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NVIDIA celebrate Alan Turing's birthday, GTX 1180 confirmed?

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Jun 24, 2018 8:53 PM CDT

NVIDIA seems to be ramping up into its next-gen GeForce GTX 11 series graphics card launch, with teases from TSMC entering 7nm production with NVIDIA as a customer, and GDDR6 going into mass production over the next few months. During Computex 2018, we heard that NVIDIA would be announcing the GTX 1180 on July 30, while AIB partners told me they would have cards on the market in August or September.

NVIDIA celebrate Alan Turing's birthday, GTX 1180 confirmed?

But it was a tweet by the official NVIDIA Twitter account that celebrated Alan Turing's birthday, with a quote from Turing that's interesting: "We can only see a short distance ahead, but we can see plenty there that needs to be done". Rewinding the clock to earlier this month, where NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang said that the next-gen GeForce cards were a while away, where he said: "It's a long time from now".

TSMC enters 7nm production, GDDR6 is being spun up into mass production and AMD has nothing at all for Radeon gamers until this time next year. NVIDIA is already ahead of the best AMD offers with the Radeon RX Vega 64 being absolutely dominated by the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti let alone TITAN Xp, so the launch of a new GPU would put them an entire generation and a half ahead, minimum.

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TSMC pumps $25 billion into 5nm node, expected in 2020

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Jun 23, 2018 11:48 PM CDT

TSMC has announced that its exciting 7nm node has entered production, with the company also announcing that it will be investing $25 billion into 5nm node technology.

TSMC pumps $25 billion into 5nm node, expected in 2020

The company has been talking about and developing 5nm node technology since early 2016, with its eyes on a launch in 2020, and now it is putting its money where its mouth is. Reuters reports: "Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, a supplier to Apple Inc, said on Thursday it expects to invest $25 billion in 5-nanometer node technology".

Apple should be interested in TSMC's focus on 5nm as they've been using TSMC for chip production for years now. TSMC is also forward-looking to 2022, when we should expect 3nm to pop its head out of the super-small chip production.

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TSMC ramps 7nm production: new GPUs, AI, crypto chips coming

Anthony Garreffa | Graphics Cards | Jun 23, 2018 10:46 PM CDT

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, otherwise known as TSMC, has announced that commercial production of 7nm chip has started. TSMC also teased that the newer 5nm node will enter mass production by the end of 2019, or early-2020.

TSMC ramps 7nm production: new GPUs, AI, crypto chips coming

The news comes directly from TSMC boss CC Wei, with DigiTimes reporting: "The ramp-up of 7nm chip output will boost TSMC's overall production capacity to 12 million 12-inch equivalent wafers in 2018, up 9% from 10.5 million units in 2017, Wei indicated, without elaborating on specific orders and customers".

DigiTimes continued: "TSMC will tape out more than 50 chip designs with its 7nm process technology by the end of 2018, Wei said. AI, GPU and cryptocurrency applications take up the majority of the tape-outs, followed by 5G and application processors. TSMC will also start taping out chips built using an enhanced 7nm node with EUV in the second half of 2018, Wei noted. The foundry expects to move the node to risk production in the third quarter".

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Yawn: Intel Z390 chipset rumored to be rebadged Z370

Anthony Garreffa | Motherboards | Jun 23, 2018 9:30 PM CDT

Intel is expected to launch its new Z390 chipset in the near future, but according to the latest rumors the 'new' Z390 chipset won't be so new after all... and will reportedly be a rebadged Z370 chipset.

Yawn: Intel Z390 chipset rumored to be rebadged Z370

Right now, all of Intel's current 300-series chipsets are made on the 14nm node, except for the Z370. It was expected that the refreshed Z390 chipset would be made on 14nm, but with Intel having a million troubles right now - 10nm node is busted, their CEO resigned just a few days ago - things are changing.

Z390 will reportedly not be made on the 14nm node but will be on the same 22nm node as the current Z370 chipset. This means we won't see native support for USB 3.1 Gen 2 and other technologies that would've made it into the 14nm-based Z390, so there will be third-party controllers used by motherboard makers instead.

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Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 rumors: 16GB RAM in a smartphone

Anthony Garreffa | Mobile Devices | Jun 23, 2018 8:30 PM CDT

Qualcomm continues to make leaps and bounds with its Snapdragon platform, with one of the highlights of 2018 being their new Always Connected PCs running Windows 10. But in the CPU department, Qualcomm can't beat Intel right now in brute performance, but what about Snapdragon 1000?

