Latest News - Page 1627

A super hot new rumor starts the week with news that Intel will be using a new LGA1700 socket for its Alder Lake-S platform, with the LGA1700 socket to take a battle against AMD's next-gen AM5 socket in the future.

The new rumor sees Alder Lake-S succeeding Comet Lake-S, with the LGA1700 being a new socket that will reportedly support 3 new Intel CPU generations. It will feature a big core / small core architecture, and is rumored to feature Golden Cove / Gracemont cores. The news is coming from Lit-Tech, a Taiwanese-based manufacturer that handles Voltage Regulator Testing Tools for the Asian market.

The website lists unreleased architectures like the Ice Lake-S/H and Tiger Lake-H, but the news of LGA1700 isn't new. Earlier on in the year in January 2020, Komachi_Ensaka teased on Twitter of the new Intel LGA1700 socket.

Unreal Engine 4 has never looked better than it does right now, with Dekogon Studios revealing some rather incredible pieces in its portfolio of Unreal Engine 4-based environments. Check it out:

This one is a 90s high school science class room and it looks absolutely stunning. The team at Dekagon Studios built each asset for "realistic AAA quality visuals, style, and budget". It features a huge library of 461 Meshes, high quality and fidelity textures of up to 2K, fully baked lighting, and it's optimized for games.

Seriously, the detail right down to the crinkles that are on the paper on the poster of the planets on the back wall is just so damn good.

Intel is expected to drop its new 10th generation Core processors on May 20, but between now and then we have some exciting benchmarks from the mid-range Core i5-10400.

The new Core i5-10400 processor has been benchmarked by Chinese review channel Bilibili, TecLab. They have tested Intel's new Core i5-10400 processor against the current-gen Core i5-9400F and Core i7-9700F, with the new Core i5-10400 packing quite the punch in its 6-core/12-thread CPU.

The Intel Core i5-10400 is a 6C/12T processor, up from the 6C/6T in the Core i5-9400 (which doesn't have SMT, whereas all 10th-gen CPUs have SMT). The Core i5-10400 has a base CPU clock of 2.9GHz, single-core boost of 4.3GHz, and all-core boost of 4GHz. There's 12MB of cache on the Core i5-10400, with a price of just $182. You're looking at least double for the Core i7-9700F.

AMD is ramping up production of the 7nm custom Navi- and Zen 2-powered SoCs used in next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles.

Both Microsoft and Sony plan to ship their next-gen Xbox Series X and PS5 consoles on time in Holiday 2020, and mass production of each system's custom Zen 2 CPU and Navi GPU-powered SoCs will soon begin to make it happen. In a recent earnings report, AMD CEO Lisa Su confirmed production will start in Q2 2020 (April - June) in preparation for next-gen console launches later this year.

The company expects Q2 revenues to increase as Microsoft and Sony place high-volume chip orders ahead of launch, and then semi-custom earnings to spike further as both companies rev up for 2021 console supply. Sony and Microsoft make the orders 1-2 quarters ahead of time. Hardware availability may be constrained, however: Sony, in particular, plans to ship 5-6 million PlayStation 5 consoles in 2020, down 1-2 million units from the PS4's launch in 2013.

E3 2020 might be dead, but the annual EA Play show is continuing as a digital-based stream, and you should be excited.

Today EA confirmed its EA Play event will go live on June 11, 2020. This show could be a pretty big deal for Electronic Arts. The company is working on a number of high-profile games right now, all of which could be enhanced for next-gen consoles. EA plans to ship 8 major AAA games between 2020 and 2021: four sports games, and four "other titles that draw from the breadth of our IP."

Many of these tantalizing projects are a ways off (Battlefield 6, for example, won't be ready until 2021), but we could see some teasers, announcements, and/or gameplay. Dragon Age 4 was shown off at The Game Awards 2018 so it's high time for some fresh info.

id Software finally speaks out on the big Doom Eternal soundtrack controversy and sets the record straight.

Fans aren't happy with id and Bethesda right now, and it all stems from a fallout between Doom OST creator Mick Gordon and id. The consensus is Bethesda shafted Mick Gordon by mixing his tracks and "ruining" the OST. But the real story is far more involved, and the truth is not any one person is to blame. id Software executive producer Marty Stratton reveals what actually happened and why.

