Latest News - Page 776

NASA has announced that its new lunar rover named VIPER has completed an "obstacle course" simulating the lunar environment - a key step in the development of the rover slated to explore the lunar south pole.

VIPER, or the Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, has completed an obstacle course simulating the lunar terrain it will encounter when it lands on Mons Mouton, a mountain located near the lunar south pole. More specifically, the new rover will touchdown close to the western rim of the Nobile crater, where it will then begin its primary objective of documenting the southern lunar environment. Data from VIPER will then be used to dictate viable landing locations for future Artemis missions.

NASA has taken to its Ames Research Lab YouTube channel to showcase that VIPER has overcome some of the most common challenges it will encounter when it begins to scour the lunar surface. The small rover is seen successfully overcoming simulated fine lunar soil, quicksand-like soil, rocks, slopes, and much more. All of which are critical points of maneuverability. VIPER is expected to launch on the back of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket sometime in November 2024.

One nation is building a "ghost particle" detector 3,500 meters, or 11,500 feet below the surface of the Western Pacific Ocean.

The nation behind the project is China, and engineers are going to be constructing what is called the Tropical Deep-sea Neutrino Telescope (TRIDENT), or Hai Ling (Ocean Bell) in Chinese. The massive telescope will be anchored to the seabed and be tasked with searching for neutrinos, or "ghost particles". Notably, approximately 100 billion neutrinos pass through each square centimeter of your body every second, but since they have nearly zero mass and no electrical charge, they don't interact with any other types of matter.

So, why would researchers want to observe them? Researchers can trace some neutrinos back to their origins, which can be billions of light-years away in distant regions of the universe where galaxies collided, stars went supernova, etc. Due to their speed and lack of interaction with other matter, neutrinos are quite difficult to detect. However, when they pass through water or ice, they can create a particle called a muon that produces a flash of light.

A newly published study has pointed to a dwarf planet located near Mars that may contain some answers in our quest to discover life outside of Earth.

The dwarf planet that researchers are focussing on is called Ceres and is located between Jupiter and Mars. According to the study that was discussed at the Geological Society of America's GSA Connects 2023 meeting earlier this month, Ceres has an abundance of organic matter present on its surface, and follow-up observations of the dwarf planet may garner information regarding the potential of life existing outside of Earth.

The presence of organic matter was first detected back in 2017 from observations by the Dawn spacecraft, but researchers have recently made more observations, leading to the conclusion that there is more organic matter present than initially anticipated. This discovery has further pushed the researchers behind the study to call for more frequent and in-depth observations of Ceres.

Intel Game On Drivers for the Intel Arc range of graphics cards (including the new Intel Arc A580 we recently reviewed) have been released at a steady clip - offering support for new games in addition to delivering massive performance improvements to older titles that didn't play nice with the architecture when it debuted last year.

The latest driver release, 'Intel Graphics Driver 31.0.101.4900 for Intel Arc,' focuses squarely on new titles: Ghostrunner 2, Alan Wake 2, Cities: Skylines 2, and WRC. However, two of these games have been making headlines of late due to just how demanding they are on PC hardware, which raises the question of how they'd run on the entry-level and mainstream Intel Arc lineup of GPUs.

Cities: Skylines II is launching in a state on PC that the developer has called out as unfinished, so much so that some players are struggling to maintain higher than 10 FPS with high-end hardware. So when Intel writes, "Up to 34% average FPS uplift at 1080p with High settings," in the release notes - without context or specific figures, it could be misleading.

With the launch of the new 14th Gen Core processors from Intel, the company introduced something called Intel Application Optimization (APO), a technology designed to optimize multithreaded performance.

Building off of the mature Thread Director that sits within Windows, we recently sat down with Roger Chandler, Intel vice president and general manager, Enthusiast PC and Workstation​, Client Computing Group, who informed us that Intel was looking at individual games to see which could benefit from better thread management to boost in-game performance.

And the boost looks to be substantial, with new owners of the flagship Intel Core i9 14900K taking to Reddit to confirm that APO is delivering an extra 200+ FPS in some games.

