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Razer has created an 'insanely over the top' 24K gold Viper Signature Mini gaming mouse
Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan has shared images of the most opulent and over-the-top PC gaming peripheral we've ever seen, a 24-karat gold Viper Signature Mini gaming mouse. Min-Liang Tan is aware of how crazy this is, calling it "insanely over the top and special," adding that this is a one-time commission and not something that will pop up in jewelry stores worldwide.
However, gold-plated and diamond-encrusted PC peripherals are a pretty cool idea for a jewelry store that caters to gamers with trust funds and black-colored credit cards. The Razer Viper Mini Signature Edition was announced earlier this year with a premium price tag of USD 279.99 due to its lightweight construction featuring an "ultra-durable magnesium alloy exoskeleton."
So yeah, this new one-of-a-kind shiny and over-the-top gaming mouse is that, plus a layer of 24-karat gold. At least, that's our assumption, as the post doesn't specify whether it's gold-plated or made from solid gold. We can only imagine what it would feel like to play a round of Apex Legends or CS:GO with this in the palm of your hand.
AMD plans to make FSR the new upscaling and frame generation standard over DLSS and XeSS
In a new wide-ranging interview with Club 386, AMD Radeon chief Scott Herkelman opened up about all things Radeon - from the new Radeon RX 7700 XT and Radeon RX 7800 XT GPUs dropping next week through to the company's plans for the future and the recent announcement of FSR 3 and its new Fluid Motion Frames technology.
Regarding FSR, the AMD chief noted that it always planned to make the technology as broad as possible (i.e., support multiple generations of Radeon GPUs in addition to those from competing brands like NVIDIA and Intel), which is why it took so long to see the light of day. "FSR 3 will be good for the industry," Scott Herkelman says.
Undoubtedly, a big part of FSR 3 and AMD's Fluid Motion Frames technology directly responds to NVIDIA's DLSS 3 Frame Generation exclusive to the GeForce RTX 40 Series. And by that same token, FSR and FSR 2 directly responded to NVIDIA's DLSS Super Resolution upscaling. The interview gets interesting when Scott Herkelman becomes candid about the state of upscaling technologies.
GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB price drops to $449 for select models ahead of new Radeon GPU launch
UPDATE: Original post noted that NVIDIA dropped the MSRP of the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB down to USD 449; this is not the case. The market price for multiple SKUs of the 16GB variant is currently sitting at USD 449 - with some models as low as USD 430.
NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX 4060 Ti range comes in two flavors: the 8GB models launched in May for USD 399 and 16GB models from select partners arriving a month later for USD 499. As seen in some deep dives on the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, having that extra chunk of VRAM can significantly improve performance in some titles when in-game settings depend on memory.
As great as it was to see NVIDIA offer two SKUs for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti, having an additional 8GB of VRAM for future-proofing sit behind a $100 premium didn't feel worth it for many. However, with the release of AMD's mid-range and enthusiast GPU combo next week - the Radeon RX 7700 XT 12GB (USD 449) and Radeon RX 7800 XT (USD 499) - several SKUs for the GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 16GB GPU are available for USD 449.
Seven-day Apple TV+ trials are no more in these countries
TV, movie, and documentary fans in some countries are going to have to pay for Apple TV+ just to check it out after Apple apparently decided to cancel the free trial that was previously available. That trial would give people a full week to try the streaming service before having to pay for it.
Right now this decision only appears to have taken place in the UK and South Africa, which is just as interesting as the fact that the trial has gone in and of itself. There has been a trial available for Apple TV+ ever since it debuted in November of 2019, so it's odd that Apple has taken the decision to remove it at this point.
Those looking to subscribe to Apple TV+ right now will see the monthly price without the previous seven-day free trial that preceded it. Previously, people could sign up and then cancel their subscription within that seven-day window to avoid paying a thing. Those who liked what they saw could continue to pay, something that Apple obviously hoped that people would do. However, that is no longer something that will happen in the UK and South Africa.
Continue reading: Seven-day Apple TV+ trials are no more in these countries (full post)
AMD's new graphics driver is a must for RX 7900 XTX or XT owners about to play Starfield
AMD has wheeled out a new graphics driver ahead of the release of Starfield, bringing in performance improvements for Bethesda's imminent space RPG (check out our first impressions here).
AMD's Adrenalin Edition 23.8.2 driver comes with support for Starfield, and Team Red tells us it delivers an up to 16% frame rate boost (at 4K resolution) for those who own an RX 7900 XTX or 7900 XT GPU (yes, both offer that same potential 16% uplift apparently).
