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CES 2019 - EVGA impressed with its new Z390 Dark motherboard but surprised with the announcement and launch of its first-ever sound card with the new Nu Audio sound card pushed this week at CES 2019.

The company partnered up with UK company AudioNote for the Nu Audio sound card which features a 6-layer, gold-plated PCB for what is to be expected great gaming audio.

Inside, the card packs AudioNote capacitors and resistors, while a Texas Instrument power regulation circuit keeps the juice under control. The main part of the EVGA Nu Audio would be the XMOS xCore-200 DSP that will process the audio, and remove processing power away from the host processor.

CES 2019 - GIGABYTE unveils the world's first tactical gaming monitor aimed at gamers who want the edge over the competition. By combining many unique and quite ingenious technologies, the AD27QD is capable of delivering features that make it almost like the Swiss Army Knife of gaming monitors.

Let's get through the basics; this is a 27-inch 10-bit ISP 1440P display that offers refresh rates up to 144Hz. It also offers 95% DCI-P3 RGB color coverage, which is one of the latest standards for color reproduction. It does offer swivel, tilt, and pivot. The monitor also has RGB LEDs integrated behind the display so you get some ambient lighting if you have a wall behind the display.

However, what makes this display special are its special technologies that are designed to give gamers the edge over the competition and the game itself. For starters, it has the ability to display a reticle regardless of whether or not the game provides one, so if your game doesn't offer one you still get one. It also has an OSD baked into the display, which means that you not only get to use an OSD in games where an OSD is not allowed or offered, but it also wont eat up your system resources since it's built into the display.

CES 2019 - During AMD's own CES 2019 press conference, company CEO Lisa Su had Xbox boss Phil Spencer on stage to talk about the partnership between the two companies over "future platforms" which is all but the confirmation we need to know AMD is making the hardware for multiple next-gen Xbox consoles.

Microsoft is knee deep working on Xbox Scarlett which is rumored to use a Ryzen CPU of some sort and a next-gen GPU that should be Navi, but during the press conference Spencer said: "As a company, we look at the opportunity in gaming and one of the things I want to say is when we think who our partners are, we think about great companies that do great work, but also do it in the right wayYou're somebody that I respected a ton in this industry and I've seen the way you've led AMD, and I think having a partner like AMD that works so collaboratively with us on our future technology, but also as a cultural level I think fits so well, it's awesome to have you as a partner".

He continued: "As we look forward to future platforms that we're building and work that we're doing, the partnership and the innovations that we've seen in the past have led to what we've been able to do today, I think they're going to be critically important to our future endeavors. I'm really looking forward to showing those to people more in the future".

CES 2019 - AMD has just shown off its new Zen 2-based Ryzen 3000 series processors, something the company will be shipping to consumers in mid-2019. The new CPUs are made with the new Zen 2 architecture that has improvements of its own, as well as a node shrink down to 7nm.

The company was benchmarking an unknown new Zen 2-based 7nm Ryzen 3000 series processor against the Intel Core i9-9900K, but even AMD CEO Lisa Su herself mentioned there will be a flagship 8C/16T solution when the Ryzen 3000 series launches but wasn't specific on what exact clock speeds and specs the 8C/16T processor she showed off.

AMD used the Cinebench R15 demo to show that its new 7nm-based Ryzen 3000 prototype could keep up with the Core i9-9900K, but the new AMD system was super power efficient in comparison. The prototype 7nm CPU and its entire system consumed 133W during the benchmark compared to the 9900K system that was using 179W. This is a big difference, so I want to see what we can expect from AMD and its new Ryzen 3000 series on 7nm when their CPUs are clocked at 5GHz or more, and in larger core counts like 16C/32T and beyond.

CES 2019 - AMD has just announced its new Radeon VII graphics card at CES 2019, dropping the Vega brand it seems and going for VII. The new Radeon VII graphics card rocks a 7nm Vega GPU and 16GB of HBM2 memory with a huge 1TB/sec of memory bandwidth. This is the world's first 7nm graphics card to hit the market, beating NVIDIA with a major technical win - it's also the first gaming graphics card with HBM2 capable of 1TB/sec, absolutely insane.

AMD's new Radeon VII graphics card has 3840 stream processors, less than the 4096 stream processors on the Vega 10 GPU inside of the Radeon RX Vega 64. However, the new Radeon VII has 16GB of HBM2 which has a much larger 1TB/sec memory bandwidth, double the HBM2 bandwidth available on the Radeon RX Vega 64 graphics card.

