Latest News - Page 1235

AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su has made some fresh comments on the state of the market regarding next-gen console supply, even with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S consoles still nigh impossible to buy... or super-expensive from its limited supply.

In AMD's recent financial earnings call with investors, Dr. Su was asked an obvious question: about the current supply problems, and the seasonality of them. In reply, Dr. Su said that AMD is ramping up production of the semi-custom chips for the next-gen consoles throughout 2022, and she expects that it'll be yet another strong year for both Sony and Microsoft.

The AMD CEO said that it will be 2023 that will be the "peak year" for Microsoft and Sony's next-gen consoles, Dr. Lisa Su said: "Well, I think -- first of all, I think the console business, this console cycle and all when you look at it in totality, has been amazing. I mean if you think about the strength of the cycle, now we're sort of deep into the second year and the fact that the demand is so high. I mean we've been shipping a lot of product".

AMD's new Ryzen 9 6900HX processor offers 8 cores and 16 threads of CPU power based on the refreshed Zen 3+ architecture, printed out on TSMC's new 6nm process node. We're looking at max CPU clocks of up to 4.6GHz, 20MB of L3 cache, and support for DDR5-4800 memory.

As for the GPU side of things, AMD will be using the purported Radeon 680M graphics which is based on the Navi2 GPU. The new Ryzen 9 6900HX processor is based on the new codename "Rembrandt" APU series, and while we don't know how many Compute Units the Radeon 680M has, we do know that the Rembrandt APU will offer up to 12 units on its GPU.

We don't know if the new Ryzen 9 6900HX will support DDR4 memory, but DDR5-4800 is supported on the new high-end Zen 3+ processor. AMD will be battling Intel and its new Alder Lake-P mobile processors, where we'll hear everything we need to know about both new families of CPUs from AMD and Intel at CES 2022 next week.

AMD is reportedly gearing up to announce its new Radeon Super Resolution (RSR) technology at CES 2022, which would enable FSR 1.0 in nearly "all" games.

According to VideoCardz, RSR will be based on the FSR 1.0 algorithm and will work simply through the Radeon software drivers. This means that there won't be any need for proprietary super-resolution technology (like FSR, or DLSS) and now with RSR, wouldn't be required in the graphics pipeline.

There's another benefit here: no issues with the UI (user interface) in games, as they're usually rendered at the native resolution and can sometimes look a bit crappy with upscaling technology enabled. RSR won't require game developers to add support, as it'll work independently through the Radeon drivers.

If you're running a new PCIe 4.0-powered NVMe M.2 SSD and crank a few gigabytes per second through it constantly, you'll know that they get hot... real hot... and next-gen PCIe 5.0-based NVMe M.2 SSDs are only going to run even hotter.

This is where Chinese manufacturer, Josbo, steps in with the introduction of its new active cooler for PCIe NVMe M.2 SSDs. The SSD cooler has a thermal pad under its contact base, attaching to the NVMe M.2 SSD and the cooler, with a built-in aluminum heat sink that will absorb the heat from your ultra-fast NAND flash.

The best part is the blower-style Turbo fan that can push a huge 3000RPM, with a maximum air volume of 4.81 CFM, with a maximum noise of 27.3 dBA. Josbo has the SSD cooler in a black chassis, which looks really cool -- it won't stand out in your system, but it will at the same time -- all while looking after your super-fast SSD.

Missing from launch, iconic Halo game modes like Grifball, Multi-Team, and King of the Hill are returning to Halo Infinite.

Dataminers have uncovered new medals in Halo Infinite that confirm old-school modes are making a comeback. While Halo Infinite launched without a slayer playlist (that's since been remedied), it's still missing a bunch of gametypes like Grifball, King of the Hill, and the legendary Zombies. Apparently that's going to change, too.

The medals are succinctly named to match their respective gametypes; clash of kings is obviously tailored to King of the Hill, and Undead Hunter can really only mean one thing. Oh, and multi-team was also confirmed by dataminer HaloDotAPI who just today discovered two new teams: Valkyrie and Hades, which join the existing Eagle and Cobra teams.

343 Industries is selling Halo 5's microtransaction mascot in a $20 cosmetic bundle in Halo Infinite.

Halo Infinite's new weekly bundle is causing a stir within the community. Rather than stirring with anger, fans are now being shaken by laughter. It turns out the new monetized cosmetics are actually pretty funny to anyone who's played Halo 5.

The source for the irony-laden guffaws is how Mister Chief, the mascot for Halo 5's controversial (but extremely lucrative) lootbox system, is being sold in a cosmetic bundle worth 2000 Credits ($19.99). The Halo Infinite cosmetic bundle includes a Mister Chief AI who literally says "I'll make victory easier to obtain then a higher level requisition," a special AI skin, and various weapon trinkets and skins.

