Latest News - Page 1348

The hype train for Battlefield 2042 has died down considerably, and while we might only be less than 3 months away from the release of what should arguably be the biggest first-person shooter of the year, rumor has it Battlefield 2042 development could be "having issues".

This is coming directly from Battlefield 2042 leaker Tom Henderson, who now writes for DualShockers, nothing that we have only seen "Six seconds of gunplay is what Battlefield fans have seen so far with Battlefield 2042 and although I would have personally expected to see more trailers with gameplay soon, it's hard to not be concerned.

If you were waiting to see more Battlefield 2042 gameplay once the Technical Play Test kicks off later this month, you'll be disappointed... Henderson says that the Battlefield 2042 Technical Play Test users are under a "strict NDA". Anyone included in the test is unable to talk about the game, or show any gameplay footage.

It's that time of the year, with the Hot Chips 33 technology symposium kicking off on August 22 for a huge 3-day online event. We'll hear all about delicious new technology, with a highlight on discussions with advanced

The organizers of Hot Chips 33 have confirmed an exciting schedule, where we will receive some juicy details on "Advanced Packaging" technology. Intel and TSMC will be discussing their "packaging technologies for chiplets and 3D" while AMD will only be discussing their 3D packaging technology.

Intel will be talking about its next-gen Alder Lake and Sapphire Rapids CPU architectures on day two of Hot Chips 33, which I'm sure is going to be a different deep dive than traditional ones where we hear about specs, performance, and all that jazz. The packaging technology side of things is probably going to get a total nerd-out, which is going to be awesome.

COLORFUL has just unveiled its new iGame Mini GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, its first Mini-ITX card release in two years. Check it out:

We have a dual-slot, single-fan design with the iGame Mini GeForce RTX 3060 -- which measures in at 18.2cm long and 13cm wide. COLORFUL has a 170W TDP on its new iGame RTX 3060 Mini L (what does the L stand for you ask, that would be for LHR -- or Lite Hash Rate, crypto mining gimped).

Inside, we have the GA106 GPU with 1792MHz boost GPU overclock, a 0.8% factory overclock (does that even count) while there's a physical OC button on the back of the card. Display connectivity wise we have the traditional x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors and a single HDMI 2.1 connector for up to 4K 120/144Hz over a single cable.

Halo Infinite is well-optimized on Xbox consoles, and new metrics from VG Tech reveal how well the generations handle 343i's new shooter.

Halo Infinite plays amazingly well on both PC (I was able to hit 80FPS+ at 1440p with a RTX 2080 Super with Ultra preset) on Xbox Series X/S consoles, the latter of which has two frame rate priority modes: 60Hz or 120Hz. Infinite demands speed, though, and playing at 60FPS doesn't really do the game justice. There's some trade offs if you want to target 120FPS, though--The Series X's Zen 2 and RDNA 2-powered SoC is strong, but it can't hit native 4K 120FPS. Resolution drops are necessary to achieve higher frames.

New frame rate tests from VG Tech show Halo Infinite X targets at 1440p native resolution (upscaled to 4K) with an average 110FPS on the Xbox Series X. The Series S also fares well but has a much lower max native res of 900p, which is then upscaled to 1080p when in 120FPS mode. Infinite ran at a range of 104 - 118 FPS at 900p in the 120FPS mode.

Grand Theft Auto V has now shipped 150 million units worldwide, Take-Two Interactive today confirmed.

There's few games that will consistently sell millions of copies every quarter, but Grand Theft Auto V is one of them. The nearly 8-year old GTA V has now sold-in (shipped) 150 million copies worldwide since its launch in September 2013, making it one of the best-selling games of all time. GTA V currently makes up 42% of total franchise sales.

A quick bit of math shows GTA V managed to sell 5 million units from March - June 2021, kicking off Take-Two's Q1 period with a second consecutive first quarter sales gain of 5 million copies. The Grand Theft Auto franchise has generated $6.4 billion since GTA V's launch in 2013 and continues delivering high earnings for Take-Two's sales and recurrent consumer sales (microtransactions).

GTA V was free on the Epic Games Store in May 2020, which helped push total-year franchise revenues to their second highest point of all time.

Take-Two's Epic Games Store freebie paid off big time. Yesterday I put together a graph that charted total Grand Theft Auto franchise revenues from GTA V's launch to present on both a yearly and quarterly basis. There's a huge revenue spike in Q1'21 corresponding with GTA V's free release on the Epic Games Store during May 2020.

This isn't a coincidence. The free launch helped GTA hit $262 million in the quarter, which is the second highest quarterly earnings since the incredible $1.49 billion earned at launch in Q3'14.

The next Halo Infinite beta test should feature PVP right from the start, 343i says.

