Latest News - Page 1343

At the end of April, NASA released a high-resolution video of its Ingenuity helicopter taking flight off the martian surface.

The video was captured by NASA's Perseverance rover that is currently stationed in the Jezero Crater. Perseverance is searching for ancient signs of life on Mars, and Ingenuity is being used as a scout to map efficient pathways for Perseverance and locate landmarks in the area. As NASA states in the description of the video, the first flight Ingenuity ever took on April 19, 2021, marking a milestone in human space exploration.

Since April, Ingenuity has taken more flights and has blown past the NASA engineers' expectations. If you are wondering the total distance Ingenuity has flown since it first took flight at the end of April, the calculations have already been done for you - here. In other space news, Elon Musk's SpaceX has recently taken the crown for having created the tallest rocket ever, and Perseverance has begun collecting its first samples.

Astronomers have used NASA's exoplanet-hunting satellite to detect an unprecedented collection of pulsating red giant stars.

Astronomers from the University of Hawaii's Institute for Astronomy have used observations from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) to detect what is called stellar oscillations or material from inside stars. NASA designed TESS to primarily hunt for exoplanets out in the cosmos, but due to the nature of TESS's sensitive instruments that detect and measure stellar brightness, researchers can also use the satellite to discover stars.

Not only can astronomers find new stars, but they can also measure their mass and size with high precision. Marc Hon, a NASA Hubble Fellow at IfA, said, "Our initial result, using only a month of stellar measurements from TESS's first two years, shows that we can determine the masses and sizes of these oscillating giants with high precision that will only improve as TESS goes on. What's really unparalleled is that TESS's broad coverage allows us to make these measurements uniformly across almost the entire sky."

So, why was everyone on Earth stretched and compressed by an event that happened in space on January 5, 2020? An astrophysicist has answered that question.

Kirsten Banks, an Australian astrophysicist that graduated from the University of New South Wales, has replied to this question on her TikTok account, where she posts lots of digestible astronomy and space-related content. Banks explains that on January 5, 2020, gravitational waves traveled through the entire Earth and that these gravitational waves were caused by a black hole engulfing a neutron star. Video here.

Banks continues and says that these gravitational waves affect all of spacetime, and when the gravitational waves passed through Earth, for a fraction of a second, all human bodies were stretched and compressed by 1/10,000th of the size of a proton, or about 30% of the size of human sperm (if the cosmic event happened one-light year away from Earth). Additionally, Banks explains that this isn't the first time researchers have detected these gravitational waves, as the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) has "detected more than 50 gravitational waves since the first detection in 2015."

AMD's new Ryzen 3 5300G processor isn't the one you'd think of when it comes to gaming your days and nights away on, but for an overclocker... well, holy sh*t -- the APU has just been OC'd all the way up to an insane record-breaking 5.5GHz.

The Ryzen 3 5300G is a quad-core APU that you can buy for around $110-$130 in the US, with a Vega-based integrated GPU for gamers that don't have deeper pockets for a higher-end CPU and GPU combination. Well, during an overclocking marathon by Safedick, who used an ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme motherboard and 16 GB of G.Skill Ripjaws V DDR4-2066 (CL14-14-14-28-1T) memory.

With that combo, the AMD Ryzen 3 5300G processor was cranked up to 5.5GHz under LN2 cooling, so don't be thinking you'd be pushing that OC under a normal air cooler or AIO liquid cooler.

Intel's next-gen NUC is going to be an even bigger pocket rocket of portable PC performance, with the next-gen Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast teased with some damn good technology inside.

The new NUC 11 Enthusiast would be offered in multiple configurations, starting with an Intel Core i5 + 8GB GPU, Core i5 + 12GB GPU, and Core i7 + 16GB GPU. The GPUs in question are based on the Intel Xe-HPG DG2 family of discrete graphics cards, which are Intel's upcoming graphics cards for gamers.

Intel's current flock of NUC 11 Extreme PCs rock Tiger Lake CPUs and have the size inside for a full-sized graphics card, but the new Intel NUC 12 Extreme... well now, the Xe-HPG GPU with varying VRAM amounts and DisplayPort 2.0 which is capable of 4K 240Hz, 8K 120Hz, and 16K 60Hz? Hell yeah.

Oh, PowerColor... I don't think you could do worse than this -- but hey, I guess you can.

PowerColor has been shipping out its Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics cards with the bloody adhesive covers still on... yeah, blocking the covers on the cooling of your GPU is such a great thing. The blue covers you see in the picture above were shown in a post on Reddit, which should embarrass PowerColor -- or someone on the production line that made this card and maybe, just maybe, it's a once-off.

PowerColor staff posted on Reddit in shock, with "PowerColorSteven" replying with "bro what. where did you buy this from". This could've been a simple mistake in the factory, where it was just some oversight on a single PowerColor Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card... or maybe something worse. I'm sure it's not worse, but who knows.

