Latest Reviews & Articles

EzBench Benchmark Benchmarked: UE5 + Ray Tracing + 8K Textures
EzBench Benchmark is a free download on Steam: based on Unreal Engine 5, with ray tracing and 8K textures it'll CRUSH your GPU.
EzBench Benchmark is a free download on Steam: based on Unreal Engine 5, with ray tracing and 8K textures it'll CRUSH your GPU.
NVIDIA has already announced its Computex 2022 keynote for next week, and now AMD has confirmed its new "AMD Advancing the High-Performance Computing Experience" keynote for the same day: May 23.
AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su will be talking about the company's vision on "next generation mobile and desktop PC innovations", which means we can expect some teases of future-gen gear. Dr. Lisa Su recently had MIT rename its Building 12 nanoscience building to "The Dr. Lisa T Su Building", it seems next up for Lisa is Computex 2022 next week... she's been quite busy.
AMD teases: "Join us for the digital AMD CEO keynote at Computex 2022 as Dr. Lisa Su shares the AMD vision to advance the PC experience through next generation mobile and desktop PC innovations. Combining cutting-edge CPUs, GPUs and software, AMD and its ecosystem partners will show breakthrough performance and leadership experiences for gamers, enthusiasts and creators".
Continue reading: AMD Computex 2022 keynote: next-gen desktop, mobile PC innovations (full post)
Huawei has just announced its new foldable smartphone is available, introducing the new Mate Xs 2 foldable smartphone with its huge 7.8-inch OLED display.
The new Huawei Mate Xs 2 foldable smartphone rocks a 7.8-inch OLED with a 2480 x 2200 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate. Huawei announced the new Mate Xs 2 foldable phone earlier this year, but now it's available in China starting now... and then Europe and other western markets.
What makes the Huawei Mate Xs 2 different to the leader of the foldable smartphone race: Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold 3 -- is that the Chinese manufacturer uses a foldable panel that folds outwards. Samsung, and others, have their displays fold in... keeping the internal (the larger) display protected when closed and in your pocket.
Continue reading: Huawei Mate Xs 2 foldable phone released: 120Hz display, but no 5G (full post)
NVIDIA released the GeForce RTX 3050 8GB and GeForce RTX 3080 12GB graphics cards LHR-locked -- well, LHRv3 or Lite Hash Rate v3 -- and now that's been 90% unlocked.
The current LHRv1 and LHRv2 models are completely unlocked now through software, with no hardware modifications or requirements, with LHRv3 models now 90% unlocked. The LHRv3-based RTX 3050 8GB and RTX 3080 12GB models are based on new versions of the algorithm, but the algorithm has now been cracked to 90% at least.
NiceHash QuickMiner v0.5.4.2 RC requires NVIDIA 512.15 driver (or newer) in order to work, but now if crypto miners (and bigger crypto farms) had a bunch of RTX 3050 8GB or RTX 3080 12GB graphics cards... now they can be unleashed (90% is bloody close to 100% and I'm sure it won't be long until LHRv3 is fully unlocked... give it a few more days).
Continue reading: NVIDIA LHRv3 (RTX 3050 + RTX 3080 12GB) unlocked 90%, crypto gimp dies (full post)
Machenike is the first to launch a laptop with a high-end Arc Alchemist GPU, with the introduction of their new Discovery Edition 2022 gaming laptop. Check it out:
Inside, the new China-exclusive Machenike Discovery Edition 2022 gaming laptop packs an Intel 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPU and Intel Arc A-Series GPU. Machenike is outfitting its new Arc GPU-powered gaming laptop with a 16-inch 2560 x 1440 resolution display with a slick 165Hz refresh rate.
This is the very first Intel ACM-G10-based laptop on sale, a big pity that it's exclusive to China and outside of the major tech press to benchmark it. Machenike's new Discovery Edition 2022 laptop and its Intel Arc A730M packs 24 Xe-Cores (3072 FP32 cores) with 12GB of GDDR6 memory on a 192-bit memory bus, spitting out 336GB/sec of memory bandwidth.
