We have another picture of NVIDIA's new 12-pin PCIe power connector, something that I wrote will be exclusive to their own GeForce RTX 30 series Founders Edition cards according to my sources. The custom cards will feature 2-3 x 8-pin PCIe power connectors instead.

But now we have a trio of new images from Korean tech publication QuasarZone, which shows off the new Molex Micro-Fit 3.0 12-pin connector. The new 12-pin connector has smaller pins than the normal 8-pin PCIe power connectors, is slightly longer -- but much thinner, and there's only one of them versus 2-3 x required on other graphics cards.

The smaller 12-pin PCIe power connector will offer significantly more power than a traditional 8-pin PCIe power connector, which is what should make it special. We will know all about it during the September 1 reveal event for NVIDIA's next-gen GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards.

The White House has just announced a large $1 billion plan to build out over 12 federal research facilities, where they will have the sole task of researching AI (artificial intelligence) and quantum computing.

A few issues have plagued the US in these areas, with a lack of talent in AI and quantum information science -- and then the Trump administration stopping high-skilled H-1B visa holders from coming into the US. This move by the Trump administration wants to see the US stop from falling behind other countries.

AI and quantum computing is the future, with the Trump administration and White House concerned that the US falling behind could be a matter of national security. This is where the $1.2 billion National Quantum Initiative Act comes into play, with 5 of the new research centers inside of the Department of Energy gets $625 million to play with a bunch of exciting technologies.

If you want the very best in installing Windows 10 on your system, grabbing the ISO file and throwing it on a super-fast USB 3.0 flash drive can super-speed your Windows 10 installs.

Microsoft have released the very latest ISO files for the very latest version of Windows 10, with the Preview Build 20201 released today. If you are a Windows Insider in the Dev and Beta Channels, you can begin playing with Windows 10 2021 and 20H2 features with fresh installs from the new ISO files from Build 20201 and Build 19042.

Corsair's new Hydro Series hardline watercooling kits include everything you need to build your first custom liquid-cooling setup. You even get the tools to help you make it.

Corsair's new XH305i RGB or XH303i RGB custom cooling kits come fully equipped with all the components required to build an extraordinary computer. Each kit includes an XC7 RGB CPU water block, which is compatible with Intel 1200 and 115x CPUs, and AMD AM4 platform CPUs. Both kits also include an XR5 360mm radiator, which should offer ample cooling for all but the most extreme overlocks.

Where the two kits differ is in the pump and fans. The XH305i RGB features a strong Xylem D5 pump with PWM control, which is well suited for large, full-size loops. The XH303i RGB's XD3 DDC pump, however, is better for setups with short tube runs as it pushes less fluid per second than D5 models. The XH305i RGB also has a more extensive 330ml reservoir than the 180ml variant included with the XH303i RGB.

You might remember when id Software said that DOOM Eternal could handle 1000FPS, well -- someone has done just that, powered DOOM Eternal with enough PC grunt to power it at over 1000FPS.

Polish overclocking team 'x-kom' used an Intel Core i7-9700K processor and ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, both the CPU and GPU were cooled under LN2 -- and both were heavily overclocked. The Core i7-9700K was pushed to an insane 6.6GHz, while the ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2080 Ti was cranked all the way up to 2.4GHz under LN2 cooling.

The team built a pretty kick ass PC, specced out with:

Microsoft has teamed with Warner Bros. on some gorgeous new Wonder Woman 1984 themed Xbox One consoles, inspired by the Wonder Woman armor, lasso, and villain of the movie.

We have the slick Cheetah-themed console, with Cheetah / Barbara Minerva played by Kristen Wiig. This custom console looks great with a snakeskin pattern, some awesomely-used faux leopard fur, and a themed controller.

Next up we have the Golden Armor Xbox One X console, inspired from Gal Gadot's golden armor that she wears later on in Wonder Woman 1984. The console is made of 24-carat gold leaves, and packs a gorgeous matching Xbox controller.

TSMC has revealed some exciting stuff during its 2020 Technology Symposium, teasing its projections of its new CoWoS-S packaging technology.

This has allowed designers to come in and make gigantic, super-fast designs with bigger and bigger logic dies and layered stacks of HBM memory. One of the restrictions in pushing things even higher, and even crazier, is the interpose size limitation.

TSMC has said that it expects to have 4x reticle size in 2023 -- something that will enable 12 HBM stacks. Micron will have its HBMnext memory available in late 2022, which should super-power some next-gen GPUs and HPC systems with some truly mind-blowing memory bandwidth.

