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An Asus GeForce RTX 3080 Ti has been spotted online, and this could be our first glimpse of a next-gen flagship Ampere graphics card, although there are doubts about the image, as we’ll discuss. On the face of it, then, this is allegedly the incoming RTX 3080 Ti from Asus – you can see the model name in the bottom-left corner – labeled as the ‘next-generation ROG Strix’ as published by Videocardz. As you can see, it’s a triple-fan design, and it has a more premium air about it compared to the existing 2080 Ti from Asus. Find the best Nvidia GPU for you Check out all the best PC games We'll show you how to build a PC According to Videocardz, the leaked image comes from an internal Asus meeting – hence the presenter standing in front of it (also in the bottom-left) – and it could represent a possible design for the 3080 Ti, or indeed it might just be an accurate representation of the final GPU. Asus GeForce RTX 3080 Ti leak(Image credit: Videocardz) Obviously we can’t be sure about any of that, and there are certainly folks out there who have doubts about this being some kind of a fake or Photoshop trickery – but Videocardz recently updated its news story to say that it’s quite confident the image is real, and it comes from an ‘internal design proofing’. RECOMMENDED VIDEOS FOR YOU... CLOSE This means it may just be one of a number of concepts, and not necessarily representative of the final product, but we’ll just have to see – and as ever, treat these kind of leaks with an appropriate amount of caution. No RTX 3090, then? Even if this is just a concept shot that isn’t indicative of the final incarnation of the Asus Rog Strix GeForce RTX 3080 Ti, what is interesting here is that the 3080 Ti designation is employed. That’s because in recent times there have been rumors about Nvidia producing an RTX 3090 as a consumer GPU, and while we weren’t convinced by that speculation – and indeed one of our colleagues argued strongly against it for various reasons – this leak, if accurate, would seem to be the final nail in the coffin for the idea. With no RTX 3090, there will seemingly be an RTX 3080, 3080 Ti and an Ampere-based Titan, as more recent speculation from the GPU grapevine has insisted (the rumor mill contends that Nvida will make three cards based on the top-end GA102 chip, and interestingly the 3080 will be one of those). In other words, in terms of model names, the situation will be the same as current-gen 2000-series graphics cards. Of course, the other thing this seems to confirm is that Ampere will be the 3000-series (while that was obviously expected, Nvidia could have potentially gone off on a tangent with its naming scheme). Another point here is that with more and more RTX 3000-related leaks popping up, including this glimpse of a potential 3080 Ti design, all this suggests that the launch of Nvidia’s next-gen Ampere products is indeed coming closer – an exciting prospect. That’s backed up by the fact that we’ve seen prices dropping with RTX 2000 graphics cards recently, and the glimpse we’ve had of Nvidia’s RTX 3080 in another leak. The theory is that we could see Nvidia’s new graphics cards launching as soon as September – potentially in a direct head-to-head battle with AMD’s Big Navi which could be released at the same time. These are the best graphics cards of 2020

All us tech enthusiasts love a bit of competition when it comes to CPU pricing and it looks as though that could be what Intel is planning, with the possible existence of a new 10th generation Core i9 CPU set to offer consumers with a cheaper alternative to the flagship 10900K. Various sources around the industry have been reporting that Intel may be prepping a new 10th generation 10-core part this week, after an entry in the Geekbench platform was spotted by serial leaker TUM_APISAK on Twitter. The Geekbench entry lists a potential addition to the Intel Core 10th generation Comet Lake-S series, with a new i9-10850K CPU that features a slightly reduced frequency compared with the flagship Core i9-10900K. Intel released its flagship Core i9-10900K in April this year, the CPU boasts a base and boost frequency of 3.7Ghz and 5.3GHz respectively, the flagship Intel CPU is once again regarded as the top dog when it comes to gaming performance. However, the Core i9-10900K comes with a hefty price tag at around £550 in the UK, which is in a similar price bracket to the 12-core AMD Ryzen 9 3900X. The recently spotted Intel Core i9-10850K features the same 10-core, 20-thread count as the 10900K but according to the Geekbench entry, it is equipped with a slightly reduced base frequency of 3.6GHz and boosting up to 5.2GHz which is just 100MHz below the i9-10900K in both scenarios. Other than the reduction in core frequency, the similarities between the two 10th gen Core i9 processors continue with the same amount of L2 and L3 cache found in each. Although there is no official TDP rating of the potential i9-10850K, it would most likely be a 125w part. Looking at the figures from the Geekbench result, the Core i9-10850K produces virtually the same single-core score as the i9-10900K but with around 5% lower multi-core score. Whether this is a new retail chip or an OEM only product similar to the AMD Ryzen 9 3900 remains to be seen, However, it would be great news if this turns out to be a cheaper alternative to Intel’s flagship Core i9-10900K. The thought of a 10-core Intel part at around £450-£500 would certainly be good news for gamers.

News emerged earlier this week that Intel had paused shipments to Inspur, the world's #3 server vendor, and #1 server vendor in China. The U.S. Department of Defense recently added Inspur to a list that outlines 20 companies it says are controlled by the Chinese military, and the U.S. government also placed new restrictions on Hong Kong that curtail its preferential treatment as a shipping hub into China. The new restrictions end the export license exemptions for products flowing through Hong Kong, which has long served as a safe conduit for semiconductor products to ship into China. Today Inspur told Chinese press that Intel had resumed shipments, an important development given that the company bought $2.5 billion in chips from Intel in 2019, and we followed up with Intel. We also pinged Nvidia and AMD for comment on the status of their business with Inspur. Intel representatives confirmed to Tom's Hardware the reports that it has resumed shipping products to Inspur. Still, in keeping with the company's practice of not disclosing details of its business with individual customers, Intel would not comment on which specific products have already resumed shipping, or in what quantities. Intel's previous statements on the matter outlined a phased resumption of shipments, with 'some' items shipping within two weeks, and 'others' within a matter of days. Given that Intel has already resumed shipments, it appears it is underway with its plan of a phased resumption of shipments. However, neither Intel nor Inspur have confirmed that Intel will be able to resume shipping all products it previously supplied to Inspur. It's unclear if the U.S. government will eventually add more targeted restrictions against Inspur, much like when the Obama administration blocked Intel from selling Xeon processors to China in 2015 over concerns the chips were fueling the country's nuclear programs. Earlier this week, we reached out to AMD to see if it was still shipping products to Inspur. AMD responded that there are no changes for the company, as its business relationship with Inspur complies with all relevant laws and regulations. Nvidia responded to our queries with the following statement: "Yes, Inspur is a customer of NVIDIA. However, the products we sell to Inspur focus on consumer and enterprise." The statement implies that the new regulations haven't impacted Nvidia because of Inspur's spot on the list of companies controlled by the Chinese military. However, it's unclear if Nvidia has encountered any difficulties shipping products through Hong Kong. The continued tensions of the trade war shine a light on China's reliance on American semiconductor technology. Past actions by the U.S. have largely prevented China from achieving the technical know-how and equipment to develop its own competitive chips through acquisitions and mergers. However, it's noteworthy that the prior restrictions on Xeon processor sales to China led the country to design its own SW26010 processors to power the Sunway TaihuLight supercomputer. That system was the world's fastest from 2016 to 2018. The continued disruptions to processor supply chains, shipments, and partnerships (the U.S scuttled AMD's THATIC joint venture last year) will certainly redouble China's already-expansive efforts to develop its own indigenous processor production. Those efforts aren't going well, though. A recent report from IC Insights claims that China will not reach its goal of 70% self-sufficiency in the semiconductor market by 2025, instead reaching only 1/3 of its initial target within that time frame.