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AMD's next-gen Radeon RX 7900 XT: new Navi 31 GPU, battles RTX 4090
AMD's next-gen RDNA 3 architecture is getting the same amount of rumor love that NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace and Hopper GPU architectures have over the last week... but this news is all about Navi 31.
AMD's next-gen flagship Navi 31 GPU is reportedly going to pack 15360 cores, but they won't be called cores anymore -- they're called RDNA Workgroup Processors (WGP). The latest rumor is that Navi 31 will rock its dual-die (MCM, or multi-chip module) with 256 shading units (FP32 cores/Stream Processors) which is double what the RDNA 2 GPUs have.
I'm looking forwrd to seeing how this change in core design works, with workgroups packing Compute Units -- an MCM-based GPU is going to be interesting on its own.
Continue reading: AMD's next-gen Radeon RX 7900 XT: new Navi 31 GPU, battles RTX 4090 (full post)
Assassin's Creed Valhalla will set fire to Paris on August 12
Assassin's Creed Valhalla's massive Siege of Paris expansion is set to launch August 12, where it will chronicle one of the most pivotal and bloody events in French history.
In just a few weeks, Ubisoft will set fire to its home country with the new Siege of Paris expansion in AC Valhalla. The update is the most ambitious to date and features the triumphant return of classic assassination-style missions (dubbed black box missions), but the real meat and potatoes is the historical storyline.
The expansion will highlight the brutal Siege of Paris where tens of thousands of Vikings attacked Charles the Fat's forces and tried to take the city. They were eventually paid to leave, but not until months of destruction took place.
Continue reading: Assassin's Creed Valhalla will set fire to Paris on August 12 (full post)
Mortal Kombat franchise is now the best-selling fighting series
The Mortal Kombat franchise has now sold 73 million units worldwide, making it gaming's best-selling fighting franchise of all time.
Today WB Games announced some big milestones for Mortal Kombat. Total series sales are now 73 million, beating out the runner up Super Smash Bros. by some 8 million units, and Mortal Kombat 11 will soon beat MKX as the best-selling MK of all time. WB says that Mortal Kombat 11 is now up to 12 million sales thanks in no small part to multiple re-releases, and re-confirms the game is the fastest-selling in franchise history. While MK might be the king of fighters, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has decimated MK11 with nearly 200% more sales.
The publisher also confirms the Mortal Kombat mobile game has hit a whopping 138 million installs and has millions of DAUs.
Continue reading: Mortal Kombat franchise is now the best-selling fighting series (full post)
Death Stranding is a success with 5 million units sold on PS4, PC
Death Stranding is a success with 5 million copies sold combined on both PlayStation 4 and PC, but the game didn't hit those numbers nearly as fast as other popular first-party PlayStation games.
Kojima Productions today announced Death Stranding has sold over 5 million copies on the PlayStation Store, Steam, and on store shelves. The PC version of the game also made 505 Games $27 million in 2020.
"With Death Stranding being the first title developed out of Kojima Productions, from a sales perspective, it has performed quite well. As of March 2021, Death Stranding has sold through over five million units worldwide on PlayStation 4 and PC," Kojima Productions publishing lead Jay Boor tells GamesIndustry.biz.
Continue reading: Death Stranding is a success with 5 million units sold on PS4, PC (full post)
Amazon's GPU-killing New World is trying to spin fans at 200,000 RPM
I was just alerted to a story on PC Gamer from Igor's Lab after @GravXReviews tagged me on Twitter -- and boy-oh-boy is it a doozy.
So, we have all heard that Amazon's new game New World has been bricking and killing super-expensive graphics cards with EVGA's flagship GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra front and center of this silicon-killing shit. But it seems Igor's Lab has worked it out: the fans on the cards are trying to spool up to not 2000RPM, not 20,000RPM, but 200,000 freaking RPM. Yeah... they can't do that, and maybe that's what is murdering the cards.
We know that the fans on ANY graphics card on the market can't spin at 200,000 RPM... but that doesn't stop them from trying to do that. Not all cards are doing this, and not all cards are dying -- but FYI it's not just the EVGA RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra that New World is killing, either.
Continue reading: Amazon's GPU-killing New World is trying to spin fans at 200,000 RPM (full post)
Bumble dating app match leads FBI to a US Capitol Riot suspect
The Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) has arrested a man on Friday after acquiring evidence about him through the Bumble dating app.
