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AMD showed off its new Radeon RX 7000 series reference graphics card during its Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processor unveiling, with what looks like the design of the new flagship Radeon RX 7900 XT graphics card.

The next-gen Radeon RX 7900 XT reference design from AMD is continuing with its black color scheme, which is something AMD leaned into a little heavier with its suped-up Navi 21-based Radeon RX 6950 XT graphics card. AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su said during the live stream that performance on the new RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 series GPU looks "absolutely wonderful".

We can't see any PCIe power connectors on the sneak peek of the Radeon RX 7000 series graphics card from AMD, but we should expect dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors on the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XT. NVIDIA has been rumored to be tapping the newer 16-pin PCIe power connector for its next-gen Ada Lovelace-powered GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs, while it's not known if AMD will use the newer 16-pin power connector... or continue on with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors.

AMD officially unveiled its next-gen Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs during its livestream today, with the new flagship Ryzen 9 7950X processor tested with AMD's next-gen RDNA 3-based Radeon RX series GPU.

During the live stream, AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su showed off what AMD is playing around with internally: their new Zen 4-powered Ryzen 9 7950X processor with 16 cores and 32 threads of CPU power at up to 5.7GHz with their new RDNA 3-based GPU in the world's first public demo. Out of all of the games on the planet, AMD tested its next-gen GPU silicon with Lies of P.

The game was run at 4K on Ultra graphics settings, with the Ryzen 9 7950X processor and a pre-production RDNA 3-based Radeon RX 70000 series GPU. We don't know the exact specs of the new GPU just yet, but the flagship model is expected to feature AMD's next-gen Navi 31 GPU that should pack 12288 Stream Processors, and 24GB of GDDR6 memory and also be made on TSMC's 5nm process node: just like the new Zen 4 processors.

AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" family of CPUs are now official, led by the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X with 16 cores and 32 threads, but there's also the mid-range Zen 4 chip: the new Ryzen 5 7600X.

The new AMD Ryzen 5 7600X is a mid-range Zen 4-powered CPU that packs 6 cores and 12 threads that have a base clock of 4.5GHz and boost up to 5.3GHz, with a 105W TDP and price of $299. That pricing is competitive AF, given that the mid-range Ryzen 5 7600X chip keeps up with and trades blows with Intel's very best Core i9-12900K processor that costs almost twice as much.

AMD's new Ryzen 5 7600X is made on the same 5nm process node at TSMC, with it keeping up with the Core i9-12900K in 1080p gaming with titles like Middle-earth: Shadow of War, F1 2022, GTA V, Cyberpunk 2077, and Rainbox Six: Siege. In AMD's own internal benchmarks, we see the Ryzen 5 7600X ties with the Core i9-12900K in Cyberpunk 2077, is 3% slower (you wouldn't notice that) in GTA V, and beats the 12900K in everything else.

NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and GeForce RTX 4060 graphics cards will be consuming more power this time around for an x060-class GPU: rumor has it we're looking at up to 280W.

The new Ada Lovelace GPU architecture will debut with the GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards, where we should see the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 first... but the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti and GeForce RTX 4060 graphics cards are in the news with some purported 3DMark TimeSpy Extreme benchmark results.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti graphics card reportedly scores around 8600 points in TimeSPy Extreme, with an average GPU clock of 2600MHz+ and power draw of 270-280W or so says leaker "QbitLeaks". The GeForce RTX 4060 on the other hand will score around 6000 points, with an average GPU clock of 2700MHz+ and power draw of 230-240W.

AMD's new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors are now official, but the company didn't detail absolutely every single detail on its Zen 4 processors... but now we have some of those holes filled by Angstronomics.

AMD is manufacturing the Ryzen 7000 series CCDs with TSMC's new 5nm process node, with each 8-core CCD featuring 6.57 billion transistors, which is a 58% upgrade over the Zen 3-based CCDs which are made on TSMC's 7nm process node with 4.15 billion transistors. The Zen 4 cores are codenamed "Persephone" according to Angstronomics, something we heard in rumors in the hours before the Zen 4 launch, while the CCDs are codenamed "Durango".

