Latest News - Page 1297

We have been through all of this crypto mining gimp debacle with NVIDIA, which resulted in what we have now: Lite Hash Rate (LHR) cards with crypto mining gimps built in.

Well, Intel isn't playing that game -- the company has come out and said that its first Arc series GPUs will not be gimped for crypto mining. Intel's own Roger Chandler said that the company will not be gimping their Arc GPUs out of the box for crypto mining.

Handler explained: "As far as like software lockouts and things of that nature, we're not designing this product or building any features at this point that specifically target miners. As far as actions we're taking to avoid or lock them out, it's a product that will be in the market and people will be able to buy it. It's not a priority for us".

Samsung has just kicked off mass production of their new DDR5 memory, with speeds of up to DDR5-7200 and massive capacities of 768GB kits.

The new DDR5 RAM is made in-house on Samsung's own 14nm EUV process node, with this DDR5 memory aimed at HPC and AI servers for now. DDR4 offers 3.2Gbps speeds, while Samsung is kicking things off at 7.2Gbps with its DDR5 -- with Samsung being able to offer 512GB to 1TB capacities through to 768GB and 1.5TB capacities with DDR5, oh boy.

Jooyoung Lee, Senior Vice President and Head of DRAM Product & Technology at Samsung Electronics explains: "We have led the DRAM market for nearly three decades by pioneering key patterning technology innovations. Today, Samsung is setting another technology milestone with multi-layer EUV that has enabled extreme miniaturization at 14nm - a feat not possible with the conventional argon fluoride (ArF) process".

Coinbase is diving into the world of NFTs with some news out of nowhere that the crypto exchange giant would be opening an NFT marketplace.

The NFT market is gigantic and will only significantly grow in size with NFTs being a one-of-a-kind digital asset that represent ownership of online items including rare art, or collectible trading cards. There have been some bonkers huge NFT sales so far, with NFTs -- or non-fungible tokens -- as in they're not fungible, you can't exchange an NFT for another NFT, unlike crypto.

Coinbase's announcement of a new NFT marketplace is a gigantic deal, as Coinbase NFT -- its official name -- will include things like social features, and will work its way into the "creator economy". A creator economy is where people make money for posting content -- in whichever way, pictures, articles, videos.

Halo Master Chief Collection's new season 8 update drops tomorrow, bringing a bunch of new features...but one of them steals the show.

Custom games are some of the most fun I've ever had in Halo, and the new custom games browser has delivered tons of entertainment in Halo Reach. Now MCC is expanding on that with its new season 8 Mythic update. Both Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 3 custom games are coming with season 8's release, and not only that, but gamers can easily sort through which games they want to play.

The new custom games browser has a filter option that lets players select parameters like game, gametype, maps, and more. The idea here is to make it easier for you to find which games you want to play when you want to play them. Right now the custom games browser is finicky and awkward, often refreshing and displaying wrong playercounts and availability.

DICE will reveal BF2042's new mysterious Hazard Zone mode on Thursday, October 14 at 11AM EST.

It's finally happening. After months of waiting, DICE will formally reveal Battlefield 2042's new Hazard Zone mode this Thursday. While no gameplay has been shown so far, we do have quite a bit of info on Hazard Zone. According to DICE, the mode is a unique spin on the battle royale gametype complete with squad-based mechanics and high-stakes strategy.

In the August 2021 issue of Play magazine, DICE says that Hazard Zone will "move the battle royale concept on in a way only Battlefield can."

YouTuber RandomGaminginHD answers a simple question: How does Far Cry 6 run on integrated graphics? The answer might surprise you.

Today's modern games require serious high-end hardware for stellar performance. But what about the other end of the spectrum? How do today's demanding titles run on builds below minimum specs like, say, on iGPUs? Take Far Cry 6, for example. The game actually runs at 30FPS+ on an entry-level dual-core AMD Athlon 3000G APU with AMD FidelityFX FSR doing some serious heavy lifting.

According to YouTuber RandomGaminginHD, the Athlon 3000G with its integrated Vega 3 graphics can hit around 35FPS with resolution set to 1280x720 and all settings cranked down the their lowest levels. FSR performance mode is a must to achieve 30FPS+ but don't expect the visuals to look great--FSR takes a big chunk out of on-screen fidelity.

Hitman 3's wild success has driven IO Interactive's yearly earnings to an all-time new high.

IO Interactive's FY21 revenues skyrocketed by 136% thanks to Hitman 3's sales. The Danish independent games developer recorded 582.586 million DDK (nearly $78 million based on current exchange rates) in revenues for the fiscal year ending March 2021, coupled with 270 million DDK (roughly $42 million) in profits. This is a new all-time high for the small studio.

IO says this huge earnings spike was driven by Hitman 3's sales, and the report mentions the game earned 300% of its sales budget since release.

Samsung has announced its custom 980 PRO SSD built specifically to fit into the PlayStation 5's M.2 expansion port.