According to court documents, the man, Andrew Quentin Taake, 32, admitted to participating in the US Capitol Building riot that happened on January 6 to a Bumble match. Quentin is accused of assaulting and pepper-spraying police officers, according to federal authorities.
Quentin is also charged with obstruction in an official proceeding, "felony assaulting police, obstruction of law enforcement, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, demonstrating in a Capitol building and engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds", per NBCNewYork. Quentin has already made his first court appearance this past Friday in the Southern District of Texas.
Continue reading: Bumble dating app match leads FBI to a US Capitol Riot suspect (full post)
'Time traveler' claims his year 2027 is connected to 2021
Since February, a man has posted videos about him purportedly being a "time traveler" from the year 2027.
Javier, whose TikTok handle is @unicosobreviviente, which translates to Lone Survivor, has been posting videos to his account since February 13, 2021, where he first claimed to have "woken up" in the year 2027 [Video Here]. Since then, Javier has been posting more videos, and each of them shows a barren town in Spain with no people in any of the areas that should usually have "high human traffic".
Each of the videos has been watched millions of times, with the first garnering the most attention with more than 11 million views. The first video was captioned, "I just woke up in a hospital, and I don't know what might have happened. Today is February 13, 2027, and I am alone in the city." As you can probably imagine, the videos were met with heavy criticism. Many users questioned why things such as electricity and internet connections are still working when no one is around.
Continue reading: 'Time traveler' claims his year 2027 is connected to 2021 (full post)
Experts analyzed that 'authentic' viral Bigfoot footage and found this
If you haven't already seen it, there is a video of a creature walking across the Cass River in Michigan. That video went viral across all social media as people believed it was Bigfoot caught on film.
Now, the Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization, who are expert Bigfoot hunters, have analyzed the video and given their thoughts on its authenticity. The video is only four seconds long and shows a large human-like creature wadding through the river and seemingly holding something in its arms. Many people have claimed that the creature is actually Bigfoot. However, the experts don't seem very convinced.
According to the expert in the video above, there are many explanations for the creature. Examples include; a hunter wearing fishing gear carrying a dog, a person with a mosquito net or face covering, or a person wearing hip waders. However, the Rocky Mountain Sasquatch Organization voiceover says, "There's a side profile screenshot that plainly shows the nose exposed to the air and it's the same colour as the rest of it."
Continue reading: Experts analyzed that 'authentic' viral Bigfoot footage and found this (full post)
Elon Musk drops big hint for Dogecoin that want to make a lot of money
Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has fired off two cryptocurrency-related memes, some of which are directed towards Dogecoin holders.
Elon Musk must have recently watched or re-watched The Matrix as the billionaire CEO has posted two Matrix-themed memes to his personal Twitter account. One of the memes, seen above, is directed towards Dogecoin holders, and it shows Neo from the Matrix asking a Shiba Inu-Morpheus if it's possible to make "a lot of money with Dogecoin?".
The Shiba Inu-Morpheus replies to Neo and says, "No, Neo. I'm trying to tell you that Dogecoin is money". In other cryptocurrency news, Musk recently appeared at The B Word conference, where he said that Tesla is likely to accept Bitcoin as payment for its electric vehicles again, but there is a catch. Read more on that story here. As for SpaceX, NASA has just tapped Musk's space company to launch NASA's most recent alien-hunting mission, more on that here.
Continue reading: Elon Musk drops big hint for Dogecoin that want to make a lot of money (full post)
US Intelligence report on UFO's confirms 144 unexplainable incidents
Between 2004 and 2021, there have been 144 incidents of what US intelligence agencies deem as Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) or more commonly known as Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).
The Department of Defense Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force has confirmed in its report that of these 144 incidents they 143 could be categorized into five separate categories; Airborne clutter, Natural atmospheric phenomena, classified US programs, Foreign adversary systems, and other. Of the 144 UAP reports, observers "logged 80 reports with multiple sensor observations, 11 reports of near misses, and 21 reports of "unusual flight characteristics", per usafacts.org.
Additionally, the report reveals that 18 of the 144 reports cited the UFOs having what was described as advanced aerospace capabilities. The report states that some of the objects reported were capable of producing radio signals, remaining completely still or moving suddenly without any "discernable means of propulsion." If you are interested in reading more about UFOs, check out some of the articles below.
Continue reading: US Intelligence report on UFO's confirms 144 unexplainable incidents (full post)
FAA rule change stops Jeff Bezos and crew from getting astronaut wings
Jeff Bezos and his crew recently took the first crewed trip aboard Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket, but if Bezos and the crew were hoping to get awarded their "astronaut" badge, they will be sorely disappointed.
