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Monday, July 31st 2023
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart: DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS Comparison Review
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart is out now on PC, with support for NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution, Frame Generation and DLAA. Also supported is Intel's Xe Super Sampling and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution. In this mini-review we compare the image quality and performance gains offered by these technologies.
Sabrent Rocket Nano v2 2 TB Review
The Sabrent Rocket Nano V2 is an ultra-compact high-speed portable SSD using the USB 3.2 2x2 interface, which allows transfer speeds of up to 2 GB/s. The Rocket is not only fast but also comes with a durable shell made from thick metal.
8BitDo Launches Their First Mechanical Keyboard Featuring Retro Nintendo Theme
Peripheral and accessory manufacturer 8BitDo today announced pre-orders are open for their Nintendo themed 'Retro Mechanical Keyboard' and accompanying 'Dual Super Buttons'. The two themes available are the "N Edition" and "Fami Edition". The former features the red, gray, and white coloring of the classic NES, while the latter features the maroon, black, and white coloring of the Famicom. "Fami Edition" also features both English and Japanese characters on the keycaps. Both editions are the same base 87-key, or tenkeyless, layout with a power LED on the top right and two dials at the top left for controlling volume and the connectivity. On the topic of connectivity the keyboard features Bluetooth, 2.4G wireless, and USB wired options while up to four sets of Super Buttons can connect to the keyboard via the rear 3.5 mm jacks.
Beneath the themed PBT keycaps are Kailh BOX V2 White switches attached to a hot-swappable PCB, while the Super Buttons feature heavy Gateron Green switches for a more chunky tactile feel. The keyboard has n-key rollover support and the keys can be remapped using 8BitDo's Ultimate Software V2, with the Super Buttons being customizable on the fly without software. The software requires a minimum of Windows 10 1903 or Android 9.0. Inside the keyboard body is a 2,000mAh battery which 8BitDo advertises as offering 200 hours of usable life on a single charge.
Beneath the themed PBT keycaps are Kailh BOX V2 White switches attached to a hot-swappable PCB, while the Super Buttons feature heavy Gateron Green switches for a more chunky tactile feel. The keyboard has n-key rollover support and the keys can be remapped using 8BitDo's Ultimate Software V2, with the Super Buttons being customizable on the fly without software. The software requires a minimum of Windows 10 1903 or Android 9.0. Inside the keyboard body is a 2,000mAh battery which 8BitDo advertises as offering 200 hours of usable life on a single charge.
ASRock Industrial Releases New Intel Processor N97 Based NUC and iBOX Products
ASRock Industrial, the leading provider of global industrial motherboards and systems, has released new Mini PCs and motherboards powered by Intel Processor N97 (Alder Lake-N). The available selections include NUC BOX-N97, iBOX-N97, and Motherboard Series consisting of NUC-N97, Pico-ITX (SOM-P104), SBC 3.5" (SBC-260, SBC-261), and Mini-ITX (IMB-1005, IMB-1006, IMB-1007) form factors. Compared to the previous Intel Celeron Processor J6412 (Elkhart Lake), the Intel Processor N97 (Alder Lake-N) showcases remarkable CPU performance increase of up to 37% and graphics performance up to 154%. The new NUC BOX-N97, iBOX-N97, and NUC-N97 Motherboard Series provide rich I/O and expansion options, including triple displays up to 4K at 60 Hz, dual 2.5G LAN, and dual storage option with SATA 3.0 and M.2 Key M, catering to diverse application needs, such as entertainment, office, business, retail, transportation, embedded, industrial, and beyond.
LTX 2023 Recap: Reaching Critical Mass as an Annual Consumer Event
The LTX Event has returned in its annual two-day form in beautiful Vancouver after the COVID break. With blistering temperatures outside, it was great to see the turnout and having it come out of the four-year pause that the pandemic demanded. Compared to 2019, where there was a handful of brands, and the 2023 location has moved slightly, from the older Canada Place convention center, to its newer, adjacent building. At roughly USD $40 for a visitor's day pass, one could argue that it isn't even that cheap, but even so upon arriving there on Saturday, there was a line running along the entire length of the building for visitors to enter with a pre-purchased pass in hand.
Just like in 2019, the event is propped up around several core pillars. There are interactive events like a case toss competition, live stage shows with various topics, a LAN party section, as well as an ever greater mix of brands to allow excited end-users to get an up close look at featured products and even try them out. The entire event also provides brands the ability to sponsor various sections, while others have focused on booth space for exposure and interactivity.
2:12 Cancels Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Reboot
Ben Limare, CEO at 2.21: "Dear friends and supporters, I'm tasked with sharing a disappointing update. Despite our earnest efforts, we were unsuccessful in securing a publisher for the reboot of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure.
What's the path forward? With a heavy heart, we've halted our work on the reboot and, for the moment, regard the project as canceled. This allows us to channel our focus and energy into the remastered version of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure (TLBA Remastered). We will explore whether we can reincorporate the reboot's ideas into the remaster, but that's a conversation for another time."
What's the path forward? With a heavy heart, we've halted our work on the reboot and, for the moment, regard the project as canceled. This allows us to channel our focus and energy into the remastered version of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure (TLBA Remastered). We will explore whether we can reincorporate the reboot's ideas into the remaster, but that's a conversation for another time."
Pixelworks Launches IRX Gaming Experience Brand for Smartphones
Pixelworks, Inc., a leading provider of innovative visual processing solutions, today announced the official launch of its new IRX gaming experience brand. As a brand targeted at smartphone users, IRX is grounded on Pixelworks' mobile visual processing solutions and coupled with in-depth game tuning services. This combination leverages Pixelworks' expertise to achieve ultra-smooth gaming experience and the highest picture quality for different types of games on mobile devices. In addition, it exercises effective control of power consumption, latency and other performance variables to ensure stable and long-lasting gaming with optimal visual performance, providing end users with unparalleled mobile gaming experiences.
The IRX gaming experience is enabled by a portfolio of technology advantages and product application experiences based on the Company's innovative distributed rendering architecture. More specifically, Pixelworks' ultra-low latency MotionEngine technology, low power super-resolution technology, AI Always-on HDR and other technologies bring optimized rendering capabilities to smartphones that exceed what can be achieved by a traditional chipset. Together with Pixelworks' profound tuning experience for different games on various mobile devices the result is a meaningfully enriched visual experience for smartphone users, which is the core foundation for the IRX gaming experience.
The IRX gaming experience is enabled by a portfolio of technology advantages and product application experiences based on the Company's innovative distributed rendering architecture. More specifically, Pixelworks' ultra-low latency MotionEngine technology, low power super-resolution technology, AI Always-on HDR and other technologies bring optimized rendering capabilities to smartphones that exceed what can be achieved by a traditional chipset. Together with Pixelworks' profound tuning experience for different games on various mobile devices the result is a meaningfully enriched visual experience for smartphone users, which is the core foundation for the IRX gaming experience.
Baldur's Gate 3 "illithid" Ability System Explained
A seasoned wizard who infects her foes with the irresistible urge to dance. A high-level sorcerer who sows the seeds of chaos in battle with strategically placed portals. A bard that wields the psionic powers of a mindflayer (a.k.a illithid). Who will you become at the pinnacle of your power in Baldur's Gate 3? That's completely up to you. In Baldur's Gate 3, your late-game build can be as varied as you want it to be and can be changed at any time, giving you an opportunity to experiment with different spells and discover the class that complements your playstyle best.
Introducing illithid powers
In Baldur's Gate 3, you and your companions each carry the burden of a parasite that dwells within you, a tadpole placed deep inside your brain that poses a constant looming threat of illithid transformation. But as dangerous as these creatures may be, they are also a source of great power. For those who wish to experience their power, you need only to surrender to the tadpole within you and consume the parasites you find in jars and skulls throughout the Forgotten Realms.
Introducing illithid powers
In Baldur's Gate 3, you and your companions each carry the burden of a parasite that dwells within you, a tadpole placed deep inside your brain that poses a constant looming threat of illithid transformation. But as dangerous as these creatures may be, they are also a source of great power. For those who wish to experience their power, you need only to surrender to the tadpole within you and consume the parasites you find in jars and skulls throughout the Forgotten Realms.
Dell Technologies Expands AI Offerings, in Collaboration with NVIDIA
Dell Technologies introduces new offerings to help customers quickly and securely build generative AI (GenAI) models on-premises to accelerate improved outcomes and drive new levels of intelligence. New Dell Generative AI Solutions, expanding upon our May's Project Helix announcement, span IT infrastructure, PCs and professional services to simplify the adoption of full-stack GenAI with large language models (LLM), meeting organizations wherever they are in their GenAI journey. These solutions help organizations, of all sizes and across industries, securely transform and deliver better outcomes.
"Generative AI represents an inflection point that is driving fundamental change in the pace of innovation while improving the customer experience and enabling new ways to work," Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies, said on a recent investor call. "Customers, big and small, are using their own data and business context to train, fine-tune and inference on Dell infrastructure solutions to incorporate advanced AI into their core business processes effectively and efficiently."
"Generative AI represents an inflection point that is driving fundamental change in the pace of innovation while improving the customer experience and enabling new ways to work," Jeff Clarke, vice chairman and co-chief operating officer, Dell Technologies, said on a recent investor call. "Customers, big and small, are using their own data and business context to train, fine-tune and inference on Dell infrastructure solutions to incorporate advanced AI into their core business processes effectively and efficiently."
PlayStation 5 Beta Update Grants 8 TB M.2 SSD & 3D Dolby Atmos Support
With each PlayStation 5 system software release, we've introduced new features designed to enhance the many ways you can access your favorite content, navigate your console, or create new gaming memories with friends. Today, we're thrilled to roll out a new PS5 system software beta that introduces new accessibility features as well as audio options that allow 3D Audio powered by Tempest 3D AudioTech to be enjoyed on compatible Dolby Atmos-enabled HDMI devices such as sound bars, TVs, or home theater systems. The beta also includes more options to quickly find games and console tips, new ways to connect with other players and customize your multiplayer sessions, and support for larger-capacity M.2 SSDs (up to 8 TB).
While beta access will be limited to invited participants in select countries*, we plan to release the update globally later this year. If you're selected to participate in the beta, you'll receive an email invitation today when it's available to download. Some features available during the beta phase may not make it into the final version or may see significant changes. Without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the beta release...
While beta access will be limited to invited participants in select countries*, we plan to release the update globally later this year. If you're selected to participate in the beta, you'll receive an email invitation today when it's available to download. Some features available during the beta phase may not make it into the final version or may see significant changes. Without further ado, here are some of the highlights from the beta release...
Gamdias Announces NESO P1 Full-tower Chassis
GAMDIAS, the leading brand for PC gaming hardware, announced the brand-new full-tower case, NESO P1, which comes with a dual-chamber design with a unique trapezoidal form factor to showcase your hardware in a panoramic display. Available in four colors, the NESO P1 is a top-of-the-line chassis that offers prime lifestyle, functionality, and versatility for gamers, enthusiasts, and professionals who demand high performance and aesthetics.
Modualar Orientation and One-touch Release Mechanism
Crafted to elevate the building experience, NESO P1 provides two appearances in one model with modular pedestals which enable users to rotate the case from horizontal to vertical orientation with ease. The one-touch release mechanism allows you to access your hardware with a simple touch, and the dual-hinged tempered glass side panels are detachable for an improved modding experience.
Modualar Orientation and One-touch Release Mechanism
Crafted to elevate the building experience, NESO P1 provides two appearances in one model with modular pedestals which enable users to rotate the case from horizontal to vertical orientation with ease. The one-touch release mechanism allows you to access your hardware with a simple touch, and the dual-hinged tempered glass side panels are detachable for an improved modding experience.
TSMC Inaugurates Global R&D Center, Celebrating Its Newest Hub for Technology Innovation
TSMC today held an inauguration ceremony for its global Research and Development Center in Hsinchu, Taiwan, celebrating the Company's newest hub for bringing the next generations of semiconductor technology into reality with customers, R&D partners in industry and academia, design ecosystem partners, and senior government leaders.
The R&D Center will serve as the new home for TSMC's R&D Organization, including the researchers who will develop TSMC's leading-edge process technology at the 2-nanometer generation and beyond, as well as scientists and scholars blazing the trail with exploratory research into fields such as novel materials and transistor structures. With R&D employees already relocating to their workplaces in the new building, it will be ready for its full complement of more than 7,000 staff by September 2023.
The R&D Center will serve as the new home for TSMC's R&D Organization, including the researchers who will develop TSMC's leading-edge process technology at the 2-nanometer generation and beyond, as well as scientists and scholars blazing the trail with exploratory research into fields such as novel materials and transistor structures. With R&D employees already relocating to their workplaces in the new building, it will be ready for its full complement of more than 7,000 staff by September 2023.
BenQ Launches the GV31 Portable Projector
BenQ, the internationally renowned innovator of digital lifestyle devices, today premiered a new edition to its portable projector series. GV31 elevates home entertainment to new heights with Full HD 1080p ceiling projection and built-in Android TV with Netflix. "The brand-new GV31 gears you up to be moved in a new way," said Conway Lee, President of BenQ Corporation. "Combining unique ceiling projection capability, certified Android TV, and true enthusiast-level audiovisual performance, BenQ ceiling projectors revolutionise the way people enjoy their favourite content at home."
Distilling decades of DLP projection technology leadership, BenQ ceiling projectors provide guaranteed audiovisual quality with critically acclaimed CinematicColor expertise. Following on from the previous generation model, the GV30, the brand new GV31 is upgraded to Full HD 1080p resolution, with rotating angle projection design, autofocus, and an auto vertical keystone to unfurl breathtakingly immersive panoramas on the ceiling or other novel niches at home with maximum comfort.
Distilling decades of DLP projection technology leadership, BenQ ceiling projectors provide guaranteed audiovisual quality with critically acclaimed CinematicColor expertise. Following on from the previous generation model, the GV30, the brand new GV31 is upgraded to Full HD 1080p resolution, with rotating angle projection design, autofocus, and an auto vertical keystone to unfurl breathtakingly immersive panoramas on the ceiling or other novel niches at home with maximum comfort.
Team Group ELITE PLUS DDR5 and ELITE DDR5-6400 Desktop Memory Modules Hit the Market
Global memory brand Team Group announced the launch of its updated ELITE memory modules with enhanced frequencies today: the ELITE PLUS DDR5 and ELITE DDR5 Desktop Memory 6400 MHz (1.1 V CL52-52-52-103). Both comply with JEDEC memory standards and fulfill the needs of demanding applications and high-performance computing.
In response to the growing demand for high-speed computing and digital technology, Team Group has introduced the upgraded ELITE PLUS DDR5 6400 MHz and ELITE DDR5 6400 MHz memory modules, which boast higher frequencies and low power consumption. The updated specs of the ELITE memory fully meet the needs of learning, entertainment, and more on desktop computers. With the modules' low operating voltage of 1.1 V, power consumption is significantly reduced, and the computer's lifespan is extended. In addition, DDR5's Same-Bank Refresh feature and optimized IC structure can process the double amount of data simultaneously compared to DDR4, which enables computers to operate more smoothly while multi-tasking and significantly improves operating efficiency.
In response to the growing demand for high-speed computing and digital technology, Team Group has introduced the upgraded ELITE PLUS DDR5 6400 MHz and ELITE DDR5 6400 MHz memory modules, which boast higher frequencies and low power consumption. The updated specs of the ELITE memory fully meet the needs of learning, entertainment, and more on desktop computers. With the modules' low operating voltage of 1.1 V, power consumption is significantly reduced, and the computer's lifespan is extended. In addition, DDR5's Same-Bank Refresh feature and optimized IC structure can process the double amount of data simultaneously compared to DDR4, which enables computers to operate more smoothly while multi-tasking and significantly improves operating efficiency.
AMD's Upcoming Strix Halo Mobile SoC Said To Feature 16 Cores, Improved IO Die and GPU
Based on details posted on Twitter/X by a pair of well known leakers, AMD appears to be working on a pair of different Ryzen 8000-series mobile processors. The previously known Strix Point is said to get up to four Zen 5 cores and eight Zen 5c cores, whereas the Strix Halo is said to get 16 Zen 5 cores, according to @Olrak29_. This is something that was posted by Moore's Law is Dead back in April as well, who claimed the chip will launch sometime at the end of 2024. MLID also suggested that the Strix Halo will feature a 40 CU GPU and a 256-bit LPDDR5X memory interface, making it a very different proposition from your average APU from AMD.
@kopite7kimi chimes in on Twitter to point out that "Strix Halo looks like a desktop Zen 5 with a different IOD." This is definitely something that would be possible for AMD to do and if we look at the MLID information, the Strix Halo processor appears to have something called a Mall Cache, which seems to be something of a catch all cache for the various components inside the chip, such as the AI Engine and the GPU. Time will tell if AMD delivers on Strix Halo or not, but this might be the first notebook processor that can handle gaming at a decent resolution without needing a discrete GPU. Then again, with a rumoured peak TDP of 120 W, this chip is also going to run hotter and draw more power than most mobile processors to date.
@kopite7kimi chimes in on Twitter to point out that "Strix Halo looks like a desktop Zen 5 with a different IOD." This is definitely something that would be possible for AMD to do and if we look at the MLID information, the Strix Halo processor appears to have something called a Mall Cache, which seems to be something of a catch all cache for the various components inside the chip, such as the AI Engine and the GPU. Time will tell if AMD delivers on Strix Halo or not, but this might be the first notebook processor that can handle gaming at a decent resolution without needing a discrete GPU. Then again, with a rumoured peak TDP of 120 W, this chip is also going to run hotter and draw more power than most mobile processors to date.
Sunday, July 30th 2023
This Week in Gaming (Week 31)
As we enter the month of August, July still has a couple of new gaming titles to offer of which both obviously are launching on the same day. That said, August starts with a bang and brings a highly anticipated AAA title. The rest of this week's releases is as always a mix of games that will hopefully appeal to at least one of you, since the past polls suggest that the TPU readership is a picky crowd to please when it comes to games.
Baldur's Gate 3 / This week's AAA title / Thursday 3 August
Gather your party and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a mind flayer parasite planted in your brain. Resist, and turn darkness against itself. Or embrace corruption, and become ultimate evil. From the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes a next-generation RPG, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Baldur's Gate 3 / This week's AAA title / Thursday 3 August
Gather your party and return to the Forgotten Realms in a tale of fellowship and betrayal, sacrifice and survival, and the lure of absolute power. Mysterious abilities are awakening inside you, drawn from a mind flayer parasite planted in your brain. Resist, and turn darkness against itself. Or embrace corruption, and become ultimate evil. From the creators of Divinity: Original Sin 2 comes a next-generation RPG, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons.
Saturday, July 29th 2023
EasySMX 9124 Pro Gamepad Launched with Dual Hall System
We are very pleased to introduce to you our brand new product: EasySMX 9124 Pro Gamepad. Knowing your love for games, we want to give you a chance to change your gaming experience.
The trigger and joystick adopt the hall design, which provides a more accurate response time while the joystick is drifting, and also increases the life of the controller by 2-4 times. Whether you are a PC, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch player, our EasySMX 9124 Pro controller can be perfectly adapted. Simple connection and convenient operation allow you to fully immerse yourself in the game world. We know that games are not only a visual enjoyment, but also a physical and mental experience. Therefore, the EasySMX 9124 Pro handle is equipped with a vibration feedback system, allowing you to feel every hit, explosion or sprint.
The trigger and joystick adopt the hall design, which provides a more accurate response time while the joystick is drifting, and also increases the life of the controller by 2-4 times. Whether you are a PC, Xbox, PlayStation or Switch player, our EasySMX 9124 Pro controller can be perfectly adapted. Simple connection and convenient operation allow you to fully immerse yourself in the game world. We know that games are not only a visual enjoyment, but also a physical and mental experience. Therefore, the EasySMX 9124 Pro handle is equipped with a vibration feedback system, allowing you to feel every hit, explosion or sprint.
Friday, July 28th 2023
Today's Reviews
Networking
Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Pro 120 mm Fan Review
The Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 Pro is a 120 mm fan that uses an LCP rotor with tight clearance to a newly designed frame, in addition to an upgraded sealed motor and bearing implementation compared to the older version. It retains good case compatibility and provides an excellent performance/noise balance to take on all competitors.
Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis
Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart finally brings the epic franchise to the PC Platform. You get amazing visuals, with support for ray tracing, Direct Storage and all important upscaler technologies. In our performance review, we're taking a closer look at image quality, VRAM usage, and performance on a selection of modern graphics cards.
Gunfire Games President Takes Part in Remnant 2 Q&A
Just when you think the post-apocalyptic world being overrun by hordes of deadly enemies couldn't get any worse, along comes Remnant 2 with a whole new terrifying world of deadly creatures and god-like bosses. Remnant 2 is the continuation of the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes, and we (Xbox Wire) connected with David Adams, President of Gunfire Games, to talk about what you can expect from this intense Remnant combat experience.
Since this is a sequel, the first and most obvious question is, how does Remnant 2 align with everything we experienced in Remnant: From the Ashes, and what do those players who never played the first game need to know? "Story wise it picks up from the end of the first game's final DLC. The main threat has been seemingly defeated, and mankind is starting to fight back and take back the Earth," shares Adams. "However, something is obviously not perfect, or we wouldn't have a sequel. We try to keep the stories in our games simple, so players should have no trouble picking it up."
Since this is a sequel, the first and most obvious question is, how does Remnant 2 align with everything we experienced in Remnant: From the Ashes, and what do those players who never played the first game need to know? "Story wise it picks up from the end of the first game's final DLC. The main threat has been seemingly defeated, and mankind is starting to fight back and take back the Earth," shares Adams. "However, something is obviously not perfect, or we wouldn't have a sequel. We try to keep the stories in our games simple, so players should have no trouble picking it up."
GoDeal24 Announces July Sale, Save up to 62% on Genuine Software
GoDeal24 announces the July 2023 Sale. Get the software you need at the prices you want! As you plan your next-generation gaming PC build, let GoDeal help you find the software it needs, such as Genuine Windows 11 Pro, and Office 2021 Professional, at some of the lowest prices on the web. Get Windows 11 Pro at just $10.25. Office 2021 Professional Plus can be had at $24.25. Better yet, combine the two for just $32.99, and save even more. Check out great deals on other editions of Windows and Office, their combos, and system utilities.
Buy Windows 10 Pro at $7.25 | Buy Windows 10 Home at $7.15 | Buy Windows 11 Pro at $10.25 | Buy Windows 11 Home at $9.98 | Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus at $24.25 | Buy Office 2021 Home and Business for Mac at $28.99 | Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at $22.25 | Buy Office 2019 Home and Business for Mac at $26.69
Please use the coupon code SGO62 on the following items to avail the prices you see here.
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Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus 5-PC at $65.25 | Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus 2-PC at $39.25 | Buy Windows 10 Pro 2-PC at $12.25 | Buy Windows 10 Home 2-PC at $12.01 | Buy Windows 11 Pro 2-PC at $20.25 | Buy Windows 11 Home 2-PC at $19.25
Please use the coupon code SGO50 on the following items to avail the prices you see here.
Buy Visio Professional 2021 at $30.23 | Buy Project Professional 2021 at $33.82 | Buy Windows Server 2022 Standard at $26.13 | Buy Windows Server 2019 Standard at $16.06 | Buy Windows Server 2022 Datacenter at $30.75 | Buy Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise at $60 | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise 10 Enterprise 2021 LTSC at $12.81 | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC 10-PC at $50.99 | Windows 10 Enterprise 2021 LTSC 10-PC at $54.99
Check out great deals on system software.
Buy Windows 10 Pro at $7.25 | Buy Windows 10 Home at $7.15 | Buy Windows 11 Pro at $10.25 | Buy Windows 11 Home at $9.98 | Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus at $24.25 | Buy Office 2021 Home and Business for Mac at $28.99 | Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at $22.25 | Buy Office 2019 Home and Business for Mac at $26.69
Please use the coupon code SGO62 on the following items to avail the prices you see here.
Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2021 Professional Plus at $29.70 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2019 Professional Plus at $25.68 | Buy Windows 11 Pro + Office 2021 Professional Plus at $32.99 | Buy Windows 11 Pro + Office 2019 Professional Plus at $28.69
Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus 5-PC at $65.25 | Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus 2-PC at $39.25 | Buy Windows 10 Pro 2-PC at $12.25 | Buy Windows 10 Home 2-PC at $12.01 | Buy Windows 11 Pro 2-PC at $20.25 | Buy Windows 11 Home 2-PC at $19.25
Please use the coupon code SGO50 on the following items to avail the prices you see here.
Buy Visio Professional 2021 at $30.23 | Buy Project Professional 2021 at $33.82 | Buy Windows Server 2022 Standard at $26.13 | Buy Windows Server 2019 Standard at $16.06 | Buy Windows Server 2022 Datacenter at $30.75 | Buy Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise at $60 | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise 10 Enterprise 2021 LTSC at $12.81 | Buy Windows 10 Enterprise 2019 LTSC 10-PC at $50.99 | Windows 10 Enterprise 2021 LTSC 10-PC at $54.99
PowerColor & Sapphire Launch Custom Radeon RX 7900 GRE Cards
PowerColor has today revealed the Red Devil Radeon RX 7900 GRE 16 GB graphics card, which appears to look like a slimmer version of its existing siblings—the more powerful Red Devil RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX. We have experienced a steady flow of news relating to AMD's new Golden Rabbit Edition GPU—with benchmark results released by review outlets in China, as well as a closer look at an unshrouded example. It was previously reported that Team Red would not be producing a reference model—VideoCardz now believes that XFX will be announcing itself as the primary manufacturing partner for said card.
Sapphire's custom equivalent was leaked earlier this week—a NITRO+ Lite-esque shroud design was unboxed and photographed ahead of today's official reveal. At the time of writing Sapphire has not published a product page for its brand new RX 7900 GRE model, but retail units are available to buy from their official store on JD.com. This NITRO+ variant is going for 5499 RMB (~$769), roughly $27 on top of AMD's official MSRP. PowerColor has not announced any pricing for the Red Devil RX 7900 GRE, but it has the same clock speeds—2050 MHz (game) & 2395 MHz (boost)—as the NITRO+. VideoCardz stated that these factory produced settings: "likely represent the highest configuration suggested by AMD."
Sapphire's custom equivalent was leaked earlier this week—a NITRO+ Lite-esque shroud design was unboxed and photographed ahead of today's official reveal. At the time of writing Sapphire has not published a product page for its brand new RX 7900 GRE model, but retail units are available to buy from their official store on JD.com. This NITRO+ variant is going for 5499 RMB (~$769), roughly $27 on top of AMD's official MSRP. PowerColor has not announced any pricing for the Red Devil RX 7900 GRE, but it has the same clock speeds—2050 MHz (game) & 2395 MHz (boost)—as the NITRO+. VideoCardz stated that these factory produced settings: "likely represent the highest configuration suggested by AMD."
Acer Co-founder Skeptical about US Semiconductor Industry's Prospects
Stan Shih, the co-founder & honorary chairman of Acer Inc., thinks that the USA will have hard time catching up with Asian semiconductor production facilities. Yahoo Taiwan managed to extract some choice comments from the multi-faceted businessman—he believes that the US government's initiative to boost native chip making will not be enough to match existing overseas strongholds. A key area of focus was volume output—Shih reckons that North America is already too far behind Asian counterpart industries, with Acer's home base of Taiwan being particularly strong (in his opinion). Workplace culture and state of the art equipment are cited as the main pillars for success.
Shih observed that that US chip industry has historically been far too reliant on outsourcing (going back many decades) production to foreign facilities, and Asia's position has been fortified thanks to long established and optimized supply chains—he thinks that the American system is not mature enough to reach parity. On a semi-related note, TSMC is reportedly struggling to get its new US facility fully operational—company chairman Mark Liu (according to Tom's Hardware): "said that the Taiwanese company would delay mass production of its Arizona fab from early 2024 to 2025, partly due to a lack of cleanroom tools necessary to produce chips at scale." TSMC has been transferring staff from its home turf to plug staffing gaps at the Phoenix facility—Liu divulged his latest batch of complaints during an earnings conference (last Thursday): "We are encountering certain challenges, as there is an insufficient number of skilled workers with the specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility."
Shih observed that that US chip industry has historically been far too reliant on outsourcing (going back many decades) production to foreign facilities, and Asia's position has been fortified thanks to long established and optimized supply chains—he thinks that the American system is not mature enough to reach parity. On a semi-related note, TSMC is reportedly struggling to get its new US facility fully operational—company chairman Mark Liu (according to Tom's Hardware): "said that the Taiwanese company would delay mass production of its Arizona fab from early 2024 to 2025, partly due to a lack of cleanroom tools necessary to produce chips at scale." TSMC has been transferring staff from its home turf to plug staffing gaps at the Phoenix facility—Liu divulged his latest batch of complaints during an earnings conference (last Thursday): "We are encountering certain challenges, as there is an insufficient number of skilled workers with the specialized expertise required for equipment installation in a semiconductor-grade facility."
SolidRun Intros Bedrock R7000 - an AMD Ryzen 7840HS Powered Fanless Edge-AI IPC
SolidRun has announced the world's first rugged system design that combines 8-core AMD Ryzen 7040 series processors with multiple Hailo-8 AI accelerators to create its Bedrock R7000 Edge AI for artificial intelligence (AI) applications. This new member in SolidRun's Bedrock family of fanless modular industrial PCs is specifically designed to meet demanding vision-based situational awareness in harsh environments.
The new system integrates with the AMD Ryzen 7840HS processor, a state-of-the-art 4 nm APU with 8C/16T Zen 4 CPU and integrated RDNA 3 Radeon 780M GPU. The 20 native PCIe Gen 4 lanes and up to three Hailo-8 AI accelerators can be fully utilized together with NVMe Gen4x4 storage, dual 2.5 Gbit Ethernet and 4x4K displays. The CPU and all devices are passively cooled by the innovative fanless cooling system of the Bedrock R7000 in an industrial temperature range of -40°C to 85°C.
The new system integrates with the AMD Ryzen 7840HS processor, a state-of-the-art 4 nm APU with 8C/16T Zen 4 CPU and integrated RDNA 3 Radeon 780M GPU. The 20 native PCIe Gen 4 lanes and up to three Hailo-8 AI accelerators can be fully utilized together with NVMe Gen4x4 storage, dual 2.5 Gbit Ethernet and 4x4K displays. The CPU and all devices are passively cooled by the innovative fanless cooling system of the Bedrock R7000 in an industrial temperature range of -40°C to 85°C.
Starbreeze Schedules Payday 3 Closed Beta - August 2 to 7
Heisters! We are thrilled to announce that PAYDAY 3 is hosting a technical Closed Beta from August 2nd to August 7th. Players can sign-up for a chance to play the game on Steam and Xbox Series S|X. We have prepared a FAQ regarding the Closed BETA (see below).
PAYDAY 3 is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, PAYDAY-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That's what makes PAYDAY a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.
PAYDAY 3 is the much anticipated sequel to one of the most popular co-op shooters ever. Since its release, PAYDAY-players have been reveling in the thrill of a perfectly planned and executed heist. That's what makes PAYDAY a high-octane, co-op FPS experience without equal.
AMD Radeon PRO W7600 GPU Spotted in Geekbench Database
An interesting system popped up on Geekbench Browser early this morning—on initial inspection the evaluated high-end PC was sporting hardware of 2021-vintage, but its graphics card was observed as an outlier. The Intel Core i9-12900K (Alder Lake-S) CPU was sitting on an MSI MPG Z690 Carbon WiFi mainboard, with 64 GB of DDR5 SDRAM (3990 MT/s). The benchmarked computer was running Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (64-bit) on a power saver (economizador) plan. According to the entry's OpenCL information section we are looking at an attached GPU device called "GFX1102 ID," the board name is revealed to be "AMD Radeon PRO W7600" with 8 GB of VRAM. This lower-end alternative to existing (RDNA 3) Radeon Pro models—W7900 (48 GB) and W7800 (32 GB)—could be nearing a public launch.
This information aligns the workstation-oriented card with AMD's Navi 33 GPU—the same GFX1102 designation appears within TPU's database entry (look at the Shader ISA (GFX11.0) graphics feature). VideoCardz reckons that the leaked Radeon PRO W7600 is closely related to AMD's mobile Radeon RX 7700/7600 series—based on Navi 33, due to their matching IDs. Their report proposed: "Based on this data, the GPU is expected to have a clock speed of 1940 MHz. Comparatively, this is 310 MHz lower than the Radeon RX 7600 gaming model, which refers to its Game Clock of 2250 MHz. The Compute Unit field refers to "Workgroup Processor/WGP" cluster, so the card features 32 Compute Units or 2048 Stream Processors, the same configuration as the RX 7600. The card is listed with 8 GB of memory, but it remains uncertain whether this model will support ECC (error correction), a feature found in the W7900/W7800 models. It's important to note that the W6600 did not utilize this type of memory."
This information aligns the workstation-oriented card with AMD's Navi 33 GPU—the same GFX1102 designation appears within TPU's database entry (look at the Shader ISA (GFX11.0) graphics feature). VideoCardz reckons that the leaked Radeon PRO W7600 is closely related to AMD's mobile Radeon RX 7700/7600 series—based on Navi 33, due to their matching IDs. Their report proposed: "Based on this data, the GPU is expected to have a clock speed of 1940 MHz. Comparatively, this is 310 MHz lower than the Radeon RX 7600 gaming model, which refers to its Game Clock of 2250 MHz. The Compute Unit field refers to "Workgroup Processor/WGP" cluster, so the card features 32 Compute Units or 2048 Stream Processors, the same configuration as the RX 7600. The card is listed with 8 GB of memory, but it remains uncertain whether this model will support ECC (error correction), a feature found in the W7900/W7800 models. It's important to note that the W6600 did not utilize this type of memory."
Slender: The Arrival Set for Visual Overhaul with Upgrade to Unreal Engine 5.2
It's been ten… long… years…We are thrilled to announce that Slender: The Arrival, the spine-chilling horror game that has captivated millions of players, is about to become even more terrifyingly immersive. Brace yourselves for a huge update coming this October as we introduce a complete visual overhaul utilizing the latest and greatest technologies within Unreal Engine 5.2.
Every shadow, every material, every model and every hair-raising encounter with the mysterious Slender Man will be rendered in stunning detail. This new update not only enhances the graphics but also elevates the overall gameplay experience. Mark your calendars because this October, Slender Man is back.
Every shadow, every material, every model and every hair-raising encounter with the mysterious Slender Man will be rendered in stunning detail. This new update not only enhances the graphics but also elevates the overall gameplay experience. Mark your calendars because this October, Slender Man is back.
NVIDIA Predicted to Pull in $300 Billion AI Revenues by 2027
NVIDIA has been raking in lots of cash this year and hit a major milestone back in late May, with a trillion dollar valuation—its stock price doubled thanks to upward trends in the artificial intelligence market, with growing global demand for AI-hardware. Business Insider believes that Team Green will continue to do very well for itself over the next couple of years: "Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh has given NVIDIA's stock price another 20% upside to run—and even this new target of $530 is "conservative," according to a Sunday client note seen by Insider. Rakesh's previous price target for NVIDIA was $400. NVIDIA shares closed 0.7% higher at $446.12 apiece on Monday. The stock has surged 205% so far this year."
Despite the emergence of competing hardware from the likes of AMD and Intel, Rakesh predicts that NVIDIA will maintain a dominant position in the AI chip market until at least 2027: "With demand for generative AI accelerating, we see significant opportunities for hardware suppliers powering the higher compute needs for large-language models, particularly AI powerhouse NVIDIA. Insider reports that the company: "could generate around $300 billion in AI-specific revenue by 2027 with a 75% market share of AI server units...That's 10 times his projection of $25 billion to $30 billion in AI revenues this year." Rakesh has reportedly stuck with a $140 buy rating and price target for AMD shares.
Despite the emergence of competing hardware from the likes of AMD and Intel, Rakesh predicts that NVIDIA will maintain a dominant position in the AI chip market until at least 2027: "With demand for generative AI accelerating, we see significant opportunities for hardware suppliers powering the higher compute needs for large-language models, particularly AI powerhouse NVIDIA. Insider reports that the company: "could generate around $300 billion in AI-specific revenue by 2027 with a 75% market share of AI server units...That's 10 times his projection of $25 billion to $30 billion in AI revenues this year." Rakesh has reportedly stuck with a $140 buy rating and price target for AMD shares.
Seagate Starts Shipping Commercial Exos HAMR HDDs
Seagate has revealed that it has received revenue for Exos Corvault systems during a fourth quarter and fiscal year 2023 conference call—the latest server range is equipped with heat-assisted magnetic recording (HAMR) hard drives. We heard about evaluation samples being sent out to an important data center client around Spring time, but fresh corporate announcements have revealed that the first commercial HAMR-based systems have been picked up by paying customers. Gianluca Romano, the firm's chief financial officer stated: "Importantly, we shipped our first HAMR-based CORVAULT system for revenue as planned during the June quarter. We expect broader availability of these CORVAULT systems by the end of calendar 2023."
Seagate's chief executive, Dave Mosley, also revealed that higher capacity HAMR-based nearline hard drives have been sent out for testing in the field. He boasts that this was achieved during corporate cost cutting initiatives: "We reduced production output by approximately 25% compared with peak volume in order to drive better supply/demand dynamics and enhance profitability as the markets recover. And all of these accomplishments were made while delivering on our 30 TB+ HAMR product development and qualification milestones with volume ramp on track to begin in early calendar 2024...Initial customer qualifications are progressing well. We are on track to begin volume ramp in early calendar 2024. We are also preparing qualifications with a broader number of customers, including testing for lower capacity drives targeting VIA and enterprise OEM workloads." He also outlined plans to keep PMR and SMR hard drive technologies alive for another generation: "Development efforts on what may be our last PMR product are nearing completion and will extend drive capacities into the mid- to upper 20 TB range." Clients who are reluctant to jump onto HAMR could be offered some alternatives—24 TB+ models based on PMR+TDMR and SMR+TDMR configurations are roadmapped for release by the end of the year.
Seagate's chief executive, Dave Mosley, also revealed that higher capacity HAMR-based nearline hard drives have been sent out for testing in the field. He boasts that this was achieved during corporate cost cutting initiatives: "We reduced production output by approximately 25% compared with peak volume in order to drive better supply/demand dynamics and enhance profitability as the markets recover. And all of these accomplishments were made while delivering on our 30 TB+ HAMR product development and qualification milestones with volume ramp on track to begin in early calendar 2024...Initial customer qualifications are progressing well. We are on track to begin volume ramp in early calendar 2024. We are also preparing qualifications with a broader number of customers, including testing for lower capacity drives targeting VIA and enterprise OEM workloads." He also outlined plans to keep PMR and SMR hard drive technologies alive for another generation: "Development efforts on what may be our last PMR product are nearing completion and will extend drive capacities into the mid- to upper 20 TB range." Clients who are reluctant to jump onto HAMR could be offered some alternatives—24 TB+ models based on PMR+TDMR and SMR+TDMR configurations are roadmapped for release by the end of the year.
AMD & Xilinx Introduce the Versal HBM Series VHK158 Evaluation Kit
Introducing the Versal HBM Series VHK158 Evaluation Kit. This features the Versal HBM series VH1582 device, which integrates multi-Tbps High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), hardened connectivity IP, and adaptive compute in a single device, eliminating the bottlenecks between memory, I/O, and compute while delivering up to 6 times more memory bandwidth.
The VHK158 evaluation kit is an evaluation platform for the Versal HBM series VH1582 device designed to keep up with the higher memory needs of compute intensive, memory bound applications, providing adaptable acceleration for data center, wired networking, test & measurement, and aerospace & defense applications. The VHK158 board's primary focus is to enable demonstration and evaluation of the VH1582 silicon and support customer application development
The VHK158 evaluation kit is an evaluation platform for the Versal HBM series VH1582 device designed to keep up with the higher memory needs of compute intensive, memory bound applications, providing adaptable acceleration for data center, wired networking, test & measurement, and aerospace & defense applications. The VHK158 board's primary focus is to enable demonstration and evaluation of the VH1582 silicon and support customer application development
REDMAGIC Announces New Cyberbuds DAO TWS
REDMAGIC, the gaming brand known for its iconic flagship professional gaming smartphones, continues to expand its gaming line with the new REDMAGIC Cyberbuds DAO TWS for international markets. The wireless earphones offer seamless connectivity with a futuristic design and RGB effects to offer comfort, and durability for gamers. Powered by Qualcomm's latest Bluetooth 5.3, Qualcomm S5, it offers a minimum delay of 28 ms when connected with the matching dongle. Capable of running as long as seven hours at a single charge, the new Cyberbuds DAO TWS are compatible with PC, PS4, PS5, Switch and android smartphones.
For a better gaming experience in various scenarios, users can modify the RGB light effects and sound modes. The earphones and charging base have a modern transparent design, showcasing cyber technology with cool RGB light effects and sci-fi vibes. An application called "Goper" is also available in PlayStore and soon in App Store, that allows users to manage functions such as codec format (SBC, AAC, LE Audio, aptX, and LHDC 5.0), audio EQ modes, game modes, lighting effects, and even pop-up window pairing when connected to a smartphone.
For a better gaming experience in various scenarios, users can modify the RGB light effects and sound modes. The earphones and charging base have a modern transparent design, showcasing cyber technology with cool RGB light effects and sci-fi vibes. An application called "Goper" is also available in PlayStore and soon in App Store, that allows users to manage functions such as codec format (SBC, AAC, LE Audio, aptX, and LHDC 5.0), audio EQ modes, game modes, lighting effects, and even pop-up window pairing when connected to a smartphone.
DeepCool Launches AN600 Low Profile CPU Air Cooler
DeepCool, a leading provider of high-performance cooling solutions for computers, is proud to announce the release of its latest product, the AN600 low profile air cooler. The AN600 is the perfect option for mid-level small form-factor systems that require a short CPU cooler. Designed to provide 180 W of cooling, the AN600 is the perfect match for processors that are not K-designated or for HEDT.
The AN600 features a stylish modern minimalist design with a brushed aluminium finish and a window into the fan motor that displays the high-quality FDB bearing. The AN600 utilizes 6 optimized heat pipes and a raised copper cold plate to pack 180 W of cooling potential in a short 67 mm tall CPU cooler. Its balanced two-way heat pipe technology and full ITX motherboard compatibility make it an ideal choice for gamers and enthusiasts who want high-performance cooling in a compact package.
The AN600 features a stylish modern minimalist design with a brushed aluminium finish and a window into the fan motor that displays the high-quality FDB bearing. The AN600 utilizes 6 optimized heat pipes and a raised copper cold plate to pack 180 W of cooling potential in a short 67 mm tall CPU cooler. Its balanced two-way heat pipe technology and full ITX motherboard compatibility make it an ideal choice for gamers and enthusiasts who want high-performance cooling in a compact package.
Sony Celebrates PlayStation 5 Surpassing 40 Million Unit Sales
We launched PlayStation 5 in November 2020 and the world was in a strange and different place than when we announced the console in 2019. Despite the unprecedented challenges of COVID, our teams and our partners worked diligently to deliver PS5 on time. We continued to face headwinds with the pandemic, and it took months for supply chains to normalize so we could have the inventory to keep up with demand. For more months than I care to remember, we kept thanking our community for their patience while working through these issues. But now PS5 supply is well-stocked and we are seeing that pent up demand finally being met.
With the support of PlayStation fans, we have reached a milestone of 40 million PS5 consoles sold through to gamers since launch. Thank you so much to our community of gamers - without you this would have been an impossible task. PS5 launched with the best catalog of games in our history and the momentum for great content keeps getting stronger. From innovative indie games to AAA blockbusters, there are more than 2,500 PS5 games now available, and it has never been a better time to experience PS5 In the last two months alone, we have seen incredible new games from our partners, including Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo IV, and Street Fighter 6.
With the support of PlayStation fans, we have reached a milestone of 40 million PS5 consoles sold through to gamers since launch. Thank you so much to our community of gamers - without you this would have been an impossible task. PS5 launched with the best catalog of games in our history and the momentum for great content keeps getting stronger. From innovative indie games to AAA blockbusters, there are more than 2,500 PS5 games now available, and it has never been a better time to experience PS5 In the last two months alone, we have seen incredible new games from our partners, including Final Fantasy XVI, Diablo IV, and Street Fighter 6.
Lords of the Fallen Showcased in Extended Gameplay Presentation
Lords of the Fallen beckons with an all-new 18-minute Extended Gameplay Presentation. Witness exhilarating combat in vast sprawling lands, calamitous boss fights that call for the utmost of nerves, and the ever-looming threat that spills darkness into this world. Set your gaze below..."The team at Hexworks is thrilled to finally share an extended gameplay presentation and reveal numerous new details of our dark fantasy action-RPG," said Saul Gascon, Head of Studio. "We have passionately carved our own path in this increasingly popular genre, and we are particularly excited to see how players will approach the game's unique dual-world mechanic when it releases this October."
Explore two, vast interconnected worlds
Mournstead stands ever parallel, luring all would-be adventurers who seek righteous glory. This vast and sprawling world of Lords of the Fallen beckons for exploration, from the ascending cliff face of Pilgrim's Perch, to the ever-burning city of Calrath. As you venture into the rich world of Lords of the Fallen, you will uncover that each major environment is interconnected with at least two others, offering freedom to forge your own path, that aligns with your story. Be warned As the lamp-bearer, take great caution when you embark on your journey, for it will be perilous, fraught with unspeakable dangers, however, those who bargain with their life can uncover a realm teeming with untold treasures.
Explore two, vast interconnected worlds
Mournstead stands ever parallel, luring all would-be adventurers who seek righteous glory. This vast and sprawling world of Lords of the Fallen beckons for exploration, from the ascending cliff face of Pilgrim's Perch, to the ever-burning city of Calrath. As you venture into the rich world of Lords of the Fallen, you will uncover that each major environment is interconnected with at least two others, offering freedom to forge your own path, that aligns with your story. Be warned As the lamp-bearer, take great caution when you embark on your journey, for it will be perilous, fraught with unspeakable dangers, however, those who bargain with their life can uncover a realm teeming with untold treasures.
Silicon Motion Announces Results for the Period Ended June 30, 2023 and an Acquisition Update
Silicon Motion Technology Corporation ("Silicon Motion", the "Company" or "we") today announced its financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023. For the second quarter of 2023, net sales (GAAP) increased sequentially to $140.4 million from $124.1 million in the first quarter of 2023. Net income (GAAP) increased to $11.0 million, or $0.33 per diluted American Depositary Share of the Company ("ADS") (GAAP), from net income (GAAP) of $10.2 million, or $0.30 per diluted ADS (GAAP), in the first quarter of 2023.
For the second quarter of 2023, net income (non-GAAP) increased to $12.6 million, or $0.38 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), from net income (non-GAAP) of $11.2 million, or $0.33 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), in the first quarter of 2023.
For the second quarter of 2023, net income (non-GAAP) increased to $12.6 million, or $0.38 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), from net income (non-GAAP) of $11.2 million, or $0.33 per diluted ADS (non-GAAP), in the first quarter of 2023.
AMD's Radeon RX 7900 GRE Gets Benchmarked
AMD's China exclusive Radeon RX 7900 GRE has been put through its paces by Expreview and the US$740 equivalent card should in short not carry the 7900-series moniker. In most of the tests, the card performs like a Raden RX 6950 XT or worse, with it being beaten by the Radeon RX 6800 XT in 3D Mark Fire Strike, even if it's only by the tiniest amount. Expreview has done a fairly limited comparison, mainly pitching the Radeon RX 7900 GRE against the Radeon RX 7900 XT and NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 4070, where it loses by a mile towards AMD's higher-end GPU, which by no means was unexpected as this is a lower tier product.
However, when it comes the GeForce RTX 4070, AMD struggles to keep up at 1080p, where NVIDIA takes home the win in games like The Last of US Part 1 and Diablo 4. In games like F1 22 and Assassin's Creed Hall of Valor, AMD is only ahead by a mere percentage point or less. Once ray tracing is enabled, AMD only wins in F1 22 and it's by less than one percent again and Far Cry 6, where AMD is almost three percent faster. Moving up in resolution, the Radeon RX 7900 GRE ends up being a clear winner, most likely partially due to having 16 GB of VRAM and at 1440p the GeForce RTX 4070 also falls behind in most of the ray traced game tests, if only just in most of them. At 4K the NVIDIA card can no longer keep up, but the Radeon RX 7900 GRE isn't really a 4K champion either, dropping under 60 FPS in more resource heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part 1. Considering the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti only costs around US$50 more, it seems like it would be the better choice, despite having less VRAM. AMD appears to have pulled an NVIDIA with this card, which at least performance wise, seems to belong in the Radeon RX 7800 segment. The benchmark figures also suggests that the actual Radeon RX 7800 cards won't be worth the wait, unless AMD prices them very competitively.
Update 11:45 UTC: [Editor's note: The official MSRP from AMD appears to be US$649 for this card, which is more reasonable, but the performance still places this in in a category lower than the model name suggests.]
However, when it comes the GeForce RTX 4070, AMD struggles to keep up at 1080p, where NVIDIA takes home the win in games like The Last of US Part 1 and Diablo 4. In games like F1 22 and Assassin's Creed Hall of Valor, AMD is only ahead by a mere percentage point or less. Once ray tracing is enabled, AMD only wins in F1 22 and it's by less than one percent again and Far Cry 6, where AMD is almost three percent faster. Moving up in resolution, the Radeon RX 7900 GRE ends up being a clear winner, most likely partially due to having 16 GB of VRAM and at 1440p the GeForce RTX 4070 also falls behind in most of the ray traced game tests, if only just in most of them. At 4K the NVIDIA card can no longer keep up, but the Radeon RX 7900 GRE isn't really a 4K champion either, dropping under 60 FPS in more resource heavy games like Cyberpunk 2077 and The Last of Us Part 1. Considering the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti only costs around US$50 more, it seems like it would be the better choice, despite having less VRAM. AMD appears to have pulled an NVIDIA with this card, which at least performance wise, seems to belong in the Radeon RX 7800 segment. The benchmark figures also suggests that the actual Radeon RX 7800 cards won't be worth the wait, unless AMD prices them very competitively.
Update 11:45 UTC: [Editor's note: The official MSRP from AMD appears to be US$649 for this card, which is more reasonable, but the performance still places this in in a category lower than the model name suggests.]
BIOSTAR Unveils the Latest Lineup of Business and Industrial-Grade Motherboards/Systems
BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today announced its latest line-up of industrial motherboards and application systems. BIOSTAR's latest BIQ67-AHP, the BIW68-AHP, and the BIELK-PAT motherboards, with MT-J6412, and MT PRO-J6412 application systems are built to address various system integration and industrial needs, offering innovative features that ensure high performance, reliability, and longevity.
The BIQ67-AHP and BIW68-AHP motherboards are excellent for system integration, general industrial systems and GPU AI workstation. These allow businesses to have reliable computers that help stay up-to-date on customers' contact details, transaction history, accounts, communication, and business management on a reliable and efficient platform. Featuring Intel Q670 chipset and Intel W680 chipset respectively, the BIQ67-AHP and BIW68-AHP motherboards carry additional features and functionality such as DDR4 support up to 128 GB, dual Intel LAN, multiple PCI/PCIe slots, M.2 slots, USB 3.2, COM ports, and more. The BIELK-PAT motherboard, with its wide range temperature -40 °C ~ 85 °C and voltage support, is built to withstand and function optimally in diverse environments and outdoor applications. It is ideal for uses such as EV charging stations, kiosks, refrigerated factories, and is great for HMI applications for businesses of all sizes.
The BIQ67-AHP and BIW68-AHP motherboards are excellent for system integration, general industrial systems and GPU AI workstation. These allow businesses to have reliable computers that help stay up-to-date on customers' contact details, transaction history, accounts, communication, and business management on a reliable and efficient platform. Featuring Intel Q670 chipset and Intel W680 chipset respectively, the BIQ67-AHP and BIW68-AHP motherboards carry additional features and functionality such as DDR4 support up to 128 GB, dual Intel LAN, multiple PCI/PCIe slots, M.2 slots, USB 3.2, COM ports, and more. The BIELK-PAT motherboard, with its wide range temperature -40 °C ~ 85 °C and voltage support, is built to withstand and function optimally in diverse environments and outdoor applications. It is ideal for uses such as EV charging stations, kiosks, refrigerated factories, and is great for HMI applications for businesses of all sizes.
AMD Announces Plan to Invest Approximately $400 Million Over the Next Five Years in India
AMD today announced plans for continued growth in India through an approximate $400M investment over the next five years. The planned investment includes a new AMD campus in Bangalore, Karnataka that will serve as the company's largest design center, as well as the addition of approximately 3,000 new engineering roles by the end of 2028. The new AMD campus is expected to open before the end of 2023 and will feature extensive lab space, state-of-the-art collaboration tools and seating configurations designed to foster teamwork. The investment is supported by the various policy initiatives of the Government of India focused on the semiconductor industry.
"We welcome the AMD plan to expand its leading-edge R&D engineering operations in India," said Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Cabinet Minister for Railways, Telecommunications, Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. "I welcome AMD's decision to set up its largest R&D design center in India and expansion of the India-AMD partnership. It will certainly play an important role in building a world class semiconductor design and innovation ecosystem. It will also provide tremendous opportunities for our large pool of highly skilled semiconductor engineers and researchers and will catalyse PM Narendra Modi's vision of India becoming a global talent hub," said Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
"We welcome the AMD plan to expand its leading-edge R&D engineering operations in India," said Mr. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Cabinet Minister for Railways, Telecommunications, Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. "I welcome AMD's decision to set up its largest R&D design center in India and expansion of the India-AMD partnership. It will certainly play an important role in building a world class semiconductor design and innovation ecosystem. It will also provide tremendous opportunities for our large pool of highly skilled semiconductor engineers and researchers and will catalyse PM Narendra Modi's vision of India becoming a global talent hub," said Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE ASIC Smaller than Navi 31, Slightly Larger than Navi 21
The GPU at the heart of the China-exclusive AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) sparked much curiosity. It is a physically different GPU from the one found in desktop Radeon RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX graphics cards. AMD wouldn't go through all that effort designing a whole different GPU just for a limited edition graphics card, which means this silicon could find greater use for the company—for example, this could be the package AMD uses for its upcoming mobile RX 7900 series. AMD wouldn't go through all the effort designing a first-party MBA (made by AMD) PCB for the silicon just for the RX 7900 GRE, and so this PCB, with this particular version of the "Navi 31" silicon, could see a wider global launch, probably as the rumored Radeon RX 7800 XT, or something else (although with a different set of specs from the RX 7900 GRE).
We compared the sizes of the new "Navi 31" package found in the RX 7900 GRE, with those of the regular "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX, the previous-generation "Navi 21" powering the RX 6900 XT, and the NVIDIA AD103 silicon powering the desktop GeForce RTX 4080. There are some interesting findings. The new smaller "Navi 31" package is visibly smaller than the one powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX. It is a square package, compared to the larger rectangular one, and has a significantly thinner metal reinforcement brace. What's interesting is that the 5 nm GCD is still surrounded by six 6 nm MCDs. We don't know if they've disabled two of the six MCDs, or whether they're dummies. AMD uses dummy chiplets as structural reinforcement in some of its EPYC server processors. The dummies spread some of the mounting pressure applied by the IHS or cooling solution, so the logic behind surrounding the GCD with six of these MCDs could be the same.
We compared the sizes of the new "Navi 31" package found in the RX 7900 GRE, with those of the regular "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX, the previous-generation "Navi 21" powering the RX 6900 XT, and the NVIDIA AD103 silicon powering the desktop GeForce RTX 4080. There are some interesting findings. The new smaller "Navi 31" package is visibly smaller than the one powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX. It is a square package, compared to the larger rectangular one, and has a significantly thinner metal reinforcement brace. What's interesting is that the 5 nm GCD is still surrounded by six 6 nm MCDs. We don't know if they've disabled two of the six MCDs, or whether they're dummies. AMD uses dummy chiplets as structural reinforcement in some of its EPYC server processors. The dummies spread some of the mounting pressure applied by the IHS or cooling solution, so the logic behind surrounding the GCD with six of these MCDs could be the same.
LG Announces Second-Quarter 2023 Financial Results
LG Electronics Inc. (LG) today announced second-quarter 2023 consolidated revenue of KRW 20 trillion with operating profit of KRW 741.9 billion. The company recorded the highest second-quarter revenues in company history. The second-quarter results underscore the success of the company's strategy to drive continuous growth while strengthening its business competitiveness. The record revenue reflects the company's actions to fundamentally improve its business structure by pursuing new platform-based service businesses and continuously expanding the business-to-business (B2B) segments. Profitability also was strong, although operating income was 6.3 percent lower than the second quarter last year, primarily due to a one-time second-quarter 2023 provision.
The company plans to drive further profitability improvements by optimizing efficiencies and by preemptively meeting market demands through enhanced demand forecasting and manufacturing competitiveness. LG also plans to continuously strengthen its online brand store and direct-to-consumer businesses.
The company plans to drive further profitability improvements by optimizing efficiencies and by preemptively meeting market demands through enhanced demand forecasting and manufacturing competitiveness. LG also plans to continuously strengthen its online brand store and direct-to-consumer businesses.
ASUS Republic of Gamers Announces ROG Strix SCAR 17 X3D, the World's First AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D Laptop
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced the new ROG Strix SCAR 17 X3D, the perfect fusion of cutting-edge silicon and ROG engineering. Featuring the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D mobile processor equipped with AMD 3D V-Cache technology for the very first time, the Strix SCAR 17 X3D takes performance to a whole new level. By doubling the L3 cache of the mighty Ryzen 9 7945HX processor, the Ryzen 9 7945HX3D gives users a boost in games that are hungry for this onboard ultrafast memory. Paired with a 240 Hz QHD display, Conductonaut Extreme liquid metal on the GPU, and a vapor chamber, the Strix SCAR 17 X3D is ready to dominate the leaderboards.
Making great processors even better
While the original 2023 ROG Strix SCAR 17 came equipped with AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors, the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is truly in a league of its own. It leverages the power of AMD 3D V-Cache technology, a stacking of extra ultra-high-speed L3 cache vertically on top of one of the two core compute dies (CCD). This extra cache enables the eight cores to perform certain calculations quickly and efficiently, notably in gaming. For situations where increasing CPU frequency simply doesn't show significant performance gains, 3D V-Cache technology holds the potential to unlock extra compute power.
Making great processors even better
While the original 2023 ROG Strix SCAR 17 came equipped with AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors, the AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D is truly in a league of its own. It leverages the power of AMD 3D V-Cache technology, a stacking of extra ultra-high-speed L3 cache vertically on top of one of the two core compute dies (CCD). This extra cache enables the eight cores to perform certain calculations quickly and efficiently, notably in gaming. For situations where increasing CPU frequency simply doesn't show significant performance gains, 3D V-Cache technology holds the potential to unlock extra compute power.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Configured with 80 CU?
AMD's upcoming China-exclusive Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) graphics card is reportedly configured with 80 compute units (CU), and not the previously thought 84, according to a leaked TechPowerUp GPU-Z screenshot. While GPU-Z 2.54.0 isn't fully aware of the RX 7900 GRE, and can get some hard-coded details (such as release dates) wrong, since it has the ability to detect "Navi 31" and the RX 7900 series, it is able to count the compute units.
The screenshot describes the RX 7900 GRE as featuring 80 CU, or 5,120 stream processors—the same count as the previous-gen RX 6900 XT, but based on the newer RDNA3 graphics architecture. Also detected are a TMU count of 320, ROP count of 80 (a vast reduction from the 192 available on the silicon, if true). We've known from older reports that the RX 7900 GRE is configured with a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 16 GB of video memory. What's new is that while the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX use 20 Gbps memory, the RX 7900 GRE is given slower 18 Gbps memory, as detected by GPU-Z. This results in a memory bandwidth of 576 GB/s, a significant reduction from the 960 GB/s enjoyed by the RX 7900 XTX.
The screenshot describes the RX 7900 GRE as featuring 80 CU, or 5,120 stream processors—the same count as the previous-gen RX 6900 XT, but based on the newer RDNA3 graphics architecture. Also detected are a TMU count of 320, ROP count of 80 (a vast reduction from the 192 available on the silicon, if true). We've known from older reports that the RX 7900 GRE is configured with a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface, holding 16 GB of video memory. What's new is that while the RX 7900 XT and RX 7900 XTX use 20 Gbps memory, the RX 7900 GRE is given slower 18 Gbps memory, as detected by GPU-Z. This results in a memory bandwidth of 576 GB/s, a significant reduction from the 960 GB/s enjoyed by the RX 7900 XTX.
TerraMaster Snapshot and TFSS Provide Stronger Data Protection Capabilities without Fear of Ransomware
Nowadays, global ransomware poses a serious risk to individual users, corporate organizations, and even government agencies. They continue to evolve and improve, adopting more complex and covert technologies, making defense and attack more difficult. TerraMaster, a professional brand that focuses on providing innovative storage products for homes and businesses provided users with powerful data protection functions snapshot and TFSS in the TOS system, which can be easily recovered to avoid data loss, whether it is due to operation errors or hard disk damage, and even ransomware attacks.
TerraMaster Snapshot is a disaster recovery tool developed based on the BTRFS file system. Take snapshots of shared folders or iSCSI LUNs and quickly restore data after a disaster by taking advantage of file system features. TerraMaster Snapshot is based on COW (copy-on-write), so snapshots can be created almost instantaneously, and take up almost no space when they are first created. It can create up to 1,024 snapshots for each shared folder and up to 65,536 snapshots for the entire system.
TerraMaster Snapshot is a disaster recovery tool developed based on the BTRFS file system. Take snapshots of shared folders or iSCSI LUNs and quickly restore data after a disaster by taking advantage of file system features. TerraMaster Snapshot is based on COW (copy-on-write), so snapshots can be created almost instantaneously, and take up almost no space when they are first created. It can create up to 1,024 snapshots for each shared folder and up to 65,536 snapshots for the entire system.
INNO3D Announces iChill GeForce RTX 4090 Frostbite Ultra and Frostbite Pro
INNO3D, a leading manufacturer of pioneering high-end multimedia components and innovations proudly unveiled its much-awaited INNO3D GeForce RTX 4090 Frostbite new editions in Ultra and Pro. These next-generation INNO3D graphics cards promise unparalleled performance due to their Ada architecture. The iCHILL Frostbite has significant upgrades in both aesthetics and performance.
Dating back to 1998, INNO3D was founded with the aim to develop innovative computer hardware products on a global scale. Today, INNO3D is recognized in the gaming community for our avant-garde and bold approach to design and technology. We live by the mantra of being "Brutal by Nature" in all our endeavors, ensuring that we provide you with a superior gaming experience.
Dating back to 1998, INNO3D was founded with the aim to develop innovative computer hardware products on a global scale. Today, INNO3D is recognized in the gaming community for our avant-garde and bold approach to design and technology. We live by the mantra of being "Brutal by Nature" in all our endeavors, ensuring that we provide you with a superior gaming experience.
GIGABYTE and HWiNFO Exclusively Collaborate for Accurate Information and New Memory Timings Feature
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, is pleased to announce its close collaboration with HWiNFO, a comprehensive system information and diagnostic tool. This partnership aims to enhance the accuracy of hardware information and diagnostics, while introducing innovative features to benefit computer enthusiasts and professionals alike.
HWiNFO, known for its detailed system information and diagnostic capabilities, has partnered with GIGABYTE to integrate their technologies and deliver more precise and comprehensive hardware information to users. By combining GIGABYTE's expertise in hardware manufacturing and HWiNFO's advanced diagnostics, users can now access a wealth of information about their computer components with unparalleled accuracy.
HWiNFO, known for its detailed system information and diagnostic capabilities, has partnered with GIGABYTE to integrate their technologies and deliver more precise and comprehensive hardware information to users. By combining GIGABYTE's expertise in hardware manufacturing and HWiNFO's advanced diagnostics, users can now access a wealth of information about their computer components with unparalleled accuracy.
Thursday, July 27th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cooling
Monitors
Motherboards
Speakers
HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Wireless Review
The Pulsefire Haste 2 Wireless loses the holes, yet keeps its weight at 60 g, and also comes with the new HyperX 26K sensor and HyperX main button switches rated for 100 million clicks. Capable of both 2.4 GHz wireless and Bluetooth, the Pulsefire Haste 2 Wireless is said to have a battery life of up to 100 hours.
AMD Announces Ryzen 9 7945X3D Flagship Mobile Processor with 3DV Cache
AMD today announced the Ryzen 9 7945X3D mobile processor, which it claims is the fastest notebook processor for gaming, faster than even Intel's Core i9-13980HX. The 7945X3D is a 16-core/32-thread processor that leverages AMD 3D Vertical Cache technology. Much like the desktop Ryzen 9 7950X3D, the 7945X3D features 64 MB of stacked 3D vertical cache memory on one of its two "Zen 4" CCDs, which gives it 96 MB of last-level cache. The second one is a regular "Zen 4" CCD with 32 MB of L3 cache—again, just like the desktop 7950X3D. The most interesting aspect has to be that AMD claims to have pulled off leadership gaming performance at a 55 W+ TDP.
The Ryzen 9 7945X3D is based on the "Dragon Range" multi-chip module. This is essentially a mobile-optimized BGA variant of the desktop "Raphael" MCM, with a higher degree of power optimization. The processor features 16 "Zen 4" CPU cores spread across two CCDs, each with 1 MB of L2 cache. The first CCD has 96 MB of L3 cache thanks to the 3DV cache, while the second CCD has 32 MB of it. Despite its power constrained form-factor, the 7945X3D has a maximum boost frequency of 5.40 GHz. Each of the two CCDs is built on the 5 nm EUV foundry node. The L3D (the die stacked on top of the first CCD) is built on 6 nm, as is the client I/O die (cIOD). The processor supports dual-channel DDR5, and has a 28-lane PCI-Express Gen 5 root complex. AMD claims that the Ryzen 9 7945X3D is on average 15% faster at gaming than its current flagship processor, the 16-core Ryzen 9 7945HX. This should mean that the processor is faster than the Intel Core i9-13980HX. The first notebook to debut the AMD Ryzen 9 7945X3D is the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 X3D, which goes on sale on August 22, 2023.
The Ryzen 9 7945X3D is based on the "Dragon Range" multi-chip module. This is essentially a mobile-optimized BGA variant of the desktop "Raphael" MCM, with a higher degree of power optimization. The processor features 16 "Zen 4" CPU cores spread across two CCDs, each with 1 MB of L2 cache. The first CCD has 96 MB of L3 cache thanks to the 3DV cache, while the second CCD has 32 MB of it. Despite its power constrained form-factor, the 7945X3D has a maximum boost frequency of 5.40 GHz. Each of the two CCDs is built on the 5 nm EUV foundry node. The L3D (the die stacked on top of the first CCD) is built on 6 nm, as is the client I/O die (cIOD). The processor supports dual-channel DDR5, and has a 28-lane PCI-Express Gen 5 root complex. AMD claims that the Ryzen 9 7945X3D is on average 15% faster at gaming than its current flagship processor, the 16-core Ryzen 9 7945HX. This should mean that the processor is faster than the Intel Core i9-13980HX. The first notebook to debut the AMD Ryzen 9 7945X3D is the ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 X3D, which goes on sale on August 22, 2023.
Intel Reports Second-Quarter 2023 Financial Results, Foundry Services Business up
Intel Corporation today reported second-quarter 2023 financial results. "Our Q2 results exceeded the high end of our guidance as we continue to execute on our strategic priorities, including building momentum with our foundry business and delivering on our product and process roadmaps," said Pat Gelsinger, Intel CEO. "We are also well-positioned to capitalize on the significant growth across the AI continuum by championing an open ecosystem and silicon solutions that optimize performance, cost and security to democratize AI from cloud to enterprise, edge and client."
David Zinsner, Intel CFO, said, "Strong execution, including progress towards our $3 billion in cost savings in 2023, contributed to the upside in the quarter. We remain focused on operational efficiencies and our Smart Capital strategy to support sustainable growth and financial discipline as we improve our margins and cash generation and drive shareholder value." In the second quarter, the company generated $2.8 billion in cash from operations and paid dividends of $0.5 billion.
David Zinsner, Intel CFO, said, "Strong execution, including progress towards our $3 billion in cost savings in 2023, contributed to the upside in the quarter. We remain focused on operational efficiencies and our Smart Capital strategy to support sustainable growth and financial discipline as we improve our margins and cash generation and drive shareholder value." In the second quarter, the company generated $2.8 billion in cash from operations and paid dividends of $0.5 billion.
The Expanse: A Telltale Series Out Now on Epic Game Store
Camina Drummer has a few problems: Her spaceship is running out of fuel. Her medic is hiding a dark secret. And there's an asteroid headed their way. But that's just another day on The Artemis. In The Expanse: A Telltale Series, Drummer's problems are your problems. If you know her from the television show of the same name, you know she's strong-willed and loyal, with the kind of fierce temperament suited to space exploration. But here, in Telltale's first new game in five years, you get to make the decisions. And your crew—and the game—is paying attention. Episodic narratives are making a comeback. With them returns a style of game that is uniquely suited both to the video game medium and our present moment.
Today's release is the first of five to be rolled out over the next two months. The planned schedule is very much in line with prestige TV: Each episode will be between sixty and ninety minutes, and by the end you'll have witnessed a full narrative arc for this "eccentric crew," as Game Director Stephan Frost describes Drummer and her cohorts. But what makes episodic games so exciting and different from episodic television is the obvious fact that you don't just get one narrative, of course. You get yours, as you decide how and when to make certain decisions, with each plotline breaking off down multiple paths and crisscrossing across many story nodes. Sometimes this means you get to take down the leader of a doomsday cult with either force or subterfuge, as in HITMAN: World of Assassination; sometimes this means running into a burning building and risking the life of a trusted friend who runs in after you, as in The Walking Dead: Michonne.
Today's release is the first of five to be rolled out over the next two months. The planned schedule is very much in line with prestige TV: Each episode will be between sixty and ninety minutes, and by the end you'll have witnessed a full narrative arc for this "eccentric crew," as Game Director Stephan Frost describes Drummer and her cohorts. But what makes episodic games so exciting and different from episodic television is the obvious fact that you don't just get one narrative, of course. You get yours, as you decide how and when to make certain decisions, with each plotline breaking off down multiple paths and crisscrossing across many story nodes. Sometimes this means you get to take down the leader of a doomsday cult with either force or subterfuge, as in HITMAN: World of Assassination; sometimes this means running into a burning building and risking the life of a trusted friend who runs in after you, as in The Walking Dead: Michonne.
Curious MSI GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB Card pops up on FB Marketplace
An unusual MSI RTX 3080 Ti SUPRIM X graphics card is up for sale, second hand, on Facebook Marketplace—the Sydney, Australia-based seller is advertising this component as a truly custom model with a non-standard allocation of VRAM: "Yes this is 20 GB not 12 GB." The used item is said to be in "good condition" with its product description elaborating on a bit of history: "There are some scuff marks from the previous owner, but the card works fine. It is an extremely rare collector's item, due to NVIDIA cancelling these variants a month before release. This is not an engineering sample card—this was a finished OEM product that got cancelled, unfortunately." The seller is seeking AU$1100 (~$740 USD), after a reduction from the original asking price of AU$1,300 (~$870 USD).
MSI and Gigabyte were reportedly on the verge of launching GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB variants two years ago, but NVIDIA had a change of heart (probably due to concerns about costs and production volumes) and decided to stick with a public release of the standard 12 GB GPU. Affected AIBs chose to not destroy their stock of 20 GB cards—these were instead sold to crypto miners and shady retailers. Wccftech points out that mining-oriented units have identifying marks on their I/O ports.
MSI and Gigabyte were reportedly on the verge of launching GeForce RTX 3080 Ti 20 GB variants two years ago, but NVIDIA had a change of heart (probably due to concerns about costs and production volumes) and decided to stick with a public release of the standard 12 GB GPU. Affected AIBs chose to not destroy their stock of 20 GB cards—these were instead sold to crypto miners and shady retailers. Wccftech points out that mining-oriented units have identifying marks on their I/O ports.
Leaker Claims No Liquid Metal Cooling for PlayStation 5 Refresh
PlayStation 5-related rumors have been flowing over the past week—Zuby_Tech was reportedly the main source responsible for leaking out Project Q footage, but the tipster has turned to his attention to an alleged new version of the host system. Yesterday's tweet makes reference to a refreshed PlayStation 5 model—the "CFI-1300 series"—with a revised 5 nm APU. The late-2020 launch model (CFI-1200) sported a 7 nm chipset, while 2022's die shrink granted the CFI-1202 series with a 6 nm SoC.
The tipster thinks that Sony will be dropping the PS5's liquid metal cooling system for its next iteration, thanks to a central 5 nm part offering greater efficiency and reduced thermal output. Previous reports have predicted that this refreshed "modular model" is marked for a late 2023 release window. Sony has been running a summer price reduction campaign—could this marketing incentive be clearing the way—i.e selling off older stock—in anticipation of the refreshed model's arrival? "CFI-1300" should not be confused with the heavily rumored PlayStation 5 Pro variant—Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has reiterated multiple times that this major hardware upgrade is still a long way off from launching.
The tipster thinks that Sony will be dropping the PS5's liquid metal cooling system for its next iteration, thanks to a central 5 nm part offering greater efficiency and reduced thermal output. Previous reports have predicted that this refreshed "modular model" is marked for a late 2023 release window. Sony has been running a summer price reduction campaign—could this marketing incentive be clearing the way—i.e selling off older stock—in anticipation of the refreshed model's arrival? "CFI-1300" should not be confused with the heavily rumored PlayStation 5 Pro variant—Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has reiterated multiple times that this major hardware upgrade is still a long way off from launching.
How to Size Your Solar Generator for Running a Refrigerator: A Comprehensive Guide by Anker
In this helpful post, we'll walk you through the crucial steps and considerations to make sure how to size your solar generator for running a refrigerator that can provide your refrigerator with the power it needs to keep your food cool and fresh even while you're off the grid. We'll go into important issues like figuring out how much energy your refrigerator uses, evaluating how much electricity your solar generator needs, and choosing the right size of solar generator.
Can You Run a Refrigerator on Solar Power? It's time to face the reality—the energy crisis is real and we need to start thinking about alternative energy sources to power our household items. One of the most essential appliances we use on a daily basis is the refrigerator. It is responsible for keeping our food fresh, cool, and healthy. However, it is also one of the biggest energy consumers in our homes.
Buy Anker SOLIX F2000 Solar Generator
Can You Run a Refrigerator on Solar Power? It's time to face the reality—the energy crisis is real and we need to start thinking about alternative energy sources to power our household items. One of the most essential appliances we use on a daily basis is the refrigerator. It is responsible for keeping our food fresh, cool, and healthy. However, it is also one of the biggest energy consumers in our homes.
Thermalright Site Updated with Heilos Thermal Pad Products
Thermalright has taken yet another low-key approach to announcing new products—the Taiwan hardware cooling specialist has updated its website with Heilos thermal pads. The model name looks to be a typo—should they have used "Helios" instead? A prominent sun graphic is placed on the bottom left of Thermalright's packaging for both of the Intel and AMD variants. It is unfortunate that something got lost in translation, or a spellcheck did not pick up on the small error before going to print/publication. Anyway...Thermalright is offering two sizes, with an identical 0.2 mm thickness—40x40 mm for AMD's AM4/AM5 CPU platforms, and a smaller pad (40x30 mm) for Intel LGA115X/1200/1700 CPUs. Pricing and availability is TBD.
These easy-peel away applicators provide an alternative route for users who fret about the best way to deal with traditional tubes of thermal paste. Tom's Hardware has pored over the Heilos specs—these pads offer thermal conductivity performance (8.5 W/mK) and resistance (0.04°C cm²/W), comparable (in their opinion) to "inexpensive" tubes of Arctic MX-4 and MX-5. The latter ranks at number four on the publication's "list of the best thermal pastes." Older thermal pads from other manufacturers have been criticized for falling short in terms of cooling performance, when cross-referenced against market leading thermal pastes—it is encouraging to see Thermalright addressing these concerns (specs-wise). We hope that evaluation samples have been sent out to review outlets.
These easy-peel away applicators provide an alternative route for users who fret about the best way to deal with traditional tubes of thermal paste. Tom's Hardware has pored over the Heilos specs—these pads offer thermal conductivity performance (8.5 W/mK) and resistance (0.04°C cm²/W), comparable (in their opinion) to "inexpensive" tubes of Arctic MX-4 and MX-5. The latter ranks at number four on the publication's "list of the best thermal pastes." Older thermal pads from other manufacturers have been criticized for falling short in terms of cooling performance, when cross-referenced against market leading thermal pastes—it is encouraging to see Thermalright addressing these concerns (specs-wise). We hope that evaluation samples have been sent out to review outlets.
Unreal Engine 5.3 Preview Out Now
Yesterday, Epic Games released a preview version of Unreal Engine 5.3—users can now try out the latest batch of improvements, as well as some new features. Epic's blurb Lumen boasts that their software engineers have refined "the workflows and capabilities of core features"—namely Nanite, and Path Tracing. Optimizations have resulted in "more control over performance" and overall better-looking visuals. Epic's own Fortnite, Layers of Fear (Bloober Team) and Remnant 2 (Gunfire Games) are the only currently released games running on Unreal Engine 5. Epic first showcased this technology back in 2020, with plenty of game development studios signing up to use it—but they have been slow in adapting to the feature-rich engine. In Remnant 2's case, Gunfire chose to not implement Lumen at launch.
Newly introduced experimental features include an upgraded particle rendering system—users are granted access to tool that can "create volumetrics such as smoke and fire directly inside Unreal." Epic's notes also mention that a Skeletal Editor has been added, for in-engine character weight and skinning work. Preview version 5.3 grants full support for Orthographic Rendering—useful in the fields of "architecture plus manufacturing visualizations, and stylistic games projects." Users will also see improvements in the Panel Cloth Editor and ML Cloth simulation system.
Newly introduced experimental features include an upgraded particle rendering system—users are granted access to tool that can "create volumetrics such as smoke and fire directly inside Unreal." Epic's notes also mention that a Skeletal Editor has been added, for in-engine character weight and skinning work. Preview version 5.3 grants full support for Orthographic Rendering—useful in the fields of "architecture plus manufacturing visualizations, and stylistic games projects." Users will also see improvements in the Panel Cloth Editor and ML Cloth simulation system.
Micron Updates Roadmap, Promises 32 Gbit DDR5 and GDDR7 for 2024
During yesterday's HBM3 Gen2 memory products yesterday, Micron also shared an updated roadmap with select media and partners. The most interesting details on that roadmap were updates to DRAM and GDDR memory products, with increases in capacity coming for both types of memory. Micron is aiming to launch 32 Gbit or 4 GB DDR5 memory ICs somewhere in the beginning of 2024, which means we can look forward to 32 GB single sided DIMMs with a single DRAM die per memory IC. This should, in theory at least, enable cheaper 32 GB DIMMs, but as always, it's unlikely that the cost saving will be passed on to the end customer. As far as server customers goes, Micron is planning 128 GB DIMMs for 2024, followed by 192 GB DIMMs in 2025 and 256 GB DIMMs in 2026.
When it comes to GDDR, Micron will be launching JEDEC standard GDDR7 memory with 16 and 24 Gbit dies, or 2 and 3 GB capacity, the latter could be the highest capacity GDDR7 memory IC on the market and could see some interesting graphics card configurations. Micron is promising speeds of up to 32 Gbps per pin or 128 GB/s per chip, which is a big jump up from its current best GDDR6X memory which tops out at 24 Gbps per pin or 96 GB/s per chip. GDDR7 differs from Micron's proprietary GDDR6X by using PAM-3 rather than PAM-4 signalling, although this is simply something that the likes of AMD and NVIDIA would have to design their GPUs around. Micron doesn't appear to have any plans for GDDR7X at this point in time. The company is also working on several new iterations of HBM memory over the coming years, with the company expecting to hit 2 TB/s sometime in 2026 or later.
When it comes to GDDR, Micron will be launching JEDEC standard GDDR7 memory with 16 and 24 Gbit dies, or 2 and 3 GB capacity, the latter could be the highest capacity GDDR7 memory IC on the market and could see some interesting graphics card configurations. Micron is promising speeds of up to 32 Gbps per pin or 128 GB/s per chip, which is a big jump up from its current best GDDR6X memory which tops out at 24 Gbps per pin or 96 GB/s per chip. GDDR7 differs from Micron's proprietary GDDR6X by using PAM-3 rather than PAM-4 signalling, although this is simply something that the likes of AMD and NVIDIA would have to design their GPUs around. Micron doesn't appear to have any plans for GDDR7X at this point in time. The company is also working on several new iterations of HBM memory over the coming years, with the company expecting to hit 2 TB/s sometime in 2026 or later.
Framework Shares Laptop 16 Feedback & Announces Business Portal
We're extreme optimists by the nature of our mission, but the response to the Framework Laptop 16 pre-order launch last week was beyond anything we could have imagined. We expected to sell the first five batches over the course of a few months. Instead, we sold through them in 12 hours. The currently open pre-order batch will ship in Q1 2024, and we're working with our suppliers to ensure we have the production capacity to avoid pre-order timing going deeper into 2024. AMD was also able to provide more game codes for Starfield Premium Edition to let us continue offering it for additional pre-orders that include a Radeon RX 7700S (while quantities last).
A couple of great write-ups and videos went live alongside the launch. First, Sean Hollister at The Verge shared his detailed thoughts from an exclusive hands-on with a pre-production Framework Laptop 16, stating "I am staggered that Framework 16 even exists". AMD also prepared a video featuring Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions & Marketing, explaining how we partnered to make it exist! Watch this featurette below.
A couple of great write-ups and videos went live alongside the launch. First, Sean Hollister at The Verge shared his detailed thoughts from an exclusive hands-on with a pre-production Framework Laptop 16, stating "I am staggered that Framework 16 even exists". AMD also prepared a video featuring Frank Azor, Chief Architect of Gaming Solutions & Marketing, explaining how we partnered to make it exist! Watch this featurette below.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 GRE Could be Introduced at ChinaJoy 2023 Conference
AMD's Chinese office has announced that company representatives will be present at this year's ChinaJoy event—their Weibo social media account confirmed that: "from July 28th to July 31st, 2023, in Hall E6 of Shanghai New International Expo Center, super hardcore and mega cool AMD hardware will be on the scene, bringing you a fast and fun gaming experience. We are looking forward to meeting you!" ITHome thinks that the timing of this announcement points to a possible official unveiling of the Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) on the showroom floor.
The publication has cited a tip provided by the one and only momomo_us—the Chinese market exclusive Golden Rabbit Edition will be released tomorrow, which lines up with ChinaJoy 2023's kick off time. Recent leaks have revealed that the 84 Compute Units + 16 GB configured graphics card is a new SKU, sitting below the RX 7900 XT in Team Red's Radeon RDNA 3 hierarchy. It seems to be "built on the mysterious Navi 31 + Navi 32 hybrid GPU." Additionally, ITHome reports that AMD has partnered up with ASUS, and will be exhibiting ROG Moba 7 Plus series laptops (sporting Ryzen Dragon Range APUs) at the Shanghai event.
The publication has cited a tip provided by the one and only momomo_us—the Chinese market exclusive Golden Rabbit Edition will be released tomorrow, which lines up with ChinaJoy 2023's kick off time. Recent leaks have revealed that the 84 Compute Units + 16 GB configured graphics card is a new SKU, sitting below the RX 7900 XT in Team Red's Radeon RDNA 3 hierarchy. It seems to be "built on the mysterious Navi 31 + Navi 32 hybrid GPU." Additionally, ITHome reports that AMD has partnered up with ASUS, and will be exhibiting ROG Moba 7 Plus series laptops (sporting Ryzen Dragon Range APUs) at the Shanghai event.
Jagged Alliance 3 Demo Out Now, THQ Nordic Shares Review Accolades Trailer
July 27th, 2023: Two weeks ago, Jagged Alliance 3 burst onto the gaming scene, captivating the hearts of thousands of players eager to embark on the mission to free Grand Chien. Haemimont Games and THQ Nordic are beaming with pride and relief as it seems we have struck the perfect chord. An impressive 86% of Steam-Reviews as of July 27th reflect the positive reception, and the game has garnered critical acclaim with an outstanding 81 on Metacritic.
We've been absolutely delighted to witness hundreds of content creators taking on the challenge of mastering the game and are overwhelmed by the positive feedback pouring in from players across various channels. We want to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude: Thank you to everyone who has already delved into the world of Jagged Alliance 3! For those who haven't yet, we're excited to announce the availability of a free playable demo. This demo will allow players to explore Ernie Island, the starting region of the game.
We've been absolutely delighted to witness hundreds of content creators taking on the challenge of mastering the game and are overwhelmed by the positive feedback pouring in from players across various channels. We want to take a moment to express our sincere gratitude: Thank you to everyone who has already delved into the world of Jagged Alliance 3! For those who haven't yet, we're excited to announce the availability of a free playable demo. This demo will allow players to explore Ernie Island, the starting region of the game.
Eurocom Launches 15.6-inch C315 Blitz User-Customizable Superlaptop
Eurocom has launched the C315 Blitz Superlaptop with 15.6" display, Intel Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16 TB storage, 64 GB DDR5 memory, up to 8 hrs of battery life in a robust and durable Titanium black aluminium case.
"The C315 Blitz 15.6" laptop is lightweight and heavy duty, with its durable aluminium body and 8 hours of battery life it is perfectly suited for corporate all-day, all-night computing." Mark Bialic, Eurocom President said. "The EUROCOM C315 Blitz is the ultimate laptop companion for professionals on the go."
"The C315 Blitz 15.6" laptop is lightweight and heavy duty, with its durable aluminium body and 8 hours of battery life it is perfectly suited for corporate all-day, all-night computing." Mark Bialic, Eurocom President said. "The EUROCOM C315 Blitz is the ultimate laptop companion for professionals on the go."
Samsung Reveals its New Wearable Processor - Exynos W930
Make health and fitness journeys smoother with the Exynos W930—the wearable processor that keeps smartwatches ahead of the curve, with new leaps in performance and power saving.
Watch it work wonders
Exynos W930 is equipped with the Arm Cortex-A55 dual-core CPU, boosting CPU speed to 1.4 GHz for an 18% jump over our last generation processor. In-package DRAM expands to 2 GB in the Exynos W930, passing the last generation by 33%, so you can switch between apps up to 25% faster and manage your workouts and your work life better with a suite of apps performing at their best.
Watch it work wonders
Exynos W930 is equipped with the Arm Cortex-A55 dual-core CPU, boosting CPU speed to 1.4 GHz for an 18% jump over our last generation processor. In-package DRAM expands to 2 GB in the Exynos W930, passing the last generation by 33%, so you can switch between apps up to 25% faster and manage your workouts and your work life better with a suite of apps performing at their best.
Ubisoft Cancels Immortals Fenyx Rising Sequel
Earlier this week it was reported that Ubisoft had cancelled development on its sequel to Immortals Fenyx Rising (2020)—Video Games Chronicle gathered information from multiple anonymous sources. The article proposed that: "a follow-up game was in early development at Ubisoft Quebec, but company leadership ultimately decided to cancel it earlier this month due to perceived challenges around establishing the IP." This studio was best known for its work on Assassin's Creed Odyssey (2018), but a brave decision was made to produce a new intellectual property—Giant Bomb's Jeff Grubb understood that Ubisoft had grand ambitions to turn Immortals into a big time franchise, with a continued multiplatform release strategy, as well as spin-offs.
Ubisoft has been going through a rough patch in recent times—several unannounced games were canned earlier this year, and many of the publisher's 2022 releases underperformed at retail. According to VGC's inside sources, Ubi leadership has prioritized prominent brands (e.g Assassin's Creed), and this rethink put the Immortals sequel's future in jeopardy. A company spokesperson has responded to the news site's article, and confirmed that development staff are now working on more important IPs: "As part of our global strategy, we are redirecting and reallocating some creative teams and resources within the Quebec studio to other unannounced projects. The expertise and technologies these teams developed will serve as an accelerator for the development of these key projects focused on our biggest brands. We have nothing further to share at this time."
Ubisoft has been going through a rough patch in recent times—several unannounced games were canned earlier this year, and many of the publisher's 2022 releases underperformed at retail. According to VGC's inside sources, Ubi leadership has prioritized prominent brands (e.g Assassin's Creed), and this rethink put the Immortals sequel's future in jeopardy. A company spokesperson has responded to the news site's article, and confirmed that development staff are now working on more important IPs: "As part of our global strategy, we are redirecting and reallocating some creative teams and resources within the Quebec studio to other unannounced projects. The expertise and technologies these teams developed will serve as an accelerator for the development of these key projects focused on our biggest brands. We have nothing further to share at this time."
Gearbox's Remnant II Streaming on GeForce NOW
Get ready for Gunfire Games and Gearbox Publishing's highly anticipated Remnant II, available for members to stream on GeForce NOW at launch. It leads eight new games coming to the cloud gaming platform. Ultimate and Priority members, make sure to grab the Guild Wars 2 rewards, available now through Thursday, Aug. 31. Visit the GeForce NOW Rewards portal and opt in to rewards.
Kick off the weekend with one of the hottest new games in the cloud. Remnant II from Gunfire Games and Gearbox Publishing, sequel to the hit game Remnant: From the Ashes, is newly launched in the cloud for members to stream. Go head to head against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses while exploring terrifying new worlds with different types of creatures, weapons and items. With various stories woven throughout, each playthrough will be different from the last, making each experience unique for endless replayability.
Kick off the weekend with one of the hottest new games in the cloud. Remnant II from Gunfire Games and Gearbox Publishing, sequel to the hit game Remnant: From the Ashes, is newly launched in the cloud for members to stream. Go head to head against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses while exploring terrifying new worlds with different types of creatures, weapons and items. With various stories woven throughout, each playthrough will be different from the last, making each experience unique for endless replayability.