The new custom 980 PRO M.2 NVMe 1.3c SSD is designed to meet the PlayStation 5's size and speed requirements, featuring a built-in heat sink for proper heat dissipation and cooling under load. The 980 PRO's high-end V-NAND flash memory ensures enthusiast-level performance alongside Samsung's proprietary Elpis memory controller to deliver up to 7GB/sec read speeds and 5.1GB/sec write speeds over PCIe Gen4 x4.

The Samsung 980 PRO is a high-end drive that will ensure ultra-fast loading in PlayStation 5 optimized titles (as well as increased speeds in PS4 games) and speedy data transfers. The 980 PRO received a 98% rating at TweakTown, and was the hailed as best-performing flash-based consumer product as of September 2020.

Anyone that regularly reads TweakTown and my GPU content will know that I'm a big fan of DLSS, and while it wasn't perfect with DLSS 1.0, it sure as hell is a great addition to GeForce RTX graphics cards with DLSS 2.0 and its improvements after v2.0 hit.

But now, now we have NVIDIA and its Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) technology powering over 120 games and apps, with 10 more games coming in October 2021 alone. One of the big ones is Back 4 Blood, which has DLSS support and adds up to 46% more performance.

DLSS is also super-powering Baldur's Gate 3 that was just launched, with an astonishing 88% increase in performance at 4K which can see the mid-range GeForce RTX 3060 Ti pushing 4K 60FPS+ in Baldur's Gate 3 thanks to DLSS. On top of that, we have the Crysis Remastered Trilogy which launches on October 15, which will have NVIDIA DLSS and ray-traced reflections, as well as enhanced textures, models, lighting and environments that will ensure the PC versions of the games are the best.

The new Nintendo Switch OLED dock is capable of native 4K video output, but the console is powerful enough for 4K gaming just yet.

The new Nintendo Switch OLED dock comes with a special chip that enables native 4K 60Hz video signal output. The Realtek RTD2172N was found on the dock's circuit board, and it's a USB-C to HDMI 2.0 IC adapter capable of 4K 60Hz video signal output. The console's signature "switch" feature is enabled by such an adapter, which converts DisplayPort 1.4 video output from the USB-C port at the bottom of the Switch into HDMI video output that is displayed on a TV.

It is worth mentioning that this Realtek adapter has nothing to do with the new STM32F070 RBT6 chip recently discovered on the Switch OLED dock's board, which features a built-in ARM Cortex-0 CPU. The Realtek chip is what enables 4K output but there is no evidence of a built-in upscaling solution (that will be handled by the display and any other tech within the actual Switch itself).

A team of marine biologists has been left baffled at the discovery of a giant sea creature as they were exploring a sunken ship.

The team at OceanX was investigating the sunken ship called "Pella", which sadly sunk 2,300 feet to the ocean floor in November 2011. According to the video post to the OceanX YouTube channel, the team of researchers sent their remotely operated vehicle (ROV) down to the ship to investigate the wreckage, and when observing the bow of the ship, a creature "larger than a human" did its own investigation of the ROV.

OceanX science program lead Mattie Rodrigue said, "I will never forget what happened next for as long as I live. All of a sudden, as we're looking at the bow of the shipwreck, this massive mysterious creature comes into view, takes a look at the ROV, and curls its entire body around the bow of the wreck." The researchers go on to say that they are yet to identify what the creature is, but suspect it's a species squid, which species exactly has yet to be confirmed, but the team is consulting with experts.

Gravity is a phenomenon that humans will have to take into consideration before we decide to colonize a new world.

In layman's terms, gravity comes from the amount of mass an object has. More mass = a stronger gravitational field. An example of this would be comparing Earth's gravity to Mars, the Moon, or the Sun. Earth's standard gravity is 2.66 times that of Mars at 9.807 m/s squared. Mars is just 3.721 m/s squared. However, both of these figures are nothing compared to the Sun's gravity, that's about 27.9 times that of Earth at 274 m/s squared.

Measuring weight your weight on planets would yield different results as the mass of the planets would be different, and therefore, the gravity would be different. With all this now in mind, researchers have published a paper on the pre-print server arXiv that attempts to answer the question, "What is the maximum gravitational field humans can survive for long-term?" The researchers took into account factors such as extreme gravitational fields causing injuries to human bones.

Yesterday, officials warned that a blast from the Sun was heading directly to Earth, and now officials have updated the time of impact.

Originally, officials from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said that an M-class solar flare (second largest classification) caused a coronal magnetic ejection (CME) of charged particles to erupt from the surface of the Sun. The solar wind (charged particles) was found to be directly on course with Earth, and officials estimated that it would impact Earth on October 10.

However, a new update from NOAA states that the CME will arrive around 12 pm on October 11 with "lingering effects persisting into October 12." So, what does this mean for humans? Dr Sangeetha Abdu Jyothi, from the University of California, Irvine and VMware Research, explained, "A Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) involves the emission of electrically charged matter and accompanying magnetic field into space. When it hits the Earth, it interacts with the Earth's magnetic field and produces Geomagnetically Induced Currents (GIC) on the crust."

There are many asteroids out in space, and some of them contain high amounts of precious metals that are used here on Earth to make smartphones, batteries, and build large skyscrapers.