The reason that we have a huge transistor density upgrade is that AMD is using a new architecture, more cache, and AVX512 instruction support into Zen 4. The Zen 4 chiplet has 90 million transistors per square mm, with each of the Zen 4 cores featuring 1MB of L2 cache (double that over Zen 3) while the cache area is smaller. This means that a larger percentage of total die area is used, but logic area has doubled in transistor density... and that's not a good thing.

AMD has officially launched its next-gen Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs, as well as a new fleet of next-gen AM5-based X670E, X670, B650E, and B650 motherboards, but man... the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X processor is a Zen 4-powered behemoth.

The next-gen flagship Zen 4-powered Ryzen 9 7950X processor is made on TSMC's new 5nm process node with a 6nm IOD, just like the rest of the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs, packing a huge 16 cores and 32 threads that boost up to 5.7GHz. AMD's new Ryzen 9 7950X has 80MB of cache and a 170W TDP, with a price of $699. Not bad considering Intel's flagship Core i9-12900K costs around $550, and the Ryzen 9 7950X bests it.

AMD compared its new Ryzen 9 7950X "Zen 4" processor up against its current-gen Ryzen 9 5950X "Zen 3" processor in some gaming and professional benchmarks: where in games like DOTA 2 the new Ryzen 9 7950X is up to 32% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X, while in Shadow of the Tomb Raider the new Ryzen 9 7950X is up to 35% faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X.

AMD has finally unveiled its next-gen Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" processors, with four new Zen 4 processors launching between $299 and $699.

The huge release includes just 4 different SKUs at first with the introduction of the flagship Ryzen 9 7950X, followed by the Ryzen 9 7900X, Ryzen 7 7700X, and Ryzen 5 7600X processors. AMD is building its new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs on TSMC's new 5nm process node, with a 13% IPC improvement that's delivered from higher CPU clock speeds and more power running through the Zen 4 chips.

AMD says that its new Ryzen 7000 series "Zen 4" CPUs offer the 13% IPC uplift over its Ryzen 5000 series "Zen 3" CPUs, with up to 5.7GHz max frequency that delivers up to 29% more single-threaded performance. The new Zen 4 CPU cores have IPC and architectural improvements inside, with the brand new TSMC 5nm process node with a 6nm IOD.

If you thought the recent price drops on AMD Radeon RX series and NVIDIA GeForce RTX series graphics cards were good, we might not have seen the best of it according to the latest reports.

A new report on MyDrivers said that according to industry sources in Taiwan that the recent price cuts hasn't shifted as many graphics cards as they wanted, with warehouses and retailer still filled. A new second wave of price cuts is now on the way, which will be a bigger effort (hint: even bigger price cuts) than the first price cuts to graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA.

AMD and NVIDIA further slashing prices won't automatically shift hundreds of thousands or millions of graphics cards needed to prepare for the next-gen GPUs around the corner, so expect some tactic changes. First, we'll see these price cuts get more AMD Radeon RX 6000 series and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards into gamers' hands at an even better price than today.

Dambuster Studios created their very own "gore tech" system that was built from the ground up for the ultra-gruesome mayhem of Dead Island 2.

In a recent PlayStation Blog post, Dambuster gave a few details about Dead Island 2. Two things stuck out to me: The studio started developing the game in 2018 after Sumo Digital handed the project over, confirming a 4-year-ish development cycle, and two, Dambuster actually made their very own proprietary animation/physics system that specifically caters to the disgusting brutality of dismembering zombies.

The devs created something they call FLESH, which sounds like it's right out of a Tales From the Crypt episode about maniacal game devs making a killer game. It's a small but telling little bit of information that underlines the care that Dambuster is putting into the project. Dead Island games have always been ultra-gory by necessity but it sounds like Dead Island 2 could take things to the next level. Everything we've seen so far indicates as much.

Sony has shipped a new CFI-1202 PlayStation 5 console revision that's much lighter than the original systems from 2020.