Qualcomm Snapdragon 1000 rumors: 16GB RAM in a smartphone

Snapdragon 1000 is the purported name of Qualcomm's next-gen Snapdragon flagship chip, and should have a radical TDP, performance, and feature set that will blow other SoCs out of the water. According to WinFuture, Snapdragon 1000 will have a die size that is much bigger than traditional smartphone and tablet SoCs.

This means the Snapdragon 1000 could be as big as Intel's processors, which would be an interesting change for Qualcomm. Snapdragon 1000 is currently being tested, with support for up to 16GB of LPDDR4X memory, 2 x 128GB UFS 2.1 memory modules which will provide up to 256GB of internal storage. There's even purported support for Gigabit WLAN, meaning the next wave of Always Connected PCs could lead Qualcomm down an entirely new, and very exciting path.

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Pre-order Super Smash Bros. Ultimate/GameCube Controller now

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 23, 2018 2:00 AM CDT

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has become available to pre-order on the Nintendo UK website, also available to pre-order is the official Super Smash Bros. Ultimate GameCube Controller.

Pre-order Super Smash Bros. Ultimate/GameCube Controller now

The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate listing on the Nintendo UK Store has revealed the price for the title, if you want to already secure a copy of the newest Smash game its gonna set you back £59.99. The listing has also revealed the price-tag for the GameCube controller, only coming in at £24.99 players that wish to use this controller will also have to grab a GameCube Controller Adapter for £17.99.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will be released on the 7th of December 2018, for further information regarding the upcoming release visit the official Super Smash Bros. website here.

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Hollow Knight for Switch, Gods & Glory free DLC details

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 23, 2018 1:00 AM CDT

Team Cherry have taken to Reddit to perform an AMA with the Nintendo Switch community, the AMA has revealed additional details to when we can expect the following free DLC Gods & Glory.

Hollow Knight for Switch, Gods & Glory free DLC details

Team Cherry have taken to the Nintendo Switch subreddit to answer questions from the community. Questions ranged from fans asking how about lore for certain characters, when we can expect the next DLC and if Hollow Knight could be implemented into the upcoming Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a DLC character.

According to the Reddit post, Team Cherry is now back in their home town of Adelaide Australia and is "working hard on Hollow Knight's final content pack, Gods & Glory" it is expected that this free DLC pack will be released in the "coming months on all platforms and will be free for everyone who owns the game." If you are interested in anymore information regarding Team Cherry's Hollow Knight please visit their website here.

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Resident Evil 2 remake PC requirements announced

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 22, 2018 9:34 PM CDT

PC specs for the newly announced Resident Evil 2 remake (REmake) have popped up on Steam, and they're not demanding at all.

Resident Evil 2 remake PC requirements announced

One of the best tidbits of this year's E3 2018 was the official Resident Evil 2 remake showcase during Sony's briefing. Powered by Capcom's new higher-end REngine technology used in Resident Evil 7, the remake should look and play great on consoles and PC alike with fluid FPS, although the latter gets a break with hardware requirements.

The PC specs for RE2 Remake are actually quite feasible: minimum requirements include an Intel i5-4460, 8GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760 whereas the recommended specs are bumped up to an Intel i7-3770, 8GB of RAM, and an GeForce GTX 1060.

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Gears of War 5 on PC scales incredibly well, up to 120FPS

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 22, 2018 7:35 PM CDT

The Coalition is making the next Gears of War something special not just for Xbox gamers, where the developer has said it's aiming for 4K 60FPS on the beefed-up Xbox One X, but it'll be magical on the PC, too.

Gears of War 5 on PC scales incredibly well, up to 120FPS

The developer has said that the PC version of Gears of War 5 was "built from the ground up for PC" and that it'll scale incredibly well. The Coalition boss Rod Fergusson explained: "You'll be able to max it to quite high. It's still reasonably early, but we can usually get to 120fps. It's obviously going to matter what hardware you're using to get that-but it'll be able to scale up that high, (if) the hardware can push it".

Gears of War 5 is expected in 2019 for Xbox consoles, and the PC.

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Red Dead Redemption 2 may come to PC

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 22, 2018 5:06 PM CDT

Red Dead Redemption 2 may actually come to PC after all...but not at launch.

Red Dead Redemption 2 may come to PC

We've known for a while now that Red Dead Redemption 2 will release first on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles--after all the game was built from scratch for the current generation and aims to squeeze power from the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro--but now a bit of evidence suggests the sequel-that's-a-prequel will come to PC too.

According to a Rockstar employee's LinkedIn bio, who shall remain anonymous in our coverage, mentions they worked on three flavors of Red Dead Redemption 2: "Xbox 1, PS4, and PC". Both Rockstar Games and its parent company Take-Two Interactive have been mum about a PC release date, and the general consensus is that RDR2 will jump to PC a year or two after consoles (similar to GTA V). Nothing has been confirmed thus far, however.

