Latest News - Page 2440

The latest patch for Forza Motorsport 6: Apex is now out, with stability fixes, performance improvements, and more. The ability to disable VSync is now there, with the patch being auto downloaded from the Windows 10 store. Here's what to expect from the changelog:

Forza Motorsport 6: APEX - Update May 12th Changelog:

We've been hearing a fair bit about AMD's next-gen Polaris architecture and its unveiling during Computex 2016, especially the rumor that AIB partners won't be showing off Polaris-based video cards during the show... boo.

Well, according to the latest rumors, press from around the world are being invited to an event on June 1 where AMD will unveil the new Radeon 400 series based on the Polaris architecture. Polaris 10 will be powering the Radeon 400 series while Polaris 11 will be baked into the lower/mid-range parts. The Polaris 11 GPU is what we saw last year in Sonoma, which was compared against the GTX 950 using less than 85W of power.

Some of the rumors have AMD using Polaris 10 to power the Radeon 400 and have it hit the mid-range segment, priced at less than $299.

I'm still yet to receive my DOOM code, but I'm looking forward to playing it as it doesn't look like a steaming pile of crap like most of the shooters from 2015. Our friends over at Gamers Nexus have benchmarked id Software's new first-person shooter, with a slew of video cards and reported that the Radeon R9 390X loses out to the GeForce GTX 980 at 4K. Remember, DOOM requires 5GB+ of VRAM to run the 'Nightmare' graphics setting, too.

This is surprising, as the R9 390X has 8GB of GDDR5 with a much wider 512-bit memory bus, while the GTX 980 has 4GB of GDDR5 with a smaller 256-bit memory bus. The GTX 980 Ti card "maintains 45FPS" average, while the R9 Fury X was capable of 41.6FPS, even with its HBM1 technology. Knocking the resolution down to 2560x1440, the GTX 980 Ti comes out on top, with the GTX 980 coming in second place - actually beating out the Fury X at 1440p.

86FPS average at 1440p for the GTX 980 Ti, while the normal GTX 980 is pushing 72.6FPS average. This leaves the Fury X with 71FPS average, while the R9 390X trails way further behind with 51.3FPS average. What about 1920x1080?

Doom's graphics settings actually go past Ultra--you can unlock the so-called "Nightmare" setting for in-game shadows, but it calls for video cards with an insane 5GB+ VRAM minimum...all for minor improvements.

Doom's new Nightmare graphics setting is pretty demanding, requiring a video card with a minimum of 5GB+ VRAM to even turn on, so you'll have to have an NVIDIA GeForce GTX Titan X, 980 Ti, Titan, or an AMD R9 390/390X/290X to push your shadows past Ultra in the hellish shooter.

Naturally, you'd expect Nightmare mode to be a sizable leap in fidelity, especially being powered by 5GB+ VRAM, but the jump isn't that eye-boggling. Toggling on Nightmare does improve shadows and field of view, adding in more definition to faraway environments, but the differences aren't that dramatic. Keep in mind the mode isn't exactly a fully-fledged preset and only pushes two different options past Ultra: Shadows Quality and Virtual Texturing Page Size.

The world of eSports is continuing to grow, with the forming of WESA, or the World Esports Association. ESL has been "working has been working closely with some of the most renowned, industry-leading esports teams to create an open and inclusive organisation to oversee standardized tournament regulations, player representation as well as revenue sharing for teams".

On the ESL Gaming website, the announcement says that WESA will "offer the chance to bring all esports stakeholders - players, teams, organizers and broadcasters - to the discussion table in order to bring much needed structure, predictable schedules and transparency to the scene. Eight of the world's biggest multi-gaming brands have contributed to the founding of WESA, with the Association aiming to add more members and negotiations continue with various organizations". As for the founding teams, these are the ones that have joined WESA:

One of WESA's goals is the operative Player Council, which is elected by the players. The Player Council will "represent, strengthen and advocate on behalf of pro gamers on a number of important topics, such as league policies, rulesets, player transfers and more. The aim is to empower players when it comes to influencing decision-making in tournaments operated under WESA regulations. As such, the ESL Pro League for CS:GO will become the first professional esports competition to adopt said WESA regulations".

id Software has unleashed DOOM onto the world, with AMD pushing out its new Radeon Software Crimson Edition 16.5.2 drivers, and now NVIDIA with its GeForce Game Ready 365.19 drivers.

