AMD isn't too far away from the release of its mid-range Radeon RX 6700 XT graphics card and we've got some early crypto mining performance numbers to share.

NVIDIA might have tried to limit the hash rate power of the GeForce RTX 3060 as it was scared they'd be eaten up by crypto farms for crypto mining rigs and bitcoin mining rigs, but people are forgetting about AMD's new Radeon RX 6700 XT. An industry source of mine is claiming the new Radeon RX 6700 XT is achieving 40MH/s of ETH mining power, with wiggle room for overclocking.

If you consider that a GeForce RTX 3060 Ti is reaching around 50MH/s in stock form then that is pretty good... while the Radeon RX 6800, Radeon RX 6800 XT and Radeon RX 6900 XT all reach around 60MH/s of ETH mining power. It'll be interesting to see how the power tuning and overclocking on the Radeon RX 6700 XT will fair.

We now have some much more definite answers on gaming performance from Intel's new flagship Rocket Lake-S processor -- with the Core i9-11900K being around 11% faster in 1080p gaming over the current-gen flagship Core i9-10900K processor.

In new performance slides the company shows the new Core i9-11900K benchmarked in 4 different games: Total War: Three Kingdoms, Gears 5, Grid 2019 and Microsoft Flight Simulator -- all at 1080p and High graphics settings. The new Core i9-11900K is 13%, 9%, 8%, and 14% faster than the Core i9-10900K in those games, respectively -- 11% average across the games.

Intel's new Core i9-11900K processor offers 8 cores and 16 threads at up to 5.2GHz with Turbo Boost 3.0 technology, and all-core Turbo of up to 4.7GHz. This is done with a 125W TDP and the Z590 chipset also now offers PCIe 4.0 tech which is a first for Intel and now catching them up to the last couple of years of their competitor in AMD with PCIe 4.0 technology.

Blizzard has just pushed out a new update for Overwatch which has a very special upgrade for next-gen Microsoft Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S console owners: 120FPS support.

The new update has Xbox Series X/S enhancements which offer up different graphics options, with varying frame rates on offer. The new "Resolution" mode will run at the highest resolution, always - "at the cost of some image quality" says Blizzard. In this mode, the Xbox Series X pumps away at 4K 60FPS while the Xbox Series S is at 1440p 60FPS.

Overwatch's new "Balanced" mode prefers image quality at the cost of resolution, with higher-fidelity graphics on both consoles with the Xbox Series X at 1440p 60FPS while the Xbox Series S is at 1080p 60FPS. But if you want that huge 120FPS frame rate -- which is glorious in Overwatch -- the "Framerate" option guarantees 120FPS all the time but at the cost of image quality and resolution.

If you thought $400 for some wheels for the Apple Mac Pro in 2019 was expensive, then the new Mac Pro 2022 models are going to cost a pretty penny -- with pricing beginning at a rather huge $5499.

Apple will reportedly have 3 different Mac Pro 2022 configurations with the first being a 32-core Mac Pro with 64GB of RAM, 32 GPU cores and starts from $5499. The model up from that offers 48 cores of CPU performance, a much larger 256GB of RAM and 64 GPU cores with prices starting at $11,999.

Meanwhile, the flagship Apple Mac Pro 2022 will pack a huge 64 cores of CPU grunt, 512GB of RAM, 128 GPU cores and prices starting from a staggering $18,999. This isn't too far out of the norm as the Apple Mac Pro 2020 model cost over $50,000 when it was fully kitted out with 1.5TB of RAM and 4TB of PCIe-based storage.

Epic Games has just purchased Capturing Reality, the company behind one of gaming's leading 3D scanning software platforms.

Epic's latest acquisition will help developers ramp up projects for Unreal Engine 5, the new toolset that's built for next-gen console and PC hardware. The billion-dollar games titan now owns Capturing Reality, the team behind the RealityCapture software suite that is built specifically for 3D scans.

