Latest News - Page 308

Nintendo's new Switch 2 will make one of the biggest upgrades to any gameplay experience by reducing loading times.

The Switch isn't known for being a fast device. Whether you're trying to play a demanding game on the Tegra X1 SoC or loading an in-game zone, the Switch is sometimes pretty sluggish. But the new-and-improved Switch 2 supercharges data speeds with new flash storage, helping cut out those interruption points.

The Switch 2 isn't as fast as the PlayStation 5's custom PCIe 4.0 SSD but it does make a significant improvement over the storage found in the base Switch, which is a single Toshiba THGBMHG8C2LBAIL 32 GB eMMC NAND Flash chip with a maximum data rate of 400MB/sec. The Switch 2 uses UFS storage instead of the Switch 1's eMMC, which is faster than the original, but Nintendo hasn't revealed specifics on the storage outside of a whopping 256GB capacity and confirmation that the storage uses UFS.

With $80 and sometimes even $90 games, Nintendo fans are still reeling with Switch 2 sticker shock...but not all publishers will raise prices of their games. And we now have an idea of how high-end games will run on the Switch 2 hardware.

The Nintendo Switch 2 is coming on June 5 for $450 with a ton of games prepared for launch. The Switch 2's new chip allows it to run more demanding games, helping push Nintendo's successor closer to the more powerful Steam Deck PC handhelds. Publishers who didn't bring their games to Switch 1 over performance concerns now have a chance to sell their game on a Nintendo handheld.

Cyberpunk 2077 is one such game, and now CD Projekt has spoken up to get ahead of some of the static around Switch 2 game prices. According to Jan Rosner, who oversees distribution, licensing and partnerships for the Polish developer, Cyberpunk 2077 won't cost $80 on Switch 2 and the full game will be on the Switch 2 game cartridge.

Digital Foundry may not have had any luck spotting proof of DLSS in the Switch 2 Direct, but Nintendo has confirmed the Switch 2 does indeed utilize NVIDIA's upscaling tech.

The Switch 2 does indeed use NVIDIA's proprietary DLSS technology to facilitate gaming in 4K resolution and 1080p 120FPS, Nintendo Switch 2 director confirmed at a recent press event in New York. It was also confirmed that the Switch 2's new chipset, which is believed to be based on NVIDIA's newer Orin Tegra line, supports raytracing.

"We use DLSS upscaling technology and that's something that we need to use as we develop games," Dohta said, speaking of the Switch 2's hardware, as noted by IGN's Wesley Yin-Poole.

Cooler Master's novel take on an RTX 5080 graphics card was presented at CES 2025, and we've now seen some further details about this innovation (complete with pics, too, a couple of which you can check out above and below).

You may not have seen the original revelation, but Cooler Master's idea is to present an RTX 5080 with a custom cooling solution that allows for the fans to be swapped out - and other manufacturer's fans can be used, not just those from Cooler Master.

In other words, you can pick a high-quality fan of your preference, one that's nice and quiet, to keep the RTX 5080 cool and running smoothly.

As the next move with RDNA 4 GPUs, AMD is rumored to be launching a GRE spin on its RX 9070 graphics card.

As you might expect, this is supposedly happening in the Asian market, but if an RX 9070 GRE does indeed end up being realized, there's always a decent chance it could eventually be available in the US and other regions. There's past precedent for that, certainly.

The rumor of the RX 9070 GRE comes from IT Home, a Chinese tech site, as flagged up by VideoCardz, but at this point it remains a relatively flimsy assertion.

At a developer roundtable with some creators of the Nintendo Switch 2 the press asked some questions that has gained us some more knowledge about the hardware inside Nintendo's latest console.

Producer Kouichi Kawamoto, technical director Tetsuya Sasaki, and director Takuhiro Dohta answered a few questions from the press about the new console, with one of those questions being in regard to the Switch 2's battery life. According to Nintendo's official specification sheet for the console, the battery for the Switch 2 is a 5220 mAh battery that's expected to last anywhere between 2 and 6.5 hours on a single full charge.

As pointed out by the press, that is quite a discrepancy, and according to the Nintendo officials, that is a "rough estimate" as many variables can severely impact battery life.

Nintendo has officially showcased the successor to the Nintendo Switch, and now that the Switch 2-focussed Direct is complete and we know what to expect, companies are beginning to showcase additional products to pair with the new system. One of those products is additional storage, which is a little different with the Switch 2 compared to the original Switch.

It has been confirmed that the Nintendo Switch 2 will only support microSD Express cards, which offer SSD-like speeds with up to 985MB/sec -- a huge jump from the 104MB/sec on the regular microSD cards. However, regular microSD cards are still compatible with the Switch 2 but are only limited to storing screenshots and videos, and are incompatible for saving and loading games.

Express cards are indicated by the "EX" located on the face of the card; no EX means no Express, and if that's the case, you will likely need to upgrade if you intend on taking advantage of the additional storage slot in the Nintendo Switch 2. So, what should you upgrade to?

