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ASUS unleashes GeForce RTX 3060 Phoenix: 2.5-slot single-fan cooler
ASUS has unveiled its latest custom GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card with the introduction of the new GeForce RTX 3060 Phoenix -- with its interesting, and super-small single-fan design.
The new ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 Phoenix graphics card is wider and taller than the ASUS GeForce RTX 3060 DUAL with measurements on the Phoenix coming in at 20 x 12.3 x 3.8 cm while the DUAL measures in at 17.7 x 12.8 x 5.1 cm. ASUS has revealed the non-OC version with the model PH-RTX3060-12G rocking a reference GPU boost clock of 1777MHz.
ASUS does however list an OC model that can be pushed through its own GPU Tweak software, up to 1807MHz or so -- identical to the DUAL series card. The PCB layout seems to be identical between the ASUS Phoenix and ASUS DUAL custom GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card offerings with the same backplate used as well -- we have a single 8-pin PCIe power connector to power the card, too.
Continue reading: ASUS unleashes GeForce RTX 3060 Phoenix: 2.5-slot single-fan cooler (full post)
Yeah, there's now a Big Mac graphics card... in GeForce RTX 3060 form
I don't even know what to say, but there's now a Big Mac graphics card -- and I kinda want it.
Chinese company MaxSun has unveiled their new GeForce RTX 3060 Big Mac graphics card, which has nothing to do with McDonalds and is just a weirdly-named graphics card from a Chinese company that will probably never be seen outside of China or the Asia-Pacific markets.
MaxSun's new GeForce RTX 3060 Big Mac is a cheap custom GeForce RTX 3060 that is teeny-tiny, with the card using the reference PG190A board from NVIDIA and a semi-custom design when it comes to the cooler used. It's a smaller dual-slot card with the same GA106 GPU and 3584 CUDA cores and 12GB of GDDR6 memory that the other GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards have.
Continue reading: Yeah, there's now a Big Mac graphics card... in GeForce RTX 3060 form (full post)
Intel's new Core i9-11900K has already been overclocked to 7GHz
Intel's new Core i9-11900K has been pushed to an insane 7GHz with exotic LN2 cooling and a huge 1.873V running through the new flagship Rocket Lake-S processor.
The new Intel Core i9-11900K processor was used in an ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Apex motherboard, and pushed to its absolute limits with LN2 cooling. The CPU was pushed to 7048MHz with a mind boggling 1.873 volts, with 'ROG Fisher' taking all of the 3 top overclocking records on the CPU-Z validation website.
That's not the only overclocked Core i9-11900K processor we have to talk about today, with Indian YouTube channel PC Wale pushing his Core i9-11900K chip to 6.5GHz on the ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero motherboard. PC Wale also used LN2 cooling on the overclocked 11900K processor.
Continue reading: Intel's new Core i9-11900K has already been overclocked to 7GHz (full post)
Report: CD Projekt had trouble defining Cyberpunk 2077 from the get-go
Cyberpunk 2077 is a mish-mash of multiple genres, systems, and mechanics that're a bit confusing to decipher. It was just as tough for CD Projekt RED developers.
Gamers often note Cyberpunk 2077 feels disjointed; is it a Witcher 3-level RPG? An action-paced shooter-looter? Or an immersive open-world sim like GTA? All three? CD Projekt developers reportedly had a similarly tough time outlining Cyberpunk 2077's main scope.
In a recent interview with The Washington Post's Launcher, Bloomberg's Jason Schreier says that sources familiar with CD Projekt's development cycle weren't exactly clear on what Cyberpunk was.
Continue reading: Report: CD Projekt had trouble defining Cyberpunk 2077 from the get-go (full post)
BioWare chief of staff Jonathan Warner leaves studio
Anthem director and chief of staff Jonathan Warner has left BioWare, marking the 9th higher-profile developer to depart the studio in the last 4 years.
Last Friday, Jonathan Warner announced he was leaving BioWare. Warner had been part of BioWare's core teams for nearly a decade, working on games like Anthem and Mass Effect 3. Warner also served as BioWare chief of staff for over 1 year and helped guide the studio during a critical transition point.
On Twitter, Warner says big franchises like Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars are all in safe hands. "So, today is my last day at BioWare, I'm moving on to do new things. BioWare has been home to my grateful heart for nearly 10 years and I want to wish them all the best. DA ME and SWTOR are in good hands and I can't wait to play from this side of the screen," Warner said.
