ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF mobo launched: hidden power connectors for $870+

Anthony Garreffa | Motherboards | Mar 17, 2024 9:36 PM CDT

If you've been waiting for the new flagship ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF motherboard, your time is nearly here to enjoy some backside power connectors.

ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF mobo launched: hidden power connectors for $870+

The new ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF motherboard has appeared at a French retailer for 799 euros, which works out to around $870 USD, featuring an Intel LGA 1700 socket, 20+1+2 phase power delivery, and powered by dual 8-pin EPS power connectors. You've got 4 x DIMMs that support up to 256GB of DDR5 memory through ASUS' latest BIOS updates. You'll get yourself a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, a PCIe 4.0 x4 slot, and 5 x M.2 slots (1 x Gen5 and 4 x Gen4) for super-fast SSD storage.

The big selling point of the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF motherboard is that it supports a dedicated graphics card high-power connector that's capable of feeding a huge 600W of power into the graphics card. This gives you a sleek-looking system, but enough power delivery for even the most beast GPU you can buy.

Continue reading: ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF mobo launched: hidden power connectors for $870+ (full post)

Chris Roberts says Star Citizen 1.0 release 'twinkles on the horizon'

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 17, 2024 9:00 PM CDT

Star Citizen used to be one giant leap from release, but now, according to Roberts Space Industries boss Chris Roberts, we're seemingly one small step from the game hitting version 1.0.

Chris Roberts says Star Citizen 1.0 release 'twinkles on the horizon'

In a new "Letter from the Chairman" on the official Star Citizen website, Roberts said that the commercial launch of Star Citizen "twinkles on the horizon". This is the point the developer wants to reach when the game is polished enough and ready to leave the alpha or early access stages.

Cloud Imperium Games has been spending a lot of time on getting Star Citizen to v1.0, which Rich Tyrer is leading in his new position as Senior Game Director of both Star Citizen and the single-player Squadron 42 release alongside Roberts himself. Tryer was one of the team's key members in getting Squadron 42 to feature-complete status, something CIG announced in late October 2023.

Continue reading: Chris Roberts says Star Citizen 1.0 release 'twinkles on the horizon' (full post)

PlayStation 5 Pro features next-gen RDNA 4-based ray tracing engine, allows 2-3x faster RT

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Mar 17, 2024 8:37 PM CDT

Sony's beefed-up PlayStation 5 Pro consoles continue to ramp up with rumors, solidifying what we've heard over the last few months... but there's one very interesting tidbit here: RDNA 4 is being used.

PlayStation 5 Pro features next-gen RDNA 4-based ray tracing engine, allows 2-3x faster RT

AMD's current-gen RDNA 3 GPU architecture is found both inside the Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cards as well as inside the PlayStation 5 console. But, the new PlayStation 5 Pro console will reportedly feature an integrated graphics processor that uses BVH8 traversal shaders, and while that might not sound like much, it's huge news.

This confirms that the PlayStation 5 Pro is using AMD's next-gen RDNA 4 RT (ray tracing) engine, also confirming that RDNA 4 doubles the throughput per cycle, something that hasn't been mentioned in any open-source patch yet, says leaker Kepler. The BVH8 traversal shaders are an 8-level bounding volume hierarchy for ray tracing, compared to the 4-level hierarchy on the RDNA 2-based GPU inside of the APU in the PS5.

Continue reading: PlayStation 5 Pro features next-gen RDNA 4-based ray tracing engine, allows 2-3x faster RT (full post)

Intel survives US sanctions on China: can continue to provide Huawei with chips, but AMD can't

Anthony Garreffa | Business, Financial & Legal | Mar 17, 2024 8:01 PM CDT

Intel has survived pressure from hundreds of millions of dollars of lost chip sales to Huawei, after Joe Biden put pressure on the company to revoke a license issued by the Trump administration that allows Intel to ship advanced CPUs to Huawei for use inside of their laptops.

