Latest News - Page 2666

Air cooling is certainly still a thing, even though the plethora of mods seen in the current market sometimes make us think it is not. One of the latest releases is Polar's 1U low-profile CPU cooler, designed for Intel LGA115x processors.

As part of its SILENT product line, this cooler is designed with HTPC, Panel PC, Car PC and 1U server applications in mind - all thanks to its 27mm tall heat sink. Claiming an improved heat sink fin design, this product weighs in at a tiny 127g.

Including a frameless 75mm spinner complete with GELID PWM controls, also on offer is pre-installed GC-2 thermal compound and a design suited for Intel Celeron, Pentium Dual-Core, Core i3 and Core i5 chips - expect a TDP of 65W to be your maximum.

Offering transfer speeds if up to 200 MB/s, Transcend's new 35T3 8TB USB 3.0 external HDD sets out to solve all of your portable storage needs. Housing more data than many home NAS setups, this 3.5" external hard drive boasts the ability to transfer a 4.7GB DVD movie in 24 seconds flat.

Including "One Touch auto-backup" integration for instantaneous backup and synchronization of your personal data, also on offer is Transcend's data management software which also assists in backup processes and securing private information.

If 8TB isn't what you're after, the 35T3 can also be found in 3TB and 4TB models, with this whole range being coupled with a three-year limited manufacturer warranty.

After the mess that was Watch Dogs, where Ubisoft was caught gimping the graphics of the PC version of the game and showing off footage from the game that was clearly not captured on consoles at the time, it changed its policies for E3 2015.

The studio has reassessed how it shows off pre-release games, with Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot telling The Guardian: "With E3 2015 we said, OK, let's make sure the games are playable, that they're running on the target machines. When we show something, we ask the team, make sure it's playable, make sure gamers can immediately see exactly what it is. That's what we learned from the Watch Dogs experience - if it can't be played on the target machine, it can be a risk".

Guillemot in a way blames the undefined early hardware of next-gen consoles (at the time) for the problems of Watch Dogs, where he added: "It's a real challenge to create those types of games. When they come out, especially the first iterations, they are not perfect on everything. We think we launched a good quality game for a first step in a new brand with a new technology. It's just so complex - seamless multiplayer, connectivity with mobile and tablets, so many things - it was maybe a bit too much for a first iteration".

AMD has launched its new first flagship video card in nearly two years, the Radeon R9 Fury X, and even still it's looking down the barrel of yet another quarter of disappointing financial results.

The chipmaker is expected to announce its Q2 results on July 16, with numbers that are said to be lower than even the worst estimates by analysts. AMD's Q2 sales have reportedly underperformed the worst estimates by analysts, and that investors are to expect revenue to be down 8% sequentially.

AMD's total revenue for Q1 was $1.03 billion, down 26.3% from the same period of 2014. If AMD's Q2 results are lower than this, in the $950 million mark, it would be a drop of around 34% from Q2 2014. Why? Well, according to AMD it's because of "weaker than expected consumer PC demand" but with AMD's dropping market share in the discrete GPU market, and NVIDIA securing a large chunk of it after it launched its GeForce GTX 980 late last year, I'd say it was the lack of any new products that saw sales slump, for AMD at least.

It's not just storage technology and Intel processors making laptops thinner and thinner, but display technology. LG has just announced that its Advanced In-Cell Touch (AIT) screen technology will be getting an increase in size over its mobile counterparts, shifting over to laptops.

LG's AIT technology is already found in smartphones like the LG G4, which substitutes a touch panel layer for a touch sensor, built into the LCD itself. This makes the display up to 25% thinner, and up to 35% lighter than a traditional laptop touchscreen. Not only that, but it will see less light reflection, which LG Display says that it'll make next-gen screens brighter, and clearer.

The South Korean giant plans to usher in multiple sizes, including stylus-compatible models, all in the near future.