The new Radeon VII has 25% more performance at the same levels as the RX Vega 64, with dual 8-pin PCIe power connectors and a much-improved triple-fan cooler that should keep the GPU clocks up at close to 1.8GHz. The average boost CPU clock on the original Radeon RX Vega 64 was 1546MHz so the boost to 1800MHz on Radeon VII is pretty significant. The new HBM2 memory is on a larger 4096-bit memory bus and faster 2Gbps HBM2 (compared to 1.89Gbps on the HBM2 on Vega 10) - oh, and double the amount at 16GB that provides the huge 1TB/sec.

CES 2019 - Corsair just changed the RGB game with its new ultra-small LED Capellix modules.

Corsair partnered with Taiwanense electronics-maker Primax to make its new Capellix tech, which shrinks the LEDs from 2.8mm³ to 0.2mm³, a whopping 92% decrease from the standard Surface Mount Device (SMD) modules. This not only allows Corsair to jam even more LEDs on a PCB for brighter hues, but lowers power consumption by up to 40% and provides 35% longer lifespan.

This tremendously reduced footprint will give Corsair more flexibility when infusing RGB into its fleet of hardware, including devices like mice, keyboards and headsets where space can be cramped. Capellix will debut with Corsair's new Dominator Platinum RGB RAM in February 2019.

Ubisoft Massive has tailor-made The Division 2 for PC, tweaking various performance settings and adding platform features that enthusiasts expect to see.

The Division 2 has been optimized for PC on many levels and will leverage the might of an entire spectrum of GPUs to hit perf from 1080p 30FPS to smooth 4K 60FPS. The devs confirm that the shooter will have uncapped frame rates and resolution on PC, as well as full HUD customization, native widescreen support with built-in HDR settings, and adaptive sync for gamers with G-Sync and FreeSync monitors.

Ubi outlines four different spec profiles for the low and high-end of the spectrum. To play The Division 2 at 1080p 30FPS you can skirt by with an AMD Radeon R9 270 with 2GB VRAM, 8GB of RAM, and an AMD FX-6350 CPU. To hit 1440p at 60FPS you'll need heftier components including an AMD Ryzen 7 1700 (or an Intel i7-6700K), an AMD RX Vega 56 or NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 with 8GB of VRAM, and 16GB of system RAM.

Razer has inadvertently confirmed Gears of War 5 will support mouse and keyboard on Xbox One...but this is to be expected.

Razer is one of the growing peripheral-makers that are bringing their mice and keyboards to the Xbox One, and a new updated list of supported games shows some titles that aren't even out yet. Gears of War 5 is listed (with Chroma support no less), but this isn't a surprise, and in fact we should see all of Microsoft's major first-party games get KB&M support.

With KB&M support, Microsoft continues blurring the lines between consoles and PC, which was the plan all along. This is an important piece of the cross-platform ecosystem Microsoft has created, and since every new first-party Microsoft game is coming to PC as well, we should see these games also get KB&M support on Xbox.

Ubisoft will bring future games to the Epic Games store, signalling big things to come from the new PC Game Store Wars.

Ubisoft's and Epic Games' new partnership sees future games like The Division 2 skipping Steam and coming to the Epic Store instead. This move is purely business motivated, of course, as the Epic Store allows Ubisoft to keep 88% of all game sale earnings compared to Steam's 70-30 split. Even with its own uPlay store, Ubi typically releases its games on Steam to expand sales potential.

The Division 2 won't be the only Ubisoft game that skips Steam, however: Epic confirmed that other "select titles" will come to the Epic Store later in 2019 (maybe Far Cry: New Dawn).

CES 2019 - Razer announces two new Tomahawk mid-tower cases built specifically for gaming--an RGB model and a stylish enthusiast chassis with interesting cooling options.

As the name implies, the Razer Tomahawk Elite is the upgraded model. Razer calls the mid-tower case "the ultimate PC chassis" and it shows: the case comes with built-in liquid cooling rig designed by the pros at EK Waterblocks in its guts to keep your high-end components nice and chilly. Two wing-style tempered glass panels that open on the sides for easy access, as well as a curious top panel that automatically lifts up for improved ventilation when internal temps get toasty. It also has an inverted ATX layout for improved placement.

Tomahawk Elite Features:

Facebook has dropped its PC-powered VR headset permanently down to $349 across all regions.

The Oculus Rift is now just a fraction of its original cost, hinting big things are to come from the VR giant. The Rift and two Touch controllers can now be had for $349 across retailers like Best Buy and Amazon, representing a mighty 41% price drop from the Rift's $599 debut in 2016.