Intel survives US sanctions on China: can continue to provide Huawei with chips, but AMD can't

In a new report from Reuters, the outlet says that Biden "has long been under pressure to revoke a license, issued by the Trump administration, that allows Intel to ship advanced central processors to Huawei for use in laptops". The push came from competitor AMD, which said it was unfair that the Ryzen CPU giant couldn't get a license to sell similar chips to Huawei.

Intel retaining its license is a huge deal, as it can continue to sell hundreds of millions of processors to the Chinese giant amid sanctions that stop GPU sales from NVIDIA and AMD. AMD can't sell its Ryzen CPUs to Huawei, but Intel can... I can understand why AMD wouldn't be happy with that, and rightfully so.

Continue reading: Intel survives US sanctions on China: can continue to provide Huawei with chips, but AMD can't (full post)

More PlayStation 5 Pro specifications have been leaked

Jak Connor | Gaming | Mar 17, 2024 7:30 PM CDT

Last week, the internet was blessed with some specifications for Sony's upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro, revealing a significant performance uplift compared to the standard PlayStation 5.

More PlayStation 5 Pro specifications have been leaked

The original specifications leak began from Moore's Law is Dead, which was later backed up by Insider Gaming's Tom Henderson, a notable insider within the industry. Henderson wrote that the leaks were real and that Insider Gaming had seen leaked PS5 Pro documents sourced from a verifiable PlayStation developer portal. Now, Henderson has posted a new report revealing even more PS5 Pro specifications, such as System Memory, CPU, and Audio specs.

Insider Gaming has claimed to have learned more specifications of the upcoming console, and for comparison sake, the publication has included the specs of the standard PlayStation 5. The PS5 Pro system memory is rumored to have 576 GB/s (18GT/s), which is a 28% increase over the standard console. As for CPU, the PS5 Pro is rumored to have an identical CPU to the PS5 but includes a "High CPU Frequency Mode" that bumps the CPU to 3.85GHz, which is a 10% increase over the standard console.

Continue reading: More PlayStation 5 Pro specifications have been leaked (full post)

Samsung gearing up for 'SSD subscription' model at NVIDIA GTC 2024 with 'PBSSD'

Anthony Garreffa | Storage | Mar 17, 2024 7:02 PM CDT

We will soon be living in a world where you'll own nothing -- an SSD -- and be happy, with Samsung to show off its new server-class SSD "subscription" model called PBSSD.

Samsung gearing up for 'SSD subscription' model at NVIDIA GTC 2024 with 'PBSSD'

PBSSD is a petabyte-level SSD solution that will launch with a subscription model in the US in Q2 2024, to "address the era of ultra-high-capacity data". A Samsung statement that was probably sourced from leaked materials on PBSSD, reads: "the subscription service will help reduce initial investment costs in storage infrastructure for our customers and cut down on maintenance expenses".

Once an enterprise customer agrees, they're not expected to purchase ultra-high-capacity SSDs outright, where they can use "the service can flexibly utilize SSD storage without the need to build separate infrastructure, while simultaneously receiving various services from Samsung Electronics related to storage management, security, and upgrades". Interesting.

Continue reading: Samsung gearing up for 'SSD subscription' model at NVIDIA GTC 2024 with 'PBSSD' (full post)

Intel's new Core i9-14900KS with direct die cooling: all-core 6.0GHz overclocking

Anthony Garreffa | CPU, APU & Chipsets | Mar 17, 2024 6:12 PM CDT

Intel's new special edition Core i9-14900KS processor is now out in the wild, but in the hands of legendary overclocker "Der8auer," it has been pushed to an all-core 6.0GHz using direct die cooling.

Intel's new Core i9-14900KS with direct die cooling: all-core 6.0GHz overclocking

In its stock form, a CPU's die is found underneath a metal heat spreader, aka IHS (integrated heat spreader), with the heat generated by the processor transferred through a thermal interface material (TIM). We'll usually see thermal paste as the TIM, but the new special edition Core i9-14900KS processor uses indium.