According to Stratton, id's relationship with Gordon is quite complicated. Gordon is the reason for the soundtrack's delay. The rocker requested a 4-week extension, which ended up turning into a 6-week extension, and id was concerned the deadline wouldn't be hit. So Mick suggested a team-up with id's audio designer to help fill in the tracks. id didn't butcher Gordon's OST. The truth is, Gordon's OST wasn't actually finished in time, and had to depend on tracks and content created by id's lead audio designer.

If Nintendo won't do it, modders will: Mario 64 has been ported to the PC with full native 4K resolution support, ultra-wide monitor support, and ultra-smooth animations.

Remember when 64 bits and polygons were all the rage? Now that classic era has been reborn in high-end PCs, and skilled modders have successfully ported Mario 64 onto PC with Unreal Engine 4. This isn't emulation like the Super Mario Odyssey 64 mod, but a literal native port that uses reverse-engineered decompiled code from the N64 game. The project was built in Unreal Engine 4 with DirectX 12 support, which allows for high resolutions like 3840 x 2160, support for 21:9 aspect ratios, and compatibility with other graphics overhaul mods and shaders.

The results are smooth animations, high-def textures and graphics (even if they're polygonal), and a generally all-around improved experience. If Nintendo officially released Mario 64 on PC, it'd look and play something like this.

A key feature of the current generation Apple Watch wearable is its ECG function that has discovered heart conditions in people all around the world who had no idea they had the condition. Recently, an 80-year-old woman in Germany was warned of a heart condition by her Apple Watch that the hospital had missed in an ECG that was performed previously. The woman had visited the hospital at the University Medical Center Mainz of Johannes Gutenberg University in Germany with what the medical team called "typical angina symptoms."

The woman had experienced situations where she almost lost consciousness due to the reduced flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. The woman had previously been diagnosed with arterial hypertension, paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, and she previously had a pulmonary embolism. Doctors at the hospital ordered a 12-Channel ECG, which didn't see any evidence of ischemia, which is a restriction in blood vessels that can restrict the blood supply.

The medical staff was reportedly convinced that the woman had some sort of issue due to previous ectopic heartbeat episodes that were recorded using the ECG function of her Apple Watch. The physicians opted to treat the woman based on the recordings that the Apple Watch made. In a nutshell, the Apple Watch was able to diagnose an issue that the hospital's equipment didn't find.

Streets of Rage 4 is local co-op only on GOG.com, and won't get online functionality, developer LizardCube confirms.

Streets of Rage 4 is all the rage right now, and there's tons of places to buy it. But if you want to play online with friends, you'll probably want to avoid the GOG version. The game is offline-only on GOG and can only played singleplayer or via local co-op. The devs say online play with friends simply won't be added to the game: "Hello, unfortunately the GOG version of the game won't be supporting online features," LizardCube wrote on Twitter.

The GOG storefront listing warns players about the missing online features, which is great, but it also hints online functionality could be added later on. "Please note that at this time, the DRM-Free version supports local co-op only with up to 4 players. The 2-player online mode is not available," reads the GOG storefront listing.

When it comes to gaming, there aren't nearly as many options out there for Mac users as there are for Windows users. One of the bright spots for Mac gaming has been Steam, with some of the games offered there supporting Mac operating systems. Mac users who want to enjoy VR games had SteamVR to take advantage of, but that is changing.

Valve recently posted a very terse announcement on the Steam Community forums that SteamVR has ended macOS support. The announcement says that support has ended for Mac computers to allow the team to focus on Windows and Linux development. SteamVR is recommending that macOS users continue to opt into the SteamVR macOS branches for access to legacy builds.

Users can opt into a branch by right-clicking on SteamVR in Steam and selecting properties, Betas. This means that Mac users will continue to be able to use VR, but no new features will be coming. The change also means the potential for future security or compatibility issues to surface.

HP has debuted a new gaming monitor that is called the Omen 27i Gaming Monitor. It uses a Nano IPS panel that gives a color gamut of DCI-P3 98%. The high color gamut means that the display will provide deeper hues and more accurate colors with a 25% wider color gamut than sRGB. HP says that "largely nullifies color degradation from shallower angles."