With the launch of Intel's new Skylake processors and chipsets right around the corner, GIGABYTE has begun teasing its new motherboards with a seriously slick new look. GIGABYTE will be kicking off its new Gaming G1 series based on the Z170 chipset, with boards like the one pictured below.

GIGABYTE will include the GA-Z170X Gaming G1, GA-Z170X Gaming 7, GA-Z170X Gaming 5 and the GA-Z170X Gaming 3 motherboards all rocking the Z170 chipset. There will also be other motherboards such as the new GA-Z170X-UD5 TH and GA-Z170X-UD3, which will be joined by the new Z170 SOC Force that will be for the super enthusiasts and overclockers.

The flagship motherboard featuring the Z170 chipset will be the new GA-Z170X Gaming G1, which will feature an E-ATX form factor and the usual arsenal of technologies, features and goodies for enthusiasts and overclockers to enjoy.

There's no denying that SSDs increasing in size isn't a brilliant thing - have you seen the price of 240GB drives these days? In order to continue forward developments, Samsung has announced 2TB additions to its 850 EVO and 850 PRO product lines. Oh, what's that - we have reviews on those new SSDs right here.

Sitting pretty at a release price of $800, the 850 EVO is bested by the $1,000 850 PRO, with this alone explaining that the PC user isn't quite looking at SSD-only storage just yet. However, in a few years it may be the norm for workstations and general use home PCs to be running on flash-only memory due to performance, storage size and costing when compared to mechanical counterparts.

Samsung Senior Vice President of Branded Product Marketing, Un-Soo Kimm, said that this development was due to "demand for 500 gigabyte (GB) and higher capacity SSDs with the introduction of our V-NAND SSDs," so they went all out with the 2TB. Measuring in at the same dimensions of 7mm thick and 2.5 inches in size, these SSDs are aimed at consumers and are the first major brand to do so.

During an interview with METRO's GameCentral, Marty Stratton, the Executive Producer of DOOM, gave out some details of the upcoming first-person shooter.

Strattong said that the studio will not be following in the footsteps of Doom 3, where he said: "We use this phrase all the time: 'Don't take ourselves too seriously!' I worked on Doom 3, I love Doom 3, but it took itself pretty seriously. Doom I and Doom II are a bit more outlandish, they're very comic book, they're very juvenile almost in their approach. That's definitely our inspiration for how we've gone with this one".

When it comes to the environments, DOOM will feature much more varied locations than we saw in Doom 3. Stratton continued: "Yeah, I think visually, because that was a pretty heavily industrial area, it kind of felt that way. There's a visual similarity to Doom 3 there. At that point in the game you are in a UAC facility, which basically all of Doom 3 took place on. But the game is very varied in its locations, and very much unlike Doom 3 that very first area - you put on your helmet, you go through that door, we chose a path where you jump over and get on that landing and go across...".

In a recent press release, Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich announced some leadership changes within his company, ranging from Presidents to operational management.

First off is Intel President Renée James, said to be stepping down in order to "pursue an external CEO role" after January 2016. Intel's President of Capital, Arvind Sodhani, will retire in January after 35 years in the technology giant and Wendell Brooks, President of Mergers and Acquisitions, will also manage Intel Capital.

Further to this, Aicha Evans formerly from Intel Communication and Devices Group has been promoted into the Management Committee and Josh Walden will lead all product and research teams involved in creation and deployment of new technology categories. In addition, executives Hermann Eul and Mike Bell will leave after a transition period.

We're not quite sure if the name of this headset is meant to be a joke aimed at the constant memes and Snoop Dogg 420 references, but either way Turtle Beach has released its 420X Xbox One headset for pre-order.

Set up with a 100% wireless design, this headset features a USB connection to the Xbox One (wireless sender), separated game and voice chat volume controls, an adjustable microphone boom, an over-ear headset design and audio presents with voice prompts.

Set for release on July 18 at a recommended price of $179.95, Turtle Beach CEO Juergen Stark claims this product "will feature our renowned audio and mic quality in a comfortable headset designed to give gamers the most immersive and enjoyable gaming experience."