Sony is preparing to release its second PlayStation 5 console hardware revision since the systems launched in 2020. The new model series is designated CFI-1202 and shows another sizable weight decrease in both the PS5 disc and all-digital editions.

Based on data we've compiled from data from Press Start Australia, Sony has indeed significantly reduced the weight profiles of these new models. According to the data, the 2022 PS5 disc model has seen a 13% weight reduction over the original launch model, and now weighs as much as the disc-less PS5 from 2020.

Mafia developer Hangar 13 has confirmed a new game in the Mafia franchise is on the way, but it won't be ready for some time.

Today Hangar 13 put out a big blog post to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Mafia franchise. Nestled at the very end of the post is a brief teaser announcement that a new Mafia game is on the way, which corroborates early reports made in May of this year by Kotaku. Sources had previously said the new Mafia game is a prequel and will be built on Unreal Engine 5.

The project is many years away, however, and will likely be part of Take-Two Interactive's massive slate of games that are planned to release by 2025.

Sony has officially formed a new PlayStation division that will exclusively focus on mobile games.

Today Sony announced its new PlayStation Studios Mobile Division, a segment that will be devoted to releasing--you guessed it--mobile games based on big PlayStation franchises. The new division will include Sony's latest studio acquisition Savage Game Studios, who is working on an "unannounced AAA live service action game." It's worth noting that Savage had received funding in 2021 for a more casual-based mobile shooter game.

PlayStation Worldwide Studios boss Hermen Hulst promises that mobile games will be additive to Sony's overall gaming focus. That's the message that Sony has relayed to investors, too: In a 2022 presentation, Sony said it plans to spark "significant growth of PC and mobile within our portfolio," with mobile accounting for roughly 10% of game releases in FY22. By 2025, Sony expects mobile to make up 20% of its game releases.

Sony has purchased yet another game studio, and this time it's mobile game studio Savage Game Studios.

Sony's latest acquisition for PlayStation is solely focused on mobile games. SIE has just bought out Savage Game Studios, a company based in Berlin, Germany and Helsinki, Finland. PlayStation Worldwide Studios president Herman Hulst says Savage is working on an "unannounced AAA live service action mobile game". Savage Games' CEO Michail Katkoff is the founder of Deconstructor of Fun, a well-known resource that examines the business of free-to-play games.

Savage Game Studios raised $4.4 million in seed funding in 2021 for a competitive shooter. It's possible that Savage is adapting its idea for this shooter around a PlayStation IP, maybe a Killzone free-to-play game.

NASA is currently sitting on the launch pad with its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket awaiting approval to launch the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon.

NASA has taken to its social media to announce that its Artemis 1 mission is currently undergoing an "unplanned hold" as the team works on issue with engine 3 that's located on the SLS's core stage. Tuning into the NASA livestream above it was explained that there was a hydrogen leak that caused a temperature failure. The issue is currently being investigated leading up to the launch window opening in approximately 30 minutes from this articles posting time.

Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica recently took to Twitter to write that he is hearing rumors that "today's a scrub", while also saying that "no confirmation yet". Following up on Berger's initial tweet the senior space editor replied 30 minutes later by writing, "I'd consider this more than a rumor now".

NASA has confirmed that its DART spacecraft is on the right path to colliding with a large asteroid called Dimorphos, in a first-of-its-kind planetary defense mission.

NASA is about to collide a small high-speed spacecraft with an asteroid in an attempt to change the asteroid's orbit around its larger parent asteroid. The binary asteroid system is Didymos, the larger asteroid, and Dimorphos, the small, but still large asteroid that NASA has selected for its target. The space agency is attempting a world's first planetary defense technique and, if proven effective, will become a weapon in the Earth's arsenal to defend against dangerous asteroids.

In a new update on NASA's blog, Andy Rivkin, the DART investigation team co-lead at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, said that the measurements that were conducted by the DART team in early 2021 were proven correct, as new observations have confirmed that NASA doesn't need to perform any course changes as the spacecraft is already "right on target". Collision date is locked in for September 27.

Branding matters for businesses, and in particular, to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who revealed over the weekend that he "agonized" over his choices for both his businesses.

