Latest News - Page 725

Windows 11 got a pretty nifty feature this year in the form of Dynamic Lighting controls which provide a centralized hub to cater for all the devices with RGB lighting attached to your PC - and ASRock now supports this.

Naturally, a new feature is all well and good, but not much use until vendors support the functionality, so it's good to see a motherboard manufacturer come forward in this respect with Dynamic Lighting.

ASRock announced that its motherboards now support the Dynamic Lighting hub, which allows for all your (supported) RGB lighting to be synced via Windows - thus avoiding having to install multiple pieces of software to configure your lighting.

AMD and Intel are both aiming to release their next-gen motherboards in Q3 of 2024, a new rumor reckons.

Wccftech spotted the chatter from the grapevine which is the Chinese board channel forums, a source of many hardware-related leaks, but one we should be fairly skeptical around.

We're told that AMD's 700 series motherboard should debut in the third quarter of next year, still using the AM5 chipset - as we know that Team Red has pledged to support AM5 until through 2025, and perhaps beyond that some way.

If you're looking for a reason for some festive cheer - and you love RPGs, and have been holding off on Baldur's Gate 3 - the good news is that Larian's game has just been discounted for the first time ever on PC.

Head on over to Steam and you'll see that Baldur's Gate 3 is now 10% off, making it a tempting purchase for those looking for a good adventure to keep them entertained over the holiday period.

Scratch that - a great adventure, not just a good one, as Baldur's Gate 3 couldn't really be any more highly-rated. The RPG scooped the Game of the Year title at The Game Awards, beating stiff competition from the likes of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Alan Wake 2.

The TT Show Episode 16 is not only the first-ever holiday episode for The TT Show but also the last one for 2023. As always, it's stacked with all of the latest news from the world of tech, gaming, and science, with Jak and Kosta festively giving their thoughts on each topic. This week's big topics include the recent Intel Core Ultra launch and what that means for the mobile CPU space.

The duo also mentions the recent revelation that Intel will create its own Frame Generation to compete against NVIDIA's DLSS 3 and AMD's FSR 3. And in the world of game performance Jak and Kosta also discuss the new revelation that Sony is looking at developing their own AI-powered DLSS 3 tech for the upcoming PlayStation 5 Pro launch.

Then there's the ongoing AI war between AMD and NVIDIA, as the two companies fight over who has the most powerful AI GPU, the ongoing rumors surrounding a foldable iPad, Twitch's back and forth over what it will allow and won't allow on the platform, supercomputer brains, and Valve's awesome Christmas-inspired way it's dealing with Dota 2 cheaters.

CableMod made an improved version of its 12VHPWR angled adapter -- version 1.1 -- that too is defective, and now the company has just recalled both of its v1.0 and v1.0 angled cables.

In a new tweet, post on its website, and Reddit, Cablemod explains that it will be discontinuing its 12VHPWR angled adapter and that they're being recalled. This affects both the 90-degree and 180-degree v1.0 and v1.1 adapters, with the company noting it will have an official notice with more details arriving in the coming days... just in time for the holidays.

To be clear: CableMod's angled cables are not defective; this only applies to the angled adapters. If you're using one, the company recommends that you stop using it immediately, power down your system, and unplug the adapters. We don't know what started the recall of CableMod's new v1.1 angled adapter, with the company explaining that the male connector might loosen, which could lead to overheating... and the potential melting of the cable... not good, at all.

ASML has just officially shipped its very first High-NA EUV lithography scanner to Intel, with the sparkling new Twinscan EXE:5000 extreme ultraviolet (EUV) scanner being the first High-NA scanner from the company and now in the hands of Intel.

Intel placed its order with ASML for the advanced EUV scanner all the way back in 2018, where Team Blue will be playing around with the new High-NA EUV scanner before it uses the commercial-grade Twinscan EXE:5200 tool for high-volume manufacturing (HVM), which is expected to take place in 2025.

An ASML spokesperson said: "We are shipping the first High NA system and announced this in a social media post today. It goes to Intel as planned and announced earlier".

MemryX has just announced the availability of production-level silicon for its new AI accelerator, the MX3.

You probably haven't heard of MemryX Inc. before, but they're a new startup that specializes in accelerating artificial intelligence (AI) processing for edge devices. The company received its new MX3 silicon from TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), and within a month of getting it, it's ready to show its new MX3 AI accelerator.

MemryX has announced that it will be showing off its new MX3 AI accelerator running "hundreds of unaltered AI models" at the CES 2024 show in Las Vegas, which will be running between January 9-12, 2024... just weeks away now.

Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger is really pushing the fighting words against NVIDIA and its utter AI dominance, where he's said that the company got "extraordinarily lucky" with its AI business.