The other day, we got a fresh look at Squadron 42, the ambitious single-player spin-off of the perpetually in-development Star Citizen. With the head of Cloud Imperium Games being industry veteran Chris Roberts, it's described as a modern-day reimagining of the classic Wing Commander series, albeit with space exploration and tactical first-person shooting joining the star-studded dogfighting amongst the stars.

It uses the same tech and engine as Star Citizen, now dubbed StarEngine - the long-in-development Squadron 42 is feature-complete and in the "polish phase." Alongside that impressive demo, there was perhaps an even more impressive StarEngine demo showcasing the full potential of what it can do and Star Citizen's incredible scale.

Okay, talking about this game 10+ years after its initial reveal is often met with skepticism - and rightfully so. However, people have been playing an early version of Star Citizen for several years now (and spending big on virtual ships), and the tech we see in this demo is next-level next-level.

According to sources, flash memory pioneer KIOXIA is close to merging with Western Digital. This deal would make the combined entity the world's biggest producer of memory and storage solutions, and all of the terms could be agreed upon by the close of this month. The Japanese-based KIOXIA is close to Western Digital, with them jointly operating plants in Japan's Iwate and Mie prefectures.

According to Kyodo News, the combined market share of KIOXIA and Western Digital for NAND memory and storage earlier this year topped 35.4 percent, a slight increase over the market's top player, Samsung.

Suppose KIOXIA and Western Digital are to merge. In that case, over 50 percent of the new company will be owned by Western Digital shareholders, with the remainder held by existing KIOXIA shareholders, including major stakeholder Toshiba.

ASL has just revealed a graphics card the world simply doesn't need: a new GeForce RTX 4060 with a built-in spirit level.

The new ASL GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card isn't the first with a built-in spirit level, as the 51RISC GeForce RTX 4090 had one, as well as Sycom's custom GeForce RTX 4090 and RTX 4080 cards with AIO cooling and a built-in spirit level. This is a much thinner card and a much more basic design.

ASL's new custom GeForce RTX 4060 has a dual-fan cooler, a single 8-pin PCIe power connector, and a silver-themed design. But the spirit level... it's on the end of the card, on the front next to the two fans. Once the ASL GeForce RTX 4060 is installed into a system, it will not even be visible. So the spirit level on the card itself serves zero purpose, zero use... and then once it's installed, you can't even look at it. If you had a vertical mount for the GPU, then sure... but why.

Lenovo has just unveiled its new LEGION 9000K and LEGION 7000K pre-built Gaming PCs for the Chinese market at this point in time, celebrating the launch of Intel's new 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs and NVIDIA's powerhouse GeForce RTX 40 series GPUs.

The new LEGION 9000X 2024 Gaming PCs are available in four different offerings: Intel's new Core i9-14900KF processor with the GeForce RTX 4090 for around $4424, or you can drop down to the GeForce RTX 4080 and the LEGION 9000X drops to $3080 or so. The other 14th Gen Core CPU is the Core i7-14700KF with the GeForce RTX 4080 for $2716 or so. Once again, there's another offering with the RTX 4070 Ti, but the price only drops to $2660.

Lenovo also has its LEGION 7000X 2024 Gaming PCs led by the Core i7-14700K and the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti for $1904, but you can switch out the GPU and drop those prices to $1638, $1400, and $1289. That would mean switching out the RTX 4070 Ti at $1904 to the RTX 4070 for $1638, the RTX 4060 Ti for $1400, and the RTX 4060 for $1289. There are also some Core i5-14600KF processor offerings in the LEGION 7000X 2024 family, with the RTX 4060 Ti for $1289 or the Radeon RX 7600 for $910. All of these new Lenovo LEGION 9000X and 7000X systems are available to purchase right now through Chinese e-tailers.

NVIDIA's mainstream GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB has appeared in a new form: a single-slot, blower-style fan for your new SFF gaming PC.

The new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB single-slot graphics card was teased by MEGASizeGPU, which will be a release from COLORFUL, but we don't know if it's an iGame GPU yet or not. The new single-slot GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB arrives in a super-tight, single-slot design that measures 267mm long and just 20mm thick.

A blower-style fan is used for cooling, with not many air cutouts at all above the I/O ports -- which are standard here on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB single-slot GPU: 1 x HDMI 2.1 and 3 x DisplayPort 1.4 connectors. A single 8-pin PCIe power connector is at the rear, making the card look very neat and tidy all around.

NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER refresh GPU is currently in the development oven at Team Green, with some new ponderings about its specifications -- and how it can get around the new US sanctions against China -- which have seen the AD102-based GeForce RTX 4090 banned, and the price of the GPU skyrocketing in China.

The upcoming refreshed GeForce RTX 4080 SUPER has been rumored with 20GB of GDDR6X, but a new video from Moore's Law is Dead suggests that we'll see some changes to the refreshed SUPER card that will skirt around the US sanctions in China... and it totally makes sense for NVIDIA to do this.

The Biden administration pushed in new sanctions on China that have outright banned the GeForce RTX 4090 from being sold in the country, with prices jumping within hours. Moore's Law is Dead is reporting from his sources that NVIDIA will not be moving any GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card stock out of Asia and into any other country in any big numbers because shipping containers are so expensive as we head into the holiday season.

Alienware has just teased a couple of new gaming monitors with impressive specs, both of them will be world-first when they arrive: QD-OLED at 4K 240Hz and 1440p 360Hz.

Alienware teased its new QD-OLED gaming monitors during its recent TwitchCon 2023 event, with the introduction of the AW3225QF and AW2725DF because these naming schemes are so easy to remember. Anyway, the new Alienware AW3225QF will be the world's first 4K QD-OLED gaming monitor, offering a curved 32-inch QD-OLED panel at a native 4K and a huge 240Hz... QD-OLED pumping 4K 240Hz, oh yes.

The new Alienware AW2725DF will be the world's first 360Hz QD-OLED gaming monitor, with a 27-inch QD-OLED panel at 1440 (2560 x 1440) at an absolutely mammoth 360Hz, QD-OLED at 360 frames per second. Yeah, these two new Alienware QD-OLED gaming monitors are going to be very nice indeed and will both be dropping in early January 2024.

NVIDIA's next moves in the GPU space have been under scrutiny lately, with a whole bunch of recent rumors about possible refreshes of the RTX 4070 and 4080 - and now we're hearing speculation on where Team Green could go with pricing.

This comes from Moore's Law is Dead (MLID), who reasons his way through a theory - and it is just that, theorizing, albeit based on commentary from multiple trusted sources - as to what NVIDIA's pricing strategy might be going forward this year into next.

We've already been hearing about the effects of the US ban on the RTX 4090 GPU in China - well, technically the AD102 chip, we should clarify - and MLID reckons this is going to have, shall we say, interesting ramifications for the graphics card world.

With a 26-minute presentation covering the game's cinematic story, space battles, all-star cast, first-person missions, and stunning visuals - it finally looks like Squadron 42 is on track to deliver the modern Wing Commander game we've all been waiting for.

For those needing a refresher, Squadron 42 was announced alongside the long-in-development Star Citizen in 2012 - described as the 'single-player' component of the ambitious sci-fi universe sim. The original release window was 2014, and from there, it was continuously delayed as the size and scope of both Star Citizen and Squadron 42 expanded. It's a game that has been in development for over a decade.

"Squadron 42 is now feature complete and has entered its polish phase," Chris Roberts, Founder and CEO of Cloud Imperium Games (CIG), says in the impressive video demonstration of the game. If you're into sci-fi games with cockpit action like the Wing Commander series or more modern titles like Mass Effect and Starfield, it's a must-watch.

Recently, we reported on the ban on the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU in China, which shocked several people because it's the first time the US-imposed export ban on technology to the country included a piece of hardware designed for PC gaming. This has led to RTX 4090 models being sold for double the price in China, ahead of the restrictions kicking in next month.

According to sources, it's all about restricting and slowing China regarding AI. With the new restrictions looking to limit the sale of NVIDIA's A800 and H800 workstation cards in the region, the ban, which doesn't restrict specific models but hardware with certain transistor numbers, now includes the GeForce RTX 4090.

No GeForce RTX 4090s for China might not sound like a big deal, but with the AI boom and new reports from outlets like TechSpot, it seems that when it comes to high-end NVIDIA GeForce RTX GPUs, we're on the cusp of another situation where prices are about to go through the roof.