Samsung Will Reportedly Cut DRAM and NAND Production Further After US$7 Billion Loss
Earlier today, Samsung released its Q2 results, which were a mixed bag with many business units underperforming. However, none were doing as poorly as Samsung's memory business which made a loss of 4.36 trillion Won or around US$3.4 billion. Although not mentioned in the financial report, Reuters are reporting that Samsung is looking to cut production of NAND and DRAM further, as the publication is pointing out that Samsung's chipset business as a whole lost a staggering 8.9 trillion Won or US$7 billion. That said, the loss wasn't quite as bad as in the first quarter of the year and Samsung is expected to cut the loss in half for Q3.
In a statement to Reuters, Samsung said "Production cuts across the industry are likely to continue in the second half, and demand is expected to gradually recover as clients continue to destock their (chip) inventory." This suggests that the expected recovery isn't going to happen as soon as the DRAM and NAND manufacturers expected, as there simply isn't enough demand for either product. SK Hynix has already announced that it's cutting production a further five to 10 percent for NAND, but the company doesn't appear to have had quite as big losses as Samsung. For the time being, this is good news for consumers, as RAM and SSD pricing is about as low as it has ever been. However, with production cuts from all the three major manufacturers of DRAM and NAND, prices will most likely start going up soon, especially as Samsung is said to have depleted most of its inventories.
In a statement to Reuters, Samsung said "Production cuts across the industry are likely to continue in the second half, and demand is expected to gradually recover as clients continue to destock their (chip) inventory." This suggests that the expected recovery isn't going to happen as soon as the DRAM and NAND manufacturers expected, as there simply isn't enough demand for either product. SK Hynix has already announced that it's cutting production a further five to 10 percent for NAND, but the company doesn't appear to have had quite as big losses as Samsung. For the time being, this is good news for consumers, as RAM and SSD pricing is about as low as it has ever been. However, with production cuts from all the three major manufacturers of DRAM and NAND, prices will most likely start going up soon, especially as Samsung is said to have depleted most of its inventories.
Crossfire: Sierra Squad Launching August 29, on PS VR2 & SteamVR
Greetings, mercenaries! To kick off the summer season, we announced at Summer Game Fest that Crossfire: Sierra Squad will be arriving in August. Welp, August is just around the corner, so it's time to let you know officially that the game will launch at PlayStation Store and Steam on August 29th! Add it to your wishlist today for a reminder come launch.
New immersive experience
Crossfire: Sierra Squad is a brand-new game built from the ground up for VR. We've been working hard to make the game an immersive and intuitive experience that gets you into the action immediately. We've fine-tuned the in-game mechanics to come up with a game experience that we believe you'll want to play over and over, both solo and with friends, in a world you'll want to spend a lot of time in. Our goal is to bring all fans of military FPS games together, regardless of experience level, into an exciting and shared VR adventure - solo or co-op with up to 4 players on a team.
New immersive experience
Crossfire: Sierra Squad is a brand-new game built from the ground up for VR. We've been working hard to make the game an immersive and intuitive experience that gets you into the action immediately. We've fine-tuned the in-game mechanics to come up with a game experience that we believe you'll want to play over and over, both solo and with friends, in a world you'll want to spend a lot of time in. Our goal is to bring all fans of military FPS games together, regardless of experience level, into an exciting and shared VR adventure - solo or co-op with up to 4 players on a team.
Samsung & Microsoft Reveal First On-Device Attestation Solution for Enterprise
Samsung Electronics today announced the first step in a plan to reimagine mobile device security for business customers in partnership with Microsoft. This collaboration has led to the industry's first on-device, mobile hardware-backed device attestation solution that works equally well on both company and personally owned devices.
Device attestation can help ensure a device's identity and health, verifying that it has not been compromised. On-device, mobile hardware-backed device attestation—available on Samsung Galaxy devices and combined with protection from Microsoft Intune—now adds enhanced security and flexibility. For enterprises, this is an extra layer of protection against compromised devices falsely claiming to be known and healthy, gaining access to sensitive corporate data. Additionally, organizations can now enable employees to bring their own device (BYOD) to work with the confidence that they are protected with the same level of security as company owned devices. For employees, this means added flexibility for their personal Galaxy devices to safely access their work environment.
Device attestation can help ensure a device's identity and health, verifying that it has not been compromised. On-device, mobile hardware-backed device attestation—available on Samsung Galaxy devices and combined with protection from Microsoft Intune—now adds enhanced security and flexibility. For enterprises, this is an extra layer of protection against compromised devices falsely claiming to be known and healthy, gaining access to sensitive corporate data. Additionally, organizations can now enable employees to bring their own device (BYOD) to work with the confidence that they are protected with the same level of security as company owned devices. For employees, this means added flexibility for their personal Galaxy devices to safely access their work environment.
Lunacy: Saint Rhodes - now haunting your PC
Iceberg Interactive and Stormling Studios are excited to announce the launch of Lunacy: Saint Rhodes, an immersive first-person survival horror game that will send chills down everyone's spine. Now available on Steam, Lunacy: Saint Rhodes is ready to offer a truly disturbing experience for an SRP of just $19.99.
In Lunacy: Saint Rhodes, players will feel trapped within a claustrophobic horror movie, as their family's disturbing history is slowly unraveled. They will discover the secrets behind a tragic family event, and be made to confront their inner demons. All this while navigating the dark and oppressive town of Saint Rhodes, where the feeling of constant unwanted company never goes away. You will feel watched; never alone, never safe.
In Lunacy: Saint Rhodes, players will feel trapped within a claustrophobic horror movie, as their family's disturbing history is slowly unraveled. They will discover the secrets behind a tragic family event, and be made to confront their inner demons. All this while navigating the dark and oppressive town of Saint Rhodes, where the feeling of constant unwanted company never goes away. You will feel watched; never alone, never safe.
IBM Launches AI-informed Cloud Carbon Calculator
IBM has launched a new tool to help enterprises track greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across cloud services and advance their sustainability performance throughout their hybrid, multicloud journeys. Now generally available, the IBM Cloud Carbon Calculator - an AI-informed dashboard - can help clients access emissions data across a variety of IBM Cloud workloads such as AI, high performance computing (HPC) and financial services.
Across industries, enterprises are embracing modernization by leveraging hybrid cloud and AI to digitally transform with resiliency, performance, security, and compliance at the forefront, all while remaining focused on delivering value and driving more sustainable business practices. According to a recent study by IBM, 42% of CEOs surveyed pinpoint environmental sustainability as their top challenge over the next three years. At the same time, the study reports that CEOs are facing pressure to adopt generative AI while also weighing the data management needs to make AI successful. The increase in data processing required for AI workloads can present new challenges for organizations that are looking to reduce their GHG emissions. With more than 43% of CEOs surveyed already using generative AI to inform strategic decisions, organizations should prepare to balance executing high performance workloads with sustainability.
Across industries, enterprises are embracing modernization by leveraging hybrid cloud and AI to digitally transform with resiliency, performance, security, and compliance at the forefront, all while remaining focused on delivering value and driving more sustainable business practices. According to a recent study by IBM, 42% of CEOs surveyed pinpoint environmental sustainability as their top challenge over the next three years. At the same time, the study reports that CEOs are facing pressure to adopt generative AI while also weighing the data management needs to make AI successful. The increase in data processing required for AI workloads can present new challenges for organizations that are looking to reduce their GHG emissions. With more than 43% of CEOs surveyed already using generative AI to inform strategic decisions, organizations should prepare to balance executing high performance workloads with sustainability.
NVIDIA Cancels GeForce RTX 4090 Ti, Next-Gen Flagship to Feature 512-bit Memory Bus
NVIDIA has reportedly shelved plans in the short term to release the rumored GeForce RTX 4090 Ti flagship graphics card, according to Kopite7kimi, a reliable source with NVIDIA leaks. This card had been extensively leaked over the past few months as featuring a cinder block-like 4-slot thickness, and a unique PCB that's along the plane of the motherboard, rather than perpendicular to it. From the looks of it, sales and competition in the high-end/halo segment are too slow, the current RTX 4090 remains the fastest graphics card you can buy, and the company seems unfazed by the alleged Radeon RX 7950 series, given that AMD has already maxed out the "Navi 31" silicon, and there are only so many things the red team can try, to beat the RTX 4090.
That said, the company is reportedly planning more SKUs based on the AD103 and AD106 silicon. The AD103 powers the GeForce RTX 4080, which nearly maxes it out. The AD104 has been maxed out by the RTX 4070 Ti, and there could be a gap between the RTX 4070 Ti and the RTX 4080 that AMD could try to exploit by competitively pricing its RX 7900 series, and certain upcoming SKUs. This creates scope for new SKUs based on cut-down AD103 and the GPU's 256-bit memory bus. The AD106 is nearly maxed out with the RTX 4060 Ti, however there's still room to unlock its last remaining TPC, use faster GDDR6X memory, and attempt to slim the vast gap between the RTX 4060 Ti and the RTX 4070.
That said, the company is reportedly planning more SKUs based on the AD103 and AD106 silicon. The AD103 powers the GeForce RTX 4080, which nearly maxes it out. The AD104 has been maxed out by the RTX 4070 Ti, and there could be a gap between the RTX 4070 Ti and the RTX 4080 that AMD could try to exploit by competitively pricing its RX 7900 series, and certain upcoming SKUs. This creates scope for new SKUs based on cut-down AD103 and the GPU's 256-bit memory bus. The AD106 is nearly maxed out with the RTX 4060 Ti, however there's still room to unlock its last remaining TPC, use faster GDDR6X memory, and attempt to slim the vast gap between the RTX 4060 Ti and the RTX 4070.
Genesis Announces Nitro 440 G2 Gaming Chair
The Genesis brand has recently launched perfected versions of their popular products. Among them you will find the latest gaming armchair, the Nitro 440, with a new G2 variant including various key improvements. The Nitro 440 G2 is the new version of the Nitro 440 gaming armchair. The product has been designed for those gamers who prefer subtle design and comfort during long hours of gameplay. One of its key benefits are installed cushions (lumbar and headrest). This enhances the ergonomics of the model, keeping players healthy during long sessions. Its unique look, on the other hand, makes the armchair blend in both with standard gaming setups and other rooms, like a living room or a bedroom.
The Nitro 440 G2 has been enhanced in many other areas. This time around the manufacturer used a metal frame in order to make the construction more durable. Apart from that the chair is equipped with 60 mm nylon wheels (compared to the previous 50 mm), covered with the CareGlide, which greatly reduces the risk of scratching the floor. The arm rests have also been redesigned. Up until now they could not be configured at all. The G2 model allows users to change their height (1D customization).
The Nitro 440 G2 has been enhanced in many other areas. This time around the manufacturer used a metal frame in order to make the construction more durable. Apart from that the chair is equipped with 60 mm nylon wheels (compared to the previous 50 mm), covered with the CareGlide, which greatly reduces the risk of scratching the floor. The arm rests have also been redesigned. Up until now they could not be configured at all. The G2 model allows users to change their height (1D customization).
AOC Presents their Versatile Line-up of Monitors for Students
As students and pupils gear up for the upcoming school year, AOC and its gaming-focussed sub-brand AGON by AOC are excited to introduce an impressive range of monitors designed to cater to their specific needs. With a focus on functionality, innovation, and affordability, AOC offers a variety of monitors that empower students to excel in their studies whilst also providing immersive entertainment experiences.
From portable options for students on the go to gaming models for avid gamers, AOC's line-up combines cutting-edge technology with user-centric design, making the range the perfect choice for students across disciplines. AOC understands that students have diverse requirements, ranging from productivity and creativity to entertainment and gaming. To meet these varied needs, AOC presents a selection of monitors that deliver exceptional performance, stunning visuals, and enhanced functionality.
From portable options for students on the go to gaming models for avid gamers, AOC's line-up combines cutting-edge technology with user-centric design, making the range the perfect choice for students across disciplines. AOC understands that students have diverse requirements, ranging from productivity and creativity to entertainment and gaming. To meet these varied needs, AOC presents a selection of monitors that deliver exceptional performance, stunning visuals, and enhanced functionality.
QNAP Releases the ZFS-based QuTS hero h5.1.0
QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) today officially released QuTS hero h5.1.0, the latest version of QNAP's ZFS-based NAS operating system. New features and updates within this version reinforce QuTS hero NAS with higher system performance and improved capabilities for big data storage and data security - providing robust and reliable storage solutions for critical business workloads that demand data integrity.
"The ZFS-based QuTS hero NAS is engineered with advanced technologies for optimizing business storage, including self-healing, inline data reduction, SSD optimization, and Real-time SnapSync that enables zero RPO," said Sam Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "With these continual improvements and innovations, QuTS hero NAS solutions empower businesses with strengthened IT efficiency and system reliability."
"The ZFS-based QuTS hero NAS is engineered with advanced technologies for optimizing business storage, including self-healing, inline data reduction, SSD optimization, and Real-time SnapSync that enables zero RPO," said Sam Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "With these continual improvements and innovations, QuTS hero NAS solutions empower businesses with strengthened IT efficiency and system reliability."
EK Pro Line Gets New High-Performance LGA 1700 CPU Water Block
EK, the renowned premium liquid cooling solutions manufacturer, introduces a brand-new high-performance CPU water block explicitly made for Intel LGA 1700 socket-based CPUs. This CPU block features a high-flow cooling engine and a dense microfin design that allows ample cooling even for the overclocked Intel Core i9-13900K processor.
This is a dedicated enterprise-grade water block developed for Intel Core consumer processors based on the LGA 1700 socket. It features two standard G1/4" threaded ports on the top and is built with performance, reliability, serviceability, and no compromises in mind. This liquid cooling solution is intended for desktop PCs, workstations, and taller server racks. The water block's top is CNC-machined from durable black POM Acetal, while the hold-down bracket is made of laser-cut stainless steel.
This is a dedicated enterprise-grade water block developed for Intel Core consumer processors based on the LGA 1700 socket. It features two standard G1/4" threaded ports on the top and is built with performance, reliability, serviceability, and no compromises in mind. This liquid cooling solution is intended for desktop PCs, workstations, and taller server racks. The water block's top is CNC-machined from durable black POM Acetal, while the hold-down bracket is made of laser-cut stainless steel.
IBASE Unveils SI-624-AI Industrial AI Computer with NVIDIA Ampere MXM GPU
IBASE Technology Inc. (TPEx: 8050), a leading provider of industrial computing solutions, unveils the SI-624-AI industrial AI computer, which won the Embedded Computing Design's Embedded World 2023 Best in Show Award in Germany. This recognition highlights the exceptional performance and innovation of the rugged system in the field of AI deep learning.
The SI-624-AI is designed to meet the demands of high-speed multiple tasks for artificial neural network applications. Powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core CPU and incorporating the NVIDIA Ampere Architecture MXM GPU, this cutting-edge system delivers image processing capabilities that enable real-time analysis of visual data, enhancing automation, quality control, and overall production efficiency for AIoT applications in smart factory, retail, transportation or medical fields. It is suitable for use as a digital signage control system in mission-critical control rooms in transportation networks, smart retail, healthcare, or AI education where remote AI data analysis capabilities are required.
The SI-624-AI is designed to meet the demands of high-speed multiple tasks for artificial neural network applications. Powered by the 12th Gen Intel Core CPU and incorporating the NVIDIA Ampere Architecture MXM GPU, this cutting-edge system delivers image processing capabilities that enable real-time analysis of visual data, enhancing automation, quality control, and overall production efficiency for AIoT applications in smart factory, retail, transportation or medical fields. It is suitable for use as a digital signage control system in mission-critical control rooms in transportation networks, smart retail, healthcare, or AI education where remote AI data analysis capabilities are required.
AMD Confirms Ryzen 3 7440U Will Feature Hybrid Phoenix2 APU
Talking with XDA-Developers, AMD has confirmed more details about the upcoming Phoenix2 APU, which should debut with Ryzen 3 7440U and Ryzen 5 7540U APUs. Unlike the larger Phoenix APU, the Phoenix2 APU will have a hybrid design with Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores. As confirmed by AMD, the Phoenix2 APU will be a 6-core design, which makes it pretty clear it will feature two Zen 4 and four Zen 4c cores. It will also come with a Radeon 740M GPU with 4 RDNA3 compute units (CUs). The Phoenix2 APU will also lack the Ryzen AI core. Unlike Intel's hybrid approach, Zen 4c cores will have the same IPC as Zen 4, same instructions, but have less L3 cache per core.
AMD has previously confirmed that the Ryzen 3 7440U will have a smaller die size of 137 mm², compared to 178 mm² on the Ryzen 5 7640U. While AMD did not directly confirmed that the Ryzen 5 7540U will also be based on the Phoenix2 APU, official specification shows it with the same 4 GPU cores and without Ryzen AI core, making it pretty obvious it will be based on the same Phoenix2 APU. Hopefully, AMD will come up with more official details about its Phoenix2 APU as there are still a lot of unknowns.
AMD has previously confirmed that the Ryzen 3 7440U will have a smaller die size of 137 mm², compared to 178 mm² on the Ryzen 5 7640U. While AMD did not directly confirmed that the Ryzen 5 7540U will also be based on the Phoenix2 APU, official specification shows it with the same 4 GPU cores and without Ryzen AI core, making it pretty obvious it will be based on the same Phoenix2 APU. Hopefully, AMD will come up with more official details about its Phoenix2 APU as there are still a lot of unknowns.
Intel Refutes Alleged Core CPU Price Hikes, Current Prices Unchanged
Recent rumors suggested that Intel contemplated a price hike across all of its Core processors. This speculation originated from a forum staff member from PCGH who claimed to have received related information indicating a possible correspondence from Intel to its wholesalers about an impending price rise. In response to these rumors, Intel confirmed to HardwareLuxx that it has no plans to increase processor prices currently. The company stated that the Recommended Customer Price (RCP), which is generally quoted in US dollars for 1,000 unit prices as per their Ark database, will persist unchanged. Intel clarified that it hadn't shared such news with its customers or partners, nor was it considering a price change for its CPU portfolio at the moment.
The speculated price increase was reportedly associated with Intel's ongoing and planned factory constructions and company restructuring, according to PCGH. The need to refinance the 'fabs' was cited as the primary reason. Presently, Intel is streamlining its expenses, shutting down multiple smaller business areas, and investing significantly with state aid. However, it is doubtful that these reasons would be expressed in a wholesaler letter as grounds for price hikes. The PC market is currently sluggish, and though an uplift is predicted for the second half of this year, most segments of the PC market are still witnessing double-digit percentage reductions. In such a scenario, where buyers are becoming increasingly price-sensitive, and the market is trying to rebound, a price rise could be counterproductive.
The speculated price increase was reportedly associated with Intel's ongoing and planned factory constructions and company restructuring, according to PCGH. The need to refinance the 'fabs' was cited as the primary reason. Presently, Intel is streamlining its expenses, shutting down multiple smaller business areas, and investing significantly with state aid. However, it is doubtful that these reasons would be expressed in a wholesaler letter as grounds for price hikes. The PC market is currently sluggish, and though an uplift is predicted for the second half of this year, most segments of the PC market are still witnessing double-digit percentage reductions. In such a scenario, where buyers are becoming increasingly price-sensitive, and the market is trying to rebound, a price rise could be counterproductive.
NVIDIA H100 GPUs Now Available on AWS Cloud
AWS users can now access the leading performance demonstrated in industry benchmarks of AI training and inference. The cloud giant officially switched on a new Amazon EC2 P5 instance powered by NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs. The service lets users scale generative AI, high performance computing (HPC) and other applications with a click from a browser.
The news comes in the wake of AI's iPhone moment. Developers and researchers are using large language models (LLMs) to uncover new applications for AI almost daily. Bringing these new use cases to market requires the efficiency of accelerated computing. The NVIDIA H100 GPU delivers supercomputing-class performance through architectural innovations including fourth-generation Tensor Cores, a new Transformer Engine for accelerating LLMs and the latest NVLink technology that lets GPUs talk to each other at 900 GB/sec.
The news comes in the wake of AI's iPhone moment. Developers and researchers are using large language models (LLMs) to uncover new applications for AI almost daily. Bringing these new use cases to market requires the efficiency of accelerated computing. The NVIDIA H100 GPU delivers supercomputing-class performance through architectural innovations including fourth-generation Tensor Cores, a new Transformer Engine for accelerating LLMs and the latest NVLink technology that lets GPUs talk to each other at 900 GB/sec.
Samsung Electronics Announces Second Quarter 2023 Results
Samsung Electronics today reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023. The Company posted KRW 60.01 trillion in consolidated revenue, a 6% decline from the previous quarter, mainly due to a decline in smartphone shipments despite a slight recovery in revenue of the DS (Device Solutions) Division. Operating profit rose sequentially to KRW 0.67 trillion as the DS Division posted a narrower loss, while Samsung Display Corporation (SDC) and the Digital Appliances Business saw improved profitability.
The Memory Business saw results improve from the previous quarter as its focus on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and DDR5 products in anticipation of robust demand for AI applications led to higher-than-guided DRAM shipments. System semiconductors posted a decline in profit due to lower utilization rates on weak demand from major applications.
The Memory Business saw results improve from the previous quarter as its focus on High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) and DDR5 products in anticipation of robust demand for AI applications led to higher-than-guided DRAM shipments. System semiconductors posted a decline in profit due to lower utilization rates on weak demand from major applications.
COLORFUL Unveils iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC and RTX 4060 Ti Mini
Colorful Technology Company Limited, a professional manufacturer of graphics cards, motherboards, all-in-one gaming and multimedia solutions, and high-performance storage, unveils two new graphics cards - the iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC and iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Mini. The iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC features a hidden cable management design, a trending concept that is changing the standards of PC components today. COLORFUL also unveils the iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Mini OC 8 GB-V, the first compact model in the RTX 4060 Ti family.
The iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC features a different PCB design from the Ultra W model wherein the connector is hidden beneath the backplate. This allows builders to achieve tidier cabling, hiding the power cable from the visible side of the graphics card. The Ultra Z OC is compatible with most motherboards. For chassis, it is best paired with a case specifically designed to support this concept.
The iGame GeForce RTX 4070 Ultra Z OC features a different PCB design from the Ultra W model wherein the connector is hidden beneath the backplate. This allows builders to achieve tidier cabling, hiding the power cable from the visible side of the graphics card. The Ultra Z OC is compatible with most motherboards. For chassis, it is best paired with a case specifically designed to support this concept.
AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7985WX 64-core Processor Surfaces on PugetBench Database
AMD's upcoming Ryzen Threadripper PRO 7985WX "Storm Peak" workstation processor surfaced on Puget Systems PugetBench online database. The 7985WX is a 64-core/128-thread processor based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, that's configured with an 8-channel DDR5 memory interface (16 sub-channels), and a 128-lane PCI-Express Gen 5 root-complex. The processor was spotted running on an AMD internal development board codenamed "Boulder Gulch" (AMD uses weird internal codenames to back-trace leaks). The machine had a cool 256 GB of 8-channel DDR5-5600 memory, and an NVIDIA RTX A5000 GPU. AMD is planning to release the Ryzen 7000WX workstation processor series some time in October 2023.
MaxLinear Cancels Acquisition of Silicon Motion
In a surprise move, Maxlinear has cancelled its close to US$4 billion takeover of Silicon Motion, despite having received approval by China to finally acquire Silicon Motion. The two companies started their merger back in May of 2022, but over a year later, Maxlinear has announced that it has "exercised its contractual rights to terminate its May 5, 2022 merger agreement". The announcement saw a drop in Maxlinear's shares of about 12 percent and a 25 percent drop for Silicon Motion.
It's unclear as to why Maxlinear cancelled the deal, but the two companies don't appear to have clear synergies outside some storage products. That said, Maxlinear appears to blame Silicon Motion in a press release that the company issues. Among other things, Maxlinear states that "Silicon Motion has suffered a Material Adverse Effect that is continuing, Silicon Motion is in material breach of representations, warranties, covenants, and agreements in the Merger Agreement that give rise to the right of the Company to terminate". As to what this actually means, we'll most likely never find out, but as Maxlinear also points out, the merger was supposed to have been finished by the 23rd of May 2023, which means Maxlinear had the right to cancel the merger regardless.
It's unclear as to why Maxlinear cancelled the deal, but the two companies don't appear to have clear synergies outside some storage products. That said, Maxlinear appears to blame Silicon Motion in a press release that the company issues. Among other things, Maxlinear states that "Silicon Motion has suffered a Material Adverse Effect that is continuing, Silicon Motion is in material breach of representations, warranties, covenants, and agreements in the Merger Agreement that give rise to the right of the Company to terminate". As to what this actually means, we'll most likely never find out, but as Maxlinear also points out, the merger was supposed to have been finished by the 23rd of May 2023, which means Maxlinear had the right to cancel the merger regardless.
Wednesday, July 26th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cooling
Headphones
Monitors
Speakers
Remnant 2: DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS Comparison Review
Remnant 2 is out now, with support for NVIDIA DLSS Super Resolution and Frame Generation and DLAA. Also supported is Intel's Xe Super Sampling and AMD's FidelityFX Super Resolution. In this mini-review we compare the image quality and performance gains offered by these technologies.
Seagate Technology Reports Fiscal Fourth Quarter and Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results
Seagate Technology Holdings plc (NASDAQ: STX) today reported financial results for its fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year ended June 30, 2023. "Our fourth quarter and fiscal 2023 performance reflected the uneven pace of economic recovery in China, cloud inventory digestion, and cautious enterprise spending amid the uncertain macroeconomic environment. The proactive actions we've taken to lower costs, manage production output, reduce debt and drive operational leverage have underpinned resilient performance and solid cash generation, while continuing to advance our revolutionary HAMR technology," said Dave Mosley, Seagate's chief executive officer.
"Through our actions, Seagate is now leaner, our balance sheet healthier, and our product roadmap even stronger, positioning the company to weather the near-term business environment, deliver financial leverage, and capture attractive long-term opportunities for Mass Capacity storage."
"Through our actions, Seagate is now leaner, our balance sheet healthier, and our product roadmap even stronger, positioning the company to weather the near-term business environment, deliver financial leverage, and capture attractive long-term opportunities for Mass Capacity storage."
Nixxes Software Celebrates Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart's PC Launch Day
Hey everyone, today we are celebrating the launch of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC. Back in 2002, Insomniac Games released the first Ratchet & Clank game on PlayStation. It's been two decades since the series first evolved into an iconic franchise on PlayStation consoles, and now for the very first time, Ratchet and his friends and foes are making the jump to a new platform.
On behalf of everyone at Nixxes Software, we can't wait to hear about your experiences with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC and look forward to seeing your Photo Mode results. You can help us find your posts by using the hashtag #RatchetPC when sharing your experiences and creations on social media.
On behalf of everyone at Nixxes Software, we can't wait to hear about your experiences with Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC and look forward to seeing your Photo Mode results. You can help us find your posts by using the hashtag #RatchetPC when sharing your experiences and creations on social media.
ASRock Site Lists Previously Leaked Arc A770 Phantom Gaming 16 GB OC Card
A Newegg product page popped up last week, giving us a first glimpse at ASRock's Phantom Gaming Arc A770 16 GB graphics card. The e-tailer had no stock available on July 20, but the listing included an asking price of $329.99 (MSRP is $349). The Taiwanese manufacturer was radio silent at the time—no press material was released, and their own website was not updated with a product page for the 16 GB variant of its existing custom Alchemist design.
The ASRock Arc A770 Phantom Gaming 16 GB OC model's page is now live and fully accessible, and Newegg appears to have units in stock. TPU has not received any fresh PR material, so ASRock is seemingly taking a quiet approach to their new product's launch. The spec sheet shows that the card's memory clock comes in at 17.5 Gbps, which makes it a good alternative to Intel's recently discontinued A770 Limited Edition. It joins Acer's competing Predator BiFrost model in an exclusive club—these are the only 16 GB A770 custom design graphics cards available in the West.
The ASRock Arc A770 Phantom Gaming 16 GB OC model's page is now live and fully accessible, and Newegg appears to have units in stock. TPU has not received any fresh PR material, so ASRock is seemingly taking a quiet approach to their new product's launch. The spec sheet shows that the card's memory clock comes in at 17.5 Gbps, which makes it a good alternative to Intel's recently discontinued A770 Limited Edition. It joins Acer's competing Predator BiFrost model in an exclusive club—these are the only 16 GB A770 custom design graphics cards available in the West.
Lenovo Introduces New Tab P12 and Tab M10 5G Tablets
Lenovo is introducing two new additions to its lineup of consumer tablets powered by Android, the Lenovo Tab P12 and Lenovo Tab M10 5G, made for more versatility and enhanced personal time. These devices, combining entertainment, learning tools, and added mobility, are engineered to meet the wide-ranging demands of consumers today, no matter where life takes them.
The Lenovo Tab P12 is the essential back-to-school device for high school and college-age students, with its blend of learning and playtime capabilities. It has a large 12.7-inch 3K display for both video watching and web browsing, a JBL speaker system and Dolby Atmos, which delivers a richer, multidimensional audio experience that brings out more depth, clarity, and details from entertainment. Its battery life supports extended usage for both learning and fun. The Lenovo Tab P12 stands out for its compatibility with the new Lenovo Tab Pen Plus and ThinkPad-inspired keyboard to facilitate smarter ways to learn. The large display can be split for multitasking—taking notes for an online class or viewing a document, while a specialized reading mode and eye care feature support long, immersive study sessions. The Lenovo Tab M10 5G is specifically designed to cater to highly mobile consumers who want convenience without having to worry about staying connected. This always-connected tablet provides rapid 5G connectivity and sustained battery life on a 10.61-inch 2K screen.
The Lenovo Tab P12 is the essential back-to-school device for high school and college-age students, with its blend of learning and playtime capabilities. It has a large 12.7-inch 3K display for both video watching and web browsing, a JBL speaker system and Dolby Atmos, which delivers a richer, multidimensional audio experience that brings out more depth, clarity, and details from entertainment. Its battery life supports extended usage for both learning and fun. The Lenovo Tab P12 stands out for its compatibility with the new Lenovo Tab Pen Plus and ThinkPad-inspired keyboard to facilitate smarter ways to learn. The large display can be split for multitasking—taking notes for an online class or viewing a document, while a specialized reading mode and eye care feature support long, immersive study sessions. The Lenovo Tab M10 5G is specifically designed to cater to highly mobile consumers who want convenience without having to worry about staying connected. This always-connected tablet provides rapid 5G connectivity and sustained battery life on a 10.61-inch 2K screen.
Microsoft Introduces a New Xbox Home Experience
Starting today, a new Home experience is rolling out to all Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles. This update is designed from player feedback and makes it easier to discover new games, rediscover games you already love, connect with communities, and create a more personalized experience.
We're excited to share more about the journey that led us here, and what you can expect with this new update.
We're excited to share more about the journey that led us here, and what you can expect with this new update.
Apple's 15-inch MacBook Air Unit Sales Reportedly Lower than Expected
Apple introduced its 15‑inch MacBook Air at June's WWDC23 event—the giant multinational technology had taken feedback from its customer base, and followed through by rolling out a larger version of the existing M2-based 13-inch model. That appeasement could be a wasted effort, given the latest rumors emerging from Asia. DigiTimes has gathered information from sources within Apple's supply chain—they claim that "the 15-inch MacBook Air...reportedly didn't meet customer demand expectations. There are even calls for the supply chain to put shipments on hold."
The 15-inch MacBook Air's shipment volume for July is reportedly 50% short of the company's original projection, with a broad downturn in the global notebook market factoring in as a reason for sluggish sales. The model's $1299 starting price appears to be quite reasonable at first glance, but the entry point only gives you a spec consisting of non-upgradable 8 GB (unified) RAM and 256 GB solid state storage. A discerning buyer is semi-forced to shell out closer to $2000 for a more competitive configuration, comparable to the closest Window 11 slimline laptops. The high asking prices, on top of a mixed reception around launch time have done the 15-inch MacBook Air few favors. Apple enthusiasts are probably saving up and waiting for the arrival of upcoming M3 chipset-equipped models. DigiTimes reckons that an "upcoming announcement" regarding a next-gen MacBook Pro is due very soon.
The 15-inch MacBook Air's shipment volume for July is reportedly 50% short of the company's original projection, with a broad downturn in the global notebook market factoring in as a reason for sluggish sales. The model's $1299 starting price appears to be quite reasonable at first glance, but the entry point only gives you a spec consisting of non-upgradable 8 GB (unified) RAM and 256 GB solid state storage. A discerning buyer is semi-forced to shell out closer to $2000 for a more competitive configuration, comparable to the closest Window 11 slimline laptops. The high asking prices, on top of a mixed reception around launch time have done the 15-inch MacBook Air few favors. Apple enthusiasts are probably saving up and waiting for the arrival of upcoming M3 chipset-equipped models. DigiTimes reckons that an "upcoming announcement" regarding a next-gen MacBook Pro is due very soon.
Dead by Daylight's Nicolas Cage Chapter Pack Out Now
Dead by Daylight's Nicolas Cage Chapter Pack features a new Survivor, legendary actor Nicolas Cage in his deadliest role yet. Purchasing this add-on unlocks an exclusive Cosmetic: Teal Jacket as well as the Very Rare Gorgon Drip Outfit for Nicolas Cage.
The new Survivor is Nicolas Cage
Countless awards. Over one hundred films. Nicolas Cage had done it all and seen it all...or so he thought. When a mysterious screenplay for "Descend Beyond" landed on his desk, he signed on without hesitation. While filming, Nick performed his dialogue with gravitas, a dark incantation that rolled off his tongue with ease. He dipped his fingers in a cup of red ink and painted symbols on the stone altar. He was so immersed he barely noticed the tendrils of black Fog slowly creeping toward him...
The new Survivor is Nicolas Cage
Countless awards. Over one hundred films. Nicolas Cage had done it all and seen it all...or so he thought. When a mysterious screenplay for "Descend Beyond" landed on his desk, he signed on without hesitation. While filming, Nick performed his dialogue with gravitas, a dark incantation that rolled off his tongue with ease. He dipped his fingers in a cup of red ink and painted symbols on the stone altar. He was so immersed he barely noticed the tendrils of black Fog slowly creeping toward him...
Newegg's PC Builder ChatGPT Plugin Tested
Newegg released its PC Builder ChatGPT Plugin yesterday, and former TPU writer—Francisco Pires—decided to put it through the proverbial ringer. His hands-on adventures with AI-assisted PC build suggestions were documented in a Tom's Hardware article. Initial impressions are a mixed bag—he brings in a metaphor to describe his experience: "it was akin to entering Alice in Wonderland (the Tim Burton version): everything's interesting and somewhat faithful, but laid out in just the wrong way." The beta version (released back in March) proved to be a confusing mess, according to Avram Piltch, Editor-in-Chief at Tom's Hardware.
Pires proposed that the tool is decent enough for fledgling PC build novices to utilize, but the chatbot was found to overvalue certain components: "the typical price for the Radeon RX 6700 XT hovers around the $330-$370 range so the $558.99 MSI card the bot recommends is overpriced by more than $230!" The assistant also struggled to keep a suggested system build within a specified $1000 budget, the total was stretched to $1123.09. He also discovered some quirks related to the assistant's (apparently) incomplete GPU model database: "why did ChatGPT suggest a GeForce RTX 4060 for the build, if its knowledge cut-off is set at September 2021?" The plugin seems to have scraped information about newer products from Newegg's store, but the bot's full text answer (see the attached screenshot) provides a comparison between older generations.
Pires proposed that the tool is decent enough for fledgling PC build novices to utilize, but the chatbot was found to overvalue certain components: "the typical price for the Radeon RX 6700 XT hovers around the $330-$370 range so the $558.99 MSI card the bot recommends is overpriced by more than $230!" The assistant also struggled to keep a suggested system build within a specified $1000 budget, the total was stretched to $1123.09. He also discovered some quirks related to the assistant's (apparently) incomplete GPU model database: "why did ChatGPT suggest a GeForce RTX 4060 for the build, if its knowledge cut-off is set at September 2021?" The plugin seems to have scraped information about newer products from Newegg's store, but the bot's full text answer (see the attached screenshot) provides a comparison between older generations.
IBM Receives Department of Defense's Accreditation for Embedded Security Services
IBM today announced that it has received an additional Trusted Supplier accreditation from the Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Microelectronics Activity (DMEA) for delivery of embedded security services customized for a U.S.-based advanced microelectronics manufacturer. IBM Consulting's accredited security services were previously recognized with the prestigious James S. Cogswell Outstanding Industrial Security Achievement Award for overall security program excellence in 2022.
Microelectronics are used in most defense technology platforms—from mobile devices to computers and advanced weapons systems. This makes microelectronics supply chains critical to our national security and economic prosperity. However, they also represent one of the most complex defense-critical supply chains to secure because of their global reach and manufacturing. IBM Consulting's award-winning accredited security services takes this complexity into account, allowing for not only the identification, but also the remediation of microelectronics supply chain vulnerabilities.
Microelectronics are used in most defense technology platforms—from mobile devices to computers and advanced weapons systems. This makes microelectronics supply chains critical to our national security and economic prosperity. However, they also represent one of the most complex defense-critical supply chains to secure because of their global reach and manufacturing. IBM Consulting's award-winning accredited security services takes this complexity into account, allowing for not only the identification, but also the remediation of microelectronics supply chain vulnerabilities.
Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters' Execution Force DLC Available Now
We do not determine the guilty; we do not decide the punishment; we are merely the cold instruments of the Emperor's vengeance. There is no form of death unknown to us; there is no form of terror beyond our means; there is no enemy outside our reach. We are the blade that hovers over the throat of the traitor; we are the bullet that awaits the heretic's skull; we are the poison in the throat of the alien.
The Officio Assassinorum have arrived. Our second major DLC, Execution Force is now available to all players via Steam and the Epic Games Store. This DLC brings the might of four unique Assassin units to your disposal. Use them wisely in combination with your Grey Knights to decimate Nurgle's despicable plague. Alongside Execution Force comes Update XIII, which brings a swathe of its own new content and changes. Notably a new squad of enemies, the Tainted Sons have entered the fray, posing a new fearsome challenge.
The Officio Assassinorum have arrived. Our second major DLC, Execution Force is now available to all players via Steam and the Epic Games Store. This DLC brings the might of four unique Assassin units to your disposal. Use them wisely in combination with your Grey Knights to decimate Nurgle's despicable plague. Alongside Execution Force comes Update XIII, which brings a swathe of its own new content and changes. Notably a new squad of enemies, the Tainted Sons have entered the fray, posing a new fearsome challenge.
Official AMD Phoenix Drivers Documented in Adrenalin 23.7.2 Notes
RubyRapids and westlake tipped off VideoCardz to the presence of interesting information sitting within the latest AMD Adrenalin update notes—its integrated driver compatibility list has been expanded with the addition of a mobile-oriented iGPU Radeon 700M family (780M, 760M and 740M). It seems that Team Red's Phoenix series will be included in the main branch, and not be limited to OEM distribution for software improvements. A public driver release schedule for the Radeon 700M series will provide gamers with access to official updates through normal channels, with the benefit of—hopefully—no major delays.
VideoCardz reckons that an integration into the main branch means: "that whether the GPU being updated relies on RDNA3 in a discrete GPU or as an integrated solution, it will be fully supported through one package. The latest 23.7.2 driver now supports Radeon 7000 desktop and mobile, AMD Ryzen 7045 Dragon Range, Ryzen 7040U and Ryzen 7040HS series." The ASUS ROG Ally's Ryzen Z1 series seems to be the exception, since AMD has not included these APUs in the latest list of supported devices. Folks who have pored over the document have discovered up to "517 devices listed on the hardware support list, including PCI Device IDs and sub-IDs." Many Phoenix APU models are seemingly destined for fitting in a wide variety of laptops and (very likely handheld) gaming consoles. A mysterious model—Ryzen 7 7840S—was also spotted. This looks to be a Lenovo-specific 8-core Ryzen processor based on Phoenix silicon—ITHome believes that it utilizes a customized FP8 package.
VideoCardz reckons that an integration into the main branch means: "that whether the GPU being updated relies on RDNA3 in a discrete GPU or as an integrated solution, it will be fully supported through one package. The latest 23.7.2 driver now supports Radeon 7000 desktop and mobile, AMD Ryzen 7045 Dragon Range, Ryzen 7040U and Ryzen 7040HS series." The ASUS ROG Ally's Ryzen Z1 series seems to be the exception, since AMD has not included these APUs in the latest list of supported devices. Folks who have pored over the document have discovered up to "517 devices listed on the hardware support list, including PCI Device IDs and sub-IDs." Many Phoenix APU models are seemingly destined for fitting in a wide variety of laptops and (very likely handheld) gaming consoles. A mysterious model—Ryzen 7 7840S—was also spotted. This looks to be a Lenovo-specific 8-core Ryzen processor based on Phoenix silicon—ITHome believes that it utilizes a customized FP8 package.
Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon Gameplay Previewed via in-depth Trailer
Bandai Namco Entertainment and FromSoftware, Inc. (ELDEN RING, DARK SOULS) have revealed a new extended gameplay walkthrough trailer for ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON. Narrated by the developers, the video is the deepest look yet at the game's intense action, sprawling levels and challenging battle sequences.
As the video showcases, success in ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON will come from tinkering with highly customizable mech builds, a signature feature of the series, and learning the right strategies and techniques such as staggering enemies with the right weapons, combining ranged and melee attacks, and taking every advantage in battle.
As the video showcases, success in ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON will come from tinkering with highly customizable mech builds, a signature feature of the series, and learning the right strategies and techniques such as staggering enemies with the right weapons, combining ranged and melee attacks, and taking every advantage in battle.
Intel Arc Linux Gaming Performance Boosted by Vastly Improved Vulkan Drivers
Intel's Alchemist engineering team has been working on improving its open-source Vulkan drivers for Linux—recent coverage from Phoronix shows that Team Blue's hard work is paying off, especially in the area of gaming performance. The site's founder, Michael Larabel, approves of the latest Mesa work produced by Intel engineers, and has commended them on their efforts to better the Arc Graphics family. His mid-month testings—on a Linux 6.4-based system running an Intel Arc A770 GPU—demonstrated a "~10% speed-up for the Intel Arc Graphics on Linux." He has benchmarked this system again over the past weekend, following the release of a new set of optimizations for Mesa 23.3-devel: "The latest performance boost for Intel graphics on Linux is by supporting the I915_FORMAT_MOD_4_TILED_DG2_RC_CCS modifier. Indeed it's panning out nicely for furthering the Intel Arc Graphics Vulkan performance."
He apologized for the limited selection of games, due to: "the Intel Linux graphics driver still not having sparse support in place, but at least that will hopefully be here in the coming months when the Intel Xe kernel driver is upstreamed. Another recent promising development for the Intel open-source graphics driver support is fake sparse support to at least help some games and that code will hopefully be merged soon." First up was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive—thanks to the optimized Vulkan drivers it: "enjoyed another nice boost to the performance as a result of this latest code. For CS Linux gamers, it's great seeing the 21% boost just over the past month."
He apologized for the limited selection of games, due to: "the Intel Linux graphics driver still not having sparse support in place, but at least that will hopefully be here in the coming months when the Intel Xe kernel driver is upstreamed. Another recent promising development for the Intel open-source graphics driver support is fake sparse support to at least help some games and that code will hopefully be merged soon." First up was Counter-Strike: Global Offensive—thanks to the optimized Vulkan drivers it: "enjoyed another nice boost to the performance as a result of this latest code. For CS Linux gamers, it's great seeing the 21% boost just over the past month."
Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy Powers Samsung's Newest Flagship Device Lineup
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. announced that its flagship Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 Mobile Platform for Galaxy is powering Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.'s new cutting-edge foldable smartphones, the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold5 and Galaxy Z Flip5, and its latest Galaxy Tab S9 Series. Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy defines a new standard for connected computing, including groundbreaking AI experiences, desktop-level gaming features, professional grade photography, and more, for consumers around the world.
"Samsung is important to our mission to deliver the world's best mobile experiences to consumers. They continue to set the pace for innovation and we couldn't be more thrilled to have Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy power the newest flagship Galaxy device lineup—the Galaxy Z Flip5, Galaxy Z Fold5, and Galaxy Tab S9 series," said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, compute, & XR businesses, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
"Samsung is important to our mission to deliver the world's best mobile experiences to consumers. They continue to set the pace for innovation and we couldn't be more thrilled to have Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy power the newest flagship Galaxy device lineup—the Galaxy Z Flip5, Galaxy Z Fold5, and Galaxy Tab S9 series," said Alex Katouzian, senior vice president and general manager, mobile, compute, & XR businesses, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.
NEO Semiconductor to Present Its Ground-Breaking 3D NAND and 3D DRAM Architectures at Flash Memory Summit 2023
NEO Semiconductor, a leading developer of innovative technologies for 3D NAND flash and DRAM memory, today announced its participation at Flash Memory Summit 2023, taking place in person in Santa Clara, California, on August 8-10. CEO, Andy Hsu, will deliver a keynote address titled "New Architectures which will Drive Future 3D NAND and 3D DRAM Solutions" on August 9th at 11:40 a.m. Pacific Time.
Earlier this year, Neo Semiconductor announced the launch of its ground-breaking technology, 3D X-DRAM. This development is the world's first 3D NAND-like DRAM cell array that is targeted to solve DRAM's capacity bottleneck and replace the entire 2D DRAM market. 3D X-DRAM can be manufactured using the existing 3D NAND flash memory process with minor changes, significantly reducing the time and cost spent developing a new 3D process. During the keynote, Mr. Hsu will reveal the 3D X-DRAM process flow and technical details.
Earlier this year, Neo Semiconductor announced the launch of its ground-breaking technology, 3D X-DRAM. This development is the world's first 3D NAND-like DRAM cell array that is targeted to solve DRAM's capacity bottleneck and replace the entire 2D DRAM market. 3D X-DRAM can be manufactured using the existing 3D NAND flash memory process with minor changes, significantly reducing the time and cost spent developing a new 3D process. During the keynote, Mr. Hsu will reveal the 3D X-DRAM process flow and technical details.
Angry Cat Studios Launches USC: Counterforce
Developer Angry Cat Studios and Publisher Firesquid have officially launched their turn-based squad tactics title USC: Counterforce into Early Access on Steam. With hours of gameplay already available, players that dive into the game will be able to join a deep strategical experience with multiple missions, customizable commando forces and a powerful alien threat to destroy.
Taking inspiration from the likes of UFO/XCOM, Space Hulk and the Aliens series, USC: Counterforce has players controlling a group of geared-up commandos tasked with investigating an alien threat on the planetary body M-8322. Utilizing USC: Counterforce's advanced squad management interface with a class-free skill system and passive abilities, players must master combat and find the perfect combination of skills in order to keep back this alien threat. Bring along a friend to bring home glory using local co-op mode (hot seat or remote play together).
Taking inspiration from the likes of UFO/XCOM, Space Hulk and the Aliens series, USC: Counterforce has players controlling a group of geared-up commandos tasked with investigating an alien threat on the planetary body M-8322. Utilizing USC: Counterforce's advanced squad management interface with a class-free skill system and passive abilities, players must master combat and find the perfect combination of skills in order to keep back this alien threat. Bring along a friend to bring home glory using local co-op mode (hot seat or remote play together).
Sony Could Roll Out PlayStation 5 Summer Price Cuts Across More Territories
Sony has implemented a time limited price reduction for its PlayStation 5 Standard/Disc Edition console in Spain, Portugal, France and Italy—according to billbil-kun (writing for Dealabs magazine) the time limited summer promotion is going to reach Germany, Great Britain and the United States shortly. The campaign has been running since mid-July, and customers in eligible regions have (so far) enjoyed a €75 reduction, bringing the standard PS5 model's price down to as low as €450 (~$498). Dealabs believes that that some of these regional offers have already ended (as of July 24).
The article seems to source some insider information, with very specific discount figures presented for the next batch of participants—German customers are set to get the aforementioned standard European €75 reduction, bringing the PS5's price down to €474.99 (from €549.99). UK gamers get £75 off, so £404.99 total (reduced from £479.99). US folks are lined up for a less generous $50 cut—due to Sony not implementing PS5 price increases for that market—resulting in $449.99 (instead of $499.99). Billbil-kun reckons that the following retail outlets will be taking part in the campaign's next phase: PlayStation Store/PlayStation Direct, Amazon, MediaMarkt, Target and GAME UK. The timing of these temporary cuts could point to Sony responding to Microsoft's unpopular decision to jack up asking prices for the Xbox Series X console, as well as Game Pass subscription fees.
The article seems to source some insider information, with very specific discount figures presented for the next batch of participants—German customers are set to get the aforementioned standard European €75 reduction, bringing the PS5's price down to €474.99 (from €549.99). UK gamers get £75 off, so £404.99 total (reduced from £479.99). US folks are lined up for a less generous $50 cut—due to Sony not implementing PS5 price increases for that market—resulting in $449.99 (instead of $499.99). Billbil-kun reckons that the following retail outlets will be taking part in the campaign's next phase: PlayStation Store/PlayStation Direct, Amazon, MediaMarkt, Target and GAME UK. The timing of these temporary cuts could point to Sony responding to Microsoft's unpopular decision to jack up asking prices for the Xbox Series X console, as well as Game Pass subscription fees.
Micron Delivers Industry's Fastest, Highest-Capacity HBM to Advance Generative AI Innovation
Micron Technology, Inc. today announced it has begun sampling the industry's first 8-high 24 GB HBM3 Gen2 memory with bandwidth greater than 1.2 TB/s and pin speed over 9.2 Gb/s, which is up to a 50% improvement over currently shipping HBM3 solutions. With a 2.5 times performance per watt improvement over previous generations, Micron's HBM3 Gen2 offering sets new records for the critical artificial intelligence (AI) data center metrics of performance, capacity and power efficiency. These Micron improvements reduce training times of large language models like GPT-4 and beyond, deliver efficient infrastructure use for AI inference and provide superior total cost of ownership (TCO).
The foundation of Micron's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) solution is Micron's industry-leading 1β (1-beta) DRAM process node, which allows a 24Gb DRAM die to be assembled into an 8-high cube within an industry-standard package dimension. Moreover, Micron's 12-high stack with 36 GB capacity will begin sampling in the first quarter of calendar 2024. Micron provides 50% more capacity for a given stack height compared to existing competitive solutions. Micron's HBM3 Gen2 performance-to-power ratio and pin speed improvements are critical for managing the extreme power demands of today's AI data centers. The improved power efficiency is possible because of Micron advancements such as doubling of the through-silicon vias (TSVs) over competitive HBM3 offerings, thermal impedance reduction through a five-time increase in metal density, and an energy-efficient data path design.
The foundation of Micron's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) solution is Micron's industry-leading 1β (1-beta) DRAM process node, which allows a 24Gb DRAM die to be assembled into an 8-high cube within an industry-standard package dimension. Moreover, Micron's 12-high stack with 36 GB capacity will begin sampling in the first quarter of calendar 2024. Micron provides 50% more capacity for a given stack height compared to existing competitive solutions. Micron's HBM3 Gen2 performance-to-power ratio and pin speed improvements are critical for managing the extreme power demands of today's AI data centers. The improved power efficiency is possible because of Micron advancements such as doubling of the through-silicon vias (TSVs) over competitive HBM3 offerings, thermal impedance reduction through a five-time increase in metal density, and an energy-efficient data path design.
Microsoft Flight Simulator's Central Eastern Europe Content Update Out Now
Microsoft Flight Simulator World Update XIV: Central Eastern Europe captures the majesty, charm and allure of Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. The region bristles with history, architectural wonders, and stunning scenery. The Central Eastern Europe countries beckon exploration from above with never-before-seen fidelity.
Microsoft Flight Simulator assembled fresh, full-coverage aerial imagery, digital elevation data and more from our partners at Bing Maps and Maxar to create this update. World Update XIV includes 103 points of interest (POIs): 18 in Czechia, 15 in Slovakia, 19 in Hungary, 15 in Slovenia, 23 in Croatia, and 13 in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Castles, towers, and churches, among other sights, all brilliantly reproduced and awaiting discovery from the air in this update.
Microsoft Flight Simulator assembled fresh, full-coverage aerial imagery, digital elevation data and more from our partners at Bing Maps and Maxar to create this update. World Update XIV includes 103 points of interest (POIs): 18 in Czechia, 15 in Slovakia, 19 in Hungary, 15 in Slovenia, 23 in Croatia, and 13 in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Castles, towers, and churches, among other sights, all brilliantly reproduced and awaiting discovery from the air in this update.
Intel 14th Gen Core i3 CPUs Rumoured to Remain Quad Core Chips
According to a post by Twitter/X leaker @g01d3nm4ng0, it looks like Intel has no intention of giving its 14th gen Core i3 processors more than four cores. We'd take this leak with the usual helping of seasoning, but the leaker does provide details on what is expected to be most of Intel's non-K SKU 14th gen lineup, including clock speeds. If correct, then most of the 14th gen Core processors will see a 200 MHz boost speed clock increase over their 13th gen counterparts, with the exception of the Core i5-14400 which only gets a 100 MHz increase.
The non-K CPUs follow a familiar pattern to previous generation Intel chips, with the Core i9 and Core i7 parts being 200 MHz slower than their K SKU variants, with the Core i5 being 100 MHz slower. The only other noteworthy piece of information in this leak, is that the Core i7-14700 gets the same extra four E-Cores, just as its K SKU variant, or four more E-Cores than the Core i7-13700. At this point in time it's just plain weird that Intel hasn't added E-Cores to its Core i3 range of desktop chips, as even the lowest-end Core i5 SKU sports six P-Cores and four E-Cores since the 13th gen, so the Core i3 should be a 4+4 chip by now, but it seems like Intel has other plans for the i3-14100/F.
The non-K CPUs follow a familiar pattern to previous generation Intel chips, with the Core i9 and Core i7 parts being 200 MHz slower than their K SKU variants, with the Core i5 being 100 MHz slower. The only other noteworthy piece of information in this leak, is that the Core i7-14700 gets the same extra four E-Cores, just as its K SKU variant, or four more E-Cores than the Core i7-13700. At this point in time it's just plain weird that Intel hasn't added E-Cores to its Core i3 range of desktop chips, as even the lowest-end Core i5 SKU sports six P-Cores and four E-Cores since the 13th gen, so the Core i3 should be a 4+4 chip by now, but it seems like Intel has other plans for the i3-14100/F.
Thermaltake Announces ToughAir 710 Black Dual Fin-stack CPU Cooler
In addition to the SWAFAN EX ARGB series, Thermaltake today announced the ToughAir 710 Black CPU cooler. Capable of handling thermal loads of 250 W, this dual fin-stack cooler is a variant of the ToughAir 710 that Thermaltake announced in March 2023, but while the original uses regular aluminium fins, the ToughAir 710 Black uses anodized aluminium fins. The black color scheme covers not just the anodized aluminium fins, but also each of the seven 6 mm-thick nickel-plated copper heatpipes, the top-plates on each of the two fin-stacks, much of the retention module, and the base, with the exception of the cold-plate itself. The two included ToughFan 14 fans appear to be unchanged, since black frames and gray impellers were part of their design even on the original ToughAir 710. Measuring 148.6 mm x 146.6 mm x 165 mm (LxWxH), the cooler is expected to weigh around the 1 kg-mark.
Samsung Also Launches the Galaxy Tab S9
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. announces its new Galaxy Tab S9 series, a premium product portfolio that redefines the tablet landscape and sets new standards for immersive viewing and creative freedom. Across all three models, Galaxy Tab S9, S9+ and S9 Ultra, Dynamic AMOLED 2X displays ensure epic viewing and entertainment experiences with the power of Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy. An in-box, IP68-rated S Pen helps users bring their ideas to life. And as the first Galaxy Tab S series to earn an IP68 rating, Galaxy Tab S9 series enables users to follow their inspiration, both indoors and out.
"There are no devices like the Galaxy Tab S9 series on the market today. A true disrupter in its category, it is the first of its kind to deliver experiences that users love most about tablets in one complete premium design," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "The Galaxy Tab S9 series empowers users to take their big ideas and bring them to life, completely effortlessly."
"There are no devices like the Galaxy Tab S9 series on the market today. A true disrupter in its category, it is the first of its kind to deliver experiences that users love most about tablets in one complete premium design," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "The Galaxy Tab S9 series empowers users to take their big ideas and bring them to life, completely effortlessly."
Samsung Launches the Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. today announced its fifth generation of Galaxy foldables: Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5. The industry-leading form factors offer unique experiences for every user with sleek and compact designs, countless customization options, and powerful performance. The new Flex Hinge makes the foldable experience possible, while offering an aesthetically balanced and solid design. These unrivalled foldable devices unlock extraordinary camera capabilities such as FlexCam to take photos from creative angles. With strong performance and an optimized battery powered by the latest processor, the Samsung Galaxy Z series transforms what is possible with a smartphone - open or closed.
"Samsung is revolutionizing the mobile industry with foldables by setting the standard and continually refining the experience," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Every day, more people choose our foldables because they offer an experience people want that they can't get on any other device. Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 are the latest devices that prove our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers through innovative technology."
"Samsung is revolutionizing the mobile industry with foldables by setting the standard and continually refining the experience," said TM Roh, President and Head of Mobile eXperience Business at Samsung Electronics. "Every day, more people choose our foldables because they offer an experience people want that they can't get on any other device. Galaxy Z Flip5 and Galaxy Z Fold5 are the latest devices that prove our commitment to meeting the needs of our customers through innovative technology."
Report: ASUS to Start Production of GPUs With No External Power Connectors
We witnessed an exciting concept during the Computex 2023 show in late May. ASUS has developed a GPU without an external power connector called GC_HPWR. Unlike current solutions, this connection type doesn't require additional cables. Using the GC_HPWR means that power is being supplied directly from the motherboard and that these special-edition GPUs also require special-edition motherboards. Thanks to the latest information from the Bilibili content creator Eixa Studio, attending Bilibili World 2023 exhibition in Shanghai, China, we have information that ASUS is preparing mass production of these zero-cable GPU solutions. Scheduled to enter mass production in Fall, ASUS plans to deliver these GPUs and accompanying motherboards before the year ends.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the motherboard lineup is called Back To Future (BTF), and the first GPU showcased was the GeForce RTX 4070 Megalodon. The PSU connectors are placed on the back side of the BTF board, while the CG_HPWR connector sits right next to the PCIe x16 expansion slot and looks like a PCIe x1 connector. You can see images of both products below.
Additionally, it is worth noting that the motherboard lineup is called Back To Future (BTF), and the first GPU showcased was the GeForce RTX 4070 Megalodon. The PSU connectors are placed on the back side of the BTF board, while the CG_HPWR connector sits right next to the PCIe x16 expansion slot and looks like a PCIe x1 connector. You can see images of both products below.
AMD Software Adrenalin 23.7.2 WHQL Released
AMD has released the latest Adrenalin 23.7.2 WHQL drivers. The release notes include several fixed issues, including those seen in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II when Radeon Anti-Lag is enabled, as well as issues with higher GPU Memory Utilization when using certain record and stream settings like instant replay, corruption seen with some player models while playing Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix+ on certain AMD graphics cards, issue with audio getting out of sync with video when recording from AMD Software: Adrenalin Edition with AVC and HEVC codecs, and display signal issues after switching windows on certain Adaptive-Sync enabled monitors with some AMD graphics cards like the Radeon RX 7900 XTX.
The release notes also include a note that factory reset has been temporarily disabled as a precautionary measure due to isolated installation issues during PC upgrades, and AMD Cleanup Utility can be used as a temporary option. AMD also notes that it is working with game developers of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to resolve stability issues in the game when ray tracing is enabled, so we expect an update soon.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.7.2 WHQL
The release notes also include a note that factory reset has been temporarily disabled as a precautionary measure due to isolated installation issues during PC upgrades, and AMD Cleanup Utility can be used as a temporary option. AMD also notes that it is working with game developers of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart to resolve stability issues in the game when ray tracing is enabled, so we expect an update soon.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.7.2 WHQL
Thermaltake Announces the SWAFAN EX12/EX14 ARGB PC Cooling Fan
Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Case, Power, Cooling, Gaming peripherals, and enthusiast Memory solutions, is delighted to launch the SWAFAN EX12/EX14 ARGB PC Cooling Fan in black and white versions, the latest edition of the beloved SWAFAN series. Featuring an innovative magnetic force design, up to five SWAFAN EX ARGB fans can be connected effortlessly with the magnetic connectors on the fans via a single cable, providing exceptional cable management. The SWAFAN EX ARGB incorporates the iconic swappable fan blade design of the SWAFAN lineup, which can generate different airflow directions easily. On top of that, this fan comes with 20 addressable LEDs for you to customize splendid ARGB lighting with 5 V motherboard sync software, showing your own style.
Don't want to worry about organizing multiple cables while assembling your PC? The SWAFAN EX ARGB with magnetic quick connection design is an excellent solution. The fan frames and cables come with magnetic connectors, allowing users quickly daisy-chain fans without a sophisticated process. The SWAFAN EX ARGB comes in a 3-fan pack with three cables, so you can freely install the fans based on your preference. You can minimize excessive cables to retain a clean layout inside the chassis and reduce the possibility of disconnections caused by moving cables, ultimately allowing you to achieve superior cable management.
Don't want to worry about organizing multiple cables while assembling your PC? The SWAFAN EX ARGB with magnetic quick connection design is an excellent solution. The fan frames and cables come with magnetic connectors, allowing users quickly daisy-chain fans without a sophisticated process. The SWAFAN EX ARGB comes in a 3-fan pack with three cables, so you can freely install the fans based on your preference. You can minimize excessive cables to retain a clean layout inside the chassis and reduce the possibility of disconnections caused by moving cables, ultimately allowing you to achieve superior cable management.
Thermalright Intros Assassin X 120 PLUS V2 CPU Cooler
Thermalright introduced the Assassin X 120 PLUS V2 tower-type CPU cooler. This is a spruced up version of the company's Assassin X series coolers, featuring a thicker fin-stack compared to the original Assassin X; four nickel-plated copper heatpipes that disperse in a unique "square" pattern through the fin-stack; a fancy die-cast aluminium top-plate for the heatsink; and two included 120 mm fans intended to be installed in a push-pull configuration (most of the Assassin X series coolers include just one).
The cooler uses a nickel-plated copper base, from which four 6 mm-thick copper heatpipes make their way through the aluminium fin-stack. The two included fans are of different types. The TL-C12B V2 fan meant for the "push" arrangement features a fluid-dynamic bearing, takes in 4-pin PWM input, turns at speeds of up to 1,500 RPM, pushing up to 66.17 CFM of airflow, at 1.53 mm H₂O static pressure, and a maximum noise output of 25.6 dBA. The TL-C12RB V2 meant for the "pull" has mostly the same specs, except 58 CFM airflow. With its fans in place, the Thermalright Assassin X 120 PLUS V2 measures 120 mm x 100 mm x 153 mm (WxDxH), weighing 815 g (545 g heatsink + 2x 135 g fans). Among the CPU socket types supported are LGA1700, AM5, AM4, LGA1200, and LGA115x. The company didn't reveal pricing.
The cooler uses a nickel-plated copper base, from which four 6 mm-thick copper heatpipes make their way through the aluminium fin-stack. The two included fans are of different types. The TL-C12B V2 fan meant for the "push" arrangement features a fluid-dynamic bearing, takes in 4-pin PWM input, turns at speeds of up to 1,500 RPM, pushing up to 66.17 CFM of airflow, at 1.53 mm H₂O static pressure, and a maximum noise output of 25.6 dBA. The TL-C12RB V2 meant for the "pull" has mostly the same specs, except 58 CFM airflow. With its fans in place, the Thermalright Assassin X 120 PLUS V2 measures 120 mm x 100 mm x 153 mm (WxDxH), weighing 815 g (545 g heatsink + 2x 135 g fans). Among the CPU socket types supported are LGA1700, AM5, AM4, LGA1200, and LGA115x. The company didn't reveal pricing.
Targus Launches Sustainable, Ambidextrous Mouse That Easily Converts from Right- to Left-Hand Use
Targus, the number one laptop case brand in the US and Canada and a leader in laptop cases and mobile computing accessories, today announced the availability of its patent-pending ErgoFlip EcoSmart Mouse, a sustainable, full-sized, ergonomic mouse that easily converts from right- to left-hand use with a simple twist of the top.
This eco-friendly mouse is made with up to 85 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic and comes in packaging made from recycled materials. It also uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology which is four times more power efficient than competitive BLE chipsets to reduce power consumption and extend battery life.
This eco-friendly mouse is made with up to 85 percent post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic and comes in packaging made from recycled materials. It also uses Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology which is four times more power efficient than competitive BLE chipsets to reduce power consumption and extend battery life.
Microsoft Releases FY23 Q4 Earnings, Xbox Hardware Revenue Down 13%
Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended June 30, 2023, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:
- Revenue was $56.2 billion and increased 8% (up 10% in constant currency)
- Operating income was $24.3 billion and increased 18% (up 21% in constant currency)
- Net income was $20.1 billion and increased 20% (up 23% in constant currency)
- Diluted earnings per share was $2.69 and increased 21% (up 23% in constant currency)
Tuesday, July 25th 2023
Today's Reviews
Headphones
Multimedia
Notebooks
Processors
Remnant II Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis
Remnant II is one of the first titles to use Unreal Engine 5. UE5 introduces many improvements, like Nanite virtual geometry, Lumen lighting and improvements to the shader compilation process. In our performance review, we're taking a closer look at image quality, VRAM usage, and performance on a selection of modern graphics cards.
AceZone A-Rise Gaming Headset Review - Used by Pro Gamers!
AceZone makes a strong entry into the TechPowerUp review database with its compelling A-Rise gaming headset targeting professional players and competitive gamers alike. It uses a combination of active and passive noise cancellation along with specific EQ profiles to put out a non-fatiguing yet emphasized sound signature for FPS gaming with no noise floor or distortion.
Intel, Ericsson Expand Collaboration to Advance Next-Gen Optimized 5G Infrastructure
Today, Intel announced a strategic collaboration agreement with Ericsson to utilize Intel's 18A process and manufacturing technology for Ericsson's future next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. As part of the agreement, Intel will manufacture custom 5G SoCs (system-on-chip) for Ericsson to create highly differentiated leadership products for future 5G infrastructure. Additionally, the companies will expand their collaboration to optimize 4th Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors with Intel vRAN Boost for Ericsson's Cloud RAN (radio access network) solutions to help communications service providers increase network capacity and energy efficiency while gaining greater flexibility and scalability.
"As our work together evolves, this is a significant milestone with Ericsson to partner broadly on their next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. This agreement exemplifies our shared vision to innovate and transform network connectivity, and it reinforces the growing customer confidence in our process and manufacturing technology," said Sachin Katti, senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge group at Intel. "We look forward to working together with Ericsson, an industry leader, to build networks that are open, reliable and ready for the future."
"As our work together evolves, this is a significant milestone with Ericsson to partner broadly on their next-generation optimized 5G infrastructure. This agreement exemplifies our shared vision to innovate and transform network connectivity, and it reinforces the growing customer confidence in our process and manufacturing technology," said Sachin Katti, senior vice president and general manager of the Network and Edge group at Intel. "We look forward to working together with Ericsson, an industry leader, to build networks that are open, reliable and ready for the future."
SK hynix Reports Second Quarter 2023 Financial Results
SK hynix Inc. today reported financial results for the second quarter of 2023. The company recorded revenue of 7.306 trillion won, operating loss of 2.882 trillion won (with operating margin of negative 39%), and net loss of 2.988 trillion won (with net margin of negative 41%) for the three-month period ended June 30, 2023.
"Amid an expansion in generative artificial intelligence (AI) market, which has largely been centered on ChatGPT, demand for AI server memory has increased rapidly," the company said. "As a result, sales of premium products such as HBM3 and DDR5 increased, leading to a 44% sequential increase in revenue for the second quarter, while operating loss narrowed by 15%."
"Amid an expansion in generative artificial intelligence (AI) market, which has largely been centered on ChatGPT, demand for AI server memory has increased rapidly," the company said. "As a result, sales of premium products such as HBM3 and DDR5 increased, leading to a 44% sequential increase in revenue for the second quarter, while operating loss narrowed by 15%."
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart Ready for Pre-load on Steam
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC releases tomorrow and we can't wait for you to embark on this dazzling interdimensional adventure! We are happy to share that you can now pre-load the game on Steam. If you do so, you can start the game right away the moment it launches. Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart launches globally on July 26 at 8:00 AM PDT / 5:00 PM CET / 7:00 PM GST. Check out the infographic below for more time zones.
Blast your way through an interdimensional adventure with Ratchet and Clank - now on PC! Help them take on an evil emperor from another reality as you jump between action-packed worlds and beyond at hyper-speed!
Blast your way through an interdimensional adventure with Ratchet and Clank - now on PC! Help them take on an evil emperor from another reality as you jump between action-packed worlds and beyond at hyper-speed!
Gunfire Games's Remnant II is Out Now!
We're excited to announce Remnant 2 is now available! The sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes, Remnant 2 is a third-person action-survival shooter that pits the last remnants of humanity against the harrowing forces of evil. The title evolves the co-op survival shooter with new unseen worlds filled with deadly surprises and encounters. Join the battle to save humanity in a dynamically generated world filled with branching quest lines, unique loot, and overwhelming odds that encourage exploration and replayability either alone or in three-person co-op. Players will define their own playstyle with an expanded Archetype class system and a wide assortment of guns, armor, and special augmentations as they overcome hard-fought challenges to stave off humanity's extinction.
A mix of methodical and frenetic ranged/melee combat returns with cunning enemies and large scale boss battles. Choose specific gear and weapons to optimize for the different biomes and battles ahead. Bosses will bring high-level players to team up to overcome the challenge and try to obtain the biggest rewards. Players can travel alone or with friends as a team through strange new worlds and beyond, overrun by mythical creatures and deadly foes while trying to stay alive. There are multiple worlds to explore with different types of creatures, weapons, and items. Utilize and upgrade discovered items to take on tougher challenges.
Update 21:05 UTC: TPU's W1zzard has published his "Remnant II Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis" article. Do check it out.
A mix of methodical and frenetic ranged/melee combat returns with cunning enemies and large scale boss battles. Choose specific gear and weapons to optimize for the different biomes and battles ahead. Bosses will bring high-level players to team up to overcome the challenge and try to obtain the biggest rewards. Players can travel alone or with friends as a team through strange new worlds and beyond, overrun by mythical creatures and deadly foes while trying to stay alive. There are multiple worlds to explore with different types of creatures, weapons, and items. Utilize and upgrade discovered items to take on tougher challenges.
Update 21:05 UTC: TPU's W1zzard has published his "Remnant II Benchmark Test & Performance Analysis" article. Do check it out.
Xbox Wire Puts the Spotlight on Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon
Attacking the massive Juggernaut mech's exposed engine manifold was proving to be an impossible task. It wasn't that the Reverse Joint Legs I equipped weren't nimble enough to glide away from their flurry of missiles; they were more than capable. And it wasn't that my dual machineguns and missile launchers were a poor choice heading into this boss battle—they certainly helped me carve a path through the enemy-filled fortress earlier. But its pairing was not the most efficient mixture to hit the Juggernaut where it hurt: from behind.
Despite its colossal size and massive tank-like treads, the "Jug" could turn on a dime while keeping its armored chest between my weapons and its weak spot. It wasn't long until the battle turned into an effort in futility. With my ammunition depleted, I was forced to retreat to the mech Assembly and build a new Armored Core to try again. Despite this challenge during a recent hands-on session with FromSoftware's upcoming Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon, the boss battle was a perfect showcase of the game's captivating and inherent difficulty - you'll be given all the tools to succeed, but it'll be up to you to find the best combination of weapons to components that match your style of play and crack the obstacle(s) that stands in your way.
Despite its colossal size and massive tank-like treads, the "Jug" could turn on a dime while keeping its armored chest between my weapons and its weak spot. It wasn't long until the battle turned into an effort in futility. With my ammunition depleted, I was forced to retreat to the mech Assembly and build a new Armored Core to try again. Despite this challenge during a recent hands-on session with FromSoftware's upcoming Armored Core VI Fires of Rubicon, the boss battle was a perfect showcase of the game's captivating and inherent difficulty - you'll be given all the tools to succeed, but it'll be up to you to find the best combination of weapons to components that match your style of play and crack the obstacle(s) that stands in your way.
3DStor Listing Outs MSI GeForce RTX 4090 Custom Blower Card
PC hardware enthusiast, harukaze5719, has stumbled upon a very understated looking custom GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. MSI has produced a two-unit wide blower-type cooling system for the current flagship NVIDIA 40-series GPU, with Chinese PC hardware retailer—3DStor.com—being the only semi-official source of information. MSI's own web presences have not been updated to include their new GeForce RTX 4090 Aero S 24G model. The e-retailer does not provide any pricing information, but several examples (more than ten) are available to purchase via mujitech3's Ebay store. The Ningbo-based seller is charging a cool $3065 per card, plus an additional $80.00 for international shipping.
According to 3dstor's listing, the relatively compact custom design sticks to NVIDIA's recommended reference specifications (boost clock reaching 2520 MHz), but a 350 W TGP looks to be a bit iffy (coupled with the board's 16-pin 12VHPWR connector)—Tom's Hardware observed that this: "is 100 W lower when compared to regular RTX 4090 AIBs. We must assume that this is a typo and that its TGP is the same as other RTX 4090 graphics cards, which are currently the best graphics cards for gaming. Meanwhile, when the board peaks at 450 W, its blower-based cooling system likely gets extremely loud." The low-key monolithic shroud design suggests that MSI is likely targeting professional types with its Aero S 24G model, although gamers eyeing a compact build will be well catered to...if they can spare the expense.
According to 3dstor's listing, the relatively compact custom design sticks to NVIDIA's recommended reference specifications (boost clock reaching 2520 MHz), but a 350 W TGP looks to be a bit iffy (coupled with the board's 16-pin 12VHPWR connector)—Tom's Hardware observed that this: "is 100 W lower when compared to regular RTX 4090 AIBs. We must assume that this is a typo and that its TGP is the same as other RTX 4090 graphics cards, which are currently the best graphics cards for gaming. Meanwhile, when the board peaks at 450 W, its blower-based cooling system likely gets extremely loud." The low-key monolithic shroud design suggests that MSI is likely targeting professional types with its Aero S 24G model, although gamers eyeing a compact build will be well catered to...if they can spare the expense.
Sea of Stars coming to PS Plus on August 29, Multi Platform Demo Out Now
Sabotage was founded with a clear goal: presenting our own definitive editions of the game genres we grew up playing. By combining retro aesthetics and modern design, we shoot for experiences that capture what we love about games of old while leaving behind the elements we feel might hold them back today. We knew from the beginning that out-of-combat controls would be an important aspect to tackle for our modernized take on classic turn-based RPGs, and one of the pillars of Sea of Stars.
Sea of Stars will be available as a PlayStation Plus Game Catalog title on launch day
We're extremely excited to confirm that Sea of Stars will be joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog catalog (available for all Extra and Premium members) on launch day, August 29. It's incredible for us to imagine how many more players worldwide will experience Sea of Stars and join the conversation around our project. After working on this game that is so dear to us for five years, we're now only a few weeks away from release, and we're happy to share this moment with the PlayStation community.
Sea of Stars will be available as a PlayStation Plus Game Catalog title on launch day
We're extremely excited to confirm that Sea of Stars will be joining the PlayStation Plus Game Catalog catalog (available for all Extra and Premium members) on launch day, August 29. It's incredible for us to imagine how many more players worldwide will experience Sea of Stars and join the conversation around our project. After working on this game that is so dear to us for five years, we're now only a few weeks away from release, and we're happy to share this moment with the PlayStation community.
Machenike Reportedly Exhibited Next Generation Intel Core-based Systems at Bilibili World
According to a short article released by ITHome, Machenike, a popular Chinese PC hardware company displayed several interesting Intel CPU-based systems at the Bilibili World exhibition (in Shanghai). The manufacturer confirmed (to the reporter) that their next generation hardware will be hitting the market within the next three months, which coincides with the rumored launch of Intel 14th Gen Core Raptor Lake-Refresh desktop K-series SKUs.
Exhibited material implied that Machenike's upcoming PCs—arriving in the form of a "LIGHT-05" desktop tower, mini models and laptops—could be among the first batch of systems to support PCIe Gen 5 storage (as standard). Potential buyers could be attracted to next-gen machines offering access to faster NVMe SSD, on top of rumored higher core counts provided by the Raptor Lake Refresh. ITHome believes that a number of the mini-PCs at Machenike's booth were already running on Raptor Lake Refresh or (Core rebrand) Meteor Lake processors.
Exhibited material implied that Machenike's upcoming PCs—arriving in the form of a "LIGHT-05" desktop tower, mini models and laptops—could be among the first batch of systems to support PCIe Gen 5 storage (as standard). Potential buyers could be attracted to next-gen machines offering access to faster NVMe SSD, on top of rumored higher core counts provided by the Raptor Lake Refresh. ITHome believes that a number of the mini-PCs at Machenike's booth were already running on Raptor Lake Refresh or (Core rebrand) Meteor Lake processors.
NVIDIA DGX Cloud Now Available to Supercharge Generative AI Training
NVIDIA DGX Cloud - which delivers tools that can turn nearly any company into an AI company - is now broadly available, with thousands of NVIDIA GPUs online on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, as well as NVIDIA infrastructure located in the U.S. and U.K. Unveiled at NVIDIA's GTC conference in March, DGX Cloud is an AI supercomputing service that gives enterprises immediate access to the infrastructure and software needed to train advanced models for generative AI and other groundbreaking applications.
"Generative AI has made the rapid adoption of AI a business imperative for leading companies in every industry, driving many enterprises to seek more accelerated computing infrastructure," said Pat Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. Generative AI could add more than $4 trillion to the economy annually, turning proprietary business knowledge across a vast swath of the world's industries into next-generation AI applications, according to recent estimates by global management consultancy McKinsey.
"Generative AI has made the rapid adoption of AI a business imperative for leading companies in every industry, driving many enterprises to seek more accelerated computing infrastructure," said Pat Moorhead, chief analyst at Moor Insights & Strategy. Generative AI could add more than $4 trillion to the economy annually, turning proprietary business knowledge across a vast swath of the world's industries into next-generation AI applications, according to recent estimates by global management consultancy McKinsey.
Bethesda Announces Starfield Animated Anthology - "The Settled Systems"
Bethesda Game Studios' upcoming RPG Starfield imagines a world where humanity inhabits the vastness of space. These stunning animated stories offer a glimpse into three of the major cities in the Settled Systems. Follow a delivery pilot in New Atlantis seeking the exciting life of the elite; a stranded orphan looking for a way out of Akila City; and two street rats struggling to survive in the underbelly of Neon.
SUPRA ET ULTRA
In the city of New Atlantis, capital of the United Colonies, Kent, a courier pilot, aspires to live in the most desirable part of the settled systems. After joining the UC Vanguard and working his way up to the Capital's elite, Kent quickly realizes the adventures waiting for him off-planet are what he truly longed for.
SUPRA ET ULTRA
In the city of New Atlantis, capital of the United Colonies, Kent, a courier pilot, aspires to live in the most desirable part of the settled systems. After joining the UC Vanguard and working his way up to the Capital's elite, Kent quickly realizes the adventures waiting for him off-planet are what he truly longed for.
NVIDIA DLSS Support Comes to Couple of New Games
Every week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. Last week, we celebrated the launch of Portal: Prelude RTX, a path-traced remaster of a classic mod, made in NVIDIA RTX Remix and enhanced with full ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA Reflex, and our new, game-changing NVIDIA RTX IO GPU-accelerated storage technology. The good times keep rolling this week with the arrival of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC on July 26th, featuring NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA DLAA, NVIDIA Reflex, ray tracing, and NVIDIA RTX IO, giving GeForce RTX gamers the definitive PC experience, with the fastest possible PC frame rates, the most responsive gameplay, and the highest levels of detail.
And DLSS is also coming to more of your favorite games. Today, the eagerly anticipated Remnant II launches with DLSS 2. Additionally, the action game SYNCED is launching this Summer with DLSS 3, and Wuthering Waves announced that it will launch with DLSS 3, too. Finally, the ever-popular DLSS 2-enhanced NARAKA: BLADEPOINT celebrates its second anniversary with a special event and by transitioning to a free-to-play model, enabling even more people to play.
And DLSS is also coming to more of your favorite games. Today, the eagerly anticipated Remnant II launches with DLSS 2. Additionally, the action game SYNCED is launching this Summer with DLSS 3, and Wuthering Waves announced that it will launch with DLSS 3, too. Finally, the ever-popular DLSS 2-enhanced NARAKA: BLADEPOINT celebrates its second anniversary with a special event and by transitioning to a free-to-play model, enabling even more people to play.
AMD Germany Confirms Ryzen 5 7500F's Western Release Strategy
AMD is preparing its Ryzen 5 7500F processor for a global launch according to reports from earlier today—Team Red's German operation has since informed local media outlets about its updated international release strategy for the iGPU-less Zen 4 desktop SKU. Markus Lindner, a regional company spokesman stated: "This processor model will be available starting July 23, 2023 at 9PM ET. It will be available in greater China as a processor-in-box, and in the rest of world as an option for select system builders."
Chinese reviewers have been getting hands-on experience with the Ryzen 5 7500F, with early reports pointing to impressive performance for its price point ($180) when lined up against competing Intel Core i5-13400 and i5-13400F CPUs. International buyers could express concern regarding AMD Germany's mentioning that availability will be somewhat limited to system integrators. Hopefully these "select system builders" will have good distribution links to retail outlets—70% of TPU quick poll participants expressed interest in seeing a western launch (prior to AMD's "global" announcement).
Chinese reviewers have been getting hands-on experience with the Ryzen 5 7500F, with early reports pointing to impressive performance for its price point ($180) when lined up against competing Intel Core i5-13400 and i5-13400F CPUs. International buyers could express concern regarding AMD Germany's mentioning that availability will be somewhat limited to system integrators. Hopefully these "select system builders" will have good distribution links to retail outlets—70% of TPU quick poll participants expressed interest in seeing a western launch (prior to AMD's "global" announcement).
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Branding Spotted on Leaked Monster Energy Drink Tie-in
Activision is reportedly putting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 through its paces as an alpha test, and is struggling with the containment of leaks. DCMA takedowns have done little to stop the flow, and the publisher has started teasing the much anticipated 2023 CoD release. Licensing partners seem to be taking a lax attitude with regards to NDAs—new Monster Energy promotional material has been photographed in the wild. Revised energy drink brand packaging features a prominent series character—Captain Price—with the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III logo emblazoned atop the famous protagonist.
Monster Energy has a documented history of offering XP and accessory codes as part of video game tie-in offers, so that legacy is all but confirmed for continuation with this year's alleged mainline CoD entry. Sledgehammer Games is reportedly the main development house working on CoD:MWIII, and various news outlets have claimed that a November launch window is being targeted by the game's publisher. Activision has taken a good humored approach when dealing with the latest leak—their @CallofDuty social media account's response stated: "Whew. Mondays. Anyone have an energy drink they can spare?"
Monster Energy has a documented history of offering XP and accessory codes as part of video game tie-in offers, so that legacy is all but confirmed for continuation with this year's alleged mainline CoD entry. Sledgehammer Games is reportedly the main development house working on CoD:MWIII, and various news outlets have claimed that a November launch window is being targeted by the game's publisher. Activision has taken a good humored approach when dealing with the latest leak—their @CallofDuty social media account's response stated: "Whew. Mondays. Anyone have an energy drink they can spare?"
Intel Previews AVX10 ISA, Next-Gen E-Cores to get AVX-512 Capabilities
Intel has published a preview article covering its new AVX10 ISA (Instruction Set Architecture)—the announcement reveals that both P-Cores & E-Cores (on next-gen processors) will be getting support for AVX-512. Team Blue stated: "Intel AVX10 represents a major shift to supporting a high-performance vector ISA across future Intel processors. It allows the developer to maintain a single code-path that achieves high performance across all Intel platforms with the minimum of overhead checking for feature support. Future development of the Intel AVX10 ISA will continue to provide a rich, flexible, and consistent environment that optimally supports both Server and Client products."
Due to technical issues (E-core related), Intel decided to disable AVX-512 for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake client-oriented CPU lineups. AMD has recently adopted the fairly new instruction set for its Ryzen 7040 mobile series, so it is no wonder that Team Blue is attempting to reintroduce it in the near future—AVX-512 was last seen working properly on Rocket and Tiger Lake chips. AVX10 implementation is expected to debut with Granite Rapids (according to Longhorn), and VideoCardz reckons that Intel will get advanced instructions for Efficiency cores working with its Clearwater Forest CPU architecture.
Due to technical issues (E-core related), Intel decided to disable AVX-512 for Alder Lake and Raptor Lake client-oriented CPU lineups. AMD has recently adopted the fairly new instruction set for its Ryzen 7040 mobile series, so it is no wonder that Team Blue is attempting to reintroduce it in the near future—AVX-512 was last seen working properly on Rocket and Tiger Lake chips. AVX10 implementation is expected to debut with Granite Rapids (according to Longhorn), and VideoCardz reckons that Intel will get advanced instructions for Efficiency cores working with its Clearwater Forest CPU architecture.
VisionTek Unveils VT4950 KVM Docking Station with Triple-Display, Dual-System Support
VisionTek Products LLC (VisionTek), a recognized leader in the field of high-performance upgrades and accessories for PCs and Macs, today announced the introduction of the VisionTek VT4950 KVM docking station. This innovative product is the upgraded successor to the previously celebrated VT4900 KVM docking station and is designed to enhance the workflow of users in today's professional and remote work environments. The VT4950 enables users to seamlessly swap between two connected Windows, Mac, or Chromebook host systems with up to three 4K displays, accessories, and peripherals through a single USB-C connection to each.
"The VT4950 simplifies the process of switching between systems, saving users valuable time and making their workflow more efficient," said Nick Bill, director of product development and product marketing. "This frees these users from the tedium of unplugging and reconnecting everything as they switch between systems, resulting in significant time savings."
"The VT4950 simplifies the process of switching between systems, saving users valuable time and making their workflow more efficient," said Nick Bill, director of product development and product marketing. "This frees these users from the tedium of unplugging and reconnecting everything as they switch between systems, resulting in significant time savings."
Ubisoft Revisits The Crew Franchise's History, Ahead of Motorfest's Launch on September 14
The Crew Motorfest launches on September 14, letting you race across the entire island of O'ahu in more than 600 vehicles and compete in themed Playlist campaigns the highlight Porsche 911, electric supercars, the islands of Hawaii, and more. But before you visit the Motorfest, take a drive back in time with Creative Director Stéphane Beley and Managing Director Ahmed Boukhelifa, both co-founders of Ivory Tower, and Live Producer Sofiane Brahimi to learn the origins of The Crew franchise, what the developers at Ivory Tower learned from fans, and how Motorfest is the culmination of 17 years of hard work.
The Crew Motorfest is out September 14 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Ubisoft+, and Amazon Luna and allows you to import your vehicle collection from The Crew 2. You can pre-order it now, and players who pre-order the Gold or Ultimate Editions, or who play through Ubisoft+.
The Crew Motorfest is out September 14 on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC, Ubisoft+, and Amazon Luna and allows you to import your vehicle collection from The Crew 2. You can pre-order it now, and players who pre-order the Gold or Ultimate Editions, or who play through Ubisoft+.
FSP Group Announces Availability of HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX3.0 & PCIe Gen 5 Series Power Supplies
FSP Group, a leading provider of power supply solutions, is pleased to announce the availability of the highly anticipated HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX 3.0 & PCIe Gen 5 series power supplies. Designed specifically for gamers and content creators seeking superior performance and durability, these power supplies are now available in 1000 W and 1200 W units.
The HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX 3.0 & Gen 5 series power supplies are 80 Plus Platinum-certified, offering exceptional efficiency and power delivery. With a fully modular design, users can easily customize their power setup. These power supplies deliver up to 1200 W output which is sufficient for the demanding PC build. Notably, they feature FSP's innovative ECO semi-fanless switch, providing users a quiet and pleasant experience.
The HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX 3.0 & Gen 5 series power supplies are 80 Plus Platinum-certified, offering exceptional efficiency and power delivery. With a fully modular design, users can easily customize their power setup. These power supplies deliver up to 1200 W output which is sufficient for the demanding PC build. Notably, they feature FSP's innovative ECO semi-fanless switch, providing users a quiet and pleasant experience.
Crucial Expands Portable SSD Portfolio, Unveiling Revolutionary New Storage Architecture
Micron Technology, Inc., today announced the Crucial X9 Pro Portable SSD and Crucial X10 Pro Portable SSD, two new performance offerings in the Crucial Pro Series product portfolio, designed for content creators such as photographers, videographers, designers, or any performance-seeking consumer. Both drives utilize Micron TLC NAND and leverage a revolutionary single-ASIC portable storage architecture to enable a breakthrough, ultra-compact, lightweight form factor and allows Micron to ship the most capacity per square millimeter in the industry. With either the Crucial X9 Pro and X10 Pro, users can safely store, transport and backup important videos, photos, files and more on the go, without cloud or internet access at lightning-fast speeds.
"We recognize that fast, efficient workflow processes are essential to the success of videographers, photographers and other content creators," said Jonathan Weech, senior director of product marketing for Micron's Commercial Products Group. "We designed and built our two new portable SSDs, the Crucial X9 Pro and the Crucial X10 Pro, to specifically address these demanding workloads. With more photos and videos being taken than ever before, consumers are looking for ways to save, preserve and protect their digital lives reliably and quickly. These two new Crucial Pro Portable SSDs are a great choice for anyone who needs dependable, fast, high-capacity storage."
"We recognize that fast, efficient workflow processes are essential to the success of videographers, photographers and other content creators," said Jonathan Weech, senior director of product marketing for Micron's Commercial Products Group. "We designed and built our two new portable SSDs, the Crucial X9 Pro and the Crucial X10 Pro, to specifically address these demanding workloads. With more photos and videos being taken than ever before, consumers are looking for ways to save, preserve and protect their digital lives reliably and quickly. These two new Crucial Pro Portable SSDs are a great choice for anyone who needs dependable, fast, high-capacity storage."
