Latest News - Page 1380

AMD launched its new Radeon RX 6900 XT LC a few days ago, and was exclusive to system builders -- but that didn't last long at all and now the card is popping up in India for $3000+ without needing to purchase an entire PC.

AMD was very clear on its Radeon RX 6900 XT liquid cooled reference design graphics card, saying that it would be making a "limited number" of the new flagship RNDA 2 card and would be available to "select system integrators".

HardwareLuxx heard from AMD directly as well, with the company explaining: "This AMD-designed liquid cooled Radeon RX 6900 XT graphics card is a limited-edition product exclusively for select system integrators".

ASRock has just unveiled its latest crypto mining motherboard, with the introduction of the H510 Pro BTC+ motherboard that is very well endowed... check it out:

Yeah, it's a gigantic motherboard (50.1 x 22.4cm or 20.1 x 8.8 inches) that won't fit in a regular case -- with 6 x full-sized PCIe 3.0 x16 slots that would let you install 6 x beast NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition -- or any other high-end triple-slot graphics cards.

Just because there are 6 x PCIe 3.0 x16 ports that doesn't mean all of them run at x16... as that would mean you'd need 96 PCIe 3.0 lanes and that ain't gonna happen on this, or even a high-end chipset. The first slot runs at full-speed x16 while the other five slots run at x1 speeds.

AMD will have its RDNA 2 graphics architecture inside of Samsung's next-gen Exynos SoC, which is said to be revealed next month.

The new Samsung Exynos processor with RDNA 2 inside was meant to be unveiled this month but has been delayed according to leaker Ice Universe on Twitter. Samsung's next-gen Exynos processor will be offering ray tracing support as well as variable rate shading (VRS).

Samsung isn't so great on the CPU side of things, which is why the South Korean giant has reportedly been hiring architecture engineers from both Apple and AMD -- but with AMD providing its RDNA 2 GPU architecture to Samsung for the GPU side of its next-gen Exynos, this is going to be interesting.

COLORFUL has just unveiled its super-elite flagship iGame RTX 3090 KUDAN graphics card, which costs an insane $4999 and only 1000 units will be made.

The company has outfitted the beautiful new iGame RTX 3090 KUDAN graphics card with its most advanced features, with fantastic hybrid cooling that blends the worlds of air cooling and water cooling -- allowing for some excellent overclocking on the iGame RTX 3090 KUDAN graphics card. Better yet, it has a physical One-Key OC button for extremely easy overclocking.

COLORFUL has outfitted its iGame RTX 3090 KUDAN graphics card with Golden Gears and gold accents, with a huge LCD display and of course RGB lighting that tips the card over the edge in terms of its "OMG" factor.

I don't even know what to say -- but EK's newest member of the Signature Edition family is its most beautiful yet. The new EK Lignum Edition is inspired by wood... and the results are stunning.

The combination of wood and the very latest in GPU technology is perfect, as the wood finish will give off a totally different feel for your gaming PC than anything before it. We've seen gorgeous EK waterblocks before, but this new Lignum Edition really takes it to the next level.

EK has chosen walnut wood (in particular, Juglans Nigra) as it "never fails to surprise with its colors and texture. The connection between the water block and the wood enables wood to shrink and expand, which is one of its most natural predispositions in response to the changes in humidity and temperature. Lignum products were engineered in a way so that the wood does not come into direct contact with water. Every block has a unique pattern of wood, which makes it one of a kind in the world".

In a recent interview with Gamespot, Bethesda exec Pete Hines made a good point; Starfield's exclusivity will remove barriers and roadblocks to the game's development.

Starfield's exclusivity to Xbox Series X/S and PC isn't just good for business, it's also good for developers. Removing the need for PS5 optimization will the game development process more efficient by removing another platform environment. Game devs won't have to iterate, execute, test, and optimize for PlayStation 5 consoles. While the Series X/S and PS5 are similar on paper and both use the x86 architectures, they are still different enough to cause platform-specific headaches for game makers.

Bethesda's management agrees. Pete Hines says this exclusivity decision is a good thing for Starfield's development team.

A new Wolfenstein game is likely to be MachineGames' next project, Bethesda Pete Hines hints.

MachineGames' new Indiana Jones game won't release for a long time. How long? Maybe a few years. The project is in "very, very, very early development," Bethesda's Pete Hines told Gamespot.