Continue reading: BioWare chief of staff Jonathan Warner leaves studio (full post)
Sony to pay unionized workers bonuses worth 7 months of salary
Sony plans to dole out record bonuses to unionized employees, news site NHK Japan reports.
Sony expects to earn over $10 billion in net profits this year, and the company plans to share its record FY2021 profits with employees. According to recent reports, Sony will pay its unionized workers a bonus that's equivalent to 7-months salary. Unions had previously asked for a bonus worth roughly 6.9 months' of pay in negotiations with Sony.
According to a recent Form 20-F filed with the SEC, 13% of Sony's employees are members of labor unions. As of the end of 2020, Sony had 114,400 employees, so roughly 14,872 workers were unionized in the timeframe. NHK notes that this is the first time in 20 years that Sony has issued such a large bonus payout.
Continue reading: Sony to pay unionized workers bonuses worth 7 months of salary (full post)
Warframe loading times cut in half on PS5 thanks to memory tweaks
Digital Extremes reveals tons of new content coming to Warframe next month, including PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X optimizations.
Warframe's anticipated Update 30: Call of the Tempestarii will bring new content like the new Warframe Sevagoth and a few quests. Also coming with Update 30 is next-gen upgrades on PS5, Xbox Series X and Series S systems. Thanks to a new memory allocation thread tweak, and Sony's custom 12-channel PCIe 4.0 SSD, PS5 load times have been cut in half. It's all coming in April, the developer says.
"April is also our launch month for the next-generation Xbox build of Warframe. That will include Update 30. So if you play on Xbox Series X or S you will be, in April, receiving Update 30 and the next-gen build,"live ops and community director Rebecca Ford said in a new developer update (full video below).
Continue reading: Warframe loading times cut in half on PS5 thanks to memory tweaks (full post)
Death Stranding 2 or Kojima's new horror game might be revealed soon
Hideo Kojima's next game should be revealed soon, Kojima Productions art lead Yoji Shinkawa says. What could it be?
In a recent interview with AI Hub, Yoji Shinkawa says he's working on something new and that it could be announced in the coming months. "Well yeah, I am doing something, for sure, and I could tell you probably that we can announce it quite soon," said Shinkawa.
It's likely Shinkawa is referring to Hideo Kojima's next game. Yoji Shinkawa has worked on over a dozen Metal Gear Solid games in collaboration with Hideo Kojima, and was one of the first to follow Kojima when he left Konami in 2015. That was six years ago, and Shinkawa has been a part of Kojima Productions ever since.
Continue reading: Death Stranding 2 or Kojima's new horror game might be revealed soon (full post)
This guy modded his Nintendo Game Boy and is mining Bitcoin on it
I still remember owning a Nintendo Game Boy but I never thought I'd be writing an article explaining how someone has modded their Game Boy and is now crypto mining Bitcoin from it. Yes, you read that right -- this guy has modded his Game Boy and is mining Bitcoin on it for real -- check it out:
You can't just turn the Nintendo Game Boy on and start mining Bitcoin, as there is no internet connection -- so first, you'll need the Raspberry Pi Pico which acts as a link cable to USB adapter. This is plugged into a PC which gives the Nintendo Game Boy an internet connection which is required for cryptocurrency mining, or else you wouldn't be able to mine Bitcoin from your Game Boy, of course!
There are a few more steps required before you can get Bitcoin mining on your Game Boy, but when it does Nintendo's portable game console is capable of pumping out 0.8 hashes per second, which when compared to a current-gen ASIC miner which pumps out around 100 terahashes per second... the GameBoy is 125 trillion -- or 125,000,000,000,000x slower than the current-gen ASIC miner.
Continue reading: This guy modded his Nintendo Game Boy and is mining Bitcoin on it (full post)
Mount the Vive Facial Tracker to any VR headset with this bracket
HTC designed the new Vive Facial Tracker accessory exclusively for the company's Vive Pro lineup of headsets. Still, as soon as reviewers and developers got their hands-on the hardware, they mounted the face tracker to all sorts of headsets. HTC quickly moved to support the VR community.
The Vive Facial Tracker is an exciting advancement in immersive gaming. The device tracks the movement of your mouth, cheeks, and tongue and the accompanying software maps those movements to your virtual avatar. When HTC revealed the Vive Facial Tracker, the company said it would only work with the Vive Pro. That, however, is only half true. The tracker will work with any device; it's just designed to attach to the Vive Pro's outer structure.
Several people have created custom mounting solutions to pair the tracker with headsets, such as the Oculus Quest 2 or the Valve Index. After seeing the VR community's ingenuity and their excitement for the facial tracker, HTC decided to release a 3D CAD file to help more enterprising creators design more effective mounting solutions.