Halo Infinite's technical preview is now offline, but it we could get another chance to play before launch. 343i says it wants to hold another huge Halo Infinite flight before the game releases this holiday season. According to Halo community manager Brian Jarrard, the devs hope to do another beta centered around PVP and "other aspects of the multiplayer experience."

That last bit is pretty interesting. Could Firefight be making a comeback? Most likely it's just testing out stuff like customizations, maps, equipment, modes etc. Maybe even some 32-player big team battle action But we can hold out hope can't we?

Arena of Valor developer Netmarble buys one of the most lucrative mobile devs in the business.

Netmarble today announced it has acquired SpinX, a mobile developer behind social casino hits like Lotsa Slots, Cash Frenzy and Jackpot World. Netmarble paid $2.19 billion for the share buyout, which is almost as much as the company made in the entire FY2020 yearly period; Netmarble made 2.84 trillion KRW in 2020, which is roughly $2.287 billion.

SpinX on the other hand generated $432 million from its casino games throughout last year.

A new study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters explored the star labeled as LP 40-365, a unique fast-moving star.

So, what is LP 40-365, and why is it moving towards the edge of the Milky Way galaxy at such speeds? The fast-moving star is actually shrapnel from a larger star exploding in a supernova. JJ Hermes, Boston University College of Arts & Sciences assistant professor of astronomy, said, "This star is moving so fast that it's almost certainly leaving the galaxy...[it's] moving almost two million miles an hour."

The researchers behind the paper say that observing LP 40-365 gives astronomers more knowledge on stars that have undergone a similar fate. The fast-moving star is described as "star shrapnel", and it's primarily comprised of metals, and while being some of the fastest stars ever detected, they are also some of the most metal-rich stars ever observed. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Blue Origin issued an official protest against NASA's decision to award Elon Musk's SpaceX with a $2.9 billion contract to construct a new lunar lander for the upcoming Artemis mission.

NASA told SpaceX to pause the construction of the new lunar lander until the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) issued a decision on the protest. That decision was announced by the GAO on Friday, and the "congressional watchdog" stated that "NASA did not violate procurement law or regulation when it decided to make only one award," which was Blue Origin's entire defense in protesting the initial decision.

The GAO stated, "The announcement reserved the right to make multiple awards, a single award, or no award at all. In reaching its award decision, NASA concluded that it only had sufficient funding for one contract award. As a result, GAO denied the protest arguments that NASA acted improperly in making a single award to SpaceX."

A video of what appears to be a "shape-shifting UFO" has been filmed near a plane, but is it actually a UFO?

The video was uploaded to the YouTube channel Disclose Screen The Grimreefar, and the narrator of the video insinuates that the strange object seen in the video is a "shape-shifting UFO" or a "plasma-based alien lifeform" living in the upper atmosphere. The problem with this video is the assumptions made about the object that doesn't consider any established science.

Plasma is matter that is superheated to temperatures, so hot electrons are stripped away, turning into an ionizing gas. It cannot support carbon-based life as there is no atomic structure. Assumptions such as these and that any object that a viewer can't identify is an "alien UFO" may lead to people rejecting authentic videos due to how many fake videos they have seen. UFO videos need to be taken with a healthy amount of skepticism and the appropriate scientific method to establish authentic evidence.

A new research paper has revealed that Google's quantum computer has been used to create something called a "time crystal".

It should be noted before I explain what this "time crystal" is, the research paper from Google researchers has yet to be peer-reviewed, which means the findings are not yet "official" and can be challenged by other academics in the field. So, what is a "time crystal"? A time crystal is a state of matter that can continuously operate out of thermal equilibrium.

A good way to think of this is by imaging an ice cub and a glass of water. By placing an ice cube in the water, the water in the glass becomes cooler, but the ice will eventually melt, and after enough time, the water will become room temperature. This process is "thermal equilibrium". According to the paper, researchers used Google's quantum computer called Sycamore to create a system that operates outside of thermal equilibrium, a new phase of matter.

Ever since the internet got hyped about the Pentagon's UFO report, videos have been emerging that claim they feature "UFOs".

Due to the lack of official knowledge around unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) or UFOs, and the overall suspicion around the subject, it's difficult to siphon through all of the "evidence" of UFOs without running into fakes. Fake evidence of UFOs usually comes in doctored videos or images and can usually be spotted with a quick check for reliable evidence.

The /r/UFO subreddit is littered with these videos, and even with the lack of substantial evidence, the clips or images still manage to go viral, sometimes even reaching Reddit's front page. A video recently posted to the /r/UFO subreddit shows what the author claims to be a "fleet of UFOs flying from the dark side of the moon".

Can you imagine if Apple had acquired Tesla last year? It could've happened, as Elon Musk requested a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook about the company buying Tesla. Cook refused the meeting, and that was that.

