Latest News - Page 835

With a global pandemic, chip shortages, and a crypto mining boom driving up prices, it was a dark time for PC gaming - and something we were hoping was in the rear-view mirror. We know how hard it was to try and find a GeForce RTX 3080 when the card debuted in 2020, let alone one at a reasonable price. This makes some of the reporting we see in the tech landscape a little concerning.

Our friends over at Tom's Hardware and Wccftech cited a Tweet from Comma AI CEO and entrepreneur George Hotz saying, "7.38 PFLOPS of computing was delivered today" alongside an image of several boxes filled with AMD Radeon RX 7900 XTX GPUs - specifically XFX MERC 310 variants.

In conclusion, AI companies could be snapping up gaming GPUs to meet the insane demand for AI chips.

Baldur's Gate 3 launches on August 3, in a couple of days, and it's one of the biggest RPG releases of the year on PC outside of Bethesda's Starfield. The return of the iconic role-playing franchise arrives courtesy of Larian Studios, who has been working on the game for quite some time - where it has been available to play in Early Access form for a while.

The full release, of course, is another level entirely, and today, we've got word that on day one, the game will feature support for NVIDIA DLSS 2 and DLAA - the AI version of anti-aliasing called Deep Learning Anti-Aliasing.

Regarding large-scale RPGs, Baldur's Gate 3 is pretty epic - with NVIDIA rattling off some numbers that are part of the DLSS and DLAA announcement. Twelve playable classes, 174 hours of cinematics, and around 2000 interactive characters to interact with. NVIDIA also provided some other numbers, performance covering what to expect when playing the game in 4K with DLSS on a GeForce RTX 40 Series graphics card.

The rumors surrounding AMD launching new RDNA 3 graphics cards in September 2023, specifically the new Radeon RX 7800 and Radeon RX 7700, have been picking up steam of late. Reports pointing to a reveal at the massive Gamescom event in Germany later this month and a planned launch shortly after that are now looking more likely than ever, with AMD CEO Lisa Su confirming that more cards are coming this quarter.

During AMD's recent quarterly earnings call, Lisa Su said, "In gaming graphics, we expanded our Radeon 7000 GPU series in the second quarter, with the launch of our mainstream RX 7600 cards pertaining to gaming. We're on track to further expand our RDNA 3 GPU offerings with the launch of new enthusiast class Radeon 7000-series cards in the third quarter."

With the Radeon RX 7600 priced at USD 269, it's every bit the mainstream GPU for the RDNA 3 generation of hardware, so the mention of "enthusiast-class" and "cards" plural could only mean the addition of multiple GPUs to sit between the Radeon RX 7600 and the Radeon RX 7900 XT.

The recent release of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart on PC brought the previously PlayStation 5-only game to the platform with improved visuals, expanded ray-tracing effects, DLSS 3 Frame Generation support, and even the brand-new RTX IO for faster loading when using a high-speed SSD. But, when the game debuted, there were reports of crashing when trying to run its ray-tracing effects on a Radeon GPU like the flagship Radeon RX 7900 XTX.

Based on this issue, ray-tracing in Ratchet & Clank on AMD GPUs was disabled by the developer - but AMD Software Adrenalin Edition 23.10.23.03, released specifically for the game, should see support reinstated soon.

The known issue that has been resolved with this update is as follows, "Application crash or driver timeout may be observed while playing Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart with Ray-Tracing and Dynamic Resolution Scaling enabled on some AMD Graphics Products, such as the Radeon RX 7900 XTX."

Lenovo has plans to introduce its own PC gaming handheld, sources tell Windows Central's Jez Corden.

Chinese tech firm Lenovo will be the latest to enter the growing gaming handheld market. New reports indicate that Lenovo is working on its own Legion Go device that will take aim at Valve's Steam Deck, the ASUS ROG Ally, and the AYANEO PC gaming handhelds.