The idea is to make it easier for developers to add high-quality photogrammetry scans into their games. Unreal Engine 5's potent Nanite virtualized micropolygon geometry supports cinematic-quality 8K resolution scans, which can be uploaded via Epic's newly-bought software suite.. Nanite allows developers to replicate tons of in-game assets into a scene without any real work or input, and have UE5 render everything in real-time.

GameStop announces that e-commerce is the future of its business, and plans to double-down on distribution and fulfillment of shipped video game products.

GameStop wants to morph from its brick-and-mortar roots into an e-commerce titan. In a sense, the company wants to become the Amazon of video gaming while still maintaining physical stores. To help usher in this new digital age, GameStop has formed a fresh team of executives, the Strategic Planning and Capital Allocation Committee, which is led by Chewy billionaire Ryan Cohen. GameStop stock jumped by 25% to $193.72 in after-hours trading following the announcement.

As head of the committee, Cohen will lead two other seasoned marketing and investment execs, Alan Attal (previous Chief Marketing Officer, Chewy), and Kurt Wolf (capital investor), who will help raise money and lay out the company's future moves. As of October 2020, GameStop had $2.269 billion in liabilities, including $244 million in long- and short-term debts.

Renowned PC modder Nhenhophach created the world's first water-cooled PS5 to hit low temps in demanding 4K workloads.

The PS5 stays pretty quiet and cool by itself, but modders have taken things to a whole new level with a specially-built water-cooled PS5. The console sports a fully customized waterblock, two thin 120mm Noctua NF-A12x15 Chromax fans set in 240mm radiator, an Alphacool pump, and other vital additions like new thermal pads (Sony has been criticized for the PS5's stock thermal padding).

So did the setup reduce temps? The water-cooled PS5 hit roughly 51C while playing Astro's Playroom for 1 hour on a 4K display, which is pretty good. The PlayStation 5 already has great cooling thanks to its dual-sided 130mm axial fan and unique chassis, which is specifically contoured to direct air into critical components. The liquid-cooled thermal compound was also removed in favor of a direct CPU cooler.

Microsoft now officially owns ZeniMax Media, which includes Bethesda and a ton of other studios. So what's next? How will Microsoft leverage these studios and IP treasure troves to bolster its business?

On paper, the Microsoft x Bethesda buyout is a match made in heaven. The two companies have a mix of singleplayer and live-based games set in blockbuster IPs. They've been working together for almost two decades, stretching all the way back to the Morrowind days, and Bethesda's teams are innovative while Microsoft has significant game-making APIs, tools, and frameworks.

The business rationale is likewise appealing. Microsoft has spent years developing a cross-platform service infrastructure that binds PCs and consoles together, and set up a billion-dollar digital empire centered around a cohesive network. Now that the foundation is built, Microsoft needs content--a lot of content. That's why it bought Bethesda, who commands over 10 mega-hit franchises.

Microsoft now officially owns ZeniMax Media, and has access to all IPs as well as Bethesda Softworks. So what's next? A new video presentation set for this Thursday should reveal more on what's to come.

One of the games industry's most high-profile acquisitions has just closed. Microsoft has purchased ZeniMax for $7.5 billion and will soon share its plans on the next move. Sources tell VentureBeat's Jeff Grubb that Microsoft will hold a presentation this Thursday, March 11 to highlight more details.

Today's confirmation from Microsoft did outline some of its immediate plans. More Bethesda games are coming to Game Pass, for one, and for two, Microsoft also confirmed some of ZeniMax's upcoming titles will be exclusive to Xbox and PC. Again, we don't know which ones, but the truth is Microsoft and Bethesda have been pretty close for years now (the studio provided critical feedback for the Xbox Series X, and has been partnered with Xbox since the early 2000s).

Microsoft officially confirms some of Bethesda's new titles will be exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, and kept off of the PlayStation platform.

