Latest News - Page 856

Intel Arc A380 represents the company's entry-level discrete gaming GPU, priced below USD 150 at retail outlets. Thanks to its excellent video support, it's the sort of GPU perfect for older systems or hybrid media servers. And with that, ASRock has unveiled its new Intel Arc A380 Low Profile 6GB graphics card with a height of just 69mm and a length of 169mm.

Specs-wise, you've got the ACM-G11 GPU with 1,024 stream processors, clock speeds of 2.0GHz, and 6GB of GDDR6 memory on a 96-bit bus. As an entry-level GPU, it's not meant to play the latest games with detail settings cranked up, but based on reviews, it can certainly hold its own when dialing things down - which is expected for an entry-level product.

One plus of the Intel Arc A380 is that it doesn't require any external power or cable to be connected, with the 75W of motherboard power via the PCIe slot being enough. ASRock's Intel Arc A380 Low Profile 6GB features a robust design, with its twin-fan cooling also offering a 0dB mode - a big plus if you plan to put one in a media PC.

The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 is a powerful GPU. Per our review of the Founders Edition model last year, we noted that it trumped both the RTX 3090 and RTX 3090 Ti regarding in-game performance with superior efficiency and cooling. The RTX 4080 is a 4K beast, with the big sticking point from many being its price point of USD 1,199.

This is a fair point of criticism because no matter how advanced its high-end Ada Lovelace architecture might be - the price increase over the previous generation saw potential buyers simply looking toward the flagship GeForce RTX 4090 as a better option. There's also something to be said about exceeding the USD 1,000 barrier for a gaming GPU, which makes the idea of a USD 999 GeForce RTX 4080 16GB graphics card seem far better.

And that's what's on offer over at Newegg, with the MSI Ventus GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X available for USD 999 after taking a further $100 off its discounted USD 1,099 price via a coupon.

One of the most popular video games in history is returning to Xbox Game Pass for the third time.

Today, Microsoft made a surprise announcement: GTA V is back on Xbox Game Pass, and it includes the higher-end Xbox Series X/S upgraded version as well. This marks the third time that Rockstar's best-selling Grand Theft Auto has been on the platform, and it really underlines how some publishers see the subscription service.

We've heard a lot of negative aspects about Xbox Game Pass and how the service cannibalizes game sales. Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan even went so far as to say that Game Pass is 'value-destructive.' While cannibalization is indeed an undesirable effect of the service, Xbox Game Pass can actually help elongate and boost earnings for older games. That's especially true for evergreen catalog games like GTA V, where a series of rotating promos on subscription services has actually helped push franchise revenues.

Xbox Game Pass is more than just a subscription--it's the foundation of the entire Xbox gaming business model.

At TweakTown, I've talked a lot about Game Pass and how it has transformed the video games industry. The introduction of Game Pass as the first multi-game content library subscription service (as the FTC refers to it) was a pivotal disruption point in gaming. The history of the world's largest entertainment industry is filled with disruption points.

First there were coin-op arcade machines (aka the original microtransactions), then the advent of the home console which brought the arcade to your living room.

NVIDIA's newly launched RTX 4060 GPU is already getting substantial price cuts in Europe, and the latest to be spotted brings the graphics card a full 10% under its MSRP - plus there are similar cuts to the 4060 Ti and AMD RX 7600, too.

This price-cutting action is happening at Spanish online retailer CoolMod, which has the Inno3D RTX 4060 Twin X2 reduced from €340 down to €300 (technically, the MSRP is €335).

As VideoCardz, which spotted this, points out, there are similar reductions on the RTX 4060 Ti, which is 11% below MSRP (at €400 for a Palit model) and an even bigger 13% drop with the RX 7600 (down to €260).

Diablo 4 has seen some odd stuff cropping up from players - the recent fuss around the 'secret cow level' springs to mind - and now there's another outlandish theory about the game revolving around rats.

This one is simple - follow the rats, and they'll lead you to the good loot. We kid you not.

As PC Gamer reports, one player planted this seed of an idea, and there's been a huge flurry of chatter online about it since.

We've been hearing quite a bit about PC components getting much cheaper in the recent past - SSDs, for one thing, and RAM too, but system memory price drops may be coming to an end.

That's the view of analyst firm TrendForce, which in a new report (spotted by Tom's Hardware) makes an estimate for the current quarter (Q3 2023).

Namely that DRAM prices will likely drop by a maximum of 5%, best-case scenario (for us buyers, that is), or prices might stay the same in the worst-case outcome (a 0% change).

Setting aside the fact that it's probably not the brightest idea to let AI use people's unfiltered online personas as a way to think and sound like us, Google's not-so-subtle update to its privacy policies states that it's OK to use the entire public internet to train its AI models.

"Google uses information to improve our services and to develop new products, features, and technologies that benefit our users and the public," the Google policy update says. "For example, we use publicly available information to help train Google's AI models and build products and features like Google Translate, Bard, and Cloud AI capabilities."