That's compared to the previous driver, of course (version 23.8.1), and it's great news for anyone with a 4K monitor and one of these AMD graphics cards.
Starfield - We visit Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Earth in cinematic 4K Ultrawide
With the review embargo dropping and countless hours of Starfield takes, impressions, critiques, and overall ratings to scour through - I thought I'd take a different "first post-launch Starfield" approach based on how beautiful and immersive some of the planetary locations in the game can be.
And that is to take you on a tour through the Sol system - the place we're all currently in - home of Earth, Mars, Venus, and Uranus. With all footage captured on GeForce RTX 4090 at the 4K ultrawide resolution of 3840 x 1600, this is a mere glimpse at Starfield - a look at the somewhat barren worlds of our solar system.
Consider this documentary-style eye-candy, spoiler-free outside of giving a glimpse at Earth in the year 2330. The video showcases a brief look at Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Lune (aka the Moon). Check it out after the jump.
Leaked 3DMark score shows AMD RX 7700 XT is close to matching NVIDIA's RTX 4070 GPU
It's another day in the world of desktop GPUs, and we have another leak, this time a 3DMark run for AMD's soon to be released RX 7700 XT graphics card.
This comes from well-known leaker HXL on X (formerly Twitter), and as ever with spilled benchmarks, take it with a good old heap of skepticism.
In this case, we don't have a screenshot of the benchmark, but we are told that the RX 7700 XT hits around 17,000 in Time Spy. (Note that a grab is provided, but it's from CPU-Z showing the graphics card's spec).
It'll soon be harder than ever to get iPhone, iPad, and Mac support from Apple
Apple is reportedly ready to ditch its current approach of offering support via X and YouTube, with the company's own Apple Support Community not immune to changes that will see support roles slashed.
According to a new MacRumors report, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, Apple intends to eliminate social media support advisor roles across X, YouTube, and Apple's support forums.
Starting from October 1 Apple will no longer offer human support via the @AppleSupport X account. An automated message will instead be sent to anyone who mentions the account, informing them of other ways that they can get support for their problems. The same goes for the comment section of YouTube videos uploaded by the Apple Support channel.
Elon Musk says video and voice calls are coming to X with a 'unique' experience
X, the social network formerly known as Twitter, is going to get voice and video call support in the future. That's according to a post by current owner and former CEO Elon Musk, although the company is yet to formally announce the plans.
The post on X says that video and audio calls are coming to the platform, adding that they will work on multiple platforms including iPhones, Android devices, the Mac, and the PC. There's no suggestion that the website will get support for the feature, and the Mac app hasn't been updated in a long, long time. It's still branded as Twitter, for starters.
Musk's post continues, saying that those wanting to use the new calling features won't need to use a phone number to make it work while the move will apparently turn X into the world's address book. The suggestion appears to be that everyone will be able to call everyone else, something that will be of concern to those who are already worried about Musk's claims that the block feature is going to go away. That would potentially leave people with no way to prevent unwanted calls unless the mute feature picks up the slack of course.
NVIDIA Grace CPU benchmarks show up to 2X AMD Genoa and Intel Sapphire Rapids performance
NVIDIA has shared some surprising benchmarks for its new Grace CPU Superchip. This Arm-based Neoverse V2 core processor will power some of the most cutting-edge data centers alongside NVIDIA's GPU technology and, by all accounts, will be something to behold.
Being internal benchmarks, naturally take these with a grain of salt, but across several applications, NVIDIA shows that when using the same power, the Grace CPU is up to 2X faster than AMD's EPYC Genoa and Intel's Sapphire Rapids Xeon processors.
The Grace CPU Superchip has a peak power draw of 500W, covering two processors on a single board alongside high-speed LPDDR5X memory, so the comparisons include AMD and Intel's CPU offerings in a 2-socket data center systems setup running at the same power consumption.
Call of Duty is set to combat toxic behavior with its newest recruit, the AI-powered ToxMod
The latest Call of Duty operator isn't Skeletor, Spawn, or Evil Dead's Ash Williams (characters rumored to be joining Warzone as new operators) but a new AI-powered voice moderation technology system called ToxMod built by Modulate.
Okay, so it's not an in-game character, but a funky new AI that will offer Activision "global real-time voice chat moderation, at scale," to combat toxic and disruptive behavior beginning with the launch of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III on November 10. As an AI tool, ToxMod will be able to identify and, in real-time, enforce Activision's toxic speech policies covering hate speech, discriminatory language, and harassment.