This makes sense. MachineGames is creating a new all-original story for the Indiana Jones game, and they're also working with Lucasfilm, who is notorious for making game adaptions quite difficult due to stringent approval processes.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake has been spotted in code from the Epic Games Store, hinting at a possible exclusivity deal with the platform.

References to both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Alan Wake Remastered were recently uncovered on Epic Games Store database. This could mean one of two things: Final Fantasy 7 Remake is coming to both the Epic Games Store and Steam, or the more likely scenario that Epic has paid for an exclusivity deal to get FF7R first on EGS.

The references have since been changed--Final Fantasy 7 Remake is now listed as Pineapple QA_OLD and Alan Wake is called Heron Staging.

New comments from Nintendo of America boss Doug Bowser makes us think the Switch Pro may not deliver true dazzling next-gen performance.

Nintendo is reportedly making a new Switch model that's capable of outputting a 4K video signal. Bloomberg reports the upgraded Switch, dubbed Switch Pro, will feature a new chip allowing 4K gaming. We know the console will also feature a new dock because the existing dock's video switcher can't output 4K video. The new Switch is also expected to have a larger 7-inch OLED panel.

The Switch Pro's 4K capabilities have triggered mass speculation. The consensus is that the Switch will use NVIDIA's DLSS tech to upscale native images for 4K TVs. This would require a new chip revision because DLSS requires NVIDIA's newer Tensor cores to operate.

4A Games will use what it learned with Metro Exodus as a template for future next-gen games.

Metro Exodus' next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrades were a test run for 4A's next console games. The team used these upgrades as an opportunity to experiment with new features like ray-tracing and see how far the consoles could be pushed. As you can see in videos or by playing Metro Exodus on next-gen consoles, the results were pretty favorable.

In a recent blog post, 4A Games talks about the game's enhancements on a more in-depth level and discusses the processes that played a critical part, including upsampling, geometry improvements, and tweaks to its ray-tracing systems and denoising effects.

Sony wants more games to support cross-play with PlayStation 4 consoles but are publishers willing to pay the extra tax?

After years of resistance, Sony had a change of heart and is finally ready to support cross-play. The truth is Sony has a vested interest in cross-play on a business level--cross-play increases player counts, which leads to more engagement and monetization. There's an extra layer of earnings tacked on to cross-play, though.

Sony's new cross-play commission is a big reason why it feels comfortable with cross-play. Sony has a very particular policy regarding cross-play that requires publishers to compensate the company to enable the feature. Epic had to pay Sony for cross-play as well as the non-negotiable 30% cut that it has to pay for all Fortnite revenues. Sony has earned over $1.82 billion from Fortnite since 2017, court documents reveal.

Sony filed a trademark for PlayStation Experience in June 2021, possibly hinting at an upcoming showcase full of updates.

Xbox completely dominated E3 2021 with a slew of announcements. Nintendo fired back, but in its own way, revealed games like Warioware Get it Together, Metroid Dread, and a tentative Breath of the Wild 2 release window. Now it's Sony's turn, and everyone wants to know when PlayStation will deliver its own salvo.

Rumor has it Sony is planning an event for July 8, but Sony hasn't announced anything yet. A new PlayStation Experience trademark filing might support this claim. The document was filed on June 11 and is classified as "organizing, promoting, and conducting exhibitions and conferences for commercial purposes"under the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Battlefield 2042 hype is on fire right now and gamers are returning to the next best thing to get their fix: Battlefield 4.

Battlefield 4 servers are getting slammed right now. Everyone wants to play Battlefield 2042--the crazy 128-player chaos looks like a blast, ditto with the new levels, operators, and storm systems--and fans are flocking to the next best thing. Gamers are jumping back into Battlefield 4 to experience modern FPS carnage to relive memories and prepare for the all-out warfare coming with BF2042.

So many people are playing Battlefield 4 that EA had to increase the game's server capacity to make sure everyone could find a match. BF4 is the closest thing to BF2042 as the most recent games, Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V, take place in World War I and World War II respectively. So if you're firing Battlefield 4 back up, rest assured that EA has you covered with manageable queue times.

The games industry is slowly moving to next-gen consoles, and here's how publishers are helping--and why they're not ready to give up on current-gen hardware just yet.

