Latest News - Page 1853

Nintendo's new Switch revision may feature a Tegra X1 T214 chip based on 16nm FinFET, offering more efficient thermals and battery life.

Nintendo is quietly replacing the original 2017 launch Switch models with a slightly improved new SKU. New photos from Spawn Wave show the revised 2019 Switch might sport a shrunken 16nm Tegra SoC and is designated A1, which indicates slight CPU stepping (revised performance to reduce bugs, in this case it'd be the security flaw that led to hacked Switches).

The A1 moniker aligns with the datamined Mariko firmware which indicates a Tegra X1 T214 chip on 16nm. The original 2017 Switch uses a Tegra X1 T210 chip. No performance bumps should be expected--the T214 is a small bump over the T210--and the new revised Switch should only bring two small tweaks: improved battery life (up to 9 hours versus the 2017 model's 7.5 hours) and a hardware security patch to thwart hacking.

After making millions and millions over the course of multiple years, Psyonix has decided to pull its random monetized crates from Rocket League.

Rocket League will be lootbox-free by year's end, developer Psyonix today confirmed. The move comes after the developers raked in tremendous revenue from Rocket League's in-game purchases, which have gamers buy keys to unlock crates of items. Psyonix was also bought out by billion-dollar Fortnite titan Epic Games and now doesn't have to rely so heavily on monetization. But make no mistake: Rocket League will still be monetized with optional microtransactions. Psyonix is just changing the delivery method.

Rather than using what EA calls "surprise mechanics" where the contents are randomized, Psyonix will let gamers see what they're about to buy. It'll basically be a digital store where you exchange real cash for digital items.

EK has been hard at work designing some more cost-friendly options for users looking to get their feet wet in liquid cooling. (I know, bad pun is bad)

EK is now offering full copper-based liquid cooling kits even with RGB for those who like that sort of thing but instead of being Aluminum-based like their 'Fluid Gaming series' this is based on copper parts.

There are presently four kits available. There are two 'S series' with the S240 and S360. There is also the 'P series' with the P240 and P360. The S series is based around a more slim radiator in the CoolStream Classic SE which is 27mm thick or similar to what you get with an off the shelf AIO. The P series uses CoolStream Classic PE radiators which are 45mm thick and therefore have a much more stout surface area for exchanging heat.

Most people might not be aware but 8chan was taken down in the last 48 hours, with it being removed from its host Cloudflare, moved to BitMitigate (but then THEY were shut down) and now Jim Watkins -- the owner of 8chan, has responded:

Watkins goes into detail in a new video on YouTube addressing the world about the El Paso mass shooter, who allegedly posted a manifesto to 8chan (but this hasn't been proven by the mainstream media or authorities). Watkins however, says that it was first published to Instagram and not 8chan (yet why isn't Instagram being taken down).

He said:

If you haven't watched Event Horizon yet, as in the 1997 movie starring Lawrence Fishburne and Sam Neill, then you need to - it is a classic. One of the best sci-movies you can watch... and to remind you about it, here's the trailer:

Well, it's coming back in a new announcement that Amazon has teamed with Paramount on a new Event Horizon series that would be exclusive to Amazon Prime Video. Adam Wingard will be directing, coming in from Godzilla vs. Kong and before that the reboot of Blair Witch. He'll also be an executive producer with Larry Gordon and Llyod Levin who were producers on the original Event Horizon movie.

There's no ETA on the series and no details on the plot but the original 1997 movie saw a ship out in the depths of space, with the crew led by Fishburne through an alternate dimension... and then things get, interesting. You just read that in the deepest voice in a 90s-era style voice over, didn't you?

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate rumors are definitely not hard to come by, and even some could argue that there is just a cesspool of them, but that doesn't mean that they are all not true.

The problem with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate rumors is that there is that many of them, that its almost impossible to determine which ones have the possibility of being real and the ones that are just completely fake and made up for clicks. Today, we have a rumor for the next DLC character coming to the game, and according to a not-so-reliable 4Chan source, the next character is supposed to be Undertale's Frisk.

This rumor has NO legitimacy whatsoever, as no sources have been provided. For sake of argument though, lets entertain ourselves with the thought that Frisk could make it to Smash. Undertale is one of the most recognized indie titles out there and definitely has a more then dedicated fan base which could lead you to think that Nintendo would consider adding the character to the roster. Is this a big enough reason for Nintendo to use a place up in their fighters pass though? And would the addition of Frisk please majority of the Smash community when other characters could of potentially taken her place?

NASA has announced that they have received the first data dump from their solar probe they launched back in August 12th, 2018.

Since the Parker Solar Probe is designed to observe the sun and is currently caught in its immense gravitational pull, the probe can only send back data chunks at certain times. NASA has just received their first data dump from the probe and it's 50% bigger than what they expected. 20GB of data was downloaded from the first and second pass of the probe going around the sun.