Worldwide Silicon Wafer Shipments Rise in Q2 2023
Worldwide silicon wafer shipments increased 2.0% quarter-over-quarter to 3,331 million square inches in the second quarter of 2023, down 10.1% from the 3,704 million square inches recorded during the same quarter last year, the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
"The semiconductor industry continues to work through excess inventory in various market segments, necessitating that fabs operate below full capacity," said Anna-Riikka Vuorikari-Antikainen, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Chief Commercial Officer at Okmetic. "As a result, silicon wafer shipments are lagging their 2022 peak. Second-quarter wafer shipments held steady quarter-on-quarter with 300 mm showing quarterly growth among all wafer sizes."
"The semiconductor industry continues to work through excess inventory in various market segments, necessitating that fabs operate below full capacity," said Anna-Riikka Vuorikari-Antikainen, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Chief Commercial Officer at Okmetic. "As a result, silicon wafer shipments are lagging their 2022 peak. Second-quarter wafer shipments held steady quarter-on-quarter with 300 mm showing quarterly growth among all wafer sizes."
Insider Claims PlayStation 5 Pro Targeting 8K "Performance Mode" & Accelerated Ray Tracing
Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson has picked up some interesting insider knowledge about the long rumored PlayStation 5 Pro gaming console—his (side hustle) Key to Gaming article theorizes that a project codenamed "Trinity" has been in-progress since early 2022. Sony is apparently sticking to its tradition of using Matrix themed codenames for internal hardware projects—PlayStation 4 Pro was referred to as "Neo," and PlayStation VR's alias was "Morpheus." His inside sources claim that Sony has been showing off Trinity prototype units to game development studios, with refreshed dev kits lined up for the "majority" of interested parties by November 2023.
Henderson's sources provided scant info about Trinity's specs and performance goals: "Although the Pro's specs were difficult to pin down, (admittedly) due to my lack of technological prowess, sources have stated that Trinity with have 30 WGP and 18000mts memory. As for the consoles performance targets and as to be expected, the PlayStation 5 Pro will be targeting improved and consistent FPS at 4K resolution, a new "performance mode" for 8K resolution, and accelerated ray tracing. Whether or not a PlayStation 5 Pro console is desired enough in the current market remains to be seen, but as of writing, the PlayStation 5 Pro is in development and is targeting a November 2024 release date." The leaked information has been interpreted several ways by different outlets—mostly focusing on the improved AMD RDNA-powered GPU. I have included Zuba_Tech's updated spec sheet (see below), which seems to be a bit on the fanciful side of things (proposing 72 CUs). Others have theorized that the revised GPU could offer twice the performance of the base PS5 model's Oberon RDNA 2-based GPU (36 CUs).
Henderson's sources provided scant info about Trinity's specs and performance goals: "Although the Pro's specs were difficult to pin down, (admittedly) due to my lack of technological prowess, sources have stated that Trinity with have 30 WGP and 18000mts memory. As for the consoles performance targets and as to be expected, the PlayStation 5 Pro will be targeting improved and consistent FPS at 4K resolution, a new "performance mode" for 8K resolution, and accelerated ray tracing. Whether or not a PlayStation 5 Pro console is desired enough in the current market remains to be seen, but as of writing, the PlayStation 5 Pro is in development and is targeting a November 2024 release date." The leaked information has been interpreted several ways by different outlets—mostly focusing on the improved AMD RDNA-powered GPU. I have included Zuba_Tech's updated spec sheet (see below), which seems to be a bit on the fanciful side of things (proposing 72 CUs). Others have theorized that the revised GPU could offer twice the performance of the base PS5 model's Oberon RDNA 2-based GPU (36 CUs).
iBUYPOWER and Fractal Design Announce Partnership with a New Lineup of Custom and Ready to Ship RDY Gaming PCs
iBUYPOWER (iBP), a leading manufacturer of high-performance custom gaming PCs, today, announced its partnership and expanded product offering with Fractal Design, a world renowned, award-winning Scandinavian company known for innovative and clean aesthetic design philosophy within the premium PC case and accessory category.
Discover the latest custom configurator and prebuilt PC product offerings from iBP outfitted with Fractal Design cases that aim to satisfy consumers seeking a clean, efficient, and visually captivating desktop gaming PC aesthetic. These new systems provide exciting alternative choices for gamers and discerning customers who appreciate a refined and minimalistic look while still having a powerful and capable gaming system as part of their modern lifestyle.
Discover the latest custom configurator and prebuilt PC product offerings from iBP outfitted with Fractal Design cases that aim to satisfy consumers seeking a clean, efficient, and visually captivating desktop gaming PC aesthetic. These new systems provide exciting alternative choices for gamers and discerning customers who appreciate a refined and minimalistic look while still having a powerful and capable gaming system as part of their modern lifestyle.
Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy Arriving August 31, Pontius The Knight Showcased
Glorious battles, shining armor, a sharp sword, and a trusty shield: That's the stuff that heroes are made of! Become a hero yourself when Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy releases on August 31st, 2023 on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, and Nintendo Switch! For now, meet Pontius the Knight, Protector of the Realm and also the biggest pie lover the land has ever seen! A real frontline hero who is always going head first into battle to protect his friends. Watch the new trailer for magical co-op adventure Trine 5: A Clockwork Conspiracy below.
Your sword and shield will aid you on your journey - if you know how to use them! As a skilled knight and professional pie eater, Pontius can use his sword to fight off enemies, get rid of obstacles, and even use it as a platform to help him reach higher areas. The shield, not only made to protect, will come in handy to reflect light, skate across water, and even use as a glider! Charge, smash, fight, and puzzle-solve your way through the dangers that await with your fellow adventurers. And should you need further help, the Prismatic Talisman will be your best friend - literally. Clones can be useful!
Your sword and shield will aid you on your journey - if you know how to use them! As a skilled knight and professional pie eater, Pontius can use his sword to fight off enemies, get rid of obstacles, and even use it as a platform to help him reach higher areas. The shield, not only made to protect, will come in handy to reflect light, skate across water, and even use as a glider! Charge, smash, fight, and puzzle-solve your way through the dangers that await with your fellow adventurers. And should you need further help, the Prismatic Talisman will be your best friend - literally. Clones can be useful!
MINISFORUM Announces Development of New Intel Raptor Lake HX55 series and AMD 7045HX ITX Platform
Minisforum Today has just revealed exciting information about their latest ITX Mini PC. This sleek device incorporates a motherboard that was showcased at the COMPUTEX 2023 booth, featuring variants from the Intel Raptor Lake HX55 series and AMD 7045HX series CPU. The all-new Minisforum ITX Mini PC is equipped with a PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and discrete graphics card for seamless desktop connectivity. It also supports SFX power supply for added convenience.
Moreover, Minisforum has meticulously designed an elegant 6L case for this new member, catering to users who desire both aesthetics and functionality. Customers have the flexibility to purchase the motherboard separately or opt for the complete set, which includes both the motherboard and the ITX PC case. While Minisforum has not yet disclosed the price and launch date, this highly anticipated product is sure to make waves in the market.
Moreover, Minisforum has meticulously designed an elegant 6L case for this new member, catering to users who desire both aesthetics and functionality. Customers have the flexibility to purchase the motherboard separately or opt for the complete set, which includes both the motherboard and the ITX PC case. While Minisforum has not yet disclosed the price and launch date, this highly anticipated product is sure to make waves in the market.
Chieftec Polaris Pro and Polaris 3.0 PSUs Extended to 5-Year Warranty
Chieftec is delighted to announce that the Polaris Pro & Polaris 3.0 PSU's now come with an extended 5-year warranty, ensuring even more reliability and peace of mind for Chieftec users. As part of our ongoing commitment to excellence, we are proud to enhance the warranty period for our flagship ATX 3.0 power supplies: the Chieftec Polaris Pro and Polaris 3.0 series. We stand behind the quality and reliability of our products, and the 5-year warranty reflects our confidence in the durability of high-end Chieftec products. With the new 5-year warranty, users can rest assured that their Chieftec Polaris Pro and Polaris 3.0 power supplies are protected for an extended period, allowing them to focus on what matters most: work, gaming, or creative endeavors!
AAEON UP 7000 Brings Intel Processor N-series Onboard the World's Smallest Platform
AAEON's UP brand, renowned for producing sophisticated developer boards with industrial-grade specifications, has announced the release of the UP 7000, the third generation of boards built on the 85 mm x 56 mm form factor of the original UP Board. The UP 7000 boasts numerous upgrades compared to its predecessors, including 8 GB of LPDDR5 system memory, onboard TPM 2.0, and support for both Windows and Linux OS. Most notably, it stands out as the world's smallest board featuring onboard CPUs from the Intel Processor N-series platform.
The board is available in various SKUs, hosting Intel Processor N97, Intel Processor N100, or Intel Processor N50 CPUs. Notably, these processors offer clock speeds up to 50% faster than those of previous boards from the same product line, and also support Intel AVX2 for energy-efficient AI acceleration. Equipped with three USB Type-A ports for USB 3.2 Gen 2, one GbE LAN port supporting Realtek RTL8111H CG, and a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin HAT for expansion, the UP 7000 provides a dense port configuration. This makes it ideal for applications requiring low latency but versatile connectivity, such as AMR and multifunction printing device solutions.
The board is available in various SKUs, hosting Intel Processor N97, Intel Processor N100, or Intel Processor N50 CPUs. Notably, these processors offer clock speeds up to 50% faster than those of previous boards from the same product line, and also support Intel AVX2 for energy-efficient AI acceleration. Equipped with three USB Type-A ports for USB 3.2 Gen 2, one GbE LAN port supporting Realtek RTL8111H CG, and a Raspberry Pi-compatible 40-pin HAT for expansion, the UP 7000 provides a dense port configuration. This makes it ideal for applications requiring low latency but versatile connectivity, such as AMR and multifunction printing device solutions.
EK Water Blocks Announces EK Pro Rackmount Block for RTX 6000
EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, now offers EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 6000 Ada Rack - Nickel + Inox, an enterprise-grade full-cover water block meticulously designed for NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics cards. Crafted to excel in rack mount environments, this cutting-edge water block leverages the power of the NVIDIA Ada Lovelace Architecture. Its exceptional construction showcases a CNC-machined nickel-plated copper base, complemented by a laser-cut stainless-steel top, creating a resilient liquid cooling solution that effectively transforms into a space-saving single-slot assembly. It encompasses the entire GPU, VRAM, and VRM components, precisely channeling the cooling liquid over these critical areas to efficiently dissipate heat.
The EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 6000 Ada Rack - Nickel + Inox is a purpose-built water block allowing you to have a professionally liquid-cooled NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics card, perfectly suited for server rack installations. Designed to seamlessly integrate into standard Full Height Full Width (FHFW) server chassis form factors, these EK-Pro Rack GPU water blocks serve as convenient drop-in replacements for both active and passive dual-slot air coolers.
The EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 6000 Ada Rack - Nickel + Inox is a purpose-built water block allowing you to have a professionally liquid-cooled NVIDIA RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics card, perfectly suited for server rack installations. Designed to seamlessly integrate into standard Full Height Full Width (FHFW) server chassis form factors, these EK-Pro Rack GPU water blocks serve as convenient drop-in replacements for both active and passive dual-slot air coolers.
The European Union Council Approves Chips Act
The Council has today approved the regulation to strengthen Europe's semiconductor ecosystem, better known as the 'Chips Act'. This is the last step in the decision-making procedure. The Chips Act aims to create the conditions for the development of a European industrial base in the field of semiconductors, attract investment, promote research and innovation and prepare Europe for any future chip supply crisis. The programme should mobilise €43 billion in public and private investment (€3.3 billion from the EU budget), with the objective of doubling the EU's global market share in semiconductors, from 10% now to at least 20% by 2030.
With the Chips Act, Europe will be a frontrunner in the world semiconductors race. We can already see it in action: new production plants, new investments, new research projects. And in the long run, this will also contribute to the renaissance of our industry and the reduction of our foreign dependencies. - Héctor Gómez Hernández, Spanish Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism
With the Chips Act, Europe will be a frontrunner in the world semiconductors race. We can already see it in action: new production plants, new investments, new research projects. And in the long run, this will also contribute to the renaissance of our industry and the reduction of our foreign dependencies. - Héctor Gómez Hernández, Spanish Minister for Industry, Trade and Tourism
Genesis Unveils Nitro 550 G2 Gaming Chair
Durability and comfort - these are the two most important traits of gaming armchairs, and gamers tend to especially focus on them. To meet those expectations, the company decided to refresh the Genesis Nitro 550, one of its flagship products, by introducing a new version to the market, the G2.
The Genesis Nitro 550 G2 is a product known for providing excellent solutions and comfort to thousands of gamers. The refreshed version introduces not only completely new stitching, granting the armchair a gaming character, but also a 5-arm metal base (more durable than its nylon predecessor), as well as a redesigned seat, equipped with new elastic bands. These provide players with better support (which comes along with comfort) and certainty that the soft foam will maintain its characteristics for a longer period.
The Genesis Nitro 550 G2 is a product known for providing excellent solutions and comfort to thousands of gamers. The refreshed version introduces not only completely new stitching, granting the armchair a gaming character, but also a 5-arm metal base (more durable than its nylon predecessor), as well as a redesigned seat, equipped with new elastic bands. These provide players with better support (which comes along with comfort) and certainty that the soft foam will maintain its characteristics for a longer period.
Sharkoon Releases OfficePal C30 and the OfficePal C30M Chairs
Sharkoon Technologies is an international supplier of high-quality, high-performance PC components and peripherals and, for the first time, is now launching two chairs - the OfficePal C30 and the OfficePal C30M - that are specially made for comfortable and productive work, whether in the office or at home. For this, the chair design offers a mesh construction and a variety of ergonomic adjustment options.
The OfficePal C30 office chair in classic black features a breathable mesh backrest as well as a traditional, padded seat base. This combination should provide for pleasantly comfortable working, no matter what the office environment or the time of the year. The OfficePal C30M, on the other hand, appears in subtle grey, and both the backrest and the seat base are covered with a stretched mesh. Through this full-mesh design, the pressure should be optimally distributed to ensure a particularly light and ergonomic sitting experience.
The OfficePal C30 office chair in classic black features a breathable mesh backrest as well as a traditional, padded seat base. This combination should provide for pleasantly comfortable working, no matter what the office environment or the time of the year. The OfficePal C30M, on the other hand, appears in subtle grey, and both the backrest and the seat base are covered with a stretched mesh. Through this full-mesh design, the pressure should be optimally distributed to ensure a particularly light and ergonomic sitting experience.
DeepCool Introduces the CH560 & CH560 DIGITAL Case Series
DeepCool, a leading manufacturer of PC cooling solutions, cases and components, is proud to unveil the CH560 and CH560 DIGITAL, the latest additions to their lineup of high-performance PC cases. Designed with a keen focus on airflow, these cases are perfect for modern power-hungry systems that require efficient cooling for optimal performance.
The DeepCool CH560 DIGITAL is a digital temperature gauge version that caters to users with high-end systems who demand the utmost airflow. With CPUs and GPUs reaching new levels of power consumption, closed-off cases are no longer sufficient. Taking cooling to the next level, The CH560 DIGITAL features dual status screens that provide vital CPU and GPU information at a quick glance, freeing up precious desktop screen space. Users can choose between CPU and GPU temperatures, utilization, or both, with the screens switching between temperature and utilization in 5-second intervals. The integrated double-status digital screen is controlled by a simple-to-use application, giving users full control of the display statuses.
The DeepCool CH560 DIGITAL is a digital temperature gauge version that caters to users with high-end systems who demand the utmost airflow. With CPUs and GPUs reaching new levels of power consumption, closed-off cases are no longer sufficient. Taking cooling to the next level, The CH560 DIGITAL features dual status screens that provide vital CPU and GPU information at a quick glance, freeing up precious desktop screen space. Users can choose between CPU and GPU temperatures, utilization, or both, with the screens switching between temperature and utilization in 5-second intervals. The integrated double-status digital screen is controlled by a simple-to-use application, giving users full control of the display statuses.
AMD Prepares Global Launch of Ryzen 5 7500F at $180, Faster at Gaming than Core i5-13400
The China-specific AMD Ryzen 5 7500F desktop processor could see a wider international launch, reports VideoCardz, citing the AMD website, which has marked its regional availability as "global." The processor is priced at USD $180 for the retail PIB package. The 7500F is a 6-core/12-thread processor based on the same "Raphael" Zen 4 MCM as the 7600X, but lacks integrated graphics, has a lower 65 W TDP, and slightly lower clock speeds. The processor saw a China-exclusive release earlier this week. Chinese and regional media with access to samples reviewed the processor, noting that its gaming performance 6% behind that of the Ryzen 5 7600X at 1080p, but more importantly, the Ryzen 5 7500F is 13% faster than the Core i5-13400 in terms of average FPS, and about 8% faster in 1% low FPS.
This makes the Ryzen 5 7500F a faster gaming processor than the $200 Core i5-13400, and the $180 Core i5-13400F, which it was originally designed to square off against. The Ryzen 5 7500F is configured with 6 cores and 12 threads, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor has a base frequency of 3.70 GHz, with a 5.00 GHz boost that's just 100 MHz behind that of the Ryzen 5 7600 (65 W), and 300 MHz behind the 7600X (105 W). The "F" in the brand extension indicates a lack of integrated graphics, which shouldn't be a dealbreaker for the processor's intended audience—PC gamers. AMD is including a Wraith Stealth stock cooler with the retail 7500F, which coupled with A620 chipset motherboards that start at $125, should make for a formidable mainstream gaming PC platform with ample upgrade headroom.
This makes the Ryzen 5 7500F a faster gaming processor than the $200 Core i5-13400, and the $180 Core i5-13400F, which it was originally designed to square off against. The Ryzen 5 7500F is configured with 6 cores and 12 threads, 1 MB of L2 cache per core, and 32 MB of shared L3 cache. The processor has a base frequency of 3.70 GHz, with a 5.00 GHz boost that's just 100 MHz behind that of the Ryzen 5 7600 (65 W), and 300 MHz behind the 7600X (105 W). The "F" in the brand extension indicates a lack of integrated graphics, which shouldn't be a dealbreaker for the processor's intended audience—PC gamers. AMD is including a Wraith Stealth stock cooler with the retail 7500F, which coupled with A620 chipset motherboards that start at $125, should make for a formidable mainstream gaming PC platform with ample upgrade headroom.
Zenbleed Vulnerability Affects All AMD Zen 2 CPUs
A new vulnerability has been discovered in AMD Zen 2 based CPUs by Tavis Ormandy, a Google Information Security researcher. Ormandy has named the new vulnerability Zenbleed—also known as CVE-2023-20593—and it's said to affect all Zen 2 based AMD processors, which means Ryzen 3000, 4000 and 5000-series CPUs and APUs, as well as EPYC server chips. The reason why Zenbleed is of concern is because it doesn't require a potential attacker to have physical access to the computer or server in question and it's said to be possible to trigger the vulnerability via executing a javascript on a webpage. This means that the attack vector ends up being massive, at least when we're talking about something like a webhosting company.
Zenbleed is said to allow a potential attacker to gain access to things like encryption keys and user logins via triggering something called "the XMM Register Merge Optimization2, followed by a register rename and a mispredicted vzeroupper." Apparently this requires some precision for the vulnerability to work, but due to these registers being used system wide, even a sandboxed attacker can gain access to them. AMD has already issued a patch for its EPYC server CPUs, which obviously are the most vulnerable systems in question and the company is planning to release patches for all of its Zen 2 based CPUs before the end of the year. Hit up the source links for more details about Zenbleed.
Zenbleed is said to allow a potential attacker to gain access to things like encryption keys and user logins via triggering something called "the XMM Register Merge Optimization2, followed by a register rename and a mispredicted vzeroupper." Apparently this requires some precision for the vulnerability to work, but due to these registers being used system wide, even a sandboxed attacker can gain access to them. AMD has already issued a patch for its EPYC server CPUs, which obviously are the most vulnerable systems in question and the company is planning to release patches for all of its Zen 2 based CPUs before the end of the year. Hit up the source links for more details about Zenbleed.
Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4576 Released
Intel today released the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4576 beta. These drivers do not introduce Game On (day-zero) optimizations or improvements for any new games, but address a couple of glaring issues. "Remnant 2" exhibits texture corruption during gameplay, which has been fixed. In a similar light, "World War Z" exhibits flickering textures during gameplay, which has been fixed. Intel also identified a few more issues with this release, as detailed in the release notes, below.
DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4576 beta
DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4576 beta
NVIDIA Names Melissa Lora to Board of Directors
NVIDIA today announced that it has named to its board of directors Melissa Lora, who spent three decades as an executive at Taco Bell Corp., a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc., before retiring in 2018 as president of Taco Bell International.
She has also been appointed to the board's Audit Committee.
"Melissa is a great addition to our board of directors," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "She brings senior management and operating experience, as well as extensive finance expertise, gained in a large corporate setting. We will benefit immensely from her guidance."
She has also been appointed to the board's Audit Committee.
"Melissa is a great addition to our board of directors," said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. "She brings senior management and operating experience, as well as extensive finance expertise, gained in a large corporate setting. We will benefit immensely from her guidance."
Radeon RX 7900 GRE Confirmed to Debut New Navi 3X GPU
It turns out that the upcoming Radeon RX 7900 GRE (Golden Rabbit Edition) is built on the mysterious Navi 31 + Navi 32 hybrid GPU that's been in the news for a few weeks now. AMD has reportedly developed its answer to NVIDIA's AD103 silicon in the form of a new MCM that combines the 5 nm GCD of the "Navi 31," along with the substrate of the "Navi 32," which is physically smaller, and only has four 6 nm MCDs. This hybrid MCM could power AMD's mobile Radeon RX 7900 series. The chip physically only has a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. AMD felt the need for such a contraption as the "Navi 31" is likely too big for mobile platforms, and because the "Navi 32" GCD with its 60 CU (3,840 stream processors) might prove inadequate against a maxed out AD104 or cut-down AD103.
VideoCardz caught whiff of the new GPU by comparing the back sides of the Sapphire RX 7900 GRE from yesterday's leak, with that of the production Sapphire RX 7900 XT/XTX NITRO+. There are visible differences in the layout of the SMDs, and the reinforcement brace behind the GPU has a square cutout, compared to the rectangular one behind the "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX NITRO+. On the RX 7900 GRE, the GCD is configured with 84 CU, or the same core-config as the RX 7900 XT, albeit with the narrower 256-bit memory interface, and 64 MB of Infinity Cache memory. It's highly likely that AMD uses this GPU to carve out the Radeon RX 7800 XT (with fewer than 84 but higher than 60 CU); while creating the RX 7800 with a maxed out "Navi 32," and the RX 7700 series with a cut-down "Navi 32" (including by narrowing the memory bus width to 192-bit by disabling one of the four MCDs). AMD is reportedly planning to launch the RX 7900 GRE in China, on July 28, 2023.
VideoCardz caught whiff of the new GPU by comparing the back sides of the Sapphire RX 7900 GRE from yesterday's leak, with that of the production Sapphire RX 7900 XT/XTX NITRO+. There are visible differences in the layout of the SMDs, and the reinforcement brace behind the GPU has a square cutout, compared to the rectangular one behind the "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 XT/XTX NITRO+. On the RX 7900 GRE, the GCD is configured with 84 CU, or the same core-config as the RX 7900 XT, albeit with the narrower 256-bit memory interface, and 64 MB of Infinity Cache memory. It's highly likely that AMD uses this GPU to carve out the Radeon RX 7800 XT (with fewer than 84 but higher than 60 CU); while creating the RX 7800 with a maxed out "Navi 32," and the RX 7700 series with a cut-down "Navi 32" (including by narrowing the memory bus width to 192-bit by disabling one of the four MCDs). AMD is reportedly planning to launch the RX 7900 GRE in China, on July 28, 2023.
Sony Electronics Unveils WF-1000XM5 Truly Wireless Earbuds "For The Music"
Sony Electronics Inc. today announced the WF-1000XM5 earbuds - the latest truly wireless model of the award-winning 1000X series. This new model offers the Best Noise Canceling by reducing external noise over a wide bandwidth, from low to high frequencies so you can focus on your music. Following its predecessor, the WF-1000XM4, the WF-1000XM5 raises industry standards with astonishing sound and Sony's best ever call quality, despite a smaller and lighter design.
The WF-1000XM5 earbuds deliver cutting-edge technology and premium sound quality with the best noise-canceling performance. Real-time audio processors and high-performance mics power the specially designed driver unit, Dynamic Driver X, for wide frequency reproduction, deep bass, and more detailed vocals.
The WF-1000XM5 earbuds deliver cutting-edge technology and premium sound quality with the best noise-canceling performance. Real-time audio processors and high-performance mics power the specially designed driver unit, Dynamic Driver X, for wide frequency reproduction, deep bass, and more detailed vocals.
Monday, July 24th 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Keyboards
Networking
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Review - Twice the VRAM Making a Difference?
Finally! Our GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB review is live. We're investigating what performance gains you can expect from doubling the VRAM size to 16 GB. Our review of the 16 GB version also looks at power consumption and how overclocking is affected by the additional four memory chips on the back side of the PCB.
Logitech Announces First Quarter FY 2024 Results
Logitech International (SIX: LOGN) (Nasdaq: LOGI) today announced financial results for the first quarter of Fiscal Year 2024. "While the markets are still challenging, I am proud of the team's achievements during our first quarter," said Guy Gecht, Logitech interim chief executive officer. "Our high-caliber seasoned team, design-led engineering and strong execution truly sets us apart. Our latest innovations and elevated outlook are just a glimpse of Logitech's full potential as we execute our strategic vision."
"This solid first quarter highlights steady progress on many important metrics," said Charles Boynton, Logitech chief financial officer. "We delivered another quarter of reduced inventory and operating expenses while continuing to drive strong cash generation, further fortifying our balance sheet. With one quarter completed, we are pleased to provide a full-year and updated first-half outlook."
"This solid first quarter highlights steady progress on many important metrics," said Charles Boynton, Logitech chief financial officer. "We delivered another quarter of reduced inventory and operating expenses while continuing to drive strong cash generation, further fortifying our balance sheet. With one quarter completed, we are pleased to provide a full-year and updated first-half outlook."
AMD Expected to Increase Microcode Size for Future Processor Technologies
Phoronix has recently uncovered an intriguing Linux update, with kernel improvements being prepared to handle greater microcode payloads—they believe that "future AMD CPUs will be getting larger microcode patches." The timing could suggest that upcoming Zen 5 processors will be likely candidates to meet new requirements: "Right now the Linux kernel has a maximum microcode patch size for AMD CPUs that is three times the kernel's page size (typically 4K). But with a patch (published on July 20) that will "increase substantially" to eight times the page size. The increase is intentionally quite a magnitude larger in order to avoid future patches further having to bump the patch size limit in later generations." Earlier this month, some GitHub entries demonstrated that AMD engineers had patched Linux 6.5 with updates for "Family 26" (1Ah) CPU enablement," which Phoronix believes to be for next-gen platforms (Zen 5): "It's also not elaborated on why the CPU microcode size will be increasing. In any event the simple patch to bump the AMD CPU microcode limit is now out for review. It's also marked for back-porting to existing stable kernel versions."
Sony Intros Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Limited Edition PS5 Console Bundle
What an exciting moment for PlayStation players, as the Insomniac team just wrapped up a captivating panel at San Diego Comic-Con with fantastic new reveals from Marvel's Spider-Man 2. This includes a first look at the PS5 Console - Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Limited Edition Bundle, which features a custom PS5 console cover design and matching DualSense wireless controller.
We were thrilled to debut these stunning designs to our fans today because of how they capture the look and feel of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. The threat of Venom and the symbiote will be one of the most formidable challenges that our two Spider-Men will face in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. This is why we wanted to reflect the intensity of the symbiote and its capacity for transformation and power with a takeover design for the PS5 console and DualSense wireless controller.
We were thrilled to debut these stunning designs to our fans today because of how they capture the look and feel of Marvel's Spider-Man 2. The threat of Venom and the symbiote will be one of the most formidable challenges that our two Spider-Men will face in Marvel's Spider-Man 2. This is why we wanted to reflect the intensity of the symbiote and its capacity for transformation and power with a takeover design for the PS5 console and DualSense wireless controller.
The Walking Dead: Betrayal Revealed, Closed Beta Starting August 10
The Walking Dead: Betrayal is a third-person action game of cooperation and deception for up to 8 players. Out of resources, with a herd of walkers fast approaching, players must work together to complete objectives and make their escape. They'll need to work fast, as walkers aren't the only threat.
Incognito "traitors" lurk among them, plotting to do everything in their power to delay repairs and prevent anyone from leaving. With so many creative ways to sabotage the team, the walkers are the most predictable threat. As evidence of their sabotage becomes apparent, paranoia and accusations threaten to tear the survivors apart as they desperately work towards escaping. Can you make it out alive?
Incognito "traitors" lurk among them, plotting to do everything in their power to delay repairs and prevent anyone from leaving. With so many creative ways to sabotage the team, the walkers are the most predictable threat. As evidence of their sabotage becomes apparent, paranoia and accusations threaten to tear the survivors apart as they desperately work towards escaping. Can you make it out alive?
Report Suggests German Government Prepping $22 Billion Aid Package for Native Chip Production
According to a report published by Bloomberg, the German government has formed plans to create €20 billion ($22 billion) of investments to aid in the growth of local semiconductor manufacturing. The article proposes that the organization is racing to bolster the country's technology sector, and is attempting to secure essential supplies of components. Various geopolitical issues have complicated matters in recent times. Funding will be made available to German and international companies, from Germany's (now diversified) Climate and Transformation reserve, over the next four years. The finance ministry responded to Bloomberg's query, and stated: "The draft for the economic plan 2024 and the financial plan until 2027 for the Climate and Transformation Fund are currently being prepared...This process has not yet been completed." Germany's economy ministry did not provide a statement/response to Bloomberg's queries.
Around 75% of the fund is reportedly set aside for multinational semiconductor firms including Intel Corporation (USA) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC). Bloomberg believes that Team Blue is due an allocation of €10 billion for investments in its new production facility, located close to Magdeburg, Germany. The government is allegedly deep into talks with TSMC regarding the foundation of a proposed €10 billion production base in the Dresden area—the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG would benefit greatly with quicker access to (localized) microcontrollers manufacturing facilities. The government could subsidize half of that total investment (€5 billion). Infineon is possibly in line to receive a €1 billion aid package, since it is building a new fab location in Dresden.
Around 75% of the fund is reportedly set aside for multinational semiconductor firms including Intel Corporation (USA) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC). Bloomberg believes that Team Blue is due an allocation of €10 billion for investments in its new production facility, located close to Magdeburg, Germany. The government is allegedly deep into talks with TSMC regarding the foundation of a proposed €10 billion production base in the Dresden area—the likes of BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen AG would benefit greatly with quicker access to (localized) microcontrollers manufacturing facilities. The government could subsidize half of that total investment (€5 billion). Infineon is possibly in line to receive a €1 billion aid package, since it is building a new fab location in Dresden.
Intel Arc A580 GPU Reportedly Appears in GFXBench Database
The Intel Arc A580 GPU was revealed alongside its Alchemist siblings—A380 A750 and A770—last year, but remains the only one out of that lineup to not have reached the retail market. Things have been quiet on the Intel Arc 5-series "Advanced Gaming" front for a while now—TechPowerUp's GPU-Z utility was updated with support for the A580 last September, and an evaluation sample was benched in Ashes of the Singularity a month prior to that. A supposed sample Intel Arc A580 was recently tested via a Vulkan-based renderer in GFXBench 5.0, perhaps not the best platform to gauge PC performance on.
Has an owner of a rare curiosity unit chosen to bench the unreleased GPU, or is a manufacturer evaluating a sample with a very delayed product launch in mind? The test results are not all that impressive, with the A580 performing poorly compared to the range-topping Arc A770 (placed in Intel's "high performance gaming" tier), although it does much better than the A380 (not a big boast). The likely prototype nature of the evaluated card or immature state of drivers could be to blame for shortcomings in GFXBench 5.0.
Has an owner of a rare curiosity unit chosen to bench the unreleased GPU, or is a manufacturer evaluating a sample with a very delayed product launch in mind? The test results are not all that impressive, with the A580 performing poorly compared to the range-topping Arc A770 (placed in Intel's "high performance gaming" tier), although it does much better than the A380 (not a big boast). The likely prototype nature of the evaluated card or immature state of drivers could be to blame for shortcomings in GFXBench 5.0.
Techland Announces Tencent's Majority Investment in the Studio
Techland CEO Pawel Marchewka stated earlier today: "Dear Gamers, I want to share some really exciting news that will mark the start of a new chapter of Techland's history. Techland has been a huge part of my life for more than 30 years now and it is something I truly cherish. Techland is our games, the amazing team behind them, and you, the people playing these games. You're the reason why we're making them. Whenever I think about the future of Techland, I want the best for our games, the team, and you. And while I am very proud of our achievements as an independent studio over all these years, I believe the best is yet to come.
We dream of turning Dying Light into the ultimate zombie game experience for players worldwide, providing you with multiple astonishing adventures and pushing the boundaries of solo and online modes to a totally new level. Our open world action-RPG in a fantasy setting is already shaping up to become something truly special, and the goal here is to make sure it will live up to the expectations for our first new IP in almost a decade. Can we make these dreams come true? Yes, we can. But what we realized is that the best, boldest dreams can only be achieved while working side-by-side with like-minded friends and strong partners, who share the same vision, passion, and have the willingness to back it up with their knowledge, experience, and capabilities.
We dream of turning Dying Light into the ultimate zombie game experience for players worldwide, providing you with multiple astonishing adventures and pushing the boundaries of solo and online modes to a totally new level. Our open world action-RPG in a fantasy setting is already shaping up to become something truly special, and the goal here is to make sure it will live up to the expectations for our first new IP in almost a decade. Can we make these dreams come true? Yes, we can. But what we realized is that the best, boldest dreams can only be achieved while working side-by-side with like-minded friends and strong partners, who share the same vision, passion, and have the willingness to back it up with their knowledge, experience, and capabilities.
AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX3D Outed by ASUS ROG Laptop Specs
Tipsters have noticed that ASUS is preparing a new high-end laptop with an unannounced AMD processor—the upcoming ROG Strix SCAR 17-inch model (G733PYV-LL046W,) will apparently sport a Ryzen 9 7945HX3D APU (with 128 MB of L3 cache). The inclusion of "X3D" in the processor's name has generated a lot of interest, given that Team Red's 3D V-Cache technology has existed mainly within mainstream desktop-oriented Ryzen 7000 and 5000 processor lineups. This leaked dual-CCD APU is probably being lined up to take on upper-echelon Intel Raptor Lake-HX processors, as well as refreshed variants.
The leak indicates that this APU will likely sit at the top of the Zen 4-based Dragon Range-H lineup—being a 5.4 GHz max. boost clock, 16-core/32-thread CPU, with a configurable TDP (between 55 W and 75 W) and Radeon 610M iGPU. The host ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 laptop is no slouch thanks to some very generous hardware specifications, including a mobile NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU, 32 GB of DDR5 memory, 2 TB SSD, and a 17.3" 240 Hz IPS display. Listed at 5599 AUD (~$3800) on Computer Alliance, or £3904.79 (~$5000) chez Lamba-Tek, you would expect the best possible performance for those prices. The two online retailers have not confirmed any concrete release dates for the high-end ASUS laptop.
The leak indicates that this APU will likely sit at the top of the Zen 4-based Dragon Range-H lineup—being a 5.4 GHz max. boost clock, 16-core/32-thread CPU, with a configurable TDP (between 55 W and 75 W) and Radeon 610M iGPU. The host ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 17 laptop is no slouch thanks to some very generous hardware specifications, including a mobile NVIDIA RTX 4090 GPU, 32 GB of DDR5 memory, 2 TB SSD, and a 17.3" 240 Hz IPS display. Listed at 5599 AUD (~$3800) on Computer Alliance, or £3904.79 (~$5000) chez Lamba-Tek, you would expect the best possible performance for those prices. The two online retailers have not confirmed any concrete release dates for the high-end ASUS laptop.
ASUS Sneaks Out Intel W680 Based mATX Motherboard for LGA-1700 Workstations
For those looking to build something more professional than your average run of the mill PC, ASUS new Pro WS W680M-ACE SE motherboard might be the thing you've been looking for. The Intel W680 chipset based board sports a mATX form factor and packs in a range of rather unusual features that you more often would find on a board from Supermicro or Tyan than ASUS. One such feature is onboard BMC remote management via an ASpeed AST2600 SoC which features a pair of Arm Cortex A7 cores and a Cortex M3, as well as a dedicated 2D graphics chip. The board also sports a SlimSAS port which supports either four SATA drives or a single PCIe 4.0 x4 storage device, although ASUS doesn't support any cables in the box for the port.
As this is a workstation motherboard, it obviously supports ECC memory and in this case we're talking DDR5 with full transactional ECC support, rather than the on-die ECC that all DDR5 features. Other more common motherboard features include a pair of PCIe 4.0 x4 NMVe M.2 slots, a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The board also has a pair of 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port and a third 1 Gbps Ethernet port which is connected the AST2600, a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, as well as a DisplayPort and HDMI port, plus a VGA port which again is connected to the AST2600. ASUS promises 24/7 reliability at ambient temperatures of up to 45 degrees C and a relative humidity of up to 80 percent. The board also comes with ASUS' Control Center Express, which is ASUS' IT management software. No word on pricing, but the ATX sized version retails for around US$330, suggesting that the mATX version should be somewhat cheaper.
As this is a workstation motherboard, it obviously supports ECC memory and in this case we're talking DDR5 with full transactional ECC support, rather than the on-die ECC that all DDR5 features. Other more common motherboard features include a pair of PCIe 4.0 x4 NMVe M.2 slots, a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The board also has a pair of 2.5 Gbps Ethernet port and a third 1 Gbps Ethernet port which is connected the AST2600, a 10 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port, as well as a DisplayPort and HDMI port, plus a VGA port which again is connected to the AST2600. ASUS promises 24/7 reliability at ambient temperatures of up to 45 degrees C and a relative humidity of up to 80 percent. The board also comes with ASUS' Control Center Express, which is ASUS' IT management software. No word on pricing, but the ATX sized version retails for around US$330, suggesting that the mATX version should be somewhat cheaper.
Intel Speeds AI Development with Reference Kits
Intel now offers a set of 34 open source AI reference kits to the community, the result of a yearslong collaboration with Accenture, enabling developers and data scientists to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) faster and more easily. Each kit includes model code, training data, instructions for the machine learning pipeline, libraries and oneAPI components to optimize AI and make it accessible to organizations in multiarchitecture on-premises, cloud and edge environments.
"Intel AI reference kits give millions of developers and data scientists an easy, performant and cost-effective way to build and scale their AI applications in health and life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, retail and many other domains. Intel is committed to enabling an AI everywhere future through not just our portfolio of AI-accelerated processors and systems but also our contributions to an open AI software ecosystem. The reference kits are built using components of Intel's AI software portfolio and on the foundation of the open, standards-based, oneAPI multiarchitecture programming model," said Wei Li, Ph.D., Intel vice president and general manager of AI and Analytics.
"Intel AI reference kits give millions of developers and data scientists an easy, performant and cost-effective way to build and scale their AI applications in health and life sciences, financial services, manufacturing, retail and many other domains. Intel is committed to enabling an AI everywhere future through not just our portfolio of AI-accelerated processors and systems but also our contributions to an open AI software ecosystem. The reference kits are built using components of Intel's AI software portfolio and on the foundation of the open, standards-based, oneAPI multiarchitecture programming model," said Wei Li, Ph.D., Intel vice president and general manager of AI and Analytics.
Leaked Footage Shows Sony Project Q Handheld Running Android OS
A significant Sony Project Q leak has revealed an alleged prototype running on an undisclosed version of the Android operating system—the remote play-oriented handheld device was first revealed in late May's PlayStation showcase, but Sony's games division has so far kept stum about the Q's means of operation. Zuby_Tech has (prematurely) pulled back the curtain by uploading various images and video footage of a working unit.
A very simple version of Android seems to be displayed on the device's 8-inch 1080p LCD screen (a protective film is still attached), with a prominent QR code featured on its home window. The streaming device has the potential to be quite flexible, in terms of functionality, thanks to Sony's apparent wise choice of operating system selection. Zuby_Tech also took the time to open up their sample unit—without the screen in place, there appears to be not much going on inside there. Previous rumors have the Project Q accessory costing somewhere in the $200-300 region, with a battery life of 3-4 hours—this could be a tough one to market and sell, even to the most ardent of PlayStation platform supporters.
A very simple version of Android seems to be displayed on the device's 8-inch 1080p LCD screen (a protective film is still attached), with a prominent QR code featured on its home window. The streaming device has the potential to be quite flexible, in terms of functionality, thanks to Sony's apparent wise choice of operating system selection. Zuby_Tech also took the time to open up their sample unit—without the screen in place, there appears to be not much going on inside there. Previous rumors have the Project Q accessory costing somewhere in the $200-300 region, with a battery life of 3-4 hours—this could be a tough one to market and sell, even to the most ardent of PlayStation platform supporters.
MSI Arc A310 Low Profile 2X Graphics Card Unboxed in YouTube Short
An MSI Arc A310 4 GB Low Profile 2X graphics card is now available to purchase at a couple of Russian PC hardware retailers (for roughly $140), and a local YouTuber has already produced a quick unboxing video. Intel's board partners have been sluggish in adopting lower-end Alchemist GPU variants, with only a handful of companies bothering to produce cards based on the Arc A310 (DG2-128).
Sparkle displayed an unnamed super compact model at Computex 2023, and presentation slides have recently revealed that their "Industrial Low-Profile" series will be introduced under the GENIE moniker, comprised of single slot/fan A310 and A380 variants. Sparkle has not outlined a possible Western release for these budget cards, and other manufacturers have been reluctant to move beyond the Chinese OEM market. The Gigabyte A3 series is reportedly a Russian market exclusive for the moment, so it will be interesting to see if MSI is only targeting that territory with its competing dual fan design Arc A310 4 GB Low Profile model.
Sparkle displayed an unnamed super compact model at Computex 2023, and presentation slides have recently revealed that their "Industrial Low-Profile" series will be introduced under the GENIE moniker, comprised of single slot/fan A310 and A380 variants. Sparkle has not outlined a possible Western release for these budget cards, and other manufacturers have been reluctant to move beyond the Chinese OEM market. The Gigabyte A3 series is reportedly a Russian market exclusive for the moment, so it will be interesting to see if MSI is only targeting that territory with its competing dual fan design Arc A310 4 GB Low Profile model.
Xbox Running Pizza-Scented Controller Giveaway - TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Themed
Paramount Pictures' upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" and Xbox is serving up a totally righteous gamers' welcome for the fearless foursome. In celebration of the movie's August 2023 release, we are giving away a limited number of exclusive ooze green, pizza-scented Xbox Wireless Controllers that pair perfectly with game content that immerses fans in the Turtles' latest adventures.
Amp Up Your Gaming with TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Pizza-Scented Controller
Satisfy your hunger for kicking butt with the world's first ever pizza-scented controller! Designed to deliver the smell of the Turtles' beloved meal to your game time, these exclusive Xbox Wireless Controllers come with a built-in scent diffuser shaped like a slice of delicious New York 'za. The controller comes in four variations, each representing the signature colors, weapons, and personality of a Turtle brother: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Fans can enter to win the Wireless Controllers by following Xbox Game Pass on Twitter and retweeting the official Xbox Game Pass sweepstakes tweet. The giveaway will run from July 24 through August 13, 2023. For official rules and eligibility details, please visit here. For fans in NYC, you can join the celebration and check out in-person the pizza-scented controllers, load up on pizza and play on in the Xbox Gaming Lounge at the Microsoft Experience Center on Fifth Avenue from 4-7 pm ET on August 2, 2023.
Amp Up Your Gaming with TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Pizza-Scented Controller
Satisfy your hunger for kicking butt with the world's first ever pizza-scented controller! Designed to deliver the smell of the Turtles' beloved meal to your game time, these exclusive Xbox Wireless Controllers come with a built-in scent diffuser shaped like a slice of delicious New York 'za. The controller comes in four variations, each representing the signature colors, weapons, and personality of a Turtle brother: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo. Fans can enter to win the Wireless Controllers by following Xbox Game Pass on Twitter and retweeting the official Xbox Game Pass sweepstakes tweet. The giveaway will run from July 24 through August 13, 2023. For official rules and eligibility details, please visit here. For fans in NYC, you can join the celebration and check out in-person the pizza-scented controllers, load up on pizza and play on in the Xbox Gaming Lounge at the Microsoft Experience Center on Fifth Avenue from 4-7 pm ET on August 2, 2023.
Venom Showcased in Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Story Trailer
San Diego Comic-Con has always been one of the most exciting times for Marvel fans. We had an amazing time in 2018 with the original Marvel's Spider-Man, and we were thrilled to make a return trip to Hall H today to talk about Marvel's Spider-Man 2. For those of you who couldn't join us - here's a recap of what happened! We wanted to start the panel off with a bang, debuting our brand-new Story Trailer. Take a look (below)!
The trailer sets up our story in the game while also giving you your first full look at the monstrous Venom in Marvel's New York! Here's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Senior Narrative Director Jon Paquette to offer a deeper look: "At the beginning of our story, our Spider-Men are at the top of their game," said Paquette. "But both Peter Parker and Miles Morales are struggling with their personal lives. Miles is trying to find time to write his college entrance essay, but he keeps procrastinating and focusing on Spider-Work instead. Meanwhile, Peter is underwater on payments for Aunt May's house, but he can't sell, it means too much to him. And just like Miles, Peter tries (and fails) to find balance with so many responsibilities. MJ wants to help Pete with the mortgage, but her job is on the line now that J. Jonah Jameson is back at the Bugle and looking to clean house. Our heroes have arrived at a confluence of crossroads, with uncertain futures, and some tough decisions ahead."
The trailer sets up our story in the game while also giving you your first full look at the monstrous Venom in Marvel's New York! Here's Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Senior Narrative Director Jon Paquette to offer a deeper look: "At the beginning of our story, our Spider-Men are at the top of their game," said Paquette. "But both Peter Parker and Miles Morales are struggling with their personal lives. Miles is trying to find time to write his college entrance essay, but he keeps procrastinating and focusing on Spider-Work instead. Meanwhile, Peter is underwater on payments for Aunt May's house, but he can't sell, it means too much to him. And just like Miles, Peter tries (and fails) to find balance with so many responsibilities. MJ wants to help Pete with the mortgage, but her job is on the line now that J. Jonah Jameson is back at the Bugle and looking to clean house. Our heroes have arrived at a confluence of crossroads, with uncertain futures, and some tough decisions ahead."
BenQ Introduces ZOWIE G-SR II Mouse Pad, Designed for Esports
We are pleased to announce the new G-SR II mousepad. The G-SR II adopts G-SR, offering a consistent smooth and controlled glide during mouse movements. The G-SR II has been improved to increase its resistance to humidity. Moreover, the new tighter cloth surface reduces issues with glide inconsistency after frequent use and enhances durability.
G-SR II's slightly smoother glide feel makes it easier to start moving the mouse; with less friction for mobility in multiple angle movement and long distance aiming, while at the same time maintaining similar stopping power for stable control. Check out more information here.
G-SR II's slightly smoother glide feel makes it easier to start moving the mouse; with less friction for mobility in multiple angle movement and long distance aiming, while at the same time maintaining similar stopping power for stable control. Check out more information here.
HyperX Welcomes Professional Valorant Caster and Content Creator Sean Gares as HyperX Ambassador
HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the signing of Sean Gares as a HyperX ambassador. Joining the HyperX family, Gares brings extensive experience to the HyperX community as a professional player, caster and well-known content creator, making him an ideal candidate to collaborate with HyperX and provide unique content for gamers and fans alike.
Having previously played for renowned esports organizations such as Cloud 9 and Echo Fox, Gares' deep-rooted knowledge of competitive gaming enables him to create highly engaging and informative content. Gares' exceptional expertise in the popular first-person shooter game, Valorant, has earned him a reputation as one of the top content creators in the gaming industry.
Having previously played for renowned esports organizations such as Cloud 9 and Echo Fox, Gares' deep-rooted knowledge of competitive gaming enables him to create highly engaging and informative content. Gares' exceptional expertise in the popular first-person shooter game, Valorant, has earned him a reputation as one of the top content creators in the gaming industry.
Solidigm Introduces D5-P5336 - the World's Highest Capacity PCIe SSD
Solidigm over the weekend announced the Solidigm D5-P5336 line of enterprise SSDs. The company earns bragging rights for having the highest capacity among production SSDs, with these coming in capacities of up to 61.44 TB—an incredible amount of storage that HDDs have yet to catch up to. These drives are targeted at the data-center, where they not just replace HDDs due to their sheer density, but also provide the advantage of responsive flash storage. The drives aren't gunning to top SSD performance charts, the design goal is simply capacity and reliability. The D5-P5336 series feature enterprise-grade QLC NAND flash memory that's been extensively tested for reliability and write endurance.
The Solidigm D5-P5336 series comes in three data-center relevant form-factors—15 mm-thick U.2, 7.5 mm-thick E3.S, and the E1.L (ruler) form-factor. Capacities start at 7.68 TB for the U.2 and E3.S models, and 15.36 TB for the E1.L. The maximum capacity on offer is 61.44 TB for the U.2 and E1.L form-factors, and 30.72 TB for the E3.S. Among the capacity variants are 15.36 TB, 30.72 TB, and 61.44 TB. The drives use a proprietary controller that takes advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, and NVMe 1.4c protocol. The star attraction, however, is the 192-layer 3D QLC NAND flash memory made in-house by Solidigm.
The Solidigm D5-P5336 series comes in three data-center relevant form-factors—15 mm-thick U.2, 7.5 mm-thick E3.S, and the E1.L (ruler) form-factor. Capacities start at 7.68 TB for the U.2 and E3.S models, and 15.36 TB for the E1.L. The maximum capacity on offer is 61.44 TB for the U.2 and E1.L form-factors, and 30.72 TB for the E3.S. Among the capacity variants are 15.36 TB, 30.72 TB, and 61.44 TB. The drives use a proprietary controller that takes advantage of the PCI-Express 4.0 x4 host interface, and NVMe 1.4c protocol. The star attraction, however, is the 192-layer 3D QLC NAND flash memory made in-house by Solidigm.
ENERMAX Introduces New White 360mm AQUAFUSION ADV AIO CPU Cooler
ENERMAX, an industry-leading force dedicated to designing high-performance computer power supplies and cooling solutions, announces that its AQUAFUSION ADV AIO CPU cooler series is adding the white 360 mm to its lineup. ENERMAX also collaborates with Intel, and the series is listed as a 13th Gen Intel Core processor cooling solution.
The AQUAFUSION ADV series now offers a total of six models, including 120 mm, 240 mm, and 360 mm radiators, each available in black and white variants. The AQUAFUSION ADV series stands out with its distinctive and visually stunning appearance. The square-shaped infinity mirror design of the pump head, combined with ENERMAX's SquA RGB ADV fan with a square frame outline, creates an overall aesthetic that exudes a sense of modernity and technological sophistication. When the addressable RGB lighting on AQUAFUSION ADV is activated, the linear light streams accentuate the sleek and futuristic design of the system.
The AQUAFUSION ADV series now offers a total of six models, including 120 mm, 240 mm, and 360 mm radiators, each available in black and white variants. The AQUAFUSION ADV series stands out with its distinctive and visually stunning appearance. The square-shaped infinity mirror design of the pump head, combined with ENERMAX's SquA RGB ADV fan with a square frame outline, creates an overall aesthetic that exudes a sense of modernity and technological sophistication. When the addressable RGB lighting on AQUAFUSION ADV is activated, the linear light streams accentuate the sleek and futuristic design of the system.
AMD's Ryzen 5 7500F Gets Benchmarked, Available Globally
AMD's recently added Ryzen 5 7500F for the AM5 socket was initially said to only be available in the PRC, but according to AMD, it will apparently be available globally. That said, AMD apparently only seeded review units to select Asian media, among them Quasar Zone in Korea, who put the six core, 12 thread CPU through its paces. Overall performance is very close to the Ryzen 5 7600, which isn't really all that strange, considering the two only differ by 100 MHz in both base and boost clock. In most of the benchmarks, the Ryzen 5 7500F is around two to three percent slower than the Ryzen 5 7600 on average.
When compared to the slightly more pricey Intel Core i5-13400, AMD falls behind multithreaded apps but comes out on top in most of the games tested, with the usual odd exception as would be expected. On average, the Ryzen 5 7500F is some 13 percent faster in the game benchmarks at 1080p, although this is using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. It even beats the overall much faster Intel Core i5-13500 in gaming by around nine percent on average. However, the Ryzen 5 7500F system loses out to the two Intel systems when it comes to power efficiency, drawing around 20 Watts more on average when gaming. At US$179.99 it seems like AMD finally has a budget friendly CPU for the AM5 platform, if you're willing to lose the integrated GPU. It's unknown when the CPU will be available outside of Asia at this point in time.
When compared to the slightly more pricey Intel Core i5-13400, AMD falls behind multithreaded apps but comes out on top in most of the games tested, with the usual odd exception as would be expected. On average, the Ryzen 5 7500F is some 13 percent faster in the game benchmarks at 1080p, although this is using an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. It even beats the overall much faster Intel Core i5-13500 in gaming by around nine percent on average. However, the Ryzen 5 7500F system loses out to the two Intel systems when it comes to power efficiency, drawing around 20 Watts more on average when gaming. At US$179.99 it seems like AMD finally has a budget friendly CPU for the AM5 platform, if you're willing to lose the integrated GPU. It's unknown when the CPU will be available outside of Asia at this point in time.
AYANEO Presents Kun Handheld 8.4-inch Gaming PC Powered by AMD Ryzen 7 7840U
AYANEO, an Asian manufacturer known for its mobile handhelds, has introduced a new device, the AYANEO Kun. The Kun is powered by the latest AMD Ryzen 7 7840U mobile processor from the Ryzen 7040 series. This SoC includes eight Zen 4 cores and an integrated graphics unit based on the RDNA 3 architecture with 12 compute units. The console's dimensions stand at 312 x 133 x 21.9 mm, making it slightly wider but slimmer than ASUS's ROG Ally, with the exact weight yet to be disclosed. Kun's battery capacity is rated for 75Wh, as compared to other handhelds' 40 Wh, potentially indicating a longer battery life.
The AYANEO Kun's other notable features include its 8.4-inch display with an IPS panel and resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. For controls, the device utilizes a D-Pad and two Hall sensor-equipped joysticks for gaming. The shoulder buttons also employ Hall sensor technology. There are touchpads on either side of the display, along with other function keys and the A/B/X/Y keys. For the first time, AYANEO has integrated buttons at the back of the device, offering customizable functions. The device provides two Type-C (likely USB4), one USB Type-A, and one 3.5 mm jack connection. More comprehensive technical details, model variants, and pricing information are to be released during the official unveiling of the AYANEO Kun scheduled for August.
The AYANEO Kun's other notable features include its 8.4-inch display with an IPS panel and resolution of 1,920 x 1,200 pixels. For controls, the device utilizes a D-Pad and two Hall sensor-equipped joysticks for gaming. The shoulder buttons also employ Hall sensor technology. There are touchpads on either side of the display, along with other function keys and the A/B/X/Y keys. For the first time, AYANEO has integrated buttons at the back of the device, offering customizable functions. The device provides two Type-C (likely USB4), one USB Type-A, and one 3.5 mm jack connection. More comprehensive technical details, model variants, and pricing information are to be released during the official unveiling of the AYANEO Kun scheduled for August.
Meta Cancels Quest Pro 2 Development, Quest 3 to Take Over
Meta has invested heavily in Augmented Reality (AR) devices, such as its Quest and Quest Pro devices. However, it seems like the company has received mixed feedback from the community on its AR headsets, most notably on the higher end. Meta's Quest Pro device was launched on October 25, 2022. According to The Information, Quest Pro will be manufactured as long as the supplies last at manufacturing facilities, and Meta will not order any new material for it. Additionally, Quest Pro 2, the second-generation Quest Pro, will not be released as the company has canceled its development. This is not to be confused with the regular Quest, which is still in active development.
Meta's upcoming Quest 3 will even beat the Quest Pro with its specifications, targeting lower price points and a wider audience. Quest 3 will feature a higher resolution, depth sensor, and two 4MP cameras instead of the one on Quest Pro. Logically, Quest 3 is the obvious upgrade and will cost less than $1000, unlike Quest Pro, which debuted with a $1500 price tag.
Meta's upcoming Quest 3 will even beat the Quest Pro with its specifications, targeting lower price points and a wider audience. Quest 3 will feature a higher resolution, depth sensor, and two 4MP cameras instead of the one on Quest Pro. Logically, Quest 3 is the obvious upgrade and will cost less than $1000, unlike Quest Pro, which debuted with a $1500 price tag.
Elon Musk Announces that Twitter Will Change Name to X
After having paid US$44 billion for Twitter, it appears Elon Musk isn't happy with Twitter being Twitter and is now getting ready to change the name of the social media platform to X. For those that aren't familiar with Elon Musk's company history, X was his online bank that preceded PayPal, or rather X.com, a domain name that is still owned by Elon Musk and currently redirects to Twitter. It appears that Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Linda Yaccarino have big plans for X, at least according to several posts by the Twitter CEO.
Yaccaranio in a post on Twitter states that "X is the future state of unlimited interactivity - centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking - creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we're just beginning to imagine." Make of this what you want, but it appears that Twitter is about to go through some major changes, some that had already been mentioned by Musk as early as last year. Time will tell if this will be a direction that Twitter's users want things to go, or if the platform will end up dying a death of a thousand cuts.
Yaccaranio in a post on Twitter states that "X is the future state of unlimited interactivity - centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking - creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities. Powered by AI, X will connect us all in ways we're just beginning to imagine." Make of this what you want, but it appears that Twitter is about to go through some major changes, some that had already been mentioned by Musk as early as last year. Time will tell if this will be a direction that Twitter's users want things to go, or if the platform will end up dying a death of a thousand cuts.
Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE Pictured: A Unique China-specific SKU
Here are some of the first pictures of the Sapphire Radeon RX 7900 GRE, a unique China-specific product that isn't just its own Sapphire custom-design, but also a whole different SKU. We first learned about the existence of the RX 7900 GRE earlier this month, and this would be one of its first custom design implementations. The Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE), is a limited edition SKU of the Radeon RX 7900 series. It's neither the RX 7900 XTX nor the RX 7900 XT, but positioned a notch below the latter. Based on the same "Navi 31" silicon as the two, the RX 7900 GRE is equipped with 84 CU (5,376 stream processors), or the same GCD core-configuration as the RX 7900 XT. It however, gets just 16 GB of memory, across a narrower 256-bit wide memory bus.
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE is carved out of the "Navi 31" by disabling two of the six MCDs, which reduces the Infinity Cache size to 64 MB, and the GDDR6 memory bus width to 256-bit. The 5 nm GCD is carried over from the RX 7900 XT—you get 5,376 stream processors, 168 AI accelerators, 84 Ray accelerators, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. It is possible that the Sapphire RX 7900 GRE uses a variation of the company's NITRO+ cooling solution that's similar to the NITRO+ Lite SKUs available in markets outside China. The key difference here is that the cooler lacks a vapor-chamber plate, and instead uses a solid copper base-plate to pull heat from the GPU and memory. AMD needs to fill the vast gap in its product stack between the $250 RX 7600 and the $700+ RX 7900 XT, and SKUs such as the RX 7900 GRE could help it compete better against the likes of the RTX 4070 Ti in competitive markets such as China.
The Radeon RX 7900 GRE is carved out of the "Navi 31" by disabling two of the six MCDs, which reduces the Infinity Cache size to 64 MB, and the GDDR6 memory bus width to 256-bit. The 5 nm GCD is carried over from the RX 7900 XT—you get 5,376 stream processors, 168 AI accelerators, 84 Ray accelerators, 336 TMUs, and 192 ROPs. It is possible that the Sapphire RX 7900 GRE uses a variation of the company's NITRO+ cooling solution that's similar to the NITRO+ Lite SKUs available in markets outside China. The key difference here is that the cooler lacks a vapor-chamber plate, and instead uses a solid copper base-plate to pull heat from the GPU and memory. AMD needs to fill the vast gap in its product stack between the $250 RX 7600 and the $700+ RX 7900 XT, and SKUs such as the RX 7900 GRE could help it compete better against the likes of the RTX 4070 Ti in competitive markets such as China.
ASUS Republic of Gamers Announces New Evangelion Collaboration
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced collaboration centered around EVA-02 and Asuka from the long-celebrated Evangelion anime series. PC DIY builders and anime lovers can now enjoy a second impact of premium ROG components and peripherals elevated by the classic EVA-02 red and orange colorway with a variety of custom Evangelion-themed decals and graphics. The new powerhouse arsenal includes a ROG Maximus motherboard, ROG Strix GeForce RTX graphics card, ROG Ryujin AIO cooler, ROG Hyperion gaming case, graphics card holder, peripherals and other gear.
ROG Maximus Z790 Hero EVA-02 Edition motherboard
This special version of the feature-packed ROG Maximus Z790 Hero arrives with EVA-02's signature red and orange theme, with traces of green. The backplate design comes with EVA-02 Beast Mode and Evangelion patterns, supporting this motherboard's immense power and control, as it takes 13th Gen Intel Core processors and DDR5 memory kit to the next level. And an A.T. Field design around the CPU socket and Polymo lighting on the I/O cover switches between Asuka and regular EVA-02 as another artistic flourish.
ROG Maximus Z790 Hero EVA-02 Edition motherboard
This special version of the feature-packed ROG Maximus Z790 Hero arrives with EVA-02's signature red and orange theme, with traces of green. The backplate design comes with EVA-02 Beast Mode and Evangelion patterns, supporting this motherboard's immense power and control, as it takes 13th Gen Intel Core processors and DDR5 memory kit to the next level. And an A.T. Field design around the CPU socket and Polymo lighting on the I/O cover switches between Asuka and regular EVA-02 as another artistic flourish.
BIOSTAR Unveils A620MT Socket AM5 Motherboard
BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, proudly unveils the A620MT motherboard, designed to run the latest AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors. Perfectly balanced to meet the needs of various users, from office applications and system integration businesses to home entertainment systems, the A620MT motherboard offers an impressive array of advanced features and top-tier performance, setting the standard for modern-day computing.
Utilizing the AMD Socket AM5 based A620 single-chip architecture, the A620MT motherboard supports AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors, including the brand new AMD Ryzen 5 7500F processor. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F processor features six cores and twelve threads, operating with a 65 W TDP. While the Ryzen 5 7500F processor does not feature integrated graphics capability, BIOSTAR's Radeon RX 7600 graphics card is a great partner to it, and the combined trio of A620MT motherboard, Ryzen 5 7500F processor and BIOSTAR's RX 7600 graphics card is a recipe for success. With excellent synergy between all devices that ensures an unparalleled computing experience with higher performance, superior data integrity, and lower power consumption.
Utilizing the AMD Socket AM5 based A620 single-chip architecture, the A620MT motherboard supports AMD Ryzen 7000 Series processors, including the brand new AMD Ryzen 5 7500F processor. The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F processor features six cores and twelve threads, operating with a 65 W TDP. While the Ryzen 5 7500F processor does not feature integrated graphics capability, BIOSTAR's Radeon RX 7600 graphics card is a great partner to it, and the combined trio of A620MT motherboard, Ryzen 5 7500F processor and BIOSTAR's RX 7600 graphics card is a recipe for success. With excellent synergy between all devices that ensures an unparalleled computing experience with higher performance, superior data integrity, and lower power consumption.
Sunday, July 23rd 2023
This Week in Gaming (Week 30)
After a slow week of new releases, we're in for an extremely packed week this coming week, as we have no less than two AAA titles and several other big releases. The first AAA title this coming week is a sequel from Gearbox with the second AAA title having been out on the PlayStation consoles for quite some time, but it's been given some new sparkly features on PC. We also have a space game that we know some of you have been looking forward to, as well as a time travel game and a few other little gems.
Remnant II / This Week's First AAA Title / Tuesday 25 July
Remnant II is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity's extinction.
Remnant II / This Week's First AAA Title / Tuesday 25 July
Remnant II is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity's extinction.
Friday, July 21st 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Desktop PC
Headphones
Keyboards
Notebooks
PSUs
Speakers
Phanteks Glacier C370I CPU Water Block Review
Phanteks updates its CPU water block line with the new Glacier C370 series. Today we examine the Intel-specific C370I that comes in black or white color options, uses an acrylic top with integrated LEDs for aesthetics, and a nickel-plated cold plate with tall fins to allow for a good balance of cost, flow restriction, and thermal performance.
MSI Spatium M480 Pro 2 TB Review
The MSI M480 Pro is based on the highly popular combination of Phison E18 PCIe Gen 4 controller paired with 176-layer 3D TLC NAND from Micron. In our review, the M480 Pro achieves impressive performance results, making it one of the fastest drives we've ever tested.
Silicon Box Opens US$2 Billion Advanced Semiconductor Assembly Plant in Singapore
Somewhat out of the blue, Silicon Box has announced the opening of its US$2 billion semiconductor assembly plant in Singapore. The "startup" is founded by several of Marvell's founders, suggesting the company has the right pedigree to compete in what is sure to be a very competitive market over the next few years. Silicon Box is not a foundry and will at least at this point in time, not be involved in foundry services, but instead the company will focus on advanced chip packaging technologies, focusing on chiplets.
The company is promising "faster time-to-market, lower new device design cost" on its very rudimentary website, something the company has yet to prove to be capable of. However, its new plant in Singapore covers 73,000 square metres and is said to feature state of the art production equipment for turning chiplets into chips. The factory is said to create some 1,200 jobs in Singapore, suggesting that this is a company that means business. According to a comment by company founder and CEO BJ Han to Reuters, "customers had been lining up" since before the completion of the assembly plant. Silicon Box is expecting to have several AI chipset companies as its customers, including Tenstorrent, which so far is the only officially mentioned client. Time will tell if Silicon Box can compete with established chip packaging businesses and if they can deliver on their promise to be faster and cheaper than the competition.
The company is promising "faster time-to-market, lower new device design cost" on its very rudimentary website, something the company has yet to prove to be capable of. However, its new plant in Singapore covers 73,000 square metres and is said to feature state of the art production equipment for turning chiplets into chips. The factory is said to create some 1,200 jobs in Singapore, suggesting that this is a company that means business. According to a comment by company founder and CEO BJ Han to Reuters, "customers had been lining up" since before the completion of the assembly plant. Silicon Box is expecting to have several AI chipset companies as its customers, including Tenstorrent, which so far is the only officially mentioned client. Time will tell if Silicon Box can compete with established chip packaging businesses and if they can deliver on their promise to be faster and cheaper than the competition.
URCDKeys Presents Summer Sale—Great Deals on Genuine Software
URCDKeys, a leading international merchant of genuine, globally-valid software, turns up the heat this Summer, with great deals on discount genuine software that you can use to maximize your hardware budget for your Summer gaming PC build. Get Genuine Windows 11 Pro at just $19.84. Be sure to pair it with Genuine Office 2021 Professional Plus, which is going for $59.42 on its own. Start saving!
Please use 30% coupon code TPUP on the following items to avail the prices you see here.
Buy Windows 10 Pro at $13.87 | Buy Windows 11 Pro at $19.84 | Buy Windows 10 Home at $12.93 | Buy Windows 11 Home at $23.67 | Buy Windows 10 Pro 2-PC at $26.11
Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus at $25.68 | Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at $46.65 | Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus at $59.62 | Buy Office 2019 Home and Student at $32.22 | Buy Office 2019 Home and Business for Mac at $77.43 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2016 Professional Plus at $39.55 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2019 Professional Plus at $57.47
Buy Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise at $494.07 | Buy SQL Server 2019 Standard 2-core at $86.23 | Buy SQL Server 2019 Standard 16-core at $156.79
Please use 30% coupon code TPUP on the following items to avail the prices you see here.
Buy Windows 10 Pro at $13.87 | Buy Windows 11 Pro at $19.84 | Buy Windows 10 Home at $12.93 | Buy Windows 11 Home at $23.67 | Buy Windows 10 Pro 2-PC at $26.11
Buy Office 2016 Professional Plus at $25.68 | Buy Office 2019 Professional Plus at $46.65 | Buy Office 2021 Professional Plus at $59.62 | Buy Office 2019 Home and Student at $32.22 | Buy Office 2019 Home and Business for Mac at $77.43 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2016 Professional Plus at $39.55 | Buy Windows 10 Pro + Office 2019 Professional Plus at $57.47
Buy Visual Studio 2022 Enterprise at $494.07 | Buy SQL Server 2019 Standard 2-core at $86.23 | Buy SQL Server 2019 Standard 16-core at $156.79
JSAUX Launches Steam Deck RGB Docking Station
Electronics brand JSAUX is celebrating its seventh anniversary during July and it has announced a new batch of Steam Deck accessories: the RGB Docking Station and the RGB transparent backplate are now available, following the release of the transparent front plate and the redesigned transparent backplate. JSAUX is also planning to release an anti-glare screen for Steam Deck later this month. More info about each product below:
The RGB docking station is the latest feature on JSAUX's family of docks for the Steam Deck. This new product features better compatibility, a total customization of the RGB lighting, and comes in two versions: 12-in-1 and 8-in-1, offering different connectivity options.
The RGB docking station is the latest feature on JSAUX's family of docks for the Steam Deck. This new product features better compatibility, a total customization of the RGB lighting, and comes in two versions: 12-in-1 and 8-in-1, offering different connectivity options.
MSI Announces Multiple New Cubi Mini PCs
MSI, a world leader in high-performance and innovative computing solutions, has recently launched its Mini PC line-up, featuring the Cubi 5, Cubi N, PRO DP10, and PRO DP21 series. This array of minis caters to the requirements of the SMB, offices, hostels, restaurants, educational institutions, medical facilities, science labs, kiosks, and more. This collection of mini computers is designed with productivity in mind and featuring a miniature chassis, powerful processor options, exclusive software, and Thunderbolt 4, the Cubi and PRO DP series have raised the bar in terms of compact computing.
Unleashing Power in a Compact Package: Cubi 5 & Cubi N
The Cubi series offers remarkable power with a small footprint of only 0.66 liters, making it effortless to access high-performance capabilities at your fingertips. Equipped with up to the latest Intel Core i7 processors, the Cubi series boasts incredible performance that rivals many full-sized desktop computers. The Cubi 5 boasts a noteworthy feature: an extensive range of connectivity options. Despite its mini size, it offers an impressive selection of ports, such as Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort. In addition, Dual Ethernet ports on both Cubi series can improve network security by keeping the internet and intranet connections separate and preventing unauthorized access. It is also a reliable backup in case one port fails as the other one will be activated immediately.
Unleashing Power in a Compact Package: Cubi 5 & Cubi N
The Cubi series offers remarkable power with a small footprint of only 0.66 liters, making it effortless to access high-performance capabilities at your fingertips. Equipped with up to the latest Intel Core i7 processors, the Cubi series boasts incredible performance that rivals many full-sized desktop computers. The Cubi 5 boasts a noteworthy feature: an extensive range of connectivity options. Despite its mini size, it offers an impressive selection of ports, such as Thunderbolt 4, USB-C, HDMI, and DisplayPort. In addition, Dual Ethernet ports on both Cubi series can improve network security by keeping the internet and intranet connections separate and preventing unauthorized access. It is also a reliable backup in case one port fails as the other one will be activated immediately.
Intel Releases Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4575 as a WHQL
Intel Graphics released the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers version 101.4575 that it originally released as a beta late last week, as a WHQL. What's interesting is that while the driver version number hasn't changed when compared to the 101.4575 beta drivers from last week, the new 101.4575 comes with a different change-log. It mentions Game On (day-one) optimization for "Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart," and "Remnant II," in addition to optimization for "Exoprimal" and "Jagged Alliance 3." that were announced last week. Besides this, the "fixed isses" and "known issues" lists between the beta and WHQL are identical.
DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4575 WHQL
DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4575 WHQL
ROG Ally Gets BIOS Update that Fixes Multiple Usability Issues
ASUS has issued a BIOS update for the ROG Ally that should help resolve multiple usability issues, most of them being fairly minor issues, but they're all quality of life improvements nonetheless. To start with, ASUS has made optimisations to the performance mode with the Ally plugged in to a power source, although the company didn't explain exactly what this means. Another minor improvement allows the "Memory Assigned to GPU" setting to be kept when updating to a new BIOS version, a setting that used to get reset prior to this BIOS release.
Another minor quality of life update is the ability to reduce the backlight to 10 nits now, down from the previous 25 nits, which should make it more comfortable to use the ROG Ally in dark rooms. Finally and possibly the most important part of this update is the ability to charge at 30 W from 65 W or higher rated USB-PD chargers. What ASUS has done here is improvements to the USB-PD "handshake" to make sure that the ROG Ally gets the right power from the power adapter. This was apparently not working as intended previously and the ROG Ally would charge at a slower rate. It should be noted that not all chargers will provide enough power to the ROG Ally, especially if other devices are charging at the same time. ASUS points out that if the battery is draining when the Ally is plugged in, a different charger should be used.
Another minor quality of life update is the ability to reduce the backlight to 10 nits now, down from the previous 25 nits, which should make it more comfortable to use the ROG Ally in dark rooms. Finally and possibly the most important part of this update is the ability to charge at 30 W from 65 W or higher rated USB-PD chargers. What ASUS has done here is improvements to the USB-PD "handshake" to make sure that the ROG Ally gets the right power from the power adapter. This was apparently not working as intended previously and the ROG Ally would charge at a slower rate. It should be noted that not all chargers will provide enough power to the ROG Ally, especially if other devices are charging at the same time. ASUS points out that if the battery is draining when the Ally is plugged in, a different charger should be used.
Cerebras and G42 Unveil World's Largest Supercomputer for AI Training with 4 ExaFLOPS
Cerebras Systems, the pioneer in accelerating generative AI, and G42, the UAE-based technology holding group, today announced Condor Galaxy, a network of nine interconnected supercomputers, offering a new approach to AI compute that promises to significantly reduce AI model training time. The first AI supercomputer on this network, Condor Galaxy 1 (CG-1), has 4 exaFLOPs and 54 million cores. Cerebras and G42 are planning to deploy two more such supercomputers, CG-2 and CG-3, in the U.S. in early 2024. With a planned capacity of 36 exaFLOPs in total, this unprecedented supercomputing network will revolutionize the advancement of AI globally.
"Collaborating with Cerebras to rapidly deliver the world's fastest AI training supercomputer and laying the foundation for interconnecting a constellation of these supercomputers across the world has been enormously exciting. This partnership brings together Cerebras' extraordinary compute capabilities, together with G42's multi-industry AI expertise. G42 and Cerebras' shared vision is that Condor Galaxy will be used to address society's most pressing challenges across healthcare, energy, climate action and more," said Talal Alkaissi, CEO of G42 Cloud, a subsidiary of G42.
"Collaborating with Cerebras to rapidly deliver the world's fastest AI training supercomputer and laying the foundation for interconnecting a constellation of these supercomputers across the world has been enormously exciting. This partnership brings together Cerebras' extraordinary compute capabilities, together with G42's multi-industry AI expertise. G42 and Cerebras' shared vision is that Condor Galaxy will be used to address society's most pressing challenges across healthcare, energy, climate action and more," said Talal Alkaissi, CEO of G42 Cloud, a subsidiary of G42.
Cadence to Acquire Rambus PHY IP Assets
Cadence Design Systems, Inc. and Rambus Inc., a premier chip and silicon IP provider making data faster and safer, today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Cadence to acquire the Rambus SerDes and memory interface PHY IP business. Rambus will retain its digital IP business, including memory and interface controllers and security IP. The expected technology asset purchase also brings Cadence proven and experienced PHY engineering teams in the United States, India and Canada, further expanding Cadence's domain-rich talent base.
"Memory and SerDes IP design and integration continues to be integral to the design of AI, data center and hyperscale applications, CPU architectures and networking devices, and the addition of the Rambus IP and seasoned team further accelerates Cadence's Intelligent System Design strategy, which drives design excellence," said Boyd Phelps, senior vice president and general manager of the IP Group at Cadence. "The acquisition of the Rambus PHY IP broadens Cadence's well-established enterprise IP portfolio and expands its reach across geographies and vertical markets, such as the aerospace and defense market, providing complete subsystem solutions that meet the demands of our worldwide customers."
"Memory and SerDes IP design and integration continues to be integral to the design of AI, data center and hyperscale applications, CPU architectures and networking devices, and the addition of the Rambus IP and seasoned team further accelerates Cadence's Intelligent System Design strategy, which drives design excellence," said Boyd Phelps, senior vice president and general manager of the IP Group at Cadence. "The acquisition of the Rambus PHY IP broadens Cadence's well-established enterprise IP portfolio and expands its reach across geographies and vertical markets, such as the aerospace and defense market, providing complete subsystem solutions that meet the demands of our worldwide customers."
ASUS Readies Evangelion-themed ROG Product Line
ASUS is readying a wider range of Evangelion-themed ROG product line, building on the collaboration the company built with the popular Japanese action anime in 2022. The 2023 lineup is comprehensive, and includes a special Evangelion edition of the ROG Maximus Z790 Hero motherboard, special edition variants of GeForce RTX 40-series ROG Strix graphics cards (could be anything from the RTX 4070 thru RTX 4090), a special edition ROG Hyperion GR701 case, themed ROG Ryujin II AIO CPU cooler, a themed ROG Thor ATX 3.0 power supply, and lastly, keycap and body panel sets for its various ROG gaming peripherals. ASUS is planning to showcase the 2023 Evangelion lineup at Bilibili World, later this month.
Thursday, July 20th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cases
CPU Coolers
Headphones
Keyboards
Motherboards
NAS
Notebooks
Lian Li Galahad II Trinity Performance 360 AIO Review
Lian Li looks to assert dominance in the all-in-one liquid cooler market with the Galahad II Trinity Performance 360. Utilizing a new, thicker radiator design along with 28 mm fans, it certainly packs class-leading performance, but beyond that, it also has a host of new features and customization options to suit your personal tastes.
Cooler Master Unveils the GX III Gold Series ATX 3.0 PSUs
Cooler Master, a leading innovator in PC Hardware, today announced the launch of its GX III Gold series of power supply units (PSUs). Available at 650 W, 750 W, and 850 W, these PSUs feature a sleek, streamlined design, a highly durable 12VHPWR cable and ATX 3.0 compatibility, supporting the most powerful graphics cards in the industry.
Designed for power users, enthusiasts and custom builders, the GX III Gold builds on the legacy of Cooler Master's GX series. This innovative PSU offers all-new material and structural design, fully modular cabling and optimized thermal performance. Boasting 80 Plus Gold and efficiency certifications, as well as 80 Plus Titanium-level efficiency at light loads, the GX III Gold series is the best PSU in its class.
Designed for power users, enthusiasts and custom builders, the GX III Gold builds on the legacy of Cooler Master's GX series. This innovative PSU offers all-new material and structural design, fully modular cabling and optimized thermal performance. Boasting 80 Plus Gold and efficiency certifications, as well as 80 Plus Titanium-level efficiency at light loads, the GX III Gold series is the best PSU in its class.
Witness the Perils of Rubicon 3 in a New Armored Core VI Story Trailer
The new story trailer for ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON shows players the exciting and dangerous world awaiting them. The realities of turning a profit on Rubicon 3 are fraught with peril, especially when Handler Walter is involved. Watch as Walter's Hounds execute their mission with ruthless tenacity and get a glimpse of the events that will lead up to the beginning of ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON.
Combining FromSoftware's longstanding expertise in mech games with their signature action gameplay, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON brings a brand-new action experience to the series. A new game based on the concept of the ARMORED CORE series that uses the knowledge gained from FromSoftware's recent action game development.
Combining FromSoftware's longstanding expertise in mech games with their signature action gameplay, ARMORED CORE VI FIRES OF RUBICON brings a brand-new action experience to the series. A new game based on the concept of the ARMORED CORE series that uses the knowledge gained from FromSoftware's recent action game development.
Dolphin Emulator Dev Comments on Steam Removal Controversy
Well that blew up, huh? If you follow emulation or just gaming on the whole, you've probably heard about the controversy around the Dolphin Steam release and the Wii Common Key. There's been a lot of conclusions made, and while we've wanted to defend ourselves, we thought it would be prudent to contact lawyers first to make sure that our understanding of the situation was legally sound. That took some time, which was frustrating to ourselves and to our users, but now we are educated and ready to give an informed response.
We'd like to thank Kellen Voyer of Voyer Law for providing us with legal council for this matter. And to be clear, all of the analysis below is specifically regarding US law. Without further delay, let's begin.
We'd like to thank Kellen Voyer of Voyer Law for providing us with legal council for this matter. And to be clear, all of the analysis below is specifically regarding US law. Without further delay, let's begin.
NVIDIA GeForce NOW Library Updated with Xenonauts 2, Viewfinder & Techtonica
It's a party this GFN Thursday with several newly launched titles streaming on GeForce NOW. Revel in gaming goodness with Xenonauts 2, Viewfinder and Techtonica, among the four new games joining the cloud this week. Portal fans, stay tuned—the Portal: Prelude RTX mod will be streaming on GeForce NOW to members soon. Plus, find out how members can score an upcoming Guild Wars 2 premium reward.
Get 'Em While They're Hot!
Choose from over 1,600 games in the GeForce NOW library, starting off with the titles making their cloud debut. Be among the first to experience Xenonauts 2, Viewfinder and Techtonica from a high-performance GeForce RTX gaming rig in the cloud, without worrying about download times or system specs.
Get 'Em While They're Hot!
Choose from over 1,600 games in the GeForce NOW library, starting off with the titles making their cloud debut. Be among the first to experience Xenonauts 2, Viewfinder and Techtonica from a high-performance GeForce RTX gaming rig in the cloud, without worrying about download times or system specs.
Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Definitive Edition is Out Now
Greetings Mighty Warriors of Ashan! We're glad to announce that Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes - Definitive Edition is available on PC starting today with a 15% launch discount for everyone and an additional 40% discount for original owners. Please note that both discounts will be available for two weeks only. Lead your armies to victory in this addictive strategy game where every move matters!
If you've never played Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes before, here's a small introduction to this incredible gem from the past...Anwen, Godric, Fiona, Aidan, and Nadia are five mighty heroes scattered around five different regions of Ashan. After the rise of the demons, these heroes battle their way through their respective kingdoms to unravel the mysteries behind the chaos threatening their world.
If you've never played Might & Magic: Clash of Heroes before, here's a small introduction to this incredible gem from the past...Anwen, Godric, Fiona, Aidan, and Nadia are five mighty heroes scattered around five different regions of Ashan. After the rise of the demons, these heroes battle their way through their respective kingdoms to unravel the mysteries behind the chaos threatening their world.
QuakeCon Renews Gaming Rig Rental Partnership with Computer Upgrade King for 2023 Event
We're excited to announce that we're once again partnering with Computer Upgrade King to provide our attendees with the ability to rent either a monitor and or a full PC set up. As an added bonus to our Elite ticket holders, Computer Upgrade King is offering a special rental package with a 34" Ultrawide Monitor! For more information, and to secure yours today, visit beth.games/43obykp.
Need a rig? Reserve your computer at QuakeCon 2023. It's official! After three years of digital-only events, QuakeCon 2023 will mark the return of the beloved BYOC, in-person at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from Thursday, August 10 through Sunday, August 13.
Need a rig? Reserve your computer at QuakeCon 2023. It's official! After three years of digital-only events, QuakeCon 2023 will mark the return of the beloved BYOC, in-person at the Gaylord Texan Resort & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas from Thursday, August 10 through Sunday, August 13.
PlayStation VR2 Product Manager Goes Deep into Design Process
When PlayStation VR2 released earlier this year, it offered players a chance to experience virtual game worlds bristling with detail and immersive features. PS VR2 was the culmination of several years of development, which included multiple prototypes and testing approaches. To learn more, we asked PS VR2's Product Manager Yasuo Takahashi about the development process of the innovative headset and PlayStation VR2 Sense Controller, and also gained insight into the various prototypes that were created as part of this process.
PlayStation Blog: When did development for the PS VR2 headset start?
Yasuo Takahashi: Research on future VR technology was being conducted even prior to the launch of the original PlayStation VR as part of our R&D efforts. After PS VR's launch in 2016, discussion around what the next generation of VR would look like began in earnest. We went back and reviewed those R&D findings and we started prototyping various technologies at the beginning of 2017. Early that same year, we began detailed conversations on what features should be implemented in the new product, and which specific technologies we should explore further.
PlayStation Blog: When did development for the PS VR2 headset start?
Yasuo Takahashi: Research on future VR technology was being conducted even prior to the launch of the original PlayStation VR as part of our R&D efforts. After PS VR's launch in 2016, discussion around what the next generation of VR would look like began in earnest. We went back and reviewed those R&D findings and we started prototyping various technologies at the beginning of 2017. Early that same year, we began detailed conversations on what features should be implemented in the new product, and which specific technologies we should explore further.
Atlas Fallen Combat Showcased in Latest Trailer, Limited Edition Available to Pre-order
Today, Focus Entertainment and its studio Deck13 Interactive unleashed a dangerously gripping Combat Trailer for their upcoming game Atlas Fallen, the epic fantasy action-RPG where you battle legendary creatures in superpowered combat. Releasing on August 10 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC, pre-orders are open on all platforms. Watch the Combat Trailer now for a 5-minute deep-dive into the exhilarating action of Atlas Fallen.
Rise as the ultimate champion and shape your playstyle
In a devastated, sand-covered world, seize the divine power of a mysterious Gauntlet and wield heroic abilities to defeat a tyrannic, almighty god. Tame the sands to shape them into three powerful weapons and move through the air with incredible speed and agility. Pick an implacable duo of weapons to go into battle and use the deadliest combos in a seamless flow between them. Watch your weapon grow larger as you build Momentum to unleash the full, irrepressible power of the Gauntlet.
Rise as the ultimate champion and shape your playstyle
In a devastated, sand-covered world, seize the divine power of a mysterious Gauntlet and wield heroic abilities to defeat a tyrannic, almighty god. Tame the sands to shape them into three powerful weapons and move through the air with incredible speed and agility. Pick an implacable duo of weapons to go into battle and use the deadliest combos in a seamless flow between them. Watch your weapon grow larger as you build Momentum to unleash the full, irrepressible power of the Gauntlet.
Phanteks Extends the Revolt Series Power Supplies in Collaboration with CableMod
Phanteks, a leading manufacturer of high-performance PC components, is thrilled to announce the expansion of its Revolt Series with the introduction of the Revolt 1000 W/1200 W Platinum and 1600 W Titanium power supplies. Phanteks' Revolt Series power supplies are designed specifically for users who desire custom cables from CableMod, offering a cable-free power supply solution that eliminates the additional cost of purchasing a traditional power supply with bundled cables. This approach ensures that users have full control over their power supply and cable selection, eliminating the clutter of unnecessary cables in their systems.
The Revolt power supplies, developed in collaboration with renowned power supply manufacturer Seasonic, adhere to the highest industry standards of performance and reliability. All models within the Revolt Series fully support and exceed the latest Intel ATX 3.0 specifications, guaranteeing compatibility and ensuring seamless integration into any system. Boasting wattage capacities of 1000 W/1200 W Platinum or 1600 W Titanium certification, the Revolt power supplies deliver abundant power for even the most demanding computing systems.
The Revolt power supplies, developed in collaboration with renowned power supply manufacturer Seasonic, adhere to the highest industry standards of performance and reliability. All models within the Revolt Series fully support and exceed the latest Intel ATX 3.0 specifications, guaranteeing compatibility and ensuring seamless integration into any system. Boasting wattage capacities of 1000 W/1200 W Platinum or 1600 W Titanium certification, the Revolt power supplies deliver abundant power for even the most demanding computing systems.
Dell Technologies Announces Intent to Acquire Moogsoft
Dell Technologies announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Moogsoft, an AI-driven provider of intelligent monitoring solutions that support DevOps and ITOps. This transaction will further enhance Dell's AIOps capabilities, as part of its longstanding approach of embedding AI functionality within its product portfolio and as a critical component of its "multicloud by design" strategy. The transaction is expected to close in Q3. Additional details will be available at that time.
About Moogsoft
Moogsoft is the AI-driven observability leader that provides intelligent monitoring solutions for smart DevOps. Moogsoft delivers the most advanced cloud-native, self-service platform for software engineers, developers, and operators to instantly see everything, know what's wrong and fix things faster. Founded in 2012, Moogsoft has more than 140 customers worldwide including American Airlines, Fannie Mae, Fiserv, HCL Technologies, SAP SuccessFactors, and Verizon Media. It has established strategic partnerships with leading managed service providers and outsourcing organizations including AWS, Cisco, HCL Technologies, TCS and Wipro.
About Moogsoft
Moogsoft is the AI-driven observability leader that provides intelligent monitoring solutions for smart DevOps. Moogsoft delivers the most advanced cloud-native, self-service platform for software engineers, developers, and operators to instantly see everything, know what's wrong and fix things faster. Founded in 2012, Moogsoft has more than 140 customers worldwide including American Airlines, Fannie Mae, Fiserv, HCL Technologies, SAP SuccessFactors, and Verizon Media. It has established strategic partnerships with leading managed service providers and outsourcing organizations including AWS, Cisco, HCL Technologies, TCS and Wipro.
Xbox Games Showcase 2023 & Starfield Direct Attracted a Record Number of Views
It's been a little over a month since fans around the world enjoyed the Xbox Games Showcase and Starfield Direct and we're delighted to say that, within seven days of the broadcast, we saw over 92 million views across our first ever double feature, trailers, and segments from the shows - a 38% rise in viewership over last year's show. It's become the highest rated and most-viewed show for Xbox, ever! We can't thank you enough for being a part of that, and we hope you're as excited as we are for Xbox's future.
