Month: January 2023

Enlarge / The Ryzen 7000 series is getting a little cheaper today, though the cost of motherboards and DDR5 remain barriers for budget buyers. (credit: AMD)

AMD is officially lowering the barrier to entry for the Ryzen 7000 series today, announcing a handful of new models aimed at more price-conscious buyers. For people on the money-is-no-object end of the spectrum, the company is also introducing new 3D V-Cache-enabled processors with extra L3 cache that will benefit games and other cache-sensitive workloads.

The three cheaper CPUs are versions of the existing 7600X, 7700X, and 7900X, but without the X suffix. The $229 Ryzen 5 7600, $329 Ryzen 7 7700, and $429 Ryzen 9 7900 all have the same core counts and cache sizes as their counterparts but with 65 W TDPs, slightly lower clock speeds, and bundled CPU coolers. That's an $80 reduction compared to the retail prices of the cooler-less 7600X and 7700X, and the 7900 is $120 cheaper than the 7900X.

Zen 4's most important features are all present and accounted for on the new 65 W chips, and they all include usably decent (if not impressive) CPU coolers, too. (credit: AMD)

As we found in our initial reviews of the Ryzen 7000 series, setting the chips to a 65 W TDP usually reduces their performance, but not by as much as you'd think—all three chips should run cooler than the X-series CPUs while still being comfortably faster than older Ryzen 5000-series CPUs, and the 7600 shouldn't need more than 65 W to provide peak performance. If you want to run the CPUs faster, setting higher TDP values and overclocking is still possible on all these processors.

Enlarge / Asus' depiction of 3D mode on the Vivobook Pro 16X 3D OLED laptop.

During the CES 2023 in Las Vegas today, Asus announced an upcoming feature that allows users to view and work with content in 3D without wearing 3D glasses. Similar technology has been used in a small number of laptops and displays before, but Asus is incorporating the feature for the first time in OLED laptop screens. Combined with high refresh rates, unique input methods like an integrated rotary dial, and the latest CPUs and laptop GPUs, the company is touting the laptops with the Asus Spatial Vision feature as powerful, niche options for creative professionals looking for new ways to work.

Asus' Spatial Vision 3D tech is debuting on two laptops in Q2 this year: the ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED (H7604) and Vivobook Pro 16 3D OLED (K6604).

Asus' ProArt Studiobook 16 3D OLED (H7604) is one of the two PCs announced with Asus Spatial Vision. (credit: Asus)

The laptops each feature a 16-inch, 3200×2000 OLED panel with a 120 Hz refresh rate. The OLED panel is topped with a layer of optical resin, a glass panel, and a lenticular lens layer. The lenticular lens works with a pair of eye-tracking cameras to render real-time images for each eye that adjust with your physical movements.

Enlarge (credit: Aurich Lawson | Getty Images)

Police in Louisiana reportedly relied on an incorrect facial recognition match to secure warrants to arrest a Black man for thefts he did not commit.

Randal Reid, 28, was in jail for almost a week after the false match led to his arrest, according to a report published Monday on NOLA.com, the website of the Times-Picayune/New Orleans Advocate newspaper. Reid told the newspaper that he had never even been to Louisiana:

Local police pulled over Reid on Nov. 25 as he drove on Interstate 20 in DeKalb County, Georgia, headed to a late Thanksgiving celebration with his mother, he said.

"They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, 'What is Jefferson Parish?,'" Reid said. "I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life. Then they told me it was for theft. So not only have I not been to Louisiana, I also don't steal."

Reid was booked into the DeKalb County jail as a fugitive but was let go on Dec. 1, a jail official said.

Reid's lawyer, Tommy Calogero, said that Jefferson Parish Sheriff's Office detectives "tacitly" admitted the error and rescinded the warrant, the report said. "I think they realized they went out on a limb making an arrest based on a face," Calogero said.

Enlarge (credit: ROBYN BECK / Contributor | AFP)

Last summer, US President Joe Biden criticized states attempting to restrict access to abortion pills. In response, Biden directed the Food and Drug Administration to protect access, saying that “extremist governors and state legislatures” that were “looking to block the mail or search a person’s medicine cabinet or control a woman’s actions by tracking data on her apps she uses” were “wrong” and “out-of-touch” with “the majority of Americans.” Now, the FDA has taken its biggest step yet to expand access to abortions by allowing retail pharmacies to sell medications by mail order or in drugstores.

Previously, mifepristone could only be sold by specific clinics and doctors. But now, under the FDA’s new rules, all pharmacies that want to sell the abortion medication would simply need to hire an employee dedicated to ensuring FDA compliance to get started. After that, any pharmacy with certified providers can sell the pills to any patient with a prescription from a certified health provider. All pharmacies, patients, and prescribers involved must sign consent forms. Abortion medications can then be discreetly delivered at home, where the FDA determined two decades ago that the medications can be safely administered.

The FDA posted a somewhat in-depth FAQ on the rule change here.