Latest News - Page 1288

Intel is days away from launching its next-gen Alder Lake family of CPUs as well as the next-gen Z690 chipset and a huge flow of Z690 motherboards, all rocking new DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 technologies.

But how much more expensive will DDR5 RAM be over DDR4 RAM? It's a question that we don't have solid answers for just yet, but now we have a pretty good source: MSI. In a new post by MSI on their website regarding DDR5 RAM, MSI's Sara Lin explains that DDR5 RAM is expected to cost 50-60% more than DDR4.

Lin explains on the MSI website: "Historically, newer memory technology has always commanded close to a 30-40% premium over the previous generation. However, this time, DDR5 includes additional components that have driven the costs up further. As a result, we expect a 50-60% price premium compared to DDR4 at launch".

Intel's new flagship Core i9-12900K processor isn't far away, with some users around the world already getting their hands-on it -- and not illegally, they actually purchased the CPU two weeks ahead of launch.

The new Intel Core i9-12900K processor was purchased not once, but twice -- with Reddit user Seby9123 has purchased a couple of the flagship Alder Lake CPUs ahead of the world. He purchased both of the new Intel Core i9-12900K processors for $610, but didn't say which retailer he purchased them from for obvious reasons.

We can see the beautiful retail packaging that Intel is using on its latest and greatest Core i9-12900K, with the flagship Alder Lake-S chip to be formally announced on October 27, with pre-orders and reviews going live on November 4, 2021. DDR5 arrives with Alder Lake and the new Z690 chipset, so too does next-gen PCIe 5.0 connectivity. Exciting times, people! Check out some more delicious early retail pictures of the new Core i9-12900K processor below.

Sony today announced a new State of Play stream for next week on Wednesday, October 28 at 2PM PST / 5PM EST.

The new PlayStation State of Play event won't be a huge first-party reveal spree (Sony has already announced its lineup with God of War Ragnarok, Gran Turismo 7, and Horizon Forbidden West).

Instead the stream will focus exclusively on third-party games coming to both PS4 and PS5 platforms. Sony says most of these games will be previously-announced titles but teases a "few reveals" from unnamed developers. The stream will also be relatively short at just 20 minutes.

CD Projekt RED has purchased The Molasses Flood, the indie studio behind The Flame in the Flood and Drake Hollow.

CDPR has acquired another studio to help diversify its release slate. This time it bought The Molasses Flood, an American studio known for heartfelt survival games.

The newly-acquired team will retain its autonomy and is working on a "completely new game in the universe of an existing CD Projekt IP," possibly a spin-off cross-platform experience in the Cyberpunk 2077 world (CDPR has made three Witcher spin-offs with Gwent, Thronebreaker and the Monster Slayer AR game, so the time is right for CP2077 expansion).

All three original 3D Grand Theft Auto games can hit 4K 60FPS on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.

Rockstar isn't cutting any corners with its new GTA trilogy remaster collection. The games can run at 4K 60FPS on next-gen consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and remasters also support NVIDIA DLSS on PC.

All the games look better than ever with crisp visual upgrades. Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City, and San Andreas have been re-tooled for both gen 8 and gen 9 console hardware with a completely overhauled lighting system, tons of new high-def textures, improved car and upgraded character models, and dynamic weather and physics effects thrown in.

The new GTA trilogy remaster completely revolutionizes the PS2 era games with significant graphics upgrades, making the games look better than they ever have before.

Rockstar just published in-game footage of the new GTA trilogy remaster. They knocked it out of the park. The remaster collection is very impressive and completely blows the original games out of the water (well...those character models are a bit goofy).

The devs have pretty much improved every single square inch of Vice City, San Andreas, and Liberty City. The cars have new models, the trees have more definition, water catches the light--everything is upgraded. Rockstar has baked into the game high-resolution textures, dynamic lighting and shadows, and higher-end physics and weather effects like fiery explosions to simultaneously add more realism and outrageous fourth-wall breaking chaos.

The new remastered version of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is coming to Xbox Game Pass day and date of release, Rockstar Games has confirmed.

The holiday period is going to be stacked for Xbox Game Pass subscribers because of two games alone: GTA San Andreas The Definitive Edition in November, and Halo: Infinite in December. A standalone version of Rockstar's new San Andreas remaster will be available to all Game Pass subscribers next month bringing visual enhancements and modern controls to arguably one of the best video games ever made.

"Players will also be able to experience Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - The Definitive Edition with Xbox Game Pass starting November 11,"Rockstar Games said on its website.

NASA has posted a new video to its YouTube channel that's a part of its "We Asked a NASA Scientist" series that aims at answering some of the public's most popular questions about space.

In this week's episode, NASA scientist and planetary defense expert Dr. Kelly Fast answers, "What if an asteroid were going to hit Earth?". Dr. Kelly explains that there are currently no known threats to Earth asteroid-wise, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't pay attention to asteroids as an asteroid impact is the "only natural disaster that can be prevented".