ToxMod will sit alongside Call of Duty's text-based filtering systems that cover 14 languages and the in-game reporting system that players can use. Ahead of its integration into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, Activision plans to roll out a beta for the new chat moderation technology in North America.
Cooler Master GX II Gold series of PSUs are ATX 3.0 compatible and built for efficiency
Cooler Master's new GX II Gold series of power supplies are designed for enthusiasts, power users, and PC builders with a focus on durability, efficiency, and performance. The GX II Gold 850 and GX II 750 are currently available in two fully modular models.
These new PSUs feature 80 PLUS Gold certification for 90% efficiency at typical loads and are fully loaded with an APFC half-bridge, LLC, and DC-to-DC design. They are also ATX 3.0 compatible, so the GX II Gold series features native 12VHPWR power connectors - the same used by the latest GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics cards.
This means no need to use adaptors to get power to the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti, and the GX II Gold series comes with a custom 90-degree 12+4pin (12VHPWR) PCIe 5.0 connector with higher electrical durability, lower temperatures, and improved safety.
AMD's Limited Edition Starfield Ryzen 7800X3D and Radeon RX 7900 XTX combo is on eBay
AMD has created 500 limited edition Ryzen 7800X3D CPU and Radeon RX 7900 XTX combos to giveaway, and one of them is up for auction on eBay, with the proceeds going to the Mental Drive Inc. nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting mental health awareness and support.
So, yeah, this is not someone you managed to win one of these super rare packs and decided to flip it for profit. However, as it is a private seller, there's no confirmation or info on what percentage of the purchase price will go to the charity.
The star of the show here is the custom Radeon RX 7900 XTX, which looks stunning in white and other colors with vinyl and a new backplate modeled after the game's main Constellation faction. The Constellation colors are being used as the color scheme for all special Starfield-themed products - and this is up there as one of the best looking.
COLORFUL's new MEOW series RTX 4060 Ti, RTX 4060, and motherboard look surprisingly stylish
COLORFUL is best known for creating graphics cards and motherboards from the popular iGame series and several other models. The company's latest hardware announcement is about the new COLORFUL MEOW Series, which includes custom graphics cards (a GeForce RTX 4060 and GeForce RTX 4060 Ti 8GB), a motherboard, and chassis.
Per the "MEOW' naming, you can probably guess that it's cat-themed, but it's not as over the top as you might expect, with the new GPUs, in particular, looking very stylish in orange. Both the COLORFIRE GeForce RTX 4060 MEOW-ORG 8GB and COLORFIRE GeForce RTX 4060 Ti MEOW-ORG 8GB combine a white shell with orange colored fans and brass caps sporting the company's 'Bobi the orange tabby cat' creation.
All things considered, it's fairly subtle and has a bit of a Noctua look, thanks to the colored fans. The new COLORFIRE B760M-MEOW WIFI D5 ORANGE motherboard for Intel 13th and 12th Gen CPUs is a lot busier in its design, but the use of white and orange blends quite well with the tech-style art flourishes and the cat-friendly MEOW icons and text.
Starfield is Bethesda's 'best performing game'
Bethesda is known for bugs and glitches in its games to the point where the studio's name is a kind of adjective of sorts, but Starfield could break this age-old tradition.
Starfield is the result of 8 years of development, planning, and iteration. Bethesda went so far to significantly overhaul its Creation Engine tech to ensure the game is updated for modern platforms. Gamers will soon known just how well Starfield runs when reviews drop tomorrow and early access goes live on September 1st, but for now all we have is assurances from Bethesda themselves.
In a memo to employees published by Windows Central, Bethesda's Todd Howard shares how proud he is of the staff and that Starfield is the studio's best-performing game when it comes to overall technical results. This was achieved through lots of hard work from Bethesda and Microsoft's own internal Advanced Technology Group (ATG) division at Xbox, who had been helping with Starfield's development since 2022.
Continue reading: Starfield is Bethesda's 'best performing game' (full post)
Microsoft has no intention of leaving Xbox Series S behind
Microsoft has no intention of leaving the Xbox Series S behind, especially since the system has sold more than the Series X.