We are days out from NVIDIA's huge GeForce RTX 30 reveal event on September 1, with Jon Peddie Research detailing the latest GPU vendor market share, and discrete GPU market share numbers.

As you can see from JPR's new data, NVIDIA only secured more market share in the last 12 months -- where it had 71% of the discrete GPU market, and now have 80% of the discrete GPU market. AMD may have launched its RDNA-powered Radeon RX 5000 series cards in that time, but they've been bleeding market share ever since.

Back in Q2 2019, AMD had 29% of the discrete GPU market share while NVIDIA had 71% -- but the end of 2019 and first half of 2020 weren't good for AMD Radeon discrete market share. NVIDIA has just continued to take more and more, and we're about to head into next-gen GPUs... will these numbers change in 3-6-12 months?

GUNNAR has just revealed what they're referring to as the "holy grail" of gaming glasses, with their new GUNNAR Lightning Bolt 360 range of glasses. Check out the video they've just posted on YouTube:

The new Lightning Bolt 360 gaming glasses comes in 3 different editions, with the GUNNAR, 6 Siege, and ESL varieties. They are priced between $130 and $140 -- depending on the version you go for.

You do get a "unique lightning bolt design" that doesn't just look cool, it also takes pressure away from your temples. GUNNAR provides 3 different temple options, interchangeable lens (for both indoor, and outdoor use), 3 nose bridge sizes, and a protective case and pouch.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and its super-popular, and very addictive battle royale mode Warzone has just had its Season 5 drop -- and then Season 5 Reloaded out of nowhere.

But now we're hearing about some upcoming changes to Warzone, and the newly-introduced train that runs through Verdansk. Warzone multiplayer director Joe Cecot explained to Red Bull in a recent interview: "We have lots of ideas around [the train]. We wanted to get it in there in Season Five and have it be a fun thing to interact with, where you have a lot of movie moments of vehicles chasing trains, people fighting over the train, [that sort of thing]".

Raven Software creative director Amos Hodge chimed in, adding that the team is working on "lots of ideas to update the train in general". He added that the developer wants to add more "interactive elements" to Warzone, in order to keep the game stay frosty.

Treyarch confirms the new Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will fully harness the raw power of next-gen PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

Black Ops Cold War will be among the top-performing shooters on next-gen consoles and is being geared to tap the full potential of the new hardware. The next-gen 7nm Navi GPUs and Zen 2 CPUs will enable high-resolution, high-FPS gaming alongside instantaneous loading via new PCIe 4.0 SSD tech. There's also raytracing support baked in thanks to a newly revamped games engine built from the ground up for next-gen hardware.

"We want to make sure that the framerate is responsive, and that it feels like there's nothing on the technical side preventing you from having a good time,"Treyarch executive Dan Bunting told VentureBeat.

Thermaltake today announced the availability of 32GB and 64GB dual-channel Toughram RGB memory kits in 3200MHz and 3600MHz configurations. The kits are compatible with AMD and Intel's latest chipsets, including AMD's B550 and Intel's Z490.

Thermaltake's new memory features a high-quality ten-layer PCB design, and the company said it uses "strictly selected" Hynix A-die 2GB memory chips to produce Toughram modules. The 32GB kits include dual 16GB modules, whereas the 64GB models offer 32GB per stick. Thermaltake is not currently offering 4-stick configurations, although you could combine two sets for double the memory capacity.

As the name suggests, the new Thermaltake Toughram RGB modules include RGB LEDs that allow you to customize your system's appearance.

Ever the trendsetter in the games industry, Activision's new $69.99 price hike for next-gen PS5, Xbox Series X games could convince other publishers to raise prices too.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War should be the biggest game of 2020, and it'll be sold at a $69.99 premium on next-gen consoles. This is just the beginning for Activision's future games and we should expect its new next-gen titles to also jump by $10.

Call of Duty is among the biggest franchises in gaming and typically sets the bar for imitation--whether it's gametypes like Warzone or its billion-dollar live service business models, publishers are always trying to mimic the company's success. This imitation should extend to next-gen game pricing.

Activision revealed cross-gen SKUs of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and confirmed the finalized Xbox Series X game case design. It's kind of confusing, but luckily it doesn't matter if consumers get them mixed up.

The final Xbox Series X game cases are pretty similar to the basic Xbox One cases--so similar that everyday consumers may buy the wrong version. The next-gen case design in question is for the newly-revealed Black Ops Cold War. The next-gen Xbox Series X version comes with the Xbox One version by default so there's no worry of a mix-up.