Continue reading: Mount the Vive Facial Tracker to any VR headset with this bracket (full post)
How to Make a Video File Smaller - Compress and More
We'd prefer HDR 4K and 8K videos for the extremely realistic visual experience. But without exception, many of us are deterred away by the large file size. This is not only a big challenge for our computers and smartphones, but also for online sharing and even for post video editing.
For example, a 5-min 4K 30fps video shot by iPhone takes up 1.75GB (850MB). Obviously, it is impossible to share this video via Facebook Massager or emails like Outlook, Gmail, and Yahoo Mail as it's much larger than the maximum supported size, 25MB. What's worse, with many large videos on your iPhone or laptop, you cannot download one more app and face annoying issues like quit, crash, and freeze.
And that's why we come to solve your problems with VideoProc, an all-in-one desktop program. But in the first place, I think you should know what factors are affecting the video file size.
Continue reading: How to Make a Video File Smaller - Compress and More (full post)
Microsoft in 'advanced talks' to buy Discord for $10b as soon as April
Microsoft is eager to buy PC chat platform Discord and is currently in advanced acquisition discussions, sources tell The Wall Street Journal.
Microsoft could finalize a deal to purchase Discord as early as next month, sources tell WSJ. The deal could cost Microsoft over $10 billion, a substantial sum that re-affirms the company's commitment to gaming during a time of record-breaking industry earnings.
The Discord buyout follows Microsoft's recent acquisition of ZeniMax media and all of its studios and IPs for $7.5 billion, the second-largest games industry purchase in history. Microsoft will likely use Discord to power its Xbox party chat infrastructure and help better unify its cross-platform PC-and-console ecosystem.
Continue reading: Microsoft in 'advanced talks' to buy Discord for $10b as soon as April (full post)
Assassin's Creed Black Flag scriptwriter Darby McDevitt leaves Ubisoft
aOver the past decade, Darby McDevitt has helped shape the stories of Assassin's Creed. Now he's moving on to a "new adventure."
As narrative lead at Ubisoft Montreal, Darby McDevitt has spent 10 years weaving historical fact with engaging fiction. McDevitt helped pen some of the most memorable games in the Assassin's Creed franchise; he was narrative director on Valhalla, and lead scriptwriter on Black Flag, and Revelations, helping create unique characters like Edward Kenway and Eivor Wolf-Kissed.
Now McDevitt is moving on. The dev recently announced his departure from Ubisoft Montreal on Twitter and said a new adventure awaits...but we don't know exactly what he's referring to. Given the pedigree of his past works, it's likely that McDevitt won't leave the games industry entirely.
Continue reading: Assassin's Creed Black Flag scriptwriter Darby McDevitt leaves Ubisoft (full post)
Call of Duty 2021 takes place in WW2, Activision expects lower sales
This year's Call of Duty is called Vanguard and returns to the franchise's World War II roots, sources tell Eurogamer.
Activision has conscripted Sledgehammer Games to develop 2021's Call of Duty game, which will be set in World War II. Contrary to recent reports, the game won't follow an alternate history set in a 1950s timeline where WWII never ended. Instead, the game will be more traditional, sources tell Eurogamer's Wesley Yin-Poole.
Sledgehammer is being re-entrusted with the franchise after supporting Black Ops Cold War's development, and the news follows a substantial 100-worker expansion across its Australia- and California-based studios.
Continue reading: Call of Duty 2021 takes place in WW2, Activision expects lower sales (full post)
Back 4 Blood puts a spin on zombie survival with roguelite card system
Back 4 Blood brings back Left 4 Dead's original Director game mode with a unique twist.
Turtle Rock's new zombie FPS gore-fest Back 4 Blood will make use of an evolved form of L4D's classic Director gametype. The mode is basically like a randomized Firefight map with weapons and enemies strewn throughout by an AI bot. Turtle Rock is making one big change by adding in some Magic The Gathering-style card mechanics.
There's two sides to Back 4 Blood's new Corruption Cards: Ones the director selects, and ones players use while fighting. Director cards are detrimental things like enemy spawn types and in-game challenge activities. Players, on the other hand, get to buff their team with handy bonuses like extra health, ammo, and other things.
Continue reading: Back 4 Blood puts a spin on zombie survival with roguelite card system (full post)
New Axiom Verge 2 details: Standalone prequel, protagonist revealed
Thomas Happ reveals more details on Axiom Verge 2 in the recent Future Games Show event.