Since the launch of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space trip and now Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launch, there has been public debate over whether or not Branson and Bezos actually went to "space", and if they are astronauts. Branson and his crew reached the 53 mile altitude mark, and Bezos flew 66.5 miles up. For context, the US recognizes space at the 50 mile mark, however, the international altitude for space is 62 miles - known as the Karman Line.
Since Bezos and his crew flew above the Karman Line, does that qualify them to be astronauts? Well, Virigin Galactic pilots who flew the VSS Unity to 53 miles were awarded with "astronaut wings" by the Federal Aviation Administration. However, Bezos and no one from Blue Origin qualified, despite reaching a higher altitude. Why?
Continue reading: FAA rule change stops Jeff Bezos and crew from getting astronaut wings (full post)
Putin warns Russia will carry out a 'unpreventable strike' if required
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Russian military forces are authorized to carry out what he describes as an "unpreventable strike" if required.
On Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia is capable of detecting any underwater, above water, or airborne enemies. Putin continued and said that "if required," the Russian navy will "carry out an unpreventable strike against it [detected enemies]". Putin dropped this warning on Sunday during a navy day parade in St Petersburg.
These heavy words from the Russian president come only weeks after Russia said that it had fired warning shots and dropped bombs in the path of a British warship that was in Crimea waters. However, the British military said that all of the shots fired were a pre-announced Russian "gunnery exercise" and that there were no bombs dropped at all. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.
Continue reading: Putin warns Russia will carry out a 'unpreventable strike' if required (full post)
NASA's 'superpressure' balloons may be the next era of space cameras
NASA has created a new type of balloon that could be a cheap alternative to launching new space telescopes.
The project is being headed by a team of researchers from Durham, Toronto, and Princeton Universities and is named the Superpressure Balloon-born Imaging telescope or SuperBIT for short. So, what is this balloon, and why is it impactful? The SuperBIT balloon is the size of a football field, and when filled with helium, it raises the equipped .5m telescope to 24 miles altitude, where it then will be above 99.5% of Earth's atmosphere.
It's important that the telescope is above the majority of Earth's atmosphere as clouds and other weather patterns can interfere with pictures and general observations. NASA recently created a "superpressure" balloon that can contain helium for months, which would allow the space telescope to maintain altitude for an extended period of time and thus enable astronomers to snap delicious images of the cosmos.
Continue reading: NASA's 'superpressure' balloons may be the next era of space cameras (full post)
Hubble showcases an astronomical phenomenon with an amazing image
NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is showcasing an astronomical phenomenon in a new image that causes the appearance of galaxies to warp, magnify and even duplicate.
The image above was taken by NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope and shows what NASA describes as "tell-tale" arcs caused by gravitation lensing. So, what is this astronomical phenomenon? Gravitation lensing happens when the light from a distant galaxy gets warped or distorted by the gravitational pull of an astronomical object.
For instance, the image above shows a galaxy cluster named MACSJ0138.0-2155, and according to NASA, MACSJ0138.0-2155 has "lensed" the galaxy MRG-M0138, which is located 10 billion light-years away and has run out of the gas required to create new stars. NASA describes this distant galaxy as a "slumbering giant".
Continue reading: Hubble showcases an astronomical phenomenon with an amazing image (full post)
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leaks: beast GPU, 100%+ faster than RTX 3090
NVIDIA's next-gen Ada Lovelace GPU architecture has been in the headlines for the last couple of weeks, with rumors and rumbles, and everything in between -- now we have some more solid specs based on all of the rumors swirling about Ada Lovelace.
3DCenter.org has compiled a list of the NVIDIA AD102 GPU specs, which are all based on rumors from @kopite7kimi and @greymon55. 3DCenter.org actually did this in December 2020, but we have some firmer specs here and some beefy upgrades to the expected TFlops performance from AD102.
In the specs, NVIDIA's next-gen AD102 is expected to be made on TSMC's fresh new 5nm node, with an insane 18,432 CUDA cores (GA102 in the RTX 3090 has 10496 CUDA cores for comparison). The GPU clocks expected are now 2.2GHz and above, which will result in around 81 TFLOPs of compute performance (35.5 TFLOPs on the GA102 or RTX 3090).
Continue reading: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 leaks: beast GPU, 100%+ faster than RTX 3090 (full post)
Amazon working on its own crypto, will accept Bitcoin later this year
Amazon will reportedly offer cryptocurrency payments by the end of the year, with Bitcoin payments by the end of 2021 on the way according to the latest rumors.
In a new article, an anonymous insider tells CityAM that Amazon is pushing into cryptocurrency with full strength, this isn't just some short-term plan. The insider said: "This isn't just going through the motions to set up cryptocurrency payment solutions at some point in the future - this is a full-on, well-discussed, integral part of the future mechanism of how Amazon will work. It won't take long because the plans are already there, and they have been working on them since 2019".
It will begin with Amazon accepting Bitcoin, but then it'll be joined by Ethereum, Cardano, Bitcoin Cash and "about eight of the most popular cryptocurrencies" which I'm sure will include Dogecoin. Dogecoin is already accepted at Amazon's competitor, Newegg, and is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies. Jeff Bezos founded Amazon, and Elon Musk is his competitor in space -- but a huge fan of Dogecoin to the point that Musk is called The Dogefather. Their worlds collide in so many ways.
Continue reading: Amazon working on its own crypto, will accept Bitcoin later this year (full post)
AMD rumored to price Radeon RX 6600 XT at $349, Radeon RX 6600 at $299
We've heard some ridiculous early pricing -- most likely placeholder pricing, on AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 6600 XT but new rumors state the mid-range RDNA 2 graphics card will cost $349.
AMD's new Radeon RX 6600 XT is rumored to be priced at $349 while the Radeon RX 6600 will be priced at $299, after previous rumors of a $399 price tag on the Radeon RX 6600 XT. I'd say that rumors of NVIDIA stockpiling GA106 GPUs ready to deploy waves of GeForce RTX 3060 and GeForce RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards had something to do with that.
You would be surprised at how pricing on a GPU can be set in the day before, even hours leading up to the launch. I know of major GPUs launched by either side, with the teams slapping prices on them at the very, very last minute.
Continue reading: AMD rumored to price Radeon RX 6600 XT at $349, Radeon RX 6600 at $299 (full post)
EVGA replacing bricked RTX 3090s from New World, and so they should
Amazon's brand new game New World is killing graphics cards -- with the first reports that it was bricking EVGA's flagship GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra -- and then extending to many other GPUs.
YouTuber JayzTwoCents tried to recreate the problem of New World bricking an EVGA GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra, but it didn't kill his GPU -- the power consumption was above average, with power numbers hitting 500W+ which is far and beyond the 360W or so that the GPU normally consumes.
EVGA is replacing the bricked GeForce RTX 3090 FTW3 Ultra graphics cards as quickly as they can, where they're sending out replacement units as soon as users submit RMA of their bricked GPU. No other GPU manufacturers on the planet have stepped up and made statements about bricked GPUs, and Amazon's PR department is just pumping out copy-paste email responses which is pathetic considering their game is killing expensive hardware.
Continue reading: EVGA replacing bricked RTX 3090s from New World, and so they should (full post)
Final Fantasy 1-6 Pixel Remasters could come to consoles later
Square Enix is releasing anew remastered collection of old-school Final Fantasy RPGs, but they're not coming to consoles at launch. That might change sometime in the future.
A new Q&A session reveals a bunch of details about the Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster games. Square Enix confirms some great convenience features like an interactive monster bestiary that marks locations of enemies on your map.
"The monsters you encounter are registered in the list, but there is a mode to arrange them like a habitat map on the world map, and it is very fun to fill the list. In the smartphone version, you can also battle with the monsters registered in the picture book. You can even make the background a photo taken with a camera,"
Continue reading: Final Fantasy 1-6 Pixel Remasters could come to consoles later (full post)
Ubisoft still has no plans for a Rainbow Six Siege sequel
Ubisoft still thinks a Rainbow Six Siege sequel is entirely unnecessary and plans to continue updating the base game over time.
Rainbow Six Siege will turn six years old this year, but Ubisoft isn't ready to make a sequel just yet. In a recent AmA with developers, R6 creative director Leroy Athanassoff confirms the team has no plans for a second game. Ubisoft said the same thing back in 2018 and even expects the game to last for another 10 years.
"Siege is an evolving game - the Siege of the future will be dramatically different from today's Siege, to the point where we could call it Siege 2. However, as a team, we strongly believe we can bring about these changes in an incremental way, within the current Siege framework," Athanassoff said.
Continue reading: Ubisoft still has no plans for a Rainbow Six Siege sequel (full post)





