The native resolution for the display is quad HD, meaning 2560x1440, and it has 350 nits brightness. Other features include NVIDIA G-Sync compatibility that eliminates issues with display stutter, input lag, and screen tears. HP also bakes in support for AMD FreeSync technology for AMD graphics cards. The refresh rate is 165 Hz, and the screen has 1 ms response time with overdrive. Viewing angles are 178-degrees horizontal and vertical

The screen measures 27-inches diagonally with dual pillar height. The stand is adjustable, and it has four easy access tilted ports. On the rear of the display is an immersive diamond panel lighting solution that is controlled via the OMEN Command Center. That solution helps reduce eye fatigue by matching an adjustable ambient light to the color of what's on the computer screen.

The Last of Us 2 has gone gold and is ready to ship. After years of development, crunch, and passionate work, Naughty Dog's most ambitious project to date is finished. The milestone is pretty emotional for the dev team, especially creative director Neil Druckmann.

Games take a long time to make, so when you finally submit your gold master, it's a big event for any studio. In a recent Instagram post, Naughty Dog dev Neil Druckmann highlights what this means for the team and shares the kinds of feelings that surround a game's launch. He also talks about the leaks and mentions gamers just aren't prepared for the sequel until they play it.

"We have gone gold. Back in April we told you that due to the state of the world which was way beyond our control we had to push the game, which gave us a few extra weeks to polish," Druckmann said. "Now that we have a release date, we've submitted our gold master. That means the executable has been put on the PlayStation Network and you're going to have our game in just a few short weeks."

Typically, smartphone makers keep their plans for future devices close to the vest. Leaks certainly aren't uncommon, but rarely will you find a smartphone manufacturer who confirms future devices ahead of their official unveiling. However, Samsung recently did just that with confirmation in its Q1 financial results that the Galaxy Note 20 and the Galaxy Fold 2 are both coming in the second half of 2020.

Samsung went so far as to call the new devices "differentiated products in the premium segment." The confirmation of the devices coming in the second half of 2020 comes after a rumor surfaced last week that the Note 20 would use an upgraded chipset. A new report says that Samsung had originally planned to use the Snapdragon 865+ chipset, but production delays caused by coronavirus meant that chipset wouldn't arrive in time.

Instead, the Note 20 will use Samsung's own upgraded Exynos 992. Another potential implication here is that devices launched in the United States could have an older Snapdragon under the hood instead. Forbes reports that a licensing agreement is in place that prevents Samsung from selling flagship smartphones with Exynos chips in the United States.

Hello there! Today's Star Wars Day, and Respawn just released a free content update for Jedi: Fallen Order that lets you set up your own horde mode battles on-the-fly.

The new Jedi: Fallen Order update is pretty ambitious. It centers around the Jedi power fantasy combat Respawn baked into the game--it's easy to use but hard to master--and basically lets you test your ultimate lightsaber skills. In Combat Challenges, players can jump into quick offline matchmaking-style arena battles against a set number of foes. It's basically a survival horde mode where you try to complete objectives like no healing or not taking damage and, of course, destroy everyone in your path.

The second mode, the Battle Grid, basically lets you create and plot out your own battles. It's like Fight Club, only in Star Wars. You can pick what enemies you want to fight, where you want to fight them, and lay out a progression scheme point system. Respawn is basically letting you make your own game here, and the grids can even be saved for later use. It's a great way to keep engagement flowing in a singleplayer-only game.

Apple announced today the updated 13-inch MacBook Pro with the new Magic Keyboard to bring an improved typing experience. The new Magic Keyboard replaces the keyboard on the older machines that was vulnerable to failure. Along with adding a new keyboard to the small MacBook Pro, Apple also notes that it doubled the storage across all standard configurations adding more value to the notebook computers.

The upgraded lineup also has 10th-generation Intel processors, and up to 80% faster graphics performance. Buyers can choose up to 16 GB of RAM as standard on some configurations. The updated laptop offers the 13-inch Retina display, Touch Bar, Touch ID, onboard stereo speakers, and more. The 13-inch MacBook Pro starts at $1299, or $1199 with the education discount.

Apple notes that with the new update, the entire line of MacBook Pro computers now uses the Magic Keyboard. This keyboard was first introduced on the 16-inch MacBook Pro last November. Magic Keyboard offers a redesigned scissor mechanism with 1 mm of key travel. The keyboard also has an inverted-T arrangement for the arrow keys to make them easier to find.

The Motorola razr smartphone hasn't turned out to be a very popular device so far taking flak for a fragile design and few redeeming qualities. One of the biggest downsides with the smartphone is the price for many at $1499.99. That high price tag and issues that have turned up with the device in reviews have made the razr not so popular with buyers.

