Latest News - Page 2197

We're currently going through the first few weeks of AMD's new Radeon RX Vega graphics card launch, and we're now hearing about PCI-Express 4.0 and 5.0 from PCI-SIG, the organization behind the PCI-Express standard.

The upcoming PCIe 4.0 standard will ramp up the interconnect bandwidth from 8GT/s to 16GT/s, and will arrive sometime next year.

Then the big leap happens with PCIe 5.0 which will push it right up to 32GT/s, offering 128GB/sec through the PCIe 5.0 slot (compared to just 32GB/sec from PCIe 3.0 and 64GB/sec from PCIe 4.0).

4A Games, the developers behind the acclaimed Metro series of games, promises that its upcoming open-world Metro Exodus title will be a work of art on Microsoft's new high-end $499 Xbox One X console.

While PC gaming utterly dominates consoles in terms of quality and performance, it's still quite impressive to see Microsoft reinvent the console segment with its new 4K-ready Xbox One X system; in fact, the console has actually carved out a new console tier I'd like to call the "enthusiast console" or "high-end console" platform. Metro games are known for practically melting the most demanding GPUs on the market with demanding in-game performance, but 4A Games hints the Xbox One X will hold its own and provide "amazing" visuals in the new Metro Exodus game.

"The power of the Xbox One X will allow to ensure the game looks amazing," 4A Games Executive Producer Jonathan Bloch told OXM in a recent interview. Mr. Bloch confirms that Metro Exodus' stunning E3 2017 announcement trailer was indeed in-engine footage captured on an Xbox One X system. "The trailer was recorded in-engine from a gameplay sequence players will find later on in the game. We removed things like HUD/Quick Time Events prompts, and we choreographed the playthrough and music to fit the needs of the trailer, but the game looks like what you see."

Apple should unveil the new iPhone 8 on September 12th, claims a new report from the Wall Street Journal.

The company is aiming to launch the phone at Steve Jobs Theater at its new headquarters campus but considering that the new HQ isn't finished yet, Apple could use the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium in San Francisco, where it's held events in the past two years.

If the report is true, we could see the new iPhones available on September 22nd. Apple will announce the iPhone 7s, iPhone 7s Plus, and the iPhone 8. The iPhone 8 is certainly the most interesting among the three devices since it should bring some design changes. One of the biggest questions is what will happen with the fingerprint scanner.

Microsoft is throwing open the doors for cross-play initiatives and says it's willing to work with Sony, Nintendo and even Valve to unite multiplayer gaming...but the company's appeals may largely fall on deaf ears.

Since the Xbox brand is no longer console-based but now a service that bridges both Windows 10-powered PCs and Xbox One consoles, Microsoft is in a strategic position to gain the most from cross-play multiplayer. This paradigm shift has many layers of tactical advantage, and is the main reason why the company is so strongly embracing cross-play--I have no doubt key executives, who are gamers, want to see platforms united for the good of consumers, but the good of the company comes first. I've highlighted many reasons why Sony is avoiding cross-play, and none of them have to do with being a villain or stifling player fun. Sony is simply putting the PlayStation 4 as the nexus of its entertainment ecosystem, and exclusivity has paid off big time so far.

In a recent interview with VG247, Xbox division VP Mike Ybarra affirmed this cross-play push is about unifying gamers so they can enjoy experiences with their friends, even if they own different systems. "It's more about gamer choice, more about making an IP on our platform last longer. I don't care about where they play, I just want people to have fun playing games because that's just better for the industry," Mr. Ybarra said.

Retailer Target has officially confirmed the "Bethesda: Game of Thrones" listing was an error, and that the game isn't real.

A bit ago we reported on a suspect listing on Target's website that had "Bethesda", the developer of landmark RPGs like Skyrim and Fallout 4, alongside Game of Thrones, the mega-popular fantasy series that just concluded its seventh season. Of course everyone thought this meant Bethesda Game Studios was adapting Game of Thrones into an epic sprawling open-world RPG...but alas gamers, and countless games media outlets, were wrong.

"This is not a real product - we're sorry for any confusion," an official Target spokesperson told Forbes in a statement. The erroneous listing has been scrubbed from the retailer's website.