From our own games - like Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Hellblade II: Senua's Saga, Fable, South of Midnight, Avowed, Clockwork Revolution, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Towerborne, and more - to those coming to Xbox from our partners around the world - Star Wars Outlaws, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Cities: Skylines 2, 33 Immortals, and more - our show aimed to bring something for every kind of player. Whether you're an RPG obsessive, an indie curio collector, a PC player, a console owner, or even brand-new to gaming, we like to think there was something that piqued your interest.
From our own games - like Starfield, Forza Motorsport, Hellblade II: Senua's Saga, Fable, South of Midnight, Avowed, Clockwork Revolution, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, Towerborne, and more - to those coming to Xbox from our partners around the world - Star Wars Outlaws, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, Cities: Skylines 2, 33 Immortals, and more - our show aimed to bring something for every kind of player. Whether you're an RPG obsessive, an indie curio collector, a PC player, a console owner, or even brand-new to gaming, we like to think there was something that piqued your interest.
AIC Launches HA401-TU, a New High-availability Server Model
AIC has launched the new high-availability storage server HA401-TU, which is optimized for mission-critical, enterprise-level storage applications. This cluster-in-a-box solution with active-active failover design and eliminates single points of failure. HA401-TU is a 4U high-availability (HA) server with 2 controller nodes and supports 24 3.5" SAS 12 Gb/s drives. Each controller node is equipped with an AIC Tucana server board that is powered by dual 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable processors and Intel C621A chipset, which supports UPI speed up to 11.2 GT/s. HA401-TU provides enterprise users with a number of crucial benefits. The redundant hardware components ensure that there is no single point of failure.
With the hot-swappable functionality, the controller canisters protect enterprises from the loss of revenue that can occur when access to mission-critical data or applications is disrupted. Both controller nodes process data input/output (I/O) operations and users can experience simultaneous and balanced access to logical devices. In the event of failover, the secondary node will automatically take over the devices, client connections and all the processes and services running in the system. This high-availability design significantly enhances the overall performance of clusters, enabling seamless handling of demanding workloads.
With the hot-swappable functionality, the controller canisters protect enterprises from the loss of revenue that can occur when access to mission-critical data or applications is disrupted. Both controller nodes process data input/output (I/O) operations and users can experience simultaneous and balanced access to logical devices. In the event of failover, the secondary node will automatically take over the devices, client connections and all the processes and services running in the system. This high-availability design significantly enhances the overall performance of clusters, enabling seamless handling of demanding workloads.
The Crew Motorfest Reveals New Porsche Playlist, Super EVs & a Tour of Hawaii
When The Crew Motorfest launches on September 14, players will get free rein to explore the Hawaiian island of O'ahu from behind the wheel of more than 600 vehicles, including a broad array of licensed cars, jeeps, buggies, motorcycles, boats, and planes. Featuring a huge open world filled with activities and freestyle stunt opportunities, The Crew Motorfest's main attractions are its Playlists, a series of self-contained, themed campaigns that each include six to 10 events focused on a specific brand, car type, or aspect of car culture, like drift racing, classic cars, or even sightseeing.
Playlists provide you with loaner vehicles appropriate to each of their events, and completing all of a playlist's events unlocks an exclusive car for you to add to your garage. Playlist events sometimes carry special victory conditions or modifiers - in the 911 Legacy: A Porsche Story Playlist, for example, you'll earn bonuses for driving clean and keeping your car free of damage. Vintage Garage turns off your GPS minimap while you drive its classic cars, and the laid-back Hawaii Scenic Tour doesn't even require you to place in its events, only to complete them.
Playlists provide you with loaner vehicles appropriate to each of their events, and completing all of a playlist's events unlocks an exclusive car for you to add to your garage. Playlist events sometimes carry special victory conditions or modifiers - in the 911 Legacy: A Porsche Story Playlist, for example, you'll earn bonuses for driving clean and keeping your car free of damage. Vintage Garage turns off your GPS minimap while you drive its classic cars, and the laid-back Hawaii Scenic Tour doesn't even require you to place in its events, only to complete them.
Remnant 2 Gameplay Showcased in Surviving the Post-Apocalypse Trailer
Need a refresher on what to expect in Remnant 2? We got you! Learn everything you need to know before you explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself in Remnant 2 -- launching on July 25. It is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity's extinction.
A mix of methodical and frenetic ranged/melee combat returns with cunning enemies and large scale boss battles. Choose specific gear and weapons to optimize for the different biomes and battles ahead. Bosses will bring high-level players to team up to overcome the challenge and try to obtain the biggest rewards. Players can travel alone or with friends as a team through strange new worlds and beyond, overrun by mythical creatures and deadly foes while trying to stay alive. There are multiple worlds to explore with different types of creatures, weapons, and items. Utilize and upgrade discovered items to take on tougher challenges.
A mix of methodical and frenetic ranged/melee combat returns with cunning enemies and large scale boss battles. Choose specific gear and weapons to optimize for the different biomes and battles ahead. Bosses will bring high-level players to team up to overcome the challenge and try to obtain the biggest rewards. Players can travel alone or with friends as a team through strange new worlds and beyond, overrun by mythical creatures and deadly foes while trying to stay alive. There are multiple worlds to explore with different types of creatures, weapons, and items. Utilize and upgrade discovered items to take on tougher challenges.
NVIDIA is Looking at Samsung for HBM3 Memory and 2.5D Chip Packaging
According to news out of Korea, NVIDIA is considering Samsung as a partner not only for HBM3 memory, but also as a potential partner when it comes to 2.5D chip packaging. The latter is due to TSMC having limited capacity when it comes to handling all of its customers advanced chip packaging needs, although Samsung is apparently not the only potential partner NVIDIA is looking at. Taiwan based SPIL and US based Amkor Technology are two alternative candidates for the 2.5D chip packaging according to the Elec.
As far as HBM3 memory goes, NVIDIA doesn't have as many potential options, with SK Hynix being its current partner, who NVIDIA will continue to work with when it comes to HBM memory for its high-end AI accelerators and GPUs. It's likely that Samsung is trying to win NVIDIA back as a foundry customer, by proving that it's capable of handling the chip packaging for NVIDIA. Samsung will likely use its I-Cube 2.5D packaging technology and the Elec suggests that Samsung would still be using TSMC made GPU wafers which will be mated with Samsung HMB3 memory. Samsung has as yet not started its mass production of HMB3 memory, but have sampled customers with evaluation samples that are said to have received very positive feedback. For now, nothing has been agreed and TSMC is, as we know, looking to expand its 2.5D packaging business by over 40 percent, but the question is how quickly TSMC can move before its customers consider other competitors.
As far as HBM3 memory goes, NVIDIA doesn't have as many potential options, with SK Hynix being its current partner, who NVIDIA will continue to work with when it comes to HBM memory for its high-end AI accelerators and GPUs. It's likely that Samsung is trying to win NVIDIA back as a foundry customer, by proving that it's capable of handling the chip packaging for NVIDIA. Samsung will likely use its I-Cube 2.5D packaging technology and the Elec suggests that Samsung would still be using TSMC made GPU wafers which will be mated with Samsung HMB3 memory. Samsung has as yet not started its mass production of HMB3 memory, but have sampled customers with evaluation samples that are said to have received very positive feedback. For now, nothing has been agreed and TSMC is, as we know, looking to expand its 2.5D packaging business by over 40 percent, but the question is how quickly TSMC can move before its customers consider other competitors.
AMD's CTO Discusses Founding of Ultra Ethernet Consortium
Mark Papermaster, AMD's Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Technology and Engineering announced: "Over the past 50 years, Ethernet has grown to dominate general networking. One of its key strengths is flexibility - the ability to adapt to different workloads, scale and computing environments. One of the places that it hasn't been well-known, though, is in high-performance networking environments.
Now, the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) was formed by leading technology companies to focus on tuning the Ethernet foundation for high-performance Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and High-Performance Computing (AI/ML/HPC) workloads. This includes work at the Physical, Link, Transport, and Software layers with robust security and congestion protections.
Now, the Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) was formed by leading technology companies to focus on tuning the Ethernet foundation for high-performance Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and High-Performance Computing (AI/ML/HPC) workloads. This includes work at the Physical, Link, Transport, and Software layers with robust security and congestion protections.
Lian-Li Launches Next Gen. of AIOs with GALAHAD II TRINITY Series
LIAN LI Industrial Co. Ltd., a leading manufacturer of chassis and PC accessories, launches its next generation of AIO liquid cooling, the GALAHAD II TRINITY series. 3 models are available with the GALAHAD II TRINITY, GALAHAD II TRINITY SL-INF, and GALAHAD II TRINITY PERFORMANCE
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the GALAHAD II TRINITY is now live]
The TRINITY series comes with 3 swappable caps for personalization of the pump block and 45-degree rotary fittings at the radiator for easy tube orientation. The GALAHAD II TRINITY comes in 240 and 360 mm sizes, equipped with pre-installed RGB fans with seamless cable interconnectivity, the GALAHAD II TRINITY SL-INF comes in 240 and 360 mm sizes, equipped with pre-installed UNI FAN SL INFINITY fans and controller. The GALAHAD PERFORMANCE is available in 360 mm size, equipped with pre-installed 28 mm thick high-performance LCP fans with seamless cable interconnectivity, a 32 mm thick radiator with double wave fin design and a 4,200 RPM pump.
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the GALAHAD II TRINITY is now live]
The TRINITY series comes with 3 swappable caps for personalization of the pump block and 45-degree rotary fittings at the radiator for easy tube orientation. The GALAHAD II TRINITY comes in 240 and 360 mm sizes, equipped with pre-installed RGB fans with seamless cable interconnectivity, the GALAHAD II TRINITY SL-INF comes in 240 and 360 mm sizes, equipped with pre-installed UNI FAN SL INFINITY fans and controller. The GALAHAD PERFORMANCE is available in 360 mm size, equipped with pre-installed 28 mm thick high-performance LCP fans with seamless cable interconnectivity, a 32 mm thick radiator with double wave fin design and a 4,200 RPM pump.
Overwatch 2 Coming to Steam on August 10, Blizzard Hints About Adding More IPs in the Future
As Blizzard evolves as a studio, inside and out, one of the ideas pushing us forward is meeting players around the world where they are and making our games as easy as possible to access and play. We want to give everyone a chance to experience our universes with old friends while making new ones, no matter how they choose to play.
Battle.net is the home of all our PC players, and over the years, we've evolved our platform to support updated technologies, capabilities, and our communities' expectations. But as we've evolved, the industry has evolved too-gaming is no longer just for specific communities as it was when Battle.net launched over two decades ago, gaming is for everyone-and though we remain committed to continually investing in and supporting Battle.net, we want to break down the barriers to make it easier for players everywhere to find and enjoy our games. Which is why we're trying something new...
Battle.net is the home of all our PC players, and over the years, we've evolved our platform to support updated technologies, capabilities, and our communities' expectations. But as we've evolved, the industry has evolved too-gaming is no longer just for specific communities as it was when Battle.net launched over two decades ago, gaming is for everyone-and though we remain committed to continually investing in and supporting Battle.net, we want to break down the barriers to make it easier for players everywhere to find and enjoy our games. Which is why we're trying something new...
EK Expands the Quantum Torque Lineup With EK-Quantum Torque Rotary STC Fittings
EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, unveils its latest product, the EK-Quantum Torque Rotary STC-10/16 - Black. Meticulously crafted with precision, these premium soft-tube compression fittings are specifically engineered to accommodate a wide range of flexible tubing types, including PVC, EPDM, Norprene, silicone, and other compatible options. What separates these new fittings is that they feature a rotary joint on the threaded side, enabling you to attach the fitting to the tube, securely fasten the compression ring, and then install the entire assembly into a G1/4" port inside your PC.
This exceptional feature makes the installation process easier and more user-friendly. The new EK-Quantum Torque Rotary STC fitting supports the 10/16 mm (ID/OD) soft tubing.
This exceptional feature makes the installation process easier and more user-friendly. The new EK-Quantum Torque Rotary STC fitting supports the 10/16 mm (ID/OD) soft tubing.
AMD "Strix Point" Zen 5 Monolithic Silicon has a 12-core CPU?
It looks like the monolithic silicon that succeeds "Phoenix," codenamed "Strix Point," will finally introduce an increase in CPU core counts for the thin-and-light and ultraportable mobile platforms. "Strix Point" is codename for the next-generation APU die being developed at AMD, which, according to a leaked MilkyWay@Home benchmark result, comes with a 12-core/24-thread CPU.
The silicon is identified by MilkyWay@Home with the OPN "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000994-03_N," and CPU identification string "AuthenticAMD Family 26 Model 32 Stepping 0 -> B20F00." The "Strix Point" CPU could be the second time AMD has increased CPU core-counts per CCX. From "Zen 3" onward, the company increased the cores per CCX from 4 to 8, allowing a single "Zen 3" CCX on the "Cezanne" monolithic silicon to come with 8 cores. It's highly likely that with "Zen 5," the company is increasing the cores/CCX to 12, and that "Strix Point" has one of these CCXs.
The silicon is identified by MilkyWay@Home with the OPN "AMD Eng Sample: 100-000000994-03_N," and CPU identification string "AuthenticAMD Family 26 Model 32 Stepping 0 -> B20F00." The "Strix Point" CPU could be the second time AMD has increased CPU core-counts per CCX. From "Zen 3" onward, the company increased the cores per CCX from 4 to 8, allowing a single "Zen 3" CCX on the "Cezanne" monolithic silicon to come with 8 cores. It's highly likely that with "Zen 5," the company is increasing the cores/CCX to 12, and that "Strix Point" has one of these CCXs.
IBASE Versatile IB837 3.5-inch SBC Supports Intel Celeron N & J Series Processors
IBASE Technology Inc. (TPEx: 8050), a leading provider of embedded computing solutions, introduces the IB837 3.5" single board computer that is designed for a wide range of IoT applications, including industrial automation, smart retail, healthcare, smart city and edge AI solutions, combining powerful processing capabilities with extensive connectivity options.
At the heart of the IB837 is the onboard Intel Celeron N & J series (formerly Elkhart Lake) processor, offering a good balance of performance and power efficiency. With support for up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory, the SBC ensures smooth multitasking and efficient operation, delivering exceptional performance while consuming minimal power for applications requiring a compact form factor.
At the heart of the IB837 is the onboard Intel Celeron N & J series (formerly Elkhart Lake) processor, offering a good balance of performance and power efficiency. With support for up to 16 GB of DDR4-3200 SO-DIMM memory, the SBC ensures smooth multitasking and efficient operation, delivering exceptional performance while consuming minimal power for applications requiring a compact form factor.
Alphacool Intros Core Water Block for PowerColor RX 7900 XTX Red Devil
The Alphacool Core GPU Cooler is now also available for RX 7900XTX Red Devil GPU! Alphacool delivers with the new cooler great performance, usual high quality and a functional design. The eye-catcher of the copper cooler is the unit of connector terminal and cooler, which is milled from a single piece of copper. The excellent workmanship paired with the hard and resistant chrome plating of the entire copper cooler meet the highest quality standards. The brass G1/4" threads, which are left in chrome and integrated on both sides, are a key design element of the new Core series. They stand out visually very nicely from the terminal.
The aluminium backplate, which is adapted to the design, forms an ensemble together with the terminal and convinces with a clear and homogeneous appearance on the back of the cooler. The individually controllable lighting consists of digitally addressable RGB LEDs and enables uniform and dazzlingly coloured illumination of the entire cooler.
The aluminium backplate, which is adapted to the design, forms an ensemble together with the terminal and convinces with a clear and homogeneous appearance on the back of the cooler. The individually controllable lighting consists of digitally addressable RGB LEDs and enables uniform and dazzlingly coloured illumination of the entire cooler.
TSMC Announces Q2-2023 Financial Results, Posts EPS of NTD 7.01
TSMC today announced consolidated revenue of NT$480.84 billion, net income of NT$181.80 billion, and diluted earnings per share of NT$7.01 (US$1.14 per ADR unit) for the second quarter ended June 30, 2023. Year-over-year, second quarter revenue decreased 10.0% while net income and diluted EPS both decreased 23.3%. Compared to first quarter 2023, second quarter results represented a 5.5% decrease in revenue and a 12.2% decrease in net income. All figures were prepared in accordance with TIFRS on a consolidated basis.
In US dollars, second quarter revenue was $15.68 billion, which decreased 13.7% year-over-year and decreased 6.2% from the previous quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 54.1%, operating margin was 42.0%, and net profit margin was 37.8%. In the second quarter, shipments of 5-nanometer accounted for 30% of total wafer revenue; 7-nanometer accounted for 23%. Advanced technologies, defined as 7-nanometer and more advanced technologies, accounted for 53% of total wafer revenue.
In US dollars, second quarter revenue was $15.68 billion, which decreased 13.7% year-over-year and decreased 6.2% from the previous quarter. Gross margin for the quarter was 54.1%, operating margin was 42.0%, and net profit margin was 37.8%. In the second quarter, shipments of 5-nanometer accounted for 30% of total wafer revenue; 7-nanometer accounted for 23%. Advanced technologies, defined as 7-nanometer and more advanced technologies, accounted for 53% of total wafer revenue.
Samsung GDDR7 Memory Operates at Lower Voltage, Built on Same Node as 24 Gbps G6
Samsung on Wednesday announced mass-production of the world's first next-generation GDDR7 memory chips, and Ryan Smith from AnandTech scored a few technical details from the company. Apparently, the company's first production version of GDDR7 memory is built on the same D1z silicon foundry node as its 24 Gbps GDDR6 memory chip—the fastest GDDR6 chip in production. D1z is a 10 nm class foundry node that utilizes EUV lithography.
Smith also scored some electrical specs. The first-gen GDDR7 memory chip offers a data-rate of 32 Gbps at a DRAM voltage of 1.2 V, compared to the 1.35 V that some of the higher speed GDDR6 chips operate at. While the pJpb (pico-Joules per bit) is 7% higher than the current generation in absolute terms, for the 32 Gbps data-rate on offer, it is 20% lower compared to that of the 24 Gbps GDDR6 chip. Put simply, GDDR7 is 20% more energy efficient. Smith remarks that this energy-efficiency gain is purely architectural, and isn't a from any refinements to the D1z node. GDDR7 uses PAM3 signaling compared to the NRZ signaling of conventional GDDR6, and the PAM4 signalling of the GDDR6X non-JEDEC standard that NVIDIA co-developed with Micron Technology.
Smith also scored some electrical specs. The first-gen GDDR7 memory chip offers a data-rate of 32 Gbps at a DRAM voltage of 1.2 V, compared to the 1.35 V that some of the higher speed GDDR6 chips operate at. While the pJpb (pico-Joules per bit) is 7% higher than the current generation in absolute terms, for the 32 Gbps data-rate on offer, it is 20% lower compared to that of the 24 Gbps GDDR6 chip. Put simply, GDDR7 is 20% more energy efficient. Smith remarks that this energy-efficiency gain is purely architectural, and isn't a from any refinements to the D1z node. GDDR7 uses PAM3 signaling compared to the NRZ signaling of conventional GDDR6, and the PAM4 signalling of the GDDR6X non-JEDEC standard that NVIDIA co-developed with Micron Technology.
VESA Approves the use of New DisplayPort 2.1 Compliance Tests
Teledyne LeCroy, the worldwide leader in protocol test solutions, announced that it has received Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) approval for testing DisplayPort 2.1 Link Training Tunable PHY Repeater (LTTPR) and Display Stream Compression (DSC) compliance with the quantumdata M42de Video Analyzer and Generator. These tests underwent extensive testing during industry workshops to ensure their accuracy and reliability and are now considered mandatory for compliance certification of DisplayPort 2.1 Ultra High Bit Rate (UHBR) capable devices.
The DisplayPort specification was updated to version 2.1 in October of 2022 and brought significant changes to link training and LTTPR operation. Design and test engineers are faced with incrementally more testing as DisplayPort chipsets add support for the new link training and other advanced features. "The need to drive higher video resolutions and frame rates raises the bar for vendors seeking VESA logo approval. Compliance testing is a key factor in delivering a robust DisplayPort technology ecosystem and outstanding customer experiences," said Bill Lempesis, executive director of VESA, which develops and administers the DisplayPort standard and compliance logo program. "Reaching this level of comprehensive test coverage so quickly after the DisplayPort 2.1 specification was released is only possible due to the close collaboration between test vendors like Teledyne LeCroy and our VESA member companies."
The DisplayPort specification was updated to version 2.1 in October of 2022 and brought significant changes to link training and LTTPR operation. Design and test engineers are faced with incrementally more testing as DisplayPort chipsets add support for the new link training and other advanced features. "The need to drive higher video resolutions and frame rates raises the bar for vendors seeking VESA logo approval. Compliance testing is a key factor in delivering a robust DisplayPort technology ecosystem and outstanding customer experiences," said Bill Lempesis, executive director of VESA, which develops and administers the DisplayPort standard and compliance logo program. "Reaching this level of comprehensive test coverage so quickly after the DisplayPort 2.1 specification was released is only possible due to the close collaboration between test vendors like Teledyne LeCroy and our VESA member companies."
ViewSonic and Pantone Enhance Color Calibration and Optimize Creative Workflows with the ColorPro Wheel
ViewSonic Corp., a leading global provider of visual solutions, unveils the next generation of ColorPro Wheel - an innovative multi-functional color calibrator. Bundled with the VP2776 and VP2786-4K Professional Monitors, the ColorPro Wheel's color calibration and OSD control features are complemented by integrated access to Pantone's digital libraries with hotkey control of compatible creative editing software. This harmonization of hardware and software provides ultimate color control and empowers seamless creative workflows for professionals.
"Precise color management is of utmost importance to creators and therefore remains a top priority for ColorPro, our professional monitor solutions," said Oscar Lin, General Manager of the Monitor Business Unit at ViewSonic. "We are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with Pantone, providing creators with the freedom and convenience of accessing digital color data to elevate their creative endeavors. The updated ColorPro Wheel empowers creators to achieve unparalleled color excellence and enhance their workflows through its human-centered design."
"Precise color management is of utmost importance to creators and therefore remains a top priority for ColorPro, our professional monitor solutions," said Oscar Lin, General Manager of the Monitor Business Unit at ViewSonic. "We are delighted to further strengthen our partnership with Pantone, providing creators with the freedom and convenience of accessing digital color data to elevate their creative endeavors. The updated ColorPro Wheel empowers creators to achieve unparalleled color excellence and enhance their workflows through its human-centered design."
Wednesday, July 19th 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Headphones
Monitors
Notebooks
CIDOO V65 Wireless Mechanical Keyboard Review
CIDOO aims to provide a premium typing experience with its V65 gasket mount keyboard. It uses a thick two-piece machined aluminium case available in different colors and open-source VIA support for a highly customizable product. The build quality is great and there is wireless connectivity via Bluetooth as well.
Gustard A26 DAC and Network Streamer Review
Gustard enters the TechPowerUp review database with its A26 streamer DAC that uses dual AK4499EX flagship DACs as part of an excellent engineering design to put out a compelling sound. It has a variety of inputs and outputs to appeal to even the more discerning audiophile while also including plug-and-play network streamer functionality too.
ASRock Quietly Releases 16GB Arc A770 Phantom Gaming Graphics Card
Without a formal announcement, or even a product page on its website, ASRock has quietly released a 16 GB version of its Arc A770 Phantom Gaming graphics card. The company's A770 lineup has just the one model—the Phantom Gaming OC, with 8 GB of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory across the GPU's 256-bit memory interface. The new 16 GB model would be among very few of its kind being released by Intel's board partners, in an attempt to make the A770 an attractive option for those in the market for 1080p thru 1440p capable graphics cards.
Intel's reference designs for the Arc 7 series included the A770 Limited Edition, a card with 16 GB of 17.5 Gbps GDDR6 memory, while the plan originally was for 8 GB of 16 Gbps memory to be the standard memory configuration for the A770. It remains to be seen if the new ASRock Phantom Gaming OC is using 17.5 Gbps memory, or 16 Gbps. The only other 16 GB A770 custom design graphics card available in the West has to be the Acer Predator Arc A770 BiFrost 16 GB. The ASRock A770 16 GB PG was discovered on US retailer Newegg, where it was listed for $329.
Intel's reference designs for the Arc 7 series included the A770 Limited Edition, a card with 16 GB of 17.5 Gbps GDDR6 memory, while the plan originally was for 8 GB of 16 Gbps memory to be the standard memory configuration for the A770. It remains to be seen if the new ASRock Phantom Gaming OC is using 17.5 Gbps memory, or 16 Gbps. The only other 16 GB A770 custom design graphics card available in the West has to be the Acer Predator Arc A770 BiFrost 16 GB. The ASRock A770 16 GB PG was discovered on US retailer Newegg, where it was listed for $329.
Gunsmith Simulator Early Access Version Out Now
Listen up, Gunsmiths! Get ready for the abundance of emotions! Gunsmith Simulator has got its Early Access premiere on Steam platform! Don't miss the occasion! Buy the game now and dive into the gunsmith world of adventures that await in various tasks. Put your skills into practice, feel the magic of gunsmithing and experience an array of emotions that Gunsmith Simulator can offer.
Please, do remember that your feedback is important to us, so take a moment to share it after you finish the gameplay. Let's create an even better game which will leave nothing more to be desired. Also, join our community on Discord, where you can share your passion for Gunsmith Simulator with other players. Be up-to-date with the latest news, and exchange your opinions and ideas, so we can build a genuinely great gunsmithing community.
Please, do remember that your feedback is important to us, so take a moment to share it after you finish the gameplay. Let's create an even better game which will leave nothing more to be desired. Also, join our community on Discord, where you can share your passion for Gunsmith Simulator with other players. Be up-to-date with the latest news, and exchange your opinions and ideas, so we can build a genuinely great gunsmithing community.
Next-gen AM5 Motherboard Platforms Could Support USB4
AMD's CEO Lisa Su is reported to be visiting a number of companies in Taiwan this week—one of her objectives seems to be getting next generation AM5 desktop platforms prepped with USB4 support. Hardware news site MyDrivers believes that Asmedia played host to Team Red's leader at some point—this is a significant development given that this Taiwanese company specializes in making motherboard chipsets and USB controllers, although Su has allegedly met with other competing firms. Asmedia is reported to be a market leader in terms of implementing the latest USB4 tech, with certification awarded by the USB-IF Association.
Prior leaks have implied that the two companies are already involved with each other on a separate project—their collective goal being Thunderbolt 4 support on next-gen AMD platforms. The timing of this trip to Taiwan suggests that forthcoming AM5 motherboards offering USB4 support could be lined up for launch next year, alongside the "Zen 5" Ryzen 8000 CPU series. Boards based on current gen A620, B650 and X670 chipsets could be refreshed with the latest USB connectivity standard.
Prior leaks have implied that the two companies are already involved with each other on a separate project—their collective goal being Thunderbolt 4 support on next-gen AMD platforms. The timing of this trip to Taiwan suggests that forthcoming AM5 motherboards offering USB4 support could be lined up for launch next year, alongside the "Zen 5" Ryzen 8000 CPU series. Boards based on current gen A620, B650 and X670 chipsets could be refreshed with the latest USB connectivity standard.
Leak Suggests Radeon RX 7800 XT & RX 7700 XT GPUs Scheduled for September Launch
As we get closer to a possible late summer/early autumn release window for mid-range AMD Radeon RX 7000-series gaming graphics cards, more leaks have emerged from sources in Asia. Benchlife believes that "in addition to Radeon RX 7900 GRE, AMD and its AIB partners are also preparing two Navi 32 chip graphics cards such as Radeon RX 7800 XT and Radeon RX 7700 XT, which are expected to be available in early September." Previous leaks have indicated that a September launch is planned, albeit with the RX 7800 XT SKU being based on a heavily modified Navi 31 GPU.
Two non-XT units have recently emerged via leaked benchmark results, so there could be a good number of options lined up for a third quarter 2023 launch. Jon Peddle Research (JPR) has added their two cents, by reconfirming that Team Red could be showcasing mid-range models at a late summer trade fair: "AMD is rumored to announce two new 7000-series AIBs at Gamescom in late August. The leaks suggest that AMD is behind NVIDIA in terms of AIBs and has open slots in its SKU lineup. The leaked benchmark data (see below) indicates that the RX 7800 and RX 7700 may compete with the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 Ti, respectively." JPR proposes that AMD is preparing at least two mid-range models for launch, although this could increase to five. If a mysterious fifth candidate does exist outside of the oft mentioned RX 7700, RX 7700 XT, RX 7800 and RX 7800 XT SKUs, where would it be placed in the hierarchy? We can exclude the RX 7900 16 GB GRE GPU since it seems to be a Chinese market exclusive, with performance estimated to be just below RX 7900 XT standards.
Two non-XT units have recently emerged via leaked benchmark results, so there could be a good number of options lined up for a third quarter 2023 launch. Jon Peddle Research (JPR) has added their two cents, by reconfirming that Team Red could be showcasing mid-range models at a late summer trade fair: "AMD is rumored to announce two new 7000-series AIBs at Gamescom in late August. The leaks suggest that AMD is behind NVIDIA in terms of AIBs and has open slots in its SKU lineup. The leaked benchmark data (see below) indicates that the RX 7800 and RX 7700 may compete with the RTX 4070 and RTX 4060 Ti, respectively." JPR proposes that AMD is preparing at least two mid-range models for launch, although this could increase to five. If a mysterious fifth candidate does exist outside of the oft mentioned RX 7700, RX 7700 XT, RX 7800 and RX 7800 XT SKUs, where would it be placed in the hierarchy? We can exclude the RX 7900 16 GB GRE GPU since it seems to be a Chinese market exclusive, with performance estimated to be just below RX 7900 XT standards.
Techtonica Available Now via Steam Early Access, Development Roadmap Revealed
Welcome to Calyx, Groundbreakers! Techtonica has officially entered Early Access. If you haven't noticed, there's a launch discount available for the game, too. Techtonica will normally sell for $29.99, but there's a 15% launch discount that will run for the first week.
From us at Fire Hose to you, our growing community of Groundbreakers, thanks for being here. We hope you have a blast with Techtonica. v0.1 marks the beginning of our journey. We leave you with a link to our Discord if you want to chat directly with the devs and other community members and our upcoming Road Map. Let's get to work.
From us at Fire Hose to you, our growing community of Groundbreakers, thanks for being here. We hope you have a blast with Techtonica. v0.1 marks the beginning of our journey. We leave you with a link to our Discord if you want to chat directly with the devs and other community members and our upcoming Road Map. Let's get to work.
Semiconductor Bosses Discussed China Trade Restrictions with US Government
According to various news sources, CEOs from Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm have been holding meetings with representatives of the US government—with the topic of discussion reportedly being the escalation of semiconductor import restrictions placed on China. AMD was notably absent from Monday's proceedings, due to Dr. Lisa Su attending to business matters in Taiwan. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, National Economic Council director Lael Brainard and National Security Council director Jake Sullivan were alleged to have met with industry leaders.
Chipmakers have expressed worry about new restrictions coming into effect within the next couple of week—the latest negotiations could have touched on some sort of provision for leading silicon manufacturers. The US government believes that by limiting China's access to cutting-edge technology, it will bolster national security interests—with the Chinese military not being able to develop competitive defense systems. The Semiconductor Industry Association stated on Monday that: "overly broad, ambiguous and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the US semiconductor industry's competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China." Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm did not provide any comments to press outlets following the conclusion of their meetings with senior government officials. It is speculated that Qualcomm is set to lose the most trade following the implementation of stricter rules—Bloomberg proposes that 60% of the firm's business revenue comes from Chinese territories.
Chipmakers have expressed worry about new restrictions coming into effect within the next couple of week—the latest negotiations could have touched on some sort of provision for leading silicon manufacturers. The US government believes that by limiting China's access to cutting-edge technology, it will bolster national security interests—with the Chinese military not being able to develop competitive defense systems. The Semiconductor Industry Association stated on Monday that: "overly broad, ambiguous and at times unilateral restrictions risk diminishing the US semiconductor industry's competitiveness, disrupting supply chains, causing significant market uncertainty and prompting continued escalatory retaliation by China." Intel, NVIDIA and Qualcomm did not provide any comments to press outlets following the conclusion of their meetings with senior government officials. It is speculated that Qualcomm is set to lose the most trade following the implementation of stricter rules—Bloomberg proposes that 60% of the firm's business revenue comes from Chinese territories.
RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Marginally Slower than 8GB Model: MSI Testing
MSI Insider Weekly tested an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB graphics card as part of a Live Benchmarking event, where it is shown to be in fact slower than the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. This begins to explain why NVIDIA or its board partners weren't too keen on sampling the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB for reviews. The performance delta between the 16 GB and 8 GB models is within 0.5%, but the 16 GB model is slightly behind the 8 GB in Cyberpunk 2077, F1 23, and Rainbow 6: Siege, all in Ultra (or equivalent settings). The performance is neck-and-neck in Fortnite and Hogwarts Legacy. The only test where the 16 GB variant is ahead is with CS:GO.
Besides the memory size, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB has identical specs—core configuration, clock-speeds, power limits, to its 8 GB sibling. One possible explanation for the 16 GB performing slightly worse could be that the higher density 16 GB memory is imposing a slightly higher latency, or having a negligibly higher power draw, but these are all just theory-crafting on our part. The RTX 4060 Ti still has 225 W at its disposal. NVIDIA has proved its point that 16 GB makes no difference to the performance of the RTX 4060 Ti. It's now up to the board partners to sell these cards at a whopping 25% higher price than the 8 GB model. Ideally, NVIDIA could have spruced up the 16 GB variant a little, by enabling all 18 TPCs on the AD106 (the RTX 4060 Ti enables 17); and if the AD106 supports GDDR6X, they should have dialed up memory speed to 21 Gbps.
The MSI Insider video follows.
Besides the memory size, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB has identical specs—core configuration, clock-speeds, power limits, to its 8 GB sibling. One possible explanation for the 16 GB performing slightly worse could be that the higher density 16 GB memory is imposing a slightly higher latency, or having a negligibly higher power draw, but these are all just theory-crafting on our part. The RTX 4060 Ti still has 225 W at its disposal. NVIDIA has proved its point that 16 GB makes no difference to the performance of the RTX 4060 Ti. It's now up to the board partners to sell these cards at a whopping 25% higher price than the 8 GB model. Ideally, NVIDIA could have spruced up the 16 GB variant a little, by enabling all 18 TPCs on the AD106 (the RTX 4060 Ti enables 17); and if the AD106 supports GDDR6X, they should have dialed up memory speed to 21 Gbps.
Qualcomm & Meta Collaborating on Next-gen Snapdragon AI Experiences
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and Meta are working to optimize the execution of Meta's Llama 2 large language models directly on-device - without relying on the sole use of cloud services. The ability to run generative AI models like Llama 2 on devices such as smartphones, PCs, VR/AR headsets, and vehicles allows developers to save on cloud costs, and to provide users with private, more reliable, and personalized experiences.
As a result, Qualcomm Technologies plans to make available on-device Llama 2-based AI implementations to enable the creation of new and exciting AI applications. This will allow customers, partners, and developers to build use cases, such as intelligent virtual assistants, productivity applications, content creation tools, entertainment, and more. These new on-device AI experiences, powered by Snapdragon, can work in areas with no connectivity or even in airplane mode.
As a result, Qualcomm Technologies plans to make available on-device Llama 2-based AI implementations to enable the creation of new and exciting AI applications. This will allow customers, partners, and developers to build use cases, such as intelligent virtual assistants, productivity applications, content creation tools, entertainment, and more. These new on-device AI experiences, powered by Snapdragon, can work in areas with no connectivity or even in airplane mode.
Intel Arc A750 Pricing Sinks to New Low of $180
Intel Arc A750 graphics card has been regularly shown by its designers to be comparable to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 in terms of performance, making it a formidable DirectX 12 Ultimate-capable 1080p-class gaming graphics card, with each of its new driver release ironing out game-specific performance issues. An ASRock A750 custom-design graphics card is now listed on Newegg for $199, with a coupon shaving off a further $20. At $179, the A750 is hard to pass, considering that other cards from its class are a bit pricier. The cheapest Radeon RX 6650 XT is currently going for $240, and the cheapest RTX 3060 (12 GB original spec) for $280.
Intel Alder Lake-N50 SoC Outed by Geekbench Test
A new entry has appeared on the Geekbench Browser database—very early this morning—apparently pointing to the lowest model sitting within the ranks of Intel's Alder Lake-N CPU series. According to leaked Geekbench 6.1 test results, as spotted by Benchleaks, the evaluated system was running on an "Intel N50" processor. This truly entry-point 6 W TDP SoC seems to feature two Gracemont efficiency cores with a 997 MHz base clock and a boost capability of 3.4 GHz. You are not getting any hyper-threading here. The integrated GPU is reported to sport 16 Execution Units—the more powerful N200, Core i3-N305 and Core i3-N300 Alder Lake-N siblings have double that count (32 EUs).
The benchmarked N50 system achieved overall scores of 1054 (single core) and 1388 (multi-threaded). Geekbench Browser states that the tested build had 8 GB of RAM (single channel), with the OS being Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC (64-bit) on a balanced power plan. VideoCardz was somewhat impressed with the plucky 6 W TDP chip offering comparable performance to decade old CPUs, albeit with a much lower power draw. The N50's single core result positions it closer to Intel fourth Gen Core Haswell mobile processors or first generation Ryzen CPUs, but the multi-core score is a bit of letdown—perhaps comparable to Intel Core 2 and AMD FX series models.
The benchmarked N50 system achieved overall scores of 1054 (single core) and 1388 (multi-threaded). Geekbench Browser states that the tested build had 8 GB of RAM (single channel), with the OS being Microsoft Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC (64-bit) on a balanced power plan. VideoCardz was somewhat impressed with the plucky 6 W TDP chip offering comparable performance to decade old CPUs, albeit with a much lower power draw. The N50's single core result positions it closer to Intel fourth Gen Core Haswell mobile processors or first generation Ryzen CPUs, but the multi-core score is a bit of letdown—perhaps comparable to Intel Core 2 and AMD FX series models.
Sea of Thieves & Monkey Island Crossover Discussed in Interview with Rare Ltd.
When it appeared in last month's Xbox Games Showcase, Xbox Wire spoke with creative director Mike Chapman about how The Legend of Monkey Island came to be and what it was setting out to do. But was that enough? Of course not - there's so much more to talk about in this landmark crossover between Sea of Thieves and the Monkey Island series.
With that in mind, here's a whole new interview, digging deeper into the three-part expansion's storyline, how it uses Monkey Island as an inspiration for a whole new gameplay experience within Sea of Thieves, and, yes, whether there will be Insult Sword Fighting.
With that in mind, here's a whole new interview, digging deeper into the three-part expansion's storyline, how it uses Monkey Island as an inspiration for a whole new gameplay experience within Sea of Thieves, and, yes, whether there will be Insult Sword Fighting.
Dutch Government Renews Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Deal
The Government of the Netherlands has agreed to incorporate Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) in its cloud service offerings for government agencies as part of a renewal of its existing service contract with Oracle. OCI's commercial public cloud regions will enable the National Government to take advantage of the many benefits cloud computing offers, including scalability, security, flexibility, and reliable performance.
The renewal of the agreement includes a version of the standard cloud terms and conditions as well as a Data Processing Agreement based on the government's Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) of available cloud services. "This renewed agreement with Oracle marks an important milestone in our strategic collaboration," said Richard Wiersema, director operations, DICTU of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and strategic supplier manager, Oracle for the Dutch government. "With Oracle, we as the national government have an important partner in house that helps us achieve our digital goals and enables us to meet the needs of Dutch society. The cloud plays a crucial role in meeting these objectives."
The renewal of the agreement includes a version of the standard cloud terms and conditions as well as a Data Processing Agreement based on the government's Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) of available cloud services. "This renewed agreement with Oracle marks an important milestone in our strategic collaboration," said Richard Wiersema, director operations, DICTU of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate and strategic supplier manager, Oracle for the Dutch government. "With Oracle, we as the national government have an important partner in house that helps us achieve our digital goals and enables us to meet the needs of Dutch society. The cloud plays a crucial role in meeting these objectives."
PS VR2 PvP Shooter "Firewall Ultra" Arriving August 24
Ever since we announced Firewall Ultra, the next evolution of the Firewall franchise, last year on the PlayStation Blog, the outpour of encouragement from the community has been nothing short of amazing. The pure excitement in all your comments, messages, tweets, and posts have us all even more motivated to make the game as great as it can be. Which is why we're so excited to debut our new gameplay trailer featuring fresh PvP gameplay footage!
To cap off that excitement, today we're thrilled to announce that pre-orders are officially live for Firewall Ultra starting today with a launch date of August 24, 2023! Firewall Ultra puts the next-gen VR features embedded in the PS VR2 front and center to deliver a compelling and immersive first-person shooter experience. This includes eye-tracking for innovative use cases like closing your eyes to avoid the effects of a flashbang, incredible haptic feedback in the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers for realistic weapon feedback, headset feedback when you take damage or toggle on night vision goggles, and so much more.
To cap off that excitement, today we're thrilled to announce that pre-orders are officially live for Firewall Ultra starting today with a launch date of August 24, 2023! Firewall Ultra puts the next-gen VR features embedded in the PS VR2 front and center to deliver a compelling and immersive first-person shooter experience. This includes eye-tracking for innovative use cases like closing your eyes to avoid the effects of a flashbang, incredible haptic feedback in the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers for realistic weapon feedback, headset feedback when you take damage or toggle on night vision goggles, and so much more.
Supermicro Adds 192-Core ARM CPU Based Low Power Servers to Its Broad Range of Workload Optimized Servers and Storage Systems
Supermicro, Inc., a Total IT Solution Provider for Cloud, AI/ML, Storage, and 5G/Edge, is announcing several new servers to its already broad application optimized product line. These new servers incorporate the new AmpereOne CPU, with up to 192 single-threaded cores and up to 4 TB of memory capacity. Applications such as databases, telco edge, web servers, caching services, media encoding, and video gaming streaming will benefit from increased cores, faster memory access, higher performance per watt, scalable power management, and the new cloud security features. Additionally, Cloud Native microservice based applications will benefit from the lower latencies and power usage.
"Supermicro is expanding our customer choices by introducing these new systems that incorporate the latest high core count CPUs from Ampere Computing," said Michael McNerney, vice president of Marketing and Security, Supermicro. "With high core counts, predictable latencies, and up to 4 TB of memory, users will experience increased performance for a range of workloads and lower energy use. We continue to design and deliver a range of environmentally friendly servers that give customers a competitive advantage for various applications."
"Supermicro is expanding our customer choices by introducing these new systems that incorporate the latest high core count CPUs from Ampere Computing," said Michael McNerney, vice president of Marketing and Security, Supermicro. "With high core counts, predictable latencies, and up to 4 TB of memory, users will experience increased performance for a range of workloads and lower energy use. We continue to design and deliver a range of environmentally friendly servers that give customers a competitive advantage for various applications."
Beats Launches the Studio Pro
Beats today announces Beats Studio Pro, the next generation of Beats' iconic, bestselling over-ear headphone. With all-new and improved interior components, Studio Pro offers next-level audio fidelity, fully-adaptive Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, UltraPlush leather cushions, up to 40 hours of battery life, Lossless Audio via USB-C3 and enhanced call performance.
Beats Studio Pro is available to order starting today in four premium colors, Black, Deep Brown, Navy and Sandstone, for $349.99 (US) from apple.com. Starting tomorrow, Studio Pro will be on-shelf at Apple Store locations and authorized resellers in its beautiful new packaging that was designed with the environment in mind.
Beats Studio Pro is available to order starting today in four premium colors, Black, Deep Brown, Navy and Sandstone, for $349.99 (US) from apple.com. Starting tomorrow, Studio Pro will be on-shelf at Apple Store locations and authorized resellers in its beautiful new packaging that was designed with the environment in mind.
Microsoft & Activision Blizzard Delay Merger Deadline to October
Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have announced the postponement of their agreed merger deadline—from July 18 (yesterday) to mid-October. This will grant them more time to deal with a sticky issue presented by the UK's Competition and Markets Authority blocking of the proposed $75 billion acquisition—on the grounds of potential deleterious effects within the cloud gaming market. Xbox boss, Phil Spencer made a short statement on the matter earlier today: "Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have extended the merger agreement deadline to 10/18. We're optimistic about getting this done, and excited about bringing more games to more players everywhere."
Lulu Cheng Meservey, CCO and EVP Corporate Affairs at Activision Blizzard, stated: "The recent decision in the U.S. and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players, and the future of gaming. Given global regulatory approvals and the companies' confidence that CMA now recognizes there are remedies available to meet their concerns in the UK, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft boards of directors have authorized the companies not to terminate the deal until after October 18. We're confident in our next steps and that our deal will quickly close."
Lulu Cheng Meservey, CCO and EVP Corporate Affairs at Activision Blizzard, stated: "The recent decision in the U.S. and approvals in 40 countries all validate that the deal is good for competition, players, and the future of gaming. Given global regulatory approvals and the companies' confidence that CMA now recognizes there are remedies available to meet their concerns in the UK, the Activision Blizzard and Microsoft boards of directors have authorized the companies not to terminate the deal until after October 18. We're confident in our next steps and that our deal will quickly close."
Leading Cloud Service, Semiconductor, and System Providers Unite to Form Ultra Ethernet Consortium
Announced today, Ultra Ethernet Consortium (UEC) is bringing together leading companies for industry-wide cooperation to build a complete Ethernet-based communication stack architecture for high-performance networking. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) workloads are rapidly evolving and require best-in-class functionality, performance, interoperability and total cost of ownership, without sacrificing developer and end-user friendliness. The Ultra Ethernet solution stack will capitalize on Ethernet's ubiquity and flexibility for handling a wide variety of workloads while being scalable and cost-effective.
Ultra Ethernet Consortium is founded by companies with long-standing history and experience in high-performance solutions. Each member is contributing significantly to the broader ecosystem of high-performance in an egalitarian manner. The founding members include AMD, Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Eviden (an Atos Business), HPE, Intel, Meta and Microsoft, who collectively have decades of networking, AI, cloud and high-performance computing-at-scale deployments.
Ultra Ethernet Consortium is founded by companies with long-standing history and experience in high-performance solutions. Each member is contributing significantly to the broader ecosystem of high-performance in an egalitarian manner. The founding members include AMD, Arista, Broadcom, Cisco, Eviden (an Atos Business), HPE, Intel, Meta and Microsoft, who collectively have decades of networking, AI, cloud and high-performance computing-at-scale deployments.
Sony WF-1000XM5 Teased for Launch on July 24
Sony Electronics yesterday tweeted about an upcoming product launch date: "For the silence. For the sound. Stay tuned...you'll want to hear this." The teaser image and brief message could hint at the WF-1000XM5 wireless earbuds finally arriving at retail. The tweet puts emphasis on high quality sound reproduction and noise cancelling capabilities, so the company seems to be confident in marketing their next gen model as a leap over the popular WF-1000XM4.
Renders and specifications for the fifth generation Sony wireless earbuds have been leaked online several times this year. The WF-1000XM5 seems to be smaller and lighter than its predecessor with each bud weighing 5.9 grams, and the (likely Qi wireless charging capable) cradle coming in at 39 grams. Eye-balled dimensions suggest a profile closer to the WF-C700N. Many owners of the WF-1000XM4 have complained about inconsistent and uncomfortable fits in ear canals, due to the unit's relatively substantial design—a more compact bud would be most welcome. Multi-point connectivity seems to be the main feature that will be ready and present out of the box, otherwise leaked specs do not present anything else that really stands out. The WF-1000XM4 launched last Autumn with an MSRP of $280—will Sony be charging more for a mild set of improvements, or are they going to wow us with an amazing next-gen aural experience?
Renders and specifications for the fifth generation Sony wireless earbuds have been leaked online several times this year. The WF-1000XM5 seems to be smaller and lighter than its predecessor with each bud weighing 5.9 grams, and the (likely Qi wireless charging capable) cradle coming in at 39 grams. Eye-balled dimensions suggest a profile closer to the WF-C700N. Many owners of the WF-1000XM4 have complained about inconsistent and uncomfortable fits in ear canals, due to the unit's relatively substantial design—a more compact bud would be most welcome. Multi-point connectivity seems to be the main feature that will be ready and present out of the box, otherwise leaked specs do not present anything else that really stands out. The WF-1000XM4 launched last Autumn with an MSRP of $280—will Sony be charging more for a mild set of improvements, or are they going to wow us with an amazing next-gen aural experience?
EA Sports FC 24 Previewed in Gameplay Deep Dive
EA SPORTS FC 24 welcomes you to The World's Game—the most true-to-football experience ever with HyperMotionV, PlayStyles optimised by Opta, and a revolutionised Frostbite Engine reinventing how 19,000+ authentic players move, play and look in every match. Pre-order EA SPORTS FC 24 Ultimate Edition by 22 August to get a UEFA Champions League or UEFA Women's Champions League Ultimate Team Hero Item on 27 November.
EA SPORTS FC 24 is a new era for The World's Game: 19,000+ fully licensed players, 700+ teams, and 30+ leagues playing together in the most authentic football experience ever created on PC. Develop club legends and improve your players with the brand new Ultimate Team Evolutions, and welcome women's footballers to the pitch alongside men as you craft your dream XI. Write your own story in Manager and Player Career, and join friends on the pitch with cross-play in Clubs and VOLTA FOOTBALL. EA SPORTS FC 24 is the next chapter in a more innovative future of football.
EA SPORTS FC 24 is a new era for The World's Game: 19,000+ fully licensed players, 700+ teams, and 30+ leagues playing together in the most authentic football experience ever created on PC. Develop club legends and improve your players with the brand new Ultimate Team Evolutions, and welcome women's footballers to the pitch alongside men as you craft your dream XI. Write your own story in Manager and Player Career, and join friends on the pitch with cross-play in Clubs and VOLTA FOOTBALL. EA SPORTS FC 24 is the next chapter in a more innovative future of football.
OpenAI Degrades GPT-4 Performance While GPT-3.5 Gets Better
When OpenAI announced its GPT-4 model, it first became a part of ChatGPT, behind the paywall for premium users. The GPT-4 is the latest installment in the Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) Large Language Models (LLMs). The GPT-4 aims to be a more capable version than the GPT-3.5 that powered ChatGPT at first, which was capable once it launched. However, it seems like the performance of GPT-4 has been steadily dropping since its introduction. Many users noted the regression, and today we have researchers from Stanford University and UC Berkeley, who benchmarked the GPT-4 performance in March 2023, and the model's performance in June 2023 in tasks like solving math problems, visual reasoning, code generation, and answering sensitive questions.
The results? The paper shows that GPT-4 performance has been significantly degraded in all the tasks. This could be attributed to improving stability, lowering the massive compute demand, and much more. What is unexpected, GPT-3.5 experienced a significant uplift in the same period. Below, you can see the examples that were benchmarked by the researchers, which also compare GTP-4 and GPT-3.5 performance in all cases.
The results? The paper shows that GPT-4 performance has been significantly degraded in all the tasks. This could be attributed to improving stability, lowering the massive compute demand, and much more. What is unexpected, GPT-3.5 experienced a significant uplift in the same period. Below, you can see the examples that were benchmarked by the researchers, which also compare GTP-4 and GPT-3.5 performance in all cases.
Axiomtek Unveils SHB160 CPU Card
Axiomtek—a world-renowned leader relentlessly devoted to the research, development, and manufacture of series of innovative and reliable industrial computer products of high efficiency - is pleased to announce the SHB160, a new PICMG 1.3 full-size single board computer powered by the LGA1700 13th/12th Gen Intel Core i7/i5/i3, Pentium or Celeron processor with the Intel R680E/H610E chipset. The industry-specific SBC supports dual 2.5 GbE LAN for the ultimate connection experience with blazing data-transfer speed. It also supports PCIe 4.0 for more flexibility and higher bandwidth to GPUs, SSDs, and other peripherals. Offering superior computing performance, rugged design, flexible I/O expansion as well as enhanced graphics capabilities, the SHB160 aims to satisfy the requirements of AIoT applications such as vision inspection, objective classification, factory automation, intelligent video analysis, and smart city.
Axiomtek's SHB160 offers up to four DDR5-4400 MHz ECC or non-ECC U-DIMM slots for up to 128 GB of system memory. The full-size slot CPU card has six SATA-600 ports with software RAID 0/1/5/10 support (Intel R680E chipset) or four SATA-600 ports (Intel H610E chipset). In addition, the SHB160 has one M.2 Key M 2280 slot with PCIe 4.0 x4 signal for NVMe SSD (Intel R680E chipset). It also delivers superior graphics performance with the Intel UHD Graphics and offers dual display configurations via DVI-I and DisplayPort++ (internal header) ports. One PCIe x16 Gen 4 slot, one PCIe x4 Gen 4 slot or four PCIe x1 Gen 4 slots, and four 32-bit PCI bus masters are available on the board to provide an optimum solution with a diverse range of configurations. Equipped with one M.2 Key E 2230 slot, the SHB160 also supports Wi-Fi 6 for faster data transferring while reducing latency and enhancing security.
Axiomtek's SHB160 offers up to four DDR5-4400 MHz ECC or non-ECC U-DIMM slots for up to 128 GB of system memory. The full-size slot CPU card has six SATA-600 ports with software RAID 0/1/5/10 support (Intel R680E chipset) or four SATA-600 ports (Intel H610E chipset). In addition, the SHB160 has one M.2 Key M 2280 slot with PCIe 4.0 x4 signal for NVMe SSD (Intel R680E chipset). It also delivers superior graphics performance with the Intel UHD Graphics and offers dual display configurations via DVI-I and DisplayPort++ (internal header) ports. One PCIe x16 Gen 4 slot, one PCIe x4 Gen 4 slot or four PCIe x1 Gen 4 slots, and four 32-bit PCI bus masters are available on the board to provide an optimum solution with a diverse range of configurations. Equipped with one M.2 Key E 2230 slot, the SHB160 also supports Wi-Fi 6 for faster data transferring while reducing latency and enhancing security.
Roccat Announces Availability of the Vulcan II Mini Air & Vulcan II Keyboards
ROCCAT, the award-winning PC peripherals brand from best-selling gaming headset and accessories maker Turtle Beach Corporation, today announced the new Vulcan II Mini Air and Vulcan II Mechanical Gaming Keyboard are now available.
ROCCAT's first-ever wireless gaming keyboard, the Vulcan II Mini Air packs performance, durability, and functionality into a wireless mini 65% form factor. The compact footprint allows for more desktop space while TITAN II Optical Switches deliver ultra-fast response rates. PC gamers can connect the Mini Air to their favorite devices using ROCCAT's 2.4 GHz Stellar Wireless or via three unique Bluetooth channels. Plus, the Mini Air's built-in proximity sensors detect when gamers are away from their keyboard and works in conjunction with ROCCAT's Swarm software to maximize battery life. Gaming publication MP1st.com reviewed the Vulcan II Mini Air and gave it a perfect 10/10 score, and called it, "The perfect mini keyboard that anyone could dream of."
ROCCAT's first-ever wireless gaming keyboard, the Vulcan II Mini Air packs performance, durability, and functionality into a wireless mini 65% form factor. The compact footprint allows for more desktop space while TITAN II Optical Switches deliver ultra-fast response rates. PC gamers can connect the Mini Air to their favorite devices using ROCCAT's 2.4 GHz Stellar Wireless or via three unique Bluetooth channels. Plus, the Mini Air's built-in proximity sensors detect when gamers are away from their keyboard and works in conjunction with ROCCAT's Swarm software to maximize battery life. Gaming publication MP1st.com reviewed the Vulcan II Mini Air and gave it a perfect 10/10 score, and called it, "The perfect mini keyboard that anyone could dream of."
Antec Announces AX20 Mid-tower Case
Antec Inc., a Californian supplier of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself market, presents the AX20, a model oft he new budget-friendly AX series of Gaming cases. The mid-tower is equipped with three 120 mm RGB fans in the front and is now available at a very affordable price of €56,99 (recommended retail price including VAT).
The new AX series from Antec offers a large selection of gaming cases with LED lighting and eye-catching front panel designs - all at an affordable price. The new AX20 case has a side panel made of tempered glass and puts the built-in components in the limelight. The slanted bar-shaped air intakes of the front panel as well as the dense mesh are not only a visual highlight but also allow for excellent airflow. Massive air intakes at the front, top and bottom ensure multiple airflow paths.
The new AX series from Antec offers a large selection of gaming cases with LED lighting and eye-catching front panel designs - all at an affordable price. The new AX20 case has a side panel made of tempered glass and puts the built-in components in the limelight. The slanted bar-shaped air intakes of the front panel as well as the dense mesh are not only a visual highlight but also allow for excellent airflow. Massive air intakes at the front, top and bottom ensure multiple airflow paths.
Hiksemi Launches PCIe 4.0 SSD FUTURE Series
As a global provider of ultimate storage products and solutions, Hangzhou Hikstorage Technology Co.,Ltd.("Hiksemi") is committed to constantly exploring and inventing to meet the demand of consumers. Seeing that SSDs have emerged as the mainstream technology in digital data storage, Hiksemi has made full efforts in the field of PCIe 4.0 SSDs with the rich technical experience. Recently, Hiksemi has launched high-performance PCIe 4.0 SSD, FUTURE Series, designed for PC enthusiasts, gamers and content creators.
Just as the name FUTURE, this series is born to break limits and embrace the future. FUTURE SSD has faster speed, stronger performance, larger capacity, making users even more powerful in the world of game entertainment and content creation.
Just as the name FUTURE, this series is born to break limits and embrace the future. FUTURE SSD has faster speed, stronger performance, larger capacity, making users even more powerful in the world of game entertainment and content creation.
Breakthrough DDR5 XMP 8000 with the Latest BIOS on Gigabyte X670 & B650 Motherboards
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and hardware solutions, proudly announced the ultimate memory performance of DDR5 XMP 8000 is achieved with the X670E AORUS MASTER motherboard based on the latest AMD AGESA BIOS code at a SOC voltage of 1.3 V.
GIGABYTE always works closely with AMD to ensure our motherboard designs provide supreme performance and reliability, particularly on the optimum memory performance by exclusively advanced memory layout design. Meanwhile, GIGABYTE is releasing a new beta BIOS for the X670 and B650 AORUS/AERO series motherboards for the most remarkable memory performance on the AM5 platform. The new BIOS will be available at the end of July in succession. Please pay close attention to the GIGABYTE website to download the update for optimal performance.
GIGABYTE always works closely with AMD to ensure our motherboard designs provide supreme performance and reliability, particularly on the optimum memory performance by exclusively advanced memory layout design. Meanwhile, GIGABYTE is releasing a new beta BIOS for the X670 and B650 AORUS/AERO series motherboards for the most remarkable memory performance on the AM5 platform. The new BIOS will be available at the end of July in succession. Please pay close attention to the GIGABYTE website to download the update for optimal performance.
Samsung's 3 nm GAA Process Identified in a Crypto-mining ASIC Designed by China Startup MicroBT
Semiconductor industry research firm TechInsights said it has found that Samsung's 3 nm GAA (gate-all-around) process has been incorporated into the crypto miner ASIC (Whatsminer M56S++) from a Chinese manufacturer, MicroBT. In a Disruptive Technology Event Brief exclusively provided to DIGITIMES Asia, TechInsights points out that the significance of this development lies in the commercial utilization of GAA technology, which facilitates the scaling of transistors to 2 nm and beyond. "This development is crucial because it has the potential to enhance performance, improve energy efficiency, keep up with Moore's Law, and enable advanced applications," said TechInsights, identifying the MicroBT ASIC chip the first commercialized product using GAA technology in the industry.
But this would also reveal that Samsung is the foundry for MicroBT, using the 3 nm GAA process. DIGITIMES Research semiconductor analyst Eric Chen pointed out that Samsung indeed has started producing chips using the 3 nm GAA process, but the capacity is still small. "Getting revenues from shipment can be defined as 'commercialization', but ASIC is a relatively simple kind of chip to produce, in terms of architecture."
But this would also reveal that Samsung is the foundry for MicroBT, using the 3 nm GAA process. DIGITIMES Research semiconductor analyst Eric Chen pointed out that Samsung indeed has started producing chips using the 3 nm GAA process, but the capacity is still small. "Getting revenues from shipment can be defined as 'commercialization', but ASIC is a relatively simple kind of chip to produce, in terms of architecture."
Trust Launches its Zirox Gaming Headset and Felox Gaming Mouse
Leading digital lifestyle accessories brand, Trust Electronics Ltd, is pleased today to announce the launch of two new gaming accessories, its Zirox gaming headset and Felox mouse. Essentials for any setup, both products are designed with multiple colour options including some based on their choice of console to allow gamers to express their personality while playing. The two products can be used together to create a cohesive and matching gaming environment. Not only style, both the mouse and headset also offer high quality and useful features, comfort and are available at an accessible price for all.
The Trust GXT 415 Zirox is available in four bold colours - Booster Black, Winning White, Brilliant Blue and Powerful Pink - providing players with many ways to win in style and options to suit preferences. Its lightweight design of only 244 grams makes it easy to wear for long gaming sessions, whilst powerful 50 mm drivers ensure users are fully immersed in the game at all times.
The Trust GXT 415 Zirox is available in four bold colours - Booster Black, Winning White, Brilliant Blue and Powerful Pink - providing players with many ways to win in style and options to suit preferences. Its lightweight design of only 244 grams makes it easy to wear for long gaming sessions, whilst powerful 50 mm drivers ensure users are fully immersed in the game at all times.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Review—Not
NVIDIA today launched the 16 GB version of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti "Ada" graphics card to no fanfare. Essentially a memory variant of the RTX 4060 Ti with no other changes in the specs sheet, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB commands a $100 premium (25%) over the regular RTX 4060 Ti for double the memory size, albeit at the same 128-bit memory bus width, and the same 18 Gbps memory speed. The idea behind the card is that the larger memory should help in scenarios where the 8 GB of memory is found to limit performance. It would've been fun to test this theory if only we had cards to review—we didn't.
NVIDIA's own presentation lists just two games that show gains, and that's probably the best-case.
If you've seen our coverage of the original RTX 4060 Ti or RTX 4060, you'll notice that we've tested 8 to 10 of each on launch day, covering almost every AIC partner. With the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, we were ready to repeat this feat, and cleared our calendars for the launch, except nothing came through. We talked to all the partners, and friends in the industry. We learned that neither NVIDIA nor the partners are sampling the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB. We did try to arrange samples through back-channels, which turned out to be a bust, too, nobody wanted to touch these cards. To prevent those reviewers who could somehow score cards in partnership with retailers, NVIDIA ensured there was no driver available until earlier today. Without drivers, there's no way for anyone to test the card, and it shows—we've scoured the web, and nobody has a review. There should be cards available in retail already, but only listings with "out of stock", "coming soon" have appeared so far. We do intend to buy one off the shelf and test it for you with the first available driver. As of this writing, we cannot find any of these cards in the online retail.
Update 15:16 UTC: We've reached out to several shops here in Germany, they all confirmed that "the embargo expired today at 3 pm", but also mentioned that "the on-shelf availability date is unknown".
Update Jul 19th: First merchants in Germany have received a handful of cards, there's still no stock in UK or USA.
Update Jul 24th: We've bought a RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB in retails and posted our full in-depth review here.
If you've seen our coverage of the original RTX 4060 Ti or RTX 4060, you'll notice that we've tested 8 to 10 of each on launch day, covering almost every AIC partner. With the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, we were ready to repeat this feat, and cleared our calendars for the launch, except nothing came through. We talked to all the partners, and friends in the industry. We learned that neither NVIDIA nor the partners are sampling the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB. We did try to arrange samples through back-channels, which turned out to be a bust, too, nobody wanted to touch these cards. To prevent those reviewers who could somehow score cards in partnership with retailers, NVIDIA ensured there was no driver available until earlier today. Without drivers, there's no way for anyone to test the card, and it shows—we've scoured the web, and nobody has a review. There should be cards available in retail already, but only listings with "out of stock", "coming soon" have appeared so far. We do intend to buy one off the shelf and test it for you with the first available driver. As of this writing, we cannot find any of these cards in the online retail.
Update Jul 19th: First merchants in Germany have received a handful of cards, there's still no stock in UK or USA.
Update Jul 24th: We've bought a RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB in retails and posted our full in-depth review here.
Lenovo Unveils New Data Management Solutions to Enable AI Workloads
Today, Lenovo announced its next wave of data management innovation with new ThinkSystem DG Enterprise Storage Arrays and ThinkSystem DM3010H Enterprise Storage Arrays, designed to make it easier for organizations to enable AI workloads and unlock value from their data. Also announced are two new integrated and engineered ThinkAgile SXM Microsoft Azure Stack solutions, enabling a unified hybrid cloud solution for seamless data management. As businesses continue to scale their operations to address growing data, security and sustainability requirements, the new Lenovo flash solutions provide customers with an accelerated path to deploy AI workloads efficiently and with added security features from edge to cloud, enabling workload consolidation and mobilizing faster insights fortified with ransomware protection.
As the #4 global external storage OEM and #1 storage provider in Price Bands 1-41, the news is another significant step forward in Lenovo's data management strategy as it expands its leadership in the mid-range market. "The data management landscape is increasingly complex, and customers need solutions that offer the simplicity and flexibility of cloud with the performance and security of on-premises data management," said Kamran Amini, Vice President and General Manager of Server & Storage, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. "As we continue our journey to become the world's largest end-to-end infrastructure solutions provider, we are focused on delivering innovation that enables our customers to manage, leverage and protect their data seamlessly, giving every business the ability to bring AI to the source of the data and transform their business."
As the #4 global external storage OEM and #1 storage provider in Price Bands 1-41, the news is another significant step forward in Lenovo's data management strategy as it expands its leadership in the mid-range market. "The data management landscape is increasingly complex, and customers need solutions that offer the simplicity and flexibility of cloud with the performance and security of on-premises data management," said Kamran Amini, Vice President and General Manager of Server & Storage, Lenovo Infrastructure Solutions Group. "As we continue our journey to become the world's largest end-to-end infrastructure solutions provider, we are focused on delivering innovation that enables our customers to manage, leverage and protect their data seamlessly, giving every business the ability to bring AI to the source of the data and transform their business."
Synology Introduces UC3400 and SA3400D Dual-Controller Systems
Synology today announced the addition of two new dual-controller systems to its range of enterprise data management solutions: the UC3400, an active-active system designed for mission-critical SAN storage, and the SA3400D, a versatile active-passive system for NAS and SAN applications. Both provide efficient high availability with shared storage and can accommodate up to 576 TB when fully expanded.
"The UC3400 and SA3400D provide cost and space-efficient high availability for businesses and organizations of all sizes," said Peggy Weng, Product Manager at Synology. "They are tailored respectively to provide highly reliable block storage within the context of a SAN or ensure the highest uptime for file sharing and office applications."
"The UC3400 and SA3400D provide cost and space-efficient high availability for businesses and organizations of all sizes," said Peggy Weng, Product Manager at Synology. "They are tailored respectively to provide highly reliable block storage within the context of a SAN or ensure the highest uptime for file sharing and office applications."
ASML reports €6.9 billion net sales and €1.9 billion net income in Q2 2023
Today ASML Holding NV (ASML) has published its 2023 second-quarter results.
"Our second-quarter net sales came in at €6.9 billion, at the high end of our guidance, with a gross margin of 51.3%, higher than guided, primarily driven by additional DUV immersion revenue in the quarter. "Our customers across different market segments are currently more cautious due to continued macro-economic uncertainties, and therefore expect a later recovery of their markets. Also, the shape of the recovery slope is still unclear. However, our strong backlog of around €38 billion provides us with a good basis to navigate these short-term uncertainties.
- Q2 net sales of €6.9 billion, gross margin of 51.3%, net income of €1.9 billion
- Quarterly net bookings in Q2 of €4.5 billion of which €1.6 billion is EUV
- ASML expects Q3 2023 net sales between €6.5 billion and €7.0 billion and a gross margin of around 50%
- ASML expects 2023 net sales growth towards 30% compared to 2022
"Our second-quarter net sales came in at €6.9 billion, at the high end of our guidance, with a gross margin of 51.3%, higher than guided, primarily driven by additional DUV immersion revenue in the quarter. "Our customers across different market segments are currently more cautious due to continued macro-economic uncertainties, and therefore expect a later recovery of their markets. Also, the shape of the recovery slope is still unclear. However, our strong backlog of around €38 billion provides us with a good basis to navigate these short-term uncertainties.
Logitech Among Industry Leaders Driving Increased IoT Product Security and Privacy
Earlier today Logitech International was invited and honored to participate in the US National Label for Consumer IoT Security launch at the White House in Washington DC. The event, sponsored by the National Security Council, was led by chairwoman of the FCC, Jessica Rosenworcel, and included members of both organizations, as well as other leading tech companies focused on and making strides in product security for consumers.
Logitech is an active contributor in industry efforts to integrate security into the core standards that its products use. Through its participation in the Product Security Working Group (PSWG) and Matter Working Group within the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the company continues to work with others in the industry to write and certify the standards by which next generation products will operate.
Logitech is an active contributor in industry efforts to integrate security into the core standards that its products use. Through its participation in the Product Security Working Group (PSWG) and Matter Working Group within the Connectivity Standards Alliance (CSA), the company continues to work with others in the industry to write and certify the standards by which next generation products will operate.
Samsung Announces Industry's First GDDR7 Memory Development, 32 Gbps Speeds
Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has completed development of the industry's first Graphics Double Data Rate 7 (GDDR7) DRAM. It will first be installed in next-generation systems of key customers for verification this year, driving future growth of the graphics market and further consolidating Samsung's technological leadership in the field.
Following Samsung's development of the industry's first 24 Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in 2022, the company's 16-gigabit (Gb) GDDR7 offering will deliver the industry's highest speed yet. Innovations in integrated circuit (IC) design and packaging provide added stability despite high-speed operations. "Our GDDR7 DRAM will help elevate user experiences in areas that require outstanding graphics performance, such as workstations, PCs and game consoles, and is expected to expand into future applications such as AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and automotive vehicles," said Yongcheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. "The next-generation graphics DRAM will be brought to market in line with industry demand and we plan on continuing our leadership in the space."
Following Samsung's development of the industry's first 24 Gbps GDDR6 DRAM in 2022, the company's 16-gigabit (Gb) GDDR7 offering will deliver the industry's highest speed yet. Innovations in integrated circuit (IC) design and packaging provide added stability despite high-speed operations. "Our GDDR7 DRAM will help elevate user experiences in areas that require outstanding graphics performance, such as workstations, PCs and game consoles, and is expected to expand into future applications such as AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and automotive vehicles," said Yongcheol Bae, Executive Vice President of Memory Product Planning Team at Samsung Electronics. "The next-generation graphics DRAM will be brought to market in line with industry demand and we plan on continuing our leadership in the space."
Tuesday, July 18th 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Keyboards
Colorful iGame GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ultra W Duo OC Review
Colorful's GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ultra W Duo OC comes with a stunning white color theme and color-shifting highlights that adjust depending on the viewing angle. In terms of performance you get excellent FPS for even the most demanding games at 1080p, and of course DLSS 3.
RAMP-C Program on Intel 18A Adds 2 Strategic Defense Industrial Base Customers
Intel Foundry Services is onboarding two new defense industrial base (DIB) customers, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, as part of phase two of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD)'s Rapid Assured Microelectronics Prototypes - Commercial (RAMP-C) program. In phase two of the RAMP-C program, customers will use Intel 18A process technology and industry-standard electrical design and analysis tools and intellectual property (IP) to develop, tape-out and fabricate test chips in preparation for product design tape-outs.
"We are pleased to welcome Boeing and Northrop Grumman to the RAMP-C program. Boeing and Northrop Grumman will use their industry expertise to develop and support leading-edge semiconductor solutions using Intel 18A process technology for the success of vital DoD and national security systems. Together, we will continue to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain and ensure that the United States maintains leadership in process technology R&D, advanced manufacturing and microelectronics systems," said Kapil Wadhera, vice president of Intel Foundry Services and general manager of Foundry Solutions Business Group.
"We are pleased to welcome Boeing and Northrop Grumman to the RAMP-C program. Boeing and Northrop Grumman will use their industry expertise to develop and support leading-edge semiconductor solutions using Intel 18A process technology for the success of vital DoD and national security systems. Together, we will continue to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain and ensure that the United States maintains leadership in process technology R&D, advanced manufacturing and microelectronics systems," said Kapil Wadhera, vice president of Intel Foundry Services and general manager of Foundry Solutions Business Group.
Intel and ASUS Agree to Term Sheet to Take Intel NUC Systems Product Line Forward
Today, Intel announced it has agreed to a term sheet with ASUS, a global technology solution provider, for an agreement to manufacture, sell and support Intel Next Unit of Compute (NUC) 10th to 13th generations systems product line, and develop future NUC systems designs. "Our NUC systems product team delivered unique products that spurred innovation in the ultra-small form factor market. As we pivot our strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC systems product innovation and growth, our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for our customers and partners. I am looking forward to ASUS continuing to deliver exceptional products and supporting our NUC systems customers," said Sam Gao, Intel vice president and general manager of Intel Client Platform Solutions.
Intel is pivoting its strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC systems product line innovation and growth. ASUS's expertise and track record delivering industry-leading mini PCs to customers make it ideally suited to continue driving innovation and growth in NUC systems products. "Thank you, Intel, for your confidence in us to take the NUC systems product line forward. I am confident that this collaboration will enhance and accelerate our vision for the mini PC - greatly expanding our footprint in areas such as AI and AIoT," said Joe Hsieh, ASUS chief operating officer. "We are committed to ensuring the excellent support and service that NUC systems customers expect."
Intel is pivoting its strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC systems product line innovation and growth. ASUS's expertise and track record delivering industry-leading mini PCs to customers make it ideally suited to continue driving innovation and growth in NUC systems products. "Thank you, Intel, for your confidence in us to take the NUC systems product line forward. I am confident that this collaboration will enhance and accelerate our vision for the mini PC - greatly expanding our footprint in areas such as AI and AIoT," said Joe Hsieh, ASUS chief operating officer. "We are committed to ensuring the excellent support and service that NUC systems customers expect."
Xenonauts 2 Available Now Through Early Access
The invasion has arrived! Greetings, Commanders! It's finally time to defeat the alien invasion - Xenonauts 2 is AVAILABLE NOW in Steam Early Access! Wage a global war of resistance against an alien invasion. Command turn-based tactical battles, build a network of covert bases, directly control your fighter wings, and achieve strategic victory in a simulation of asymmetric warfare against a technologically superior foe.
Xenonauts 2 is a strategy game that puts you in charge of a multinational military organization tasked with eliminating an extraterrestrial threat. Working from the shadows, you must seek out and engage the growing alien presence wherever it appears. Expand and manage a covert network of bases across the globe. Pursue research and development to bridge the technological gap with the alien invaders. Train, arm, and command your ground troops wherever the alien threat emerges.
Xenonauts 2 is a strategy game that puts you in charge of a multinational military organization tasked with eliminating an extraterrestrial threat. Working from the shadows, you must seek out and engage the growing alien presence wherever it appears. Expand and manage a covert network of bases across the globe. Pursue research and development to bridge the technological gap with the alien invaders. Train, arm, and command your ground troops wherever the alien threat emerges.
DMCA Strikes Point to Modern Warfare III Being the next Call of Duty Title
A flurry of DMCA take down notices, on Activision's part, have brought even more attention to an alleged Call of Duty internal alpha test. Leakers have been talking about Modern Warfare III being the likely candidate for a new CoD release this year, following a planned premium expansion for MW II morphing into a full-fledged sequel. Activision has been busy scrubbing the internet clean of screenshots sourced from the alleged "Hailström" test build, but issued copyright strike messages contain references to the next entry in the series. Targeted tipsters have been warned about activity that has resulted in: "leaked content from unreleased video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3" appearing on social media and other gaming community hubs.
The publisher has semi-acknowledged that the cat is out of the bag, and yesterday addressed the fan base with a simple query: "Let's get this out of the way...Should MW II Operators, Weapons and Bundles carry forward into Call of Duty 2023?" This official tweet was shared by the Sledgehammer Games account—this Activision-owned studio is rumored to be the primary development house working on Modern Warfare III, with other Call of Duty-oriented outfits providing additional support. Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021) was Sledgehammer's third fully developed entry in the blockbuster (and highly contested) series.
The publisher has semi-acknowledged that the cat is out of the bag, and yesterday addressed the fan base with a simple query: "Let's get this out of the way...Should MW II Operators, Weapons and Bundles carry forward into Call of Duty 2023?" This official tweet was shared by the Sledgehammer Games account—this Activision-owned studio is rumored to be the primary development house working on Modern Warfare III, with other Call of Duty-oriented outfits providing additional support. Call of Duty: Vanguard (2021) was Sledgehammer's third fully developed entry in the blockbuster (and highly contested) series.
Diablo IV Season of the Malignant Launching on July 20
Season of the Malignant is upon us, wanderer! The first Season of Diablo IV begins on July 20 at 10 a.m. PDT. Keep Sanctuary safe from a growing infestation by harnessing the potency of Malignant Hearts and unleashing the power within. To prepare you for the noxious threats that await, we've dredged up more details on Season of the Malignant below.
INVESTIGATE THE MALIGNANCE WITH CORMOND IN A NEW QUEST
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range. Distraught and in panic without the Church of Light's guidance, the denizens of Sanctuary have turned to new sources for hope. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes subject to its corruption. To embark on the new Burning from Within questline, you'll need to have already completed the campaign on the Eternal Realm, or do so during the Season on the Seasonal Realm with at least one character. Once you're ready to take on Sanctuary's newest threat, head over to Kyovashad to begin your journey with Cormond.
INVESTIGATE THE MALIGNANCE WITH CORMOND IN A NEW QUEST
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range. Distraught and in panic without the Church of Light's guidance, the denizens of Sanctuary have turned to new sources for hope. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes subject to its corruption. To embark on the new Burning from Within questline, you'll need to have already completed the campaign on the Eternal Realm, or do so during the Season on the Seasonal Realm with at least one character. Once you're ready to take on Sanctuary's newest threat, head over to Kyovashad to begin your journey with Cormond.
MOUNTAIN Launches Ultra-Soft Plateau Palm Rest with Cooling Gel Layer
MOUNTAIN, creator of innovative, premium peripherals with user-centric design to enable gamers and content creators to perform at their best, expands its lineup of keyboard accessories with the launch of Plateau. Championing MOUNTAIN's mantra, Plateau excels at improving keyboard ergonomics to combat fatigue, muscle tension or strained ligaments during long hours of working or gaming. Available in two sizes, Plateau offers memory foam padding underneath a soft fabric surface, effectively alleviating pressure points and improving the user's well-being.
Surrounding the memory foam is a layer of cooling gel that helps with the dissipation of body heat. An anti-slip rubber base ensures a sturdy and reliable stand at all times, while the stitched edges round off the stylish minimalistic design. Its two size options, S and L, make Plateau a great fit for most 60-100% layout keyboards and even many notebooks, making it a truly universal solution to the ergonomic needs of gamers and content creators.
Surrounding the memory foam is a layer of cooling gel that helps with the dissipation of body heat. An anti-slip rubber base ensures a sturdy and reliable stand at all times, while the stitched edges round off the stylish minimalistic design. Its two size options, S and L, make Plateau a great fit for most 60-100% layout keyboards and even many notebooks, making it a truly universal solution to the ergonomic needs of gamers and content creators.
Leaked AMD Radeon RX 7700 & RX 7800 GPU Benchmarks Emerge
A set of intriguing 3DMark Time Spy benchmark results have been released by hardware leaker All_The_Watts!!—these are alleged to have been produced by prototype Radeon RX 7700 and Radeon RX 7800 graphics cards (rumored to be based on variants of the Navi 32 GPU). The current RDNA 3 lineup of mainstream GPUs is severely lacking in middle ground representation, but Team Red is reported to be working on a number of models to fill in the gap. We expect a number of leaks to emerge as we get closer to a rumored product reveal scheduled for late August (to coincide with Gamescon).
The recently released 3DMark Time Spy scores reveal that the alleged Radeon RX 7700 candidate scored 15,465 points, while the RX 7800 achieved 18,197 points—both running on an unspecified test system. The results (refer to the Tom's Hardware-produced chart placed below) are not going to generate a lot of excitement at this stage when compared to predecessors and some of the competition—evaluation samples are not really expected to be optimized to a great degree. We hope to see finalized products with decent drivers putting in a good appearance and performing better later on this year.
The recently released 3DMark Time Spy scores reveal that the alleged Radeon RX 7700 candidate scored 15,465 points, while the RX 7800 achieved 18,197 points—both running on an unspecified test system. The results (refer to the Tom's Hardware-produced chart placed below) are not going to generate a lot of excitement at this stage when compared to predecessors and some of the competition—evaluation samples are not really expected to be optimized to a great degree. We hope to see finalized products with decent drivers putting in a good appearance and performing better later on this year.
Plugable Launches UD-4VPD, a USB4 Dual 4K HDMI Docking Station
Vibrant and immersive visuals come standard with Plugable's USB4 Dual 4K HDMI Docking Station (UD-4VPD), one of the first docks on the market to support dual HDMI displays at up to 4K 120 Hz. But pristine display properties are only part of the proposition offered up by the UD-4VPD. In addition to the 11-port expansion, it supplies 100 W charging for your laptop and 20 W high-speed charging for your phone, tablet, or other USB-C peripherals.
Immersive Display Options
Leveraging the latest chipsets, the UD-4VPD delivers smooth and fluid images that are great for video editing, graphic rendering, gaming, and getting work done. The docking station can also support a single 8K display at 60 Hz to complement a wide range of professional and creative applications.
Immersive Display Options
Leveraging the latest chipsets, the UD-4VPD delivers smooth and fluid images that are great for video editing, graphic rendering, gaming, and getting work done. The docking station can also support a single 8K display at 60 Hz to complement a wide range of professional and creative applications.
Glorious Adds Polychroma RGB Set to Keycap Collection
LET THERE BE LIGHT! Introducing the brightest addition to the Glorious keycap collection: Polychroma RGB. These Cherry profile keycaps are made with translucent polycarbonate for evenly diffused lighting and a rich typing experience. Now available for just $39.99. Get front row seats to the light show!✨
POLYCHROMA RGB KEYCAPS
Illuminate your board with vibrant RGB goodness thanks to its translucent design.
POLYCHROMA RGB KEYCAPS
Illuminate your board with vibrant RGB goodness thanks to its translucent design.
Intel 14th Gen Core K-series Specs Leaked
Benchlife claims to have obtained full specifications of Intel's upcoming 14th Gen Core series—the site kicked things off by releasing details of a trio of Raptor Lake Refresh K-series SKUs earlier today. Insiders have seemingly divulged fairly comprehensive specs for i9-14900K, i7-14700K, and i5-14600K desktop CPUs. The expected lineup-wide implementation of greater clock speeds (+200 MHz) is present on these examples according to the leaked info—i9-14900K is reportedly capable of boosting up to 6.0 GHz (via Thermal Velocity tech), while its Core i7 and Core i5 siblings are said to be hitting 5.6 GHz and 5.3 GHz (respectively).
The Core i7-14700K seems to be the only rumored model to receive a core count increase—the listed 8P+12E configuration is decked out with more Gracemont efficiency cores when compared to the 13th Gen equivalent's makeup (i7-13700K, 8P+8E). This grants a slightly increased pool of Intel's "Smart Cache"—33 MB instead of the previous gen model's 30 MB. These 125 W TDP "K" SKUs are expected to arrive mid-October alongside "KF" models (lacking iGPUs). The 65-W non-K lineup could be presented at the next CES, and launched in January 2024.
The Core i7-14700K seems to be the only rumored model to receive a core count increase—the listed 8P+12E configuration is decked out with more Gracemont efficiency cores when compared to the 13th Gen equivalent's makeup (i7-13700K, 8P+8E). This grants a slightly increased pool of Intel's "Smart Cache"—33 MB instead of the previous gen model's 30 MB. These 125 W TDP "K" SKUs are expected to arrive mid-October alongside "KF" models (lacking iGPUs). The 65-W non-K lineup could be presented at the next CES, and launched in January 2024.
Razer Unveils New BlackWidow V4 and BlackWidow V4 X
Earlier this year we introduced the award-winning Razer BlackWidow V4 Pro. It set a new benchmark for our mission in crafting keyboards that truly enhance and immerse you in your gaming world. Today, we are expanding on that success, with the introduction of the Razer BlackWidow V4 and BlackWidow V4 X.
Designed with an emphasis on advanced control and immersive gaming, the BlackWidow V4 and V4 X feature proprietary Razer Mechanical Switches Gen-3. Our Green Clicky Switches are well-loved by Razer fans for their precise execution with a clicky, tactile feel, while our Yellow Mechanical Switches are favored for quick execution that's smooth and silent, ensuring an optimized gaming experience tailored to individual playstyles. Both keyboards come with a choice of either switch.
Designed with an emphasis on advanced control and immersive gaming, the BlackWidow V4 and V4 X feature proprietary Razer Mechanical Switches Gen-3. Our Green Clicky Switches are well-loved by Razer fans for their precise execution with a clicky, tactile feel, while our Yellow Mechanical Switches are favored for quick execution that's smooth and silent, ensuring an optimized gaming experience tailored to individual playstyles. Both keyboards come with a choice of either switch.
Gainward Unveils The New GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Panther
As the leading brand in the enthusiastic graphics market, Gainward proudly presents the brand-new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Panther video card, powered by NVIDIA's Ada Lovelace GPU architecture.
The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti lets you take on the latest games and apps with the ultra-efficient NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture. Shunning all the bells and whistles, the Gainward GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Panther OC 16 GB presents itself in a sleek black finish with simple line patterns that add a touch of dynamics in the darkness. The minimalist design allows it to seamlessly blend into any builds. Powered by NVIDIA DLSS 3, ultra-efficient Ada Lovelace arch, and full ray tracing.
The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti lets you take on the latest games and apps with the ultra-efficient NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture. Shunning all the bells and whistles, the Gainward GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Panther OC 16 GB presents itself in a sleek black finish with simple line patterns that add a touch of dynamics in the darkness. The minimalist design allows it to seamlessly blend into any builds. Powered by NVIDIA DLSS 3, ultra-efficient Ada Lovelace arch, and full ray tracing.
Palit Announces GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB JetStream Series
Palit Microsystems Ltd. as the leading graphics card manufacturer is excited to announce the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB version JetStream Series built with the ultra-efficient NVIDIA Ada Lovelace architecture. The GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is an enhanced iteration of its predecessor, the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. With its doubled memory capacity, the new 16 GB variant provides users with abundant power to tackle graphically demanding games. Furthermore, users can fully leverage game-changing technologies such as NVIDIA DLSS 3, NVIDIA Reflex, real-time ray tracing, and more.
Sedate, silent, yet powerful. The Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB JetStream fashioned in jet-black with geometric block patterns demonstrates a performance-focused design that remains the essences to achieve any gaming and creator application. Restrained from flashy lights, the JetStream reveals the philosophy of Less is More. Its stealthy approach intends to suit users who prefer function over form, or fancy to keep their pcs in dark presence.
Sedate, silent, yet powerful. The Palit GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB JetStream fashioned in jet-black with geometric block patterns demonstrates a performance-focused design that remains the essences to achieve any gaming and creator application. Restrained from flashy lights, the JetStream reveals the philosophy of Less is More. Its stealthy approach intends to suit users who prefer function over form, or fancy to keep their pcs in dark presence.
EK Launches New EK-Quantum Power² Kits for LGA1700 and AM5
EK, the leading manufacturer of premium liquid cooling equipment, is introducing the all-new EK-Quantum Power² Kits. These kits come equipped with full D-RGB support, feature an extensive range of award-winning Quantum Line products that share the same design language, and pack various supplementary accessories. The new Kits are aimed at enthusiasts who have powerful PC hardware and seek high-end cooling solutions without having to pick custom loop parts themselves.
With the inclusion of extra accessories, these Quantum Power² kits simplify the loop-building process, making it a hassle-free experience. Some added benefits include D-RGB lighting for customizable RGB effects, a dye pack to create a unique coolant color, two 90-degree rotary fittings, reservoir tube clamps for alternative mounting options, and much more.
With the inclusion of extra accessories, these Quantum Power² kits simplify the loop-building process, making it a hassle-free experience. Some added benefits include D-RGB lighting for customizable RGB effects, a dye pack to create a unique coolant color, two 90-degree rotary fittings, reservoir tube clamps for alternative mounting options, and much more.
Framework Laptop 16 Can be Pre-ordered Now
We're excited to share that Framework Laptop 16 pre-orders are now open, with configurations powered by the latest AMD Ryzen CPUs and AMD Radeon GPUs. This is truly a notebook like no other: thin and refined, while empowering you with desktop PC-level customization, repairability, and upgradability, including a fully reconfigurable input deck and modular discrete graphics. Prices start at $1399 USD for DIY Edition and $1699 USD for pre-built systems with Ryzen 7 7840HS, and adding an AMD Radeon RX 7700S Graphics Module brings starting prices to $1799 and $2099 USD.
Pre-orders that include a Graphics Module with an eligible AMD Radeon GPU will receive a free download code for one of the biggest games of the year: Starfield Premium Edition. Quantities are limited, and we'll be sending out the code prior to the game's early access launch.
Pre-orders that include a Graphics Module with an eligible AMD Radeon GPU will receive a free download code for one of the biggest games of the year: Starfield Premium Edition. Quantities are limited, and we'll be sending out the code prior to the game's early access launch.
Relic Hunter Legend Closed Beta Rolling Out on Thursday
Gearbox Publishing and Brazil-based developer Rogue Snail are inviting players to gear up for a limited time Closed Beta of Relic Hunters Legend, an upcoming top-down looter-shooter for PC and available via Steam. Players worldwide can sign up for access and be among the first to get a glimpse of this epic adventure starting Thursday, July 20 at 9:00 AM CST and ending Monday, July 24 at 9:00 AM CST.
