Beelink has just unveiled its latest external GPU dock, which features a 600W built-in PSU and enough juice to support the flagship NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card.

The company isn't the first -- nor will it be the last -- with an external GPU dock, but Beelink is doing something a little different here. Beelink's new external GPU dock features a direct PCIe 4.0 x8 interface, with a physically full-width x16 connector (but only uses half of the lanes) that directly link the eGPU to the Mini-PC motherboard.

Beelink's use of the PCIe 4.0 x8 interface means there's up to 128Gbps (16GB/sec) of maximum theoretical bandwidth, which is much higher than Thunderbolt 4 at 40Gbps (5GB/sec) and even OCulink with 64Gbps (8GB/sec).

Microsoft is making a big subscription bet by launching Black Ops 6 day one on Xbox Game Pass...but that gambit doesn't make sense for everyone.

Take-Two is a believer in game subscriptions...but only where it makes sense. Case in point: GTA+ was introduced by Rockstar Games and has seen tremendous growth since launch. Plus, we've also seen GTA franchise revenues get a material boost after GTA V and GTA Online were included on services like Xbox Game Pass.

But there's a big difference in how publishers like Take-Two see subscriptions versus companies like Microsoft. Take-Two will only include evergreen games on subscription services. Microsoft, however, launches its games day-and-date on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate in an attempt to A) change consumers behaviors towards digital-first subscriptions, and B) grow said subscription over time. Take-Two, however, has no vested interest in jeopardizing full game sales in this way--would anyone actually buy, say, GTA 6 if they could subscribe to Game Pass for a month and play it that way instead?

Gen 9 consoles like the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series hardware are expected to grow meaningfully over time--at least that's the take from one of the industry's most influential players.

PlayStation and Xbox just reported sluggish hardware performance. Quarterly console sales have dropped across both sides of the divide, with Xbox HW down a mighty 42% year-over-year. But this isn't the end for Gen9; Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick believes that the ninth console generation still has room for improvement. This makes sense, given his company is expected to help dramatically catalyze Gen9 console sales when Grand Theft Auto 6 releases in Fall 2025.

In a recent Q1 Fiscal Year 2025 earnings call, Zelnick shared his thoughts about the PS5 and Xbox Series generation, offering an interesting corollary to a Sony business report from May. In that report, Sony indicated that PS4 users represented half of its active console userbase.

After many consecutive quarters of millions-strong sales, GTA V is starting to flatten out while GTA+ subscriptions are on the rise.

Take-Two Interactive's Q1'FY25 results gave way to interesting trends for the publisher. It appears that sales of GTA V are starting to peter out after some 11 years on the market, indicating the best-seller is reaching peak saturation levels. While Take-Two does say that GTA V unit sales "continue to grow," the latest financial results put GTA V at "over 200 million," matching previous results from Q4'24.

As a counterpoint, it's possible that Take-Two simply hasn't updated its numbers for GTA V. The the investor's presentation, TTWO says that the GTA franchise has sold over 430 million units to date, which is +5 million over Q4'24's results. It's possible that the newer GTA trilogy has made up the bulk of these sales--the game was recently released onto mobiles--but no clarification was given in the investor slides. This coverage is based around the assumption that GTA V sales have not materially increased by millions of units based around the messaging in the presentation, and TTWO has been quick to update GTA V sales on these slides in the past.

The Grand Theft Auto franchise made around $175 million in revenue last quarter, Take-Two Interactive says.

Total GTA franchise revenues accounted for about 13% of Take-Two's Q1 Fiscal Year 2025 net revenues, the company has said in a recent 10-Q SEC filing. The interactive entertainment giant managed to generate $1.338 billion in net revenue during the period, and quick bit of math shows that Rockstar's popular series made approximately $175.3 million during the quarter.

The results represent a +0.33% increase from last year, where Q1'24 delivered $174.719 million in earnings, and a -5.7% decrease from last quarter. The numbers represent a combination of both game sales and microtransaction revenue from GTA Online, however the full amount of these in-game purchases is not reflected in Take-Two's net revenues, and are instead fully represented in the company's net bookings metric. Since we aren't given any percentage values on GTA's share of net bookings, we can't properly calculate the full impact of digital purchases made in GTA Online.

Doug Cockle, the voice actor of Geralt from the original Witcher trilogy, seems to confirm that the White Wolf will play some role in The Witcher 4.

A surprising bit of info has just dropped about CD Projekt's next Witcher game. Apparently Geralt of Rivia, aka The White Wolf aka The Butcher of Blaviken, will be a part of the game, despite the hero's journey being quite neatly wrapped up in The Witcher 3's Blood and Wine expansion.

"The Witcher 4 has been announced...I can't say anything about it. We know that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don't know how much. The game won't focus on Geralt, so it's not about him this time. We don't know who it's about, I'm excited to find out, I want to know," Cockle said in a recent gamified YouTube video where he tries to recreate iconic lines from the game.

AMD Ryzen and EPYC processors have been exposed to a new vulnerability called "Sinkclose" which could affect millions and millions of AMD processors worldwide.