In a recent chat with MIT, Gelsinger said: "Jensen worked super hard at owning throughput computing, primarily for graphics initially, and then got extraordinarily lucky. They didn't even want to support their first AI project".

The fun didn't stop there because NVIDIA's Vice President of Applied Deep Learning Research, Bryan Catanzaro, who used to work for Intel, tweeted: "I worked at Intel on Larrabee applications in 2007. Then I went to NVIDIA to work on ML in 2008. So I was there at both places at that time and I can say: NVIDIA's dominance didn't come from luck. It came from vision and execution. Which Intel lacked".

MSI has just teased its upcoming TITAN 18 HX gaming laptop, the world's first with an 18-inch 4K 120Hz Mini-LED display that should absolutely pop in real life. Check it out:

Inside, the MSI TITAN 18 HX gaming laptop features up to Intel's new Core i9-14900HX processor, 128GB of DDR5-5600 memory, which is upgradeable to 192GB of DDR5-5600 memory, and two 2TB M.2 NVMe Gen4 PCIe SSDs. On the GPU side of things, MSI is outfitting the new beast gaming laptop with up to NVIDIA's flagship GeForce RTX 4090 16GB Laptop GPU.

MSI is using an 18-inch Mini-LED panel powered by AmLED technology, with up to 1000 nits of brightness and VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification. The 18-inch panel features an interesting 3840 x 2400 resolution with a smooth 120Hz refresh rate. MSI has color calibration here with its True Color (Per Panel Examination and Calibration) to ensure that the 4K 120Hz Mini-LED display looks gorgeous on your desk.

We got our first look at G.SKILL's new WigiDash device, a 'PC Command Touch Panel' back at Computex - a fully customizable widget and dashboard that reminded us of the Elgato Stream deck, but for keeping track of system info like temperatures and performance. The versatility goes far beyond that, with the 7-inch IPS touch panel (with a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels) able to control media and launch apps.

G.SKILL has designed the WigiDash to be highly customizable, giving you full control over the 5x4 grid layout via the powerful and dedicated WigiDash Manager Software. There's a minimalist quality here reminiscent of Microsoft's 'Metro' design, with the ability to drag and drop tiles while customizing the text and color or adding icons.

Hardware enthusiasts will get a kick out of the third-party software integration, including HWiNFO and AIDA64 SensorPanel. It's available now via Amazon for $129.99 USD.

The AMD Ryzen 7 8700G "Hawk Point" desktop APU is set to launch next year, and with integrated 12 Compute Unit RDNA 3 Radeon 780M graphics, it will shake up the mini and tiny PC gaming market. It's the new flagship of the Ryzen 7 8000 Series, with 8 cores, 16 threads, and a boost clock of up to 5.1 GHz.

In addition to the sort of GPU power that's more than capable of running modern titles with decent fidelity and performance, the AMD Ryzen 7 8700G will make use of AMD's latest AM5 socket - so it can be paired with fast DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 storage options.

It will also be able to use the new DDR5 update for AM5, where 64GB modules can stack up to a whopping 256GB capacity. That said, the big difference between AMD Ryzen 7 8700G and the laptop Ryzen 9 7940HS "Phoenix Point" APU is the upgraded NPU for AI - which is probably why this new leaked Geekbench benchmark result puts the "Hawk Point" lead over "Phoenix Point" in the single-digit realm.

AMD is now listing a new AM4 CPU for the global market on its site, the AMD Ryzen 7 5700 - without the 'G' or 'X' at the end. This new budget desktop CPU will ship without an integrated GPU, with hardware leaker @momomo_us taking to X/Twitter to confirm that pricing for the new AM4 CPU could be as low as $180 US.

The AMD Ryzen 7 5700 is a cutdown version of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700X using the mobile 'Cezanne' silicon, with 8 cores and 16 threads and a boost clock of up to 4.6 GHz. The AMD listing notes that it ships with the AMD Wraith Stealth cooler and is a low-power mainstream option for entry-level PC gaming, thanks to its TDP rating of 45-65 Watts.

Many believe this is a version of the AMD Ryzen 7 5700G with some modifications and the GPU side disabled, basically a way for AMD to sell more Ryzen silicon that didn't make it to retail.

Windows Mixed Reality, which debuted with the Microsoft HoloLens device, was set to be a big thing back in 2017 - with companies like Acer, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo all set to make devices that would bring mixed reality to Windows 10 and even the Xbox One. Unlike Virtual Reality (or VR), Mixed Reality offers pass-through to blend what you see in the real-world with the virtual.

Early Windows Mixed Reality headsets featured LCDs with a per-eye resolution of 1440 x 1440, a 90 Hz refresh rate, and inside-out tracking. As seen in the video above, the pitch for Windows Mixed Reality was to transform the modern office into this virtual playspace to boost creativity and productivity.