The Xbox Series S has been somewhat controversial since it was first revealed. Priced at $200 less than the premium Xbox Series X, the digital-only console comes with reduced specs to match--the Series S has 40% less RAM than the Series X and its RDNA 2.0 GPU is far weaker in terms of compute units. This effectively makes the Xbox Series S a comparatively inferior system that requires developers to re-tool their games in order to run well on the platform and adhere to Microsoft's parity policy.
Some developers have spoken out on the Series S, one of which was Baldur's Gate 3 developer Larian, who had originally announced that BG3 would be delayed on Xbox because of split-screen co-op. The feature was eventually cancelled on Series S, and the game is confirmed to launch in 2023 on Xbox. Larian, however, accepts the limitations and boundaries that the Series S presents. This has led to fresh discussions on whether or not the Series S is holding back gaming and whether or not Microsoft should just drop the Series S and only support the Series X.
Continue reading: Microsoft has no intention of leaving Xbox Series S behind (full post)
Tekken 8 is Bandai Namco's first $70 game, Capcom and SEGA may be next
Bandai Namco is the latest video games publisher to start pricing its standard PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S games at $69.99.
Thanks to inflation and other economic effects, practically everything on the planet is now more expensive to produce, ship, and buy. The same is true for gaming. Although the video games industry is set to make about $187 billion in 2023, the cost of making games has gone up exponentially. Publishers like Sony Interactive Entertainment, Take-Two Interactive, and Activision-Blizzard were quick to use the new PS5 and Series X/S console generation as a way to introduce a new $69.99 baseline price for games.
Nearly all of gaming's platform-holders and publishers have now priced their games at the newer $69.99 MSRP, breaking the $59.99 model that had been in place for multiple console gens. These days, it's actually an anomaly to find a new PS5 or Xbox Series game that is less than $70, but Japanese publishers like SEGA, Capcom, and Bandai Namco in particular have been hesitant on embracing the new pricing scheme. Until now, that is.
Continue reading: Tekken 8 is Bandai Namco's first $70 game, Capcom and SEGA may be next (full post)
NVIDIA's RTX 4090 GPU too hefty for your liking? MSI is making a slim version, and more besides
MSI has revealed that it's going to produce further slimmer versions of its GeForce RTX 4000 range of graphics cards to go alongside slim Lovelace variants that are already out there.
MSI already has a Gaming Slim version of the RTX 4060 Ti, and previously announced an RTX 4070 Ti model too, but now there are a bunch more - 20 in total, as VideoCardz reports.
Those will include the RTX 4090 - yes, even this beefy top-end board is getting shrunk down, at least in some respects - and the RTX 4080, along with the RTX 4070, plus new spins on the 4070 Ti and 4060 Ti.
Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra buyers could get Qualcomm inside no matter where they live
Following rumors that the Samsung Galaxy S24 lineup will only come with Qualcomm's Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 inside in some countries like the United States, it seems that might not strictly be accurate after all.
The belief was that buyers of the Galaxy S24 series of phones would get Exynos 2400 chips in their new phones if they bought them in some parts of the world including Europe and Samsung's home country of South Korea. But a new report claims that will only be the case for the Galaxy S24 and Galaxy S24 Plus models. Those who buy the range-topping Galaxy S24 Ultra will apparently get Qualcomm's latest and greatest chip no matter where they happen to buy the phone from.
That's according to X leaker @tech_reve who does have a reasonable history with these kinds of things. However, while Samsung's Exynos chips have been lacking in recent years it's thought that the Exynos 2400 will buck the trend - and it might even prove faster than the Qualcomm chip that people would normally prefer.
This is our best look at the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro colors yet
All the talk right now is understandably about the iPhone 15, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 15 Plus, and iPhone 15 Pro Max, and the colors of those devices have been a hot topic. Now, we might have our best look yet at what Apple has in store.
There has been a lot of talk about the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max colors in particular, with Apple rumored to be ditching the familiar gold color and replacing it with something called Titan Gray. We're also set to lose the rather excellent Deep Purple, replacing it with a dark blue of some sort. Those rumors have people worried that the best iPhones will come in four different shades of gray and these new photos won't do anything to make those people feel better.
The images are of supposed dummy models and were shared to X by leaker Sonny Dickson. The images show the apparent silver, gray, black, and dark blue colors in all of their glory. We're not sure we're fans of what we see here, but we might have to see them in the flesh before we can really pass judgment. The new titanium construction could make these new colors sing, but the lack of anything brighter than gray is a concern.
Continue reading: This is our best look at the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro colors yet (full post)






