Grand Theft Auto V might soon be available to those who've signed up for Microsoft's PC Game Pass, or that's the word from the grapevine.

GTA V has come to Xbox Game Pass in the past, but as you can see above, apparently it's returning there, but also being made available via the PC Game Pass. (Or at least as far as we can tell this is the first time, although a few folks are arguing that isn't the case).

At any rate, this was flagged up by a rumor peddler on X, Ben (VideotechUK), and apparently Rockstar is informing various community pages of this fact via an email that's doing the rounds.

FromSoftware, the developer of the critically acclaimed Elden Ring and Dark Souls franchise, will be releasing The Duskbloods, a new multiplayer game exclusively releasing on the Nintendo Switch 2.

The Duskbloods was announced during the recent Nintendo Switch 2-focussed Direct where Nintendo finally gave a close-up look at the new console, which is scheduled to launch on June 5. The Duskbloods is helmed by legendary game director Hidetaka Miyazakai, and while not many details were revealed during the trailer, we have learned the game will be a player-versus-player-versus-environment, or PvPvE experience.

FromSoftware recently unveiled Elden Ring: Nightreign, a multiplayer-focused spin-off of the critically acclaimed Elden Ring. Now, with the announcement of The Duskbloods, it's solidified the developer's new embracement of multiplayer-focused games. FromSoftware earned its stars and stripes with single-player-focused titles that only had very limited multiplayer experiences.

A faulty GPU chip has reportedly been found in a PowerColor Radeon RX 9070 XT Hellhound, leading to GPU temperatures and hotspots exceeding the 110 degrees Celcius threshold for RDNA 4 GPUs - hitting 113 degrees. The full report can be found at Igor's Lab, where Igor Wallossek conducted extensive tests on the GPU sent to their lab by a reader reporting unusually high temperatures.

Igor notes that the fault lies with the GPU die because even after applying a "high-quality PTM pad and additional thermal putty instead of rigid pads on the memory and voltage converters," the GPU's thermal performance did not significantly improve. Microscopic examination of the GPU die found 1,934 pits across the surface, with the largest exceeding industry standards.

These tiny pits prevent proper heat transfer, leading to temperatures as high as 113 degrees. This alarming situation renders the Radeon RX 9070 XT faulty or damaged; thankfully, AMD has already responded to the report, saying that it believes this is "an isolated incident" and will work with its partners to "understand the issue."

The Nintendo Switch 2, like the original, will support microSD cards for storage expansion. However, due to the boost in internal storage and Game Card speeds, microSD cards compatible with the original Nintendo Switch will not work with Switch 2. This is because you'll need one of the new microSD Express cards that supports faster transfer speeds.

During its big Switch 2 presentation, Nintendo confirmed that faster internal and external storage will dramatically improve load times. At the same time, the more rapid transfer speeds will also be critical for streaming things like texture data and other elements when gaming in 4K 60 Hz or 1080p 120 Hz modes.

If this is the first time you've heard of microSD Express cards, you're not alone, as they aren't as widely available as the most standard options compatible with the original Switch. However, if you plan on picking up a Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5 and want more storage, check out the Lexar PLAY PRO microSDXC Express Card - which offers up to 1TB of additional capacity for games.

Nintendo is taking scalpers head on with the release of the Nintendo Switch 2, and as the company teased many months ago, it has a plan in place to mitigate scalping as much as possible. We now know what that plan is.

Nintendo just wrapped up its Switch 2-dedicated Direct, where we got a close-up look at the highly anticipated console, the new Mario Kart game launching alongside it, and an official release date/price. The Nintendo Switch 2 will release on June 5, and the base console will be priced at $449, with the Mario Kart World bundle being $499.

As with every major console release, gamers are quick to raise concerns about scalping, or the practice of people buying the console at retail price and reselling it for a profit. However, Nintendo's plan to prevent this as much as possible involves mass stock, which it has already secured and shipped to the US, and several new plans.

Nintendo has officially given us a close-up look at the Nintendo Switch 2 in a recent Switch 2-dedicated Direct where the company showcased a ton of new content for the upcoming console, along with all of its features. However, what has been discovered on Nintendo's website is likely making physical game collectors scream.

In a customer support article published shortly after the conclusion of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct, Nintendo detailed its new approach to physical game cartridges, and while the approach is mostly the same, gamers will need to take into account one new addition - Game-Key cards.

As explained in the support post, some Nintendo Switch 2 games, despite being purchased physically with a game cartridge, won't actually be on that cartridge at all, and instead, the cartridge serves as a key to download the full game.

Diablo 4 was the first Blizzard game to join the service on March 28, 2024. Although Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard was completed in late 2023, it's taken a while for the publisher and developer's back catalog to make its way over to Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass.

