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The ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe Motherboard Review: Onboard OLED and WiGig

Sitting at the top of ASUS’ consumer-focused motherboard line for X299 is the ASUS Prime X299-Deluxe. In the past, ASUS’ ‘Deluxe’ line-up has attempted to emulate the status of the Mercedes S-Class but in motherboard form: showcasing new technology that may eventually filter down into where the bulk of the market sits over the next 3-5 years. The newest X299-Deluxe thus comes with a few of those technological features, such as WiGig and an informational OLED display, but also comes with onboard U.2 and a bundled Thunderbolt 3 add-in card. The Prime X299-Deluxe is the most expensive X299 motherboard we have tested to date.

Intel's 10nm Briefly Appears: Dual Core Cannon Lake in Official Documents
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Intel’s 10nm Briefly Appears: Dual Core Cannon Lake in Official Documents

Intel briefly listed two 10nm Cannon Lake processors in a microcode update document this week, confirming that it has shipped such chips, although we expect it to be in small quantities. Intel has since removed the references to them from the public version of the paper.

Intel has adjusted its 10nm roadmap multiple times in the recent years. Back in 2013, the company planned to make CPUs produced using its 10nm technology available in 2015. Then, the company pushed them to 2016, but that was a minor change. In mid-2015 the chipmaker delayed its 10 nm products to late 2017. Then in early-2016, Intel switched its “Tick-Tock” cadence to “Process-Architecture-Optimization” model, officially prolonging lifecycles of its manufacturing technology nodes and changing its approach to new product development in general. When it comes to 10 nm products, Intel has not made formal announcements about any product family yet, but said earlier this year in a side-presentation to its CES keynote that it had shipped some of them to customers in 2017.

Since the company did not disclose any details about the 10nm CPUs it shipped, it naturally caused further questions on the state of Intel’s 10nm process in general and when the Cannon Lake products, expected to be the first on 10nm, were coming. Fortunately, our friends at Tom’s Hardware noticed Cannon Lake processors in the latest version of Intel’s microcode update document earlier this week. After the fact, Intel has since removed the references from the document.

The first version of the document, as it appears, suggests that Intel has shipped Cannon Lake-U CPUs in 2+2 and 2+0 configurations to undisclosed customers. The “2+2” denotes that a chip has two processing cores (the first number) as well as GT2-class graphics (the second number), whereas the “2+0” indicates that a dual-core chip has no iGPU at all. Intel’s “U” series parts, aimed at the 15W notebook market, usually feature an integrated chipset in the CPU package. Therefore, the CNL-U 2+2 and CNL-U 2+0 parts are aimed primarily at mobile and low-power applications.

It is noteworthy that in the recent years Intel has begun commercial roll-outs of its new CPUs starting with ultra-low-power 4.5W Y-series processors, e.g., Broadwell-Y in 2014, Skylake-Y in 2015, and Kaby Lake-Y in 2016. If Intel is launching its U-series chips with a TDP of 15 W first for 10nm, this would indicate a change in policy. So it is surprising to see that Intel has started shipments of Cannon Lake-U, but not Cannon Lake-Y.

A natural question that arises because of the listing is whether Intel has started to ship its CNL-U parts in mass quantities to PC makers. Intel has not disclosed where these parts have been sold, which could be for entry-level low-power laptops, or to certain specific customers and requests with custom/semi-custom CNL products. While a CNL-U 2+2 CPU could be used for inexpensive notebooks, a CNL 2+0 part would fit into applications that either do not require a display controller at all (such as routers, NAS, DAS, etc.), or can use a discrete GPU (a low-end PC with a low-end/outdated dGPU – there are a lot of such machines sold in developing countries, a system for software/hardware development/compatibility tests/etc.). Unfortunately, at this point it is completely unclear where Intel has shipped these 10nm parts. 

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Corsair ONE Gets Caffeinated: Now with Coffee Lake
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Corsair ONE Gets Caffeinated: Now with Coffee Lake

This week Corsair introduced two new versions of its small form-factor desktop, called the ‘ONE’. The new versions upgrade the processor to the latest generation Intel six-core Coffee Lake processors. The end result is more performance, with a corresponding increase in price. The new versions, called the ONE Pro Plus and the ONE Elite, represent the best performance versions of the Corsair One, while the model at the bottom of the stack is discontinued.