The new GeForce 365.19 drivers are also Game Ready for Homefront: The Revolution, which drops on May 17. There's also support provided for Master of Orion, which has just hit Early Access on Steam. You can grab the new GeForce 365.19 drivers here, or grab them through GeForce Experience.

Now that DOOM is finally here, gamers are waiting for improved SLI support, with id Software Lead Rendering Programmer Tiago Sousa confirming that SLI support is coming soon.

One user even reported that the game runs better with SLI enabled, but Sousa added that it's going to get much better soon, as there's problems with shadow limiting SLI scaling. Sousa added that if gamers are pumping DOOM up to 4K on their PCs, that it's a waste of GPU resources to process all of those additional pixels. He added that by adjusting the resolution scaling slider in the Advanced Menu, gamers can receive some additional performance.

Sousa also talked about Vulkan support, something we saw in person during the GTX 1080 reveal event, but we don't know when that'll be coming - we're sure it'll be here in the next few weeks, though.

NVIDIA has officially unveiled its next-gen GeForce GTX 1080, but what will enthusiasts do without waterblocks? Never fear, BYKSI is here, with their new waterblock ready for the GP104-powered video card.

The new BYKSI N-GX1080-X waterblock isn't for sale just yet, but it'll be priced at less than $100. The company isn't known much outside of China, but they specialize in waterblocks for CPUs, GPUs and even motherboards. The official launch of the GEForce GTX 1080 kicks off on May 27, with BYKSI getting in quick so that it can be the first to market with a waterblock for NVIDIA's latest and greatest video card.

Exclusive: Up until now, everything we've heard on the next-gen consoles is that AMD will have APUs inside all of them. The Nintendo NX was meant to be powered by an AMD design, but according to our sources, Nintendo is working with NVIDIA and will use a Pascal-based Tegra chip inside of their next-gen Nintendo NX console.

I've been sitting on this story for a little while now, but it has been backed up by another source - who has said that NVIDIA will be providing a Pascal-based Tegra processor for Nintendo's next-gen console. First, Nintendo working with NVIDIA is a big, big deal. The GameCube was powered by the Flipper GPU provided by ATI at the time, after which the insanely popular Wii console was powered by another ATI design: "Hollywood". Hollywood was a 90nm chip, with two dies powering it.

Moving onto the Wii U, where Nintendo used a custom multi-chip module (MCM) developed by AMD, IBM and Renesas (as well as Nintendo IRD and Nintendo Technology Development). The GPU itself is the GX2, which was designed by AMD, and is based on the older R600/R700 architecture and clocked at 550MHz. It's older in the tooth now, so the use of a Pascal-based Tegra processor is interesting, and exciting. NVIDIA's current Maxwell-powered Tegra X1 processor can handle 4K output, and 1080p 60FPS gaming without a problem.

It looks like the Polaris 10 will be hitting Radeon R9 390X levels of performance at half the TDP and under $299, but we don't know much about the Polaris architecture itself... for now.

AAMD will be hosting its Meet the Experts webinar on May 18th with David Nalasco, and during the webcast we're promised that AMD will give "an inside look at Polaris". Nalasco is the Senior Technology Manager at Radeon Technologies Group, so we should expect some seriously good stuff on May 18. The NDA runs up on the GeForce GTX 1080 on May 17 reports VideoCardz, so AMD is really sticking itself into a good position with the Polaris reveal 24 hours after.

When NVIDIA revealed the GeForce GTX 1080, they used the Founders Edition card which sells for $699 and overclocked its GP104 GPU to 2.1GHz on the vapor chamber-cooled video card. We all suspected the AIB partners would have some insane models, and we were right.

