Latest News - Page 781

A week before the game comes out, Free Range Games has released the opening cinematic for its newest upcoming survival game - The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria.

The opening cinematic is narrated by the iconic John Rhys-Davies, who is known for his role as Gimli, son of Gloin from Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. The actor is reprising his role of Gimli within Free Range Games' newest survival game as Rhys-Davis takes on Lord Gimli Lockbearer, who has sent out a letter to all the realms of dwarves living scattered in Middle-Earth after the destruction of the One Ring that marked the end of the Third Age.

The Lord of the Rings: Return to Moria is set in the Fourth Age of Middle-Earth, and is the only survival crafting game that has taken on such a challenge. Rhys-Davies will explain more about how he was involved in the Return to Moria on the Nerd of the Rings YouTube channel, check out that video below. From the opening cinematic, we can gather that Gimli has requested the dwarves take back the greatest city of the dwarves, founded by Durin - Moria.

NVIDIA drops new Game Ready drivers for GeForce GPU owners fairly regularly, bringing day-one support to new games, adding to the number of DLSS-supported games, and fixing a few bugs here and there. The GeForce Game Ready 545.84 WHQL driver, available now through GeForce Experience or direct download, is slightly different.

In addition to Naraka: Bladepoint and Warhammer: Vermintide 2 getting DLSS 3 support, it also significantly boosts AI acceleration, which means running Large Language Models on Windows PCs with GeForce RTX GPUs has gotten considerably faster.

NVIDIA has added TensorRT acceleration to Stable Diffusion's Web UI for its Generative AI tool to generate images - and for the flagship GeForce RTX 4090, the result is up to 2X the AI performance. Or up to 7X when compared to a top-of-the-line Mac with an Apple M2 Ultra chip.

Alan Wake 2 isn't too far away and will act as what could end up being the best-looking game on the PC this year with the very latest of NVIDIA's visual technologies like DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction, ray tracing, path tracing, and more on the GeForce RTX 40 series GPU owners playing the game.

But, before Alan Wake 2 is here, developer Remedy Entertainment has decided to do something a little daring with its marketing, and very "meta" of them considering the theme of Alan Wake itself. Epic Games and Remedy Entertainment have just announced Alan Wake: Flashback, a Fortnite experience that "reimagines Remedy Entertainment's iconic story".

Alan Wake: Flashback is available inside of Fortnite right now, using island code: 3426-5561-3374.

Intel's new 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs have just launched, with the Core i5-14600K, Core i7-14700K, and flagship Core i9-14900K launching alongside their "KF" variants that don't have an integrated GPU.

It hasn't taken long for the world of overclockers to have their fun, with the new flagship Intel Core i9-14900K processor being pushed up and breaking the world frequency record at an astounding 9043.92MHz (that is over 9000MHz CPU clocks, people).

Professional overclocker "Elmor" is behind the Core i9-14900K at 9.1GHz and using an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 APEX Encore motherboard, with some precious time being spent in the BIOS tweaking everything to reach these dizzyingly high CPU frequencies -- which again, is over 9000MHz, kinda bonkers -- which of course saw Elmor using liquid helium cooling, which took the Core i9-14900K into the world of sub 200C, minus 235C, actually.

There is still hope that Intel's Battlemage graphics cards, theoretically due next year, could be a more compelling offering than some rumors have suggested.

According to the latest video from Moore's Law is Dead, the second generation of Arc products might offer up a beefier stack of GPUs than the YouTube leaker has previously asserted.

If you follow Moore's Law is Dead, you'll likely recall he has claimed that Battlemage may well end up as lower-end GPUs only when it arrives in 2024.

Intel's new Arc A580 graphics card is not popular with retailers, if the latest from a well-known YouTube leaker is anything to go by.

Moore's Law is Dead discussed the A580 GPU as part of his latest video, noting that despite some positive buzz around the A580, retailers don't want to stock the card.

A few sources from the retail world are cited by Moore's Law is Dead, and they include an insider at a major outlet who observes that they ordered "almost no A580s" and that maybe some might pop up in late October.