With the launch of the new Intel Core 14th Gen desktop processors, Intel's 'Raptor Lake Refresh' is paving the way for improved and simplified overclocking. This is not only for a wider audience to get the most out of each CPU Core (the 14900K offers up an out-of-the-box 6 GHz boost), but it extends to the DDR5 memory support.

The flagship Intel Core i9 14900K is one of the fastest processors in the world for gaming, productivity, and multitasking, and with a new range of motherboards hitting the scene for the new 14th Gen, memory and storage speeds will continue to rise.

Hardware support for the new gen is strong (a lot of that comes with it being a refresh of the 13th-gen architecture), with ADATA and XPG noting that its full range of memory and SSD storage solutions are ready for the new generation of Intel CPUs. The company conducted compatibility testing with Intel and motherboard brands prior to the 14th Gen launch to ensure there were no issues.

Last week, Intel announced and launched its 14th Gen Core processors for desktops, with the flagship Intel Core i9 14900K leading the pack. The company made a mistake when formally revealing the 14th Gen 'Raptor Lake Refresh' lineup; the new desktop processors will not support the latest Thunderbolt 5 spec.

It's not the sort of mistake you see in a product reveal of this stature, with the statement proclaiming that the 14th Gen processors would support "upcoming Thunderbolt 5 wired connectivity."

To make the situation a little more confusing, the announcement has been updated with an Editor's Note (via Tom's Hardware) stating, "While some processors in the Intel Core 14th Gen processor family will include support for Thunderbolt 5, Intel Core 14th Gen desktop processors, specifically, will not support it." Adding it will share details on "Intel Core 14th Gen CPUs that support Thunderbolt 5 at a later date."

Alan Wake 2, the highly anticipated sequel from Remedy (the studio behind the brilliant Control and Max Payne franchises), is set to launch globally on October 27 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. The latter has been dominating the PC gaming headlines of late because of the super demanding PC requirements for the game.

For 30 FPS performance at 1080p, you'll need a GeForce RTX 2060 or Radeon RX 6600 with DLSS or FSR 2 set to 'Quality' mode - which means the game is being upscaled from an internal 720p resolution. Also, this is 30FPS using the game's Low graphics preset without any ray-tracing effects.

This makes Alan Wake 2 the most demanding PC release ever. However, it doesn't stop there. The developer hasn't included GPUs from the GeForce GTX 10 Series or Radeon RX 5000 Series because they're not officially supported.

Rockstar Games has been steadily improving its in-house graphics engine -- Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE) -- for years. It has powered Grand Theft Auto over the years and Red Dead Redemption 1 + 2, but it is being suped-up for Rockstar's next-gen Grand Theft Auto 6.

We're now hearing that the evolution of the RAGE engine in GTA 6 will be a huge step above what Rockstar has done before. With the graphics gap between Grand Theft Auto 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 being huge, we're being told that the graphics gap between Grand Theft Auto 6 and Red Dead Redemption 2 will be even bigger.

A new post by Rockstar Mag France is a reminder that a Rockstar Toronto studios developer had their Slack account hacked by the hacker group "Lapsus$" and revealed a bunch of new information on Grand Theft Auto 6. The hack was so big it gutted the staff at Rockstar... but now we're hearing about the graphics side of things, and it has me excited.

Sandisk, a division of Western Digital, recently announced its fall lineup of storage solutions - and it includes the new Sandisk Ultra microSD UHS-I cards with capacities going all the way up to 1.5TB. This highly versatile microSD card from the company is compatible with thousands of devices, including portable gaming rigs like the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ROG Ally.

However, when paired with Android devices like Chromebooks and Windows laptops with a Sandisk MobileMate USB 3.0 microSD card reader, transfer speeds hit an impressive 150 MB/s. This speed makes 1.5TB Sandisk Ultra microSD UHS-I cards one of the best capture and storage solutions for photos, videos, games, podcasts, documents, and more.

With Sandisk's 10-year limited warranty and the Sandisk Ultra lineup featuring proprietary Proprietary Flash Management technology and NAND, plus A1-rated performance for launching apps - you've got an excellent and super easy storage expansion option for the PC gaming handhelds of the world.