Valve's new Steam Deck might only be capable of pumping away at 30FPS but the custom RDNA 2 chip inside is 60% faster than the RDNA 2 chip inside of Aya Neo's Vega -- another handheld PC gaming device.

Steam Deck packs an AMD Van Gogh APU based on the Zen 2 architecture, with 4 cores and 8 threads clocked at up to 3.5GHz -- and is the first AMD APU packing integrated RDNA 2 graphics. Valve has said that there are 8 Compute Units (CUs) that have the RDNA 2 chip clocked at up to 1.6GHz.

This is all you need for 1280 x 800 @ 30FPS... and then add in that the RDNA 2 architecture offers FSR (FidelityFX Super Resolution) and you have a pretty exciting product in your hands -- literally. Given that you can play most games through Steam on the Valve Deck, this is going to be quite the seller in 2022.

AMD has already announced its new mid-range Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card, which will cost "$379" and launches on August 11 -- but MSI's new Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING X is now on Newegg for $1100. Nice one.

MSI's new Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING X costing $1100 is absolutely insane, but it isn't insane in this New World of insane graphics card prices. It shouldn't be like this, but hey -- nothing we can do right now. The overpriced Radeon RX 6600 XT GAMING X card from MSI is being sold by a third-party seller in China -- ahead of the August 11 NDA.

But the thing is... how is Newegg allowing an unreleased graphics card to not only be listed but for sale on their website is beyond me. This card in particular is MSI's flagship Radeon RX 6600 XT in its GAMING X form, but $1100... yeah, I don't know about that. It's a 1080p graphics card, and $1100 is a tough pill to swallow.

The latest version of TechPowerUp GPU-Z is here, with GPU-Z 2.41.0 including support for AMD's just-about-to-be-released Radeon RX 6600 XT graphics card.

GPU-Z 2.41.0 not only supports the new Radeon RX 6600 XT, but we have full support for NVIDIA's crypto-mining CMP HX series cards, RTX Ampere workstation cards, and NVIDIA's recently launched GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU.

AMD's new Radeon PRO W6800 and W6600 workstation cards are also supported by GPU-Z 2.41.0, which also recognizes Windows 11 and will now verify if the graphics card driver is up to scratch when it comes to the WDDM 3.0 standard. Navi GPUs will also now show GPU clocks in the Advanced tab of GPU-Z 2.41.0, with previous versions not showing the Navi GPU clock and just showing 0MHz.

The world's first DisplayPort 2.0 product has just launched, after what feels like years and years of teasing the next-generation DisplayPort standard. DisplayPort 2.0 is nearly here, folks and with it, it brings some really freaking awesome friends.

Parade Technologies has just launched its new DisplayPort 2.0 to HDMI 2.1 protocol converters, with the nerdier name of PS195 and PS196, and will be baked into computer system motherboards, docking stations, and protocol converter dongle applications.

The new PS195 and PS196 are totally compliant with VESA DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 specifications, meaning it'll handle next-gen GPUs that feature DisplayPort 2.0 ports -- think current flocks of graphics cards with 3 x DP 1.4 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 -- the future would have 3 x DP 2.0 and 1 x HDMI 2.1 with the 3 x DP 2.0 ports capable of being converted to HDMI 2.1 with Parade Technologies' new PS195 and PS196 chips.

Xiaomi is about to unveil its first next-gen OLED gaming TV in just a few hours' time, with the company confirming its new August 10 event.

During the event on August 10, Chinese giant Xiaomi will unveil their new Mi OLED gaming TVs that will include NVIDIA G-SYNC modules. The news was confirmed on Chinese social media platform Weibo, but we don't know how big the TVs will be, which resolution, refresh rate, or anything else.

I would be very disappointed if we had anything less than 4K 120Hz given it's an OLED gaming monitor, and HDMI 2.1 is a given if it's an OLED TV. This means we'll get the usual HDMI 2.1 technologies, but it would be nice to have some lower-res OLED gaming TVs.

EA has earned over $28 billion from digital revenues in the last 10 years as online earnings eclipse physical sales.

EA's digital empire has grown tremendously in the last 10 years with the expansion of live services and less reliance on physical game sales. Digital revenues, which include live services, subscriptions, and game sales made from online distribution channels, have grown 427% over the ten-year period: EA's FY11 digital revenues were $833 million and made up 22% of yearly net revenues, and by FY21, digital sat at a whopping $4.394 billion and made up 78% of earnings.

This represents a digital net revenues CAGR of 16%. EA's Ultimate Team model is a significant driver of yearly digital revenues, and has made the company over $7.9 billion in the last 8-year period from FY14 to FY21.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone are making a new South Park video game as part of a new huge $900 million deal with ViacomCBS.

Viacom CBS just signed a $900 million deal for 14 new South Park direct-to-streaming films and multiple new seasons. The show has been secured for up to season 30 on Viacom's Paramount+ subscription service, and a new video game is currently in the works as well.

