GTC 2017 - NVIDIA has officially unveiled its new Volta-based Tesla V100 graphics card, the most advanced piece of silicon in the world - on the 12nm node, with 16GB of HBM2 @ 900GB/sec, and so much more - but the AI research systems have also been announced, topping out at $149,000.

NVIDIA's new DGX-1 with Tesla V100 has 960 Tensor TFLOPs of performance, 8 x Tesla V100 graphics cards, NVLink Hybrid Cube technology, and is the equivalent of 400 servers in a box. NVIDIA says that it's capable of pushing down the required time on datasets from 8 days on TITAN X, to just 8 hours on DGX-1 with Tesla V100.

GTC 2017 - NVIDIA removed the wraps off of their next-gen Volta GPU architecture today at GTC 2017, with the new Tesla V100 graphics card and DGX-1 with Tesla V100 system that costs $149,000.

We know that there are over 21 billion transistors on the GV100 GPU, offering 15 TFLOPs of single precision compute performance backed up by 7.5 TFLOPs of double precision compute. But there are two variations of Tesla V100 graphics cards: single-slot, and dual-slot. The single-slot Tesla V100 has a 150W TDP, while the dual-slot Tesla V100 ramps up the TDP to 300W.

NVIDIA hasn't confirmed what the different in performance is going to be for the 150W variant of Tesla V100, and that's a very interesting question. Performance wise, we're expecting a pretty huge 40% performance per watt advantage over the previous Pascal-based Tesla P100, on the new 12nm FinFET process.

We know that AMD is working on its next-gen Naples platform that will usher in monstrous 16C/32T processors, but now we're seeing engineering samples of these purported CPUs - with the new processors arriving on the unannounced 'Whitehaven 'platform.

Our friends over at VideoCardz have spotted some new engineering sample details on two 16C/32T processors, with both of the engineering samples rocking base/boost clocks of 3.1GHz and 3.6GHz respectively. There was also a 12C/24T chip in the list that features a base/boost clock of 2.7GHz and 3.2GHz, respectively.

There's not much else known, but holy crap is it exciting.

GTC 2017 - NVIDIA has unveiled its monsterous new Tesla V100 professional graphics card, the first with their next-gen Volta GPU architecture - and NVIDIA's second graphics card with HBM2 technology.

The new Tesla V100 packs 16GB of ridiculously fast HBM2 on a 4096-bit memory bus that provides a huge 900GB/sec of memory bandwidth. Tesla V100 is capable of a huge 15 TFLOPs of single precision (FP32) performance, while it packs 7.5 TFLOPs of double precision (FP64) performance - enough for the largest of datasets in datacenter/AI/deep learning workloads.

Inside, Tesla V100 rocks the company's next-gen Volta GPU architecture with a huge 5120 CUDA cores at 1455MHz boost clock, on the fresh new 12nm manufacturing process - something we reported on a couple of months ago now. If we compare this to the Pascal-based Tesla P100 that was made on the 16nm FinFET prrocess with 16GB of HBM2 at 720GB/sec, and only 3584 CUDA cores in comparison. NVIDIA's new Tesla V100 is an absolute beast.

The Mass Effect franchise has been put on hold as BioWare Montreal downsizes and transitions into a support studio for future EA projects, sources tell Kotaku's Jason Schreier.

It appears there are many reasons for EA's decision, including the poor reception of Mass Effect: Andromeda as well as BioWare's new IP (codenamed Dylan). As we reported earlier, BioWare is currently making a massive new online-based IP with staggering depth, and is set to be EA's unique answer to Destiny.

As such, two of BioWare's key studios have been contributing to the IP, including BioWare Austin, with BioWare Edmonton at the helm. Now it appears that BioWare Montreal will be joining the fray and the Mass Effect series will be put on hold, meaning the company's new IP should be its main focus for years to come.

EA recently announced that BioWare's new IP has been delayed, but something the company said really caught my eye: the new IP is heavily online-based so it'll be powered by EA's live services. When the publisher mentions live services, this typically means one big thing: microtransactions.

Electronic Arts makes a lot of money from digital live services, which include online-based content such as microtransactions, season pass DLC, map packs, and subscriptions. In fact, EA earned a whopping $1.68 billion from live services last year, or 55.4% of all digital net sales. Major live service breadwinners include FIFA Ultimate Team's blind-style purchase packs and Battlefield 1's season pass content. EA has confirmed this same model will power BioWare's new IP, possibly corroborating one of my biggest fears: the game will have microtransactions.

We've known for a while now that BioWare's new IP will be online-based, and we predicted that it'd be EA's unique answer to Destiny. EA says that the game will have "disruptive social designs" that "brings friends together in exciting new ways," and that it's a genre-melded game with action, RPG, and character-driven progression. But EA's new quotes strongly hint that microtransactions will help fund the game's content, not unlike Destiny.

