Latest News - Page 1337

Astronomers have managed to capture some of the highest detailed images of galaxies, which could allow researchers to develop a deeper understanding of how galaxies work.

The team of astronomers used more than 70,000 small antennae across nine European counties to drastically increase the resolution of the images. Additionally, over six years the team created a completely new way of collecting the signals from each of the antennas, interpreting the data, and then combining it together to eventually form the image.

Dr Leah Morabito from Durham University, the UK, who spearheaded the achievement, spoke to BBC and said, "To work on the data for so long, and then to finally get such images and be able be the first person to see what it looks like is just incredible. I walked around with a huge smile on my face for the rest of the day, because I felt so proud that I was able to make these images and be able to see something nobody had ever seen before".

MSI has teamed with EK on the new EK-Quantum MSI MPG X570S CARBON EK X motherboard, which not only rocks AMD's new X570S chipset -- but a pre-installed monoblock made by EK. Check it out:

The new EK-Quantum MSI MPG X570S CARBON EK X rocks a beautiful pre-installed monoblock, cooling any Ryzen CPU right up to the flagship Ryzen 9 5950X processor, as well as the VRM section of the motherboard. Important for when you want to crank up the overclocking on your Ryzen CPU.

The cooler solution on the motherboard has been tailor-made for EK-Quantum MSI MPG X570S CARBON only, with an included EK-Leak Tester that sells for $40, is included with the motherboard. The base of the monoblock is made from nickel-plated electrolytic copper -- meanwhile, the top is made from quality CNC-machined cast acrylic glass material, and partially covered by a carbon fiber style pattern. It looks so nice.

PNY has just announced its new Performance DDR5 range of RAM, starting at DDR5-4800 and it'll drop in Q4 2021 for next-gen platforms.

The new PNY Performance DDR5 RAM will be available in 16GB modules, so expect 32GB and 64GB kits at the very least. The company will have its DDR5 RAM running at 1.1v and will have one-die ECC support, too. DDR5 has on-module conversion, which reduces voltage wear and less noise is generated -- compared to DDR5 which has the motherboard handling voltage conversion.

Intel's next-gen Alder Lake CPUs will be launching later this year, where Intel will be the first with DDR5 support on its motherboards. AMD will have DDR5 memory support in 2022 and beyond, with the launch of its next-gen Zen 4-based Ryzen 6000 series CPUs.

Intel's next-gen Raptor Lake-S processors will be coming in late-2022, and now we have some more juicy rumors to feed you in the form of the flagship Core i9-13900K processor.

The flagship Core i9-13900K processor will have 24 threads with a configuration of 8 cores + 16 cores, for a total of 32 threads of CPU power. Intel will be tapping the same hybrid architecture that will ship inside of the next-gen Alder Lake-S processors that will drop in a couple of months' time, but Raptor Lake will have an updated high-performance core codenamed Raptor Cove.

Alder Lake will ship with new high-performance "Golden Cove" cores and high-efficiency "Gracemont" cores, while the next-next-gen Raptor Lake CPUs will have new high-performance core codenamed Raptor Cove. Not to be confused with Raptor Lake, which is the codename of the family of CPUs -- but the tweaked high-performance core "Raptor Cove" will be the big difference between this year's Alder Lake and next year's Raptor Lake chips.

A very juicy rumor has just hit, and it makes a hell of a lot of sense -- AMD will refresh its RDNA 2-based Navi 2X GPUs for 6nm node for its next-gen mid-range Radeon RX 7600 and Radeon RX 7500 range graphics cards.

The rumor is coming from @Greymon55 on Twitter, which said that the new Navi 31 and Navi 33 GPUs will be based on the new RDNA 3 architecture -- expect these GPUs inside of the Radeon RX 7800 and Radeon RX 7900 series graphics cards.

Meanwhile, the Navi 24, Navi 23, and Navi 22 should be refreshed on the 6nm node and will be released with new names -- Radeon RX 7000 series parts. Navi 31 should power the new Radeon RX 7900 XT with its MCM/MCD (multi-chip module, or multi-chip design) while Navi 33 is a monolithic GPU design that should power the Radeon RX 7800 series GPUs.

You might have heard about the GIGABYTE hack and leak of secret documents... well, it looks like we're getting some information from that hack in the form of AMD's next-gen EPYC "Genoa" CPUs.

The next-gen EPYC "Genoa" CPUs will be based on AMD's next-gen Zen 4 microarchitecture, with new details on the AMD SP5 and AM5 platforms -- the first that support the Zen 4 architecture for servers, and consumers respectively.