Anyone interested in the smartphone that was turned off by the price alone may find a deal that Motorola is offering on its official website very appealing. The deal is appealing assuming that you want two of the smartphones rather than one. Motorola is offering a buy one razr, get one free deal that allows you to mix-and-match colors. The deal essentially makes the price of the smartphone $750 each.

A lower price tag certainly won't make up for fragile build quality that has seen the screen peel at the fold of some devices or a Snapdragon processor that is slower than other similarly priced devices. However, for those who put more value on style than performance and want to be the first among their friends to get a folding device, the special deal may be precisely what they're waiting for.

There are many online chat and video chat services that are being used increasingly during the coronavirus pandemic around the world. One of those is Microsoft Teams, and with the significantly increased use of Teams also comes cybercriminals looking to take advantage of those using the service. A security research firm called Abnormal Security has announced that cybercriminals are using new phishing campaigns targeted at Teams users that are attempting to steal Microsoft account credentials.

Abnormal Security says that it has discovered a series of convincing emails that are designed to spoof notification messages from Microsoft Teams. One of the campaigns the security researchers talk about is a phishing email that includes a link to a document on a domain used by a legitimate email marketing company for hosting content for marketing campaigns. The document that is linked to is an image that prompts users to sign into their Microsoft Teams account.

Anyone clicking on the image is taken to is a malicious page impersonating the Microsoft Office logon page with the intent of capturing the user credentials. Another campaign the security researchers found redirects the user to a page hosted on YouTube. That page is redirected two more times until reaching a fake Microsoft page that is attempting to steal login credentials.

The last few days have been pretty crazy in the GPU world, with purported specs on NVIDIA's upcoming Ampere-based GeForce RTX 3080 Ti blowing us away -- and then Intel with its "Father of All" GPUs in the Xe-HP. In the middle of all of this, the diamond-in-the-rough was lost: RTX 3060.

But don't worry... we're going to dive into that right now. In the leaked specs from a few days ago on the upcoming GA1xx range of Ampere GPUs, there was the lowest end card: the GeForce RTX 3060. The GeForce RTX 3060, at least according to these leaked specs, will be based on the GA104 GPU.

Now, just how powerful is the GA104 GPU (again, in these leaked specs)? Pretty damn powerful. We're looking at more power than the current flagship GeForce RTX 2080 Ti which has a price of over $1200. NVIDIA typically charges far less than $500 for a mid-range GeForce RTX 2060 (or RTX 2060 SUPER) in their Gx104 variant.

As gamers around the world prepare for the release of the next-gen consoles, some people are wondering if popular titles such as Call of Duty: Warzone will be supported.

Short answer: of course, they will. Infinity Ward and Activision would never miss a chance to get its newest title onto that juicy next-generation hardware, especially considering the massive hype surrounding both consoles. Infinity Ward has recently confirmed this news as Taylor Kurosaki, Infinity Ward's Narrative Director, spoke to GamerGen and said that the goal is to support Warzone for "quite some time".

More specifically, Kurosaki means that Warzone will be supported for the next-generation of consoles, solidifying the longevity of the battle royale. Here's what he said, "I know that our plan is Warzone is going to be around for quite some time, so as soon as those new systems are out and available, I'm sure we'll support them". It can be assumed that Modern Warfare will also come with support for new systems, as it would be awfully strange for Activision/Infinity Ward to not support it.

Are you prepared to Destroy All Humans? Well, you should be because the remake of the cult classic title is launching in just a couple months.

According to a new post by the official THQ Nordic Twitter account, the remake of the classic PS2 title Destroy All Humans! will be launching on July 28th. THQ Nordic released the above trailer that reveals the release date of the title, as well as some cool gameplay that shows what players have in store for them if they decide to pick up the title.

If you have never played Destroy All Humans! then here's a quick synopsis of the game. Players control a small big-brained alien that has the capabilities of basically doing whatever he wants to the inhabitants of Earth. Players will assume the role of the alien and cause mayhem on humans by removing their brains, abducting them, blowing them up, confusing them, and of course, blasting them with a futuristic ray gun. The game is based in the 1950s and has been upgraded to 1080p for the remake. If you are interested in pre-ordering the title, you can check out the pre-order options here.