Electronic Arts has delayed BioWare's massive new IP as far as 2019, and confirms that the game will be online-based with a new kind of social interactive component--corroborating our original predictions.

BioWare's core Edmonton studio has been developing a fresh new IP for the last five years, aiming to make the new IP a "clean sheet design with new concepts, new gameplay mechanics, and new stories set in a unique universe." EA has dropped key information on the new IP so far, saying that the game is action-based but also has genre-melding to combine RPG elements and deep story-driven characters, but with greater action and greater adventure than we're used to. Now EA confirms that the game will have live services, which indicates it'll be a strong online-based game like Destiny.

Sadly, EA has delayed the game into its FY19, which extends from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019.

Obsidian Entertainment isn't making Fallout: New Vegas 2, but may be working on a new project led by Fallout creator Tim Cain, sources tell TweakTown.

Obsidian isn't working on a sequel of Fallout: New Vegas, sources familiar with the matter affirm to TweakTown. The rumor was instigated by FragHero, and this marks the second time the report was debunked.

However, insider sources tell TweakTown that Obsidian may also be working on a secret new project with Fallout creator Tim Cain at the helm. Sources say that Obsidian is pushing towards establishing its own IPs rather than adaptations of publisher-owned franchises such as Fallout so the studio can have full creative control on the projects.

It's no surprise that key games publishers and industry movers make most of their money from consoles, but now we see just how big the divide actually is, especially for titans like EA.

Digital sales are extremely lucrative for EA simply because digital offers microtransactions, subscription services, DLC/season pass content, and an ever-evolving business model.

As a result, EA has earned most of its net revenue and net sales from digital content: in terms of net revenue, digital puled in $3.29 billion or 54% of EA's net revenue, versus physical's $1.78 billion.

SpaceX is currently using the Falcon 9 rocket for the company's launches, but the bigger Falcon Heavy should take over soon. Elon Musk first mentioned Falcon Heavy in a September 2005 news update. The rocket was scheduled to fly in 2014, then 2015, but there have been delays, and now, the company is aiming for the second half of this year.

SpaceX CEO explained last year that developing the Falcon Heavy proved to be much more difficult than they previously thought, but it seems that the company is on track. They conducted the first static fire test on the rocket's critical center core, and the test was successful.

This is a huge milestone in the development of the Falcon Heavy. The company has big plans for this rocket, which should play a major role in the crewed mission to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX plans to begin sending uncrewed spacecraft to Mars by 2020, meaning it is crucial that the Falcon Heavy starts flying soon if the company wants to stay on schedule.

On April 1, Overkill and H3H3 played a practical joke on the Payday community by announcing the "H3H3 Starter Pack," which brought Ethan into the game, beanie and all. Now Overkill is really doing it, and Hila is coming along as well.

YouTubers Ethan and Hila Klein of H3H3 Productions will bring some goofs, some gaffs, and a whole lotta laughs to Payday 2 this Fall. What started out as an April Fool's joke turned into a phenomenon, with tons of Payday and H3H3 fans asking for Ethan to really come to the heist shooter. So now he actually is, accompanied by his wife Hila.

"To the Payday community out there, we're excited to announce that we're adding Ethan and Hila as two playable characters to Payday 2. They're going to be available this Fall," said Almir listo, global brands producer at Starbreeze.

As we reported earlier, it seems that OnePlus intends to skip the OnePlus 4, since the number 4 is considered unlucky in China, and name their new flagship OnePlus 5. The phone is confirmed to be unveiled in the summer, with no exact date of the launch yet.

We know that the device will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 835, but other specs are still a bit vague. Now, GsmArena reports that they have received "an exclusive screenshot from a very credible source," showing the OnePlus 5 benchmark scores from GeekBench.

If legit, the score is pretty impressive - 1963 single-core and 6687 multi-core. The results put OnePlus 5 on top of the list (multi-core), above the Samsung's Galaxy S8+ (with Snapdragon and Exynos) and Apple's iPhone 7 Plus.

Deutsche Bank has published its annual "Mapping of the World's Prices" report in which strategist Jim Reid compares prices of common items in global cities.

The iPhone 7, launched in September last year, also made its way onto this list. Reid compared the prices of the iPhone 7 with 128GB of internal storage in 33 countries around the world. The prices are sourced from official Apple store websites, or online retailers and news websites if the official prices via Apple store weren't available.

According to the report, Turkey is the worst place from the surveyed countries to buy an iPhone since its price there is $1,200. Turkey has replaced Brazil on top of the list of the most expensive places to buy an iPhone.

ASUS' ZenFone 3 Zoom was officially revealed at CES alongside the ZenFone AR, but the phone wasn't available in the US, until now.

The phone has finally found its way to the US market and is available for pre-order on B&H website for $329. Back in February, we reported that the phone was available in Taiwan, at a price of $489, so in case you wanted to get the phone, the pre-order price is a good deal.

The ZenFone 3 Zoom is a 5.5-inch smartphone designed to excel at photography with a dual-camera system that comprises two 12MP cameras, one with a f/1.7-aperture, 25mm wide-angle lens and a second with a 59mm lens. Users can instantly switch from the 25mm primary camera to the 59mm camera, giving them a 2.3X optical zoom.

OnePlus has recently confirmed that they will launch the OnePlus 5, the successor to the OnePlus 3/3T, this summer. The highly-anticipated smartphone should be the company's flagship that could compete with the recently launched Galaxy S8.

The specs of the phone have leaked earlier, but the latest leak gives us the best image of the upcoming flagship so far. Two OnePlus 5 sketches have found their way to Weibo and, if legit, they confirm that the device will have a dual rear camera setup, as previously rumored.

What we didn't know until now is that the phone will apparently have a 'window' surrounding the camera are, something like Google Pixel. However, when it comes to the OnePlus 5, the window is supposed to be made of ceramic and not glass.

EA is one of the biggest players in the games industry, and the company's current yearly financials highlight all the ways the publisher has conquered the gaming world. Microtransactions, DLC, and live services are a massive revenue stream for EA, and this year alone the company pulled in $1.68 billion via digital content outside of full game downloads.

EA just reported positive Fiscal Year 2017 earnings from April 1, 2016 to March 31, 2017, and something in particular caught my eye: EA is making money hand-over-fist with "recurrent consumer spending," aka microtransactions, and live services, ie season pass additions like extra maps and other priced DLC. Just how much is EA earning in this digital sector? Over $1 billion.

Electronic Arts pulled in $1.682 billion in digital net sales with live services across PC and console in FY2017. This value doesn't even include digital net sales earned from mobile, which amounts to $682 million.

We recently reported that OnePlus might have discontinued the 128GB version of the OnePlus 3T. The company's official website listed the device as discontinued.

However, it seems that that phone is simply out of stock. The company's global website now changed the 128GB OnePlus 3T from 'discontinued' to 'out of stock.'

A representative from OnePlus said:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one of the best games ever made, and while it is selling a bunch of Nintendo Switch consoles, PC gamers are getting a huge tease of the game running at the glorious 4K resolution through Wii U emulator Cemu.

YouTuber 'CryZENx' has been hard at work on Breath of the Wild on the PC, with his latest build running at 4K 30FPS - which is a huge leap from the previous iterations of the game. Cemu took to Patreon in March, with 8000 backers on the project - and now the team is making $34,000 per month that they're pumping into the coding behind the scenes. The pay off? Zelda: Breath of the Wild at 4K 30FPS.

Zelda: Breath of the Wild was running through Cemu 1.7.5 at 4K on an Intel Core i7-4790K @ 4.8GHz, and 2 x EVGA GeForce GTX 1080 Ti cards in SLI, with 32GB of DDR4 and an ASRock Z97 Extreme 4 motherboard. This is obviously a mountain of hardware compared to what's inside of the Switch, but still - Breath of the Wild has never looked any better.

It looks as though one of the first engineering samples of AMD's next-gen Raven Ridge APUs has leaked onto the SiSoftware Database, giving us some details on the processor - and as always this is a hot and steamy rumor, and nothing else.

AMD has launched its new Ryzen CPU family with multiple SKUs in the Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 lines, but we haven't seen Ryzen 3 yet. Later this year AMD will launch Raven Ridge, a new APU using Zen CPU cores, but it'll also rock Vega NCUs as well. The engineering sample in question was a 4C/8T part at 3GHz base clock and 3.3GHz turbo clock, with 704 Vega NCUs at 800MHz.

The Raven Ridge engineering sample featured 2MB of L2 cache and 4MB of L3 cache, while the new chip sported 11 compute units - so if we blend in 64 stream processors per CU, we should see 704 stream processors in total on the Vega NCU. The chip was pushing 572.68 Mpix/s, too.

GTC 2017 - NVIDIA is preparing to unleash its next-gen Volta GPU architecture at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, CA - with Jensen Huang, CEO and founder of NVIDIA saying that the company is building inventory for a new product announcement during his keynote in the morning.

At GTC 2016 the company unveiled its Pascal-based Tesla P100 professional graphics card powered by HBM2 technology, so I'm expecting a Volta GPU architecture announcement alongside the unveiling of the Tesla V100. I'm sure we'll see even more HBM2 on the purported Tesla V100 (The 'P' in Tesla P100 stands for Pascal, so V100 would be Volta, right?) and we could even see a GDDR6-based variant, but I think that'll be the GeForce GTX 20 series announcement for later this year.

Until then, what do you think we'll see unveiled at GTC 2017? Volta in professional form? A new TITAN Xv graphics card on the new Volta GPU architecture, or something completely different?