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Rare does Sea of Thieves 'roundtable' meeting at E3 2018

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 22, 2018 3:00 AM CDT

Rare has taken the opportunity of E3 to reveal details about upcoming content for players, while also discussing the future of Sea of Thieves.

Rare does Sea of Thieves 'roundtable' meeting at E3 2018

Joe Neate, the Executive Producer and Senior producer Adam Park sat down for 26 minutes to discuss their title, mentioning the Cursed Sails, more development teams and addressing the boredom of being out at sea. Here is what Neate had to say about the Cursed Sails skeleton crews "We're gonna run a kind of time-limited campaign to introduce them with a bit of story, a bit of lore, a bit of reasons to go and engage with them and get rewards and everything. From that point onwards, [skeleton ships] stay in the world as a kind of emergent threat and we do want to get to a place where we can add them into quests."

Sea of Thieves will soon have much bigger development teams according to Neate, "Currently we've got three teams internally but we're actually splitting up a fourth team at the moment so by the start of July there'll be a fourth team working on content updates. So they'll be working on the kind of like end-of-year December [update]."

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Steam Summer Sale 2018, two weeks of CRAZY low prices

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 22, 2018 2:00 AM CDT

Valve has started their annual Steam Summer Sale bringing insanely low prices to gamers on numerous popular titles. Let the madness begin!

Steam Summer Sale 2018, two weeks of CRAZY low prices

The two weeks of gamers wallets screaming out for help has begun. Valve has given us crazy discounts on up to 20,000 different games, so obviously all of them cannot be listed but a selection of titles has been provided below.

For the first time PUBG is on sale, other titles on sale include: The Witcher III: Wild Hunt, Dying Light and many more. If you are interested in checking out the sales visit the official Steam Sale page here.

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Brand new F1 2018 trailer reveals the French Grand Prix

Jak Connor | Gaming | Jun 22, 2018 1:00 AM CDT

A new trailer for F1 2018 has been released by Codemasters, it reveals the return of the French Grand Prix through talking to drivers playing on their home tracks.

Brand new F1 2018 trailer reveals the French Grand Prix

The selection of drivers that are interviewed are Romain Grosjean, Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz. Here is what Ocon had to say about the new title "I have been playing games since I was a kid... and I haven't stopped. The games have evolved massively and are getting more and more realistic. It is still my routine to go training during the day and I play for one or two hours in the evening... and I find it very useful. When we don't have a race weekend I keep racing on my own."

F1 2018 will be releasing on August 24th on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. For further information about the title visit the official Codemasters blog website here

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Samsung teases 8TB NF1 NVMe SSD: PCIe 4.0 with 3GB/sec reads

Anthony Garreffa | Storage | Jun 22, 2018 12:33 AM CDT

Samsung has just announced its latest 8TB NVMe SSD, something the company has pushed into the next-generation NF1 form factor that will be sold in datacenters, and enterprise servers.

Samsung teases 8TB NF1 NVMe SSD: PCIe 4.0 with 3GB/sec reads

The new Samsung 8TB NF1 SSDs are both NVMe 1.3 and PCIe 4.0 compliant making them, if I want to say them out loud, future-proof. There, I did it. The new drives are using the latest in flash technology that Samsung makes itself, with a single NF1 stick sporting 16 V-NAND dies to drive the capacity up to 8TB.

Get this: the new NF1 form factor packs twice the density of an M.2 drive, blowing away current-gen NVMe M.2 drives in capacity. This is all thanks to the next-gen NG1, or NGSFF (Next-Generation Small Form Factor). Samsung's new high-performance SSD controller sees speeds reaching up to 3100MB/sec reads, and 2000MB/sec writes with up to 500,000 IOPs and 50,000 IOPs read/write. Hell, there's even 12GB of LPDDR4 as cache on the new NG1 drive.

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Continue reading: Samsung teases 8TB NF1 NVMe SSD: PCIe 4.0 with 3GB/sec reads (full post)

Gears of War 5 aiming for 4K 60FPS on Xbox One X

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 11:36 PM CDT

Gears of War 5 will be something special for Xbox One X owners, with developer The Coalition saying that they are internally aiming for 4K 60FPS on the Xbox One X.

Gears of War 5 aiming for 4K 60FPS on Xbox One X

During an interview with Wired at E3 2018, The Coalition boss Rod Fergusson talked about internal technical targets for Gears of War 5. Fergusson explained: "Our target is always 60fps, and we believe - with everything we've done, the learning we've taken from Gears 4, and the optimizations we've been able to do beyond that - that's exactly what we're going to be doing, 60fps at 4K. The new technology of this generation has been fantastic".