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker tell Bloomberg that a new South Park game is part of this agreement. Not much is known about the game other than it's a 3D-based experience and will be developed by the duo's internal studio.

Saber Interactive has delayed the new Evil Dead game until February 2022, but they're adding new features to make it worth the wait.

The new Evil Dead video game looks pretty ambitious. It's a lot like the Friday the 13th multiplayer game except with greater emphasis on PVE survival, and features characters, demons and locales from the entire Evil Dead franchise--as well as the Starz TV show. Add in the development team and online infrastructure of World War Z and the new Evil Dead game is ready for online chaos.

There's just one issue: The game has been delayed a bit to ensure higher quality. Evil Dead is also getting a groovy singleplayer mode so you can still actually play if your friends aren't online.

Ultimate Team is a big part of EA's yearly earnings, and the randomized card packs made the publisher over $1.6 billion in FY21 alone.

EA's Ultimate Team is one of the most powerful monetization forces in the games industry. The business model, which is delivered as part of annualized heavy-hitters like FIFA and Madden, currently represents a significant portion of the publisher's total yearly revenues.

Ultimate Team earnings have grown tremendously over the last decade. Over the last 8 years alone, UT revenues have jumped by over 400% from $318 million in FY14 to a whopping $1.632 billion in FY21. To put this another way, Ultimate Team made up 8.9% of EA's total net revenues in the FY2014 period, and by FY2021, UT made up 29% of net revenues.

Blizzard is still working on a ton of new games, including mobile ports, new IP, and sequels like Diablo IV and Overwatch 2. Some of them are planned to release in 2022.

Back in 2017, then-Blizzard president Mike Morhaime said the team's pipeline was bigger than ever. Now in Activision's Q2 2021 earnings report, key Blizzard executives reiterated that point. Blizzard is working on a number of new projects including fresh IP across new genres.

In Q2 Blizzard's operating margins were 33%, which reflects "investments in the product development against a rich content pipeline". Activision COO Daniel Alegre confirms some of these products will be delivered in 2022:

Activision-Blizzard is making a new Call of Duty mobile game that will "take the franchise to new heights."

Call of Duty Mobile has been a huge boon for Activision. The free-to-play mobile game made $500 million in less than a year, and helped the Call of Duty franchise reach $3 billion in earnings in 2020. COD Mobile is track to rake in over $1 billion in microtransaction spending in 2021. The company isn't satisfied, though. It wants more from the mobile market, and that's why Activision is making another separate Call of Duty mobile game.

"We have established a new internal mobile studio and are aggressively adding mobile resources across several teams, including Beenox and Activision Shanghai. Together, these teams are leading the development of an unannounced new mobile title within the Call of Duty universe that we expect will help take the franchise to new heights,"Activision president and chief operating officer Daniel Alegre said in a Q2'21 earnings call.

Take-Two Interactive has three unannounced remastered games in the works for FY22, and fans speculate Grand Theft Auto III remastered could be one of them.

Based on comments on Take-Two's earnings reports it looks like GTA 3 remastered may not be one of the upcoming games planned for the FY2022 period. There's two reasons for this: The first is the recent announcement of game delays, and the second revolves around Take-Two's expected earnings from Rockstar Games.

First let's tackle the delays. In the Q1'22 call, company CEO Strauss Zelnick confirmed Take-Two will has delayed two "sub-core" games:

Take-Two Interactive hasn't adjusted its earnings forecast despite two new game delays.

Take-Two plans to delay two games to a later period in FY22. "As we continue to develop our pipeline, there's been movement in some of our planned releases, including two of our more sub-core titles shifting to later in fiscal 2022 than our prior guidance had contemplated," Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick said.

The company's unexpectedly strong Q1 performance has helped offset potential yearly earnings disruption from the pushback. Take-Two reiterates its current FY22 guidance of $3.14 - 3.24 billion. Regarding the delays, Zelnick says the teams "needed more time to polish them and make sure the best title they possibly can be."

SpaceX briefly assembled the newest prototype of Starship on August 6 and has broken the world record for the tallest rocket ever.

SpaceX engineers at the SpaceX Starbase facility located in Texas connected Starship SN20 to its Super Heavy booster for around an hour while checks to the fitting were made. Starship alone is 165 feet tall, and Super Heavy is 230 feet, together Starship and Super Heavy brought the total height to 395 feet, breaking the previous record set by NASA's Saturn V moon rocket that was 363 feet standing.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk celebrated the Starship being briefly assembled on Twitter, saying, "Dream come true". While Starship can be assembled, that doesn't mean it's completely ready, as Musk writes on Twitter that there are at least "4 significant items" it needs before it's ready for launch. Those "4 significant items" are heat shields to protect it from Earth's atmosphere, thermal protection for Super Heavy's 33 raptor engines, "ground system propellant storage tanks and a quick disconnect arm", according to Space.com.