Latest News - Page 581

If you've got an ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld, you might want to check out the new Sabrent USB Type-C 3-Port Gaming Hub, which expands the device's on-the-go capabilities for just $16.99 USD.

It connects to the ROG XG Mobile Interface and USB Type-C combo port on the top of the handheld, giving you immediate USB expansion options with up to 100W USB-C upstream power delivery.

The Sabrent USB Type-C 3-Port Gaming Hub connects to the ROG Ally and includes two USB-A ports for connecting additional portable storage to the handheld or an extra device like a keyboard or mouse. In fact, as a powerful Windows 11 gaming handheld, you can connect a USB controller to play with the ROG Ally on a desk or table - like the Switch with detached JoyCons.

CD Projekt RED has launched the REDkit for The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt on PC, free for all owners of the game. The editor and toolset allow modders and players to create, edit, and modify various aspects of the game. From control over models and environments, there are even detailed cinematic tools and the ability to create brand-new questlines.

The Witcher 3 has a vibrant modding community on Nexus Mods, but this new update takes everything to the next level. It also adds Steam Workshop support so players can download and enable mods from the popular platform. Check out the tutorial video embedded below for a guide on installing The Witcher 3 mods via the Steam Workshop.

Having a complete game editor in the REDkit brings The Witcher 3 closer to Bethesda's iconic Skyrim in terms of what's possible. Skyrim's popularity has endured for over a decade, and the arrival of the RED Kit for The Witcher 3 could lead to a similar situation.

Valve, the creators of the iconic Half-Life, Portal, DOTA 2, and Team Fortress 2, release games so infrequently that if there's even a rumor on what it might be cooking up next - consider that major PC gaming news. Over the last few days, we've seen the PC gaming community come alive thanks to screenshots and information leaking for Valve's next big game - an Overwatch-style third-person shooter called Deadlock.

The game hasn't been officially announced, and Valve hasn't responded to the leaks or requests from outlets to confirm if the information is accurate. According to multiple sources, the 6v6 'hero shooter' is currently in the Closed Beta phase, so what we're seeing comes from an early version of the game and from players who are most likely breaking their NDA agreement with Valve.

Today, we've got our first look at the game in action, with a short clip showcasing Deadlock gameplay.

The MSI Claw Windows PC gaming handheld stands out from the competition because it uses the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor 155H with integrated Arc graphics and not the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme found in the likes of the ROG Ally from ASUS. This has led to a rocky start for the new handheld, with spotty and inconsistent gaming performance reported by those who went hands-on with a pre-release or launch version of the hardware.

Today, there's some very welcome news for MSI Claw early adopters. The company is releasing BIOS 109, which replaces BIOS 106, alongside a new version of the MSI Center M software. The latest BIOS and MSI Center M software deliver a massive 30% performance increase in titles like Forza Horizon 5.

Other popular games like Fortnite and Helldivers 2 see a sizeable 20% increase in performance with the new BIOS and MSI Center M software.

3DMark Steel Nomad is here, and it's free for all users. Check out our news story to see the 4K and Light versions of the new benchmark in action running on a GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER. Steel Nomad is the new Time Spy, a non-raytracing benchmark designed to push PC gaming hardware while showcasing modern visual effects and rendering technologies.

UL Solutions, the developers and publishers behind 3DMark, confirm that the new 4K 3DMark Steel Nomad benchmark is "roughly three times heavier for your PC than Time Spy, and almost seven times heavier than Fire Strike." Like 3DMark Time Spy, it's a cross-platform benchmark with support for Windows and Windows-on-Arm using the DirectX 12 and Vulkan APIs, Android using Vulkan, and iOS using Metal.

Alongside the launch of Steel Nomad, UL Solutions announced that since Time Spy debuted in 2016, the benchmark has been run almost 48 million times (runs from results submitted online). We also learn that average GPU performance has quadrupled in the eight years since Time Spy debuted.