Publishers are starting to shift towards next-gen consoles in a very careful and calculated way. There's multiple parts of this strategy that include:

These parts are actually quite intertwined with one another. Exclusive performance and exclusive features are ways to help justify a price hike to $69.99, which represents the first frontline price jump in over a decade. The new price will help boost sales revenues, which will be re-invested into R&D advancements that in turn help power new optimizations and features that push each console even farther.

Outriders is outperforming Square Enix's expectations and the company is satisfied with the game's reception on Game Pass.

Releasing a new IP like Outriders on a service like Game Pass could be a risky gamble. Fortunately for Square Enix, the bet paid off. Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda says digital sales for Outriders have skyrocketed and player counts are beyond the publisher's expectations--Game Pass isn't the only factor, though, and the game's Steam playerbase was huge at launch. In short, Outriders is a success.

"While there were slight issues with bugs and the like on launch, we believe it has gotten off to a good start as a new IP. In addition, we have been pleasantly surprised as the digital sales ratio for the title have been very high, and the number of active users has also beaten our expectations. We believe that our decision to make Outriders available with Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass as soon as the title launched also worked in our favor to build an installed base for the game," Matsuda said in a Q&A session with investors.

The third-largest diamond in the world has just been discovered in Botswana, with the stone presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi.

The diamond was found by Debswana -- a mining company that is jointly joined by the country's government and the De Beers Group -- with proceeds from the sale of the diamond to be used to "advance national development".

De Beers Group said in a statement: "Debswana will work with the Government of the Republic of Botswana and De Beers to value and sell the diamond to ensure it returns maximum benefit for the people of Botswana. And will communicate further plans to bring this unique treasure to market in due course".

The big silicon fight is only just beginning, with the likes of Apple, Samsung, Intel, Qualcomm, NVIDIA, AMD, and many others fighting for supremacy -- but Samsung is reportedly making some big, and very interesting (but expected) news.

The latest is that ARM's next-gen Cortex X series CPU cores are reportedly not meeting Samsung's high expectations, with Samsung and Qualcomm "turning their plans to a custom architecture development". As it stands, Samsung and Qualcomm license the CPU cores designed by ARM -- but both companies would be silly to not design their own CPU architectures.

Samsung did precious have an in-house team designing custom CPU cores, this was codenamed Mongoose which I wrote about back in August 2015. Samsung shut this division down not long after that, licensing CPU cores designed by ARM again for all of its phones including the flagship Galaxy S21 Ultra.

Amazon founder and space enthusiast -- and soon space explorer -- Jeff Bezos and his startup have backed a pilot nuclear fusion power plant that will be built in the UK by 2025.

Canadian energy startup General Fusion has said it wants to smash atoms together at temperatures 10x hotter than the sun, whereas traditional fission will split atoms. This means that the nuclear fusion plant will generate great amounts of carbon-free energy, without the worry of nuclear waste.

Christofer Mowry, the chief executive of General Fusion, explains: "Coming to Culham gives us the opportunity to benefit from UKAEA's expertise. By locating at this campus, General Fusion expands our market presence beyond North America into Europe, broadening our global network of government, institutional, and industrial partners".

Battlefield 2042 has some truly incredible dynamic weather effects that we've only had a glimpse at so far, but the time at DICE has been working on that technology for many years now.

During a recent DICE devstream, we learned that the team spent over 3 years working on the dynamic weather and upgraded Levolution technologies. DICE General Manager Oskar Gabrielson explained that team spent over 3 years on it, with a single developer saying how cool it would be for there to be a tornado in the game, ripping the level to pieces.

DICE spent a year working on the dynamic weather technology, showing off a prototype and having some developers at DICE thinking it was pre-rendered and simply couldn't believe that they were seeing a real-time tornado rip through what would eventually become Battlefield 2042.

Konami may release another collection of Castlevania games from the Game Boy Advance era.

Ratings for a Castlevania Advance collection have popped up on the Australian Ratings Board. The collection, which has been rated M for fantasy violence, should include Game Boy Advance games like 2001's Circle of the Moon, 2002's Harmony of Dissonance, and 2003's Aria of Sorrow.

Konami has yet to make an official announcement just yet and the ratings take some thunder out of the collection's reveal. Konami has re-released a number of old-school Castlevania games in bundles including 2018's Requiem collection, which packs the excellent Symphony of the Night and Rondo of Blood, and 2019's Anniversary Collection that includes eight sidescrollers across NES, SNES, Genesis and Game Boy.