The documents in question are dated July 2021, so they're still new -- and talk about motherboard thermal and power compatibility guidelines. Not only that but there's also information on the Zen 4-based EPYC processors as well, right down to the layout of the compute tiles.

Intel has now formally introduced its new ARC series graphics cards -- at least by naming scheme only, with a nice marketing trick teasing the ARC GPU with 1000 drones all synched together. Check it out:

The design of the new Intel ARC series graphics cards were teased by drones, and looks virtually identical to the leaked photos that Tom from Moore's Law is Dead shared months ago, back in April 2021. It appears he was right, again. The upcoming Intel ARC series GPU had 9 blades in the leak... and 9 blades shown by the drones as well.

Intel's upcoming ARC "Alchemist" will be based on the Intel DG2 GPU family, powered by the Xe-HPG microarchitecture. We should expect Intel's flagship ARC graphics card to feature 512 Execution Units, and 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

CD Projekt RED finally details Cyberpunk 2077's first salvo of post-launch DLC, which includes three smaller content packs.

Cyberpunk 2077's first DLC content isn't a major expansion, but a handful of free content similar to The Witcher 3's various armors, hairstyles, and cosmetics. The new free DLC was released as part of the game's huge new v1.3 update, which fixes major bugs like the save corruption glitch on consoles.

Cyberpunk 2077's free DLC currently includes:

Embracer Group may have teased the rumored Knights of the Old Republic remake once again.

KOTOR is apparently coming back. Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says Apsyr Media is making a new KOTOR remake for modern consoles and PC. Aspyr has been steadily going through the older Star Wars games backlog and has developed remasters of classics like Episode I - Racer, Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy, Jedi Outcast, and Republic Commando for modern platforms.

Now parent company Embracer Group teases Aspyr's big project: "With the inclusion of Apsyr, they have a number of projects...but they have one significant project that has a sizable investment that's internal," Embracer Group CEO Lars Wingefors said in a recent earnings call report.

Gearbox is spending big money on its future, Embracer says this year won't reflect these major investments.

Embracer's subsidiaries are growing fast. Like Saber Interactive, who just acquired three new studios, Gearbox is making power plays to secure long-term growth. Embracer is prepared to pay out up to $1.3 billion for the Gearbox acquisition and the Borderlands devs are using those funds to establish a brighter future.

"I think Gearbox in general will have a stable year, but this is a starting point for them," Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors said in a recent earnings call presentation.

Epic Games is under fire for allegedly copying Among Us in Fortnite's new Impostors mode, and gamers are accusing the billion-dollar dev from ripping off Innersloth.

Fortnite now has a very sus new Imposters gametype that looks very, very familiar. Impostors has a very The Thing-style socially conspiratorial elimination system just like Among Us. Just read this excerpt straight from the Fortnite website:

Biomutant's strong sales have helped Embracer Group hit a new all-time Q1 high of 3.4 billion SEK ($391 million) and the game was profitable within a week after its launch.

Experiment 101's Biomutant is a big success. The game has sold over 1 million units since launch and managed to break even in less than a month after it's release. Biomutant also helped parent branch THQ Nordic to rake in a strong 180.9 million SEK (+37% year-over-year)

Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors says that this is just the beginning for the game, and the company expects Biomutant to continue long-term sales over time. He also teases a possible Switch and PS5/Series X release. "We're confident that Biomutant will make future revenues and strong sales in the future, and potentially across other platforms"

Saber Interactive, one of Embracer's biggest subsidiaries, is growing so fast that its management jokingly says they have lost count of its projects.

Saber Interactive has a ton of projects in development. After making three new acquisitions today alone with Fractured Byte (Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1+2 on Switch), mobile expert Demiurge (made up of key Mass Effect, Borderlands devs), and Smartphone Labs (QA testing), the publisher's dev count now exceeds 1,500 contractors and internal workers. Saber also owns 3D Realms and Metro developers 4A Games.

This massive arsenal of developers also comes with an equally massive salvo of games. Saber has a ton of titles in the pipeline right now, but Embracer CEO Lars Wingefors clarifies that most of these games won't release for a while.

Outriders developer People Can Fly tells investors that it hasn't received royalties for game sales, which indicates the game hasn't become profitable yet.

After going public with an IPO, People Can Fly is trying to maintain transparency with investors. This includes regular updates on earnings and game sales. The company just put out a recent post alleging that Outriders, the latest shooter from People Can Fly, hasn't broken even yet because they haven't received any royalty payments.