Relic Hunters Legend is an in-development top-down looter-shooter featuring exciting, fast-paced gameplay, a variety of powerful equipment and weapons with tons of customizable options, and a diverse cast of rowdy Rebels with different skills and abilities that you can fine tune to match any playstyle! Watch the new gameplay trailer below. Find more details in the blog post here. Players can sign up for access to the Closed Beta on Steam here.
Relic Hunters Legend is an in-development top-down looter-shooter featuring exciting, fast-paced gameplay, a variety of powerful equipment and weapons with tons of customizable options, and a diverse cast of rowdy Rebels with different skills and abilities that you can fine tune to match any playstyle! Watch the new gameplay trailer below. Find more details in the blog post here. Players can sign up for access to the Closed Beta on Steam here.
Portal: Prelude RTX Available Today
Portal remains a timeless classic; in December we released Portal with RTX, a fully ray-traced reimagining of Valve's award winning game, which used the performance multiplication of NVIDIA DLSS 3 to power the most realistic path-traced lighting ever seen in a real-time game. Portal with RTX was created using NVIDIA RTX Remix, a free, upcoming modding platform built on NVIDIA Omniverse, which enables modders to quickly create and share #RTXON mods for classic games, each with enhanced materials, full ray tracing, NVIDIA DLSS 3, and NVIDIA Reflex.
Now, RTX Remix has been used to remaster Portal: Prelude, the highest rated Portal mod, the 2008 Portal ModDB winner, and #3 overall Player's Choice mod of 2008. Created by Nicolas "NykO18" Grevet and others, Portal: Prelude is an unofficial Portal prequel, set before the time of GLaDOS, featuring a new extremely challenging 8-10 hour campaign composed of 19 new test chambers, new advanced gameplay mechanics, a fully voiced story with NPCs, and a whole lot more. Portal: Prelude RTX is available today to download from Steam, for free!
Now, RTX Remix has been used to remaster Portal: Prelude, the highest rated Portal mod, the 2008 Portal ModDB winner, and #3 overall Player's Choice mod of 2008. Created by Nicolas "NykO18" Grevet and others, Portal: Prelude is an unofficial Portal prequel, set before the time of GLaDOS, featuring a new extremely challenging 8-10 hour campaign composed of 19 new test chambers, new advanced gameplay mechanics, a fully voiced story with NPCs, and a whole lot more. Portal: Prelude RTX is available today to download from Steam, for free!
NVIDIA RTX IO GPU-Accelerated Storage Technology Debuts This Month
Rapid loading and smooth navigation through endless open worlds has long been a goal of gamers and developers alike. Even with the incredible performance of NVMe SSDs, this goal has remained out of reach. Modern game engines have exceeded the capability of traditional storage APIs; a new generation of Input/Output (IO) architecture is needed.
Enter NVIDIA RTX IO, enabling fast GPU-based loading and game asset decompression, massively accelerating IO performance compared to hard drives and traditional storage APIs. NVIDIA RTX IO leverages GPU decompression for smaller data packages, enabling faster load times and lower CPU utilization, allowing developers to create a new generation of games with massive, highly detailed worlds. NVIDIA RTX IO makes its debut alongside the free Portal: Prelude RTX mod today, and will also feature in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, launching July 26th.
Enter NVIDIA RTX IO, enabling fast GPU-based loading and game asset decompression, massively accelerating IO performance compared to hard drives and traditional storage APIs. NVIDIA RTX IO leverages GPU decompression for smaller data packages, enabling faster load times and lower CPU utilization, allowing developers to create a new generation of games with massive, highly detailed worlds. NVIDIA RTX IO makes its debut alongside the free Portal: Prelude RTX mod today, and will also feature in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, launching July 26th.
Acer Spain Confirms €399 MSRP for Radeon RX 7600 Predator BiFrost Cards
The AMD Radeon RX 7600 8 GB GPU debuted in late May, with an official MSRP of $269 for North America, and €299 for European territories. The lower than expected entry price point for US customers came as a surprise to some media outlets—launch MSRP was expected to be closer to $299, but Team Red allegedly made some last minute adjustments. Board partners often charge more for their custom designs—with beefier heatsinks, extra cooling fans and RGB lighting zones adding to costs. Acer seems to be taking quite a bold approach with their Southern European pricing strategy for two new Radeon RX 7600 Predator BiFrost models.
Potential customers in the States seem to be getting a slightly better deal—the Predator BiFrost Radeon RX 7600 8 GB card is reported to retail for roughly $274 while its overclocked sibling could cost around $290. Acer Spain has stated in official press material that their Radeon RX 7600 Predator BiFrost series will start at €399 (~$448), and confirmed to local tech site El Chapuzas Informatico that this higher than expected figure was not a typo. Retailers in the region have had a difficult time shifting units, and implemented price cuts shortly post launch time—the current cheapest custom RX 7600 card on the market is going for €259. It will be interesting to see whether the rest of Europe will be treated to the €399 starter prices for Acer's debut foray into Radeon graphics technology.
Potential customers in the States seem to be getting a slightly better deal—the Predator BiFrost Radeon RX 7600 8 GB card is reported to retail for roughly $274 while its overclocked sibling could cost around $290. Acer Spain has stated in official press material that their Radeon RX 7600 Predator BiFrost series will start at €399 (~$448), and confirmed to local tech site El Chapuzas Informatico that this higher than expected figure was not a typo. Retailers in the region have had a difficult time shifting units, and implemented price cuts shortly post launch time—the current cheapest custom RX 7600 card on the market is going for €259. It will be interesting to see whether the rest of Europe will be treated to the €399 starter prices for Acer's debut foray into Radeon graphics technology.
Lenovo Expands Latest ThinkPad Mobile Workstations to Include AMD Ryzen PRO 7040 Series Mobile Processors
Today, Lenovo unveiled the newest additions to its ThinkPad mobile workstation portfolio. Powered by the latest AMD Ryzen PRO 7040 Series Mobile processors with optional NVIDIA RTX professional graphics, the new ThinkPad P16v, P16s Gen 2 and P14s Gen 4 complement the models announced in May 2023, offering customers a broad choice in mobile workstation PC solutions. ThinkPad P Series devices deliver breakthrough performance, premium design, and durability for demanding workflows across a variety of price points and include support for Windows 11 and several flavors of Linux. Bringing advanced and power-efficient processors with AMD PRO technologies and Ryzen AI on select models opens up an enhanced world of AI-driven features for advanced collaboration on ThinkPad mobile workstations.
"Our latest workstations are designed to help our customers make a difference and drive a positive long-lasting impact in their fields, whether it's research and design, engineering and finance, media and entertainment, healthcare and education, or anything else. We are committed to delivering human-centric innovations that empower our customers to unleash their potential with ThinkPad mobile workstations," said Rob Herman, VP and GM, Worldwide Workstation and Client AI Business at Lenovo.
"Our latest workstations are designed to help our customers make a difference and drive a positive long-lasting impact in their fields, whether it's research and design, engineering and finance, media and entertainment, healthcare and education, or anything else. We are committed to delivering human-centric innovations that empower our customers to unleash their potential with ThinkPad mobile workstations," said Rob Herman, VP and GM, Worldwide Workstation and Client AI Business at Lenovo.
GameSir Launches its G7 SE Wired Controller: Licensed Xbox Controller with Hall Effect Sticks
GameSir, a leading provider of innovative, high quality gaming peripherals, today launches its G7 SE Controller, a licensed Xbox controller featuring Hall Effect sticks. This groundbreaking controller offers gamers unparalleled precision and customization options, delivering an enhanced gaming experience across multiple platforms. The GameSir G7 SE Controller is now available for purchase for £49.99/$44.99/€59.99 from Amazon UK, Amazon US, Amazon Europe stores and GameSir official website.
The Anti-drift Hall Effect sticks use non-contact magnetic sensors, ensuring the sticks are extremely durable and reliable, to prevent wearing down prematurely and maintain pinpoint control for an extended time, particularly useful in FPS games. The precision-tuned triggers enable gamers to experience ultra-responsive, smooth, and accurate controls, enhancing gameplay and providing a competitive edge.
The Anti-drift Hall Effect sticks use non-contact magnetic sensors, ensuring the sticks are extremely durable and reliable, to prevent wearing down prematurely and maintain pinpoint control for an extended time, particularly useful in FPS games. The precision-tuned triggers enable gamers to experience ultra-responsive, smooth, and accurate controls, enhancing gameplay and providing a competitive edge.
Windows 11 23H2 Update Promises Reduced Stuttering in Games
The latest update for Windows 11 appears to bring good news for gamers, as Microsoft is said to have fixed an issue related to stuttering in games that's related to certain gaming mice. The mice in question are mice that support a "high gaming report rate" which is pretty much all higher-end gaming mice today, regardless of manufacturer. What's worse, we're not talking 8000 Hz mice here, but a polling rate of 1000 Hz was enough to trigger the stuttering in some games.
It's unclear if this affected all games, or only some games, but according to Windows Latest, Microsoft has optimised the Windows input stack to be able to handle high report rate mice which is said to have been done by improving "the performance by throttling and coalescing background raw mouse listeners and capping their message rate." As such, the 23H2 update for Windows 11 will become something of a must install for anyone that's gaming on Windows 11, at least if you haven't lowered the polling rate on your mouse.
It's unclear if this affected all games, or only some games, but according to Windows Latest, Microsoft has optimised the Windows input stack to be able to handle high report rate mice which is said to have been done by improving "the performance by throttling and coalescing background raw mouse listeners and capping their message rate." As such, the 23H2 update for Windows 11 will become something of a must install for anyone that's gaming on Windows 11, at least if you haven't lowered the polling rate on your mouse.
Xbox Game Pass Adding Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem, Venba, The Wandering Village & More Titles
There are many opportunities to brush up on our real-life skills through gaming this month, including puzzle solving, cooking, building a settlement on the back of a giant wandering creature to survive a post-apocalyptic world, and even photography! Let's get to the games.
Available Today:
Techtonica (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC) - Available on day one with Game Pass: Dig into the sub-surface, bioluminescent world of a rogue alien planet as you explore and construct sprawling factories in Techtonica. Work alone or in co-op to master automation, gather resources, research new technologies, mold the destructible terrain, establish a base of operations, and uncover long-forgotten secrets.
Available Today:
Techtonica (Game Preview) (Cloud, Console, and PC) - Available on day one with Game Pass: Dig into the sub-surface, bioluminescent world of a rogue alien planet as you explore and construct sprawling factories in Techtonica. Work alone or in co-op to master automation, gather resources, research new technologies, mold the destructible terrain, establish a base of operations, and uncover long-forgotten secrets.
ASUSTOR Announces All-New Gaming Inspired AS54 NAS Series
The AS5402T and AS5404T are here! The all-new gaming-inspired AS54 series bring numerous improvements to deliver a phenomenal combination of performance and price. The AS54 series is powered by Intel's latest 10 nm Celeron N5105 Quad-Core that turbos up to 2.9 GHz. The N5105 represents a 31% performance uplift over the previous generation of Celeron CPUs while the included 4 GB DDR4-2933 of RAM that brings up to 20% more performance than DDR4-2400.
New to the AS54 are the addition of four M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs. These slots use PCIe 3.0 to allow for lightning-fast read and write speeds. Installed M.2 SSDs can be used for system storage, caching or both, and significantly enhances access speed for data on different types of volumes. This feature provides the AS54 series with the dual benefits of maximum speed and maximum capacity.
New to the AS54 are the addition of four M.2 slots for NVMe SSDs. These slots use PCIe 3.0 to allow for lightning-fast read and write speeds. Installed M.2 SSDs can be used for system storage, caching or both, and significantly enhances access speed for data on different types of volumes. This feature provides the AS54 series with the dual benefits of maximum speed and maximum capacity.
AMD Reportedly Prepping Special Radeon RX 7900 GRE Model for Chinese Market
A reference to an unreleased Radeon RX 7900 GRE GPU specced with 16 GB of VRAM appeared on distributed computing platforms last month. The unusual GRE acronym was a little bit puzzling, but ITHome has recently discovered that this could be the successor to an older GME (Golden Mouse Edition) card. AMD's Radeon RX 590 GME design was released back in March of 2020 to celebrate the year of the Rat or Mouse.
The Chinese zodiac sign for 2023 is the rabbit, hence AMD preparing a Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE) for that territory. ITHome proposes that this Radeon RX 7900 non-XT model could field a cut-down version of Team Red's Navi 31 GPU—with its Compute Unit count possibly reduced slightly below the standard 84 CUs, while an allocation of 16 GB of GDDR6 video memory gets coupled to a 256-bit interface (down from the XT's 20 GB and 320-bit). The short report does not provide any release date information or detailed specifications/features, but we can assume that the GRE is highly likely to arrive within the year it is intended to commemorate.
The Chinese zodiac sign for 2023 is the rabbit, hence AMD preparing a Golden Rabbit Edition (GRE) for that territory. ITHome proposes that this Radeon RX 7900 non-XT model could field a cut-down version of Team Red's Navi 31 GPU—with its Compute Unit count possibly reduced slightly below the standard 84 CUs, while an allocation of 16 GB of GDDR6 video memory gets coupled to a 256-bit interface (down from the XT's 20 GB and 320-bit). The short report does not provide any release date information or detailed specifications/features, but we can assume that the GRE is highly likely to arrive within the year it is intended to commemorate.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PC Version to Feature Ray-Traced Ambient Occlusion
Next week, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart is launching on PC! Many of you have asked for details about the technologies used and system requirements. Today we are answering those questions, and on top of that, we have some exciting new feature announcements. To ensure a smooth dimension-hopping experience, our team implemented DirectStorage 1.2 in Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, including GPU decompression.
Richard van der Laan, Senior Lead Programmer at Nixxes Software, explains: "To enable quick loading and instant transition between dimensions, the game needs to be able to load assets quickly. DirectStorage ensures quick loading times, and GPU decompression is used at high graphics settings to stream assets in the background while playing. Traditionally, this decompression is handled by the CPU, but at a certain point, there is an advantage to letting the GPU handle this, as this enables a higher bandwidth for streaming assets from storage to the graphics card. We use this to quickly load high-quality textures and environments with a high level of detail."
Richard van der Laan, Senior Lead Programmer at Nixxes Software, explains: "To enable quick loading and instant transition between dimensions, the game needs to be able to load assets quickly. DirectStorage ensures quick loading times, and GPU decompression is used at high graphics settings to stream assets in the background while playing. Traditionally, this decompression is handled by the CPU, but at a certain point, there is an advantage to letting the GPU handle this, as this enables a higher bandwidth for streaming assets from storage to the graphics card. We use this to quickly load high-quality textures and environments with a high level of detail."
NVIDIA GeForce 536.67 WHQL Drivers Released
NVIDIA today released the GeForce 536.67 Game Ready drivers. The drivers introduce support for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB graphics card that's being launched today. The drivers also add optimization for "Portal: Prelude RTX" Among the couple of issues fixed with this release are a bug with GeForce Experience Freestyle filters that were causing games to crash; and increased DPC latency observed in Latencymon for RTX 30-series "Ampere" GPUs. Grab the drivers from the link below.
DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 536.67 WHQL
DOWNLOAD: NVIDIA GeForce 536.67 WHQL
Infineon Welcomes Introduction of a Voluntary U.S. IoT Security Label
Today, U.S. Deputy National Security Advisor Anne Neuberger, Chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Jessica Rosenworcel, and Laurie Locascio, Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) unveiled the U.S. national IoT security label at the White House.
Infineon Technologies AG supports this action to address the growing need for IoT security. The new label supports the IoT security requirements under NISTIR 8425, which resulted from an Executive Order to improve the nation's cybersecurity. This label will recognize products that meet these requirements by permitting them to display a U.S. government label and be listed in a registry indicating that these products meet U.S. cybersecurity standards.
Infineon Technologies AG supports this action to address the growing need for IoT security. The new label supports the IoT security requirements under NISTIR 8425, which resulted from an Executive Order to improve the nation's cybersecurity. This label will recognize products that meet these requirements by permitting them to display a U.S. government label and be listed in a registry indicating that these products meet U.S. cybersecurity standards.
Creative Announces the Outlier Free+ and Outlier Free Pro+
Creative Technology today announced the release of the Creative Outlier Free Pro+ and Creative Outlier Free+, the latest bone conduction headphones to join the well-loved Outlier series. Building on the foundation of its predecessors, these latest headphones bring an elevated open-ear listening experience with better precision and optimal sound conduction efficiency through the innovative adjustable transducers that adapt to the unique contours of each individual's ears. With the ability to customize the fit, users can now enjoy unrivaled comfort and stability, allowing them to focus on their music or calls without any distractions. Along with an added burst of vibrant color options, these latest Plus versions add a playful and colorful twist to the user's everyday life.
For Creative Outlier Free+, users can choose between the classic yet stylish dark slate grey and matte black combination or make a striking statement with the lively dark slate grey and lime green fusion. The Creative Outlier Free Pro+, on the other hand, is available in midnight blue and matte black or midnight blue and fiery orange combinations. With these additional color options, users can now match their headphones to their personal style.
For Creative Outlier Free+, users can choose between the classic yet stylish dark slate grey and matte black combination or make a striking statement with the lively dark slate grey and lime green fusion. The Creative Outlier Free Pro+, on the other hand, is available in midnight blue and matte black or midnight blue and fiery orange combinations. With these additional color options, users can now match their headphones to their personal style.
CORSAIR Confirms Drop's Audio Assets Acquired too, Future Unclear
You may have noticed CORSAIR's press release yesterday concerning its acquisition of Drop, a popular enthusiast peripherals website that made its name for running group buys before focusing on keyboards. DIY keyboard components, and audio products. The press release was careful in talking primarily about the keyboard side of things and we noticed an omission of anything non-keyboard related, thus necessitating a follow-up from CORSAIR on behalf of audiophiles who are fans of highly popular Drop products such as the Drop x Sennheiser HD 6XX, its gaming headsets with EPOS, multiple other headphone collaborations with manufacturers including Dan Clark Audio, HIFIMAN, Focal, as well as various amplifiers/DACs/streamers. There was speculation about whether CORSAIR had only purchased the keyboard assets and that the audio aspects might not continue, but CORSAIR was quick to confirm otherwise.
In a quote provided to TechPowerUp, CORSAIR mentioned the following:
In a quote provided to TechPowerUp, CORSAIR mentioned the following:
I can confirm that CORSAIR has acquired the Drop.com website, brand, business, community, and all its staff. Drop.com will continue to operate via its own website. While we expect to explore wider opportunities for selling Drop products via the Corsair global sales channel, the drop.com website will remain distinct from Corsair, in a similar fashion to SCUF, Elgato and Origin PC. We'll be evaluating the non-keyboard aspects of the business as time goes on but will be making no changes immediately.
Phison Launches Proprietary AI Service Solutions Expanding NAND Storages in the AI Applications
Phison Electronics, a global leader in NAND controllers and storage solutions, announced today the expansion of its IMAGIN+ service to include AI computational models and AI services solutions. Phison's aiDAPTIV+ utilizes Phison's innovative integration of SSDs into the AI computing framework and expands NAND storage solutions in the AI application market. Phison has been a global leader deeply engaged in NAND controller innovations for more than 23 years. In recent years, the company has developed and integrated AI and machine learning technologies into NAND controllers and algorithms in order to enhance the computational performance and reliability of the company's NAND storage solutions.
Additionally, Phison has established a data science team, developed and deployed relevant AI technologies, and created a world-class validation laboratory. These efforts have accelerated the adoption of Phison's storage solutions in various applications, including PCs, mobile phones, automobiles, gaming platforms, enterprise data center & edge applications, supply chain logistics, and more. With the recent rise of large-scale generative AI models such as ChatGPT, the possibilities for artificial intelligence to assist both businesses and individuals in the future are significant. The rapid growth of AI models has also led to a significant increase in the hardware infrastructure cost associated with providing AI services.
Additionally, Phison has established a data science team, developed and deployed relevant AI technologies, and created a world-class validation laboratory. These efforts have accelerated the adoption of Phison's storage solutions in various applications, including PCs, mobile phones, automobiles, gaming platforms, enterprise data center & edge applications, supply chain logistics, and more. With the recent rise of large-scale generative AI models such as ChatGPT, the possibilities for artificial intelligence to assist both businesses and individuals in the future are significant. The rapid growth of AI models has also led to a significant increase in the hardware infrastructure cost associated with providing AI services.
Logitech Acquires Loupedeck
Logitech International today announced that it has acquired Loupedeck, a Helsinki-based creator of custom consoles and software designed to make the creative process faster and more intuitive for streamers, creators and gamers. "Empowering streamers, creators and gamers is a joint passion of Loupedeck and Logitech. Together we are focused on removing all barriers so they can create, edit and stream without limits," said Ujesh Desai, general manager of Logitech G. "This acquisition augments Logitech's product portfolio today and accelerates our software ambitions of enabling keyboards, mice and more to become smarter and contextually aware, creating a better experience for audiences across Logitech."
The addition of Loupedeck further enhances Logitech's ability to deliver a premium experience and content creation applications for all types of creators, including gamers, livestreamers and other creative professionals. Logitech and Loupedeck will be in the position to provide a more seamless experience for creators from onboarding to everyday use with presets available out of the box and tighter coupling between the Loupedeck devices and the Streamlabs popular suite of applications and services.
The addition of Loupedeck further enhances Logitech's ability to deliver a premium experience and content creation applications for all types of creators, including gamers, livestreamers and other creative professionals. Logitech and Loupedeck will be in the position to provide a more seamless experience for creators from onboarding to everyday use with presets available out of the box and tighter coupling between the Loupedeck devices and the Streamlabs popular suite of applications and services.
ThundeRobot Packs a 13th Gen Core Processor and RTX 4060 in 1.7 Liter Chassis
ThundeRobot, a major player in China's laptop market, is set to release a new PC console, the MIX, which shares striking similarities with Alienware's bygone Steam Machine. The console, equipped with Intel's 13th Gen Core CPU and Nvidia's RTX 4060 GPU, is set to debut on July 21st, predominantly targeting the Chinese market. Though not as familiar a brand outside Asia, ThundeRobot enjoys a significant market share in the region as the third-largest supplier of consumer notebooks and gaming peripherals. Its product catalog rivals brands like Asus and Razer, with offerings spanning custom-branded gaming notebooks to gaming monitors, keyboards, mice, and controllers.
The upcoming MIX console boasts a compact size, nearly 60% smaller than an Xbox Series S, at only 1.7 liters. Despite the uncertainty around whether the console's RTX 4060 GPU is a mobile or desktop variant, ThundeRobot brags that it would feature one or more of Intel's new 13th Gen Raptor Lake HX-series mobile CPUs. The console's matte black finish and triangular front-right indentation echo the design of Alienware's Steam Machine, suggesting that ThundeRobot may have drawn some inspiration from the Alienware console PC. Priced at around 6000 Yuan, approximately $830, the compact yet potent MIX console is expected to launch soon in China, with no current plans for release in the United States.
The upcoming MIX console boasts a compact size, nearly 60% smaller than an Xbox Series S, at only 1.7 liters. Despite the uncertainty around whether the console's RTX 4060 GPU is a mobile or desktop variant, ThundeRobot brags that it would feature one or more of Intel's new 13th Gen Raptor Lake HX-series mobile CPUs. The console's matte black finish and triangular front-right indentation echo the design of Alienware's Steam Machine, suggesting that ThundeRobot may have drawn some inspiration from the Alienware console PC. Priced at around 6000 Yuan, approximately $830, the compact yet potent MIX console is expected to launch soon in China, with no current plans for release in the United States.
Intel's Upcoming LGA-1851 Socket Detailed
Igor Wallossek over at Igor's Lab has posted a range of technical specs for Intel's upcoming LGA-1851 socket and it covers everything from the pin-out to the mechanical characteristics of the new socket. The new socket is intended for Intel's 15th gen Arrow Lake S CPU. Raptor Lake refresh, which will launch as Intel's 14th gen—and last generation—Core i desktop processor, still uses LGA-1700. Although the new socket has additional pins, the physical size remains the same as the LGA-1700 sockets, so it's expected that current coolers will remain compatible with the LGA-1851 socket. However, the mounting pressure has almost doubled from 489.5 N to 923 N, suggesting that a different mounting kit might be needed.
What is more interesting with regards to the new socket is that Igor confirms that Intel will be adding four PCIe 5.0 lanes for a CPU connected NVMe SSD, but apparently Intel will also keep the current four PCIe 4.0 lanes for a second CPU connected NVMe SSD, not quite matching AMD's AM5 platform. It's likely that we'll see a similar segmentation like the one AMD has done, so only Z-series chipset motherboards will be able to take advantage of the PCIe 5.0 NVMe lanes, but it's possible some other chipset SKUs from Intel will enable PCIe 5.0 storage support as well.
What is more interesting with regards to the new socket is that Igor confirms that Intel will be adding four PCIe 5.0 lanes for a CPU connected NVMe SSD, but apparently Intel will also keep the current four PCIe 4.0 lanes for a second CPU connected NVMe SSD, not quite matching AMD's AM5 platform. It's likely that we'll see a similar segmentation like the one AMD has done, so only Z-series chipset motherboards will be able to take advantage of the PCIe 5.0 NVMe lanes, but it's possible some other chipset SKUs from Intel will enable PCIe 5.0 storage support as well.
Monday, July 17th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cases
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Game Controllers
Graphics Cards
Motherboards
Notebooks
Team Group T-Force DELTAα RGB DDR5-6000 CL38 (AMD) 2x 16 GB Review
Team Group turns the T-Force Delta series on its head with these new DELTAα RGB kits. In today's review, we will be using the new EXPO 6000 MT/s profile that's optimized for Zen 4 using modest primary timings of 38-38-38-78. Targeting gamers and PC enthusiasts alike. Follow along as we benchmark, compare, and overclock to see what all the fuss is about!
FinalWire Releases AIDA64 v6.90
FinalWire Ltd. today announced the immediate availability of AIDA64 Extreme 6.90 software, a streamlined diagnostic and benchmarking tool for home users; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Engineer 6.90 software, a professional diagnostic and benchmarking solution for corporate IT technicians and engineers; the immediate availability of AIDA64 Business 6.90 software, an essential network management solution for small and medium scale enterprises; and the immediate availability of AIDA64 Network Audit 6.90 software, a dedicated network audit toolset to collect and manage corporate network inventories. The new AIDA64 update supports the latest AMD and Intel CPU platforms as well as the new graphics and GPGPU computing technologies by AMD, Intel and nVIDIA.
DOWNLOAD: FinalWire AIDA64 Extreme v6.90
DOWNLOAD: FinalWire AIDA64 Extreme v6.90
Remnant 2's Hunter Archetype Showcased
Always a classic, the Hunter Archetype focuses on long-range, precision-based combat, expert shots and marking threats. They easily identify and eliminate them... often before the battle even begins. Their perks are designed around making every hit count, and capitalizing on each opportunity, no matter how small the window. Unimaginable Worlds. Unrelenting Odds. Remnant 2 is releasing for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on July 25, 2023! Pre-order here.
Remnant 2 is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity's extinction.
Remnant 2 is the sequel to the best-selling game Remnant: From the Ashes that pits survivors of humanity against new deadly creatures and god-like bosses across terrifying worlds. Play solo or co-op with two other friends to explore the depths of the unknown to stop an evil from destroying reality itself. To succeed, players will need to rely on their own skills and those of their team to overcome the toughest challenges and to stave off humanity's extinction.
AMD Ryzen 5 7600X Going for $200 at Best Buy
Best Buy has slashed $100 off of the AMD Ryzen 5 7600X's normal asking price—North American customers can obtain these 6-core/12-thread processors for $199.90 a piece. Amazon US price matching the consumer electronics store's offer earlier today, but their stocks were depleted at some point this afternoon. AMD's Ryzen 5 7600 (non-X) processor is still stuck at MSRP ($229), so its X-model sibling presents a better deal at its current lower price. Buyers will have to splash out extra on a CPU cooling solution, since Team Red does not include a Wraith Stealth or Prism air cooler as standard with the Ryzen 5 7600X's retail package. AMD + Bethesda's Starfield Game Bundle partnership campaign kicked off last week, and all of the AM5 desktop Ryzen 7000-series models qualify for the active promotion. This plays a part in boosting customer interest, but a nice discount also goes a long way—hence the quick run on Amazon's supplies of the Ryzen 5 7600X.
GEEKOM MiniPCs Presented as Alternatives to NUC Systems
Intel initiated its Next Unit Computing (NUC) Line of mini PCs in 2012, with a vision of making PC systems that are small enough to fit into the palm of your hand, yet powerful enough to handle day-to-day desktop computing. Although several NUC models are still best-sellers in the market, Intel chose to step away from the business.
As disappointing as Intel's exit from the market is, it's comforting to know that GEEKOM, a multinational consumer electronics company, promises to keep Intel's vision of compact computing alive. In fact, GEEKOM's Mini IT series mini PCs have long been considered as the best alternatives to the Intel NUC Pros.
As disappointing as Intel's exit from the market is, it's comforting to know that GEEKOM, a multinational consumer electronics company, promises to keep Intel's vision of compact computing alive. In fact, GEEKOM's Mini IT series mini PCs have long been considered as the best alternatives to the Intel NUC Pros.
Microsoft and Sony Co-Sign Agreement to Keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for a Decade
Microsoft and Xbox leaders have declared that the Call of Duty series will remain on PlayStation systems for the next ten years, following a possible successful acquisition of the (current owners of the IP) Activision Blizzard video game holding company. Phil Spencer, the outspoken head of Xbox stated via Twitter: "We are pleased to announce that Microsoft and PlayStation have signed a binding agreement to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation following the acquisition of Activision Blizzard. We look forward to a future where players globally have more choice to play their favorite games."
His superior, Brad Smith (vice chair and president of Microsoft) added: "From Day One of this acquisition, we've been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal's approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before." The silence on Sony/PlayStation's part is very telling, they are perhaps resigned to the merger becoming concrete this summer. Fans of the series (who favor Sony systems) will be relieved to know that PlayStation 5 and its possible successor are covered for another decade—it will be interesting to see how Sony's planned cloud gaming service will operate with the CoD franchise in mind. Microsoft has been presenting ten-year deals to a variety of rivals over the past year, with Sony and Nintendo courted alongside a number of different organizations. NVIDIA and Nintendo agreed on 10-year partnerships with Xbox earlier this year.
His superior, Brad Smith (vice chair and president of Microsoft) added: "From Day One of this acquisition, we've been committed to addressing the concerns of regulators, platform and game developers, and consumers. Even after we cross the finish line for this deal's approval, we will remain focused on ensuring that Call of Duty remains available on more platforms and for more consumers than ever before." The silence on Sony/PlayStation's part is very telling, they are perhaps resigned to the merger becoming concrete this summer. Fans of the series (who favor Sony systems) will be relieved to know that PlayStation 5 and its possible successor are covered for another decade—it will be interesting to see how Sony's planned cloud gaming service will operate with the CoD franchise in mind. Microsoft has been presenting ten-year deals to a variety of rivals over the past year, with Sony and Nintendo courted alongside a number of different organizations. NVIDIA and Nintendo agreed on 10-year partnerships with Xbox earlier this year.
AMD Ryzen 7040 Series Phoenix APUs Surprisingly Performant with AVX-512 Workloads
Intel decided to drop the relatively new AVX-512 instruction set for laptop/mobile platforms when it was discovered that it would not work in conjunction with their E-core designs. Alder Lake was the last generation to (semi) support these sets thanks to P-cores agreeing to play nice, albeit with the efficiency side of proceedings disabled (via BIOS settings). Intel chose to fuse off AVX-512 support in production circa early 2022, with AMD picking up the slack soon after and working on the integration of AVX-512 into Zen 4 CPU architecture. The Ryzen 7040 series is the only current generation mobile platform that offers AVX-512 support. Phoronix decided to benchmark a Ryzen 7 7840U against older Intel i7-1165G7 (Tiger Lake) and i7-1065G7 (Ice Lake) SoCs in AVX-512-based workloads.
Team Red's debut foray into AVX-512 was surprisingly performant according to Phoronix's test results—the Ryzen 7 7840U did very well for itself. It outperformed the 1165G7 by 46%, and the older 1065G7 by an impressive 63%. The Ryzen 7 APU was found to attain the highest performance gain with AVX-512 enabled—a 54% performance margin over operating with AVX-512 disabled. In comparison Phoronix found that: "the i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake impact came in at 34% with these AVX-512-heavy benchmarks or 35% with the i7-1065G7 Ice Lake SoC for that generation where AVX-512 on Intel laptops became common."
Team Red's debut foray into AVX-512 was surprisingly performant according to Phoronix's test results—the Ryzen 7 7840U did very well for itself. It outperformed the 1165G7 by 46%, and the older 1065G7 by an impressive 63%. The Ryzen 7 APU was found to attain the highest performance gain with AVX-512 enabled—a 54% performance margin over operating with AVX-512 disabled. In comparison Phoronix found that: "the i7-1165G7 Tiger Lake impact came in at 34% with these AVX-512-heavy benchmarks or 35% with the i7-1065G7 Ice Lake SoC for that generation where AVX-512 on Intel laptops became common."
Sparkle Embracing Arc A380 & A310 GPUs with Low-Profile GENIE Series
Sparkle presented a pair of custom Intel Arc A380 and A310 cards[/url] at last month's Computex expo—reaffirming its commitment to presenting the full lineup of Arc GPUs. It is now reported that these "Industrial Low-Profile" cooled units will form the company's "GENIE" series. Sparkle's triple-fan TITAN series is comprised of Arc A770 and A750 GPUs, while the dual-fan ORC is formed solely of an A750. ELF is a single fan design A380 card.
The aforementioned GENIE models are both one slot designs with single fans and a low profile shrouds that only covers part of the PCB (comparable to the reference card). The A380 unit offers 8 Xe-Cores with 6 GB GDDR6 96-bit memory, while the lesser A310 gets 6 Xe-Cores and 4 GB of GDDR6 64-bit memory. The leaked presentation slide does not show any release date information, but reasonably final looking hardware making an appearance at Computex 2023 suggests that the GENIE series is not too far off from reaching retail.
The aforementioned GENIE models are both one slot designs with single fans and a low profile shrouds that only covers part of the PCB (comparable to the reference card). The A380 unit offers 8 Xe-Cores with 6 GB GDDR6 96-bit memory, while the lesser A310 gets 6 Xe-Cores and 4 GB of GDDR6 64-bit memory. The leaked presentation slide does not show any release date information, but reasonably final looking hardware making an appearance at Computex 2023 suggests that the GENIE series is not too far off from reaching retail.
AMD Ryzen 8000 "Strix Point" APUs Referenced in GPU LLVM Backend
As reported by Phoronix—references to GFX1150 & GFX1151 targets have been added to the AMDGPU LLVM backend/compiler, which seems to indicate that these are upcoming AMD APU models. AMD engineers have made to reference to GFX1150 as "Strix1" (full codename: Strix Point) in the past according to several sites, but the recent leak has GFX1151 mentioned for the first time.
Previous reports suggest that Team Red could be developing two Strix/Zen 5/RDNA 3.5 APUs with AI engine enhancements for laptops—a discovery of two separate GFX targets suggests that we are likely looking at different 12-core and 16-core models. The former is said to be a monolithic design with a TDP going up to 54 W. The 16-core "Strix Halo" (also known as "Starlak") is a very different type of product with leaks suggesting that it will have a maximum TDP of 120 W, and be based on a chiplet design. Zen 5 processor products are expected to arrive in the second half of 2024—with Granite Ridge filling in the desktop platform segment.
Previous reports suggest that Team Red could be developing two Strix/Zen 5/RDNA 3.5 APUs with AI engine enhancements for laptops—a discovery of two separate GFX targets suggests that we are likely looking at different 12-core and 16-core models. The former is said to be a monolithic design with a TDP going up to 54 W. The 16-core "Strix Halo" (also known as "Starlak") is a very different type of product with leaks suggesting that it will have a maximum TDP of 120 W, and be based on a chiplet design. Zen 5 processor products are expected to arrive in the second half of 2024—with Granite Ridge filling in the desktop platform segment.
JLab Unveils its Epic Wireless Keyboard with Multi-device Connectivity, Media Knob, and Soft Touch Keys
JLab, a leading innovator in audio and technology, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated launch of its Epic Wireless Keyboard in the United Kingdom. Combining exceptional performance with an array of features, this keyboard is set to revolutionize the way users work, create, and play. The Epic Wireless Keyboard is now available for purchase at Amazon and on JLab's official website for £69.99.
The Epic Wireless Keyboard is designed to seamlessly connect with devices through Bluetooth or a USB wireless dongle, providing users with flexibility and convenience. With the ability to switch between three saved devices, including laptops, phones, tablets, and more, users can effortlessly transition between these, eliminating the need for multiple keyboards and saving time.
The Epic Wireless Keyboard is designed to seamlessly connect with devices through Bluetooth or a USB wireless dongle, providing users with flexibility and convenience. With the ability to switch between three saved devices, including laptops, phones, tablets, and more, users can effortlessly transition between these, eliminating the need for multiple keyboards and saving time.
New EU Rule: Gaming Handhelds Required to Have Replaceable Batteries by 2027
Last week the European Union agreed on the provisional adoption of a new regulation that "strengthens sustainability rules for batteries and waste batteries. The regulation will regulate the entire life cycle of batteries - from production to reuse and recycling - and ensure that they are safe, sustainable and competitive." More specific terms include: "by 2027 portable batteries incorporated into appliances should be removable and replaceable by the end-user, leaving sufficient time for operators to adapt the design of their products to this requirement. This is an important provision for consumers." Although gaming handhelds are not referred to in specifics within the European Council's (very general) press material, Overkill (a site specializing in Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch and adjacent platforms) sought to investigate this matter further.
The publication was able to get in direct contact with an unnamed source at the European Union, who confirmed that: "the batteries of gaming handhelds are covered by the batteries and waste batteries regulation." The article proposes that future battery requirements will likely not affect current generation products—a Steam Deck successor and Nintendo's hypothetical Switch 2 are perhaps the prime candidates for internal design revisions according to EU legislation set for 2027. Overkill anticipates that portable gaming device manufacturers are going to question some of the new rules—similar to how smartphone makers have appealed against certain decisions. A compromise could be agreed upon, with slightly refashioned handhelds not conforming 100% to the new standards.
The publication was able to get in direct contact with an unnamed source at the European Union, who confirmed that: "the batteries of gaming handhelds are covered by the batteries and waste batteries regulation." The article proposes that future battery requirements will likely not affect current generation products—a Steam Deck successor and Nintendo's hypothetical Switch 2 are perhaps the prime candidates for internal design revisions according to EU legislation set for 2027. Overkill anticipates that portable gaming device manufacturers are going to question some of the new rules—similar to how smartphone makers have appealed against certain decisions. A compromise could be agreed upon, with slightly refashioned handhelds not conforming 100% to the new standards.
Xbox Introduces Game Pass Core - Set to Replace Games with Gold in September
Today, we're continuing our commitment to give players more choice and value by introducing Xbox Game Pass Core, launching on September 14. Game Pass Core is the evolution of Xbox Live Gold. Game Pass Core will give players access to our advanced multiplayer network, a select collection of over 25 games to play with friends around the world, and exclusive member deals, all for $9.99 USD per month or $59.99 USD per year.
For over twenty years, Xbox players have been connecting via Xbox Live to compete, cooperate, and experience the world's biggest online multiplayer games. In 2017, we introduced Xbox Game Pass which provided a curated library of games. Game Pass Core brings online play together with Game Pass in a new offering for gamers around the world.
For over twenty years, Xbox players have been connecting via Xbox Live to compete, cooperate, and experience the world's biggest online multiplayer games. In 2017, we introduced Xbox Game Pass which provided a curated library of games. Game Pass Core brings online play together with Game Pass in a new offering for gamers around the world.
NVIDIA Espouses Generative AI for Improved Productivity Across Industries
A watershed moment on Nov. 22, 2022, was mostly virtual, yet it shook the foundations of nearly every industry on the planet. On that day, OpenAI released ChatGPT, the most advanced artificial intelligence chatbot ever developed. This set off demand for generative AI applications that help businesses become more efficient, from providing consumers with answers to their questions to accelerating the work of researchers as they seek scientific breakthroughs, and much, much more.
Businesses that previously dabbled in AI are now rushing to adopt and deploy the latest applications. Generative AI—the ability of algorithms to create new text, images, sounds, animations, 3D models and even computer code—is moving at warp speed, transforming the way people work and play. By employing large language models (LLMs) to handle queries, the technology can dramatically reduce the time people devote to manual tasks like searching for and compiling information.
Businesses that previously dabbled in AI are now rushing to adopt and deploy the latest applications. Generative AI—the ability of algorithms to create new text, images, sounds, animations, 3D models and even computer code—is moving at warp speed, transforming the way people work and play. By employing large language models (LLMs) to handle queries, the technology can dramatically reduce the time people devote to manual tasks like searching for and compiling information.
HyperX Announces Exclusive Collaboration with Team Liquid for Custom "Blue" Mascot Keycap
HyperX, the gaming peripherals team at HP Inc. and brand leader in gaming and esports, today announced the HyperX x Liquid - Blue Limited Edition Keycap. The new keycap features a special design inspired by Team Liquid's beloved mascot, Blue (known for being mostly sweet, but sometimes mischievous). Uniquely crafted and developed with next-generation color 3D printing technology, the new keycap adds an extra element of personalization to keyboards and enables Team Liquid fans to showcase their support.
"Blue is the physical manifestation of the Team Liquid brand. It's been inspiring to see all the cool and creative ways that they've been brought to life by our staff, our fans, and now our partners. This collaboration with one of our longest standing partners, HyperX, will bring Blue's passion for gaming to a wider audience," said Steve Arhancet, Co-CEO of Team Liquid. "I am stoked to get my hands on the limited-edition keycap and add it to my collection." Specifically developed for those who are looking to add a bit of fun flair to their gaming setup, Team Liquid was involved in the ideation and design process of the HyperX x Liquid - Blue Limited Edition Keycap, ensuring that it truly represents the complete essence of the team and its community. Adding a touch of team spirit to gaming environments, Team Liquid fans can now personalize their desk setup with the adorable mascot Blue. Whether playing, competing, or simply having fun, gamers can now have Blue by their side when doing it all.
"Blue is the physical manifestation of the Team Liquid brand. It's been inspiring to see all the cool and creative ways that they've been brought to life by our staff, our fans, and now our partners. This collaboration with one of our longest standing partners, HyperX, will bring Blue's passion for gaming to a wider audience," said Steve Arhancet, Co-CEO of Team Liquid. "I am stoked to get my hands on the limited-edition keycap and add it to my collection." Specifically developed for those who are looking to add a bit of fun flair to their gaming setup, Team Liquid was involved in the ideation and design process of the HyperX x Liquid - Blue Limited Edition Keycap, ensuring that it truly represents the complete essence of the team and its community. Adding a touch of team spirit to gaming environments, Team Liquid fans can now personalize their desk setup with the adorable mascot Blue. Whether playing, competing, or simply having fun, gamers can now have Blue by their side when doing it all.
DEEPX Announces State-of-the-Art AI Chip Product Lineup
DEEPX, a leading AI semiconductor technology company, aims to drive innovation in the rapidly evolving edge AI landscape with its state-of-the-art, low-power, high-performance AI chip product lineup. With a focus on revolutionizing application areas such as smart cities, surveillance, smart factories, and other industries, DEEPX unveiled its latest AI semiconductor solutions at the 2023 Samsung Foundry Forum (SFF), under the theme of "For AI Everywhere."
Recognizing the importance of collaboration and technological partnerships, DEEPX leveraged Samsung Electronics' foundry processes, harnessing the power of 5 nm, 14 nm, and 28 nm technologies for its semiconductor chip designs. As a result, the company has developed a suite of four high-performance, energy-efficient AI semiconductor products: DX-L1, DX-L2, DX-M1, and DX-H1. Each product has been specifically engineered to cater to the unique demands of various market segments, from ultra-compact sensors with minimal data processing requirements to AI-intensive applications such as robotics, computer vision, autonomous vehicles, and many others.
Recognizing the importance of collaboration and technological partnerships, DEEPX leveraged Samsung Electronics' foundry processes, harnessing the power of 5 nm, 14 nm, and 28 nm technologies for its semiconductor chip designs. As a result, the company has developed a suite of four high-performance, energy-efficient AI semiconductor products: DX-L1, DX-L2, DX-M1, and DX-H1. Each product has been specifically engineered to cater to the unique demands of various market segments, from ultra-compact sensors with minimal data processing requirements to AI-intensive applications such as robotics, computer vision, autonomous vehicles, and many others.
Capcom Outlines Exoprimal Season 1 Content
Exoprimal's official service has begun! We are happy to announce that the final mission selection feature is now functional! This feature was a direct result of exofighter feedback from the open beta tests. Refer to the "Announcing Exoprimal's Final Mission Selection Feature" article for more information.
Seasons
Exoprimal will feature in-game seasons that are around three months long. There will also be Title Updates that bring new content and more fun! Season 1 began on release day. Friday, July 14 - Wednesday, October 11, 11:00 PM EDT. Note: Date and time are subject to change.
Seasons
Exoprimal will feature in-game seasons that are around three months long. There will also be Title Updates that bring new content and more fun! Season 1 began on release day. Friday, July 14 - Wednesday, October 11, 11:00 PM EDT. Note: Date and time are subject to change.
AMD Planning September Launch for Radeon RX 7800 series and RX 7700 series
AMD is planning to plug the Atlantic gap between its mainstream Radeon RX 7600 and enthusiast-class RX 7900 XT with the RX 7800 series and RX 7700 series, with either an announcement or teaser planned for 2023 Gamescom, which is scheduled for August. There could be up to four new graphics card SKUs announced, with their product launches spread across Q3 and Q4 2023. The "Navi 32" MCM is expected to power at least three of these SKUs, while it was recently rumored that AMD could design a new GPU that has the GCD of the "Navi 31" on the package of "Navi 32" with its four MCDs, to end up with a higher CU count than what the "Navi 32" can offer.
The "Navi 32" GPU is an MCM, just like the "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 series. It is rumored to feature a 5 nm GCD (graphics compute die) with 60 RDNA3 compute units, which work out to 3,840 stream processors, 120 AI accelerators, 60 Ray Accelerators, 240 TMUs, and possibly 128 ROPs. The four 6 nm MCDs give it 64 MB of Infinity Cache, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. Assuming the RX 7800 XT uses the unnamed new MCM with the GCD of the "Navi 31" that has a CU count somewhere between 60 and 72, a maxed-out "Navi 32" could power the RX 7800, while its cut-down variants power the RX 7700 XT and RX 7700.
The "Navi 32" GPU is an MCM, just like the "Navi 31" powering the RX 7900 series. It is rumored to feature a 5 nm GCD (graphics compute die) with 60 RDNA3 compute units, which work out to 3,840 stream processors, 120 AI accelerators, 60 Ray Accelerators, 240 TMUs, and possibly 128 ROPs. The four 6 nm MCDs give it 64 MB of Infinity Cache, and a 256-bit wide GDDR6 memory interface. Assuming the RX 7800 XT uses the unnamed new MCM with the GCD of the "Navi 31" that has a CU count somewhere between 60 and 72, a maxed-out "Navi 32" could power the RX 7800, while its cut-down variants power the RX 7700 XT and RX 7700.
CORSAIR to Acquire Drop Assets; Further Expanding Peripherals Business
CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear for gamers and content creators, today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire certain assets from Drop, a leading privately held peripheral developer best known for its customizable mechanical keyboards and switches, and its millions-member strong enthusiast community. Financial terms of the non-material, all-cash transactions were not disclosed.
Founded in 2011, Drop (formerly known as Massdrop) develops and sells a portfolio of peripherals and enthusiast products, with the majority of its business coming from customized "DIY" keyboards, aftermarket designer keycaps, and desktop accessories. Drop leveraged the insights of its members to develop its current collection of over 120 colorful, classic, and iconic sets offering an incredible degree of personalization to mechanical keyboard users from all walks of life. It recently expanded its portfolio to include a range of so-called Battlestation products to offer an even wider assortment of designer products for the desk and workspace.
Founded in 2011, Drop (formerly known as Massdrop) develops and sells a portfolio of peripherals and enthusiast products, with the majority of its business coming from customized "DIY" keyboards, aftermarket designer keycaps, and desktop accessories. Drop leveraged the insights of its members to develop its current collection of over 120 colorful, classic, and iconic sets offering an incredible degree of personalization to mechanical keyboard users from all walks of life. It recently expanded its portfolio to include a range of so-called Battlestation products to offer an even wider assortment of designer products for the desk and workspace.
Intel Capital Invests in Figure, a Humanid Robotics Company
Figure, an AI Robotics company building general purpose humanoid robots, today announced a $9 million equity investment made by Intel Capital. This funding from Intel Capital helps strengthen Figure's balance sheet and will accelerate the development of Figure 01 (the company's autonomous humanoid robot), build out Figure's AI data pipeline for autonomous operations, and drive the Company towards commercialization. This announcement follows the Company's most recent achievement of the Figure 01 robot taking its first steps.
Intel Capital is a notable addition to Figure's Series A funding round and is joining other top-tier investors such as Parkway Venture Capital, Brett Adcock, Aliya Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Tamarack Global, FJ labs, and former KUKA Robotics CEO Till Reuter.
Intel Capital is a notable addition to Figure's Series A funding round and is joining other top-tier investors such as Parkway Venture Capital, Brett Adcock, Aliya Capital, Bold Capital Partners, Tamarack Global, FJ labs, and former KUKA Robotics CEO Till Reuter.
Samsung Unveils ViewFinity S9 5K Monitor
Samsung Electronics today announced it is expanding its ViewFinity monitor lineup with the global availability of the 27-inch ViewFinity S9 (S90PC model). The launch of the ViewFinity S9 strengthens Samsung's high-resolution monitor lineup following the introduction of the ViewFinity S8 (S80PB model) in June 2022 which featured an Ultra High Definition (UHD) resolution. The new ViewFinity S9 is optimized with all the tools needed in industries like graphic design and photography and also being named a CES Innovation Award honoree in 2023.
"Our new 5K monitor is designed to deliver the highest performance and best experience for professionals in creative and visual industries," said Hoon Chung, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "With the ViewFinity lineup, we will provide creatives with top-notch visual experiences, along with the lifelike color clarity and versatile connectivity they need to achieve the best in any project."
"Our new 5K monitor is designed to deliver the highest performance and best experience for professionals in creative and visual industries," said Hoon Chung, Executive Vice President of the Visual Display Business at Samsung Electronics. "With the ViewFinity lineup, we will provide creatives with top-notch visual experiences, along with the lifelike color clarity and versatile connectivity they need to achieve the best in any project."
Intel "Arrow Lake-S" Desktop Processor Projected 6%-21% Faster than "Raptor Lake-S"
Intel's future-generation "Arrow Lake-S" desktop processor is already being sampled internally, and to some of the company's closest industry partners, and some of the first performance projections of the processor, comparing it with the current "Raptor Lake-S" (Core i9-13900K), have surfaced, and upcoming "Raptor Lake Refresh" desktop processor (probably the i9-14900K), have surfaced. First, while the "Raptor Lake Refresh" family sees core-count increases across the board for Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7 brand extensions, the 14th Gen Core i9 series is widely expected to be a damp squib compared to the current i9-13900 series, and it shows in the performance projection graphs, where the supposed-i9-14900K is barely 0% to 3% faster, probably on account of slightly higher clock speeds (100-300 MHz).
The "Arrow Lake-S" processor in these graphs has a core-configuration of 8P+16E. Since this is a projection, it does not reflect the final core-configuration of "Arrow Lake-S," but is a guideline on what performance increase to expect versus "Raptor Lake," assuming the same core-configuration and power limits. All said and done, "Arrow Lake-S" is projected to offer a performance increase ranging between 6% in the worst case, to 21% in the best-case benchmark, compared to the current i9-13900K, assuming an identical core-config and power-limits. The CPU benchmarks in the projection span the SPECrate2017 suite, CrossMark, SYSmark 25, WebXPRT 4, Chrome Speedometer 2.1, and Geekbench 5.4.5 ST and MT.
The "Arrow Lake-S" processor in these graphs has a core-configuration of 8P+16E. Since this is a projection, it does not reflect the final core-configuration of "Arrow Lake-S," but is a guideline on what performance increase to expect versus "Raptor Lake," assuming the same core-configuration and power limits. All said and done, "Arrow Lake-S" is projected to offer a performance increase ranging between 6% in the worst case, to 21% in the best-case benchmark, compared to the current i9-13900K, assuming an identical core-config and power-limits. The CPU benchmarks in the projection span the SPECrate2017 suite, CrossMark, SYSmark 25, WebXPRT 4, Chrome Speedometer 2.1, and Geekbench 5.4.5 ST and MT.
Intel "Raptor Lake Refresh" 14th Generation Core CPUs now Supported in AIDA64
We have been gathering rumors of next-generation Intel desktop silicon. However, thanks to the latest software version of AIDA64, it can now identify Intel Core i3/i5/i7 and i9 processors from the coming Raptor Lake silicon refresh, also referred to as 14th Gen Core or 14000 series. AIDA64 cannot yet distinguish between specific models, as Intel has not officially disclosed these, nor have any documents been leaked. Nevertheless, the software should now be capable of displaying whether the current 13th Gen chip or the refreshed 14th model is in use.
Speculation indicates that Intel plans to launch its 14th Gen Core desktop CPUs in October, with an announcement scheduled at the Innovation event a month before. There is no concrete information regarding individual SKUs; however, expectations are that the new range will feature more cores for mid-range and entry-level segments, along with a minimum of 200 MHz higher clock speeds for Core i9 models. The AIDA64 software also adds support for some already launched hardware like AMD's Navi 24, which includes Radeon RX 6450M and Radeon RX 6550M. The complete list of changes can be found below.
Speculation indicates that Intel plans to launch its 14th Gen Core desktop CPUs in October, with an announcement scheduled at the Innovation event a month before. There is no concrete information regarding individual SKUs; however, expectations are that the new range will feature more cores for mid-range and entry-level segments, along with a minimum of 200 MHz higher clock speeds for Core i9 models. The AIDA64 software also adds support for some already launched hardware like AMD's Navi 24, which includes Radeon RX 6450M and Radeon RX 6550M. The complete list of changes can be found below.
Intel Graphics Releases Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4575
Intel over the weekend released the latest version of the Arc GPU Graphics Drivers. Version 101.4575 beta adds optimization for "Exoprimal" and "Jagged Alliance 3." The drivers also improve performance for "League of Legends," with up to 6% performance uplift to be had at 1080p with the Very High settings preset; and up to 10% gains to be had at 1440p with the same preset. Among the couple of issues addressed with this version include a "Halo Infinite" application freeze or crash-to-desktop after loading to the game menu; and display corruption noticed in Dota 2 (DirectX 11) when streaming the game using XSplit Broadcaster in the Game Capture mode.
DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4575 beta
DOWNLOAD: Intel Arc GPU Graphics Drivers 101.4575 beta
Baldur's Gate 3 System Requirements Lists Emerge, Heavy on Content, Light on the Hardware
The Summer's most hotly anticipated game release, Baldur's Gate 3, is playable from August 3. The game's minimum- and recommended system requirements lists have been put out by its developer Larian Studios. We're happy to report that as expected, Baldur's Gate is light on the system requirements, to cater to as broad an audience as Diablo 3, the Spring's hottest RPG release.
Perhaps the steepest system requirement of Baldur's Gate is its disk space. The game calls for 150 GB of SSD storage space, which means it will be packed to the gills with content. The rest of the specs should please you. The minimum system requirements ask for an Intel Core i5-4690 or AMD FX 8350 processor, 8 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and Windows 10; so a 10-year old PC should meet the specs. The recommended requirements talk of either an Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and either an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card—so a 4-year old rig should be enough to max out the game.
Perhaps the steepest system requirement of Baldur's Gate is its disk space. The game calls for 150 GB of SSD storage space, which means it will be packed to the gills with content. The rest of the specs should please you. The minimum system requirements ask for an Intel Core i5-4690 or AMD FX 8350 processor, 8 GB of RAM, a GeForce GTX 970 or Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and Windows 10; so a 10-year old PC should meet the specs. The recommended requirements talk of either an Intel Core i7-8700K or AMD Ryzen 5 3600 processor, 16 GB of RAM, and either an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 SUPER or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT graphics card—so a 4-year old rig should be enough to max out the game.
QNAP Updates McAfee Antivirus for NAS, Adding Multi-thread Scanning and More
QNAP Systems, Inc. today released McAfee Antivirus Version 3.2 for QNAP NAS systems. This new version introduces several powerful features designed to enhance the overall security and efficiency of QNAP NAS. "The release of McAfee Antivirus version 3.2 underscores our commitment to providing cutting-edge security solutions for NAS users," said Sean Peng, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "We continuously strive to enhance the protection and performance of our customers' data, and these new features in McAfee Antivirus for NAS represent a significant step forward in achieving that goal."
Gigabyte Launches AORUS M6 Lightweight Wireless Gaming Mouse
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, keep investing a lot of resources in development of gaming peripherals, today launched AORUS M6 lightweight wireless gaming mouse. The AORUS M6 adopts the optimized wireless technology and the enthusiast-grade optical sensor to meet the needs of gamers, allowing gamers to fully express their battle power in the game without worrying about hardware limitations. The symmetrical ergonomic design and classic Omron switches, together with the lightweight and comfortable design, allow gamers not only to use it comfortably, but also to use it for a long time without getting tired.
The AORUS M6 boasts an enthusiast-grade 26,000 DPI optical sensor, capable of 650ips and 50G acceleration, giving gamers the ultimate accuracy for competitive gaming. Adjustability in 50 DPI increments further allows users to make a seamless transition from their old mouse by fine-tuning the level that precisely fits their play style. AORUS M6 is equipped with 1 ms low latency 2.4 GHz wireless technology, which overcomes the interference of environmental noise and transmission delay. It realizes uninterrupted high-speed signal transmission, so that the mouse can operate smoothly. The way of wireless transmission eliminates the cable interference that plagues gamers. The lightweight design of 74 grams, even with a built-in battery module, is lighter than most wired mice, allowing gamers to easily operate for a long time. Due to the lightweight ergonomic design, 50 million Japanese Omron switches, symmetrical design, and a pair of side buttons on the left and right sides, AORUS M6 can be used comfortably by both left and right hands.
The AORUS M6 boasts an enthusiast-grade 26,000 DPI optical sensor, capable of 650ips and 50G acceleration, giving gamers the ultimate accuracy for competitive gaming. Adjustability in 50 DPI increments further allows users to make a seamless transition from their old mouse by fine-tuning the level that precisely fits their play style. AORUS M6 is equipped with 1 ms low latency 2.4 GHz wireless technology, which overcomes the interference of environmental noise and transmission delay. It realizes uninterrupted high-speed signal transmission, so that the mouse can operate smoothly. The way of wireless transmission eliminates the cable interference that plagues gamers. The lightweight design of 74 grams, even with a built-in battery module, is lighter than most wired mice, allowing gamers to easily operate for a long time. Due to the lightweight ergonomic design, 50 million Japanese Omron switches, symmetrical design, and a pair of side buttons on the left and right sides, AORUS M6 can be used comfortably by both left and right hands.
Sunday, July 16th 2023
Samsung Claims Higher 3 nm Yields than TSMC
Competition between Samsung and TSMC in the 4 nm and 3 nm foundry process markets is about to heat up, with the Korean foundry claiming yields competitive to those of TSMC, according to a report in the Kukmin Ilbo, a Korean daily newspaper. 4 nm is the final silicon fabrication process to use the FinFET technology that powered nodes ranging between 16 nm to 4 nm. Samsung Foundry is claiming 4 nm wafer yields of 75%, against the 80% yields figure put out by TSMC. 4 nm powers several current-generation mobile SoCs, PC processors, and more importantly, the GPUs driving the AI gold-rush.
Things get very interesting with 3 nm, the node that debuts GAA-FET (gates all around FET) technology. Here, Samsung claims to offer higher yields than TSMC, with its 3 nm GAA node clocking 60% yields, against 55% put out by TSMC. Samsung was recently bitten by a scandal where its engineers allegedly falsified yields figures to customers to score orders, which had a cascading effect on the volumes and competitiveness of their customers. We're inclined to think that Samsung has taken lessons and is more careful with the yields figures being reported in the press. Meanwhile, Intel Foundry Services competes with the Intel 3 node, which is physically 7 nm FinFET, but with electrical characteristics comparable to those of 3 nm.
Things get very interesting with 3 nm, the node that debuts GAA-FET (gates all around FET) technology. Here, Samsung claims to offer higher yields than TSMC, with its 3 nm GAA node clocking 60% yields, against 55% put out by TSMC. Samsung was recently bitten by a scandal where its engineers allegedly falsified yields figures to customers to score orders, which had a cascading effect on the volumes and competitiveness of their customers. We're inclined to think that Samsung has taken lessons and is more careful with the yields figures being reported in the press. Meanwhile, Intel Foundry Services competes with the Intel 3 node, which is physically 7 nm FinFET, but with electrical characteristics comparable to those of 3 nm.
This Week in Gaming (Week 29)
If the weather outside is a bit too hot to handle, maybe a gaming session indoors is more your thing, although this week's releases don't have any big headline titles, there might still be something there for you. We've got a decent mix as most weeks, with everything from burglaring and creepy neighbourhoods to top-down co-op shooters and horror puzzle.
The Break-In / Monday 17 July
Steal everything. Even the people. The Break-In lets you take whatever you want, from TVs to fridges to toilets. And all in 1-4 player co-op, VR and non VR. Select your getaway vehicle, anything from a bicycle to a stolen police van, and load up with gear like hammers and rocket boosters, and steal.
The Break-In / Monday 17 July
Steal everything. Even the people. The Break-In lets you take whatever you want, from TVs to fridges to toilets. And all in 1-4 player co-op, VR and non VR. Select your getaway vehicle, anything from a bicycle to a stolen police van, and load up with gear like hammers and rocket boosters, and steal.
Friday, July 14th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cases
Keyboards
Motherboards
Mouse
Addlink S91 2 TB Review
Want more storage for your Steam Deck? 2 TB? Then the Addlink S91 is for you. It's an M.2 NVMe SSD using the compact M.2 2230 form factor, which ensures the drive can be used to upgrade the Steam Deck and ROG Ally game consoles. In our in-depth review we're taking a look at performance, thermals and power consumption.
EA Sports FC 24 Introduced in First Ever Gameplay Trailer
Welcome to a new era for The World's Game. Feel closer to the game with three cutting-edge technologies powering unparalleled realism in every match—HyperMotionV, PlayStyles optimised by Opta, and a revolutionised Frostbite Engine. HyperMotionV captures the game as it's truly played, using volumetric data from more than 180 professional men's and women's football matches to ensure player movements in-game accurately reflect real-world action on the pitch. PlayStyles dimensionalise athletes, making them more authentic by interpreting real-world player data from Opta and other sources into signature abilities which heighten the realism and individuality of each player. The revolutionised Frostbite Engine delivers The World's Game in lifelike detail, bringing a new level of immersion to each match.
Develop your own club legends in Ultimate Team by improving your players with the brand new Ultimate Team Evolutions, and welcome women's footballers to the pitch alongside men as you craft your dream XI. Get closer to the touchline with new modern management features in Manager Career or pave your own path to glory in Player Career. Plus, connect and compete with more friends than ever through cross-play in both Clubs and VOLTA FOOTBALL. Pre-purchase EA SPORTS FC 24 Ultimate Edition by 22 August to get an untradeable UEFA Champions League or UEFA Women's Champions League Ultimate Team Hero Item on 27 November.
Develop your own club legends in Ultimate Team by improving your players with the brand new Ultimate Team Evolutions, and welcome women's footballers to the pitch alongside men as you craft your dream XI. Get closer to the touchline with new modern management features in Manager Career or pave your own path to glory in Player Career. Plus, connect and compete with more friends than ever through cross-play in both Clubs and VOLTA FOOTBALL. Pre-purchase EA SPORTS FC 24 Ultimate Edition by 22 August to get an untradeable UEFA Champions League or UEFA Women's Champions League Ultimate Team Hero Item on 27 November.
Oracle Advocates Keeping Linux Open and Free, Calls Out IBM
Oracle has been part of the Linux community for 25 years. Our goal has remained the same over all those years: help make Linux the best server operating system for everyone, freely available to all, with high-quality, low-cost support provided to those who need it. Our Linux engineering team makes significant contributions to the kernel, file systems, and tools. We push all that work back to mainline so that every Linux distribution can include it. We are proud those contributions are part of the reason Linux is now so very capable, benefiting not just Oracle customers, but all users.
In 2006, we launched what is now called Oracle Linux, a RHEL compatible distribution and support offering that is used widely, and powers Oracle's engineered systems and our cloud infrastructure. We chose to be RHEL compatible because we did not want to fragment the Linux community. Our effort to remain compatible has been enormously successful. In all the years since launch, we have had almost no compatibility bugs filed. Customers and ISVs can switch to Oracle Linux from RHEL without modifying their applications, and we certify Oracle software products on RHEL even though they are built and tested on Oracle Linux only, never on RHEL.
In 2006, we launched what is now called Oracle Linux, a RHEL compatible distribution and support offering that is used widely, and powers Oracle's engineered systems and our cloud infrastructure. We chose to be RHEL compatible because we did not want to fragment the Linux community. Our effort to remain compatible has been enormously successful. In all the years since launch, we have had almost no compatibility bugs filed. Customers and ISVs can switch to Oracle Linux from RHEL without modifying their applications, and we certify Oracle software products on RHEL even though they are built and tested on Oracle Linux only, never on RHEL.
Keysfan Introduces Summer Sale! Get Discounts of Up to 90% on Genuine Software
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Xbox Debuting New Voice Reporting Feature
Players come to Xbox to build friendships, be competitive, and to experience incredible games - and they expect to be treated fairly, for interactions to be free of hate or harassment. Our investments in safety have helped players feel safer across text, video, and image - and our new voice reporting experience is the latest addition to our robust suite of family and online safety features.
Starting this week, we are releasing a new platform-wide voice reporting feature to Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox Insiders, that gives players the option to capture and report inappropriate in-game voice chats. More specifically, this feature equips Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One players with the ability to capture a 60-second video clip of an in-game voice incident that they believe violates our Community Standards and submit it as evidence to our Xbox Safety Team for review. This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles.
Starting this week, we are releasing a new platform-wide voice reporting feature to Alpha and Alpha Skip-Ahead Xbox Insiders, that gives players the option to capture and report inappropriate in-game voice chats. More specifically, this feature equips Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One players with the ability to capture a 60-second video clip of an in-game voice incident that they believe violates our Community Standards and submit it as evidence to our Xbox Safety Team for review. This feature is purpose-built to support the broadest arena of in-game interactions between players and works across thousands of games that offer in-game multiplayer voice chat, including Xbox 360 backward-compatible titles.
Report Suggests NVIDIA Prioritizing H800 GPU Production For Chinese AI Market
NVIDIA could be adjusting its enterprise-grade GPU production strategies for the Chinese market, according to an article published by MyDriver—despite major sanctions placed on semiconductor imports, Team Green is doing plenty of business with tech firms operating in the region thanks to an uptick in AI-related activities. NVIDIA offers two market specific accelerator models that have been cut down to conform to rules and regulations—the more powerful and expensive (250K RMB/~$35K) H800 is an adaptation of the western H100 GPU, while the A800 is a legal market alternative to the older A100.
The report proposes that NVIDIA is considering plans to reduce factory output of the A800 (sold for 100K RMB/~$14K per unit), so clients will be semi-forced into purchasing the higher-end H800 model instead (if they require a significant number of GPUs). The A800 seems to be the more popular choice for the majority of companies at the moment, with the heavy hitters—Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Jitwei and ByteDance—flexing their spending muscles and splurging on mixed shipments of the two accelerators. By limiting supplies of the lesser A800, Team Green could be generating more profit by prioritizing the more expensive (and readily available) model.
The report proposes that NVIDIA is considering plans to reduce factory output of the A800 (sold for 100K RMB/~$14K per unit), so clients will be semi-forced into purchasing the higher-end H800 model instead (if they require a significant number of GPUs). The A800 seems to be the more popular choice for the majority of companies at the moment, with the heavy hitters—Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, Jitwei and ByteDance—flexing their spending muscles and splurging on mixed shipments of the two accelerators. By limiting supplies of the lesser A800, Team Green could be generating more profit by prioritizing the more expensive (and readily available) model.
Intel N100 Quad E-Core Gaming Performance Assessed
Team Pandory has tested the gaming potential of an Intel Alder-Lake-N SoC—not many outlets have bothered to give the N100 much coverage in this aspect, since the chip's makeup is E-core only and it only offers single-channel memory support. Team Blue has emphasized power efficiency rather than raw performance with its super low budget 2022 successor to old Pentium and Celeron processor product lines. The utilization of modern Gracemount CPU cores does it some favors—notably granting L3 cache support, but the chip has been designed with entry-level productivity in mind.
Naturally, in-game testing focuses attention on the N100's integrated GPU, based on Team Blue's Xe-LP architecture—it features 24 execution units (EUs), support for AV1 decode capabilities, and 8K 60 FPS video playback. Arc Alchemist offers roughly double the performance when compared to the Xe-LP iGPU, so we are not expecting a big "wow factor" to be delivered by the plucky Alder-Lake-N SoC (6 W TDP). Team Pandory benchmarked a laptop sporting a single stick of 8 GB DDR5 RAM and the N100 quad E-core CPU (capable of 3.4 GHz turbo boosting), with 6 MB of L3 cache. The ultra portable device was able to hit 60 FPS in a couple of older games, but the majority of tested titles ran at 20 to 30 20 FPS (on average). Graphics settings were universally set to minimum, with a resolution of 1280 x 720 (720p) across ten games: CS:GO, Dota 2, Forza Horizon 4, Genshin Impact, GTA V, Grid Autosport, Minecraft, Resident Evil 5, Skyrim, and Sleeping Dogs.
Naturally, in-game testing focuses attention on the N100's integrated GPU, based on Team Blue's Xe-LP architecture—it features 24 execution units (EUs), support for AV1 decode capabilities, and 8K 60 FPS video playback. Arc Alchemist offers roughly double the performance when compared to the Xe-LP iGPU, so we are not expecting a big "wow factor" to be delivered by the plucky Alder-Lake-N SoC (6 W TDP). Team Pandory benchmarked a laptop sporting a single stick of 8 GB DDR5 RAM and the N100 quad E-core CPU (capable of 3.4 GHz turbo boosting), with 6 MB of L3 cache. The ultra portable device was able to hit 60 FPS in a couple of older games, but the majority of tested titles ran at 20 to 30 20 FPS (on average). Graphics settings were universally set to minimum, with a resolution of 1280 x 720 (720p) across ten games: CS:GO, Dota 2, Forza Horizon 4, Genshin Impact, GTA V, Grid Autosport, Minecraft, Resident Evil 5, Skyrim, and Sleeping Dogs.
Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PC Spec Requirements Published
Nixxes and Insomniac yesterday published their official PC specification requirements for the Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart port (arriving on July 26). The announcement was made via a post on the game's Steam store page, but the two teams decided to remove it soon after (perhaps the information was released too early). Several news sites were quick enough to note that the PC version of Ratchet & Clank: Rift will be the first DirectStorage 1.2 game with support for GPU decompression. Senior Lead Programmer Richard van der Laan stated (in the now deleted update): DirectStorage ensures quick loading times and GPU decompression is used at high graphics settings to stream assets in the background while playing. Traditionally, this decompression is handled by the CPU, but at a certain point there is an advantage to letting the GPU handle this, as this enables a higher bandwidth for streaming assets from storage to the graphics card. We use this to quickly load high-quality textures and environments with a high level of detail.
His colleague, Principal Programmer Alex Bartholomeus, also chipped in with: "For Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, we added adaptive streaming based on live measurement of the available hardware bandwidth. This allows us to tailor the texture streaming strategy for the best possible texture streaming on any configuration." The most surprising aspect gleaned from the PC specification sheet is the minimum performance requirement (720p @ 30 FPS) of a hard disk drive (HDD) acting as the main storage device, although they would prefer that you go with a more modern storage option. A solid-state drive (SSD) is deemed necessary for the "Recommended" tier at 1080p/60 FPS. This is quite amusing considering that Insomniac's creative director, Marcus Smith, once said (in an official PlayStation showcase video) that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart's dimensional rift hopping "would not have been possible without the Solid State Drive of the PlayStation 5."
His colleague, Principal Programmer Alex Bartholomeus, also chipped in with: "For Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC, we added adaptive streaming based on live measurement of the available hardware bandwidth. This allows us to tailor the texture streaming strategy for the best possible texture streaming on any configuration." The most surprising aspect gleaned from the PC specification sheet is the minimum performance requirement (720p @ 30 FPS) of a hard disk drive (HDD) acting as the main storage device, although they would prefer that you go with a more modern storage option. A solid-state drive (SSD) is deemed necessary for the "Recommended" tier at 1080p/60 FPS. This is quite amusing considering that Insomniac's creative director, Marcus Smith, once said (in an official PlayStation showcase video) that Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart's dimensional rift hopping "would not have been possible without the Solid State Drive of the PlayStation 5."
ASUS Intros ProArt GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB Graphics Card
ASUS today introduced the ProArt GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB graphics card series. These cards offer a cooling solution that's essentially the same as the ROG Strix RTX 4060 Ti, but with a more sober product design suitable for design studios. The 16 GB of memory should benefit certain kinds of creator applications with large data sets. Memory size aside, this is essentially the same RTX 4060 Ti, and while for gaming it's a 1080p thru 1440p class product, for creator applications, the GPU should easily suit higher resolutions such as 4K Ultra HD. You can also benefit from the GeForce Studio drivers that offer certification for several key content creation application suites.
There are three sub-variants of the ProArt RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB based on the clock-speeds on offer. The regular one sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 2535 MHz with the default BIOS, and 2565 MHz with the OC BIOS. The ProArt RTX 4060 Ti Advanced Edition steps this up to 2580 MHz in the OC BIOS. The top ProArt RTX 4060 Ti OC Edition significantly dials up the clock speeds to 2685 MHz, which is close to that of the ROG Strix O8G. All three cards come with a complimentary 3-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
There are three sub-variants of the ProArt RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB based on the clock-speeds on offer. The regular one sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds of 2535 MHz with the default BIOS, and 2565 MHz with the OC BIOS. The ProArt RTX 4060 Ti Advanced Edition steps this up to 2580 MHz in the OC BIOS. The top ProArt RTX 4060 Ti OC Edition significantly dials up the clock speeds to 2685 MHz, which is close to that of the ROG Strix O8G. All three cards come with a complimentary 3-month Adobe Creative Cloud subscription.
Newegg Slashes GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB Card Prices - $334 MSI VENTUS 2X OC
USA retailer, Newegg, is currently running a sale on a couple of custom NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB graphics cards. The cheapest option is an MSI VENTUS 2X BLACK 8G OC model, available for an an-all-time low price of $334 (representing a nice 16% discount)—thanks to a promo code ("ZIPTECH") shaving off a further $45.60 from the sale price of $379.99. NVIDIA set an MSRP of $399.99 upon the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti's launch back in late May, generating plenty of ambivalence within the PC hardware enthusiast community. That pattern will likely repeat with next week's premiere of RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB variants—its recommended retail price is set at $499, with tricked out custom cards predicted to go beyond $550.
Potential buyers of the bog standard 8 GB GPU in the States will be somewhat happy to discover that Newegg is not limiting the sale and discounts to a single model. MSI's slightly fancier (triple fan design) VENTUS 3X 8G OC card is going for $351.99, and the GIGABYTE RTX 4060 Ti EAGLE plus ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL OC are available at the same price. These deals look quite good when placed next to discounted GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB custom cards—these are getting blown out for $329 - 339.
Potential buyers of the bog standard 8 GB GPU in the States will be somewhat happy to discover that Newegg is not limiting the sale and discounts to a single model. MSI's slightly fancier (triple fan design) VENTUS 3X 8G OC card is going for $351.99, and the GIGABYTE RTX 4060 Ti EAGLE plus ASUS RTX 4060 Ti DUAL OC are available at the same price. These deals look quite good when placed next to discounted GeForce RTX 3060 Ti 8 GB custom cards—these are getting blown out for $329 - 339.
Sony Assigns $2 Billion R&D Budget to Games Division
Sony Corporation was in a boastful mood back in March of this year—Hiroki Totoki, the firm's executive deputy president and CFO declared that a $5+ billion (JP¥700 billion) budget had to been allocated for strategic investments across several departments in 2023. At the time it was not made clear how much of that pot would be assigned to Sony Interactive Entertainment/PlayStation, but a new report published by Nikkei Asia's Business section has revealed that the Japanese multinational conglomerate is set to open up and reach deep into its "war chest."
As its battle with Microsoft/Xbox heats up, Sony has designated a 300 billion yen (converting roughly to $2.13 billion) to research and development for its game division for the fiscal year ending in March 2024. This is reportedly 40% of its total R&D spending, which will exceed its investments in two other key interests—namely electronics and semiconductors. Nikkei notes that "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the company's game business was about 337 billion yen ($2.4 billion) last fiscal year, up more than 60% from five years ago." Sony anticipates that the live service gaming market will hit a high of $19 billion in 2026, so it is shifting priorities from its traditional hardware-based model to an online system where customers are expected to buy add-ons for streamed content. Its $3.7 billion buyout of Bungie in 2022 formed a central pillar for this new strategy—the MMORPG-specialist studio is reportedly serving as a consultant on several live service projects in development at other SIE-owned outfits. The main goal seems to a targeted launch of 12 live service titles by the fiscal year ending March 2026.
As its battle with Microsoft/Xbox heats up, Sony has designated a 300 billion yen (converting roughly to $2.13 billion) to research and development for its game division for the fiscal year ending in March 2024. This is reportedly 40% of its total R&D spending, which will exceed its investments in two other key interests—namely electronics and semiconductors. Nikkei notes that "earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) for the company's game business was about 337 billion yen ($2.4 billion) last fiscal year, up more than 60% from five years ago." Sony anticipates that the live service gaming market will hit a high of $19 billion in 2026, so it is shifting priorities from its traditional hardware-based model to an online system where customers are expected to buy add-ons for streamed content. Its $3.7 billion buyout of Bungie in 2022 formed a central pillar for this new strategy—the MMORPG-specialist studio is reportedly serving as a consultant on several live service projects in development at other SIE-owned outfits. The main goal seems to a targeted launch of 12 live service titles by the fiscal year ending March 2026.
GeForce NOW Adds Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen & Jagged Alliance 3
Arise, members! Capcom's legendary role-playing game Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen joins the GeForce NOW library today. The RPG and THQ Nordic's Jagged Alliance 3 are newly supported on GeForce NOW, playable on nearly any device.
From Dusk Till Pawn
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on GeForce NOW...It's dangerous to go alone, so bring a Pawn along in "Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen." Become the Arisen and take up the challenge in Capcom's critically acclaimed RPG. Set in a huge open world, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen brings players on an epic adventure filled with challenging battles and action. But there's no need to go it alone: Adventure with up to three Pawns. These customizable AI companions fight independently, demonstrating prowess and ability they've developed based on traits learned from each player.
From Dusk Till Pawn
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen on GeForce NOW...It's dangerous to go alone, so bring a Pawn along in "Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen." Become the Arisen and take up the challenge in Capcom's critically acclaimed RPG. Set in a huge open world, Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen brings players on an epic adventure filled with challenging battles and action. But there's no need to go it alone: Adventure with up to three Pawns. These customizable AI companions fight independently, demonstrating prowess and ability they've developed based on traits learned from each player.
Framework Discusses Laptop 16 Battery and Speaker System
We know that out of our Framework Laptop 16 Deep Dive series, this is some of the information you're most eager to hear. We read every Framework Laptop review, browse the Community and subreddit, and run regular post-purchase feedback surveys to learn what you want, and we use that to inform how we build products. Some of the most frequent asks on the Framework Laptop 13 were around improving speaker loudness and extending battery life, both of which we've delivered on this year. With the increased space we have inside the Framework Laptop 16, we advanced these areas even further, with a new high capacity 85Wh battery and excellent quad speakers powered by a smart amp.
We custom designed both the battery pack and cell, working with ATL, one of the biggest battery makers in the world and the maker of the 55Wh and 61Wh packs for Framework Laptop 13. The pack has a 4S1P architecture, meaning there are four lithium ion cells placed in series to reach the 15.48 V nominal pack voltage. A major improvement we've made based on feedback from the Framework Laptop 13 is on the battery connector. A connector on a short cable was one of the more finicky parts to handle, so we've switched to an integrated blade-type connector that makes battery swaps much easier. Finally, we've made sure that the battery has a long usage lifetime, supporting 80% capacity typically after 1,000 cycles.
We custom designed both the battery pack and cell, working with ATL, one of the biggest battery makers in the world and the maker of the 55Wh and 61Wh packs for Framework Laptop 13. The pack has a 4S1P architecture, meaning there are four lithium ion cells placed in series to reach the 15.48 V nominal pack voltage. A major improvement we've made based on feedback from the Framework Laptop 13 is on the battery connector. A connector on a short cable was one of the more finicky parts to handle, so we've switched to an integrated blade-type connector that makes battery swaps much easier. Finally, we've made sure that the battery has a long usage lifetime, supporting 80% capacity typically after 1,000 cycles.
Atlas Fallen Gets a Behind-the-Scenes Featurette
Today, Focus Entertainment and its studio Deck13 shared a gameplay presentation for their upcoming game Atlas Fallen, the epic fantasy action-RPG where you battle legendary creatures in superpowered combat. Prepare to glide torrid sands this summer, with the game getting released on August 10 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Pre-order it on any of those platforms and get to know the dev team and their creative journey in the new trailer showing what's "Behind the Sand."
An epic adventure is born
With Atlas Fallen, Deck13 takes its passion for thrilling action-RPG experiences to a new territory. Following their sci-fi series, The Surge, the team embraces a fresh vision for a unique medieval fantasy world and a faster-paced-oriented combat. The video gathers the words of several developers and creatives, as well as gorgeous concept art and footage of the game, telling the fun, exciting, and inspiring adventure that led to Atlas Fallen. Over the years, the innovative people at Deck13, a small but talented dev team based in Frankfurt, Germany, have consistently sought to enhance the RPG experiences they offer, exploring new ideas, all within their on-house engine, Fledge.
An epic adventure is born
With Atlas Fallen, Deck13 takes its passion for thrilling action-RPG experiences to a new territory. Following their sci-fi series, The Surge, the team embraces a fresh vision for a unique medieval fantasy world and a faster-paced-oriented combat. The video gathers the words of several developers and creatives, as well as gorgeous concept art and footage of the game, telling the fun, exciting, and inspiring adventure that led to Atlas Fallen. Over the years, the innovative people at Deck13, a small but talented dev team based in Frankfurt, Germany, have consistently sought to enhance the RPG experiences they offer, exploring new ideas, all within their on-house engine, Fledge.
Team Group Upgrades Industrial DDR5 Memory Capacities
The leading memory brand Team Group has upgraded the capacities of its industrial DDR5 series memory products, by leveraging its outstanding R&D and product design capabilities, taking the lead in launching a 48 GB module, as well as a lower 24 GB option. The capacity upgrades apply to all types of DDR5 products, including the DDR5 non-ECC U/SO-DIMM, DDR5 ECC U/SO-DIMM class, and DDR5 ECC R-DIMM memory modules. They provide higher capacity for applications using high-performance edge computing, embedded computers, personal workstations, and more.
Current industrial DDR5 memory on the market has a maximum capacity of about 32 GB per module. However, with the development of technologies such as cloud, edge computing, the Internet of Things, and big data, the demand for memory capacity is increasing. Edge computing systems need to process large amounts of data from a variety of sensors and devices and perform complex calculations and analyses that require high memory capacity and performance. To meet this demand, Team Group has made capacity upgrades across its industrial DDR5 memory products, offering new 24 GB and 48 GB modules. They bring more application flexibility and enable users to better handle large data sets, complex simulations, and analysis tasks. The enhanced capacities will significantly increase the performance and processing power of edge computing systems, providing users with the ability to run various applications and algorithms more efficiently.
Current industrial DDR5 memory on the market has a maximum capacity of about 32 GB per module. However, with the development of technologies such as cloud, edge computing, the Internet of Things, and big data, the demand for memory capacity is increasing. Edge computing systems need to process large amounts of data from a variety of sensors and devices and perform complex calculations and analyses that require high memory capacity and performance. To meet this demand, Team Group has made capacity upgrades across its industrial DDR5 memory products, offering new 24 GB and 48 GB modules. They bring more application flexibility and enable users to better handle large data sets, complex simulations, and analysis tasks. The enhanced capacities will significantly increase the performance and processing power of edge computing systems, providing users with the ability to run various applications and algorithms more efficiently.
Simply NUC to Double Down on Continued NUC Innovation and Growth
Simply NUC, Inc, a leading mini PC solutions company, announced they are prepared to continue ramping their investment in mini PCs and the NUC product line as Intel has announced their intentions to stop investment in this area and pivot their strategy to enable ecosystem partners to continue NUC innovation and growth.
"I am privileged to have helped start up the NUC business at Intel," said John Deatherage CMO of Simply NUC. "Simply NUC has a strong portfolio of branded products and remains 100% focused and committed to delivering small form factor solutions."
"I am privileged to have helped start up the NUC business at Intel," said John Deatherage CMO of Simply NUC. "Simply NUC has a strong portfolio of branded products and remains 100% focused and committed to delivering small form factor solutions."
Thursday, July 13th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cooling
Monitors
Campfire Audio Solaris Stellar Horizon In-Ear Monitors Review
The Campfire Audio Solaris Stellar Horizon is a re-envisioning of its popular, classic Solaris IEMs. It uses a new hybrid driver configuration with a dynamic driver and three custom balanced armature drivers in a stunning shell design to put out a warm, forward-facing sound backed by premium accessories and a great unboxing experience.
HyperX Pulsefire Haste 2 Review
With the Pulsefire Haste 2, HyperX not only gets rid of all holes while keeping the weight at just 53 g, but also adds true 8000 Hz polling. In addition, the Pulsefire Haste 2 comes with the latest HyperX 26K sensor, HyperX main button switches rated for 100 million clicks, pure PTFE feet, and an improved cable.
MSI and Capcom Unite to Deliver an Unparalleled Gaming Experience with Exoprimal Bundle Promotion
MSI, the world's leading PC gaming hardware brand, is excited to announce a strategic partnership with CAPCOM to introduce an exciting game bundle promotion of their highly anticipated sci-fi game - Exoprimal. Now with the purchase of MSI select gaming monitors, users will have the opportunity to redeem an Exoprimal PC game code on MSI's official website and get a special MSI x Exoprimal Decal to enjoy the futuristic adventure in this epic game.
Suit up, adapt, and survive in intense battles against deadly hordes of dinosaurs!
Exoprimal is a team-based action game that pits "humanity's cutting-edge exosuit technology against history's most ferocious beasts". The game is set in the year 2040, offering a visually stunning futuristic world teeming with awe-inspiring landscapes and jaw-dropping dinosaur encounters. With its meticulously crafted environments and seamless gameplay mechanics, EXOPRIMAL immerses players in a high-stakes battle against waves of dinosaurs.
Suit up, adapt, and survive in intense battles against deadly hordes of dinosaurs!
Exoprimal is a team-based action game that pits "humanity's cutting-edge exosuit technology against history's most ferocious beasts". The game is set in the year 2040, offering a visually stunning futuristic world teeming with awe-inspiring landscapes and jaw-dropping dinosaur encounters. With its meticulously crafted environments and seamless gameplay mechanics, EXOPRIMAL immerses players in a high-stakes battle against waves of dinosaurs.
Beagleboard.org Launches New BeagleV-Ahead RISC-V Single Board Computer
BeagleBoard.org, a leading developer of open-source hardware platforms, is thrilled to announce the highly anticipated launch of BeagleV-Ahead, an innovative single board computer (SBC) based on TH1520, a quad core 64-bit RISC-V SoC from T-Head. This groundbreaking open-source SBC brings a new level of accessibility, performance, and flexibility to the rapidly growing RISC-V ecosystem.
BeagleV-Ahead is set to revolutionize the world of embedded systems and empower developers and enthusiasts worldwide. It represents a significant milestone in the democratization of computer architecture and open-source hardware development. Built around the powerful and energy-efficient RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), the BeagleV-Ahead SBC offers unparalleled opportunities for developers, hobbyists, and researchers to explore and experiment with RISC-V technology.
BeagleV-Ahead is set to revolutionize the world of embedded systems and empower developers and enthusiasts worldwide. It represents a significant milestone in the democratization of computer architecture and open-source hardware development. Built around the powerful and energy-efficient RISC-V instruction set architecture (ISA), the BeagleV-Ahead SBC offers unparalleled opportunities for developers, hobbyists, and researchers to explore and experiment with RISC-V technology.
Vampire Survivors Co-op Mode Previewed Ahead of August 17 Launch
You might have already seen it, the vampire's out of the coffin (the equivalent of "the cat's out of the bag" for those fluent in Vampire Survivors): Our game is getting a 4-player couch co-op mode on August 17! In a free update! Be the bullet hell with your besties! In today's post, we wanted to explain in more detail how the co-op mode will work, why we're adding it to the game, and some new details of what you can expect when the co-op update hits.
Let's start with what the co-op update will look like. Imagine this: A dog, a tree, and an old man smelling of garlic and death itself meet in a dairy plant. And they turn the whole screen into a wild bullet hell! What sounds like a joke will soon just be a normal stage in Vampire Survivors - well, normal for Vampire Survivors standards, and hopefully fun to play!
Let's start with what the co-op update will look like. Imagine this: A dog, a tree, and an old man smelling of garlic and death itself meet in a dairy plant. And they turn the whole screen into a wild bullet hell! What sounds like a joke will soon just be a normal stage in Vampire Survivors - well, normal for Vampire Survivors standards, and hopefully fun to play!