Path of Exile's big new 3.17 expansion has been delayed to February 2022, developer Grinding Gear Games has announced.

PoE's new v3.17 endgame update won't release in January as originally planned. The expansion has been delayed by "at least two weeks" and is now set to release in February 2022, the devs say. This also means the current Scourge League has been extended.

3.17 is anticipated by gamers and makes some big changes, including removing the Prophecy League and the full completing of the massive overhaul of the endgame Atlas system initiated in v3.16.

Reality star Paris Hilton will perform an electronic dance show within her own custom Roblox world, Paris World.

Paris World is coming back for a big New Year's Eve celebration, the star has told Reuters. Fans will soon be able to attend a special show in Paris Hilton's virtual Roblox world, where Hilton will DJ live music streamed over the internet. This show is a big step towards Roblox Corp's metaverse aspirations, which ideally sees users engaging (and spending) in special events from celebrities (like the Travis Scott Astronomical show in Fortnite).

Paris World was originally launched in October 2021 but was quickly made private after multiple hacks. Hilton's Roblox space includes in-game replicas of her lavish mansion and virtual representations of a celebrity lifestyle, including huge mansions, expensive clothing, beauty boutiques, and more.

Valve just released the top-earning Steam games of 2021 in both sales and in-game transactions. Here's a breakdown.

The new top-earning Steam 2021 figures give an idea of how certain games are performing on the PC's biggest sales marketplace. The games are separated into three tiers including platinum, gold, silver, and bronze, the latter of which includes the vast majority of games. A big thing to note is that this isn't a top-10 list that's organized by largest to smallest.

Everything has been randomized by Valve in an effort to protect actual Steam earnings data, which is not reported publicly. This is not a ranked list and just because GTA V is listed first doesn't mean it made the most. The list also includes full game sales and in-game purchases such as microtransactions and DLC. Still, though, we're able to glean a lot about traditional Steam staples and newcomers in 2021.

Final Fantasy XVI is the latest casualty of the COVID-19 delay season.

Square Enix and Yoshi-P's dev team have delayed Final Fantasy XVI's launch by half a year, or six months. Technically this isn't necessarily a delay considering the new high fantasy game never had an actual release date, but the team now says it will launch sometime in late 2022.

In a recent Twitter post, the ever-polite Yoshi-P outlined the main reasons for the interruptions. It's really the same as most developers: COVID-19 has scattered workers remotely across the globe, leading to a decentralized team. Different time zones makes collaboration with Square Enix's Tokyo office difficult and Yoshi-P says some assets have been delayed and even cancelled.

GameStop is getting into NFTs, and plans to open an dex (decentralized exchange) on the Ethereum blockchain. Now it's recruiting creators to help fill its digital store shelves.

In a bid to pivot into emerging million-dollar digital trends, GameStop is delving headlong into the new NFT blockchain craze. The company will launch an NFT marketplace in the hopes of making royalties and revenues on peer-to-peer art/content exchanges. There's just one problem: GameStop doesn't have anything to sell just yet.

Now the ailing retailer has opened up a submissions and sign-up page on its NFT marketplace page. GameStop wants to recruit NFT creators so it has something to peddle in its marketplace. The sign-up page is pretty straightforward and asks basic questions like "why do you want to make NFTs for our platform?" and requires links to previously-created content. It's a vetting process that could see only a handful of NFT creators getting the opportunity to sell their content on the new market.

The Matrix Resurrections is here and well... it's a mess. It has bombed at the box office, with Disney and Marvel destroying the new Matrix movie with Spider-Man: No Way Home flinging over $1 billion so far.

But man, I just stumbled upon The Critical Drinker on YouTube and his review of The Matrix Resurrections being so damn on-point. He pulls virtually all of the words -- including all of those glorious swear words in his bloody beautiful accent -- right out of my mouth. The Matrix Resurrections is a hot mess, and we're already hearing that The Matrix 5 will not be happening.

The movie doesn't offer anything fresh and truly is a huge step back for the franchise. There's nothing original, and it doesn't break any ground -- in fact, The Matrix Resurrections is that much of a step back in the franchise, it's like the movie took the blue pill to forget how f*cking good the original Matrix was -- it's just... unnecessary. But the review, my god it is absolutely perfect... I'm currently going through The Critical Drinker's videos now, just about to finish his also oh-so-true words on Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which I just finished and totally agree with his thoughts on, too.

Innosilicon has officially launched its new graphics cards based on its in-house Fantasy One GPU, with 4 new graphics cards based on the Fantasy One GPU launched -- including a multi-GPU design -- in collaboration with GPU designer Imagination Technologies.