The cross-gen cases are similar but have some differences. Namely the Xbox Series X label in the upper right, and the next-gen console is listed first on the Xbox Series X version, whereas Xbox One version has the current-gen console first. Now here's what's confusing: Activision says physical disc versions of Cold War on Xbox One won't include a free upgrade on Xbox Series X. That upgrade is exclusive for digital versions of the Xbox One port, and it'll cost you $10 extra to unlock.

Sony has now opened up pre-order registrations for the PS5, but no pricing has been revealed.

Sony is now accepting pre-order registrations on the PlayStation website and you can sign up with your chance to grab a console when they go on sale. All you have to do is enter your PlayStation Network ID and you may receive a notification once pre-orders are live. This is a reservation for a pre-order slot for a console directly from Sony's online storefront, and not an actual pre-order of the console itself.

Not everyone who registers will be selected. Quantities are limited, and you'll only have a certain amount of time to pre-order before your reservation slot expires.

Halo: Infinite now has three third-party developers working on it: Sperasoft, Skybox Labs, and the newly announced Certain Affinity.

Today Certain Affinity announced that it's helping 343i make Halo: Infinite, and is now the third team to assist with the ambitious project. Certain Affinity, whose efforts with Halo stretch all the way back to Halo 2's map packs, has been working on Halo: Infinite since December 2019. The team is presumably working on Infinite's online multiplayer.

"Halo Infinite has huge long-term ambitions, while also giving a respectful nod to the franchise's past. This is an exciting combination. Given our own deep roots and long-time connections to the series, we couldn't be more excited to help 343 realize this vision," said Certain Affinity president Max Hoberman.

As we predicted long ago, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War will unify cross-play, cross-progression, and cross-generational play to become the industry's most engaging game.

Black Ops Cold War represents the perfect storm of engagement. Today Activision announced Call of Duty 2020, and it's built around maximum billion-dollar monetization potential: Black Ops Cold War will feature the triumvirate of earnings, complete with cross-play, cross-progression, and cross-gen support.

Read Also: Black Ops Cold War next-gen upgrades cost $10 in new cross-gen plan

Activision isn't offering a free next-gen upgrade path for Black Ops Cold War. Instead, it's selling a cross-gen version for $69.99 that includes a copy of the game across both generations.

Current-gen gamers will have two options in buying the new Call of Duty on next-gen consoles. First there's a $69.99 Cross-Gen bundle on both the PlayStation Store and the Microsoft Store, which includes both a PS4 or Xbox One copy of the game and a free PS5 and Xbox Series X version when it launches

Anyone who buys the base PS4 and Xbox One game for $59.99 can also upgrade to the next-gen version for $10. This is the exact same cross-gen upgrade plan Activision had with the Xbox 360/PS3 to Xbox One/PS4 generational shift.

Ultraleap today announced that it partnered with Qualcomm to make hand tracking a staple feature of the Snapdragon XR2 5G Reference design headset. The multi-year deal all but guarantees that future standalone VR and AR headsets will support intuitive hand tracked interactions.

Ultraleap's fifth-generation hand-tracking technology, dubbed Gemini, will come pre-integrated in Qualcomm's XR2 5G reference platform. Qualcomm's reference design is available to hardware manufacturers to help design standalone XR (VR and AR) devices, like Oculus's Quest headset.

"Qualcomm Technologies recognizes the importance of high-precision hand tracking in order to revolutionize interaction in XR. The compatibility of our technology with the Snapdragon XR2 5G Platform will make the process of designing hand tracking within a very wide variety of products as simple as pick and place," said Steve Cliffe, CEO of Ultraleap. "Qualcomm Technologies is in the position to bring transformation to XR by making state-of-the-art technologies - including 5G and spatial computing - available to a broad market. We are proud to be at the forefront of this fast-growing ecosystem alongside them."

A new recap video from Digital Foundry warns gamers not to expect next-gen PS5, Xbox Series X games to load in a blink of an eye at launch.

Both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X feature high-end PCIe 4.0 SSDs that can blast data, assets, and content across a high-speed IO pipeline right to system memory. The storage tech is one of the single most exciting innovations that can transform how games are played. But for this to happen, developers must change how their games are made first.

Next-gen games must be built from the ground up to work with this new SSD pipeline, and rest assured that both Sony and Microsoft are indeed doing so. Ratchet and Clank A Rift Apart, for example, destroys loading times on PS5.