Continue reading: Machenike's new laptop: packs Intel Arc A730M (ACM-G10) GPU for $1200 (full post)
Call of Duty: Warzone had a huge update with its recent Operation Monarch event reveal, where King Kong and Godzilla kind of duke it out in Warzone.
It has been a mostly forgettable event, there's something a bit more fun here -- players have discovered you can easily farm some rather baller additional XP by attacking the testicles of King Kong -- yes, that's right: blow up Kong's balls and get XP.
They're not exactly his balls per se, as you can't see his gigantic house-sized balls dangling around in the game as Kong isn't anatomically correct, but if you attack the region where his balls are, you're going to get some additional XP. Call of Duty: Warzone's Operation Monarch event went live on May 11, and wraps up on May 25.
Continue reading: Attack King Kong's testicles in Call of Duty: Warzone for baller XP (full post)
Martin Shkreli has been released from prison early, completing under five years of his seven-year prison sentence. Martin "Pharma Bro" Shkreli is now free, and already back on social media.
Shkreli's first post on social media the second he was out of prison: "Getting out of real prison is easier than getting out of Twitter prison". After personally just watching "Pharma Bro", I suggest watching it as it gives a great (and quick 1.5-hour) insight into the life of Martin Shkreli... and what he did "wrong" and how he lived, and his fans... man, his fans.
Ben Brafman, Shkreli's attorney, said: "I am pleased to report that Martin Shkreli has been released from Allenwood prison and transferred to a BOP halfway house after completing all programs that allowed for his prison sentence to be shortened".
Continue reading: Martin Shkreli aka 'Pharma Bro' released from prison early (full post)
The Grand Theft Auto franchise has generated nearly $7.5 billion in revenues since GTA V's launch in 2013, Take-Two's latest financials have confirmed.
Despite having not released a new mainline game in 9 years, Rockstar's powerhouse GTA series recently hit 375 million copies sold to date. GTA V makes the bulk of single-game sales with 165 million sales, comprising 44% of the entire franchise's sales.
Based on Take-Two Interactive's historical earnings reports, the GTA franchise has made $7.487 billion since GTA V's launch in 2013. Total franchise revenues are even higher because this figure does not include the multitude of other mainline games including GTA 1-4, Vice City, and San Andreas.
Continue reading: Grand Theft Auto has made $7.5 billion since GTA V's release in 2013 (full post)
Microsoft's proposed $68.7 billion buyout of Activision-Blizzard is proceeding quickly, Microsoft company president says.
In a recent with Belgian business newspaper L'Echo, Microsoft's Brad Smith says the Activision deal is making good progress.
"It's moving fast, at least fast enough for an acquisition of this size," Smith said. "We're coming to the end of the beginning and now we're entering the beginning of the middle," Microsoft's legal counsel told Smith.
Continue reading: Activision buyout is 'moving fast,' says Microsoft president (full post)
The Witcher 3's next-gen version is set to release sometime in the holiday 2022 period, CD Projekt has announced.
Following multiple delays, it looks like development of The Witcher 3's new release is on track. CD Projekt RED says it is now targeting a Q4 2022 release window for The Witcher 3's upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S re-release.
"Based on recommendations from persons in charge of development, the Management Board plans to release the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt game in Q4 2022," reads a new press release.
Continue reading: Witcher 3's PS5, Xbox Series X/S next-gen version gets release window (full post)
Borderlands 3 is free on the Epic Games Store--get it here.
Epic's mystery freebie has been revealed, and it's a doozy. Borderlands 3 was the hyped-up EGS game for May and for good reason: It might be among the top games the storefront has given out gratis. Let's also not forget the game made EGS $14 million in one day.
The main goal of this freebie is long-term monetization. Borderlands 3 will soon be 3 years old so the sales are trailing off, and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is also out now (this game has done so well it surprised Take-Two. Borderlands 3 has in-game purchases and microtransactions and 2K Games/Rockstar have had big success with EGS freebies in the past, with GTA V's freebie boosting franchise revenues to $263 million.
Continue reading: Borderlands 3 is free on the Epic Games Store, get it ASAP (full post)