We don't have any concrete performance numbers, which we shouldn't expect anything less from the Chinese manufacturer, with a demo posted on social media with a video that doesn't include an FPS counter, or much at all. The new Fantasy One GPU-powered Type-A graphics card -- yeah, that's the name of the card and not USB Type-A -- the Type-A graphics card.

Inside, a single Fantasy One GPU has up to 16GB of GDDR6X memory on a 128-bit memory interface with both 4GB and 8GB offerings. The 16GB of GDDR6X memory is clocked at 19Gbps with 304GB/sec of memory bandwidth -- while display connectivity will include DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and some old-school VGA.

NVIDIA is reportedly coughing up big money to TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) to ensure that it secures plenty of next-gen 5nm wafers for its upcoming Ada Lovelace GPUs that will power the next-gen GeForce RTX 40 series graphics cards.

But in new rumors from MyDrivers, NVIDIA is paying much more than usual to get 5nm wafer from TSMC with the company reportedly paying TSMC a large $1.64 billion in Q3 2021... but that increases to $1.79 billion in Q1 2022 as they ramp up to the Ada Lovelace GPU being made and printed onto next-gen GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs.

A larger long-term deal has also reportedly been struck, which would see NVIDIA coughing up $6.9 billion to TSMC in order to secure next-gen 5nm wafers for Ada Lovelace. We've heard before that NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs would be made by TSMC -- and not Samsung -- and its upcoming 5nm node.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has completed its second mid-course correction burn.

The burn lasted 9 minutes and 27 seconds and is the second of three course corrections that the telescope will undergo to take it to the second Lagrange point, L2. The first course correction, designated MCC-1a, began twelve and a half hours after launch, as the sooner the course correction occurs, the less propellant is required.

The second course correction, designated MCC-1b, was completed 60 hours after launch. The third course correction, designated MCC-2, will occur near the end of the JWST's journey toward the second Lagrange point, known as L2, about twenty-nine days after launching.

The tail of Comet Leonard is starting to break up.

In this picture taken by Gerald Rhemann on December 25th, you can see the tail of Comet Leonard experiencing a disconnection event. Partway down the tail from the comet itself, where it begins to swirl, the tail is being pinched off and separated away from the rest of the tail streaming off the comet.

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) can disrupt comet tails, sometimes disconnecting them completely, though Comet Leonard has not yet had a known CME impact. Solar winds streams can still produce a similar effect, two of which have hit the comet in recent weeks.

Two weeks after launch, NASA's Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft has returned its first images from space.

Components of the DART spacecraft's telescopic instrument are sensitive to movements as small as five-millionths of a meter. The violent vibrations experienced during launch and extreme reduction in temperature to minus 80 degrees Celsius (-112 degrees Fahrenheit) could easily cause severe disruptions to the instrument.

Now, after opening its circular door covering the DRACO (short for Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation) telescopic camera's aperture on December 7th, the DART spacecraft has returned the images it took to Earth. They were taken about two million miles from Earth, showing about a dozen stars in the otherwise empty backdrop of space.

China is unhappy with the United States over recent close encounters between SpaceX satellites and the Chinese space station.

China's space station, named Tiangong, had to make evasive maneuvers to avoid collisions with Starlink satellites owned by SpaceX on two separate occasions. According to a note submitted to the United Nations space agency by Beijing, the first occurred in July 2021, and the second in October 2021.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) may have launched, but there's still a lot of preparation to go before it is ready to fulfill its mission.

On December 28th, the first of two structures containing the JWST's sunshield was deployed. The Forward and Aft Unitized Pallet Structures are the two structures, which contain five folded sunshield membranes, cables, pulleys, and release mechanisms. The deployment of the forward pallet was completed at 1:21 p.m. EST (18:21 UTC), approximately four hours after it began.

The deployment required dozens of steps by the mission operations teams, with only one being the actual motor-driven movement to take the pallet from its stowed position to its deployed state. The event also marks the first time this structure has conducted this movement since its final deployment test at Northrop Grumman Space Park in Redondo Beach, California, in December 2020.

The AI-based Amazon Alexa smart speaker told the 10-year-old girl: "Plug in a phone charger about halfway into a wall outlet, then touch a penny to the exposed prongs". This was only after the girl asked Alexa for a "challenge to do", where the smart speaker discovered the "penny challenge" on the internet -- mostly through TikTok and other social networks.

The 10-year-old girl's mother, Kristin Livdahl, said: "We were doing some physical challenges, like laying down and rolling over holding a shoe on your foot, from a [physical education] teacher on YouTube earlier. Bad weather outside. She just wanted another one".

Just as her daughter heard the speaker tell her to do something that could've killed her, she jumped in and said "No, Alexa, no!"... I guess like it was a dog or something. But don't worry, the mother said her daughter was "too smart to do something like that". As for Amazon... well, I think Bezos turns a blind eye to most of this.