (Cezanne Zen 3)
Ryzen 5000 Series (Rembrandt Zen 3)
Year
2017
2018
2019
2020/2021
2020/2021
2022
What do you want to see in AMD’s next-gen desktop CPUs?
NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 30 series has been caught up in a major controversy ever since the lineup launched. A botched launch for both RTX 3080 & RTX 3090 graphics cards was soon followed by user reports where several cards were crashing during gaming. It was soon highlighted that the cause of these issues could be related to the GPUs boosting algorithm but more recent reports suggest that the issue could have more to do with the hardware design that AIB partners have implemented on their custom products. NVIDIA has now come forward with an official statement regarding the matter.
NVIDIA Officially Responds To GeForce RTX 30 Series Issues: SP-CAP vs MLCC Groupings Vary Depending on Design & Not Indicative of Quality
There’s more than one part to this story so let’s start with what NVIDIA has to officially say on the matter. The statement was given to PCWorld’s Senior Editor, Brad Chacos, and is as follows:
“Regarding partner board designs, our partners regularly customize their designs and we work closely with them in the process. The appropriate number of SP-CAP vs. MLCC groupings can vary depending on the design and is not necessarily indicative of quality.”
In the statement, NVIDIA specifically states that their partner cards are based on custom designs and that they work very closely with them during the whole design/test process. NVIDIA does give AIBs reference specs to follow and gives them certain guidelines for designing customized boards. That does include the limits defined for voltages, power, and clock speeds. NVIDIA goes on to state that there’s no specific SP-CAP / MLCC grouping that can be defined for all cards since AIB designs vary compared to each other. But NVIDIA also states that the number of SP-CAP / MLCC groupings are also not indicative of quality.
There have been recent reports suggesting that MLCC is the way to go with AIB cards as they offer the most stable experience but NVIDIA here is saying otherwise. The discussion of SP-CAP /MLCC groupings started when Igor Wallossek from Igor’s Lab posted in his technical report that the caps might be a possible reason behind the crashes that users were facing.
In our previous report, it was pointed that the GeForce RTX 30 series generally crashed when it hits a certain boost clock above 2.0 GHz. Some users also found out that cards with full SP-CAP layouts (Conductive Polymer Tantalum Solid Capacitors) were generating more issues compared to boards that either use a combination of SP-CAP / MLCCs (Multilayer Ceramic Chip Capacitor) or an entire MLCC design.
SP-CAP / SP-CAP & MLCC Groupings on Various GeForce RTX 30 AIB Cards (Image Credits: Igor’s Lab):
The difference between the SP-CAP & MLCC capacitors is vast and Videocardz has explained it in a simpler way as stated below:
The MLCC is cheap and small, they operate at current ratings, voltages, and temperates, but they are prone to cracking and piezo effects, they also have bad temperature characteristics.
The SP-CAP is bigger and has lower voltage ratings and is worse at high frequencies. They are however stronger and not prone to cracking, they also have no piezo effects, SP-CAPs should also operate better at higher temperatures.
Since this discovery, there have been statements from various AIBs on the matter. We also have had several AIBs who have told us that they believe that the issue is mostly a hardware flaw that they’re rectifying while others believe that it can be solved through a driver fix but that would lead to lower clocks and voltages that could slightly affect the overall performance of the card. However, that remains to be seen. The following are the statements from the AIBs:
EVGA
Recently there has been some discussion about the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 series.
During our mass production QC testing we discovered a full 6 SP-CAPs solution cannot pass the real world applications testing. It took almost a week of R&D effort to find the cause and reduce the SP-CAPs to 4 and add 20 MLCC caps prior to shipping production boards, this is why the EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 series was delayed at launch. There were no 6 SP-CAP production EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 FTW3 boards shipped.
But, due to the time crunch, some of the reviewers were sent a pre-production version with 6 SP-CAPs, we are working with those reviewers directly to replace their boards with production versions. EVGA GeForce RTX 3080 XC3 series with 5 SP-CAPs + 10 MLCC solution is matched with the XC3 spec without issues.