Earlier this year, NVIDIA launched RTX Video Super Resolution for GeForce RTX 30 and 40 Series GPUs, which is like a version of DLSS for video streaming on platforms like YouTube - take a lower-resolution video and use AI to upscale it to your native resolution. Like DLSS, it uses the Tensor Core AI hardware in GeForce RTX graphics cards.

That was back in February, and now, after several more months of training the RTX VSR AI model, NVIDIA is launching RTX Video Super Resolution or RTX VSR version 1.5 - now available as part of the latest GeForce Game Ready Driver. And support is expanding to the entire GeForce RTX family - including the Turing-based GeForce RTX 20 Series.

So, what's new? Alongside improvements to image quality, there's a new option that will de-artifact video played at your display's native resolution.

Researchers have blasted simulated lunar soil on Earth and fused the soil into what could one day be used as roads and landing pads on the lunar surface.

Lunar soil isn't favorable for exploration on the surface of the moon, both by astronauts and rovers. The lunar soil is comprised of lunar volcanic rock that has been bombarded by the Sun's radiation, resulting in it being a very fine pounder that is electrically charged. This charged powder appears white as the surface of the moon reflects light from the Sun, but its true color is more of a dark gray. Notably, the moon doesn't have any wind, or water systems, which on Earth erode soil, making the edges of the tiny granules less sharp.

The moon's soil is the opposite, with many of its fine dust particles having sharp edges. Since most of the soil is electrically charged, it proves to be "especially sticky," according to Juan-Carlos Ginés-Palomares, an aerospace engineer at Aalen University in Germany. The combination of the aforementioned factors regarding moon dust makes it a real hazard for rovers, astronauts, landings, and general exploration on the surface.

A group of nine researchers that consist of three philosophers of science, two astrobiologists, a data scientist, a mineralogist, and a theoretical physicist have penned a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that proposes an addition to the "missing law of nature".

The paper proposes that the definition of "evolution" shouldn't be exclusively thought of as Darwinian or specific to the evolution of life and should be thought of more broadly, or as the paper describes the "Macroscopic" laws of nature. Natural laws that govern the world today include laws related to motion, gravity, electromagnetism, energy, thermodynamics, etc. The team behind the paper proposes evolution should be added to the mix.

The authors coined the term "Law of Increasing Functional Information," which states that a system will evolve if "many different configurations of the system undergo selection for one or more functions." The team pointed to examples such as the evolution of minerals across the timeline of the solar system. At the beginning of the solar system, there were an estimated 20 minerals, but over the course of 4.5 billion years, there have been more than 6,000 identified.

And pricing looks to be on par with the previous gen! After months of rumors and leaked benchmarks, Intel has officially announced and unveiled the new Intel Core 14th Generation desktop processor lineup, including the Intel Core i5-14600K, Intel Core i7-14700K, and flagship Intel Core i9-14900K. With up to 24 cores and 32 threads on the high-end, the early word about increased frequencies is accurate, with the new Intel Core 14th Gen hitting up to 6 GHz out of the box.

In the midrange, the Intel Core i7-14700K features 20 cores and 28 threads thanks to the four additional E-cores compared to the 13700K. And for those looking at overclocking, intel's Extreme Tuning Utility (XTU) app now features a new AI Assist for one-click overclocking for select Intel Core 14th Generation desktop processors. Plus, DDR5 can go beyond 8,000 MT/s.

With the announcement, Intel is positioning the new line-up as an enthusiast CPU class for gamers and content creators. "The role of the CPU in gaming and creating has never been more important," writes Intel. "Intel Core 14th Gen desktop processors - powered by Intel's advanced performance hybrid architecture - give PC enthusiasts the compute performance they need without compromising user workflow."

A new report from the Wall Street Journal has revealed Netflix's motivation to move further into gaming by expanding its offerings of mobile games both based and not based on hit TV shows.

Netflix hasn't been quiet about its motivation to get into the gaming market, as it wasn't long ago that it announced it will be bringing Netflix subscribers direct access to a selection of games users can download and play on their smart TVs and computers. Additionally, the company announced it was going to be releasing a dedicated controller app that would turn an iOS device into a controller that can then be used to interact with games played on smart TVs.