In a new report from WIRED, we're learning that the new "Sinkclose" vulnerability allows intruders to run malicious code on AMD processors when they're placed in "System Management Mode" which is a sensitive mode that holds crucial firmware files used for operations.

But, hackers will need to insert a piece of code that would provide them with "deep access to an AMD-based PC or server". Once the hackers have this access, they can install a malware called a bootkit, which is undetectable by anti-virus software, which is means to protect your PC.

Intel is still yet to launch its new Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs, with teases of its next-gen Nova Lake-S being the successor to Arrow Lake on desktop.

The news on Nova Lake is coming from leaker "Jaykhin" on X, who said that Intel's next-gen consumer desktop platform is Nova Lake, and that Panther Lake will be mobile only. This is a similar play to Intel using Meteor Lake on mobile only, and Arrow Lake on desktop.

Intel's upcoming LGA 1851 platform will launch with the Core Ultra 200 series "Arrow Lake" CPUs, with Nova Lake-S arriving after and fitting into the same socket. Dell teased this back in May through leaks, that Panther Lake laptops will arrive in 206, and Nova Lake CPUs would follow in 2027... which is still years and years away at this point.

Microsoft Flight Simulator is one of the best-looking games ever made, but it doesn't chew through your storage space like other huge games that require 300GB+ of space.

The base install of Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 weighs in at around 130GB, with a bunch of world updates bringing the full install to around 500GB. If you thought that was bad... well, be thankful we don't have petabyte-sized SSDs on the market yet.

In a recent interview with PCGamer, the Head of Microsoft Flight Simulator Jorge Neumann, said: "We have two and half petabytes (2,500,000 GB) of aerial data, obviously we can't install that, so we stream that. The same is true for the digital elevation map. It's also huge, and we stream that as well. What we do now is, we stream a bunch of the measures, almost all of them, actually. So almost all of it is on the cloud side. And streaming works great, right? So there's no problems there. But the client side gets thinner and thinner".

Remedy Games has announced that its upcoming Max Payne remake (Max Payne 1&2) is in "full production". Ohhhh yes.

Not only are the Max Payne 1&2 remakes in full production, but Remedy has teased that Control 2 has entered its "production readiness stage". Remedy CEO Tero Virtala said the "development fees increased from the comparison period due to higher development fees from Max Payne 1&2 remake".

What's exciting is that the Max Payne 1+2 remake will have a "similar development budget" to Alan Wake 2, which had a reported $75 million budget (and a marketing budget of almost $21.5 million). So Remedy is throwing close to 9 figures behind the Max Payne 1+2 remake, which as a huge, huge Max Payne fan, I'm very, very excited to see the final product.

For the past several months, we have been getting a slow trickle of Nintendo Switch 2 rumors, concentrating on what Nintendo is planning to put under the hood of its highly anticipated successor to the Nintendo Switch.

Current rumors suggest the Nintendo Switch 2 will have performance comparable to the Xbox One and concentrate on the combination of 1080p and 1440p gaming at various refresh rates. Previous rumors suggested the Switch successor's performance would fall short of the Valve Steam Deck but would come with a significant performance boost via a redesigned dock.

Now, a Famiboards forums user has shared some details from a supposed shipping manifest leak that claims Nintendo is planning on placing a second cooler on the Nintendo Switch 2, presumably on the dock. Additionally, the leaked information pointed to the inclusion of a 60W charger, which lends to the theory that the Nintendo Switch 2 will come with fast-charge support. As for a release of the Nintendo Switch 2, credible rumors, along with Nintendo's own financial reports, point to a release of the Switch successor sometime in early 2025, likely around March.

Intel's next-generation Arc Battlemage discrete graphics card has been spotted in the latest GFX DRM log, confirming some specifications of the card.

Intel's new Battlemage "Xe2" GPU architecture will debut inside of the company's upcoming Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors, but in discrete form, it looks like Intel is in the testing phase of its very first engineering samples of Arc Battlemage.

The new Arc Battlemage Xe2 GPU spotted has the "e20b" device ID, running the 14.01 display version. This sample was identified as an Xe2-HPG part, featuring the G: A0/M: A1 stepping. Based on the GuC parameters, the chip features 14 Xe2 GPU cores, which should mean the BMG-G21 die should max out at a slightly larger 16 Xe2 GPU cores.

MSI has just posted its latest AM5 BIOS which offers up to 10% additional performance in gaming with AMD's new Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.

MSI's fleet of AM5 motherboards are now loaded with the latest AGESA 1.2.0.0a BIOS that features exclusive BIOS features like "Memory Try It" and "High-Efficiency" mode that offers additional tuning and performance-boosting abilities, in additional to EXPO OPP and Curve Shapder features that are on all AM5 motherboards running the new AGESA BIOS and new Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" processors.

The company took to a blog post to explain it all, posting some performance benchmarks of its latest AM5 motherboards that will propvide the additional performance from the new BIOS on AMD's latest Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series CPUs.

A few days I reported that Intel had postponed its Innovation 2024 event into 2025, but the company has just reached out to me to clarify its next-gen Arrow Lake CPUs are still on track for 2024.