Bethesda's Creation Club on-demand paid DLC service just went live in Fallout 4 on PC, giving players an idea of how much real-world money they'll have to shell out to purchase extra in-game content.

I've been quite vocal for my support of Bethesda's Creation Club infrastructure; on paper it's a great plan to add a recurring revenue stream to Bethesda Game Studios' massively iconic franchises to ensure long-term earnings. After all, in today's industry landscape, full game sales aren't enough and studios are focusing on integrating microtransactions, DLC, and other such lucrative strategies into their games. Creation Club is essentially Bethesda's take on microtransactions, but solidified into a platform nestled into its Bethesda.net framework and leveraging the modding scene that its games are known for.

That being said, Creation Club is likely off to a rocky start. The service, which lives alongside free mods as an optional storefront that peddles one-time purchases of extra content for credits that are bought with real-money, only has a small offering of content available for Fallout 4. The service will offer content to both Fallout 4 and Skyrim across PS4, Xbox One and PC. The pricing scheme is also a reason for concern.

Earlier this year we reviewed the Latitude 12 Rugged Tablet, and we were very impressed with the durability and features of the 2-in-1 hybrid tablet/Windows PC. Dell has upped the ante with another installment of their uniquely durable tablet computer and made major improvements upon the Latitude 12 (7202) Rugged Tablet.

The new Latitude 7212 Rugged Extreme features Intel's 6th and 7th generation Core processors, weight reduction (almost 25-30%) to under 3lbs, increased battery size (26Wh to 34Wh)/life (19 hours), and will maintain backward compatibility with Dell's existing ecosystem. That means the batteries from the previous Rugged tablet will also work with the new tablet as would car mounting systems.

The 11.6" daylight viewable display also gets an upgrade to FHD and is still just as strong as its predecessors. The new tablet features a USB 3.0 Type-C connector that can be used for connecting to devices, docking, and even charging. Storage options have been changed, and now you can get a Rugged Extreme tablet with up to 1TB of NVMe class 40 solid state storage. You can also get the tablet equipped with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X7 LTE-A modem for data on the go, and a dedicated GPS card.

Are you a water cooling enthusiast that owns a X299 GIGABYTE motherboard? EK Water Blocks have some good news for you, having recently announced their latest monoblock and 3rd LGA-2066 socket based monoblock exclusively for compatible GIGABYTE motherboards. The EK-FB GA X299 GAMING RGB Monoblock ticks every box, performance, style and price.

Supported GIGABYTE motherboards include:

To ensure maximum cooling efficiency, EKWB and GIGABYTE have teamed up to design and engineer this fantastic all-in-one (CPU and motherboard) monoblock. Using award-winning EK-Supremacy EVO cooling engine and a new redesigned cold plate, ensuring precision contact with the processor's IHS to achieve amazing cooling performance for those high overclocks.

With news that the much anticipated Rainbow Six: Siege expansion, Operation Blood Orchid was delayed until September 6, Ubisoft also recently released some information regarding map pool changes to Ranked and Casual playlist changes in their recent Dev Blog- Data Cleanup: Map Changes.

Ubisoft have decided to reduce the total maps available in Ranked mode. Ranked mode map pool will mimic that of the competitive Pro League map pool, this will allow players to hone their skills in the most competitive environment available.

Below is the maps available for Ranked mode.

If there was a place to find an NVIDIA Shield 2 prototype, I didn't think it would be in a freakin' Canadian pawn shop, but here we are... with some interesting news.

Reddit user 'FwrigginRwootbeer' said they found an NVIDIA Shield 2 prototype that Android Police have confirmed is a unit that was given to game developers to work around with, but never reached the public. What the Redditor found was that the NVIDIA Shield 2 prototype rocked an ARM Cortex-A57 processor @ 1.91GHz, 3GB of RAM

We might not ever see NVIDIA release the Shield 2, but here's hoping.

Microsoft has been hyping the hell out of the upcoming 4K-capable Xbox One X console, but the company has just ninja'd its Xbox One - killing it, and continuing to push Xbox One S and the upcoming Xbox One X.

Can you believe that Microsoft released the original Xbox One back in 2013, but then the new and improved Xbox One S last year which was 40% smaller than the original Xbox One. At the time, Microsoft explained: "With a fresh new design and "robot white" color, the Xbox One S is 40 percent smaller than the original Xbox One, creating the most compact Xbox yet. It also includes a built-in power supply, and in response to fan requests worldwide, can be placed horizontally or vertically with an optional stand".

