Latest News - Page 317

HP is preparing its new ZBook Ultra 14 G1a laptop powered by AMD's new bleeding-edge Strix Halo APU, packing 16C/32T of Zen 5 CPU power and a 40-core RDNA 3.5-based integrated GPU.

You can now pre-order HP's new ZBook Ultra 14 G1a workstation laptop from IT retailer Connection, with the totally maxed-out variant packs the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" APU with its full 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power, a huge 128GB of LPDDR5X memory, a 2TB of Gen4 SSD storage, and a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display for $3950.

On the lower-end of the HP ZBook Ultra 14 G1a laptop configurations we've got AMD's new Ryzen AI Max Pro 380 "Strix Halo" APU with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB Gen4 SSD starting at $2242, while in the middle we've got the Ryzen AI Max Pro 390 "Strix Halo" APU with either 32GB or 64GB of RAM, a 2TB Gen4 SSD for $3120 (32GB RAM) or $3315 (64GB RAM).

CD Projekt Red, widely recognised for its work on The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, has gradually expanded its creative output beyond gaming - most notably with Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. According to its co-CEOs, the company now aims to take that direction even further.

In an interview with Polish outlet XYZ, CD Projekt chiefs Michał Nowakowski and Adam Badowski reflected on the company's early ambitions as it worked to establish itself as a premier studio in the gaming industry.

Since Monolith Productions was folded into WB Games last month, one of the most widely recognized losses was the studio's proprietary Nemesis System - a dynamic AI framework that enabled nuanced, evolving enemy interactions in Shadow of Mordor. While praised for its impact on single-player design, its creation was driven just as much by business needs as creative ambition.

As discussed in a retrospective from former WB vice president Laura Fryer, singleplayer games like Arkham Asylum would start with a strong surge of buyers, before running into a sales drop-off as second-hand and used game markets started to emerge.

AYANEO has upgraded the innards of its new AM01S Mini-PC, with the retro-style design from the 80s and 90s now featuring a beefed-up AMD Strix Point APU, and more.

The AYANEO AM01S Mini-PC will now feature the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 "Strix Point" APU and a new display, with the basic specifications bumped up to DDR5-5600 memory and an M.2 2280 Gen4 SSD slot for storage, and an SDXC card slow on the side for moving over your files and expandable storage.

AYANEO has a 4-inch touchscreen inside of the AM01S Mini-PC as a native horizontal display, versus using a rotated vertical display from its AM02 Mini-PC, which means it shouldn't experience any compatibility issues that ASUS saw with its ROG Ally when it first launched.

Mainstream GeForce RTX 5060 Series leaks and rumors are starting to heat up. In the past week or so, detailed specs for both the GeForce RTX 5060 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti have emerged alongside the current planned release dates. The GeForce RTX 5060 Ti will launch on April 16, with the RTX 5060 following in mid-May.

NVIDIA has yet to announce the mainstream GeForce RTX 5060 Series, and based on the latest rumor from Hong Kong outlet HKEPC (via Videocardz), we won't get any official information until the 11th hour. According to the source, NVIDIA is currently planning to announce the GeForce RTX 5060 and GeForce RTX 5060 Ti (which will launch in 8Gb and 16GB variants) on April 15, one day before the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti hits shelves.

The rumor also notes that reviews for the RTX 5060 Ti will go live on April 16 for the GeForce RTX 5060 Ti, covering both MSRP and non-MSRP models. There's apparently a stipulation that NVIDIA's partners (which includes the likes of ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, etc.) will have to have at least one MSRP model available on day one for the RTX 5060 and RTX 5060 Ti GPUs.

TSMC's bleeding-edge 2nm process node technology is expected to enter mass production in the second half of 2025, with Apple being the first customer of new 2nm chips for its upcoming A20 Pro chip for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max in 2026.

In a new report from Ctee, we're learning that TSMC's first batch of 2nm wafers will arrive at its Baoshan, Hsinchu fab plant in late April, with reservations for the second half of the year to begin on April 1. TSMC will be holding a 2nm production expansion ceremony at its Kaoshiung plant on March 31, too.

Analysts are estimating that TMSC's new 2nm process node is going smoothly, with monthly production capacity expected to reach 50,000 wafers by the end of this year. TSMC's customers for its new 2nm process node are Apple, AMD, Intel, Broadcom, Amazon, and more.

Microsoft's Surface Laptop 7, a Copilot+ PC powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X platform running Windows on Arm, has been slapped with a 'frequently returned item' warning at Amazon. Amazon applies warnings to products with unusually high return rates, advising customers to carefully review their reviews before purchasing. Various third-party retailers note that products that get the warning generally see sales plummet.

Windows on Arm relies on software emulation for several apps and games, so Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon X hardware fundamentally differ from traditional x86-based Windows machines. Although the latest Arm-based Windows devices offer excellent efficiency and battery life, software compatibility issues or poor emulation could lead to customers returning Surface Laptops.

Amazon doesn't explain why the product has been frequently returned, even though the Surface Laptop 7 currently has a user review rating of higher than 4 stars. The positive reviews reflect the consensus from the media, so it's unclear what's driving the recent spike in returns.

How does $430 USD sound for a GeForce RTX 4060? What about $1,270 for a Sapphire Nitro+ Radeon RX 7900 XTX or $760 for a Sapphire Pulse Radeon RX 7800 XT? Or, if you're looking for something a little more current, like the brand-new GeForce RTX 5080 - how does $1,540 sound? Yes, the current state of the gaming GPU market is a little depressing as these prices are based on the current best-selling GPUs at the online retailer Newegg.

With NVIDIA launching four of its new GeForce RTX 50 Series GPUs so far in 2025 and AMD rolling out the well-received Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT combo, we've not only seen these new cards sell out instantly - most models are premium designs with price points significantly higher than the MSRP. The GIGABYTE Gaming GeForce RTX 5080, available for $1,539.99 at Newegg, is being sold with a 54% markup over the $999 MSRP set by NVIDIA.

It's a similar situation at Micro Center, where select stores are currently selling GeForce RTX 5070s starting from $700 and GeForce RTX 5080s starting from $1400. The bad news is that the inflated prices also affect previous-generation cards like the GeForce RTX 4060.

"How do you upgrade the look of Minecraft without messing up 15 years of design?" That's Minecraft developer Mojang introducing the game's long-awaited visual overhaul that will arrive as part of a 'Vibrant Visuals' update to the iconic game. The new "graphical set of enhancements" includes directional lighting, volumetric fog, sub-based shadows, and reflections.

Minecraft is not a game about delivering realistic or intricately detailed visuals; the primitive nature of the game's look is directly tied to its mechanics and sandbox-style survival gameplay. The good news is that even though the Vibrant Visuals update will introduce dramatically more complex graphics effects to the game, the differences don't seem to detract from what makes Minecraft look like Minecraft.

Chief Creative Officer Jens Bergensten calls it "a new look that still stays true to our creative principles. " Mojang confirms that Vibrant Visuals will be backward compatible with old worlds and will run locally so that players can play together with or without the graphical enhancements enabled. It's purely cosmetic.

Last year, we reported on Arm announcing its new Arm Accuracy Super Resolution, or Arm ASR, upscaling solution for gaming on mobile devices. Based on AMD's open-source FSR 2.2, Arm brought its new ASR technology to GDC last week, announcing that it was now available for game developers to play around with.

The open-source Arm ASR Experience kit includes an Unreal Engine plug-in for the complete source code and various tutorials and samples. In the official announcement, Arm notes that a Unity engine plug-in will be available later this year.

"With Arm ASR, you can easily improve frames per second, enhance visual quality, and prevent thermal throttling for smoother, longer gameplay," the company writes. Based on AMD's FSR 2 technology, which considers motion vectors and data, Arm has developed ASR for upscaling from sub-1080p resolutions.

AMD launched its first pair of RDNA 4 GPUs earlier this month with the Radeon RX 9070 and Radeon RX 9070 XT. However, unlike previous Radeon GPU generations, the company didn't release a reference design, meaning that all cards made available to the public and media were partner models like various RDNA 4 GPUs we've reviewed from GIGABYTE, ASUS, Sapphire, ASRock, and others.

Promo material for RDNA 4 showcases what looks like a reference design with the disclaimer that it was "for presentation only and not available for sale. " It turns out that AMD did create a number of these reference models, including the one for the Radeon RX 9070 pictured here.

A user on the Chinese-based Chiphell forums (via Videocardz) recently showcased the model we see here. The dual-fan design is reminiscent of AMD's reference designs for the RDNA 3-powered Radeon RX 7000 Series. Various applications and benchmarking software also recognize the compact 2.5-slot thick GPU, including 3DMark TimeSpy and Furmark, which points to it being a pre-release sample created by AMD for OEM use.

MSI has just teased a new GeForce RTX 5080 graphics card with an upgraded 24GB of GDDR7, up from the 16GB on the regular RTX 5080, on its own website.

The new GeForce RTX 5080 24GB graphics card is listed on MSI's own website for VGA compatibility for its MAG X870 Tomahawk Wi-Fi motherboard: the RTX 5080 but with 24GB of GDDR7 instead of 16GB. This could be an easy mistake, a typo... but it's not the first time MSI has let slip about an RTX 5080 24GB variant.

In a promotional video, MSI showed off its new GeForce RTX 5080 Vanguard graphics card with "24GB GDDR7" on the side of the retail packaging... yet it was never seen again, and every RTX 5080 has launched with 16GB of GDDR7. MSI also lists the RTX 5090, RTX 5070, and RTX 5070 with their correct VRAM amounts, but the RTX 5080 listing has 24GB with no 16GB variant mentioned, leaning into that belief that this is a typo.

Hardware makers are always trying to find innovative ways to differentiate their products from the other offerings out there, some of which are bold and clever ideas, and others - well, not so much.

So, here's a new one in the world of GPUs: fragrance.

Yes, in a similar idea to the built-in fragrance dispensers that ASUS has been incorporating into some laptop models, and indeed peripherals, Yeston has equipped its new RX 9070 XT Sakura Atlantis graphics card with faint hint of sea breeze.

Assassin's Creed Shadows sales data has been acquired by various outlets, revealing solid engagement figures for the new game.

Ubisoft has officially confirmed AC Shadows had reached 2 million players at release, beating out both Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey. That's not all the data Ubisoft has on Shadows, though. Any game-maker has robust tracking tools that show sales and engagement data across a plethora of platforms and networks. Some of this info has been acquired byInsider Gaming and VGC, and the tracking data leaks show that Shadows has earned a silver medal for the series.

According to the data, which was not authorized for release by Ubisoft, Assassin's Creed Shadows is second behind Valhalla in terms of players on day 1 of launch, but Shadows is ahead of Odyssey. There's also a few numbers associated with the games, too; Valhalla managed to get over 2.55 million players on day one, and Odyssey had nearly 1 million.

Apple's upcoming foldable 'iPhone Ultra" will reportedly adopt a style similar to Samsung and its Galaxy Z Fold series of foldables, while sharing many of the same technologies expected inside of the ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air.

In his new PowerOn newsletter on Bloomberg, insider Mark Gurman says that Samsung's Galaxy Z Fold smartphones are a "dream device" for things like work tasks and watching videos, and it's a category that "Apple can't ignore". Gurman says that he believes that Apple will launch a foldable iPhone in 2026 that will have a "similar design" to Samsung's foldable Galaxy Z Fold.

Inside, Apple's new purported iPhone Ultra will have many technologies shared with the company's also purported ultra-thin iPhone 17 Air, with Gurman noting the foldable iPhone should cost around $2000. He says that we can expect to wait a while before Apple ships its foldable iPhone Ultra in any large numbers, but the company has been severely lacking a foldable device, and it seems 2026 is when we'll see it happen.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has published a new filing against Google that reaffirms its position that Google currently holds a monopoly over the search engine market and demands the company begin selling off Chrome.

The DOJ hasn't held back in these claims, with the regulatory body stating in the filing that a part of its "Revised Proposed Final Judgement" (RPF) is calling for Google to be prohibited from making search-related payments to Apple and non-Apple search distribution partners to make Google the default search engine on iPhone.

Google is also called for to be prohibited from making "exclusive agreements with content publishers" that include bundling, typing, or commingling its general search engine or search access point with any other Google product, along with the prohibition of Google entering into agreements that are related to the distribution of general search services. And the big one, Google Chrome to be sold.

Microsoft has finally lifted a block preventing some Windows 11 users from installing the 24H2 update that applied to one particular game, a restriction that's been in place since the upgrade was first released.

In other words, it has taken very nearly six months - Windows 11 24H2 arrived at the very start of October 2024 - to resolve this compatibility block, albeit to be fair to Microsoft, the PC game in question is far from high-profile affair.

It's Asphalt 8 (Airborne), which was released well over a decade ago now (for Windows 8, in fact, in 2013). This game was prone to freezing up with an exception error under Windows 11 24H2, which could happen during gameplay, or while exiting a session (the latter being a scenario that was a good deal less annoying no doubt).

Bethesda has taken to its official YouTube channel to share a new trailer for Indiana Jones and then Great Circle, confirming the release date for the PS5 version of the game.

PlayStation 5 owners will be able to pick up the iconic whip and hate of Indiana Jones on April 17, or for those who pre-order the title, April 15, with developer MachineGames and Bethesda confirming the release date via a recently released trailer seen above.

The trailer features voice actors Nolan North and Troy Baker, who discuss what it means to voice iconic video game characters with a comedic undertone. For those who don't know, North was the voice behind Naughty Dog's lead character in its Uncharted series, Nathan Drake, and Baker was the voice behind Indy.

Samsung has just unveiled three new gaming monitors for gamers to feast their eyes over, and the first we will be taking a look at is the new Odyssey 3D.

Samsung has taken to its website to share details on the Odyssey 3D, a new 27-inch 3D gaming monitor that doesn't require glasses to experience 3D gaming. According to the press release, the Odyssey 3D, or the G90XF, uses advanced eye-tracking technology that has been paired with Samsung's proprietary lenticular lens system to create high-definition 3D images.

The feature is accessible through the Reality Hub app, and according to the press release, Samsung is currently working with "major game developers" to make the most of this new 3D technology. The first game to utilize the new technology will be The First Berserker: Khazan, scheduled to launch on March 28.

Visual intelligence could be heading to Apple's smartwatch line up as the company is exploring its implementation into the wearable devices with the additional of cameras.

In his latest Power On newsletter, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman explained that Apple is exploring the idea of adding cameras to its smartwatches, which would be paired with visual intelligence features, illustrating Apple's overall intention to integrate AI into its catalog of devices. Gurman explains the main idea of Apple Watches gaining cameras and visual intelligence would be to enable users to query their watch about the surroundings of the user.

The smartwatch feature would be similar to the new Visual Intelligence feature on iPhones, where users can long press the camera button and be presented with a new interface that lets them choose if they want to take a picture of something and have it analyzed by Google Search or ChatGPT. This feature isn't very well known or used due to it currently being locked to the iPhone 16 series, but it's expected to be adopted further when Apple releases iOS 18.4 next month, and it becomes available on the iPhone 15 Pro.