For this reason, NASA set up the Planetary Defense Coordination Office keeps which keeps a lookout for asteroids that pose any risk to Earth by calculating their trajectories and where they will end up in the future. Dr. Kelly says that if an asteroid is found to pose a danger to Earth, then a "deflection mission might be possible". Recently, a team of researchers proposed sending explosive rods to collide with an asteroid if one was calculated to impact Earth. If you want to know more about that story, check out this link here.

Researchers from Japan have seen a space rock collide with the solar system's largest planet - Jupiter. The moments of impact were photographed and caught on video.

The researchers from Kyoto University in Japan were using the PONCOTS observation system, which is part of the Organized Autotelescopes for Serendipitous Event Survey (OASES) to view the event. According to reports, the impact happened on October 15 at around 9:24 a.m EDT and from the still images and video a white object can be seen in front of Jupiter's surface before disappearing.

The researchers verified that what they were seeing wasn't an anomaly with the telescopes they were using by asking fellow astronomers who were also looking at Jupiter at the same time. Ko Arimatsu, assistant professor at Kyoto University's Astronomical Observatory spoke to Newsweek and said, "We received another isolated detection of the same flash event from a Japanese amateur astronomer. Since the timing and the position of their detection are consistent with our detection, we have confirmed that our detection is an actual impact flash event on Jupiter."

NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble Space Telescope bare-witnessed the first moments of a star's violent death.

In a new post on NASA's website, the space agency details that the Hubble Space Telescope has observed the first moments of the doomed star's violent ending. NASA states on its post that astronomers were given an unprecedented, comprehensive view of the violent death that will assist astronomers in creating a model that allows for accurate predictions of stars that are close to their end.

Ryan Foley of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and the leader of the team that made the discovery, said, "We used to talk about supernova work like we were crime scene investigators, where we would show up after the fact and try to figure out what happened to that star. This is a different situation, because we really know what's going on and we actually see the death in real-time."

A new study published in Ore Geology Reviews has detailed the first-time discovery of evidence of ancient life being trapped inside a ruby.

Geologist Chris Yakymchuk and his team were attempting to learn more about the mineral corundum, which is the crystalline form of aluminum oxide, by examining rubies located in one of the world's oldest corundum deposits in Greenland. The team was examining samples of rubies and found that in one particular gem, there were traces of graphite, which can be an indicator for life. Upon further examination, the team found that graphite contained carbon 12, an isotope that occurs in living organisms and throughout Earth.

According to Yakymchuk, "Living matter preferentially consists of the lighter carbon atoms because they take less energy to incorporate into cells. Based on the increased amount of carbon-12 in this graphite, we concluded that the carbon atoms were once ancient life, most likely dead microorganisms such as cyanobacteria." If you are interested in reading more about this story or would like a much more in-depth analysis of the discovery, check out this link here.

Videos have emerged of a volcano located in the United States spewing out bubbling lava in every direction it can.

The footage is of Hawaii's Kilauea volcano and was captured on October 12. The footage showcases the volcano spewing out lava from the west vent at the summit crater. According to the United States Geological Survey Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, the vent has a spatter cone around the opening that stretches some 100 feet high. This splatter cone is protecting the area around it from eruptions. However, some larger bursts of lava have exceeded the height of the cone, spilling out onto the area around it.

At the base of the splatter cone, a small opening can be seen. This opening is feeding the lava lake below it, and according to officials, as of October 8, it's estimated that the eruption has spilled out 4.2 billion gallons of eruption volume. As for sulfur dioxide emissions, it's estimated that the volcano is releasing 2,700 tonnes per day. As for the lava lake at the base of the summit, its level has increased by 148 feet since the eruption began on September 29. All lava is confined to the summit crater.

NASA has published a new image taken by the famous Hubble Space Telescope. This time around, Hubble has snapped a photo of a distant "starburst galaxy".

NASA and the European Space Agency's Hubble Space Telescope has been in operation for multiple decades now, and despite its age, the space telescope still manages to take phenomenal images of the universe. The above image is of a distant spiral galaxy named NGC 4666, located around 80 million light-years from Earth within the constellation Virgo. NASA explains that this galaxy is currently going through an "intense episode of star formation".

Additionally, the space agency explains in its post that astronomers refer to galaxies undergoing intense episodes of star formation as "starburst galaxies". The galaxy's "starburst formation" can be attributed to its gravitation interactions with its neighbors, "including the nearby galaxy NGC 4668 and a dwarf galaxy, which is a small galaxy made up of a few billion stars." If you are interested in learning more about this truly awesome spiral galaxy, check out this link here.

NASA has posted a new video to the "NASA Goddard" YouTube channel that details ten mysteries of Venus that NASA researchers are still trying to work out.