The upcoming Xbox One X console is the best yet, packing 12GB of GDDR5 memory, a GPU capable of 6 TFLOPs of performance, and 320GB/sec of memory bandwidth. This means it's about as fast as a lower/mid-range PC, with Project Scorpio detailed as: "Project Scorpio will be the first console with 6 teraflops of power, which will empower the world's greatest game creators to fully embrace true 4K gaming without sacrificing quality, generate premier VR experiences, without sacrificing performance, and putting greater graphic fidelity in the hands of the world's best game creators".

Samsung has been the king of smartphone displays for a few years now, but they continue to push the boundaries of what's possible on their smartphones, leading the way with their new Galaxy Note 8 smartphone.

The folks over at DisplayMate have put the new Galaxy Note 8 through its paces, noting that the Super AMOLED panel on the Note 8 is simply amazing. DisplayMate gave the Note 8 display an A+ as it beat not just Samsung's own smartphones, but all of their competitors, too. This is what DisplayMate had to say:

DisplayMate had some major display highlights for the Note 8, adding:

Half-Life 3 will never see the light of day, but I'm only saying that because if I put it into writing hopefully it will see the light of day, but plenty of gamers are now angry at Valve over Dota 2, blaming the game for killing Half-Life 3.

PCGamesN noticed Dota 2 reviews on Steam blaming the game for killing Half-Life 3, with some of these negative comments standing out: "Dota killed Half-Life 3. Nuff said". Then there's "HL3 died for this" and "This game is derivative trash, bring back real story driven FPS games, which are the reason you are here". How about "Newell ♥♥♥♥ you (please dont delete my steam account)" or "Valve is a blood sucking company that doesn't care about it's User's [sic] and refuses to make Half-Life 3". There is one gamer who wants L4D3, though: "I really don't care about Half Life 3, but you know, making Left 4 Dead 3 would be pretty nice".

PUBG might be the biggest PC game right now, but I have this sneaking suspicion that we're close to a new Half-Life announcement with all of this news of Half-Life 2: Episode 3 being teased in Unreal Engine 4, and other Half-Life related news. I don't want to be positive as I'm a realist... and I think that's because I'm protecting the amazing memories that I have of Half-Life 3 and don't want them destroyed.

AMD has just launched its Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics card, which is available right now in reference form, for $399. I talked with AMD on the phone yesterday, where they reiterated their stance on the $399 price, ensuring that AMD are underlining the sub $400 pricing.

Unfortunately, there aren't many Radeon RX Vega 56 graphics cards available with the limited supply being eaten up ridiculously fast, with more stock coming in the next couple of weeks. If you can get your hands-on the RX Vega 56, you'll be able to enjoy some 1080p and 1440p gaming at 60FPS+ which competes directly against the GeForce GTX 1070 from NVIDIA.

Pricing and availability aside, the Radeon RX Vega 56 is AMD's best Vega-based graphics card in my opinion. Radeon RX Vega 64 is priced too close, and in some cases more than the GTX 1080 and closer to GTX 1080 Ti, without having the performance to back up its massive price tag, power consumption and heat. Radeon RX Vega 56 is a much better alternative to the GTX 1070 if you're a FreeSync monitor owner, or Team Red supporter.

Razer have introduced the most customizable controller for PC and Xbox One, the Razer Wolverine Ultimate. Featuring Razer Chroma™ lighting capabilities, the Razer Wolverine Ultimate is the first console product to support the Razer Chroma SDK, allowing developers to integrate advanced lighting capabilities for Xbox One games to create next level gaming immersion.

The Razer Wolverine Ultimate allows for maximum customization with two interchangeable D-Pads, a range of interchangeable thumbsticks with different heights and shape and a total of 6 remappable triggers and buttons ensure this controller adapts itself to any gamer. Ultra-responsive tactile switch action buttons and an automatic hair-trigger mode ensure performance is paramount for this premium controller.

"We've taken our time with the development of the Razer Wolverine Ultimate to really get it right," says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder and CEO. "Thanks to endless design iterations and pro-gamer feedback, we're proud to be finally releasing a new contender for the crown."