Today Microsoft announced it has acquired ZeniMax Media and all of its subsidiaries, which includes eight studios (Bethesda Game Studios, id Software, ZeniMax Online Studios, Arkane, MachineGames, Tango Gameworks, Alpha Dog, and Roundhouse Studios). Content and IP were the major motivations for the $7.5 billion buyout, and Microsoft plans to add value to the Xbox ecosystem by making certain games exclusive to both Xbox consoles and PC.

"As we shared previously, it's vitally important that Bethesda continues making games the way it always has. We look forward to empowering Bethesda's creative teams to reach even more players around the world, helping make future Bethesda titles the biggest and most popular games in their history. Xbox and Bethesda have long shared a common vision for the future of gaming. Both as fans and as creators, Bethesda understands the potential of Xbox Game Pass," Phil Spencer said in the announcement.

Some countries around the world are dealing with hyperinflation, and one, in particular, is now introducing a million-dollar note.

That country is Venezuela, and according to a statement from the country's central bank, new 200,000, 500,000, and 1,000,000 bills are soon going to be printed. According to Bloomberg, around 66% of "transactions across the country are (now) estimated to be made in foreign currency." Additionally, the New York Post states that most citizens in Venezuela are actually "turning to the U.S. dollar for everyday transactions".

The President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, has said that Venezuela will eventually become the world's first fully digital economy. In the last year, Venezuela has seen a staggering increase in its inflation, which has reached a ridiculous high of 3,000% in 2020. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

There is something quite creepy about abandoned cities and towns, and there is even something creepier when they are photographed frozen in time.

One photographer took a drone to a once population coal-mining town called Vorkuta, which is just north of the Arctic Circle. The town is now abandoned and has been completely frozen in time, with buildings covered in snow and ice. The temperatures there are as low as 60 degrees below zero and can even drop below 60 in the winter months.

The photographer behind these incredible shots is Maria Passer, who is based in Moscow. Maria traveled to the eerie town and captured several birds-eye-view images, which can be seen above and below. Maria explained to CNN, "To attract miners to live in hard climate conditions the salaries here were really good. It's really a tragedy that many people have to leave their houses and to go to live somewhere else. But these locations, they have an abandoned beauty. I'm trying to see this, and to show this, in my pictures."

Pico Interactive recently raised $37 million in a Series B+ financing round, ensuring the company has the capital on hand to launch its third-generation 6-DoF standalone VR headset. The company plans to launch the Pico Neo 3 in the next few months.

Pico Interactive is a small VR headset maker that largely caters to the VR industry's business side. The company makes standalone VR headsets that are used in corporate training simulations and medical applications. Pico does sell to consumers in China, but it doesn't have a consumer presence outside of the country.

With Pico's newly acquired investment, the company plans to put a larger focus on its consumer market. Pico's next headset, the Neo 3, is set to launch sometime in Q2 2021, and the company wants to capture a bigger slice of the booming consumer VR market in China.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is still 10 days away and yet the movie "accidentally" debuted on HBO Max when users searched and tried to stream 'Tom & Jerry'.

Streaming Tom & Jerry on HBO Max surprised viewers with an early viewing of Zack Snyder's Justice League, but what happened? HBO Max parent company WarnerMedia explained in a statement: "Zack Snyder's Justice League was temporarily available on HBO Max and the error was addressed within minutes".

The movie was then made available in various sources across the internet, but it took many hours before Warner Bros. responded and in the end Twitter sent takedown notices on behalf of Warner Bros. to Twitter users who were sharing screenshots from the leaked Zack Snyder's Justice League movie.

SpaceX has some world-leading technology with its Starlink internet service already up and in lower earth orbit offering satellite internet access to regular users. But the plans are much more vast for Starlink according to Elon Musk.

In a recent SpaceX filing with the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) where it was requesting permission to install internet terminals on moving vehicles. This is where Tesla, SpaceX boss and Dogecoin enthusiast Elon Musk tweeted out: "Not connecting Tesla cars to Starlink, as our terminal is much too big. This is for aircraft, ships, large trucks & RVs".