Also note that we have updated the product pictures at EVGA.com to reflect the production components that shipped to gamers and enthusiasts since day 1 of product launch. Once you receive the card you can compare for yourself, EVGA stands behind its products! — Jacob Freeman, EVGA Forums
ZOTAC
Regarding the recent RTX 3080 issue, the investigation is undergoing and we will update you shortly. For those who had purchased our RTX 3090/3080 Trinity, please submit the form at the link below. We will keep in touch with you personally.
About the SP-CAP capacitors and MLCC capacitors of GALAXY RTX 3080/3090 products
Dear player friends:
Hello, everyone. Recently, many users have come to inquire about the specific usage of the capacitors on the back of the GALAXY RTX 3080/3090 series of graphics chips. After verification, about the RTX 3080/3090 released by GALAXY. The capacitors used on the back of the model chip are as follows:
1. GALAXY RTX 3080 Heijiang/Metal Master product, the number of SP-CAP capacitors on the back of the chip: 5, the number of MLCC capacitors: a set of 10. This version is currently on sale and is the original commercial version.
2. GALAXY RTX 3090 General/Metal Master product, the number of SP-CAP capacitors on the back of the chip: 4, the number of MLCC capacitors: two groups of 20. This version is currently on sale and is the original commercial version.
3. GALAX RTX 3090 GAMER trial production samples, currently only 6 pieces are in the hands of the media and KOL. The first batch of this sample uses 6 SP-CAP capacitors. After confirmation, the GAMER products officially produced and sold will be used for capacitor materials. Make optimization improvements. Note: This product is not currently on sale.
I am very grateful to the players and friends for their support and love to GALAXY. GALAXY is also consistent in its pursuit of product quality. It is our glorious mission to provide you with better and stronger hardware. In addition, the current full range of GALAXY graphics card products support three-year warranty and personal warranty service. If you have other doubts or questions, please feel free to leave us a message to discuss, thank you! Source
GAINWARD
Announcement on SP-CAP Capacitors and MLCC Capacitors of Gainsun 30 Series Graphics Card Products
Dear Gainward consumer players:
Thanks to the friends who bought and supported Gainward. Recently, we received the voice of market players’ inquiries. Many players are very concerned about our company’s just released 30 series products. Regarding the specific usage of the capacitors on the back of the chip, we hereby explain the situation:
All the RTX 3080 10GB graphics cards released by Gainward currently use 5 SP-CAP capacitors on the back of the chip and 10 MLCC capacitors. The versions currently on the market are all the original commercial versions.
All the RTX 3090 graphics cards released by Gainward currently use 4 SP-CAP capacitors on the back of the chip and 20 MLCC capacitors. The versions currently on the market are all the original commercial versions.
As a long-term AIC partner of Nvidia, Gainward has always been adhering to the product standard to design and produce completely according to Nvidia’s requirements. Therefore, currently players are concerned about the problem of capacitors and new product failures on the Internet. Currently Gainward has not generated such feedback. .
In addition, all Gainward graphics card products support three-year warranty and personal warranty service. Thank you consumers and players for your support and love to Gainward. Source
Were AIBs Constrained By Time & Rushed To Launch Their Custom Designs?
In the meantime, MSI and ASUS have started updating their product pages for the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards with retail board pictures. Previously, the product pages had pictures from the pre-production models which were still using older designs with a different SP-CAP /MLCC layout. The new ones show an increased number of MLCC caps on the back then before.
We know for a fact that several AIBs were finalizing clock speeds even after the GeForce RTX 3080 was announced and clock speeds for RTX 3080 custom variants were revealed just a few weeks prior to launch. So it could be that AIBs didn’t get the time they needed to evaluate the clock speeds extensively or even their board designs. The same is true for the GeForce RTX 3090 and GeForce RTX 3070 custom models since their clock speeds have not been finalized yet either.