This is a big change for the Gears of War franchise, as Gears of War 4 ran at 4K 30FPS for the single-player campaign, with 60FPS reserved for multiplayer. The PC version however, is a massive upgrade over the Xbox versions of Gears of War 5.

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Microsoft teams with Nintendo for Minecraft crossplay fun

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 10:32 PM CDT

In a move that I don't think many saw coming, Microsoft and Nintendo have teamed on a new crossplay-focused Minecraft trailer, with one gamer playing on an Xbox One controller, and the other with the Joy-Con Grip from the Nintendo Switch.

Microsoft teams with Nintendo for Minecraft crossplay fun

The new Minecraft Better Together update launched last year that enabled crossplay between Xbox, PC, and mobile platforms. But now there has been an update to the Nintendo Switch version of Minecraft that allows Switch owners into the crossplay ecosystem. What about the PS4? Yeah well, Sony doesn't play well with others.

The official Twitter account for Nintendo America tweeted out:

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Microsoft nixes VR plans for Xbox, says PC is best platform

Anthony Garreffa | Extended Reality (XR) | Jun 21, 2018 9:34 PM CDT

Microsoft seemed keen to push VR into the arms of Xbox gamers, but now it seems they're putting the brakes on any virtual/augmented/mixed reality devices for their Xbox consoles.

Microsoft nixes VR plans for Xbox, says PC is best platform

Mike Nichols, Microsoft's chief marketing officer of gaming explained in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz: "we don't have any plans specific to Xbox consoles in virtual reality or mixed reality". He continued, saying that the PC is "probably the best platform" for virtual and mixed reality experiences, and that with Xbox "our focus is primarily on experiences you would play on your TV".

If we rewind the clock back to 2016, where Xbox boss Phil Spencer said that the named-at-the-time Project Scorpio console that later became the Xbox One X, would support "high-end VR" like the PC. Microsoft went as far as teaming with Oculus to support Xbox controllers with the Rift, too.

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Cyberpunk 2077 won't have any loading screens

Anthony Garreffa | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 7:39 PM CDT

Cyberpunk 2077 is shaping up to be one of the biggest games in development, with developer CD Projekt Red teasing some exciting news.

Cyberpunk 2077 won't have any loading screens

Kyle Rowley, the associate design director for Cyberpunk 2077 was chatting with people on the official Discord server for the game, confirming it will have absolutely no loading screens. This is pretty damn mind blowing considering that it's an open-world game with a bunch of buildings you can enter.

Cyberpunk 2077 features a beautiful, dense world that is bigger than previous CDPR developed games like The Witcher series. To hear that there are no loading screens in Cyberpunk 2077 feels almost impossible at this stage, increasing the hype for this game a whole lot more.

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Remedy wants to make Alan Wake 2

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 7:04 PM CDT

What would Remedy be working on if it had total freedom? Maybe Alan Wake 2.

Remedy wants to make Alan Wake 2

Although Remedy is currently deep in developing Control (formerly P7) its ambitious new IP that blends Quantum Break with supernatural sci-horror, the studio says it wants to make a new Alan Wake game.

"So we own the Alan Wake IP, yes. I just want to say right away that it's very dear to us and close to our hearts. We all love Alan Wake at Remedy and I think all of us want to see a new Alan Wake game," Remedy's Mikael Kasurinen told DualShockers at E3 2018. "I just want to say that out loud. Unfortunately, I can't speak to it anymore than that. We'll see what happens with Alan Wake next but we all want to see it happen, absolutely."

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Cyberpunk 2077 uses next-gen engine technology

Derek Strickland | Gaming | Jun 21, 2018 6:21 PM CDT

It's no secret that Cyberpunk 2077 is the most ambitious game CD Projekt RED has ever made, and that the game is running on next-level tech. But shortly after the game's E3 2018 trailer and subsequent gameplay demo the devs affirm they're aiming to push current-gen consoles to their limits.

Cyberpunk 2077 uses next-gen engine technology

With flying cars, a living, breathing city with real-time AI, deep RPG elements, and chaotic FPS action, Cyberpunk 2077 is sounding better by the minute. Everything we've seen and hear about the game so far has left quite an impression and rightly so: it's all powered by CD Projekt RED's newly evolved world-building engine technology, something that's been in development for quite some time. Sure, we've known Cyberpunk 2077 would use crazy high-end tech to achieve the devs' sci-fi vision, but actually seeing it is quite different. After all CDPR has been laboring for years on iterating and one-upping its games engine in an effort to outdo their prowess with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

According to CD Projekt RED CEO Marcin Iwinski the team is still trying to squeeze even more out of the engine to prepare for the game's mysterious release.

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