Netflix already offers more than 70 games on its platforms, and according to the report from the WSJ, it will be expanding its library with games based on hit TV shows. The idea behind creating games based on hit TV shows would be to maintain interest in the show between seasons and ultimately maintain as many active Netflix subscriptions as possible.

Recently, we reported on MSI's plans to launch no less than six new OLED gaming monitors from now until early 2024, including a massive 49-inch UltraWide and a pair of QHD 1440p models with a 360 Hz refresh rate. Yep, the company is going all in on OLED.

However, OLED sits on the premium (yet increasingly affordable) panel technology side, and with that, MSI has announced a stack of non-OLED gaming monitors with Rapid VA technology. Featuring a slight curve, these WQHD (2560x1440) gaming monitors will arrive in 27-inch and 32-inch flavors with refresh rates of 170 Hz and 240 Hz.

VA panel technology has been a go-to for gaming for several years thanks to its ability to deliver excellent contrast, and these new displays from MSI also deliver when it comes to response times (1ms GtG) in addition to color accuracy.

There have been many rumors surrounding Nintendo's next-generation console, speculatively named "Nintendo Switch 2", and now we have a new patent to dive into that may very well be the first-ever look at what Nintendo's expected to launch next.

Previously, rumors surrounding the Nintendo Switch 2 have suggested Nintendo's next-generation console will be powered by an Ampere-based NVIDIA chip that will come with support for DLSS, making the performance comparable to the PS4 and Xbox One. Now, a patent that was filed in 2022 and published in October 2023 has given some insight into what the new console could look like design-wise.

The above image suggests that the new console won't feature Nintendo's Joy-Con controllers and will only have one joystick on the lefthand side of the screen. Additionally, the patent indicates it will feature four buttons on the right-hand side of the screen and two shoulder buttons at the top of the console. Furthermore, the home button is located at the bottom of the device, which is also home to the USB port, speakers, and a button dedicated to capturing gameplay recordings.

On October 14, 2023, millions of people around the world had the chance to catch the annular solar eclipse of 2023, and for those who happened to miss the event, here are some stunning videos and photographs.

The solar eclipse rolled through eight states across the US before it moved its way down to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Brazil. As you can probably imagine, millions of people across the aforementioned regions of the world timed their gaze toward the Sun as the moon passed perfectly between Earth and our local star.

The result was captured from numerous locations and immediately thrown up on social media platforms. Depending on the location of the viewer, the images/video captured were completely different, as some people saw the ring of fire effect, while others didn't or only saw it briefly. Some of the videos below showed individuals experiencing the solar eclipse, creating a brief darkness across the region, an effect that would have been surreal to be a part of.

NASA has taken to its blog to share a new graphic revealing how many near-Earth asteroids it has recorded and expects to record as of August this year.

The space agency published the new graphic on its website and explained that a near-Earth asteroid is defined by any comet or asteroid that's 32 feet in diameter that's orbit comes within 30 million miles of Earth. According to NASA's above graphic, the space agency has identified 32,412 near-Earth asteroids (NEOs) of various sizes. Of that total, it has found 853 asteroids bigger than 3,280 feet in diameter, with only 50 estimated left to be found.

Additionally, NASA's graphic states that it has discovered 10,541 NEOs larger than 459 feet, and it still estimates 14,000 left to be found. Furthermore, the space agency gives some additional statistics regarding asteroids that you may find interesting. According to NASA, 100 tons of dust and sand-sized particles bombard Earth every single day, and there are 3 near-Earth asteroids that have passed closer to the Earth than the Moon in the last 30 days.

From structural integrity issues to overheating, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro line-up has had a somewhat rocky start to its launch, and now we have can add one more problem to the list - screen burn-in.

A small group of users are reporting severe screen burn-in on their iPhone 15 Pro Max devices, with a few of these users taking to Reddit to ask if anyone else is experiencing the same issue. Judging from the images shared to this thread, the screen burn-in is by far the worst problem Apple has faced so far, with the panel of the phone almost turning completely white with app icons burned into the display.