AMD's 8-core/16 thread Ryzen Threadripper 1900X is due to go on sale August 31, well, at least it's supposed to. It appears as if India's leading PC hardware store PrimeABGB, have jumped the gun and began selling the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X ahead of its offical release date.

PrimeABGB have listed the AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1900X at INR 45,699, this is equivalent to approximately $715 USD, a significant increase on AMD's MSRP of $549. However, PrimeABGB also list the 1920X at INR 65,488 ($1,024USD) compared with $799.99 MSRP. The 1950X sees a similar mark-up at INR 82,008 ($1,283USD) compared with $999.99 MSRP.

The AMD Ryzen Threadripper CPU series has already seen the release of the 1920X and 1950X back on August 10, are Intel worried? We think so.

Taking place this Friday and Saturday (1-2 September), PAX Australia organizers today announced a surprise pop-up event that will give the public a preview of their main event, PAX Australia 2017 that will take place October 27-29 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre.

PAX Australia's pop-up event takes place in Federation Square and is open and free to the public. Featuring a massive screen, this pop-up event that will allow gamers to play some of the latest games, win multiple prizes including PAX Australia 3-Day badges, admire or dress in cosplay and enjoy a Friday night concert featuring local Melbourne bands. Tabletop fans will not be disappointed, as they can battle in giant Jenga, Connect Four and other board games.

"Before the PAX mothership descends upon Melbourne this October, we're very excited to offer a snack-sized PAX at Fed Square on 1-2 September," said Luke Lancaster, PAX Aus Content Manager at ReedPOP. "Come hang out, play games, win prizes, enjoy the concerts and surround yourself with the amazing PAX community".

Intel is currently baking its upcoming Coffee Lake CPUs in the oven, with a new tease of the upcoming flagship Core i7-8700K processor and some leaked SiSoft SANDRA benchmarks.

The new Core i7-8700K will be a bigger beast than its predecessor, coming in as a 6C/12T processor compared to the 7700K which is a 4C/8T chip. The new Coffee Lake-based Core i7-8700K will compete against AMD's Ryzen 5 1600X which is also a 6C/12T, but offer some monster performance over the 7700K which still reigns supreme for gamers.

Looking at the single-threaded performance, the 8700K is around 11% faster than the 7700K, but in multi-threaded performance the new Coffee Lake-based 8700K and its 6C/12T of CPU grunt pushes it to be 51% faster.

The entire world is waiting to see what Apple do with their September event, where we should be introduced to the latest iPhone, 4K-capable Apple TV, and more. The big deal at the event will reportedly be AR glasses, according to Bernstein Research.

Tim Sacconaghi is confident Apple are preparing an AR product, where he says "Instead, it is evident that most players remain content to fiddle with prototype and beta products, which are still years away from commercial viability. We believe this state of persistent fragmentation provides a potential opening for Apple. Given the relative infancy of AR, Apple does not seem to be behind any of its competitors from a technological perspective: ARKit appears to be just as capable as any other solution within the AR space".

We won't see Apple dominate the AR space instantly, but rather it will take 3-4 years for Apple to get familiar with it. This happened with the iPad, iPhone, and every product in between - and also not just from Apple, but with any new emerging technology (VR is a recent example). He added: "from a business perspective, smartglasses would make sense to Apple for three reasons," those being a "potential market" that "is very significant," the ability of Apple to plow a lot of money into refining the technology, and a follow-on market for "smartglasses software / services" that "could also be substantial".

One of the biggest reveals of Gamescom 2017 was Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition, a beast that will push gaming PCs to their limits when it arrives in early 2018, mostly because NVIDIA partnered with Square Enix on the PC side of things.

Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition will feature massive PC enhancements over the console version of the game, including 4K textures, as well as a bunch of NVIDIA technology like HFTS, VXAO, Turf, Flow, and HairWorks. But during an interview with PC Gamer, Game Director Hajime Tabata said that even the GeForce GTX 1080 Ti won't be enough to run Final Fantasy XV: Windows Edition at 4K 60FPS.

Tabata said: "Supporting 60fps will be possible, but considering the spec you'd need to get that level-with native 4K, HDR, and a good 60fps-the machine we've got here couldn't do that at the moment. That's a GTX 1080 Ti, and even with that 60 frames is not possible".