This new reduction makes sense from a business perspective. The Rift is the company's core dedicated PC-based headset and soon will be joined by an all-in-one standalone HMD, the Oculus Quest. This diversification allows for more options and accessibility for consumers, widening VR's overall reach.

CES 2019 - MSI took some time at the Consumer Electronics Show this year to unveil a beast of a new laptop: the new GS75 Stealth, a new 17-inch gaming laptop that rocks NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q.

The new MSI GS75 Stealth features a large 17-inch screen with native 1920 x 1080 and 144Hz refresh rate, but lacks G-Sync for some strange reason. Inside, we have new 6C/12T processors thanks to Intel's 8th-gen Core i7 processors, with a Core i9 model planned for the near future. MSI has used an improved 7 heat pipe cooling system across both the CPU and GPU, so we should expect foot-to-the-floor performance from the GS75 Stealth gaming laptop. The GPU can be configured through to NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 2080 with Max-Q, ensuring you'll hit 144FPS at 1080p in all games.

MSI is being much more open about accessing the GS75 Stealth as well, letting users gain access to all three M.2 slots if they want to manually upgrade their storage. Another nice feature is that MSI was able to reduce the physical size of the power brick, so instead of a large power brick attached to the GS75 Stealth there is a more petite charger that it'll ship with.

CES 2019 - Dell has stepped up to the display table with a new beast in its Alienware gaming range with the unveiling of the new Alienware 55 OLED Monitor, a larger-than-life 55-inch 4K OLED display capable of a huge 120Hz. Yeah, 4K + 120Hz + OLED.

The design of the Alienware 55 OLED Monitor has the usual sleekness about it, with a subtle Alien logo on the back and a beautiful blue LED strip that would look mean AF at night. There's a huge '55' on the back of the display which I actually dig, with Alienware including a cable path and removable cover to keep it looking schmick around the back.

Frank Azor, VP and GM of Alienware explains: "Dell is the leader in displays around the world, we ship more displays than anyone else. We've taken OLED to the next level... these pictures don't do it justice... I promise you won't be disappointed, this thing is absolutely amazing".

NVIDIA already has four members in its GeForce RTX family of graphics cards with the just-launched RTX 2060, and previously launched RTX 2070, RTX 2080, and RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards. But what if you took the ray tracing cores out of the situation? Well, that could be what the purported GeForce GTX 11 series is after all.

A new GeForce GTX 1180 graphics card has surfaced on GFXBench, with software recognizing the card as a GeForce GTX 2080 which means if this is real, it is an RTX 2080 with its ray tracing cores disabled. They're still there on-hardware with the Turing GPU, but they're disabled so that it's a nutured and RTX-less RTX 2080 in performance. It makes sense considering the GDDR6 performance gains over GDDR5/X as well, with a GTX 11 series something that makes sense when the GTX 10 series is finally phased out.

I think we'll see RTX 20 series cards mass produced with lower-quality dies having their Tensor and RT cores disabled and rebranded as GTX 11 series cards, something that will surely compete against the Radeon RX 590 from AMD as well as whatever the new Navi GPU ends up as being. Last we heard Navi will feature Vega-like performance, which means we should expect GTX 1080/1180 performance (RTX 2080 with RT disabled). Interesting if true...

The launch date for Marvels next important character to take the spotlight in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is almost upon us, Captain Marvel is about to take the stage and Samuel L. Jackson has just confirmed she can time travel.

Samuel L. Jackson was conducting an interview with Entertainment Tonight when the actor was asked a series of questions regarding the upcoming Captain Marvel movie. One of the questions that Jackson answered was what qualities does Captain Marvel have to be the right first female-led superhero film from Marvel. Jackson answered "She's pretty much the strongest character -- in terms of someone with powers are able to do things -- in the Marvel universe. So, for Carol Danvers to be that person and for Brie to become that person, it's gonna be a dynamite thing."

Jackson continues and says "I mean, [the Avengers] are up against some really, really tough odds right now -- we saw throughout Infinity War -- so now we know that we need something that's as powerful as Thanos. And at some point, we'll find out how powerful she is and all the things that she's capable of. She's one of the few people in the Marvel universe that can time travel, so..." This is quite interesting and raises the question as to if Marvel have planned on dropping these small seeds of information right before movie launch to stir up talk. If so smart marketing, because I'm definitely intrigued as to how this will all play out in Avengers: End Game if it turns out to be true.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is one of Capcom's most anticipated titles to kick of 2019 and now the developer has taken to the games Steam page to share some new information.

