Chalk another one up on the board for TweakTown, as our very own Senior Hardware Editor has broken the PCMark 10 Extended Benchmark world record with an overall score of 18,101 - which, in case you're wondering, wasn't easy to pull off. It required some of the best hardware across CPU, GPU, RAM, and SSD storage - all tweaked and configured to perfection.

PCMark 10 Extended Benchmark world record

PCMark 10 isn't limited to GPU and gaming performance; it measures your entire PC. And with that, it's as much about the CPU, storage, and memory as the GeForce RTX 4090 found inside. On that front, Joh Coulter's World Record rig runs a Zotac-branded NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 with an average clock frequency of 2,703 MHz.

Where it gets exciting is the rest of the build-a water-cooled Intel Core i9-13900KS CPU with an average clock frequency of 6.3 GHz. A built-for-overclocking GIGABYTE Z790 AORUS TACHYON motherboard tweaked and configured to deliver performance. TeamGroup 7200 DDR5 memory at an eye-watering 8000 MT/s CL34.

ASUS is rolling out a GPU trade-in program in the UK where you can hand in your old NVIDIA or AMD graphics card for a discount towards a brand-new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti or RTX 4080 GPU. The promotion is live now, will end on March 17, 2023, and isn't something we've seen before. At least, I haven't.

Typically, second-hand GPUs are on-sold to friends of a friend or a workmate. Or put up on Facebook Marketplace or another auction platform. And with that, even though the amounts and cash-back offered by ASUS might not be up there with second-hand pricing, it covers pretty much every major GPU release for the past several years - and is an excellent little all-around promotion. So yeah, we'd love this to make its way to the US or Australia.

NVIDIA's AD106 chip from its new Ada Lovelace GPU range is rumored to power the GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card, which has yet to be formally revealed. According to a new listing and 3DMark benchmark results (via Chiphell), the AD106 GPU from NVIDIA boasts 4608 CUDA Cores, a 2535 MHz boost clock, a 128-bit memory bus, and a power rating of only 180W.

3DMark results for a new NVIDIA GeForce RTX AD106 GPU (Source: Harukaze5719)

The benchmark results compare the chip to GA104 (the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti) and TU104 (the older GeForce RTX 20 Series). And based on the results, it looks either faster or slower than the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, depending on the test. DirectX 12 and raytracing look to be the clear winner. Still, the big takeaway is that the generational jump means that the level of performance for the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060's AD106 will be RTX 3070 Ti at around 27% less power.

Back in the day, graphics cards from 3dfx Interactive - namely those with the Voodoo name - were what you craved to play cutting-edge games like Quake and Unreal. And although the rise of GeForce and Radeon slowly overtook Voodoo as the PC gaming GPUs of choice, those that have a fondness for classic late-'90s PC games and tech will no doubt have fond memories of 3dfx hardware.

Voodoo 5 6000 rev 3700A (source: gtastuntcrew302/eBay)

This makes this eBay listing for a Voodoo 5 6000 interesting because it was the last 'Voodoo' card from 3dfx and a product that never actually made it to market. One of the reasons it never did come out was its use of multiple chips and four 166 MHz VSA-100 processors, each with 32 MB of 166 MHz SDRAM. The Voodoo 5 6000 was going to be the first 128 MB graphics card, and according to reports, it went through various prototype stages with only test cards produced. This is why this for-real Voodoo 5 6000 (Rev 3700A) on eBay currently has a bid of USD 9,500.

As per our report last week, it has been over two months since AMD released a driver update covering RDNA 2-based Radeon RX 6000 GPUs and older. The past four driver updates have been exclusive to the new RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 7900 XT and Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs, which launched in December 2022. Even though it makes sense for AMD to focus on the new product launch and fix any issues that might have been discovered in the following weeks, it's still strange.

Namely, because day-one drivers are critical for new game releases, ensuring performance and compatibility is where it needs to be. On this front, high-profile PC games like Forspoken (an AMD-sponsored title) and the impressive Dead Space remake have launched without non-RDNA 3 Radeon driver support.

Sony has been accused of lying to European Commission regulators in a possible effort to derail approval of the Microsoft-Activision merger.

Reports indicate that Sony may be spreading disingenuous information to European regulators in an attempt to thwart approval of Microsoft's $68.7 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard King. Like the FTC and the CMA, the European Commission has been critical of the merger and has publicly stated concerns about reduced competition.

Now Microsoft's communication lead Frank Shaw says that Sony representatives are misleading regulators with false information regarding Call of Duty content. Microsoft has publicly announced a 10-year offer to continue bringing Call of Duty to PlayStation and PC with 100% content parity, and Microsoft even extended the deal to include Nintendo.

Sony has taken drastic measures to ensure it does not miss out on more PlayStation 5 console sales.

2020 was a terrible time for a console launch. The entire global supply chain was disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and electronics production was affected. Lockdowns had also forced consumers to change their habits. Everyone was buying games, and practically everyone wanted a new PlayStation 5 console. The demand was incredibly high but Sony simply didn't have enough PS5 consoles to meet the demand.

Now all of that has changed. Throughout 2022, Sony aggressively invested in PlayStation 5 console production and shipping logistics. Sony rolled out a new console revision that used TSMC's 6nm chip production method to yield more silicon, which would lead to more hardware units. The new PS5 models also shaved off weight to reduce Sony's worldwide shipping costs.

Sony has shipped more than 585 million handhelds and consoles across the PlayStation ecosystem.

Nintendo has sold more video games systems than anyone else with over 800 million units shipped, but Sony is firmly in second place. The latest console shipment numbers from Sony's holiday 2022 period earnings report shows that PlayStation 5 sales are finally starting to rise due to increased availability. This new wave of shipments shows us where PlayStation currently is and the potential of its overall hardware growth.

Sony shipped 7.1 million PlayStation 5 consoles in Holiday 2022, bringing total PS5 shipments to 32.1 million while also elevating total platform unit shipments. According to numbers provided by Sony and compiled by us, the PlayStation brand has shipped 585.6 million consoles and handhelds across the lifetime of each system. The data ranges from the PS1 to the PS5 and also includes PS Vita and PSP shipments.

New Dragon Age leaks may have spoiled the events that take place during opening sequence of the game.

New info, gameplay footage, and screenshots were recently leaked from an alpha build of Dragon Age Dreadwolf, the next big game in BioWare's fantasy series. The leaks were apparently captured from a playtest from an earlier version of Dreadwolf and include important story beats that could set the overall tone of the game.

The leaks show an invasion of Weisshaupt Fortress, the mythical home of the legendary heroic protectors known as Grey Wardens. Players actually take on the role of a Grey Warden during the sequence. It's unknown of players are taking control in media res or not, but it could be the case. Dragon Age Inquisition threw players into the fray in a similar fashion.

BioWare's new Dragon Age game may carry forward one of Mass Effect Andromeda worst gameplay decisions.

Tons of info for BioWare's latest Dragon Age Dreadwolf game has leaked out from an alpha version of the game, giving players an idea of what to expect from Dragon Age 4. While most of the leaked details describe an intriguing hack-and-slash fantasy epic with drastically improved visuals, there's one major red flag that could spoil the entire thing.

Playtest sources have told Insider Gaming that Dragon Age Dreadwolf does not allow players to control party members. This sentiment has also been echoed by other leakers. This was a big problem in Mass Effect Andromeda and was the second-largest issue I had with the game.