Human civilization doesn't quite yet have the technology to harvest the materials contained in these asteroids, but that hasn't stopped researchers from estimating their worth if it was possible. A recent study published in The Planetary Science Journal explores the possibility of harvesting the precious metal-rich asteroid named 1986 DA.

The researchers behind the study examined the asteroid and found that it's 85% metallic and possibly contains the following metals; iron, nickel, cobalt, copper, gold, and platinum. The researchers estimated that the mass of these metals contained in the 1986 DA would exceed the total metal reserves on Earth. Additionally, the researchers estimated the worth of the asteroid, taking into account market deflation that would occur if the materials were transported back to Earth and sold.

NASA has recently stated that the landing location for its newest Mars rover named Perseverance is the best location to discover signs of past life on the Red Planet.

Researchers analyzed images taken by Perseverance of the landscape of the Jezero Crater where it landed. Before Perseverance landed, researchers speculated that the crater was once home to a large body of water being fed by a river. Now, according to a recent paper, NASA researchers' suspicions were correct as some surrounding rock formations show clear evidence that water was present some 3.5 billion years ago when Mars' climate was much more forgiving.

Researchers behind the study compared the images of Martian rock formation to what we commonly see here on Earth, and the similarities were astounding. A river system that was feeding a lake, at one point, rapidly slowed, causing the suspended sediment to form a delta. With evidence of water being present in the past, researchers hope that the samples from the rock will show evidence of past life being present in the area.

There has been lots of volcano activity recently happening around the world, and now incredible images from space show an eruption taking place in the United States.

According to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), a volcano located in Hawaii's islands named Kīlauea is spewing out rivers of lava from two vents, one in the western wall of Halema'uma'u crater and the other along the floor. The USGS has stated that all lava activity has been "confined within Halema'uma'u crater" that's in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. As for seismicity and volcanic gas emissions, the USGS has said the rates "remain elevated".

The volcano has been erupting since September 29, and researchers are currently monitoring the volcano for "high levels of volcanic gas". Additionally, Maxar Technologies has taken this volcanic eruption as an opportunity to use its WorldView-3 and WorldView-2 satellites to capture stunning images of the event. The images can be found above and below. If you are interested in reading more about this eruption, check out this link here.

Late last month, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk replaced Jeff Bezos as the world's richest individual and said he was going to send Bezos a silver medal.

When Musk was declared the world's richest individual by Forbes, he said in an email to the publication that he would send Bezos a "giant statue of the digit '2' to Jeffrey B., along with a silver medal", and now Musk has followed through on one of those. Bezos recently took to Twitter with a motivation post that details the success of Amazon despite what others were saying at the time.

Bezos goes on to say that today Amazon is one of the world's most successful companies and has "revolutionized two entirely different industries". In response to the post, Musk replied with a silver medal second place emoji, and nothing else. Since the events of Blue Origin suing NASA, which delayed the construction of SpaceX's vehicle that is scheduled to take astronauts back to the Moon, Musk has been taking shots at Bezos, with Musk even saying, "you can't sue your way to orbit". More on that story here.

GPU prices are pretty crazy right now and I'm sure you know all about it, but they've hit 6-month highs according to the latest pricing data.

The folks over at 3DCenter have compiled some considerable pricing and availability on AMD Radeon and NVIDIA GeForce graphics cards in Europe, with prices up big time. NVIDIA GeForce GPU pricing is up 70% while AMD Radeon GPU pricing is up over 74% MSRP.

GPU prices have been steadily coming down in Europe and other parts of the world since May 2021, but this is pushing into an upward trend right now and sees GPU pricing at a 6-month high. GPU supply is also looking healthier this month than it was in September, which is nice to see.

It might be hard to buy a new GPU right now, but for the most part the PC industry hasn't been too affected by the pandemic... but it appears the industry is slowing down a little, just a little.

According to a new IDC report, there were over 86 million PCs shipped in Q3 2021. Now in these numbers they're including desktops, notebooks, and workstation machines with that 86.7 million PCs shipped being a 3.9% increase of 2020, with it being the 6th consecutive quarter that the PC has continued to grow.

But in the US, American PC users and gamers are getting hurt by shortages with Neha Mahajan, an IDC senior research analyst explaining: "Bottlenecked supply chains and ongoing logistic challenges led the U.S. PC market into its first quarter of annual shipment decline since the beginning of the pandemic".

We've been enjoying some leaked Intel 12th Gen "Alder Lake" CPUs but more so the higher-end flagship Core i9-12900K and Core i7-12700K processors... but now it's time for some mid-range Core i5-12400 performance teases.

Intel's new Core i5-12400 processor has 6 cores and 12 threads, but just the high-performance Golden Cove cores and none of the efficiency cores from the Gracemont architecture. There's CPU clocks of up to 4.0GHz on all cores and up to 4.4GHz single-core speeds, with 18MB of L3 cache (3MB per core).

The new mid-range Alder Lake CPU was tested in QS form, on a mid-range B660 motherboard that packs DDR4 memory and not DDR5 memory. We should see more performance between Intel's new Alder Lake-powered Core i5-12400 processor when it's mixed with DDR5 RAM, which will be interesting to see in the coming weeks and months as Alder Lake drops onto the market.