3DMark Steel Nomad is the latest benchmark for joining the 3DMark suite. It's free for all current users and owners, including the free 3DMark Demo version. It's a milestone release from UL Solutions, following the popular Time Spy benchmark that launched in 2016.

3DMark Steel Nomad arrives in two versions: the baseline 3DMark Steel Nomad, which runs natively in 4K and is designed for 'high-end gaming PCs', and 3DMark Steel Nomad Light, which is for lightweight gaming PCs. Steel Nomad is a non-ray-tracing benchmark that includes new technologies like volumetric skies and procedural grass. It also includes advanced ambient occlusion and depth-of-field effects. UL Solutions notes that it's "roughly three times heavier for your PC than Time Spy, and almost seven times heavier than Fire Strike."

Watch the video above, captured with a GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER graphics card, to get a sense of the demo. As you'll notice, it's a definite GPU stress test as the high-end GeForce RTX GPU only manages to deliver frame rates in the 65-70 FPS region.

Noctua and its earthy-toned products are well-known among PC builders and modders. Noctua has created premium, quiet, stylish fans, and cooling solutions for many years. Noctua gear is highly sought after, and this has led to collaborations with companies like ASUS to create Noctua Edition GeForce RTX graphics cards and Drop to create Noctua-themed keyboard accessories.

Noctua's new HOME product line is a little different. It's designed for everything besides a PC, with "home, office, and multi-purpose ventilation" via two fan sets and nine modular accessories. This means you can install the new pivoting NV-FM1 Noctua fan mount with Noctua fans as a desk fan to keep you cool in the summer months or even mount it in the ceiling or on a wall.

One of the accessories is the new NV-AA1-12 airflow amplifier, designed for focused ventilation. The NV-MPG1-12 is a multi-purpose gasket for Noctua 120x25mm fans that the company says is ideal for "placing a fan on top of A/V receivers, DVRs, video game consoles, stereo equipment, routers, home radiators, or other devices."

G.SKILL is set to make another big splash in extreme overclocking at Computex 2024. Its booth will host the 10th Annual OC World Record Stage 2024, where high-end Intel motherboards from ASRock, ASUS, GIGABYTE, and MSI will be paired with G.SKILL DDR5 memory and plenty of liquid nitrogen (LN2).

The world's top overclockers will do their thing in front of a live audience (we'll be there!), attempting to achieve as many overclocking records as possible. G.SKILL has released the 10th Annual OC World Record Stage 2024 schedule (see it above), which kicks off on June 4 and runs through to June 7.

Each motherboard maker and a group of overclockers will be given their day in the sun (or is that LN2 fog), with OC legends like HiCookie and Splave set to appear. The 8th Annual OC World Cup 2024 Competition will also take place live at the G.SKILL Computex 2024 booth, with overclockers going head-to-head with G.SKILL DDR5 memory and 14th Gen Intel Core processors - and yes, even more LN2.

Samsung has announced the new Head of Device Solutions Division, part of Samsung's semiconductor business, with Young Hyun Jun taking over.

Jun will be officially named President and CEO of Samsung once the approval from the board of directors and shareholders comes through. Remember, Samsung has a dual-CEO system, with one CEO looking after the semiconductor business, and the other looking after other device experiences (displays, phones, etc).

Jun has a big task ahead of him, with his primary objective to Samsung is to "strengthen its competitiveness amid an uncertain global business environment". Jun replaces Samsung President Kyehyun Kyung, leaving his previous role at the Future Business Division.

Microsoft seems pretty hungry after its Activision acquisition, with a fresh (and very hot, prepare your salt) rumor that the Windows and Xbox giant is preparing a $16 billion offer to buy Valve. Yes, that Valve, from Gabe Newell.

Dior is a gaming-focused content creator in the Counter-Strike gaming community, posting on X that Microsoft is reportedly preparing a $16 billion offer to buy Valve Corporation, which would include the absolutely gigantic Steam store... by far, the most popular PC gaming platform on the market, and stars in the eyes ($$$) of Microsoft.