If you've posted any comment or statement online about anything - even something as innocuous as a hot-take on who should play the next Superman in DC's cinematic reboot - the odds are that it's now sitting somewhere within the data-driven brain of an AI chatbot.

DLSS has a new 'Ultra Quality' mode, and the first game to implement it is the recently released F1 23 - at least, that's what we assumed. This new DLSS Super Resolution setting isn't about boosting performance but improving a game's visual fidelity with NVIDIA's AI-based DLAA anti-aliasing tech.

This means the new DLSS 'Ultra Quality' mode doesn't take a lower-resolution image as the input; it uses AI to improve image quality at your native resolution to deliver better results than techniques like TAA and MSAA. As long as you've got the frame to spare, it makes DLSS a single package that can handle all AA and upscaling tasks. However, the option appearing with the 'Ultra Quality' name in F1 23 was an error.

Early reports for its use in F1 23 (as seen at DSOG) note that the image quality looks superior to native 4K rendering with TAA with nearly identical performance regarding frame rate. A statement from NVIDIA clarified the confusion about what 'Ultra Quality' was doing, noting that "this was an error in naming, this is DLAA and will be updated in a future patch."

Over the weekend, Twitter was slapped with some changes that limited the number of tweets non-Twitter Blue accounts could see.

Twitter has taken to its Twitter Business blog to explain the mentality behind the limitations and why the company was unable to notify the public ahead of them being rolled out. According to Twitter, the company decided to limit the number of tweets an account could see to stop bad actors from scraping public data that is then used to train artificial intelligence models. Additionally, Twitter writes that the limitations were to stop people and their conversations from being manipulated in various ways.

Furthermore, Twitter writes that these limitations only affect a small number of users and that once the work behind the scenes is completed, the company will issue an update. Notably, many users pointed out that tweet limitations per account would result in Twitter losing money as advertisements would reach fewer eyeballs. However, Twitter writes in its blog post that these limitations have had a minimal effect on advertising.

NASA has announced that it's finally received a phone call from a helicopter that's currently stationed on another planet.

That helicopter is none other than Ingenuity, NASA's technology demonstration that arrived on the surface of Mars in February 2021 alongside the space agency's rover Perseverance. Ingenuity is the first human-made object that has taken flight on the surface of another planet, and since its first flight, it has been serving as a forward scout for Perseverance by taking photographs of the upcoming terrain, enabling NASA to map an efficient path for the rover.

However, NASA lost contact with Ingenuity after its 52nd flight, which occurred on April 26. While the flight was a success, NASA mission control wasn't able to communicate with the helicopter, with teams suspecting the communications dropout could be attributed to a Martian hill that stands between the helicopter and Perseverance. NASA's rover acts as a communications relay between NASA and Ingenuity, and on June 28, when Perseverance reached the summit of the hill, communications were finally re-established.

ASUS has revealed a brand new ultrawide monitor under its TUF Gaming brand, introducing the VG34VQL3A, a successor to the VG34VQL1B.

ASUS has unveiled a brand new 34-inch ultrawide gaming display that will sport a 3440 x 1440 resolution on a high-contrast VA panel that supports a refresh rate of up to 180Hz. As with the majority of ASUS's panels, and most new panels released today, the VG34VQL3A will come with AMD FreeSync Premium Pro technology for an overall smoother gaming experience that lacks any tearing, etc.

Other specifications that are worth mentioning are the 1500R curvature, a contrast ratio of 4000:1, brightness of 400cd/m2, 16.7 million display colors, 1ms response time, and a horizontal/vertical viewing angle of 178 degrees. As for connectivity, the VG34VQL3A comes with everything you can expect a brand new display should have - DisplayPort 1.4 x 2, HDMI 2.0 x 2, and USB 3.2 Gen2 x 3. Additionally, the monitor is also equipped with two built-in 2W stereo speakers.

When NVIDIA introduced the new ATX 3.0 ready 12VHPWR power connector with the new GeForce RTX 40 Series, we began to see reports of connectors melting on the GPU-side for the 450W power-rated GeForce RTX 4090. This sparked a wave of reporting, investigations, and even new products looking to minimize the odds of this happening.

The consensus, including NVIDIA's, was that the issue resulted from "user error" - specifically, cables (via adaptors) not being plugged in correctly or adequately seated. And so, products like CableMod's 90-degree 12VHPWR Degree Angled Adapter were seen as excellent alternatives to the pack-in adaptors, offering better stability and minimizing stress on the connection that could lead to it becoming loose. According to reports CableMod has sold upwards of 40,000 or more of these adaptors.

But, CableMod's custom 12VHPWR Degree Angled Adapter also melts, with one Reddit user noting it was correctly connected. The issue even caused the adaptor to fuse with the 12-pin connection on the GPU, so it's essentially stuck there, connected to the GeForce RTX 4090.

GEEKNUC is currently running an epic summer sale where it is offering Intel's NUC 12 Enthusiast Serpent Canyon SFF PC, the 32GB RAM + 1TB SSD model, for an incredibly low $1099. Typically, this small form factor computer can sell for almost $2300. On Amazon right now, the very same system is selling for $1625.