Nickalaus Pinkine, Parker Solar Probe mission operations manager said "All of the expected science data collected through the first and second encounters is now on the ground. As we learned more about operating in this environment and these orbits, the team did a great job of increasing data downloads of the information gathered by the spacecraft's amazing instruments."

THQ Nordic has announced that their title Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition will soon be making its way to the Nintendo Switch in both physical and digital form.

The above video is the announcement trailer for the Nintendo Switch version of Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition, and showcases what players will have in-store for them if they decide to pick up the title. Right off the bat, I noticed extreme framerate drops in the trailer, both in cutscenes as well as live gameplay. Examples of this can be found at times: 0.46 - 0.48 / 1:11 - 1:14 and many more.

I really do hope that Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition doesn't release with these framedrops, and between now and the release date, developers Gunfire Games iron out all of its issues. There is also the possibility that these drops in frames we are seeing are from video compression and something has gone wrong during the upload. Hopefully THQ Nordic, or Gunfire Games gives a statement regarding these drops so we know whether or not its in-game or just in the trailer.

Update: Lisa herself has responded to the rumor, slamming it -- and that she loves AMD and the "best is yet to come".

Prepare the salt because this rumor is a juicy one, but AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su is reportedly looking at leaving the company and joining IBM. Shock horror, right? The latest rumor from Wccftech is a big one, and something I've heard whispers (but didn't want to believe them) of, too.

According to sources of Usman Pirzada from Wccftech: "Lisa Su is eyeing the #2 position at IBM with the eventual goal to end up as CEO and President of IBM, replacing Ginni Rometty. The advanced groundwork for this transition has apparently already been laid down as you will read further in this article. While I do not know the exact reasons for why Lisa would choose IBM of all companies to move to, I am told that this is something that she has wanted for a very long time".

Infinity Ward recently revealed their multiplayer of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and while players were excited by what they saw some were wondering if the game would launch with its own battle royale.

When Treyarch launched Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 it came with its own battle royale game mode called Blackout. While the game mode was popular for some time, it quickly died off and players went to other titles such as Fortnite and Apex Legends. Infinity Ward will be taking a different approach with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, instead of going full battle royale they will be concentrating on what made Call of Duty, Call of Duty - the core multiplayer.

Joe Cecot, the multiplayer designer for Infinity Ward, told IGN that Infinity Ward are "big fans of battle royale. We're excited for large player counts and things like that, but right now we're really focused on core multiplayer." He continued and said "We really focused on Modern Warfare, authentic and gritty, realistic weapons and it's a different experience. It's really... just about pulling back to Modern Warfare and keeping that pure." Call of Duty: Modern Warfare will be launching for PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 25, 2019.

SpaceX is on the forefront of space technology and now they will be allowing for companies to hitch a ride on their prized Falcon 9 rocket for as low as $2 million.

SpaceX has announced a new idea "rocket rideshares" which allows for other companies satellites to hitch a ride with SpaceX's big rocket, the Falcon 9. According to the announcement, SpaceX is basically attempting to create an Uber service for satellites and will be charging patrons a low price of just $2.25 million for 150kg of mass.

SpaceX is planning on launching their ride share program sometime between November 2020 and March of 2021. After those initial flights are conducted, more flights will take to the skies on an annual basis - Q1 of 2022 and 2023.

A leading producer at Respawn, who are the developers of the massively popular battle royale shooter Apex Legends have teased the next character that will be joining in on the action.

The teaser has been released onto Tina Sanchez's personal Twitter account and it showcases some behind the scene images of what seems to be the motion capture for the new Apex Legends character. Fans have speculated this is possibility the motion capture for the expected 'Crypto' character to be added and when Sanchez was asked if it was, she replied with a blank face emoji.

Since Season 3 for Apex Legends isn't even that far off, I'd expect we could see Crypto arrive then, much like Wattson arrived in Season 2 and Octane arrived in Season 1. Respawn seem to be following a trend of seasonally adding new characters, and according to a datamining leak they could have 10 new characters cooking up in development. While that might seem far-fetched, the datamining leak did predict Octane and Wattson, which provides at least some legitimacy to the information.

The Evolution Championship Series, or EVO for short recently finished up yesterday and a viewership record has been broken for the headlining game, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate replaced veteran EVO title Super Smash Bros. Melee and it seems that has worked out for the best as viewership for EVO has never been higher. According to Rod Breslau, EVO founder, "Smash Bros Ultimate has set the record for the highest peak viewership in EVO history for any game at over 279,000"

Above you will find the Super Smash Bros. UItimate grand finals, competing in the match is MKleo and Tweek. MKleo is currently the reigning champion as fellow Smash Bros. players are having a hard time getting ontop of his Joker. Tweek stuck to his main character Pokemon trainer and put up a galiant fight until Leo decided to switch it on and comeback and take out the tournament for a win. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently available on the Nintendo Switch.

Most people won't find a precious sealed game in their attic hiding away for 30 years, but Nevada resident Scott Amos did. He found a sealed copy of Kid Icarus that had been sitting in his Mom's attic for 30 years.