On the official Steam page for "RESIDENT EVIL 2 / BIOHAZARD RE:2", Capcom has taken to the updates section to shine some light on the Windows system requirements. The news is surrounding Windows 8 and it being "removed from the system requirement since it is no longer supported by Microsoft". If you happen to be a Windows 8 user then it should be noted that you can upgrade to Windows 8.1 completely free and is now supported.

Capcom also updated the system requirements section showcasing to players that Resident Evil 2 will be coming in at a final size of 26GB. For a game that is shaping up to look quite stunning Capcom should be proud of this size, especially when considering some games these days (Red Dead Redemption 2, Shadow of War) weigh in closer to the 100GB figure. The full PC specifications have been provided in the entirety of this post and if you wish to visit the official Steam listing a link can be found here. Resident Evil 2 Remake will be launching on the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on January 11th. Check out the coming demo if you haven't already, 30 minutes will be all you get, visit that story here.

Nintendo has finally given us an official release date for the coming 1st party title, Yoshi's Crafted World. Our favorite green dinosaur will be jumping his way onto the Nintendo Switch on March 29th.

The announcement comes from the official Nintendo of America Twitter account and features a quick 15 second video. Players that decide to pick up Yoshi's Crafted World will be embarking on an adventure with Yoshi as you direct him to solve puzzles, overcome challenges and of course collecting eggs.

It should also be noted, each of the stages found in Yoshi's Crafted World will be playable in reverse and will also support two-player co-operative play. Yoshi's Crafted World is planned for release on the Nintendo Switch on March 29th, for more information visit the official Nintendo listing here.

The multiplayer dungeon brawler 'Breach' has been announced to be making its way to Steam Early Access within the next couple of weeks.

The news comes from a press release issued out by 'Breach' developers QC Games. QC Games consists of former members of BioWare and captures the essence of traditional action-RPG combat, RPG lore-depth, open class systems and extreme range of choice. Players will be able to select from a library of classes, each equipped with customizable abilities and attributes that can be swapped in and out at anytime.

Dallas Dickinson, the President and CEO of QC Games spoke out about the recent announcement and said "With Breach, our vision is to deliver the best elements of popular genres and bring it into one action driven multiplayer buffet. As players dive in, they're going to choose a class that best fits their playstyle with a ton more options opening as they progress in the battle for control of the Earth. No pressure, though." Breach will be arriving on Steam's Early Access category on January 17th, the full free-to-play launch is planned for later 2019. To check out Breach on Steam, visit this link here.

Capcom is gearing up for the release of Devil May Cry 5, and so they should be as the March 8 release date is almost upon us. In wake of the game almost being due to release, we have some news from the games Director regarding its play length.

The Devil May Cry 5 Director, Hideaki Itsuno was asked during a Q&A session in Seoul how long should fans expect the game to be. The Director said that with data from internal testing within Capcom fans should expect the length of the game to be around 15 hours or so. This might not sound like much, but for a hack-n-slash game this is quite a lengthy amount of game time. Especially when considering all of the other Devil May Cry games only featured 8-12 hours of gameplay.

If Itsuno is correct with his approximation of game length, then Devil May Cry 5 will be the longest game in the series when using the numbers from the 'How Long to Beat' website. In other news about Devil May Cry 5, we learned yesterday that Capcom will be issuing out a second demo for both the Xbox One and PS4. If you are interested in checking out more information regarding that demo and when it will be made available, click here. Devil May Cry 5 will be debuting to the Xbox One, PS4 and PC on March 8th, 2019.

CES 2019 - EVGA took one of its new Z390 Dark motherboards to the Consumer Electronics Show and had it in their suite showing it off in all of its enthusiast glory. We're talking E-ATX form favor, crazy 17-phase VRM on a 10-layer PCB, and so much more.

This is the everything-including-the-kitchen sink motherboard from EVGA in its Z390 Dark board, which as we said before comes with 17-phase VRM on a 10-layer PCB, but an EVGA-embedded wireless solution, 3 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slots, and more. We have the 24-pin ATX and 2 x 8-pin power connectors with right-angle connectors so there is not a huge amount of cables coming vertically off of the motherboard. This is especially helpful for people changing out hardware like CPUs, RAM, and GPUs all the tiem as it means the huge 24-pin ATX power cable is not in the way, and neither are the 8-pin power connectors going into the motherboard.

EVGA's new Z390 Dark motherboard has 4 x DIMMs that support up to 32GB of DDR4-4600+, dual 1GbE network ports, Creative Sound Core3D audio, 2-way SLI support, M.2 SSD ports, SATA6 ports, and plenty of USB connectivity to boot.