Corsair’s new ONE Pro Plus and ONE Elite systems are based on Intel’s Core i7-8700K processor, and subsequently get an upgrade to a Z370 based motherboard. The new Corsair ONE PCs come in the familiar 12L aluminum chassis with a custom liquid cooling system, featuring dual liquid cooling loops that are used to cool down the CPU and the GPU separately. For the new units, the GPU is also upgraded, to NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080 Ti graphics card. Despite packing rather significant compute horsepower then, the use of the liquid cooling loops allows Corsair to promote the ONE Pro Plus and ONE Elite as quiet.

As for other components, the new high-end Corsair ONE models are outfitted with 16 GB of Vengeance LPX DDR4-2400 (ONE Plus) or 32 GB of Vengeance LPX DDR4-2666 (Elite) memory, a 480 GB M.2 NVMe SSD, and a 2 TB 2.5” 5400-RPM HDD. Since the systems use industry-standard components, they are upgradeable. Technically the CPU and GPU can also be overclocked, as long as cooling performance and 500W PSU are sufficient.

Specifications of Early-2018 Corsair ONE Gaming PCs
Model ONE Pro
CS-9000011		 ONE Pro
CS-9000015		 ONE Pro Plus
CS-9000013		 ONE Elite
CS-9000014
CPU Core i7 7700K with liquid cooling Core i7 8700K with liquid cooling
GPU GeForce GTX 1080 w/LCS GeForce GTX 1080 Ti /w LCS
DRAM 16 GB DDR4-2400 32 GB DDR4-2400 16 GB DDR4-2400 32 GB DDR4-2666
Motherboard mini-ITX, Z270 chipset mini-ITX, Z370 chipset
Storage SSD 480 GB NVMe
HDD 2 TB HDD, 5400 RPM
PSU 400 W SFX 500 W SFX
Warranty 2 years
MSRP $2300 $2500 $2800 $3000

The new ONE Pro Plus and ONE Elite gaming machines exist alongside Corsair’s existing ONE Pro systems, featuring Intel’s Core i7-7700K as well as NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1080. At the same time, Corsair has EOLed its original ONE computer based on the Core i7-7700 and the GeForce GTX 1070. Corsair says that customer interest for the $1800 system was low, so it decided to discontinue the SKU. As a result, the range now starts at $2300, while the most expensive Corsair ONE Elite model retails for $3000.

The new Corsair ONE Pro Plus and Corsair ONE Elite will be available worldwide directly from Corsair as well as its resellers.

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AMD Releases Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Edition 18.Q1 WHQL: Adrenalin Comes To Enterprise
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AMD Releases Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Edition 18.Q1 WHQL: Adrenalin Comes To Enterprise

This week AMD has released the first quarterly Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Edition driver drop of the year, aptly numbered 18.Q1 WHQL. Coming on the heels of December’s major driver update on the consumer side, this is the first enterprise package based on Adrenalin Edition Pro drivers. As such, 18.Q1 incorporates new Adrenalin Pro ReLive enhancements, Pro Overlay, Pro-oriented Connect Tab, and ProRender plugin updates. Likewise, as the first post-Windows 10 Fall Creators Update enterprise driver, 18.Q1 is intended for Fall Creators Update and formally supports Mixed Reality. Rounding out this quarterly release are performance optimizations for professional applications, VDI & graphics virtualization updates, and a number of bug fixes.

First things first, AMD is implementing a slight rename from Radeon Pro Software “Enterprise Driver” to “Enterprise Edition,” making it consistent to the overall Radeon Software naming. This streamlining has not been extended, however, to the latest gaming driver now supported by 18.Q1 Driver Options, which remains “Radeon Software Adrenalin Edition for Radeon Pro 18.2.1.”

Touching on the highlights of Adrenalin Pro features, AMD referred to new Pro ReLive features like borderless region capture, microphone track separation, and chroma key background transparency, as well as Radeon Pro Overlay for Pro ReLive. This also includes the several ProRender plugin updates introduced with the inaugural Adrenalin Pro 17.12.1 Meanwhile, for performance improvements, AMD is citing year-over-year uplifts compared to 17.Q1 using SPECapc and SPECviewperf testing, notably a 47% improvement in Autodesk 3ds Max and 25% improvement in Siemens NX.

Moving on to AMD’s MxGPU, their hardware-based SR-IOV virtualized graphics solution, 18.Q1 is coupled with the January technical preview host driver for Citrix XenServer MxGPU, while production-level XenDesktop and XenApp guest drivers have been updated with 18.Q1 binaries for cloud-deployed 64-bit Windows 10, 7, Server 2016, and Server 2008 R2 platforms. The packages and compatibility notes can be found on AMD’s Citrix Pro Driver page.