The mystery of Axiom Verge 2 is slowly peeling away, and now we know the game is actually a prequel set before the original game. It's also a standalone experience that doesn't require players to beat (or even play) Axiom Verge 1.
"I eventually decided to break down the story of Axiom Verge into multiple parts, with multiple perspectives, each intended to be its own game," Happ said in the presentation.
Continue reading: New Axiom Verge 2 details: Standalone prequel, protagonist revealed (full post)
Titanfall titans and wall running seem to be coming to Apex Legends
Since Apex Legends' release, gamers have been wondering if titans from the Titanfall franchise will ever make it into EA's battle royale. Well, it might just happen.
Dataminer Biast12, who is known for finding Season 7's new legend Horizon before the release, has found something quite interesting in the game files. Biast12 posted what was found to Twitter, and as you can see from the above video, the new character Blisk has an ultimate called "Standby for Titanfall". Upon using the ultimate, the player can summon a titan from the Titanfall series to provide covering fire to an area.
Additionally, we also have gotten a look at Blisk's abilities, and from the provided screenshot that can be found below, we can learn that Blisk's passive is a Pilot Kit. This passive has been taken straight out of Titanfall and provides Blisk with the ability to hack Survey Beacons and also wall run. Blisk's tactical ability allows him to create a damaging zone that is powered by the arena's ring. It should be noted that none of these leaks have been confirmed by Respawn, so take them with a grain of salt.
Continue reading: Titanfall titans and wall running seem to be coming to Apex Legends (full post)
Samsung reveals industry first HKMG-based 512GB DDR5 memory module
Samsung has just announced it has made the world's first 512GB DDR5 memory module, using High-K Metal Gate (HKMG) process technology.
We have 7200Mbps speed here with the DDR5 module, double the performance of DDR4 -- all while using 13% less power. Samsung says its DDR5 has lower leakage, more performance, and it's not even the first time the company has worked with HKMG material. Samsung used HKMG process technology in its GDDR6 memory back in 2018.
Samsung's new 512GB DDR5 memory module is using through-silicon via (TSV) technology in order to stack 8 x 16Gb DRAM chips. Don't expect DDR5 in your gaming PC anytime soon, as the first destinations for this next generation technology for cloud-based datacenters, big networking systems, AI, supercomputers, machine learning, and more.
Continue reading: Samsung reveals industry first HKMG-based 512GB DDR5 memory module (full post)
GameStop begins selling PC hardware, lists GeForce RTX 30 series cards
GameStop is about to step up and into the world of the PC hardware business, with the company announcing it would be expanding its reach and will begin selling graphics cards, gaming monitors and gaming TVs as well as the usual CPUs, motherboards, RAM, SSDs and everything else you need for a gaming PC.
The news comes directly from GameStop CEO George Sherman who said during their Tuesday earnings call that the company would be expanding its product offerings in a big way through PC hardware, saying: "This includes growing our product offerings across PC gaming, computers, monitors, game tables, mobile gaming, and gaming TVs to name only a few".
GameStop will be selling PC hardware and desktop PCs on its own dedicated page, but at the time of writing most of the products aren't available but I'm sure this will change as GameStop gets this all up and running. I don't think they'll have much graphics cards, well, I guess at all -- ever -- but we'll see how that goes over the next 6-12 months.
Continue reading: GameStop begins selling PC hardware, lists GeForce RTX 30 series cards (full post)
MSI to jack up prices of its GeForce and Radeon graphics cards soon
Sorry folks, MSI graphics cards are about to get more expensive -- and it'll be like that for most of 2021 and even into 2022 unfortunately -- and eventually (probably very soon) it'll be all of the other AIB partners making similar comments.
DigiTimes is reporting that MSI chairman Joseph Hsu said during an investors conference on March 23 that the demand for motherboards, graphics cards and gaming notebooks are "likely to stay robust for the rest of 2021 and each product line's shipments in 2021, after registering on-year increase between 30-50% in 2020, are expected to see double-digit growths again".
This isn't too much of a surprise given that we all know there are major GPU shortages worldwide, with even second hand prices getting out of control. It was only yesterday that I wrote that the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was launching in May and not April, and that GPU yields were very low. NVIDIA and AMD are shipping very low amounts of GPUs to AIB partners like MSI, that are now feeling that pinch -- and so will consumers with MSI and other AIBs increasing their baseline prices.
Continue reading: MSI to jack up prices of its GeForce and Radeon graphics cards soon (full post)





