The email I received said that Intel saw my piece about Innovation 2024 being postponed, and that "while Innovation was postponed to 2025, our next-gen desktop platform, codenamed Arrow Lake, remains on track for Q4 2024 launch and we will be sharing more details as we get closer to launch".

I see that VideoCardz is reporting that OC3D reached out to Intel for clarification on the Innovation 2024 event being postponed, with an Intel spokesperson telling OC3D: "There are no changes to Intel's launch plans, timing, or product readiness. We are excited about the new product announcements and momentum we have in store, including significant announcements this fall. We'll share more details on our next-gen desktop processor products, codenamed Arrow Lake, later this year".

The TT Show is back for another week of the latest happening in the world of tech, gaming, and science, with this week's episode kicking off with the launch of the AMD Ryzen 9000 Series of desktop CPUs. Specifically, Kosta's reviews of the Ryzen 5 9600X and the Ryzen 7 9700X CPUs and how the first batch of Zen 5 products perform across productivity and gaming workloads.

In recent weeks (and months), we've seen concerns raised over what data is strictly being used to train large language models. This week, a new explosive report citing leaked internal documentation said NVIDIA has been scraping YouTube for its AI model training - a 'human lifetime's' worth of YouTube videos every day.

Just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse for Intel, the company's stock (along with other big tech companies) took a dive. The company announced that it is laying off 15% of its massive workforce.

The first two DOOM games have been bundled together and re-released on every platform, but these classic titles come with a range of improvements, earning the description of "enhanced versions".

According to the blog post about the announcement found on the Steam website, this latest bundle of DOOM games is the developer's "biggest effort yet" as these enhanced versions come with online cross-platform Deathmatch and Co-op for up to 16 players, community-published single-player mod support for all those juicy community-created downloadable additions, optimized rendering, accessibility options, and support for 4K at 120Hz.

Additionally, the blog post states buyers will be able to select between the modern IDKFA soundtrack by Andrew Hulshult, which includes the brand-new DOOM II recordings, alongside the original MIDI soundtracks. As for people who already own the first DOOM games, they will receive a free upgrade to the combined game along with all of its new content and features.

Roblox has been officially banned by the Turkish government over concerns of "child exploitation" and inappropriate content.

The ban was issued by the Turkish Directorate of Communications, which states the decision was made after a concerning increase in the number of inappropriate sexual content on the platform, allegations it was used as a gathering place for pedophiles, and its in-game currency Robux being used to encourage children's involvement in inappropriate and predatory activities. Roblox has confirmed the ban, saying they have contacted the relevant authorities to attempt to get the game back online.

Officials also stated that Roblox's oversight for the user-generated content uploaded to the platform isn't substantial enough to respond to these growing issues. Notably, the Roblox ban comes only a few days after the Turkish government announced it was banning Instagram, which appears not to be related to the Roblox ban at this time.

Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, has now been banned for 10 days after being deemed dangerous to country residents.

The ban comes from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who announced an order to ban Elon Musk's X for 10 days, which would sever access to the social media platform from local residents. According to Maduro's speech, which CNBC translated, the Venezuelan President has signed a decree ordering the nation's telecommunications regulator to block X after it determined the social media platform "violated all of the rules of the very social network Twitter, today known as X - all of them."

Maduro said, "And he has violated [the rules], by inciting hatred, fascism, civil war, death and confrontations among Venezuelans, [he] has violated all of the laws of Venezuela. And in Venezuela there are laws ... and we will enforce the laws." The temporary ban will give X enough time to respond to the recent change. Reports indicate that X has already become unavailable for users of several internet providers across the country.

Authorities have arrested a Tennessean man for running a "laptop farm" that deceived US and UK companies into thinking they hired American residents for positions when really they were hiring North Koreans.

The US Justice Department took to its website to post a press release about the arrest, with the authority writing that Matthew Isaac Knoot, a 38-year-old from Nashville, Tennesse, was arrested today for his efforts to generate revenue for the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's (DPRK or North Korea) weapons programs. According to the Justice Department, Knoot was running a "laptop farm" scheme that involved deceiving American and British companies with remote employment.

The press release states the American and British companies were deceived into hiring North Korean's that Knoot then assisted in using stolen identities to pose as US citizens. Knoot is accused of hosting company laptops at his place of residence, downloading and installing software without authorization to enable users to conduct deception, and conspiracy to launder payments for the remote work.

Only two days after Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, filed a lawsuit against the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), alongside video platform Rumble. Both platforms accused GARM of boycotting companies by withholding advertising revenue in order to pressure X into compliance and limit choices for consumers.

A new report from Business Insider revealed the advertising trade group The World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) informed its members it was "discontinuing" activities with GARM, following the filing of the X lawsuit. According to the WFA's CEO Stephan Loerke, the decision was "not made lightly," but GARM is a non-profit organization that has limited resources at its disposal.

Initially, the WFA and GARM were intending to contest X's allegations, which alleged that GARM's members colluded to "collectively withhold billions of dollars in advertising revenue" from the social media platform. GARM members named in the suit were: Unilever, Mars, CVS, and Ørsted.