In a similar vein, their Guest Interface Manager (GIM) open source KVM host OS driver remains available on GitHub as a technical preview, though the guest drivers have not been updated since Adrenalin Pro 17.12.2.

Wrapping things up, 18.Q1 comes with a list of bug fixes and documented issues typical of professional and enterprise drivers.

Bug Fixes & Resolved Issues

  • [Pro Application] Viewport in Modo may hang when using lighting set to scene on normal map.
  • [Pro Application, Vega] Unexpected behavior in Adobe Premiere Pro CC 8K playback when resuming from sleep and hibernate on Radeon Pro SSG.
  • Intermittently, only one display per GPU is selectable for setting Timing-Client.
  • Radeon Settings may crash when opening Global Settings using Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition for Radeon Pro 17.9.1 driver. 
  • ReLive toolbar may not appear using Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition for Radeon Pro 17.9.1 driver. 
  • Advanced Radeon Pro Settings may not open for mobile platforms. 

Known Issues

AMD notes that Multi-GPU Single Large Surface on Windows 10 is not currently supported on any hardware for 18.Q1.

  • [Pro Application] SOLIDWORKS Viewport may appear black during resizing of the camera view of the assembly. 
  • [VDI] When more than three 2K displays are connected in Horizon View 7.1 and Horizon View 7.4, VDI may fail to resize the desktop.
  • [VDI] VM may disconnect when upgrading the driver and unable to connect until reboot.
  • [VDI] Extended monitor configuration may not function as intended in VDI environment with Windows 10 Fall Creators Update and Windows 7 using Citrix XenDesktop. 
  • [VDI] VM may disconnect to Horizon View client during driver un-install and cannot connect until reboot on blast.
  • [VDI] Radeon Pro Settings may crash on initial VM launch with Citrix XenDesktop.
  • [Vega] Unexpected behavior when resume from sleep on Radeon Pro SSG.
  • [Vega] The user may experience unexpected behavior creating 4×1 or 6×1 AMD Eyefinity display configurations with 5K displays for “Vega”-based hardware.
  • [Vega] Application profiles may not be automatically created for “Vega”-based hardware.
  • Workstation features may not appear in Advanced Radeon Pro Settings such as 10-bit, Stereo 3D, SDI and EDID for mobile platforms.
  • User may see Radeon branding when uninstalling the driver in Professional Mode, if a Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition for Radeon Pro gaming driver is installed. 
  • User may see Radeon Pro Settings icon in taskbar to be red instead of blue.
  • Radeon Pro Settings may become unresponsive when user clicks “Restore Factory Defaults”.
  • Sun Temple application (Unreal Engine demo) may crash when launched in Vulkan mode in Windows 7.
  • D2D applications may hang when switching to fullscreen using LiquidVR.
  • Radeon Pro Overlay may not appear during clone mode with 2 displays.
  • BSOD may be triggered while running Nuke Benchmark on Windows 7 OS with AMD FirePro W9100 and AMD FirePro 8100.
  • Blank screen may be seen with hot unplug and plug of 8K display. 
  • Radeon Settings may crash when opening “Global Settings” using Radeon Vega Frontier Edition with the Radeon Software Crimson ReLive Edition for Radeon Pro 17.9.1 gaming driver. 
  • User may encounter difficulties switching to older gaming drivers. 
  • Radeon Software branding may be observed with driver un-install from control panel during un-installation process in professional mode, if at least one gaming driver is installed. 
  • Device Manager may show yellow bang after installation and error message when opening Radeon Pro Settings. 

ISV Certification Notes

  • Due to Maya-MtoA software issue “Trac #3142,” some Viewport Draw modes for stand-ins draw an infinite line. Workaround is to toggle the Viewport Draw Mode of the stand-in in the Attribute Editor.
  • Autodesk Maya 2017/2018 may show gray patch in playback in certain models due to Maya issue “Maya 41945.” Workaround is to click on a different frame on timeline or to click on first frame.

For Linux support, details can be found in the release notes for Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Edition 18.Q1 for Linux.

The updated drivers for AMD’s professional workstation GPUs are available online at the AMD’s professional graphics driver download page. More information on this update and further issues can be found in the Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Edition 18.Q1 release notes and Radeon Pro newspost on 18.Q1.

New Radeon Pro Software Enterprise Editions are released on the 2nd Wednesday of the 2nd month of the quarter. The next releases will follow on 5/9/18, 8/8/18, and 11/14/18.