The well-known brand of arcade sticks and accessories, Mad Catz, is facing some severe financial struggles which may result in closure, GameSpot says.

Failing to meet a monthly fail-safe target as set by it's credit lender, Wells Fargo, Mad Catz warned its investors of an unclear future. Wells Fargo waived this violation on June 23, opening a new agreement which will be upheld until July 31, 2016. Reportedly losing money over the last three years, Mad Catz stated that it will need "significant contributions from anticipated sales of products related to the Rock Band 4 video game" in order to continue operating.

With Rock Band 4 set to be the make or break for Mad Catz, the stakes are high but the hopes are not, with it explained that all of this uncertainty raises "substantial doubt about the company's ability to continue as a going concern." Speaking to Game Informer, Mad Catz announced a $20 million loan initially, set for a possible increase to $35 million from September, all to ensure a smooth Rock Band 4 launch.

Set for a position on the shelves this coming August, AOC has showcased its new 25-inch WQHD monitor to the public. The Q2577PWQ utilizes an IPS LCD panel with LED lighting, said to use a non-PWM method for brightness adjustment, ensuring a flicker-free experience.

Other features include 178 degree viewing angles, a 5ms response time, a 350 cd/m2 brightness ceiling and dynamic mega-contrast ratio. With a maximum power consumption rating of 55W, ports available include DisplayPort, HDMI, DVI, D-Sub and a four port USB hub which includes two USB 3.0 downstream ports (one high current) plus two USB 2.0 options.

The base enables a height, tilt and 90 degree rotation adjustment. Unfortunately there is no current price listed.

$100k for a single outing isn't a bad pay day indeed as the Swedes at Fnatic's CS:GO division took home the ESL ESEA Pro League Season 1 Finals with a 3-1 win over American team, Cloud 9.

Losing the first map (de_cobblestone) on a close 14-16 scoreline, Fnatic took the next three maps 16-6 (de_cache), 16-14 (de_overpass) and 19-15 (de_dust2) to win in a four map stunner. This win secured the title, $100,000 and the prestige of being the first team to take home the crown.

The Fnatic team of Flusha, JW, KRIMZ, Olofmeister and Pronax also had a great showing in the finals kill/death wise, seeing Flusha finish with a brilliant +21 kills to deaths across his 93 frags in total. Cloud9's Shroud certainly put up a fight of his own, posting 100 kills to 80 deaths at a massive +20 kill/death ratio.

F1 2015 is closer to release than ever before, with Codemasters and Bandai Namco releasing a new trailer showing off the features of the game, all while teasing the graphics engine powering the new racer.

Codemasters Game Director, Paul Jeal explains: "F1 2015 marks an exciting new chapter for Codemasters and FORMULA ONE; it's a shift in direction for the game series, on new formats and our brand new game engine, with the game set to be released earlier in the season, launching this June. The handling is a vast improvement from our previous games. In particular our new tyre model is a superb step forward towards realism, letting you explore where the limit is and allowing you to instantly feel much more connected with the car. You can now experience the changes in grip caused by temperature changes, wear, car set-up, debris and weather conditions".

He continued: "Our improved vehicle dynamics much more accurately convey the difference in performance and the feel between mechanical and aerodynamic grip. The new Force Feedback system adds to the feeling of connection with the car and track surface. The more natural and realistic nature of the game physics also serves to ensure that the racing experience is more accessible, enjoyable and rewarding for players of all skill levels".

Toshiba is deploying its "scorpion" robot inside of the TEPCO Fukushima No. 1 plant's second reactor next month. The mission is focused on trying to analyze the pressure vessel's melted-down fuel supply, and a robot is needed because of such high levels of radiation inside the reactor. The Japanese electronics company worked with the International Research Institute for Nuclear Decommissioning (IRID) to design the unique scorpion-inspired robot.