The Legion Go is expected to have an 8-inch screen and leverage the Windows 11 operating system for more widespread app and gaming support. As far as performance goes, sources tell Windows Central that the Legion Go is currently powered by AMD's new Phoenix APU processors, and it's possible that the Legion Go could utilize a custom variant to deliver high-end gaming similar to the customized ROG Ally Z1 Extreme chip that is built off of the Ryzen 7 7840U SoC.

Let's face it, console gamepads often have to take a fair bit of abuse - perhaps even occasionally being hurled across the living room - but if you've broken your Xbox controller (beyond the period of its warranty), Microsoft wants to help.

How, exactly? By selling you the components you need to repair a bust controller. Of course, you'll also need enough skill and technical knowhow to complete the repair, although Microsoft is on hand to help here, too.

Microsoft is offering video tutorials on repairing controllers via YouTube, and also has step-by-step DIY guides that Xbox owners can download should they wish to fix up their gamepad.

Intel has issued a driver update for its wireless adapters that comes with a bunch of fixes that might be of help for those encountering Wi-Fi problems.

That includes niggles with stability and performance problems in Windows 11 (and also Windows 10), as well as connection dropouts in certain scenarios.

As Neowin spotted, Intel let us know that version 22.240.0 of its PROSet/Wireless Software fixes a problem whereby QoS with a P2P connection can cause the connection to flake out.

Remnant 2 now has DLSS 3, according to a report, and the game has already sold over a million units.

As revealed in the above tweet, sales have exceeded the one million mark in just four days after launch, which is pretty good going to say the least.

That said, PC gamers have been unhappy with performance levels in Remnant 2, and we've already seen that even NVIDIA's mighty RTX 4090 graphics card struggles with smoothness if you want to run in 4K resolution (and remember this game doesn't have ray tracing).

One of the co-founders of OceanGate, the company that sent the submersible containing five people to their tragic doom near the Titanic has proposed a new voyage - this time to Venus.

On June 18, five people were confirmed deceased after OceanGate's submersible called Titan imploded on the way to visit the Titanic. One of the members of the crew was OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, good friend of Guillermo SÜhnlein, an OceanGate co-founder that now wants to create a home for people inside Venus' atmosphere by 2050.

It seems the tragic events of the Titan submersible have hardly dampened SÜhnlein aspirations or ambitions. It should be noted that SÜhnlein stepped down as OceanGate's CEO in 2013, but kept a small stake of ownership in the company. However, SÜhnlein doesn't want people to dwell on the recent tragic events, and would prefer everyone to focus on the future.

If you are considering picking up an electric scooter, then you may need to look no further than the newly announced Leopard.

Ausom is an emerging manufacturer and innovator of high-end electric off-road scooters and has recently unveiled its Leopard model, a flagship product that the company has brought to US markets for the first very time.

So, what can you expect out of the Leopard? Nothing short of raw power combined with fun. More specifically, the Ausom Leopard comes with a staunch 1000W motor that can push the electric scooter to a top speed of 34 mph and a 25% climb angle. Additionally, buyers will get a 20.8Ah battery capacity that will give a 52-mile total range off a single charge.

The Omni One from Virtuix is a home VR solution that aims to solve all significant hurdles related to at-home Virtual Reality - the big one being the inclusion of an omnidirectional treadmill for accurate 3D movement without the need to worry about being confined to a small space and having to teleport through a game world to progress. This feature alone and the ability to fold and pack away the unit make it an exciting outlier in the VR market.

The Omni One is the at-home version of Austin-based Virtuix's Omni Pro system found in entertainment complexes across the globe. Earlier this year, we reported on how the company was gearing to begin shipping units to early investors and backers, with today confirming that units are already in the hands of early backers - with plans in place to ship over 1,000 units by the end of the year, covering all 8,000 investors in Q1 2024.

With an introductory price point of USD 2,595 (with payment plan options available, too) and 35,000 interested customers, general public preorders will open later this year, with those deliveries expected to commence in Q2 2024. And to meet the demand, Virtuix plans to ramp up production.

US officials have claimed they have discovered what they suspect is Chinese malware designed to perform a specific task.

A new report from The New York Times has revealed that US officials have found Chinese malware across several military systems and that this malware isn't like the typical Chinese malware as it has a specific purpose - to disrupt. According to the report from the NYT, the malware isn't designed for surveillance, which is the typical form of malware that's discovered on US military and government systems.

Experts claim the recently discovered malware is simply to disrupt US military and civilian operations, and according to National Security Agency deputy director George Barnes, "China is steadfast and determined to penetrate our governments, our companies, our critical infrastructure." Notably, Rob Joyce, the director of cybersecurity at the NSA, said last month that the capabilities of the malware are "really disturbing" as it's able to shut off water and power and disable communications for both military bases and civilians.

Only a matter of days after getting X's new logo set up on top of the San Francisco headquarters has it been removed.

New reports indicate that Elon Musk's new logo that was constructed atop the San Francisco headquarters has been removed following complaints from the city, along with neighbors that complained about the sign's immense brightness. Musk recently rebranded Twitter to X, leaving behind the iconic bluebird for a solid X letter, which plays into Musk's affinity with the letter (SpaceX, Tesla's Model X, and his son named X Æ A-12).

The logo change was quick and fast, with most people writing that the change was jarring while also slightly confusing as many other regions of the social media platform still feature the "Twitter" verbiage. The new X sign was put up on Friday, and over the weekend, many X users discussed the new branding along with the impact the sign had on the surrounding environment. Noting that the sign was pointed at a building across the street, which the sign lit up clearly during the night.

A team of astronomers has imaged a comet that's slowly on its way to approaching Earth, and on its way, it experienced an eruption.

The comet is called 12P/Pons-Brooks and is classified as a cold volcano comet. Much like other comets 12P/Pons-Brooks has a solid nucleus that's comprised of a mixture of ice, dust, and gas. This mixture is slowly expelled out the comet's exterior, resulting in a cloud forming around the comet as well as the iconic comet's tail. However, 12P/Pons-Brooks (12P) is slightly different compared to other comets as its interior mixture has the chance to explode violently, which causes its frozen insides, or cryomagma, to leak out of the nucleus's shell.

Such an explosion was detected by astronomers on July 20 when 12P/Pons-Brooks suddenly became 100 times brighter than it usually appears to be. This increase in brightness can be attributed to a swelling of gas around the comet, which reflected more sunlight. On July 26, the coma of 12P/Pons-Brooks stretched some 143,000 miles, or 7,000 times wide than the comet's nucleus, which is estimated to be about 18.6 miles across.

Freedom of speech has yet again become a massive topic on X, formerly Twitter as the platform has announced its launched legal claims against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a non-profit that focusses on mitigating online hate speech and disinformation.

These legal claims came after the CCDH published a report that claimed X fails to act on 99% of Twitter Blue accounts hateful tweets/content. The CCDH arrived at this figure by taking 100 hate-speech centered tweets from Twitter Blue accounts and monitor them for four days. After the four days only 1 of the posts were removed, leading to the assumption that 99% of hate speech content from Twitter Blue accounts X fails to act upon.

The article caught the attention of X, which denied all of the CCDH allegations and the non-profit promptly received a letter from Elon Musk's lawyer Alex Spiro, who represents X Corp, the company that owns X. The letter from Spiro alleged that the CCDH's methodology to arrive at the alleged 99% was false, and went on to claim that the CCDH is taking money from X's competitors to run smear campaigns against the social media platform.

Although not officially announced, there are several leaks surrounding the upcoming AMD Ryzen 8000 Strix Point APUs that will use Zen 5 architecture, with the big boy Strix Halo APU set to feature up to 16 Zen 5 Cores alongside 40 Compute Units of RDNA 3.5 graphics. That's Radeon RX 6750 XT or even PlayStation 5-like performance!