I don't know why Valve would consider this when they're a private company and no one knows exactly how much Valve is worth, or how much money Valve makes each year. There are some estimates that see Valve pulling in over $10 billion per year in revenue, with Valve CEO Gabe "Lord GabeN" Newell reportedly has a net worth of over $4 billion.

The rumors of NVIDIA making a next-generation Arm-based processor seems to be gaining traction, with both the CEOs from Dell and NVIDIA teasing a new NVIDIA Arm-based processor inside of a new Dell AI PC in 2025.

During a recent chat with Bloomberg's Ed Ludlow, Dell CEO Michael Dell was asked about NVIDIA's place in the huge AI PC market, to which the Dell CEO said: "come back next year," while NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang said "exactly".

We know that the Windows-on-Arm AI PC market is going to absolutely explode in the next 12 months, with Microsoft launching its new Copilot+ PCs powered by Arm-based Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus processors. NVIDIA has all of the ingredients to create a monster Arm-based processor: Arm general purpose cores, GeForce GPUs, Tensor Cores for AI, networking, and more hardware.

Samsung is speeding into the world of next-gen 3D RAM, the future of compact RAM, something we're learning from its presentation during IMW 2024 this week.

VCT (vertical channel transistor) DRAM is one of the first achievements towards this goal, with Samsung expected to complete the initial development of VCT DRAM in 2025, with 3D DRAM hitting the market by 2030. IWM 2024 is an international conference for computer memory companies, where Samsung teased its developments in DRAM innovation.

ZDNet Korea reported on the story, with Samsung Vice President, Lee Si-woo, speaking during Samsung's research in 4F Square VCT DRAM and 3D DRAM. Lee said: "Industrial developments such as hyperscaler AI and on-demand AI require a lot of memory processing ability. On the other hand, the microprocessing technology of existing DRAM is limited". While, in the future, Lee predicts "new innovations are expected to occur in the structure of cells".

A new website is aiming to be the go-to resource for Windows on ARM gamers who are trying to suss out which games will run well on their Copilot+ PC.

If you've missed the fuss this week somehow, Copilot+ PC is Microsoft's new terminology for its AI PCs, only this category of devices requires a much more powerful NPU.

Indeed, the only chip that qualifies to power a Copilot+ PC right now is the Snapdragon X Elite, but it won't be long before NPUs with 45+ TOPS appear from Intel and AMD as well (Lunar Lake, Strix Point).

There have been a ton of new rumors floating around in the last few weeks that suggest the upcoming iOS 18 iPhone software update will be a big one, bringing with it a slew of new AI-powered features. Now, a new report has shared more details about what IOS 18 will have to offer and for once, it isn't something to do with Apple's newfound focus on AI.

AppleInsider has been sharing various tidbits about the expected iOS 18 features of late and now a new report suggests that Apple is planning some new changes to the way the Music app works on iPhones.

The report, which cites unnamed people familiar with Apple's pre-release software, claims that a new audio passthrough feature is coming to Apple Music and QuickTime player. It will only be available on supported hardware and nobody knows what that hardware will be just yet, and details are also unclear as well. The report says that it appears to relate to spatial audio.

Apple has today released an updated version of its popular Shazam music identification app including support for a feature that has been around since the arrival of iOS 16 in September of 2022. The feature, Live Activities, allows apps to put information in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro's Dynamic Island, making it visible at all times and across apps.

The feature can be hugely useful when trying to identify a song running in another app, for example, while it can also just be handy for those times when the action of identification is taking longer and the user needs to access another app in the interim. Whatever the reason, the arrival of Live Activity support is most welcome.

Apple has been steadily improving the Shazam experience since it bought the company in 2018 and it's now baked into the iPhone experience not to mention the iPad and Mac. There is also support for widgets as well as launching the app via Control Center on the iPhone and iPad.

There has been an awful lot of talk about Apple's upcoming iOS 18 software update that will power the iPhone starting later this year and most of it has been about the new AI features that it will bring to the table. But it's also set to bring new emojis as well, and we now have a better idea of which we can start to look forward to making their debut.

The Unicode Consortium has shared details of a handful of new emojis that are set to be available this year, assuming that they gain final approval. If they do, Apple and other companies will start to release the new emojis via software updates this year and it's likely that iOS 18 will include them. However, it's possible that we will have to wait for a later 18.1 or similar release for them to break cover as has been the case in previous years.

The new emojis that have been previewed include a face with bags under its eyes, a fingerprint similar to the Touch ID logo, a leafless tree, a root vegetable, a harp, a shovel, and a splatter of something like ink or paint.

The latest hit to land on the Apple TV Plus streaming service appears to be Dark Matter, a sci-fi show that's based on a best-selling book of the same name by Black Crouch and starring Joel Edgerton alongside Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly.

The new show has only been available since its premiere on May 8 but it's already taking the streaming charts by storm. New figures shared by the data collectors at Reelgood have Dark Matter sitting at the top of the pile in terms of the TV show streaming chart for the week beginning May 9. To get there it beat out some big names including Fallout, Baby Reindeer, and a Man in Full. In fact, the show also came out at the top of the overall streaming chart which includes both TV shows and movies.

The Dark Matter book was hailed as one of the best sci-fi novels of the decade and follows Jason Dessen (played by Edgerton), a physicist, professor and family man who is abducted into an alternate version of his life. From there he's left to figure out what is going on and then try to get back to his real life all the while trying to figure out who was behind the whole thing. It's a gripping story, and one that is sure to prove popular as the later episodes begin streaming. The finale isn't due to arrive until June 26.

Ever wanted to run Windows XP on old hardware? Well, you might have done a couple of decades ago, when Windows XP was released - but probably not now, right?

Despite the apparently futility of the exercise, a challenge is a challenge, and getting Windows XP working on an Intel 486 processor from 1989 is certainly that - and it was one undertaken by a modder from Germany.

That modder is Dietmar on the MSFN forums, as Techspot noticed, and they successfully patched Windows XP to work on the 486 chip running at 90MHz (yes, the heady heights of clock frequencies back in the day).

The US Patent and Trademark Office has granted Apple more than fifty new patents and one may be a clue as to what the company is planning on implementing into its long-rumored foldable iPhone.

For quite some time, we have been hearing rumblings about a foldable iPhone, but rumors suggested Apple wasn't quite ready to jump into the emerging market due to limitations in display technology, particularly with the crease that is seen on other foldable devices. Additionally, rumors from supply chain insiders indicate Apple won't be releasing a foldable product until 2027, with the earliest being 2026. By then, engineers should have overcome the display hardware limitation.

Now, Apple is testing its revolutionary foldable panels, and one patent filed with the US trademark office reveals some key details about what could be in Apple's foldable device. The patent describes "self-healing material" that could be used across the entire display or just in the regions of the display that flex. Apple describes the technology as having healing capabilities when the material is dented or flexed. Additionally, this new material can also begin healing when heat, light or electrical current is applied.

Yesterday, Microsoft unveiled a new range of AI-powered Copilot+ PCs, which will arrive soon. These PCs are powered by Arm-based Snapdragon X chips running Windows 11 with a suite of new AI features and optimizations. In addition to Microsoft's latest Surface Pro and Surface Laptop, Copilot+ PCs are arriving from various partners, including ASUS, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, and more.

They all run on Snapdragon X chips with a Qualcomm Hexagon NPU, which provides 45 TOPS of AI performance to meet the Copilot+ PC requirement. This is all fine for running AI tools locally, but what about gaming performance? Well, Microsoft held a Windows on Arm gaming demonstration at the Build 2024 event to showcase the power of the Qualcomm Adreno GPU found in the Snapdragon X Elite chipset.

According to Windows Central, which was present during the presentation, Baldur's Gate 3 can run on a Surface Pro at around 30 FPS at 1080p. This is comparable performance to high-end PC gaming handhelds, which is encouraging for the future of Arm gaming on Windows devices.