Fast forward to December 2023, and Windows Mixed Reality has been added to the list of deprecated features in Windows. The platform for Mixed Reality apps and games never really took off, so we're not surprised. But this does signal that Microsoft is essentially abandoning VR and Mixed Reality - for now.

In 2023 (and the soon-to-be 2024), trying to find a brand-new laptop with a DVD drive is like trying to find a still-standing Blockbuster that offers DVD rentals. The PC market, both desktop and mobile, has moved on from optical storage - but there is one location where you can still pick up a laptop with a DVD drive. The land of the rising sun, Japan.

In addition to a 13th Gen Core processor, the new NEC VersaPro Type VD also sports a DVD drive and VGA port.

The new NEC VersaPro Type VD is a laptop geared toward the business crowd, and yes, it includes a DVD Super Multi drive. This blast from the past feature is joined by a few more blasts from the past - an actual VGA connector and a removable battery. Having a removable battery is admittedly pretty cool, as that's one feature that we'd love to see make a comeback.

Bethesda's latest year in review update offers a look at what's to come in Starfield in 2024.

Starfield isn't like other Bethesda games. Starting in February 2024, the studio plans to roll out consistent updates to the space sim every six weeks. This cadence will yield all sorts of changes, tweaks, and upgrades over the base game, including but not limited to actual content additions and basic/in-depth quality-of-life updates.

So what's on the horizon for 2024? The developers have already teased that "new ways to travel" are coming to Starfield next year, but the blog post also confirmed new details like unique difficulty options, a new survival mode, and fresh templates and parts for enthusiast ship builders.

EA has published a new design update for its Frostbite games engine, and confirms that all EA dev teams can choose whichever engine they'd like to work on.

Originally designed for FPS games, DICE's proprietary Frostbite engine has grown up throughout the years. The engine is now used for everything under the sun at EA, including third-person action-adventure RPGs like Dragon Age.

Interestingly enough, the publisher now says that developers are essentially free to pick what game-making toolset they want to make their game with--Unreal Engine, Unity, etc. This is a stark contrast to 9-10 years ago when EA pushed its studios to all use Frostbite, even BioWare, who worked incredibly hard to get Mass Effect and Dragon Age games running on Frostbite.

The development teams behind Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Doom just got a new boss.

Microsoft has reorganized the structure of its video games business to make way for its $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard King. The games division has shuffled executives around as it integrates ABK into the existing Xbox infrastructure, creating new positions like the first-ever president of Xbox (Sarah Bond) and a new Xbox Content & Studios president role (Matt Booty).

The shake-up also sees Jill Braff stepping in to lead ZeniMax and Bethesda's game development teams. Braff will oversee ZeniMax Online, which includes the teams behind The Elder Scrolls Online, as well as Bethesda Softworks, which is the banner that includes studios like Bethesda Game Studios (Fallout, Elder Scrolls, Starfield), id Software (Doom, RAGE), Arkane (Dishonored, Redfall, Prey), MachineGames (Wolfenstein, Indiana Jones), and Tango Gameworks (The Evil Within, Hi-Fi Rush).

Sony no longer plans to remove Discovery TV content from the PlayStation Store.

Weeks ago, Sony announced that it would be deleting over 750 pieces of Discovery digital video content from the PlayStation Store. This wasn't just a de-listing, but would have been an outright deletion and removal of all of the affected shows. Users who had purchased the content would have had their access rights stripped and the shows simply would have vanished from both the storefront and user libraries.

Now Sony has confirmed that the deletion will no longer take place. PlayStation gamers will be able to keep all of their purchased Discovery TV shows and content. The reason? WB Discovery and Sony have signed a new deal.

SEGA shares brief details and a few new screen captures of its upcoming retro remakes.

At The Game Awards 2023 showcase, SEGA announced plans to resurrect a bunch of classic game IPs with new releases. Beloved Dreamcast and Genesis franchises like Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Golden Axe, the beat-em-up Streets of Rage, and even Shinobi are coming back with new games. SEGA launched a marketing campaign called Next Level for these games.

Exact details like platform availability have not been announced, but SEGA has delivered a few new descriptions on the games in a recent company-wide presentation.

Elden Ring is the best-selling FromSoftware game of all time. The bizarre fantasy RPG is billion-dollar success and is even seen as a franchise. There's just one problem: No one at FromSoft knows exactly why it's so popular.

Elden Ring took the world by storm when it launched in February 2022, and is still played by many gamers today. It's the kind of game that only comes around once in a generation, engaging millions of people in an interactive, tough-as-nails scavenger hunt complete with epic bosses and loot.

While YouTubers have written essays that examine Elden Ring as a whole, the game's secret sauce remains a mystery to its creators. At Sony's internal PlayStation partner awards showcase, FromSoftware producer Yasuhiro Kitao said that the studio has 'no idea' why Elden Ring is so big.