Although it's not a like-for-like comparison, this is more GPU power than the recently released AMD Radeon RX 7600, which features 32 Compute Units. It's on par with the AMD Radeon RX 6750 XT, a card made for high-end 1440p gaming.

As a potential flagship model, even with a 4nm process having 40 RDNA 3.5 CUs will certainly increase the die size by a decent amount. Still, as an all-in-one solution, there's no need for discrete graphics when you've got a configuration similar to what you find in the desktop space. Radeon RX 6750 XT performance on something like the ROG Ally sounds fantastic.

Inspired by the look of the classic Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) from the 1980s, the new 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard comes in two visual flavors modeled after the US NES (N Edition) and Japanese Famicom (Fami Edition) colors. As a wireless mechanical keyboard with support for Bluetooth, wireless 2.4 GHz, and wired modes, the TKL form-factor keyboard features Kailh Box V2 White switches under the hood.

At this point, you're probably wondering why the 8BitDo Retro Mechanical Keyboard comes attached with two big buttons - well, it's a nod to the classic NES controller and its A and B buttons with the option to customize and program them without the need for software. And there's an option to connect up to four sets, with the keyboard shipping with one.

Although the software isn't required, you can fully customize the keyboard using 8BitDo's Ultimate Software V2. The switches are hot-swappable, too, and you've also got PBT keycaps and n-key rollover support, so this is more than just a looker.

Sony is rolling out a new PlayStation 5 system software release in Beta that brings several new accessibility features to the console alongside Dolby Atmos and large 8TB capacity SSD support. The latter is great news for those with a growing digital library of PS5 games, and this update will probably get a few companies to release even higher capacity SSD solutions for the PS5 - as the current limit is 4TB.

The addition of Dolby Atmos is also very welcome, as the surround technology is the go-to for home movie releases, and Atmos has been available on the Xbox Series X|S for a while now. What's cool is that it's compatible with Sony's impressive Tempest 3D AudioTech, with the company noting that in-game audio with "specifically render to the Dolby Atmos audio device in use - including overhead channels - allowing for even greater levels of immersion."

Beta access to the new system software is "limited to invited participants in select countries," with Sony noting that it plans to release the update later this year. There's more than Dolby Atmos and 8TB support in the update, so let's look.

TeamGroup has announced new (and improved) ELITE PLUS DDR5 and ELITE DDR5 memory with speeds of 6400 MHz that comply with JEDEC memory standards. With a configuration of 1.1V CL52-52-52-103, these are designed for efficient, high-performance computing. With higher frequencies and lower power consumption, TeamGroup notes that these new kits fully meet the demands of modern desktop computing.

TeamGroup ELITE PLUS DDR5 6400MHz and ELITE DDR5 6400MHz will be available in August 2023 via retail outlets like Amazon in North America in single modules and dual-channel kits with 16GB and 32GB options available. TeamGroup also confirms that the memory kits will be available in Taiwan at launch.

"With the modules' low operating voltage of 1.1V, power consumption is significantly reduced, and the computer's lifespan is extended," writes TeamGroup in the press release. "In addition, DDR5's Same-Bank Refresh feature and optimized IC structure can process the double amount of data simultaneously compared to DDR4."

The hugely popular and Meta-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp has started to test a new feature that will make it quicker and easier to add people to a group chat than ever before, but it's only in Beta right now.

Those with the latest WhatsApp for Android beta installed may see a new option to quickly add people to a group chat right from within the chat itself, although the WhatsApp watchers at WABetaInfo do note that this might only be available to some people, rather than all of those with the beta installed.

Once that beta is installed opening a group chat will show a new "Add participants" button on devices whose accounts have been activated to see it. Tapping that button, just below the group chat's information, will allow users to quickly add new people to a group. However, this will only work if the group's admin settings allow the people tapping the new button to add people to that particular group.