Scott found the sealed copy of Kid Icarus in his Mom's attic on Mother's Day of all days, and no one in the Amos family can remember buying the game. The purchase date of the game makes it look like someone in the Amos family purchased it as a Christmas present. Scott explained: "All the family has been trying to come up with a hypothesis. (My mom) thinks she put it there and never got it back out, and then it ended up in the attic".

Making my heart beat faster when reading about this story, Amos left the sealed copy of the game on the kitchen counter as he didn't realize how much it was worth at the time. His two young children and the dog could've picked it up and unsealed it, reducing its worth greatly -- but thankfully that didn't happen.

Liqid will have its latest and greatest SSD shown off in all its glory at the Flash Memory Summit this week, with one of the world's first PCIe 4.0 x16 (yes, x16 and not x4 like the rest) SSDs. Meet the new Liqid Element LQD4500 SSD.

Liqid's new Element LQD4500 SSD rocks 4 of Phison's PS5016-E16 controllers, all wired up with a custom firmware and up to 32TB of raw 3D TLC NAND flash. There's up to 24GB/sec of sequential read and write speeds on the drive, which is pretty damn mind blowing, and up to 4 million read and write IOPS while sustained random writes are at 600K.

The card will be offered as a full-height full-length (FHFL) card with a rather large one-wide passive cooler which also looks nice and slick. It means that it can be installed into systems that need super storage speeds, and only use a single slot with up to 24GB/sec speeds.

Samsung revealed during its recent quarterly earnings call that it will be using AMD Radeon RDNA technology inside of its new devices in around two years time. It was only back in June 2019 that AMD and Samsung announced a multi-year strategic partnership that would see RDNA architecture to power its next-gen mobile devices.

AMD said in its own financial call that it has added $100 million to its revenue from Samsung in earnings statements, with Seeking Alpha reporting that an unknown Samsung rep talked about RDNA technology, saying: "we expect that the GPU technology will start being adopted in products that will be launched two years down the road roughly".

The move shows that AMD's mobile GPU technology should give Samsung the boost in mobile graphics performance that it needs, with the South Korean giant needing Radeon IP to give it the boost it needs to fight Qualcomm. Funny, that the Adreno GPU was born from ATI Technologies back in the day and acquired by Qualcomm -- and two years from now Samsung will use mobile RDNA tech from AMD in its devices.

Samsung itself has posted to the official Samsung Exynos Twitter account 'Power evolved. August 7, 2019. #NextGenPower' in a new tweet, teasing the next-gen Exynos SoC.

We should expect the new Exynos 9825 SoC to be unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event in New York City on August 7, so expect some big things under the hood. Samsung will be using its own 7nm EUV (extreme ultraviolet lithography) over the 8nm used on the Exynos 9820 that went into the Galaxy S10 handsets.

Samsung will be launching the new Galaxy Note 10 and Galaxy Note 10+ smartphones at the event, and will see it powered by either the in-house Exynos 9825 or Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 855 depending on the region and carrier.

I still remember driving over an hour to the only PC store in my state that was selling the Pioneer DVR-104 at the time, stopping off and grabbing The Matrix on DVD, and playing it every single day after high school in awe.

The Matrix is coming back to cinemas in a big way with its re-release coming in with the latest in technology with AMC's Dolby Cinemas across the US to offer the movie with a Dolby Vision picture and Dolby Atmos audio. It all kicks off for a week starting August 30, running into the first week of September.

Both the Dolby Atmos and Dolby Vision technologies are available in the physical versions of The Matrix on Blu-ray, but if you wanted to see it on the big screen in the best way, this is your chance. Grab your tickets now!

XFX is swinging back into the market with its new custom Radeon RX 5700 series, with two new designs of cards coming out in the new RAW2 and THICC2.

Older gamers will remember the old school days of XFX with its custom Double Dissipation cards, which was a great design and popular at the time. XFX is bringing it back with the new Radeon RX 5700 XT THICC2 graphics card, with a 2.5-slot design and a wickedly-styled 1950s style grille on the end of the card.

XFX is using dual 10cm fans on the THICC2, a full metal backplate and is wider and longer than the PCB itself... so the XFX RX 5700 XT THICC2 is truly well endowed.

NVIDIA has some new downloads that will light up the RTX abilities on your compatible graphics card, with developers working on tech demos for the DXR Indie Spotlight contest which just saw three winners.

The developers tech demos using Microsoft's DXR (DirectX Ray Tracing) API as well as Unreal Engine 4.22 which packs ray tracing effects including reflections, shadows and ambient occlusion. NVIDIA has announced three winners in the contest, with dozens of developers making tech demos -- the three winners scored themselves the highest-end TITAN RTX graphics card that NVIDIA sells for $2499.

The first tech demo we have is the Attack from Outer Space by Cristian Hecht, who is a 3D artist for Tendril out of Toronto. Attack from Outer Space is a 1950s style sci-fi film era tech demo that has beautiful ray-traced reflections, shadows, and ambient occlusion. Check it out: