Latest News - Page 405

AMD's new flagship Strix Halo APU -- the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 w/ Radeon 8060S -- will power the new ASUS ROG Z13 Flow gaming tablet, with new leaks on Geekbench teasing performance.

In a Geekbench run, the ASUS ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet was benched with the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 "Strix Halo" which features 16 cores and 32 threads of Zen 5 processing power, and integrated Radeon 8060S graphics which feature a whopping 40 Compute Units of RDNA 3.5-based GPU. This is a huge 2.5x increase over the Strix Point laptop, which already offer a decent amount of performance for their power envelope (and far less RDNA 3.5 GPU cores).

The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 is an ultra-light, 13-inch 2-in-1 laptop design which has been designed for gaming. The current-gen ROG Flow Z13 features up to an Intel Core i9-13900H processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 graphics, with the new Strix Halo APU-powered ROG Flow expected to beat that... not too damn bad considering it's an APU (with CPU + GPU) vesus a separate CPU + GPU.

After a long four-year redemption arc, CD Projekt doesn't want to jeopardize its success streak and is significantly emphasizing Q&A with The Witcher 4.

CD Projekt is doing everything it can to ensure that The Witcher IV doesn't become another Cyberpunk 2077 situation. The sci-fi FPS launched onto last-gen consoles in 2020 with disastrous performance and caused significant reputational harm to the Polish game dev. The studio bounced back with multiple free Cyberpunk 2077 updates and the game's lauded Phantom Liberty expansion.

Now all eyes are on the studio for the latest entry in the beloved Witcher franchise, which was recently announced at The Game Awards 2024. The Witcher IV stars Ciri as the main protagonist, pitting players against fearsome monstrosities in an epic fantasy storyline that chronicles Zireael's brutal journey to become a professional monster hunter.

A new Elden Ring game is coming in 2025, but it's not what you'd expect. Here's everything you should know about Elden Ring: Nightreign.

Surprise! FromSoftware is working on a new Elden Ring game, but instead of a major AAA release, the project is a co-op survival roguelike. The game is called Nightreign, and it's a full standalone experience that won't require the base game in order to play.

Nightreign isn't a live service game, but it does have some unique online-oriented mechanics. Having already redefined what AAA games could be amid an ocean of GaaS titans, FromSoftware is keen on putting their mark on the online roguelike genre too.

Elden Ring's new Nightreign spin-off might be a squad-based roguelike with emphasis on multiplayer, but don't expect to see a bunch of battle passes show up.

In a sea of billion-dollar games-as-a-service titans, FromSoftware is bucking the trends for online games. The developer's new Elden Ring: Nightreign multiplayer game won't have monetized battle passes or microtransactions. Instead, FromSoft is taking the old-school approach of delivering a full experience at launch rather than carving up in-game content and selling it across seasons.

In a recent interview with PC Gamer, Nightreign game director Junya Ishizaki (yes, Miyazaki is not directing Nightreign) outlined this no-nonsense approach:

Nintendo's next-generation console has been the subject of rumors for many years now, but it seems things are picking up to a new speed as we approach the end of the timeframe for when Nintendo will make an announcement about the successor to the Nintendo Switch.

The only official information we have about the Nintendo Switch successor from Nintendo is that an announcement for the console will be made during this financial year, which runs until April 2025. Additionally, Nintendo has confirmed that it will continue with the current Nintendo Switch until the end of the current financial year, which means we won't be seeing any surprise launches any time soon. However, that doesn't mean we won't get a surprise unveiling.

Until that undoubtedly incredible moment, fans will have to make do with leaks and speculation, and to satisfy that hunger, a Chinese accessory manufacturer has seemingly released a slew of images depicting what appears to be Nintendo's unreleased console. The new images emerged online and were quickly posted to the Nintendo Switch 2 subreddit, and they showcase the design of the upcoming console, such as button placement, Joy-Cons, and more.

If it's a Google Pixel, it's likely there is leaked information about the upcoming generation floating around somewhere on the internet.

Google's Pixel lineups have notoriously suffered from early leaks in the form of renders, insider information, and even images of devices, and even though it wasn't very long ago that Google released its Pixel 9 generation, we are already hearing about what's insider the Pixel 10. According to an exclusive report from Android Authority, Google's Pixel 10 generation will use an unreleased MediaTek 5G modem, presumably the T900 modem. The publication reports a Google insider has confirmed to them MediaTek has been selected over competing offering from Samsung and Qualcomm.

Notably, there are only three companies providing 5G modems: Qualcomm, Samsung and MediaTek. Qualcomm's Snapdragon X75 modem is used in Apple's latest generation of iPhone, but the Cupertino company is reportedly moving away from Qualcomm's chips to pursue its own in-house modems. As for Google and MediaTek, it's currently unknown what drove Google to tap the Taiwanese semiconductor company for its upcoming Pixel generation or what the modem will offer the end user in terms of performance capabilities.

It was in April of this year that the Senate passed a bill that banned TikTok from operating in the United States, as the software powering the application is now considered to be controlled by an adversary nation, China.

The new legislation that was passed deems TikTok a national security risk as the app has the ability to scrape the data of 170 million Americans, which could then be shared with China's government. According to lawmakers, the app having a China-owned parent company, ByteDance, along with its potential to spread misinformation in the US, has made it a dangerous piece of software. The US government is requiring ByteDance to sell its share of TikTok to an entity the US government is satisfied with or face a ban across both app marketplaces (App Store - iOS and Android - Google Play Store).

The US government has given ByteDance until January 19 to sell its share of TikTok or be forced to shut the app down across the US, which the Chinese company said at the time of the legislative decision wasn't enough time. ByteDance filed a temporary injunction to pause TikTok's US ban, but the District of Columbia Court of Appeals has found its claims "unwarranted," meaning the initial deadline of January 19 still holds. Notably, ByteDance can still file an appeal with the Supreme Court, which, if that court rules in ByteDance's favor, could prevent the TikTok ban.

A US senator has laid the blame at the feet of the US government and its fear over the public's reaction to the truth about the mysterious drones emerging in the skies over New Jersey.

Sen. Jon Bramnick spoke to NewsNation on Saturday and called upon the Department of Defence to "come clean with the American public" about what is really happening over New Jersey. The senator goes on to say the FBI assuring the American public they have obtained no evidence these drones are dangerous doesn't reassure the average American citizen who is seeing them from their backyard.

The drones began popping up over New Jersey and New York on November 18 but reached a boiling point on Saturday when New York Governor Kathleen Hochul announced, "This has gone too far," and requested federal authorities to authorize local police departments to shoot down drones. Senator Bramnick insinuated the US government is behind the drones, stating the US government is afraid of how the American public would react if it learned what the drones were really doing.

Google DeepMind has formally introduced Genie 2, a "foundation world model" that can generate playable 3D environments based on a single prompt image. According to Google, Genie 2 represents a massive improvement over Genie 1, which could generate 2D worlds. Simulating a 3D world also includes actions such as jumping and swimming.

With complex character interaction, physics, lighting, and more, it's an impressive demonstration that Google says could be used for creative workflows and creative workflows for prototyping interactive experiences. A game developer could create detailed concept art or even a pre-rendered image and then use Genie 2's model to see how it might look as a playable experience.

Even more interesting is the diverse trajectories; the simulation and what you see will change depending on the input or movement. For example, taking a different path at a fork in the road in a first-person fantasy Genie 2 creation will lead to a different environment.

SCRY has launched a new line of coolers designed to provide smart AI-powered cooling to PS5 consoles, with each of the coolers providing real-time temperature control, quiet operation, and aesthetics.

The new line of AI-powered PS5 coolers is the Artic, Artic S, and Artic Pro, which were birthed out of several reports that PS5 consoles were prone to overheating, resulting in gamers being presented with an error message that prompted them to shut down the console and wait until it cooled down before powering it back on. Additionally, several reports from 2023 cited PS5 USB ports as "melting" the male end of a controller cable.

SCRY set out to provide a solution for those users that were unlucky enough to have a faulty PS5 console, or an environment that pushes an otherwise perfectly standard console to these extreme temperatures where faults like this occur. Below is a selection of images that show an Artic S cooler equipped to a PlayStation 5 Pro, and with the smart thermoregulation powered by SCRY's proprietary Smart Thermal AI chip, the cooler dynamically adjusts fan speeds to regulate high temperatures and prevent overheating. SCRY's cooler is able to reduce temperatures by up to 10°C (50°F) when the system is at load.

'GFFE: G-buffer Free Frame Extrapolation for Low-latency Real-time Rendering' is a new research paper published by Intel engineers on GitHub. The detailed report describes how Intel is looking to create a version of frame generation, as seen in DLSS 3, FSR 3, and Intel XeSS 2, "without introducing additional latency."

Technology like DLSS 3, a GeForce RTX 40 Series game changer, uses AI hardware to generate new frames and boost in-game performance. However, frame generation can cause noticeable lag without the latency reduction that naturally comes from rendering a game natively at 150 FPS.

This is why DLSS 3 works alongside NVIDIA Reflex to help improve latency and deliver a smoother, more responsive experience. Intel's new approach to frame generation is slightly different because it is not precisely frame generation but frame extrapolation.

Nothing is official about the GeForce RTX 5090, NVIDIA's upcoming flagship gaming graphics card for the GeForce RTX 50 Series. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang will host the company's live CES 2025 keynote on January 6. We're expected to get a full announcement, reveal, technical breakdown, release date, and pricing for the first batch of GeForce RTX 50 Series cards on that date.

However, this hasn't stopped a flood of leaks from various sources confirming the specs and relative performance that we can expect regarding the GeForce RTX 5090. With sources pointing to over 20,000 CUDA Cores, 32GB of GDDR7 memory, and next-gen Blackwell architecture, the RTX 5090 is rumored to deliver up to 60 to 70% more performance than the current GeForce RTX 4090 flagship.

One rumor that multiple sources have confirmed over the past several months has been the GeForce RTX 5090's power consumption. Rated at 600W, the RTX 5090 is rumored to draw over 33% more power than the RTX 4090.

Valve's Certified Refurbished program for its Steam Deck PC gaming handheld offers a more affordable alternative to buying a brand-new model.

Valve says each Certified Refurbished Steam deck undergoes over 100 tests covering everything from the display to controls, audio, and even battery life. The result is a unit that meets or "even exceeds the performance standards of new retail units."

With the Steam Deck OLED launching late last year, Valve has announced that the Certified Refurbished program for Steam Decks now includes OLED models. With pricing confirmed by Valve, picking up a refurbished Steam Deck OLED will be the cheapest way to grab one of the popular gaming handhelds and still be covered by Valve's one-year warranty.

Specs and information about the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S gaming handheld leaked recently. This handheld would present a more budget-friendly option than the beefier Legion Go, with a Steam Deck competitive price point that could end up being as low as $399. Rumors are pointing to coming pre-installed with SteamOS, making it the first third-party handheld to ship with Valve's custom operating system.

According to a new report at The Verge, which includes the leaked images you see here, Lenovo is also planning to release a new full-sized Legion Go that could be powered by AMD's upcoming Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip that is expected to be announced or unveiled at CES 2025.

However, the big selling point for many will be Lenovo's decision to replace the Legion Go's large 8.8-inch IPS LCD screen with an OLED panel. As seen in the Nintendo Switch and Steam Deck, an OLED screen can be a game changer in its own right, elevating visuals with increased color accuracy and unbeatable contrast.

Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, the second chapter in the remake trilogy, will be released on January 23, 2025, for PC. Square Enix made the announcement during The Game Awards, with a trailer confirming that the PC version will include enhanced visuals compared to the PlayStation 5 release, including improved lighting, enhanced models and textures, and DLSS support.

Square Enix released the game's PC specs and hardware requirements in a follow-up post. If you want to play with the enhanced 'High' quality graphics in 4K at 60 FPS, you'll need a GeForce RTX 4080 or Radeon RX 7900 XTX graphics card. And no matter the resolution, you'll need 155GB of SSD storage to play.

On the plus side, the minimum 1080p spec only requires a GeForce RTX 2060, Radeon RX 6600, or Arc A580 - and overall, the CPU requirements are pretty light. However, the game doesn't support GPUs with DirectX 12 Ultimate capabilities.

The Premiere 8K is Samsung's latest flagship premium projector for home theaters. It's the first to receive 8K Association (8KA) certification for 8K projectors, a new standard implemented this month.

To obtain 8KA certification, a projector must meet a series of standards, including a proper 8K resolution (7680 x 4320), brightness, contrast, and color gamut ratings that meet a certain standard, high dynamic range (HDR) support, and the ability to upscale lower resolution content to 8K - also, immersive audio capabilities with support for the latest formats.

Samsung's Premiere 8K projector will debut at CES 2025 in January. It will have a world-first feature and bring "unmatched immersion to home cinema."

Lexar has just unveiled its new ARES DDR5-6000 CL26 memory, with its ultra-low latency said to be "ideal for 9800X3D". Check it out:

The new Lexar ARES DDR5-6000 CL26 ultra-low latency memory has an ultra-low timing delay as low as 55ns, which the company says "the lower the timing, the smaller the delay, and the more significant the 1% low frame improvements in the game. This fast response capability allows players to enjoy more stable picture performance at critical moments, reduce lags and frame rate fluctuations, and gain a competitive advantage".

We can expect not just improvements in the 1% FPS average, but also an overall 10% improvement in performance with the new ARES DDR5-6000 CL26 memory compared to the CL30 memory already on teh market.

Xbox first-party studio Obsidian Entertainment has two big single-player first-person RPGs coming in 2025: the fantasy-themed Avowed and the highly anticipated sci-fi sequel The Outer Worlds 2. Over the weekend, we got a new trailer for The Outer Worlds 2, showcasing some impressive visuals and action while confirming that the game will simultaneously debut on Xbox Series X|S, PC, and PlayStation 5.

There has been much confusion surrounding Microsoft's strategy for releasing games under its first-party Xbox Game Studios banner, which now includes games from Activision, Blizzard, and Bethesda. While titles like Starfield were exclusive to Xbox consoles and PC, others were not. Microsoft's gaming chief, Phil Spencer, recently said there were no "red lines" when it comes to bringing Xbox games to PlayStation.

This was in direct response to the new Halo teaser we recently got, where he was asked if the next Halo game would also launch on PlayStation. According to industry insider Jez Corden, the days of Xbox Game Studios exclusives for Xbox consoles and PC are effectively over.

ASUS has a lot to share at CES 2025 in a few weeks' time, announcing not one but two events for the show: ASUS ROG on January 6, and Always Incredible on January 7.

The company has announced the two new events with individual countdowns, but the ASUS ROG event should be the star of the show for enthusiasts and gamers. We can expect new waves of gaming laptops, desktops, graphics cards, motherboards, and everything in between. ASUS always unveils slews of new products, including prototypes that we sometimes see in the future, and sometimes not at all.

AMD and Intel are expected to announce new processors at the event aimed at laptops, with the Ryzen AI 300 series "Krackan" APUs, "Strix Halo" and "Strix Max" APUs for workstation and higher-end laptops. Intel will have its new Core Ultra 200H series debut at CES 2025, and ASUS should have motherboards, laptops, and more for them.

Intel launched its first 'Battlemage' GPU last week, with the new mainstream Intel Arc B580 card priced at a competitive $249.99 USD. As seen in our reviews of the Intel Arc B580 Limited Edition and ASRock Intel Arc B580 Steel Legend OC variant, Intel's second-generation desktop Arc Graphics is a winner.

Not only has the Arc team resolved most of the driver, compatibility, and stability issues that plagued the first-gen launch back in 2022, but it has brought some real competition to the mainstream GPU market with a product that is cheaper and more powerful than both the GeForce RTX 4060 and Radeon RX 7600. In fact, with excellent ray tracing performance and 12GB of VRAM, it makes the Radeon RX 7600 look irrelevant.

This is great news for PC gamers looking to create an affordable rig; however, it is not so great when it's sold out at major retailers like Newegg and Amazon - with resupply not expected until January 2025.