In the video, the narrator explains that the surface of Venus is completely inhospitable for life, with an atmosphere at around 90 times the pressure of Earth's and a surface temperature is over 900 degrees Fahrenheit - hot enough to melt lead. But it may not have always been like that, and the space agency plans on finding out if that's true with its Deep Atmosphere Venus Investigation of Noble gases, Chemistry, and Imaging (DAVINCI) mission that is set to explore our strange sister planet.

Other mysteries that surround Venus are that its size is very similar to that of Earth's, but it's clear both planets took a very different route when it came to their evolution into what we see today. NASA's DAVINCI probe and its Venus Emissivity, Radio Science, InSAR, Topography, and Spectroscopy (VERITAS) probe are expected to answer many of the mysteries outlined in the video, and with the results from the mission, researchers will understand the evolution of our sister planet, which will add to the ever-growing collection of knowledge about how planets form.

Officials are currently tracking a "monster" cyclone that is expected to bring heavy rainfall to certain areas across the United States.

Reports indicate that this "bomb cyclone" is expected to bring heavy rainfall and snow across the West Coast over the weekend. It's expected that this series of storms could bring as much as a foot of rainfall as well as up to three feet of snow in Sierra Nevada. Additionally, the storms have been supercharged by an atmospheric river pattern, which could lead to flash flooding and the spreading of debris from regions that have been subjected to wildfires.

According to Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at UC San Diego, "An atmospheric river marked as a category 4 or a 5 is capable of producing remarkable rainfall totals over three or more days, likely to exceed 10-15% of a typical year's precipitation in some locations." As for the categorization of a "bomb cyclone", the National Ocean Service explains that the name comes from meteorologists who observe a "midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars [atmospheric pressure] over 24 hours." Typically, a range in millibar change is around 10 to 15 in 24 hours.

Xbox head Phill Spencer has been reluctant to invest in VR hardware for the Xbox platform for years, and despite the growth in the market, he's still holding back from jumping into the mix.

Microsoft has VR headset technology, and the Xbox Series X has the horsepower to drive a VR device, but Spencer just doesn't see value for the Xbox brand right now.

Spencer sat down this week for a chat with the Wall Street Journal, during which he outlined his thoughts on the subject. Shoutout to Video Games Chronicle for the transcription.

Not even two weeks ago, Oculus released the last ever Rift-exclusive title. But you may not have even realized it because the marketing campaign was almost non-existent. Contrast Lone Echo 2's launch with today's Resident Evil 4 VR release, and the difference may shock you. It's absolutely obvious where Facebook wants you to focus.

Resident Evil 4 VR just landed on the Oculus Quest, and Oculus sure wants you to know that. The company has been playing around with social media drops and easter eggs for this game for a few weeks now. The Oculus Twitter page is plastered with RE4 content, and if you go to Oculus.com, you'll find a video of RE4 in action right on the front page.

The marketing behind Resident Evil 4 VR is really quite brilliant. Oculus put together an amazing website demonstrating what the game is like and what's possible with modern web design. I would recommend you check it out, even if you don't care about VR. It's just a really cool website experience.

Oculus just released the unlocked OS for the Oculus Go, the company's deprecated 3-DoF standalone VR headset, which will allow anyone who owns one to do anything they want with it. This should keep the Go out of landfills for a while.

Oculus dropped support for the Go nearly a year ago. The last official Go releases landed on the store in early December 2020. Since then, the Go has largely been a dead platform. The only problem with that is there is a lot of life left in these devices, and there's a good number of them out there.

Last month, John Carmack revealed that Facebook had given the go-ahead to open the platform up for people to use how they want now that it's no longer officially supported by the company. Today, Oculus made good on that promise and released the final OS build for the Go, which, as promised, is unlocked.

HP today announced an updated model of its Reverb G2 VR headset. The new device isn't a complete refresh but a revision of the first version with a handful of improvements that address some common complaints and concerns.

HP said the new version of the Reverb G2 would offer better controller tracking thanks to a 30% increase in vertical tracking volume. HP said this should reduce the blind spots above and below the visor that the original G2 suffered.

The updated headset also includes an improved face gasket and a redesigned data cable. The new face gasket includes a spacer, like you get with the Oculus Quest headsets, allowing better eye relief for people wearing glasses.

Corsair will be rubbing its hands with glee at the amount of new products it will be unleashing in the coming months and years ready for Intel's new 12th Gen Core "Alder Lake" CPUs.

The company has just introduced its new PRO generation of performance custom cooling CPU water blocks in its Hydro X Series, with the introduction of the new XC5 RGB PRO and XC7 RGB PRO. These new CPU water blocks are ready for the new Intel LGA 1700 socket, and have 110 high-efficiency micro-cooling fings with an innovative quad-split flow design.

Corsair is using new precision-matched copper cold plates and a quad-split flow design with multiple inlet channels, which allow the new Hydro X Series XC5 RGB PRO and XC7 RGB PRO reach new levels of cooling performance. Corsair says the new CPU water blocks are up to 4C lower than the previous-gen water block.