We're hearing about this again because of a new book by Wall Street Journal reporter Tim Higgins, called Power Play. Elon tweeted out a few days ago to clarify what happened, where he first off called Higgins' new book "both false *and* boring".

Musk continued, adding: "Cook & I have never spoken or written to each other ever. There was a point where I requested to meet with Cook to talk about Apple buying Tesla. There were no conditions of acquisition proposed whatsoever. He refused to meet. Tesla was worth about 6% of today's value".

Intel's next-gen Z690 chipset has been spotted on a new prototype motherboard, at least according to a post on the Bilibili forums with someone uploading a photo of their prototype Intel Z690 motherboard.

The poster even says he's an "NDA War God" and while it shows the purported Intel Z690 motherboard, we have no additional information or details about the board from these photos. The board itself is a high-end variant, with up to 23 power stages around the CPU socket, which is normally here with high-end and enthusiast motherboards.

Intel's fresh new LGA1700 socket is shown here, with dual EPS connectors for the high-end board. We have 3 x M.2 connectors which is nothing new. I'm looking forward to the final form Z690 motherboards, which we'll see kick off later this year, and the bigger next-gen CPU fight between AMD and Intel in 2022 and beyond.

Imagine that you're laying there at night, just got into your bed and pulled the cover over you... and then a huge siren starts blasting through your town... and you don't know what it is, at all.

An unidentified siren has been blasting out to residents of Suitland, Maryland throughout the night and all they want to know is where the noise is coming from, and they want it to stop. Suitland, Maryland resident Scott Bovarnick said: "It sounds kind of like a combination of a tornado siren and a spaceship taking off, like the siren from the 'Purge' movies. We have a lot of young families in the neighborhood, a lot of children, and I know it's probably keeping them up. A lot of my neighbors are having trouble sleeping, and it's disturbing".

NBC Washington reports that complaints of loud noises in the area of Prince George's County aren't new, and they've been happening "on and off for years". Residents are pinpointing the siren to the US Census Bureau building, which is in the Suitland Federal Center.

Intel has its Xe-HPG gaming-focused graphics card in the oven right now, but according to a content creator on Weibo, Intel will be launching its DG2 family of GPUs at CES 2022.

Hardware Academy is the one behind the post, with a translated explanation teasing that Intel has "basically decided" that its next-gen DG2 discrete GPU would be released during CES 2022. At CES 2021 earlier this year, Intel unleashed their 11th Gen Tiger Lake vPRO processors, portable gaming Tiger Lake-H35 series, and the new NUC 11 series PCs.

We already know that Intel has begun sampling its DG2 GPUs last month, one of the last tick boxes required for the company before volume production kicks off.

We've been hearing very positive news on NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture, with the last news in the last 24 hours or so teasing that the new GPU will use 400-500W of power and be 100%+ faster than the GeForce RTX 3090.

A new rumor from Ulysses teases that NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace GPU will offer the same generational performance jump that we experienced from Maxwell to Pascal, which was fantastic. We all remember how good the GeForce GTX 980 Ti was, but the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti was a true generational leap.

In between now and then we should expect NVIDIA to unleash a "SUPER" refresh of its current Ampere-based GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards. That should happen later this year, or early 2022 before the big launch of Ada Lovelace and the new GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs in the second half of 2022.

Samsung has announced out of nowhere that it is manufacturing 24Gb DDR5 memory chips, which will allow for single-stick 768GB DDR5 DIMMs... yes 768GB of RAM on a single stick.

The company has already shown 512GB registered DIMM (RDIMM) that uses 32 x 16GB stacks, based on 8 x 16Gb DRAM chips. Low power and quality signaling is done by the 8-Hi stacks through silicon via interconnects, but with using 24Gb memory ICs in 8-Hi stacks, Samsung can boost one up to 24GB on a 32-chip module to an insane 768GB.

Inside of a server system with 2 modules per channel, we will see a world of 12TB of DDR5 memory. Right now, Intel's current Xeon Scalable "Ice Lake-SP" CPU is designed for these exact workloads: memory, memory, memory and they only support up to 6TB of RAM right now.

GIGABYTE has just announced their huge new AORUS P1200W power supply, a new 1200W beast PSU that even has a huge LCD display.

The new AORUS P1200W is a fully modular PSU with 80 PLUS Platinum certification, and a large 140mm fan. But the big star of the show here is definitely the digital LCD display which is capable of even playing back MP4 videos, animated GIFs, images, and custom text.

You can also display health status information like wattages, and more -- it's the only PSU on the market with a huge monitor like this, so I'm sure AORUS is going to drive that fact home (and so they should). There are other competing PSUs with displays on them, but there's nothing like the display that the AORUS P1200W has.