A "snake" robot entered a reactor in April, and couldn't find any debris from melted fuel - the robot stalled and researchers had to go back to the drawing board. The 21-inch Toshiba device will enter a fuel rod passageway, and has a physical design that provides increased dexterity and range of motion. It has the ability to raise its tail in a similar fashion as a scorpion, which has LED lights and an equipped camera.

Researchers will likely have to spent decades trying to safely decommission the No. 1 plant, after it was devastated by a major earthquake and following tsunami in 2011.

It looks like Internet users in the United States absolutely love streaming content, with more than 135 billion songs and music videos steamed so far in 2015, according to Nielsen. It's a 50 percent increase year-over-year, with more users enjoying Spotify, YouTube, Pandora, and other services on PCs, mobile devices, and in the living room.

Not surprisingly, digital song sales dropped another 10.4 percent, racking up 531.6 million sales - with CDs and digital albums dropping 4 percent down to only 116 million. Music labels are desperate to find ways to collect revenue from streaming music, especially with more people making the transition from downloads to streaming content.

"Obviously, the streaming piece is really great news, when you're talking about darn near 100 percent growth... with no new players," said Dave Bakula, SVP of Nielsen Entertainment, in a statement to Re/code. Of course, the figures compiled by Nielsen Entertainment don't include the recent launch of Apple Music - which may have a significant impact on streaming music.

The Chinese government's decision to allow foreign game consoles to be sold to consumers initially gave Microsoft and Sony hope - but both companies face a number of challenges while promoting the Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

By the end of the year, both new generation consoles are expected to sell just 550,000 units combined, according to the Niko Partners market research firm. There could be a major sales boost when AAA games such as Call of Duty launch in the country, but game catalogs for both consoles are rather disappointing.

"Despite China being a predominantly PC online gaming culture, Chinese who are now 26-35 years old grew up in the days of Nintendo Super Famicom consoles and are accustomed to playing games with a controller via TV," said Lisa Cosmas Hanson, founder of Niko Partners, in a statement published by Bidness Etc.

According to VideoCardz.com, NVIDIA will be launching its new GM205-260 based card as the GeForce GTX 950, and not the GeForce GTX 950 Ti like we reported last week.

This new card will most likely be a "cut down version of [the] full GM206-300 processor" according to the site. The new GeForce GTX 950 will reportedly be available in both 2GB and 4GB versions, with the GDDR5 being spread out on a 128-bit memory bus. The only difference between the GTX 960 and the upcoming GTX 950 will be the CUDA count, and its clock speeds.

We should expect NVIDIA to announce the new cards in the coming weeks.

Mozilla has begun external testing of its new Firefox browser 'MozVR' which is compatible with VR headsets, which will see the future of web browsing being in the same world as sitting on your couch playing VR games or watching movies with your VR headset on.

During an interview with USA Today, Mozilla CEO Tom Beard said: "If 'web video' gets turned into 'web VR,' it could be a game-changer". With two years of development on MozVR in secret, Mozilla has had its engineering director Vlad Vukicevic, who led the development of WebGL, working on MozVR.

Josh Carpenter, a user-experience designer who has been working closely with Vukicevic said: "VR is too big to be left just to (gamers)".

One of the key features of the new Radeon 300 and R9 Fury series of cards was something that AMD introduced as 'Frame Rate Target Control', which effectively limits how many frames per second that your card renders, which in turn has some serious power savings and limits the total heat output of your card - great, huh?

Jason Evangelho, a contributor for PCWorld has played around with it with some great results. He reports that there's a limited of between 55FPS and 95FPS for most DX10- and DX11-based games. The benefits of FRTC is reduced power consumption, heat output, and fan noise. In games where your new Radeon R9 390X or Radeon R9 Fury X might not be doing much work - in something like League of Legends - the power savings could be immense.

Instead of pushing 200FPS+, you can limit your AMD GPU to your monitor's refresh of 60Hz (for example) and have your card doing one-third the work. But what are the benefits like? Let's start with GPU temperatures: