Latest News - Page 341

The 8K Association has shown off the world's first 8K @ 120Hz gaming over HDMI 2.1 at the recent NAB 2025 show (National Association of Broadcasting).

The team used a special 65-inch 8K 120Hz-capable Samsung Neo QLED QN950F TV over HDMI 2.1, plugged into a MAINGEAR desktop gaming PC with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card. 8K Association fired up Horizon Forbidden West, rendering the game at 5K and then using AMD FSR 3 upscaling technology to bump it up to 8K. The signal was sent to the 8K TV using HDMI 2.1b with DSC (Display Stream Compression) technology.

It's an impressive feat -- 8K is 33 million pixels, compared to the 8.2 million at 4K -- but even more so at 120Hz. AMD's flagship Radeon RX 9070 XT isn't the GPU that I'd be using for 8K 120Hz. NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 5090 is a much more powerful GPU with even more VRAM -- 32GB on the RTX 5090 versus 16GB on the RX 9070 XT -- and furthermore, FSR 4 or better yet, DLSS 4 should've been used.

The Homebrew Channel, a critical component for modding Wii consoles to run custom software, has now ceased development amid allegations of copyright infringement.

Wii modding may be at a standstill when it comes to homebrew applications as one of the major players in the space has stopped updating the Homebrew Channel. It's been revealed by the digital wizards at fail0verflow that the Homebrew Channel was essentially built on pirated code lifted directly from Nintendo Software Development Kits (SDKs). As a result, updates and development on the Homebrew Channel have been shut down, potentially preempting any potential legal action from Nintendo.

"The Homebrew Channel (HBC) is a vital tool for Wii homebrew enthusiasts. It's essentially a launcher for homebrew applications, allowing users to access them directly from the Wii's main menu," reads a quick description.

FromSoftware's macabre dark fantasy epic has sold over 30 million copies across the globe, Bandai Namco has announced.

By amassing over 30 million sales in little over 3 years on the market, Elden Ring is one of the most popular new games in recent memory, and it's also one of the best-performing new IPs in gaming history. The punishing action RPG hit the ground running with a meteoric 12 million sales in just 2 weeks, and after a year on the market, Elden Ring had moved 20 million units.

If we take a look at Elden Ring's sales trends, we can also see the possible effects that the Shadow of the Erdtree expansion may have had on repeated sales of the base game. Elden Ring sold 2 million copies in the period between February and June 2024, before Shadow of the Erdtree released, likely influenced by timely discounts as well as potential adoption for the Erdtree expansion.

Blizzard has reportedly chosen Nexon to make a new StarCraft game for the Korean/Japanese market, sources tell South Korean news publication MTN.

Last month, reports broke out that Blizzard was interested in releasing a new StarCraft game for enthusiast markets like ASEAN. Blizzard had reportedly courted various Korean developers including NC Soft, Netmarble, Krafton, and Nexon, pitting them against one another in a competitive bidding war landscape on a new StarCraft project.

New information indicates that Blizzard narrowed its selection down to free-to-play juggernaut Nexon, who is responsible for billion-dollar hits like Dungeon & Fighter, Maple Story, and KartRider. According to MTN's sources, each competing firm submitted their own unique ideas for a new StarCraft game in a series of pitches and concepts.

ASUS has just unveiled its monster new ROG Astral GeForce RTX 5080 DOOM Edition graphics card, celebrating the 30th anniversary of the legendary first-person shooter, and just before DOOM: The Dark Ages drops on May 15.

ASUS teamed up with DOOM publisher Bethesda for its new ROG Astral RTX 5080 DOOM Edition graphics card, which won't be sold by ASUS directly, and it will not be sold separately, as it'll be part of a bundle (which includes a mousepad, a keyback replica, and a cool DOOM-themed t-shirt).

As for the graphics card itself, it has a green and gold aesthetic with one of the stickers on the ASUS ROG Astral RTX 5080 DOOM Edition featuring the Shield Saw icon, which is a weapon from the game. ASUS classes this new card as a "BFGPU"... you know, a Big F***in' GPU.

In the past, when it came to building a new gaming or workstation PC, the only thing that you judged or paid any attention to was the case or chassis. This is still true, but the modern PC case is now also all about celebrating and showcasing what's inside - in other words, the whole build. From coolers to fans to components like graphics cards (GPUs) and memory, PC hardware is no longer simply about function and performance - aesthetics play an integral role.

The new Gamma C72 case from hardware maker Ocypus offers unobstructed panoramic views of internal hardware. Whether that's a custom water-cooled solution or a minimal blend of fans and other components, the wraparound tempered glass panels on the front and side complement the minimal look, which is available in black or white. And with ample routing, clean cable management gives every build that professional look.

The Ocypus Gamma C72 is also all about airflow, with the top and side panels including perforated patterns alongside removable top and bottom dust filters to reduce the need for maintenance. This modern case is perfectly suited for the latest generation of GeForce RTX 50 Series and Radeon RX 9000 Series GPUs, with support for cards up to 425mm long.

NVIDIA's beefed-up B300 AI chip production has been reportedly pulled forward to May, and will be fabbed on TSMC's new 5nm (N4P) process node and will use CoWoS-L advanced semiconductor packaging.

In a new post by Ctee, we're hearing that NVIDIA's new B300 AI chips will use Bianca compute boards with 1 x CPU and 2 x GPUs, with B300 to enter mass production before the end of the year. Analysts estimate that NVIDIA's new B300 AI GPU will boost the related supply chains including TSMC, Machtech, Inventec, Chipset, and assemly plants Quanta, Wistron, and Foxconn.

NVIDIA's new B300 using TSMC's new 5nm family (N4P) process node was used to fill the production capacity gap left wide open by the now-banned H20 AI GPU in China. Ctee reports that the supply chain noted a shipment of AP8 from Nanya Advanced Packaging in early April, in order to follow the CoWoS-L advanced packaging to be used for B300.

Huawei is working on its next-gen Ascend 910D AI GPU, which is said to offer AI performance matching NVIDIA's previous-gen Hopper H100 AI GPU for the Chinese market.

In a new report from Bloomberg, we're learning that Huawei's new Ascend 910D AI chip will have its first batch of samples out in late May, with development "still at an early stage". Huawei hopes that its new Ascend 910D will be more powerful than NVIDIA's previous-gen Hopper H100, which was released in 2022, and has been succeeded by Blackwell B200, and soon B300 and B300 Ultra AI GPUs.

NVIDIA's custom made-for-China H20 AI GPU was recently banned from being sold in China with new US export restrictions, with the company taking a $5.5 billion hit on its Q1 2025 revenue because of it. China can't get its hands on even lower-end AI GPUs, so it is having to rely on homegrown solutions, with Huawei and its new Ascend 910D.

AMD is reportedly set to reveal RDNA 4-powered Radeon RX 9000M series laptop GPUs at Computex 2025 in a couple of weeks time, led by the new flagship Radeon RX 9080M that will reportedly have 64 Compute Units of RDNA 4, with 16GB of GDDR6 memory.

In a new post on X by @All_The_Watts, we're hearing that AMD's upcoming Radeon RX 9000M series "RDNA 4" laptop GPUs will arrive in 6 variants ranging from the flagship Radeon RX 9080M with 16GB of VRAM, down to the Radeon RX 9060S with 8GB of VRAM.

AMD will reportedly launch two cards based on the Navi 48 GPU with the Radeon RX 9080M with 16GB VRAM and the Radeon RX 9070M with 8GB of VRAM, while Navi 44 powers the RX 9070M XT with 12GB, RX 9070S with 8GB, RX 9060M with 8GB, and the RX 9060S with 8GB. The S variants are low-power models, similar to how NVIDIA does it with its Max-Q laptop GPU variants.

SK hynix showed off its next-gen HBM4 memory at TSMC's recent North American Technology Symposium, with up to 16-Hi stacks and 2TB/sec memory bandwidth per stack, ready for NVIDIA's next-gen Vera Rubin AI hardware.

SK hynix showed off both 12-Hi and 16-Hi stacks of HBM4 memory, which feature a capacity of up to 48GB, up to 2TB/sec memory bandwidth, and I/O speeds rated at 8Gbps, with the South Korean memory leader announcing mass production for 2H 2025, and into AI GPUs by the end of this year, flooding the market with HBM4-powered AI GPUs like NVIDIA's next-gen Vera Rubin in 2026.

We will see SK hynix's world-leading HBM4 memory chips inside of NVIDIA's upcoming GB300 "Blackwell Ultra" AI GPUs, with the company planning to shift fully into the arms of HBM4 memory starting with Vera Rubin later this year. SK hynix also pointed out that they've managed the high number of layers through using Advanced MR-MUF and TSV technologies.

Oblivion Remastered didn't ship with a photo mode, but it's still possible to take beautiful HUD-free screenshots on PC.

Like all Bethesda games, Oblivion Remastered can be manipulated with a series of console commands, which are basically strings of text that you type in a special command line that can adjust in-game parameters. With enough knowledge, anyone can force the game to accept some pretty crazy conditions. But we wanted to do one thing first: Take pristine screenshots to show off just how impressive Oblivion Remastered actually is.

While it's not possible to turn off Oblivion Remastered's HUD while in-game, and certain older console commands like tm (toggle menu) don't work, we can brute force the functionality with mods and with new commands. These mods work on Game Pass, and this tutorial is for the PC Game Pass version of the game.

The new Oblivion Remastered re-release has generated tons of buzz and popularity, amassing millions of players in a matter of days.

Predictably enough, the new Oblivion remaster in Unreal Engine 5 is a big hit. While we don't know exact game sales performance, Bethesda did confirm over 4 million people had played Oblivion Remastered across all platforms as of April 25, indicating a 3-day span to accumulate these players.

"We are so grateful to the over 4 million of you that have already ventured into Cyrodiil with Oblivion Remastered. Thank you!" Bethesda said on Twitter.

A colorful and dramatic French indie RPG is making waves in the world of gaming, and it could be one of the best-rated video games of all time.

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a thunderous indie success on all platforms. The ultra-stylish turn-based RPG achieved 1 million sales in just 3 days, no doubt as a result of it's high reviews and universal acclaim. As Forbes notes, Expedition 33 might actually have the best user rating score on Metacritic, where it sits at a 9.7 across 2,500+ user reviews (to contrast this, something as big as Tears of the Kingdom has an 8.8 user score with over 13,000 user reviews). It's also rated 4.92 stars on PlayStation with 6.2K ratings, and 4.5 out of 5 stars on Xbox with 1.9K total reviews.

The game's official Twitter account described the situation quite succinctly: "And here we are. Three days after launch. One million copies sold. Thank you for believing in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33."

id Software apparently is not trying to connect the Quake and Doom franchises together, at least with Doom: The Dark Ages.

It's been long-rumored that the modern iterations of id's shooter franchises--Doom and Quake--could be connected. Initial rumors of a new Quake game said it could have a female protagonist, and that Wolfenstein and Indiana Jones developer MachineGames was helping with the project. Speculation hinted at some sort of crossover between Doom and Quake, and the two have been connected by tenuous threads.

That hellish crossover hasn't happened, though, and apparently id Software has no actual intention of bridging the two franchises...at least with the latest game, Doom: The Dark Ages. In a recent episode of the PlayStation Podcast, id Software's Hugo Martin says that the Dark Ages' Cosmic Realm isn't meant to be a supernatural link between the two shooter series, despite the obvious inter-dimensional similarities.

Chinese AI firm DeepSeek is cooking up its next-gen R2 AI model, which is said to be 97% cheaper to train than GPT-4, and it has been fully trained on Huawei AI GPUs.

In a new post on X by @deedydas has the hype train for DeepSeek R2 rocking and rolling, claiming that the new R2 model is going to adopt a hybrid MoE (Mixture of Experts) architecture, which is meant to be an advanced version of the existing MoE implementation, which should provide advanced gating mechanisms, or a combination of MoE + dense layers to optimize high-end AAI workloads.

DeepSeek R2 is set to double the parameters of R1, with 1.2 trillion parameters at the ready, and it's reportedly a whopping 97.3% cheaper to train than GPT 4o with the unit cost per token lower than 97.3% compared to GPT-4 at $0.07/M input token and 0.27/M output token. This means DeepSeek R2 is going to be uber-cheap for enterprise use, as it'll be the most cost-efficient AI model on the market.