When it comes to Blizzard, outside of Diablo 4 and free-to-play titles like Overwatch 2 and Heroes of the Storm, there are quite a few games that fans of the studio are waiting for. Recently PC Game Pass for StarCraft Remastered and StarCraft 2, which was very cool to see. In April 2025, another Blizzard classic from the same period will debut in Game Pass.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - Ultimate Evil Edition is coming to Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, and Game Pass Standard. As one of the best-selling games of all time, Diablo 3's more fast-paced arcade-style take on the action RPG is still played by millions. The Ultimate Evil Edition includes the base game, the Reaper of Souls expansion, but not the add-on Necromancer class.

Nintendo has finally lifted the lid on all things Nintendo Switch 2, and there were several surprises during the company's hourlong presentation. It was a stacked Nintendo Direct, covering everything from the impressive 120 Hz HDR display to games to the arrival of Nintendo GameCube emulation as part of Nintendo Switch Online.

One thing we were all expecting to learn was that Metroid Prime 4 Beyond would be launching with two versions - one for the current Switch and a Nintendo Switch 2 Edition that will take advantage of the new hardware. Developed by Retro Studios, Metroid Prime 4 is set to run at 4K 60 FPS in 'Quality' mode or 1080p 120 FPS in 'Performance' mode when docked.

It's expected that this will use some form of dynamic resolution or DLSS to maintain a playable frame rate, but we know the game will look significantly better on the Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo released a new Metroid Prime 4 Beyond trailer last week, with gameplay captured on original Switch hardware. We've been able to line up a few of the shots from that and the brief look at the Switch 2 version from the latest Direct to present this comparison.

Nintendo has just wrapped up its official deep dive into the Nintendo Switch 2, and less than 24 hours later, the Trump administration has introduced tariffs that may cause the price of Nintendo's next-generation console to fluctuate.

The Nintendo Switch has been officially priced at $449, which is on the higher end of the scale of previous estimations that pegged the console to be priced anywhere between $350 - $500. However, that price may jump to $600 if Trump's new import tariffs cause manufacturers to increase prices to maintain profit margins.

Here's what has happened. The Trump administration has revealed a new 10% across-the-board tariff for all foreign imports, along with a "reciprocal" tariff aimed at individual countries. China is one of the hardest hit countries, along with Vietnam, the two countries where Switch 2 manufacturing takes place.

The Steam Hardware & Software Survey results for March 2025 are in, and the very first GeForce RTX 50 Series GPU has made the list of most used graphics cards among PC gamers - and it's the GeForce RTX 5080.

The GeForce RTX 5080 squeaks in at the bottom of the list ahead of the GeForce RTX 5090. As the more 'affordable' high-end 4K RTX Blackwell option launched at the end of January 2025, it makes sense - mainly because it arrived with an MSRP lower than the previous generation's GeForce RTX 4080.

With the mid-range GeForce RTX 5070 Series and Radeon RX 9070 Series being more recent launches, we should expect to see these show up in the results in the coming months. Elsewhere, there's been some reshuffling, with the GeForce RTX 3060 retaking the crown from the GeForce RTX 4060 and the GeForce RTX 4070 dropping out of the Top 10.

Intel has officially announced that its next-generation Core Ultra 300 series "Panther Lake" CPUs will be launching in 2H 2025, with a volume supply planned for early 2026, with the new processors made on its bleeding-edge in-house Intel 18A process node.

Intel's next-gen Panther Lake CPUs are the first to debut on its new 18A process node, which is a huge advancement over its previous-gen in-house Intel 3 process node. We have new packaging technologies including BSPDN (Backside Power Delivery) which will move the power delivery process to the backside of the wafer.

Panther Lake CPUs will feature new Cougar Cove P-Cores with Skymont E-Cores, with Intel expected to use 6 P-Cores and 8 E-Cores for mobile platforms, but the mobile GPU is the highlight here: new Xe3 "Celestial" GPU architecture that will reportedly feature up to 12 Xe3 GPU cores packaged in a chiplet standard, ready to compete against AMD's new RDNA 3.5-based Strix Point and Strix Halo APUs.

Intel announced that its bleeding-edge 18A process node has entered "risk production" and its mass production will begin shortly after.

At its recent Intel Vision 2025 event, the company announced that its in-house Intel 18A process node has entered risk production, and that mass production kicks off later this year. Risk production is the stage before mass production, usually involving a limited-scale production to see how the process and its manufacturability and performance are, before it goes into mass production for consumer markets.

The new Intel 18A process node will be first seen with the company's next-gen Core Ultra 300 series "Panther Lake" processors, where it will show off its new semiconductor manufacturing prowess against TSMC.

GameCube games are coming to the Switch 2 at launch, Nintendo has confirmed.

It's official: GameCube games will soon arrive to the Nintendo Switch Online's classics library. The GameCube classics are exclusive to the Switch 2 and will be part of the Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription, which currently retails for $49.99 per year. It's unclear whether or not Nintendo will raise the service's price to reflect the new GameCube library, especially since Nintendo has raised the price of Switch 2 games to $80.

Switch 2 will get three GameCube games on launch day: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, Soul Calibur II, and F-Zero GX, the last of which supports four-player local or online multiplayer. Games will have higher resolution, smoother gameplay, and the added bonus of save states.