There will reportedly be four versions of the GeForce GTX 1080: the Founder's Edition (reference edition), the normal AIB card (air cooled), the custom AIB card (air cooled) and then the custom AIB cards (watercooled). ZOTAC, Colorful, ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE and countless others will have some super-powered GTX 1080 video cards to show off, with the rumor that GIGABYTE's upcoming Xtreme Gaming GTX 1080 should reach 2.4GHz on the GPU, all in air - and if that's true, get ready to have your mind blown.

The tease of a liquid cooled GeForce GTX 1080 with its GPU clocked at 2.5GHz should be enough for anyone to be impressed, as it'll allow for 4K 60FPS gaming without a problem. We should expect a few AIB partners to have some insane designs, shown off at Computex 2016 in two weeks time.

We heard whispers just before the GeForce GTX 1080 unveiling that AMD would be pricing its Polaris 10-based Radeon video card at around $299, while providing 390X performance - and thanks to the spiffy 14nm FinFET process, it'll do so at half the TDP.

Considering that the Radeon R9 290X is a 290W card, we should expect the Polaris 10-based Radeon cards to do the same performance but at just 150W. We should expect the cards to fall somewhere between 110-135W depending on the GPU itself, and how many stream processors are enabled. It's similar to what we saw during the RTG event last December, but the bigger surprise is that it'll rock 'up to 8GB GDDR5(X)'. Will AMD use GDDR5X? We'll find out soon enough.

We should also expect the Polaris 10 cards to have 256-bit wide memory buses, which should see Polaris 10-based Radeon video cards competing directly against the GeForce GTX 1070 - and that's great. I was talking with AMD's Roy Taylor at their Capsaicin event during the Game Developers Conference, and he asked what I think they should do - and I said do exactly this. Hit the mainstream, and hit it hard. AMD can't compete against the discrete GPU market share with NVIDIA as they only have 20% of the market - but the mainstream market is more elusive, there are more units sold and more profits to be made. It's the bread and butter of video cards, and it looks like AMD is hitting that exact sweet spot.

Sony won't unveil the PlayStation 4K at E3 2016, instead opting for an announcement at Paris Games Week, according to a renowned games industry insider.

Well-known insider and NeoGAF resident Shinobi602 says that Sony's new 4K ready PlayStation 4 Neo (PS4K, PS4.5) could be unveiled at October's Paris Games Week in France. According to Shinobi, Sony can't just announce the PS4K months before it's released--doing so would completely jeopardize the current PS4 sales. No one will by a current PS4 if they know that an upgraded PS4K is on the way. Sony will need to announce the PS4 Neo the same month as it's released.

"I've heard that Sony will announce the PS4 Neo at Paris Games Week. This made sense to me because the supposed upgrades are coming in what, October? I would have said this publicly if I was 100% sure, but it's just what I was told," Shinobi said during a recent podcast.

If you live in Phoenix, are in need of work, and getting paid to brush your teeth and read the paper sound good to you, Google is hiring people to test out its self-driving cars.

The company has posted ads for anyone interested in pulling six to eight-hour shifts five days a week for about $20 an hour. At the end of your shift, employees will need to provide "concise written and oral feedback to the engineering team" on their experiences. Clean licenses are required, as there's a small chance those chosen will need to take the wheel under certain driving conditions. Unexpectedly, a BS/BA degree are required as well.

Google says it chose Phoenix as its latest test bed because the city encourages research and development and the extreme climate gives the company data it couldn't obtain in most other areas.

With Shenmue III on the not so distant horizon, about now would be a perfect time for remasters of the now fairly dated Shenmue and Shenmue II. A fan posited this exact idea to Sega's community and social marketing manager Dan Sheridan, who replied in the most recent episode of Sega Central that the publisher is investigating the possibility.

"With regards to Shenmue 1 and 2 HD, of course we would love to release these tomorrow. Sadly, it's not as simple as porting the games to the current platforms, as we will need to ensure any HD remaster lives up to the quality of the original titles," he explains. "And with games as immersive as Shenmue 1 and 2, there are further complications from licensed products that were included in the original games. That said, we'd love to do it and are currently investigating how to make it a reality."

Licensing issues or not, Shenmue III can happen after all these years, Shenmue and Shenmue II remasters seem plausible enough, so sit tight.

Fans of football young and old will have the opportunity to easily discover or relive historic games in NFL history soon. The league is currently negotiating a renewed deal with YouTube whereby it will provide three full, classic games for each of the 32 teams for a total of 96 games; all will be available through the NFL YouTube channel, which currently boasts nearly one billion total views.

No exact date is set for the release of the full games yet, but the league says it will be sometime before the start of the new season (September 8).

The deal will also see highlights for games in progress show up in Google searches for NFL teams in a dedicated box that will also include information like broadcast time, kick-off time, and current score.

The Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster launched on Steam yesterday and word is it's a mostly solid port. One key issue that remains though is the inability to use Japanese voice acting with English subtitles, an option that wasn't available in the original release and one that many fans would love to try this time around.

Fortunately, the mod scene has yet again come to the rescue: modder Topher has some downloads that will allow you to play the game this way, thanks to a bit of hex editing on his part. Head here to grab them and for installation instructions, which are pretty straightforward. Before doing anything, be sure to back up your original .EXEs.

If you'd rather wait for something a little cleaner that likely won't require you to rely on hex edits and .EXE file replacements, modder Kalaiden will have something out soon. Keep an eye on his work here.

ASUS has just unveiled its new X99 motherboards that are ready for the next-gen Intel Core i7 processors, as well as the new ROG-based Strix motherboards.

The new boards include the Signature X99-Deluxe II, X99-A II, and X99-E while the ROG Strix X99 motherboard is the latest to join the ROG motherboard roster. The new boards from ASUS include ASUS Aura, which is onboard RGB lighting and a 4-pin LED strip header to provide users with beautiful illumination effects. There's also ASUS SafeSlot, which is a strengthened PCIe slot that uses a "new insert-molding process to bind the slot to fortifying metal for superior 1.6x retention and 1.8x shearing resistance".

It wouldn't be a high-end ASUS motherboard without dual U.2 and M.2 slots that use the 32Gbps of available bandwidth over the PCIe bus, as well as 3x3 802.11ac Wi-Fi and USB 3.1 Type-A and reversible Type-C connectivity. The X99-Deluxe II motherboard uses ASUS ThunderboltEX 3 technology, which provides speeds of up to 40Gbps for those who don't want to be bottlenecked, ever.

Sony's new upgraded 4K-ready PlayStation 4 Neo will launch before October of this year, says French wholesaler Innelec Multimedia.

Innelec published the forecast in their Fiscal Year 2016 earnings call, outright declaring Sony will release the PS4 Neo (aka PS4K, PS4.5) before October 2016. Seeing as Innelec is a major French video games distributor and wholesaler, this could be factual. If true, Sony will likely unveil the PS4K at the Tokyo Game Show in September.

"The 2016/2017 current year should be marked for the video game world by the arrival, in the first half of our fiscal year, an evolution of the Sony PS4 PS4 console with the Neo 4K with new features and that the placing on the market in October 2016 virtual reality helmet Sony VR." This folds neatly with WSJ's reports that the PS4K will be announced before the PlayStation VR headset ships in October.

Lian Li is another chassis company that has released a new dual component compartment chassis, with the new PC-09 mid-tower fusing two PCs together inside, like conjoined twins.

The left side of the Lian Li PC-09 is enclosed with tempered glass, designed to show off your motherboard, CPU cooler, GPUs, RAM, and more. On the right side of the Lian Li PC-09 is the signature brushed aluminum look that Lian Li is famous for, and is used to house the storage racks and PSU. Between the two sides, we have a strip of aluminum (which comes in either red or black depending on the model you buy).

There's a power button on the strip, as well as 4 x USB 3.0 ports, and HD audio inputs. Lian Li's name is sliced into the front of the strip, which is LED backlit, as well as a controller for the included RGB LED kit at the rear. Inside, there's 3 x 120mm fans in the glass compartment, a removable pump mount and removable mesh dust filter at the bottom. On the opposite side, there's a drive cage that can take in 6 x 3.5-inch HDDs, and 2 x 2.5-inch HDDs. Lian Li says that everything is mounted onto the rubber vibration dampeners, including the PSU.