SpaceX director of satellite policy David Goldman wrote to the FCC, where he said: "This application would serve the public interest by authorizing a new class of ground-based components for SpaceX's satellite system that will expand the range of broadband capabilities available to moving vehicles throughout the United States and to moving vessels and aircraft worldwide".

MSI has just very quietly introduced two new custom GeForce RTX 3080 graphics cards, with the new MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING Z TRIO and MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING TRIO PLUS variants.

The new MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING Z TRIO is now the new flagship GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card from MSI in their GAMING range (not the SUPRIM range) with its GPU boosted up by another 15MHz over the MSI GeForce RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO -- now sitting at a factory overclocked 1830MHz. It'll be interesting to see if manually overclocking the GAMING Z TRIO against the GAMING X TRIO is any different.

MSI has also added some subtle venting on the backplate of the card, and it's also thinner and lighter than the MSI RTX 3080 GAMING X TRIO. That's welcomed and all, but unless properly explained on the box it will go unnoticed -- and who knows if there will be review samples of this (email has been fired off already).

We've seen a GeForce RTX 3070 modded from 8GB to 16GB and even a GeForce RTX 3090 modded to work on an M.2 slot inside of a laptop -- but now a GeForce RTX 3070 has been modded with 16GB of VRAM and it works.

Russian modder VIK-on is behind the mod once again, with a video that shows how he upgraded his NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 from its stock 8GB of GDDR6 memory up to a much better 16GB of GDDR6 memory and it works without a problem. VIK-on used the custom Palit GamingPro GeForce RTX 3070 graphics card for this mod.

He replaced the 1GB GDDR6 modules (K4Z803256C-HC14) that are made with Samsung with 2GB GDDR6 (K4ZAF3258M-HC14) also from Samsung, doubling the 8GB of GDDR6 on the GeForce RTX 3070 up to 16GB. Pretty awesome stuff right there.

AMD has announced it will be officially launching its next-gen Zen 3-based EPYC processors on March 15, with an all-new all-digital reveal event.

The new 3rd Gen EPYC processors are based on the latest Zen 3 architecture, and will succeed the current 2nd Gen EPYC processors that are powered by the Zen 2 architecture. AMD will have a heap of models, with 19 new EPYC processors to be rolled out over the coming months.

The flagship AMD EPYC 7763 is a beast, packing 64 cores and 128 threads with a base CPU clock of 2.45GHz and boost CPU clock of 3.5GHz with 256MB of L3 cache and a 280W TDP. There are plenty of other models, with CPU and thread counts ranging down from there.

Zack Snyder's Justice League is less than 10 days away if you can believe it, with Snyder and HBO Max dropping individual character teases with seconds of new footage in each trailer. Check out the official trailer to Zack Snyder's Justice League before that, and below I have the individual trailers and character posters.

The team have been slowly releasing character trailers leading into the release of Zack Snyder's Justice League on March 18 where it will debut and I'm sure break many records on HBO Max. We started with Batman, and went right into the beautiful black suit Superman, then Aquaman and The Flash and today Wonder Woman.

Zack Snyder has referred to Cyborg as "the heart" of the movie, so it's fitting that his individual video has been left until last. Every single video has given me goosebumps, I've literally cried in a couple of them with pure happiness and geeking out, but holy f***ing shit this is looking absolutely phenomenal.

Elder Scrolls Online kicks off its new Gates of Oblivion story arc with its first major DLC, Flames of Ambition, which is out now on PC. Here's what you need to know.

The gates of Oblivion have opened anew, and Molag Bal is back for revenge. The new Flames of Ambition DLC for Elder Scrolls Online starts the epic year-long Gates of Oblivion story arc, which will be spun in four major expansions across 2021.

The big selling point of the Flames of Ambition DLC is its two new dungeons, The Cauldron and Black Drake Villa, both of which come with four new gearsets apiece (check below for full stats).