AMD Ryzen 7040H Series Exclusive to China, 7040HS Assigned to Regions Outside of PRC
AMD's laptop-oriented Ryzen 7040 series of Zen 4 processors APUs—based on 4 nm "Phoenix" monolithic silicon—have been slow to hit the market, but folks have had plenty of time to study spec sheets and press material. The presence of similar-ish 7040HS and 7040H product assignments (also sharing nearly identical specifications) has caused some confusion within the PC hardware community. Team Red has finally got round to explaining the significance of their -HS and -H identifiers—product pages were updated with new information this month, showing that the Ryzen 7040H series exists as a Chinese market exclusive. NA, EMEA, APJ, LATAM regions will be getting the closely related Ryzen 7040HS lineup instead. ASUS, Lenovo, and Machenike are set to launch new laptop models in China that will feature Ryzen 7040H APUs—VideoCardz found it interesting that "some of them will not have discrete graphics and will have a higher TDP of 65 W".
Nasdaq Set to Remove Activision Blizzard from Stock Exchange Top 100
Nasdaq, the American stock exchange, has revealed that an unnamed company will be replacing Activision Blizzard within its top 100 index. The timing of this development is raising some eyebrows—it is set to occur mere days after the announcement of Microsoft's victory over the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The giant American technology corporation is closing in on its proposed acquisition of a games publishing group comprised of Activision, Blizzard Entertainment, and King Digital Entertainment.
Prior to the market opening next week (Monday 17th July) Activision Blizzard will be removed from the Nasdaq-100 ESG Index, although the company will remain tradable. An upcoming exit from the US stock exchange could signal that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have become increasingly confident about the finalization of their merger before a July 18 deadline. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is reported to be engaging in discussions with involved parties, and has paused its legal proceedings. The FTC yesterday filed for an appeal against the California court's verdict, thus immediately annoying the top brass at Microsoft/Xbox—president Brad Smith commented on the situation: "The District Court's ruling makes crystal clear that this acquisition is good for both competition and consumers...We're disappointed that the FTC is continuing to pursue what has become a demonstrably weak case, and we will oppose further efforts to delay the ability to move forward."
Prior to the market opening next week (Monday 17th July) Activision Blizzard will be removed from the Nasdaq-100 ESG Index, although the company will remain tradable. An upcoming exit from the US stock exchange could signal that Microsoft and Activision Blizzard have become increasingly confident about the finalization of their merger before a July 18 deadline. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is reported to be engaging in discussions with involved parties, and has paused its legal proceedings. The FTC yesterday filed for an appeal against the California court's verdict, thus immediately annoying the top brass at Microsoft/Xbox—president Brad Smith commented on the situation: "The District Court's ruling makes crystal clear that this acquisition is good for both competition and consumers...We're disappointed that the FTC is continuing to pursue what has become a demonstrably weak case, and we will oppose further efforts to delay the ability to move forward."
Google Bard Available Across the EU, Updated with 40 Languages & Spoken Response Function
Google has notified the world about its AI chatbot, Bard, getting a wider release and new features—with a rollout across Europe (27 territories), plus the addition of Brazil: "Today we're announcing Bard's biggest expansion to date. It's now available in most of the world, and in the most widely spoken languages. And we're launching new features to help you better customize your experience, boost your creativity and get more done." Their updated system is available now, so users "can collaborate with Bard in over 40 languages." A spoken response function has been implemented which is advertised as being very "helpful if you want to hear the correct pronunciation of a word or listen to a poem or script. Simply enter a prompt and select the sound icon to hear Bard's answers."
Jack Krawczyk, Bard Product Lead, and Amarnag Subramanya, Bard's VP of Engineering made sure to mention that Google is covering its bases, since privacy issues have delayed Bard's ability to reach new places (now mostly in the past): "As part of our bold and responsible approach to AI, we've proactively engaged with experts, policymakers and privacy regulators on this expansion. And as we bring Bard to more regions and languages over time, we'll continue to use our AI Principles as a guide, incorporate user feedback, and take steps to protect people's privacy and data." The initial "trial" period was restricted to the USA and UK, when Google launched Bard back in March.
Jack Krawczyk, Bard Product Lead, and Amarnag Subramanya, Bard's VP of Engineering made sure to mention that Google is covering its bases, since privacy issues have delayed Bard's ability to reach new places (now mostly in the past): "As part of our bold and responsible approach to AI, we've proactively engaged with experts, policymakers and privacy regulators on this expansion. And as we bring Bard to more regions and languages over time, we'll continue to use our AI Principles as a guide, incorporate user feedback, and take steps to protect people's privacy and data." The initial "trial" period was restricted to the USA and UK, when Google launched Bard back in March.
PlayStation 5 Access Controller to Launch Worldwide on December 6
For the past five years, we've been on a journey with accessibility organizations and experts to create a versatile controller kit that enables gamers with disabilities to play more comfortably and for longer periods, empowering more players to share in the joy of gaming. Today, I'm thrilled to announce that the Access controller for PS5 will be available globally on December 6, with pre-orders kicking off on Friday, July 21.
Available for a suggested retail price of $89.99 USD/$119.99 CAD/¥12,980 JPY/€89.99/£79.99 (MSRP), the Access controller lets you customize your layout with different button and stick caps in various shapes and designs, operate the controller from any 360° orientation, and connect third-party accessibility accessories using its four industry-standard 3.5 mm expansion ports.
Available for a suggested retail price of $89.99 USD/$119.99 CAD/¥12,980 JPY/€89.99/£79.99 (MSRP), the Access controller lets you customize your layout with different button and stick caps in various shapes and designs, operate the controller from any 360° orientation, and connect third-party accessibility accessories using its four industry-standard 3.5 mm expansion ports.
Blizzard Unveils Season of the Malignant for Diablo IV
Well met, wanderer...corruption has befallen Sanctuary in Season of the Malignant, the first Season of Diablo IV. On July 20 at 10 a.m. PDT, a new Season Journey, Questline, Boss, Dungeons, Battle Pass, and more will go live—we'll give you a preview below. On July 18, we'll release another article shedding even more light on what's coming with the new Season, including 6 new Unique Items and 7 Legendary Aspects.
SEASON OF THE MALIGNANT THEME
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range without hesitation. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who also trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold of the Burning Hells' armies cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes its thrall.
SEASON OF THE MALIGNANT THEME
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range without hesitation. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who also trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold of the Burning Hells' armies cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes its thrall.
Acer Prepping Radeon RX 7600 GPU for Predator BiFrost Series
According to information and images released by Xfastest, Acer seems to be preparing a new trio of Predator BiFrost custom cards. The series is currently limited to a single factory overclocked model, based on Intel's Arc A770 16 GB GPU. One of the new cards seems to be a cheaper (~$258) A750 8 GB BiFrost model, so Acer's Alchemist ACM-G10 GPU variant lineup is welcoming one addition.
Acer is also embracing RDNA 3 courtesy of AMD, although graphics card enthusiasts could see the introduction of two new Predator BiFrost models based on Radeon RX 7600 8 GB GPU as less than exciting prospects. The leaked photos seem to show a cooler design that lacks ARGB around the two cooling fans—budget friendly pricing (~$290 for the overclocked model, and ~$258 for non-OC) suggests that fancy livery is not so important in the low-to-mid-range tier.
Acer is also embracing RDNA 3 courtesy of AMD, although graphics card enthusiasts could see the introduction of two new Predator BiFrost models based on Radeon RX 7600 8 GB GPU as less than exciting prospects. The leaked photos seem to show a cooler design that lacks ARGB around the two cooling fans—budget friendly pricing (~$290 for the overclocked model, and ~$258 for non-OC) suggests that fancy livery is not so important in the low-to-mid-range tier.
Windows 11 Update Fixes In-game Stuttering Problems for High Polling Rate Mice
There appears to be a faction of hardcore PC gamers within the Microsoft Windows software engineering team—as evidenced in a developer blog post from late May. The section relating to "Reduced game stutter with high report rate mice" provided an early preview for improvements recently rolled out in a Windows 11 update (KB5028185 issued on July 11th). This week's fix "improves your computer's performance when you use a mouse that has a high report rate for gaming." Gamers running PCs on Windows 10 (or earlier) are—unfortunately—missing out on this latest and greatest feature.
Microsoft's blog stated: We know gamers hate stutter, and we're fixing issues throughout Windows so that an untimely frame-freeze won't take gamers out of their immersive experiences. Gamers love to push their systems to the limit in search of the best experiences in-game. Many also use sensitive, high DPI, high report rate mice to shave milliseconds off their response times and increase precision. At the same time, the world of gaming is more connected than ever with gamers relying on an increasing number of background apps while playing, like voice chat, streaming, apps for configuring your keyboard, mouse, or graphics card, and more. The Windows input stack was being pushed to its limits with high report rate mice and their input being delivered to not just the game, but also multiple background processes. In turn, that caused a significant amount of time processing input rather than providing as many cycles as possible for rendering the game experience."
Microsoft's blog stated: We know gamers hate stutter, and we're fixing issues throughout Windows so that an untimely frame-freeze won't take gamers out of their immersive experiences. Gamers love to push their systems to the limit in search of the best experiences in-game. Many also use sensitive, high DPI, high report rate mice to shave milliseconds off their response times and increase precision. At the same time, the world of gaming is more connected than ever with gamers relying on an increasing number of background apps while playing, like voice chat, streaming, apps for configuring your keyboard, mouse, or graphics card, and more. The Windows input stack was being pushed to its limits with high report rate mice and their input being delivered to not just the game, but also multiple background processes. In turn, that caused a significant amount of time processing input rather than providing as many cycles as possible for rendering the game experience."
LiFi 802.11bb Standard Certified by IEEE - Said to be Quicker than Wi-Fi
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has certified 802.11bb as a standard for light-based wireless communications—this development was announced yesterday, and warmly received by numerous Li-Fi businesses operating around the world, including pureLiFi and Fraunhofer HHI. These organizations hope that the (currently niche market) technology will get adopted at a greater rate thanks to the IEEE's approval. Proponents of the standard proclaim that it is "faster, more reliable wireless communications with unparalleled security compared to conventional technologies such as Wi-Fi and 5G (radio frequency networks)."
pureLiFi boasts that their Light Antenna ONE module is on the cusp of being ready for mass production: "This innovative device is the result of groundbreaking work by world-renowned LiFi engineers and marks a significant milestone in the development of LiFi technology. With Light Antenna ONE, millions of people can now be connected through light, opening up a new world of possibilities for high-speed, secure, and reliable communication. The design of this cutting-edge module enables mass integration of LiFi technology for the first time, paving the way for a future where LiFi plays a crucial role in our daily lives." Sample units can be sent to OEMs for evaluation purposes—the baseband agnostic (802.11 and G.hn) EVK consists of a solderable castellated module and motherboard.
pureLiFi boasts that their Light Antenna ONE module is on the cusp of being ready for mass production: "This innovative device is the result of groundbreaking work by world-renowned LiFi engineers and marks a significant milestone in the development of LiFi technology. With Light Antenna ONE, millions of people can now be connected through light, opening up a new world of possibilities for high-speed, secure, and reliable communication. The design of this cutting-edge module enables mass integration of LiFi technology for the first time, paving the way for a future where LiFi plays a crucial role in our daily lives." Sample units can be sent to OEMs for evaluation purposes—the baseband agnostic (802.11 and G.hn) EVK consists of a solderable castellated module and motherboard.
Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden Arriving on November 7
Today, Focus Entertainment and DON'T NOD are thrilled to announce that Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden will release on November 7. This poignant narrative action-RPG, in which you hunt and battle supernatural horrors to alter a tragic fate, is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Pre-orders are open in physical versions and on Steam, with a superb Collector's Edition available.
Prepare for impossible choices and dramatic consequences…
Experience a powerful and intimate narrative in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, where you play as Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith. You are lovers and Banishers—ghost-hunters who vowed to protect the living from the threat of lingering ghosts and specters. After Antea has tragically become one of the spirits she loathes, you take on a desperate search for a way to liberate her from her new plight.
Prepare for impossible choices and dramatic consequences…
Experience a powerful and intimate narrative in Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden, where you play as Antea Duarte and Red mac Raith. You are lovers and Banishers—ghost-hunters who vowed to protect the living from the threat of lingering ghosts and specters. After Antea has tragically become one of the spirits she loathes, you take on a desperate search for a way to liberate her from her new plight.
EK Introduces White Edition Quantum Impulse 120 D-RGB Fan
EK, the renowned manufacturer of premium liquid cooling solutions, is introducing a new version of the EK-Quantum Impulse 120 D-RGB fan, now available in a stylish white color. The latest EK-Quantum Impulse 120 D-RGB - White fan boasts a sleek white design, radiating clean and sophisticated aesthetics. It complements the existing Black version and offers new possibilities to liquid cooling enthusiasts, expanding their choices for visually pleasing PC setups.
The Quantum Impulse fans are a premium product equipped with EK's most extensive RGB implementation to date. The frame of the fan has two zones illuminated by LEDs, with each zone containing 12 LEDs. Additionally, 6 LEDs in the motor hub illuminate the rotor. These fans deliver a well-balanced and optimized performance-to-noise ratio with an operating range of 400-1800 RPM.
The Quantum Impulse fans are a premium product equipped with EK's most extensive RGB implementation to date. The frame of the fan has two zones illuminated by LEDs, with each zone containing 12 LEDs. Additionally, 6 LEDs in the motor hub illuminate the rotor. These fans deliver a well-balanced and optimized performance-to-noise ratio with an operating range of 400-1800 RPM.
Xbox Reveals its Summer Accessories Collection for 2023
Designed for Xbox premiered its first collection with a variety of gaming accessories in playful pastel tones last spring. This year, it's time to sparkle and shine for Designed for Xbox's second collection! The new Designed for Xbox Summer Collection 2023 will include 7 shimmery, glimmery accessories for every Xbox player wanting to outsparkle the competition. Designed especially for you and crafted by our amazing partners, each product brings a unique flare that will surely brighten up any gaming session.
PowerA Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S - Sparkle
Add some stellar style and performance to your game with the PowerA Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S in an all-new purple sparkle design. With glittering swirls of purple and gold, this one-of-a-kind controller looks like it was sent from a deep-space nebula. Licensed by Xbox, this controller features two mappable Advanced Gaming Buttons you can program on-the-fly, and 3-Way Trigger Locks for game-specific trigger depth. Works great on Windows 10/11 too. Quality backed with a 2-year limited warranty.
PowerA Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S - Sparkle
Add some stellar style and performance to your game with the PowerA Advantage Wired Controller for Xbox Series X|S in an all-new purple sparkle design. With glittering swirls of purple and gold, this one-of-a-kind controller looks like it was sent from a deep-space nebula. Licensed by Xbox, this controller features two mappable Advanced Gaming Buttons you can program on-the-fly, and 3-Way Trigger Locks for game-specific trigger depth. Works great on Windows 10/11 too. Quality backed with a 2-year limited warranty.
CORSAIR Launches High-Performance Peripherals to Boost Your Game
CORSAIR, a world leader in high-performance gear for gamers and content creators, announced the launch of two showstopping PC gaming accessories that enhance even the most intense play: the NIGHTSABRE WIRELESS Gaming Mouse and K65 PRO MINI Optical-Mechanical Gaming Keyboard. On their own, each delivers superior responsiveness and performance needed to ascend to the top of any leaderboard. When wielded together, these premier products complement each other perfectly, enabling you to endure any challenge and achieve more in today's most competitive FPS, Battle Royales, MOBAs, and more.
The NIGHTSABRE wireless gaming mouse delivers the powerful features and versatile play to satisfy the most demanding gamers from any genre. NIGHTSABRE's exquisite symmetrical shape fits any grip style, putting pro-player performance comfortably in your hand and keeping it secure with remarkable textured side grips.
NIGHTSABRE boasts 11 buttons, including a left and right scroll wheel tilt, to program to your exact gaming specifications. Save custom settings on up to five onboard profiles, so you can deftly switch between vastly different games in an instant, even on-the-go. Gain true wireless freedom as you play over sub-1 ms SLIPSTREAM WIRELESS or Bluetooth.
The NIGHTSABRE wireless gaming mouse delivers the powerful features and versatile play to satisfy the most demanding gamers from any genre. NIGHTSABRE's exquisite symmetrical shape fits any grip style, putting pro-player performance comfortably in your hand and keeping it secure with remarkable textured side grips.
NIGHTSABRE boasts 11 buttons, including a left and right scroll wheel tilt, to program to your exact gaming specifications. Save custom settings on up to five onboard profiles, so you can deftly switch between vastly different games in an instant, even on-the-go. Gain true wireless freedom as you play over sub-1 ms SLIPSTREAM WIRELESS or Bluetooth.
ASRock Announces Z790 Taichi Lite and B650E Taichi Lite Motherboards
Taichi Lite series is here! Based on the existing Z790/B650E Taichi motherboard, the Taichi Lite kept the original specs & features but with less RGB & simpler exterior design. Taichi Lite series motherboard will be focusing purely on the functionality, performance and durability, and with the new simplified design concept, ASRock has brought the long awaited affordable high end motherboard finally back to the market.
Both Z790/B650E Taichi Lite motherboard will be equipped with 24 phase VRM for Vcore to give unlimited CPU performance, other exciting features and technologies are also available too, such as PCIe 5.0 technology for graphics cards and M.2 SSDs, an incredible IO that includes the latest USB4 offering a fast and simple level of connection for work or home.
Both Z790/B650E Taichi Lite motherboard will be equipped with 24 phase VRM for Vcore to give unlimited CPU performance, other exciting features and technologies are also available too, such as PCIe 5.0 technology for graphics cards and M.2 SSDs, an incredible IO that includes the latest USB4 offering a fast and simple level of connection for work or home.
Alphacool Unveils New Cables for Fans and Lighting
Want more wind—but all connections on the board are already occupied? The new cables from Alphacool offer plenty of options to connect fans and lighting to a motherboard or controller.
The high-quality Y-splitter cables increase the limited number of motherboard slots for fans and aRGB. This allows you to control PWM fans, for example, without the need for a separate fan controller. The splitter cables are offered for 3-pin fans, 4-pin PWM fans and aRGB components. With the new extension and splitter cables, even the most remote components in the home PC or workstation can be reached.
The high-quality Y-splitter cables increase the limited number of motherboard slots for fans and aRGB. This allows you to control PWM fans, for example, without the need for a separate fan controller. The splitter cables are offered for 3-pin fans, 4-pin PWM fans and aRGB components. With the new extension and splitter cables, even the most remote components in the home PC or workstation can be reached.
Intel Core i5-14600K an 8P+8E Processor, Core i3 6P+0E, Core-Counts of Other SKUs Surface
Intel is planning to aggressively step up CPU core counts of its 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" SKUs over the 13th Gen, to offer more value at given price-points, given that the IPC of these processors aren't seeing an increase, according to a report by RedGamingTech. We already reported that the 14th Gen Core i7 series, such as the i7-14700K, will come with a core-configuration of 8P+12E. It turns out that the Core i5-14600K will witness the first uplift in performance core-counts in over 4 years (since the i5-8600K). These chips will be 8P+8E, which entails 8 "Raptor Cove" Performance cores, and 8 "Gracemont" Efficiency cores. The i5-14600K is, for all intents and purposes, identical to the current Core i7-13700K, but with a touch lower maximum boost clocks, and more importantly, a lower price.
This doesn't mean that the entire 14th Gen Core i5 series has the same 8P+8E configuration. Intel has been sub-segmenting its Core i5 series for a few generations now, and the Core i5-14600K and i5-14600KF will be the only SKUs with 8P+8E. There will likely not be an "i5-14600" (non-K) SKU altogether, to avoid the kind of confusion that emerged between the 13th Gen i5-13600 and i5-13600K (lower L2 cache sizes for the non-K SKU). The Core i5-14500 and Core i5-14400 will be 6P+8E processors. It's likely that Intel will use the newer silicon that gives the P-cores of these two chips 2 MB of L2 cache per core instead of 1.25 MB, and their E-core clusters will each get 4 MB of L2 cache instead of 2 MB.
This doesn't mean that the entire 14th Gen Core i5 series has the same 8P+8E configuration. Intel has been sub-segmenting its Core i5 series for a few generations now, and the Core i5-14600K and i5-14600KF will be the only SKUs with 8P+8E. There will likely not be an "i5-14600" (non-K) SKU altogether, to avoid the kind of confusion that emerged between the 13th Gen i5-13600 and i5-13600K (lower L2 cache sizes for the non-K SKU). The Core i5-14500 and Core i5-14400 will be 6P+8E processors. It's likely that Intel will use the newer silicon that gives the P-cores of these two chips 2 MB of L2 cache per core instead of 1.25 MB, and their E-core clusters will each get 4 MB of L2 cache instead of 2 MB.
Intel Brings Gaudi2 Accelerator to China, to Fill Gap Created By NVIDIA Export Limitations
Intel has responded to the high demand for advanced chips in mainland China by bringing its processor, the Gaudi2, to the market. This move comes as the country grapples with US export restrictions, leading to a thriving market for smuggled NVIDIA GPUs. At a press conference in Beijing, Intel presented the Gaudi2 processor as an alternative to NVIDIA's A100 GPU, widely used for training AI systems. Despite US export controls, Intel recognizes the importance of the Chinese market, with 27 percent of its 2022 revenue generated from China. NVIDIA has also tried to comply with restrictions by offering modified versions of its GPUs, but limited supplies have driven the demand for smuggled GPUs. Intel's Gaudi2 aims to provide Chinese companies with various hardware options and bolster their ability to deploy AI through cloud and smart-edge technologies. By partnering with Inspur Group, a major AI server manufacturer, Intel plans to build Gaudi2-powered machines tailored explicitly for the Chinese market.
China's AI ambitions face potential challenges as the US government considers restricting Chinese companies access to American cloud computing services. This move could impede the utilization of advanced AI chips by major players like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft for their Chinese clients. Additionally, there are reports of a potential expansion of the US export ban to include NVIDIA's A800 GPU. As China continues to push forward with its AI development projects, Intel's introduction of the Gaudi2 processor helps country's demand for advanced chips. Balancing export controls and technological requirements within this complex trade landscape remains a crucial task for both companies and governments involved in the Chinese AI industry.
China's AI ambitions face potential challenges as the US government considers restricting Chinese companies access to American cloud computing services. This move could impede the utilization of advanced AI chips by major players like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft for their Chinese clients. Additionally, there are reports of a potential expansion of the US export ban to include NVIDIA's A800 GPU. As China continues to push forward with its AI development projects, Intel's introduction of the Gaudi2 processor helps country's demand for advanced chips. Balancing export controls and technological requirements within this complex trade landscape remains a crucial task for both companies and governments involved in the Chinese AI industry.
Adata Launches the XPG Lancer Blade DDR5 Memory
XPG, the e-sports arm of ADATA, the world's leading memory brand, specializes in creating high-performance and stunningly designed e-sports products for e-sports enthusiasts, technology-minded gamers, and overclockers. XPG today announced the launch of LANCER BLADE RGB DDR5 and LANCER BLADE DDR5 memory, emphasizing its low-profile heatsink design, freeing motherboard assembly from heatsink height, and providing a profile that is perfect for small cases with limited space. The XPG LANCER BLADE series includes two models with top speeds of 6000MT/s and 6400MT/s.
By utilizing high-quality carefully selected Hynix chips, these memory modules are low latency and easy to overclock while allowing gamers to enable a hassle-free speed boost with one-click overclocking. At the same time, The XPG LANCER BLADE series supports Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO and is compatible with the latest Intel and AMD platforms, ensuring excellent memory stability and a smoother operating experience when multitasking or running large-scale applications. In addition, the XPG LANCER BLADE series adopts a high price-performance strategy, combined with excellent operation and quality, it is definitely the foremost choice when gamers upgrade their systems.
By utilizing high-quality carefully selected Hynix chips, these memory modules are low latency and easy to overclock while allowing gamers to enable a hassle-free speed boost with one-click overclocking. At the same time, The XPG LANCER BLADE series supports Intel XMP 3.0 and AMD EXPO and is compatible with the latest Intel and AMD platforms, ensuring excellent memory stability and a smoother operating experience when multitasking or running large-scale applications. In addition, the XPG LANCER BLADE series adopts a high price-performance strategy, combined with excellent operation and quality, it is definitely the foremost choice when gamers upgrade their systems.
CHERRY Unveils CHERRY MX Experience Box and MX Switch Kit
CHERRY, a specialist for computer input devices and market leader in the field of mechanical key switches, offers with the new MX Experience Box all currently available switches in an attractive and informative packaging. This benefits not only DIY enthusiasts and collectors but also inexperienced users who want to try out the variety and find out the most pleasant typing characteristics for themselves. In addition, there will be another version of the box: The CHERRY MX Switch Kit contains a total of 23 switches of one kind, which allows to customize hot-swap keyboards or realize other DIY projects.
The MX Experience Box offers the perfect overview of CHERRY's entire portfolio of full-size switches and so contains all ten different models. This makes it possible, especially for beginners who are diving into the world of mechanical keyboards for the first time to try out the individual characteristics of the switches and thus find out the desired switching characteristic. The box contains MX RGB Red, MX RGB Speed Silver, MX RGB Silent Red, MX RGB Black, MX RGB Brown, MX RGB Ergo Clear, MX RGB Grey, MX RGB Blue, MX RGB Green, and the MX Black Clear-Top. In addition, the box contains all the important specifications for the switches. Due to the special presentation, the MX Experience Box is also suitable for collectors and enthusiasts who want to expand their private collections.
The MX Experience Box offers the perfect overview of CHERRY's entire portfolio of full-size switches and so contains all ten different models. This makes it possible, especially for beginners who are diving into the world of mechanical keyboards for the first time to try out the individual characteristics of the switches and thus find out the desired switching characteristic. The box contains MX RGB Red, MX RGB Speed Silver, MX RGB Silent Red, MX RGB Black, MX RGB Brown, MX RGB Ergo Clear, MX RGB Grey, MX RGB Blue, MX RGB Green, and the MX Black Clear-Top. In addition, the box contains all the important specifications for the switches. Due to the special presentation, the MX Experience Box is also suitable for collectors and enthusiasts who want to expand their private collections.
BIOSTAR Introduces the M800 Series SSD
BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, today unveils the brand new M800 Series PCIe Gen4x4 M.2 SSD, designed to revolutionize gaming for everyone from casual enthusiasts to professional gamers and streamers. The all-new M800 Series SSD promises incredible performance and high-speed data transfer, ensuring smoother gameplay and faster load times, ideal for gaming streamers and content creators. Its core features include a PCIe Gen4x4 interface, standard M.2 2280 form factor, BIOSTAR unique design, support for NVMe v1.3, and end-to-end data protection.
Available in 2 TB, 1 TB, and 512 GB capacity, the M800 series promises a read speed of up to 5000 MB/s and a maximum write speed of 4450 MB/s, outperforming the competition and ensuring an incredibly immersive gaming experience. Moreover, the PCIe Gen 4 x4 interface is designed to leverage the increased bandwidth provided by PCIe Gen 4, offering faster read and write speeds compared to its predecessors. As a result, it enhances the overall system performance, optimizes boot load-up time, and ensures faster application and game loading.
Available in 2 TB, 1 TB, and 512 GB capacity, the M800 series promises a read speed of up to 5000 MB/s and a maximum write speed of 4450 MB/s, outperforming the competition and ensuring an incredibly immersive gaming experience. Moreover, the PCIe Gen 4 x4 interface is designed to leverage the increased bandwidth provided by PCIe Gen 4, offering faster read and write speeds compared to its predecessors. As a result, it enhances the overall system performance, optimizes boot load-up time, and ensures faster application and game loading.
AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX Drops to $799, Pressure on RTX 4070 Ti
Graphics card prices on a much-needed downward spiral, and this doesn't spare even the enthusiast class of graphics cards. The AMD flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX is available for as low as $799 with retailer promotions. Specifically, an ASRock Radeon RX 7900 XTX Phantom Gaming graphics card is listed on Newegg for $899, with a coupon shaving off a further $100. That's a 30% departure from the $999 MSRP of AMD for the RX 7900 XTX.
At $799, the RX 7900 XTX applies pressure on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, as the RX 7900 XTX can now be had at its MSRP. The RX 7900 XTX is on average 31% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti at 4K Ultra HD in our testing (the intended use-case of the RX 7900 XTX), and about 21% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti at 1440p (intended use-case of the RTX 4070 Ti). The RTX 4070 Ti is about 4% to 9% faster at real-time ray tracing.
At $799, the RX 7900 XTX applies pressure on the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, as the RX 7900 XTX can now be had at its MSRP. The RX 7900 XTX is on average 31% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti at 4K Ultra HD in our testing (the intended use-case of the RX 7900 XTX), and about 21% faster than the RTX 4070 Ti at 1440p (intended use-case of the RTX 4070 Ti). The RTX 4070 Ti is about 4% to 9% faster at real-time ray tracing.
Durabook Upgrades U11 Rugged Tablet With 12th Gen Intel CPU and Architectural Innovations
Durabook, an innovator in purpose-built, rugged computing solutions, today announced upgrading its U11 Rugged Tablet with the 12th Gen Intel processor and other architectural innovations that establish it as the most versatile 11-inch rugged tablet. The U11 rugged tablet solution goes above and beyond standard requirements to elevate the professional user's experience.
Upgrading the U11 CPU to the latest Intel 12th generation Alder Lake platform, with Intel Core i7 and i5 processors, is significant in part because it enables performance up to 225% faster than the previous, 10th Gen CPU. Sporting the Coolfinity fanless thermal solution lets the U11 tablet operate quietly while offering higher reliability and decreasing downtime and repairs that negatively impact productivity. Delivered with Intel Iris Xe Graphics boosts the U11's computing power to process large amounts of data, images, and video feeds in real-time. Packing these and a trove of functions and features into a rugged tablet appeals to professional users that desire the utmost performance with the ease of a tablet.
Upgrading the U11 CPU to the latest Intel 12th generation Alder Lake platform, with Intel Core i7 and i5 processors, is significant in part because it enables performance up to 225% faster than the previous, 10th Gen CPU. Sporting the Coolfinity fanless thermal solution lets the U11 tablet operate quietly while offering higher reliability and decreasing downtime and repairs that negatively impact productivity. Delivered with Intel Iris Xe Graphics boosts the U11's computing power to process large amounts of data, images, and video feeds in real-time. Packing these and a trove of functions and features into a rugged tablet appeals to professional users that desire the utmost performance with the ease of a tablet.
Samsung Starts Mass Production of Automotive UFS 3.1 Memory Solution
Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced that it has initiated mass production of its new automotive Universal Flash Storage (UFS) 3.1 memory solution optimized for in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) systems. The new solution offers the industry's lowest energy consumption, enabling car manufacturers to provide the best mobility experience for consumers.
The UFS 3.1 lineup will come in 128, 256 and 512-gigabyte (GB) variants to meet different needs of customers. The enhanced lineup allows more efficient battery life management to future automotive applications such as electric or autonomous vehicles. The 256 GB model, for instance, has reduced its energy consumption by about 33% compared to the previous generation product. The 256 GB model also provides a sequential write speed of 700-megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and a sequential read speed of 2,000 MB/s.
The UFS 3.1 lineup will come in 128, 256 and 512-gigabyte (GB) variants to meet different needs of customers. The enhanced lineup allows more efficient battery life management to future automotive applications such as electric or autonomous vehicles. The 256 GB model, for instance, has reduced its energy consumption by about 33% compared to the previous generation product. The 256 GB model also provides a sequential write speed of 700-megabytes-per-second (MB/s) and a sequential read speed of 2,000 MB/s.
IEEE 802.11bb Global Light Communications Standard Released
Global LiFi technology firms pureLiFi and Fraunhofer HHI welcome the release of IEEE 802.11bb as the latest global light communications standard alongside IEEE 802.11 WiFi standards. The bb standard marks a significant milestone for the LiFi market, as it provides a globally recognised framework for deployment of LiFi technology.
LiFi is a wireless technology that uses light rather than radio frequencies to transmit data. By harnessing the light spectrum, LiFi can unleash faster, more reliable wireless communications with unparalleled security compared to conventional technologies such as WiFi and 5G. The Light Communications 802.11bb Task Group was formed in 2018 chaired by pureLiFi and supported by Fraunhofer HHI, two firms which have been at the forefront of LiFi development efforts. Both organisations aim to see accelerated adoption and interoperability not only between LiFi vendors but also with WiFi technologies as a result of these standardisation efforts.
LiFi is a wireless technology that uses light rather than radio frequencies to transmit data. By harnessing the light spectrum, LiFi can unleash faster, more reliable wireless communications with unparalleled security compared to conventional technologies such as WiFi and 5G. The Light Communications 802.11bb Task Group was formed in 2018 chaired by pureLiFi and supported by Fraunhofer HHI, two firms which have been at the forefront of LiFi development efforts. Both organisations aim to see accelerated adoption and interoperability not only between LiFi vendors but also with WiFi technologies as a result of these standardisation efforts.
Wednesday, July 12th 2023
Today's Reviews
Desktop PC
Graphics Cards
Motherboards
Mouse
Notebooks
TPU Interviews AMD Vice President: Ryzen AI, X3D, Zen 4 Future Strategy and More
In this exclusive interview, we talk to the AMD Vice President who's responsible for AMD processors, both on desktop and mobile. Of course we had to ask about AI, but we also learned more about AM5 APUs, core counts, chiplets, Hybrid Architectures, Zen 5 and Intel's x86s proposal.
Zotac GeForce RTX 4070 AMP Airo Review
Zotac's GeForce RTX 4070 AMP Airo comes with mesmerizing RGB lighting and a factory overclock. Thermal performance of this triple-slot, triple-fan card is excellent, and energy efficiency is among the best we've ever seen, which is the foundation for the card's impressive noise levels.
NVIDIA Announces Latest Batch of DLSS-Enabled Games
Every week, we bring you news of the latest DLSS and ray tracing integrations in games and apps. This week, Jagged Alliance 3 and Testament: The Order of High Human launch with support for DLSS 2; SlavicPunk: Oldtimer and DESORDRE: A Puzzle Game Adventure are available now with DLSS 2, and Dying Light 2 Stay Human's Good Night, Good Luck update is available with DLSS 3. To cap it all off, Blizzard has announced the details of Diablo IV's Season of the Malignant! Read on to learn more.
Diablo IV: Season of the Malignant Starts July 20th
Get ready to continue your journey through Sanctuary in Diablo IV with Season of the Malignant on July 20th. A new form of Lilith's corruption has spread throughout Sanctuary, creating Malignant Monsters and opportunities for players to create powerful new builds. Partner with Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, in a new questline to stop the spread of these Malignant Monsters, collect new items and earn rewards.
Diablo IV: Season of the Malignant Starts July 20th
Get ready to continue your journey through Sanctuary in Diablo IV with Season of the Malignant on July 20th. A new form of Lilith's corruption has spread throughout Sanctuary, creating Malignant Monsters and opportunities for players to create powerful new builds. Partner with Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, in a new questline to stop the spread of these Malignant Monsters, collect new items and earn rewards.
OXENFREE II: Lost Signals Out Now on Multiple Platforms
It's time to head to Camena. Today, OXENFREE II: Lost Signals is now available on mobile via Netflix, as well as Steam, PlayStation, and Nintendo Switch. In the small coastal town of Camena, unnaturally occurring electromagnetic waves are suddenly causing interference with electrical and radio equipment. Equipped with a radio, walkie talkie, and climbing gear, Riley Poverly sets out to uncover what's lurking in the static. Here's everything you need to know for launch day...
Do I need to play OXENFREE before playing OXENFREE II?
It's up to you. OXENFREE II features a new cast and story in a familiar setting. We think you'll enjoy making connections between both games but you can jump right in without playing the first game. If you want to catch up on what happened on OXENFREE before playing the new game, here's a quick recap and a refresher.
Do I need to play OXENFREE before playing OXENFREE II?
It's up to you. OXENFREE II features a new cast and story in a familiar setting. We think you'll enjoy making connections between both games but you can jump right in without playing the first game. If you want to catch up on what happened on OXENFREE before playing the new game, here's a quick recap and a refresher.
Microsoft Closer to Finalizing Activision Blizzard Merger - FTC Injunction Request Rejected by US Judge
Microsoft is closing in on its proposed $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard—the company is celebrating another victory, following the conclusion of a crucial court case against the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Both parties were recently engaged in five days of arguments and deliberation—yesterday Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley's final ruling stated: Microsoft's acquisition of Activision has been described as the largest in tech history. It deserves scrutiny. That scrutiny has paid off: Microsoft has committed in writing, in public, and in court to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation for 10 years on parity with Xbox. It made an agreement with Nintendo to bring Call of Duty to Switch. And it entered several agreements to for the first time bring Activision's content to several cloud gaming services."
The lady justice continued: "This Court's responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED."
The lady justice continued: "This Court's responsibility in this case is narrow. It is to decide if, notwithstanding these current circumstances, the merger should be halted—perhaps even terminated—pending resolution of the FTC administrative action. For the reasons explained, the Court finds the FTC has not shown a likelihood it will prevail on its claim this particular vertical merger in this specific industry may substantially lessen competition. To the contrary, the record evidence points to more consumer access to Call of Duty and other Activision content. The motion for a preliminary injunction is therefore DENIED."
AMD FidelityFX SDK 1.0 Available Now
We are happy to share that our AMD FidelityFX Software Development Kit (SDK) is now available for download!
What is the AMD FidelityFX SDK?
The AMD FidelityFX SDK is our new and easy to integrate solution for developers looking to include AMD FidelityFX technologies into their games without any of the hassle of complicated porting procedures. In a nutshell, it is AMD FidelityFX graphics middleware.
What is the AMD FidelityFX SDK?
The AMD FidelityFX SDK is our new and easy to integrate solution for developers looking to include AMD FidelityFX technologies into their games without any of the hassle of complicated porting procedures. In a nutshell, it is AMD FidelityFX graphics middleware.
Respawn Entertainment Reportedly Working on Third Star Wars Jedi Title
Respawn Entertainment is actively recruiting for a new game project—the Los Angeles studio is looking to fill a "Principal Game Writer" position—the job description (posted on LinkedIn) hints that a sequel to Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is already in development: "We're looking for a highly skilled Principal Game Writer who will embrace our philosophy and share their hard-earned expertise to help us create an incredible Star Wars experience for our players in a fun, third-person action-adventure setting. We're picturing an avid gamer who is passionate about storytelling through interactive narratives. Under the direction of the Lead Writer, the Principal Game Writer will be responsible for writing dialogue, scenes, story treatments, and supporting text for the game."
A portion of the Star Wars Jedi fan base, particularly players on PC, will be questioning Respawn and EA's apparent swift decision to shift their priorities to the making of a sequel to Survivor. The second entry in the series released on multiple platforms back in late April, following a delay to address technical issues—the extra time allowance did not result in a perfect launch. The game debuted with major problems across PC and current generation consoles—with apologies and fixes appearing soon after. Respawn's latest patch—number six—was made available on June 20. We can assume that several departments (Art, Design, Production etc.) are not required to provide ongoing support for the current game since there are no announced plans for DLC, but fans would appreciate a continued stream of improvements issued by QA and software engineering staffers.
A portion of the Star Wars Jedi fan base, particularly players on PC, will be questioning Respawn and EA's apparent swift decision to shift their priorities to the making of a sequel to Survivor. The second entry in the series released on multiple platforms back in late April, following a delay to address technical issues—the extra time allowance did not result in a perfect launch. The game debuted with major problems across PC and current generation consoles—with apologies and fixes appearing soon after. Respawn's latest patch—number six—was made available on June 20. We can assume that several departments (Art, Design, Production etc.) are not required to provide ongoing support for the current game since there are no announced plans for DLC, but fans would appreciate a continued stream of improvements issued by QA and software engineering staffers.
Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Basic Specs Leaked
YouTuber RedGamingTech has put together a list of leaked Intel 14th Gen Core SKUs—they claim that this information was compiled from various tipsters and inside sources. Raptor Lake Refresh is perhaps not a very exciting prospect—i.e. a mild upgrade—for current owners of 13th Gen Core CPUs on the LGA 1700 platform, but upcoming mid-range SKUs could offer a nice performance uplift for those still on 12th Gen silicon (or older) thanks to higher core counts. According to RedGamingTech's list, the refreshed Core i7 series (14700, -K &-F) sports 20 cores and 28 threads, while Core i5 14600 SKUs are rumored to feature 16 cores and 24 threads. Prospective budget-conscious customers are likely to be enthused by Core i3 SKUs getting a refresh with new 6-core/12-thread configs.
NVIDIA Reportedly Interested in Becoming Arm IPO Anchor Investor
Several big players in the industry have (reportedly) presented themselves as potential anchor investors in Ltd. Japan's SoftBank Group Corp, the owner of the British semiconductor and software design company is preparing an initial public offering (IPO) in the USA, with a likely kick-off date in September. The Financial Times has today claimed that NVIDIA was invited (by Softbank) to actively negotiate with Arm leadership with the aim to join a group of prospective IPO anchor investors. Citing insider sources who have been briefed about ongoing deliberations—Team Green could be proposing an investment of roughly $35 billion to $40 billion.
The report suggests that SoftBank would prefer an offer closer to $70 - 80 billion—it seems that more haggling is on the cards. NVIDIA is a longtime partner and client of Arm, with the former attempting to buyout the latter over a year ago—but their agreement was terminated due to "significant regulatory challenges" in regions including the US, UK and China. At the time, the scuppered deal's estimated value was widely reported being $66 billion.
The report suggests that SoftBank would prefer an offer closer to $70 - 80 billion—it seems that more haggling is on the cards. NVIDIA is a longtime partner and client of Arm, with the former attempting to buyout the latter over a year ago—but their agreement was terminated due to "significant regulatory challenges" in regions including the US, UK and China. At the time, the scuppered deal's estimated value was widely reported being $66 billion.
Blizzard President Denies that Diablo IV is Destined for an Xbox Game Pass Release
Blizzard Entertainment has once again refuted claims that their blockbuster (online only) action role-playing game, Diablo IV, is coming to Xbox Game Pass at some point in the future. PicPay, a Brazilian payment app, has been displaying adverts presenting Blizzard's latest ARPG as a current prospect on the Microsoft game subscription service. Blizzard boss Mike Ybarra was quick to shoot down this rumor as it hit news site—in a reply to Game Pass Tracker (on Twitter) he succinctly stated: "This is not happening." A couple of media outlets are now reporting that the Diablo IV advertising banners have been removed from the PicPay app.
Ybarra's career includes a twenty year stint at Microsoft—he was Corporate Vice President of Gaming prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment back in 2021. His former colleague—Xbox boss Phil Spencer—made clear (last September) his company's ambitions for several Acti-Blizz franchises, under conditions of a successful acquisition of the publishing group: "We intend to make Activision Blizzard's much-loved library of games - including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty - available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities." Microsoft is inching closer to finalizing the proposed merger, so it will be interesting to see whether Blizzard will break with tradition when the new management steps in.
Ybarra's career includes a twenty year stint at Microsoft—he was Corporate Vice President of Gaming prior to joining Blizzard Entertainment back in 2021. His former colleague—Xbox boss Phil Spencer—made clear (last September) his company's ambitions for several Acti-Blizz franchises, under conditions of a successful acquisition of the publishing group: "We intend to make Activision Blizzard's much-loved library of games - including Overwatch, Diablo and Call of Duty - available in Game Pass and to grow those gaming communities." Microsoft is inching closer to finalizing the proposed merger, so it will be interesting to see whether Blizzard will break with tradition when the new management steps in.
EK Intros Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme D-RGB Special Edition Monoblock
Introducing the EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme D-RGB - Special Edition, a premium Ultrablock-class product designed and produced by EK, the leading manufacturer of high-quality PC liquid cooling gear. This state-of-the-art product belongs to the Quantum Line and is specifically engineered for the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme motherboard, ensuring perfect compatibility.
Advanced Design
The EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme D-RGB - Special Edition is perfect for those who want to experience the very epitome of high-end liquid cooling technology. This exceptional monoblock represents the ultimate all-in-one solution, meticulously engineered to deliver outstanding cooling performance for a diverse range of CPUs, including the 13th Gen Intel Core and 12th Gen Intel Core processors. Exclusively designed for the LGA 1700 socket-based ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme motherboard, the monoblock sets new standards across the water-cooling landscape.
Advanced Design
The EK-Quantum Momentum² ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme D-RGB - Special Edition is perfect for those who want to experience the very epitome of high-end liquid cooling technology. This exceptional monoblock represents the ultimate all-in-one solution, meticulously engineered to deliver outstanding cooling performance for a diverse range of CPUs, including the 13th Gen Intel Core and 12th Gen Intel Core processors. Exclusively designed for the LGA 1700 socket-based ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Extreme motherboard, the monoblock sets new standards across the water-cooling landscape.
EU Commission Conditionally Approves Broadcom's $61 Billion Acquisition of VMware
The European Commission has today announced that it has granted conditional approval—under EU Merger Regulation—for the $61 billion acquisition of VMware by Broadcom: "The approval is conditional upon full compliance with the commitments offered by Broadcom. Today's decision follows an in-depth investigation of the proposed acquisition. Broadcom is a hardware company that offers, among other products, Fibre Channel Host-Bus Adapters ('FC HBAs'), storage adapters and Network Interface Cards ('NICs'), which are hardware components that connect servers to storage or network. Broadcom has recently started expanding into software markets, mainly for security and mainframe applications. VMware is a software supplier offering mainly virtualization software that interoperates with a wide range of hardware, including FC HBAs, storage adapters and NICs.
A company spokesperson commented on the EU administration's conditional approval of the deal: "Broadcom provided the European Commission with a technology access remedy that preserves interoperability, a core principle that would not have changed as a result of this transaction...Broadcom did this to fully address the concerns expressed by the European Commission, and Broadcom welcomes the Commission's decision to accept this access remedy." The aforementioned "concerns" relate to the acquisition resulting in a possible restriction of "competition in the market for certain hardware components which interoperate with VMware's software." Broadcom is aiming to finalize their purchase of VMware by November 1, but they have to contend with forthcoming judgements from US and UK regulators prior to that date.
A company spokesperson commented on the EU administration's conditional approval of the deal: "Broadcom provided the European Commission with a technology access remedy that preserves interoperability, a core principle that would not have changed as a result of this transaction...Broadcom did this to fully address the concerns expressed by the European Commission, and Broadcom welcomes the Commission's decision to accept this access remedy." The aforementioned "concerns" relate to the acquisition resulting in a possible restriction of "competition in the market for certain hardware components which interoperate with VMware's software." Broadcom is aiming to finalize their purchase of VMware by November 1, but they have to contend with forthcoming judgements from US and UK regulators prior to that date.
Hellboy Web of Wyrd Gameplay Demoed in New Trailer
A new trailer for Hellboy Web of Wyrd was unveiled yesterday during the IGN x ID@Xbox Digital Showcase, giving us a brand-new glimpse at the upcoming action title. The trailer showed new locations, a look at some of Hellboy's fighting moves, and some of the characters he'll likely be throwing his very large fists at. All of this came wrapped up in a traditional comic-style setting, with inspiration heavily drawn from Hellboy comics creator Mike Mignola.
We had the chance to chat to two developers from Upstream Arcade, Adam Langridge and Patrick Martin, about how the art direction of Hellboy Web of Wyrd, how Mignola's presence is felt throughout the game, and the work put in to craft a fresh story while remaining faithful to the Hellboy series.
We had the chance to chat to two developers from Upstream Arcade, Adam Langridge and Patrick Martin, about how the art direction of Hellboy Web of Wyrd, how Mignola's presence is felt throughout the game, and the work put in to craft a fresh story while remaining faithful to the Hellboy series.
Linux Breaks 3% PC Desktop Market Share After 30 Years
The PC market is dominated by the Windows operating system. There are alternatives, but most commercial applications run Windows OS, and the usage for the average user makes sense. However, Linux users often dream of the "year of Linux on desktop," where Linux starts dominating the PC market and mass adoption starts. In reality, this isn't the case as most people use the default or install the Windows OS. Today, we learn that Linux broke the 3% market share number after 30 years of presence. Being the highest market share it ever recorded, the OSes based on the Linux kernel now represent 3.07% of the entire market.
The survey data conducted by StatCounter shows that Windows holds 68.23%, OS X for macOS holds 21.32, ChromeOS has a 4.13% share, while unknown OSes hold 3.24%. This includes BSD-based alternatives and others. It is worth noting that Linux adoption could be a part of Steam Deck, which runs on a SteamOS 3.0 distribution based on Arch Linux. It also includes a Proton compatibility layer, which helps Windows games run on Linux, so users have an easier time running their favorite applications.
The survey data conducted by StatCounter shows that Windows holds 68.23%, OS X for macOS holds 21.32, ChromeOS has a 4.13% share, while unknown OSes hold 3.24%. This includes BSD-based alternatives and others. It is worth noting that Linux adoption could be a part of Steam Deck, which runs on a SteamOS 3.0 distribution based on Arch Linux. It also includes a Proton compatibility layer, which helps Windows games run on Linux, so users have an easier time running their favorite applications.
NVIDIA Now Ships GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition with Updated Power Connector
A few weeks ago, we reported that NVIDIA is already shipping its GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition cards with an improved 12VHPWR connector called 12V-2x6. However, today we learn that NVIDIA is also now shipping GeForce RTX 4090 Founders Edition with an improved 12V-2x6 connector. Thanks to the Reddit user u/prackprackprack posting in r/NVIDIA, the user reported that his Founders Edition RTX 4090 has shortened sensing pins on the connector. If not adequately plugged in, the sensing pins will not allow the card to draw full power and melt the connector. Besides RTX 4070 FE, the RTX 4090 FE is now updated as well, which makes sense as it is the most power-hungry card in the family. However, this may be a partial 12V-2x6 implementation. Below, you can see images showing shortened sensing pins.
Tuesday, July 11th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cooling
CPU Coolers
Harddisks
Keyboards
DeepCool Assassin IV Review
DeepCool's all-new Assassin IV CPU cooler brings powerful performance to the table while remaining elegant and graceful in design. It easily dominates other air coolers in more ways than one, making it an effective solution for any build.
Phanteks Unveils Enthoo Pro 2 Server Edition Full-tower Case
Phanteks is excited to announce the launch of the Enthoo Pro 2 Server Edition, designed to deliver unparalleled performance and versatility. With innovative features like Phanteks "High-performance Fabric" and a spacious interior, the Enthoo Pro 2 Server Edition can accommodate any high-end configuration whether its SSI-EEB motherboards, extreme water cooling, or extensive storage requirements.
With support for both consumer and server grade hardware, the Enthoo Pro 2 Server Edition enables the seamless integration of diverse components, allowing users to build a cost-efficient server system that meets their specific requirements. The Pro 2 Server Edition expands support for more PCIe devices, accommodating server-grade hardware and providing exceptional cooling options for optimal performance. The additional left side fan bracket provides additional direct cooling for the most extreme server builds.
With support for both consumer and server grade hardware, the Enthoo Pro 2 Server Edition enables the seamless integration of diverse components, allowing users to build a cost-efficient server system that meets their specific requirements. The Pro 2 Server Edition expands support for more PCIe devices, accommodating server-grade hardware and providing exceptional cooling options for optimal performance. The additional left side fan bracket provides additional direct cooling for the most extreme server builds.
MythForce Arriving on September 12, as Revealed During ID@Xbox Showcase
Calling all heroes, Saturday Morning Cartoons are back! Deep in the land of Eldryth, a kingdom of magic and power, there's more that lies in wait than simple quests for our brave heroes. Beyond the castle ruins in the old forest, a vampire of blackest heart calls upon his sorceress, Hexstar, to raise the dead armies and ready them for war. Who will stand and face these perils? Who will claim victory over their foes… through the power of teamwork?
As you might have seen in today's IGN x ID@Xbox Digital Showcase, we debuted a brand-new villain (Hexstar) and announced the inevitable release date of our upcoming title for September 12, 2023, for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Inspired by beloved Saturday morning cartoons, MythForce unites swords and sorcery with gripping first-person combat in a new roguelike adventure.
As you might have seen in today's IGN x ID@Xbox Digital Showcase, we debuted a brand-new villain (Hexstar) and announced the inevitable release date of our upcoming title for September 12, 2023, for Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. Inspired by beloved Saturday morning cartoons, MythForce unites swords and sorcery with gripping first-person combat in a new roguelike adventure.
Intel Meteor Lake iGPU Reportedly Boosts up to 2.2 GHz
Chinese tech tipster Golden Pig Upgrade has turned its attention to Intel's Meteor Lake processor series—they believe that hardware partners are putting qualification samples (QS) through the ringer. The short Bilibili social media post proposes that these laptop-oriented prototypes sport six high-performance Redwood Cove cores running at 4.80 GHz, eight energy-efficient Crestmont cores, as well as two low-power Crestmont cores. Apparently the unit's TDP can be adjusted—starting at 20 W, and going up to 65 W. Golden Pig Upgrade was also informed about a Core Ultra 9 model capable of hitting 5.0 GHz (or greater) maximum CPU clocks.
The qualification sample's integrated graphics processing unit is reportedly based on the Xe-LPG architecture—some experts reckon that this could offer performance (4.5 FP32 TFLOPS) comparable to Arc A380 or A370M discrete solutions. The sampled iGPU could feature up to 128 execution units (so equivalent to 1024 stream processors, as well as 8 Xe clusters)—insider sources allege that units can boost to a maximum of 2.2 GHz. It will be interesting to observe how this will stack up against AMD's Radeon 780M iGPU—which is theoretically in a similar ballpark (4.3 FP32 TFLOPS).
The qualification sample's integrated graphics processing unit is reportedly based on the Xe-LPG architecture—some experts reckon that this could offer performance (4.5 FP32 TFLOPS) comparable to Arc A380 or A370M discrete solutions. The sampled iGPU could feature up to 128 execution units (so equivalent to 1024 stream processors, as well as 8 Xe clusters)—insider sources allege that units can boost to a maximum of 2.2 GHz. It will be interesting to observe how this will stack up against AMD's Radeon 780M iGPU—which is theoretically in a similar ballpark (4.3 FP32 TFLOPS).
AMD EPYC 7003 Series CPUs Announced as Powering SAP Applications
Today, AMD announced that SAP has chosen AMD EPYC processor-powered Google Cloud N2D virtual machines (VMs) to run its cloud ERP delivery operations for RISE with SAP; further increasing adoption of AMD EPYC for cloud-based workloads. As enterprises look toward digital modernization, many are adopting cloud-first architectures to complement their on-premises data centers. AMD, Google Cloud and SAP can help customers achieve their most stringent performance goals while delivering on energy efficiency, scalability and resource utilization needs.
AMD EPYC processors offer exceptional performance as well as robust security features, and energy efficient solutions for enterprise workloads in the cloud. RISE with SAP helps maximize customer investments in cloud infrastructure and, paired with AMD EPYC processors and Google Cloud N2D VMs, aims to modernize customer data centers and transform data into actionable insights, faster. "AMD powers some of the most performant and energy efficient cloud instances available in the world today," said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit, AMD. "As part of our engagement with Google Cloud and SAP, SAP has selected AMD EPYC CPU-powered N2D instances to host its Business Suite enterprise software workloads. This decision by SAP delivers the performance and performance-per-dollar of EPYC processors to customers looking to modernize their data centers and streamline IT spending by accelerating time to value on their enterprise applications."
AMD EPYC processors offer exceptional performance as well as robust security features, and energy efficient solutions for enterprise workloads in the cloud. RISE with SAP helps maximize customer investments in cloud infrastructure and, paired with AMD EPYC processors and Google Cloud N2D VMs, aims to modernize customer data centers and transform data into actionable insights, faster. "AMD powers some of the most performant and energy efficient cloud instances available in the world today," said Dan McNamara, senior vice president and general manager, Server Business Unit, AMD. "As part of our engagement with Google Cloud and SAP, SAP has selected AMD EPYC CPU-powered N2D instances to host its Business Suite enterprise software workloads. This decision by SAP delivers the performance and performance-per-dollar of EPYC processors to customers looking to modernize their data centers and streamline IT spending by accelerating time to value on their enterprise applications."
Age of Wonders 4 Watcher Update Available via Open Beta Preview
Hello everyone! Today I'm happy to announce that we're putting the next update for Age of Wonders 4 into Open Beta! This previews some of the improvements that are part of the Watcher update, due later this summer. This coming update focuses on what we feel are the issues which are most important to you, and we'd love to get your feedback on what we've managed to do so far.
It's important to remember that this is a work in progress patch. This means that it may be unstable or imbalanced, and that the features we've added may not work entirely as we want them to. It also means that we may revert certain changes later if we feel that they aren't achieving what we want them to or if we're inspired to replace them with something better! Instructions, Patch Notes and F.A.Q. are provided below...
It's important to remember that this is a work in progress patch. This means that it may be unstable or imbalanced, and that the features we've added may not work entirely as we want them to. It also means that we may revert certain changes later if we feel that they aren't achieving what we want them to or if we're inspired to replace them with something better! Instructions, Patch Notes and F.A.Q. are provided below...
AMD's Starfield Game Bundle Promo Campaign Goes Live
AMD and Bethesda have officially launched the Starfield Game Bundle today—this promotion has been leaked several times recently, with Team Red's Taiwanese operation revealing (late last week) that the campaign would be starting on July 11. That date also applies to the vast majority of global territories—company web presences are showing that the new game bundle has gone live with their offer of "Get Starfield when you buy select AMD Ryzen processors, AMD Radeon graphics cards, or a gaming system that contains both."
Bethesda's Starfield is scheduled for release on September 6—prospective AMD hardware buyers are invited to select Standard or Premium Edition tiers, depending on the choice of qualifying Ryzen or Radeon products. The entry point comprises Ryzen 5 7000 series CPUs or Radeon 6600 GPUs. Premium 5-day early access is made available to buyers of Ryzen 9 7000 CPUs or Radeon cards starting with RX 6700 models.
Bethesda's Starfield is scheduled for release on September 6—prospective AMD hardware buyers are invited to select Standard or Premium Edition tiers, depending on the choice of qualifying Ryzen or Radeon products. The entry point comprises Ryzen 5 7000 series CPUs or Radeon 6600 GPUs. Premium 5-day early access is made available to buyers of Ryzen 9 7000 CPUs or Radeon cards starting with RX 6700 models.
Intel Discontinues its NUC Product Range
Intel has informed ecosystem partners about the cessation of direct investment in its Next Unit of Compute (NUC) business—ServeTheHome was the first outlet to report on this development earlier today, following industry rumors cropping up on Monday. Intel has been pulling back on non-core business operations—back in April its server building operation was sold to MiTAC. Today's announcement signals Team Blue's exit from the PC building industry—their (internally manufactured) NUC products included SFF computers, kits, laptop reference systems and boards.
Intel sent an official statement to HardwareLuxx (translated from German): "We have decided to stop direct investment in the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) Business and pivot our strategy to enable our ecosystem partners to continue NUC innovation and growth. This decision will not impact the remainder of Intel's Client Computing Group (CCG) or Network and Edge Computing (NEX) businesses. Furthermore, we are working with our partners and customers to ensure a smooth transition and fulfillment of all our current commitments."
Intel sent an official statement to HardwareLuxx (translated from German): "We have decided to stop direct investment in the Next Unit of Compute (NUC) Business and pivot our strategy to enable our ecosystem partners to continue NUC innovation and growth. This decision will not impact the remainder of Intel's Client Computing Group (CCG) or Network and Edge Computing (NEX) businesses. Furthermore, we are working with our partners and customers to ensure a smooth transition and fulfillment of all our current commitments."
No Official Review Program for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Cards
NVIDIA is reported to be taking a hands off approach prior to the launch of its GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB GPU next week—rumored to take place on July 18. Murmurs from last week posited that add-in card (AIC) partners were not all that confident in the variant's prospects, with very little promotional activity lined up. NVIDIA itself is not releasing a Founders Edition GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB model, so it will be relying on board partners to get custom design units sent out to press outlets/reviewers. According to Hardware Unboxed, as posted on Twitter earlier today, no hardware will be distributed to the media: "Now there's no official review program for this model, there will be no FE version and it seems that NVIDIA and their partners really don't want to know about it. Every NVIDIA partner I've spoken to so far has said they won't be providing review samples, and they're not even sure when their model will be available."
Their announcement continued: "So I don't know when you'll be able to view our review, but I will be buying one as soon as I can. I expect coverage will be pretty thin and that's probably the plan, the release strategy here is similar to that of the RTX 3080 12 GB." TPU can confirm that test samples have not been sent out by NVIDIA's board partners, so a retail unit will be purchased (out of pocket) for reviewing purposes. Previous reports have theorized that not many custom models will be available at launch, with the series MSRP of $499 not doing it many favors in terms of buyer interest. MSI has prepared a new white GAMING X design for the 16 GB variant, so it is good to see at least one example of an AIB putting the effort in...but it would be nice to get a press sample.
Their announcement continued: "So I don't know when you'll be able to view our review, but I will be buying one as soon as I can. I expect coverage will be pretty thin and that's probably the plan, the release strategy here is similar to that of the RTX 3080 12 GB." TPU can confirm that test samples have not been sent out by NVIDIA's board partners, so a retail unit will be purchased (out of pocket) for reviewing purposes. Previous reports have theorized that not many custom models will be available at launch, with the series MSRP of $499 not doing it many favors in terms of buyer interest. MSI has prepared a new white GAMING X design for the 16 GB variant, so it is good to see at least one example of an AIB putting the effort in...but it would be nice to get a press sample.
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F Seems to be Chinese Market Exclusive, Reportedly Launching Late July
The AMD Ryzen 5 7500F CPU has been popping up via various leaks—with no official announcements made despite photos, basic specifications and benchmark results appearing online. Tom's Hardware could not extract a comment directly from Team Red, so it pivoted to inside sources instead to find out more about the mysterious Zen 4 iGPU-less processor. The news site discovered that this model is very likely going to be a Chinese market exclusive—insiders reckon that it will be released closer to the end of this month. Retailers and e-tailers in the region are getting first dibs, with the Ryzen 5 7500F also made available to SIs (system integrators), so pre-built computers featuring this AM5 CPU could be released soon after.
Tom's Hardware believes that the: "Ryzen 5 7500F is very similar to the Ryzen 5 7600 and will operate with a 65 W TDP, and thus have slightly lower boost clock speeds than the 7600." It suspects that a recently published benchmark showing that single-core performance edges past the Ryzen 5 7600X (105 W TDP) is not all that accurate—these results should be "taken with a grain of salt." According to their verified sources, the Ryzen 5 7500F should "perform slightly slower than the regular 65 W Ryzen 5 7600 (non-X)." The article presents some hope that AMD is simply market testing the CPU prior to a possible USA rollout, but insiders indicate that company plans have the Ryzen 5 7500F marked for launch in China only.
Tom's Hardware believes that the: "Ryzen 5 7500F is very similar to the Ryzen 5 7600 and will operate with a 65 W TDP, and thus have slightly lower boost clock speeds than the 7600." It suspects that a recently published benchmark showing that single-core performance edges past the Ryzen 5 7600X (105 W TDP) is not all that accurate—these results should be "taken with a grain of salt." According to their verified sources, the Ryzen 5 7500F should "perform slightly slower than the regular 65 W Ryzen 5 7600 (non-X)." The article presents some hope that AMD is simply market testing the CPU prior to a possible USA rollout, but insiders indicate that company plans have the Ryzen 5 7500F marked for launch in China only.
Audeze and Microsoft Collaborate for Limited Edition Maxwell Headset
Audeze, the leading premium headphone manufacturer, today announced the release of a limited edition gaming headset developed in partnership with Microsoft, for their Designed for Xbox Summer product collection. This stylish, limited edition "Ultraviolet" version of their highly lauded Maxwell gaming headset features a new finish that adds a head-turning and unique look to one of the best gaming headsets on the market. The Ultraviolet edition of the Maxwell headphone is available on the Audeze website for pre-order in limited quantities.
The partnership between Audeze and Microsoft which began in 2021 with the Microsoft certification of Audeze's Penrose gaming headset, and continued recently with Microsoft's certification of our new Maxwell gaming headset. This partnership has expanded access to Audeze's industry-leading planar magnetic headsets to Microsoft's vast audience of console users. Epic life-like audio quality as delivered by Audeze's legendary planar magnetic drivers are a powerful tool for gamers, and now with the Ultraviolet limited edition of Maxwell, they can use their sonic advantage in style.
The partnership between Audeze and Microsoft which began in 2021 with the Microsoft certification of Audeze's Penrose gaming headset, and continued recently with Microsoft's certification of our new Maxwell gaming headset. This partnership has expanded access to Audeze's industry-leading planar magnetic headsets to Microsoft's vast audience of console users. Epic life-like audio quality as delivered by Audeze's legendary planar magnetic drivers are a powerful tool for gamers, and now with the Ultraviolet limited edition of Maxwell, they can use their sonic advantage in style.
Denuvo Setting Up Benchmarking System, Attempting to Disprove Performance Shortfalls
Irdeto is the current owner of Denuvo Software Solutions—the Austrian development team behind the infamous anti-tamper technology and digital rights management (DRM) system. According to Ars Technica neither of these organizations have made great efforts (in the past) to engage in discussion about the controversial anti-piracy and anti-cheat suites—but Steeve Huin, Irdeto's Chief Operating Officer of Video Games—agreed to grant the publication an exclusive interview. The article is titled "Denuvo wants to convince you its DRM isn't evil," which sums up a lot of the public perception regarding Denuvo technologies—having received plenty of flak for high CPU usage and causing excessive activity within storage components. Some users propose that the latter scenario has resulted in shorter lifespans for their solid-state drives. Ars Technica has a long history of Denuvo-related coverage, so a company representative has been sent in for some damage control.
Off the bat, Huin acknowledges that he and his colleagues are aware of Denuvo's reputation: "In the pirating/cracking community, we're seen as evil because we're helping DRM exist and we're ensuring people make money out of games." He considers the technology to be a positive force: "Anti-piracy technologies is to the benefit of the game publishers, [but also] is of benefit to the players in that it protects the [publisher's] investment and it means the publishers can then invest in the next game...But people typically don't think enough of that...Whether people want to believe it or not, we are all gamers, we love gaming, we love being part of it. We develop technologies with the intent to make the industry better and stronger."
Off the bat, Huin acknowledges that he and his colleagues are aware of Denuvo's reputation: "In the pirating/cracking community, we're seen as evil because we're helping DRM exist and we're ensuring people make money out of games." He considers the technology to be a positive force: "Anti-piracy technologies is to the benefit of the game publishers, [but also] is of benefit to the players in that it protects the [publisher's] investment and it means the publishers can then invest in the next game...But people typically don't think enough of that...Whether people want to believe it or not, we are all gamers, we love gaming, we love being part of it. We develop technologies with the intent to make the industry better and stronger."
Capcom Reveals Exoprimal's Post-Launch Content Schedule
People. Technology. Under threat. From dinosaurs. Exoprimal's launch is nearly here. On behalf of Aibius World News and Aibius PR, we'd like to share details about the game's launch this Friday and juicy new updates on what to expect in the weeks beyond! Sink your teeth into details about new Alpha variant Exosuits that change how each suit plays, start planning your strategies for the intense Savage Gauntlet PvE mode, and learn about new options to switch between a PvP or PvE-focused experience in Dino Survival. Plus, monstrous crossover content is coming to the game in a future update!
Set in a near-future world, vortexes can open at any time in any place and dump hundreds or even thousands of dinosaurs out. Thanks to breakthroughs from Aibius Corporation, humanity has been able to fight back using the power of Exosuits, powered armor that can withstand these blasts from the past. In the game's main mode, Dino Survival, you'll be thrust into a never-ending war game run by the next-generation artificial intelligence, Leviathan, who will put squads to the test with ever-evolving missions in a race against an opposing team. At its core, Exoprimal is all about working together with your five-person squad to suit up, adapt, and survive against both dinosaurs and, on occasion, other Exofighters.
Set in a near-future world, vortexes can open at any time in any place and dump hundreds or even thousands of dinosaurs out. Thanks to breakthroughs from Aibius Corporation, humanity has been able to fight back using the power of Exosuits, powered armor that can withstand these blasts from the past. In the game's main mode, Dino Survival, you'll be thrust into a never-ending war game run by the next-generation artificial intelligence, Leviathan, who will put squads to the test with ever-evolving missions in a race against an opposing team. At its core, Exoprimal is all about working together with your five-person squad to suit up, adapt, and survive against both dinosaurs and, on occasion, other Exofighters.
EK Introduces Quantum Torque Rotary STC-10/16 Fitting in Black
EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, unveils its latest product, the EK-Quantum Torque Rotary STC-10/16 - Black. Meticulously crafted with precision, these premium soft-tube compression fittings are specifically engineered to accommodate a wide range of flexible tubing types, including PVC, EPDM, Norprene, silicone, and other compatible options. What separates these new fittings is that they feature a rotary joint on the threaded side, enabling you to attach the fitting to the tube, securely fasten the compression ring, and then install the entire assembly into a G1/4" port inside your PC. This exceptional feature makes the installation process easier and more user-friendly. The new EK-Quantum Torque Rotary STC fitting supports the 10/16 mm (ID/OD) soft tubing.
Secure Connection
The fitting's locking ring compresses the tubing wall beneath it, ensuring that the flexible tube remains securely attached to the fitting's barb without the risk of being pulled off. The grooves on the exterior of the fitting facilitate easier hand tightening. The compression ring features EK Quantum's signature cutouts, allowing the colored aesthetic ring to be prominently displayed. For further customization, interchangeable aesthetic color rings can be added, making these fittings a perfect match for EK-Quantum series products.
Secure Connection
The fitting's locking ring compresses the tubing wall beneath it, ensuring that the flexible tube remains securely attached to the fitting's barb without the risk of being pulled off. The grooves on the exterior of the fitting facilitate easier hand tightening. The compression ring features EK Quantum's signature cutouts, allowing the colored aesthetic ring to be prominently displayed. For further customization, interchangeable aesthetic color rings can be added, making these fittings a perfect match for EK-Quantum series products.
Thermaltake CTE C700 Mid-tower Chassis Starts Selling
Thermaltake, the leading PC DIY premium brand for Case, Power, Cooling, Gaming peripherals, and enthusiast Memory solutions, is thrilled to release the CTE C700 TG ARGB Mid Tower Chassis and the CTE C700 Air Mid Tower Chassis in black and snow versions. The CTE C700 is a compact version of the flagship: CTE C750, featuring the CTE Form Factor design and dual chamber design to provide optimal thermal efficiency to high-end components. With maximum cooling support, the CTE C700 comes not only pre-installed with three of the latest CT140 fans, but it can also accommodate up to 420 mm AIO radiators. This series has two models, including the CTE C700 TG ARGB which comes with two tempered glass window panels at the front and left sides and the CTE C700 Air possessing a perforated metal front panel and emphasizing on greater airflow. The CTE C700 is an ideal E-ATX chassis achieving the balance of inner building display and functionality.
The CTE Form Factor design of the CTE C700, which stands for Centralized Thermal Efficiency, aims to generate a more efficient airflow pathway by rotating the motherboard 90 degrees. This design allows the CPU and graphics card, the critical heat sources, to be moved much closer to the ventilation on the front and rear sides of the chassis respectively. Furthermore, combined with the dual chamber design, the CTE C700 has wide-open space for a variety of cooler sizes and can draw air from three directions (front, bottom, and the rear side). With a large cooling capacity, the CTE C700 can house up to twelve 120 mm/ eleven 140 mm fans in total or 420 mm AIO radiators on the front and rear sides. Additionally, out of the box three CT140 ARGB fans are pre-installed in the CTE C700 TG ARGB and three CT140 fans are pre-installed in the CTE C700 Air, these fans are Thermaltake's new case fans made with specially tuned fan blades, and the 1500 maximum RPM fan can push the air further.
The CTE Form Factor design of the CTE C700, which stands for Centralized Thermal Efficiency, aims to generate a more efficient airflow pathway by rotating the motherboard 90 degrees. This design allows the CPU and graphics card, the critical heat sources, to be moved much closer to the ventilation on the front and rear sides of the chassis respectively. Furthermore, combined with the dual chamber design, the CTE C700 has wide-open space for a variety of cooler sizes and can draw air from three directions (front, bottom, and the rear side). With a large cooling capacity, the CTE C700 can house up to twelve 120 mm/ eleven 140 mm fans in total or 420 mm AIO radiators on the front and rear sides. Additionally, out of the box three CT140 ARGB fans are pre-installed in the CTE C700 TG ARGB and three CT140 fans are pre-installed in the CTE C700 Air, these fans are Thermaltake's new case fans made with specially tuned fan blades, and the 1500 maximum RPM fan can push the air further.
Other World Computing Announces 1TB and 2TB Atlas Ultra CFexpress Memory Cards
Other World Computing, the leading end-to-end ecosystem solution provider of computer hardware, accessories, and software for both consumers and professionals - today announced the expansion of the OWC Atlas Ecosystem with the release of 1 TB and 2 TB Atlas Ultra CFexpress memory cards. The two new high-capacity memory cards provide incredible 1700 MB/s write and 1850 MB/s read real-world speeds and ultra-dependable 1500 MB/s minimum sustained write speed. These high-performance Atlas Ultra CFexpress cards are designed to tackle today's extreme data needs, enabling professional filmmakers to capture amazingly life-like 8K RAW video with cinema cameras like the RED V-Raptor/XL and Komodo-X and flagship professional mirrorless cameras like the Nikon Z8 and Z9 or Canon R5C.
"As image resolution and color depth increase, recording time decreases. These higher capacity cards are the perfect solution for longer recording times at the highest resolutions and bitrates. The larger capacity points are also incredibly performative, giving us best-in-class reading, writing and workflows optimization," said Ian Stone, Category Manager for OWC memory cards.
"As image resolution and color depth increase, recording time decreases. These higher capacity cards are the perfect solution for longer recording times at the highest resolutions and bitrates. The larger capacity points are also incredibly performative, giving us best-in-class reading, writing and workflows optimization," said Ian Stone, Category Manager for OWC memory cards.
AMD CEO Lisa Su Notes: AI to Dominate Chip Design
Artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a transformative force in chip design, with recent examples from China and the United States showcasing its potential. Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, believes that AI can empower individuals to become programmers, while Lisa Su, CEO of AMD, predicts an era where AI dominates chip design. During the 2023 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, Su emphasized the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for the next generation of chip designers. To excel in this field, engineers must possess a holistic understanding of hardware, software, and algorithms, enabling them to create superior chip designs that meet system usage, customer deployment, and application requirements.
The integration of AI into chip design processes has gained momentum, fueled by the AI revolution catalyzed by large language models (LLMs). Both Huang and Mark Papermaster, CTO of AMD, acknowledge the benefits of AI in accelerating computation and facilitating chip design. AMD has already started leveraging AI in semiconductor design, testing, and verification, with plans to expand its use of generative AI in chip design applications. Companies are now actively exploring the fusion of AI technology with Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to streamline complex tasks and minimize manual intervention in chip design. Despite limited data and accuracy challenges, the "EDA+AI" approach holds great promise. For instance, Synopsys has invested significantly in AI tool research and recently launched Synopsys.ai, the industry's first end-to-end AI-driven EDA solution. This comprehensive solution empowers developers to harness AI at every stage of chip development, from system architecture and design to manufacturing, marking a significant leap forward in AI's integration into chip design workflows.
The integration of AI into chip design processes has gained momentum, fueled by the AI revolution catalyzed by large language models (LLMs). Both Huang and Mark Papermaster, CTO of AMD, acknowledge the benefits of AI in accelerating computation and facilitating chip design. AMD has already started leveraging AI in semiconductor design, testing, and verification, with plans to expand its use of generative AI in chip design applications. Companies are now actively exploring the fusion of AI technology with Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tools to streamline complex tasks and minimize manual intervention in chip design. Despite limited data and accuracy challenges, the "EDA+AI" approach holds great promise. For instance, Synopsys has invested significantly in AI tool research and recently launched Synopsys.ai, the industry's first end-to-end AI-driven EDA solution. This comprehensive solution empowers developers to harness AI at every stage of chip development, from system architecture and design to manufacturing, marking a significant leap forward in AI's integration into chip design workflows.
Acer Predator Arc A770 BiFrost Graphics Card Drops to Below $300
With the launches of GeForce RTX 4060 and Radeon RX 7600, the Intel Arc 7-series finds itself being a tough sell, pushing Intel Arc board partners such as Acer to clear out their inventory at deep discounts. The Acer Predator Arc A770 BiFrost graphics card sees its price slashed to $281, down from its $399 launch price. The premium custom-design card features a unique lateral+axial air based cooling solution that's studded with RGB lighting. The Acer Predator BiFrost is also one of the very few custom-design A770 cards to feature 16 GB of 17 Gbps GDDR6 memory, much like the Intel Limited Edition reference-design, most other custom-design cards come with 8 GB of 16 Gbps GDDR6 memory.
DeepCool Launches ASSASSIN IV CPU Air Cooler
DeepCool, a leading brand and manufacturer of PC cooling solutions, has raised the bar for air coolers with the launch of the ASSASSIN IV. Designed to provide silent operation and unparalleled thermal dissipation, while boasting a sleek aesthetic. At the heart of the ASSASSIN IV are seven heat pipes and a dual-tower design, providing top-tier heat dissipation. The simple and clean housing encases two densely packed fin towers, complemented by 120 mm and 140 mm FDB fans. The result? Optimal air flow and maximum compatibility, all wrapped in a visually appealing design that is sure to impress.
One of the standout features of the ASSASSIN IV is its relocatable 120 mm fan, which allows for maximum RAM clearance. This elegant design not only enhances the cooler's aesthetics, but also ensures that compatibility with various RAM configurations is never compromised. Speaking of compatibility, the ASSASSIN IV supports a wide range of sockets, including Intel's 1700, 1200, 115x, and 20xx, as well as AMD's AM5 and AM4. With the ASSASSIN IV, you won't have to worry about whether your CPU is supported.
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Assassin IV is now live]
One of the standout features of the ASSASSIN IV is its relocatable 120 mm fan, which allows for maximum RAM clearance. This elegant design not only enhances the cooler's aesthetics, but also ensures that compatibility with various RAM configurations is never compromised. Speaking of compatibility, the ASSASSIN IV supports a wide range of sockets, including Intel's 1700, 1200, 115x, and 20xx, as well as AMD's AM5 and AM4. With the ASSASSIN IV, you won't have to worry about whether your CPU is supported.
[Editor's note: Our in-depth review of the Assassin IV is now live]
QNAP Officially Releases QTS 5.1.0 NAS Operating System
QNAP Systems, Inc. (QNAP) today officially released the QTS 5.1.0 NAS operating system that includes major enhancements for storage applications, services, and management to address IT challenges. With QTS 5.1.0, QNAP has bolstered its industry-leading 2.5GbE, 10GbE, and 25GbE-ready NAS solutions, providing suitability for SMB multichannel to drive boosted network performance for demanding workloads.
"Our focus in QTS 5.1.0 was optimizing performance and cloud management, with an aim to help organizations resolve performance bottlenecks and also maximize operational efficiency from cloud management toolsets," said Tim Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "we also want to acknowledge the valuable feedback submitted by our amazing QTS 5.1.0 beta testers, as it helped us put the finishing touches to this official release."
"Our focus in QTS 5.1.0 was optimizing performance and cloud management, with an aim to help organizations resolve performance bottlenecks and also maximize operational efficiency from cloud management toolsets," said Tim Lin, Product Manager of QNAP, adding "we also want to acknowledge the valuable feedback submitted by our amazing QTS 5.1.0 beta testers, as it helped us put the finishing touches to this official release."
Monday, July 10th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cases
CPU Coolers
Desktop PC
Keyboards
Monitors
Motherboards
Mouse
Processors
Sivga Luan Open-Back, Over-Ear Headphones Review
Sivga has developed an exciting new dynamic driver and uses it in the new Luan open-back headphones. It comes in two colors/wood finish options and presents an enjoyable warm-neutral tonality that plays well with a variety of music genres while also being highly comfortable and fairly affordable to further sweeten the deal.
AMD Appoints Phil Guido as Chief Commercial Officer
AMD today announced that Executive Vice President and Chief Sales Officer Darren Grasby will transition into a new role as executive vice president, strategic partnerships and that Phil Guido has joined the company as executive vice president and chief commercial officer. Guido will be responsible for leading the AMD worldwide sales organization with a focus on further accelerating adoption of the company's leadership products with commercial and data center customers.
"I am excited to welcome Phil to our leadership team as we take the next steps in our journey to make AMD the commercial and data center compute partner of choice," said AMD Chair and CEO, Dr. Lisa Su. "Phil brings extensive enterprise and sales experience that will be incredibly valuable as we focus on deepening our enterprise partnerships and accelerating our growth in the data center, embedded and commercial markets. I also want to thank Darren for his transformational leadership as chief sales officer over the last eight years, and I look forward to leveraging his significant industry experience to lead strategic partnerships in his new role."
"I am excited to welcome Phil to our leadership team as we take the next steps in our journey to make AMD the commercial and data center compute partner of choice," said AMD Chair and CEO, Dr. Lisa Su. "Phil brings extensive enterprise and sales experience that will be incredibly valuable as we focus on deepening our enterprise partnerships and accelerating our growth in the data center, embedded and commercial markets. I also want to thank Darren for his transformational leadership as chief sales officer over the last eight years, and I look forward to leveraging his significant industry experience to lead strategic partnerships in his new role."
MediaTek Diversifies Mobile Offerings with Dimensity 6100+ SoC
MediaTek today officially launched its new Dimensity 6000 series along with a chipset designed to enhance the next generation of mainstream 5G devices. The Dimensity 6100+ SoC delivers premium features—including exceptional power efficiency, vivid displays, high frame rates, AI-powered camera technologies, leading low power consumption, and reliable Sub-6 5G connectivity—at an accessible price point.
"As developing markets continue rolling out 5G networks at a rapid pace and operators in developed markets work to finish transitioning consumers from 4G LTE to 5G, there has never been a more vital need for chipsets that cater to the growing number of mainstream mobile devices that feature next-generation connectivity," said CH Chen, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communications Business Unit. "The MediaTek Dimensity 6000 series makes it possible for device makers to stay ahead of the curve with impressive upgrades that boost performance, increase power efficiency and reduce material costs."
"As developing markets continue rolling out 5G networks at a rapid pace and operators in developed markets work to finish transitioning consumers from 4G LTE to 5G, there has never been a more vital need for chipsets that cater to the growing number of mainstream mobile devices that feature next-generation connectivity," said CH Chen, Deputy General Manager of MediaTek's Wireless Communications Business Unit. "The MediaTek Dimensity 6000 series makes it possible for device makers to stay ahead of the curve with impressive upgrades that boost performance, increase power efficiency and reduce material costs."
Global PC Shipments Continue to Decline in the Second Quarter of 2023 Due to Weak Demand and Shifting Budgetary Priorities, According to IDC Tracker
Global PC shipments declined 13.4% year over year during the second quarter of 2023 (2Q23), according to preliminary results from the International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. This was the sixth consecutive quarter of contraction brought on by macroeconomic headwinds, weak demand from both the consumer and commercial sectors, and a shift in IT budgets away from device purchases. Despite the poor showing, the market performed better than forecast for the quarter.
The overall weak demand has caused inventory levels to remain above normal for longer than expected. This includes finished systems at the channel level, as well as the supply chain. So far, no PC maker has been immune to the challenges presented by the market. Except for Apple and HP Inc., all the leading companies experienced double-digit declines during the quarter. But Apple benefited from a favorable year-over-year comparison as the company suffered supply issues during 2Q22 due to COVID-related shutdowns within the supply chain. Meanwhile, HP has faced an oversupply of inventory in the past year and is finally approaching normalized levels of inventory, allowing its growth rate to shine during this downturn.
The overall weak demand has caused inventory levels to remain above normal for longer than expected. This includes finished systems at the channel level, as well as the supply chain. So far, no PC maker has been immune to the challenges presented by the market. Except for Apple and HP Inc., all the leading companies experienced double-digit declines during the quarter. But Apple benefited from a favorable year-over-year comparison as the company suffered supply issues during 2Q22 due to COVID-related shutdowns within the supply chain. Meanwhile, HP has faced an oversupply of inventory in the past year and is finally approaching normalized levels of inventory, allowing its growth rate to shine during this downturn.
"Windows Update Restored" Project Launched to Support Legacy Operating Systems
The Windows Update Restored project was launched not along ago—this community led initiative aims to fill a gap, once occupied by official Microsoft support. The team wants to "restore the legacy Windows Update websites, (allowing) older operating systems (Windows 95, NT 4.0, 98, Me, 2000, and XP) to obtain updates like they used to." Volunteers have so far made the service available to users actively running Windows 95, 98 (& SE), and NT 4.0. Their system is currently limited to a clone of the Windows Update v3.1 website (of 1997 vintage). They hope to get Update v4 (2001) and Update v5 (2004) running in the future. It is stressed to visitors of the page that their project is not affiliated at all with Microsoft, and users are at risk of exposure to security exploits—given the outdated nature of older variants of Windows OS and the recreated update sources.
The Windows Update Restored mission statement reads: "Ever since 2011 when Microsoft pulled the plug on nearly all the Windows Update websites, the Windows Update feature for older Windows operating systems was no longer functional. The only way to install updates after that point was through external third-party installers which didn't cover all the updates that the operating system would fully support. So, with this project, we can now update operating systems as old as Windows 95 all the way through Windows XP RTM like we used to back in the day. The Windows Update Website provides users with security updates, optional updates, driver updates, and other types of software for the operating system. This project only restores the Windows Update website, not the Automatic Updates feature. To find out more about the Windows Update Website and what it does, follow this link."
The Windows Update Restored mission statement reads: "Ever since 2011 when Microsoft pulled the plug on nearly all the Windows Update websites, the Windows Update feature for older Windows operating systems was no longer functional. The only way to install updates after that point was through external third-party installers which didn't cover all the updates that the operating system would fully support. So, with this project, we can now update operating systems as old as Windows 95 all the way through Windows XP RTM like we used to back in the day. The Windows Update Website provides users with security updates, optional updates, driver updates, and other types of software for the operating system. This project only restores the Windows Update website, not the Automatic Updates feature. To find out more about the Windows Update Website and what it does, follow this link."
EA Introduces Cliffhanger Games - Working on a Triple-A Black Panther Title with Marvel
As we celebrate the 57th anniversary of Black Panther's comic debut this July, we're thrilled to announce Cliffhanger Games, a new triple-A development studio based in Seattle, is working on an original, third-person, single-player Black Panther game in collaboration with Marvel Games. Our mission is to build an expansive and reactive world that empowers players to experience what it is like to take on the mantle of Wakanda's protector, the Black Panther.
Led by Kevin Stephens (ex-Monolith Productions), Cliffhanger has already brought together accomplished talent with leaders from the critically acclaimed and innovative action-adventure game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, along with veterans of top franchises including Halo Infinite, God of War, Call of Duty and others. "We're dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. Wakanda is a rich Super Hero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do," said Kevin.
Led by Kevin Stephens (ex-Monolith Productions), Cliffhanger has already brought together accomplished talent with leaders from the critically acclaimed and innovative action-adventure game, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, along with veterans of top franchises including Halo Infinite, God of War, Call of Duty and others. "We're dedicated to delivering fans a definitive and authentic Black Panther experience, giving them more agency and control over their narrative than they have ever experienced in a story-driven video game. Wakanda is a rich Super Hero sandbox, and our mission is to develop an epic world for players who love Black Panther and want to explore the world of Wakanda as much as we do," said Kevin.
Tour de France Bike Designs Developed with NVIDIA RTX GPU Technologies
NVIDIA RTX is spinning new cycles for designs. Trek Bicycle is using GPUs to bring design concepts to life. The Wisconsin-based company, one of the largest bicycle manufacturers in the world, aims to create bikes with the highest-quality craftsmanship. With its new partner Lidl, an international retailer chain, Trek Bicycle also owns a cycling team, now called Lidl-Trek. The team is competing in the annual Tour de France stage race on Trek Bicycle's flagship lineup, which includes the Emonda, Madone and Speed Concept. Many of the team's accessories and equipment, such as the wheels and road race helmets, were also designed at Trek.
Bicycle design involves complex physics—and a key challenge is balancing aerodynamic efficiency with comfort and ride quality. To address this, the team at Trek is using NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs to run high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, setting new benchmarks for aerodynamics in a bicycle that's also comfortable to ride and handles smoothly. The designers and engineers are further enhancing their workflows using NVIDIA RTX technology in Dell Precision workstations, including the NVIDIA RTX A5500 GPU, as well as a Dell Precision 7920 running dual RTX A6000 GPUs.
Bicycle design involves complex physics—and a key challenge is balancing aerodynamic efficiency with comfort and ride quality. To address this, the team at Trek is using NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs to run high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, setting new benchmarks for aerodynamics in a bicycle that's also comfortable to ride and handles smoothly. The designers and engineers are further enhancing their workflows using NVIDIA RTX technology in Dell Precision workstations, including the NVIDIA RTX A5500 GPU, as well as a Dell Precision 7920 running dual RTX A6000 GPUs.
Larian Introduces The Dark Urge - a Customizable Origin Character in Baldur's Gate 3
Everything you do in your playthrough of Baldur's Gate 3 affects the course of your journey. And it starts at the character creation screen. Each class, race, background, and Origin character has rippling effects on the world around you, triggering subtle permutations that change the Forgotten Realms in big, small, good, bad, exciting, and sometimes very bad ways. What is an Origin character? They're essentially playable heroes, each with their own stories, desires, and attitudes toward the world around you. If you don't play as them, they each become companions, who you may (or may not) recruit throughout your journey. You may have already met Shadowheart, Wyll, Gale, Astarion, Lae'zel, and Karlach - heroes with their own tales to tell, driven by your choices as the player. Of course, you can also customize your character and create an entirely new avatar, weaving their story through your actions with the same amount of depth & reactivity.
Today, however, we're looking at an entirely new way to play Baldur's Gate 3. The Dark Urge. A completely new customizable Origin, The Dark Urge can be created as any of the 11 races you'd like, but with their own Origin-like Dark Urge story as the backbone of your adventure. Bringing forth a trove of malevolent reactivity to Baldur's Gate, let's talk about The Dark Urge.
Today, however, we're looking at an entirely new way to play Baldur's Gate 3. The Dark Urge. A completely new customizable Origin, The Dark Urge can be created as any of the 11 races you'd like, but with their own Origin-like Dark Urge story as the backbone of your adventure. Bringing forth a trove of malevolent reactivity to Baldur's Gate, let's talk about The Dark Urge.
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F CPU Gets Benchmarked
The Puget Systems benchmark database outed AMD's Ryzen 5 7500F 6-core/12-thread processor last week—industry experts proposed that it was the first example of a Ryzen 7000 SKU with a disabled iGPU. A South Korean retailer indicated unit pricing of around $170-180, with a possible local launch date on July 7. It seems that retail units have not hit the market (at the time of writing), but Geekbench 6.1 results have since appeared online. According to an entry on the Geekbench database—that was spotted by Olrak29 earlier today—the Ryzen 5 7500F has a base clock of 3.7 GHz. It can boost up to 5.0 GHz on a single core, while all cores can reach a maximum of 4.8 GHz. The listing confirms that this new SKU sits firmly in the AMD "Raphael" CPU family.
The processor was tested on a system running Microsoft Windows 11—partial specifications of the evaluation build include an ASUS TUF Gaming A620M-PLUS WIFI motherboard and 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM. The tested Ryzen 5 7500F CPU achieved scores of 2782 points (single-core) and 13323 points (multi-threaded), which places it slightly ahead of the Ryzen 5 7600X in multi-thread performance. It trails slightly behind with its single-core result, but these figures are impressive considering that the Ryzen 5 7500F will likely be offered at a more budget friendly price when compared to its closest iGPU-enabled siblings.
The processor was tested on a system running Microsoft Windows 11—partial specifications of the evaluation build include an ASUS TUF Gaming A620M-PLUS WIFI motherboard and 32 GB of DDR5-6000 RAM. The tested Ryzen 5 7500F CPU achieved scores of 2782 points (single-core) and 13323 points (multi-threaded), which places it slightly ahead of the Ryzen 5 7600X in multi-thread performance. It trails slightly behind with its single-core result, but these figures are impressive considering that the Ryzen 5 7500F will likely be offered at a more budget friendly price when compared to its closest iGPU-enabled siblings.
8P+16E Die Could be Exclusive to Intel 14th Gen Core-HX Lineup
Golden Pig Upgrade, a Chinese PC hardware content creator, has issued more Intel-related insider info via their Bilibili page. Their short post claims that the Intel 14th Gen Core-HX series (aka enthusiast grade laptop Raptor Lake Refresh SKUs) will be based on 8P+16E die configurations, said to replace all previously reported 8P+8E and 6P+0E setups. This improved HX lineup could provide a nice upgrade over equivalent 13th Gen Core units, with larger L2 cache allocations and increased core counts.
A few examples are mentioned—the upcoming Core i7-14650HX sports an 8P+8E configuration, granting two extra performance cores when compared to the current gen equivalent 13650HX (6P+8E). The Core i5-14500HX could stick with the same configuration (6P+8E) as seen on the older 13500HX, but Golden Pig Upgrade believes that the former will be upgraded with a larger pool of L2 cache. Previous leaks have already pointed out higher-end 14th Gen Core i9 SKUs being based on the 8P+16E die configuration, with the possible offering of higher clocks and support for faster memory speeds. The Raptor Lake Refresh desktop lineup is expected to debut around mid-October, but insider information regarding HX has not yet pinpointed a firm launch period for high-end 14th Gen Core laptop/mobile SKUs.
A few examples are mentioned—the upcoming Core i7-14650HX sports an 8P+8E configuration, granting two extra performance cores when compared to the current gen equivalent 13650HX (6P+8E). The Core i5-14500HX could stick with the same configuration (6P+8E) as seen on the older 13500HX, but Golden Pig Upgrade believes that the former will be upgraded with a larger pool of L2 cache. Previous leaks have already pointed out higher-end 14th Gen Core i9 SKUs being based on the 8P+16E die configuration, with the possible offering of higher clocks and support for faster memory speeds. The Raptor Lake Refresh desktop lineup is expected to debut around mid-October, but insider information regarding HX has not yet pinpointed a firm launch period for high-end 14th Gen Core laptop/mobile SKUs.
Govee Introduces its First Color-Matching Gaming Light Strip for PCs
Govee, an innovator in the smart lighting and smart home industry, today announced its first-ever PC color-matching light strip, the Gaming Light Strip G1. This solution was created for gamers who crave full immersion into their gameplay. Using Govee's proprietary PC color-matching VibraMatch technology, G1 captures and mirrors on-screen color transitions for both a vibrant and interactive gaming experience. With over 100 preset lighting effects and compatibility with the wider Govee ecosystem, G1 is set to redefine gaming ambiance.
VibraMatch: Govee's New Software Color-matching Technology
Govee is a pioneer in color-matching technology - from proprietary solutions such as CogniGlow which uses an AI algorithm paired with HDMI connectivity, to Envisiual which uses a camera for real-time visual effects. With the G1, Govee is setting a higher bar for software color-matching technology and transforming how video games are experienced within the gaming community. Govee's VibraMatch technology provides vibrant colors through a combination of precise pixel reading, detailed analysis, and optimized 50 FPS processing. It uses a unique ten-area screen division technology for accurate color capture, ensuring meticulous pixel point reading within each area and calculation of average RGB values.
VibraMatch: Govee's New Software Color-matching Technology
Govee is a pioneer in color-matching technology - from proprietary solutions such as CogniGlow which uses an AI algorithm paired with HDMI connectivity, to Envisiual which uses a camera for real-time visual effects. With the G1, Govee is setting a higher bar for software color-matching technology and transforming how video games are experienced within the gaming community. Govee's VibraMatch technology provides vibrant colors through a combination of precise pixel reading, detailed analysis, and optimized 50 FPS processing. It uses a unique ten-area screen division technology for accurate color capture, ensuring meticulous pixel point reading within each area and calculation of average RGB values.
AMD Explored Vapor Chamber Cooling Design for Zen 4 CPUs
Gamers Nexus recently visited AMD's headquarters in Austin, Texas—a previous video documented company employees discussing the history of Zen CPUs, and the showcasing of historical prototypes including (unreleased) Ryzen 9 5950X3D and 5900X3D models. The YouTube channel promised that more AMD HQ tour footage would be shared over the next couple of weeks—their latest upload has (host) Steve Burke talking to representatives from various internal labs.
A notable detail extracted from Team Red's thermal laboratory was an old heat spreader concept for Zen 4 processors—the team evaluated whether a concealed vapor chamber would offer improved cooling performance versus conventional metal solutions. Their tests determined that the extra cost (not disclosed) required to integrate a vapor chamber was not worth the resultant 1°C temperature difference, when lined up against a traditional metal design IHS. AMD confirmed that the concept was not developed further since prototype chips were also found to generate heat exceeding expected normal levels, under continuous long-term workload conditions.
A notable detail extracted from Team Red's thermal laboratory was an old heat spreader concept for Zen 4 processors—the team evaluated whether a concealed vapor chamber would offer improved cooling performance versus conventional metal solutions. Their tests determined that the extra cost (not disclosed) required to integrate a vapor chamber was not worth the resultant 1°C temperature difference, when lined up against a traditional metal design IHS. AMD confirmed that the concept was not developed further since prototype chips were also found to generate heat exceeding expected normal levels, under continuous long-term workload conditions.
Razer Curates its Gaming Mouse Lineup to fit Players' Needs
Hello Razer Community, we've come a long way together and 2023 is no exception. Over the last year, we've unveiled four top-tier Razer mice - Viper V2 Pro, DeathAdder V3 Pro, Basilisk V3 Pro, and Naga V2 Pro. Each of these stellar mice were meticulously crafted to cater to unique preferences and gaming styles, such as our MMO-tailored Naga V2 Pro renowned for its multi-button swappable side plate design.
Last week marked another exciting milestone in our ongoing journey - the completion of our full mouse lineup with the launch of the Razer Cobra line. These innovative additions have already sparked a wave of discussion and received multiple accolades including the Editors Choice award from CGMag, and awarded "The Best" from WindowsCentral.
Last week marked another exciting milestone in our ongoing journey - the completion of our full mouse lineup with the launch of the Razer Cobra line. These innovative additions have already sparked a wave of discussion and received multiple accolades including the Editors Choice award from CGMag, and awarded "The Best" from WindowsCentral.
Microsoft Brings Back $1 Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Deal for New Subscribers
Microsoft last week quietly reintroduced its $1 first month promotion for new subscribers on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate or PC Game Pass. This offer was retired back in March of this year, with the company announcing that it would be "evaluating different marketing promotions for new members in the future." Their research has clearly brought them back to square one—it is possible that the Xbox Games division is already reacting to negative feedback following an announcement regarding ongoing subscription and hardware price increases, as well as a decline in new player sign-ups since Spring time.
It should be noted that the console-only Game Pass tier ($11 per month) is not available as part of this 30-day starter promotion. The more expensive Game Pass Ultimate ($17 per month) is the only entry point on Xbox systems—customers are paying for a service that encompasses both console and PC platforms. PC Game Pass defaults to $10 a month, post the $1 introductory period. Microsoft has revised the conversion ratios for upgrades of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions to Game Pass Ultimate—from (the more favorable) 1:1 to 3:2. As an example—according to the new terms—90 remaining days of Xbox Live Gold/PC Game Pass converts to 60 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
It should be noted that the console-only Game Pass tier ($11 per month) is not available as part of this 30-day starter promotion. The more expensive Game Pass Ultimate ($17 per month) is the only entry point on Xbox systems—customers are paying for a service that encompasses both console and PC platforms. PC Game Pass defaults to $10 a month, post the $1 introductory period. Microsoft has revised the conversion ratios for upgrades of Xbox Live Gold subscriptions to Game Pass Ultimate—from (the more favorable) 1:1 to 3:2. As an example—according to the new terms—90 remaining days of Xbox Live Gold/PC Game Pass converts to 60 days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.
Comino Launches Water Block for NVIDIA H100 PCIe Accelerator Card
A relatively new player in the water cooling industry, Comino, has recently introduced its latest product: a water block for the NVIDIA H100 PCIe accelerator card. The new block provides full coverage with cooling to the GPU, GDDR, and VRM. In the design, Comino only used non-corrosive materials such as copper, stainless steel, aluminium, and Plastic. The core of the block uses copper, while the frame and backplate use aluminium. The company claims that at a coolant temperature of 20°C, the temperature of the GH100 chip with Comino water blocks will be 30º-40°C.
Comino uses "deformational cutting" technology to create a copper fin as thin as 0.1 mm with a 0.1 mm channel and 3 mm height. In Comino water blocks, micro fins are optimized for a low-pressure drop with a thickness of 0.25 mm, channel - 0.25 mm, and 2.7 mm height. The block itself is a single-slot solution with fitting adapters on the back and a 90º adapter option for workstation implementation. More information is available on the Comino website. You can see the images below.
Comino uses "deformational cutting" technology to create a copper fin as thin as 0.1 mm with a 0.1 mm channel and 3 mm height. In Comino water blocks, micro fins are optimized for a low-pressure drop with a thickness of 0.25 mm, channel - 0.25 mm, and 2.7 mm height. The block itself is a single-slot solution with fitting adapters on the back and a 90º adapter option for workstation implementation. More information is available on the Comino website. You can see the images below.
Intel Core i7-14700K has an 8P+12E Core Configuration
The upcoming Core i7-14700K "Raptor Lake Refresh" processor has a core configuration of 8P+12E. That's 8 "Raptor Cove" performance cores, and 12 "Gracemont" efficiency cores spread across 3 E-core clusters. Compared to the i7-13700K, which has been carved out of the "Raptor Lake-S" silicon by disabling 2 out of the 4 available E-core clusters and reducing the L3 cache size to 30 MB from the 36 MB present; the i7-14700K gets an additional E-core cluster, and increases the shared L3 cache size to 33 MB, besides dialing up the clock speeds on both the P-cores and E-cores in comparison to the i7-13700K.
The processor likely has a P-core base frequency of 3.70 GHz, with a 5.50 GHz P-core maximum boost. In comparison, the i7-13700K tops out at 5.40 GHz P-core boost. An alleged i7-14700K engineering sample in the wild has been put through Cinebench R23, where it scores 2192 points in the single-threaded test, and 36296 points in the multi-threaded test. The processor also scored 14988.5 points in the CPU-Z Bench multi-threaded test. Intel is expected to release its 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" desktop processors some time in October 2023.
The processor likely has a P-core base frequency of 3.70 GHz, with a 5.50 GHz P-core maximum boost. In comparison, the i7-13700K tops out at 5.40 GHz P-core boost. An alleged i7-14700K engineering sample in the wild has been put through Cinebench R23, where it scores 2192 points in the single-threaded test, and 36296 points in the multi-threaded test. The processor also scored 14988.5 points in the CPU-Z Bench multi-threaded test. Intel is expected to release its 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" desktop processors some time in October 2023.
Intel "Granite Rapids-D" Xeon Processors Come in Core-count and Memory-channel Based Physical Variants
The "Granite Rapids-D" line of upcoming processors are designed for data-center servers on the edge. These non-socketed processors come in BGA4368 packages. The company is reportedly readying at least two key variants of these chips based on core-counts and memory channels. The "Granite Rapids-D" HCC (high core-count) is an MCM of a "Granite Rapids" LCC (low-core count) compute tile, and a single I/O tile with a 4-channel DDR5 memory interface.
The "Granite Rapids-D" XCC (extreme core-count) has one "Granite Rapids" HCC (high core-count) compute tile, and two I/O tiles that make up the chip's 8-channel DDR5 memory interface. A probable reason for the confusion between LCC, HCC, and XCC terminologies for "Granite Rapids-D" is because the compute tiles are carried over from the main "Granite Rapids-SP" server processors, where they mean different things for the core-counts of mainline servers.
The "Granite Rapids-D" XCC (extreme core-count) has one "Granite Rapids" HCC (high core-count) compute tile, and two I/O tiles that make up the chip's 8-channel DDR5 memory interface. A probable reason for the confusion between LCC, HCC, and XCC terminologies for "Granite Rapids-D" is because the compute tiles are carried over from the main "Granite Rapids-SP" server processors, where they mean different things for the core-counts of mainline servers.
Sunday, July 9th 2023
Report Claims that Intel Raptor Lake Refresh Debuting in October
Chinese tech tipster Enthusiast Citizen (ECSM) has once again posted about upcoming Intel CPU product launches—according to an inside info post (published via Bilibili), Team Blue has possibly scheduled their Raptor Lake Refresh/14th Gen Core K-series for a release window around the 42nd week of 2023 (October 17 - 23). ECSM posits that non-K models will arrive during the first week of 2024, coinciding with January's CES trade event. The Core i7-14700K model is said to feature a new configuration of 8 Performance and 12 Efficiency cores, and current LGA1700 motherboards will most likely require a firmware upgrade to run this specific SKU.
ECSM also seems to have insider information regarding motherboard chipsets for desktop Arrow Lake/15th Gen Core, although they cannot determine an accurate time frame for the (fully new) product launch. Intel Z890, B860 and H810 chipsets are named as possible upcoming candidates for proper next generation CPUs, with H870 allegedly dropped from development. ECSM claims that a competing AMD Zen 5 lineup is not arriving this year—prior insider information was perhaps fabricated. They believe that Storm Peak (Zen 4 Threadripper) is scheduled for Q4 2023, with two unnamed chipsets lined up to accompany this next-gen HEDT platform.
ECSM also seems to have insider information regarding motherboard chipsets for desktop Arrow Lake/15th Gen Core, although they cannot determine an accurate time frame for the (fully new) product launch. Intel Z890, B860 and H810 chipsets are named as possible upcoming candidates for proper next generation CPUs, with H870 allegedly dropped from development. ECSM claims that a competing AMD Zen 5 lineup is not arriving this year—prior insider information was perhaps fabricated. They believe that Storm Peak (Zen 4 Threadripper) is scheduled for Q4 2023, with two unnamed chipsets lined up to accompany this next-gen HEDT platform.
Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Remastered Pre-Alpha Playtest Available Via Steam
Dears Twinsunians, we [2.21] are thrilled to announce the opening of our pre-alpha of Twinsen's Little Big Adventure Remastered! The aim of this playtest is to gather your valuable insights and feedback on the game, helping us to fine-tune it and create a gaming experience that truly resonates with our player community. This is your chance to contribute directly to the game's development process and to help shape its future.
To participate, click on "Request access" on the Steam page and you will be granted access automatically. Once in, you'll be able to explore our game in its early stages, discover new features, and contribute to its improvement.
To participate, click on "Request access" on the Steam page and you will be granted access automatically. Once in, you'll be able to explore our game in its early stages, discover new features, and contribute to its improvement.
This Week in Gaming (Week 28)
This coming week's game releases start off slow, but then ramps up with multiple AA and AAA titles. This week's AAA title is from Capcom and involves Sci-Fi dinosaurs of all things. The rest of this week's new releases involve supernatural adventures, turn-based tactics, a Japanese RPG game remake, bicycles and more.
Exoprimal / This week's AAA title / Friday 14 July
Exoprimal is an online, team-based action game that pits humanity's cutting-edge exosuit technology against history's most ferocious beasts—dinosaurs. Exosuits are grouped into different roles, and players will pilot these exosuits to hold firm against overwhelming dinosaur swarms in online-only, team-based action game modes.
Exoprimal / This week's AAA title / Friday 14 July
Exoprimal is an online, team-based action game that pits humanity's cutting-edge exosuit technology against history's most ferocious beasts—dinosaurs. Exosuits are grouped into different roles, and players will pilot these exosuits to hold firm against overwhelming dinosaur swarms in online-only, team-based action game modes.
Saturday, July 8th 2023
GYLT Out Now on Multiple Platforms
You better not run out of battery in your flashlight, darkness approaches…GYLT, the delicate horror game by Tequila Works (us), responsibles for RiME, The Invisible Hours, The Sexy Brutale, Deadlight and the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story, among others, is finally out on PS5, PS4, Xbox Series, Xbox One, Steam and will soon be available on GOG!
With bullying as a common thread, the game presents Sally, an 11 years old girl whose little cousin, Emily, has gone missing. While everyone else has stopped looking for her, she's decided to find her. The mission will take her to a weird and dangerous version of her own city. But what can a small girl do against the night's horrors? Well, more than you may think.
With bullying as a common thread, the game presents Sally, an 11 years old girl whose little cousin, Emily, has gone missing. While everyone else has stopped looking for her, she's decided to find her. The mission will take her to a weird and dangerous version of her own city. But what can a small girl do against the night's horrors? Well, more than you may think.
AMD Taiwan Makes Starfield Ryzen & Radeon Bundles Official, Promo Starting July 11
Last week Bethesda announced AMD as its exclusive partner for Starfield on the PC platform, although the short video presentation did not tease upcoming hardware/software bundles. Details of a Ryzen 7000-series CPUs promotional campaign emerged seven days later thanks to a mini-store page appearing on Newegg's retail site. The Starfield promo was not active at the time, but AMD Taiwan has made it official that the event will be going live on July 11 (at least in that territory).
According to the freshly published event site their offer will be running until September 30, and product serial numbers will not be redeemable after October 28. Eligible hardware includes the aforementioned Ryzen 7000 processor family, as well as Radeon GPUs. Thankfully Team Red has made sure to make a significant number of RDNA 2 models eligible for the Starfield incentive, with the entry point being RX 6600. All discrete RDNA 3 cards qualify—starting with RX 7600 and jumping up to the expensive RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX GPUs. AMD Taiwan's info graphics show a two tier system—Standard Edition (NT$1990) applies to buyers of Ryzen 5/7 7000 series CPUs or Radeon 6600 through 7600 cards. Premium Edition (NT$2890) will grant a 5-day early access period—exclusive to buyers of Ryzen 9 7000 CPUs or Radeon cards starting at RX 6700.
According to the freshly published event site their offer will be running until September 30, and product serial numbers will not be redeemable after October 28. Eligible hardware includes the aforementioned Ryzen 7000 processor family, as well as Radeon GPUs. Thankfully Team Red has made sure to make a significant number of RDNA 2 models eligible for the Starfield incentive, with the entry point being RX 6600. All discrete RDNA 3 cards qualify—starting with RX 7600 and jumping up to the expensive RX 7900 XT and 7900 XTX GPUs. AMD Taiwan's info graphics show a two tier system—Standard Edition (NT$1990) applies to buyers of Ryzen 5/7 7000 series CPUs or Radeon 6600 through 7600 cards. Premium Edition (NT$2890) will grant a 5-day early access period—exclusive to buyers of Ryzen 9 7000 CPUs or Radeon cards starting at RX 6700.
MSI Readying GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB GAMING X Slim White Model
NVIDIA add-in card (AIC) partners are reported to be taking a nonchalant approach to producing new custom designs for NVIDIA's upcoming launch (July 18) of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB graphics card. The RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB variant arrived back in late May to yet another lukewarm reception for the Ada Lovelace generation—Team Green's board partners are likely anticipating that the 16 GB model's MSRP of $499 is not going to generate enough interest or buzz within the PC gaming hardware community.
MSI could be going against the grain with the introduction of a new custom design for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB GPU—in the form of its GAMING X Slim White model—as discovered by hongxing2020. This appears to be a white alternative to the company's GAMING TRIO X cooling solution—with a (slightly) slender redesign and RGB lighting strips placed in different positions, although the pale aesthetic does not extend to the PCB and heatsink fins. MSI's fancy GAMING X liveries usually add some extra expense to base prices (+$60 for the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB Gaming X Trio), so this new white model could be sold for more than $559.
MSI could be going against the grain with the introduction of a new custom design for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB GPU—in the form of its GAMING X Slim White model—as discovered by hongxing2020. This appears to be a white alternative to the company's GAMING TRIO X cooling solution—with a (slightly) slender redesign and RGB lighting strips placed in different positions, although the pale aesthetic does not extend to the PCB and heatsink fins. MSI's fancy GAMING X liveries usually add some extra expense to base prices (+$60 for the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB Gaming X Trio), so this new white model could be sold for more than $559.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Open Beta is Live
Gather your forces because the Realms of Ruin Open Beta is now LIVE! The time has come to venture forth to tame the Realm of Beasts in the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Open Beta, right here on Steam. By participating in the Open Beta, you will have the chance to become an integral part of the development process, providing valuable thoughts and feedback to ensure a smooth and stable experience for players at the game's full launch.
It's not too late to join!
The Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Open Beta is now available to download and play today, running from July 7-10. A Frontier account is required to access the Open Beta. You can create one on our Frontier website if you don't currently have an account here. Simply navigate to the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin store page, here on Steam and follow the link there to download.
It's not too late to join!
The Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin Open Beta is now available to download and play today, running from July 7-10. A Frontier account is required to access the Open Beta. You can create one on our Frontier website if you don't currently have an account here. Simply navigate to the Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Realms of Ruin store page, here on Steam and follow the link there to download.
Intel Resumes Shipments of Xeon Sapphire Rapids MCC SKUs, Following Firmware Fixes
Intel's Xeon Sapphire Rapids CPU series has had a bumpy ride so far, with the discovery of bugs resulting in delays pushing proceedings back by more than two years. Units have been shipping out for the past couple of months, but Team Blue ran into more issues in late June—a subset of fourth Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) could interrupt normal system operation under certain conditions. Intel confirmed to Tom's Hardware that they were actively investigating the latest bugs, and had paused shipment of affected MCC die-based models (featuring up to 32 cores).
The publication has very recently received an update from their contact at Intel. A company spokesperson stated: "Last week, we informed you (Tom's Hardware) of an issue on a subset of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) that could interrupt system operation under certain conditions. Out of an abundance of caution, we temporarily paused some SPR-MCC shipments while we thoroughly evaluated a firmware mitigation. We are now confident the firmware mitigation addresses the issue. We have resumed shipping all versions of SPR-MCC and are working with customers to deploy the firmware as needed." Specifics about the latest mitigations efforts have not been divulged, but Intel is confident that these fixes will not impact processor performance.
The publication has very recently received an update from their contact at Intel. A company spokesperson stated: "Last week, we informed you (Tom's Hardware) of an issue on a subset of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Medium Core Count Processors (SPR-MCC) that could interrupt system operation under certain conditions. Out of an abundance of caution, we temporarily paused some SPR-MCC shipments while we thoroughly evaluated a firmware mitigation. We are now confident the firmware mitigation addresses the issue. We have resumed shipping all versions of SPR-MCC and are working with customers to deploy the firmware as needed." Specifics about the latest mitigations efforts have not been divulged, but Intel is confident that these fixes will not impact processor performance.
Friday, July 7th 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Headphones
Motherboards
NAS
Networking
Notebooks
Processors
WD Blue SN580 1 TB Review - Incredible Price/Performance
Western Digital's new WD Blue SN580 is the best budget M.2 SSD drive out there. Despite its impressive price point of $45 it comes with fantastic performance that easily matches most high-end drives. Compared to the SN570, the interface has been upgraded to PCIe 4.0, and the SLC cache is now more than 25x as big.
EVGA Withdraws from the Motherboard Market?
In what could be the beginning of the end for EVGA after its spectacular withdrawal from the graphics card market that it held leadership position in; the company is reportedly winding down its desktop motherboard business, too. Korean overclocker Safedisc, writing on Coolenjoy tech forums, stated that the company's entire 170-strong workforce in its Taiwan office involved in the motherboard business, have resigned, including KINGPIN. EVGA could withdraw from the motherboard business just like it did with graphics cards—by halting sales and recalling products from the channel, and retaining them to serve as warranty stock in case existing customers claim RMA or warranty service. We have reached out to EVGA for comments.
Update 07:45 UTC: We've heard from workers at EVGA Spain "it's just another day at the office". So maybe it was only Kingpin/the OC team in TW that has resigned, or the whole story is completely untrue.
Update 16:41 UTC: We just received the following statement from EVGA:
Update 07:45 UTC: We've heard from workers at EVGA Spain "it's just another day at the office". So maybe it was only Kingpin/the OC team in TW that has resigned, or the whole story is completely untrue.
Update 16:41 UTC: We just received the following statement from EVGA:
We saw those message and they are rumors.
Our Taiwan office is still operating and Kingpin is still with EVGA.
EVGA is still doing business and supporting its customers.
Thanks for reaching out
Nintendo's Japanese Switch Repair Service Terminated
Nintendo of Japan has announced that its extended warranty service for the popular Switch console will be ending effective August 31, and customers will not be able to amend their ¥200 (~$1.40) monthly / ¥2000 (~$14) annual subscriptions beyond July 14. The "Wide Care" initiative was launched last July, as a collaboration with Aeon Japan—granting owners of Switch consoles, outside legal warranty, an allowance of six repairs (maximum) and two full unit replacements. No official reason for the termination was provided, which is surprising given that the Switch has sold 29 million units in the region. Naturally not all of the customer base is signed up with Wide Care, but the timing could suggest that Nintendo is adjusting its priorities and making way for the next generation model.
A Wide Care-style service was not made available to customers outside of Nintendo's native base of operation, but the Switch's Joy-Con controllers have gained a lot of attention over the console's lifespan due to analog stick drifting issues. The fragile nature of these modular attachments has resulted in plenty of negative feedback from the userbase, and Nintendo has been pressured by watchdogs and petitions to provide comprehensive and out-of-warranty repair services in certain regions, with their new-ish scheme slowly expanding across Europe.
A Wide Care-style service was not made available to customers outside of Nintendo's native base of operation, but the Switch's Joy-Con controllers have gained a lot of attention over the console's lifespan due to analog stick drifting issues. The fragile nature of these modular attachments has resulted in plenty of negative feedback from the userbase, and Nintendo has been pressured by watchdogs and petitions to provide comprehensive and out-of-warranty repair services in certain regions, with their new-ish scheme slowly expanding across Europe.
NBA 2K24 Celebrates the Legendary Kobe Bryant as This Year's Cover Athlete
Today, 2K unveiled that 18-time All-Star, five-time NBA Champion, two-time Finals MVP, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, all-time leading scorer for the Los Angeles Lakers and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer, Kobe Bryant will be featured as the NBA 2K24 Kobe Bryant Edition and Black Mamba Edition cover athlete. NBA 2K24 will release worldwide on September 8 on all platforms and feature crossplay compatibility for PlayStation 5 (PS5) and Xbox Series X|S.
"As we celebrate 25 years of NBA 2K with Kobe Bryant, we commemorate his legacy and the generational impact he has had on the game of basketball," said Greg Thomas, President at Visual Concepts. "While we mark the history of the franchise, NBA 2K24 also looks ahead to the future to bring an innovative leap in technology and the introduction of community-requested features like crossplay."
"As we celebrate 25 years of NBA 2K with Kobe Bryant, we commemorate his legacy and the generational impact he has had on the game of basketball," said Greg Thomas, President at Visual Concepts. "While we mark the history of the franchise, NBA 2K24 also looks ahead to the future to bring an innovative leap in technology and the introduction of community-requested features like crossplay."
Scythe Launches Fuma 3 High-Performance CPU Cooler
Scythe, the CPU cooling brand originated from Japan is proudly announcing its high-performance flagship dual tower CPU cooler Fuma 3 today. With over 20 years of professional experience accumulated, the Japanese CPU cooling brand Scythe finally launches its new flagship model, the king of dual tower - Fuma 3 Dual Tower CPU cooler. The cutting-edge Fuma 3 twin tower CPU cooler is the true successor of the legendary Fuma 2. Built on the basis of the award-winning Fuma 2 twin tower design concept, the Fuma 3 presents optimized aerodynamic engineering on a new heatsink that yields more efficient heat dissipation and is ready for the most demanding overclocked CPUs.
The sturdy dual tower Fuma 3 is a 154 mm tall high-performance CPU air cooler backed with 6x6mm high-quality nickel-plated heat pipes that work firmly with the premium aluminium heatsink. Thanks to the higher fin density array and a new asymmetrical design, the Fuma 3 obtains increased thermal conductivity which results in improved cooling performance yet better compatibility even on the Mini-ITX motherboards.
The sturdy dual tower Fuma 3 is a 154 mm tall high-performance CPU air cooler backed with 6x6mm high-quality nickel-plated heat pipes that work firmly with the premium aluminium heatsink. Thanks to the higher fin density array and a new asymmetrical design, the Fuma 3 obtains increased thermal conductivity which results in improved cooling performance yet better compatibility even on the Mini-ITX motherboards.
NVIDIA DRIVE Orin SoC Key Component in XPENG G6 Coupe SUV
China electric vehicle maker XPENG Motors has announced its new G6 coupe SUV—featuring an NVIDIA-powered intelligent advanced driver assistance system—is now available to the China market. The G6 is XPENG's first model featuring the company's proprietary Smart Electric Platform Architecture (SEPA) 2.0, which aims to reduce development and manufacturing costs and shorten R&D cycles since the modular architecture will be compatible with future models.
The electric SUV also features the XPENG Navigation Guided Pilot (XNGP), a full scenario-based intelligent assisted driving system. It's powered by the cutting-edge NVIDIA DRIVE Orin compute and XPENG's full-stack software developed in-house. The XNGP system first made its debut in the EV maker's flagship G9 SUV, touting a safe, reliable, advanced driving experience behind the wheel.
The electric SUV also features the XPENG Navigation Guided Pilot (XNGP), a full scenario-based intelligent assisted driving system. It's powered by the cutting-edge NVIDIA DRIVE Orin compute and XPENG's full-stack software developed in-house. The XNGP system first made its debut in the EV maker's flagship G9 SUV, touting a safe, reliable, advanced driving experience behind the wheel.
Sabrent's Rocket X5 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD Shown Hitting 14 GB/s Read Speeds
The first batch of PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSDs didn't quite deliver on the promise of doubling performance from PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSDs, but now it appears that Sabrent has managed to work some magic with its upcoming Rocket X5 SSD. The SSD is still based on the same Phison E26 controller as all other current PCIe 5.0 NVMe drives and from what we know, the controller is paired to Micron's 232-layer B58R NAND, a combination that should be able to reach 2400 MT/s across eight channels. However, it's not the only drive with this combination of components, so it seems like the magic here might be in the firmware.
A 2 TB version of the Rocket X5 was tested in CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 and reached a read speed of 14,179 MB/s or just over 14 GB/s, with write speeds trailing somewhat at 12,280 MB/s. The random 4K numbers are looking good too with 106 MB/s for reads and 448 MB/s for writes, a step up from the competition at least, if not a major one with regards to the read speed. The downside you ask? Sabrent has equipped the Rocket X5 with not only a heatsink and heatpipes, but also a tiny fan, which is likely to add some noise at some time in the future when the fan starts to give up. We obviously don't know the price of the Rocket X5 either, but Sabrent tends to have competitively priced products.
A 2 TB version of the Rocket X5 was tested in CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4 and reached a read speed of 14,179 MB/s or just over 14 GB/s, with write speeds trailing somewhat at 12,280 MB/s. The random 4K numbers are looking good too with 106 MB/s for reads and 448 MB/s for writes, a step up from the competition at least, if not a major one with regards to the read speed. The downside you ask? Sabrent has equipped the Rocket X5 with not only a heatsink and heatpipes, but also a tiny fan, which is likely to add some noise at some time in the future when the fan starts to give up. We obviously don't know the price of the Rocket X5 either, but Sabrent tends to have competitively priced products.
ID@Xbox Demo Fest to Kick Off Next Week
We're back! What's summer without new game demos to entertain you during those hot days and nights? Starting July 11 and running until July 17, you'll be able to experience over 40 game demos on your Xbox console.
A few things to keep in mind—these demos will only be up on the Xbox Dashboard for a week. Some might be re-published to the Demo channel later, but many will simply disappear at the end of the week, so check them out while you can! The developers would love to hear what you think. Hit them up on social media or through their websites. If you like the game - tell them! If you have constructive criticism, they would love to hear that too.
A few things to keep in mind—these demos will only be up on the Xbox Dashboard for a week. Some might be re-published to the Demo channel later, but many will simply disappear at the end of the week, so check them out while you can! The developers would love to hear what you think. Hit them up on social media or through their websites. If you like the game - tell them! If you have constructive criticism, they would love to hear that too.
Marble It Up! Ultra Arriving August 17
Hello and welcome back to the world of marbles - it's been a while! Straight to the news of the day—Marble It Up! Ultra releases on August 17th! It will be available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Steam (including Steam Deck) and the Epic Store. We'll be rolling out more info over the coming weeks in anticipation of the launch!
Be sure to check out our updated FAQ and drop by the Discord Community. A very special thank you to our community. Whether you've been here from the start or are about to roll with us for the first time - this game couldn't exist without the attention and dedication of those who play it.
Be sure to check out our updated FAQ and drop by the Discord Community. A very special thank you to our community. Whether you've been here from the start or are about to roll with us for the first time - this game couldn't exist without the attention and dedication of those who play it.
Major Foundries Not Too Concerned About China's Restrictions on Rare Metal Exports
China announced on Monday (June 3) that it would restrict exports of two rare metals——both crucial materials in the computer chip manufacturing process. The nation's Ministry of Commerce stated that their new measures were necessary to "safeguard national security and interests". The Chinese government is contending with several sanctions from Western countries—most notably their access to advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment is now heavily controlled. Reuters has contacted a number of foundries about the potential impact of rare material shipment limitations. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) has shrugged it off as a minor inconvenience, their spokesperson stated: "After evaluation, we do not expect the export restrictions on raw materials gallium and germanium will have any direct impact on TSMC's production. We will continue to monitor the situation closely."
WIN Semiconductors Corp—a Taiwanese firm that specializes in the provision of gallium arsenide wafers—informed the news agency about its low-level reliance on Chinese mineral sources. They are able to sidestep and procure gallium and germanium from suppliers located in Germany, Japan, and North America. The Japanese Semiconductor Equipment Association stated that it was too early to tell whether China's export restrictions will result in material shortages. Supply chains could be disrupted to some degree due to China controlling over 90% of the world's gallium and germanium production, but DigiTimes Asia proposes that new sanctions will not prohibit production and export activities. According to experts in the field supply lines will continue to operate, with buyers required to jump through some extra hoops in order to gain approval for certain market segments. The purification of gallium and germanium is mostly controlled by American and Japanese entities—the processed form of these metals is used in semiconductor production—DigiTimes reckons that these firms will probably feel the initial impact of new trade restrictions.
WIN Semiconductors Corp—a Taiwanese firm that specializes in the provision of gallium arsenide wafers—informed the news agency about its low-level reliance on Chinese mineral sources. They are able to sidestep and procure gallium and germanium from suppliers located in Germany, Japan, and North America. The Japanese Semiconductor Equipment Association stated that it was too early to tell whether China's export restrictions will result in material shortages. Supply chains could be disrupted to some degree due to China controlling over 90% of the world's gallium and germanium production, but DigiTimes Asia proposes that new sanctions will not prohibit production and export activities. According to experts in the field supply lines will continue to operate, with buyers required to jump through some extra hoops in order to gain approval for certain market segments. The purification of gallium and germanium is mostly controlled by American and Japanese entities—the processed form of these metals is used in semiconductor production—DigiTimes reckons that these firms will probably feel the initial impact of new trade restrictions.
NVIDIA Partners Not Too Enthusiastic About GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB Launch
It looks like the only reason the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB even exists, is to prove to naysayers that think 8 GB is too little an amount of memory for the original RTX 4060 Ti. Andreas Schilling of HardwareLuxx.de in a tweet stated that NVIDIA add-in card (AIC) partners tell him that very few of them are interested in promoting the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, which goes on sale starting July 18. Board partners have very few custom-design graphics card models in their product stack, and much of this has to do with the card's steep $499 MSRP.
Priced $100 above the original RTX 4060 Ti for essentially double the memory size and no other difference in specs, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is hard enough to sell at MSRP, premium overclocked models would end up being priced around the $550-mark, which puts it just $50 short of the $599 MSRP of the RTX 4070. The RTX 4070 is around 30% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB, and we doubt if the additional memory size will narrow the gap by more than a couple of percentage points.
Priced $100 above the original RTX 4060 Ti for essentially double the memory size and no other difference in specs, the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB is hard enough to sell at MSRP, premium overclocked models would end up being priced around the $550-mark, which puts it just $50 short of the $599 MSRP of the RTX 4070. The RTX 4070 is around 30% faster than the RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB, and we doubt if the additional memory size will narrow the gap by more than a couple of percentage points.
BBCube 3D Could be the Future of Stacked DRAM
Scientists at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have developed a new type of stacked or 3D DRAM that the researchers call Bumpless Build Cube 3D or BBCube 3D, which relies on Through Silicon Vias or TSVs to connect the DRAM dies. This is a different approach to HBM which relies on micro bumps to connect the layers together and the Japanese scientists are saying that their bumpless wafer-on-wafer solution should allow not only for an easier manufacturing process, but more importantly, improved cooling, as the TSVs can channel the heat from the DRAM dies down into whatever substrate the BBCube 3D stack is finally mounted onto.
If that wasn't enough, the researchers believe that BBCube 3D will be able to deliver higher speeds than HBM courtesy of a combination of the TSVs being relatively short and "high-density signal parallelism". BBCube 3D is expected to deliver up to a 32 fold increase in bandwidth compared to DDR5 memory and a four fold increase compared to HBM2E memory, while at the same time, drawing less power. The research paper goes into a lot more details for those interested at taking a closer look at this potentially revolutionary shift in DRAM assembly. However, the question that remains unanswered is if this will end up as a real world product some time in the near future, which is all based on how manufacturable BBCube 3D memory will be.
If that wasn't enough, the researchers believe that BBCube 3D will be able to deliver higher speeds than HBM courtesy of a combination of the TSVs being relatively short and "high-density signal parallelism". BBCube 3D is expected to deliver up to a 32 fold increase in bandwidth compared to DDR5 memory and a four fold increase compared to HBM2E memory, while at the same time, drawing less power. The research paper goes into a lot more details for those interested at taking a closer look at this potentially revolutionary shift in DRAM assembly. However, the question that remains unanswered is if this will end up as a real world product some time in the near future, which is all based on how manufacturable BBCube 3D memory will be.
Latest Immortals of Aveum Trailer Explores Gameplay & Plot Details
In Immortals of Aveum, you play as Jak—an unlikely Magnus whose newfound potential has found him in the midst of the Everwar, human kind's endless conflict over the control of magic. Now, it's time for you to learn about everything he can do. Wield your magic with sigils and spells, build your loadout with gear and skill trees, and fight to uncover the secrets of Aveum and save the realms.
MAGIC
All magic in Aveum can be distilled into three forms: Blue force magic, Red chaos magic, and Green life magic. Each is used in its own ways and functions differently. Though most Magni are only able to control one color of magic, Triarchs are able to harness all three, though they are much rarer because of that. Jak is one such Magnus, allowing him to tap into all three types of magic.
MAGIC
All magic in Aveum can be distilled into three forms: Blue force magic, Red chaos magic, and Green life magic. Each is used in its own ways and functions differently. Though most Magni are only able to control one color of magic, Triarchs are able to harness all three, though they are much rarer because of that. Jak is one such Magnus, allowing him to tap into all three types of magic.
ASUS Announces Prime 750W Gold and 850W Gold Power Supplies
ASUS today announced the Prime 750 W Gold and 850 W Gold power supplies, designed to give mainstream DIY PC users reliability and build quality without breaking the bank. The 750 W and 850 W Gold are the first power supplies to join the Prime family, bringing the ATX 3.0 standard, fully modular cables and an eight-year warranty. And whether it is the Prime AP201 MicroATX case or motherboards like the Prime Z790-A WiFi, the Prime series is synonymous with classy, understated designs that can look amazing in any build.
Build-friendly features
ASUS Prime Gold Series power supplies are loaded with all of the features that PC builders have come to expect from a high-quality PSU. Both models are fully modular, allowing users to cut down on build clutter by only using the cables they need. As ATX 3.0-compatible power supplies, the ASUS Prime Gold Series units are also fully compatible with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, thanks to their native 16-pin 12VHPWR cable.
Build-friendly features
ASUS Prime Gold Series power supplies are loaded with all of the features that PC builders have come to expect from a high-quality PSU. Both models are fully modular, allowing users to cut down on build clutter by only using the cables they need. As ATX 3.0-compatible power supplies, the ASUS Prime Gold Series units are also fully compatible with NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, thanks to their native 16-pin 12VHPWR cable.
Jonsbo Lanuches C6 Micro-ATX and N2 NAS Cases
Jonsbo, a Chinese case manufacturer known for unique case designs, has introduced the new Jonsbo C6 and N2 cases to its offerings. The C6 is a compact and versatile Micro-ATX case designed to appeal to many users, including gamers. It offers ample space for up to three 120 mm fans, ensuring efficient air cooling within the case. The front of the C6 can accommodate two 140 mm fans, further enhancing airflow. To promote optimal ventilation, the front, side panels, and lid of the C6 are made of air-permeable mesh. Regarding hardware compatibility, the C6 can house graphics cards with a maximum length of 255 mm and CPU coolers with a height of up to 75 mm. Additionally, it provides the flexibility to install an HDD or two SSDs in the front without a 120 mm fan. The Jonsbo C6 is available in black and white color options, catering to different aesthetic preferences.
AMD Starts Software Enablement of Zen 5 Processors
According to the Linux Kernel Mailing List, AMD started to enable next-generation processors by submitting patches to the Linux kernel. Codenamed Family 1Ah or Family 26 in decimal notation, the set of patches corresponds to the upcoming AMD Zen 5 core, which is the backbone of the upcoming Ryzen 8000 series processors. The patches have a few interesting notes, namely few of them being: added support for the amd64_edac (Error Detection and Correction) module and temperature monitoring; added PCI IDs for these models covering 00h-1Fh and 20h; added required support in k10temp driver.
The AMD EDAC driver also points out that the Zen 5 server CPUs will max out with 12-channel memory. Codenames 0-31 correspond to next-generation EPYC, while 40 to 79 are desktop and laptop SKUS. Interestingly, these patches are just the start, as adding PCI IDs and temperature drivers are basic enablement. With the 2024 launch date nearing, we expect to see more Linux kernel enablement efforts, especially with more complicated parts of the kernel.
The AMD EDAC driver also points out that the Zen 5 server CPUs will max out with 12-channel memory. Codenames 0-31 correspond to next-generation EPYC, while 40 to 79 are desktop and laptop SKUS. Interestingly, these patches are just the start, as adding PCI IDs and temperature drivers are basic enablement. With the 2024 launch date nearing, we expect to see more Linux kernel enablement efforts, especially with more complicated parts of the kernel.
Thursday, July 6th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cases
Graphics Cards
Alphacool Core 1 CPU Water Block Review
Alphacool updates its CPU water block offerings with the new Core 1 series. It uses an all-brass housing paired with a nickel-plated copper cold plate and a unique 3D jet plate design for excellent thermal performance while still retaining good CPU socket compatibility. There are multiple top versions which all cost less than the competition too.
AMD Software Adrenalin 23.7.1 WHQL Released
AMD late Thursday released the Adrenalin 23.7.1 WHQL drivers. While these do not come with optimization for any new games since the previous 23.5.2 drivers, they add several new Vulkan API extensions, and fix a few issues. In particular, they introduce Vulkan-based accelerated video decode for H.264 and H.265 formats, among 8 other extensions spanning the Khronos and Valve trunks. The drivers also claim to improve idle power and multi-monitor power draw of RX 7000 series GPUs.
Among the issues fixed with Adrenalin 23.7.1 WHQL include sub-optimal VR performance or stuttering noticed with RX 7000 series GPUs, and an application crash for DaVinci Resolve Studio with AV1 video playback. The drivers improve idle- and multi-monitor power-draw for RX 7000 series GPUs on some 4K@144 Hz displays, and multi-monitor configurations. Display corruption noticed with WWE 2K23, and Nioh 2 have been fixed.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.7.1 WHQL
Among the issues fixed with Adrenalin 23.7.1 WHQL include sub-optimal VR performance or stuttering noticed with RX 7000 series GPUs, and an application crash for DaVinci Resolve Studio with AV1 video playback. The drivers improve idle- and multi-monitor power-draw for RX 7000 series GPUs on some 4K@144 Hz displays, and multi-monitor configurations. Display corruption noticed with WWE 2K23, and Nioh 2 have been fixed.
DOWNLOAD: AMD Software Adrenalin 23.7.1 WHQL
Intel Discontinues Cascade Lake-X and Cascade Lake-W Core and Xeon HEDT Processors
Intel released a product change notification (PCN) earlier this week, announcing the discontinuation of its "Cascade Lake-X" and "Cascade Lake-W" HEDT processors. This effectively marks the end for the LGA2066 HEDT platform, as well as the Xeon W-2200 series workstation processors. The final iteration of the "Skylake" CPU core, "Cascade Lake" introduced features such as AVX512, VNNI, GFNI, and DLBoost, forming Intel's first attempt at providing hardware acceleration for AI neural-net building/training. The company plans a more comprehensive hardware accelerator with "Meteor Lake," called AI Boost.
ASP of NAND Flash to Continue Falling 3~8% in 3Q23, Only Wafer Prices to Increase
TrendForce reports that OEMs have continued making concerted efforts to scale back production. However, given that the trajectory of market demand is still unclear, it's expected that the NAND Flash market will continue to be in a state of oversupply in 3Q23. Cautious inventory management by buyers is preventing a stabilization in NAND Flash prices even with an anticipated seasonal surge in demand for 2H23. TrendForce predicts that NAND Flash wafers will be the first to see a price hike in 3Q23 as prices for module products such as SSDs, eMMCs, and UFS will likely continue to fall due to tepid downstream demand. Consequently, the overall ASP of NAND Flash is forecast to continue dropping by about 3~8% in 3Q23, though a possibility exists prices may recover in 4Q23.
Client SSD: Although notebook shipments are expected to gradually recover in 3Q23, reversing an oversupply of SSD will continue to be challenging. Furthermore, a portion of suppliers have implemented aggressive promotions to secure customer orders and hit shipping targets in light of weakened demand and less-than-satisfactory order volumes from major clients, putting pressure on other suppliers. TrendForce estimates that the ASP of client SSDs will fall by 8~13% in the third quarter.
Client SSD: Although notebook shipments are expected to gradually recover in 3Q23, reversing an oversupply of SSD will continue to be challenging. Furthermore, a portion of suppliers have implemented aggressive promotions to secure customer orders and hit shipping targets in light of weakened demand and less-than-satisfactory order volumes from major clients, putting pressure on other suppliers. TrendForce estimates that the ASP of client SSDs will fall by 8~13% in the third quarter.
Razer Introduces PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS Gaming Peripherals Collection
Razer, the leading global lifestyle brand for gamers, in partnership with KRAFTON, Inc., a collective of independent game development studios and the publisher of popular PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS, announced a highly anticipated collection of PUBG: BATTLEGROUNDS-themed gaming gear.
"Razer is thrilled to partner with KRAFTON on this exciting collection," said Addie Tan, Associate Director of Business Development at Razer. "When you combine our expertise in gaming peripherals with their innovative approach to immersive gaming, you get a cool new collection that resonates with gamers worldwide and captivates gamers and enthusiasts alike."
"Razer is thrilled to partner with KRAFTON on this exciting collection," said Addie Tan, Associate Director of Business Development at Razer. "When you combine our expertise in gaming peripherals with their innovative approach to immersive gaming, you get a cool new collection that resonates with gamers worldwide and captivates gamers and enthusiasts alike."
Samsung & MediaTek Announce Industry-first 3Tx Antenna Transmission
Samsung Electronics and MediaTek completed the successful testing of 5G Standalone Uplink (UL) 2CC Carrier Aggregation (CA) with C-Band UL MIMO to reach top uplink speeds, marking a groundbreaking achievement in wireless mobile capabilities. This approach used three transmit (3Tx) antennas to improve upload experiences, ushering in an era of enhanced connectivity for consumers worldwide.
The demands on uplink performance are increasing with the rise of live streaming, multi-player gaming and video conferences. Upload speeds determine how fast your device can send data to gaming servers or transmit high-resolution videos to the cloud. As more consumers seek to document and share their experiences with the world in real-time, enhanced uplink experiences provide an opportunity to use the network to improve how they map out their route home, check player stats online and upload videos and selfies to share with friends and followers.
The demands on uplink performance are increasing with the rise of live streaming, multi-player gaming and video conferences. Upload speeds determine how fast your device can send data to gaming servers or transmit high-resolution videos to the cloud. As more consumers seek to document and share their experiences with the world in real-time, enhanced uplink experiences provide an opportunity to use the network to improve how they map out their route home, check player stats online and upload videos and selfies to share with friends and followers.
Helldivers 2 Co-Op Mode and Combat Gameplay Revealed
Stratagems return with bigger and badder weapons and gear than ever before, plus new trailer. Greetings, future Helldivers. It's Katherine, Arrowhead's social media and community manager, back again to bring you new Helldivers 2 gameplay details: a more in-depth look at our cooperative play and combat.
Gearing up
After your Helldiver defrosts on your ship, you and your squadmates must prepare for a mission by customizing your armor, your weapons, and your stratagems together. Creating your loadout feels like part of the mission prep: changing your weapon to suit not only your appetite for destruction but the mission and enemy types you might encounter. Your greatest aids as a Helldiver are stratagems: powerful tools that can be summoned with short button combinations. Everything from airstrikes to Hellpods containing bigger, badder weapons to defensive gear and extra supplies are at your fingertips.
Gearing up
After your Helldiver defrosts on your ship, you and your squadmates must prepare for a mission by customizing your armor, your weapons, and your stratagems together. Creating your loadout feels like part of the mission prep: changing your weapon to suit not only your appetite for destruction but the mission and enemy types you might encounter. Your greatest aids as a Helldiver are stratagems: powerful tools that can be summoned with short button combinations. Everything from airstrikes to Hellpods containing bigger, badder weapons to defensive gear and extra supplies are at your fingertips.
Newegg Selling AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D for $557
Newegg is currently running a time limited offer on AMD's flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D CPU—the base price sits at $662, but a promotional voucher can be applied at checkout that removes $105. Amazon USA price matched the competition earlier today—via their own voucher system—but stock allocation of the powerful desktop processor appears to be sold out. North American customers eager to acquire an attractively priced Ryzen 9 7950X3D soon-ish will have to do business with Newegg.
The latest $557 deal is certainly more generous when compared to a campaign run by the American online retailer back in May, albeit via their Ebay store—several Ryzen 7000X3D-series CPUs were discounted at the time, perhaps in reaction to bad publicity swirling around the product lineup (referring to accounts of hardware burnouts). The Ryzen 9 7950X3D was reduced to a previous all-time low of $629.99. Perhaps public perception of AMD's top flight models has not improved all that much since then (plus other economical factors), and very deep discounts are necessary to attract customers. A Newegg mini-store page recently revealed a forthcoming "Starfield Game Bundle Promotion," that will apply to all Ryzen 7000-series CPUs. The AMD + Bethesda initiative will probably kick in closer to the game's September 6 launch date.
The latest $557 deal is certainly more generous when compared to a campaign run by the American online retailer back in May, albeit via their Ebay store—several Ryzen 7000X3D-series CPUs were discounted at the time, perhaps in reaction to bad publicity swirling around the product lineup (referring to accounts of hardware burnouts). The Ryzen 9 7950X3D was reduced to a previous all-time low of $629.99. Perhaps public perception of AMD's top flight models has not improved all that much since then (plus other economical factors), and very deep discounts are necessary to attract customers. A Newegg mini-store page recently revealed a forthcoming "Starfield Game Bundle Promotion," that will apply to all Ryzen 7000-series CPUs. The AMD + Bethesda initiative will probably kick in closer to the game's September 6 launch date.
Sapphire Reveals White Design Radeon RX 6500 XT Polar Elves GPU
Sapphire has officially boarded the white PCB design train, a trend most popular within China's PC hardware market—the Hong Kong-based graphics card specialist is teasing its oddly named "Power Elves" custom cooling solution. They have decided to pair this new look with non-cutting edge silicon, namely AMD's Radeon RX 6500 XT GPU. The budget Navi 24 XT (RDNA 2) card looks to be cooled by a single fan and heatsink array housed within a shroud approximating a Mini-ITX form factor.
Sapphire appears to using its "Angular Velocity Fan Blade," as seen on its Radeon RX 7000-series PULSE and NITRO custom models, so it is somewhat odd that we are not seeing a new-ish RX 7600 GPU in fresh Polar Elves/all-white livery. Since the company is merely teasing this upcoming 4 GB model (at the time of writing) we can assume that it will be served by the normal single 8-pin power connector, and its name assignment suggests a factory overclock will be applied as standard.
Sapphire appears to using its "Angular Velocity Fan Blade," as seen on its Radeon RX 7000-series PULSE and NITRO custom models, so it is somewhat odd that we are not seeing a new-ish RX 7600 GPU in fresh Polar Elves/all-white livery. Since the company is merely teasing this upcoming 4 GB model (at the time of writing) we can assume that it will be served by the normal single 8-pin power connector, and its name assignment suggests a factory overclock will be applied as standard.
BattleBit Has Sold 1.8 Million Copies in Two Weeks
BattleBit Remastered, a low poly alternative to EA's Battlefield franchise, was released two weeks ago via Steam Early Access. Developer SgtOkiDoki has announced that their massively multiplayer online first-person has sold a respectable 1,800,000 copies (at $14.99 a pop) in a relatively short span of time. The game has been in the works since 2016, with its early access launch occurring on June 15 (2023). BattleBit received some attention following the poor launch state of Battlefield 2042, with long term fans suggesting that their money would be best spent on the less visually appealing indie title. Streamers and influencers also focused more community eyes on BattleBit early last year.
Feedback on Steam—"Very Positive" from over 40,000 users indicates that first person shooter fans are enjoying the BattleBit Remastered experience, despite its primitive and blocky art style—SgtOkiDoki recently revealed some insights to How to Market a Game: "Players have an assumption about your game...And if the screenshots don't match the gameplay you have a problem. Our game played like Squad but looked like Roblox. That was a terrible move." Apparently BattleBit had a more military simulator approach earlier on in development, which clashed with its simplistic aesthetics. "We had to make a decision...(the team) had to pull back and make the game more open for arcade. It wasn't a decision I enjoyed, but I had to do it. It turned out it was a good decision." SgtOkiDoki's operation is expanding thanks to the BattleBit's success, but additional staffers will be dealing with an increase in DDOS attacks and a growing number of cheaters within the game's very active population.
Feedback on Steam—"Very Positive" from over 40,000 users indicates that first person shooter fans are enjoying the BattleBit Remastered experience, despite its primitive and blocky art style—SgtOkiDoki recently revealed some insights to How to Market a Game: "Players have an assumption about your game...And if the screenshots don't match the gameplay you have a problem. Our game played like Squad but looked like Roblox. That was a terrible move." Apparently BattleBit had a more military simulator approach earlier on in development, which clashed with its simplistic aesthetics. "We had to make a decision...(the team) had to pull back and make the game more open for arcade. It wasn't a decision I enjoyed, but I had to do it. It turned out it was a good decision." SgtOkiDoki's operation is expanding thanks to the BattleBit's success, but additional staffers will be dealing with an increase in DDOS attacks and a growing number of cheaters within the game's very active population.
Atari Partners Up with Retro Console Maker Playmaji
Atari has today announced that it has formed a collaboration with Playmaji, the company responsible for the Polymega retro game console. The new partnership will "include strategic initiatives that will provide support for Atari games on Polymega hardware and software and integration between Polymega and the Atari VCS." The Polymega console features a modular design that allows the owner to configure their unit to suit differing retro games (physical media) libraries. As part of the deal, Playmaji will introduce a new cartridge model that grants backward compatibility with Atari 2600 and 7800 systems. Wade Rosen, chairman and CEO of Atari stated: "Polymega's approach fills an important need in the market, providing a hardware solution that allows players to legally access classic retro content while respecting game companies' intellectual properties."
Bryan Bernal, chief executive officer of Playmaji chipped in: "This partnership is a vote of confidence in Polymega. This is an important step in the growth of our platform, and we look forward to working with Atari in the important space of retro innovation." Atari has been on an expansion kick lately, with its acquisition of retro/abandonware specialist, Nightdive Studios, announced a few months ago, as well as a Fig crowdfunding campaign. News outlets have reached out for a comment about the company's apparent minority investment in Playmaji. Availability of the modular Polymega console has been inconsistent going back many years—customers expressed their concerns about delays in 2019. Playmaji released an assuring message earlier today, likely in reaction to extra attention due to their new partnership: "Every single person with a system pre-order will have it in hand before end of year."
Bryan Bernal, chief executive officer of Playmaji chipped in: "This partnership is a vote of confidence in Polymega. This is an important step in the growth of our platform, and we look forward to working with Atari in the important space of retro innovation." Atari has been on an expansion kick lately, with its acquisition of retro/abandonware specialist, Nightdive Studios, announced a few months ago, as well as a Fig crowdfunding campaign. News outlets have reached out for a comment about the company's apparent minority investment in Playmaji. Availability of the modular Polymega console has been inconsistent going back many years—customers expressed their concerns about delays in 2019. Playmaji released an assuring message earlier today, likely in reaction to extra attention due to their new partnership: "Every single person with a system pre-order will have it in hand before end of year."
Apple Requests that US Supreme Court Reverse Ruling in Epic Games Case
Apple and Epic Games have been locked in a bitter legal feud for two years, relating to an antitrust case started by the latter company. The iPhone and Mac computer giant has made an appeal to the US Supreme Court—as demonstrated in a court filing that was released to the public on Monday (June 3). They request that justices take up its appeal of a ruling for tomorrow (June 7) by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court (of Appeals). A 2021 verdict determined that Apple had to cease anti-steering practices. Apparently game developers were restricted to certain payment practices (imposing of fees) within the iOS App store. Epic Games sued Apple for anti-competitive practices back in 2020, with the US district court of California rejecting nine of out Epic's ten claims the following year—only the aforementioned anti-steering case was allowed to proceed.
The Ninth Circuit rejected petitions from Apple and Epic late last week—both companies urged that the court reconsider an April 2023 decision about the Californian law violation. Epic thinks that certain legal decisions have been made in Apple's favor, and the latter continues to rile against the App Store order. It argues that Epic was the sole "non-representative" plaintiff, yet the injunction applies to all iOS developers and US states outside of California. Apple believes that the ruling "raises far-reaching and important questions" about the federal court's limited authority to issue injunctions that apply to organizations not directly involved in the case.
The Ninth Circuit rejected petitions from Apple and Epic late last week—both companies urged that the court reconsider an April 2023 decision about the Californian law violation. Epic thinks that certain legal decisions have been made in Apple's favor, and the latter continues to rile against the App Store order. It argues that Epic was the sole "non-representative" plaintiff, yet the injunction applies to all iOS developers and US states outside of California. Apple believes that the ruling "raises far-reaching and important questions" about the federal court's limited authority to issue injunctions that apply to organizations not directly involved in the case.
Rebellion Announces Sniper Elite 5: Kraken Awakens DLC
Today, Rebellion, one of the world's most successful independent video game developers and publishers, is thrilled to announce the launch of the highly anticipated Kraken Awakes, the final content pack for Season Pass Two of Sniper Elite 5. Prepare to unleash chaos against Operation Kraken and prove your sniping prowess on all platforms, including Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.
Intel gathered in previous missions has revealed that Operation Kraken is still a looming threat that demands your immediate action. Karl Fairburne, the legendary sniper, must utilise the cover of darkness and harness the power of shadows to sabotage an under-construction aircraft carrier, that is the new home of Operation Kraken, and ensure it never sets sail. The fate of the Allies hangs in the balance as you face off against Friedrich Vogel, former deputy to Abelard Möller and the new mastermind behind this diabolical scheme.
Intel gathered in previous missions has revealed that Operation Kraken is still a looming threat that demands your immediate action. Karl Fairburne, the legendary sniper, must utilise the cover of darkness and harness the power of shadows to sabotage an under-construction aircraft carrier, that is the new home of Operation Kraken, and ensure it never sets sail. The fate of the Allies hangs in the balance as you face off against Friedrich Vogel, former deputy to Abelard Möller and the new mastermind behind this diabolical scheme.
Jensen Huang & Leading EU Generative AI Execs Participated in Fireside Chat
Three leading European generative AI startups joined NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang this week to talk about the new era of computing. More than 500 developers, researchers, entrepreneurs and executives from across Europe and further afield packed into the Spindler and Klatt, a sleek, riverside gathering spot in Berlin. Huang started the reception by touching on the message he delivered Monday at the Berlin Summit for Earth Virtualization Engines (EVE), an international collaboration focused on climate science. He shared details of NVIDIA's Earth-2 initiative and how accelerated computing, AI-augmented simulation and interactive digital twins drive climate science research.
Before sitting down for a fireside chat with the founders of the three startups, Huang introduced some "special guests" to the audience—four of the world's leading climate modeling scientists, who he called the "unsung heroes" of saving the planet. "These scientists have dedicated their careers to advancing climate science," said Huang. "With the vision of EVE, they are the architects of the new era of climate science."
Before sitting down for a fireside chat with the founders of the three startups, Huang introduced some "special guests" to the audience—four of the world's leading climate modeling scientists, who he called the "unsung heroes" of saving the planet. "These scientists have dedicated their careers to advancing climate science," said Huang. "With the vision of EVE, they are the architects of the new era of climate science."
Kolink Introduces Inspire K2 Plus Micro-ATX Case & Braided Cable Extension Kit
Kolink has brought back one of their fan-favourite PC cases, this time with fancy improvements. Meet the Kolink Inspire K2 Plus! Whilst many features remain the same - if it ain't broke, don't fix it, amiright? - there are a number of ease-of-use upgrades integrated within the design. Plus, an aesthetic glow-up. We all love a glow-up. If your Micro-ATX case is looking a bit shabby or you're itching to start a new build, stick around and see how this classic Kolink chassis has been improved. There may even be some surprise cables, too!
What's New
The Kolink Inspire K2 Plus builds on the much-loved design of its predecessor. There are subtle and more obvious changes that have been made to the chassis. The internals have been improved to facilitate better component support. Enjoy superior accommodation for your high-end hardware and integrated radiator mounts. New features have even been added. Unlike the original K2, this version sports a dedicated PSU chamber to help maintain temperatures and keep the interior looking clutter-free.
What's New
The Kolink Inspire K2 Plus builds on the much-loved design of its predecessor. There are subtle and more obvious changes that have been made to the chassis. The internals have been improved to facilitate better component support. Enjoy superior accommodation for your high-end hardware and integrated radiator mounts. New features have even been added. Unlike the original K2, this version sports a dedicated PSU chamber to help maintain temperatures and keep the interior looking clutter-free.
Imagination GPUs Gains OpenGL 4.6 Support
When it comes to APIs, OpenGL is something of a classic. According to the Khronos Group, OpenGL is the most widely adopted 2D and 3D graphics API. Since its launch in 1992 it has been used extensively by software developers for PCs and workstations to create high-performance, visually compelling graphics applications for markets such as CAD, content creation, entertainment, game development and virtual reality.
To date, Imagination GPUs have natively supported OpenGL up until Release 3.3 as well as OpenGL ES (the version of OpenGL for embedded systems), Vulkan (a cross-platform graphics API) and OpenCL (an API for parallel programming). However, thanks to the increasing performance of our top-end GPUs, especially with the likes of the DXT-72-2304, they present a competitive offering to the data centre and desktop (DCD) market. Indeed, we have multiple customers - including the likes of Innosilicon - choosing Imagination GPUs for the flexibility an IP solution, their scalability and their ability to offer up to 6 TFLOPS of compute.
To date, Imagination GPUs have natively supported OpenGL up until Release 3.3 as well as OpenGL ES (the version of OpenGL for embedded systems), Vulkan (a cross-platform graphics API) and OpenCL (an API for parallel programming). However, thanks to the increasing performance of our top-end GPUs, especially with the likes of the DXT-72-2304, they present a competitive offering to the data centre and desktop (DCD) market. Indeed, we have multiple customers - including the likes of Innosilicon - choosing Imagination GPUs for the flexibility an IP solution, their scalability and their ability to offer up to 6 TFLOPS of compute.
EK Introduces Pro Rack Water Block for RTX 6000 Ada GPUs
EK, the leading computer cooling solutions provider, now offers EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 6000 Ada Rack - Nickel + Inox, an enterprise-grade full-cover water block meticulously designed for Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics cards. Crafted to excel in rack mount environments, this cutting-edge water block leverages the power of the Nvidia Ada Lovelace Architecture. Its exceptional construction showcases a CNC-machined nickel-plated copper base, complemented by a laser-cut stainless-steel top, creating a resilient liquid cooling solution that effectively transforms into a space-saving single-slot assembly. It encompasses the entire GPU, VRAM, and VRM components, precisely channeling the cooling liquid over these critical areas to efficiently dissipate heat.
Rack Mount Form Factor
The EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 6000 Ada Rack - Nickel + Inox is a purpose-built water block allowing you to have a professionally liquid-cooled Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics card, perfectly suited for server rack installations. Designed to seamlessly integrate into standard Full Height Full Width (FHFW) server chassis form factors, these EK-Pro Rack GPU water blocks serve as convenient drop-in replacements for both active and passive dual-slot air coolers.
Rack Mount Form Factor
The EK-Pro GPU WB RTX 6000 Ada Rack - Nickel + Inox is a purpose-built water block allowing you to have a professionally liquid-cooled Nvidia RTX 6000 Ada Generation graphics card, perfectly suited for server rack installations. Designed to seamlessly integrate into standard Full Height Full Width (FHFW) server chassis form factors, these EK-Pro Rack GPU water blocks serve as convenient drop-in replacements for both active and passive dual-slot air coolers.
Team Xbox Celebrates Disability Pride Month
This July, as part of Disability Pride Month, Team Xbox proudly celebrates players, creators, and community members with disabilities. More than 400 million video game players have disabilities worldwide, and we recognize the incredible contributions the gaming and disability community has made in making Team Xbox, and the broader gaming industry, more inclusive and welcoming for everyone.
Disability Pride holds a special place in my heart, as I am not only a Program Manager on our Gaming Accessibility Team, but also a person with disabilities. Most people wouldn't think of me as having a disability at first glance. In fact, I didn't know I had disabilities until I was in my 20's when I was diagnosed as being neurodiverse. Now I know that I have had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder since I was a young child. And, as the years have gone by, I've acquired new disabilities due to illness, injury, and trauma. Chronic pain is now part of my life, as is hearing loss, and anxiety and depression related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Disability Pride holds a special place in my heart, as I am not only a Program Manager on our Gaming Accessibility Team, but also a person with disabilities. Most people wouldn't think of me as having a disability at first glance. In fact, I didn't know I had disabilities until I was in my 20's when I was diagnosed as being neurodiverse. Now I know that I have had Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Sensory Processing Disorder since I was a young child. And, as the years have gone by, I've acquired new disabilities due to illness, injury, and trauma. Chronic pain is now part of my life, as is hearing loss, and anxiety and depression related to complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
Splave's ASUS ROG MATRIX RTX 4090 Cracks 4 GHz GPU Clock Barrier
An ASUS ROG MATRIX GeForce RTX 4090 overclocked by Splave became the first graphics card to break the 4 GHz GPU clock barrier. The card was overclocked to a blistering 4005 MHz GPU clock while leaving the memory untouched at 21 Gbps. The card was GPU Pi stable, and went on to set the single GPU record of 45.402 seconds. The ROG MATRIX was cooled using a liquid nitrogen evaporator, while the Core i9-13900K powering the rig was on AIO liquid CPU cooling. The CPU was left at stock frequency, and the memory ticked at vanilla DDR5-4800. The HWBOT validation of the feat can be accessed here.
BIOSTAR Introduces Four New B760 Chipset Motherboards
BIOSTAR, a leading manufacturer of motherboards, graphics cards, and storage devices, announces the best-performing business and casual motherboards for Intel 12/13th gen core processors in 2023. Tailored to cater to a wide range of users, from office applications to system integration businesses and home entertainment, the B760MX2-E, B760MZ-E PRO, B760MX2-E D4, and B760MX2-E PRO D4 motherboards pack an impressive suite of features and functionality ready to perform at the highest standard.
Powered by Intel's 12th and 13th-generation processors, these motherboards provide a seamless computing experience with higher performance, improved data integrity, and lower power consumption, setting new benchmarks in their respective segments. With B760MX2-E, B760MZ-E PRO motherboards supporting DDR5, and B760MX2-E D4, B760MX2-E PRO D4 motherboards supporting DDR4 memory, they provide exceptional memory support and performance. The B760MZ-E PRO and the B760MX2-E PRO D4 motherboards support up to 128 GB of memory while the B760MX2-E and the B760MX2-E D4 motherboards support up to 64 GB of memory capacity, providing users ample choice when it comes to system performance.
Powered by Intel's 12th and 13th-generation processors, these motherboards provide a seamless computing experience with higher performance, improved data integrity, and lower power consumption, setting new benchmarks in their respective segments. With B760MX2-E, B760MZ-E PRO motherboards supporting DDR5, and B760MX2-E D4, B760MX2-E PRO D4 motherboards supporting DDR4 memory, they provide exceptional memory support and performance. The B760MZ-E PRO and the B760MX2-E PRO D4 motherboards support up to 128 GB of memory while the B760MX2-E and the B760MX2-E D4 motherboards support up to 64 GB of memory capacity, providing users ample choice when it comes to system performance.
Two-ExaFLOP El Capitan Supercomputer Starts Installation Process with AMD Instinct MI300A
When Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) announced the creation of a two-ExaFLOP supercomputer named El Capitan, we heard that AMD would power it with its Instinct MI300 accelerator. Today, LNLL published a Tweet that states, "We've begun receiving & installing components for El Capitan, @NNSANews' first #exascale #supercomputer. While we're still a ways from deploying it for national security purposes in 2024, it's exciting to see years of work becoming reality." As published images show, HPE racks filled with AMD Instinct MI300 are showing up now at LNLL's facility, and the supercomputer is expected to go operational in 2024. This could mean that November 2023 TOP500 list update wouldn't feature El Capitan, as system enablement would be very hard to achieve in four months until then.
The El Capitan supercomputer is expected to run on AMD Instinct MI300A accelerator, which features 24 Zen4 cores, CDNA3 architecture, and 128 GB of HBM3 memory. All paired together in a four-accelerator configuration goes inside each node from HPE, also getting water cooling treatment. While we don't have many further details on the memory and storage of El Capitan, we know that the system will exceed two ExFLOPS at peak and will consume close to 40 MW of power.
The El Capitan supercomputer is expected to run on AMD Instinct MI300A accelerator, which features 24 Zen4 cores, CDNA3 architecture, and 128 GB of HBM3 memory. All paired together in a four-accelerator configuration goes inside each node from HPE, also getting water cooling treatment. While we don't have many further details on the memory and storage of El Capitan, we know that the system will exceed two ExFLOPS at peak and will consume close to 40 MW of power.
ADATA Launches LEGEND 970 PCIe Gen 5 SSD
As processors and chipsets move into a new generation, many motherboard manufacturers have launched latest-generation motherboards that have allowed the consumer market to embrace a new generation of PCIe 5.0 Solid-State Drives (SSD). ADATA Technology Co., Ltd., the world's leading memory brand, today launched its LEGEND 970 SSD. The LEGEND 970 can reach maximum sequential read/write speeds of 10,000/10,000 MB per second. Its most unique feature is a double-layer aluminium alloy heatsink with built-in micro-fan and surface crystallization that forms a patented active air-cooling system. The surface crystallization improves thermal conductivity, significantly reducing temperatures by 10% compared with fanless heatsinks to maintain stable performance during extended high-speed operation. The LEGEND 970's R&D, design, and superior cooling mechanism will be the benchmark of a new generation of storage products and it is expected to become the most influential PCIe Gen 5 storage solution in the consumer market.
ADATA ushers in a new era with its patented heat dissipation solution! From market consensus, it has become commonly accepted that active cooling is required for timely heat dissipation during high-speed PCIe 5.0 data transmission to ensure high temperatures do not affect reading and writing or slow down the system. The LEGEND 970 adopts a double-layer extruded aluminium heatsink design which features dense air ducts to divert hot and cold air. When heat is conducted upward, the rotation of the built-in micro fan circulates the confluence of hot and cold air and quickly expels exhaust heat from both ends of the extruded aluminium fins. At the same time, the LEGEND 970 increases heat dissipation through the addition of "surface crystallization " on the aluminium heatsink surface, increasing overall air contact area and maximizing the heat dissipation efficiency of its air cooling system. This unique "active heat dissipation" design significantly reduces temperatures by 10% compared to fanless heatsinks. More importantly, it can withstand high temperature stress tests and maintain stable performance even after long-term high-speed operation.
ADATA ushers in a new era with its patented heat dissipation solution! From market consensus, it has become commonly accepted that active cooling is required for timely heat dissipation during high-speed PCIe 5.0 data transmission to ensure high temperatures do not affect reading and writing or slow down the system. The LEGEND 970 adopts a double-layer extruded aluminium heatsink design which features dense air ducts to divert hot and cold air. When heat is conducted upward, the rotation of the built-in micro fan circulates the confluence of hot and cold air and quickly expels exhaust heat from both ends of the extruded aluminium fins. At the same time, the LEGEND 970 increases heat dissipation through the addition of "surface crystallization " on the aluminium heatsink surface, increasing overall air contact area and maximizing the heat dissipation efficiency of its air cooling system. This unique "active heat dissipation" design significantly reduces temperatures by 10% compared to fanless heatsinks. More importantly, it can withstand high temperature stress tests and maintain stable performance even after long-term high-speed operation.
16GB Variant of GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Launches July 18
NVIDIA is preparing the launch of its third and final RTX 4060-series graphics card SKU, the GeForce RTX 4060 16 GB, for July 18, 2023. Going by past convention, reviews of the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB graphics card priced at its steep $499 MSRP, will go live on June 17, and those priced above the MSRP on July 18, alongside market availability. The RTX 4060 Ti is essentially a memory variant of the RTX 4060 Ti. It offers 16 GB of video memory across the card's 128-bit wide memory interface.
According to the specs-sheet put out by NVIDIA on the May 18 launch date for the RTX 4060 series, besides memory size, there are no other differences between the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, and the current RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. In particular, there is no change in the core-configuration or clock-speed, since the shader compute throughput of both models is listed at the same 22 TFLOPs. Even the memory speed is the same, at 18 Gbps (GDDR6-effective), at which the GPU has 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal. It will be interesting to see the performance impact of 16 GB memory.
According to the specs-sheet put out by NVIDIA on the May 18 launch date for the RTX 4060 series, besides memory size, there are no other differences between the RTX 4060 Ti 16 GB, and the current RTX 4060 Ti 8 GB. In particular, there is no change in the core-configuration or clock-speed, since the shader compute throughput of both models is listed at the same 22 TFLOPs. Even the memory speed is the same, at 18 Gbps (GDDR6-effective), at which the GPU has 288 GB/s of memory bandwidth at its disposal. It will be interesting to see the performance impact of 16 GB memory.
Alphacool Launches NEW ES Orbiter Filling Station for Custom Loops
You want to fill your cooling loop without any hassle? The new ES Orbiter Filling Station from Alphacool enables very simple and extremely effective, bubble-free filling of water cooling systems. With two powerful pumps, the system to be filled is vented in no time. Thanks to the integrated high-performance filter in the station, the coolant is also cleaned of the finest particles, making it just as ideal for cleaning cooling loops.
Via the slightly raised G1" filling cap on the top, the cooling system is filled effortlessly with the Alphacool ES Filling Station. The illuminated viewing window makes it easy to monitor the fill level at any time, even in poorly lit environments. The integrated reservoir has a sufficiently large capacity of approx. 4500 ml. In addition, the Filling Station has a maintenance door to allow work to be carried out, such as changing filters. The ES Filling Station is now available in our online store (Editor's note: for €399.98 inc. VAT).
Via the slightly raised G1" filling cap on the top, the cooling system is filled effortlessly with the Alphacool ES Filling Station. The illuminated viewing window makes it easy to monitor the fill level at any time, even in poorly lit environments. The integrated reservoir has a sufficiently large capacity of approx. 4500 ml. In addition, the Filling Station has a maintenance door to allow work to be carried out, such as changing filters. The ES Filling Station is now available in our online store (Editor's note: for €399.98 inc. VAT).
Meta Launches Threads to Take on Twitter
Mark Zuckerberg just announced the initial version of Threads, an app built by the Instagram team for sharing with text. Whether you're a creator or a casual poster, Threads offers a new, separate space for real-time updates and public conversations. We are working toward making Threads compatible with the open, interoperable social networks that we believe can shape the future of the internet.
Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests - including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls.
Instagram is where billions of people around the world connect over photos and videos. Our vision with Threads is to take what Instagram does best and expand that to text, creating a positive and creative space to express your ideas. Just like on Instagram, with Threads you can follow and connect with friends and creators who share your interests - including the people you follow on Instagram and beyond. And you can use our existing suite of safety and user controls.
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 Drops Below the $1000-mark
NVIDIA's high-end GeForce RTX 4080 has, for the very first time, dropped below the $1,000-mark in pricing. A Newegg retailer-level promotion sees the MSI RTX 4080 Ventus 3X OC graphics card listed at $1,099, with a coupon shaving off a further $100. This is a 16.5% discount over the $1,199 NVIDIA baseline MSRP for the RTX 4080. The MSI Ventus 3X OC was originally launched at a $60 premium over the MSRP.
The GeForce RTX 4080 is seeing a much needed downward trend in street pricing, with the graphics card market as a whole experiencing a slump. The RTX 4080 in particular could be experiencing pressure from the Radeon RX 7900 XTX for NVIDIA and retailers to consider price-cuts, with the lowest street-price for the AMD flagship recorded at $881. It's probably hoped that a $999 price could attract some buyers away from the RX 7900 XTX. The GeForce RTX 4080 is an enthusiast-class graphics card designed for maxed-out gaming at 4K Ultra HD, with ray tracing enabled, and loaded with features such as DLSS 3 and dual-stream encoders and decoders.
The GeForce RTX 4080 is seeing a much needed downward trend in street pricing, with the graphics card market as a whole experiencing a slump. The RTX 4080 in particular could be experiencing pressure from the Radeon RX 7900 XTX for NVIDIA and retailers to consider price-cuts, with the lowest street-price for the AMD flagship recorded at $881. It's probably hoped that a $999 price could attract some buyers away from the RX 7900 XTX. The GeForce RTX 4080 is an enthusiast-class graphics card designed for maxed-out gaming at 4K Ultra HD, with ray tracing enabled, and loaded with features such as DLSS 3 and dual-stream encoders and decoders.
Transcend Empowers Smart Applications With The New U.2 NVMe SSD UTE210T
Transcend Information (Transcend), a leading manufacturer of embedded memory products, is proud to release the latest U.2 NVMe SSD, the UTE210T. Designed for generative AI, high-performance computing (HPC), and big data analytics, this powerful SSD is built with the 112-layer 3D NAND flash, an 8-channel controller, and a PCIe Gen 4x4 interface. Experience high speeds, low latency, and minimal power consumption with your systems, but most of all, enjoy sequential R/W speeds of up to 7,200/6,500 MB/s and stable and reliable system performance that supports various applications of use.
Compliant with the NVMe 1.4 specification, Transcend's UTE210T comes bundled with a U.2 connector, enabling the drive to configure the PCIe interface with the U.2 backplane, ultimately enhancing transfer stability without compromising your servers. To address the demanding workloads associated with AI, its built-in DRAM provides exceptional random read speeds, which not only reduces NAND flash Program/Erase cycles (P/E cycles), but effectively extends drive lifespan to help manage a wide range of workloads. The UTE210T comes with up to 8 TB of storage capacity, ensuring servers and data centers are able to process vast amounts of data without compromising system performance.
Compliant with the NVMe 1.4 specification, Transcend's UTE210T comes bundled with a U.2 connector, enabling the drive to configure the PCIe interface with the U.2 backplane, ultimately enhancing transfer stability without compromising your servers. To address the demanding workloads associated with AI, its built-in DRAM provides exceptional random read speeds, which not only reduces NAND flash Program/Erase cycles (P/E cycles), but effectively extends drive lifespan to help manage a wide range of workloads. The UTE210T comes with up to 8 TB of storage capacity, ensuring servers and data centers are able to process vast amounts of data without compromising system performance.
ASUS Launches the TUF Gaming VG34VQL3A 180 Hz WQHD Curved Monitor
ASUS has added a new addition to its TUF Gaming series of monitors, which goes under the model name VG34VQL3A. The new monitor is a 34-inch ultra-wide model with a WQHD or 3440 x 1440 resolution. It features a 180 Hz refresh rate panel that has a 1500R curvature and a peak brightness in both SDR and HDR mode of 400 cd/m². The panel itself is of VA type and features a common LED backlight and delivers a 1 ms GtG response time, a 4000:1 contrast ratio and finally covers 125 percent of the sRGB colour gamut.
When it comes to gaming features, ASUS has added support for Freesync Premium Pro as well as Adaptive Sync and the VG34VQL3A also sports support for ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur) and variable overdrive, which are two features you normally only find on higher-end gaming monitors. Included are of course ASUS typical gaming features like shadow boost, FPS counter, crosshairs etc. as well as various presets for different modes. When it comes to connectivity, ASUS has somewhat unusually equipped the VG34VQL3A with two DP 1.4 inputs, as well as two HDMI 2.0 inputs. There's also a three port USB Type-A hub that supports speed of up to 10 Gbps. The supplied stand supports tilt, swivel and height adjustment and also has an integrated quarter inch tripod mount for mounting webcams or lights. ASUS claims a mere 27 Watt power usage for the VG34VQL3A, which almost sounds too good to be true. The VG34VQL3A is expected to launch sometime later this quarter.
When it comes to gaming features, ASUS has added support for Freesync Premium Pro as well as Adaptive Sync and the VG34VQL3A also sports support for ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur) and variable overdrive, which are two features you normally only find on higher-end gaming monitors. Included are of course ASUS typical gaming features like shadow boost, FPS counter, crosshairs etc. as well as various presets for different modes. When it comes to connectivity, ASUS has somewhat unusually equipped the VG34VQL3A with two DP 1.4 inputs, as well as two HDMI 2.0 inputs. There's also a three port USB Type-A hub that supports speed of up to 10 Gbps. The supplied stand supports tilt, swivel and height adjustment and also has an integrated quarter inch tripod mount for mounting webcams or lights. ASUS claims a mere 27 Watt power usage for the VG34VQL3A, which almost sounds too good to be true. The VG34VQL3A is expected to launch sometime later this quarter.
Wednesday, July 5th 2023
Today's Reviews
Cases
Graphics Cards
Headphones
SSD
Jackery Explorer 2000 Pro Portable Power Station Review
The Jackery Explorer 2000 Pro is a massive 2000 watt portable power station. It satisfies a few unique requirements that are sought after for more extreme outdoor excursions or on larger job sites for example, with its fast recharge speed and capable 20 amp AC ports.
TerraMaster Announces Two High-speed Storage Solutions for 4K Video Editing
With the development of multimedia production and broadcasting technology, more and more film and television works are produced based on high-definition, 4K or even 8K environments, and the size of a single video material can reach dozens of GB, or even hundreds of GB. The space, reliability, and transmission performance issues of storage devices are becoming more and more difficult.
TerraMaster, a professional brand that focuses on providing innovative storage products for homes and businesses, provided Thunderbolt 3 RAID Storage and 10GbE NAS series, the 2 high-speed storage solutions for 4K video editing, which are perfectly suitable for professionals with high requirements.
TerraMaster, a professional brand that focuses on providing innovative storage products for homes and businesses, provided Thunderbolt 3 RAID Storage and 10GbE NAS series, the 2 high-speed storage solutions for 4K video editing, which are perfectly suitable for professionals with high requirements.
Despite Export Ban on Equipment, China's Semiconductor Expansion in Mature Processes Remains Strong
On June 30th, the Netherlands introduced new export restrictions on advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Despite facing export controls from the US, Japan, and the Netherlands, TrendForce anticipates the market share of Chinese foundries in terms of 12-inch wafer production capacity will likely increase from 24% in 2022 to an estimated 26% in 2026. Moreover, if the exports of 40/28 nm equipment eventually receive approval, there's a chance that this market share could expand even further, possibly reaching 28% by 2026. This growth potential should not be dismissed.
Several manufacturing processes including photolithography, deposition, and epitaxy will be subject to these recent export restrictions. Beginning September 1st, the export of all controlled items will require formal authorization. TrendForce reports that Chinese foundries have been primarily developing mature processes like 55 nm, 40 nm, and 28 nm. Furthermore, demand for deposition equipment can be largely met by local Chinese vendors, meaning concerns regarding expansion and development are minimal. The main limiting factor, however, remains the equipment used in photolithography.
Several manufacturing processes including photolithography, deposition, and epitaxy will be subject to these recent export restrictions. Beginning September 1st, the export of all controlled items will require formal authorization. TrendForce reports that Chinese foundries have been primarily developing mature processes like 55 nm, 40 nm, and 28 nm. Furthermore, demand for deposition equipment can be largely met by local Chinese vendors, meaning concerns regarding expansion and development are minimal. The main limiting factor, however, remains the equipment used in photolithography.
Assassin's Creed Mirage Showcases the History of Baghdad
When Assassin's Creed Mirage launches on October 12, it will continue the series' tradition of bringing players closer to history with History of Baghdad, a feature that adds historical context to the game's simulation of the past. Part of an in-game Codex that also includes tutorials and a Database with lore, History of Baghdad will deliver expertly curated information on the history, art, and culture of Baghdad and the Abbasid Caliphate circa the ninth century, accompanied by images provided by museum partners.
In keeping with Assassin's Creed Mirage being a tribute to early Assassin's Creed games, History of Baghdad will be integrated into the main game, similarly to the Database of earlier games, and is tied to player progression, with an in-game reward for Basim once completed. As Basim visits 66 historical sites throughout Baghdad, players will unlock research-driven articles that dig into information across five topics: Economy; Belief & Daily Life; Government; Art & Science; and Court Life.
In keeping with Assassin's Creed Mirage being a tribute to early Assassin's Creed games, History of Baghdad will be integrated into the main game, similarly to the Database of earlier games, and is tied to player progression, with an in-game reward for Basim once completed. As Basim visits 66 historical sites throughout Baghdad, players will unlock research-driven articles that dig into information across five topics: Economy; Belief & Daily Life; Government; Art & Science; and Court Life.
8BitDo Presents its NEOGEO Wireless Controller
Introducing 8BitDo NEOGEO Wireless Controller. A perfect recreation of the original SNK NEOGEO CD. Featuring the original classic click-style joystick. Compatible with Windows, Android, and NEOGEO mini. Officially licensed by SNK. We spent years of designing, perfecting, and manufacturing the original controller to ensure it feels just like the original. We've also created 4 limited editions in tribute to THE KING OF FIGHTERS '97. Choose among Kyo Kusanagi, Terry Bogard, Iori Yagami, or Mai Shiranui.
New features and compatibility
We added bumpers, Turbo function, and button layout swapping for a more flexible and compatible gaming experience.
New features and compatibility
We added bumpers, Turbo function, and button layout swapping for a more flexible and compatible gaming experience.
Nintendo Switch 2 Dev Kits Rumored to be in the Hands of Spanish Studio
A tipster/YouTuber familiar with goings-on at Spanish development studios believes that next generation Nintendo development kits have arrived in the southern European country. Nash Weedle is reported to have a good track record with their predictions—most notably outing Madrid-based MercurySteam as a contract developer on the high profile Metroid Dread project. Weedle did not implicate this particular team with his social media declaration, but it is the only organization in the region that has assisted Nintendo EPD on multiple first-party titles.
A translation of Weedle's tweet states: "The Switch 2 development kit has arrived in Spain. The fact that a Spanish studio already has the kit, given Nintendo's private/secrecy policy, is a boost in their relations and indicates that we are in the last stages before the console's presentation." The relationship between the two companies could sour following these emerging leaks—Nintendo is notorious for its extremely guarded approach to software and hardware reveals. Company president, Shuntaro Furukawa, told shareholders (two months ago) that a Switch successor is marked for a vague launch somewhere in FY2024 - 2025.
A translation of Weedle's tweet states: "The Switch 2 development kit has arrived in Spain. The fact that a Spanish studio already has the kit, given Nintendo's private/secrecy policy, is a boost in their relations and indicates that we are in the last stages before the console's presentation." The relationship between the two companies could sour following these emerging leaks—Nintendo is notorious for its extremely guarded approach to software and hardware reveals. Company president, Shuntaro Furukawa, told shareholders (two months ago) that a Switch successor is marked for a vague launch somewhere in FY2024 - 2025.
Baldur's Gate 3 Split Screen Mode Problematic on Xbox Series S
Larian Studios recently announced that the PlayStation 5 version of Baldur's Gate 3 is getting postponed by a week—from August 31 to September 6, with PC gamers happy to discover that they will be treated to an earlier release (adjusted to August 3). Xbox Series console owners were seemingly left out in the cold with last week's announcements—Larian is yet to confirm a solid launch date for current generation Microsoft systems. The studio admitted—earlier this year—that software engineers were struggling to get the split screen multiplayer mode in Baldur's Gate 3 running adequately on both Series X and S hardware: "We've had an Xbox version of Baldur's Gate 3 in development for some time now. We've run into some technical issues in developing the Xbox port that have stopped us feeling 100% confident in announcing it until we're certain we've found the right solutions—specifically, we've been unable to get splitscreen co-op to work to the same standard on both (systems), which is a requirement for us to ship."
Microsoft apparently enforces a policy that locks gameplay feature parity across Xbox Series X and S, and Larian has continued to struggle with technical issues, albeit now isolated to the lesser console (not that helpful given the circumstances)—IGN contacted studio head Swen Vincke for comment about this situation. Other development outfits have expressed their disdain for Series S launch requirements, with calls to drop the system entirely—but IGN discovered that Vincke was reluctant to aim criticism at Microsoft, since first party assistance has been roped in: "We had support from the ATG group. They've been doing great. They've been helping a lot. Everybody wants this out on Xbox. It's not that we don't want it out on Xbox. It's just that, our problem—and this is us, Larian—is that we just made a very big game. And it's a very complicated game...We're also not a developer with an infinite (number) of resources. We are constrained in the amount of time each platform version is tested. The more permutations you start adding to it on a platform, the more complicated that becomes." Given the high profile nature of Baldur's Gate 3, it would be in both parties' interests to get a decent port out of the door, so it is encouraging that Microsoft is pitching in (perhaps to save face).
Microsoft apparently enforces a policy that locks gameplay feature parity across Xbox Series X and S, and Larian has continued to struggle with technical issues, albeit now isolated to the lesser console (not that helpful given the circumstances)—IGN contacted studio head Swen Vincke for comment about this situation. Other development outfits have expressed their disdain for Series S launch requirements, with calls to drop the system entirely—but IGN discovered that Vincke was reluctant to aim criticism at Microsoft, since first party assistance has been roped in: "We had support from the ATG group. They've been doing great. They've been helping a lot. Everybody wants this out on Xbox. It's not that we don't want it out on Xbox. It's just that, our problem—and this is us, Larian—is that we just made a very big game. And it's a very complicated game...We're also not a developer with an infinite (number) of resources. We are constrained in the amount of time each platform version is tested. The more permutations you start adding to it on a platform, the more complicated that becomes." Given the high profile nature of Baldur's Gate 3, it would be in both parties' interests to get a decent port out of the door, so it is encouraging that Microsoft is pitching in (perhaps to save face).
Cervoz Introduces its M.2 2242 PCIe Gen 3 x 2 T421 SSD Family
In the world of modern embedded computing, motherboards and systems are equipped with numerous M.2 and Mini-PCI Express sockets. These sockets provide ideal homes for networking communication adapters and solid-state drives (SSDs), including NVMe-compatible SSDs. With an abundance of sockets, embedded systems now have unparalleled connectivity and storage options.
Cervoz recognizes this need and introduces a new industrial SSD perfectly suited for these boards and systems: the M.2 2242 PCIe Gen 3 x 2 (B+M Key) SSD, T421. This SSD is designed specifically for embedded motherboards and systems, making it a perfect fit for industrial applications ranging from retail and gaming solutions to embedded computing devices.
Cervoz recognizes this need and introduces a new industrial SSD perfectly suited for these boards and systems: the M.2 2242 PCIe Gen 3 x 2 (B+M Key) SSD, T421. This SSD is designed specifically for embedded motherboards and systems, making it a perfect fit for industrial applications ranging from retail and gaming solutions to embedded computing devices.
Boox Introduces Page - their Sophisticated 7" eReader
Introducing Page: our Most Advanced 7" eReader with Built-in Page-Turn Buttons. The BOOX Page is a cutting-edge 7" eReader equipped with our most advanced processor and customizable page-turn buttons. Discover the impressive array of features on our newest model below.
A Supercharged Journey of eReading
With its Qualcomm advanced octa-core CPU and enhanced configuration of 3 GB RAM + 32 GB ROM, the all-new Page guarantees an incredibly smooth experience while reading ebooks, browsing websites, or using third-party apps, which is made possible by the open Android 11 system it operates on. The 7-inch ePaper screen comes with the E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen technology, replicating the sensation of reading on traditional paper. With a 300 PPI high definition, each word is presented with extra sharpness and more distinct contrast, resulting in a gentler visual effect and diminished strain on the eyes.
A Supercharged Journey of eReading
With its Qualcomm advanced octa-core CPU and enhanced configuration of 3 GB RAM + 32 GB ROM, the all-new Page guarantees an incredibly smooth experience while reading ebooks, browsing websites, or using third-party apps, which is made possible by the open Android 11 system it operates on. The 7-inch ePaper screen comes with the E Ink Carta 1200 touchscreen technology, replicating the sensation of reading on traditional paper. With a 300 PPI high definition, each word is presented with extra sharpness and more distinct contrast, resulting in a gentler visual effect and diminished strain on the eyes.
Xbox Game Pass Titles Revealed for July
What do heists, dinosaurs falling out of the skies, and puzzles all have in common? If it is anything other than "games coming to Xbox Game Pass", I would very much like to know! We have games coming soon that we announced during the Xbox and Bethesda Showcase (looking at you, Exoprimal), and we even have a surprise return today with Grand Theft Auto V. Let's get to the games!
Available Today: Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud and Console)
When a young street hustler, a retired bank robber, and a terrifying psychopath find themselves entangled with some of the most frightening and deranged elements of the criminal underworld, the U.S. government, and the entertainment industry, they must pull off a series of dangerous heists to survive in a ruthless city in which they can trust nobody—least of all each other. Includes both the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X|S versions of Grand Theft Auto V.
Available Today: Grand Theft Auto V (Cloud and Console)
When a young street hustler, a retired bank robber, and a terrifying psychopath find themselves entangled with some of the most frightening and deranged elements of the criminal underworld, the U.S. government, and the entertainment industry, they must pull off a series of dangerous heists to survive in a ruthless city in which they can trust nobody—least of all each other. Includes both the Xbox One and the Xbox Series X|S versions of Grand Theft Auto V.
AMD Ryzen 3 5100 Spotted on Gigabyte X570 CPU Support List
Gigabyte has updated the CPU support list for its X570 AORUS XTREME motherboard, and the usual internet hardware sleuths spotted the addition of an intriguing unreleased AMD CPU—compatible with said board when updated to BIOS version F35. Team Red could be readying the quad-core/eight-thread "Cezanne" Ryzen 3 5100 processor for a forthcoming market launch—the AM4 platform and Zen 3 continue to live on—co-existing with the 7000-series lineup—the "Vermeer-X" Ryzen 5 5600X3D arrives later this week as a Micro Center retail exclusive, and another Cezanne-based unit (an eight-core Ryzen 7 5700) has been added to motherboard support lists.
The Ryzen 3 5100 and Ryzen 7 5700 CPUs were included in SKU manifests from last spring, but did not end up launching in 2022. Both appear to be monolithic die APUs with their iGPUs disabled—the Cezanne CPU microarchitecture is based on TSMC's 7 nm process node. Other news sources posit that these processors have occasionally cropped up as OEM parts on e-commerce platforms, but AMD has (so far) kept very quiet about possible retail releases.
The Ryzen 3 5100 and Ryzen 7 5700 CPUs were included in SKU manifests from last spring, but did not end up launching in 2022. Both appear to be monolithic die APUs with their iGPUs disabled—the Cezanne CPU microarchitecture is based on TSMC's 7 nm process node. Other news sources posit that these processors have occasionally cropped up as OEM parts on e-commerce platforms, but AMD has (so far) kept very quiet about possible retail releases.
EK Introduces Pro CPU Water Block for LGA 1700
EK, the renowned premium liquid cooling solutions manufacturer, introduces a brand-new high-performance CPU water block explicitly made for Intel LGA 1700 socket-based CPUs. This CPU block features a high-flow cooling engine and a dense microfin design that allows ample cooling even for the overclocked Intel Core i9-13900K processor.
EK-Pro CPU WB 1700 - Nickel + Inox
This is a dedicated enterprise-grade water block developed for Intel Core consumer processors based on the LGA 1700 socket. It features two standard G1/4" threaded ports on the top and is built with performance, reliability, serviceability, and no compromises in mind. This liquid cooling solution is intended for desktop PCs, workstations, and taller server racks. The water block's top is CNC-machined from durable black POM Acetal, while the hold-down bracket is made of laser-cut stainless steel.
EK-Pro CPU WB 1700 - Nickel + Inox
This is a dedicated enterprise-grade water block developed for Intel Core consumer processors based on the LGA 1700 socket. It features two standard G1/4" threaded ports on the top and is built with performance, reliability, serviceability, and no compromises in mind. This liquid cooling solution is intended for desktop PCs, workstations, and taller server racks. The water block's top is CNC-machined from durable black POM Acetal, while the hold-down bracket is made of laser-cut stainless steel.
Focus Entertainment Declares that Atlas Fallen has gone Gold
Publisher Focus Entertainment and developer Deck13 Interactive were happy to declare, yesterday on Twitter, that development on their upcoming action role-player is complete: "We're happy to announce that Atlas Fallen has gone GOLD! 💛 See you on August 10 in the land of Atlas." The game was originally slated to launch back in mid-May, but the studio was granted extra time to implement further optimizations, polish gameplay, and record "a full German voice-over" dub.
Deck13 Interactive is best known for producing "Soulslike" games—notable titles in their past catalog include Lords of the Fallen (2014), The Surge (2017) and The Surge 2 (2019), but Atlas Fallen presents a departure for the team. The emphasis is on fast and fluid action, with inspiration taken from Sony Entertainment's God of War (2018) and Guerrilla's Horizon series. Atlas Fallen is built using the company's in-house "Fledge" engine—it will be interesting to discover how this proprietary technology performs across PC and console platforms.
Update Jul 25th: This article previously misreported that Atlas Fallen was built on Epic's Unreal Engine 5—Deck13 contacted TPU, and requested that we amend our piece with updated information. Atlas Fallen utilizes the team's own Fledge engine.
Deck13 Interactive is best known for producing "Soulslike" games—notable titles in their past catalog include Lords of the Fallen (2014), The Surge (2017) and The Surge 2 (2019), but Atlas Fallen presents a departure for the team. The emphasis is on fast and fluid action, with inspiration taken from Sony Entertainment's God of War (2018) and Guerrilla's Horizon series. Atlas Fallen is built using the company's in-house "Fledge" engine—it will be interesting to discover how this proprietary technology performs across PC and console platforms.
Update Jul 25th: This article previously misreported that Atlas Fallen was built on Epic's Unreal Engine 5—Deck13 contacted TPU, and requested that we amend our piece with updated information. Atlas Fallen utilizes the team's own Fledge engine.
ASRock Adds A380 Low Profile 6 GB Graphics Card to its Arc Lineup
ASRock has added another Arc model to its small selection of Intel graphics cards—this time in low profile form. The entry level A380 GPU is well suited for this narrow (zero dB/silent) dual fan cooling solution due to its diminutive 75 W TDP rating. ASRock has stayed in the safe zone by sticking with the default base clock of 2.0 GHz, as opposed to the sibling Challenger ITX 6 GB OC model's slightly more ambitious 2.25 GHz.
The specifications are typical A380—you get 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 96-bit memory bus, granting a bandwidth going up to 186 GB/s (memory is clocked at 15.5 Gbps), although the selection of ports has been reduced in number due to the card's small stature. Only single DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.0b connections here. ASRock's product page for their Arc A380 Low Profile model includes the usual yammering about the GPU's "next-gen gaming" capabilities thanks to Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) technology, but the card is better suited for compact budget builds and users who require a decent level of AV1 encoding (for the price—not announced at the time of writing).
The specifications are typical A380—you get 6 GB of GDDR6 VRAM with a 96-bit memory bus, granting a bandwidth going up to 186 GB/s (memory is clocked at 15.5 Gbps), although the selection of ports has been reduced in number due to the card's small stature. Only single DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.0b connections here. ASRock's product page for their Arc A380 Low Profile model includes the usual yammering about the GPU's "next-gen gaming" capabilities thanks to Intel's Xe Super Sampling (XeSS) technology, but the card is better suited for compact budget builds and users who require a decent level of AV1 encoding (for the price—not announced at the time of writing).
TechPowerUp is Hiring a Motherboard Reviewer
TechPowerUp, your place on the web for in-depth PC hardware reviews and enthusiast news, is looking for a desktop motherboard reviewer. Our current reviewer, ir_cow, is going to focus on DRAM module reviews exclusively. The motherboard reviewer job requires a high level understanding of the layout and workings of modern motherboards, including detailed technical photography of its various onboard devices, VRM, memory, commentary on layout and ease-of-installation/use, as well as performance benchmarks, and overclocking capabilities.
We expect our potential motherboard reviewer to be able to identify key components of the motherboard, the various controllers, VRM, PHYs, and chipset; the expansion slot layout and the way PCIe lanes are distributed across the motherboard; and other important aspects, such as the motherboard's own cooling mechanisms. You also need a solid grasp on memory timings, and tuning for a given platform, and the willingness to explore and learn. Our performance testing involves not just the CPU performance on a given motherboard, but also that of certain onboard devices, such as audio, and those of storage interfaces. Some of our recent motherboard reviews should give you a good idea of our review format, article structure, and the testing involved.
We expect our potential motherboard reviewer to be able to identify key components of the motherboard, the various controllers, VRM, PHYs, and chipset; the expansion slot layout and the way PCIe lanes are distributed across the motherboard; and other important aspects, such as the motherboard's own cooling mechanisms. You also need a solid grasp on memory timings, and tuning for a given platform, and the willingness to explore and learn. Our performance testing involves not just the CPU performance on a given motherboard, but also that of certain onboard devices, such as audio, and those of storage interfaces. Some of our recent motherboard reviews should give you a good idea of our review format, article structure, and the testing involved.
NVIDIA Already Using Modified "12V-2x6" Power Connector on GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition
A few days ago, we reported that NVIDIA and PCI-SIG have been doing some work around the existing controversial 12VHPWR power connector to make some improvements and prevent issues that happened along the way. Called 12V-2x6, the connector features minor revisions, and you can read more about it here. Today, we learn that NVIDIA has already been shipping implementations of the new 12V-2x6 connector in GeForce RTX 4070 graphics cards, confirmed by Igor's Lab. Majority of RTX 4070 cards from AIBs shipped with 8-pin PCI connector; however, it turns out that cards that didn't use the reference 12-pin connection carried a new 12V-2x6 revision.
Below, you can see the picture comparison with the connectors from the Founders Edition of GeForce RTX 4070 and RTX 4080. The new connector on the RTX 4070 has shorter sensing pins, which can detect whether the connector is fully plugged in. If not plugged all the way, the card will not draw the required maximum power load. This should, in theory, solve connector burning issues happening in the past; however, we are still left to see. In addition, we are not sure if this is the final implementation of the new connector, as the labeling refferest to it as "H+", whereas the new connector should carry the label "H++" on its module. Igor's Lab article notes, "Since the GeForce RTX 4070 FE, NVIDIA has already been using a modified 12VHPWR connector with significantly recessed pins! While the GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition still relies on the header from the CEM 5.0 with only 0.45 mm offset, the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition has been using a modified variant with 1.7 mm inward offset since its launch, similar to the 12V-2x6 connector."
Below, you can see the picture comparison with the connectors from the Founders Edition of GeForce RTX 4070 and RTX 4080. The new connector on the RTX 4070 has shorter sensing pins, which can detect whether the connector is fully plugged in. If not plugged all the way, the card will not draw the required maximum power load. This should, in theory, solve connector burning issues happening in the past; however, we are still left to see. In addition, we are not sure if this is the final implementation of the new connector, as the labeling refferest to it as "H+", whereas the new connector should carry the label "H++" on its module. Igor's Lab article notes, "Since the GeForce RTX 4070 FE, NVIDIA has already been using a modified 12VHPWR connector with significantly recessed pins! While the GeForce RTX 4080 Founders Edition still relies on the header from the CEM 5.0 with only 0.45 mm offset, the GeForce RTX 4070 Founders Edition has been using a modified variant with 1.7 mm inward offset since its launch, similar to the 12V-2x6 connector."
DRAM ASP Decline Narrows to 0~5% for 3Q23 Owing to Production Cuts and Seasonal Demand
TrendForce reports that continued production cuts by DRAM suppliers have led to a gradual quarterly decrease in overall DRAM supply. Seasonal demand, on the other hand, is helping to mitigate inventory pressure on suppliers. TrendForce projects that the third quarter will see the ASP for DRAM converging towards a 0~5% decline. Despite suppliers' concerted efforts, inventory levels persistently remain high, keeping prices low. While production cutbacks may help to curtail quarterly price declines, a tangible recovery in prices may not be seen until 2024.
PC DRAM: The benefits of consolidated production cuts on DDR4 by the top three suppliers are expected to become evident in the third quarter. Furthermore, inventory pressure on suppliers has been partially alleviated due to aggressive purchasing by several OEMs at low prices during 2Q23. Evaluating average price trends for PC DRAM products in 3Q23 reveals that DDR4 will continue to remain in a state of persistent oversupply, leading to an expected quarterly price drop of 3~8%. DDR5 prices—influenced by suppliers' efforts to maintain prices and unmet buyer demand—are projected to see a 0-5% quarterly decline. The overall ASP of PC DRAM is projected to experience a QoQ decline of 0~5% in the third quarter.
PC DRAM: The benefits of consolidated production cuts on DDR4 by the top three suppliers are expected to become evident in the third quarter. Furthermore, inventory pressure on suppliers has been partially alleviated due to aggressive purchasing by several OEMs at low prices during 2Q23. Evaluating average price trends for PC DRAM products in 3Q23 reveals that DDR4 will continue to remain in a state of persistent oversupply, leading to an expected quarterly price drop of 3~8%. DDR5 prices—influenced by suppliers' efforts to maintain prices and unmet buyer demand—are projected to see a 0-5% quarterly decline. The overall ASP of PC DRAM is projected to experience a QoQ decline of 0~5% in the third quarter.
Gigabyte's Upcoming Motherboard Refresh Leaked via the EEC
The Eurasian Economic Commission or the EEC for short, has become something of a source when it comes to upcoming product leaks, at least as far as the model names goes and now a range of upcoming motherboards from Gigabyte has made an appearance on its site. What we're looking at is a range of refreshed boards, some that were on display at Computex, but most of them haven't been officially announced as yet. On the Intel side, all the new models have an X somewhere towards the end of the model names to reflect them being part of the refresh and at least some SKUs are getting WiFi 7 support, All except one model is based on the Z790 chipset, at least as far as most of us are concerned, as there's one custom SKU that's said to be for a Chinese system integrator that won't be available outside of China. As the China specific SKU is already listed on Gigabyte's Chinese website, we've included a picture of the B70M YT Pioneer WiFi below.
On the AMD side of things, Gigabyte is adding a more affordable X670E SKU with the X670E Aorus Elite AX. Here, AMD has stuck with a simple V2 to reflect the refreshed boards, but it's unclear what has changed on these models. Gigabyte has also added a few new MicroATX B650 boards, with the B650M Aorus Elite AX Arctic which will be a white and/or silver motherboard with matching design elements. This board will have limited availability and although it might be found in retail in some countries, it's largely intended for system integrators. The other two new boards are the B650M A Elite AX Arc—we were told by a source that this is a mistake in the filing—and the B650M Gaming WiFi, which should be a cheaper alternative to the B650M Gaming X models the company is currently offering. These boards should start arriving in the autumn some time, at least based on the boards Gigabyte was showing at Computex.
On the AMD side of things, Gigabyte is adding a more affordable X670E SKU with the X670E Aorus Elite AX. Here, AMD has stuck with a simple V2 to reflect the refreshed boards, but it's unclear what has changed on these models. Gigabyte has also added a few new MicroATX B650 boards, with the B650M Aorus Elite AX Arctic which will be a white and/or silver motherboard with matching design elements. This board will have limited availability and although it might be found in retail in some countries, it's largely intended for system integrators. The other two new boards are the B650M A Elite AX Arc—we were told by a source that this is a mistake in the filing—and the B650M Gaming WiFi, which should be a cheaper alternative to the B650M Gaming X models the company is currently offering. These boards should start arriving in the autumn some time, at least based on the boards Gigabyte was showing at Computex.
Tuesday, July 4th 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Desktop PC
Harddisks
Keyboards
Monitors
Motherboards
Storage
James Donkey RS2 3.0 Gasket Mount Wireless Keyboard Review
James Donkey continues to revise its solid keyboard offerings to raise the bar further. The new RS2 3.0 builds upon an already impressive base and adds in new features including an integrated screen and smart wheel, onboard menu with extensive controls, and also software customization to make the most of this wireless keyboard.
Microïds Showcases Flashback 2's Jungle Environment
Publisher Microïds, Microïds Studios Lyon/Paris and Paul Cuisset are happy to unveil a new trailer for Flashback 2, revealing an iconic and familiar environment for all fans of the franchise: the artificial Jungle of Titan! Dive into a captivating modern adventure where the story is constantly reinvented. In the dense jungle of Titan, Conrad B. Hart faces an environment that is both familiar and strangely new.
Take on a fierce enemy and his minions as you discover the wonderful vegetation and fantastic origins of this complex ecosystem. Whether you're a long-time fan or discovering this deep universe for the first time, prepare yourself for a unique experience combining action, combat, platforming, encounters and exploration. Will the Jungle of Titan be your grave or your shelter? Flashback 2 will be available November 16th, 2023 both in digital and retail versions for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.
Take on a fierce enemy and his minions as you discover the wonderful vegetation and fantastic origins of this complex ecosystem. Whether you're a long-time fan or discovering this deep universe for the first time, prepare yourself for a unique experience combining action, combat, platforming, encounters and exploration. Will the Jungle of Titan be your grave or your shelter? Flashback 2 will be available November 16th, 2023 both in digital and retail versions for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC and Nintendo Switch.
PlayStation 5 Prototypes Listed on Japanese Auction Site
A Japanese seller active on Yahoo Auctions has been listing PlayStation 5 prototypes consoles—their time limited (24 hour) offerings have probably been implemented to dodge the wrath of Sony Corporation's legal team. A "Prototype 2—not for sale" devkit was made available last week and eventually sold for around $5500 (JP¥ 800,000). A "Prototype 1" unit was purchased for JP¥551,000 (~$3810) over the weekend, and another auction was created this morning—the unmarked system started off at JP¥600,000 (~$4150). The seller has gained some notoriety within the enthusiast scene, due to their acquisition of other rare bits of hardware, including PSP development kits.
It is believed that these PS5 prototypes pre-date the devkit that leaked prior to PlayStation 5's official launch, so hardcore collectors could be enticed by the prospect of owning unusual items. Sony's very thorough tracing system will likely result in these units being unusable, but members of the gaming community are puzzled by the corporation's lack of action—given the seller's ability to acquire and sell all sorts of PlayStation development equipment, with vintages from over a decade ago.
It is believed that these PS5 prototypes pre-date the devkit that leaked prior to PlayStation 5's official launch, so hardcore collectors could be enticed by the prospect of owning unusual items. Sony's very thorough tracing system will likely result in these units being unusable, but members of the gaming community are puzzled by the corporation's lack of action—given the seller's ability to acquire and sell all sorts of PlayStation development equipment, with vintages from over a decade ago.
BlizzCon 2023 Tickets Will be Available on July 8 and 22
After four years away, BlizzCon is returning to Anaheim, California on November 3-4! We're so excited to get everyone together again, celebrate our communities, and share what we've been working on. This year, the goal is to make BlizzCon feel more experiential than ever before. It will be a one-of-a-kind immersive experience, bringing attendees into the universes of Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch with massive installations, art, and thematic spaces where friends can connect.
Whether you're kicking back in Azeroth, exploring the mysteries of a dark cathedral of Sanctuary, playing alongside the heroes of Overwatch, or tuning in from home, we want you to feel you are entering universes alongside your friends as you celebrate and experience what we're building next, and hear from developers all across Blizzard about their vision for our games, their craft, and more. This is the first time we are building BlizzCon this way, and our vision is that building a giant playground for our communities will allow everyone to create memories, share stories, and celebrate what unites us. Here's what you need to know!
Whether you're kicking back in Azeroth, exploring the mysteries of a dark cathedral of Sanctuary, playing alongside the heroes of Overwatch, or tuning in from home, we want you to feel you are entering universes alongside your friends as you celebrate and experience what we're building next, and hear from developers all across Blizzard about their vision for our games, their craft, and more. This is the first time we are building BlizzCon this way, and our vision is that building a giant playground for our communities will allow everyone to create memories, share stories, and celebrate what unites us. Here's what you need to know!
Intel Developing Efficient Solution for Path Tracing on Integrated GPUs
Intel's software engineers are working on path-traced light simulation and conducting neural graphics research, as documented in a recent company news article, with an ambition to create a more efficient solution for integrated graphics cards. The company's Graphics Research Organization is set to present their path-traced optimizations at SIGGRAPH 2023. Their papers have been showcased at recent EGSR and HPG events. The team is aiming to get iGPUs running path-tracing in real time, by reducing the number of calculations required to simulate light bounces.
The article covers three different techniques, all designed to improve GPU performance: "Across the process of path tracing, the research presented in these papers demonstrates improvements in efficiency in path tracing's main building blocks, namely ray tracing, shading, and sampling. These are important components to make photorealistic rendering with path tracing available on more affordable GPUs, such as Intel Arc GPUs, and a step toward real-time performance on integrated GPUs." Although there is an emphasis on in-house products in the article, Intel's "open source-first mindset" hints that their R&D could be shared with others—NVIDIA and AMD are likely still struggling to make ray tracing practical on their modest graphics card models.
The article covers three different techniques, all designed to improve GPU performance: "Across the process of path tracing, the research presented in these papers demonstrates improvements in efficiency in path tracing's main building blocks, namely ray tracing, shading, and sampling. These are important components to make photorealistic rendering with path tracing available on more affordable GPUs, such as Intel Arc GPUs, and a step toward real-time performance on integrated GPUs." Although there is an emphasis on in-house products in the article, Intel's "open source-first mindset" hints that their R&D could be shared with others—NVIDIA and AMD are likely still struggling to make ray tracing practical on their modest graphics card models.
Total War: Pharaoh's Tausret Faction Showcased in New Trailer
"Egypt will no longer be led by short-sighted locusts, determined only to chase satiation." Check out our latest Total War: Pharaoh gameplay showcase (below), taking a closer look at Tausret's faction and exploring some more features and mechanics!
In Total War: Pharaoh, the newest entry in the award-winning grand strategy series, immerse yourself in ancient Egypt at the zenith of its power and experience the dramatic events that threaten its destruction. With dynamic real-time battles and incredible turn-based empire management, can you rise above your adversaries to become Egypt's last great Pharaoh and stand against the collapse of an iconic civilisation?
In Total War: Pharaoh, the newest entry in the award-winning grand strategy series, immerse yourself in ancient Egypt at the zenith of its power and experience the dramatic events that threaten its destruction. With dynamic real-time battles and incredible turn-based empire management, can you rise above your adversaries to become Egypt's last great Pharaoh and stand against the collapse of an iconic civilisation?
Newegg Reveals Upcoming Promo Bundle for Starfield & AMD Ryzen 7000-series CPUs
American online retailer, Newegg, has perhaps jumped the gun a little by readying CPU listings for an "AMD Starfield Game Bundle Promotion." The store page was noticed by some eagle-eyed folks over the weekend, and news sites were soon tipped off to the early announcement. AMD was revealed as Starfield's exclusive partner on PC last week, but upcoming promotions/bundles were not mentioned during presentation proceedings. Newegg's mini-site only functions as a promo product container (at the time of writing) for all available Ryzen 7000-series CPUs—individual SKU pages are void of any Starfield material, and the previous Star Wars Jedi: Survivor campaign ended on June 30.
The Newegg promo page includes everything in the mainstream Zen 4 lineup—from the entry-level Ryzen 5 7600 model going all the way up to the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D, but internet sleuths were unable to track down anything representing an equivalent campaign for AMD's latest Radeon RX graphics cards. Team Red's Zen 4 and RDNA 3 technologies got plenty of shout-outs in last week's partnership presentation: "Making this game even more special, is the close collaboration between Bethesda and AMD to unlock the full potential of Starfield. We have worked hand-in-hand with Bethesda Game Studios to optimize Starfield for both Xbox and PC with Ryzen 7000 series processors and Radeon 7000 series graphics. The optimizations both accelerate performance and enhance the quality of your gameplay using highly multi-threaded code that both Xbox and PC players will get to take advantage of."
The Newegg promo page includes everything in the mainstream Zen 4 lineup—from the entry-level Ryzen 5 7600 model going all the way up to the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X3D, but internet sleuths were unable to track down anything representing an equivalent campaign for AMD's latest Radeon RX graphics cards. Team Red's Zen 4 and RDNA 3 technologies got plenty of shout-outs in last week's partnership presentation: "Making this game even more special, is the close collaboration between Bethesda and AMD to unlock the full potential of Starfield. We have worked hand-in-hand with Bethesda Game Studios to optimize Starfield for both Xbox and PC with Ryzen 7000 series processors and Radeon 7000 series graphics. The optimizations both accelerate performance and enhance the quality of your gameplay using highly multi-threaded code that both Xbox and PC players will get to take advantage of."
Apple Reported to be Reducing Factory Output of Vision Pro AR Headset
The Financial Times believes that Apple is running into major production issues related to its Vision Pro mixed reality headset—insider sources claim that the mega-sized multinational technology company is adjusting internal sales goals for the $3499 AR/VR "spatial computer." Leadership had set an ambitious internal target of 1 million units sold in 2024, but the complexity of the system's design has apparently caused major setbacks for manufacturing partners. Apple is reported to have signed up with Luxshare, a Chinese contract manufacturer, to assemble Vision Pro headsets—insiders within both organizations reckon that only 400,000 units will be ready for sale throughout 2024. This number seems to be fairly optimistic given that Trendforce predicted that a mere 200,000 would be shipped next year.
FT gathered information from two other sources placed within the Chinese supply chain—they claim that Apple and Luxshare could encounter major component shortages in 2024, resulting in a production shortfall—with an estimated 130,000 to 150,000 finalized units. The article points out that the most complex (and costly) aspect of the headset lies in its micro-OLED display setup, that also includes outward facing lenses. TSMC and Sony are reported to be the suppliers of these parts (as featured on the prototypes), but Apple is allegedly not satisfied with low production numbers, and not enough batches are "free of defects." A cheaper version of the Vision Pro is apparently now on the backburner, since Apple is unlikely to recoup—factoring in R&D expenses—within the first year of the intial product's launch.
FT gathered information from two other sources placed within the Chinese supply chain—they claim that Apple and Luxshare could encounter major component shortages in 2024, resulting in a production shortfall—with an estimated 130,000 to 150,000 finalized units. The article points out that the most complex (and costly) aspect of the headset lies in its micro-OLED display setup, that also includes outward facing lenses. TSMC and Sony are reported to be the suppliers of these parts (as featured on the prototypes), but Apple is allegedly not satisfied with low production numbers, and not enough batches are "free of defects." A cheaper version of the Vision Pro is apparently now on the backburner, since Apple is unlikely to recoup—factoring in R&D expenses—within the first year of the intial product's launch.
KYY Introduces X90A and X90 Triple Display Laptop Monitors
KYY, a leading manufacturer at the forefront of external display monitor technology, proudly unveils two exceptional triple display monitors, the X90A and X90, offering users enhanced visual experiences for work and entertainment.
Impressive Specifications and Enhanced Viewing
Both the X90A and X90 models feature impressive specifications, including a 14-inch 1080p FHD IPS display, a 60 Hz refresh rate, a 1:1000 contrast ratio, a 72% NTSC color gamut, a 16.7 million color count, and a 300 nits brightness. These features combine to deliver stunning image quality, vibrant colors, and sharp details, providing users with an immersive and enjoyable viewing experience.
Impressive Specifications and Enhanced Viewing
Both the X90A and X90 models feature impressive specifications, including a 14-inch 1080p FHD IPS display, a 60 Hz refresh rate, a 1:1000 contrast ratio, a 72% NTSC color gamut, a 16.7 million color count, and a 300 nits brightness. These features combine to deliver stunning image quality, vibrant colors, and sharp details, providing users with an immersive and enjoyable viewing experience.
Intel Granite Rapids-SP CPU Photographed with LGA 4710-2 Carrier
Another next-gen Intel Xeon processor has been leaked by momomo_us via Twitter—the subject of the photograph appears to be a Granite Rapids-SP, alongside a new socket type; LGA 4710. These should not be confused with the recent appearance of a Granite Rapids-AP CPU plus LGA 7529 socket. The latest photo showcases two Intel CPUs with new integrated heat spreader (IHS) designs, both housed in carrier frames labeled "LGA 4710-2." The unit on the left seems to be similar in appearance to current-gen Sapphire Rapids-SP units, but the Xeon sitting on the right is getting most of the attention.
YuuKi_AnS (the leaker of last week's larger GNR-AP) pointed out that the smaller socket type is for a platform codenamed "Beechnut City," that is alleged to support Xeon GNR-SP CPUs. They provided a presentation slide of Intel's Beechnut City Main Validation Vehicle (MVV)—this mainboard appears to sport a dual-socket (2S) setup that can house Granite Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs (compatible with the LGA 4710-2 standard) with a maximum 350 W TDP. The spec sheet indicates that the board can support 8-channel DDR5 memory across 32 DIMM slots (DDR5-6400 1DPC / DDR5-5200 2DPC), as well as 88 PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes. The sixth generation Granite Rapids-SP & AP CPUs (based on "Intel 3" process node) are expected to launch in 2H 2024—following the Sierra Forest lineup.
YuuKi_AnS (the leaker of last week's larger GNR-AP) pointed out that the smaller socket type is for a platform codenamed "Beechnut City," that is alleged to support Xeon GNR-SP CPUs. They provided a presentation slide of Intel's Beechnut City Main Validation Vehicle (MVV)—this mainboard appears to sport a dual-socket (2S) setup that can house Granite Rapids-SP Xeon CPUs (compatible with the LGA 4710-2 standard) with a maximum 350 W TDP. The spec sheet indicates that the board can support 8-channel DDR5 memory across 32 DIMM slots (DDR5-6400 1DPC / DDR5-5200 2DPC), as well as 88 PCIe Gen 5.0 lanes. The sixth generation Granite Rapids-SP & AP CPUs (based on "Intel 3" process node) are expected to launch in 2H 2024—following the Sierra Forest lineup.
Boox Introduces Tab Mini C - a Compact 7.8" Color ePaper Tablet PC
With the highly acclaimed Tab Ultra and Tab Ultra C having garnered immense popularity since their release to the public, now we are delighted to introduce Tab Mini C, our most compact color ePaper tablet PC equipped with the state-of-the-art Kaleido 3 technology. Here you will discover the various features and capabilities of this new addition to our product lineup.
Kaleido 3 with Exclusive Smoothness
The Kaleido 3 color E Ink screen technology of the Tab Mini C boasts a sharp resolution of 300 PPI for black and white images, and 150 PPI for displaying a wide range of 4,096 colors. It integrates the signature smooth performance powered by BOOX Super Refresh Technology, thanks to an advanced Qualcomm octa-core CPU and an exclusive GPU. As a result, it provides four distinct refresh modes that are specifically optimized for different tasks, including reading, note-taking, and using apps on the color ePaper screen.
Kaleido 3 with Exclusive Smoothness
The Kaleido 3 color E Ink screen technology of the Tab Mini C boasts a sharp resolution of 300 PPI for black and white images, and 150 PPI for displaying a wide range of 4,096 colors. It integrates the signature smooth performance powered by BOOX Super Refresh Technology, thanks to an advanced Qualcomm octa-core CPU and an exclusive GPU. As a result, it provides four distinct refresh modes that are specifically optimized for different tasks, including reading, note-taking, and using apps on the color ePaper screen.
Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth Teased by Annapurna Interactive
From Annapurna Interactive, Blade Runner 2033: Labyrinth brings the revered franchise back to games for the first time in 25 years. Set between the original film and 2049, Blade Runner 2033 takes place after the events of the Blackout and asks: what does a Blade Runner do when there are no Replicants left to hunt? More details about the game will be revealed in the coming months, so keep an eye on this Steam page for updates.
"Lots of people lost things in the Blackout. I was lucky, I just lost a job. But now they want me back..."
"Lots of people lost things in the Blackout. I was lucky, I just lost a job. But now they want me back..."
Antec Releases the AX61 Elite Mid-tower Case
Antec Inc., a Californian supplier of high-performance computer components and accessories for the gaming, PC upgrade and Do-It-Yourself market, presents the AX61 Elite, a model oft he budget-friendly AX series of Gaming cases. The mid-tower is equipped with four 120 mm ARGB fans and is now available at a very affordable price of € 79 (recommended retail price including VAT). The new AX series from Antec offers a large selection of gaming cases with LED lighting and eye-catching front panel designs - all at an affordable price. The new AX61 Elite case has a side panel made of tempered glass and puts the built-in components in the limelight. The air intakes at the front and bottom allow for excellent airflow.
The case measures 405 mm x 200 mm x 449 mm (D x W x H) and is compatible with ATX, micro-ATX and ITX motherboards. The AX61 Elite supports graphics cards with a length of up to 320 mm and CPU radiators with a maximum height of 160 mm. It offers space for up to 8 fans and is factory-fitted with three ARGB fans in the front and one in the rear. The main fan is used to daisy-chain the other two front fans for ARGB sync with the motherboard. In addition, the mid-tower offers space for a 120 / 240 / 360 mm radiator at the front of the chassis. The case offers 24 mm depth on the left side and 13 mm on the right side for easy cable management.
The case measures 405 mm x 200 mm x 449 mm (D x W x H) and is compatible with ATX, micro-ATX and ITX motherboards. The AX61 Elite supports graphics cards with a length of up to 320 mm and CPU radiators with a maximum height of 160 mm. It offers space for up to 8 fans and is factory-fitted with three ARGB fans in the front and one in the rear. The main fan is used to daisy-chain the other two front fans for ARGB sync with the motherboard. In addition, the mid-tower offers space for a 120 / 240 / 360 mm radiator at the front of the chassis. The case offers 24 mm depth on the left side and 13 mm on the right side for easy cable management.
FSP Announces Availability of HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX3.0 Gen 5 Series Power Supplies
FSP Group, a leading provider of power supply solutions, is pleased to announce the availability of the highly anticipated HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX3.0 & Gen 5 series power supplies. Designed specifically for gamers and content creators seeking superior performance and durability, these power supplies are now available in 850 W, 1000 W, and 1200 W units.
The HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX3.0 & Gen 5 series power supplies are 80 Plus Platinum-certified, offering exceptional efficiency and power delivery. With a fully modular design, users can easily customize their power setup. These power supplies deliver up to 1200 W output which is sufficient for the demanding PC build. Notably, they feature FSP's innovative ECO semi-fanless switch, providing users a quiet and pleasant experience.
The HYDRO PTM X PRO ATX3.0 & Gen 5 series power supplies are 80 Plus Platinum-certified, offering exceptional efficiency and power delivery. With a fully modular design, users can easily customize their power setup. These power supplies deliver up to 1200 W output which is sufficient for the demanding PC build. Notably, they feature FSP's innovative ECO semi-fanless switch, providing users a quiet and pleasant experience.
Intel Optane Still not Dead, Orders Expanded by Another Quarter
In July 2022, Intel announced that the company was winding down its Optane division, effectively discontinuing the development of 3D XPoint memory that it has been marketing for a long time. Once viewed as a competitive advantage, the support for Optane has been removed from future platforms. However, Intel has announced plans to extend Optane shipments by another quarter amidst additional stock or significant demand from customers buying Optane DIMMs for their enterprises. Initially set to ship the final Optane Persistent Memory 100-series DIMMs on September 30, Intel extends this date by three months to December 29, 2023.
Intel states, "Customers are recommended to secure additional Optane units at the specified 0.44% annualized failure rate (AFR) for safety stock. Intel will make commercially reasonable efforts to support last time order quantities for Intel Optane Persistent Memory 100 Series."
Intel states, "Customers are recommended to secure additional Optane units at the specified 0.44% annualized failure rate (AFR) for safety stock. Intel will make commercially reasonable efforts to support last time order quantities for Intel Optane Persistent Memory 100 Series."
HYTE in Collaboration with hololive English Unveils the New Limited-Edition Mori Calliope Y40 Bundle
HYTE, the PC components, peripherals, and lifestyle brand of iBUYPOWER, today, unveiled the new limited-edition Mori Calliope Y40 case and accessory bundle, in collaboration with hololive English, represented by the VTuber agency COVER Corporation.
HYTE's third case collaboration with hololive English and illustrator Rosuuri, depicts the famous VTuber, Mori Calliope, along with her mascot Death Sensei and scythe, Ricky, on the front and side panels of its Black Y40 PC case. Mori Calliope appears on the main side panel floating above a large skull hand, holding Ricky, surrounded by thorns, roses, and souls of the underworld reaching for her. On the front tempered glass, Mori Calliope appears in a closeup holding Death Sensei with her name in Japanese script descending the panel.
HYTE's third case collaboration with hololive English and illustrator Rosuuri, depicts the famous VTuber, Mori Calliope, along with her mascot Death Sensei and scythe, Ricky, on the front and side panels of its Black Y40 PC case. Mori Calliope appears on the main side panel floating above a large skull hand, holding Ricky, surrounded by thorns, roses, and souls of the underworld reaching for her. On the front tempered glass, Mori Calliope appears in a closeup holding Death Sensei with her name in Japanese script descending the panel.
Global Notebook Shipments on the Rebound, Predicted to Surge 15.7% in 2Q23
TrendForce has predicted a noticeable recovery in the global notebook market for 2Q23. Shipments are projected to hit 40.45 million units—a QoQ increase of 15.7%. This marks a pivotal turnaround after six consecutive quarters of decline. However, despite this growth, shipments are still down by 11.6% YoY. TrendForce expects this upward trend to persist into the third quarter, estimating global notebook shipments to reach 43.08 million units, albeit at a decelerated growth rate of 6.5%.
Notebook brands were primarily focused on reducing excess terminal inventory in 1Q23, which led to slower procurement and subsequently impacted ODM sell-in sales. However, as Q2 unfolds and inventory levels of finished products and components start to stabilize, supply chain pressures should ease, triggering a wave of restocking demand. This trend is expected to extend into Q3—a season typically characterized by robust sales due to back-to-school demand and shopping promotions, further stimulating inventory demand and fostering further growth in global notebook shipments.
Notebook brands were primarily focused on reducing excess terminal inventory in 1Q23, which led to slower procurement and subsequently impacted ODM sell-in sales. However, as Q2 unfolds and inventory levels of finished products and components start to stabilize, supply chain pressures should ease, triggering a wave of restocking demand. This trend is expected to extend into Q3—a season typically characterized by robust sales due to back-to-school demand and shopping promotions, further stimulating inventory demand and fostering further growth in global notebook shipments.
ICYMI, GeForce RTX 4060 Launched Last Week: A Summary of our Mammoth Coverage
Last week (June 29), NVIDIA launched the GeForce RTX 4060 "Ada" graphics card targeting a majority of PC gamers who still play at 1080p Full HD resolution. Reception to the new card was somewhat lukewarm, only 6% of our polled readers are interested in buying one (poll results). We crunched thousands of benchmark runs in our new 2023H2 test suite and managed to review ten different models of the 4060, six of which are available at the NVIDIA MSRP of $299, and we followed up with four more reviews of premium custom-design cards priced above the MSRP. Our results confirm that GeForce RTX 4060 is designed for maxed out gaming at 1080p; gameplay with ray tracing is possible at 25-50 FPS at 1080p, which can be increased by dialing down graphics settings, or through use of DLSS and DLSS 3 Frame Generation, in supported games. On the other hand, there were concerns with the small performance gains and high pricing, which makes many other options a viable choice.
We've put together a video presentation which compares all the cards tested, and that also serves as a really quick executive summary of the RTX 4060, and whether you should get one.
We've put together a video presentation which compares all the cards tested, and that also serves as a really quick executive summary of the RTX 4060, and whether you should get one.
AMD Ryzen 5 7500F Desktop Processor Surfaces, Could this be Phoenix-2 on AM5?
A screenshot from Puget Systems benchmark database reveals a new upcoming desktop processor model by AMD, the Ryzen 5 7500F. The screenshot details the 7500F as a 6-core processor, and the machine features an ASUS ROG Strix X670E-F Gaming motherboard, along with an RTX 4080 graphics card. At this point it's hard to tell what the "F" brand extension means in AMD nomenclature. On Intel, it denotes a lack of integrated graphics.
There are two possible theories on what the 7500F could be. One holds that it's a down-rated "Raphael" MCM with a disabled iGPU; while the other holds that it could be based on the 4 nm Phoenix-2 monolithic silicon. Detailed in an older article, the Phoenix-2 is a 137 mm² monolithic silicon that physically features no more than 6 "Zen 4" CPU cores, and an iGPU with just 4 RDNA 3 compute units, besides I/O that's identical to that of the regular 178 mm² 8-core/12-CU Phoenix silicon. Phoenix-2 on AM5 might just end up with a lower bill of materials than a single-CCD "Raphael" MCM.
Update 06:13 UTC: A Korean retailer has posted the first picture of the Ryzen 5 7500F in the flesh. They claim a street price of around $170-180 (KRW equivalent), and availability slated for July 7.
There are two possible theories on what the 7500F could be. One holds that it's a down-rated "Raphael" MCM with a disabled iGPU; while the other holds that it could be based on the 4 nm Phoenix-2 monolithic silicon. Detailed in an older article, the Phoenix-2 is a 137 mm² monolithic silicon that physically features no more than 6 "Zen 4" CPU cores, and an iGPU with just 4 RDNA 3 compute units, besides I/O that's identical to that of the regular 178 mm² 8-core/12-CU Phoenix silicon. Phoenix-2 on AM5 might just end up with a lower bill of materials than a single-CCD "Raphael" MCM.
Update 06:13 UTC: A Korean retailer has posted the first picture of the Ryzen 5 7500F in the flesh. They claim a street price of around $170-180 (KRW equivalent), and availability slated for July 7.
Adlink's Next-Gen IPC Strives to Revolutionize Industry Use Cases at the Edge
ADLINK Technology Inc., a global leader in edge computing, and a Titanium member of the Intel Partner Alliance, is proud to announce the launch of its latest MVP Series fanless modular computers—the MVP-5200 Compact Modular Industrial Computers and MVP-6200 Expandable Modular Industrial Computers—powered by 12/13th Gen Intel Core i9/i7/i5/i3 and Celeron processors. Featuring Intel R680E chipset and supporting up to 65 W, the computers can also incorporate GPU cards in a rugged package suitable for AI inferencing at the Edge, and can be used for but not limited to smart manufacturing, semiconductor equipment, and warehouse applications.
The MVP-5200/MVP-6200 series though expandable remains compact with support for up to 4 PCI/PCIe slots that allow for performance acceleration through GPUs, accelerators, and other expansion cards. Comprehensive modularized options and the ease of configuration can effectively reduce lead times for customers' diverse requirements. In addition, ADLINK also offers a broad range of pre-validated expansion cards, such as GPU, motion, vision, and I/O embedded cards, all can be easily deployed for your industrial applications.
The MVP-5200/MVP-6200 series though expandable remains compact with support for up to 4 PCI/PCIe slots that allow for performance acceleration through GPUs, accelerators, and other expansion cards. Comprehensive modularized options and the ease of configuration can effectively reduce lead times for customers' diverse requirements. In addition, ADLINK also offers a broad range of pre-validated expansion cards, such as GPU, motion, vision, and I/O embedded cards, all can be easily deployed for your industrial applications.
Monday, July 3rd 2023
Today's Reviews
CPU Coolers
Graphics Cards
Headphones
Motherboards
Notebooks
Quick Look: TOPPING EHA5 Electrostatic Headphone Amplifier
TOPPING aims to lower the entry barrier to electrostatic headphones with its affordable EHA5 e-stat amplifier. It uses a solid-state design to deliver clean sound and has plenty of power for even demanding sets while offering both balanced and single-ended inputs and outputs, as well as a pass-through mode, further enhancing its versatility and value.
Gigabyte Launches the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Series Water-Cooled Graphics Cards
GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of premium gaming hardware, today launches GeForce RTX 4070 Ti series water-cooled graphics cards powered by NVIDIA ADA Lovelace architecture. GIGABYTE launches two AORUS WATERFORCE graphics cards - AORUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE 12G and AORUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE WB 12G. Both graphics cards are equipped with the top-of-the-line GPU cores that have overclocking capabilities and are certified by GIGABYTE GPU Gauntlet sorting technology. AORUS provides the all-around cooling solution for all key components of the graphics card. In addition to cooling the GPU, AORUS also takes care of the VRAM and MOSFET, ensuring stable overclocking performance and enhanced durability.
The AORUS WATERFORCE graphics cards features RGB Fusion, protection metal backplate, aerospace-grade PCB coating for dust and moisture protection, Ultra-Durable top-grade components, and extended warranty for registered members. These features make the AORUS WATERFORCE graphics cards the best choice for enthusiasts who desire both silent operation and high performance.
The AORUS WATERFORCE graphics cards features RGB Fusion, protection metal backplate, aerospace-grade PCB coating for dust and moisture protection, Ultra-Durable top-grade components, and extended warranty for registered members. These features make the AORUS WATERFORCE graphics cards the best choice for enthusiasts who desire both silent operation and high performance.
Google Will Use Your Data to Train Their AI According to Updated Privacy Policy
Google made a small but important change to their privacy policy over the weekend that effectively lays claim to anything you post publicly online for use to train their AI models. The original wording of the section of their privacy policy claimed that public data would be used for business purposes, research, and for improving Google Translate services. Now however the section has been updated to read the following:
Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features and technologies that benefit our users and the public. For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google's AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities.Further down in the policy text Google has another section which exemplifies the areas of "publicly available" information they seek to scrape,
For example, we may collect information that's publicly available online or from other public sources to help train Google's AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities. Or, if your business's information appears on a website, we may index and display it on Google services.
NVIDIA Proposes that AI Will Accelerate Climate Research Innovation
AI and accelerated computing will help climate researchers achieve the miracles they need to achieve breakthroughs in climate research, NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said during a keynote Monday at the Berlin Summit for the Earth Virtualization Engines initiative. "Richard Feynman once said that "what I can't create, I don't understand" and that's the reason why climate modeling is so important," Huang told 180 attendees at the Harnack House in Berlin, a storied gathering place for the region's scientific and research community. "And so the work that you do is vitally important to policymakers to researchers to the industry," he added.
To advance this work, the Berlin Summit brings together participants from around the globe to harness AI and high-performance computing for climate prediction. In his talk, Huang outlined three miracles that will have to happen for climate researchers to achieve their goals, and touched on NVIDIA's own efforts to collaborate with climate researchers and policymakers with its Earth-2 efforts. The first miracle required will be to simulate the climate fast enough, and with a high enough resolution - on the order of just a couple of square kilometers.
To advance this work, the Berlin Summit brings together participants from around the globe to harness AI and high-performance computing for climate prediction. In his talk, Huang outlined three miracles that will have to happen for climate researchers to achieve their goals, and touched on NVIDIA's own efforts to collaborate with climate researchers and policymakers with its Earth-2 efforts. The first miracle required will be to simulate the climate fast enough, and with a high enough resolution - on the order of just a couple of square kilometers.
Annapurna Interactive Announces COCOON Launch Date - September 29
An adventure across worlds within worlds. From Jeppe Carlsen, the lead gameplay designer of LIMBO and INSIDE—COCOON takes you on an adventure across worlds within worlds. Master world-leaping mechanics to unravel a cosmic mystery. Named "Most Anticipated Independent Game at Summer Game Fest 2023," COCOON launches on Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and PC on September 29. Wishlist on Steam now.
Worlds within Worlds
COCOON is a unique take on the puzzle adventure genre, where each world exists within an orb that you can carry on your back. Wrap your head around the core mechanic of leaping between worlds—and combine, manipulate, and rearrange them to solve intricate puzzles
Worlds within Worlds
COCOON is a unique take on the puzzle adventure genre, where each world exists within an orb that you can carry on your back. Wrap your head around the core mechanic of leaping between worlds—and combine, manipulate, and rearrange them to solve intricate puzzles
Valve Clarifies its Stance on AI-generated Game Content
Last week a small-time developer (who releases titles on Steam) kicked up a lot of fuss about AI-generated content being banned, blocked or removed by Valve. They claim that their game has been rejected repeatedly by Steamworks supervisors due to the presence of "fairly obviously AI-generated" material. The incensed dev took to the r/aigamedev subbreddit to chronicle their experience, and share how their latest and greatest "waifu" mini-game got blocked for a second time (for not owning the necessary rights): "It took them over a week to provide this verdict, while previous games I've released have been approved within a day or two, so it seems like Valve doesn't really have a standard approach to AI generated games yet, and I've seen several games up that even explicitly mention the use of AI. But at the moment at least, they seem wary, and not willing to publish AI generated content, so I guess for any other devs on here, be wary of that. I'll try itch.io and see if they have any issues with AI generated games."
Eurogamer has contacted Valve about this matter, and a company spokesperson responded, albeit with the caveat that Steam's policy on AI-generated content is still a "work in progress." They stated: "Our priority, as always, is to try to ship as many of the titles we receive as we can," but the process is further complicated by not knowing whether the developer has "sufficient rights in using AI to create assets, including images, text, and music." There are many legal grey areas when dealing with this type of content: "it is the developer's responsibility to make sure they have the appropriate rights to ship their game."
Eurogamer has contacted Valve about this matter, and a company spokesperson responded, albeit with the caveat that Steam's policy on AI-generated content is still a "work in progress." They stated: "Our priority, as always, is to try to ship as many of the titles we receive as we can," but the process is further complicated by not knowing whether the developer has "sufficient rights in using AI to create assets, including images, text, and music." There are many legal grey areas when dealing with this type of content: "it is the developer's responsibility to make sure they have the appropriate rights to ship their game."
Gigantic NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40-Series TITAN ADA Cooler For Sale, Starting at $122K
Leaked photos of a cinder block-sized NVIDIA flagship graphics card cooler appeared online over a week ago, with speculation pointing to it originating from an extremely powerful RTX-40 series GPU—perhaps a theoretical GeForce RTX 4090 Ti or something codenamed TITAN ADA. The pictured prototype outsizes several existing reference designs—its substantial bulk could be enough to tame the fully unlocked potential of Team Green's already large AD102.
Last week's photos have been traced back to the source—as reported by Wccftech, it seems that a seller on the Chinese Taobao Goofish platform is attempting to flog the unit for roughly $122,750 (888,888 RMB). The seller/site member "Hayaka" is apparently open to accepting offers from the highest bidder, but the prospective buyer will not be getting their hands on any working hardware—the listing is for the cooler alone. No GPU or PCB is included according to the provided information, so the winner will be procuring a very expensive (albeit highly unique) mantelpiece.
Last week's photos have been traced back to the source—as reported by Wccftech, it seems that a seller on the Chinese Taobao Goofish platform is attempting to flog the unit for roughly $122,750 (888,888 RMB). The seller/site member "Hayaka" is apparently open to accepting offers from the highest bidder, but the prospective buyer will not be getting their hands on any working hardware—the listing is for the cooler alone. No GPU or PCB is included according to the provided information, so the winner will be procuring a very expensive (albeit highly unique) mantelpiece.
Targus Launches Desktop UV-C LED Disinfection Light
Targus, the number one laptop case brand in the US and Canada and a leader in laptop cases and mobile computing accessories, today announced that its CES 2021 Innovation Awards Honoree, the UV-C LED Disinfection Light, is now available for sale. This essential no-touch solution helps reduce pathogens on device surfaces by utilizing UV-C Light technology, which breaks down the DNA of microorganisms. Sleek, modern, and lightweight, the Disinfection Light is designed to stand between your keyboard and monitor on the desktop to automatically disinfect the surfaces of keyboards, mice, and other items within the disinfection range, reducing the need for manual intervention, cleaning, or touching.
"Maintaining a clean workspace is increasingly important post-pandemic as businesses move back to in-office and hybrid work environments," says Mike Sexton, Sr. Director of Global Product Management & Development, Targus. "Our UV-C LED Disinfection Light delivers the perfect low maintenance, automated disinfection solution for individual workstations to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms on critical high-touch surfaces of items like keyboards, mice, and tablets at the office and at home."
"Maintaining a clean workspace is increasingly important post-pandemic as businesses move back to in-office and hybrid work environments," says Mike Sexton, Sr. Director of Global Product Management & Development, Targus. "Our UV-C LED Disinfection Light delivers the perfect low maintenance, automated disinfection solution for individual workstations to eliminate pathogenic microorganisms on critical high-touch surfaces of items like keyboards, mice, and tablets at the office and at home."
Oracle to Spend Billions on NVIDIA Data Center GPUs, Even More on Ampere & AMD CPUs
Oracle founder and Chairman Larry Ellison last week announced a substantial spending spree on new equipment as he prepares his business for a cloud computing service expansion that will be aimed at attracting a "new wave" of artificial intelligence (AI) companies. He made this announcement at a recent Ampere event: "This year, Oracle will buy GPUs and CPUs from three companies...We will buy GPUs from NVIDIA, and we're buying billions of dollars of those. We will spend three times that on CPUs from Ampere and AMD. We still spend more money on conventional compute." His cloud division is said to be gearing up to take on larger competition—namely Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Corp. Oracle is hoping to outmaneuver these major players by focusing on the construction of fast networks, capable of shifting around huge volumes of data—the end goal being the creation of its own ChatGPT-type model.
Ellison's expressed that he was leaving Team Blue behind—Oracle has invested heavily in Ampere Computing—a startup founded by ex-Intel folks: "It's a major commitment to move to a new supplier. We've moved to a new architecture...We think that this is the future. The old Intel x86 architecture, after many decades in the market, is reaching its limit." Oracle's database software has been updated to run on Ampere's Arm-based chips, Ellison posits that these grant greater power efficiency when compared to AMD and NVIDIA enterprise processors. There will be some reliance on "x86-64" going forward, since Oracle's next-gen Exadata X10M platform was recently announced with the integration of Team Red's EPYC 9004 series processors—a company spokesman stated that these server CPUs offer higher core counts and "extreme scale and dramatically improved price performance," when compared to older Intel Xeon systems.
Ellison's expressed that he was leaving Team Blue behind—Oracle has invested heavily in Ampere Computing—a startup founded by ex-Intel folks: "It's a major commitment to move to a new supplier. We've moved to a new architecture...We think that this is the future. The old Intel x86 architecture, after many decades in the market, is reaching its limit." Oracle's database software has been updated to run on Ampere's Arm-based chips, Ellison posits that these grant greater power efficiency when compared to AMD and NVIDIA enterprise processors. There will be some reliance on "x86-64" going forward, since Oracle's next-gen Exadata X10M platform was recently announced with the integration of Team Red's EPYC 9004 series processors—a company spokesman stated that these server CPUs offer higher core counts and "extreme scale and dramatically improved price performance," when compared to older Intel Xeon systems.
JSAUX Launches Transparent Front Cover Series For Steam Deck
After our long acclaimed transparent back cases, we couldn't resist and we released the transparent front case plus a new transparent back plate with new ventilation and cooling features. Now you can fully customize your Steam Deck and embrace the retro-gaming style. But that's not all, along with the Transparent Front Plate a new version of our Transparent Back Plates will all be on sale too, starting today!
THE LONG AWAITED TRANSPARENT FRONT PLATE
This highly anticipated front cover will be released in three colors (crystal, brown, and purple) finally allowing you to own a fully transparent Steam Deck. This item will come with a full complimentary tool kit and an installation guide. Before exposing the guts of your Steam Deck, keep in mind that the installation process (around 3 to 5 hours long) is trickier than the one for the back cover and that you should consider seeking help from a professional - or proceed by yourself at your own discretion. Get your Transparent Front Plate here.
THE LONG AWAITED TRANSPARENT FRONT PLATE
This highly anticipated front cover will be released in three colors (crystal, brown, and purple) finally allowing you to own a fully transparent Steam Deck. This item will come with a full complimentary tool kit and an installation guide. Before exposing the guts of your Steam Deck, keep in mind that the installation process (around 3 to 5 hours long) is trickier than the one for the back cover and that you should consider seeking help from a professional - or proceed by yourself at your own discretion. Get your Transparent Front Plate here.
Xbox Series & One Console Sales Figures Revealed During ID@Xbox Brazil Presentation
Microsoft has normally kept its Xbox console sales figures out of public view—many industry experts reckon that this is due to the One and Series generations consistently lagging behind Sony's equivalent PlayStation offerings—but attendees of the BIG Festival in Brazil last week were surprised by "player count" data appearing during an official presentation. An interesting slide was put on display as part of an ID@Xbox Developer Accelerator Program segment—it revealed that the Series X|S consoles have an accumulated userbase of around 21 million, since launching back in November of 2020. Microsoft also emphasized that 48% of its Series S customers are new to the ecosystem.
The older generation also got a mention—with some subtraction (from their grand total of One + Series) the technology giant has divulged that its entire Xbox One lineup (consisting of the original model and S plus X variants) has sold roughly 58 million units since the late 2013. Microsoft has been fairly transparent about its Xbox One generation losing out to Sony's PlayStation 4—the latter has done business in the region of 117.2 million units, and the latest data (again) reaffirms that the PS4 outsold Xbox One by a 2:1 margin. Sales figures for Series X|S seem to be quite healthy—so far—when compared to the predecessor, but PlayStation 5 is still ahead (38.4 million units sold as of March 2023) and Sony is confident that it will sell close to 20 million consoles this fiscal year. Shortages are said to be a thing of the past—production and distribution issues have been resolved and the PS5 can be pumped out at an admirable rate.
The older generation also got a mention—with some subtraction (from their grand total of One + Series) the technology giant has divulged that its entire Xbox One lineup (consisting of the original model and S plus X variants) has sold roughly 58 million units since the late 2013. Microsoft has been fairly transparent about its Xbox One generation losing out to Sony's PlayStation 4—the latter has done business in the region of 117.2 million units, and the latest data (again) reaffirms that the PS4 outsold Xbox One by a 2:1 margin. Sales figures for Series X|S seem to be quite healthy—so far—when compared to the predecessor, but PlayStation 5 is still ahead (38.4 million units sold as of March 2023) and Sony is confident that it will sell close to 20 million consoles this fiscal year. Shortages are said to be a thing of the past—production and distribution issues have been resolved and the PS5 can be pumped out at an admirable rate.
Inflection AI Builds Supercomputer with 22,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs
The AI hype continues to push hardware shipments, especially for servers with GPUs that are in very high demand. Another example is the latest feat of AI startup, Inflection AI. Building foundational AI models, the Inflection AI crew has secured an order of 22,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs and built a supercomputer. Assuming a configuration of a single Intel Xeon CPU with eight GPUs, almost 700 four-node racks should go into the supercomputer. Scaling and connecting 22,000 GPUs is easier than it is to acquire them, as NVIDIA's H100 GPUs are selling out everywhere due to the enormous demand for AI applications both on and off premises.
Getting 22,000 H100 GPUs is the biggest challenge here, and Inflection AI managed to get them by having NVIDIA as an investor in the startup. The supercomputer is estimated to cost around one billion USD and consume 31 Mega-Watts of power. The Inflection AI startup is now valued at 1.5 billion USD at the time of writing.
Getting 22,000 H100 GPUs is the biggest challenge here, and Inflection AI managed to get them by having NVIDIA as an investor in the startup. The supercomputer is estimated to cost around one billion USD and consume 31 Mega-Watts of power. The Inflection AI startup is now valued at 1.5 billion USD at the time of writing.
Huawei Launching Commercial 5.5G Network Equipment in 2024
Huawei announced they will launch a complete set of commercial 5.5G network equipment in 2024 at the 5G Advanced Forum during MWC Shanghai 2023. Huawei's Director and President of ICT Products & Solutions Yang Chaobin who made the announcement said the company intends for this launch to mark the beginning of the 5.5G era for the ICT industry.
5G deployment progressed rapidly over the past four years and is already yielding significant financial gains. Today, there are more than 260 commercial 5G networks worldwide, serving over 1.2 billion users, and there are already 115 million gigabit F5G users. With service models and content continuously evolving, breakthroughs in technologies like glasses-free 3D are creating unprecedented immersive experiences for users. However, these new services continue to require stronger 5G network capabilities. The industry has widely agreed that 5.5G will be a key milestone in 5G evolution, and that it is fast approaching.
5G deployment progressed rapidly over the past four years and is already yielding significant financial gains. Today, there are more than 260 commercial 5G networks worldwide, serving over 1.2 billion users, and there are already 115 million gigabit F5G users. With service models and content continuously evolving, breakthroughs in technologies like glasses-free 3D are creating unprecedented immersive experiences for users. However, these new services continue to require stronger 5G network capabilities. The industry has widely agreed that 5.5G will be a key milestone in 5G evolution, and that it is fast approaching.
Scorn Arriving on PlayStation 5 Later This Year, Takes Full Advantage of DualSense Features
Greetings everyone! I'm Jovan, Technical Artist at Ebb Software. The whole team here found joy in bringing you nightmarish experiences that will fully immerse you into somber tapestries. And today we're excited to reveal that our first game, Scorn, will come to PlayStation 5 later this year. Many of you here may be new to Scorn, so for those less familiar with the game, you are about to experience a horrific adventure like no other. Trapped and stranded in a strange biomechanical world, you must make your way through a civilization in decay, now inhabited with twisted and grotesque creatures. While you will be able to wield various weapons in the game, Scorn is not a shooter, and each encounter can quickly turn deadly. Ammo and life are scarce, and your wits will often advise you to avoid direct confrontation. Instead, to progress through this mesmerizing labyrinth, you will have to revive and activate abandoned contraptions, part machine, part flesh, all horror.
We like to compare it to the experience of a nightmare. Most often, nightmares are described as strong subjective experiences that can be intensely distressing and frightening, eliciting emotional responses in dreamers, and causing feelings of fear, anxiety, and terror. Scorn tries to offer these emotions to its players in a very subtle manner through a somber atmosphere and its gloomy corridors.
We like to compare it to the experience of a nightmare. Most often, nightmares are described as strong subjective experiences that can be intensely distressing and frightening, eliciting emotional responses in dreamers, and causing feelings of fear, anxiety, and terror. Scorn tries to offer these emotions to its players in a very subtle manner through a somber atmosphere and its gloomy corridors.
Micron Readying GDDR7 Memory for 2024
Last week Micron Technology CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra, announced during an investors meeting that the company's next generation GPU memory—GDDR7—will be arriving next year: "In graphics, industry analysts continue to expect graphics' TAM compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to outpace the broader market, supported by applications across client and data center. We expect customer inventories to normalize in calendar Q3. We plan to introduce our next-generation G7 product on our industry-leading 1ß node in the first half of calendar year 2024." His proposed launch window seems to align with information gleaned from previous reports—with NVIDIA and AMD lined up to fit GDDR7 SGRAM onto their next-gen mainstream GPUs, although Team Green could be delaying their Ada Lovelace successor into 2025.
Micron already counts these big players as key clients for its current GDDR6 and GDDR6X video memory offerings, but Samsung could be vying for some of that action with its own GDDR7 technology (as announced late last year). Presentation material indicated that Samsung is anticipating data transfer rates in the range of 36 Gbps, with usage of PAM3 signalling. Cadence has also confirmed similar numbers for its (industry first) GDDR7 verification solution, but the different encoding standard will require revising of memory controllers and physical interfaces.
Micron already counts these big players as key clients for its current GDDR6 and GDDR6X video memory offerings, but Samsung could be vying for some of that action with its own GDDR7 technology (as announced late last year). Presentation material indicated that Samsung is anticipating data transfer rates in the range of 36 Gbps, with usage of PAM3 signalling. Cadence has also confirmed similar numbers for its (industry first) GDDR7 verification solution, but the different encoding standard will require revising of memory controllers and physical interfaces.
Intel Releases Arrow Lake and Lunar Lake Instruction-set Reference Guide
In a bid to prepare its ISV ecosystem for emerging technologies with future processor microarchitectures, Intel periodically releases instruction-set reference guides. The latest of these was leaked to the web, making their first references to the upcoming "Arrow Lake" and "Lunar Lake" client processor microarchitectures. From the looks of it, Intel is planning a massive push into the client AI acceleration space, starting with the upcoming "Meteor Lake" architecture that debuts later this year. The processor is expected to feature hardware acceleration for AI, with the new AI Boost feature.
The company could build on AI Boost with even more capabilities in the subsequent "Arrow Lake" and "Lunar Lake" microarchitectures. Among the instruction sets relevant to AI deep-learning neural net building and training, are AVX VNNI with INT8, AVX VNNI with INT16, AVX-IFMA, and AVX-NE Convert. There are several new security-relevant instructions, including SHA512, SM3, and SM4. "Lunar Lake" will introduce TSE-PBNDKB (total storage encryption). The ISA Reference Guide can be accessed here.
The company could build on AI Boost with even more capabilities in the subsequent "Arrow Lake" and "Lunar Lake" microarchitectures. Among the instruction sets relevant to AI deep-learning neural net building and training, are AVX VNNI with INT8, AVX VNNI with INT16, AVX-IFMA, and AVX-NE Convert. There are several new security-relevant instructions, including SHA512, SM3, and SM4. "Lunar Lake" will introduce TSE-PBNDKB (total storage encryption). The ISA Reference Guide can be accessed here.
Framework Delves into Semi-Custom Memory and Storage Options for Laptop 16
In keeping with Framework's philosophy, the Framework Laptop 16 has socketed memory and storage, making it easy for you to choose what you need on day one and upgrade to more any time later. Our pre-built configurations have set combinations of memory and storage, while on DIY Edition, you can choose any of the modules we offer in the Marketplace or bring your own if you prefer. We've taken both memory and storage to the next level on Framework Laptop 16. For memory, we've created new semi-custom Framework-branded DDR5-5600 modules. For storage, we have two M.2 slots, as well as the ability to add two more in the Expansion Bay for colossal storage capacity.
One core challenge we aimed to solve for memory on the Framework Laptop 16 was being able to offer the same modules for pre-built systems, DIY Edition, and the Framework Marketplace. Historically, we needed to source separate "OEM" modules from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron for use in our factory, and "Retail" modules from Crucial to offer in DIY Edition and the Marketplace. Instead, we worked with memory maker ADATA to create custom-label modules that we can use across all areas. Currently, we're leveraging SK Hynix DDR5-5600 memory chips for these modules, but may use other chips that meet the performance bar in the future as well.
One core challenge we aimed to solve for memory on the Framework Laptop 16 was being able to offer the same modules for pre-built systems, DIY Edition, and the Framework Marketplace. Historically, we needed to source separate "OEM" modules from Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron for use in our factory, and "Retail" modules from Crucial to offer in DIY Edition and the Marketplace. Instead, we worked with memory maker ADATA to create custom-label modules that we can use across all areas. Currently, we're leveraging SK Hynix DDR5-5600 memory chips for these modules, but may use other chips that meet the performance bar in the future as well.
ASUS IoT Announces Next-Generation PE1100N
ASUS IoT, the global AIoT solution provider, today announced PE1100N, a unmatched, ultra-compact computer for AI inferencing at the edge, and based on the next-generation and world-leading NVIDIA Jetson Orin series. It features a fanless design for quiet operation, rich industrial connectivity for serious flexibility and supports a wide range of power inputs and operating temperatures for maximum versatility and durability.
With the powerful Jetson platform, featuring an efficient Arm processor and embedded NVIDIA GPU, PE1100N delivers energy-efficient computing with powerful AI-inferencing capabilities, making it ideal for diverse, scalable edge AI applications in smart city, transportation, manufacturing and more - including traffic analysis, people-tracking, counting and surveillance. Also, PE1100N's compact size and anti-vibration design make it especially ideal for smart manufacturing solutions, such as automated guided vehicle (AGVs), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), AI-powered automated optical inspection (AOI) and robotics applications - accelerating time to market for AI applications.
With the powerful Jetson platform, featuring an efficient Arm processor and embedded NVIDIA GPU, PE1100N delivers energy-efficient computing with powerful AI-inferencing capabilities, making it ideal for diverse, scalable edge AI applications in smart city, transportation, manufacturing and more - including traffic analysis, people-tracking, counting and surveillance. Also, PE1100N's compact size and anti-vibration design make it especially ideal for smart manufacturing solutions, such as automated guided vehicle (AGVs), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs), AI-powered automated optical inspection (AOI) and robotics applications - accelerating time to market for AI applications.
Raijintek Intros ZOFOS Ultra Full-tower Case
Raijintek today introduced the ZOFOS Ultra, an ATX full-tower case for high-end gaming PC builds. The case measures 598 mm x 254 mm x 597 mm (DxWxH), and features a horizontally partitioned layout. Its motherboard tray supports boards as large as E-ATX. An interesting aspect about this case is its vast number of drive bays. There are as many as fourteen 3.5-inch drive bays, four of which are located in the lower compartment, and the rest along detachable drive cages toward the front of the case, making it fit for home-server or video production builds. With these drive cages in place, you have clearance for graphics cards up to 37 cm in length. Without them graphics cards can be as long as 54 cm. In place of the drive cages, four 120 mm fans, or a 360 mm x 120 mm radiator can be mounted. The lower two drive cages can be additionally detached to make room for liquid cooling hardware.
Ventilation options on the Raijintek ZOFOS Ultra include a 140 mm rear exhaust, either four 120 mm or three 140 mm top exhausts, either three 140 mm or four 120 mm front intakes, and four 120 mm side vents (replacing the drive cages). Besides the 14 3.5-inch drive cages, there are three additional 2.5-inch mounts behind the motherboard tray. Radiator mounting options include a 420 mm x 140 mm (or smaller) along the front intake, a 420 mm x 140 mm (or smaller) along the top, a 360 mm x 120 mm along the side, and a 240 mm x 120 mm along the base of the motherboard tray. There are 10 conventionally located expansion slots, and three vertical ones. A roomy crawl-space has been created around the region of the motherboard, behind the tray, for easy cable management. The case includes two ARGB LED lighting elements, which take in 3-pin ARGB inputs. Front-panel connectivity includes two USB 3.x type-A, one USB 3.1 type-C, and a 4-pole headset jack. The company didn't announce pricing information.
Ventilation options on the Raijintek ZOFOS Ultra include a 140 mm rear exhaust, either four 120 mm or three 140 mm top exhausts, either three 140 mm or four 120 mm front intakes, and four 120 mm side vents (replacing the drive cages). Besides the 14 3.5-inch drive cages, there are three additional 2.5-inch mounts behind the motherboard tray. Radiator mounting options include a 420 mm x 140 mm (or smaller) along the front intake, a 420 mm x 140 mm (or smaller) along the top, a 360 mm x 120 mm along the side, and a 240 mm x 120 mm along the base of the motherboard tray. There are 10 conventionally located expansion slots, and three vertical ones. A roomy crawl-space has been created around the region of the motherboard, behind the tray, for easy cable management. The case includes two ARGB LED lighting elements, which take in 3-pin ARGB inputs. Front-panel connectivity includes two USB 3.x type-A, one USB 3.1 type-C, and a 4-pole headset jack. The company didn't announce pricing information.
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 is Still the Most Popular GPU in the Steam Hardware Survey
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 was released more than four years ago. With its TU117 graphics processor, it features 896 CUDA cores, 56 texture mapping units, and 32 ROPs. NVIDIA has paired 4 GB GDDR5 memory with the GeForce GTX 1650, which are connected using a 128-bit memory interface. Interestingly, according to the latest Steam Hardware Survey results, this GPU still remains the most popular choice among gamers. While the total addressable market is unknown with the exact number, it is fair to assume that a large group participates every month. The latest numbers for June 2023 indicate that the GeForce GTX 1650 is still the number one GPU, with 5.50% of the users having that GPU. The second closest one was GeForce RTX 3060, with 4.60%.
Other information in the survey remains similar, with CPUs mostly ranging from 2.3 GHz to 2.69 GHz in frequency and with six cores and twelve threads. Storage also recorded a small bump with capacity over 1 TB surging 1.48%, indicating that gamers are buying larger drives as game sizes get bigger.
Other information in the survey remains similar, with CPUs mostly ranging from 2.3 GHz to 2.69 GHz in frequency and with six cores and twelve threads. Storage also recorded a small bump with capacity over 1 TB surging 1.48%, indicating that gamers are buying larger drives as game sizes get bigger.
AI and HPC Demand Set to Boost HBM Volume by Almost 60% in 2023
High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) is emerging as the preferred solution for overcoming memory transfer speed restrictions due to the bandwidth limitations of DDR SDRAM in high-speed computation. HBM is recognized for its revolutionary transmission efficiency and plays a pivotal role in allowing core computational components to operate at their maximum capacity. Top-tier AI server GPUs have set a new industry standard by primarily using HBM. TrendForce forecasts that global demand for HBM will experience almost 60% growth annually in 2023, reaching 290 million GB, with a further 30% growth in 2024.
TrendForce's forecast for 2025, taking into account five large-scale AIGC products equivalent to ChatGPT, 25 mid-size AIGC products from Midjourney, and 80 small AIGC products, the minimum computing resources required globally could range from 145,600 to 233,700 Nvidia A100 GPUs. Emerging technologies such as supercomputers, 8K video streaming, and AR/VR, among others, are expected to simultaneously increase the workload on cloud computing systems due to escalating demands for high-speed computing.
TrendForce's forecast for 2025, taking into account five large-scale AIGC products equivalent to ChatGPT, 25 mid-size AIGC products from Midjourney, and 80 small AIGC products, the minimum computing resources required globally could range from 145,600 to 233,700 Nvidia A100 GPUs. Emerging technologies such as supercomputers, 8K video streaming, and AR/VR, among others, are expected to simultaneously increase the workload on cloud computing systems due to escalating demands for high-speed computing.
Sparkle Formally Launches Intel Arc A-series Graphics Card Series
Sparkle Computer and Intel, longstanding Thunderbolt development partner since 2015, have announced a new partnership to launch the SPARKLE Intel Arc Series Graphics Cards. With a wealth of experience producing quality industrial graphics cards, ODM solutions and peripherals, Sparkle is now expanding our reach into the consumer graphics business.
"We value this collaboration and we are fully prepared," says Willie Huang, General Manager of Sparkle Computer Co., LTD. "Sparkle is dedicated to creating a creator-friendly working environment, ranging from industrial graphics, external GPU to docking stations.... As the last piece of the puzzle, Sparkle Intel Arc Graphics, featuring an advanced Xe Media engine and AV1 encoder, has fully completed our product line and fulfilled the requirement of the desktop community"
"We value this collaboration and we are fully prepared," says Willie Huang, General Manager of Sparkle Computer Co., LTD. "Sparkle is dedicated to creating a creator-friendly working environment, ranging from industrial graphics, external GPU to docking stations.... As the last piece of the puzzle, Sparkle Intel Arc Graphics, featuring an advanced Xe Media engine and AV1 encoder, has fully completed our product line and fulfilled the requirement of the desktop community"
AMD "Vega" Architecture Gets No More ROCm Updates After Release 5.6
AMD's "Vega" graphics architecture powering graphics cards such as the Radeon VII, Radeon PRO VII, sees a discontinuation of maintenance with ROCm GPU programming software stack. The release notes of ROCm 5.6 states that the AMD Instinct MI50 accelerator, Radeon VII client graphics card, and Radeon PRO VII pro-vis graphics card, collectively referred to as "gfx906," will reach EOM (end of maintenance) starting Q3-2023, which aligns with the release of ROCm 5.7. Developer "EwoutH" on GitHub, who discovered this, remarks gfx906 is barely 5 years old, with the Radeon PRO VII and Instinct MI50 accelerator currently being sold in the market. The most recent AMD product powered by "Vega" has to be the "Cezanne" desktop processor, which uses an iGPU based on the architecture. This chip was released in Q2-2021.
Montblanc Launches the MTB 03 ANC Earbuds with aptX Adaptive
Luxury brands and consumer electronics don't tend to be a good mix, largely due to the luxury brands either not caring or not being knowledgeable enough about the product they're making. Montblanc has taken a very different route with its new MTB 03 ANC earbuds, as the company has cooperated with Axel Grell, who used to work for Sennheiser before setting up his own brand of audio products. In all fairness, Montblanc did a similar team-up for its MTB 01 headphones where they worked with the founder of Audeze. The MTB 03's feature 7 mm beryllium drivers and are built around a Qualcomm Bluetooth 5.2 chipset which Montblanc is leveraging by adding aptX Adaptive support.
Furthermore, Montblanc has added support for Mimi Hearing Technologies sound personalisation software, on top of the tuning provided by Axel Grell. Sadly these luxury buds aren't without shortcomings, as the battery life is said to be good for only six hours of listening time, with another two full charges in the charging case. That's far less than most competing products on the market today. The charging case can be charged wirelessly or via USB-C and a 15 minute charge of the earbuds is said to be good enough for 100 minutes of playback time, while a full charge takes 90 minutes. For those still interested, a pair of the MTB 03's will set you back £345 or around US$439, although that price includes 20 percent VAT.
Furthermore, Montblanc has added support for Mimi Hearing Technologies sound personalisation software, on top of the tuning provided by Axel Grell. Sadly these luxury buds aren't without shortcomings, as the battery life is said to be good for only six hours of listening time, with another two full charges in the charging case. That's far less than most competing products on the market today. The charging case can be charged wirelessly or via USB-C and a 15 minute charge of the earbuds is said to be good enough for 100 minutes of playback time, while a full charge takes 90 minutes. For those still interested, a pair of the MTB 03's will set you back £345 or around US$439, although that price includes 20 percent VAT.
12VHPWR Connector Said to be Replaced by 12V-2x6 Connector
According to Igor's Lab, who has gotten their hands on a PCI-SIG draft engineer change notice, it looks like the not entirely uncontroversial 12VHPWR connector won't be long lived. The PCI-SIG is getting ready to replace it with the 12V-2x6 connector, which will be part of the ATX 3.1 spec and the PCI Express 6.0 spec. The new connector doesn't appear to have any major physical changes though, but there have been mechanical modifications, such as the sense pins having been recessed further back, to make sure a proper contact is made before higher power outputs can be requested by the GPU. The good news is that at least in the draft spec, the 12V-2x6 connector will be backwards compatible with 12VHPWR connectors.
One of the bigger changes, at least when it comes to how much power the new connector can deliver, is that there will be new 150 and 300 Watt modes in addition to the 450 and 600 Watt modes for the sense pin detection. The 12V-2x6 connector is rated for at least 9.2 Amps per pin and the new connectors will carry a H++ logo, with th older 12VHPWR connectors getting a H+ logo. The PCI-SIG has also added stricter requirements when it comes to the cable design and quality, which should hopefully prevent some of the issues the 12VHPWR implementations have suffered from. We should find out more details once the PCI-SIG has finalised the 12V-2x6 connector specification. In the meantime, you can hit up the source link for more technical drawings and details.
One of the bigger changes, at least when it comes to how much power the new connector can deliver, is that there will be new 150 and 300 Watt modes in addition to the 450 and 600 Watt modes for the sense pin detection. The 12V-2x6 connector is rated for at least 9.2 Amps per pin and the new connectors will carry a H++ logo, with th older 12VHPWR connectors getting a H+ logo. The PCI-SIG has also added stricter requirements when it comes to the cable design and quality, which should hopefully prevent some of the issues the 12VHPWR implementations have suffered from. We should find out more details once the PCI-SIG has finalised the 12V-2x6 connector specification. In the meantime, you can hit up the source link for more technical drawings and details.
Sunday, July 2nd 2023
AMD Designs Physically Smaller "Phoenix 2" Die with 6-core CPU and 4 CU iGPU
AMD has designed a physically smaller version of its 4 nm "Phoenix" mobile processor silicon. The chip could power lower-end mobile SKUs in the Ryzen 3 and Ryzen 5 series, and it's likely that it could make it to Socket AM5, where it will power Ryzen 3 and lower-end versions of Ryzen 5 desktop processors. Built on the same 4 nm foundry process as the standard "Phoenix" silicon, the so-called "Phoenix 2" or "PHX2" die physically features a 6-core/12-thread CPU based on the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, and a physically smaller iGPU with just two WGPs (workgroup processors), or 4 CU (compute units), which work out to 256 stream processors. This iGPU is based on the same RDNA3 graphics architecture as the one powering the regular "Phoenix" silicon. At this point we don't know if the Ryzen AI component gets the axe, but given AMD's enthusiasm with consumer AI acceleration, the die might just retain it.
The PHX2 die likely retains the I/O of the regular "Phoenix," including a dual-channel (4 sub-channel) DDR5 and LPDDR5 memory interface, and a 24-lane PCI-Express Gen 4 root complex. These changes result in a die that appears to be around three-quarters the size of the regular "Phoenix," with an area of around 137 mm², compared to 178 mm² of the regular "Phoenix." The smaller die will save AMD big on costs and yields. At this time, there are at least two processor models reported to be based on this die, the Ryzen 5 7540U and Ryzen 3 7440U. Both are 15 W to 28 W class mobile processors aimed at thin-and-light notebooks.
The PHX2 die likely retains the I/O of the regular "Phoenix," including a dual-channel (4 sub-channel) DDR5 and LPDDR5 memory interface, and a 24-lane PCI-Express Gen 4 root complex. These changes result in a die that appears to be around three-quarters the size of the regular "Phoenix," with an area of around 137 mm², compared to 178 mm² of the regular "Phoenix." The smaller die will save AMD big on costs and yields. At this time, there are at least two processor models reported to be based on this die, the Ryzen 5 7540U and Ryzen 3 7440U. Both are 15 W to 28 W class mobile processors aimed at thin-and-light notebooks.
ASUS has a GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Card with an M.2 SSD Slot
ASUS Chinese GM—Tony Yu—has shown off a graphics card concept on Bilibili that has a rather unusual feature, a slot for an M.2 NVMe SSD. The card is based on NVIDIA's GeForce RT 4060 Ti GPU and although not all details are clear at this point in time, but ASUS is taking advantage of the unused PCIe lanes on the card, since the AD106 GPU only uses eight PCIe lanes, the PCIe connector on the card has space for a further eight lanes. In theory ASUS could have added a pair of SSDs, since there are a total of eight lanes available, but as this was just a proof of concept, they seemingly stuck with a single SSD.
It's unclear if ASUS relies on bifurcation or if the company has added some kind of bridge chip, but bifurcation makes more sense, as a bridge chip would add a lot more cost. The neat thing with the NVMe drive being on the GPU, is that it also connects to the heatsink of the graphics card, which means the cooling should be rather good. However, for this to work properly, the SSD would have to be mounted back to front compared to how it would be mounted on a motherboard. Based on the test results, the SSD runs at a cool 42 degrees C, even when the GPU is being stress tested. It's likely that this product will not make it to markets outside of China, if it's ever launched into retail.
It's unclear if ASUS relies on bifurcation or if the company has added some kind of bridge chip, but bifurcation makes more sense, as a bridge chip would add a lot more cost. The neat thing with the NVMe drive being on the GPU, is that it also connects to the heatsink of the graphics card, which means the cooling should be rather good. However, for this to work properly, the SSD would have to be mounted back to front compared to how it would be mounted on a motherboard. Based on the test results, the SSD runs at a cool 42 degrees C, even when the GPU is being stress tested. It's likely that this product will not make it to markets outside of China, if it's ever launched into retail.
This Week in Gaming (Week 27)
With this week being the 4th of July in the US, it appears that we don't have too many game releases to look forward to, but we managed to dig out a few new releases regardless. This week's AA title comes from Japan, with all that that entails. The rest of this week's releases include some strategy, some shooting, some tagging, some climbing, some darkness and some fear, so make of that what you want. To our US readers, enjoy your holiday this coming week.
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie / This week's AA title / Friday 7 July
What destinies await these three fateful figures? Use the Crossroads system to switch between Rean Schwarzer, Lloyd Bannings, and the masked figure "C", and determine the fates of key characters and locations within Zemuria. Dive into refined tactical combat with new features such as United Front, and discover new allies and challenges within the halls of the True Reverie Corridor!
The Legend of Heroes: Trails into Reverie / This week's AA title / Friday 7 July
What destinies await these three fateful figures? Use the Crossroads system to switch between Rean Schwarzer, Lloyd Bannings, and the masked figure "C", and determine the fates of key characters and locations within Zemuria. Dive into refined tactical combat with new features such as United Front, and discover new allies and challenges within the halls of the True Reverie Corridor!
May 10th, 2024 17:56 EDT
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