Notably, OLED panels are prone to screen burn-in, but it's not common with mobile devices and is an issue that is typically found on TV's or monitors. However, the reports from these users clearly indicate there is some type of issue with the iPhone 15 Pro Max's panel, especially since this isn't an isolated issue happening only to a select ground of users performing the same tasks, according to reports.

Acquiring a dedicated PC gaming chair as part of a build is becoming increasingly common, and the overall sports or racing car shape has become synonymous with gamers. And much like with anything PC hardware-related, there are differences between brands, models, features, and the quality you can expect regarding the MSRP.

This is all a long-winded way of saying that Cougar has put a 200mm RGB fan on its new NxSys Aero gaming chair launching this month in the US and Europe. Cougar, a brand known for creating high-performance peripherals, explains in its press release that the fan circulates air around the chair and directs the "airflow towards your back."

Naturally, the idea is that the cooler you are, the better you'll perform in a competitive title. Per the images supplied, the fan sits right in the middle of the backrest between some mesh, and it looks like a sub-woofer from a distance.

Intel has teamed with Spanish firm Submer in a new development into the world of single-phase immersion cooling technology. Their new cooling technology can keep a CPU running at 1000W of power cool, which is incredibly important in the server, data center, HPC, and AI spaces.

Pushing silicon to its limits in terms of clock speeds -- so we're talking CPU and GPU here -- cranks up the heat generated and, thus, heat that needs to be dissipated. 75W consumer, or up to 300W+ consumer CPUs, are right to cool with a 240mm or 360mm AIO liquid cooler.

1000W of heat coming from a CPU and keeping it cool with new immersion tech? That sounds very cool, pun intended. Submer specializes in enabling data centers across the world, taking care of the cooling solutions for HPC, hyperscale, data centers, Edge, AI, DL, and blockchain applications. But now, with the gigantic boost in everything AI hardware, servers are running hot-hot-hot, and now the massive advancement from the new Forced Convection Heat Sink (FCHS) package, which will be a huge upgrade to thermal dissipation.

Insomniac Games is one of my favorite game developers on the planet, creating the absolutely beautiful worlds of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Marvel's Spider-Man as well as the Remastered version, and Spider-Man Miles Morales on the PlayStation 5 (at first) and then the PC.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has just launched on the PlayStation 5, and now the fine folks over at Digital Foundry have done a deep dive on the game. This includes testing between the Fidelity and Performance modes for Spider-Man 2, where Fidelity Mode renders Spider-Man 2 at a dynamic 1440p or 4K while holding to its 30FPS target. However, if you've got a 120Hz display, enable the 120Hz display and then you can access 40FPS for Fidelity Mode.

Spider-Man 2 also has a Performance Mode, which will run at a dynamic 1008p to 1440p -- so, a much lower rendering resolution -- but has a pretty solid 60FPS performance to enjoy. Spider-Man 2 is the kind of game where 60FPS is going to feel buttery smooth to play, versus the much slower 30FPS -- although, I will add that the 40FPS mode on a 120Hz display option is nice to see -- but 60FPS is where it's at in a game as gorgeous as this.

Alienware is quick to announce its new upgrade options for its recently redesigned Aurora R16 gaming desktop PCs, now that Intel has unleashed its new 14th Gen Core "Raptor Lake Refresh" CPUs, but Alienware has a huge GPU upgrade available for gamers.

The new Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop now offers Intel's new Core i9-14900KF and Core i7-14700KF processors: both the "KF" variants, meaning they don't have an integrated GPU, and are slightly cheaper than the regular "K" variants that have an integrated GPU.

CPU upgrades: Intel's new Core i9-14900KF processor offers 24 cores and 32 threads of CPU power at up to 6.0GHz, while the Core i7-14700KF features 20 cores and 28 threads of CPU power at up to 5.6GHz. These new 14th Gen Core CPU options join the 12th Gen Core and 13th Gen Core CPUs, including the Core i9-12900F, Core i7-13700F, and Core i9-13900F processors inside of the Alienware Aurora R16 desktops.