Removing the IHS and then cooling the die directly offers greater thermal abilities, but direct die cooling isn't something special, as it's used for GPUs and non-socketed CPUs inside of laptops.

Continue reading: Intel's new Core i9-14900KS with direct die cooling: all-core 6.0GHz overclocking (full post)

NVIDIA's new B100 AI GPU rumor: 2 x dies, 192GB of HBM3E memory, while B200 has 288GB HBM3E

Anthony Garreffa | Artificial Intelligence | Mar 17, 2024 4:55 PM CDT

NVIDIA will unveil its next-generation Blackwell GPU architecture at GTC 2024... tomorrow, if you can believe it, detailing its new B100 AI GPU and giving us a tease at the beefed-up B200 AI GPU expected in 2025.

NVIDIA's new B100 AI GPU rumor: 2 x dies, 192GB of HBM3E memory, while B200 has 288GB HBM3E

In a new post on X by "XpeaGPU," we hear that NVIDIA's new B100 is truly a monster: 2 x GPU dies on the latest TSMC CoWoS-L (Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate-L) 2.5D packaging technology, which allows companies to design and manufacture larger chips. NVIDIA's next-gen B100 will have up to 192GB of ultra-fast HBM3E memory on 8-Hi stacks, while the beefed-up B200 AI GPU will feature a huge 288GB of HBM3E memory.

NVIDIA's current H100 AI GPU ships with 80GB or 141GB of HBM3 memory, while its competitor, the AMD Instinct MI300X, ships with 192GB of HMB3 memory. The release of the B100 AI GPU will see NVIDIA match AMD for the amount of HBM memory, but NVIDIA's new B100 will have the new ultra-fast HBM3E memory and will be the first GPU with HBM3E to market.

Continue reading: NVIDIA's new B100 AI GPU rumor: 2 x dies, 192GB of HBM3E memory, while B200 has 288GB HBM3E (full post)

Google's Pixel Launcher will let you switch your default search service in the EU

Oliver Haslam | Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones | Mar 16, 2024 10:45 AM CDT

There's been a lot of talk about the European Union and its Digital Markets Act in recent days and weeks, mostly surrounding Apple and the way the DMA has forced the company to begin offering support for third-party app stores and more within the bloc. Now, the latest mention of the DMA comes over in the world of Android with the news that the Google Pixel Launcher is rolling out the option to choose a new search provider in the EU.

Google's Pixel Launcher will let you switch your default search service in the EU

The move means that people will be able to choose a new search option other than the default Google Search for the first time, something that is being done in order to better comply with the new DMA requirements that came into effect this month.

The new roll-out was first reported by people on the X social network who saw Google, DukDuckGo, and Ecosia as search options with some receiving a notification that offered the option to change the default search engine. This of course all relates to the search bar on the Home Screen.

Continue reading: Google's Pixel Launcher will let you switch your default search service in the EU (full post)

WhatsApp could soon finally fix an irritating pinned chat limitation

Oliver Haslam | Software & Apps | Mar 16, 2024 10:30 AM CDT

WhatsApp is already one of the world's most popular instant messaging apps and parent company Meta continues to make steady improvements to the list of features that the app has to offer across a wide range of platforms. Now we're hearing that one of the improvements still being developed is the ability to pin more than three different chats for the first time.

WhatsApp could soon finally fix an irritating pinned chat limitation

The news comes via the WhatsApp beta watchers over at WABetaInfo and sure enough, it's the latest Android beta version of the WhatsApp app that has given us our first look at the feature in action.

The feature is currently live in the WhatsApp 2.24.6.13 beta release that's available for download by beta testers via the Google Play Store and the ability to pin more than three chats is working currently. There's a screenshot showing the feature above and the screenshot does suggest that there is still a limit with five being the maximum number of chats that can be pinned in this version.

Continue reading: WhatsApp could soon finally fix an irritating pinned chat limitation (full post)