People Can Fly's contract with Square Enix stipulates that the developer will receive royalty payments 45 days after the game has recouped all costs, including distribution, production, and advertising. The studio speculates that the absence of a royalty payment simply means Outriders hasn't become profitable during Square Enix's Q1 period.

Cyberpunk 2077's release was so controversial that CD Projekt RED is facing a securities fraud lawsuit over it.

Gamers still widely pan the sci-fi FPS. But not everyone is negative. CD Projekt devs step in to thank fans for their positivity, which helps keep morale and motivations high. The truth is that CDPR devs were disappointed by the game too and that's why they've made a long-term commitment to fix it, which continues with the big new v1.3 update patch.

"This is sincere. This is from the heart. I know a lot of people were disappointed with this game. I really do. A lot of us were disappointed with this game, and I really appreciate those of you who have stuck with us, who believe in this project, believe in this game, believe in this world," Cyberpunk 2077 senior quest designer Patrick Mills said in a recent stream.

CD Projekt RED continues its patch spree for Cyberpunk 2077 by rolling out the third largest update yet.

Cyberpunk 2077's new v1.3 update makes some big fixes and shores up a bunch of glitches across all platforms. Some of the more dramatic changes are the inclusion of a respec option right into the perk tree, an improved mini-map for driving, and the slaying of a pesky save corruption bug on consoles. That last one is pretty big and affected a number of saves across PC and consoles.

Based on the patch notes you'll definitely want to download this update as soon as possible. CDPR has made a multitude of tweaks and adjustments to a lot of quests and is slowly but surely shaping Cyberpunk 2077 into a more competent sci-fi experience.

Walmart is reportedly making a move towards adopting cryptocurrency, according to a new hiring position listing.

According to a job listing on Walmart Careers website, the company is looking for a "Digital Currency and Cryptocurrency Product Lead". The job description states that Walmart is looking for someone who will drive the digital currency strategy for Walmart, will be able to partner effectively with design leaders in other departments within the company, commit to a product roadmap, and "Identify Crypto-related investment and partnerships".

There are several qualifications for the position as well; "Bachelor's Degree, 10+ years of experience in product or program management, technology commercialization and/or technology, experience with the cryptocurrency ecosystem and related technologies, and experience in developing strategy and the execution roadmap."

In a new study, researchers have reported findings on a massive lair that contains bones from at least fourteen different kinds of animals and humans.

The cave is located in a volcanic field in Saudi Arabia called Harrat Khaybar. The cave is called Umm Jirsan, and according to researchers, it is more accurately referred to as a lava tube rather than a cave. According to zooarchaeologist Mathew Stewart from the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Germany, "This 1.5 km long lava tube is chock-a-block with hundreds of thousands of beautifully preserved animal remains".

What brought all of these bones here? Researchers believe that the cave was home to a pack of striped hyenas, as the remains of striped hyenas were also found in the cave. Additionally, the researchers explained that striped hyenas are avid collectors of bones, and it's not unusual to find a horde of bones in a hyena den. However, this lava tube discovery is different as the horde has been accumulated over the last 7,000 years.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope still manages to shock onlookers with its images of the cosmos 31 years after its launch.

This time around, the Hubble Space Telescope has been used to peer at a glorious spiral universe 68 million light-years away from Earth officially named NGC 1385. The spiral galaxy resides in the constellation Fornax, which is the Latin term for furnace. The constellation's name was coined by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, a French astronomer born in 1713, who was also responsible for the names of fourteen other constellations out of the total 88.

Researchers used Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to capture the image, which is one of the main cameras that is used on Hubble. Considering its age, Hubble's WFC3 can still produce absolutely incredible images of the cosmos, which really makes you think how mind-blowing the images will be of the coming James Webb Space Telescope that is slated to be Hubble's replacement. More on that coming telescope launch can be found here.

Unfortunately, NASA has said that due to delays, the space agency won't be able to land humans on the moon by 2024.

The news comes from an audit from NASA's Inspector General, who said that due to delays caused by the dispute with the lunar lander between Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, Elon Musk's SpaceX, and space suit development, the launch will now be delayed. The audit states, "These delays - attributable to funding shortfalls, COVID-19 impacts, and technical challenges - have left no schedule margin for delivery of the two flight-ready xEMUs. Given the integration requirements, the suits would not be ready for flight until April 2025 at the earliest".

In response to the news posted to CNBC's Space Reporter Michael Sheetz's Twitter account, Elon Musk said that he has a solution to the problem, stating that "SpaceX could do it if need be", referring to the spacesuit development. Additionally, Musk was asked if SpaceX would have Starship ready to land humans on the moon by 2024 (despite other delays), Musk said, "Probably sooner".