NVIDIA's semi-custom Tegra239 chip has been discovered inside of Nintendo's new Switch 2 gaming handheld, something that has been long-rumored, but now confirmed inside of the switch 2.

The upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 is powered by the semi-custom T239 processor from NVIDIA, confirmed by X user @Kurnalsalts, sharing an image of the "T239" SoC inside of the Switch 2. We don't have any information on the T239 processor from this post, but we know it should have 8 Arm-based Cortex-A78C cores, a hybrid GPU using Ada Lovelace and Ampere GPU architectures with 1536 CUDA cores.

The CPU clocks are said to be around 1.1GHz to 1.5GHz with varying figures when the Nintendo Switch 2 is in docked mode, joined by a 128-bit memory interface using LPDDR5 memory. NVIDIA's new T239 processor inside of the Switch 2 supports NVIDIA DLSS upscaling technology, too.

In what comes as absolutely no surprise, Intel has said that its ai PC processors aren't selling anywhere near the numbers they were expecting, creating a shortage of production capacity for older CPUs.

Intel says that customers are buying less expensive, previous-generation Raptor Lake CPUs instead of the new AI PC-ready Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake processors inside of new laptops. During its recent earnings call, Intel said that it is currently facing production capacity issues for its in-house Intel 7 process node, and that it expects this shorage to "persist for the forseeable future".

Intel's current-generation processors are fabbed using newer process nodes from TSMC, and not using the older-gen Intel 7 process node, so the unexpected surge in demand in the lower-end, non-AI PC-based processors (Raptor Lake) is a strange problem for Intel to have, considering the insane marketing push for AI PC over the last 12+ months.

Doom: The Dark Ages will have its own homage to H.P. Lovecraft's elder gods, including what looks to be a Cthulhu-like deity.

id Software is continuing their hyperviolent machismo trilogy with Doom: The Dark Ages, which uses bullet hell mechanics to deliver on its "stand and fight" theme. A big part of Doom Eternal and Doom: The Dark Ages has been the influence of pop culture media, particularly the power fantasies you'd see in a summer popcorn flick, and we're seeing more of a sci-fi/horror approach with today's reveal.

The studio has highlighted a new area in Doom: The Dark Ages that looks like it's right out of Lovecraft's nightmares. The Dark Ages has a special new area called the Cosmic Realm, and it's teeming with monstrosities like the new cacodemon, which can stun players with its attacks, a twin-bladed cosmic baron, and even a sword-wielding cyberdemon with wings.

Nexus Mods has chosen to re-host a controversial gender designation mod for Oblivion remastered.

If you've played the Oblivion remake, you might've noticed a change in how the body types are described. There's no male or female genders, just Body Type 1 and Body Type 2. Someone made a mod called Body Type Selector that changes this back to the male/female options and uploaded it to the Nexus Mods site.

At first, Nexus Mods removed the mod and all subsequent uploads, but after a review, the Body Type Select is now being allowed. It turns out it's not the mod itself that Nexus Mods has a problem with, rather the intent of the mod's uploader. Nexus Mods had banned the original uploader of Body Type Selector because of what they had said in public comments on the mod page.

Microsoft gaming CEO Phil Spencer reassures fans that the titles on Xbox Game Pass should also continue to be made available for purchase.

Microsoft's core business is centered around software and services, and Xbox Game Pass combines both into one monthly subscription. But Game Pass offers a unique kind of interference to traditional models: the "cannibalism" of game sales, that is to say consumers may buy a month of a lower-cost subscription for $20 instead of paying $70 for a new game. This effect has been documented in the FTC v Microsoft trial.

In a recent interview with Variety, Xbox CEO Phil Spencer gives an update on Microsoft's ethos around Game Pass as it pertains to this effect. Following the $70 billion Activision merger, Microsoft basically wants to maximize its chances of making money on video games. That means the full gamut: game sales, subscriptions/streaming, breaking exclusivity on its franchises and selling them on Sony and Nintendo platforms.