GEEKNUC's website lists the NUC 12 Enthusiast Serpent Canyon for $1149, but if you enter coupon code NUC12SNK50 at check out, you'll get a further $50 discount, bringing the total to $1099, a huge $526 cheaper than Amazon at the time of writing, or almost 33% cheaper. GEEKNUC tells us its the cheapest price in the USA and it definitely looks that way. GEEKNUC is an Intel partner and Titanium member, and guarantees that all NUCs are brand new and genuine, with a three-year warranty and 30-day no-questions-asked returns.

This capable little computer comes packed with Intel's Core i7-12700H CPU with boost speed of 4.7GHz, Intel Arc A770M graphics, 32GB of Kingston DDR4 memory, 1TB Kingston OM8PDP3 SSD, and Windows 11 Pro. You also get 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports, Bluetooth v5.2, a 330-watt power supply, Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX1690i, 2x front USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A, 1x front USB Gen2x2 Type-C, and HDMI 2.1.

AMD is preparing to launch a new mainstream CPU for its Ryzen 7000 line-up and new AM5 platform - the Ryzen 5 7500F. Although not officially announced, the new CPU from AMD could arrive this week after all the fireworks and barbeques are packed away on July 7.

The news broke when known insider @harukaze5719 posted the existence of the CPU in a build on Twitter, with further confirmation coming from PugetBench results and a Korean retail listing spotted by VideoCardz that has since been deleted. As far as specs go, the new Ryzen 5 7500F is said to feature 6 Zen 4 cores clocked slightly lower than the Ryzen 5 7600.

Another interesting feature of this new mysterious Ryzen CPU is that the 'F' in the naming indicates that it won't feature any integrated graphics - which should lead to a lower retail cost. This comes from how Zen 4's designed architecture separates the GPU component from the CPU.

All-in-one water-cooled GPUs are relatively new, and we've seen several AIO releases in recent years. Mostly, these have been limited to the high-end flagship models, like the GeForce RTX 3090 or, more recently, the GeForce RTX 4090. Today we've got word that GIGABYTe is expanding its AORUS WATERFORCE graphics card line-up to include two new GeForce RTX 4070 Ti models.

The AORUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE 12G and AORUS GeForce RTX 4070 Ti XTREME WATERFORCE WB 12G have launched, with the latter designed for those with an open-loop water-cooled system. GIGABYTE promises "exceptional durability" and "leak resistance" for long-term efficiency and reliability.

Although a couple of steps down from the flagship RTX 4090, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is a good candidate for an AIO solution as it offers up GeForce RTX 3090-like 4K performance to make it still extremely powerful for modern PC gaming.

In the recent FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick revealed key metrics around the mega-popular Call of Duty franchise.

Over the past 20 years, the $31 billion Call of Duty franchise has amassed significant popularity across all PC and console. But in just 4 years, mobile has become far and away the largest platform for the shooter series. COD Mobile is not only a revenue powerhouse with over $1.5 billion earned in direct free-to-play monetization (as of 2021), but the mobile version has also captured more than half of the total Call of Duty playerbase.

According to testimony from Activision CEO Bobby Kotick in Day 4 of the FTC v Microsoft evidentiary hearing, 51% of total Call of Duty users are playing on mobile devices. It was also revealed that Call of Duty has 70 million daily active users. That's more than Roblox, one of the most highly-engaged games on the planet; at the BIG Festival 2023 event, it was revealed that Roblox had 66 million daily active users.

We've caught a mention of a 'Radeon RX 7600 XT' on the German AMD website, but we're really not reading anything much into that at this point.

Mainly because it very much looks like a simple error (although granted, it's a rather baffling mistake to make).

The AMD site in question is for the existing (recently launched) RX 7600 graphics card, except the title page calls the GPU the RX 7600 XT (and this is still present at the time of writing - presumably it'll be corrected soon enough, though).

Tim Cain, who created and served as lead programmer on the Fallout series and co-directed The Outer Worlds, says that Obsidian's newer spacefaring RPG was created with mainstream and casual RPG gamers in mind.

The Outer Worlds is a fantastic first-person shooter/RPG that builds off of Obsidian's strengths from Fallout New Vegas while establishing a new IP. The game has pretty much everything gamers knew and loved about New Vegas and the modern Fallout games, but with the distinct Obsidian look and feel.

This was by design. According to The Outer Worlds co-director Tim Cain, the sci-fi RPG was meant to cater towards a more mainstream audience. In a recent video on his channel, Cain talks about developing good game settings and how this advice pertains to The Outer Worlds...and he also says that the main elevator pitch of The Outer Worlds was "Fallout meets Firefly."

The Witcher 3 might be an old game now - it's coming on for a decade since it came out, in fact - but it can still look stunning with the right mods, as a new video has brought to our attention.

This comes from Digital Dreams (as flagged up by Wccftech), with the game carrying over a hundred mods to make it look this good.

That includes the 'beyond all limits' ray tracing ReShade preset, and the Immersive Lighting Mod version 2.2 - the latter of which does a lot of heavy lifting in ramping up the visuals.