Following are the GeForce RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio, GeForce RTX 3080 Ventus 3X, and ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3080 pictures from before and after showcasing the updated layouts on the back of the PCB (Image Credits: Videocardz):
NVIDIA’s New Driver Offers A Preliminary Fix While AIBs Evaluate Their Custom Designs With The First NVIDIA Test Drivers
There have also been reports that users are facing fewer issues after installing the new GeForce 456.55 drivers compared to the older ones on the same cards. Users have stated that their cards run at lower clock speeds but are more stable and don’t spike as often and as high as they were before. So if you were one of the users facing crashes or issues with the cards, you can try out the new drivers. The cards we were running (MSI RTX 3080 / RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio) didn’t produce any issues while our tests before and the new drivers hardly impact the clock speeds of the cards.
With that said, AIBs have confirmed to me that they are indeed working with the first test drivers from NVIDIA. The 456.55 release doesn’t specifically state any fixes for the issues and only adds in fixes for a certain number of games. NVIDIA might have introduced a preliminary measure to halt the crashes for now but a more fine-tuned approach in the form of a driver is still a couple of days away. We will keep you posted within this article for any more information we get related to the RTX 30 series issues.
KINGPIN himself has given us a first look at the flagship GeForce RTX 3090 graphics card from EVGA, the GeForce RTX 3090 KINGPIN Hybrid. The graphics card features a design that is made solely for enthusiasts and overclockers. KINGPIN even demonstrated the insane overclocking potential of the card last week by breaking the 3DMark Port Royal world record with a massive 2580 MHz overclock on the same card.
EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 KINGPIN Hybrid Pictured, 360mm AIO Liquid Cooler For This Beast Of A Card
There are definitely a lot of interesting details to talk about regarding the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 KINGPIN Hybrid. We already got to see how the card looks like when EVGA officially announced its RTX 30 series lineup but other details have been kept a secret. Well, it looks like KINGPIN just went ahead and posted the first full picture of the card itself.
The EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 KINGPIN Hybrid will be the flagship design in the GeForce RTX 30 line from the company. It features a dual-slot design with a wide PCB that is covered by the massive shroud. The wide PCB is used to accommodate more electrical components & a beast of circuitry that is used to power this card. The card features a matte black shroud with mesh grills at the front and a large 9 blade fan that pushes air through the internal assembly.
The heatsink for the GeForce RTX 3090 KINGPIN consists of a large copper block that covers the electrical components while the GPU sits underneath the copper cold-plate of the pump. The card is a hybrid design that makes full use of liquid cooling and is attached to a 360mm radiator with three 120mm fans included. This should allow for some cool operating temperatures whether running at stock or overclocked.
Another interesting feature of the EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 KINGPIN graphics card is the small LCD display which can be seen on the side by the end of the shroud. This LCD should provide some useful functionality and maybe even some tuning options to users. In teaser shorts, it can be seen that the card will feature three 8-pin power connectors featured on the back of the PCB.
Display outputs include the standard three DP and a single HDMI 2.1 ports. There’s no word on the pricing and availability yet but we can definitely see the card being a hit amongst overclockers and enthusiasts when it launches.
Amidst all the speculations regarding the official release of the 4AM roster, Xu “fy” Linsen has finally given us some information regarding the date of the announcement of the roster. In his stream on the Chinese streaming website Huya, he stated that the 4AM squad will likely be revealed on the National Day of China (October 1).
Fy in his stream, revealed the final dates for team orientation and the release of the roster. He stated:
“The team will meet on the 29th for a check-in video or something, and a makeup shoot, and I’ll go a day early to grab a good room and save myself the trouble of being told that it’s my room when I come in for a bathroom break half a month before and that no one should be able to say anything like that!
…
I anticipate that out announcement will be on National Day”
National Day for China falls on October 1st. So we might very well be seeing a confirmation of the 4AM roster on that day.
4AM Coach and Bootcamp Details:
Whilst many have speculated that Bai “rOtK” Fan will be the coach of the new 4AM team, He stated that it is not easy to reveal the coach, stating that negotiations are still ongoing and that neither side is in a hurry.
The player also added that the team will be based in Shanghai.
This statement by Fy comes in as a pleasant surprise for the Chinese Dota 2 fans who have been waiting for the past one month to get an official confirmation regarding the 4AM Roster.
ViCI Gaming’s Social Media manager, Staka, also tweeted about the 4AM roster, providing more details regarding the organization. According to him, 4AM will be known as Elephant 4AM and also attached a picture, in what he considers to be the logo of the team. Also, a Chinese scribbling on a piece of paper suggests that Yang, Maybe and RedPanda have already joined the base in Shanghai that Fy mentioned.
4AM’s rumoured roster:
Zhang “Eurus” Chengjun
Lu “Somnus丶M” Yao
Zhou “Yang” Haiyan
Xu “fy” Linsen
Ru “RedPanda” Zhihao
Bai “rOtK” Fan (coach)
If true, Elephant 4 Angry Men look ridiculously stacked on paper with the superstar names it has. Somnus and Fy left PSG.LGD in early September after achieving momentous success with the team whereas Eurus and Yang also left ViCi Gaming this September after a successful long period with the squad. RedPanda is a relatively newer but extremely talented support player who last played for Sparkling Arrow Gaming.
It will be a treat to watch these guys in action to finally culminate the Chinese roster shuffle. Which revamped Chinese team is going to dominate the Dota 2 scene in the region? Only time will tell. For now, everybody awaits the official release of the Elephant 4 Angry Men roster.
NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series launched to a ton of fanfare and jaw-dropping levels of performance claims and specifications – but somewhere between all the hype and third-party reviews, the promised doubling in performance vanished without a trace. Today, we are going to be investigating a very interesting phenomenon plaguing NVIDIA GPUs and why not everything is as it seems. Nothing is presented as the gospel truth for you to believe and you are encouraged to use your own judgment according to taste.
NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series has more than twice the TFLOPs, so where did all the performance go?
The argument is simple, Jensen promised twice the graphics power in Ampere GPUs so we should see roughly twice the shading performance in most titles (without any bells and whistles like DLSS or RTX). This, most curiously, isn’t happening. In fact, the RTX 3090 is anywhere from 30% to 50% faster in shading performance in gaming titles than the RTX 2080 Ti even when it more than twice the number of shading cores. TFLOPs is, after all, simply a function of shading clocks multiplied by the clock speed. Somewhere, somehow, performance is being lost.
One of three things is happening:
The lone shading core of Ampere is somehow inferior to Turing and the cards can’t actually deliver that FP32 TFLOPs number (in other words Jensen lied).
There is something wrong in the bios/microcode or low-level drivers of the card
The high-level drivers / gaming engines / software stacks can’t scale up to properly utilize the mass of shading cores present in Ampere cards.
Fortunately for us, this is a problem that we can easily investigate using the scientific method. If the Ampere cards’ shader cores are somehow inferior to Turing, then we should not be able to get twice the FP32 performance using *any* application. Simple right? If however, we can get the claimed performance on *any* application then it becomes slightly tricky. While it would absolve the hardware of any blame, we would then need to find whether the software stack/high-level drivers are at fault or whether its a microcode issue. While you can resolve hardware vs software with a very high level of certainty, you cannot do the same for the software side. You can, however, make a very good guess. Our logic flow diagram is as follows:
Rendering applications are designed to use a ton of graphics horsepower. In other words, their software is coded to scale exponentially more than games (there have actually been instances where games refused to work on core counts higher than 16 in the past). If *a* rendering application can demonstrate the doubling in performance than the hardware is not to blame. The cores aren’t inferior. If *all* rendering applications can take full advantage then the low-level driver stack isn’t to blame either. This would point the finger at APIs like DirectX, GameReady drivers, and the actual code of gaming engines. So without any further ado, let’s take a look.
VRAY is one of the most shading intensive benchmarks for GPUs. It is essentially the Cinebench for GPUs. It also helps that the program is optimized for CUDA architecture so represents a “best case” scenario for NVIDIA cards. If the Ampere series can’t deliver the doubling in performance here, it will not do so anywhere else. The RTX 3090 in VRAY achieves more than twice the shading performance of the RTX 2080 Ti quite easily. Remember our flow diagram?
Since we have a program that can actually output double the performance in a ‘real world’ workload, it obviously means that Jensen wasn’t lying and the RTX 30 series is actually capable of the claimed performance figures – at least as far as the hardware goes. So we know now that performance is being lost on the software side somewhere. Interestingly, Octone scaled a little worse than VRAY – which is slight evidence for lack of low-level drivers. Generally, however, rendering applications scaled a lot more smoothly than gaming applications.
We took a panel of 11 games. We wanted to test games on shading performance only, no DLSS, and no RTX. There wasn’t a particular methodology to picking the titles – we just benched the games we had lying around. We found that the RTX 3090 was on avg 33% faster than the RTX 2080 Ti. This means, for the most part, the card is acting like a 23.5 TFLOPs GPU. Performance is obviously taking a major hit as we move from rendering applications to games. There is a vast differential between the performance targets the RTX series should be hitting and the one its actually outputting. Here, however, we can only guess. Since there is a lot of fluctuation between various games, game engine scaling is obviously a factor and the drivers don’t appear to be capable of fully taking advantage of the 10,000+ cores that the RTX 3090 possesses.
So what does this mean? Software bottleneck, fine wine and the amazing world of no negative performance scaling in lineups
Because the problem with the RTX 30 series is very obviously one that is based in software (NVIDIA quite literally rolled out a GPU so powerful that current software cannot take advantage of it), it is a very good problem to have. AMD GPUs have always been praised for being “fine wine”. We posit that NVIDIA’s RTX 30 series is going to be the mother of all fine wines. The level of performance enhancement we expect to come for these cards through software in the year to come will be phenomenal. As game drivers, APIs, and game engines catch up in scaling and learn how to deal with the metric butt-ton (pardon my language) of shading cores present in these cards, and DLSS matures as a technology, you are not only going to get close to the 2x performance levels – but eventually, exceed them.
While it is unfortunate that all this performance isn’t usable on day one, this might not be entirely NVIDIA’s fault (remember, we only the problem is on the software side, we don’t know for sure whether the drivers or game engines or the API is to blame for the performance loss) and one thing is for sure: you will see chunks of this performance get unlocked in the months to come as the software side matures. In other words, you are looking at the first NVIDIA Fine Wine. While previous generations usually had their full performance unlocked on day one, NVIDIA RTX 30 series does not and you would do well to remember that when making any purchasing decisions.
Fine wine aside, this also has another very interesting side effect. I expect next to no negative performance scaling as we move down the roster. Because the performance of the RTX 30 series is essentially being software-bottlenecked and the parameter around which the bottleneck is revolving appears to be the number of cores, this should mean that less powerful cards are going to experience significantly less bottlenecking (and therefore higher scaling). In fact, I am going to make a prediction: the RTX 3060 Ti for example (with 512 more cores than the RTX 2080 Ti) should experience much better scaling than its elder brothers and still beat the RTX 2080 Ti! The less the core count, the better the scaling essentially.
While this situation represents uncharted territory for NVIDIA, we think this is a good problem to have. Just like AMD’s introduction of multiple core count CPUs forced game engines to support more than 16 cores, NVIDIAs aggressive approach with core count should force the software side to catch up with scaling as well. So over the next year, I expect RTX 30 owners will get software updates that will drastically increase performance.