In response to a tweet asking, 'where have all the serifs gone?' Musk said it was maybe 'times for new roman', which was followed up by an individual commenting on Tesla's font, describing it as "pretty sweet". Musk replied to the comment and said that he "somewhat agonized" over the fonts for both Tesla and SpaceX, saying that he "loves fonts tbh". Musk said that there are some similarities between Tesla and SpaceX fonts, in particular, the decision to implement negative space.

Another of Musk's followers replied to the thread and complimented the 'X' in SpaceX, with sparked a reply from Musk, who wrote that the swoop of the X is "meant to represent the rocket's arc to orbit". BusinessInsider reports that the Tesla logo is meant to resemble a cross-section of an electric motor. In other Elon Musk news, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has warned that there is a bigger threat to humanity than global warming.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is making waves with its new observations as the observatory has recently discovered CO2 on an exoplanet.

NASA has taken to its blog and social channels to announce that Webb has captured the very first evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system. The space agency explains that Webb's observations of a gas giant planet named WASP-39 b, a planet orbiting a Sun-like star approximately 700 light years from Earth. NASA writes that this evidence gives researchers important insights into how planet formation and how Webb can be fine-tuned to detect CO2 in the atmosphere of other planets.

WASP-39 b is about one-quarter the size of Jupiter, with a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter. Additionally, the planet operates at a temperature of 1,600 Fahrenheit, with previous observations from other NASA telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer revealing the presence of water vapor, potassium, and sodium within WASP-39 b's atmosphere. Using Webb's high-tech infrared instruments, researchers have now confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide, paving the way for Webb's continuous effort to probe exoplanet atmospheres in search of their chemical composition.

Private space company Rocket Lab has revealed its plans to send a small spacecraft into Venus' atmosphere to analyze it for signs of life.

A new study published in the Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics details Rocket Lab's plan to send a Photon satellite deep within Venus's atmosphere to measure its atmospheric composition and geologic history. The results from the mission will give researchers a better idea of the history of Venus and the planet contains the necessary ingredients for life.

The private space company cites its recent success with its CAPSTONE launch and proposes using its reliable Electron launch vehicle to send a small spacecraft that's equipped with an autofluorescing nephelometer (AFN). This instrument is designed to shine a laser onto the many particles within Venus' atmosphere, and if the laser hits a molecule that fluoresces, it's likely organic. An example of this would be the amino acid tryptophan, which is known to have fluorescent properties. Rocket Lab's spacecraft is only small, measuring in at just 2.2 pounds.

Elon Musk has once again taken to his personal Twitter account to warn about a great threat to civilization that he believes isn't talked about enough.

Musk took to his Twitter account on Friday, August 26, to state that population collapse due to low birth rates is a bigger threat to humanity than global warming. This isn't the first time Musk has warned about declining birthrates, as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO shared data from The Wall Street Journal back in June that showcased birthrates across the US failing to hit "sustainable" levels for more than 50 years.

In the same post, Musk shared a video of him stating that population collapse will be the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years, with birthrates exponentially slowing down and the rate of death increasing. Musk emphasized his recent statement of declining birthrates being a bigger problem than global warming by writing, "mark these words", while also acknowledging that global warming is a significant issue that shouldn't be entirely ignored. "(And I do think global warming is a major risk)", wrote Musk.

A new study by researchers from the Stat University of New York has explored the exact components of what makes up tattoo ink and how it can impact the human body.

Dr. John Swierk, the chemist who led the study spoke to the Daily Mail and explained that typical tattoo ink is comprised of two things; one or more pigments, which is either a molecular compound or a solid substance that gives the color. The other aspect of tattoo ink is the carrier package, which help deliver the pigments into the skin. Carrier packages are typically alcohol-based fluids.

The researchers analyzed 56 different tattoo inks that are renowned as common, the study looked at the tattoo inks chemical composition and if they are correctly specified on the label of the product, how the pigments react when exposed to light, and how using them impacts skin. According to the study, several of the inks were found to have chemical compounds that weren't listed on the bottle, with 23 of them containing azo-compounds and one containing ethanol.